Richard and John-Life and Government in medieval England

Question 1

List the 4 main groups of the feudal hierachy

Answer 1

King, Tenants in chief, Knights, Peasants

Question 2

What did the king…..

a) give to tenants
b) receive from tenants

Answer 2

a) land, peace, law and security

b) loyalty, advice, tax, knights

Question 3

What did the tenants in chief..

a) give to knights
b) receive from knights

Answer 3

a) land and other privileges

b) military service, tax and loyalty

Question 4

What did the knights…..

a) give to peasants
b) receive from peasants

Answer 4

a) land and protection

b) rent or labour service

Question 5

What are villeins?

Answer 5

Villeins are peasants that were tied to their lords land and worked, they would do extra work during harvest.

Question 6

List the 3 ways that someone could become a king

Answer 6

Primogeniture(family stuff)
Nomination from the previous king
Factors of influence (i.e. money and land) that would gain support from barons

Question 7

What are the 4 that the king swore an oath to do?

Answer 7

protect the church
keep the peace
maintain justice
punish greedy lords

Question 8

how did the king make money?

Answer 8

taxes and feudal incidents

Question 9

List 4 facts about the Church

Answer 9

• The pope had the powers of interdict and excommunication
• The church owned 20% of land in England
• The chancellor was a churchman
• The church crowned the king

Question 10

List 3 facts about knights

Answer 10

• Would pay the ransom if his lord was captured

- would spend 40 days guarding

Question 11

What did selling tithes mean?

Answer 11

the taxes were collected by sheriffs who could make money of of corruption. The king could sell the title of sheriff to greedy lords

Question 12

Give 3 examples of feudal incidents

Answer 12

• Forest fines
• Inheritance fines
• Wardship fines

Question 13

What is a scutage?

Answer 13

An emergency tax paid during wartime. Kings and barons paid instead of fighting

Question 14

Give 4 details about life in the countryside

Answer 14

• children didn’t go to school-when they were old enough they worked with their parents
• lived in cruck houses
• A married women became the property of her husband
• On festival and holy days peasants would gather on the village green and drink ale and do sports

Question 15

Give 4 details about towns

Answer 15

• Town parents could pay guilds(traders) to to train their children, a 14 yr old could become an apprentice
• a community bought a royal charter from the king in order to become a town
• Towns were often built as strategic port, river or road junctions
• Towns paid a loan to host annual fairs, this contained activities such as playing sports and drinking mead

Question 16

Aprroximately how many jews were in medieval england

Answer 16

5000

Question 17

What role did jewish people have with moneylending?

Answer 17

Jews were allowed to lend money with interest. This practice became very valuable to freemen, knights, barons and even the king himself.

Question 18

Give 3 reasons why jews were hated in medieval england?

Answer 18

• Jews were condemned by the church as the ‘christ killers’ (england was mostly christian)
• Jews had personal protection from the king and were omitted from paying some taxes
• There were some rumours about Jews causing disease and sacrificing christian children (ie william of norwich)

Question 19

List 2 ways Richard and John were involved in the mistreatment of Jews

Answer 19

• Richard banned Jewish People from his coronation(1189)-there were also rumours that he ordered the pogrom(1189-90)
• John demanded 1/10 of their loans

Question 20

Give 2 pieces of information about richard’s claim to the throne

Answer 20

he had a lot of support from his mother and some barons

he had a reputation as a warrior