Challenging Authority & Feudalism Flashcards
All 37 cards in this deck
What is scutage?
A payment barons made to the king instead of providing military service. King John charged it heavily, causing resentment.
Give one reason the barons were dissatisfied with King John's rule.
He lost important lands in France (e.g. Normandy, 1204).
Why did King John fall out with the Pope?
He refused to accept Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury, so the Pope excommunicated him and placed England under an Interdict.
When and where did King John seal Magna Carta?
June 1215, at Runnymede.
Give one key term of Magna Carta.
No free man could be imprisoned or punished except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land.
True or false? Magna Carta brought lasting peace between King John and the barons straight away.
False. John persuaded the Pope to annul it within months and civil war broke out.
Who was Simon de Montfort?
The Earl of Leicester who led the barons against Henry III and called the Parliament of 1265.
Give one reason the barons were angry with Henry III.
He demanded heavy taxes to pay for the costly Sicilian Business, his scheme to make his son king of Sicily.
What were the Provisions of Oxford (1258)?
Terms forced on Henry III setting up a council of 15 barons to advise the king, with Parliament meeting three times a year.
What was significant about the Parliament of 1265?
It was the first parliament to include elected burgesses from the towns as well as knights from the shires.
True or false? Simon de Montfort used only peaceful means to make Henry III keep to the Provisions of Oxford.
False. When Henry III went back on the Provisions, de Montfort led the barons in war and defeated and captured him at the Battle of Lewes in 1264.
How did Simon de Montfort's rebellion end?
He was defeated and killed by Prince Edward at the Battle of Evesham in 1265.
Give one economic cause of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.
The Poll Tax: in 1380 everyone over 15 had to pay three groats (a shilling), three times the one groat charged in 1377.
What was the Statute of Labourers (1351)?
A law holding wages down to pre-Black Death levels and stopping peasants moving to find better pay.
Who was John Ball and what did he preach?
A priest whose preaching inspired the rebels, attacking landowners and rich priests: 'When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then a gentleman?'
Name two violent actions by rebels during the Peasants' Revolt.
They attacked the poll tax collector John Bampton, and in London killed the Archbishop of Canterbury (Simon Sudbury) and foreign merchants.
True or false? Richard II kept the promises he made to the rebels in 1381.
False. After Wat Tyler was killed at Smithfield the rebels went home; Richard withdrew his promises and rebel leaders, including John Ball, were executed.
Give one long-term impact of the Peasants' Revolt.
Over the following century villeinage died out across most of England, as lords increasingly had to pay peasants wages and could no longer tie them to the land.
True or false? Magna Carta was reissued after King John's death.
True. It was reissued under Henry III (1216, 1217 and 1225) and became part of English law.
Give one similarity between the barons' revolt against King John (1215) and the Peasants' Revolt (1381).
Both were caused in part by heavy taxation — scutage and taxes under John, the poll tax in 1381.
True or false? Both the barons who opposed King John and the rebels of 1381 came from the nobility.
False. The barons were wealthy nobles, but the 1381 rebels were ordinary people — peasants, craftsmen and labourers led by Wat Tyler and the priest John Ball.
What did Magna Carta (1215) say about scutage and other taxes?
Clause 12 said scutage or an 'aid' could not be raised without the general consent of the kingdom, so the king could no longer simply demand money from his barons.
How did Magna Carta try to make King John keep its terms?
Clause 61 set up a council of 25 barons who could take action against the king if he broke the charter.
What happened at the Battle of Bouvines (1214), and why did it matter for King John?
John's allies were beaten by the French, ending his hopes of winning back Normandy; the barons refused the next scutage demand and began to plan resistance.
Who did the rebel barons invite to be king of England after Magna Carta broke down?
Prince Louis, heir to the French throne. He landed with an army in May 1216, but after John died that October support swung to John's young son, Henry III, and Louis gave up and went home in 1217.
Give one long-term impact of Magna Carta.
It set out the idea that the king was under the law; later challengers, such as John Lilburne in the 1640s and the American colonists, appealed to it to defend their rights.
Why did Henry III's foreign advisers anger the barons?
Henry relied on French relatives, such as his Lusignan half-brothers, who gained power and wealth while English barons felt shut out; the barons wanted these 'aliens' removed.
Give one personal grievance Simon de Montfort had against Henry III.
Henry put him on trial in 1252 over his rule as governor of Gascony, and never paid the dowry owed from Simon's marriage to the king's sister Eleanor.
Why did Simon de Montfort invite knights and burgesses to his Parliament of 1265?
Many barons had turned against him, so he looked to the gentry and the towns for support, and for their agreement to taxes.
What happened to the limits on royal power after Simon de Montfort was killed at Evesham in 1265?
They collapsed in the short term: Henry III was restored to full power, the barons' controls over him ended, and the rebels were punished.
Give one long-term impact of the Parliament of 1265.
It set a precedent: later kings, needing money, summoned knights and burgesses to agree to taxes, as Edward I did in his 'Model Parliament' of 1295.
How did the Black Death (1348–49) help cause the Peasants' Revolt?
It killed up to half the population, so labour was scarce and peasants could demand higher wages or lower rents; attempts by landlords and Parliament to hold them back caused resentment.
Where and how did the Peasants' Revolt begin?
At Brentwood, Essex, in May 1381, when villagers refused to pay more poll tax and drove off the tax collector John Bampton.
Who was Wat Tyler?
Leader of the Kent rebels in 1381. He was killed at Smithfield on 15 June 1381 while meeting Richard II, struck down by the Lord Mayor of London.
What did the rebels demand from Richard II at Mile End in June 1381?
An end to serfdom (villeinage), a pardon for the rebels and the handing over of the king's 'evil' advisers.
Give one political cause of the Peasants' Revolt.
The king, Richard II, was only a boy (14 in 1381), and power lay with unpopular advisers such as his uncle John of Gaunt, blamed for costly, failing wars with France.
Which building in London did the rebels burn in 1381?
John of Gaunt's Savoy Palace; Gaunt was Richard II's uncle and the most hated of his advisers.