OCR AS Level History А ( Y137/01 ) England 1547–1603: the Later Tudors Question paper June 2025

OCR AS Level History А ( Y137/01 ) England 1547–1603: the Later Tudors Question paper June 2025 Section A Mid Tudor Crises Study the three sources and answer both questions in this section. 1 Use your knowledge of the rebellions of 1549 to assess how useful Source B is as evidence of the instability caused by the unrest in 1549. [10] 2 Using these three sources in their historical context, assess how far they support the view that the duke of Somerset was responsible for his own downfall. [20] Source A: William Paget, a trusted advisor to protector Somerset, writes to him criticising his conduct and its consequences. I told your grace the truth and was not believed. The king's subjects are out of all discipline, out of obedience, caring neither for protector nor king. And what is the cause? Your own softness? Your intention to be good to the poor? Consider, I beseech you most humbly, that society in a realm is maintained by means of religion and law. The use of the old religion is forbidden by a law, and the use of the new is not yet embraced by eleven out of twelve parts of the realm. As for the law, the foot takes on him the part of the head, and the common people are behaving like a king. William Paget, letter, 7 July 1549. Source B: The Privy Council considers the state of the nation in 1549 and suggests an explanation for the critical situation that has developed within England. The members of the king's majesty's Privy Council, considering among themselves the great rebellion of the people in various parts of the realm and the great slaughter and shedding of blood that has lately happened. The great disobedience remaining among the king's subjects consider that if speedy remedy is not provided, both his majesty's royal person and the whole state might be brought into peril. And remembering that this and other great disorders had proceeded from the ill government of the lord protector [Somerset]. The lord protector, who being spoken to many times in open council and privately, has not only refused to give ear to their advisers, but also deciding to follow his own fantasies from which all the said disorders and mischiefs have arisen. From the charges of the Privy Council against the duke of Somerset, 6 October 1549.