Lesson video

Hello and welcome to History at the Oak Academy with me.

My name is Ms. Dawson, and I'm going to be taking you through this enquiry.

We are on our first lesson of a brand new enquiry, which is how much did England change during the Norman Conquest? And there's going to be six lessons.

And today we are going to focus on landowning and something called the feudal system.

So just pop the video and pause while you get your title copied down.

Welcome back, okay, so let's get started.

For this lesson, you are going to need a paper, a pen, ruler and a pencil.

So again, just pop the video on pause while you go ahead and grab your equipment.

Welcome back, fantastic, let's go.

So, I'd like you to have a look at this image and have a think about what it is that might be going on here? Focus on some of the details, what do you think is happening? I'd like to draw some details of the image to your attention.

So these are some details that I you noticed that I found quite interesting and some questions that I would ask if I was looking at this.

So what I would like you to do now, I would like you to use what you have gathered from the image and to write down a quick answer, to try and work out what might be happening in this picture.

So, you can use the module I've put on the left hand side of this screen, it says in this picture I can see.

So there you would give me a detail, something you can see in the picture.

And then this might mean that.

So maybe a quick guess about what's going on in the image based on what you can see.

So just pop the video on pause and have a go at writing up an answer.

Welcome back, okay.

Let's have a look at my potential answers and you can compare them with yours and see what you think.

So, I have written in this picture I can see that people are completing farm work, and you can see this down at the bottom of the image.

This might mean, that this was an important part of daily life and if they've included it in the picture, we could guess from this, that farming was an important part of people's lives in this time period.

If your answer looks a little bit different to that, don't worry at all, there's lots of potential answers that you could have had from looking at this image.

Let's take a look at another one.

So something else I noticed, in this picture I can see that there are some people shown carrying weapons.

This might mean that force or violence was used to control people.

So I've looked at this image and thought that the fact they've got weapons might mean that there was violence used in terms of controlling people.

Again, if you're the answer looks slightly different that's absolutely fine, it might well be correct but just different to what I've written.

Well done, let's move on.

So, our enquiry takes place in the 11th century.

So just after the Norman Invasion of England, which happened in 1066.

And then it takes us all the way right through to the death of William the Conqueror.

You might have done a previous enquiry on the Norman Invasion and William the Conqueror, but if you didn't, don't worry too much because I'm going to talk you through it quickly so you know what that means? So, our time period it starts in 1066 with the Battle of Hastings and then we'll finish with the death of William of Normandy in 1087.

And our big question that we're looking at in this time period, is how much did England change? What changes took place during the rule of William of Normandy? So, before we can do that, we need to remind ourselves or have a quick understanding, what was the Norman Conquest? So conquest, this word comes from the word conquer, meaning to take over.

So it was the Normans taking over England.

This started with the death of the English King, Edward the Confessor, who we can see in this picture.

Now, when Edward died, he didn't have a child or an heir to the throne.

This caused some confusion as to who was going to be the next King.

And this meant that several people who wanted the throne decided to fight to try and become the king.

The first of these battles was called the Battle of Stanford Bridge and a Norwegian, named Harald Hardrada was killed and defeated by the English man, Harold Godwinson, Harold Godwinson had been the top choice to be the next King of England.

He had in fact been named as the next King of England.

So he was quite popular and people were happy that he'd won the Battle of Stanford Bridge.

However, following this, there was the battle of Hastings.

So William of Normandy defeated Harold Godwinson.

So, Normandy is in what we would now call France.

And so William was a foreign invader, he came in, he killed the English King, Harold Godwinson.

Therefore, William of Normandy was crowned the new King of England.

And that's what the Norman Conquest was when the Normans, led by William of Normandy, came and conquered England.

So, what I'd like us to do, is to just think about the story that I've just told you and to see if we can put it in the correct order.

There are four statements on the screen, I've mixed the order up.

So all I want you to do, is to pop the video on pause, and then I would like you to see if you can put these statements in the correct order.

So go ahead, pop the video on pause and then when you're finished unpause it and we'll check your answers.

Welcome back, let's have a look and see how we did.

So our first event is going to be the death of Edward the Confessor.

So this is what begins all the confusion about who is going to be the next King.

We then have our first battle where our English man, Harold Godwinson, defeated the Norwegian invader, Harald Hardrada.

We then have the second battle, where William of Normandy defeated Harold Godwinson.

And following this, William of Normandy is crowned the King of England.

Now, it's important for us to think about what William's position might have been like in 1066.

So there are three statements on the slide for you to consider.

When William first took over in 1066, he had killed a popular English King.

He'd invaded the country with 10,000 Normans with him.

But there was a population of 2 million Anglo-Saxons.

So all I want you to do, is to just pop the video on pause and to have a think about what problems William might suffer from, as a result of these things.

So pop the video on pause, resume it when you've had to think about it and then we'll go check some answers.

Welcome back, okay.

