Hmm, these last few have been long blogs. Lets try to wrap this up quickly.
How would I teach this? Well first I think it is important to relate the religious issue back to events during the previous 3 reigns. Additionally, a look further back to explore the relationship between church and crown would give important background and help to frame the understanding of the importance of the issues at stake.
Secondly I would reference the international aspect of the issue. Again, this requires some backtracking over the previous reigns; no monarch ever rules in isolation, decisions are made in relation to everything else that is going on, and to much that has gone before and led to the current position. Care must be taken to explore the possible consequences of every decision. So looking back as I have done on these few blogs is important to show that the problems Elizabeth faced in 1558/9 did not appear out of the blue and therefore their solutions would necessarily be complex.
Thirdly, and this is perhaps how the topic would develop further, I would explore what shaped the Elizabethan religious settlement itself and this would mean looking at the person of Elizabeth, her education, her religious preferences, her views on social and civil order and the role of the crown vis a vis the church.
So now I need to continue to read Warren and come up with the next theme. Perhaps I will explore the religious settlement itself and look at how the Bishops and Elizabeth's views differed about it and look at how and why Elizabeth defended the settlement. Or perhaps not...
Rutland Water
14 years ago
I think you are spot on about teaching it with the backgroud of Her Father's reign and also those of Edward and Mary. Certainly the European dimension is important especially when considering the relationships between church and crown. Your reference to decision making made me think you could teaech this as a decision making exercise or using dilemma's in her reign as a basis for decision making with year 8 and at A level. You'd need to create the resources and a suitable lesson structure for this. The resources could be sets of cards (and some could be the equivalent of "curve balls" from her reign) Could be an exciting and challenging way to learn.
ReplyDeleteHmm, I like that idea, a really neat way of covering the decision making idea. I play alot of strategy games (Wargames in reality) and chess and these are very good a teaching decision making in my experience. Every decision brings with it a set of pros and cons. There are consequneces, both potential and realised, to every decision we make.
ReplyDeleteI keep toying with the idea of how to incorporate a wargame scenario into a lesson (would depend on the subject and period) in order to bring the subject more to life and to highlight the risk of decision. I haven't come up with a way to do it yet. i do like the cards idea though.