Lesson video

Hello, welcome to history here at Oak National Academy.

My name's Mr. Newton, and I will be your teacher today guiding you through the entire lesson.

Right, let's get started.

In these lessons, we will focus on a specific historical environment in Norman England, and today we'll learn about structuring an answer.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to understand ways to approach the 16-mark historic environment question.

Before we begin, there are a few keywords we need to understand.

Second order concepts are ways in which questions about history are shaped.

Continuity is when something continues without changing.

Causation is why something happens.

And finally, consequence is the results or impacts of something.

So today's lesson is split into three parts.

We'll first look at the required knowledge before moving on to adding alternative arguments and finally reaching a judgement.

Okay, let's start with knowledge about the site.

Sometimes historians look at the causes of things in Norman England, such as why William won the Battle of Hastings.

Sometimes historians are interested in what changed or stayed the same, continued, after the Norman conquest or what happened as a consequence of events or actions.

We call these second order concepts.

Change, continuity, causation, and consequence.

The four Cs.

All historic environment questions will feature one second order concept, so that could be a change question or a question about continuity, causation, or consequence.

For example, religious devotion was the main reason for cathedral building in Norman England.

How far does a study of Durham Cathedral support this statement? So the clue is in the phrase the main reason for.

The main reason for shows the question's about causation.

What was the reason for means the same as what caused.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

Which of these statements is about causation? a, the main reason for castle building in Norman England was for defence.

b, Church reforms under Lanfranc had relatively little impact in Norman Wales.

c, the Normans kept more than they changed in government and law in England.

Pause the video, have a think, and come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew it was a, the main reason for castle building in Norman England was for defence.

And the clue was in that phrase the main reason for, effectively means what caused something.

Okay, let's continue.

So historians do not always agree with each other about change, continuity, causation, or consequence.

So when you get a question which says the main reason was for something, another historian might have a different point of view, and this is also true for the other second order concepts.

For example, one might argue that there was very little continuity, meaning that there was big change, while another historian might argue that in fact there was very little change.

Historians certainly do not always agree about the causes or consequences of historical events or processes, or if they do agree about them, then they may not about their importance.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

Which second order concept are these two historians arguing about.

So let's read the first argument.

"In my view, Durham Cathedral's imposing Romanesque architecture, built next to Durham Castle, served as a constant reminder of Norman authority." Okay, I wonder which one of the four Cs or which second order concept it's referring to.

Okay, let's have a look at another argument.

"The cathedral was built to house the monks from Jarrow monastery and the relics of St.

Cuthbert, transforming it into a centre of monastic life and pilgrimage." So pause the video, decide which second order concept these two historians are arguing about, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew there were arguing about causation.

Okay, so to be convincing, historians need to do more than state their arguments.

They need to use evidence to back up their claim.

And if a historian uses evidence to back up their claim, this means that they're going beyond just their mere opinion.

They're making an evidence-based argument, an evidence-based claim, and this is exactly what you must do when structuring your answers.

When you answer your historic environment question, you need to use your knowledge about your historic environment site to support your points.

So let me give you this example to help you understand what I'm talking about here.

Here is part of an answer to a question about the main reason for cathedral building in Norman England.

See if you can identify where the student has used their own knowledge to back up their claim.

Okay, so let's read the student's answer.

"Religious devotion was the most important factor for cathedral building in Norman England.

Durham Cathedral was built as a suitably awe-inspiring home for St.

Cuthbert's relics.

The innovation of rib vaulting enabled a spectacularly high ceiling, creating an intensely spiritual space, with an order of monks providing a constant daily round of prayer and religious commitment that would've inspired the congregation and pilgrim visitors." So can you see where the student has used their own knowledge? Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, so hopefully you can see the writing in black there.

If that was the only sentence in the answer, then that's just an opinion, isn't it? Without any evidence or facts to back it up, it's just a statement.

It just states, "I agree that religious devotion was the most important factor of cathedral building in Norman England." So my question would be then, so what? Where's your evidence? Where's your argument? So it's the purple writing which is the crucial part of the argument, the crucial part of the answer, where we can see the knowledge, the facts, and the details being brought to bear to support this statement that they've started with.

And in the purple writing, the answer includes the religious significance of St.

Cuthbert's relics, the outcome of the rib vaulting, and the commitment and religious devotion of Durham Cathedral's monks.

And those factual details are really showing the reader that a student knows their stuff, knows these facts, knows these details.

