A History of Britain

(in 18 lessons)

(Richard Hunt)

     This item resulted from a discussion at a Senior Management Team meeting in a large London Secondary school, where I volunteered to produce an outline history syllabus that could could be used to give students an introduction to British history, covering all the major events of the last 2000 years, in one year.

     The immediate cause of the discussion was an incident in the annual "Back History Month" when a teacher put up a series of posters around the school advertising Phillipa of Hainault, ( wife of King Edward lll ), as England's first black Queen.   

              (I leave you to work that one out for yourself - if you can't, the answer is at the end of the "History of Britain" below).

     King Edward lll and Philia of Hainault's son was known as  "The Black Prince" because of the colour of his armour.

     However, the teacher concerned had clearly thought that the prince had actually been black, and hence his mother must have been so as well, and hence we have England's first black Queen !