Unit information: The Tudor World in 2020/21

Unit name	The Tudor World
Unit code	HIST20119
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Hailwood
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

The Tudor period (1485-1603) has long fascinated both historians and the general public. During this period, England broke with Rome, Wales became fully integrated into the British state, Ireland was suppressed and Scotland brought into amity. At the same time, England as a whole saw new prosperity, with its population doubling and its commercial horizons expanding. By the early seventeenth century Britain had started down the track that would turn it into the world's leading maritime and imperial power. This unit will explore the world the Tudors created: discussing the politics of the period, the social / economic changes and the reasons for our enduring fascination with its events and personalities.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Successful students will be able to:

1. Examine why the Tudor period has long been regarded as so important.
2. Analyze the concept of ‘historical reception’ and how the reception of an era and its personalities is shaped.
3. Evaluate the key historiographical debates surrounding the Reformation, demographic expansion and socio-economic change.
4. Interpret primary sources and select pertinent evidence in order to illustrate specific and more general historical points
5. Present their research and judgements in written forms and styles appropriate to the discipline and to level I
6. Demonstrate skills in oral presentation appropriate to level I.

Teaching Information

Classes will involve a combination of long- and short-form lectures, class discussion, investigative activities, and practical activities. Students will be expected to engage with readings and participate on a weekly basis. This will be further supported with drop-in sessions and self-directed exercises with tutor and peer feedback.

Assessment Information

1 x 10-minute Individual Presentation (25%) [ILOs 1, 6]; 1 x Timed Assessment (75%) [ILOs 1-5]

Reading and References

Tatiana C. String & Marcus Bull (eds.), Tudorism': Historical Imagination and the Appropriation of the Sixteenth C'entury (2011)

John Guy, Tudor England (1988)

Cathy Shrank, 'Crafting the nation', in Keith Wrightson, A Social History of England 1500-1750 (2017)

Peter Marshall, Reformation England 1480-1642 (2012)

Nicholas Canny (ed.), The Origins of Empire: British Overseas Enterprise to the Close of the Seventeenth Century (1998)

Hilary Mantel, The Reith Lectures (BBC, 2017)