• The day began with Matins, usually an hour or two before dawn.
• The second of the hours was Prime—daybreak.
• The third hour was Terce, set at about 9 a.m.
• The fourth hour was Sext (originally midday).
• The fifth hour was Nones, set at about 3 in the afternoon, but, in the thirteenth century, it was moved closer to midday.
• The sixth hour was Vespers, normally early evening.
• The seventh hour was Compline, bedtime.
These hours were irregular both within the day and within the year, because the hours orientated themselves around the rising and setting of the sun, and thus the hours contracted and expanded according to the season.
HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR: a period of intense war between France and England that lasted from roughly the mid-fourteenth to fifteenth centuries. It was caused by many factors, but primarily by EDWARD Ill’s insistence that he was the true heir to the French throne. The English and French royal families had intermarried for generations, and EDWARD was, in fact, the closest male heir. However, his claim was through his mother, who was the daughter of a French king, and French law did not recognize claims through the female line. The war was also the result of hundreds of years of tension over the amount of land the English held in France (often over a third of the realm).
ISABEAU DE Bavière: wife of Prince LOUIS of France, mother of CHARLES and CATHERINE.
JOAN OF KENT: wife of the BLACK PRINCE, and a famed beauty in her youth. Mother of RICHARD II. Before her marriage to the BLACK PRINCE, Joan was married, first, to Sir Thomas Holland, the Earl of Kent, and, secondly, to William Montagu, the Earl of Salisbury By Holland, Joan had six children Joan had a complicated marital life. She secretly married both Holland and Montagu in her early teens and managed to keep her bigamous relationship secret from both men for almost ten years.
JOHN, KING: elderly king of France, currently held hostage in England after being captured at the battle of POITIERS by the BLACK PRINCE.
JOHN OF GAUNT, Duke of Lancaster and Aquitame, Earl of Richmond, King of Castile, and prince of the Plantagenet dynasty. Fourth-born, but second surviving son of EDWARD III (Edward Plantagenet) and his queen, PHILIPPA, John of Gaunt is the most powerful and wealthy English nobleman of the medieval period. The name Gaunt (his popular nickname) derives from Ghent, where he was born. Married first to Blanche of Lancaster, then to Constance of Castile; both dead. By Blanche he had a son, HENRY (hal) BOLINGBROKE, by Constance two daughters (who became the queens of Castile and Portugal), and by his long-time mistress, KATHERINE SWYN-FORD, two illegitimate children, HENRY and JOAN
BEAUFORT. Gaunt has now married Katherine.
KENILWORTH: JOHN OF GAUNT’s mam residence in Warwickshire.
LAMBETH PALACE: the palatial London residence of the archbishops of Canterbury, Lambeth Palace sits on the eastern bank of the Thames almost directly across from WESTMINSTER.
lancaster, duke of: See john of gaunt.
la ROCHE-GUYON: a castle to the east of Pans.
la ROCHELLE: one of the ports on the coast of France, held by the English for many years.
LES TOURELLES: fort sitting over the southern spans of the bridge crossing the River Loire into Orleans. During the siege of Orleans it was seized by the English.
LOLLARDS: the popular name given to followers of JOHN WYCLIFFE. It is a derisory name, taken from the fourteenth-century word “lolling,” which means mumbling.
LONDON BRIDGE: for centuries there was only one bridge crossing the Thames. It crossed from Southwark on the southern bank into London itself, linking up with Wading Street, one of the great Roman roads in England. As with most bridges in medieval Europe, it was built over with tenement buddings and shops.
LOUIS: only son of KING JOHN of France. Louis suffered an unfortunate encounter with a peacock which drove him insane, and now his son, CHARLES, is heir to KING JOHN.
MARCEL, etienne: a rich and influential Parisian cloth merchant and Provost of the Merchants of Paris, an office somewhat like that of a Lord Mayor. He died during the French uprising (known as the Jacquerie) some two years before the events of The Wounded Hawk.
MICHAEL, SAINT: an archangel of heaven.
MOWBRAY, THOMAS: Earl of Nottingham and Duke of Norfolk and a boyhood friend of RICHARD’s.
NARROW SEAS: The French name for the English Channel.
NAVARRE: a rich kingdom in the extreme northwest of Spam, it has been in the control of French nobles and kings for generations. Until the early fourteenth century the king of France had also held the title King of Navarre, but a complicated succession crisis witnessed the separation of the two kingdoms into separate branches of the same family. Currently it is ruled by PHILIP, known as PHILIP THE BAD.
neville, margaret: wife of thomas neville. They have a daughter, Rosalind.
neville, ralph, baron of raby and earl of westmorland: a powerful noble from the north of England. Uncle to THOMAS NEVILLE.
