Lesson video

Hello and welcome to lesson one of four in the inquiry: How big a threat was the Peasants' Revolt to the monarchs' power.

Today's lesson is what were the causes of the Peasants' Revolt.

For today's lesson, you're going to need pen or pencil, paper and somewhere nice and quiet so you won't get disturbed.

If you need to go somewhere else in the house or to collect the proper equipment, then please pause the video now, otherwise make sure you copy down the title.

Excellent.

Let's get on with the lesson.

I hope you've got the title down.

If not one, one final pause of the video so you can make sure you've got it done.

Brill.

So let's have a look at what we're going to look at in today's lesson.

We're going to start off with a recap.

So we're going to have a look at England in the 14th century.

Then we're going to look at the Black Death and the consequences it had on England.

We're going to see how money might have caused the Peasants' Revolts.

Warfare, as well.

And then we're going to bring it all together to look at what were the causes.

So to start off with, let's have a look at the feudal system.

So this is just building upon early units that you may well have already looked at.

On the right, I've given you a very basic diagram to show the feudal system.

The king, the most powerful and important person in the country.

the king owned all of England and he gives his barons, or his lords, land.

The barons in return make sure that they give him loyalty and soldiers when he needs them.

The barons then divide their land.

They keep some for themselves.

They give knights some land to look after.

The knights are the soldiers that the barons provide the king.

And at the bottom, the ones who do all the really hard work, are the peasants.

And they work for their lord.

And the lord could be the baron, it could be the King, it could be a knight, but they all work for those above them in the feudal system.

So, an example, in 1348, the year before the Black Death, we have this system.

At the top, you've got the nobles, the barons, and underneath a majority of the people, the peasants.

The peasants are given land to look after and to farm for the nobles.

The nobles aren't going to do it themselves.

And, in return, the peasants pay taxes, they swear loyalty and they farm the land.

So let's have a look at this in a little bit more detail.

This is what a village life might look like.

Now, as you can see, it is divided up.

You see lots of little strips and what's this called? It is an open field system.

Each peasant, because all of this land is going to be owned by the lord, each peasant is given a strip of land to farm.

Their lord will tell them which strips they are farming and what to grow on those strips.

You'll also see common land.

Common land is areas where they could go and release and let their animals graze and fatten them up.

And it is owned by everyone.

Village life was determined by the seasons.

In spring, the plough needed to be brought out and to plough the fields, to make sure that crops could be planted.

In the summer, you've got the growth of the crops and the harvest that needs to be collected in.

In the autumn, you've got the gathering of that harvest and the storing away to make sure that it could last.

And then you have the winter, where you slowly work your way through and eat the foods that you have stored and gathered from the previous year.

It was incredibly hard work.

Let's have a look at this in even more detail.

What did the peasants do for their lords? And in a moment, I'm going to ask you to pause the video to consider the answer to this question.

But first let's have a look at the source.

In England, as in other countries, noblemen have great power over the common people.

The common people, in this case, are the peasants.

The villeins, an important word that is, they're the bottom of the peasant structure, plough their lords' lands, gather and bring home their corn, make their hay, cut their wood and bring it home.

So, pause the video for about 30 seconds to think about what the peasants did.

So pause the video now.

Excellent.

Just in case you're struggling, I've given you some hints on the next slide.

So, the peasants are doing a lot of work for their lords, especially this group called the villeins.

They plough their lords' lands.

They gather and bring home their corn.

Not their own corn first.

No, they've got to get their lords' corn in first.

They make their hay.

They make the lords' hay.

They cut the lords' wood and they bring it all home.

They do everything for their lord.

So I've posed you a question.

Why would the peasants be unhappy at this? And I've given you a sentence starter.

The peasants would be unhappy about this because.

So, thinking about the feudal structure, which you have on the right-hand side, thinking about the words in bold, I would like you to pause video in a moment and finish off that sentence.

So pause the video now.

Well done.

That's absolutely brilliant.

That must have taken a lot of effort.

I'm really proud of you for doing it.

So this is what we have in 1349 after the effects of the Black Death.

So it's the same sort of image.

But if you notice, you can see the triangle that had the peasants has shrunk.

It's smaller.

That is used, and I've shown that, to illustrate the number of peasants in England went down.

A lot of them died.

Thousands and thousands of people in England died as a result of the Black Death.

But yet, the nobles are still giving land to those peasants that are still alive.

