Exploring Tudor England: Faith, Power and Propaganda, 1485-1603 - HIS00136I
- Department: History
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: I
-
Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
- See module specification for other years: 2025-26
Module summary
What kind of a place was Tudor England? We explore many aspects of
sixteenth-century English society, from its governing institutions
(monarchy, court and Parliament) to its understanding of faith and
salvation, its attitudes towards women, and the moments when ordinary
people broke through conventional social barriers to protest their own
rights. Two themes recur through the module: the role of magnificence
and propaganda in justifying royal rule to the people, and the
importance of religious faith in defining personal and even national
identity. Sixteenth century England could be a turbulent place,
afflicted by riots and rebellions, threatened by invasion and facing
upheaval in its social and economic structures. Yet culture also
flourished, to the point that this has been remembered as a golden age
of architecture, painting and music. This module combines a focus on
individual Tudor reigns (Henry VII to Elizabeth) with thematic studies
of riot and rebellion, court and Parliament, and English colonisation
in Ireland and America. We end by considering new perspectives in the
field, focusing on the black presence in Tudor England in particular.
Module will run
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Semester 1 2024-25 |
Module aims
The aims of this module are:
- To provide students with the opportunity to study particular historical topics in depth
- To develop students’ ability to examine a topic from a range of perspectives and to strengthen their ability to work critically and reflectively with secondary and primary material
Module learning outcomes
Students who complete this module successfully will:
- Have acquired a deep knowledge of the specific topic studied
- Have developed their ability to use and synthesise a range of primary and secondary sources
- Be able to evaluate the arguments that historians have made about the topic studied
- Have developed their ability to study independently through seminar-based teaching
Module content
Students will attend a 1-hour briefing in week 1. Students will then attend a 1-hour plenary/lecture and a 2-hour seminar in weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11 of semester 1. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing Weeks (RAW) during which there are no seminars. Students prepare for and participate in eight 1-hour plenaries/lectures and eight 2-hour seminars in all.
Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include
the following:
- Establishing a dynasty: Henry VII and Prince Arthur
- Breaking from Rome: Henry VIII and the English Reformation
- Riot, rebellion and the social order
- A mid-Tudor crisis? The reigns of Edward VI and Mary I
- Queenship and the cult of Elizabeth
- Locations of power: court, Parliament, the localities
- Exploring and colonising: Ireland and the New World
- New directions in Tudor history: Black Tudors and beyond
Indicative assessment
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100.0 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
For formative assessment, students will complete a referenced 1200 to 1500-word essay relating to the themes and issues of the module. This will be submitted in either the Week 5 or Week 9 RAW week (on the day of the weekly seminar).
For summative assessment, students will complete an Assessed Essay (2000 words, footnoted). This will comprise 100% of the overall module mark.
Summative assessments will be due in the assessment period.
Indicative reassessment
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100.0 |
Module feedback
Following their formative assessment task, students will typically receive written feedback that will include comments and a mark within 10 working days of submission.
Work will be returned to students in their seminars and may be
supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole
group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to discuss the
feedback on their formative work during their tutor’s student hours.
For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.
For the
summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional
mark and written feedback within 25 working days of the submission
deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for
follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.
Indicative reading
For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:
- Guy, John. The Tudors: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
- Cooper, John. The Queen’s Agent: Francis Walsingham at the Court of Elizabeth I. London: Faber, 2011.
- Kaufmann,Miranda. Black Tudors: The Untold Story. London: Oneworld, 2017.