Hi, are you taking the Life in the UK Test?
This video is the third in a series of videos by me
showing you how to prepare for and pass the test.
It contains all the knowledge and facts you need to know
to pass the test first time.
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Okay, so in this video
we're going to cover The Middles Ages
which is part of Chapter Four
of the official government guide to the Life in the UK Test.
I'm going to deal with the points people struggle with,
so stick around to the end of this video.
I'm going to cover the example questions
from the Life in the UK Test on this topic
including some of the more tricky ones.
Before we get to the example questions,
let's go over together
the relevant section of the official guide.
This sets out what the UK government expects you to know
about The Middle Ages for the test.
The Middle Ages.
War at home and abroad.
The period after the Norman Conquest up 'til about 1485
is called The Middle Ages or the Medieval Period.
It was a time of almost constant war.
The English kings fought with the Welsh,
Scottish, and Irish noblemen for control of their lands.
In Wales, the English were able to establish their rule.
In 1284,
King Edward I of England
introduced the Statute of Rhuddlan
which annexed Wales to the Crown of England.
Huge castles, including Conwy and Caernarfon
were built to maintain this power.
By the middle of the 15th Century
the last Welsh rebellions had been defeated.
English laws and the English language were introduced.
In Scotland, the English kings were less successful.
In 1314, the Scottish, led by Robert the Bruce,
defeated the English at the Battle of Bannockburn
and Scotland remained unconquered by the English.
At the beginning of the Middle Ages,
Ireland was an independent country.
The English first went to Ireland as troops
to help the Irish king
and remained to build their own settlement.
By 1200, the English ruled in the area of Ireland
know as The Pale, around Dublin.
Some of the important lords in other parts of Ireland
accepted the authority of the English king.
During the Middle Ages,
the English kings also fought a number of wars abroad.
Many knights took part in the Crusades
in which European Christians
fought for control of the Holy Land.
English kings also fought a long war with France
called the Hundred Years' War,
even though it actually lasted 116 years.
One of the most famous battles of the Hundred Years' War
was the Battle of Agincourt in 1415
where King Henry V's vastly outnumbered English army
defeated the French.
The English left France in the 1450s.
The Black Death.
The Normans used a system of land ownership
known as feudalism.
The king gave lands to his lords in return for help in war.
Landowners had to send certain numbers of men
to serve in the army.
Some peasants had their own land,
but most were serfs.
They had a small area of their lord's land
where they could now grow food.
In return, they had to work for their lord
and could not move away.
The same system developed in southern Scotland.
In the north of Scotland and Ireland,
land was owned by members of the clans
who were prominent families.
In 1348, a disease probably a form of plague
came to Britain.
This was known as the Black Death.
1/3 of the population of England died
and a similar proportion in Scotland and Wales.
This was one of the worst disasters ever to strike Britain.
Following the Black Death,
the smaller population meant there was less need
to grow cereal crops.
There were labor shortages
and peasants began to demand higher wages.
New social classes appeared,
including owners of large areas of land
later called gentry.
And people left the countryside to live in the towns.
In the towns, growing wealth lead to the development
of a strong middle class.
In Ireland, the Black Death killed many in The Pale
and for a time the area
controlled by the English became smaller.
Legal and political changes.
In the Middle Ages,
parliaments began to develop
into the institution it is today.
Its origins can be traced to the king's council of advisors
which included important noblemen
and the leaders of the church.
There were few formal limits to the king's power until 1215.
In that year, King John was forced by his noblemen
to agree to a number of demands.
The result was a charter of rights
called The Magna Carta,
which means the great charter.
The Magna Carta established the idea
that even the king was subject to the law.
It protected the rights of the nobility
and restricted the king's power
to collect taxes or to make or change laws.
In future, the king would need to involve
his noblemen in decisions.
In England, parliaments were called
for the king to consult his nobles,
particularly when the king needed to raise money.
The numbers attending parliament increased
and two separate parts known as houses were established.
The nobility, great land owners, and bishops
sat in the House of Lords.
Knights who were usually smaller land owners
and wealthy people from towns and cities
were elected to sit in the House of Commons.
Only a small part of the population
was able to join in electing the members of the commons.
