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The Reigns of King Richard I and King John, 1189–1216

English society, 1189–1216

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 2 booklet B

Overview

Open-field farming, villeins and peasant houses, borough charters, guilds, towns in the economy and their dangers, the legal position of Jews, moneylending and antisemitism, the killings of 1189–90 from Richard's coronation to York, and royal exploitation of Jewish wealth through tallages, the archae, the Exchequer of the Jews and John's tallage of 1210.

What you need to know

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Key term

Why did moneylending become a Jewish trade?

Key term

How did Richard’s coronation set off violence in London in 1189?

Key term

What was a villein?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    How was arable land organised in an open-field village?

    Model answer

    It lay in two or three great fields divided into narrow strips, with each family holding strips scattered across them so that good and poor soil were shared out.

  2. 2

    Why was one field left uncropped each year?

    Model answer

    To let the soil recover its fertility, with animals grazed on it so their manure went back into the ground.

  3. 3

    What was a villein?

    Model answer

    An unfree peasant bound to his manor, who owed work on the lord’s land, needed permission to move, marry off a daughter or sell an ox, and answered to the manor court.

  4. 4

    What was a peasant’s house like?

    Model answer

    A single smoky room with walls of wattle and daub and a thatched roof, an open hearth in the middle, and animals often housed at one end.

  5. 5

    What did a borough charter give the people of a town?

    Model answer

    Rights bought from the king or lord — to hold a market, run their own court, choose officials and pay one fixed annual sum instead of separate feudal dues.

  6. 6

    What did a guild do?

    Model answer

    It controlled a trade in the town, fixing standards and prices, training boys through apprenticeship, and helping the widows and children of its members.

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AThe huge loss of life left England short of workers.
BForeign craftsmen and labourers were wanted.
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