.zip file

This engaging, fully resourced lesson introduces students to the causes, context, and consequences of the Monmouth Rebellion (1685), exploring whether the Duke of Monmouth should be remembered as a hero or a villain. Designed for KS3/Common Entrance or early KS4 history, it develops contextual understanding, source analysis, and evaluative skills.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the context of the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685.
• Analyse the reasons for its failure.
• Judge whether the Duke of Monmouth should be remembered as a hero or a villain.

Lesson Structure & Activities:
Starter:
Source-based image enquiry – students answer who, what, when, where, and why questions about a scene depicting the Duke of Monmouth and James II.

Context Building:
Visual organiser outlining key contextual themes:
Religion and fear of Catholic absolutism.
Social inequality in the South West.
The political threat to parliamentary constitutionalism.

Main Activity:
Differentiated task analysing why the rebellion failed, using statements sorted into categories.

Discussion/Debate:
Line of opinion activity:
“The Monmouth Rebellion was always going to fail.”
Students position themselves physically or verbally along an agree–disagree spectrum, using evidence to justify their stance.

Source Analysis:
Two historical sources:

• Letter from the Earl of Shaftesbury (1787)
• John Tutchin’s “The Bloody Assizes” (1704)
  Guided questions help assess reliability, bias, and historical context.

Plenary / Exit Question:
“Should the Duke of Monmouth be remembered as a hero or a villain?”
Encourages synthesis and evaluative thinking.

Extension / Enrichment:
Watch Bloody Britain clip on the Monmouth Rebellion.
Discuss James II’s rule after the rebellion.
Explore Monmouth’s execution as a reflection of 17th-century justice and monarchy.
Listen to the original podcast.