GUIDANCE NOTES FOR VISITS BY KEY STAGE 2 CLASSES

INTRODUCTION

Queen Elizabeth’s reign was an exciting time to be living in England. It was a turning point in history with lots of talented people enriching the country with their skills as merchants, soldiers, lawyers, doctors, artists and writers. This exhibition explores the story of the Elizabethans, from the Queen and her courtiers to labourers working the land and at sea - men and women, old and young, rich and poor - all of whom benefited from the peace and prosperity of her reign.

ORGANISATION

QUEEN ELIZABETH I (‘THE DITCHLEY PORTRAIT’)By Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger

Oil on canvas, c.1592 Bequeathed by Harold Lee-Dillon, 17th Viscount Dillon, 1932

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Booking essential – please see the back page for details.

Divide your class of up to thirty children into at least three groups, with one or more adults in charge of each group.

These notes are for the adult with each group and do not presume any prior knowledge of Tudor history. The focus is on looking carefully at the pictures and objects in the exhibition and thinking about what you are seeing. The exhibition covers the whole range of social classes in Elizabethan England, from the Queen herself, through the nobility, merchants and professional classes right down to the working poor.

The groups head round the exhibition clockwise, but each has a different starting point, as shown on the plan. In some parts of the exhibition the children will sit down on the floor in front of one picture and you will have a few questions to ask them. Please only sit them down for five minutes or so at a time and make sure that other visitors can still freely move round them. In two sections the children need to be finding some different things so they will be on their feet; you will need tell them what they have to find. Please don’t feel that you have to ask all the questions suggested especially if your group are getting restless - but the questions and answers are here to help you if you need them.

PLAN

GROUP A

Group A should start in Elizabethan England and then work their way down through the social classes ending in Working People and the Poor.

Head round the exhibition clockwise from the beginning to the end.

GROUP B

Group B should start the exhibition in Professionals, Writers and Artists and end in Merchants and Traders.

Turn immediately right inside the entrance and then head round the exhibition clockwise.

GROUP C

Group C should start in The Nobility, Gentry and the Court and go down through the social classes, but end with Encountering the Queen.

Head round the exhibition clockwise, starting at the back wall.

MERCHANTS AND TRADERS

PROFESSIONALS, WRITERS

AND ARTISTS

ENCOUNTERING THE QUEEN

ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND

ORANGE STREET ENTRANCE

LOBBY

EXHIBITION ENTRANCE

TOILETS

VIDEOFIREEXIT

THE NOBILITY, GENTRY AND THE COURT

WORKING PEOPLE AND

THE POOR

GROUP A STARTS HERE

ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND

Sit the children down in front of The Procession Portrait of Elizabeth I.

This is an outline of a portrait of Elizabeth I in a procession possibly at a wedding in

London in 1600. The bride, Anne, is in white, and the groom, also in white, is carrying the

back of Elizabeth’s canopy. He is called Henry and his father Edward is the older

man in pink shown nearest to you.

Does the way the four courtiers are standing make it look as though the canopy is heavy?

No, but think about what the canopy must really have weighed. The courtiers would have to have put in much more effort than this!

Can you work out how she is being moved along?

She actually is on a cart with wheels - though you can’t see the wheels - being pushed along by the three men in red uniforms behind her. The large canopy over her head is being carried by four of her male courtiers.

What is Queen Elizabeth I doing in this picture?

Taking part in a procession.

How many different leg positions has the artist used for the men in this picture

– one, two or are all of them different?

Just two.

Do you think the artist was actually there painting this picture while the procession was

happening or did he make it up afterwards?

Made it up afterwards – you couldn’t stop the Queen’s procession to paint it from life.

Some rich ladies are in the procession and others are shown watching it –

where are they watching it from?

From the windows.

HEAD INTO THE NEXT SECTION

Where would you like to be?

ENCOUNTERING THE QUEEN

Sit the children down in front of Elizabeth I in the fishes dress.

The portraits in the next part of the exhibition are not of royal people like the Queen, but they are rich people with grand titles like Duke or Duchess or Countess or Lord.

