the middle ages

Question 1

what period was the Middle Ages?

Answer 1

period after Norman Conquest up until 1485

time of almost constant war - English kings fighting with Welsh/Scottish/Irish noblemen for control of land

Question 2

when was Wales annexed to the Crown of England?

Answer 2

1284 - King Edward I introduced the Statute of Rhuddlan

huge castles like Conwy and Caernarvon built to maintain this power

English laws and language introduced by the middle of the 15th century where the last Welsh rebellions were defeated

Question 3

Scotland during the Middle Ages

Answer 3

English kinds were less successful

1314 - Scottish led by Robert the Bruce defeated the English at the Battle of Bannockburn

Question 4

Ireland during the Middle Ages

Answer 4

at the beginning, an independent country
- English first went as troops to help the Irish king and stayed to build their own settlements

by 1200, English ruled an area known as the Pale (around Dublin)
- some important lords in other parts accepted the authority of the English king

Question 5

wars abroad

Answer 5

knights took part in the Crusades
- European Christians fighting for control of the Holy Land

Hundred Years War
- actually 116 years
- long war with France
- Battle of Agincourt in 1415 where Henry V’s vastly outnumbered English army defeated the French

Question 6

when did England leave France?

Answer 6

1450s

Question 7

what system of land ownership did the Normans use?

Answer 7

feudalism

king gave lords land in return for help in war
- landowners had to send numbers of men to serve in the army
- some peasants had their own land but most were serfs

serfs had a small area of land where they could grow food
- in return, they had to work for the lord and could not move away

same system developed in southern Scotland
- in the north of Scotland and Ireland, land owned by clans

Question 8

the Black Death in Britain

Answer 8

1348 - form of plague

1/3 of England died and similar proportion in Scotland and Wales
- one of the worst disasters ever to strike Britain

labour shortages
- smaller population with less needs to grow cereal crops
- peasants demanded higher wages

new social classes appeared, including owners of large areas of land (gentry)
- people left the countryside to live in towns, growing wealth led to strong middle class

Question 9

the Black Death in Ireland

Answer 9

killed many in the Pale

area controlled by the English became smaller

Question 10

when did Parliament begin to develop into the institution it is today?

Answer 10

in the middle ages

origins traced to the king’s council of advisors
- included important noblemen and the leaders of the Church

Question 11

until when were there few formal limits to the king’s power?

Answer 11

1215 - King John forced by noblemen to agree to demands

Question 12

Magna Carta

Answer 12

charter of rights

established the idea that even the king is subject to the law
- protected nobility’s rights
- restricted king’s power to collect taxes and to make/change laws

Question 13

parliaments in England

Answer 13

called for the king to consult his nobles - particularly when the king needed to raise money

numbers attending parliament increased
- two separate parts (houses) were established

Question 14

house of lords vs house of commons

Answer 14

house of lords
- nobility, great landowners and bishops

house of commons
- knights (smaller landowners) and wealthy people from towns/cities elected to sit in the house of commons
- only a small part of the population able to join in electing the members of the commons

Question 15

parliament in scotland

Answer 15

three houses (estates)
- the lords, the commons and the clergy

Question 16

time of development in the legal system

Answer 16

principle that judges are independent of the government established

England: judges developed ‘common law’ by a process of precedence (following previous decisions) and tradition

Scotland: legal system developed slightly differently and laws were ‘codified’ (written down)

Question 17

development of a national culture and identity

Answer 17

after the Norman Conquest, king/noblemen spoke Norman French but peasants spoke Anglo-Saxon
- combined to become English Language

Question 18

when did English become the official language?

Answer 18

1400

official documents written in English, became the preferred official language of the royal court and Parliament

Question 19

Canterbury Tales

Answer 19

written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the years leading up to 1400

series of poems in English about a group of people going to Canterbury on a pilgrimage

one of the first books to printed

Question 20

first person to print books using a printing press

Answer 20

William Caxton

Question 21

change in the type of buildings

Answer 21

castles were built in Britain and Ireland, partly for defence (Windsor and Edinburgh)

great cathedrals (Lincoln Cathedral) built, many for worship
- some had windows of stained glass, telling stories about the Bible and Christian saints (York Minster)

Question 22

England became an important trading nation

Answer 22

wool as an important export

people came from abroad to trade and work
- weavers from France, engineers from Germany, glass manufacturers from Italy, canal builders from Holland

Question 23

the Wars of the Roses

Answer 23

civil war in 1455 to decide who should be king of England

fought between the House of Lancaster and the House of York
- symbol of Lancaster as a red rose and symbol of York as a white rose

Question 24

when did the war of the roses end?

Answer 24

Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485

Richard III of the House of York killed and Henry Tudor became King Henry VII
- married Richard’s niece, Elizabeth of York and united the families

Henry as the first king for the House of Tudor

symbol of House of Tudor was a read rose with a white rose inside as a sign that they were now allies