Power and the People in Britain, c1170 to the Present Day | AQA GCSE History (8145)

Power and the People in Britain, c1170 to the Present Day

154 questions
13 subtopics
Paper 2
Paper 2

Power and the People in Britain, c1170 to the Present Day is examined in Paper 2, Shaping the nation.

It covers the factors that shape this study, Constraints on kingship, the origins of parliament, medieval revolt and royal authority, popular uprisings against the Crown, divine Right and parliamentary authority, royal authority and the right to representation, the extension of the franchise, protest and change, workers’ movements and the growth of trade unionism, women’s rights, workers’ rights and minority rights.

Sample questions from Power and the People in Britain, c1170 to the Present Day

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

The factors that shape this study

What is meant by chance as a factor in the changing relationship between people and the state?

Show the answer
Accidents of timing, health or personality that nobody planned but which altered the outcome of a protest or a reform.
Constraints on kingship

Besides justice and consent to taxation, what else did Magna Carta promise?

Show the answer
That the Church could choose its own officials freely, that London and other towns kept their ancient liberties, that merchants could travel and trade without unjust tolls, and that John's foreign mercenaries would leave the kingdom.
Medieval revolt and royal authority

Which tax provoked the rising of 1381?

Show the answer
The poll tax, charged at a shilling a head in its third demand and taken at the same rate from a labourer as from a wealthy man, followed by commissioners sent to hunt down evaders.
Popular uprisings against the Crown

Why was the rising so dangerous to royal authority?

Show the answer
Henry VIII had no standing army, and the force the Duke of Norfolk could scrape together was outnumbered several times over, so the Crown had to talk rather than fight.
Royal authority and the right to representation

What were the Townshend duties of 1767?

Show the answer
Import duties on glass, paper, paint, lead and tea, which the colonists answered by refusing to buy British goods until all but the tea duty were withdrawn.
The extension of the franchise

What methods did the Chartists use?

Show the answer
Mass meetings, a national newspaper and, above all, three giant petitions to Parliament in 1839, 1842 and 1848, each signed by millions and each rejected.
Workers’ movements and the growth of trade unionism

What were the Tolpuddle men actually convicted of?

Show the answer
Not of forming a union, which was lawful, but of swearing secret oaths under an old act passed against mutiny in the navy, for which they were transported to Australia for seven years.
Women’s rights

What did the Representation of the People Act of 1918 grant?

Show the answer
The vote to women over thirty who met a property condition, and to virtually all men over twenty-one, adding about eight and a half million women to the register.

The 13 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
The factors that shape this study	How war, religion, chance, government, communication, economic hardship and industrialisation, ideas of consent, representation and equality, and individuals such as Simon de Montfort and Emmeline Pankhurst have shaped the changing relationship between the British people and those who ruled them.	20
Constraints on kingship	Why John's barons lost confidence in him, Normandy, scutage and the Church, Runnymede in 1215, the clauses on arrest and taxation, the other promises, the annulment, and why Magna Carta still matters.	10
The origins of parliament	Henry III's unpopularity and the Sicilian Business, Simon de Montfort, the Provisions of Oxford and why they failed, Lewes, the parliament of 1265 and why it was widened, Evesham, and the growth of the Commons.	10
Medieval revolt and royal authority	The Black Death and the Statute of Labourers, villeinage, the poll tax, John Ball, Wat Tyler's march on London, the rebels, Richard II's promises at Mile End, Smithfield, and what the revolt changed.	10
Popular uprisings against the Crown	The Pilgrimage of Grace of 1536, with the religious, political and economic grievances behind it, Robert Aske's leadership, how the rising began at Louth and spread across the north, the Duke of Norfolk's promises, Henry VIII's revenge, and why it won none of its aims.	11
Divine Right and parliamentary authority	The divine right of kings, Charles I's Personal Rule, Ship Money and Laud's church policy, the Five Members, the New Model Army and Naseby, the Levellers and the Putney Debates, Pride's Purge, the trial and execution of Charles I, Cromwell as Lord Protector, and the lasting limits on royal power.	15
Royal authority and the right to representation	Why the colonies were taxed after 1763, the Stamp Act, taxation without representation, the Townshend duties, the Boston Massacre and Tea Party, Lexington and independence, Yorktown, and what the new republic meant to British reformers.	10
The extension of the franchise	Rotten and pocket boroughs, Peterloo and the Six Acts, the Great Reform Act of 1832 and its disappointments, the Chartists' six demands, their petitions, the Newport Rising and the collapse of 1848, and the later reforms of 1867, 1872 and 1884.	11
Protest and change	The campaign against the slave trade, Clarkson, Wilberforce and Equiano, the Acts of 1807 and 1833, the Corn Laws and the Anti-Corn Law League, repeal, the factory reformers and their laws, and Edwin Chadwick.	11
Workers’ movements and the growth of trade unionism	The Combination Acts, Robert Owen's Grand National Consolidated Trades Union and its collapse, the Tolpuddle Martyrs, the New Model Unions of skilled craftsmen, and new unionism among the unskilled, with the match workers' strike of 1888 and the London dock strike of 1889.	12
Women’s rights	Why women wanted the vote, married women's legal position, the suffragists, the Pankhursts and militancy, hunger strikes, Emily Davison, the war, the Acts of 1918 and 1928, Dagenham and equal pay, and later reforms.	13
Workers’ rights	The miners' dispute, Red Friday and the Samuel Commission, the General Strike and the government's volunteers, why it was called off, the miners' defeat, the Act of 1927, the 1970s, and the 1980s union laws.	10
Minority rights	Why Caribbean and South Asian people came after 1945, the Empire Windrush, the colour bar, Notting Hill, the Bristol Bus Boycott, the race relations laws, immigration controls, Brixton in 1981 and the Scarman Report.	11

Power and the People in Britain, c1170 to the Present Day is 154 of the 1,889 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £7

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.