This is an outline of a magnificent portrait of Elizabeth I. Portraits of the Queen would have

been on the walls in rich people’s houses. Elizabeth I owned an amazing number of

wonderful dresses, sometimes embroidered with lots of different animals and plants.

HEAD INTO THE NEXT SECTION

What in the picture tells you that she is Queen Elizabeth?

The small crown on her head and the details on her chair – ER for Elizabeth Regina which is Latin for Queen Elizabeth; the lion’s head with the crown and the Tudor roses with the crown; the royal coat of arms.

Do you like this portrait of Elizabeth I?

Can you find some different kinds of flowers embroidered on her dress, and can you find

one real flower on her?

There are a pansy and an iris embroidered near her hem – the real flower is a rose pinned to her dress near her pearl necklace – the rose was her favourite flower.

Can you find any of these insects, birds, fish and animals embroidered on her dress – a swan; a whale; a seahorse; a butterfly;

a crocodile; a crab; a snake?

Only rich people would see Elizabeth in a painting like this one. How would poorer people come across her face?

Clue: you may have brought our Queen’s face to the Gallery today...

On coins.

REMEMBER TO BOW TO THE QUEEN BEFORE LEAVING HER PRESENCE!

GROUP C STARTS HERE

THE NOBILITY, GENTRY AND THE COURT

Sit the children down in front of Elizabeth Vernon, Countess of Southampton.

Please take your group to have a quick look in the showcase and let them find the comb before sitting down in front of three portraits of children. CONTINUE IN THIS SECTION

Elizabeth Vernon had been one of the Maids of Honour to Elizabeth I until she secretly

married the Earl of Southampton without the Queen’s permission. The Queen was so angry

she sent them both to prison for a while, and she never forgave them.

What is Elizabeth Vernon doing? Combing her hair.

What can you see on the table beside her? Jewellery/necklaces – the necklaces do up by tying the red ribbons at the back of her neck; a jewellery box; a pincushion.

Has she got all her clothes on? Not yet.

What other clothes are shown in the picture that she going is to put on?

The huge collar, called a ruff, hanging up behind her; some sparkly jewels on wires that she is going to wear over her bodice; also a red velvet cloak lined with white fur showing that she is a Countess – this is lying on cushions behind her.

We don’t know her dog’s name – if it were your dog what name would you give it?

In the showcase are lots of things that rich people in Elizabeth I’s reign owned – one of

them is very, very like something shown in Elizabeth Vernon’s picture – can you find it?

ELIZABETH VERNON, COUNTESS OF SOUTHAMPTON (1573 – c.1655)

The Buccleuch Collection

THE NOBILITY, GENTRY AND THE COURT

Sit the children down in front of the three portraits of children.

HEAD INTO THE NEXT SECTION

Sadly we don’t know the names of the two boys and a girl – what would you name them?

Baby John was about a year old when he was painted with his nurse. Two things are

tied to him with red ribbons – a purse and a teether. The teether is made of coral.

Which of these two is more use to baby John do you think?

Almost certainly the teether

In the two group pictures, are they wearing clothes specially designed for children, like John is, or are they wearing smaller

versions of what rich adults wear?

Their clothes are similar to those of the grown-ups in the other portraits in this section.

John is the youngest child in these three paintings; how old do you think

the other children are?

The children in the other two paintings have their ages written above them – the four boys range from six and a half to two, and the two boys and a girl are six, seven and five.

What do they like doing, and do we still like doing those things today?

Playing chess; playing cards; looking after their pets – a guinea pig and a bird. We still do all these.

The four brothers are called Frederick, Henry (but always nicknamed Harry),

Edward and Andrew. Are these names that we still use for boys today?

Yes, though we might shorten Frederick to Freddie these days.

From left to right, top to bottom

A CHILD AND HIS NURSEPrivate collection Belgium

THREE UNKNOWN ELIZABETHAN CHILDRENPrivate Collection

EDWARD, 3RD LORD WINDSOR (c.1532 – 74/5), HIS WIFE KATHERINE DE VERE (1538 – 99/1600) AND FAMILY

The Bute Collection at Mount Stuart

The little girl is holding her pet guinea pig. It is the first guinea pig ever to be shown in a

painting. Guinea pigs originally came from the Andes Mountains in South America. They were

very new as pets in Elizabeth’s reign.

