Lesson video

Hi, everyone, I'm Miss Reid and welcome to our last lesson on Mediaeval Monarchs.

Let's look at our key question.

Our key question today is was Elizabeth I weak and feeble? In this lesson, we'll be learning about the monarchs who succeeded Henry VIII to the throne.

We'll learn about the tensions that developed between Catholicism and Protestantism as each new monarch rose to the throne.

We'll conclude the lesson by learning about Elizabeth I and thinking about how King Philip II of Spain tried to overthrow her and ultimately, we'll learn about her victory in the Spanish Armada.

Throughout this lesson, we're going to look at the knowledge organiser and our star words.

We're going to learn about succession and religious turmoil or trouble.

We'll look at Protestantism versus Catholicism.

We'll learn about King Philip II of Spain and then the Spanish Armada.

In this lesson, you'll need your exercise book or a piece of paper, a pencil and of course, that brain of yours.

Pause the video now while you get those things.

Great, let's go on now that you've got everything you need.

Here are our star words.

I'm going to say the star words and I want you to repeat them after me.

Edward VI.

Lady Jane Grey.

Mary I.

Elizabeth I.

Catholicism.

Protestantism.

Succession.

Succession is the act of inheriting a title.

For example, Edward VI inherited Henry VIII's title of king.

Philip II.

Mary Queen of Scots.

Here's our knowledge organiser.

Now, the knowledge organiser includes all of the key facts that we've been learning throughout this unit.

Remember, if you still want to learn all of these facts and dates, you can use the Leitner system.

You can find a link on YouTube, have a go if you haven't already, well done to all of you who've learned all or nearly all of the facts throughout this unit.

You've done a great job.

Let's take a closer look at today's facts.

Pause the video so you can zoom in and have a look at what we'll be learning.

Great work.

So our first section is succession and religious turmoil.

So succession is about the monarchs who succeeded Henry VIII after his death and religious turmoil is about the tensions that developed between Protestantism and Catholicism.

So in this image, you can see Henry's son, Edward VI.

You'll remember that Henry was absolutely desperate to have a male heir and he not only divorced but beheaded one of his wives to get there.

Now, Edward succeeded Henry when he was just nine years old after Henry's death.

Now, of course he was nine, which meant that he was too young to rule alone and so a council made decisions for him.

However, all of the men on his council wanted their own power and they also made moves against him to try and gain power.

Now Edward died when he was just 15 years old of a fever but in that time, he did manage to have his say and he did manage to continue his father's work on the reformation.

He tried to convert as many people to Protestantism as possible.

Remember that this kind of thing didn't just happen overnight.

Now after Edward VI, he did not want his sister, Mary to succeed him.

His sister, Mary I was a Catholic and she was the next eldest child.

However, Edward had a plan.

He knew he was very ill and he decided to write a letter proclaiming Lady Jane Grey as his successor.

She was a Protestant and she supported his values but she only reigned for nine days.

How many days did she reign for? That's right, nine days because Mary seized power and beheaded Lady Jane Grey, along with her husband and all her supporters.

Now, historians disagree about whether Lady Jane Grey was truly a monarch.

She only reigned for nine days and she wasn't named by Henry VIII as successor.

It's unclear, I'm wondering what you think it takes for someone to be a monarch.

Do you think Lady Jane Grey qualified as a monarch? Why? Why not? Lots of interesting answers out there.

So, I would like you in this slide to point to the correct answer.

You don't need to write anything down.

How many days did Lady Jane Grey reign for? 19 days, 90 days or nine days? Point to the correct answer.

Did you get it right? Let's have a look at the answer.

It was nine days, give yourself a pat on the back if you've got that right, excellent work.

So we know that Lady Jane Grey was brutally beheaded by Mary, she took the throne.

Let's move on to look at her.

Here she is, Mary I.

Now, after seizing power, Mary changed the official religion from Protestantism to Catholicism across England.

Now, when Protestant leaders complained, Mary responded by having them burned at the stake.

You can see an image there of someone being burned at the stake, a very painful way to go.

Now almost 300 people were executed in this way in less than four years.

This earned Mary the nickname bloody Mary.

Now the historian, Eamon Duff said of this period that it was the most intense religious persecution of its kind anywhere in Europe.

Do you remember we learned that word persecution earlier in this unit? Persecution is where you treat someone differently because of their culture, their religion, their heritage, their sex or their background.

