Year 7 History revision guide
Al Jazeera Academy, Doha,
Qatar
June 2013
The skills you have learnt in History are the following:
 CHRONOLOGY
 KNOWLEDGE & UNDERSTANDING
 INTERPRETING EVENTS
 ENQUIRY / USE OF SOURCES
 COMMUNICATION (WRITING SKILLS)
You will be tested on these areas above mainly in the following topic:
 King John
 Black Death
Your test will have three parts.
Part 1 – Knowledge and Understanding - True or False.
Part 2 – Knowledge and understanding – Multiple choice questions
Part 3 – Descriptive Questions – Commenting on Motte / Bailey Castles
Part 4 – Enquiry/use of sources Using the sources to determine whether King John
was a good or bad
Part 5 – Enquiry / Use of Sources – Using the sources to determine how terrifying
the Black Death was.
The Norman Conquest:
Overview
The main rivals for the throne were Harold Godwinson, Harald Hardrada and William of
Normandy.
When Edward the Confessor died, Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, was immediately
crowned king and became Harold II. The royal council, known as the Witan, supported
him. He gathered an army to defend the kingdom.
Harald Hardrada was king of Norway. He invaded Yorkshire with a fleet of ships, but
was defeated and killed by Harold's army at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
While Harold II was in the north of England fighting Hardrada, William, Duke of
Normandy invaded Sussex. Harold rushed back south to fight him.
On 14 October 1066, Harold II fought William's army at the Battle of Hastings and
lost. Harold was killed, perhaps with an arrow in his eye - although this is disputed by
some historians.
William was crowned king of England on Christmas Day 1066, but it took years more
fighting to conquer the whole country. His cruellest campaign was the 'Harrying of the
North' in 1069, where he slaughtered the inhabitants of the north-east and destroyed
their food stores so that even the survivors starved to death.
The Norman Conquest changed the face of England forever. William ruled as
unquestioned conqueror and the Saxons became merely an unpaid workforce for their
new lords.
The Norman Conquest also changed the history of Europe – adding the wealth of
England to the military might of Normandy made the joint-kingdom a European superpower.
CASTLES
Castles only began to be built in England after the Norman Conquest.
The Normans built many to secure areas where they faced resistance,
but they also built castles as a show of strength. The first castles were
made of earth and wood, and could be built extremely quickly.
The most common early type was the Motte and Bailey castle. These
castles consisted of a wooden fort on top of a man-made mound (motte)
with an enclosed surrounding area (bailey) defended by a tall wooden
fence (palisade). A small community could live inside the bailey. Ditch
and bank defences surrounded the Motte and Bailey.
A Motte and Bailey castle
During the 12th century many castles were improved and strengthened
using stone instead of wood. Many ideas for improving defences came
from the east. Concentric castles from the later middle ages show this.
These castles had one walled enclosure built inside another. More
complicated designs saw more and more walled enclosures inside one
another, each improving the strength of the castle even more. Edward I
used castles like this to secure his position in Wales.
As new methods of warfare developed (such as the use of the cannon)
the importance of the castle changed. They rapidly became status
symbols rather than having military importance. Some historians argue
that many castles were never anything but status symbols, and the
Norman use of castles to show strength may suggest this.
King Henry II and the murder of Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket's life and death were remarkable. The son of a wealthy commoner, he
rose to become Chancellor and good friend of Henry II. Appointed Archbishop of
Canterbury, he became a strong defender of the Church and the rights of clergymen.
His quarrel with Henry II ended in his spectacular death at the altar of Canterbury
Cathedral in 1170.
In 1174 Henry II did penance at Becket's tomb. The next king to attempt to gain
power over the Church was Henry VIII in 1534.
Thomas Becket has been an example to religious people, and a subject of debate, ever
since his death. Was he a saint or a troublemaker?
The Becket affair was an argument between the king and the Church about power.
1. Becket refused to sign the Constitutions of Clarendon – he said
that they would mean that clerics were punished twice for the
same crime.
2. At a Great Council held at Northampton in 1164, Becket was
found guilty of treason.
3. Becket fled to France.
4. In 1170, the Pope threatened to excommunicate Henry, so
Henry let Becket return to England. Becket had won.