NEVILLE, THOMAS: a senior member of the powerful Neville family. Nephew to RALPH
NEVILLE. Married to MARGARET with whom he has a daughter, Rosalind. Neville was once a Dominican friar.
northumberland, earl of: See percy, henry.
nottingham, earl of: see mowbray, thomas.
NOYES, SIR GILLES DE: a French nobleman.
PEDRO OF CATALONIA: Count of Catalonia in northeastern Spain.
PERCY, HENRY: the Earl of Northumberland and the most powerful nobleman in England behind LANCASTER. Northumberland has long been rivals with the Lancastrian faction which includes RALPH NEVILLE and THOMAS NEVILLE.
PERCY, HENRY (HOTSPUR): son and heir of the Earl of Northumberland, and powerful nobleman in his own right.
PEYTRAL: plate armor covering a horse’s chest. See also ARMOR.
PHILIP THE BAD: King of Navarre and Count of Evreux, cousin to King JOHN and a powerful figure in French politics. As well as ruling NAVARRE, Philip holds extensive lands in the west of France.
PHILIPPA: a now-dead queen of England, wife to the deceased EDWARD III, and mother of LANCASTER. She died some years before the events of this book.
PHILIPPA: daughter of HENRY PERCY, Earl of Northumberland, sister to HOTSPUR, and wife of ROBERT DE VERB, Earl of Oxford.
POITIERS: a town in central France, and site of one of the BLACK PRINCE’s greatest victories during the HUNDRED YEARS* WAR. RABY: see NEVILLE, RALPH.
RAVENSPUR: Ravenspur sat on a spur of land jutting out into the sea at the very mouth of the Humber Estuary in medieval Yorkshire. The spit of land vanished in a storm some three hundred years ago: Ravenspur no longer exists.
RICHARD II: King of England, son of the BLACK PRINCE (deceased) and JOAN OF KENT
salisbury, sir roger: hal bolingbroke’s senior squire. See also squire.
SAVOY PALACE: the Duke of LANCASTER’S residence on THE STRAND just outside London’s western walls.
SCALES, LORD THOMAS: HOTSPUR’S second-in-command at Orleans.
SCROPE, WILLIAM: Earl of Wiltshire and commander of richard’s Irish army.
SEGUIN: one of the priests attached to REGNAULT DE CHARTRES, Archbishop of Rheims.
SHAFFRON: plate armor covering a horse’s head. See also ARMOR.
SHERIFF hutton: the main castle and residence of RALPH NEVILLE, Baron of Raby and Earl
of Westmorland, some ten miles northeast of York.
SLUYS (OR SLUIS) HARBOR: a major medieval harbor on the Zwin Estuary which silted up in the seventeenth century. Sluis is now an inland town.
smithfield (OR smoothfield): a large open space or field in London’s northern suburbs, just beyond Aldersgate. For many centuries it was the site of games, tournaments, and trading, craft and pleasure fairs. East Smithfield was a similarly large field to the east of London.
SQUIRE: in the late fourteenth century the social status and meaning of “squire” is different to the earlier chivalric perception of a squire as a “knight-in-training” The late-fourteenth-century
“squire” is just as likely to be referred to as a valet or even a sergeant. He was generally of noble blood, but he may not be a “knight-in-training” as such.
standish, JOHN: a squire in the employ of WILLIAM WADSWORTH, Lord Mayor of London.
See also SQUIRE.
STRAND, THE: an important street running from London along the northern bank of the Thames down to WESTMINSTER, lined by palaces of the nobles.
STRAW, JACK: a husbandman from the village of BARMING in Kent.
sturry, sir richard: a councillor of richard’s.
SUDBURY, SIMON: Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of England.
SWYNFORD, KATHERINE, LADY: wife of JOHN OF GAUNT, Duke of Lancaster. Her first husband, now dead, was Sir Hugh de Swynford, a member of the retinue of JOHN OF
GAUNT. Katherine is sister-in-law to Geoffrey Chaucer. By JOHN OF GAUNT she has two children, HENRY and JOAN BEAUFORT, born out of wedlock but legitimated by Parliament.
talbot, LORD JOHN: one of HOTSPUR’s commanders at Orleans.
thorseby, RICHARD: the Prior General of England, administering all Dominicans and their friaries in the realm of England.
TONSURE: a round, shaved patch on the crown of a cleric’s head.