Glossary

Barbicans, mangonels and keeps: a collection of medieval terms related to the Battle Castle universe.

Aketon: Light padded jacket worn under chainmail to protect the wearer

Armor: Protective clothing worn by knights in battle

Arms: soldier’s weapons; also see coat of arms

Ashlar: name given to cut stone

Bailey: area enclosed by defenses in which the castle buildings stood

Barbican: Extra-fortified gatehouse

Battering ram: Hefty pole with an iron tip, often hung on a frame and swung at walls to knock them down

Battlements: Low wall at the edge of a roof (parapet) with gaps (crenels) and solid parts (merlons)

Belfry: see siege tower

Bow: weapon for shooting arrows with string tied to a curved piece of wood

Buttress: Stonework which stick out from a wall to strengthen it

Chainmail: Iron rings linked together making a protective suit

Chivalry: code of conduct followed by knights

Coat of arms: emblem which decorated a knight’s shield, so that he could be identified

Coat of plates: metal plates strung together and covered in material to make a tunic

Concentric castle: castle with rings of walls, where the inner walls are higher than the outer ones

Constable: person in charge of security and the lord’s deputy

Crenel: gap in battlements through which missiles were fired

Crenellate: to add crenellations or battlements to a castle

Crenellations: see battlements

Crossbow: Bow fixed crossways to a piece of wood

Curtain: Wall around a castle

Drawbridge: Bridge which could be drawn up, to prevent attackers from entering

Field: the background on a shield

Forebuilding: entrance building on the front of a keep

Gatehouse: tower with a gate to defend an entrance

Great Hall: main room in a castle where people worked, ate, and, early on, slept

Great Tower: see keep

Hauberk: chainmail tunic

Helm: square helmet

Hoarding: wooden gallery projecting from the top of a wall

Keep: Fortified building – the strongest place in a castle

Knight: rich soldier on horseback

Lance: long spear used by knights

Longbow: bow almost as tall as a man

Loop or Loophole: slit in wall to fire arrows or guns

Machicolations: (1) stone hoardings.
(2) Holes in the floor of a hoarding through which missiles were thrown

Man-at-arms: footsoldier

Mangonel: medieval catapult

Master Mason: castle architect

Merlon: solid part of battlements used by soldiers to hide behind

Meutriere: see murder hole

Moat: ditch around a castle, sometimes filled with water

Motte and bailey castle: a castle with a keep on a dirt mound, and other buildings surrounded by a wooden fence

Murder hole: hole in the roof of an entrance passage to drop missiles through, or pour water through to put out fires

Page: boy in the first stage of his knight training

Palisade: wooden fence

Parapet: low wall at the edge of a roof

Pele (or peel) tower: mini version of a keep

Pike: a long spear

Portcullis: gate of wood and iron bars, raised to let people through a gatehouse or lowered to keep them out

Postern: small side gate in a castle, used for secret raids on the enemy

Putlog Holes: holes left by scaffolding when building a castle

Sally Port: see postern

Sentry: guard

Siege tower: wooden tower used to reach the battlements

Sortie: Surprised raid on an enemy

Squire: knight’s assistant; the next step to knighthood after being a page

Surcoat: cloth tunic worn over chainmail

Tower House: similar to pele tower tough often taller and sometimes L- or Z- shaped

Tracing house: shed with a plaster floor on which windows and pillars were drawn to check their measurements

Trebuchet: later version of a mangonel

Undermine: to dig under a castle’s foundations to bring it down

Ward: see bailey

Primary links

Glossary

Barbicans, mangonels and keeps: a collection of medieval terms related to the Battle Castle universe.