A-level: Tudors

'What challenges did Elizabeth I face as queen, and how did she overcome them? Here, Susan Doran examines the life of a queen beset by enemies on all sides, who somehow emerged to unite her country as a Protestant martial power...'

'The real Edward VI, writes historian Tracy Borman, was a hearty lad who could have been as terrible as his father had he not met his untimely death in 1553 (aged 15).'

'Tudor Times is the online repository for all things Tudor and Stewart (1485–1625). Articles on people, places, daily life, politics, economy, religion, military.'

Kett's Rebellion from Spartacus Educational.

'This collection of documents introduces students and teachers to the English Reformation through the original State Papers held at The National Archives. They have been selected and introduced by historian of the period, Dr Natalie Mears of Durham University. Students and teachers can use the documents to develop their own questions and explore their own lines of historical enquiry on different aspects of the Reformation in England across the whole Tudor period, from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I.'

The Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth.

‘Mr Speaker, we perceive your coming is to present thanks to us. Know I accept them with no less joy than your loves can have desire to offer such a present, and do more esteem it than any treasure or riches; for those we know how to prize, but loyalty, love and thanks, I account them invaluable. And though God hath raised me high, yet this I account the glory of my crown, that I have reigned with your loves. This makes me that I do not so much rejoice that God hath made me to be a Queen, as to be a Queen over so thankful a people, and to be the means under God to conserve you in safety and to preserve you from danger…’

The burning of Latimer and Ridley from 'Elizabeth' (1998)

Lots of interesting Tudor references in this discussion with David Starkey. 

'Catherine Howard is one of Henry VIII’s lesser-known wives. The most common things known about her are, firstly, that she was beheaded; and secondly (unlike Henry’s second wife Anne Boleyn) she was allegedly guilty of the charges for which she died.'

'In this lecture, Professor Susan Doran (University of Oxford) explores the early years of the reign of Elizabeth I, the problems she faced, and how well she dealt with them.'

The Tudor boy king is often painted as a sickly puppet. But as Stephen Alford – author of a recent biography – reveals, he may actually have been much like his father, Henry VIII

'In 1588, Queen Elizabeth received a letter from her friend the Earl of Leicester just a few days before he died. She kept the letter by her bed for the next 15 years.'

Olivier, Richard III at Bosworth

'Thomas Cranmer's prayer book was published on January 15th, 1549.'

'An introduction to the printing of books as it would have been done in the fifteenth century. The film uses equipment in the University Library's Historical Printing Room, and the printers are University Library staff members Nick Smith and Colin Clarkson.'

' ... on the red-brick wall of the Cannon Street railway bridge sits a plaque unveiled in 2005, commemorating “600 years during which time some 400 Hanseatic merchants inhabited peacefully in the City of London… a German self-governing enclave on this site”.

This was the London base of the Hanseatic League - a powerful trading network for hundreds of years, stretching all the way from the East of England to the heart of Russia. It was one of the most successful trade alliances in history - at its height the League could count on the allegiance of nearly 200 towns across northern Europe.'

What can we learn from Richard III's skeleton? Dr Jo Appleby from the University of Leicester's School of Archaeology and Ancient History.