Through an in-depth analysis of various primary and secondary sources, students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain the story of Anne of Cleves, how she and Henry VIII came to marry, why their marriage was quickly annulled under Henry’s orders and how she was treated by the king and the English people after the annulment.

Through an in-depth analysis of various primary and secondary sources, students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain the different stories relating to Robin Hood, and using those stories will then be able to take a position as to whether or not Robin Hood and his “Merry Men” were real historical figures.

Through an in-depth analysis of various primary and secondary sources, students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain Richard the Lionheart’s actions in the Third Crusade, how the British king’s adoption of the nickname “Lionheart” helped his image, and how and why after three years of back and forth conflict Richard and Saladin finally agreed to a cease fire.

Through an in-depth analysis of primary and secondary sources, students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain the basic facts behind the Norman Invasion, the role William the Conqueror played in transforming Britain by combining Anglo-Saxon and Norse culture and institutions, how and why the landscape of the island was transformed by the building of castles (including the Tower of London – built as a symbol of royal power along the River Thames) after the Norman conquest, why items such as the Domesday Book and the Bayeux Tapestry are critical primary sources from the period, and why the conquest is seen today by many historians and teachers as a watershed year in world and European history.

Through an in-depth analysis of primary and secondary sources, students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain the basic ideas contained in the Magna Carta of 1215, why King John was forced to sign it, why the document forms the foundation for the English constitution, and why the Magna Carta is seen today by many historians as a founding document in constitutional and parliamentary democracy.

Through an in-depth analysis of various primary and secondary sources, students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain the stories behind King Arthur and the Arthurian legends, theorizing and taking a position as to whether the sources support the contention that Arthur actually existed.

Through an in-depth analysis of various primary and secondary sources, students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, how the story uses its characters to delicately challenge different segments of English society in the 14th century, and how and why Chaucer’s opus has continued to maintain its relevance in the 600+ years since the poet died.

Through an in-depth analysis of various primary and secondary sources, students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain why King Henry II and Archbishop Thomas Becket quarreled, what eventually happened to both men as a result of their conflict, and how Henry II’s penance and prostration in front of Thomas Becket’s tomb was seen as appropriate in a time where the Catholic Church had power over the state, not only in England, but also in all of Christendom.

Through an in-depth analysis of primary and secondary sources, students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain how the Sadler Report of 1833 sought to dramatize the plight of British proletariat children working in deplorable conditions, how it was received by British society, and how Parliament responded to the report by passing the Factory Act of 1833.

By an in-depth analysis of primary and secondary sources, students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain how Wilfred Owen’s poetry is shaped by an intense focus on extraordinary human experiences, and how it tries to give the readers a specific message about the futility of war.

By an in-depth analysis of primary and secondary sources, students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain England’s role in driving the continent towards war in 1914 (including Parliament’s foreign policy decisions that drove the UK away from Germany and towards France), the British reaction to the crisis in the Balkans that fateful summer and what Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey meant when he uttered the now famous statement about the “lamps going out all over Europe.”

Students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain the basic facts behind what happened in London and in Flanders in the last days of the Great War, the British public’s reaction to the war, and the story behind Remembrance Day (Armistice Day) in England and around the world, not only in 1918 but also today.

Students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain the Great London Fire of 1666, how it started, what it destroyed and how the government responded, and finally how Christopher Wren and others responded by remaking London in stone, changing the old capital into the modern city it is today.

Through an in-depth analysis of primary and secondary sources, students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain how Thomas Malthus saw the ratio between population growth and food supplies, and whether or not he believed government programs designed to help the poor were in the end good for society.

Students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain the basic facts of the English Civil War, the establishment of Commonwealth rule under Oliver Cromwell and the Glorious Revolution that brought William and Mary to the throne by the end of the century. As part of this lesson, students will also examine the English Bill of Rights, a document passed by Parliament in Dec 1689 that laid out not only the provisions and limits on the monarch’s power and the relationship between the crown and Parliament, but also established certain basic fundamental rights such as freedom of petition, freedom of speech and no cruel and unusual punishments for all English citizens. These same rights, so essential to our founding fathers a century later, would find their way into the American Bill of Rights of 1791.

Through an analysis of primary and secondary sources, including a reading of Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem The White Man’s Burden (1899), students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain why the poem was written, what Kipling meant by the “burden”, and how the work came to symbolize the Age of European Imperialism in the decades before the Great War.

Through an in-depth analysis of various primary and secondary sources, including excerpts from a modern English translation of the Anglo-Saxon heroic epic Beowulf, students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain the story of Beowulf’s adventures fighting in defense of others, how the epic poem fits into the overall story of Anglo-Saxon culture and why the poem continues to be studied over 1000 years after it first appeared in writing.

Through an in-depth analysis of various primary and secondary sources, including excerpts from Bede’s "Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum" ("Ecclesiastical History of the English People"), students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain how and why Bede wrote his most famous work (including his motives for writing it), and why Bede’s History has been so important to the study of Latin Christendom and Medieval England for the last 1100 years.

Through an in-depth analysis of various primary and secondary sources students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain the Anglo-Saxon period in English history, including why the “invaders” or “settlers” (depending on perspective) came to the former Roman province of Britannia, how the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms functioned politically and culturally during the time they were in control of the island, why the Normans were able to conquer Britain in 1066, and finally how Anglo-Saxon culture influenced (and continues to influence) modern British culture today.

Through an in-depth analysis of various primary and secondary sources, students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain the different theories of how and when Stonehenge was built, what the site’s purpose may have been, and how it’s seen today, both by the British and by visitors from around the globe.