Medieval World History exam

Question 1

What is the order of the medieval feudal structure?

Answer 1

King-Barons/Bishops-Lords/Knights/Priests-Merchants-Peasants

Question 2

What is the role of the nobles?

Answer 2

The nobles place in society was essential, they functioned as middlemen between the peasants and the royal family. Nobles provided work, land, and protection to the peasants while providing fealty, funding, supplies, and military service to the king.

Question 3

What is the role of the king?

Answer 3

A king’s most important responsibility was to establish order and keep the peace, by force if necessary. This included the duty to fight foreign invaders, to keep the nobles from fighting each other when possible, and to suppress crime and banditry.

Question 4

What is the role of the Church?

Answer 4

The Church served to give people spiritual guidance and it served as their government as well.

Question 5

What is the role of a knight?

Answer 5

It was the duty of a Medieval Knight to learn how to fight and so serve their Lord according to the Code of Chivalry. A Knight would be expected to guard a Castle and support his lord in Medieval warfare.

Question 6

What was the role of the peasants?

Answer 6

Peasants worked the land to yield food, wool and other resources.

Question 7

What are the three main types of medieval castles?

Answer 7

motte and bailey, concentric and stone keep castles.

Question 8

Features of a Motte and Bailey castle?

Answer 8

Gateway, Bailey, Motte, Wooden fort

Question 9

Features of a concentric castle?

Answer 9

The outer wall, inner wall, gatehouse, towers, inner bailey, outer bailey, outer gate and drum tower

Question 10

Explain the medieval churches power

Answer 10

It made separate laws and punishments to the monarch’s laws and had the ability to send people to war.

Question 11

What were the three types of trial ordeal when someone is accused to have committed a crime?

Answer 11

Ordeal by water, ordeal by fire and ordeal by combat.

Question 12

Explain ordeal by water

Answer 12

Ordeal by water was often used for cases of witchcraft. The victim was thrown into a river with their hands and feet tied together. The person was found to be innocent if she sank and guilty if she floated. The accused person would die either way.

Question 13

Explain ordeal by fire

Answer 13

People had to grasp a red hot iron. Their hand would get bandaged and left for three days. If the burn had started healing it was a sign that the accused was not guilty. Otherwise, the person was judged guilty.

Question 14

Explain trial by combat

Answer 14

This was mostly used by nobles. The accuser and defendant would take part in a fight. People believed that god rewarded the innocent person with victory.

Question 15

What punishments were used for common crimes?

Answer 15

Fines, being placed in the stocks, cutting of parts of your body and death.

Question 16

Who was trying to claim the throne in 1066?

Answer 16

Following the death of Edward the Confessor, there were four claimants to the English Throne. William, Duke of Normandy become the Conqueror after defeating Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings. Prior to this battle, Godwinson defeated Harald Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Edgar Aethling was the fourth claimant but did not challenge the others as he was young and weak.

Question 17

What was William, duke of Normandy’s claim to the throne?

Answer 17

William, Duke of Normandy believed he had the strongest claim to the throne because Harold Godwinson had sworn fealty to him upon the request of King Edward in exchange for Godwinson’s release from capture. William was also King Edwards distant cousin on King Edward’s mother’s side.

Question 18

What was Harold Godwinson’s claim to the throne?

Answer 18

Harold Godwinson felt he should be the next King of England because his sister was married to King Edward and on his deathbed, he chose Harold to be his successor. Godwinson had been the Confessor’s chief advisor for many years and therefore had strong connections with other Lords. The Godwinson family were also the most powerful family in England at the time.

Question 19

What was Harald Hadrada’s claim to the throne?

Answer 19

Harald Hadrada’s claimed he was a distant relative of king Canut. He was supported by the exiled brother of Harold Godwinson, Tostig.

Question 20

What was Edgar Aethling the great-nephew of Edward the Confessor claim to the throne?

Answer 20

Edgar Aethling the great-nephew of Edward the Confessor and was the last Anglo-Saxon prince alive after his father was killed in 1057. He was the closest Anglo-Saxon blood relative to Edward but was only a teenager with limited political connections in England in 1066.

Question 21

To what extent did William the conqueror change England

Answer 21

He brought with him a more formalised feudal structure from France and provided his Norman Lords with land confiscated from Anglo Saxon rivals in England. It meant more exclusion of the classes and a demotion of the noble families who had been supporters of the Godwinsons. He brought the Domesday book.

Question 22

Describe the relationship between lords and the King

Answer 22

A lord was considered a vassal of the king. As part of the feudal agreement, the lord promised to protect the vassal and provide the vassal with a plot of land.

Question 23

Explain tithe

Answer 23

In the Middle Ages, the Catholic church in Europe collected a tax of its own, separate from the kings’ taxes, which was called a tithe. Tithe means “one-tenth”, because people were supposed to give the Church one-tenth of all the income they earned.

Question 24

What is the document that reported on life in medieval England

Answer 24

Domesday book

Question 25

What is the purpose of the domesday book?

Answer 25

The survey’s main purpose was to record the transfer and possession of land. After William the conqueror became king a huge amount of land changed hands and a record of these were needed to keep track.

To record the value of each estate

To introduce a system of taxation on each estate that allowed the king to raise more money from all landholders quickly.

Question 26

Why were castles built?

Answer 26

It was both a fortification and the home of a lord.

Question 27

Defensive features of a Motte and Bailey castle?

Answer 27

It would have been almost impossible to run up the sides of the motte, making it an excellent defence, A deep ditch was dug around the bottom of the motte for extra protection.

Question 28

Defensive features of a Stone Keep castle?

Answer 28

Stone keep castles were a lot bigger than other castles. Because of their vast size, they were much harder to attack. The castle was made of stone so it could not be burnt down, unlike the motte and bailey castle. The entire castle might be surrounded by a ditch or moat and the entrance to the castle was by a drawbridge. Lords and their families would remain in their keep.

