A no-prep, 6-lesson history unit on The development of Church, state and society in Medieval Britain 1066-1509. Written for Year 7 (ages 11-12). Pick it up at lunchtime, teach it that afternoon - every lesson has a full teacher script, projectable slides, a pupil worksheet, and an exit quiz.
Driving question: Did Henry II really want Thomas Becket dead - and how did one murder in a cathedral change English law forever?

What’s included

• 6 x Teacher lesson plans (Word, fully scripted)
• 6 x Pupil worksheets in 3 differentiated tiers (Support / Core / Stretch)
• 6 x Projectable slide decks (PowerPoint, ~22 slides each)
• 6 x Exit quizzes (single-page printable, with answer key)
• 1 x Knowledge Organiser (Word, 2-page A4 landscape)
• 1 x End-of-unit assessment with baseline + mark scheme
• 50+ original illustrations included throughout
• Curated kid-appropriate YouTube videos linked from each lesson’s slide deck

Curriculum links

• UK National Curriculum - KS3 History: The development of Church, state and society in Medieval Britain 1066-1509
• the relations between Church and Crown in medieval England
• the development of English common law under Henry II
• the Angevin Empire and the royal-baronial settlement

What pupils will learn

• Pupils know who Henry II was (1133-89), his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the lands of his Angevin Empire
• Pupils know Henry’s legal reforms - the General Eyre, the Assize of Clarendon (1166), the Assize of Northampton (1176), the introduction of the jury for serious crimes
• Pupils know the central conflict with Thomas Becket (1162-70): clerical immunity in the Constitutions of Clarendon (1164)
• Pupils know the circumstances of Becket’s murder on 29 December 1170 and Henry’s response (penance at Canterbury, 12 July 1174)
• Pupils can evaluate whether Henry II is best remembered for his legal reforms or for the murder

What pupils will be able to do

• Pupils can analyse the Constitutions of Clarendon as a primary source about Church-state relations
• Pupils can analyse William FitzStephen’s eyewitness account of the murder of Becket
• Pupils can evaluate the historiographical debate (Warren 1973 vs Vincent 2012) about Henry II’s reign