This was also a time of development in the legal system.
The principle that judges are independent of the government
began to be established.
In England, judges developed common law
by a process of precedents,
that is following previous decisions and tradition.
In Scotland, the legal system developed slightly differently
and laws were codified, that is written down.
A distinct identity.
The Middle Ages saw the development
of a national culture and identity.
After the Norman Conquest, the king and his noblemen
had spoken Norman French
and the peasants had continued to speak Anglo-Saxon.
Gradually these two languages combined
to become one English language.
Some words in modern English for example,
park and beauty
are based on Norman French words.
Others, for example apple, cow, and summer
are based on Anglo-Saxon words.
In modern English,
there are often two words with very similar meanings,
one from the French and one from Anglo-Saxon.
Demand
French
and ask
Anglo-Saxon, are examples.
By 1400, in England official documents
were being written in English
and English had become the preferred language
of the royal court and parliament.
In the years leading up to 1400,
Geoffrey Chaucer wrote a series of poems in English
about a group of people going to Canterbury on a pilgrimage.
The people decided to tell each other stories on the journey
and the poems described the travelers
and some of the stories they told.
The collection of poems is called The Canterbury Tales.
It was one of the first books
to be printed by William Caxton,
the first person in England
to print books using a printing press.
Many of the stories are still popular.
Some have been made into plays and television programs.
In Scotland, many people continued to speak Gaelic
and the Scots language also developed.
A number of poets began to write in the Scots language.
One example is John Barbour,
who wrote The Brus about the Battle of Bannockburn.
The Middle Ages also saw a change
in the type of buildings in Britain.
Castles were built in many places in Britain and Ireland
partly for defense.
Today, many are in ruins
although some such as Windsor and Edinburgh
are still in use.
Great cathedrals, for example, Lincoln Cathedral
were also built.
And many are still used for worship.
Several of the cathedrals had windows of stained glass
telling stories about the bible and Christian saints.
The glass in York Minster is a famous example.
During this period, England was an important trading nation.
English wool became a very important export.
People came to England from abroad
to trade and also to work.
Many had special skills such as weavers from France,
engineers from Germany, glass manufacturers from Italy,
and canal builders from Holland.
The War of the Roses.
In 1455, a civil war was begun
to decide who should be king of England.
It was fought between the supporters of two families,
the House of Lancaster and the House of York.
This war was called the War of the Roses
because the symbol of Lancaster was a red rose
and the symbol of York, was a white rose.
The war ended with the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.
King Richard III of the House of York
was killed in the battle,
and Henry Tudor, the leader of the House of Lancaster
became Henry VII.
Henry then married King Richard's niece, Elizabeth of York
and united the two families.
Henry was the first king of the House of Tudor,
the symbol of the House of Tudor
was a red rose with a white rose inside it
as a sign that the Houses of York and Lancaster
were now allies.
Okay, so the key points we need to understand
in relation to this section
and we'll come to the questions,
the example questions in a moment,
for the Life in the UK Test.
The key points are,
basically to understand the wars
that took place in the Middle Ages,
how parliaments began to develop,
the way that land ownership worked,
and the effect of the Black Death.
And you also need to understand
the development of English language and culture
and the Wars of the Roses
and also the founding of the House of Tudor.
So those are the key points that we've covered.
I'll tell you what sort of questions are asked.
And I've got three examples here.
Let's kick off with this.
Who was the author of The Brus
about the Battle of Bannockburn?
Robert Bruce,
John Barbour,
William Shakespeare,
Geoffrey Chaucer?
And the answer is John Barbour.
Is this statement true or false?
The Canterbury Tales was printed by William Caxton.
The answer is true.
Is this statement true or false?
England ruled Ireland at the beginning of the Middle Ages.
The answer is false.
Okay, so by all means,
listen to or rewatch the content again
if you didn't get the answer to those questions right.
In the next video in this series
we'll be covering
the next part of the Life in the UK Test.
This will be coming shortly,
it's on the Tudors and Stuarts.
Thanks for watching.
If you'd like to check out
the rest of the lessons in this series.
In total, it contains all the knowledge and facts
you need to have to pass the test first time.
If you have any questions on the Life in the UK Test,
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