By the 16th century, the age of the great fortress castle had come to an end. A hundred years later, many castles were in ruins, and Toby’s colorful world had vanished forever.
ACRE About as much land as an ox could plough in a day.
ALE Alcohol brewed from barley.
ANVIL An iron block on which metal is beaten into shape.
APPRENTICE A trainee.
BILE A fluid from the liver. Black bile was thought to be one of the four humors: melancholia.
BLACK DEATH A terrible plague in the mid 14th century. Large swellings under the skin turned black and then burst.
BLADDER The part of the body that holds urine.
BLAZON To emblazon, or decorate.
BLOODLETTING Opening a vein: the cure for most diseases in Toby’s times.
BOWING Bending low to show respect or receive applause: a mark of chivalry.
BREAKING FAST Ending the nightly fast with a meal, breakfast.
CHALLENGE An invitation to a contest.
CHASE The hunt.
CHIVALRY The medieval code of polite and honorable behavior that knights were expected to follow.
CHRISOMER Idiot.
CHURCH The Roman Catholic Church, whose head is the Pope in Rome.
COAT OF ARMS Originally a linen coat embroidered with a knight’s heraldic arms and worn over his armor. Now used to describe the heraldic design itself.
COCK-CROW Daybreak, or any other time of day at which a rooster crows (which is often).
COMBATANT A person taking part in a combat or fight.
CUP-BEARER The servant whose job it was to fill people’s drinking cups at a banquet.
DIZZARD A fool or jester.
DUB To make a squire into a knight in a special ceremony.
DYKE A ditch.
EARL One of the highest ranks of nobility below the king.
EGYPTIACAL COTTON Cotton from Egypt, and quite costly in Toby’s day.
ESTATE Property, including a castle or manor house and its lands.
EWE A female sheep.
FANFARE A musical blast on a horn to announce an important person or event.
FARE Food.
FARTHING A silver coin worth 1/4 of an old penny.
FASHION To make.
FEIGN To fake.
FELONY A serious crime.
FISH DAY One of the days on which the Church forbade meat, so people ate fish instead.
FLIGHT The feathers at the tail end of an arrow.
FORENOON Morning.
FOWL Any bird suitable for eating.
FREEMAN Unlike a villein, a freeman or freewoman could choose where to live and work. Their children were born with the same rights.
FURNACE A very hot fire.
GARB Clothing.
GARDEROBE Originally a room for storing clothes, but also a polite term for a lavatory.
HEATHEN Non-Christian.
HELM A type of helmet, encasing the entire head.
HOG A pig.
HORN A musical instrument. Also a hard growth jutting out from an animal’s head.
HOSE Close-fitting trousers like tights.
HUMORS Body fluids: in the Middle Ages doctors believed there were four types, affecting people’s health and moods.
HUNTING THE WREN An ancient custom carried out on Saint Stephen’s Day, when children caught this bird and sold its feathers for luck.
HUNTSMAN The man who manages the hounds and leads the way during the hunt.
JUROR A member of the public who decides in a court whether someone accused of a crime is guilty or innocent.
KEEP Usually the strongest building in a castle.
KNIGHT An armored nobleman who fought on horseback.
LAISSEZ ALLER French, meaning “begin,” to start a joust.
LANCE A weapon: a long pole arm with a pointed tip.
LATIN The language of the Romans, and still used for the Church, the law, and scholarship in the Middle Ages.
“LIVING” Land and property providing a home and an income.
LORD A nobleman to whom other knights owed allegiance.
LORD’S DAY, THE Sunday: a holy day for Christians.
MANOR The estate or lands that a castle controlled.
MASS The main religious service of the Church.
MEDIEVAL Of the Middle Ages (4th–15th century A.D.).
MELANCHOLIA One of the four humors: feeling low.
MIDDLE AGES The period from the 4th to 15th century A.D..
MINSTREL A singer, poet, and musician.
MISER Someone who is mean with money.
MOAT A deep trench surrounding a castle, sometimes filled with water.
MOONLING Idiot: an insult based on the belief that the Moon could make you act oddly.
MORTALLY Fatally.
NEEDLEPOINT Embroidery.
NIGGET Insect: an insult.
NOBLES The class of people who are wealthy, powerful, and important, by birth.
PACE The distance between your footprints as you walk, about 30 inches. (2000 paces = 1 mile)
PAGAN Non-Christian.
PARCHMENT Beaten animal skin, used instead of paper for writing.
PENNANT A small, pointed flag, displaying heraldic arms.
PENNY ALE A weak and therefore cheap ale.
PHYSICIAN A doctor.
PLAGUE A deadly and highly contagious disease, such as the Black Death.
PLAYERS Entertainers: actors, musicians, and acrobats.
