Lesson video

Hello, this is Mr. Cooper tuning in for our sixth and final lesson of his inquiry about Margery Kempe.

Hope you found the lessons so far interesting, and that you've got to know Margery in the way I've got to know Margery right between making lessons for you, big fan of Margery.

And what I'd like you to do now, hide your phone, if you haven't already, piece of paper, your book, date, whatever day, whatever day you're doing this lesson on, title, which would appear on the screen in a moment, underline both and then we'll get going with the lesson and great.

So restart when you're ready and we will get going.

So this brings us to the last of our six lessons, and we're going to kind of bring everything together to talk about the mediaeval world.

Like what can we learn about the mediaeval world from the book of Margery Kempe? So title and date, underline both when you're done, restart, and we will go through this lesson immediately.

So this rather odd looking thing in front of you is a map.

Believe it or not.

It's probably like a map that you've not seen before.

It looks a bit like a dirty dish washing cloth.

It's not, it's a really, really special map.

You might've seen in other lessons I've done, I've looked at maps.

If you've done the other inquiries, I love a good map and especially mediaeval maps because they tell us a lot about how the world was seen.

So I'm going to talk you through how to work out what this map is.

It's not like a map you would have seen because it's not based on actual directions, North, South, East, West.

Obviously they didn't have satellites then.

So they had to make maps in a very different way.

So we're going to go through this map together, and I'm going to explain to you how this map is.

Just to be clear, it's called the Hereford mappa Mundi.

Mappa Mundi means map of the world.

So this is a that survived from mediaeval time and it gives, tells a lot about how the world was seen.

So, first of all, we have to get the direction right.

So this is actually the wrong way up.

So it should be, it should be the other way around.

So first of all, it's on its side.

So North is actually that direction.

And one of the really interesting things is the location of the British Isles.

They're on, they're down on the corner, on the edge of the world, squished in, down at the bottom.

So we can see hopefully the orange inside the orange circle, Scotland, Ireland here, England there and wales there.

So we see it's not based, I mean the Google maps image is based on the satellite image now, this is exactly what the British Isles look like.

And this is clearly the map on the side is a very different kind of map.

Then we have the same map here.

So again, it's on its side.

Remember, and on the, on the right hand side, what we've also, I've then got is another map based on the side, but then with the different countries, modern countries mapped out onto this map.

And what we can see is how wrong this map is actually.

Egypt is not that big.

Israel, not that big.

All these countries, they're the wrong shape and size.

And we can even see China squished up in the corner.

But if we then turn this map onto its right side, then we start to maybe have some,, it starts to look a bit more familiar.

So, the left hand side is the Mappa Mundi on its side, squished up wrong way on the right hand side, we've now turned it up.

We've turned it the right way that us be able to be able to look at the map normally.

And then we start to see things looking in almost in the right position.

So we have England, the United Kingdom and Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, squished down in the corner there in the blue circle.

And then we're going to, I've brought it back here.

So we have the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland there and then the map is now back on the right side.

So in the blue circle, we have the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and then we have the maps squished up there.

Now we're getting there.

Hopefully, this is starting to make a bit of sense.

So we've got the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and the blue circle.

And then we have the the kind of the the L, the backward shaped L, sorry, that's a really bad way of describing it.

The splodge the darkest splodge in the middle of the mappa Mundi.

That's the sea, that's the Mediterranean sea.

And again, what I've done there in the purple circle, we have Turkey, the modern day Turkey.

Oh, and so then we have a much better idea of where the map is.

And this is the most interesting thing.

Jerusalem is at the centre of the map.

So this map, this is a world map, and it places Jerusalem at the centre of the map.

The question is why? Well, at Jerusalem is this.

This is the, it's an altar in the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, strange word, interesting.

This is where Christians believed Jesus was crucified.

And so the reason that Jerusalem is at the centre of this map is because it is a religious map.

It doesn't matter.

The goal is not to give an accurate view of how the world is, what they want, what the map maker wanted to do was show that Jerusalem, the place where Jesus lived and died was the centre of the world.

And what we've looked at in the last few lessons is very much along these lines, the importance of religion.

How important pilgrimages were, how the powerful the church was, the world was in the Christian view, at least, in the world that Margery lived in, it was very much a place, this place Jerusalem at the centre of the world.

