Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping, and I am really looking forward to learning with you today all about the Anglo-Saxons.

And we're going to explore the question, how do we know about life in Anglo-Saxon England? So shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to describe one of the written sources from the Anglo-Saxon period and what historians have inferred from them.

Before we start, I would like to introduce you to some keywords.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write these words down.

The key words we'll be using today are law, compensation, hierarchy, widow.

I'm gonna say those again and I'd like you to repeat them after me.

Law, compensation, hierarchy, widows.

Good job.

Now, let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean.

Here are the definitions for each of our keywords.

A law is a rule that tells people what they can and cannot do.

Compensation is something given to make up for loss or harm.

Hierarchy is a system where people are ranked according to their importance or status.

Widows are women whose husbands have passed away.

Pause the video here to make a note of the keywords.

And when you are ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles that we'll be working through together in today's lesson: Anglo-Saxon Law, social hierarchy and compensation, women and property rights.

In the first learning cycle, we will explore Anglo-Saxon law.

There are not many written sources from Anglo-Saxon Britain.

However, one of the few written sources that survived are examples of law codes.

These codes were long lists of rules that everyone in the kingdom had to follow, similar to the rules we have today in school or at home.

These rules talked about lots of things that happened in Anglo-Saxons' lives, from what should happen if someone got hurt, to what should happen if someone broke something belonging to someone else.

Here is an image of one of the first examples of a law code.

I wonder what rules historians found written inside the document.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

There are no written sources from Anglo-Saxon Britain.

Is that true or false? What do you think? There are no written sources from Anglo-Saxon Britain.

If you said that that is false, you're absolutely right.

Now taking a look at these two statements, which of these would help to justify your answer? There are some, including law codes.

There are lots, including stories, laws, and newspapers.

Hmm.

What do you think? Have a discussion with your partner.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said there are some, including law codes, you are absolutely right.

Good job.

Now, one of the first examples of this is the Law of Aethelbert, which was written by King Aethelbert of Kent around the early 600 CE.

Some examples of the laws in this document include if someone broke someone else's fence, they would have to pay them money to help them pay for the repairs.

If someone accidentally or deliberately hurt another person, they had to pay them some money to say sorry.

This act of paying someone for the damage caused is called compensation.

There were lots and lots of these laws in the Law of Aethelbert, but about injuries to specific body parts, each body part with a different price attached.

The large number of these compensation laws suggests that life in Anglo-Saxon Britain could be quite violent.

Let's take a moment to pause here.

Who wrote the first law codes in Anglo-Saxon Britain? Offa of Mercia.

? Aethelbert of Kent? Aethelwulf of Wessex? Sigeberht of Essex? Hmm.

What do you think? Pause the video here, and when you're ready to hear the answer, press play.

What did you think? If you said Aethelbert of Kent, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

This brings us to our first learning task.

Can you complete the sentence using but or so? Life in Anglo-Saxon Britain could be violent.

So take a moment, pause the video, give yourself enough time, complete this sentence using but or so and restart the video when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at an example? So your answers could include, life in Anglo-Saxon Britain could be violent, but there were laws introduced to try to stop this.

Life in Anglo-Saxon Britain could be violent, so Aethelbert of Kent introduced laws to help stop this.

Well done for completing that learning task.

We're now ready to move on to the second part of this lesson.

We're gonna explore social hierarchy and compensation.

The Anglo-Saxon law codes were different in each of the different kingdoms. However, many of the codes have shown historians that society was organised in a certain way with some people considered more important than others.

This is called a social hierarchy.

Take a look at that illustration of some of the higher members of the hierarchy in Anglo-Saxon Britain.

Can you spot a king or the earls or the thegns? What clues indicate who is who? Is it the clothes that they wear or maybe their jewellery or weapons? Hmm.

I wonder.

In the Anglo-Saxon hierarchy, the king was at the top of society, followed by earls.

Earls looked after large areas of the land for the king.

Next came the thegns, soldiers who took care of towns and villages, and then the freemen, peasants and farmers who worked on the thegn's land.

Finally, at the bottom of the hierarchy were the enslaved people who had no rights and sadly were seen as the property of other Anglo-Saxons.

Around 10% of the people in Anglo-Saxon Britain were enslaved.

They were often people who were captured after battles and made to work on farmland or in the homes of the people who owned them.

People also became enslaved as punishment or for compensation.

The law codes explain this hierarchy through the different types of compensation that people were ordered to pay.

How much they pay depended on who the victim of the crime was.

For instance, if someone hurt or harmed a person who was seen as high up in the hierarchy like an earl or a thegn, they had to pay a lot in compensation.

But if someone hurt someone who was lower down in the hierarchy, like an enslaved person, they did not have to pay as much.