MERCHANTS AND TRADERS

Ask the children these questions and send them to find the answers in the portraits.

Merchants did well in Elizabeth’s reign and many made a lot of money. Some were from abroad and came to England because there

was fighting in their own countries. The merchants in this section have a number of

signs and symbols in their portraits. These tell us what sort of things they thought a lot about.

These merchants are very keen to show they are not just interested in making money...

Can you find signs that they thought a lot about death –

what symbol did they use for this?

Skulls.

Can you find signs that they thought about the passing of time – what did they put in their

portraits to show this?

Clocks.

Can you find little prayer books, showing they were interested in religion, in any of their

portraits (sometimes these were worn attached to their belts)?

From left to right

JACQUES WITTEWRONGHELE (1531 – 93)Lawes Agricultural Trust

KATHERYN OF BERAIN, ‘THE MOTHER OF WALES’ (1534/5 – 91)National Museum of Wales, Cardiff

HEAD INTO THE NEXT SECTION

GROUP B STARTS HERE

PROFESSIONALS, WRITERS AND ARTISTS

Ask the children to go and find the people from these clues:

Continue to Working People and the Poor also in this room. CONTINUE IN THIS SECTION

People who were skilled and creative often did well in Elizabethan England. The things that people have in their portraits can tell you what job they did. Children should be able to find:

A writer holding a book. There’s also an actual page of the book nearby.

A preacher speaking and gesturing with his hand.

A poet thinking about writing a sad love poem. He’s wearing a big black hat.

A surgeon doing an operation with a body on the table in front of him.

Can you also find an an artist with a palette and brushes?

From left to right, top to bottom

ESTHER KELLO, née INGLISUnknown artist, Esther Inglis, 1571 – 1624.

Calligrapher and miniaturist. Scottish National Portrait Gallery

HENRY BIRDENorfolk Museums & Archaeology Service

(Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery)

JOHN DONNE (1572 – 1631)National Portrait Gallery, London, Purchased with help from

the National Heritage Memorial Fund, The Art Fund, Lord Harris of Peckham, L.L. Brownrigg, the Portrait Fund, Sir Harry Djanogly,

the Headley Trust, the Eva & Hans K. Rausing Trust, The Pidem Fund, Mr O. Damgaard-Nielsen, Sir David and Lady Scholey

and numerous Gallery visitors and supporters, 2006

JOHN BANISTER (1532/3 – 1599?) DELIVERING AN ANATOMY LECTURE

University of Glasgow Library

WORKING PEOPLE AND THE POOR

Just near the exit, sit the children down in front of the suit of brown clothes.

If you started in either Nobility, Gentry and the Court or Professionals, Writers and Artists, head into Elizabethan England next. If not, this is the end of the exhibtion. HEAD INTO THE NEXT SECTION

Why aren’t there any portraits of Tudor people who were poor?

They couldn’t afford to have a portrait painted - they were worried about having enough money for food.

These clothes belonged to someone who went to sea, probably a fisherman or a sailor.

We do not know his name. The trousers are called breeches. These two garments are made of linen (which comes from a plant).

Look carefully at them – have they been patched and mended?

Yes, lots of times.

They even have spots of tar on them from the ropes on a boat or ship. Why didn’t the

man just throw them away and buy new clothes, do you think?

Do you think in Elizabeth’s reign that there were more people who were

rich or more who were poor?

Definitely more who were poor – Elizabeth and her parliament passed several laws to try and help some of the poorest people.

SEA-GOING CLOTHING© Museum of London

SCHOOL VISITS

For KS2 classes all visits to the exhibition are self-directed.

For a self-directed visit it is essential to book in advance.

For Secondary History students there is a bookable Exhibition Introductory Talk.

Please note that while the talk is free there is an entrance charge for the exhibition with concessionary rates for pre-booked groups.

Please book in advance.

OPENING HOURS

Daily 10.00 – 18.00Closure commences at 17.50

Last admission to the exhibition is 1 hour before the Gallery closes www.npg.org.uk/whatson/ elizabethi/exhibition.php

10 OCTOBER 2013 – 5 JANUARY 2014