OCR GCSE History A (Explaining the Modern World) British depth study with historic environment: The English Reformation c.1520-c.1550 + Castles: form and function c.1000-1750 November 2020 question paper J410/12

Explain why some people protested against the dissolution of the monasteries.

Study Sources A–C.

‘Priests and churchmen were well respected in England during the 1520s.’ How far do Sources A–C convince you that this statement is correct? Use the sources and your knowledge to explain your answer.

() Spelling, punctuation and grammar and the use of specialist terminology

Source A

I, Ralph Shelton, commend my soul into the hands of the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

I wish my body to be buried in Saint Thomas of Acres church in my father’s vault. I ask my executors to find an honest priest of good reputation and name to sing mass daily for ten years following my death. This priest will receive a fee of £7 per year.

An extract from the will of Ralph Shelton, a cloth trader, in 1522. An executor is a person appointed to carry out the wishes expressed in a will.

Source B

Our priests in England are as good as, or in fact far better, than those in any other country in learning, in honesty, goodness and holiness. But they are watched more closely than any others. If they keep few servants, we call them misers who will not provide work. If they keep many servants, we accuse them of showing off.

Where we see good priests at work, we take little notice. But when we see just once an evil deed, we stare and tell all we can about it. Let a good priest preach, and news of it will not travel. But let one friar be caught with a woman, we will criticise all the year after, and say, ‘What a terrible example they are setting!’

Thomas More writing in 1528 in a book called ‘A Dialogue Concerning Heresies’. Thomas More was a lawyer, a Member of Parliament and in 1529 became Lord Chancellor, one of the most senior positions in Henry VIII’s government.

Source C

As soon as the Members of Parliament assembled they all began to complain about the clergy and priests and how they were no longer true men of God. They complained that the priests oppressed people, demanding excessive amounts of money for performing burials and other services. They complained that priests and abbots were keeping their own businesses and damaging the trade of the merchants of the towns. There were complaints that priests were not helping the poor like they should and neglecting to give the people of their parishes proper preaching and instruction in God’s word.

An account of the Parliament of 1529 by Edward Hall. Hall was an MP and a successful London lawyer. He was a close friend of Thomas Cromwell and was made Sheriff of London in 1535.

Explain why Kenilworth Castle changed in the 1600s.

Study Sources D and E.

Which of these sources is more useful to a historian studying the history of Kenilworth Castle

between 1100 and 1300?

Source D

The King realised he had to crush the rebels in Kenilworth Castle or they would cause huge trouble. Every day the rebels destroyed surrounding land, for Kenilworth was in the middle of the kingdom and was a mighty castle. To end this threat the king taxed his subjects £19 000 for an army. There were many men, and they held 60 000 crossbow bolts and 20 000 wooden hurdles. Nine siege engines were also brought to the castle and fired stone missiles at the castle day and night. The King’s tower was enormous and contained 200 crossbowmen.

A description of the siege of Kenilworth Castle in 1266, from a chronicle called the Annal of Osney Abbey, published around 1300.

A recent photograph of the remains of Mortimer’s Tower, the main gatehouse to Kenilworth Castle, which was built in King John’s reign.