Britain & Ireland 1509-1745

In this section you will find articles to help you unpick the truths from the myths of the Tudor period, examine how Cromwell took the country to war and explore how some the most important political thinkers began to shape the modern world. There is also guidance for teaching some of the information collected here to pupils and different age ranges.

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  • Film: Edward VI and Tudor Royal Authority

    Article

    In this film Professor Steven Gunn, Merton College, University of Oxford, looks at the reign of Edward VI and examines the impact his youth had to his authority, the importance of advisers in shaping his rule and the significance of religion and foreign relations in defining his legacy. If you're unable to...

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  • Film series: Tudor Royal Authority

    Article

    In this film, Professor Sue Doran, Jesus College, University of Oxford, discusses provides an overview of how Tudor Royal Authority developed and evolved from the first Tudor King, Henry VII, to the final Tudor Queen, Elizabeth I.

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  • Film: Domestic Politics and Tudor Royal Authority – discussion

    Article

    In this film Professor Sue Doran, Jesus College, University of Oxford and Professor Steven Gunn, Merton College, University of Oxford, discuss the impact that domestic politics and rebellion had on Tudor Royal Authority and the development of domestic policy. If you're unable to see the film below, please use the link for your Membership...

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  • Film: Foreign Relations and Tudor Royal Authority – discussion

    Article

    In this film Professor Sue Doran, Jesus College, University of Oxford and Professor Steven Gunn, Merton College, University of Oxford discuss the role foreign relations played in Tudor royal authority and the amount of power Tudor monarchs were able to exercise. The film will explore common threads and differences in foreign policy...

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  • Film: Religion and Tudor Royal Authority – discussion

    Article

    In this film Professor Sue Doran, Jesus College, University of Oxford and Professor Steven Gunn, Merton College, University of Oxford, look at the role religion played in defining the reigns and authority of the Tudor monarchs. If you're unable to see the film below, please use the link for your Membership type:Historian...

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  • Film: The significance of advisers – discussion

    Article

    In this film Professor Sue Doran, Jesus College, University of Oxford and Professor Steven Gunn, Merton College, University of Oxford examine the role and importance of royal advisers to the developement of Tudor Royal Authority. If you're unable to see the film below, please use the link for your Membership type:Historian members |...

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  • Film: Henry VII and Tudor Royal Authority

    Article

    In this film Professor Steven Gunn, Merton College, University of Oxford, looks at the life and reign of Henry VII and examines the role and significance of religion, foreign relations, domestic politics and the nobility on Henry's establishment of the Tudor dynasty. If you're unable to see the film below, please use...

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  • Film: Elizabeth I and Tudor Royal Authority

    Article

    In this film, Professor Sue Doran, Jesus College, University of Oxford, looks at the two main challenges to Elizabeth I's authority: gender and religion. Professor Doran looks at the power of Elizabeth's personality, her relationship with her advisers plus the significance of religion and domestics politics to shaping her reign and...

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  • Film: Mary I and Tudor Royal Authority

    Article

    In this film Dr Anna Whitelock from Royal Holloway, University of London, discusses the life of Mary I, the first crowned Queen of England. Dr Whitelock looks at Mary's difficult early life, her submission to Henry VIII and the rise of a warrior princess. Dr Whitelock explores Mary as a courageous...

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  • Historical and interdisciplinary enquiry into the sinking of the Mary Rose

    Article

    The raising of Henry VIII’s warship, the Mary Rose, from the sea bed set in train an extraordinary programme of interdisciplinary research, relentlessly pursuing the clues to Tudor life and death provided by the remains of the ship, its cargo and crew. In this article Clare Barnes offers fascinating insights...

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  • Cunning Plan 177: teaching about life in Elizabethan England by looking at death

    Article

    ‘We already did the Tudors in primary school’ was the most frequent comment made by students about our Year 7 scheme of learning in our annual review. Students reported covering the Tudors at least once, sometimes twice, before reaching secondary school and they had clearly not faced extensive further study...

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  • Cunning Plan 175: Using the England's Immigrants database

    Article

    Ever wondered if there is a streak of masochism in those designing A-level history syllabi? The absence of the Spanish Armada from the current Edexcel breadth study in favour of (among other delights) ‘the new draperies’ prompts this question. But the challenge of enthusing modern teenagers with woollen cloth can...

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  • Planning increasingly complex causal models at Key Stage 3

    Article

    While weighing up the relative merits of the competing narratives of the Battle of Hastings that his department might present to Year 7, Matthew Stanford began to consider how the causal models that teachers introduce influence the causal arguments that students later go on to write. In this article, Stanford...

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  • Exploring the importance of local visits in developing wider narratives of change and continuity

    Article

    The authors of this article take a well-known structural framework for students’ thinking about the Reformation and give it a twist. Their Tudor religious rollercoaster is informed by local visits in their setting in Guernsey – an area where the local picture was not quite the same as the national...

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  • Triumphs Show 173: Teaching Black Tudors

    Article

    I am ashamed to admit that, until recently, my teaching of black history did not go beyond schemes of work on the transatlantic slave trade and the civil rights movement in the USA. This all changed in November 2017 when I heard Dr Miranda Kaufmann on the ‘BBC History Extra’...

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  • Cunning Plan 173: using Black Tudors as a window into Tudor England

    Article

    On 29 September 2018 I was fortunate enough to get involved with a collaborative project with Dr Miranda Kaufmann, the Historical Association, Schools History Project, and a brilliant group of people from different backgrounds all committed to teaching about black Tudors. In this short piece, I will share how I...

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  • The particular and the general

    Article

    When your pupils use terms such as ‘king’ and ‘Parliament,’ what image do they have in their head? Do they know what they are talking about at all? Do they have a nuanced, period-specific vision of what these terms mean in the context of their current historical studies, and of...

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  • Seeing beyond the frame

    Article

    History teachers frequently show pupils visual images and often expect pupils to interrogate such images as evidence. But confusions arise and opportunities are missed when pupils do this without guidance on how to ‘read’ the image systematically and how to place it in context. Barbara Ormond gives a detailed account...

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  • Using sites for insights

    Article

    Working alongside local history teachers to prepare for the new GCSE specifications Steve Illingworth and Emma Manners were struck that many teachers were concerned about two issues in particular: the breadth and depth of knowledge demanded and new forms of assessment, especially the historic environment paper. In this article they...

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  • Polychronicon 161: John Lilburne

    Article

    John Lilburne might have been destined for obscurity in less interesting times. He was the second son of a minor gentry family, apprenticed to a London woollen merchant in 1632. It was his master’s connections that drew him into religious opposition to Charles I and the illegal book trade, resulting...

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