So what I'd like you to do is see if you can work out which statement is true or false.

Now this is bringing together all of the stuff that we've done in the last few lessons.

So it might be a little bit tricky, but don't worry too much, because this is just to kind of jog our memories before we, as we bring everything together.

So pause here and write down, which is true and which is false and see if you can work out what the mistake is, if it is false.

So first one, Jerusalem, the place where Christians believe Jesus lived, died and was resurrected, was seen as the centre of the known world.

This is true, absolutely true.

This is why Margery went on a pilgrimage to visit Jerusalem.

Two, pilgrims where people who traded things like wool and beeswax across Europe.

This is false.

It was traders or merchants who traded things like wool and beeswax.

Three, traders were people who travelled long distances to visit Holy places in order to have their sins forgiven.

So actually, it's the other way around pilgrims were people who travelled long distances to visit Holy places.

So we have these two different categories of people, these two different groups of people that travelled a lot, pilgrims and traders.

In the mediaeval world, women weren't allowed to travel alone and we're expected to focus on having children.

This is true.

They had to get special permission to travel alone if they wanted to and that's why Margery absolutely caused a lot of upset because she was travelling by herself all the time.

And they were expected to focus on having children.

That was their goal.

Lastly, five people were very religious, but couldn't read or write, most people sorry.

This is true.

So reading or writing, most of us can do it now.

Most people in mediaeval couldn't.

This was changing.

It was starting to increase.

But even Margery herself, she couldn't read or write.

And so she, that's why she had to tell her story to a priest who then wrote it down for her.

So make sure you've got this correct and then we will continue with the lesson.

So we've talked about her her first great pilgrimage.

This is to Jerusalem.

A huge journey right across the world.

Think about the Mappa Mundi that we started this lesson with.

This is why she went there.

Jerusalem was the centre of the world.

And in Christian and the Christian worldview, the centre of the world.

Now there's a really, I just wanted to share with you this lovely story.

We'll read this together because it's a lovely story.

So while she was travelling by herself, she had a terrible time.

And this, I think this particular part of her book gives an idea of what kind of person she was.

So this is Margery from her book explaining what happened.

So as I sat at the table with my companions, I repeated the text of the Bible and then my companion said, I had broken my promise not to talk about Jesus.

And I said, "Yes, sirs, indeed I can no longer keep this agreement with you because must I speak about my Lord Jesus Christ." We've all got a friend who will not stop talking about what they love.

It's really annoying.

And Margery is exactly the same.

She couldn't not talk about Jesus.

Even when she was on her way to visit Jerusalem with her companions, with these fellow pilgrims, they were driven mad by her.

And then I went to my room and ate alone for six weeks.

So she annoyed them so much that they wouldn't have dinner with her anymore.

So she went and sat in her room and ate alone for six weeks.

Gets worse, then my companions who told me, I couldn't sit at their table at dinner, arranged a ship for them to sail to the Holy land without telling me.

When it was time to make their beds, a priest who was in my group, took a sheet away from me and said it was his.

I promised to God that it was mine, but the priest that I was lying and shouted insults at me.

The reason I love this part of her book is you just really get the idea that she was just, she was really well meaning, a little bit annoying, and people just treated her really badly.

So these are people that are meant to be Holy, meant to be going on pilgrimage as well and yet they're not letting us sit at the table.

They're stealing her bed stuff and they're making her eat alone.

Poor Margery Kempe.

So five questions, we've done this many times before.

You're going to pause the video in a moment.

You're going to go to the next part of the lesson by clicking next to the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

You're going to read through the slides and then answer these five questions that are on the board now, and then we will, I will return to the video and I'll go through the answers with you together.

So pause the video, read the slides, answer the questions, and then when you're done, restart the video.

So your first question, just to be clear, don't worry if that the answers on the screen aren't exactly what you've written, that's fine.

And if you need to pause, just to make sure your answers are up to scratch, that's also fine as well.

So, first question, why do we know more about kings and queens than we do about ordinary people? Acceptable answer, more is written down about them.

Good answer, we know more about kings and queens because people didn't write down much about ordinary people.

The buildings that ordinary people lived in haven't survived either.

So this is why Margery's book is so special because she wasn't a King or a queen.

