Knots graphic kindly provided by http://retrokat.com/medieval

Revision Topics

 

 This will not be a very demanding test because we have not been studying the medieval period for long enough to justify really searching questions. To prepare for it, however, you could do the following:

 

ü      Reread William Langland’s poem about the working peasant on the blog. This is the basis of a document question.

ü      Make sure you know as much as possible about the lives of medieval peasants, including the hardships of their lives, the demands made upon them by their feudal lord and the variations in status even within the peasant class: eg. villein or serf, free peasant, cottar (skilled peasant)

ü      1 Ensure that you have looked through the “Ages of English Timeline” at the BBC website, so that you can describe the early influences on the English language, e.g., the Anglo-Saxons (building blocks), the Latin of the Christian missionaries, the Vikings and the influence of Norman French.

ü      2Revise the details of how William the Conqueror subjugated the English people after winning the Battle of Hastings

ü      3 Try to recall all that you learned on our excursion about education and writing in the medieval world: e.g., who did the writing? Why were books so expensive? What language was used by educated people to write most books? Who was educated and who wasn’t?  What were books written on? What form of writing was used and what did the illustrations show? Why were there no libraries?

 The last 3 ticks above (numbered 1-3) require only one long answer, so it would be better for you to revise one topic of the three thoroughly and skim the others.