Читать онлайн «The Ill-Made Knight»
Автор Кристиан Камерон
Christian Cameron
The Ill-Made Knight
Glossary
Arming sword — A single-handed sword, thirty inches or so long, with a simple cross guard and a heavy pommel, usually double-edged and pointed.
Arming coat — A doublet either stuffed, padded, or cut from multiple layers of linen or canvas to be worn under armour.
Alderman — One of the officers or magistrates of a town or
Basinet — A form of helmet that evolved during the late middle ages, the basinet was a helmet that came down to the nape of the neck everywhere but over the face, which was left unprotected. It was almost always worn with an aventail made of maille, which fell from the helmet like a short cloak over the shoulders. By 1350, the basinet had begun to develop a moveable visor, although it was some time before the technology was perfected and made able to lock.
Brigands — A period term for foot soldiers that has made it into our lexicon as a form of bandit — brigands.
Burgher — A member of the town council, or sometimes, just a prosperous townsman.
Commune — In the period, powerful towns and cities were called communes and had the power of a great feudal lord over their own people, and over trade.
Coat of plates — In period, the plate armour breast and back plate were just beginning ot appear on European battlefields by the time of Poitiers — mostly due to advances in metallurgy which allowed larger chunks of steel to be produced in furnaces. Because large pieces of steel were comparatively rare at the beginning of William Gold’s career, most soldiers wore a coat of small plates — varying from a breastplate made of six or seven carefully formed plates, to a jacket made up of hundreds of very small plates riveted to a leather or linen canvas backing. The protection offered was superb, but the garment was heavy and the junctions of the plates were not resistant to a strong thrust, which had a major impact on the sword styles of the day.
Cote — In the novel I use the period term cote to describe what might then have been called a gown — a man’s over-garment worn atop shirt and doublet or pourpoint or jupon, sometimes furred, fitting tightly across the shoulders and then dropping away like a large bell. They could go all the way to the floor with buttons all the way, or only to the middle of the thigh. They were sometimes worn with fur, and were warm and practical.
Demesne — The central holdings of a lord — his actual lands, as opposed to lands to which he may have political rights but not taxation rights or where he does not control the peasantry.
Donjon — The word from which we get dungeon.
Doublet — A small garment worn over the shirt, very much like a modern vest, that held up the hose and sometimes to which armour was attached. Almost every man would have one. Name comes from the requirement of the Paris Tailors’ guild that the doublet be made — at the very least — of a piece of linen doubled, thus heavy enough to hold the grommets and hold the strain of the laced-on hose.
Gauntlets — Covering for the hands was essential for combat. Men wore