Okay, let's have another check for understanding.

Here is another part of a student's answer.

How many pieces of relevant evidence are used to support the answer here? So I want you to read through the answer and see how many pieces of evidence you can spot.

Will it be a, one, b, two, c, three or more, d, nothing relevant? Pause the video, have a go, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

And the correct answer was three or more.

And if we read through the answer, we can spot them.

"So the construction of cathedrals primarily represented Norman reforms to religion." To understand the point of the paragraph, so let's read where the evidence comes in.

"For example, the establishment of a monastery at Durham exemplified the Norman commitment to religious reform." So we've got a piece of evidence there of a monastery being established.

"Similarly, William of Saint Calais introduced a new cathedral chapter that strictly adhered to the rule of St.

Benedict." We've got a name there, William of Saint Calais, the fact that he introduced an new cathedral chapter, and significantly this new chapter adhered to Benedictine rules.

And if we continue with the paragraph, "Furthermore, Archbishop Lanfranc's constitutions introduced new liturgy and emphasise the separation from secular society." Again, we've got another piece of evidence, we've got another name check of Lanfranc, and further supported with the evidence of his constitutions being introduced bringing in new liturgy and emphasising a separation from secular society.

Okay, great.

Let's move on to Task A.

What I want you to do here is use your knowledge about the Durham Cathedral to add relevant detail to support these arguments.

So in the first column you can see, "The main reason for cathedral building was," and then in each of the rows, I've given you an example reason.

The first row is to impress, the the second row is religious devotion, and the third row, Church reforms. And in the second column, which is where I want you to do your work, you need to list the relevant detail to support the argument.

So what evidence do you have to back up the argument that the main reason for cathedral building was to impress? Pause the video, have a go at the task, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done for having a go at that task.

So your answers for the main reason for cathedral building was to impress, you could have written that, "Romanesque architecture included grander features, which were designed to impress and recall the power of the Roman Empire." And if you wanted to back up the argument that it was actually about religious devotion, you could have written, "The cathedral was built facing east towards Jerusalem in the shape of a cross to remember Jesus's death." And finally, the evidence you could have used to back up the argument that it was actually about Church reforms, you could have written, "The Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Durham was replaced by Walcher as part of a wider purge of Anglo-Saxon Church leadership." Okay, great.

Let's move on to the second part of the lesson, adding alternatives.

So as we've already said, historians often disagree about certain aspects of history, particularly to do with the four Cs.

They may disagree about the causes of certain events, whether there was a change, whether there's continuity, and the consequences of events or actions.

The first historian makes an argument that, "Durham Cathedral shows the Normans wanted to completely replace backward Anglo-Saxon religious buildings with innovative, modern, Romanesque buildings." So that's one argument.

However, as I read that, you're probably thinking in your own mind of an alternative argument that can be made.

Let's see the second historian's counter argument.

"Although architectural changes were important, the Anglo-Saxon king, Edward the Confessor, actually built Westminster Abbey in a Romanesque style, and Durham Cathedral contains Anglo-Saxon design elements." So let's have a look at another example of two historians making two separate arguments.

The first historian makes the argument, "Norman Church reforms rejected the practises and customs of the Anglo-Saxon Church.

For example, at Durham Cathedral the cathedral canon was replaced by a monastic order." Okay, let's see how the second historian made a counter argument or an alternative argument.

"The reforms were very significant, but there was evidence of continuity too.

Durham Cathedral, after all, was rebuilt to house the relics of St.

Cuthbert, a Celtic saint revered by the Anglo-Saxons." Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

William I was careful not to give too much power to his tenants in chief.

Select the correct counter argument.

Is the correct counter-argument, a, Edward the Confessor granted his earls significant power to help him rule England, b, the retention of Bishop Athelwine shows a willingness to work with Anglo-Saxon leadership, c, the role of the prince-bishop shows that William did grant significant power to his representatives in borderlands? Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew the correct answer was c, the role of the prince-bishop shows that William did grant significant power to his representatives in borderlands.

Okay, let's continue.

So the historic environment question puts forward one argument.

For example, the main reason for A was B.

And then you are asked how far you agree.

So your next steps should be explore the evidence to support the argument in the question.

In other words, how convincing is it? And then explore one or more other arguments.

Maybe the main reason for A was actually C or D.

So you may be thinking to yourself, "Why am I constantly looking for alternative arguments?" So the purpose of these types of questions is that a good historian will not only know their own arguments, but will also know the counter arguments that can be made.