And they're still demanding the same taxes, the same loyalty and even more effort in farming the land 'cause there's now less peasants to farm the land.

So things have changed as a result of the Black Death.

There's less peasants and more lands.

So let's see what happens.

I'm going to ask you in a moment to pause the video again and to answer the question, what did they demand.

Again, I'm going to go through.

Now, we've already looked at the beginning of this source, of Jean Froissart We're going to look at the rest of it.

So we've already looked at why and what they did.

So cut the wood, they ploughed the field.

They gathered and brought home the corn.

They made the hay, et cetera.

And it continues, the source.

These unhappy people began to complain.

As well they might.

They said that in the beginning of the world, there were no bondmen.

A bondman is somebody that is being forced, who has to do something because it is their duty.

And so no one ought to be bond now.

So if at the beginning of the world, everyone was in essence equal.

Then why are people now in this forced state? surely everyone should still be equally build on this.

They were men, like their lords, so why should they be kept under, like beasts? Why should their lord, treats these people, these villeins like animals.

This, they said, they would no longer suffer.

If they did any work for their lords, they would have wages the same as any other.

So, just pause of air in a moment and think.

What were the peasants now demanding? Now I'd like you just write a sentence to answer that.

So pause the video now.

Well done.

I'm really pleased with how hard you're working.

Just in case you are struggling.

I've given you a bit more of a hint.

We have highlighted in bold, no bondmen, because everyone was equal at the beginning of the world, everyone was equal.

So no one ought to be bond now their lord should not own them.

It's basically what they're saying.

Men like their lords, so why should they be kept under like beasts? Why should they be made to work hard for nothing like animals? So they're demanding to be treated like people, they're demanding that they should no longer be bonded and in a sense owned by their lords.

So well done if you got that, if you didn't, it doesn't matter 'cause I know you will have tried really, really hard.

What were the causes of the Black Death? The consequences, sorry, of the Black Death.

Well, the image there gives you a hint.

There was a massive division fall in England.

Now what that means is that the number of people living in England fell dramatically.

Now there are different versions on how much the population of England shrunk by.

It's roughly accepted at around a third.

Now what that meant, is they were less peasant to work the land.

Yet there was more work for them and to do.

So if you think back to our last slide, why shouldn't they demand to be paid for this extra work they're now doing? Well, the answer is simple.

The people that run or ruled England, the King and his parliament, while parliament was made up of the barons, the lords, and who was going to pay for the peasants to work on their lands? The lords.

So the lords weren't really unwilling to have to pay, especially considering they were losing money.

Some did realise that they had to attract peasants onto their land.

So they did offer wages.

But that stole them from other lords, which upset them.

So parliament decided to pass a really, really important law called the Statute of Labourers.

Now what this meant is that the peasants couldn't demand to be paid if they were villeins, if they weren't, then they had to be paid at the 1348 level.

So there could be no pay rise for these extra hard working people.

If a peasant, broke the Statute of Labourers, then they would be arrested and put in jail.

Well, was that a risk worth taking? Some lords did break the Statute of Labourers.

Others were determined that it was going to be held.

And so they put peasants on trial in their own courts to punish them for even daring to think about breaking the Statute of Labourers.

So the peasants in England are now being held back they cannot demand to be paid if they're villeins, they cannot be allowed to move off their lord's land, to go to another lord in order to get wages.

And those that are able to move have to stay because the wages are now set at the 1348 level.

So things have not improved in the slightest for the peasants.

And they're being held back by their lords.

So let's just do a quick check.

What were the consequences of the Black Death? I've given you some options there? Think really, really hard what we said.

What were the consequences? If you need to, pause the video now.

Oh, I know that you've got this.

What were the consequences? The hint is more than one.

Have you got it right? Of course you did.

England's population fell.

There were a fewer of peasants to work the land, because there's fewer peasants things cost more 'cause they're harder to make.

There's less people to make them so the costs rose.

Well done on getting that, really, really pleased.

What do the peasants initially want? Now initially means at the beginning, what did they want? What's their first aim? Ooh.

This one could be quite tricky.

What did they want? If you need to, again, pause the video, but let's have a go five, four, three, two, one.

Oh, I know you've got this.

Well done, they wanted to be paid or get more pay for the work they did.

Brilliant.

Last question.

What was the name of the law, which reduced wages? You're definitely going to to get this one.

So five, four, three, two, one.

Well done, Statute of Labourers.

I know you got three out of three for that.