Question 29

Defensive features of a Concentric Castle?

Answer 29

The walls typically include towers, arrowslits, and wall-head defences such as crenellation, which were an active style of defence. Many different layers created many different obstacles: attackers needed to penetrate at least two walls, and often pass through a heavily-defended gatehouse and barbican.

Question 30

Way’s to attack a castle

Answer 30

Ladders, fire, battering ram, catapults, mining, siege

Question 31

Explain the concept of heraldry?

Answer 31

Heraldry refers to the colours and patterns that represented different noble families. They were used during tournaments so that spectators could know-how was who and for the same purpose in battle. Some of the symbols used were animals. It was mainly used to tell a knight apart from another knight

Question 32

Explain the concept of Chivalry

Answer 32

Chivalry was the code of conduct by which knights were bound to live. It provided people with moral values to uphold in times of peace and war.

Question 33

How to become a knight

Answer 33

A knight had to be born of nobility, most commonly sons of knights or lords. Step one to becoming a knight was being a mage, ages would range from 7-13 years old. The next step in a long road to knighthood was to become a squire, their role was to look after a real knight. By the age of 21 a few squires would be chosen to take part in a knighthood ceremony to become a knight.

Question 34

Who was the father of medicine?

Answer 34

The father of medicine was hippocrates.

Question 35

Identify the four humours

Answer 35

Yellow Bile, Black bile, Blood and Phlegm

Question 36

Diagnosis of Yellow Bile

Answer 36

If you were diagnosed with excess yellow bile. You were ambitious, easily angered, passionate and aggressive. Yellow bile issues were thought to occur because of problems related to your liver.

Question 37

Diagnosis of Blood

Answer 37

If you were diagnosed with an excess of blood. You were feeling optimistic, courageous and amorous. Heart issues were thought to occur because of problems related to your arteries, veins, liver and heart.

Question 38

Diagnosis of black bile

Answer 38

If you were diagnosed with an excess of black bile. You were feeling depressed, quiet, analytical and serious. Black bile issues were thought to occur because of problems related to your spleen.

Question 39

Diagnosis of Phlegm

Answer 39

If you were diagnosed with an excess of phlegm. You were feeling thoughtful, reasonable, calm and lazy. Phlegm issues were thought to occur because of issues related to your brain.

Question 40

Where would only Nobles go to get medical attention?

Answer 40

A noble would use a physician.

Question 41

Where would only a peasant go to get medical attention?

Answer 41

A peasant would go to the barber.

Question 42

Where would both nobles and peasants use to rely on natural herbal remedies?

Answer 42

Both nobles and peasants relied on wise women’s natural herbal remedies.

Question 43

Timeline of the black death

Answer 43

It was believed to start in China in 1334. It spread through trade routes. In 1347 it reached Europe from an army attacking a port in Kaffa. The epidemic is then carried inland from ships until in 1348 it reaches England North Africa, mainland Italy, Spain, England, and France. A ship from Calais, France, carries the plague to Dorset, England, in August 1348. It spreads to Bristol, England, almost immediately and then moves rapidly throughout the southwest counties of England. The spread of the disease continues as it reaches Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, and the Low Countries. London feels the devastating effects of the plague most strongly between February and May 1349. The disease persists and moves north in England.

Question 44

Identify the symptoms when getting the bubonic plague?

Answer 44

You get flu-like symptoms and lymph nodes 3-7 days later. It is spread through flea or insect bites.

Question 45

Identify the symptoms when getting the Septicemic plague?

Answer 45

Bacteria multiply in the blood. More serious symptoms included gangrene and bleeding from the mouth, nose, or under the skin. It comes from flea or insect bites and can also develop from untreated bubonic plague.

Question 46

Identify the symptoms when getting the pneumonic Plague?

Answer 46

It happens when Y.pestis bacteria invade your lungs and cause pneumonia. You can get it when inhaling airborne plague bacteria from a person or animal with either Sceptesemic or bubonic plague. It could also be spread through human to human contact.

Question 47

Beliefs of how the black death started

Answer 47

A common theme was to refer back to a key pillar of Medieval society; their belief in God. To many, such a brutal pandemic causing such horrible symptoms and rapid death must have meant they were under the wrath of God. Flagellants responded by self-harming while praying to atone for the sins of humanity. Others turned to persecute Jewish people in supposed retaliation for condemning Jesus, son of God, to death.
Some people blamed miasma

Question 48

How did the growth in trade between global regions spread the plague?

Answer 48

Global trading grew popular for merchants and travellers which made the black death spread even more rapidly to different Countries.

Question 49

Treatment for the bubonic plague?

Answer 49

chopping up onions and animals on buboes

prayers

People who believed God was punishing you for your sin, ‘flagellants’, went on processions whipping themselves.

Persecution of Jews

Question 50

Causes of the peasant’s revolt?

Answer 50

The statue of Labourers
Prices
Increased poll taxes
Corrupt church

Question 51

To what extent did the plague contribute to the peasant’s revolt?

Answer 51

The Black Death had killed many people. Coming after the Black Death and the consequent shortage of labour. Peasants thought their work should be more valued as there were a limited amount of peasants.

Question 52

Name significant individuals related to the peasant’s revolt

Answer 52

Wat Tyler, Priest John Ball, King Richard the second, John of Gaunt (Richard’s uncle), John Legge (created poll tax)

Question 53

The outcome of the peasant’s revolt?

Answer 53

The king supported peasants but because of Magna Carta couldn’t put agreed on terms into law.
Leaders of the revolt died.
Landowners are free to pay what they like
More respect to peasants from lords
No more poll taxes