Year 11 GCSE History Paper 2B – Normans Information Booklet
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Paper 2B - Anglo-Saxon and Norman England Independent study booklet Year 11 GCSE History Paper 2B – Normans Information booklet 1 Paper 2B - Anglo-Saxon and Norman England Independent study booklet Key Topic 1 - 1 INFO: Anglo-Saxon Society. 1. Importance of land. Society was based on land. The more land you had the more powerful you were. If you owned land you could rent it to peasants who would pay you (rent and tax) for growing crops on your land and help you grow your own crops for free. People Number Power and responsibilities King 1 Protect the country from war and attack. To give land to his allies to help him rule and take away land from those who challenge. To create laws. He decided how much to tax people and controlled the production of silver coins. Earls 6 Received large amounts of land from the king. Provided him with an army, ruled their area of the country for the king. Got to keep 1/3 of the taxes they collected. E.g. Lords Godwin of Wessex (most powerful), Siward of Northumbria, Leofric of Mercia. Thegns 5,000 Local lords who managed areas of the country for the Anglo-Saxon king. Held less land than earls. Promised to fight for King when he asked. Ceorls 200,000 Peasants who could move between villages and work for different lords. Still had to fight for thegns and Earls. Peasants 1.8 Lived on the land given to them by their lord. Had to pay rent, work on their lord’s million land for free and fight for the king as part of the fryd when told to. Peasants Slaves 200,000 Roughly 10% of population. Owned no land and had no rights. Treated like property. 2. Government The King made the laws and the Earls and thegns made sure it was carried out. The Witan was a group of lords and bishops (leaders of the church). They helped to choose the new King and advise the king on important matters, for example during invasions. However, the King did not have to listen to the Witan and decided who was included and when they met. 3. Local Government Earldoms were divided into shires. Each shire had its own law court for trying cases and giving punishments. The shire reeve (or sheriff) would run this court, to make sure the king’s laws were followed. The shire reeve also helped to raise the fyrd army if the king needed it. Each shire also had at least one burh (fortified town) as its main trading centre, and also for protection – people could go to the burh in case they were attacked. Burhs were built no more than 15-20 miles apart, so you were always close to one if you needed protection. Around 10% of England lived in burhs. Any trade over a certain amount had to be in a burh, so the king could collect the tax from it. Shires were divided into Hundreds, and hundreds into tithings. Tithings were then again divided into hides. Ten hides = a tithing. When the call came from the King, each group of five hides had to provide one man for the fyrd, together with his battle equipment. These were ordinary farmers who occasionally had to fight. They would only fight for 40 days, then had to go back to look after their crops. Villages in Anglo-Saxon England were not as we think of them today. They tended to be groups of houses, quite spread out over the countryside. A thegn would often live in a big manor house in the 2 Paper 2B - Anglo-Saxon and Norman England Independent study booklet countryside, with a Church attached. This would form the centre of a village, as people would travel to the thegns’ Churches to worship. 4. The Danelaw Anglo-Saxon kings needed to rule the whole of England, but half the country, called the Danelaw, had slightly different (Viking) laws. For example, a man could have two wives in the Danelaw. This was because the people there came from Viking invaders. The Danelaw preferred to have a northern Earl who would understand these laws. They paid less tax, as a reward for fighting off the Scottish and other Viking invaders. 5. The power of the king Kings of Anglo-Saxon England held their power ultimately because they led armies. Anglo-Saxon kings had clawed England back from Viking control. Edward the Confessor was not a warrior king, but his earls and their thegns were a powerful military force and he relied on his early, especially Earl Godwin, to protect England from attack. Kings made sure that the Earls and thegns stayed loyal to them by giving them more land if they did as he said. He would also take their land away if they disobeyed him. The kings also had power because of ‘Divine Right of kings’, meaning that people thought God had chosen the king, and so everyone should listen to him. 6. Law and order In areas where the king was in charge there were set laws. If you killed or hurt someone, you had to pay a special fine known as wergild, to that person’s family. For example 3,600 shillings for an earl, or 1,200 for a thegn. There was also ‘blood feuds’ where the family of someone who had been murdered would kill the murderer's family member. For smaller crimes you could have your hand or eyes removed. There were no police so you were responsible for the people in your community. You were placed in a group of 12 people and were responsible for stopping them carrying out crimes. If you saw them doing something bad you would let out a huge shout called a ‘hue and cry’. The whole village would have to go and find the criminal, you would be punished if you refused to help. If you were arrested for something and thought you were innocent you could go to trial, this meant letting other people decide who was guilty. You could either state the case to a jury- people from your community who would decide who was guilty or trial by ordeal, where you would let god decide who was guilty. You could choose by fire (your hand was burnt and you were guilty if it became infected) or trial by water (where you were guilty if you floated in water). 7. Religion Religion was very important in Anglo-Saxon England. Everyone was Christian and went to church for at least 100 days every year. People were worried about what would happen when they died so they took religion very seriously. Archbishops wee the most important men in the Church. They made sure the Bishops in their area did as they said. There was one Archbishop for the north (the Archbishop of York) and one for the south (the AB of Canterbury). Below them, Bishops controlled the churches in a large area. They were powerful men who owned lots of land, told the priests what to say and advised the King. Ordinary priests were often very poor, could not read and write and were members of the local community. They were usually married, which went against the reforms of the church that required priests to be celibate (single, and not involved in sexual relationships). 3 Paper 2B - Anglo-Saxon and Norman England Independent study booklet 8. The Anglo-Saxon Economy England was a rich country that traded wool and cloth. Western England was particularly well-suited to sheep rearing. Eastern England had drier conditions and fertile soils that made it excellent for arable farming (growing crops). Farming was well-organised: for example, there were over 6,000 mills throughout the country used for grinding the local community’s grain into flour. England also traded abroad, for example they got millstones (used to grind flour) from Denmark and wine from Normandy. Key Topic 1 – 1 TASKS Anglo-Saxon Society. 1. Create flashcards of Key Topic 1.1 Key Facts (list at the back of revision booklet). Get someone to test you or use look, cover, check until you know them. 2. Create a mind map around the question ‘How was Anglo-Saxon society organised?’. Have a branch for each of the sub-topics above. Key topic 1 – 2 INFO: The Last Years of Edward the Confessor and the Succession Crisis. 1. The House of Godwin. The Godwin family were an important political power in England. The house of Godwin began in 1018 during King Cnut’s reign, when Cnut had made his favourite adviser, Godwin, Earl of Wessex in 1030. When Godwin died in 1053 his position as Earl of Wessex was taken up by his son Harold Godwinson. By the mid-1060s the Godwins had control of almost all England, as Tostig Godwinson became Earl of Northumbria in 1055, and Gyrth Godwinson became Earl of East Anglia in 1057. Their brother Leofwine was also made Earl of Kent. 2. How powerful were the Godwins? By the mid-1060s, the Godwins were the most powerful family in the kingdom of England after Kind Edward the Confessor. This power came partly from the fact that they controlled so many Earldoms (see above). This meant that they had an enormous amount of land which they could raise taxes from, making them very rich. Together, thy earned £8,500 per year, while King Edward only earned £6,500 from his land! They were also lord to many hundreds of thegns, housecarls and fyrd, making them powerful war-leaders.