First, for background, read In the Wake of the Black Death from paragraph 7, "Masters and merchants petitioned their governments to intervene" to paragraph 9, "which denounced the corruption of officials and the clergy."

I. Approach your reading of each primary source using the following general questions as a guide:

  1. What does the document state?
  2. What elements within the document have likely connections to the plague and its effects? In what way?
  3. In what ways, if any, does the document differ from other first- or secondhand accounts the class has read?
  4. What possible sources of bias or unintentional inaccuracy should be taken into account?

II. Read the Ordinance of Labourers and The Statute of Labourers (from EDSITEment resource Internet Medieval Sourcebook).

The specific questions below should guide your reading:

  1. The Ordinance of Labourers mentions the plague ('pestilence') in the first paragraph. What does the document say about the connection between the plague and the problems the ordinances are supposed to address?
  2. Who is considered a laborer? Who is not?
  3. In what ways do the ordinances attempt to regulate laborers?
  4. In what ways do the ordinances attempt to regulate tradesmen? In what ways do the ordinances attempt to regulate employers of laborers?
  5. Who is responsible for enforcing the ordinances?
  6. How/Where are the ordinances supposed to be circulated?
  7. In what ways does the Ordinance of Labourers reflect changes in society? In what ways does the Ordinance of Labourers attempt to prevent changes in society?
  8. How does the The Statute of Labourers attempt to enforce the Ordinance of Labourers?
  9. What does the The Statute of Labourers suggest about the attitude of commoners toward the nobility?
  10. What does the The Statute of Labourers suggest about the attitude of the nobility toward commoners?
  11. In what ways do the Ordinance of Labourers and The Statute of Labourers suggest life is different in England as a result of the Black Death?

III. Answering the questions about the ordinances should help you stage an "interview" with the king and another with a laborer.

Your staged interview should provide the following information to the class: