VINTENAR

Vintenar means, in medieval England, a leader of a score of footmen, more specifically a leader of twenty draft men. During wars or anarchies, freemen such as farmers were paid to become infantry soldiers in order to help quell a tumult, defend a fortification or join a greater army and march to battle. Whatever the cause, a vintenar was responsible for leading his twenty infantry to victory. Whether the leader hired the footmen himself or was charged with them doesn’t matter, so long as he leads them he earns the title vintenar.

VINTNER

A winemaker or a wine merchant can both be called vintners. A wine connoisseur, a grape farmer or a sot, however, cannot claim the title of vintner, sadly. Only those who make or sell wine can claim such a sexy title.

VERDERER

Someone has to make sure no one shoots the king’s deer. That’s one of a verderer’s many responsibilities as a verderer is a judicial officer of a royal forest. Footpads stalk the swamps waylaying and accosting drovers and peddlers, but the local verderer is hiring men to deal with the quandary. Hungry peasants may mock a verderer behind his back, hate him, because being unable to use the king’s coppices and hunt the king’s precious boars can mean a night without dinner. So if you’re breaking the law–hunting in the king’s forest–watch your back because the verderer in these parts is a stern man who likes to take the law into his own hands.