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 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.

Students in this lesson will identify, understand and be able to explain the basics of Locke’s ideas on society and government by reading and analyzing excerpts from his two major philosophical works, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) and Two Treatise on Government (1690), thereby gaining a better understanding of how Locke’s writings influenced Jefferson and the other founding fathers.