Early modern 1485-1750

Follow the complex manoeuvres, plots and double dealings of the Tudor and Stuart courts and the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745, through our records in this period dominated by religious conflict and conspiracy.

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Archives Ahoy!

What can we learn about pirates from our collection?
Session we teach

Choosing for the Archives (SEND)

How can we find out about someone from the past, using documents, images and objects?
Classroom resource

Christmas is cancelled!

What were Cromwell’s main political and religious aims for the Commonwealth 1650-1660?
Session we teach

Coronations: Ceremony and Change

How can we find out about Coronations in the past? How far have Coronations changed over time?
Session we teach

Crisis in the reign of Mary I

How far can Mary I’s reign be considered a time of crisis?

Dear Herbert

What can personal documents reveal about people’s lives?
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Discover the Dissolution

How did the Dissolution change my local area?
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Elizabethan propaganda

How did England try to show Spain planned to invade in 1588?
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Empire Windrush: Early Black Presence

What do the sources reveal about an early Black presence in Britain?
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English Reformation c1527-1590

How did state and people respond to religious change?
Session we teach

Enquiring into Elizabeth

What can we learn about Elizabeth I’s ruling style from her letters and speeches?
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Foundling Hospital

What were conditions like for children in the care of the Foundling Hospital?
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From Outbreak to Archive: Tales of Public Health

What do the documents reveal about how government and society dealt with public health in the past?
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God blew and they were scattered

Did God really help the English defeat the Spanish Armada?
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Gunpowder Plot

Can you uncover the plans of the plotters?
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Henry VIII court rules

How did Henry VIII get up in the morning?
Session we teach

Henry VIII: image of a king

Was appearance everything for a ruler in the 16th century?
Session we teach

Henry’s royal rules (SEND)

What were the rules of daily life for a king in Tudor times?
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Huguenots in England

What was the experience of Huguenot migrants in seventeenth century England?
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Jacobite propaganda

What was the point of Jacobite propaganda?
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LGBTQ+ Rights in Britain

How have changes in laws and attitudes affected LGBTQ+ people in Britain?
Session we teach

Mapping London

How and why does an area change over time?
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Native North Americans

What was early contact like between English colonists and Native Americans?
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Queen Anne

How can we find out about her?
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Role of a Queen – Mary I and Anne

What can we find out about the roles of Queen Mary I and Queen Anne?

Samuel Pepys

What does his will reveal?
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Sugar

What can original documents tell us about the history of sugar?
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The King, the Crown and the Colonel

How did Thomas Blood try to steal the Crown Jewels in 1671?
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Tobacco

James I & VI: How was tobacco viewed, consumed, and traded in the Stuart period?
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Tudor Entertainment

What was the effect of the early playhouses?
Session we teach

Tudor rebellions

How seriously did they challenge the authority of the crown?

Tudors: Image of a King

How did monarchs present an ‘image’ of themselves in the past?
Classroom resource

William Shakespeare

What can we find out about his life?