So let's have a look at what I thought about these points.

So, I've noted that because William had killed a popular King, he therefore might be unpopular.

The Anglo-Saxon people might not like him because he's killed their King.

He's come over with a group of 10,000 Normans and he's going to need them to remain loyal.

He needs them in order to control the country in order to be a successful King, so he's going to need to keep them happy.

There's also a population of 2 million Anglo-Saxons who he needs to keep under control.

He's very much outnumbered, so he needs to think of a way to control those people.

So, once again just to refocus our enquiry is going to be all about how much England changed during the Norman Conquest.

So we've established that William as a foreign King has come and conquered the country that he needs to control the country.

So it's likely that he's going to make some changes to do that.

And today's focus is going to be all about land.

Now, that might seem a little bit weird to us.

Why would land be the first thing that you'd think about when you think about taking over a country.

And for us to understand that, we need to know a little bit about what England was like in this time period.

So if we return to this start a picture that we looked at at the beginning, we can see that at the bottom of the image, there are people completing farming work.

This clearly tells us it was really important in England because that's what lots of people did.

So of the 2 million people living in England at this time, 90% of them worked in the countryside.

So a huge majority of the people who lived in England farmed every day, these people were called peasants.

They didn't necessarily own land but they worked on the land and the people who owned the land were the ones who made a lot of money.

So, our lesson today is about something called the feudal system, which is really, really focuses on the importance of land.

So, the definition of a feudal system is, a system used by William the Conqueror to keep control of England, where land was exchanged for loyalty.

So what I would like you to do is to pop your video on pause and go ahead and copy down that definition and then unpause the video when you're done.

Welcome back, fantastic.

So, let's have a think about what this could look like.

So, we've already established that in England, there were a huge amount of peasants who lived and worked in the countryside.

We can see on this diagram that they are at the bottom, but they are the biggest.

This is because they were the biggest group in society, but they were the least important.

And at the top, we've got the King, William the Conqueror.

The smallest in number, but the most important in terms of being in control and in terms of land ownership.

In the middle, we've got a group called the nobles who were very important.

They had land and they were well respected.

And then we've got knights just under that.

Don't panic too much if you don't know what all of this means just yet, because you're going to have a look at it in your next task.

But the important thing for us to note, is that this system means that the King is at the top and underneath the King, we have nobles then we have knights and then at the bottom of their system, the majority of the population, the peasants.

The ones who are considered the least important because they don't own any land, fantastic.

So, what I would like you to do now, is to have a look at these comprehension questions.

So, remember that you want to be trying to write in full sentences and you want to try and expand with as much knowledge as you possibly can.

So the first question, who was crowned King of England in 1066? You might be able to answer that one without looking at the worksheet, but it is on the worksheet.

Question two, why did William need to think of ways to control the country? Question number three, what did William develop in order to control the country? Question four, how did William gain the loyalty of his supporters? And then if you're feeling like challenging yourself, we've got a slightly trickier question here.

How did William's feudal system build on the existing Anglo-Saxon hierarchy? Now, there's a tough words in there, but you can use the glossary in your worksheet to help you if you're not sure what hierarchy is.

You can also use my sentence starters to help you so that you can build a developed answer for the comprehension questions.

So, what you're going to do now, you're going to pause the video and you're going to read the text on the worksheet and answer the comprehension questions.

After you've done that, you can return to the video and unpause it so that we can check your answers.

off you go.

Welcome back, well done.

Let's take a look at answers that I've written and see how they compare with yours.

Remember yours might look different, but they could still be correct.

And please feel free to add any missing information to your answers if you're not quite sure that they're finished.

So for our first question, who was crowned King of England in 1066? the correct or acceptable answer was William of Normandy.

But if we were working in full sentences, we might write something along the lines of after defeating Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, William of Normandy was crowned King of England on Christmas Day 1066.

Well done if your answer looks something like that, give it a tick, if you've missed something, then please add in so your answer is correct.

Let's take a look at the next one.

Why did William need to think of ways to control the country? So an acceptable answer here, is that there were 2 million Saxons and 10,000 Normans.

A good answer with more detail, it says there were 2 million Saxons and 10,000 Normans.

This meant that the Normans were outnumbered and William needed to think of ways to control the Saxon population.

Very well done if your answer looks like that.

If you need to add some details, please feel free to pause the video and add them in.

Okay, let's check the next answer.

What's did William develop in order to control the country? The acceptable answer to this question is the feudal system.

A good answer is the feudal system.

This was a hierarchy which put the King at the top and the peasants at the bottom.

He developed it from the existing Anglo-Saxon system.

Very well done if your answer looks like that.

Let's check the next answer.

How did William gain the loyalty of his supporters? So an acceptable answer to this question would be, by giving them land.

A good answer in full sentences, he took land away from those who had fought against him at the Battle of Hastings and gave it to those who had supported him.

These supporters then swore loyalty to William.

