Later Middle Ages (c.1100 - c.1500)

Question 1

List 5 changes made to the legal system by the Assize of Clarendon (1166).

Answer 1

• Prisons were set up for people awaiting trial
• Justices in Eyre (royal judges) visited each county twice a year to deal with the most serious cases
• Parliament (a gathering of rich and powerful men) became more involved in law-making
• Standard, written instructions were issued to sheriffs
• Courts were reorganised

Question 2

What 2 positions did Richard I create, and when?

Answer 2

• 1194: coroners, who investigated suspicious deaths
• 1195: he appointed knights to keep ‘the King’s peace’ in rebellious areas

Question 3

How did JPs come into existence?

Answer 3

• 1327: Edward III deployed knights to all areas to keep the peace, building on Richard I’s idea
• 1361: they became known as Justices of the Peace (JPs)
• They were men appointed by the king, and had social status and wealth

Question 4

List 5 ways the Church exerted its influence in the later Middle Ages.

Answer 4

• It owned 20% of the country’s wealth
• It collected 10% of the country’s earnings through taxes
• Cathedrals and churches’ grand architecture reminded people of God’s power
• Priests tended to be the most educated people in the community
• It controlled people’s thoughts and actions

Question 5

When did the Church become less tolerant (even before the Reformation) and why?

Answer 5

• In the early 13th century the spread of Islam made the Church nervous
• In the 1290s English Jews were forced to convert or to be banished

Question 6

When did religious attitudes start to change, and how did kings react?

Answer 6

• In the 1400 and 1500s a minority of people began to question the Church’s beliefs and practices, which caused the clergy to feel threatened
• Kings sided with the Church

Question 7

When did the Black Death reach England, and what happened as a result?

Answer 7

• 1348
• A third of the population died from plague, so the peasants who were left could demand higher wages
• This made the ruling class afraid of their growing power

Question 8

Describe the Statute of Labourers.

Answer 8

• Passed in 1351
• Set a maximum wage
• Criminalised asking for higher wages or moving to find a higher wage

Question 9

When were laws against heresy introduced?

Answer 9

• 1382, 1401, 1414

Question 10

List 3 aspects of law enforcement that stayed the same in the later Middle Ages.

Answer 10

• Hue and cry
• Trial by jury
• Manor courts

Question 11

List 4 aspects of law enforcement that changed in the later Middle Ages.

Answer 11

• Growing towns (London had a population of 30,000 and York 11,000) were split into wards so that the hue and cry could still be used
• Local officials who had been known as tythingmen became known as constables
• In 1215 Pope Innocent III told priests to stop carrying out trials by ordeal
• The 1414 Heresy Act allowed JPs to take suspected heretics to the Church courts, who then handed them over to the secular authorities for punishment if found guilty

Question 12

What were the 2 new punishments introduced in the later Middle Ages, and why were they introduced?

Answer 12

• The 1401 heresy law introduced burning at the stake
• It symbolised purifying a corrupt soul and was a powerful deterrent
• Being ‘hanged, drawn and quartered’ meant being semi-strangled, revived, having your abdomen cut open, and intestines drawn out
• Their limbs were then separately displayed across the country
• It was used for high treason (plotting to kill or betray the King) as it was the most serious crime

Question 13

Which 3 punishments did Church courts usually give?

Answer 13

• Pilgrimage
• Confession
• Apology at mass

Question 14

What was the ‘benefit of the clergy’, and the problem with it?

Answer 14

• The right to be judged in a Church court
• The system was open to abuse as all you had to do to qualify to be judged in the Church courts was read the first verse of Psalm 51, as most people were illiterate
• People started to memorise it so it became known as the ‘neck verse’

Question 15

Describe Henry II’s involvement with the Church courts.

Answer 15

• In the mid 12th century Henry II tried to put an end to the lenient church courts, as he wanted to create a more standardised system
• He and Thomas Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury, fell out due to this issue, and in 1170 Henry II was whipped may times by members of the clergy to seek forgiveness for his indirect involvement in Beckett’s death

Question 16

Describe how claiming sanctuary worked.

Answer 16

• Important churches offered accused criminals protection from the law
• The clergy reported the crime, but if it was reasonable, the accused swore an oath to leave the country within 40 days
• If they stayed, they would be outlawed/waived