Elizabethan England - Elizabeth and Parliament

This lesson explores how Parliament and Privy Council worked to govern England under Elizabeth I.

• Starter: A word and definition match to get students familiar with some key terms for Parliament and government.
• How did Parliament work for Elizabeth? What functions did it serve?
• How did Elizabeth control Parliament? She might not rule alone, but this goes through the limitations she put on Parliament.
• What was the Privy Council and how did it compare with Parliament? Each student will have a single piece of information on Privy Council and problems with Parliament - get them to circulate and create a revision poster (included) with key information.
• Checkpoint and Challenge. Get your students to apply their knowledge to two tasks: how Privy Council and Parliament were important in governing England, and connections between key points of government.

This lesson was developed to meet minimum criteria for GCSE, and could easily be adapted to include more exam board specific tasks for the final plenary.