Elizabeth I and the Civil War

On the hunt for brilliant original sources to teach new history courses at GCSE?

The National Archives Education Department has just produced a new themed collection of original documents on the age of Elizabeth I aimed at the new GCSE specifications in history published last year expanded to cover the Tudor period. There is nothing online in terms of an equivalent teaching resource which gives school students such extensive access to Elizabeth in her own words through forty National Archives unique documents. All of the documents have transcripts and students can read high definition versions of the originals.

The collection has been especially curated, interpreted and introduced by leading Tudor expert, Tracy Borman, author of Private Lives of the Tudors: Uncovering the Secrets of Britain's Greatest Dynasty.

The records cover the broad span of Elizabeth's reign including such evergreen themes as the marriage question, her relationship with Mary Queen of Scots, foreign policy and the poor law. They reveal her as sovereign in a male world. Some of the many treasures include the famous 'Tide letter' written by Elizabeth to her half-sister, Mary Tudor before she was imprisoned in the Tower of London for treason, her correspondence with Mary Queen of Scots and her future successor, James VI of Scotland.

Our second new resource is a lesson which could be used as part of a teaching programme for any of the thematic studies for the GCSE history courses relating to the study of Warfare and British society or Power and Authority. It explores the stories of some of those women whose lives were changed by the English Civil Wars. The documents reveal that they played a variety of roles, a few of which may surprise us. The lesson is based on new research which reveals women in their capacity as nurses, spies, mothers and widows. The selection of sources used in this online lesson can be used to help students discover the impact of these distant wars on society and the part played by women.