S
uestion
Level question
Paper
OCR with
A/AS=2025
paper,
Exam-Ready
including
OCR AExaminer
the
Level
complete
History
MarkQuestion
AScheme.
Y301-01
Paper
Covers
Thewith
Early
allExam-Ready
examinable
Anglo-Saxons
content
Examiner
c.400–800
with
Mark
Verified
Scheme.
Verified
Answers2025
Question
Covers all
paper
OCR
examinable
A
with
Level
Marking
content
History
Scheme
A
with
Y301-01
Verified
Attached.pdf
The
Answers
Early Anglo-Sa
2025 OCR A Level History A
Y301/01 The Early Anglo-Saxons c.400–800
Verified Question paper with Marking Scheme Attached
Oxford Cambridge and RSA
Friday 23 May 2025 – Morning
A Level History A
Y301/01 The Early Anglo-Saxons c.400–800
Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
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 the question in Section A and any two questions in Section B.
INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 80.
• 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 [D/506/4288] OCR is an exempt Charity
DC (WW) 351706/2 Turn over
1 OCR A/AS Page 1
,S
uestion
Level question
Paper
OCR with
A/AS=2025
paper,
Exam-Ready
including
OCR AExaminer
the
Level
complete
History
MarkQuestion
AScheme.
Y301-01
Paper
Covers
Thewith
Early
allExam-Ready
examinable
Anglo-Saxons
content
Examiner
c.400–800
with
Mark
Verified
Scheme.
Verified
Answers2025
Question
Covers all
paper
OCR
examinable
A
with
Level
Marking
content
History
Scheme
A
with
Y301-01
Verified
Attached.pdf
The
Answers
Early Anglo-Sa
2
Section A
Read the two passages and answer Question 1.
1 Evaluate the interpretations in both of the two passages.
Explain which you think is more convincing as an explanation of the process of
Christianisation during the period from c.400 to 800. [30]
Passage A
What attracted English kings to Christianity in the late sixth and seventh centuries? Conversion offered
advantages to kings beyond the cultural or religious. The presence of strangely dressed religious professionals,
with exotic patterns of behaviour and equipped with books, offered a new dimension to a royal court and
distinction to its king. The Bible presented a style of kingship which was divinely ordained. It also suggested
kings had law-making and tax-raising powers. Support of a literate clergy enabled kings to claim law-enacting
powers and introduce changes in keeping with the growing authority of kingship. Letters made it possible for a
king to communicate at a distance.
The building of monasteries provided a means of establishing a permanent royal presence in disputed
territories. Christianity ensured that identical religious rituals would be replicated at all churches throughout
the kingdom, with prayers said for the king. Conversion restructured religious life around the royal family.
Within their own kingdoms, churches and monasteries provided opportunities for kings to establish new
institutional focal points of royal authority, around which to remodel local society. By the late seventh
century, royal families were investing in family monasteries. Conversion to Christianity provided a new
institutional framework which offered cohesion to kingdoms. It was Christianity, above all else, that enabled
powerful kings to establish themselves across the seventh century and to create a structure which stressed
their superiority.
Nicholas J. Higham and Martin J. Ryan, The Anglo-Saxon World, published in 2013.
© OCR 2025 Y301/01 Jun25
2 OCR A/AS Page 2
,S
uestion
Level question
Paper
OCR with
A/AS=2025
paper,
Exam-Ready
including
OCR AExaminer
the
Level
complete
History
MarkQuestion
AScheme.
Y301-01
Paper
Covers
Thewith
Early
allExam-Ready
examinable
Anglo-Saxons
content
Examiner
c.400–800
with
Mark
Verified
Scheme.
Verified
Answers2025
Question
Covers all
paper
OCR
examinable
A
with
Level
Marking
content
History
Scheme
A
with
Y301-01
Verified
Attached.pdf
The
Answers
Early Anglo-Sa
3
Passage B
Conversion occurred ‘bottom up’, as individual Christians or households brought their friends, kin and
neighbours over to the new religion. It occurred ‘top down’ as well, when missionaries targeted leading
members of society and then expected the new faith to percolate out from them. Force was sometimes a
factor, both in getting the leaders of society to convert, or in pushing the new religion on others.
In practice each story of Christianisation is likely to have embraced some elements of all three of these
scenarios. Missionary efforts tend to be the best known. Other more direct techniques could be applied too.
Pope Gregory advised one of the earliest English missionaries to forcibly convert pagan shrines to Christian
usage. Doing so would serve two goals. First, it would show that the pagans’ gods did not punish the
missionaries for their desecration, implying the superior power of the Christian God. Second, it enabled the
new converts to maintain their accustomed holy places, and potentially even some of the festivals they had
celebrated there. Gregory’s advice underlines the flexibility that Christian missionaries often displayed in
order to get converts to accept the main tenets of the new religion, up to and including the rebranding of
existing religious practices. In effect the religion took on, under a new guise, much of what had already been
done in the name of earlier beliefs.
Rory Naismith, Early Medieval Britain c.500–1000, published in 2021.