POACHER A thief who hunts fish or game on someone else’s property.
PREVAIL To win.
PRIVILY Secretly.
QUILL A feather used as a pen until the 19th century.
REAP To harvest a crop.
SAINT GEORGE’S DAY April 23rd: a holiday in memory of England’s patron saint.
SAINT STEPHEN’S DAY December 26th: a holiday in memory of the first Christian martyr.
SALLY PORT A castle’s back door, often a secret escape route.
SALT FISH Fish covered in salt to stop it from rotting.
SCRIPTURES The Bible.
SERGEANT-FARRIER The man in charge of the castle stables and horses.
SHEAF A bundle of corn.
SMITH A blacksmith or iron-worker.
SPURS Spikes fixed to a rider’s heels. Digging spurs into the horse’s sides made it run faster. Some ceremonial spurs were gold-covered (gilded).
STEWARD A lord’s chief official, in charge of other servants.
STEWPOND A large fishpond.
STOCKMAN The man in charge of cattle and other livestock.
SURFEIT Excess.
TAX In Toby’s day, any payment in money or goods that people had to make to nobles, or that nobles paid to the crown.
TRENCHER A plate made of a slice of stale bread.
TUMBLER An acrobat.
TUTELAGE Instruction.
TWELVEMONTH A year.
TWOPENNY ALE Ale of normal strength.
TWO-SCORE Twice 20, so 40.
VANQUISH To beat.
VEX To irritate.
VIGIL In this case, a night-long ceremony of prayer.
VILLEIN Like slaves, villeins were completely dependent on a lord for their survival. From birth their children automatically became villeins too.
VISOR The part of a helmet that can be lowered to cover the eyes and mouth.
WAGER To bet.
WATER In this case, the polite term for urine.
WATER-KEEPER The man in charge of the castle fishponds.
WAX TABLET A wax-coated, wooden writing-panel. Wax was cheaper than paper, and could be smoothed over and used again and again.
WELL A deep hole in the ground from which water can be drawn.
YEW A type of tree famous for its strong but bendy wood, which was ideal for making longbows.
Writers and illustrators owe a debt of gratitude to the authors and artists whose works inspire them. Richard Platt and Chris Riddell are especially grateful, because they searched in more than sixty bo
oks for details that would make the text and pictures of Castle Diary authentic. There isn’t room here to list them all, but the following are among the more recently published books.
Bottomley, Frank: Castle Explorer’s Guide
Bradbury, Jim: The Mediaeval Archer
Broughton, Bradford B.: Dictionary of Medieval Knighthood and Chivalry
Edge, David, & Paddock, John Miles: Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight
Keen, Maurice: English Society in the Later Middle Ages 1348–1500
Koch, H.W.: Medieval Warfare
Leyser, Henrietta: Medieval Women
Miller, Edward, & Hatcher, John: Medieval England: Rural Society and Economic Change, 1086–1348
Muir, Richard: Castles and Strongholds
Nicole, David: The Hamlyn History of Medieval Life
Norman, A.V.B., & Pottinger, Don: English Weapons and Warfare 449–1660
Pounds, N.J.G.: The Medieval Castle in England and Wales
Prestwich, Michael: Armies and Warfare in the Middle Ages
Saul, Nigel: The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval England
Warner, Philip: The Medieval Castle (Life in a Fortress in Peace and War)
Woodcock, Thomas, & Robinson, John Martin: The Oxford Guide to Heraldry
Thanks are also due to the unknown artists who decorated The Luttrell Psalter (for Sir Geoffrey Luttrell of Lincolnshire in about 1330) with superb scenes of medieval life.
And to the staff of Manorbier Castle in Dyfed, Wales.
Text copyright © 1999 by Richard Platt
Illustrations copyright © 1999 by Chris Riddell
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
First U.S. electronic edition 2015
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Platt, Richard
Castle diary : the journal of Tobias Burgess, page /
transcribed by Richard Platt ; illuminated by Chris Riddell.
p. cm.
Includes index.
Summary: As a page in his uncle’s castle in thirteenth-century England, eleven-year-old Tobias records in his journal his experiences learning how to hunt, play games of skill, and behave in noble society. Includes notes on noblemen, castles, and feudalism.
ISBN 978-0-7636-0489-9 (hardcover)
[1. Castles — Fiction. 2. Middle Ages — Fiction. 3. Diaries — Fiction.] I. Riddell, Chris, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.P71295Cas 1999
[Fic] — dc21 98-042779
ISBN 978-0-7636-1584-0 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-7636-2164-3 (small paperback)
ISBN 978-0-7636-7823-4 (electronic)
The illustrations were done in ink and watercolor.
Candlewick Press
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Somerville, Massachusetts 02144
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