5. Then Becket excommunicated three bishops who supported
Henry. In rage, Henry is said to have shouted: "Will no one rid
me of this troublesome priest?".
6. Four knights heard this, rode to Canterbury, and murdered
Becket at the altar of the Cathedral on 29 December 1170.
Consequences
1. Immediately, stories arose that miracles had happened at Becket's tomb. In 1173
the Pope made Becket a saint:
o Pilgrims to the shrine of St Thomas Becket could also go and spit at statues of
the knights who killed him.
o Chaucer's Canterbury Tales were about a group of pilgrims on their way to the
shrine of St Thomas at Canterbury.
2. The Pope excommunicated the knights who killed Becket. To earn forgiveness, they
had to go on Crusade for 14 years.
3. In 1174, to show he was sorry, Henry walked barefoot to Canterbury Cathedral and
allowed the monks to whip him.
4. Henry had to give up on the Constitutions of Clarendon. He had failed to reduce the
power of the Church.
King John
Background
1. John was born in 1167, youngest son of Henry II.
2. John was nick named ‘Lackland’ because his father gave land to his older sons,
and had none left to give John. He was to inherit money instead.
3. In 1186 John’s father sent him to rule Ireland. He upset the Irish Barons (by
giggling at their long beards?). They rebelled against him and he was forced to
return to England without gaining any land.
4. John’s brother was crowned King of England, but he spent most of his reign
fighting crusades. Richard increased taxes to pay for the war. John plotted
against Richard to take his throne away. He had help from the King Philip of
France. This plot failed and when Richard returned, John did not dare fight him.
5. John finally became King in 1199, but his throne was challenged by his nephew
Arthur. In 1202 John captured Arthur and people believe that he had him
murdered or that King John murdered him with his own hands & threw his body
into the River Seine in France.
6. When he became King, John divorced his first wife and married Isabella,
however she had been promised in marriage to a French baron. The baron
complained to King Philip of France who used this as an excuse to attack John’s
land in France. Instead of leading his army in
France, John stayed at home. As a result his armies lost and by 1204 he had very
little land left in France. His lack of fighting skills gained him the new nick name:
‘Soft-sword’.
Relationship with his Barons & raising money
1. John tried to raise an army to win back his lands in France, but some of the
barons refused to help him because he made important decisions without co
insulting them.
2. This meant that John had to raise taxes and fines to pay for his army. He
increased court fines, charged rich widows £3000 to be allowed to stay
unmarried after their husbands died, increased inheritance tax and massively
increased taxes on the barons who refused to provide soldiers to help him. One
baron was he imprisoned until he paid up.
3. By 1213, he had almost half of all the coins in England stored in his castles.
John and the law courts
1. John The Judge: he worked hard as king of England. He sat as a judge in the
Royal Court. Some said he used the courts to help his friends and punish his
enemies and that he was biased.
2. John travelled around the country to check that the barons were keeping his
laws. Barons resented his interest.
3. John didn’t trust the English Barons. He took advice from foreign mercenaries
(men paid to fight for him).
John’s appearance
1. King John had a bath every 3 weeks, compared to monks who were expected to
bathe 3 times a year.
2. John was very well dressed; he had exotic coats made of sable and polar bear
fur.
Quarrels with the Pope
1. In 1205 John quarrelled with the Pope over who should be the new Archbishop
of Canterbury. It had always been the Kings right to chose the new Archbishop
& the barons agreed with him over this.
2. The Pope punished John by passing an interdict over John’s lands. This meant
all church services stopped; no marriages, christenings or burials could take
place. Many normal people were unhappy about this.
3. John took away all church property in retaliation.
4. 1209 the Pope excommunicated John so he’d go to hell when he died.
5. The Pope threatened to excommunicate all of John’s soldiers.
6. In 1213 John gave in to the Pope.
Disaster in France
1. John’s biggest problem was his empire. He wanted to regain the land that he
had lost in France.
2. In 1214, John and the Emperor of Germany agreed to attack France. He did
this without asking his barons for their advice and they refused to help him.
3. John raised an army of mercenaries and invaded Southern France. He left the
German Emperor to fight the King of France and he lost. His hopes of regaining
lost French lands were over & he had wasted all those taxes on the war.
