Decline of
Feudalism
Assessment
Name ________________ Page
____
Name: ____________________________________ Date: ______ Page: ____
Decline of Feudalism: Assessment
Directions: For each of the following place the correct answer on the line provided.
Growth of Towns
_____ 1.
If you were a customer who bought shoes from a cobbler, how might a
guild help you?
a. By making sure prices remained very low
b. By making sure cobblers were treated fairly
c. By making sure cobblers made good shoes
d. By making sure work conditions were good
_____ 2.
Which of the following is a reason that towns began to grow around
1,000 C.E.?
a. Guilds became weak
b. People had extra crops they could sell at the market
c. Knights became more powerful
d. Towns were clean and beautiful
_____ 3.
Which is true of most medieval towns?
a. They were quiet and peaceful, with a busy marketplace.
b. They were dirty and crowded, with a busy marketplace.
c. They were quiet and peaceful, without a central marketplace.
d. They were dirty and crowded, without a central marketplace.
_____ 4.
_____ 5.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Why did towns buy royal charters?
To keep goods at a stable price
To set up schools and universities
To gain independence from feudal lords
To avoid being overrun by the army
Which word belongs in the blank box below?
a. Serfs
b. Knights
c. Bishops
d. Merchants
Christianity in Medieval Europe
_____ 6.
Which people lived secluded religious lives, often keeping classical
scholarship alive by copying books by hand?
a. Bishops
c. Monks
b. Kings
d. Knights
_____ 7.
Consider the following actions:
Outlawing the selling of church positions
Prohibiting kings from appointing priests and bishops
Excommunicating Henry IV
What did these actions accomplish during the middle ages?
a. Improving the efficiency of the government
b. Developing a hierarchy of church officials
c. Protecting the wealth of the monarchs
d. Strengthening the power of the church/reforming church corruption
_____ 8.
What is heresy?
a. Teachings that are different than official church teachings
b. Church law
c. The courts set up to identify and punish those who go against church
teachings
d. The process of buying and selling church offices
_____ 9.
Why was the Church such an important part of medieval social life?
a. Peoples’ lives centered around it and it taught people how to live their
lives so they would make it to heaven
b. It gave people land to live on and food to eat
c. It provided jobs to the unemployed
d. It defined roles and responsibilities to make sure societies met their
basic needs
Black Death
_____ 10. Since the Black Death originated in Central Asia, which of the
following trade routes did the Black Death most likely spread along?
a. China Road
c. Silk Road
b. Roman Roads
d. Ivory Road
_____ 11. What was one activity that contributed to the spread of the bubonic
plague?
a. Living alone
c. Bathing too often
b. Eating rotten food
d. Trading with Asia
_____ 12. The Black Death was most likely carried to Europe on a trade ship.
The disease first affected ___________, and then was transferred to humans by
_________.
a. Dogs, Cats
b. Bats, Mosquitoes
c. Rats, Fleas
d. Potatoes, Flies
_____ 13. _____ Many Workers died during the plague. How did their deaths
affect those who remained?
a. They were able to demand better pay and more rights.
b. They were forced to return to a feudal economy.
c. They could no longer live in cities, so they moved to farms.
d. They were able to buy their own businesses and get rich.
_____ 14. How did the bubonic plague help weaken the feudal system?
a. A Most of the manor lords and knights died in the plague, leaving no
one to run the manors.
b. European workers became scarce enough to demand higher pay for
their labor.
c. Farmlands were poisoned with the disease, forcing people to move to
cities.
d. Most of the clergy of the Church survived, and the Church was able to
centralize its power.
Growth of Nations and the Magna Carta
_____ 15. Members of which group believed that God had given them the right
to rule?
a. Serfs
c. Knights
b. Monarchs
d. Lords
_____ 16.
What is “common law”?
a. A body of rulings made by judges that become part of a nation's legal
system.
b. The random laws created and applied by lords on their manors
c. The rules developed by guilds to police their members and insure
high quality products
d. The guidelines set by merchants that controlled trade in towns
_____ 17. How did the Magna Carta contribute to the decline of feudalism?
a. It created a set of common laws to be applied consistently throughout
England, thus weakening the nobles
b. It limited the power of English monarchs by establishing rights that
couldn’t be violated
c. It gave commoners as well as nobles a voice in government
d. It gave towns their independence from local lords
_____ 18.
Which is a reason that King John I was forced to sign the Magna Carta?
a. He lost much land to the French.
b. He argued with the pope, getting all of England placed under
an interdict by the pope
c. He charged high taxes.
d. All were reasons.
100 Years War
_____ 19. Who fought in the Hundred Years’ War?
a. England and Spain
b. England and Byzantine
Empire
c. France and Spain
d. France and England
_____ 20. What did the Hundred Years’ War show about the changing nature of
warfare in medieval Europe?
a. It showed that knights and castles growing less useful
b. It showed that the use of a professional army recruited from
commoners wouldn’t work
c. It reinforced the idea that knights leading a cavalry charge was the
best way to win a battle
d. The Hundred Years War showed nothing was changing about the
nature of battle.
_____ 21.
Crusades
What impact did the 100 Years War have on feudalism?
a. Built nationalism and loyalty to king thus decreasing feudal
lords power
b. Use of the longbow lessened the needs for knights.
c. Deaths resulted in a loss of life of peasants from the manor.
d. All of the above
_____ 22.
What is one major effect the crusades had on European Christians?
a. Many Christians converted to Islam once they were exposed to
that religion
b. The European Christians realized how advanced their society
was compared to the Muslims
c. They learned a great deal from Islamic culture through cultural
diffusion
d. Many European Christians decided that the Pope was no longer
the real leader of the Catholic Church after allowing the
crusades to occur.
_____ 23.
What was one enduring impact of the Crusades on Europe?
a. It strengthened feudalism in Europe by weakening monarchs
and knights while strengthening lords who gained land from
winnings in the Middle East
b. It weakened feudalism in Europe by increasing the power of
kings because they raised their own armies with tax money
and recovered land from dead nobles
c. It introduced feudalism to Europe to manage the land, meet
basic needs and provide protection
d. It didn’t affect Europe because they were fought in the Middle
East and Africa
_____ 24.
What happened when the Crusades ended?
a. The Muslims expelled all Christians from the Holy Land.
b. Christian traders and pilgrims maintained an exchange with
Muslims in the region even though the Muslims controlled
Jerusalem.
c. The Byzantine Empire regained power and defeated the Muslims in
Palestine.
Directions: Use the chart below to answer the following questions.
_____ 25.
land?
a.
b.
c.
d.
According to the chart, which country had the 35.3 million acres of farmable
_____ 26.
a.
b.
c.
d.
According the chart, which country had the least amount of farmable land?
Botswana
Spain
Yemen
France
Botswana
Spain
Yemen
France
Decline of Feudalism Assessment
Name _______________ Page___