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The Insanity of Henry VI
Article
Carole Rawcliffe examines medieval attitudes to madness and the case of Henry VI. Mad kings are all the rage at present. The remarkable success, first of Alan Bennett’s stage play, The Madness of George III, and then of the widely acclaimed film version, has prompted a spate of newspaper articles...
The Insanity of Henry VI
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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...
Minimalist cause boxes for maximal learning: one approach to the Civil War in Year 8
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'If Jesus Christ were amongst them, they would deceive Him'
Teaching History article
During discussions about planning, Tim Kemp and Charlotte Bickmore recently concluded that despite the name they give to their major Year 8 unit (The Making of the United Kingdom), they tend mainly to focus on England, and even more especially, on London. They have a good point. Ask an average...
'If Jesus Christ were amongst them, they would deceive Him'
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Queenship in Medieval England: A Changing Dynamic?
Historian article
In the winter of 1235-6, Eleanor, the 12 year old daughter of Count Raymond-Berengar V of Provence and Beatrice of Savoy, left her native homeland. She travelled to England to marry King Henry III, a man 28 years her senior whom she had never met. The bride and her entourage...
Queenship in Medieval England: A Changing Dynamic?
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'Please send socks': How much can Reg Wilkes tell us about the Great War?
Teaching History article
This was an opportunity all good historians dream about. A large box crammed with artefacts about a soldier who fought in the First World War, just begging to be read, studied, sorted and organised. Being faced with such a wealth of uncatalogued primary evidence could have proved daunting enough without...
'Please send socks': How much can Reg Wilkes tell us about the Great War?
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JFK: the medium, the message and the myth
Teaching History article
Dale Banham and Russell Hall present a multi-faceted rationale for an in-depth study of the 1991 film, JFK. They treat it as an ‘interpretation’ in the National Curriculum sense, constructing a varied and meticulous learning journey towards its analysis. By the end of that journey pupils had examined the central...
JFK: the medium, the message and the myth
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Confounding expectation at Key Stage 3: flower-songs from an indigenous empire
Teaching History article
In this article Nicolas Kinloch examines aspects of an indigenous empire: that of Aztec Mexico. He attempts to persuade a group of mixed-ability Year 8 students to examine - and question - some of the assumptions they bring to the study of this empire. Their attitudes reflect quite widespread beliefs...
Confounding expectation at Key Stage 3: flower-songs from an indigenous empire
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Transforming Year 7's understanding of the concept of Imperialism: a case study on the Roman Empire
Teaching History article
Those of us in the U.K. know that many of our pupils finish their entire historical education without a satisfactory grasp of basic substantive concepts as they are used in history. Do all our low-attaining or ‘low ability’ 14-year-olds who are pressured to drop history at 14 really emerge with...
Transforming Year 7's understanding of the concept of Imperialism: a case study on the Roman Empire
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A complex empire: National Archives Learning Curve takes on the British Empire
Teaching History article
Ben Walsh describes some of the rationale behind the construction of the new Learning Curve exhibition on the British Empire and, in so doing, makes a strong case for placing empire generally and the British Empire in particular at the heart of historical study for all teenagers. A complex and...
A complex empire: National Archives Learning Curve takes on the British Empire
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Using this map and all your knowledge, become Bismarck
Teaching History article
Understanding the past is not an abstract exercise. Historical questions revolve around decisions made by real people under real pressure. As historians, we factor psychological pressure into our analysis. How, though, are we to enable our students to do the same? To study why Bismarck began a programme of overseas...
Using this map and all your knowledge, become Bismarck
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Podcast Series: An Introduction to Magna Carta
An Introduction to Magna Carta
What precedents were there to Magna Carta? Why was the charter originally drawn up and signed in 1215? Why was it reissued during the thirteenth century? Would “ordinary” people have been aware of Magna Carta? How effective was Magna Carta as means to controlling medieval kings? Why was it resurrected...
Podcast Series: An Introduction to Magna Carta
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Lions of the Great War: How are Sikh soldiers of the First World War seen today?