Now, in this case, people were being treated differently because they were Protestants.

You need to answer the question below.

How did Mary I persecute Protestants who disagreed with her? She had them beheaded.

She had them burned on the stake.

She had them hung.

Pause the video now and complete that task.

How did you do? Which one did you think was the correct answer? The correct answer was she had them burned on the stake.

Pause the video now so you can tick or fix your answer.

So Mary died in 1558 having had no children and so Elizabeth, her half sister became queen.

Now, do you remember Elizabeth's mother was Anne Bolelyn? She was sadly beheaded and Elizabeth was only two years old when that happened.

So she was raised and educated by governors named Katherine or Kat Ashley Elizabeth was incredibly well-educated, learning English, Latin, Italian, French and Greek and she later left to speak Scottish, Welsh, Cornish and Irish, that's nine languages.

How many languages did she learn? Nine, that's right.

Now Elizabeth also studied mathematics, history, geography and astronomy and she also learned how to play different musical instruments and she learned how to ride and hunt.

She was an incredibly accomplished young woman.

Elizabeth is also famous for refusing to marry any of the suitors who were presented to her.

In fact, early on in her reign, she declared that she would not marry because she was already bound unto her husband which is the King of England.

She demonstrated very early on her commitment to her country and to her people.

Now here are the four monarchs we just discussed.

But you might've noticed that they haven't been placed in the correct dynastic order.

I want you to have a look at them.

I want you to point at the monarch who ruled straight after Henry VIII? Think about who he would have wanted to rule first.

Are you pointing at Edward VI? That's right, Henry really wanted a male heir to rule and so Edward succeeded him first.

Who came after Edward VI? Who succeeded him? Who did he name as his successor? Point at the correct picture.

Are you pointing at Lady Jane Grey? Fantastic work.

She was named as his successor but remember, she only reigned for nine days because she was beheaded.

Do you remember who it was who seized the throne? Point at the correct picture.

You're right, it was Mary I.

Who succeeded Mary I? Point at the correct picture.

It was of course, Elizabeth, great work everyone.

Let's have a look at those monarchs in order.

You can see Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I.

Now, following the persecution of Protestants by Mary I, England was divided by religion.

We had Catholics on one side and Protestants on another but Elizabeth officially returned the country to Protestantism but she did keep some elements of Catholicism to try and keep some peace.

However, later in her life, she made life very difficult for Catholics and she had people spy on them and issue them with fines for practising in certain ways.

Let's have a look at those monarchs again.

Let's recap which branch of Christianity did each monarch support? I want you to point at either Catholicism or at Protestantism when I show you the images.

Which branch of Christianity did Edward support? Are you pointing at Protestantism? Excellent work.

Which branch did Lady Jane Grey support? You're right, she supported Protestantism.

Which branch did Mary support? Point at either Catholicism or Protestantism.

Absolutely, it was Catholicism.

And finally Elizabeth, which branch did she support? Totally right, it was Protestantism.

So you can see that over the years, conflict developed between each monarch, they each wanted to rule the country in their own way.

Okay, so Elizabeth was in charge of the throne.

She was overseeing England as monarch.

Now, this is King Philip of Spain and he ruled over many regions and countries throughout his reign, such as Portugal, Naples, England and Ireland.

He was a devout Catholic and he saw himself as the defender of European Catholicism and as such, he made it his life's work to retain Catholic power across Europe.

There are three important things that you should know about Philip II.

First, he was devout Catholic and he saw himself as the defender of European Catholicism.

Second, he was married to Mary I from 1554 to 1558 when she died and that meant that he was King of England by marriage.

Third, when Mary died, he proposed to Elizabeth because she was succeeding and she was about to become queen.

However, she rejected his proposal.

Remember she said very early on in her career that she was married to her country.

Her rejection of his proposal may also have been due to the fact that they had conflicting religious views.

She was a Protestant and he was a Catholic.

So, Philip's plan to marry Elizabeth and therefore, take control of England once again had not worked.

And he decided to try and conquer England in different ways.

Before we learn about those ways, you're going to complete a task.

I want you to answer the question below.

Who did Philip II marry? Is it Mary I? Was it Elizabeth I? Or what was it Lady Jane Grey? Pause the video now and complete that task.

Who did you say? Let's have a look at the answer.

It was of course, Mary I, thumbs up if you got that right.

Pause the video now so you can tick or fix your answer.

Let's carry on.

In this image, you can see a woman.

