Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mr. Madeley, and I will be teaching you the enquiry, why did Kings struggle to rule England? This is a key stage three history lesson, and he's the first of six in this enquiry.

Today's title is, was King John really a bad King? For this lesson, you're going to need some paper, a pen or pencil and your thinking caps on.

So if you need to go and get any of those, obviously you've got your thinking caps already on.

Then pause the video now and go and collect them.

Brilliant.

So what we need to do today is start off by looking at King John, and what was going on in the land that he ruled before we then move on to why he was potentially a good or bad King.

So here is the man of the presentation, King John.

As you can see, John ruled England from 1199 to 1216.

Some say that he was a good King during this time, some say that he was not.

He certainly faced a lot of difficulties.

His father, when he was young, gave him the nickname, Lackland.

He was called Lackland because when his father divided up, so split up his kingdom, John, as the youngest son, wasn't given any land to rule.

So he was lacking in land, hence Lackland, and it was used to tease John.

He was though his father's favourite son and as the youngest and without any land of his own to rule, John spent a lot of time with his father.

And so he learned how to rule, which is a really important thing.

Alongside this, John's character showed that he could be a really good King.

He was clever and hard working.

Unfortunately he had some really bad character flaws.

He was bad tempered, and so would make really difficult decisions and he would rush them out of anger.

He was cruel and he was suspicious.

So he didn't trust other people because he didn't trust other people, he was devious.

And so he was always plotting or scheming behind people's backs just because he didn't trust them.

Now, because he did that, other people stopped trusting him.

So what is the area that King John would rule? What does this map show? We need to pause the video and just have a think for about 30 seconds, what this map shows.

Great, I'm going to give you a bit more detail.

So this map shows the Angevin Empire.

The Angevin Empire was all the land, that the King of England owned.

You can see that it's stretched from Scotland in the North, all the way to the Pyrenees.

This is a mountain range that separates France from Spain.

All the area in yellow are the lands that the King of England owned.

And you can see that there's a large area of France in it.

Indeed, the King of England owned more of France than the King of France did.

The areas in the yellow dots, they are areas that were loyal to the King of England and they swore loyalty to him and to abate him.

These areas, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, there was not ruled directly by the Angevin King.

Now I've highlighted Normandy here, from previous lessons, I'm hoping that you've remembered, that in 1066, William, duke of Normandy had invaded England and defeated Harold Godwinson to become a new King of England.

When William had done this, many of the men he brought across, his barons who are used to make his army with and in return he gave them land.

He offered them land in England, to say thank you.

So the barons in England often owned land in France, particularly Normandy.

So England and Normandy were really closely linked together.

Not just because of the King, but because both sets of barons owned land, either side of the English channel.

Now what I'd like to do is answer the question that I set, what does this map show? So I've given you a starter sentence, this map shows, I'd like you to think about what I've said.

If you need to rewind the video, make a couple of notes and finish off this sentence.

So now I would like you to pause the video for a couple of minutes to answer that question.

Really well done.

Now, this is my answer.

I've said, this map shows the Angevin Empire.

John ruled this empire from 1199 to 1216 and it reach from Scotland to the Pyrenees.

So I'm showing the extent of the empire by using Scotland and the Pyrenees.

The most important area in the Angevin Empire was Normandy.

Again, I'm stressing the link between England and Normandy here.

The King of England had ruled Normandy since 1066.

So I'm showing my own knowledge when I've answered that question and what I've learned previously, you may have something different that doesn't matter.

But there is a model answer and well done for trying.

Now, to see whether King John can be seen as a bad King, you need to think about what makes a good mediaeval King.

So on the next slide, I'm going to put on a mind map.

That means you draw a bubble in the middle and I'll show you an example soon, and then you've come off with ideas.

So what I'd like you to do is pause the video in a moment and write down all your ideas on what makes a good mediaeval King.

