Lesson video

Hello and welcome to lesson six of six, the final lesson.

Well done for making it this far.

In the history enquiry, Why did kings struggle to rule England? Today's lesson is going to be a summary of everything that we've covered so far.

Can you please make sure you get the title down, but before you do, a quick reminder.

For today's lesson, you're going to need a pen or pencil, some paper and a nice quiet space so you don't get disturbed because you're going to have to do lots and lots of thinking.

If you need to find any of those, then can you please pause the video now so we can work later.

Excellent.

Let's crack on with the lesson.

Couple more seconds to get the title down, and remember, this is a recap lesson on everything that we've covered in the previous five.

Let's get on with the lesson, then.

Nothing has changed here.

I'm going to do a quick, multiple choice recap.

Then we're going to look at the three strands that we've used several times during this enquiry.

How did the kings struggle to rule England? Well, three things made it difficult.

The barons, the church and war before finally, we bring everything together and answer the question Why did kings struggle to rule England? So let's have a go at the multiple choice questions.

So we just get our minds jogged on some of the key information that we've looked at over the last few lessons.

Question one.

How did Magna Carta limit John's power? So, either write down your answer or shout out at the screen or point it out.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Well done, I know you've got this answer and here it is.

Oh, it's three out of the four! Did you get all three? I bet you did! So, it limited John's power 'cos he had to rule with a council of 25 barons.

He had to ask permission from the barons to increase taxes and he had to make sure that he gave a fair trial.

He could no longer sell justice.

Well done on getting all of those three! How about question two? When was Parliament created? Ooh, tricky one, this one! So think carefully.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Well done, it's pretty easy for you, really.

1265.

Brilliant, final multiple choice question.

What did Edward use Parliament for? Ooh, think really carefully, think of a key word I used last lesson.

Oh, can you remember it? Five, four, three, two, one.

Brilliant, I know you got this! It is, of course, to pass statutes.

Remember, statutes are the most important laws that can be passed.

So well done on getting three out of three of those.

Okay, I'm going to disappear now, as we move through the rest of the lesson.

A quick reminder, remember we looked at this at several times.

This is the feudal system.

So you have the king at the top and he's the most powerful person.

At the beginning of our lessons, this is what society looked like.

It was controlled by the feudal system.

The king was at the top, most powerful person, owned all the land in England.

Beneath him were the barons.

They owned large areas of land that they had been given by the king.

In return, they made sure that they were loyal to him and they promise to be loyal.

And they provided him with soldiers when he needed them.

The barons then kept some land for themselves and gave little bits of land to their knights.

It was the knights that the barons gave to the king when he needed to raise an army.

And finally the Knights gave out their land to peasants.

Well, what I'd like you to do is just pause the video for about a minute or two.

And just think about the question.

What problems did John and Henry face from the barons? Try and drag up all our information that we've looked at and you may have been quizzed on over the last few lessons.

So have a go, pause the video and just do a quick bullet point list.

Well done, I'm sure you've come up with a really good list! So let's have a look.

The barons caused a king to struggle to rule because of a number of reasons.

And I've given you a picture of the Second Barons' War, there.

Money was a problem.

Taxation.

Remember, that the barons hated the tax called scutage that John forced them to pay many times during his reign.

Henry also had taxes and then he wasted that money.

Edward was different.

Edward got taxes either through using the Jews that he could tax himself or he used Parliament's.

So money was an issue and the barons often caused the king problems in his rule, when money was concerned.

The barons didn't like the king using foreign favourites.

And that was especially shown in John and Henry's reign.

And ultimately the barons could threaten to rebel.

This is what happened in the First and Second Barons' War, which both John and Henry faced.

So, I'd like you to just pause the video for a couple of minutes and just answer the question, which kings faced problems with their barons? And then, who avoided problems with their barons? Now, you're just doing a quick note here, but if you wanted to do a really amazing answer, you might add a little bit of detail.

So I'd like to pause the video now.

Fantastic! You might've turned around and put the kings that faced problems with their barons were John and Henry.

They ruled using foreign favourites.

They also upset the barons in relation to money.

And this caused them to rebel and both kings had to fight wars against their barons.