Key Stage Three History scheme of work
This Key Stage Three History scheme of work focuses in depth on the contribution of Sikh soldiers from the Indian subcontinent fighting on behalf of the UK between 1914 and 1918. It is designed to follow on from a focus on the First World War, probably in Year Nine and...
Lions of the Great War: How are Sikh soldiers of the First World War seen today?
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The Vikings in Britain
Historian Article
Professor Henry Loyn provides an update on recent studies of the Viking Age. Interest in the activities of the Scandinavian people in Britain during the Viking Age, c 800-1100 A.D., has been strong in the last half-century or so, and it is good to pause and assess contributions to the...
The Vikings in Britain
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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.
Podcast Series: The Early Georgians
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Unsung Heroes: The British Merchant Navy WW2
Unsung Heroes
The British Merchant Navy was a term that applied to the employees of British shipping companies whose vessels ranged from the sleekest ocean liners to obsolete tramp steamers. Merchant seamen already included contingents of Black, Asian and Arab sailors and the British Merchant Fleet was swelled between 1939 and 1945...
Unsung Heroes: The British Merchant Navy WW2
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Disembarking the religious rollercoaster
Teaching History article
Sarah Jackson-Buckley and Jessie Phillips found themselves perennially dissatisfied with the outcomes of their teaching of the Protestant Reformation. Determined that students should take away a sense of the momentous political and social consequences of the Reformation, they turned to historical scholarship, and to the work of other history teachers on...
Disembarking the religious rollercoaster
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England's Immigrants 1330-1550
Multipage Article
An HA Podcast with Professor Mark Ormrod of the University of York looking at the research project England's Immigrants 1330-1550. In this podcast Professor Ormrod explores the extensive archival evidence about the names, origins, occupations and households of a significant number of foreigners who chose to make their lives and livelihoods in...
England's Immigrants 1330-1550
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Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal
Classic Pamphlets
New Deal is the name given to the policies of the American president Franklin D. Roosevelt during the 1930s. Elected in 1932, at a time of great economic depression, he sought to alleviate distress by using the inherent powers of government, and the New Deal era come to be seen...
Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal
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Varieties of Reformation
Classic Pamphlet
The most significant change to have occurred in our view of the Reformation in recent years is the growing acknowledgement of historians that it was no unitary phenomenon whose triumph was assured and inevitable. What we refer to in short-hand as ‘the' Reformation was a many-sided affair which began with...
Varieties of Reformation
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King John
Classic Pamphlet
In the opinion of Stubbs King John was totally, not even competently, bad... Stubbs was the predominant, but no the sole voice of his generation. J.R. Green was already claiming that John was ‘the ablest and most ruthless of the Angevins... In the rapidity and breadth of this political combination...
King John
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The Albigensian Crusade
Classic Pamphlet
At the time of the First Crusade southern France was strongly Catholic: the army led by Raymond IV of Toulouse was the largest single force to take part in the expedition and was recruited from all classes. Yet eighty years later the Count's grandson, Raymond V, sent this appeal form...
The Albigensian Crusade
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We Also Served: British Asian Veterans of WW2
We Also Served
In search of the story of British Asian Veterans of World War Two.‘We also served' is a moving short film, which follows pupils from Beardwood and St Bede's high schools as they research why the contribution of these soldiers is not more widely recognised.
We Also Served: British Asian Veterans of WW2
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Revising the Elizabethans
Revising the Elizabethans
In this series of podcasts Andy Harmsworth offers some advice and suggestions to help you when revising the Elizabethans for the GCSE History Exam.
Revising the Elizabethans
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Drop the dead dictator: a Year 9 newsroom simulation
Teaching History article
Rosalind Stirzaker has big ambitions for her students. She wants them to do more than make a simple list of the key causes of the Second World War. Yes, she wants them to complete a piece of written work, but she wants – and gets – a great deal more...
Drop the dead dictator: a Year 9 newsroom simulation
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The Lords of Renaissance Italy
Classic Pamphlet
The Lords of Renaissance Italy: the signori, 1250-1500 Among the many city states into which Italy was divided in the late medieval and early modern period, the republics of Florence and Venice are comparatively well known. Republicanism was not, however, the most common form of government. This pamphlet deals with states...
The Lords of Renaissance Italy