© OCR 2025 Y301/01 Jun25 Turn over
3 OCR A/AS Page 3
uestion
Level question
Paper
OCR with
A/AS=2025
paper,
Exam-Ready
including
OCR AExaminer
the
Level
complete
History
MarkQuestion
AScheme.
Y301-01
Paper
Covers
Thewith
Early
allExam-Ready
examinable
Anglo-Saxons
content
Examiner
c.400–800
with
Mark
Verified
Scheme.
Verified
Answers2025
Question
Covers all
paper
OCR
examinable
A
with
Level
Marking
content
History
Scheme
A
with
Y301-01
Verified
Attached.pdf
The
Answers
Early Anglo-Sa
2025 OCR A Level History A
Y301/01 The Early Anglo-Saxons c.400–800
Verified Question paper with Marking Scheme Attached
Oxford Cambridge and RSA
Friday 23 May 2025 – Morning
A Level History A
Y301/01 The Early Anglo-Saxons c.400–800
Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
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 the question in Section A and any two questions in Section B.
INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 80.
• 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 [D/506/4288] OCR is an exempt Charity
DC (WW) 351706/2 Turn over
1 OCR A/AS Page 1
,S
uestion
Level question
Paper
OCR with
A/AS=2025
paper,
Exam-Ready
including
OCR AExaminer
the
Level
complete
History
MarkQuestion
AScheme.
Y301-01
Paper
Covers
Thewith
Early
allExam-Ready
examinable
Anglo-Saxons
content
Examiner
c.400–800
with
Mark
Verified
Scheme.
Verified
Answers2025
Question
Covers all
paper
OCR
examinable
A
with
Level
Marking
content
History
Scheme
A
with
Y301-01
Verified
Attached.pdf
The
Answers
Early Anglo-Sa
2
Section A
Read the two passages and answer Question 1.
1 Evaluate the interpretations in both of the two passages.
Explain which you think is more convincing as an explanation of the process of
Christianisation during the period from c.400 to 800. [30]
Passage A
What attracted English kings to Christianity in the late sixth and seventh centuries? Conversion offered
advantages to kings beyond the cultural or religious. The presence of strangely dressed religious professionals,
with exotic patterns of behaviour and equipped with books, offered a new dimension to a royal court and
distinction to its king. The Bible presented a style of kingship which was divinely ordained. It also suggested
kings had law-making and tax-raising powers. Support of a literate clergy enabled kings to claim law-enacting
powers and introduce changes in keeping with the growing authority of kingship. Letters made it possible for a
king to communicate at a distance.
The building of monasteries provided a means of establishing a permanent royal presence in disputed
territories. Christianity ensured that identical religious rituals would be replicated at all churches throughout
the kingdom, with prayers said for the king. Conversion restructured religious life around the royal family.
Within their own kingdoms, churches and monasteries provided opportunities for kings to establish new
institutional focal points of royal authority, around which to remodel local society. By the late seventh
century, royal families were investing in family monasteries. Conversion to Christianity provided a new
institutional framework which offered cohesion to kingdoms. It was Christianity, above all else, that enabled
powerful kings to establish themselves across the seventh century and to create a structure which stressed
their superiority.
Nicholas J. Higham and Martin J. Ryan, The Anglo-Saxon World, published in 2013.
© OCR 2025 Y301/01 Jun25
2 OCR A/AS Page 2
,S
uestion
Level question
Paper
OCR with
A/AS=2025
paper,
Exam-Ready
including
OCR AExaminer
the
Level
complete
History
MarkQuestion
AScheme.
Y301-01
Paper
Covers
Thewith
Early
allExam-Ready
examinable
Anglo-Saxons
content
Examiner
c.400–800
with
Mark
Verified
Scheme.
Verified
Answers2025
Question
Covers all
paper
OCR
examinable
A
with
Level
Marking
content
History
Scheme
A
with
Y301-01
Verified
Attached.pdf
The
Answers
Early Anglo-Sa
3
Passage B
Conversion occurred ‘bottom up’, as individual Christians or households brought their friends, kin and
neighbours over to the new religion. It occurred ‘top down’ as well, when missionaries targeted leading
members of society and then expected the new faith to percolate out from them. Force was sometimes a
factor, both in getting the leaders of society to convert, or in pushing the new religion on others.
In practice each story of Christianisation is likely to have embraced some elements of all three of these
scenarios. Missionary efforts tend to be the best known. Other more direct techniques could be applied too.
Pope Gregory advised one of the earliest English missionaries to forcibly convert pagan shrines to Christian
usage. Doing so would serve two goals. First, it would show that the pagans’ gods did not punish the
missionaries for their desecration, implying the superior power of the Christian God. Second, it enabled the
new converts to maintain their accustomed holy places, and potentially even some of the festivals they had
celebrated there. Gregory’s advice underlines the flexibility that Christian missionaries often displayed in
order to get converts to accept the main tenets of the new religion, up to and including the rebranding of
existing religious practices. In effect the religion took on, under a new guise, much of what had already been
done in the name of earlier beliefs.
Rory Naismith, Early Medieval Britain c.500–1000, published in 2021.
© OCR 2025 Y301/01 Jun25 Turn over
3 OCR A/AS Page 3
