The Feudal system
In this paragraph we can find information about feudal system of land ownership and about horrible epidemic of sickness called Black Death.
Lets start from feudalism which is a system of land ownership in Medieval times which was used by the Normans.
The king gave land to his lords in return for their help in wars.
Landowners were obliged to send certain number of men to serve in the army.
Some peasants own their own piece of land but mostly peasants were serfs.
Serfs had a small piece of their lord’s land to grow their food & in return they had to work for the lord and they couldn’t move away.
Feudal system was in use also in south Scotland but in north Scotland and Ireland land was owned by members of the prominent families or “clans”.
The Black Death
Black Death came to Britain in 1348.
Black Death was a form of plague and it killed one third of population of England, Wales and Scotland.
It was one of the worst disasters in Britain ever.
Because of smaller population there was no need for growing so much cereal crops.
Also because there were labour shortages, peasants demanded higher wages.
New social classes appeared, including owners of large areas of land which were later called the gentry.
Many people left the countryside and lived it towns which started to accumulate wealth creating middle age class..
Because many people died in Pale, area on Ireland controlled by English, their influence was smaller.
Legal & Political Changes
Middle ages are the time when Parliament as we know it now started to develop.
It has his origins in king’s council which were advisors coming from class of nobles and Church leaders.
Kings had unlimited power until 1215 when Kind John was forced by his noblemen to agree to number of their demands.
A result was a charter of rights called Magna Carta (the Great Charter).
King became the subject to the law.
It protected the rights of nobility and restricted king’s power to collect taxes and make new law.
The Parliament was called for the king to consult his nobles when he wanted to raise money for example.
In time, because more nobles were involved in parliament meetings, two separate parts, known as Houses, were established.
The great landowners, nobles and bishops sat in House of Lords, knights and wealthy city people were elected to sit in House of Commons.
Only small part of population was allowed to join in electing the House of Commons members.
A similar Parliament developed in Scotland.
It had three Houses called Estates: the lords, the commons, the clergy.
There were also developments in legal system.
The principle that judges are independent of the government began to be established.
Judges developed in England “common law” by a process of precedence (following previous decisions) & tradition.
In Scotland – laws were “codified” – written down.
My conclusion from learning these three paragraphs: I find Legal and political changes as least familiar to me so I need to focus on remembering the new nomenclature.
Important to memorise: Scottish Parliament had three houses
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