ABSTRACT
The unit on life in Tudor times began with an initial overview of the period: Henry VIII and the break with Rome, followed by rivalry with Spain over religion and trade in the ‘New World’, which led to the Armada of 1588. Key events were located on a class timeline. Two focuses were selected within this topic, one on ‘Houses’ and one on ‘Ships’. These focuses were chosen because they allowed children to explore aspects of Tudor history that represent complex underlying changes, in ways that they could understand. ‘Houses’ included both a visit to Hampton Court, the showpiece of Henry VIII’s new style of government, and also to a nearby timber-frame Elizabethan house representing the increasing wealth of the new ‘gentry’. ‘Ships’ began with a visit to the Mary Rose, which represented the beginnings of British sea power under Henry VIII, created as a defence after the break from Catholic Europe, and which led, in Elizabethan times, to exploration, an increase in trade and the emergence of a new class of merchants and ‘gentry’. Rivalry with Spain in the ‘New World’ over trade resulted in the Armada of 1588, an event about which loyal British Roman Catholics felt ambivalent and which reflected conflicting loyalties and rivalries throughout Europe.
