Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mr. Madeley and welcome to lesson four of four, in the enquiry, how big a threat was the Peasants' Revolt to monarchic power.

Today's lesson is going to bring together everything that we've learned so far, and to answer the enquiry question.

So, you're going to need a pen or pencil, some paper and nice quiet space in order to do your work.

If you need to find that space, or go and gathering your equipment, then please pause the video now.

Brilliant.

Let's get the title down and crack on with today's lesson.

I hope you've got the title down, but if you haven't quickly pause the video.

Brill, let's crack on with the lesson.

So what's today's lesson going to look like? We're going to start off with a recap on what is monarchic power? How does the king keep his power? Then we're going to look at a few questions.

So was the Peasants' Revolt, really a revolt that threaten the power of the king? Was it a threat to the power of the Lords? And were there other threats to monarchic power that we should consider when thinking about the enquiry question? Well, before we do all that, let's do a little recap on some of the key things we should hopefully have remembered during this four lessons.

So I'm going to disappear now.

First one, which tax sparked the Peasant's Revolts? Now, I know you know this question.

I know you know the answer.

So I'm only going to give you five seconds, four, three, two, one.

Well done.

I know you've got the answer correct, it is the poll tax.

Brilliant.

Question two, which people were executed by peasants in the Tower of London? So there might be more than one answer.

So five, four, three, two, one.

Well done.

Simon of Sudbury and Robert De Hales.

Brilliant.

So that shows the peasants of winning to execute the Lord's.

Question three.

Who was the king of England during Peasants' Revolts? An easier one now, this one, I definitely going to get it.

Five, four, three, two, one.

The answer is of course, Richard the second.

Well done, I know you got three out of three.

So let's move on.

What was monarchic power? How did the king create and maintain his power? Well, the foundation, the beginning blocks of royal power of monarchic power, was the feudal system.

And we've looked at this earlier in the unit, and we should hopefully know by now that the king is the most powerful person.

Beneath him, you have the barons who supply knights for the king's army, and they promise to be loyal to the king.

In return, the king gives them land.

Well, by the 14th century, you've got a new word being used called Lords.

And Lord could mean either barons or Knights.

So we've used the term Lords on several occasions during these last few lessons, and when we've used it, just to recap, we have meant barons and Knights.

At the bottom, you've got the peasants.

Now, the bottom rank of the peasants are called villains, and there forced to work in serfdom.

In serfdom are really important words.

Serfdom is when you are forced to work for somebody, effectively, they almost own you, they can order you about.

So the villains had to work for their Lords and their Lord could control certain parts of their life, for example, who they married.

Now, the villains have no choice in this.

They're born into serfdom, and it's only the Lord who can release them from it.

So, the feudal system because, the king is at the top, maintains the monarchic power.

So it maintains the power of the king.

And it's the basic bedrock on which royal power is founded.

The King owns all of England, to give people land, means that they're going to be loyal or it's a reward.

And if you're not, he will take that land away and give it to somebody else.

So you are, you have to be loyal to the king, if you want to have land and land means money and wealth and power and influence.

So you have the foundation of monarchic power, the beginning of it, the most important part is the feudal system.

But things change during the 13th century.

Monarchic power is now also based on the rule of Parliament and this is a source from Edward the first, and this is him sat with Parliament.

Now, parliament was made up of barons, knights, bishops and townsmen.

So, there were two Knights from each shire, two townsmen from each town and then the leading barons and bishops.

As time progressed, you started to get a divide between the common people, which is where we now get the term, the House of Commons from and the Lords who are the barons and the bishops.

Hence we have the House of Lords and this is slowly being created.

But the king, in order to rule effectively and to keep power, they have to rule with the support of Parliament.

So, they do this by asking parliament for permission to pass certain laws or statutes and that's really, really important because the parliament represents a large group of people, not really the peasants, but it represents those above them.

So it's a bigger part of society is accepting what the king is asking, so it's supporting his power.

Parliament passes and makes or reduces or increases taxes.

So what was the tax that was levied or given to the people of England and demanded that sparked the revolt, the PT? Oh, well done.

The poll tax.

Well, parliament had to accept an agree that the poll tax should be charged.

So you've got the idea of monarchic power is based on the fact that the king is the most important person in the country.

The fact that the king owns all of England and divides it and gives out this gift as rewards, offer loyalty.

And therefore, if you're a Lord, you depend on the king to ensure that you have land wealth, power and influence.

And those can be given as well as taken away.

But we also have, the Kings power is based on support from parliament, the king needs money.

The king can pass laws, but it's much easier for them to rule with the support of parliament in helping pass those laws.