If someone stole something from the king, they had to give back a lot more than what they took.

So have a look there at the diagram that shows the hierarchy in Anglo-Saxon society.

So you have the king at the top who ruled the kingdom, the earls who looked after the land for the king, the thegns, the soldiers who looked after villages, freemen, who were the peasants that worked on the thegn's land, and at the bottom, the enslaved people who had no rights and were property of others.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

What is a hierarchy? A system where people are ranked according to their importance or status? A system that the Anglo-Saxons used to write down their different laws? A system that the Anglo-Saxons used to find out who committed a crime? Hmm.

What do you think? Pause the video here.

Have a discussion with your partner.

What is a hierarchy? And press play when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? What did you think? If you said a system where people are ranked according to their importance or status, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

Now let's do another quick check.

Crimes against Anglo-Saxon enslaved people received less compensation than crimes against those higher in the hierarchy.

Is that true or false? Hmm.

True or false? If you said that that's true, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

Now, which of these two statements would help you justify your answer? People had to pay more compensation if the victim was higher than an enslaved person in the hierarchy.

No one paid any compensation for any crimes according to the Anglo-Saxon hierarchy.

What do you think there? Have a discussion with your partner.

Pause the video here and restart when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that people had to pay more compensation if the victim was higher than an enslaved person in the hierarchy, you are correct.

Well done.

This brings us to our second learning task.

Can you order the members of the Anglo-Saxon hierarchy from the highest in the hierarchy to the lowest? So you can see there's a line there.

You could draw that on a piece of paper.

We've got highest at the top, lowest at the bottom.

Can you then put each of these members of the Anglo-Saxon hierarchy on that line? So we have earls, king, enslaved people, freemen, thegns.

So pause the video here, give yourself enough time to complete this task, and when you're ready to continue, press play.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at an example? So here's the order.

We've got the king at the top, and then the earls, and then the thegns, then the freemen, and then the enslaved people.

Well done if you got that correct, and well done for completing that learning task.

This brings us onto third parts of our lesson.

We are going to explore women and property rights.

By looking at who is mentioned in law codes and how the law affected them, historians have been able to make inferences.

Inferences are conclusions based on evidence about Anglo-Saxon society.

Despite it being a mostly male-led society, women had certain rights and protections under Anglo-Saxon law, particularly regarding homes and what happened to them after their husbands died.

When an Anglo-Saxon man died, their widow would often inherit, receive, after they died their home.

However, this was only the case if there was no other male living relatives.

This tells historians that women could own land and property in Anglo-Saxon society even though they were not seen as equal to men.

Another difference between men and women in the Anglo-Saxon law codes was that women either received none or very little compensation if a crime was committed against them.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Anglo-Saxon women could own property.

Is that true or false? Hmm.

What do you think? If you said that's true, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

Now let's take a look at these two statements.

Which of these helps to justify your answer? Historians have made inferences from markings that were made on Anglo-Saxon houses.

Historians have made inferences from what is written in Anglo-Saxon law codes.

What do you think? Well, have a quick discussion with your partner.

Which of these two statements helps to justify your answer? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? If you said historians have made inferences from what is written in Anglo-Saxon law codes, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

This brings us to our final learning task.

I'd like you to list three things that the historians have been able to infer because of the Anglo-Saxon law codes.

Now remember, to infer something means to make conclusions based on evidence and reasoning.

So you can use these words to help you: hierarchy, compensation, violent, injuries, women, widows, property.

So there's lots of words there that can be used to help you.

And you can also use this sentence starter: Anglo-Saxon Law codes suggest that.

So what have the Anglo-Saxon law codes suggested to the historians? What have they been able to infer? Make sure you've got yourself a pen and some paper and give yourself enough time to write out three things that historians have been able to infer because of the Anglo-Saxon law codes.

Pause the video here, and when you're ready to continue, press play.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at an example? So three things you could have listed.

Anglo-Saxon law codes suggest that there was a social hierarchy as the amount of compensation people had to pay was different depending on how important the person was thought to be.

Anglo-Saxon law codes suggest that life in Britain was probably quite violent because they contain information about lots of injuries.

Anglo-Saxon law codes suggest that women could own property as widows could inherit their home if their husband died.

Well done for completing that learning task.

Now, before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about Anglo-Saxon law codes.

Anglo-Saxon law codes are one of the few written sources we have from the era, and they can tell us lots about the people who lived in Britain at that time.

Society was probably quite violent as there were lots of laws about different injuries.

People would have to pay different amounts of compensation to others based on their position in the hierarchy of society.

Law codes tell us that women could own property, but we're still unequal to men.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson today.

I hope to see you in the next one.

See you then.