I'm really, really pleased.

So let's keep going.

We've had a look at the consequences of Black Death and we've worked out the Statute of Labourers Stopped the peasants from earning more money, which would have made them better off.

Well, unfortunately, what we need to remember is in the 14th century, England gets involved in the Hundred Years' War, and that's a war between England and France.

And initially England starts off by winning.

The King of England at this moment in time, his grandfather, Edward the Third, defeats the French army and they're crushed on two occasions.

Towards the end of Edward's reign, things have turned against the English and his son, John of Gaunt, is determined to keep the war going.

He thinks if the English keep fighting, then things will turn around and England will regain any lands lost.

To do this, he decided to create a tax called the Poll Tax.

Everyone will pay the Poll Tax.

The richer you are, the more you'll pay.

Now, the first two Poll Taxes are quite small, but the 1381 Poll Tax, that demands a shilling, which isn't a lot of money, especially for the peasants.

And not only that, but if you were 14 or older, you had to pay it.

So you've got the peasants who cannot earn more money, even though they're working harder, and now have to pay this really expensive Poll Tax.

And it doesn't make them happy.

It's making them poorer.

So John of Gaunt is not very pleasing to the peasants.

What makes matters worse is John of Gaunt stops many of the people that the peasants think are taking advantage of Edward the Thirds' old age from being removed from government.

And what they see is the people at top helping Edward the Third and then Edwards' grandson, Richard the Second.

All they're interested in is making themselves rich.

And they're doing that by taxing the people and then taking some of the money from themselves.

And John of Gaunt seems to be protecting those people.

So the peasants don't really like John of Gaunt because they see he's protecting people that should not be protected and are doing harm to the country.

And he's created this Poll Tax.

So he's not very popular person.

And all of this combines to war, as already said, England's involved in a Hundred Years' War And at the moment of the Peasants' Revolt breaking out, things are not going well.

John of Gaunt is desperate for the war to continue and in order to pay for the war, he has to raise taxes to pay for the soldiers.

But this means he creates the Poll Tax, which is deeply unpopular.

So, we look at it.

There are causes of this Peasants' Revolt are: Consequence of the Black Death, war and money.

But before we go onto our comprehension questions, let's just look at the glossary: Statute of Labourers, we've touched and come across before the law forcing peasants to work for the same pay and conditions from 1348 before the Black Death.

A labourer is someone who worked the land.

Most labourers were peasants.

Poll tax.

A tax paid by all, in 1381, this was to be paid by anyone over 14.

Regency council.

This is a term that, you may have come across in unit 11, but if you didn't, don't worry.

A Regency council is a council of lords, of barons, that helped rule England until the King was old enough to do it himself.

Now, as we'll discover England, at the time of the Peasants' Revolt, was ruled by Richard the Second and he himself was only 14.

So he couldn't rule England himself, So he had had a Regency council.

And plunder.

valuable goods that were stolen when an army captured a village, town or city.

So things like gold or silver, they were stolen by the army.

So let's have a look at questions.

After the Black Death, what did the peasants want? How did the lords try to reduce wages? What was the name of the tax that was collected in 1381? What caused taxes to rise? And who was John of Gaunt? Now remember, we are looking for good answers.

Good answers always have full sentences and they should always have key words from the question to start them off.

Now I know you're going to smash those five.

So once you've done, we're then going to go through an extension question, which is: What was the most important cause of the Peasants' Revolt.

Now I want to remind you that there's no right or wrong answer for that question.

It's whatever you think.

I'd like you to pause the video now, read the worksheet page and answer the comprehension questions.

So pause the video now.

You have done amazingly well.

So proud of you, well done for all the hard work today.

Let's have a look at your answers then.

So question one, After the Black Death, what did the peasants want.

An acceptable answer would just say: Higher wages.

A good answer, as of earlier said, would have a full sentence and you can see it does.

It's got some detail and it's got some key words from the question to help start it off.

That means you're always going to answer that question.

So let's have a look at it.

After the Black Death, the peasants wanted to be paid for the work they were being asked to do.

Some asked for a higher wage.

This was because the Black Death had left many villages virtually empty so there was more work to do on the lord's land.

Some lord's expected the peasants to do this extra work without being paid.

However, some lords were willing to rent land to peasants or pay higher wages.

This led to many peasants demanding to be paid or to receive more money.

So I've got a reason why peasants wanted to be paid and the explanation behind it.