So, that was the basis of monarchic power.

So just pause the video now and ever think to yourself, did this actually, what we've looked at the Peasants' Revolt, did it really challenge the power of the king.

So pause the video, oh, well done, I know you come up with some really good ideas there.

Well, this gives you a hint.

This also we've looked at before, we indeed, we looked a bit last lesson.

We'll be looking at it in a different sense now.

So was this revolt a threat to kings power? So in this picture, I can see that Richard is/is not in danger because, so we've got Richard on the horse talking to the peasants army.

So, in a moment, pause the video and just have 30 seconds to a minute just thinking about whether Richard is actually in danger here.

So pause the video now.

Well done.

I know you got some really good ideas about whether you think Richard is actually in danger, and whether this is a threat to the kings power, but just in case, let's give you a bit more help.

So, we've identified the people as we did from the previous lesson.

Well, we've got the peasants there in their armour, and you've got their leader being killed by the Mayor of London.

Yet none of them seem to be doing much about it, despite the fact they're in armour.

So does this mean that actually, Richard is in danger or not? So, have a go at answering this question and using the sentence starter if you wish to.

So pause the video now.

Fantastic.

Now remember, you don't have to have written the same thing as I have.

But I know you would have worked really hard.

This is what I put.

In this picture, I can see that Richard second is not in danger, because the peasants are not trying to attack him.

I mean, you can see that their leader is being killed.

Yet the peasants are not making any effort to try and defend him.

The image shows that Richards talking to the rebel army, whilst a leader is being killed.

None of the peasants are shown to be ready to attack Richard.

So you can also see some of them almost look like smiles on their faces.

So here you've got, in essence, no real threat to Richard.

So if there was a really effects Richard as king, was this revolt a threat to the kings power? Well, to be honest, no, this wasn't a threat to monarchic power.

The rebels made it very clear from their first meeting with Richard, that they did not see him as playing any part in their problems. All he could do was help them solve it.

So they weren't challenging him.

What they wanted was to punish his advisors.

They wanted him to be able to rule in a more effective and in a better way for his people.

They just wanted a better life.

So they weren't going to achieve that by attacking a 14 year old child who is king of England.

So they saw him as their rightful leader, and they were at no point trying to challenge his power.

But what about the Lords? Well, this was a partial threat to the Lords power.

It did make the Lords think more carefully when they dealt with the peasants in the future.

They knew that the pole tax had pushed the peasants so far, and they have been able to arm themselves, gathering to an army, capture important places, so that actually, the peasants were a threat to the Lords in their individual areas.

And this would be made even more obvious when the peasants had broken into the Tower of London and executed Simon of Sudbury and Robert De Hales.

But, if we look at the consequences of the revolt, did the Lord's power change because of the revolt? Well, no.

In essence, the Lords still maintained and still kept their control over the ordinary peasants.

Serfs you are and serfs you will be, in effect is what Richard is credited with saying.

But for this one moment in time, what this does is it threatens the Lord's power within the feudal system.

And it threatens how they get their basic wealth.

So, there is a partial threat to the Lord's power, and by threatening the Lord's power, you are threatening the kings power slightly, 'cause the king depends on his Lords for support.

So, let's do a little recap, we've done this before.

There's five sentences there.

I've given you starting letters or I've removed the vowels.

I know you're going to do this really, really quickly.

So pause the video in a moment for about three, four minutes and have a go at it.

I know your going to get five out of five, but be careful of your spellings.

Pause the video now.

Excellent, I know you've done really well and I know you spelt these words correctly.

Let's have a look at statement number one.

Monarchic power was based on the? What was it? Oh, I hear you shouting it out.

Feudal, f-e-u-d-a-l, feudal system and the support of parliament.

Remember parliament, it's a tricky word to spell.

P-a-r-l-i-a-m-e-n-t.

Well done, parliament.

Step number two.

The Peasants' Revolt did not want to challenge? Oh, it's an easy one, Richard the second power.

The peasants punish the kings? Now did we spell this one correctly? Its advisors.

A-d-v-i-s-o-r-s, advisors.

Step number four, I know you've got three out of three so far, so let's keep up this streak.

The peasants killed two leading Lords called Simon of Sud, S-u-d-b-u-r-y, and Robert De Hales, H-a-l-e-s.

Excellent, really impressed that you've got that.

What about the last one? Can you make it five out of five, get 100%.

Show that you are an unbeliever star.

The power of the Lord's was not reduced and some peasants remained in? Oh remember that really important term? Serfdom, s-e-r-f-d-o-m.

Well done, I know you've got the spellings correct and you've answered all of those, so well done.

