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?
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Archives Live: Tudors
Student resource pack
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Capturing our Collections
Artworks inspired by documents found in The National Archives
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Christmas is cancelled!
What were Cromwell’s main political and religious aims for the Commonwealth 1650-1660?
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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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Early Modern witch trials
Who was accused?
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Elizabeth I’s monarchy
Rule of a ‘weak and feeble’ woman?
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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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England’s Immigrants, 1330-1550
Downloads for teachers
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English Reformation c1527-1590
How did state and people respond to religious change?
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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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Great Fire of London: examine the evidence
How can we know what happened back in 1666?
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Great Fire of London: how London changed
What happened?
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Great Plague of 1665-1666
How did London respond to it?
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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?
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Henry VIII: image of a king
Was appearance everything for a ruler in the 16th century?
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Henry’s royal rules (SEND)
What were the rules of daily life for a king in Tudor times?
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Holding History
What is 'The National Archives'?
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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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Jacobite Rebellion of 1715
Rebels with a cause?
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Jacobite Rising of 1745
A serious threat to the Hanoverians?
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James I
What were the key areas of dispute?
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LGBTQ+ Rights in Britain
How have changes in laws and attitudes affected LGBTQ+ people in Britain?
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Mapping London
How and why does an area change over time?
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Murder at Kirk o’ Field
What happened in 1567?
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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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Resistance and Rebellion in the Caribbean
How did enslaved people resist?
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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?
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Role of a Queen – Matilda and Elizabeth I
How has the role of Queen changed from the past?
Samuel Pepys
What does his will reveal?
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Significant Events
What happened then?
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Significant People
Who is who?
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Significant People
Key Stage One Activity Book
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Significant Places
What's in a place?
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Sugar
What can original documents tell us about the history of sugar?
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The Great Seal
What can it tell us?
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The King, the Crown and the Colonel
How did Thomas Blood try to steal the Crown Jewels in 1671?
Time Travel Club Activities
Discovering The National Archives
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Tobacco
James I & VI: How was tobacco viewed, consumed, and traded in the Stuart period?
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Treasures
What 'treasures' are there at The National Archives?
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Tudor Entertainment
What was the effect of the early playhouses?
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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?
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What is history?
How do historians work out what happened in the past?
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William Shakespeare
What can we find out about his life?
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Women and the English Civil Wars
How did these conflicts affect their lives?