For the second question, who avoided problems, you could just say Edward avoided problems with his barons because he ruled using Parliaments and used their support.

Well done! Let's move on.

So, a reminder.

Parliament.

Because everything changed with the creation of Parliaments.

Edward created the system and the model on how a king should rule with Parliament.

And remember this picture from last lesson? It shows Edward's Parliament.

You can see the bishops on the left-hand side and at the bottom.

You can see the barons on the right-hand side and the Knights and the ordinary townsmen are sat in the middle.

Edward used this new creation, this Parliament, to pass statutes.

Remember statutes are the most important laws in the country and Parliament helped pass them.

So Edward was getting Parliament's permission or consent to pass these laws.

He got Parliament to set taxes, again, he's getting their consent, their permission, and ultimately the king needed Parliament in order to get money.

So everything changed with Parliament.

If you ruled without Parliament, you were going to face problems and Edward made sure that he did.

Well, let's think about the church.

So we've looked at examples on the barons, and we said John and Henry failed to keep the barons happy.

Edward did.

But how could the church cause kings to struggle to rule? Well, there were two kings that were either excommunicated or threatened with excommunication.

What were they? Ooh, you know, was that? Oh, I think I can hear you shouting out the answers! Of course it was John who was excommunicated and Henry who was threatened with excommunication.

Remember, excommunication was the worst thing that could happen to a Christian person.

You were cut off from the church.

If you died, whilst excommunicated you were going to go to hell.

Now, the church in England had a lot of influence.

It could persuade people to believe certain things and to get them to change their mind.

So the church, with John being excommunicated, or with Henry under threat of excommunication, the church could turn round to the people of England and say, do you really want to support this king? Look at what's happening to them or may happen to them.

They're not a good person.

They're going to go to hell.

Why would you support these people? And these kings, if they are bad, do you want to risk your soul going to hell? So the church could influence the people of England and the level of support a king could face.

But who was it? There were actually two kings that didn't at times face opposition by the church.

Well, in fact, all three.

Remember, John set out to make peace with the Pope.

He handed England over to the Pope.

Well, the Pope was extremely happy with John because now he technically ruled England.

Henry, as you can see with this picture, he rebuilt Westminster Abbey.

He was incredibly kind and generous to the church until he failed to pay his debt to help the Pope with Sicily.

Edward went on crusade.

So he was popular with the church.

But it was only Edward who did not fall out with the church.

So he did not risk the church trying to influence the people of England against him.

So let's do a quick recap.

We've done this over the last two lessons, so I know we're going to be really brilliant at it.

So let's go through very quickly.

I'm going to ask you to pause the video in a moment, copy out the sentences and obviously where the stars are, put in the correct vowels.

And where you've got a starting letter, you need to write the word out in full.

So pause the video for three, four minutes whilst you do this task.

Pause the video now.

Amazing, well done! You worked really hard doing that! Question one, or statement one, is going to be really simple for you.

I know you definitely got this one.

The barons rebelled against both John and Henry in the First and Second Barons' War.

Well done.

John and Henry used foreign F-O-R-E-I-G-N favourites.

F-A-V-O-U-R-I-T-E-S To help them rule.

Edward ruled with the support of now, I purposefully didn't give you the vowels this time because we've practised this a couple of times.

Did you spell Parliament correctly? I know you did.

Remember P-A-R-L-I-A-M-E-N-T.

Brilliant, well done! Statement four, John was excommunicated E-X-C-O-M-M-U-N-I-C-A-T-E-D Whereas Henry was threatened with this by the Pope.

Statement five, Henry and Edward at times were both supported by the church.

Edward went on crusade C-R-U-S-A-D-E and Henry rebuilt Westminster Abbey.

Well done on getting five out of five and getting all your spellings correct.

That's absolutely brilliant! So let's look at our final category because those five sentences have all just recapped the key information about how the barons and the church helped to cause kings problems or to struggle whilst they were ruling.

So what about war? How did war cause a king to struggle to rule? And you've got a lovely image there of the battle of Evesham where Prince Edward defeated Simon de Montfort during Henry the Third's reign.

But, if we think about it, to fight wars, you needed money.

Now, you generally got money from the people and that included the barons.

