Lesson Y7-U05-L05

Y7-U05-L05 Crime and Punishment in the Middle Ages Quiz: KS3 History, Unit 5

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y7-U05-L05, Crime and Punishment in the Middle Ages: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 History (National Curriculum), Unit 5: Year 7: Medieval Lives, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What is a crime against the person?

    • Murder, assault or theft
    • Heresy against the Church
    • Poaching the king's deer in the forest
    • Treason against the king

  2. What is poaching?

    • Working for the lord on his demesne each day
    • Hunting the king's deer or game without permission
    • Teaching children to read in a parish church
    • Selling bread without a licence in the town market

  3. What is treason?

    • Failing to pay the tithe to the parish priest
    • Plotting against the king
    • Breaking the rules of a town's market
    • Stealing food from the lord's storehouse in winter

  4. What is heresy?

    • Living in a town without a royal charter
    • Refusing to fight for the lord in his army
    • Selling goods at a market without paying a tax
    • Going against the teachings of the Church

  5. Which type of crime was the most common in the Middle Ages?

    • Murder of lords by their peasants on the manors
    • Petty theft, committed by poor people who were hungry
    • Treason against the king by the great barons
    • Heresy against the Church by monks

  6. Why were there few prisons for long sentences?

    • The Church forbade the building of prisons in England
    • The king had banned stone buildings in every county
    • Locking people up cost money and fed no one
    • Prisons were only for knights and could not hold peasants

  7. What was trial by jury in medieval England?

    • A painful test in which God was thought to judge guilt
    • A council of thegns and bishops who advised the king
    • Twelve local men who knew the accused decided guilt
    • A fight between the accused and the accuser with weapons

  8. Which method of trial was the most common for everyday crimes?

    • Trial by ordeal
    • Trial by Witan
    • Trial by jury
    • Trial by combat

  9. Why was trial by ordeal used?

    • It was the cheapest method because it needed no witnesses
    • People believed God would protect the innocent when a jury could not decide
    • It was used only for noble families who were not allowed juries
    • It was used because the king wanted the accused to suffer more

  10. Why did the Church ban trial by ordeal in 1215?

    • The Church wanted all trials to take place in the king's court only, not in churches
    • The Church thought ordeals were too cheap and wasteful compared with the cost of holding juries
    • The Church became uneasy about claiming to test God and about priests being involved in bloodshed
    • The Church had been ordered by the Pope to stop every kind of trial across the whole of England

  11. Who was usually involved in a trial by combat?

    • Monks who had broken the rules of the abbey
    • Nobles and people in serious disputes
    • Women who had been accused of witchcraft in the village
    • Peasants accused of petty theft at the market

  12. In a trial by combat, what did people believe would happen?

    • The stronger side would always be proved guilty by the king
    • God would give victory to the side telling the truth
    • The loser would be pardoned by the Church and set free
    • The jury would decide the winner by the number of spectators

  13. What were stocks and the pillory used for?

    • Storing the grain and tithes gathered from the village by the priest and the lord's officers
    • Holding prisoners in long-term cells away from the public, sometimes for many years at a time
    • Holding horses and carts at the town's market each week while the traders sold their goods
    • Public punishment for minor crimes, where people were locked up in view and pelted

  14. What punishment was used for repeat thieves?

    • A village was burned to the ground
    • A hand was cut off
    • A fine was paid to the Church each year
    • A knight was sent to fight in France

  15. What was the worst punishment in medieval England, for treason against the king?

    • A short stay in a prison cell
    • A fine paid to the Church each year
    • Stocks in the town square for a day
    • Hanging, drawing and quartering

  16. Why were medieval punishments designed to be seen in public?

    • To prove to the Pope that the king was strong and fair in his judgements across the kingdom
    • To deter others, since prisons were rare and punishments had to show what would happen
    • To collect fines from the people who watched the punishment being carried out in the square
    • To give the crowd a chance to save the criminal from death by pleading for mercy

  17. Which crime was against property, such as burning down a building?

    • Treason
    • Murder
    • Arson
    • Heresy

  18. Which type of crime was judged most harshly in medieval England?

    • Crimes against property, such as theft
    • Crimes against trade, such as cheating buyers
    • Crimes against the person, such as assault
    • Crimes against authority, such as treason

  19. Which punishment was used for theft, alongside a fine?

    • A flogging, or whipping
    • Banishment to a monastery for seven years
    • Exile to the Danelaw for life
    • Hanging from the walls of the town

  20. Why might a village prefer a trial by jury over an ordeal?

    • A jury was faster because it needed no witnesses to speak
    • A jury relied on what people knew, not on chance and a painful test
    • A jury was cheaper because it needed no priests to attend
    • A jury was crueller because it always ended in the accused's death

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