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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  • Limited Monarchy in Great Britain in the Eighteenth Century

    Article

    There was hardly anything in Great Britain which political thinkers on the continent of Europe in the eighteenth century admired more than its limited monarchy. But what were the limitations? Were they deliberate or not? Were they effected by acts of parliament or by the silent encroachments of usage? Did...

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  • Making sense of the eighteenth century

    Article

    Making sense of the eighteenth century Pressures on curriculum time force us all to make difficult choices about curriculum content, but the eighteenth century seems to have suffered particular neglect. Inspired by the tercentenary of the accession of the first Georgian king and the interest in the Acts of Union prompted...

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  • Minimalist cause boxes for maximal learning: one approach to the Civil War in Year 8

    Article

    Ian Gibson and Susan McLelland describe their work using cause boxes. They identity the type of historical learning that they felt was taking place and the range of factors which they judged to be critical in making it happen. Work with the cause boxes was carefully positioned within a sequence...

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  • Move Me On 183: sees no reason to include Black or Asian British history

    Article

    Move Me On is designed to build critical, informed debate about the character of teacher training, teacher education and professional development. It is also designed to offer practical help to all involved in training new history teachers. Each issue presents a situation in initial teacher education/training with an emphasis upon...

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  • Northamptonshire in a Global Context

    Article

    Produced by the Northamptonshire Black History Association and originally published in 2008, this is one of a set of resources for schools offering a more inclusive map of the past that includes an appreciation of Black History within the local, national and global context. The resources provide a range of opportunities to promote diversity within the curriculum....

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  • Occult and Witches

    Article

    Occult and Witches: Some Dramatic and Real Practitioners of the Occult in the Elizabethan and Jacobean Periods One purpose of this paper is to show a correspondence between real-life Elizabethan and Jacobean practitioners of the occult and the depiction of their theatrical counterparts, with particular reference to perceived differences between,...

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  • Oliver Cromwell 1658-1958

    Article

    Ever since the death of Oliver Cromwell 300 years ago his reputation has been the subject of controversy. The royalist view of him was expressed by Clarendon: "a brave bad mad," an ambitious hypocrite. This interpretation was supported by many former Parliamentarians: Edmund Ludlow regarded Cromwell as the lost leader...

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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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  • Podcast Series: Diversity in Early Modern Britain

    Multipage Article

    This series of podcasts looks at Diversity in Early Modern Britain and features Onyeka, Dr Kathy Chater and Dr Sumita Mukherjee. Our first set of podcasts looks initially at African and Caribbean British History, South Asian British History and the Huguenouts.

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  • Podcast Series: Early Modern Ireland

    Multipage Article

    This series of podcasts featuring Professor Sean Connolly and Professor David Hayton of Queen's University Belfast looks at Irish History from 1500-1800. Topics covered include Tudor Ireland, the Eleven Years War, Restoration Ireland, the significance of the reigns of James II and William III and politics in Ireland during the...

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  • Podcast Series: Origins of the European Financial Markets

    Multipage Article

    In this podcast Dr Anne Murphy of the University of Hertfordshire looks at the early origins of the European financial markets from the Italian Renaissance to the present day. Dr Murphy also provides a useful introduction to finance, the stock market and the bond market.

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  • Podcast Series: The British Empire 1600-1800

    Multipage Article

    An HA Podcasted History of the early British Empire featuring Professor Trevor Burnard of the University of Warwick, Professor Stephen Conway of University College London, Dr Jon Wilson of King's College London, Professor Gad Heuman of the University of Warwick.

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  • Podcast Series: The Early Georgians

    Multipage Article

    In this podcast Lucy Worsley of Historic Royal Palaces looks at the early Georgians, the changing relationship between Parliament and Monarchy and Court Politics under George I and George II.

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  • Podcast Series: The History of Science

    Multipage Article

    In this series of podcasts we take a look at the history of the Royal Society and the influence it has had on the history and development of science. This series features: Keith Moore, Head of Libraries and Archives at the Royal Society, Dr Jordan Goodman, Dr Patricia Fara of...

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  • Podcast Series: The Reformation

    Multipage Article

    An HA Podcasted History of the Reformation featuring Professor Peter Marshall, Dr Henry Cohn, Dr Penny Robert and Professor Beat Kümin of Warwick University.

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  • Podcast Series: The Tudors

    Multipage Article

    An HA Podcasted History of the Tudors featuring Dr Sue Doran, Dr Steven Gunn, Dr Michael Everett & Dr Anna Whitelock.

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  • Polychronicon 114: interpretations of Oliver Cromwell

    Article

    Polychronicon was a fourteenth-century chronicle that brought together much of the knowledge of its own age. Our Polychronicon in Teaching History is a regular feature helping school history teachers to update their subject knowledge, with special emphasis on recent historiography and changing interpretation. This edition of 'Polychronicon' investigates the differing...

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  • Polychronicon 122: The Gunpowder Plot

    Article

    Our Polychronicon in Teaching History is a regular feature helping school history teachers to update their subject knowledge, with special emphasis on recent historiography and changing interpretation. This edition of 'Polychronicon' focuses on interpretations of the Gunpowder Plot.

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  • Polychronicon 147: Witchcraft, history and children

    Article

    Witchcraft is serious history. 1612 marks the 400th anniversary of England's biggest peacetime witch trial, that of the Lancashire witches: 20 witches from the Forest of Pendle were imprisoned, ten were hanged in Lancaster, and another in York. As a result of some imaginative commemorative programmes, a number of schools...

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  • Polychronicon 151: Interpreting the Revolution of 1688

    Article

    John Morrill, one of the foremost historians of the British civil wars, has described the events of 1688-9 as the ‘Sensible Revolution'. The phrase captures the essence of a long-standing scholarly consensus, that this was a very unrevolutionary revolution. The origins of this interpretation go back to the late eighteenth...

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