I've included some pictures to try and give you a start and to jog your memory and get you thinking, you don't have to use the pictures, but they are there to help.

So please pause the video and have a go at this mind map.

Excellent, sure, you've come up with lots and lots of really, really good ideas.

Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you what ideas I came up with, you may have the same, you may have more, if you've got more than me, then you've done amazingly well, so well done to yourself.

If you've got less, that doesn't matter.

You just worked really hard, so well done.

So here is what I came up with.

To make a good King, a good mediaeval King, they need to be a good fighter.

They need to be able to make sure that if they go to war, that they can defeat and beat the other country they're fighting.

They need to make fair laws, so that everyone is treated the same and fairly, you don't just get justice and say someone's innocent because they offer you money.

You need to protect the church.

Remember mediaeval Europe, England included is really, really religious at this time.

Everyone believes in heaven and hell and you need to live a good life in order to go to heaven.

And if you protect the church and you look after it, then that means you're surely going to go to heaven.

You need to make sure that everyone follows the law and those that don't are punished.

You need to make sure that your country is peaceful and because it's peaceful, then people can start to buy and sell goods and you can make your country richer.

You need to make sure that you rule with the support of your people, 'cause if you don't rule with the support of your people, then they're going to become really angry with you.

And that means that they might decide to rise up against you, so they rebel against you.

And that is not very good and things like that cause Kings to struggle when they rule.

And you need to protect your people.

A King that does not protect the people of his country, so allows other people to attack them or to have people breaking laws, stealing, murder, that's not protecting your people.

And that is not what a good King should do.

So thinking about that, I'm going to give you an example of what a good King looked like.

This example is King Richard, who was John's older brother.

So King Richard ticked many of the boxes that we just looked at the previous slides.

Richard was known throughout Europe for being a great warrior.

He had spent since the age of 14 fighting in the land that he owned, part of the Angevin Empire.

He learned that fighting against his father in order to keep his power that he'd been given.

He fought against his oldest brother to help his father.

He had even fought against the King of France at times.

So Richard, he got plenty of experience fighting and he usually would, he was a great fighter.

He would definitely protect you.

Richard could inspire people to love him and believe in him.

This meant the people were willing to do anything for him because they truly thought that he was a good King, and his barons, so remember those people beneath him on the few door system, the people that he gave land to and they gave him soldiers and then loyalty.

His barons worked hard to protect the Angevin Empire and to protect him.

Indeed when Richard was captured, John being devious had tried to steal England from Richard and say that he was dead.

The barons in England didn't believe John.

And they sent a letter to find out if Richard was alive.

So the barons were really loyal to Richard because they loved him.

And Richard showed his desire to protect the church, by the fact that he travelled thousands of miles to go and attack Jerusalem and regain it for the Christian Church, for the Catholic church, he was willing to risk his life for God in order to restore and regain one of the Holy sites for Christians.

So based on all of this, we now need to start to think about what John was like.

So this next slide, I'm going to give you an image.

The image is by Matthew Paris, and Matthew Paris was a monk.

I'm going to ask you to pause the slide in a moment or two when I turn on to it and have a go at answering the questions that I've set you.

So look really carefully at the image and then make some notes on your paper.

So you can see the image I've asked you, what can you see? And I've given you some hints.

Does this image make you think John was a good King? So look carefully at what you can see in the picture and ask yourself, does it make me think that he was a good King? What clues are there to show that John may not have been a good King.

So I'd like you to pause the video now for a couple of minutes to have a go at answering those questions.

Well done, now this is what I have decided.

Again, you may have to change or done something slightly different to what I have created again, well done, if you have done that.

You didn't have to make the same answer that I do.

So these are some of the things that I've pointed out.

You can see that John's crown is falling off his head.

And I've said that because of it, I think the picture shows John to be a bad King.

This is shown by the crown not fitting properly on his head.

The crown would fit a good King's head properly and not look like it's about to fall off.