So if you were going to ask for money to fight wars, the barons would at least expect something in return.

Hopefully they'll get some more land.

So you needed to make sure that you were great warrior.

So you could reward the money and the trust that the barons had provided you.

Well, unfortunately not all the kings were that good at fighting, especially not Henry and John.

Edward was different.

But what else? If you look at what a king should do and part of what we call a job description, so things that they were expected to do, a king was expected to protect their people.

Now, John failed to protect the people of the AE.

Oh, what was the AE? It had lands in France, it stretched from Scotland all the way down to the Pyrenees in the south.

AE, what was it? What's that? Yeah, Oh well done for shouting out Angevin Empire! John lost loads of the Angevin Empire.

Well, that's not protecting his people.

If you look at the image here, this is the Second Barons' War, fought during Henry the Third's reign.

How is Henry protecting his people when his barons rose up and fought against him? His own people, the English people, are being killed.

That's not protecting his people.

Well, Edward did.

Edward protected his people.

He made sure that Wales was no longer a threat.

He tried to make sure that when Scotland signed an alliance, remember a friendship with France, he attacked Scotland to try and stop Scotland being a threat.

So you've got examples here of times when kings were not very good at war and it had consequences.

It upset the barons and was another reason why the barons were forced to rebel.

So let's have a go at our comprehension questions.

What changes happened in England that changed how it was ruled? What made the barons cause the king to struggle to rule? What made the church cause the king to struggle to rule? How did the war? Sorry, how did war cause the king to struggle to rule? Why did John and Henry struggle to rule England more than Edward? And the sentence starter, John and Henry struggled rule England more than Edward because? And then the extension.

We're going to look at that a little bit later on after we've gone through the comprehension answers, but just having mulling over in your mind whilst you're doing it.

So what was the most important reason for kings struggling to rule England? I'd like you to pause the video now and read the slides on the next page and answer those comprehension questions.

So pause the video.

Well done! You must have worked really hard answering those questions! And I know you used full sentences and key words from the question when you did it.

So you have done good answers.

So let's have a look.

Remember you may not have got the same down as I have, but that doesn't matter.

I know you've worked really hard.

So what changes happened in England that changed how it was ruled? A simple answer would be the king needed to rule with support, can no longer rule by himself, was a good answer.

It's going to show the change over the time period.

The first change in how an English king needed to rule was by the creation of Magna Carta in 1215.

This meant that kings of England would need to rule with the barons' support.

They would do this by having a council of 25 barons to help them.

So I'm using the details from the Magna Carta.

This changed in 1265 with the creation of Parliament.

This now meant that the King of England needed support from ordinary people, as well as the barons to rule properly.

So I've shown the two big changes that happened in that answer.

Question two, what made the barons cause the king to struggle to rule? You could simply say they rebelled.

They forced the king to rule with their consent.

Well a good answer could look like this.

The barons caused the king to struggle to rule in England by rebelling.

This happened because the king, such as John and Henry, relied on foreign favourites instead of the English barons for support and advice.

So I'm giving a reason why they rebelled.

The barons were also taxed too heavily because they could not speak to the king.

Well, they couldn't speak to the king because the king was only listening to his foreign favourites.

This ultimately caused them to rebel.

Question three.

What made the church cause the king to struggle to rule? Well, you could simply just put loyalty.

The church expected the king to be loyal to it because then he would go to heaven.

Well, here's a good answer.

The church caused the king to struggle to rule because the Pope could excommunicate them.

People were very religious and followed the advice of the church.

If you were excommunicated, then it meant you were cut off from the church.

This risked your soul going to hell.

Therefore the church could make people question their support for a king that had been excommunicated or threatened with it.

This is what happened to both John and Henry.

So I'm giving a precise example to show kings have struggled when the church turned against them.

Question four.

How did war cause the king to struggle to rule? Well, an acceptable might be, if they failed at fighting wars, then they were weak.

But a good answer would be a king needed to protect his people and defeat his enemies.

If they did not do this, then they might struggle to rule.

John was nicknamed Softsword.

So I'm bringing in something that we looked at in the very first lesson back at this moment in time to show that I've remembered it.

