OCR A Level History A Y101/01 Alfred and the Making of England 871–1016 June 2025
Combined QUESTION PAPER and MARK SCHEME
Oxford Cambridge and RSA
Friday 6 June 2025 – Afternoon
A Level History A
Y101/01 Alfred and the Making of England 871–1016
Time allowed: 1 hour 30 minutes
*13 97 701 3 84 *
You must have:
• the OCR 12-page Answer Booklet
INSTRUCTIONS
• Use black ink.
• Write your answer to each question in the Answer Booklet. The question numbers must
be clearly shown.
• Fill in the boxes on the front of the Answer Booklet.
• Answer Question 1 in Section A. Answer either Question 2 or Question 3 in Section B.
INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 50.
• The marks for each question are shown in brackets [ ].
• Quality of extended response will be assessed in questions marked with an asterisk (*).
• This document has 4 pages.
ADVICE
• Read each question carefully before you start your answer.
,© OCR 2025 [F/506/4252] OCR is an exempt Charity
DC (KS) 358938 Turn over
, 2
Section A
Alfred the Great
Study the four sources and answer Question 1.
1 ‘In dealing with legal issues, Alfred’s main aim was to protect the poor’.
Use the four sources in their historical context to assess how far they support this view. [30]
Source A: King Alfred explains how judges should reach their decisions.
Judge very fairly. Do not give one judgement for the rich and another for the poor, nor one for the
person who is more dear and another for the one who is the more hateful. A man can consider this
principle alone; that he judges every one rightly. He needs no other law books. Let him think that he
should give no judgement to anyone that he would not wish to be given to him.
Introduction to King Alfred’s Law Code, drawn up by 895
Source B: A monk writes about how Alfred preserved law and order.
From the example of the barbarians, the English began to lust after violence, so that there was no
safe way of travelling without a military guard. Alfred appointed hundreds and tithings so that every
Englishman according to law must be a member of both. If anyone was accused of a crime, he was
obliged immediately to produce persons from the hundred and tithing to become his surety. Anyone
unable to find surety dreaded the security of the law. If anyone who was accused escaped either
before of after he found surety, all persons of the tithing and the hundred paid a fine to the king.
William of Malmesbury, Chronicle of the Kings of England, written before 1143
Source C: Alfred’s biographer gives an account of the king’s approach to the administration of
justice.
© trans Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge, Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources, Penguin Classics, 1983. From first line " Alfred was a painstaking judge in establishing the truth in judicial hearings and this," to last line " Indeed, everyone was more concerned with his o
© OCR 2025 Y101/01 Jun25
Combined QUESTION PAPER and MARK SCHEME
Oxford Cambridge and RSA
Friday 6 June 2025 – Afternoon
A Level History A
Y101/01 Alfred and the Making of England 871–1016
Time allowed: 1 hour 30 minutes
*13 97 701 3 84 *
You must have:
• the OCR 12-page Answer Booklet
INSTRUCTIONS
• Use black ink.
• Write your answer to each question in the Answer Booklet. The question numbers must
be clearly shown.
• Fill in the boxes on the front of the Answer Booklet.
• Answer Question 1 in Section A. Answer either Question 2 or Question 3 in Section B.
INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 50.
• The marks for each question are shown in brackets [ ].
• Quality of extended response will be assessed in questions marked with an asterisk (*).
• This document has 4 pages.
ADVICE
• Read each question carefully before you start your answer.
,© OCR 2025 [F/506/4252] OCR is an exempt Charity
DC (KS) 358938 Turn over
, 2
Section A
Alfred the Great
Study the four sources and answer Question 1.
1 ‘In dealing with legal issues, Alfred’s main aim was to protect the poor’.
Use the four sources in their historical context to assess how far they support this view. [30]
Source A: King Alfred explains how judges should reach their decisions.
Judge very fairly. Do not give one judgement for the rich and another for the poor, nor one for the
person who is more dear and another for the one who is the more hateful. A man can consider this
principle alone; that he judges every one rightly. He needs no other law books. Let him think that he
should give no judgement to anyone that he would not wish to be given to him.
Introduction to King Alfred’s Law Code, drawn up by 895
Source B: A monk writes about how Alfred preserved law and order.
From the example of the barbarians, the English began to lust after violence, so that there was no
safe way of travelling without a military guard. Alfred appointed hundreds and tithings so that every
Englishman according to law must be a member of both. If anyone was accused of a crime, he was
obliged immediately to produce persons from the hundred and tithing to become his surety. Anyone
unable to find surety dreaded the security of the law. If anyone who was accused escaped either
before of after he found surety, all persons of the tithing and the hundred paid a fine to the king.
William of Malmesbury, Chronicle of the Kings of England, written before 1143
Source C: Alfred’s biographer gives an account of the king’s approach to the administration of
justice.
© trans Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge, Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources, Penguin Classics, 1983. From first line " Alfred was a painstaking judge in establishing the truth in judicial hearings and this," to last line " Indeed, everyone was more concerned with his o
© OCR 2025 Y101/01 Jun25