But that's not the end of it.

Let's continue to see whether there were any other threats that the monarch might face.

So, if you have been following all of these enquiries, then you might have looked at unit 11, which looked at how kings of England struggled to rule England.

If you haven't, don't worry, because there were other threats to monarchic power.

They included the Lords, barons.

The barons wanted to say, in to all England, and they could get incredibly powerful.

And if enough of them supported the idea that they didn't the king was doing a good enough job, then they might rebel.

Now, King John and King Henry the third, both faced their barons in a civil war, that's where the king fought for the power in England against his own people.

In this case, the barons, so they there were the first and second Barons War.

So the king, a monarchic power, was based on the support from their Lords.

If they lost the support to their Lords, then they might find that their power was either reduced or challenged.

The church could also challenge a king's power and they or what could happen is that the king could be excommunicated from the church.

Now, that means they're cut off from the church.

So they can't confess their sins.

They can't go to church and pray because all of that has been cut off.

So they can't talk to God anymore.

Well, that means if they die, they're going to go to hell.

And England's a really, really religious country.

So what happens is that if you are cut off from the church, then people question whether you are a good person.

And if you're not a good person, and they support you, then the church would say that actually, they're not good people, so then they might not go to heaven.

So the church can threaten and influence people to change their minds and support for a king.

So that can change monarchic power.

Now we've seen in this series of lessons, in lesson one, the course or the Peasants' Revolt being poll tax, but why was the pole tax needed? 'Cause England was fighting the, what the HY War.

What was it again? Well done, the Hundred Years War.

A king, part of the way he based his power was by protecting his people.

And by being successful at war.

To fight wars, you needed money.

To raise money, you needed to have support amongst the Lords, you needed support amongst the ordinary people.

When you lost that, then people could rebel against you, as in, one of the reasons for the first and second Barons War, as well as the Peasants' Revolt.

So war could trigger, could cause monarchic power to be challenged.

So there were other threats around this time to the power of the king.

So really, was the Peasants' Revolt a threat to the power of the king, based on all of this? That's something you're going to have to decide and it's up to you, there's no right or wrong answer.

Now, I've decided to give you a bit of a helping hand on answering that question.

Well, on the one side, it was not a threat to reduce the power of the king.

The whole revolt was not centred around the king, the king in the peasants eyes was blameless.

So they were not challenging him.

However, if you look at monarchic power as being based on ruling and ordering and telling others what to do based on things like the feudal system, then actually, this was a threat for a very small time.

So, in both ways, the Peasants' Revolt was and was not a threat to monarchic power.

You have to decide how much of a threat it was.

Was it really a threat to them monarchic power? Ultimately, were the peasants going to be as large a threat, as let's say the Lords? That's for you to decide, and you may wish to do further research about it.

So, I glossary before we go into the comprehension questions.

Overthrown, when a king is forced to give up the throne for someone else.

This is usually done by using violence of the Civil War.

Serfdom, another word for villains and the fact that they were owned.

And ringleaders, we've used this word before, but I just wanted to make sure we definitely knew what it meant.

So ringleaders, the people who lead a group.

So let's have a go at the comprehension questions.

What happened to the ringleaders of the Peasants' Revolt? Remember, ringleaders? They're the people that led the revolt.

Did anything change as a result the Peasants' Revolts? Did the Peasants' Revolt challenge the power of the king? What are the challenges did the king face? And was the power Lords challenged with the Peasants' Revolt? And I've given you a sentence or two help you there.

Okay, now, pause the video, read the worksheet and answer the comprehension questions.

Excellent.

So let's have a look at how well you did.

I know you've got five out of five, let's check.

To the ringleaders of the Peasants' Revolt? Well, an acceptable answer is just to say they were executed, killed.

Again, so it's going to give a full sentence using key words from the question.

The ringleaders of the Peasants' Revolt were hunted down and hanged.

Did anything change the result of the Peasants' Revolt? Well, an acceptable answer would say, the poll tax was never used again.

But good answer is going to give a little bit more detail.

So I put down, and remember, you don't need to use the exact words that I have.

Very little changed as a result of the Peasants' Revolt.

However, one thing that did change was the use of the poll tax.

It had proved so unpopular that it was never used again during the Middle Ages.

Did the Peasants' Revolt challenge the power of the king? Well, a simple acceptable answer would be no.

But let's say how or why that happened.

So, the peasants had no desire to challenge the power of the king.

Richard the second was only 14 years old.

And they did not blame him for their troubles with the feudal system of the poll tax, they did think he was being advised poorly.

This meant they we're, in fact, trying to help Richard, rather than attack him.

