Problems with Monarchy
This video is going to be about how the people took the (1)____ back from the king. So story begins with “Why kings are even in power in the first place?” Back a long time ago we’re talking, probably, 8-9 hundred A.D., kings and queens believed they (2)___ because God told them that they should be ruling. This was call divine right. More important than the king believing that God told them to rule was that the (3)___ that he ruled believed that the kings were there because God wanted them to. People were extremely religious and they said: “You know what? If you go against the king, you kind of go against God, because God wanted them to be in (4)____.” So for many, many years kings and queens would use this idea of (5)___ right to keep power. You know, they would do mean things, do bad things, keep people without their rights and (6)____, and they said: “Well, God told me I was king, so you shouldn’t question me”. So this is sort of a way to keep control over people and use religion as a method of keeping control over people. A couple of little cartoons here, you can see. These two kings walking hand in hand: “Once you get past the divine right of kings, I’m not much into (7)____.” Kind of funny, theology means the study of religion, because kings would often use religion as the reason they were ruling, but not follow the religion and not really be that (8)___ religion, especially in England. Another one here. You see the king here with his son. “I’ll let you in on a little secret, son: If you’re really, REALLY careful, absolute power (9)____ only a little bit.” So king had absolute power. Probably the reason why was because of divine right. Another way kings would keep control over their people was using social class. It’s called the feudal system and this social (10)____ system was prevalent in the (11)____ Ages. This is the way it works: royalty had all the power, and they would keep power by giving a little bit of power away to a different group of people. In return those people would be (12)___ to the King. Those people would give a little bit of power away to another group of people and they would be loyal to them. And at the bottom you have a group of people called the peasants who sort of…er…you know, are at the bottom and (13)____ by the top groups. Let’s look at it a little bit more carefully here, I’ll show you. So the king is on top. He has all the power. He gives land and control of peasants to these people called lords. In return lords are loyal to the king, and they provide a (14)___ aid. So the king doesn’t have to worry about getting attacked. The lords, they have a lot of power from the king and they give food, (15)____ and protection to a group of people called the knights who are going to be the ones who are fighting. In return these (16)____ are loyal to the lords. And finally the knights give food, shelter, protection to the biggest group of people, the peasants. And the peasants farm land and they pay (17)___ and all the taxes filter up to the king. So all the king must do is give a little bit of power to the lords and he stays in (18)___. And the peasants, the biggest group, stay oppressed, stay at the farm and not on homeland, and do not have any rights. So that’s the way it worked in England until 1215, the time of King John. He was kind of a bad king, he disrupted the (19)___ system a little bit by his policies and ideas. The things he was doing as a king, he took away lands from the nobles, this lower group of people over here, the lords. So he was supposed to give them land as part of the system, but his policies were (20)___ land away. So they were no longer loyal to King John and they (21)___ against him. That was a big mistake, because in order for the system the work for king he has to keep the lords happy and the lords weren’t happy with King John. He hadn’t friends to help him and he was easily defeated in this rebellion by the lords. The king was then (22)___ to sign something called the (23)___ Carta that put into writing restrictions on his power. And that’s the key thing in this video, we’ll talk about what those (24)___ looked like. This video makes fun of leaders not understanding their people. All right, so what does Magna Carta do? It forces the king to give up some of his power, in writing. It showed that the king was bound by laws and no longer he could just do whatever he wanted to. Cause now this Magna Carta says that there are certain restrictions on what the King can do. Magna Carta really affected the nobles, they’re the ones who really got rights enabling them to (25)____ the king’s decision. It didn’t have a big impact immediately. Obviously, for hundreds more years kings rule and oppress peasants, but as time goes on more and more restrictions are going to be put on the king by lords. And eventually the king will (26)___ all their power like the queen and king of England today have virtually no power at all. Couple of cartoons here. The king, his wife looking at him whit this mean angry look: “I didn’t know the Magna Carta had small print!” And here is other one. His pen is not working when he has to sign the Magna Carta. So, in conclusion. Many years ago people believed in divine right, and the kings were given the power to rule from God and this helps kings stay (27)___ control. Another way for kings to stay in control was the (28)___ system. And that kept the lords having some power over most of the people. The Magna Carta signed by King John in 1215 is really important, because it’s the first time kings actually gave (29)___ some of their power. And that started sort of the ball rolling a little bit, but the snowball that mounted as time went on. The kings and queens of England lost more and more power, today they virtually have no power. The American Revolution looking a little closer was another step in taking up away power from the king. And the Magna Carta was the first step in this process of having the kings lose their power.
1 Give Ukrainian equivalents for the following words and expressions. To be in сharge, peasant, royalty, divine, prevalent, cartoon, theology, to corrupt, social class, to be loyal, shelter, knight, to disrupt, to rebel, restriction, small print. 2 Comprehension questions. 1. What was the basis of king’s power in the Middle Ages? 2. What is divine right? 3. Were the kings truly religious? 4. What was social class like in the Middle Ages? What was the biggest group of people? 5. What was king’s power based on? How did King John disrupt the feudal system? 6. When was the Magna Carta signed? 7. Who signed the Magna Carta? What did the document mean for monarchy? 8. Does the monarch of the United Kingdom still have absolute power? 9. Why is Magna Carta important for the history of political science?
3 Say if the following statements are true according to the text. 1. Kings and queens believed in Divine Right. 2. In those days people were extremely religious. 3. Kings and queens would use laws as a method of keeping control over people. 4. Theology means the study of policy. 5. The feudal system was prevalent in the Middle Ages. 6. The peasants were next group of people after king. 7. Lords had to be loyal to the peasants. 8. The peasants were to pay taxes. 9. The knights had to protect the lords and the lords shared their power with the knights. 10. Thee king got the taxes from the peasants. 11. The peasants had all rights and freedoms. 12. King John respected the interests of lords. 13. Peasants started a rebellion against king John. 14. King John vanquished the rebellion against him. 15. The Magna Carta was signed in 1215. 16. The Magna Carta limited the power of nobility. 17. After the Magna Carta was signed the king lost all the power and peasants were no longer oppressed. 18. Royalty had all the power. 19. The Magna Carta was the second case in history when the kings gave away some of their power. 20. The Magna Carta was important for French Revolution. 21. Modern monarchs in Great Britain don’t have absolute power because of the Magna Carta.
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