OCR A Level History A The Early Anglo-
Saxons c.400–800 (Y301/01)
Oxford Cambridge and RSA
May 2026 – Morning
A Level History A
Y301/01 The Early Anglo-Saxons c.400–800
Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
You must have:
• the OCR 12-page Answer Booklet
INSTRUCTIONS
• Use black ink.
• Write your answer to each question in the Answer Booklet. The question numbers must
be clearly shown.
• Fill in the boxes on the front of the Answer Booklet.
• Answer the question in Section A and any two questions in Section B.
INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 80.
• The marks for each question are shown in brackets [ ].
• Quality of extended response will be assessed in questions marked with an asterisk (*).
• This document has 4 pages.
ADVICE
• Read each question carefully before you start your answer.
, 2
Section A
Read the two passages and answer Question 1.
1 Evaluate the interpretations in both of the two passages.
Explain which you think is more convincing as an explanation of the process of
Christianisation during the period from c.400 to 800. [30]
Passage A
What attracted English kings to Christianity in the late sixth and seventh centuries? Conversion
offered advantages to kings beyond the cultural or religious. The presence of strangely dressed
religious professionals, with exotic patterns of behaviour and equipped with books, offered a new
dimension to a royal court and distinction to its king. The Bible presented a style of kingship which
was divinely ordained. It also suggested kings had law-making and tax-raising powers. Support of a
literate clergy enabled kings to claim law-enacting powers and introduce changes in keeping with the
growing authority of kingship. Letters made it possible for a king to communicate at a distance.
The building of monasteries provided a means of establishing a permanent royal presence in disputed
territories. Christianity ensured that identical religious rituals would be replicated at all churches
throughout the kingdom, with prayers said for the king. Conversion restructured religious life around
the royal family.
Within their own kingdoms, churches and monasteries provided opportunities for kings to establish
new institutional focal points of royal authority, around which to remodel local society. By the late
seventh century, royal families were investing in family monasteries. Conversion to Christianity
provided a new institutional framework which offered cohesion to kingdoms. It was Christianity, above
all else, that enabled powerful kings to establish themselves across the seventh century and to create
a structure which stressed their superiority.
Nicholas J. Higham and Martin J. Ryan, The Anglo-Saxon World, published in 2013.
, 3
Passage B
Conversion occurred ‘bottom up’, as individual Christians or households brought their friends, kin
and neighbours over to the new religion. It occurred ‘top down’ as well, when missionaries targeted
leading members of society and then expected the new faith to percolate out from them. Force was
sometimes a factor, both in getting the leaders of society to convert, or in pushing the new religion on
others.
In practice each story of Christianisation is likely to have embraced some elements of all three of
these scenarios. Missionary efforts tend to be the best known. Other more direct techniques could be
applied too. Pope Gregory advised one of the earliest English missionaries to forcibly convert pagan
shrines to Christian usage. Doing so would serve two goals. First, it would show that the pagans’ gods
did not punish the missionaries for their desecration, implying the superior power of the Christian
God. Second, it enabled the new converts to maintain their accustomed holy places, and potentially
even some of the festivals they had celebrated there. Gregory’s advice underlines the flexibility that
Christian missionaries often displayed in order to get converts to accept the main tenets of the new
religion, up to and including the rebranding of existing religious practices. In effect the religion took on,
under a new guise, much of what had already been done in the name of earlier beliefs.
Rory Naismith, Early Medieval Britain c.500–1000, published in 2021.
Turn over
Saxons c.400–800 (Y301/01)
Oxford Cambridge and RSA
May 2026 – Morning
A Level History A
Y301/01 The Early Anglo-Saxons c.400–800
Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
You must have:
• the OCR 12-page Answer Booklet
INSTRUCTIONS
• Use black ink.
• Write your answer to each question in the Answer Booklet. The question numbers must
be clearly shown.
• Fill in the boxes on the front of the Answer Booklet.
• Answer the question in Section A and any two questions in Section B.
INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 80.
• The marks for each question are shown in brackets [ ].
• Quality of extended response will be assessed in questions marked with an asterisk (*).
• This document has 4 pages.
ADVICE
• Read each question carefully before you start your answer.
, 2
Section A
Read the two passages and answer Question 1.
1 Evaluate the interpretations in both of the two passages.
Explain which you think is more convincing as an explanation of the process of
Christianisation during the period from c.400 to 800. [30]
Passage A
What attracted English kings to Christianity in the late sixth and seventh centuries? Conversion
offered advantages to kings beyond the cultural or religious. The presence of strangely dressed
religious professionals, with exotic patterns of behaviour and equipped with books, offered a new
dimension to a royal court and distinction to its king. The Bible presented a style of kingship which
was divinely ordained. It also suggested kings had law-making and tax-raising powers. Support of a
literate clergy enabled kings to claim law-enacting powers and introduce changes in keeping with the
growing authority of kingship. Letters made it possible for a king to communicate at a distance.
The building of monasteries provided a means of establishing a permanent royal presence in disputed
territories. Christianity ensured that identical religious rituals would be replicated at all churches
throughout the kingdom, with prayers said for the king. Conversion restructured religious life around
the royal family.
Within their own kingdoms, churches and monasteries provided opportunities for kings to establish
new institutional focal points of royal authority, around which to remodel local society. By the late
seventh century, royal families were investing in family monasteries. Conversion to Christianity
provided a new institutional framework which offered cohesion to kingdoms. It was Christianity, above
all else, that enabled powerful kings to establish themselves across the seventh century and to create
a structure which stressed their superiority.
Nicholas J. Higham and Martin J. Ryan, The Anglo-Saxon World, published in 2013.
, 3
Passage B
Conversion occurred ‘bottom up’, as individual Christians or households brought their friends, kin
and neighbours over to the new religion. It occurred ‘top down’ as well, when missionaries targeted
leading members of society and then expected the new faith to percolate out from them. Force was
sometimes a factor, both in getting the leaders of society to convert, or in pushing the new religion on
others.
In practice each story of Christianisation is likely to have embraced some elements of all three of
these scenarios. Missionary efforts tend to be the best known. Other more direct techniques could be
applied too. Pope Gregory advised one of the earliest English missionaries to forcibly convert pagan
shrines to Christian usage. Doing so would serve two goals. First, it would show that the pagans’ gods
did not punish the missionaries for their desecration, implying the superior power of the Christian
God. Second, it enabled the new converts to maintain their accustomed holy places, and potentially
even some of the festivals they had celebrated there. Gregory’s advice underlines the flexibility that
Christian missionaries often displayed in order to get converts to accept the main tenets of the new
religion, up to and including the rebranding of existing religious practices. In effect the religion took on,
under a new guise, much of what had already been done in the name of earlier beliefs.
Rory Naismith, Early Medieval Britain c.500–1000, published in 2021.
Turn over
