Starter quiz
- The ______ Revolt occurred in 1381.
- 'Peasants'' ✓
- In which year did the Black Death first reach England?
- 1348 ✓
- 1381
- 1448
- 1481
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- What was the name of the sumptuous palace that was a target of the 1381 Revolt?
- Hampton Court Palace
- The Savoy Palace ✓
- The Tower of London
- Westminster Palace
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- Which of the following were not symptoms of the Black Death?
- fever
- hair loss ✓
- sudden blindness ✓
- swellings in the neck, armpits and groin
- vomiting blood
-
- What was the name of the port where it is thought the Black Death first arrived in England?
- Aberdeen
- Belfast
- Cardiff
- Melcombe ✓
- Port Erin
-
- Most historians now believe that between one third and a ______ of England's population died of the Black Death in 1348-49.
- 'half' ✓
Exit quiz
- Why did lords have a problem when half the peasants died of the Black Death?
- Lords often married peasant women.
- Lords had a Christian duty to care for peasants.
- Lords needed peasants to farm their lands for them. ✓
- Lords could not leave their estates without peasant permission.
-
- A ______is a person doing unskilled work for wages.
- 'labourer' ✓
- In 1349, King Edward III issued the Ordinance of ______.
- 'Labourers' ✓
- What did the Ordinance of 1349 order?
- Labourers had to quarantine for 40 days if they had Black Death symptoms.
- Labourers should stop asking for more money from lords. ✓
- Labourers should work for the same wages as they had been paid in 1348. ✓
- Lords should offer higher wages to labourers if they needed workers.
-
- Match the words to their correct definitions.
- peasant⇔a person who worked the land and had few legal protections ✓
- negotiate⇔to obtain something by discussion ✓
- statute⇔a written law ✓
- labourer⇔a person doing unskilled work for wages ✓
- ordinance⇔an order given by a ruler, often a king ✓
- Put these events in chronological order.
- 1⇔Arrival of the Black Death in England
- 2⇔Labourers start negotiating for higher wages
- 3⇔Ordinance of Labourers
- 4⇔Statute of Labourers
Worksheet
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Lesson Details
Key learning points
- The Black Death killed around half of the English population.
- The Black Death caused labour shortages.
- Labourers began to demand better pay for their work.
- The Statute of Labourers ordered labourers to stop asking for more money.
- Historians disagree about the aims of the Statute of Labourers.
Common misconception
That the Statute of Labourers immediately forced all peasants to return to their home manors and to cease negotiating higher wages.
Through the interpretations section of the lesson, draw out the point that the Statute of Labourers was unenforceable in many cases.
Keywords
Peasant - a person in the medieval period who worked the land and had few legal protections
Negotiate - to obtain something by discussion
Statute - a written law
Labourer - a person doing unskilled work for wages
Ordinance - an order given by a ruler, often a king
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