So this show that John's head doesn't fit naturally with a crown.

So it shows he's not fit to rule.

I've marked out it's with an arrow, his right hand.

Normally a King will be shown holding a sword in their right hand.

And that showed their fighting skills and their ability to protect their people.

But John doesn't have this.

It almost looks like he's pointing as if he's going to give orders.

So this shows that John, wasn't a very good fighter.

In the background behind John, you have the church, this shows where they facing the wrong way, that John didn't care about the church, he didn't protect it.

It was there in the background so that he didn't need to pay attention to it or look after it.

And at the bottom of the picture, you have the Royal robes again, with other monarchs, you will see their feet, you will see the robes fitting properly.

But with John it's slipped off his shoulder, it's looking on tidy.

So again, it's showing you that this person, Matthew Paris thought that John was a bad King.

So giving you a glossary hand, this is important because we're going to need to look at some of these words, for when I ask you the comprehension questions based on the worksheet that you're going to be doing very, very shortly.

So Angevin Empire to recap, a group of countries ruled by the King of England.

The barons, a group below the King in the feudal structure who gave him soldiers in return for a given land to rule.

Fines, you're going to see the word fines.

Now this is one way that King made money by making his barons pay for things such as being made a knight or to take over land owned before their father died.

Scutage, a payment made by a baron to the King in order to stay at home rather than fight.

'Cause some barons didn't want to travel over to France, so they would pay not to.

And the King would then use this money to buy soldiers.

You're going to see another John's nicknames in the worksheets, And that was Softswords.

And this was given to John to show, that he was not a very good fighter.

In fact, he was pretty useless at fighting.

And then you've got the really fancy word, excommunicate.

This was the worst punishment, the church, especially the Pope could give somebody.

It's effectively meant that you were removed from the church and all its services.

So if you committed a sin, you did something wrong.

You couldn't confess or you couldn't pray.

And that meant they just going to build up, you were bound to go to hell.

That was the worst thing that could happen to you, if the Pope decided to give you this punishment.

So here are your comprehension questions.

Which tax did the barons hate? What was John's nickname? Which area of land did John lose? What did the Pope do to John? Then challenge question, why can it be claimed that John was a bad King? And I've given you a starter sentence, It can be claimed that John was a bad King because.

And then if you have time, that's an extension question.

What was the most important reason why people claim John was a bad King? So I would like you to write those questions down in a moment when I've told you to pause the video and then make sure you work through the worksheet and answer those questions.

So can you please turn to the worksheets and pause this video now.

Really well done on working on those questions.

Some of them are probably quite tricky.

So you must have worked really hard with your thinking caps, almost burning out in order to answer them.

So I'm just going to go through some answers.

Now, you're going to notice, I'm going to give you an acceptable answer and then a good answer.

A good answer will always have a full sentence.

It will always use some words from the question.

And this is what we're going to aim to do as we move through this enquiry and as you do other lessons within Oak.

So the answer to question one, which tax did the barons hate? The acceptable answer is just simply scutage.

A good answer would say, the barons hated scutage, the tax for not fighting with the army.

especially when it was demanded in 1214.

So I've stated what the answer is, but I'm going to make sure I give a bit of an explanation.

This was because John had already collected taxes before attacking France and he had left with the army so the barons should not have been asked to pay it.

Yet they were.

So you've got the reason why the barons hated it.

Why should they pay a tax that they've been charged for over many years when the army has already left England? Question two, what was John's nickname? Softsword is an acceptable answer.

Lackland, if you've based it on the presentation that I've been given.

A good answer would be John's nickname was Softsword because he had been defeated and lost Normandy.

You might also have said John's nickname was Lackland, because he was not given any land by his father to rule.

Both of answers are perfectly acceptable.

And remember you do not have to use exactly the same words as I have.

Question three, which area of land did John lose? Again, a simple answer for acceptable is Normandy.

A good answer would be John lost Normandy which had belonged the King of England since 1066.