And this shows you have a complete knowledge of all the arguments that can be made for a specific topic.

You are showing that you can fairly consider all the facts and interpretations of those facts.

So the next time you see the question like this or a statement which says, "The main reason for A was B," you should be immediately racking your brains for lots of evidence and knowledge which can back up that point, but also offer counter-arguments.

And in that way, you're building the whole picture and not just one side of the argument.

So here is a question about Durham Cathedral.

Religious devotion was the main reason for cathedral building in Norman England.

How far does a study of Durham Cathedral support this statement? Explain your answer.

So hopefully you've got your historian's hat on and you're already thinking what other reasons for cathedral building could we consider? So let's think about some possible alternatives.

So here's some possible reasons for cathedral building in Norman England.

So we know that the Normans wanted to carry out some Church reform.

These reflected the papal reforms that were taking place across Europe.

Normans also wanted to move cathedrals closer to urban centres for example.

We've also seen that there was architectural innovation.

Durham Cathedral was the first example in Europe of rib vaulting being used, and this allowed higher and wider ceilings, creating a magnificent structure for cathedrals.

And we know that cathedrals could be used to control people.

The Church was highly influential in Anglo-Saxon and Norman society.

Ordinary people went to the Church for guidance and were influenced by what the Church said.

And the clergy themselves, bishops and archbishops, were very powerful people in Norman England.

Furthermore, the fact that this cathedral building programme was also happening alongside a castle building programme shows they may have similar functions.

For example, we know that William built over 800 motte-and-bailey castles across England, and that he built Durham Castle right next to Durham Cathedral in an effort to secure the rebellious region in Northumbria, Durham being the main town.

And cathedrals were also built to impress people.

The structures were incredibly impressive, often being the biggest building that ordinary people would've seen in their lifetime with grand Romanesque features, big, thick stone walls, central towers, and huge columns recalling the power of the Roman Empire.

This would've been awe inspiring or at least intimidating to people that saw them.

They could also be seen as a display of wealth.

Being the builder of such an impressive building would give the person status as the person who built this grand structure.

And finally, many religious buildings, including cathedrals, were built because of penance.

This is a way of Normans seeking forgiveness from God for the sins that they'd committed, particularly after the Battle of Hastings, which had involved mass slaughter.

And killing is a sin, so by investing huge amounts of resources into building these cathedrals, the Normans were doing penance, seeking forgiveness from God, showing their religious devotion to God.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

How many of the missing alternatives can you recall? Pause the video, have a go, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew the correct answers were Church reform, architectural innovation, to control, to impress, as a display of wealth, and penance.

Okay, great.

Let's move on to Task B.

And here is the same question again.

Religious devotion was the main reason for cathedral building in Norman England.

How far does the study of Durham Cathedral support this statement? Explain your answer.

On the next slide, you'll see the start of a student's answer to this question.

And what I want you to do is continue the answer by adding alternatives.

So let's have a look at the start of the answer.

"Religious devotion was the main reason for cathedral building in Norman England.

For instance, Durham Cathedral was built facing east towards Jerusalem in the shape of a cross to remember Jesus's death.

Similarly, Durham's innovative rib vaulting enabled a spectacularly high ceiling.

Furthermore, the Normans committed huge resources building a grand Romanesque structure to house St.

Cuthbert's relics." Okay, so we've got part of an answer there, but there's plenty of alternatives we can add, I think.

So I want you to continue the answer using one or two of the sentence starters for one or two new paragraphs.

In other words, to help you to answer the question, I give you this sentence starter here, "Another important reason for cathedral building in Norman England was Church reform.

Durham Cathedral exemplifies." So I want you to continue that alternative answer.

And then for your second paragraph, you've got this sentence starter here.

"It was actually political control that was the main reason for cathedral building in Norman England because," and again, finish your alternative answer there on political control being the main reason for cathedral building in Norman England.

Pause the video, have a go at the task, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done for having a go at that task.

There's many ways you could have answered that question, but compare your answer with what I have here.

So for the first paragraph, I gave you the sentence starter, "Another important reason for cathedral building in Norman England was Church reform.

Durham Cathedral exemplifies the implementation of Gregorian Reforms, which sought to enforce clerical celibacy and monastic discipline.

Archbishop Lanfranc's sweeping reforms included moving cathedrals to urban areas and strengthening the Church hierarchy.

