jason carr

Lesson Plan
Teaching Tudor-Stuart History:  Historical Voyeurism
GOAL: Encourage students to examine primary epistolary
sources, when available to them.


WHAT:  Read, discuss, and evaluate the usefulness of the
letters of Mary Stuart and Elizabeth Tudor as evidentiary
historical sources.  The personal nature of the documents
may especially appeal to the students, and increase their
willingness to think critically about history.

"A man who cannot seduce men cannot save them either."
Kierkegaard, Journals.


PURPOSE:  Demonstrate that:

"    "the past" is not identical to "history" (the map is
  not the territory).
"    Historians write history using sources as evidence
"    Students can generate sources for later historians
"    Students can write histories


WHAT YOU NEED:
1.   Lewis, Jayne Elizabeth.  The Trial of Mary Queen of
  Scots: A Brief History with Documents.  ISBN: 0312154399.
  (for text versions of the letters)
2.   Photostat copies of the actual letters
3.   Writing paper, pens/pencils

WHAT YOU DO:

Activity A:  Review the synopsis of  the trial and related
events (lecture)

Activity B:  Read the texts of the letters, pp. 78-90.

Activity C:  Break up into groups of 4-5 and:
     1.   Discuss the actual manuscripts, and if the physical
       appearance tells us anything
     
     2.   At what points in the letters does the woman come out?
       The cousin?  The queen?  The Protestant or Catholic?
     3.   Does each writer maintain a consistent tone, or are
       there shifts?  If so, where did they occur, and why?
     4.   What can we tell about the emotional or mental context
       for the letters?
     5.   How might the letters have been different if absolute
       privacy could be achieved?
     6.   How might any difference affect the usefulness of the
       letters to later historians?
     7.   Do the differences make the letters any less "true"?
     

Activity D:
     1.   Dissolve the groups
     2.   Gedenke:  when you write in a journal or diary do you
       ever hold back because you suspect that someone might read
       it?  How does this change what you write?  How might this
       affect how someone understands you 100 years from now?
     3.   You will write a series of short letters (a paragraph
       or two each):  two from Mary to Elizabeth and two from
       Elizabeth to Mary.  One set will assume absolute privacy and
       one will assume public scrutiny.  Use modern language (you
       are not required to use Elizabethan style), and address it
       to the recipient and sign it from you as the monarch you
       are.  Notice the signatures in the manuscripts!  Put your
       name on the back of each page.
     4.   Discuss this experience in class.  What was it like?
       Post the work around the room (remember the names are on the
       back, so students shouldn't be embarrassed).

Activity E:
     1.   Write a page or so, describing the relationship between
       Mary and Elizabeth at this point.  Ground your description
       as much as possible in what you see in the letters.
     2.   Read several aloud, unattributed.   Note class reaction
       and probable disagreement and disbelief.
     3.   Instructor:  discuss these descriptions as history
       based on primary sources, and have points of view, biases,
       and unconscious agendas.
     4.   Encourage students to think of history as being written
       by a person, for a reason, for an audience.

Activity F:
     5.   Later in the week, invite the students to write their
       names (or pseudonyms) on the letters they wrote.  Note that
       some will not do it, some will, some will accidentally or on
       purpose sign the wrong one.  After a couple of days, discuss
       this as an aspect of the difficulty of attribution, forgery,
       and historical error.  How will someone in 100 years be able
       to figure out who wrote what?  Does it matter?

Other materials:
1.   Samples of R.E.'s signature
  http://www.handwriting.org/images/samples/qelizab1.htm
2.   Hibbert, Christopher.  The Virgin Queen : Elizabeth I,
  Genius of the Golden Age.  ISBN: 0201608170
3.   Jackson, Glenda, et al in  "Elizabeth R", BBC video in
  six parts, notable for its treatment of the matter of Mary
  Queen of Scots.. ASIN: 630354231X

http://www.mousetrap.net/~mouse/uta/transatlantic/