GCSE HISTORY (8145) Paper 2 Shaping the Nation Resource pack for the 2023 historic environment specified site

AQA The Merchant’s House, Southampton, Medieval England, the reign of Edward I, 1272–1307 The purpose of this pack is to provide you with guidance and resources to support your teaching about The Merchant’s House, Southampton, the 2023 specified site for the historic environment part of Medieval England, the reign of Edward I . It is intended as a guide only and you may wish to use other sources of information about The Merchant’s House, Southampton. The resources are provided to help you develop your students’ knowledge and understanding of the specified site. They will not be tested in the examination, as the question targets AO1 (knowledge and understanding) and AO2 (explaining second order concepts). General guidance The study of the historic environment will focus on a particular site in its historical context and should examine the relationship between a specific site and the key events, features or developments of the period. As a result, when teaching a specified site for the historic environment element, it is useful to think about ways of linking the site to the specified content in Parts 1, 2 and/or 3 of the specification. There is no requirement to visit the specified site as this element of the course is designed to be classroom based. Students will be expected to answer a question that draws on second order concepts of change, continuity, causation and/or consequence, and to explore them in the context of the specified site and wider events and developments of the period studied. Students should be able to identify key features of the specified site and understand their connection to the wider historical context of the specific historical period. Sites will also illuminate how people lived at the time, how they were governed and their beliefs and values. The following aspects of the site should be considered: • location, function, and the structure • people connected with the site e.g. the designer, originator and occupants • the design and how the design reflects the culture, values, fashions of the people at the time • how important events/developments from the depth study are connected to the site. Students will be expected to understand the ways in which key features and other aspects of the site are representative of the period studied. In order to do this, students will also need to be aware of how the key features and other aspects of the site have changed from earlier periods. Students will also be expected to understand how key features and other aspects may have changed or stayed the same during the period. Background information for The Merchant’s House, Southampton Although there had been a settlement at Southampton since Anglo Saxon times, its importance as a port really began after the Norman Conquest when it was ideally placed to communicate and trade with the King’s lands in Western France. As a result, it continued to develop over the next two centuries with its original timber motte and bailey castle (Resources C & D) being gradually rebuilt in stone along with a further strengthening of the town’s defences. During this time, medieval kings owned several properties in the town and had royal accommodation built inside the city walls. (Resource I). The castle looked over the quays on its western side and was used as a warehouse for the wine which the King imported which was unloaded there and managed by the Keeper of the King’s Wine. Who built the Merchant’s House? In about 1290 John Fortin, a wealthy Southampton wine merchant (Resource I), had a house built for himself and his family at 58 French Street, to the south of the King’s castle. With its gable end facing onto the busy street so that it would bring the merchant plenty of trade, it was designed to be a shop, store, and home. John’s daughter, Lucya, went on to marry into another wealthy Southampton merchant family, the Barbfletes, and records show that their grandson still owned the Merchant’s House nearly one hundred years later. This building in Southampton is one of the earliest surviving medieval merchant houses in England. Turn over ► Why did Southampton prosper in the thirteenth century? The rise of Southampton merchant families such as the Fortins, the Isembards, and the Barbfletes in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was partly due to their work for the King, as they supervised building work at the castle, purchased his wine, and collected taxes for him (Resource I). Although Southampton was part of royal lands, the Crown’s shortage of money in the late twelfth century resulted in him selling rights and privileges to the leading citizens and burgesses of the town so that that they could run their own affairs. As Southampton’s wealth grew, its defences were improved and much of the town was rebuilt in stone. However, in part this further restricted the traditional long narrow plots and the area that could be used for future building and for the town’s commercial centre. It was these limitations on space in the town which led to houses becoming long narrow buildings over a cellar such as could be seen at 58 French Street. Edward I’s father, Henry III, had signed the Treaty of Paris in 1259 with France and the peace which followed allowed Southampton’s wine trade with Bordeaux to prosper. However, disagreements in England between the King and his barons led by Simon de Montfort resulted in civil war and increased lawlessness around Southampton. The area was controlled for a while by de Montfort, who needed Southampton and Portsmouth in order to guard against invasion from the sea, though once this period of political turmoil was over trade continued to expand under Edward I. Merchant families such as Fortin’s benefitted from this flourishing Southampton trade and as a result were able to invest in new building projects such as the Merchant’s House at 58 French Street (Resources E - H). What was the design of the Merchant’s House? The Merchant’s House used a mixture of materials with the main walls on the northern side made of limestone with other parts consisting of stone rubble set in mortar, while the whole building had a timber framed front. Most buildings in Southampton at this time had a timber frame filled with wattle and daub but some buildings were being built in stone. This was done partly to show the owner’s wealth and status as stone was an expensive and showy material but it also had the advantage of being much more fireproof than timber. A cut away diagram of the Merchant`s House in French Street, Southampton. The shop was at the front of the building just behind a timbered porch and was accessed by a passageway on the south side. This passageway also led to a large hall which reached up to the roof and was the main room in the merchant’s living quarters. (Resources