Chap 6 test guide
- 1. 1. Why was the Hundred Years’ War fought? •TheHundred Years’ War began as a dispute over who should become king of France. •The French supported a cousin of the dead king. Edward III of England was a nephew of the dead king, and felt he had a stronger claim to the French throne.
- 2. 1. Why was the Hundred Years’ War fought? • The conflict eventually became a war over French territory. • The English and the French had been fighting over French territory since the time of William the Conqueror.
- 3. 2. Describe the purpose and operation of a craft guild • Craft guilds were designed to provide organization for the activities of people who specialized in trades. • Each trade had its own guild, • These guilds were responsible for setting the quality of goods, controlling prices charged for goods, and ensuring that non-guild crafts people did not compete with guild members.
- 4. 2. Describe the purpose and operation of a craft guild • The guilds were also responsible for a system of training guild members from apprentices through journeymen to masters. • guilds also acted to protect and assist members who could not work due to sickness or accident. • specific trades: baker, tailor, sword maker.
- 5. 3. How did the growth of trade change medieval society? The growth of trade led to: • more products being available for sale, • more travel, the development of towns as trading centres, • a rising standard of living, • and the development of a whole new class of people who could make, often, a great deal of money.
- 6. 3. How did the growth of trade change medieval society? • These people were not members of the nobility. • This new wealth enabled towns to become more powerful. • Because the feudal system did not operate in towns, peasants from the countryside could leave their manors and move to towns, where they gained their freedom. • ***As a result, the rigid social organization of feudal society began to weaken, and social mobility based on wealth, not nobility, developed.
- 7. 3. How did the growth of trade change medieval society? • Towns developed their own systems of government • freedom and education increased for women. • Increased trade and life in towns would have contributed to the spread of the Black Death, which killed so many people in medieval Europe.
- 8. Why did some attitudes towards the Catholic church change after the 13th Century? • Several factors led to the Church losing power. • The Black Death was an important starting point. • Medieval people believed that God protected the good and punished the wicked. Yet the Black Death killed people randomly without regard for their goodness. • Many priests and nuns died because they had cared for the sick.
- 9. 4. Why did some attitudes towards the Catholic church change after the 13th Century? • The Black Death seemed like a punishment from God and some people spread this idea. • This led many to question their faith. The development of trade and towns was creating new roles in society in the middle class and power for this middle class that did not depend on the old feudal structure. • One result of the growing middle class was that more people could read and write, and some people discovered that Church teachings did not always agree with what they read in the Bible, and this led to more questioning.
- 10. 4. Why did some attitudes towards the Catholic church change after the 13th Century? • Some people began to question the great wealth of the Church, taxes the Church collected, fees for Church services, and whether the Church should have authority over what individuals believe. • This combination led to a weakening of Church authority in the 14th and 15th centuries.
- 11. 5. Discuss the reasons for the Peasants’ Revolts in France & England In France • manor lords continued to charge high rents on northern lands affected by the Hundred Years’ War and where the serfs had been robbed and assaulted by mercenaries. • The peasants revolted in response.
- 12. 5. Discuss the reasons for the Peasants’ Revolts in France & England • In England, labour shortages and food shortages, and resulting rising food prices and wages led to lords attempting to roll back wages to the levels they were before the Black Death. • Also, Parliament approved a poll tax to pay for the Hundred Years’ War – a tax that would be the same for every person, both rich and poor. The combination of the proposed wage reduction and the poll tax caused the English peasants to revolt. • Most students will point out that, in both countries, the revolts were brutally suppressed by the nobles, but that the revolts had the lasting effect of further weakening the feudal system.