The introduction of a new cathedral chapter at Durham, adhering to a stricter Benedictine monasticism, signified a broader European trend towards ecclesiastical reform and renewal, positioning the cathedral as a symbol of this transformation." And for your second answer, you could have had, "It was actually political control that was the main reason for cathedral building in Norman England because the construction of Durham Cathedral was a political statement, asserting Norman dominance over conquered territories.

Located in a strategically important border region of Northumbria, the cathedral served as both a spiritual centre and a fortress.

The fortified nature of the complex, including the adjacent castle, underscores the militaristic aspect of Norman rule and their focus on maintaining control, reflecting a broader castle-building programme across England to secure their conquest." Okay, great.

Let's wrap up the lesson by looking at the final section, reaching a judgement.

So let's zoom out a little bit and have a look at what an overall structure of an answer might look like.

So one approach to answering a historic environment question could look like this.

Firstly, we read the question and unpack the question.

It's really a key part to answering the question, is to fully decode it, unpack it, understand exactly what's being asked of you.

In fact, it's good practise to reread the question multiple times and to underline key aspects of the question.

Part of that unpacking process is you working out what is the second order concept? Is it a causation question? Does the question say the main reason for something, or is it about change or continuity? So after you've read the question multiple times and you fully understand what's being asked of you, you can start thinking about your knowledge, your facts, your details you can bring to back up the question as arguments.

But of course, as we've discussed, a good historian will be able to see the full picture and understand that there's more than one argument for specific topics.

So in your answer, you'll want to go on to discuss an alternative argument.

And once again, you're gonna go beyond just stating simple statements or opinions, like, "I disagree with the main reason." You're also going to use knowledge to back up your arguments.

And a really good answer will have multiple alternative arguments with lots of knowledge to back up those arguments.

And finally, something which we've not discussed yet in this lesson is you're going to want to conclude your answer with a judgement.

In other words, how far do you agree with something? So again, you might be asking yourself, "Why am I being asked to structure my answer in this way?" So you should ask yourself how would a good historian come to a conclusion? How would they decide how far they agree with something, or to what extent they agree with a certain argument? How would they come to their final judgement ? Do they just use a random piece of knowledge that they like the sound of? No, of course not.

A good historian will present both sides of the argument before reaching their final judgement.

So they'll show the reader that they know the full picture, that they know all of the arguments, and the knowledge, and the detail involved with the question before making their final judgement.

And then a good judgement will use contextual knowledge, some of the arguments that have been made, to back up and support the judgement.

So in other words, not only are you making evidence-based arguments throughout your answer, you're also gonna make an evidence-based judgement on how far you agree with something.

And a really good answer will be able to make lots of little mini judgments along the way.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

What is missing from the bottom of the diagram? Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

Well done if you knew it was the judgement , how far you agree on something.

Okay, let's delve a little deeper into reaching a judgement.

So unpacking the question means identifying what judgement it is asking you to make.

Have a look at the following question.

The main change the Normans introduced to England was Church reform.

How far does the study of Durham Cathedral support this statement? Explain your answer.

You should refer to Durham Cathedral and your contextual knowledge.

So obviously that's a large and rather complex question, and we need to kind of break that down into smaller parts and unpack what it means.

So firstly, we could just look at the first sentence.

The main change the Normans introduced to England was Church reform.

And obviously the key word in that sentence, which we can highlight, is change.

And that tells us the second order concept that we're dealing with.

And again, just by focusing on the first sentence, we can already understand the argument that is being made.

The question's argument is saying that Church reform was the main change the Normans introduced to England.

So we can immediately act as the judge and start making our own judgement of whether we believe that to be the case.

Is that really the case that the main change the Normans introduced to England was Church reform? I might wholeheartedly agree with it, but I can still think of alternatives.

I might completely disagree with it or I might agree with it to a certain extent, but immediately from the top of my head just from reading that I can start thinking about some various judgments that can be made.

So have a think to yourself now how far do you agree that Church reform was the main change? And part of unpacking the question is very briefly thinking about that, perhaps jotting down a few ideas.

Things that support the statement and alternative arguments that can go against it.

And here you can immediately start weighing up a judgement based on how many ideas you can quickly jot down for one side or the other.

So let's continue unpacking the question.

We'll now move on to the next sentence, which is, "How far does the study of Durham Cathedral support this statement?" So the question starts off quite broad, looking at the change the Normans introduced to England and arguing that it was Church reform which represented the main change, but now the question is asking you to focus in, and it only wants you to refer to Durham Cathedral in your arguments.