E, F, G, & H) When first built, this hall with its high ceiling would have been heated by a central hearth but a proper chimney and fireplace were added in the mid-fourteenth century when open fires were no longer fashionable or considered safe. Behind the main hall was a comfortable private room with a fireplace, storage and a door that led out to a latrine (Resource G). On the first floor above the shop and the inner rooms were two large bedrooms linked by a gallery that ran across the hall from east to west. (Resource F) Underneath the building was a cellar built of stone and with an arched roof which was used to store wine (Resource H). This cellar, sometimes called an Undercroft, had entrances both from the street and from a yard at the back. In this yard was the toilet block and probably a well to provide water for the household. The layout of the Medieval Merchant`s House. On the left are plans of the ground and first floors. On the right is a cross section of the house looking from the side. How was medieval Southampton governed? Most medieval towns were run by small groups of wealthy men who had trading interests and businesses in the town (Resource J). In mid-thirteenth century Southampton these were families such as the Barbfletes, Flemings, Bonhaits, and Isembards who protected their power by dominating the main offices of the town such as Mayor or Alderman. They were a close-knit group who worked with the other burgesses* to maintain the law, control the markets and trading standards, register debts, and keep accounts of the custom duties collected in the town. The burgesses, for whom the role was both a privilege and a duty, met frequently to receive the King’s orders and were particularly concerned about the state of Southampton’s trade. *A Burgess was usually a leading, wealthy and influential citizen. Although he retained the right of royal intervention in exceptional circumstances, Henry III had agreed in 1256 that the King’s Sheriff should not normally interfere in the affairs of Southampton. This left the town’s officials to deal directly with the central government in London (Resource J) and they ran their own affairs. Civic pride led the burgesses to provide the town with amenities such as a fresh water supply or public toilets (Resource I & J). Burgesses were also motivated by the good name they gained by charitable giving, but in addition they often wanted to raise their status by owning property and land in the surrounding area. As a result, they often tried to marry their children into established rural landowning families in order to ensure their own family fortunes. Why were towns important in the reign of Edward I? Medieval kings had the right to tax people living on royal land and this included towns like Southampton but these taxes, were neither regular nor universal. Kings might get extra money from towns when they sold them privileges or granted them liberties (Resource J), but what medieval Turn over ► monarchs needed was a more regular income. During the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries the King achieved this by taxing personal wealth and possessions as well as the import and export of goods like wine and wool (Resource I). However, Edward I’s need for exceptional amounts of money to pay for his wars meant that he had to get the support of a wider section of society than just the barons who normally agreed to the country paying extra tax. As a result, from the 1270s Parliament began to include town representatives, often merchants, who as a group might resist agreeing to taxation. In this way the towns were consulted and persuaded to grant the King money. What part did towns play in medieval society? Although towns were very different from the traditional agricultural economy that surrounded them, they remained an integral part of the wider politics and society of the time. As a prosperous trading port, Southampton distributed goods across a wide area of southern England and became home to communities of foreign merchants (Resources A, B, & I). The local nobility invested in town property and enjoyed the variety of goods and services which they provided, while educated townspeople helped in the administration of the surrounding areas. Kings gave special treatment to towns including privileges and independence for their inhabitants partly because they provided valuable taxation especially during time of war. Coastal towns often made extra financial contributions and gave ships as Southampton did during Edward’s French wars in the 1290s (Resource I). Merchants ran businesses and had trading links across Europe so also had knowledge and skills that could be useful to a king. If towns supported critics of the king, as Southampton did during the time of Henry III and Simon de Montfort, then royal authority could be damaged. Towns were meant to be run in the King’s name, and if they failed to maintain law and order their governments were suspended and they were ruled directly by royal officials as happened to Southampton in 1274. Towns with their processions and well attended sermons also developed as religious centres with town dwellers financially supporting those institutions which they thought particularly valuable for the community (Resource I). In Southampton, the burgesses favoured the Friars and the local parish churches with many ruling families like the Barbfletes leaving large amounts of money to them in their wills. It was believed that private property and wealth should not be exploited for greedy and selfish ends and that charitable giving was a Christian duty. Towns were also seen as a ‘civilising’ influence as in Wales where new towns were part of the process of colonisation which brought a ‘wild’ countryside and its ‘unruly’ inhabitants into the mainstream of Christendom. Resources Resource A page 8 A map of English towns in 1300. Resource B page 9 A map of southern England showing its trade with Southampton in the Middle Ages. Resource C page 10 A plan of part of medieval Southampton. Resource D page 11 An artist’s reconstruction of medieval Southampton. Resource E page 12 A photograph of a reconstruction of parts of the main hall at the Merchant’s House at 58 French Street, Southampton. Resource F page 13 A photograph of a reconstruction of the upper bedrooms at the Merchant’s House at 58 French Street, Southampton. Resource G page 14 A photograph of a reconstruction of the inside of the Merchant’s House at 58 French Street, Southampton. Resource H page 14 A photograph of a reconstruction of the wine cellars at the Merchant’s House at 58 French Street, Southampton. Resource I page 15 Adapted from an unpublished student guide to mediaeval Southampton, 2019. Resource J page 17 An extract adapted from ‘Medieval England – Towns, Commerce and Crafts, 1086 – 1348’, by Edward Miller & John Hatcher, 1995. Turn over ►