King Henry VII: Foreign Policy

PowerPoint (with eight slides) and three Word Documents that examine the foreign policy of King Henry VII in relation to his aim of reducing foreign support for Yorkist threats, securing recognition for the Tudors through marriage alliances, reasserting England’s importance as European power and avoiding war. The lesson also considers Henry’s relationships with Spain, Burgundy, France, Scotland and Brittany. The lesson does not cover Henry’s trading policies.

Activities include

• Quick Quiz on previous learning; the Yorkshire & Cornish tax revolts.
• Matching task on the status of Europe’s powers when Henry seized England’s throne in 1485.
• Reading and highlighting task to identify success and failure in a narrative of Henry’s foreign policy.
• A reading and comprehension task in which students add evidence of success and failure into a table of Henry’s main foreign policy aims.
• A ranking activity on the extent Henry was successful in achieving his aims.
• A ranking task on how successfully Henry managed his relationships with foreign powers.
• Discussion of the interpretation that Henry’s early foreign policy was more successful than his later foreign policy.
• Discussion of the interpretation that Henry’s foreign policy was reliant on good luck.

Designed for the teaching of OCR History Y106 The Early & Mid Tudors.
Duration: 2x1hr lessons approx.
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