So your judgement must be how far you agree that Church reform was the main change at Durham Cathedral.

Okay, so hopefully you can see there how a little unpacking of the question can help you to start getting a rough outline of what your judgement might look like.

So how do you actually reach a judgement , then? So consider the question's argument against what you know from your historic environment site.

Then you think about how far does what you know support the argument.

Then you would look at what is an alternative argument or arguments.

And then you can think about how far does what you know support the alternative arguments or arguments.

And so now you'll have a list of things that support the argument and a list of things that go against the argument, and hopefully you'll start to see that you have more arguments on one side than the other.

And from here, you can start to weigh up and work out what your judgement would be, and which one of those arguments is the most convincing, and how that knowledge and those arguments can be used to back up your judgement.

So you'll use your decisions about how far to make your judgement.

Okay, let's have another check for understanding.

Here is another historic environment-style question.

What is the judgement you're being asked to make? Discuss with a partner.

The Normans built religious buildings as penance for their sins.

How far does the study of Durham Cathedral support this statement? So remember all the things we've talked about with unpacking the question and use that to identify the judgement you're being asked to make here.

Pause the video, have a go, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew the judgement you're being asked to make was how far do you agree that the main reason why Normans built religious buildings was as penance for their sins? So as you can see, I've shown you one way in which you can structure your answer.

However, there is a degree of flexibility to the structure, and you don't have to wait to the end of your answer to hint towards your judgement.

In fact, you can make judgments all the way through your answer, and this is called making a sustained judgement.

So once you've unpacked your answer and you've begun writing your paragraph packed with knowledge which agrees with the question's argument, and at this point you can briefly state how far you agree with the questions argument based on what you've written so far, and then your answer will go on to have paragraphs about alternative arguments.

And at each time you introduce an alternative argument, again, you can briefly state how far you agree.

Is it a convincing alternative argument or can you see how the questions argument is still more convincing? Once again, for your second alternative argument, you can briefly state how far you agree with it or not.

Good historians will make a sustained judgement in this way.

As I mentioned before, we're not looking for opinions or simple statements when it comes to making your judgement.

You need to use your knowledge to make your judgement or judgments, and specific historic environment knowledge is best.

And that's why unpacking the question is so important so that you can identify the focus of the question, and understanding the historic environment that has been in the question, and use your knowledge from that site.

Sometimes students write general answers without referring enough to their historic environments.

These are not successful answers.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

And I got part of Aisha's answer to the following statement.

Church reform was the main reason for cathedral building in Norman England.

So we'll read her answer, and I want you to identify how far Aisha agrees with that statement.

"A major factor in cathedral building was the Norman reform of the Church.

A stricter Benedictine monasticism was at the centre of Lanfranc's reforms. The reforming bishop Saint Calais ensured that Durham Cathedral accommodated a self-contained community of monks, which meant structures to separate the monks from the laypeople such as a pulpitum, dormitory, refractory, and a cloisters." So how far does Aisha agree that Church reform was the main reason for cathedral building in Norman England? a, 100% agree, b, 50% agree, or c, 0% agree.

Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew the correct answer was 100% agree.

And we can see Aisha mentioned these reforms were coming from the centre with Archbishop Lanfranc's reforms, and introducing a stricter interpretation of Benedictine monasticism, and that the reforming bishops had been put into place like Saint Calais who had built Durham Cathedral to accommodate Benedictine monks.

Okay, let's have another check here.

And what I want you to do is add a judgement to Aisha's answer to show that she agrees that Church reform was the main reason for cathedral building in Norman England.

So you've got part of Aisha's answer already, but you now need to add a judgement at the end which explicitly states what Aisha's judgement could be.

Pause the video, have a go, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

So your answer might have included for Aisha's judgement , "This shows that reform was the main reason for Norman Cathedral building because the cathedral was designed, constructed, and run as the embodiment of a stricter adherence to Benedictine rule which was at the heart of Lanfranc's reforms." So we can see then Aisha is explicitly saying what her judgement is, that reform was the main reason for Norman cathedral building.

And then she backs that up with evidence, which was that the construction of the cathedral represented the reforms that Lanfranc was making around Benedictine monasticism.

Okay, great.

Let's move on to Task C.

What I want you to do here is complete this table about three possible reasons for cathedral building in Norman England.

Some parts of the table have been completed for you.