So well done if you've remembered that John was nicknamed Softsword.

The losing parts of the Angevin Empire.

Henry was defeated by France and Simon de Montfort.

This showed that they were weak.

The barons could challenge them.

Also, so I'm improving, I'm developing this answer, war costs lots of money.

This money was raised through taxation.

The barons and people of England were willing to pay if they got something back, such as extra land to rule.

Edward achieved this, but both John and Henry did not.

I suppose, you can improve that answer by giving examples of where Edward conquered, where he took over.

You may have added Wales or you may have said Wales and Scotland.

So well done for improving my answer! Excellent.

So let's have a look at the challenging question.

Why did John and Henry struggle to rule England more than Edward? Well, you could just simply say they failed to rule with the barons' support.

They failed to rule with the church's support all of the time.

They were unsuccessful at fighting war.

Anything along those lines would be an acceptable answer.

But again, we want to write a more detailed answer.

So let's develop it.

Let's add some more detail and explanation.

There were many reasons why John and Henry struggled to rule England more than Edward, such as their lack of support to rule.

Edward ruled with the support of the barons and the ordinary people.

He did this by using Parliament to pass statutes and taxes.

So I'm using a key word, Parliament, statutes, barons.

This meant, so I'm now explaining, why he got support, this meant the barons and ordinary people were asked for advice on the important decisions.

Whereas, so this is where I'm now comparing Edward with John and Henry, so "whereas" is a really useful word to show a comparison, where you look at one and then you compare it to something else.

So, whereas John and Henry tried to exclude the English barons.

They ruled with foreign favourites, which caused the English barons to stop supporting them.

Eventually the English barons challenged their power.

Obviously you could write a paragraph on the church.

You could write a paragraph on war as well, which would be absolutely brilliant and well done if you did.

And, I've got to say, hats off to you you've done amazingly well if you did write three paragraphs, you're an absolute star, well done! So how about the extension question? What was the most important reason for kings struggling to rule England? And I've given you the sentence starters and key words.

Now, before you attempt this and before we go through the plan, I want to make it clear, there is no right or wrong answer to this question.

It's entirely what you think.

So let's have a look at the plan.

And remember, planning an answer like this is always a really, really good idea.

Here's the plan.

Again, nothing has changed from the same activity we've done many times before.

Three reasons.

The same three reasons we looked at in this presentation.

War, barons and the church.

I've given you, again, some starting points.

A king needed to be a great warrior.

A king needed their support from the barons.

A king needed the support of the church.

In a moment I'd like you to pause the video and write down any more points that you could think of for each of these reasons.

So pause the video now.

Brilliant, well done for getting a lot of those bullet points down! Let's have a look at what I put.

If you didn't get it, then you can add it.

If you got more than me, then I'm so proud of you! For the war I put, apart from he needed to be great warrior, he needed to protect his people.

He needed to give land from the conquered areas to his barons that would be a reward to them.

For the barons, obviously a king needed their support.

He needed them to offer advice.

And if the barons felt like they were being ignored or they were being taxed too heavily, or they weren't getting a reward, then they may rebel.

And that would cause massive, massive problems. For the church.

A king needed the support of the church because the church could influence people.

The Pope could excommunicate the king, which was a really, really terrible thing to happen.

The church was also really important to ordinary people and it goes back to this influence.

So, I'm going to turn onto the next slide, which has got your starter sentences.

I know you've got all of those down, but if you haven't, quickly pause the video until you have done and add it to your list.

So to finish the lesson off, pause the video in a moment and then have a go writing this.

To make it an absolutely truly brilliant, fantastic answer, you would like to go with the most important, the next most important, and finally, the least important reason.

You can even include a conclusion if you wanted to, to produce a truly monumentally brilliant answer! So pause the video now.

Well done, I'm so flabbergasted at how hard you've worked today! This has summed up what's been quite a difficult unit to look at and I'm really, really pleased that you've stuck with it.

So well done! Obviously, if you'd like to share your work with Oak, then please share it.

Get your parents or carer or guardian to do so.

Well done, and I'm really pleased to have taught this unit with you.

I hope that you're be looking at some of the other units.

They're on the Oak network.

So thank you very much!.