Don't worry if you didn't get it word for word.

I know you worked really hard.

So well done.

Let's have a look at question two.

How did lords try to reduce wages? Well, an acceptable answer would just be: Statute of Labourers, but let's add some details there to make it a good answer.

The lords tried to reduce wages by getting parliament to pass the Statute of Labourers.

This meant that the peasants had to accept working for the same pay and conditions as in 1348.

This was before the Black Death.

This meant the wages would be reduced.

The lords could also use their own courts to make sure this law was followed.

If any peasant broke the law, then they would be jailed.

Well done.

Question three.

What was the name of the tax that was collected in 1381? An acceptable answer would be: The Poll tax.

Good answer.

It's going to be, the Poll Tax was collecting in 1381.

It was creating 1377 by John of Gaunt.

The 1381 demanded was more than previously had been asked for.

To make matters worse, anyone over 14 had to pay it.

So I've given you a little bit of extra detail.

Again, remember, you do not have to written exactly the same as myself, but I know you will have got the key points down.

What caused taxes to rise? Well, an acceptable answer would be: War with France.

The good answer: Taxes needed to rise due to the war with France, England under Richard second's grandfather, had begun The Hundred Years' War with France.

So I've given it a bit of background, a bit data.

Initially things went well for England, but by the 1370s, things had turned against them.

John of Gaunt wanted to plunder France, and remember I'm using one of those key words, and regain the lost lands.

to pay for the army, John decided to raise taxes and use the Poll Tax.

So again, I'm using a key term by using Poll Tax, so well done.

I know you will have used those in your answer.

Question five, who was John of Gaunt? An acceptable answer would be just: The King's uncle.

But we're going to develop that as we've done on our previous questions.

John of Gaunt was Richard the Second's uncle.

He created the Poll Tax so that England could continue the war against France.

That could be improved by saying, to continue the Hundred Years' War against France.

John of gaunt had also undone many of the changes that parliament had tried to make towards the end of Edward the third's reign.

Those reforms including removing the bad advisors to Edward.

So remember, I turn around early in the presentation and mentioned about the changes parliament wanted to make.

They're wanting to get rid of the people and others had seen was trying to make money and they'll take an advantage of Edwards.

Well John a gaunt was seen to be protecting them.

So I included that into this answer.

And I'm really, really impressed if you did too, so well done.

It shows that you were listening incredibly carefully.

So, well done.

Now I know you've got five out of five and you did fantastically brilliant answers.

So let's have a go at the extension question.

What was the most important cause of the Peasants' Revolt.

Now I want to remind you, I said this earlier that there is no right or wrong answer.

So I've given you some sentence starters and some key words.

If you want to pause the video and have a bit of a think.

okay, let's go to planning this answer.

I've given you three reasons.

And those are the three reasons we looked at during this presentation, Black Death, the consequences of it.

Money, given you some hints about what you could include.

Now, in a moment I'd like you to pause the video and to write down anything you can remember for each of these reasons.

So pause the video, now.

Brilliant, well done.

I know you've got lots of reasons and ideas down.

If you don't have the same as me, then don't worry.

You can copy those down to help build your case.

If you've got more than me, then really, really well done.

So let's have a look at what I have got.

So for the Black Death, we have less people to work the land, the peasants demanded higher wages, and you got the Statute of Labourers was created to hold the peasants back.

For money.

You've got the Poll Tax created by John of Gaunt.

The fact that 1381 Poll Tax was more demanding than previous versions.

And the peasants had little money due to the Statute of Labourers.

What was it, War you've had the war against France, the Hundred Years' War.

John of Gaunt wanted to regain lost lands.

So he needed to have taxes, so he needed money to pay for this war.

Now there is no right or wrong answer for this.

So it's entirely up to you.

So let's go back to our sentence starters.

In a moment I'd like to pause the video and have a go at answering this question.

An absolutely monumentally brilliant answer would have the most important cause, the next most important cause and the least important cause.

You could even have an introduction and a conclusion.

But let's have a go at it.

So pause the video now.

Well done.

You've worked really, really hard for today's lesson.

Let's move on to the last and final slide 'cause you're almost there.

You've just got the exit quiz to do now.

So if you'd like to share your work, then please make sure you ask your parents, carer or guardian to do it for you.

And you have the following social media ways to do it.

Please make sure you do the exit quiz.

And I'm really, really proud of how hard you've worked.

And I hope to see you for the lesson two in our inquiry.