A-level Topic Guide: The Tudors

By HA, published 3rd September 2019

The Tudors remain the most popular British unit of study at A-level across the examination boards. Whichever board you are studying with and whatever the focus of your study unit on the Tudors, the resources in this unit will support you as you develop your subject knowledge, write essays and revise. 

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Introduction

  • Tudors topic guide: introduction

The Monarchs and their Advisers

  • The Monarchs and their Advisors: introduction
  • Royal authority: Henry VII–Elizabeth I
  • Henry VIII
  • Cardinal Wolsey: the rise and fall
  • Cardinal Wolsey: Wolsey as statesman
  • Private lives of the Tudors
  • Thomas Cromwell
  • Mary Tudor
  • Elizabeth I
  • Elizabeth I's Women
  • The Tudor court

Parliament

  • Parliament: introduction
  • The role and function of Parliaments
  • Tudor government
  • A mid-Tudor crisis?

Foreign Policy

  • Foreign policy: introduction
  • Henry VIII and Spain
  • A mid-Tudor crisis?
  • Elizabeth I and Spain: the road to war
  • The Armada campaign of 1588
  • The role of Devon's militia during the Spanish Armada crisis
  • The Spanish Armada of... 1597?
  • The Casket Letters
  • A commercial revolution

Domestic Policy

  • Domestic Policy: introduction
  • Tudor enclosures
  • Women, education and literacy in Tudor and Stuart England
  • African and Caribbean British History: Tudor Period
  • Currency and the economy in Tudor and early Stuart England
  • Film: The ladies-in-waiting who served the six wives of Henry VIII

Religion

  • Religion: introduction
  • The English Reformation
  • Recycling the monastic building: the dissolution in southern England
  • John Knox
  • Regional aspects of the Scottish Reformation
  • John Knox and womankind: a reappraisal
  • The Council of the North
  • A tale of two chancellors: the ineffectual Reformation in Elizabethan Staffordshire
  • Right well kept: Peterborough Abbey 1536–39

Poverty, rebellion and disorder

  • Poverty, Rebellion and Disorder: introduction
  • Tudor rebellions: Henry VII – Elizabeth I
  • Poverty under the Tudors
  • Faction in Tudor England
  • Kett's Rebellion 1549
  • The Council of the North
  • Royal authority: Henry VII - Elizabeth I

Interpretations Films

  • Introduction: Interpretations
  • Tudor Royal Authority - Overview
  • Henry VII
  • Henry VIII
  • Edward VI
  • Mary I
  • Elizabeth I
  • Discussion: Personality and Tudor Royal Authority
  • Discussion: The significance of advisers
  • Discussion: Religion
  • Discussion: Foreign Relations
  • Discussion: Domestic Politics

Revision & Reading

  • Reading List
  • Revision Quiz
  • Past Exam Papers