Rebellion
1. In January 1215 the Barons forced John to sign the Magna Carta. This
demanded that he change the way that he ruled.
2. Some people believe that he never intended to keep to the terms & he
particularly hated clause 61 that said 25 barons would watch him & take action if
he broke the terms.
3. Rebel barons invited Prince Louis of France to become King of England & a civil
war began.
4. At Rochester Castle the King undermined the castle to defeat it.
5. John burnt and destroyed the land of his enemies, but gradually John’s
enemies captured more of John’s castles.
6. John finally died in 1216 of dysentery (diarrhoea) from eating too many
peaches and drinking too much beer!
Black Death
Overview
All the conditions were right for an epidemic. Doctors were powerless against
infectious disease. People were weakened by war and harvest failures. Germs, the
fleas which carried them, and the rats which carried the fleas, flourished in the dirty
towns. Busy trade routes carried the plague from one place to another.
The plague arrived at Melcombe Regis in Dorset in June 1348. It spread through the
south of England in 1348, reached Wales, Ireland and the north of England during
1349, and hit Scotland in 1350. Perhaps half the population died.
The Black Death affected the way people thought about life in many different ways.
Some lived wild, immoral lives, others fell into deep despair, whilst many chose to
accept their fate.
Causes of the Black Death
Today, we know that there were many causes of the Black Death:
Causes of the Black Death
Poor medical knowledge. Medieval doctors did not understand
disease, and had limited ability to prevent or cure it. So, when
the plague came, doctors were powerless to stop it.
Medieval doctors did not have a clue what caused it, but guessed it was the result of:
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the movements of the planets
a punishment from God
bad smells and corrupt air
enemies who had poisoned the wells
Course of the Black Death
The Plague
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The bubonic plague was a painful disease, with black buboes, or
swellings, in the groin and armpits, which lasted up to a week.
There was some chance of surviving if the buboes burst. The
amount of the population who died, often referred to as the
'mortality rate', was 50%.
A variant of the disease was pneumonic plague, which attacked
the lungs. Victims died quickly, in one or two days. The mortality
rate in this case was 90%.
Another variant was septicaemic plague, which infected the blood.
Again victims died quickly and the mortality rate was 100%.
How the plague spread
1. The plague seems to have started in China in the 1330s.
2. In 1347, armies attacking the town of Caffa in the Crimea,
catapulted plague corpses into the town. The Italian merchants
took the plague with them to Sicily in October 1347.
3. In June 1348 Black Death arrived at Melcombe Regis (in
Dorset). By the end of the year it had spread throughout the
south of England.
4. During 1349, the plague spread into Wales, Ireland and the
north of England.
5. The Scots – thinking that God was punishing the English –
invaded the north of England, where their army caught the
plague. In 1350, therefore, the plague spread through
Scotland.
6. The first plague died out in 1350.
7. The plague returned between 1361 and 1364, and five more
times before 1405. These plagues mainly killed children, who
had no resistance to the disease.
Cures
In the 1347 - 1350 outbreak, doctors were completely unable to prevent or cure the
plague. Some of the cures they tried included:
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cooked onions
ten-year-old treacle
arsenic
crushed emeralds
sitting in the sewers
sitting in a room between two enormous fires
fumigating your house with herbs
to try to stop what they believed was God punishing them for their
sin, 'flagellants' went on processions whipping themselves
in the 1361 - 1364 outbreak, doctors learned how to help the
patient recover by bursting the buboes
Consequences
Deaths
Estimates differ, but most historians believe that the Black Death killed half the
population. In some places, eg the village of West Thickley in County Durham, it killed
everybody. The death-rate was especially bad in monasteries, where the monks stayed
together and cared for each other.
Effects
Historians have suggested:
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Psychological: the Black Death had a huge influence on the way
people thought about life. Some lived wild, immoral lives, others
fell into deep despair, whilst many chose to accept their fate. Many
people were angry and bitter, and blamed the Church –
Social: poor people began to hate their poverty and their 'betters'
– some historians think this helped to destroy the feudal system.
Economic: there was a great shortage of workers, and when
Parliament passed laws to stop wages rising, poor people became
very angry – some historians think this helped to cause the
Peasants' Revolt of 1381.