Teaching the 'Mid-Tudor Crisis'

As the textbook, 'Access to History: The Change and Protest 1536-88: Mid-Tudor Crises' by R.Turvey and N. Heard is meant specifically to teach this period to A level students then it is far more detailed than it needs to be to teach this subject to year 8 pupils, therefore the information I gave in the last blog page would need to be simplified before I taught this topic to them.


I would therefore try to explain to the children the main problems each ruler faced during their reign e.g. Mary faced unpopularity on two counts (on returning England to Roman Catholicism and on marrying Philip II of Spain). and then I would ask them to answer for each ruler how successful they were at dealing with the problems they faced. For instance Mary persecuted and executed Protestants which in fact proved to not successfully deal with her problems since it made her more unpopular with the people of England.


Once the children had determined whether or not each ruler (Edward VI under the rule of Somerset and Northumberland and Mary I) had successful solved the problems which faced them, I would ask the pupils to try to conclude whether or not there was a 'Mid-Tudor Crisis' during the reigns of Edward VI and Mary I or whether or not it was actually a period of success using the information they had been given on the problems each ruler faced during their reign. In order for them to answer this question I would explain to them briefly the ideas of historians. For instance I would tell them that the 'Mid-Tudor Crisis' was deemed to have happened during the reigns of Edward VI and Mary I since the English government and society were it is argued in imminent danger of collapse in face of a combination of weak rulers, economic pressures, a series of rebellions and religious upheaval, among other factors. However there are also other historians who disagree with these views and argue that there were no damaging crises for each ruler and that while each ruler did face problems, these problems had no real effect on the way they ruled or caused a collapse in the English government and society.


Hopefully after this lesson they would understand the different views of historians on this period and briefly understand the different problems Edward VI and Mary I faced during their reigns.