Context

Question 1

CHAUCER

What did he read in the classics?

Answer 1

new sciences such as astrology

Question 2

CHAUCER
What class did he belong to?

Answer 2

belonged to new upper middle class

Question 3

CHAUCER

What were 3 jobs did he have?

Answer 3

• young man in the house of the Countess of Ulster as a page
• military service in France (captured and ransomed)
• also carried out diplomatic roles abroad

Question 4

CHAUCER

What works did Chaucer become familiar with?

Answer 4

• Dante
• Petrarch
• Boccacio

Question 5

CHAUCER

What world was he important?

Answer 5

important diplomat in a turbulent political world

Question 6

MEDIEVAL ENGLAND

How were the middle ages a time of extremes?

Answer 6

high sophistication and idealism
also
terrible cruelty and violence

Question 7

MEDIEVAL ENGLAND

What was deeply ingrained in social structure? But what

Answer 7

deeply ingrained social structures

Question 8

MEDIEVAL ENGLAND

Why was there social unrest?

Answer 8

extreme mobility

Question 9

MEDIEVAL ENGLAND

What was the population? What percentage were peasants?

Answer 9

2 million

90% were peasants

Question 10

MEDIEVAL ENGLAND

What was always a threat to life?

Answer 10

famine and plague

Question 11

MEDIEVAL ENGLAND

In 1348-49, what percentage of the population was decimated by the Black Death?

Answer 11

1/3

Question 12

MEDIEVAL ENGLAND

England was at war with who for the entire of Chaucer’s lifetime? What was the name of the war?

Answer 12

100 year war with France began in 1339

Question 13

KNIGHTS

Why was the image of the chivalrous Knights tarnished after fighting between France and England?

Answer 13

because it had led to some of the dirtiest fighting of the time

Question 14

KNIGHTS

Why type of new knight emerged?

Answer 14

professional knight emerged

- fought fo rambition rather than ideals

Question 15

KNIGHTS

What did Gower write about the new type of knight?

Answer 15

“the chivalric “aristocracy is being replaced by a financial aristocracy; knights have become greedy for money”

Question 16

KNIGHTS

What qualities did men become anxious to possess? Why?

Answer 16

gentillesse

as the traditional nobility had it

Question 17

3 ESTATES

What rigid social structure was the Middle Ages organised into (3 estates)?

Answer 17

1. nobility
2. church
3. peasants

Question 18

3 ESTATES

Where else did this structure appear?

Answer 18

literature

Question 19

3 ESTATES

How were the 3 estates satirised in literature at the time?

Answer 19

• idealised versions of these members society

- stereotypes with typical values and vices highlighted

Question 20

3 ESTATES

How does Chaucer show that society had started to move beyond the 3 estates? (despite growing middle classes)

Answer 20

• strong spirit of commercial enterprise at the time

- new merchant or bourgeois class was emerging

Question 21

3 ESTATES

What did enterprising commoners began to do?

Answer 21

• acquiring lands

- employing their own workforce

Question 22

3 ESTATES

How would these enterprising commoners be called later on when they were acknowledged as the lesser aristocracy?

Answer 22

Franklins (Free Men)

Question 23

CHURCH

What happened in 1377 to the Pope?

Answer 23

two rival candidates claimed the title of the pope

Question 24

CHURCH

How did the two candidates taking the title of the pope affect the Catholic Church?

Answer 24

affected the unity of the Catholic Church

politics rather than religion was the focus

Question 25

CHURCH

What other corruptions plagued the Church?

Answer 25

• selling of pardons and relics

- religious leaders who were profit-seeking and secular pleasure-seeking

Question 26

CHURCH

Why did dissident religious gorups affect the church?

Answer 26

they would advertise a different type of faith to the Church and create schisms within the church’s following

Question 27

CHURCH

What did Lollards and Wylcifftes emphasise?

Answer 27

free thinking - that the church should not be so concerned with material issues

this was the concern of the states

no man should be seen as ‘better’ than another

Question 28

CHURCH

What did the religious groups make more accessible to society?

Answer 28

the Bible

Question 29

PEASANTS REVOLT

What did view John Ball (rebel priest from York) present?

Answer 29

a revolutionary democratic view of the world

Question 30

PEASANTS REVOLT

What brought things to a head/tension in England?

Answer 30

an oppression poll tax

Question 31

PEASANTS REVOLT

Who led peasants to London? What did they do there?

Answer 31

Wat Tyler led the peasants to London

Flemish weavers (seen as taking English revenue) were beheaded by the mob prisoners released

Question 32

PEASANTS REVOLT

What other 2 violent acts were committed by the rebels?

Answer 32

• John Gaunt’s palace was burnt down

- Archbishop of Canterbury beheaded

Question 33

PEASANTS REVOLT

Who were the rebels tricked into trusting? What did Richard do?

Answer 33

young King Richard

beheaded the rebel ringleaders

Question 34

WOMEN

What was a way the church could continue to assert authority?

Answer 34

in its anti-feminist teachings

Question 35

WOMEN

What was the church’s stance on women?

Answer 35

they were inferior
they were ruin of men
daughters of Eve

Question 36

WOMEN

What 6 anti-feminist stock characters did medieval literature focus on?

Answer 36

1. unfaithful wife
2. harridan
3. gossip
4. deceiver
5. money-grabbing materialist
6. harlot

Question 37

WOMEN

What group of people had on of the only positive views of women?

Answer 37

the cult of Mary

Question 38

WOMEN

Who did they view as good women?

Answer 38

pure virgins

loving mothers

Question 39

WOMEN

What did this adoration of women lead to in romantic literature?

Answer 39

women were adored and elevated in the game of courtly love