Before and after the Magna Carta

Before we jumped into a full blown study of the Magna Carta, we visited several places associated with King John.  First was Old Sarum, which King John once had a new hall built.

We walked around the whole site, surveyed the ruins and were fascinated by how much changes took place at the site since the Iron Age.

We wanted to learn more about the character of King John and the circumstances that led to the signing of the Magna Carta, so we played the King John: The Decision-Making Game.  Tiger enjoyed this activity very much as it gave him an insight into both situational factors as well as personality considerations that determined how anyone (in this case, King John) makes decisions.

We also discussed the importance of reading different sources and contrasting interpretations of historical accounts before making our own minds up about historical events and characters.  This view is supported by reading this particular article that suggests an alternative view to the usual 'bad King John' that almost everyone has of him.

Following our visit to Salisbury Cathedral where we saw one of the four original copies of the Magna Carta, Tiger read through the book that gave a full translation and interpretation of the document:

Then we spent a long time looking through the resources on the Magna Carta available from the British Library, where two of the four copies are kept.

We also had a good read here which details the history of the Magna Carta.  The map is particularly useful in showing the significance of various places in the UK in relation to the document.

Not all was peaceful after signing the Magna Carta, as shown by the Key Magna Carta Battles.  Battles and warfare are the parts that interest Tiger the most, so we watched the following clip about the Battle of Bouvines:

King John also besieged the Rochester Castle in 1215, shortly after signing the Magna Carta.  The siege is described below:

We visited it to see for ourselves the structure of the castle as well as how the siege would have occured there:

 

Another castle siege was at the Dover Castle in 1216-1217.   Once again, we were able to visit this magnificent and historically significant castle to understand its structure and design.

The following documentary tells us more about the defence structure of Dover Castle:

A well researched and well illustrated book to learn about castle is the following:

Just out of curiostiy, we thought we would find out what King John's castle looked like:

To conclude, Tiger did narration and map work from the following books:

and read a few supplementary stories relating to the House of Angevin in the following books:

This post is linked up to:
1) All Year Round Blog Carnival: Winter 
2) Hearts for Home Blog Hop #6
3) History and Geography Meme # 64
4) Homeschool Mother's Journal: March 1, 2013
5) Hobbies and Handicrafts - March 1
6) Collage Friday - Sharks, Titanic, and Handel
7) TGIF Linky Party #65
8) It's a Wrap
9) Creative Learning Link Up #4
10) Weekly Wrap-Up: The Strangely Bittersweet One
11) Share it Saturday - Dr. Seuss Features
12) The Sunday Showcase - 3/2/13
13) Hip Homeschool Hop - 3/5/13

It is featured on Share It Saturday!

The tallest spire in England

The most famous thing that King John did was to sign the Magna Carta, which formed the basis of the English Law.  We watched an episode about the circumstances surrounding King John's signing of the charter from this DVD.

There are only four original copies of this document in England, one of which is held at the Salisbury Cathedral, where we visited to see the actual document.

While we were at the cathedral, we had a good look around to admire its history, architecture,

and effigies of many medieval characters.

The Tower Tour was well worth it, as we went to up the spire (the tallest in England) under the guidance of a very knowledgeable guide.  On the way up, we went through various sections of the cathedral that were otherwise inaccessible to normal visitors, and saw the buttress close up, complete with a full historical account by the guide of how various sections were put in place in the medieval period.

13th century wood nails not completely nailed in by workmen back then.

The tour has been very useful in bringing to life all that we've read about in the following books about the structure and construction of a cathedral in the Middle Ages,

as well as the documentary below:

You can find all our study related to the church in the Middle Ages here.

What about the Magna Carta?  We did see the actual copy there:

But the actual study was done at home, which I shall blog about in another history-related post next week.  Stay tuned!


This post is linked up to:
1) Look What We Did: January Link-Up
2) All Year Round Blog Carnival: Winter
3) History and Geography Meme 58
4) Weekly Wrap-Up: The One with Sunshine
5) Homeschool Mother's Journal: January 18, 2013
6) Collage Friday: It's Raining, It's Pouring!
7) It's a Wrap
8) Share it Saturday
9) The Sunday Showcase 1/19/13

King John

Our study of Robin Hood carried us through two kings in England: Richard I and his brother, King John.  It was interesting to see how these two brothers seemed to be vastly different in terms of personalities and characters.

As always, different historians have differing views on the same man, although all agreed that he was not the best of rulers.  We learned a fair bit from watching different clips, comparing the information we gathered from the episodes on King John on this DVD, to the information from the following clip:

I don't restrict Tiger's reading to only books that are specifically on King John, so he has been reading on the broader topics of medieval England:

 

Tiger has also been using his quill pen to write letters to his grandmother.

We also ate the Pumpes (Meat Balls).  The dish doesn't look like much, but it is absolutely delicious.

For field trips, we chanced upon Bradford-on-Avon Tithe Barn one day, which was shut when we were there but we had a good look around outside.

This post is linked up to:
1) Look What We Did: January Link-Up
2) All Year Round Blog Carnival: Winter
3) Enchanted Thursdays Blog Hop #43
4) History and Geography Meme 57
5) Homeschool Mother's Journal: January 11, 2013
6) Collage Friday - A Great Start to 2013
7) Hobbies and Handicrafts - Jan 11
8) Weekly Wrap-U: The First One in 2013
9) Share it Saturday - Linky Party
10) The Sunday Showcase 1/12/13