Worksheet

After the Plague: A Museum Gallery of Medieval England

Grade 7 history: study a museum gallery of court rolls, a crusader coin, plague graves and labor laws to see how feudal England changed.

Grade 7Social StudiesInteractive · Printable

Aligned toHIS.7.5

Play online Play as a game

PrintLetter-size worksheet Answer keyPrintable answers

Assign to classAssign to your classes, or get a join code

What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 C3 Framework standard
Printable answer key
11 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 7
Subject: Social Studies
Question types: Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students describe feudal duties and manor life in medieval England.
Students use artifacts as evidence of the Crusades and the Black Death.
Students explain how the Black Death changed the lives of peasants.

How to use

Read the passage first, then let small groups each study two exhibit cases and report to the class before everyone answers the questions.

Curriculum

C3 Framework standard covered

HIS.7.5

Describe feudalism, manor life, the Crusades and the Black Death in medieval Europe and how they changed society.

Preview

OwlSheets.com

Name Date

After the Plague: A Museum Gallery of Medieval England

Study six labeled artifacts on manors, the Crusades, the Black Death and revolt.

Background

Read the passage. Then answer the questions.

Lords, Peasants and a Changing Europe

1After the Western Roman Empire fell, many parts of Europe had no strong central government. Kings granted land to nobles, who became their vassals and promised to fight for them. Nobles in turn granted land to knights. Historians later called this system of land in return for loyalty and service feudalism, though it worked differently from place to place.

2Most people were peasants living on manors, farming estates that belonged to a lord. Many were serfs. They could not leave the manor without the lord's permission, worked several days a week on his fields and paid him fees, such as a fee when a daughter married. The lord's manor court enforced the customs of the manor. A manor grew most of its own food, and its people bought little from outside.

3From 1095 to 1291, popes called for Crusades to win and hold Jerusalem and nearby lands. Muslims saw the crusaders as invaders, and Muslim armies took back the last crusader cities by 1291. Crusaders and pilgrims came home with a taste for sugar and spices, and the Italian merchants who shipped these goods grew rich.

4In 1348 the Black Death reached England. Within about two years it killed perhaps a third to half of the people. Whole families died, and some villages were left almost empty. With so few people left to farm, surviving workers asked for higher wages, and lords who needed workers often paid them.

5In 1349 and 1351, the king and his government made laws to hold wages at the levels from before the plague. Many peasants resented these laws. In 1381, angered by them and by a new tax, thousands of peasants rose in the Peasants' Revolt and marched on London. The revolt was crushed, but over the next century serfdom slowly faded in England, as more peasants paid rent in money instead of working on the lord's land.

Paragraph 1 says feudalism "worked differently from place to place." Why does the writer most likely include this?

A. To explain why kings in Europe had no vassals
B. To show that historians found one plan used in every kingdom
C. To warn that the general picture does not fit every land
D. To show that feudalism began after the Crusades

According to paragraph 5, what led to the Peasants' Revolt of 1381?

A. The plague first reached England that same year.
B. Crusaders returned home and took the peasants' land.
C. The king freed the serfs, and the lords rose up.
D. Peasants were angry about wage laws and a new tax.

Visit the gallery

Read the six exhibit labels. Then answer the questions.

Gallery 4: The World the Plague Changed

Case A. Manor court roll, England, 1330s (copy). Court rolls recorded the manor court's decisions. Entries like these appear in many rolls: a serf fined for letting his daughter marry without the lord's permission; a tenant fined because his cows got into the lord's wheat; a villager ordered to do his three days of work a week on the lord's land.

Case B. Gold coin of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1100s–1200s. Crusader rulers had coins made that copied the gold dinars of Muslim Egypt, with Arabic writing, so that merchants across the region would accept them.

Case C. Graves at East Smithfield, London (photograph). London opened this burial ground in 1348–1349 for victims of the plague, and bodies were laid in long rows. In 2011, scientists found DNA of the plague germ in teeth from these graves.

Case D. Ordinance of Labourers, 1349 (adapted from a later copy). "Because a great part of the people, and especially of workers and servants, has lately died in the plague, many, seeing that masters need them and that servants are scarce, will not work unless they receive excessive wages. No one shall pay or take more than the wages usual in 1346 and 1347."

Case E. A rebel priest's question, 1381. John Ball, a priest who supported the rebels, is reported to have preached on the rhyme "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?" (delved = dug; span = spun thread; a gentleman was a man of noble rank). The report comes from Thomas Walsingham, a monk who lived at the time and strongly opposed the rebels.

Case F. A manor rent roll, about 1420 (typical example). Most tenants on this manor now pay their lord rent in money. Few still owe him weekly work on his fields.

A serf on the manor in Case A wants his daughter to marry. Using Case A and paragraph 2, what should he do to avoid a fine?

A. Get the lord's permission and pay the fee.
B. Ask a knight of the manor to sign a charter.
C. Wait until his three days of work are done.
D. Ask the king's court in London to approve it.

What does the coin in Case B best show about the crusader states?

A. They made Arabic the main language of England.
B. They paid English peasants in gold dinars.
C. They traded in a region where Muslim coins were trusted.
D. They refused to trade with Muslim merchants.

How does Case C corroborate paragraph 4?

A. It shows that plague killed many in London by 1349.
B. It shows that the plague began in London in 1348.
C. It shows that wages in London rose after 1349.
D. It proves that exactly half of London's people died.

Underline the part of the law in Case D that gives an order, not a description of the problem.

Because a great part of the people, and especially of workers and servants, has lately died in the plague,many, seeing that masters need them and that servants are scarce,will not work unless they receive excessive wages.No one shall pay or take more than the wages usual in 1346 and 1347.

Whose point of view does the law in Case D mainly express?

A. Doctors who studied the graves at East Smithfield
B. Lords and employers who needed workers cheaply
C. Peasants who wanted higher pay for their work
D. Merchants who shipped spices from the East

Walsingham strongly opposed the rebels. How should a historian treat his report of John Ball's rhyme?

A. As a supporter's report, since he lived at the time
B. As a hostile report to check against other sources
C. As useless, since monks did not record sermons
D. As Ball's exact words, since a monk wrote them down

What idea does John Ball's question "who was then the gentleman?" challenge?

A. That peasants should grow food for the towns
B. That the Church should hold land on manors
C. That nobles were set above others from the start
D. That the king should collect taxes in money

10.

Use the passage and the gallery. Sort each detail: does it show the old manor system, or a change that came after the plague?

A serf fined for a marriage without permissionA new law limiting workers' wagesThousands of peasants marching on LondonTenants paying rent in moneyA manor growing most of its own food

The old manor system	A change after 1348

11.

Claim: The Black Death did more to change the lives of English peasants than the Crusades did. Do you agree? Use at least two exhibit cases and one paragraph of the passage as evidence, and explain your reasoning.