KS2 KS3 Tudor History: Why did Henry VIII have Six Wives?

This lesson asks why King Henry VIII had so many wives. Students first collect information about Henry’s relationship with his six wives. They use this to help them analyse what made the marriages a success or failure. Plenty of printable worksheets, tables and timelines included!

This lesson can either be used in a unit of work about the Tudors and Henry VIII or as a stand-alone lesson covering Henry VIII and his six wives. It can also be used to help students analyse the art of the Tudors.

This is a fully resources lesson which includes a warmup, starter task, engaging background information, various learning activities, challenge tasks and learning reviews.

The lesson includes the following:

Resource 1: A4 printable worksheets for students to create their own timeline of Henry’s marriages.

Resource 2: Power Point
Slide 1: Title slide – Why did Henry VIII have so many wives?
Slide 2: Outline of the main lesson aims
Slide 3: Lesson Warm Up Activity: Discussion questions about marriages today with challenge questions included.
Slide 4-5: Lesson Warm Up 2: A true or false quiz about marriage in Tudor England – with answers revealed and explained.
Slide 6: Starter Task – ‘Which Wife When?’ – Students have to name and order the six wives of Henry VIII.
Slide 7: Background information about who the wives of Henry VIII were.
Slide 8-9: Printable fact sheets about the wives of Henry VIII
Side 10-11: Task: Fact File instructions and printable worksheet
Slide 12: Analysis questions – Which marriages were the most and least successful and how can we measure this?
Slide 13: Evaluation Question and Extended Writing – Why did Henry VIII have so many wives?
Slide 14: Challenge Questions
Slide 15-16: Learning Review Activity – Which wife? Answers revealed.

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All images used in this lesson are in the public domain and are therefore copyright free at the time of publishing. Images which require attribution have been attributed in the notes section of each slide where the image appears. If you feel any errors have been made, please contact me at raschoolresources@gmail.com in the first instance to resolve any issues. My lessons are completed using PowerPoint and designed on widescreen formatting. Thank you.