Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mr. Marcher and thank you for joining me for today's history lesson.

My job today is to help guide you through our history resources in the lesson, and I'm gonna be working to make sure that by the end of our time together you can securely meet our lesson objective.

Welcome to today's history lesson where we are gonna be working on describing the lives and roles of local elites in mediaeval Norwich.

This lesson is part of our local history unit where we are using Norwich as a case study to help us think about the differences and some of the similarities between the lives of different groups of people in mediaeval society.

Like with all the lessons which make up part of this local history unit, it's really important that we keep in mind our content is based on a case study.

That means whilst we are looking at examples in a lot of detail to help understand the lines of elites, we must remember that it can only tell us so much about life all around England at the time.

There may be some things that were similar and other things that were different about elite life in Norwich compared to other places in the country.

There are five key words which are gonna help us navigate our way through today's lesson.

Those are charter, mayor, freeman elite, and status.

A charter is a royal document which granted certain rights.

A mayor is the person elected to govern a city.

A freeman is a person with special rights in a city.

An elite is the richest or most powerful group in a society.

And the amount of respect or importance a person has is part of their status.

So today's lesson is gonna be split into three parts, and we are gonna begin by discussing government in mediaeval Norwich.

In 1404, Norwich received a new charter from King Henry IV.

The charter increased the amount of control that the people of Norwich had over the government in their own city.

The new charter created new positions of leadership in Norwich.

From now on, the city was to be led by a mayor.

According to the charter, the mayor was to be elected by the freemen of Norwich.

This was different for most other parts of England at the time where key officials were usually appointed by the king.

This allowed people in Norwich to have much more influence over how their city was run.

So let's just check our understanding of that initial information we've heard about government in mediaeval Norwich.

I want you to write the missing year in the following sentence.

Norwich received a new city charter from King Henry IV in? So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to hear the correct year.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the missing answer was 1404.

That was the year that King Henry IV presented Norwich with a charter giving the city more control over its own government.

So let's try a second question.

We have a statement that says, the people responsible for running Norwich after 1404 would chosen by the king.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well then to everybody who said that that statement was false, the people who ran Norwich after 1404 were not chosen by the king, but we want to be able to justify our answers.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says, mayors were elected by the freemen of Norwich.

And the second says, mayors from a single local family ruled Norwich.

Which one of those two statements is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well then to everybody who said that statement A was the correct justification.

We know that the people responsible for running Norwich after 1404 were not chosen by the king because the new charter of 1404 gave the city a mayor who was to be elected by the freemen of Norwich themselves.

So now we are ready to put all of our new knowledge about how mediaeval Norwich was governed into practise.

We have a statement on the screen that says, "Mediaeval Norwich had control over its own government." Based on what we've learned about government in mediaeval Norwich so far, is this statement accurate? And I want you to explain your answer.

You may wanna use the following sentence starters to help you.

So you might write the statement is/ is not accurate.

And I can tell this because.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done for all of your hard work on that task.

So I showed you the statement that said, "Mediaeval Norwich had control over its own government." And I asked if that statement was accurate.

Your answer may have included, the statement is accurate.

I can tell this because in 1404, Norwich was given a new charter by King Henry IV, which allowed freemen in Norwich to elect their own mayors to run the city.

That shows that people from Norwich were in control of the government of Norwich's.

So really well done if your answer looks something like the model we've just seen.

And now we are ready to move on to the second part of our lesson for today where we are gonna discuss the elite of mediaeval Norwich.

In mediaeval Norwich the government was under the control of a local elite.

This was because only freemen were allowed to stand and vote in elections to pick the city's mayor.

Most people in mediaeval Norwich were not freemen.

Women were rarely allowed to have this status, and many men did not earn enough money to be able to become a freeman.

As a result, most people didn't get any say in Norwich's elections.

The Norwich elite was mainly made up of wealthy merchants.

These men had mostly grown rich trading textiles.

Merchants had more and more influence in Norwich, for example, the second and third mayors of Norwich were both merchants.

Robert Toppes, who was one of the richest textile merchants became mayor on four separate occasions between 1435 and 1458.

Another very wealthy merchant, Ralph Segrym also became mayor of Norwich in 1451.

Segrym used some of his own money to help improve the city.

He paid for improvements to the jails to separate male and female prisoners, and he even left 200 pounds, worth roughly 125,000 pounds in today's money, to repair Norwich's mediaeval walls.

On the screen, you can see a brass image of Ralph Segrym and his wife, Agnes.

The existence of this image can tell us a lot as historians.

The fact that it could be created in the first place and it's been preserved for so long that we still have it with us today, gives yet another indication of just how wealthy and powerful some merchants such as Ralph Segrym could become.

So let's check our understanding of what we've heard so far about the elite in mediaeval Norwich.

I want you to write the missing word in the following sentence.

To vote in Norwich's elections, you had to be a blank.

So pause the video here, write the missing word, and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said to vote in Norwich's elections, he had to be a freeman.

Remember the freemen were people with special rights in the city, and that included the right to vote.

If you weren't a freeman, you didn't have that right in mediaeval Norwich.