Very well done if your answer looks like that.

Don't panic if you've written something different, but it means the same thing.

If you're not sure your is quite correct, then please feel free to add the correct information.

Let's check the next answer.

How did William's feudal system build on the existing Anglo-Saxon hierarchy? For an acceptable answer, it also had the King at the top and the peasants at the bottom.

Here's a slightly more developed answer.

Williams feudal system used some features of the Anglo-Saxon hierarchy because William continued to use the Saxon hierarchy, which had the King at the top and the peasants at the bottom.

However, he developed it.

So because he gave land to his Norman nobles so that the peasants would be under his control.

Very well done if you challenge yourself by answering that question.

So what we're going to do now, we're going to have a look at a consolidation diagram.

So this is why I asked you to bring a pencil and a ruler so that you can draw a diagram that looks like the one on the slides.

Now, the reason that this is a triangle shape is because it's trying to represent this hierarchy of the feudal system.

So at the top is going to be the group that are the smallest, but the most important.

And then at the bottom where it's bigger, it's going to be the group which was biggest, but the least important.

So you need to label the four different groups of the feudal system, and you use the information on the worksheet to help you work out who they are.

Then on the left and right, there were two sets of arrows.

There's one set going down and one set going up.

And what you need to do, is you need to label your diagram explaining what each part of the hierarchy gives to the part below and gives to the part above.

That might be a little bit confusing.

So I've done the first one for you on the next slide.

So, if we look here at the top of the hierarchy, we've got the King.

So the King is the very top of the feudal system.

And on the left hand side, I have written gives land, because the King gives land to the people below him in the feudal system.

On the right hand side, I have written receives loyalty because this is what the King gets from the row below him.

So that is a very acceptable first level of your diagram.

So, what I would like you to do now, is to return to the worksheet slides.

There's some more information for you to read through, and then you can draw and complete your own consolidation diagram.

When you finish that, you can unpause it, head back over here and then we can check your answers.

So go ahead, pause the video, good luck with that.

Welcome back, okay.

Let's take a look and see how we did.

So again, you can copy any of my answers if you're missing anything.

And don't worry if what you've written looks a little bit different to me, just make sure that you check all your answers are correct.

Let's have a look.

So here we can see on the left-hand side, the first layer, it says the King gave land to the nobles who are below the King.

The nobles gave land to the knights who are below the nobles and the knights gave land and protection to the peasants.

So very well done, if you've got the correct order on the diagram and very well done if you've got the correct labels.

So, the knights received taxes from the peasants and the peasants farm the land.

The nobles receive taxes from the knights and they promise to fight in William's army.

And then the King at the top of the hierarchy, received loyalty, soldiers and taxes from those below him.

So, if you need to add any detail to your diagram, what you can do now is go ahead and pause the video, add in your annotations, if you've got them all correct then very, very well done for that and let's move on.

So there's an extension activity available for anybody who's feeling like challenging themselves.

This question says, how great were the changes that the Normans made to landowning and the feudal system in England? And it's important for us to note here that when we say great, we mean how big were these changes? Not how good or bad cause that would be quite difficult for you to tell, but just how big were the changes? Had it changed a huge amount? Had it only partially changed? Had some things stayed the same? And on the next slide, there's some support to help you work out how to answer this question.

So, we've got the question at the top and then some sentence starters in the box.

So you can use these to write a developed answer.

We'd be looking for a few sentences here with some knowledge to support your points.

And then on the right-hand side, there are some key words that you can use here to make sure that your writing is developed.

So you could try and use the word hierarchy, control and peasants.

Don't worry if you can't use all of them, but have a go and see if you can use any of them and that will help develop your answer.

So, you can go ahead, pause the video and complete the extension question and returned here once you're done.

Welcome back, okay.

So, let's have a look at your answers and see how they compare to mine.

Once again, don't worry if your answers are a little bit different to mine.

If you want to add any detail to yours as I go through it, then please do.

If you're happy with what you've written then just give yourself a tick.

In some ways the changes work great, because William took land from Saxon nobles and gave it to Normans.

To explain this further, by 1087, almost all of the land in England was owned and controlled by Normans.

This was a big change in terms of who owns the land.

However, in some ways the changes were not that big because the lives of peasants stayed largely the same.

To explain this further, they were still expected to work hard and farm the land for the ruling population.

Very well done if your answer looks anything like that.

And very well done if you completed this question.

Add any detail if you need to if not, then we'll get moving on.

So very well done, thank you so much for completing today's lesson.

What you can go ahead and do now, is to complete the exit quiz, just to test how much knowledge you gained during this session.

And what you can also do, if you would like to, you can share your work with Oak National.

You could ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter with the tag @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

That's it for me today, so nothing more, just to say thank you very much for attending my lesson.

I hope you've enjoyed it and see what the next one.

Thank you very much for your hard work today.

Fantastic, see you soon.