Now, her name is Mary Queen of Scots.

She's not to be confused with Mary I.

As you remember, Mary I and Elizabeth I were half sisters.

Mary Queen of Scots, however, was Elizabeth's cousin and she's called Mary Queen of Scots because she was the queen of Scotland.

We're going to read some information about Mary Queen of Scots.

I'm going to read and you can read along with me at home.

Elizabeth's cousin, Mary Queen of Scots led the Catholic uprising in the North.

King Philip II supported this uprising.

He saw this as an opportunity to take the throne from Elizabeth.

However, Elizabeth ordered Mary's execution.

Although she later changed her mind, the order had been sent and Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded in 1587.

Philip's plan had not worked.

On this slide, there is a task.

You need to reread the information and complete the task.

Let's look at the task first.

Why did Philip II support Mary's uprising? He was married to her so had to support her.

He saw it as an opportunity to take the throne from Elizabeth.

He wanted to be king of Scotland.

Pause the video now and complete this task on paper.

Let's look at the answers.

Pause the video now so you can tick or fix your answer.

Of course, Philip saw this is another opportunity to take the throne from Elizabeth but it didn't work and so he had to come up with a new ploy and his new ploy was the Spanish Armada.

Now, this is an image of the Spanish Armada and the Spanish Armada was a plot to take the throne from Elizabeth.

We're going to read some information about Spanish Armada.

I'll read along and you can read along at home with me.

In 1558, in a final effort to overthrow Elizabeth I, King Philip II sent his invincible Armada, 130 warships carrying 2,500 guns, almost 8,000 men to England.

The Spanish Armada were defeated by the English due to a mixture of bad luck and tactical errors.

England ships were smaller and more agile, able to move more quickly and easily than Philip's warships.

In addition, stormy weather led to the Armada fleeing around the British Isles with only half their ships making it back to Spain.

This was a huge victory for Elizabeth who gave a great speech to soldiers waiting ashore, in case the Spanish army made it on land.

You can see Elizabeth in this image.

She wore silver armour and shouted to her soldiers, "I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman "but I have the heart and stomach of a king "and a King of England too." Now, you have to remember that Elizabeth was only the third or second female monarch to rule over England depending on whether you think that Lady Jane Grey was a monarch.

Now, many people were not convinced that a woman could rule as well as a man.

Elizabeth had a big job to do and she had to prove the people of England that she was strong enough and brave enough.

By comparing herself to these men saying she had a weak and feeble body, she was saying that she wasn't strong enough to fight alongside them.

That wasn't the role of a queen but she did say that she had a strong heart and a strong stomach as strong as any king and she was showing them that she was brave enough to plan and lead the army into battle.

You need to choose the most valid response from the ones in this task.

The question is why do you think Elizabeth said she had the body of a weak and feeble woman but the heart and stomach of a king? One, Elizabeth was stating that she was related to King Henry VIII.

Two, Elizabeth was saying that she was not as strong as a man.

Three, Elizabeth was trying to show that she was as brave as any male king.

You need to choose the most valid response.

Pause the video so you can complete that task.

Which one did you think was the most valid response? Let's move on.

The most valid response was Elizabeth was trying to show that she was as brave as any male king.

Pause the video now so you can tick or fix your answer.

This is our last task for the lesson.

Here's a question or a statement.

Explain why Elizabeth I was not weak and feeble? Try to include the statements below in your answer.

Let's have a closer look at those statements.

Was highly educated and skilled.

Led the English army to victory during the Spanish Armada.

Refused to marry King Philip II of Spain or any other suitor.

Now, you're going to write this task.

If I was writing this task, I would start by saying Elizabeth II was not a weak and feeble queen.

She wasn't weak and feeble because she was highly educated and skilled.

She knew how to speak nine languages and she learned how to horse ride and how to hunt.

This shows that she was not a weak and feeble queen.

In addition, she led the English army to victory during the Spanish Armada.

She gave a great speech where she told the men that she had the heart and stomach of a king.

This shows that she was not weak and feeble.

I would like you to use the statements within your answer to explain why Elizabeth was not a weak and feeble queen.

Pause the video and complete that task.

I'm wondering how many of you out there used extra information from throughout the lesson to talk about why Elizabeth was not a weak and feeble queen.

Well, everyone, that was our last lesson on mediaeval monarchs.

I've had a great time learning all about history with you and the history of our country.

Bye everyone, see you next time.