She was from an important family, but she wasn't, the story she tells is, tells us a lot about the lives of people who weren't in charge.

So this is why we've spent the last few lessons looking at her book.

Two, why doesn't Margery mention kings much in her book? She wasn't interested in them.

She was more interested in her visions and her travels.

Good answer, Margery doesn't mention kings much in her book because she was focused on her own story.

And the actions of kings probably didn't affect normal people that much, unless there was a war.

So now, if you read the news, you typically, you'll often hear about what's going on with the prime minister, or what the government is doing.

These bit wars being fought.

People didn't really have that.

They refer, they lived in their villages and they just got on with their lives.

They would very rarely see the king.

He might do an occasional journey, but people simply didn't, they weren't really that interested unless there was a big war that was, unless there was a big war that sort of caused a lot of destruction or damage.

Three, why did Margery upset men so much? Also women but mainly men? She was loud and didn't do what she was told.

The good answer, Margery upset men a lot, because as a woman, she was expected to stay home, stay at home and be quiet.

Instead, she travelled alone without her husband and talked about things women weren't meant to.

This is why she was accused of being a heretic, Being a lolth.

People were very suspicious of her because she wasn't doing what women were meant to do.

Four, what was traded across Europe? Acceptable answer, wool.

Good answer, across Europe, merchants bought and sold lots of different things.

English wool was in demand because it was such good quality while beeswax was bought by English merchants because it was needed for candles in churches.

So as well as people travelling around to go on pilgrimage, they also travelled around as traders, as merchants.

And of course, this is what made Margery's family so rich.

Five, why did some religious people travel abroad? Acceptable answer, pilgrimages.

Good answer, many people travelled abroad in the mediaeval world to visit Holy places where relics were kept or where saints had lived or died.

They did this because they were very religious and believed these trips would lead to their sins being forgiven.

This is why Margery went on three major pilgrimages, during her lifetime.

And it was a very common thing.

Lots of people did this.

So writing activity.

Historians, they read and they're write.

We've done the reading and we're going to do the writing.

Do not worry, this is a skill that we practise.

We get better as we go through the lessons.

We're going to ask the big inquiry question.

What can we learn about the mediaeval world from the book of Margery Kempe? Well, I've put these four things on the board.

One, so that we can kind of pick up from the book of Margery Kempe.

One, men were in charge, but some women like Margery broke the rules.

Two, the world was connected through trade and pilgrimage routes.

Three, the world was unequal with most people peasants, but some people becoming richer due to trade like Margery's family.

And four, the church was very powerful and much more important than it is today.

What I would like you to do is write down those four sentences but in order of what you think is the most important.

Now, this is your opinion.

You could argue any of these being the most important.

I have my end of view, you have your end of view.

So we've covered quite a lot in the last few lessons, put, write them down in the order of what you think is the most important when we're talking about what we've learned from the book of Margery Kempe.

When you've done that, restart the video, and then we'll go to the last part of the lesson.

So the question, what can we learn about the mediaeval world from the book of Margery Kempe? Three sentence starters on the screen, from the book of Margery Kempe, we can learn that.

What can we learn? In addition, so another point, we can learn that, what, and then the last sentence overall, the mediaeval world was what? So we've got three ways of starting a sentence.

And all I want you to do is to explain what we've learned and what that means.

So if we, for example said, we can learn that the church was very important.

How do we know that? What does that mean the church being important? What have we learned about the church and how it treated Margery? Or we could say, we can learn that women were expected to be quiet and stay at home.

How do we know that? What have we learned? Well, we know that because Margery got in trouble because she didn't do these things.

So don't spend more than five or 10 minutes doing that maximum 10 minutes.

Practise, practise, practise.

This is all about getting better as we practise.

And when you've done that, restart the video, and that will bring us to, towards the very end of the lesson.

And as always, I'd love to see your work.

If you'd like to, this is not compulsory.

If you'd like to please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

So that brings us not only to the end of this lesson, but the end of our inquiry about the mediaeval world and the world of Margery Kempe.

So I hope you found these lessons interesting, and that you will tell everybody you know about Margery Kempe.

And if I don't see you again, I hope you have a great day or whatever.

And enjoy your history lessons.

So, have a great day.