Power and the People in Britain, c1170 to the Present Day

What Power and the People in Britain, c1170 to the Present Day covers

Power and the People in Britain, c1170 to the Present Day is examined in Paper 2, Shaping the nation. It covers the factors that shape this study, Constraints on kingship, the origins of parliament, medieval revolt and royal authority, popular uprisings against the Crown, divine Right and parliamentary authority, royal authority and the right to representation, the extension of the franchise, protest and change, workers’ movements and the growth of trade unionism, women’s rights, workers’ rights and minority rights.

The 13 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• The factors that shape this studyHow war, religion, chance, government, communication, economic hardship and industrialisation, ideas of consent, representation and equality, and individuals such as Simon de Montfort and Emmeline Pankhurst have shaped the changing relationship between the British people and those who ruled them.Open →
• Constraints on kingshipWhy John's barons lost confidence in him, Normandy, scutage and the Church, Runnymede in 1215, the clauses on arrest and taxation, the other promises, the annulment, and why Magna Carta still matters.Open →
• The origins of parliamentHenry III's unpopularity and the Sicilian Business, Simon de Montfort, the Provisions of Oxford and why they failed, Lewes, the parliament of 1265 and why it was widened, Evesham, and the growth of the Commons.Open →
• Medieval revolt and royal authorityThe Black Death and the Statute of Labourers, villeinage, the poll tax, John Ball, Wat Tyler's march on London, the rebels, Richard II's promises at Mile End, Smithfield, and what the revolt changed.Open →
• Popular uprisings against the CrownThe Pilgrimage of Grace of 1536, with the religious, political and economic grievances behind it, Robert Aske's leadership, how the rising began at Louth and spread across the north, the Duke of Norfolk's promises, Henry VIII's revenge, and why it won none of its aims.Open →
• Divine Right and parliamentary authorityThe divine right of kings, Charles I's Personal Rule, Ship Money and Laud's church policy, the Five Members, the New Model Army and Naseby, the Levellers and the Putney Debates, Pride's Purge, the trial and execution of Charles I, Cromwell as Lord Protector, and the lasting limits on royal power.Open →
• Royal authority and the right to representationWhy the colonies were taxed after 1763, the Stamp Act, taxation without representation, the Townshend duties, the Boston Massacre and Tea Party, Lexington and independence, Yorktown, and what the new republic meant to British reformers.Open →
• The extension of the franchiseRotten and pocket boroughs, Peterloo and the Six Acts, the Great Reform Act of 1832 and its disappointments, the Chartists' six demands, their petitions, the Newport Rising and the collapse of 1848, and the later reforms of 1867, 1872 and 1884.Open →
• Protest and changeThe campaign against the slave trade, Clarkson, Wilberforce and Equiano, the Acts of 1807 and 1833, the Corn Laws and the Anti-Corn Law League, repeal, the factory reformers and their laws, and Edwin Chadwick.Open →
• Workers’ movements and the growth of trade unionismThe Combination Acts, Robert Owen's Grand National Consolidated Trades Union and its collapse, the Tolpuddle Martyrs, the New Model Unions of skilled craftsmen, and new unionism among the unskilled, with the match workers' strike of 1888 and the London dock strike of 1889.Open →
• Women’s rightsWhy women wanted the vote, married women's legal position, the suffragists, the Pankhursts and militancy, hunger strikes, Emily Davison, the war, the Acts of 1918 and 1928, Dagenham and equal pay, and later reforms.Open →
• Workers’ rightsThe miners' dispute, Red Friday and the Samuel Commission, the General Strike and the government's volunteers, why it was called off, the miners' defeat, the Act of 1927, the 1970s, and the 1980s union laws.Open →
• Minority rightsWhy Caribbean and South Asian people came after 1945, the Empire Windrush, the colour bar, Notting Hill, the Bristol Bus Boycott, the race relations laws, immigration controls, Brixton in 1981 and the Scarman Report.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Power and the People in Britain, c1170 to the Present Day further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Suffragists vs Women's Social and Political Union

  Suffragists: constitutional societies under Millicent Fawcett working by petitions, meetings and lobbying. Women's Social and Political Union: militant body founded by Emmeline Pankhurst in Manchester in 1903.

• Provisions of Oxford vs Magna Carta

  Provisions of Oxford: 1258 scheme placing Henry III under a council of fifteen barons and regular parliaments. Magna Carta: 1215 charter agreed at Runnymede putting King John under the law.

• New Model Army vs New Model Unions

  New Model Army: national force of 1645 paid from a national tax with officers promoted for ability. New Model Unions: societies of skilled craftsmen from 1851 paying sickness and unemployment benefits.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   How did the need to fight wars repeatedly force English rulers to give ground to their subjects?

   Model answer

   Wars had to be paid for and manned, so kings and governments needed the co-operation of taxpayers and soldiers, and that need was turned again and again into demands for rights.

2. 2

   How could defeat abroad weaken a medieval king at home?

   Model answer

   A king who lost lands and lost his soldiers' confidence had also emptied his treasury, so his barons could bargain with him from strength instead of simply obeying.

3. 3

   Which conflict did most to widen the vote in twentieth-century Britain, and why?

   Model answer

   The First World War: the service of soldiers who had no vote and the war work done by women made the old franchise impossible to defend, and it was widened in 1918.

4. 4

   Give an example of religious grievance turning into open rebellion against the Crown.

   Model answer

   The rising of 1536 in the north of England, when the closing of monasteries and changes to worship brought thousands of people out against Henry VIII.

5. 5

   How could religious teaching work against protest rather than for it?

   Model answer

   Preaching that obedience to rulers was ordained by God, and that the poor would have their reward in heaven, discouraged people from challenging those set above them.

6. 6

   Which nineteenth-century reform campaign drew much of its strength from religious conviction?

   Model answer

   The campaign against the slave trade and slavery, argued largely by Quakers and evangelicals who insisted that owning another person was a sin.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Power and the People in Britain, c1170 to the Present Day revision questions

What does Power and the People in Britain, c1170 to the Present Day cover in AQA GCSE History?

13 subtopics: the factors that shape this study, constraints on kingship, the origins of parliament, medieval revolt and royal authority, popular uprisings against the crown, divine right and parliamentary authority, royal authority and the right to representation, the extension of the franchise, protest and change, workers’ movements and the growth of trade unionism, women’s rights, workers’ rights and minority rights. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Power and the People in Britain, c1170 to the Present Day organised?

By the AQA 8145 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.