Y301: the Early Anglo-Saxons C.400-800 | OCR A-Level History A (H505)

Y301: the Early Anglo-Saxons C.400-800

138 questions
11 subtopics
Thematic study and historical interpretations, one of twenty-one
Y301 to Y321

The Early Anglo-Saxons C.400–800 is unit Y301 of OCR History A, one of the twenty-one options in unit group 3, the thematic study and historical interpretations; a student sits one of them.

Its four key topics and three depth studies are the development of Kingship and kingdoms in Britain and Ireland, religion and the Christian Church in Britain and Ireland, economic and social life in Britain and Ireland, cultural change in Britain and Ireland, Athelbald, Offa and the Mercian supremacy, Augustine and the process of Christianisation, communities and kinship. 138 recall questions across 11 subtopics.

Sample questions from Y301: the Early Anglo-Saxons C.400-800

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

The development of Kingship and kingdoms in Britain and Ireland: the first Saxons, early kingdoms and overkingship

Give two reasons Germanic peoples crossed to Britain in the fifth century.

Show the answer
They were recruited and paid as federate soldiers by British rulers, and the collapse of Roman authority opened up land and plunder at a time when rising sea levels were spoiling coastal settlement in their North Sea homelands.
The development of Kingship and kingdoms in Britain and Ireland: the heptarchy, royal government and the rise of Northumbria and Mercia

Explain what the Tribal Hidage shows about early Anglo-Saxon administration.

Show the answer
It is a list assessing more than thirty peoples in hides, probably for tribute, and it shows that kings could rank and tax subordinate groups systematically rather than merely raid them.
Religion and the Christian Church in Britain and Ireland: paganism, the Gregorian mission and Irish Christianity

Who sent the mission of 597, and who led it?

Show the answer
Pope Gregory the Great sent it, and it was led by Augustine, prior of Gregory's own monastery in Rome.
Religion and the Christian Church in Britain and Ireland: Whitby, Theodore, the monasteries and missions abroad

Why did Theodore's reforms bring him into conflict with Wilfrid?

Show the answer
Dividing the enormous Northumbrian diocese stripped Wilfrid of most of his authority and wealth, and Wilfrid appealed over Theodore's head to Rome, beginning decades of dispute and exile.
Economic and social life in Britain and Ireland: Rural and urban settlements

Give three reasons why towns re-emerged in the seventh and eighth centuries.

Show the answer
Trade needed permanent beach markets and craft quarters, churches and monasteries drew population and spending, and kings wanted defended places where they could control and tax exchange.
Economic and social life in Britain and Ireland: trade, coinage, society, law and burial

What did lordship oblige each side to do?

Show the answer
The lord fed, armed, rewarded and protected his man and answered for him at law, and in return the man owed him service, loyalty in war and support in disputes.
Cultural change in Britain and Ireland: Language, religious artefacts, art and literature

Summarise the story of Beowulf.

Show the answer
A Geatish hero kills the monster Grendel and Grendel's mother to save the Danish king's hall, then rules his own people for fifty years before dying in a fight with a dragon.
Depth study: Athelbald, Offa and the Mercian supremacy — Mercian supremacy as a turning point

How do historians assess Aethelbald's contribution to the supremacy?

Show the answer
He is often treated as the overshadowed predecessor, but his forty-one-year reign established Mercian overlordship of the southern kingdoms and gave Offa the position from which to build, so recent work presents the supremacy as the achievement of two reigns rather than one.

The 11 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
The development of Kingship and kingdoms in Britain and Ireland: the first Saxons, early kingdoms and overkingship	Recall questions on the traditions of the Saxon arrival, reasons for migration, Mons Badonicus, the growth of early kingdoms, imperium, Bede’s list of overkings and the origins of the title Bretwalda.	8
The development of Kingship and kingdoms in Britain and Ireland: the heptarchy, royal government and the rise of Northumbria and Mercia	Recall questions on doubts about the Bretwalda, the heptarchy model and its critics, itinerant kingship, the Tribal Hidage, unstable seventh-century kingship, Northumbrian expansion and its end, and the Mercian supremacy.	12
Religion and the Christian Church in Britain and Ireland: paganism, the Gregorian mission and Irish Christianity	Recall questions on Anglo-Saxon gods and pagan practice, Christianity before 597, Gregory’s mission and plans, the re-conversion of Northumbria, differences between Roman and Irish practice and the term Celtic Church.	9
Religion and the Christian Church in Britain and Ireland: Whitby, Theodore, the monasteries and missions abroad	Recall questions on the Synod of Whitby, Theodore of Tarsus and Wilfrid, the golden age of monasteries and Bede’s criticism, minsters, other problems of the Church, Alcuin and English missionaries on the Continent.	10
Economic and social life in Britain and Ireland: Rural and urban settlements	Recall questions on rural and urban settlements, reasons for the emergence of towns, other construction, including Offa’s Dyke, the economy, farming, land issues, including the concept of bookland, craft-working.	8
Economic and social life in Britain and Ireland: trade, coinage, society, law and burial	Recall questions on exports and imports, the development of coinage, social ranks and lordship, wergild and the laws of Ine and Aethelberht, pagan burial practice, Sutton Hoo and the decline of furnished burial.	12
Cultural change in Britain and Ireland: Language, religious artefacts, art and literature	Recall questions on language, nature and extent of cultural assimilation and identity, literature, including the writings of Gildas, Beowulf and the writings of Bede, education and learning, including the influence of the school at Canterbury, art, architecture, dress, jewellery.	19
Depth study: Athelbald, Offa and the Mercian supremacy — Mercian supremacy as a turning point	Recall questions on the Mercian supremacy as a turning point in the development of kingship and kingdoms, the extent of the supremacy, reasons for and consequences of the rise of Mercia as a political force, the role of Athelbald, the role of Offa.	20
Depth study: Augustine and the process of Christianisation — short and long-term impact	Recall questions on the short and long-term impact of Augustine’s mission of 597, apostasy and pagan reaction, the role of the Celtic Church and Columba.	8
Depth study: Augustine and the process of Christianisation — Synod of Whitby as a possible turning point	Recall questions on the Synod of Whitby as a possible turning point, problems of organisation, Theodore and the spread of monasteries, reasons for and consequences of the growth of monasteries, Christianity in the countryside, the relationship between the Church and kings.	12
Depth study: Communities and kinship — communities, kinship, identity and dispute settlement	Recall questions on regiones and small peoples, Irish local society, kinship and lordship, the migration and ethnicity debates, scientific evidence, and how disputes were settled, with the arguments of Davies, Fouracre and Wormald.	20

Y301: the Early Anglo-Saxons C.400-800 is 138 of the 6,240 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.