Tudor religion Edward and Mary's Reigns

This KS3 lesson covers the reigns of Edward and Mary. The Power Point leads students through all activities with accompanying resources. Having spent a long time studying Henry and later Elizabeth, I’m afraid these two monarchs have been condensed into one lesson (sorry Edward and Mary). We focus of the religious problems as this is so integral to the students’ understanding of Elizabeth’s problems and indeed later on, the Stuarts and the English civil war.

Aims and Objectives:

• To know and understand the main changes that Edward and Elizabeth made to the church in England.
• To reach a judgement on their actions- did Mary deserve to be known as “Bloody Mary”?
• To empathise with people living in England at this time and how these changes must have made them feel.

The lesson starts with a whole class recap on Catholic and Protestant beliefs. All students have to get involved with their C and P cards. We then read a series of statements about Edward’s actions deciding which are true and false (based on the fact that he was Protestant). Mary is introduced with the Horrible Histories song. If you have the DVD then you can see the video in full but You Tube currently only has this clip with lyrics alone due to copyright. Students rank the cards on Mary’s actions from best to worst.They finally show their understanding by writing a letter using the framework provided from either a Catholic or Protestant perspective, explaining the religious changes implemented by Henry, Edward and Mary.