So I'm showing my additional knowledge here to expand the answer.

What did the Pope do to John? Again, you could just say excommunicated him.

But a good answer would be the Pope excommunicated John.

This was the worst punishment the Pope could give someone.

It meant that John was cut off from the church and would go to hell if he did not make peace with the Pope.

The challenge question now, really well done if you had to go at it.

Why can it be claimed that John was a bad King? The acceptable answer, we're just to state the reasons in the worksheets and from this presentation, John did not protect the church, his land or rule with the support of his barons.

But we need to add a bit of detail and a bit of explanation in order to show that it's a good answer.

So I put King John can be claimed using the word from the question to be a bad King as he did not protect the church.

This can be illustrated, and I'm using the word illustrated to show that I'm going to use a bit of detail.

So this can be illustrated by his arguments with the Pope.

This is shown by John taking church lands after falling out with the Pope and this caused John to be excommunicated, which was the worst possible punishment for a person.

And I just want to explain my reasoning now could be detailed.

So now I want to explain why I'm using it.

This meant that John can be seen as a bad King because he was willing to punish the church and take money off it instead of making peace and following the instructions of the Pope.

Now that's a good paragraph.

A truly excellent answer would have had something about John's loss of Normandy and his lack of ruling with the support of his barons.

So a truly brilliant answer, and I'm really, really impressed if you did this would have three paragraphs, one on the church, one on John losing parts of the Angevin Empire, particularly Normandy and one on how John rule without the support of his barons, particularly looking at taxes.

But if you've just written the one paragraph you've done really, really well.

So the extension question, if you've got time to go onto it, what was the most important reason why people claim John was a bad King.

And I've given you some key words, Normandy, Softsword, excommunication, warrior, you might use fighter, but warrior is a much better word to use, church, tax and barons.

And I've given you some starter sentences that can be used in your answer.

Again, because it says what was the most important reason you're looking at categorising your answers.

So again, you need to write more than one paragraph to be a truly excellent answer.

You would even if you really going to push yourself would write a conclusion at the end, which sums everything up, now to help you choose what was the most important reason, we need to look at why people have based their view on why John was a bad King.

So reason one, war and I've given you a starting point, John lost Normandy.

Reason two, tax.

John made his people poor by making them pay high taxes.

Reason three, the church.

John argued with a Pope who was the leader of the church.

Now what I'd like you to do is to write those down and come up with your own reasons as well.

So I'd like you to pause the video for a couple of minutes whilst you do those reasons.

Well done, I'm sure you've worked really, really hard on making sure that you've got a really good list of reasons.

So this is what I came up with.

Again, if you didn't get all of these or you came up with different reasons, then well done.

You can always add what I have done to your list if you've missed any.

So this is what I said, reason one, John lost Normandy.

John lost most of the Angevin Empire lands in France.

He failed to regain Normandy.

And he's nicknamed Softsword for being a poor fighter.

For tax, John made his people poorer with these high taxes.

He made his barons pay higher fines, which upset them and scutage led the barons to stop supporting John.

Reason three, the church, we've got the arguments with the Pope, the fact that the Pope excommunicated John and the fact that some church men in England blamed John for all the problems that was going on.

Now, you've got three reasons here, you need to pick, I know there's no right or wrong answer to this, which one you would say was the most important reason.

So I'm going to go back to the slide with a starter sentences.

And I'm going to ask you to pause the video in order to have a go at the extension activity.

Well done, I'm sure you've done a really, really good answer on this, I know is a really well big, well done to you for all the hard work you've done in today's lesson.

I hope to see you for lesson two, which we'll be looking at how John had the barons rise up against him and how they forced him to sign this document called Magna Carta.

And so I will ask you and leave you to do the final task, which is the end of lesson quiz.

It has been an absolute pleasure, and I hope that you do, like I say, work on lesson two.

Thank you, and goodbye.