And let's try another question to make sure our understanding is solid.

We have a statement that says, few poor people in Norwich were able to vote in elections to pick the city's mayor.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement is true, there were not many poor people in Norwich who had the right to vote in elections for the city's mayor, but we wanna be able to justify our answer.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says, becoming a freeman required more education than most poor people had.

The second justification says, becoming a freeman required more money than most poor people had.

Which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that statement B was the correct one.

The reason why few poor people had the right to vote in elections in mediaeval Norwich was because they did not have enough money to become a freeman, and that meant they couldn't achieve the status which would've given them the right to vote.

So well done if you got that correct 'cause there's a lot to think about.

And let's try one more question.

Apart from being mayor, what of a job did Robert Toppes have? Was he a farmer, merchant, or a priest? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was B, Robert Toppes was one of the richest and most successful merchants in mediaeval Norwich.

In fact, in the 15th century, he was elected mayor four times.

So the experience of Robert Toppes gives us a pretty good idea of just how important merchants were in making up the mediaeval cities elite.

So let's put our knowledge about the elite into practise now.

I want you to complete the passage, which you can see by adding in the missing words.

The missing words are shown just underneath our paragraph, and they are freemen, mayors, merchants, and women.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check that you've filled in the gaps correctly.

Okay, well done to everybody for your hard work on that task.

So I asked you to complete the passage by adding in the missing words.

Your answer should have looked like this.

The Norwich elite was mainly made up of wealthy merchants.

Only freemen could vote in elections, which stopped most women and poor people from having a say in local government.

Both the second and third mayors of Norwich had worked as merchants before running the city.

So really well done if you got all of those correct.

And now we're ready to move on to the third and final part of our lesson for today where we are gonna think about elites and status.

Wealthy merchants in mediaeval Norwich often tried to use their money to demonstrate and show off their elite status.

We configured this a little bit like showing off.

The elite celebrated, or you could even say showed off, the charter, which they received from King Henry IV in 1404 by creating a new building to run local government from.

This building became known as the Guildhall.

The building cost over 100 pounds to construct, worth more than 63,000 pounds in today's money, and was the largest city hall built anywhere in mediaeval England outside of London.

This helped to show off the power and wealth of Norwich and its leading elite.

If we think about the design of the Guildhall, which you can see in the photographs on our slide deck, you also get an impression of how the elite was showing off.

Especially looking at the image on the right, thinking about the intricate checkerboard designs and statutes, which were included in the architecture of the Guildhall.

In 1458, Margaret Wetherby, who was the wife of an important freeman who had recently died, donated a large amount of money to help build a new library in Norwich.

However, Margaret did this on a certain condition.

She said that her name and that of her husband had to be written on every bookcase and every window in the library.

This ensured that her wealth and her generosity would be remembered even after Margaret had died.

It shows us once again how the elites used their money to work towards demonstrating their status, making it clear that they were important and encouraging others to respect them for it.

So let's check our understanding of elites and status in mediaeval Norwich.

Which of the following statements about Norwich Guildhall is true? That it was the biggest city hall outside of London.

That it was the smallest city hall outside of London.

Or that it was the only city hall outside of London.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was A, Norwich Guildhall was the biggest city hall outside of London in mediaeval England, and this helped show off or demonstrate the status of the elite and Norwich as a city.

Let's try another question.

How did Margaret Wetherby try to demonstrate her high social status? Was it by becoming Mayor of Norwich? By building a large house, by funding a new library, or by writing a detailed book of her life? Pause the video here and press play when you are ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said statement C was correct, Margaret Wetherby tried to demonstrate her high social status by funding a new library.

As well as giving the money over, she demanded that any new bookcases and windows that were created had to carry her name and that of a husband so that they would be remembered.

So now we're in a good position to put all of our understanding about the elites and status of mediaeval Norwich into practise.

I want you to answer the following question.

Describe one way in which Norwich's elite showed off their high status.

So pause the video here and press play when you are ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, really well done for all of your hard work and effort on that task.

So I asked you to describe one way in which Norwich's elite showed off their high status.

Your answer may have included that one way Norwich's Elite demonstrated their high status was by constructing impressive new buildings.

For example, Norwich's Elite paid more than 100 pounds to build the Guildhall after 1404.

The Guildhall showed off the elite's high status as it was the largest city hall in mediaeval England outside of London.

Do note that this model answer includes some really specific detail to back up the point that constructing new buildings was a way of showing off elite status.

Your answer should have had something similar with clear specific details about what the elite were doing in mediaeval Norwich.

So really well done if your answer looks something like that model we've just discussed.

And so now we've reached the end of today's lesson, which puts us in a good position to summarise all of our learning.

So we've seen today that Norwich was able to elect its own mayor to run the city after 1404.

An elite of wealthy merchants held most of the power in Norwich.

Elites in Norwich tried to show off their high status, and elites often funded new buildings like the Guildhall or made donations to show off their status.

So really well done for all of your hard work in today's lesson.

It's been a pleasure to help guide you through it, and I really look forward to you joining me again in future as we think further about what mediaeval lives were like in Norwich.