So you can see in the first column we've got the reasons, religious devotion, Church reform, control of the people.

And I've given you the counter arguments.

So for religious devotion, the counter argument against that could be that Romanesque architecture was designed to recall the power of the Roman Empire, not really about religious devotion or about exuding power.

And for Church reform being the main reason of cathedral building, the counter argument to that would be that Anglo-Saxons had followed the rules of Saint Benedict the centuries.

And if we go on to the last reason, cathedral building being about control of the people, the counter argument against that would be that Northumbria was dangerous and the Normans wanted to protect the church of St.

Cuthbert.

So it wasn't about controlling the people, it's about protecting the relics of St.

Cuthbert.

So pause the video, complete the table, then come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

And there's many ways you could have completed this table, but your answers could have included the following.

So the argument for religious devotion in cathedral building in Norman England, you could have said the cathedral was built on a grand scale as evidence of the Norman's strong religious faith.

And in the next row for Church reform being the main reason, you could have said that Durham Cathedral's Benedictine order was a rejection of the Anglo-Saxon secular clergy.

And finally, for the main reason of cathedral building being about the control of the people, the cathedral was built next to the castle, the bishop was a prince-bishop, and the cathedral was a symbol of Norman power.

Okay, great.

Let's move on to the second part of Task C.

And your question here is how far do you agree that Church reform was the main reason for the building of Durham Cathedral? What I want you to do is write one paragraph explaining your judgement.

Make sure your judgement is based on knowledge of the historic environment.

Pause video, have a go at the task, and then come right back.

Okay, great.

Welcome back, and well done for having a go at that task.

So there's many ways you could have answered this question, and you could have taken your judgement in different directions.

And I'm gonna show you two example judgments.

So in this first judgement , you're going to see it pretty much disagrees with the statement.

And in the next example answer I'm going to show you, it'll be a judgement which agrees with the statement.

And I think that's a really good way to tackle your judgement.

It's a lot easier to either completely agree or disagree with the statement.

Of course, you can always have an in-between judgement where you halfway agree, you agree to a certain extent, but not fully.

And certainly a lot of judgements are reached in that way.

But perhaps you might find it easier to just fall on one side or the other, agree or disagree.

So let's read this first judgement.

"Although Church reform was an important factor in cathedral building, it was not the main reason for the building of Durham Cathedral." So that blue writing is a great first sentence.

It explicitly states the direction the judgement is going to take.

We just need to see some evidence to back up how they've reached that judgement.

"It is true that reformers such as Saint Calais replaced the cannon of the cathedral chapter at Durham with Benedictine monks form Jarrow, but that was less to do with reform and more because William I was purging the Church of Anglo-Saxon leadership.

From 1068 to 1071, William had faced Anglo-Saxon rebellions in the north which Bishop Athelwine had involvement in.

William knew that the Church was influential in English society and so he built Durham Castle right next to the cathedral and replaced Athelwine as bishop to secure the cathedral and to control the north." So we can see in this answer, they've reached a judgement that it's more about control of the people rather than Church reform.

And this is a great way to do a judgement because they're actually comparing the argument for Church reform with control of the people, and they're explaining why their control of the people argument is better or superior to the Church reform argument.

So judgments which link the reasons together and explain how one is better than the other create a really good answer.

And you can see there that the contextual knowledge that's been used is specific to Durham Cathedral, which is very important when reaching your judgement.

Okay, let's read a judgement that you could have made if you were going to agree with the statement.

"Church reform was a critical reason for the building of Durham Cathedral.

While it is certainly true that William I introduced the role of prince-bishop to help regain control of the north following the rebellions of 1069 to 1070, control was achieved through castle building more than Cathedral building.

The introduction of a monastic order the cathedral and its design to accommodate monastic life, including the separation of the monks from the congregation, demonstrated that Saint Calais and Lanfranc felt that the English Church needed to reform towards a stricter adherence of the rule of Saint Benedict.

This was because they believed that the Anglo-Saxon Church had become too secular and corrupt." Okay, excellent.

Let's summarise today's lesson.

All historic environment questions will feature one second order concept: change, continuity, causation or consequence.

Different arguments can be made about change, continuity, causation, or consequence.

Historians make judgements about how far they agree with an argument on the basis of evidence.

And in writing answers to historic environment questions, using knowledge about the site is very important.

Well done on a brilliant lesson, and hopefully you can see how good historians answer historic environment questions.

I'll see you in the next lesson.