Lesson Y7-U01-L03

Y7-U01-L03 Anglo-Saxon Life, Faith and Justice Quiz: KS3 History, Unit 1

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y7-U01-L03, Anglo-Saxon Life, Faith and Justice: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 History (National Curriculum), Unit 1: Year 7: England pre-1066, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. Who was at the very top of Anglo-Saxon society?

    • The ceorls
    • The king
    • The thegns
    • The thralls

  2. Who were the ceorls?

    • Unfree people who could be bought and sold by their owners
    • Churchmen who advised the king and helped choose the next ruler
    • Free farmers, who made up the largest group in society
    • Lords who held land from the king and fought in his army

  3. Who were the thralls?

    • Monks who ran monasteries and taught people to read
    • Lords who held land and fought for the king in battle
    • Unfree people who could be bought and sold
    • Free farmers who paid rent and food to their lords

  4. What was the Witan?

    • A painful test run by the Church to decide guilt
    • A group of free farmers who worked the king's land
    • The king's council of leading thegns and bishops
    • A payment made by a criminal to the victim's family

  5. What was wergild?

    • A sworn promise of loyalty given to a king in return for land
    • A test in which the accused carried a red-hot iron bar
    • A payment made by a criminal to the victim or the victim's family
    • A council of thegns and bishops who advised the king

  6. What was oath-helping?

    • A painful test run by the Church that God was believed to judge
    • A payment to the family of a thegn who had been killed in battle
    • Everyone in the area chasing a criminal after an alarm was raised
    • Friends and neighbours swearing that the accused person was honest

  7. What was the hue and cry?

    • A ceremony in which a new thegn swore loyalty to his lord
    • Everyone who heard the alarm had to shout and chase the criminal
    • A council of wise men who gave advice to the king about laws
    • A rule that the victim's family had to pay a fine to the king

  8. In which year did the monk Augustine land in Kent to begin converting the Anglo-Saxons?

    • 597 AD
    • 1066 AD
    • 410 AD
    • 793 AD

  9. Which king of Kent was baptised first, which encouraged his people to follow him?

    • Aethelberht
    • Alfred the Great
    • William the Conqueror
    • King John

  10. Which group in Anglo-Saxon society would most likely do the farming and pay rent to a lord?

    • Ceorls
    • Kings
    • Members of the Witan
    • Thegns

  11. A king gave land to his thegns. What did the thegns owe the king in return?

    • Gold paid into the royal treasury every single year
    • A seat on the Witan for each of their children
    • Loyalty and military service in battle
    • Taxes collected in grain from the ceorls on their land

  12. Why was the hot-iron ordeal held in a church after fasting and prayer?

    • Because churches were the only buildings big enough to hold a trial
    • Because the king had ordered that all trials must take place in churches
    • Because people believed God would reveal the truth through the test
    • Because the accused had to pay the Church for the use of the building

  13. A thegn and a ceorl are both killed by the same criminal. Under the wergild system, what would be true?

    • Neither family would receive any payment because the criminal was unknown
    • The payment for the thegn would be higher than the payment for the ceorl
    • Both payments would be exactly the same because all lives were equal
    • The payment for the ceorl would be higher than the payment for the thegn

  14. Why was oath-helping unfair to a poor stranger accused of a crime?

    • He might have few friends or neighbours willing to swear for him
    • He had to pay the king in gold before any oath could be heard
    • He was always forced to fight the accuser in a public contest
    • He was never allowed to speak in his own defence before the court

  15. A woman carried a red-hot iron bar and her wound healed cleanly, so she was judged innocent. Why is this unfair?

    • The result was based on a written law that she could not read
    • The result depended on chance and healing, not on evidence of the crime
    • The result depended on her age, and only young people could pass the test
    • The result was decided by a king who never listened to the accused

  16. Why did converting the king help spread Christianity to the whole kingdom?

    • People tended to follow the example of their king
    • Christian monks were only allowed to preach to people who were rich
    • Kings were required by law to attend every service held in monasteries
    • Churches were built only in places where the king had lived for years

  17. Why did a king benefit from having the Witan as a council?

    • It gave him advice from powerful people and helped decide who would succeed him
    • It allowed him to avoid paying wergild to the families of his victims
    • It meant that all ceorls could vote on the laws of the kingdom
    • It replaced the need for thegns to fight in battles for the king

  18. What does the existence of wergild suggest about Anglo-Saxon justice?

    • Justice was based only on the Church, with no role for the king or lords
    • Justice was unequal, because the payment for a crime depended on the victim's rank
    • Justice was unknown, because there were no laws about crime or punishment
    • Justice was fair, because every victim received the same payment for a crime

  19. Why should historians treat Bede's account of Aethelberht's conversion carefully?

    • Bede was a Christian monk who wanted to show the conversion as successful
    • Bede was a Viking who wanted to show that the king had been defeated
    • Bede was a ceorl who could not read or write Latin very well
    • Bede was a thegn who wrote only about his own lands and his lord

  20. In the cold-water ordeal, what did it mean if the accused person sank?

    • The accused was judged innocent
    • The accused had to be tested again the next year
    • The accused was judged guilty
    • The accused had to pay wergild to the victim's family

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