So I know you've got the key information on that.

And well, 'cause you've worked really hard so far.

What about question four? What other challenges did the king face? Well an acceptable answer could be the Lord's, the church, failing to win wars? But good answer is going to go into a bit more detail.

So the kings of England faced many other threats.

King John and Henry the third, and well done if you use these as examples.

We're both challenged by Lords.

Both kings had their monarchic power reduced as a result of losing support from their barons.

That could be improved by adding Magna Carta for John and parliament for Henry the third.

However, it was not just their Lord support the resulted in losing some of their power.

They also face challenges due to losing wars, running out of money and from the power of the church.

So well done if you've got that, and I'm really impressed if you used the examples of King john and Henry the.

Was the power of the Lords challenged by the Peasants' Revolt? Well, an acceptable answer would be just yes.

However, we don't have a good answer.

The power the Lords was partially challenged during the revolt.

Their power was attacked by the peasants demand to end serfdom.

So again, I'm using the key word, serfdom.

And to offer good advice to the king.

This was supported by the execution of Simon Sudbury and Robert De Hales.

However, once the revolt had passed, little changed, the peasants remained peasants, and the Lords stayed controlling them.

So, in a sense, yes, it was challenged.

But was it a challenge over time? And the answer would be no.

So you've got a two sided answer in that question and in that response, so well done, if you've done that.

I'm really, really impressed.

Now, I purposefully didn't put the extension question on.

And so I'm throwing it to you now.

Was the Peasants' Revolt, a threat to monarchic power? And I've given you some sentence starters and some key words.

But I'm not just going to ask you to answer that straight away.

If you'd like to, you can pause the video and have 30 seconds, a minute, two minutes.

Just a think about what you could include.

But if you're not sure, then let's move on.

So this is what I think you could use as a plan.

I would quite happy to use this.

Now you may decide to borrow it.

So was the Peasants' Revolt, a threat to monarchic power? Well, I've given you some starting ideas, some categories.

Was a threat to the king? Yes? Was it slightly a threat, so partial threat, or no? Was it a threat to the power of the Lords? was a threat to the feudal system? Now remember, the feudal system was the foundation, the key part of monarchic power.

So, what I'd like you to do is underline a subtitle each of these headings then decide whether they were threatened and to what extent and put a point down what you think you could use as evidence to support your thoughts.

So pause the video now.

Well done.

I know that's a really challenging thing to have done.

And you've done brilliantly doing it.

So well done.

Now, I'm going to give you my answers in a moment, and you can compare them to yours.

You probably have got more down than me 'cause I know you've done unbelievably well.

But just in case you haven't, you can copy down what I have.

So, ultimately, was the Peasants' Revolt a threat to monarchic power.

So was it a threat to the king, to the kings power? Well, no.

They supported him.

If Richard had actually granted the peasants all the promises that were made to them, then it probably would have improved, built upon monarchic power, because it would have had the support of the ordinary people in England.

Also, the Peasants' Revolt wasn't really probably the main threat to monarchic power, that was from the Lords.

So was it really a threat? Well no.

Threat to the Lord's power.

Well, yeah, it was a partial one, could have reduced the power wealth of the Lords, by the fact that they can no longer demand free labour and work.

Over the long term impacts the Peasants' Revolt, did little to limit the power of the Lords.

So in that sense, no, there was a slight threat.

But over the long term, it wasn't.

And what about the foundation of the Lords power and the monarchic power? And remember, the king relies on the support of the Lords to keep his power due to Magna Carta and parliament.

Well, yes, this was a significant threat to the feudal system.

It's trying to make the peasant more equal with the Lords.

It's completely trying to change everything in England.

It's removing power from the Lords, make the king lose power.

So, the king give you lines on the Lords having power, because his power, he gives power and land to the Lords and then he gets it given back to him.

If Lords should lose power, then directly to king should lose power.

So, was is this a threat to monarchic power? You've got some ideas there.

I've given you some sentence starters.

Think carefully.

If you want to, please pause the video whilst you consider how you would answer this question based on those three points.

So, I've gone on thinking really carefully about what you'd include.

I'd like to pause the video in a moment and have a go at answering this question.

So pause the video now.

Brilliant, well done.

That's a really, really difficult question to answer.

And I know you've done absolutely brilliantly in attempting it, I know your answer is going to be really, really good.

So, remember, you've got the exit quiz to do once you finish this presentation.

If you wish to share any of your hard work then please make sure that you ask your parents carer or guardian to do so, and follow the guidance on this slide.

Brilliant.

It's been an absolute pleasure teaching this unit and I hope that you enjoy any other Oak units that you do.