Plantagenet Empire, Y7, AO & Heritage History

Still combining curriculums, working through more scheduling for Fox, my Y7 student, I remembered that Heritage History has maps in the study guide for British Middle Ages. There are also timelines. Map work and time lining always get left behind in our studies.

Just an aside: Have you wondered what exactly is the “Plantagenet” in Plantagenet Empire? I didn’t really pay much attention to this in school. Recently, I’ve wondered over the word, “Plantagenet.” In Winston Churchill’s The Birth of Britain, (BoB) the main Y7 AO history book, he says:

Henry Plantagenet was born to empire…Geoffrey’s marriage to Maud had united the Norman and Angevin lands, and the child of this marriage was from his birth in 1133 recognised as the “master of many peoples.” To contemporaries he was best known as Henry Fitz-Empress; but he carried into English history the emblem of his house, the broom, the Planta Genesta, which later generations were to make the name of this great dynasty, the Plantagenets. (pg 166-167)

Interestingly, the ‘broom’ isn’t what we use to sweep the floor. It is a shrub. If you knew that already, you don’t have to share that with me  

And now that we’ve covered the word, I’ll continue on with the original purpose of my post- maps and time lines. When plotting and planning I’m sure I noticed the link at AO that leads to maps for the year…but as I am prone to do, I either skipped it or just didn’t take note as I should have. I found two maps at that link that would have been helpful… 2-3 weeks ago. *face palm* Oh well. It’s good that I have the HH study guide (and remember!) because it has relevant maps for us, that we need now. If you don’t have the Curriculum from them, you can look at their website and find a lot of maps. Here is the specific page for British maps. The two specifically we are going to use this coming week:

• The Angevin Empire of Henry II
• England and France, 1259

I may also use the British Isles, 1200-1450, because it goes along with some of the other readings he is doing through AO. I’ll print out two of outline maps that is included in the study guide for this section and have Fox label and color accordingly.

As for the time lines that come with HH, I don’t plan on having Fox write them down as they are in the study guide (they’re already there, why rewrite them? although I will say that Lee did choose to rewrite them- on her own) but instead it is my hope that while he is reading through the time line he will come across something he finds to be interesting or profound and will take the initiative to record that in our family Book of Centuries.

Again, if you don’t have the curriculum or the study guide from HH, you can still get a lot of information at the website. Here is the page for Wars & Battles time line. You can choose what civilization you want to see, as well as the time period; then choose brief or detailed descriptions. I choose to use the time line from the CD because it includes more than just the battles (who was born, who died and such).

Also, while reading in BoB, some of the individuals we have no idea who are. Perhaps we do not pay attention well enough but I’d like to think that’s not the case. *cough* So, I am going to be picking (again) from the suggested readings in HH to add to Fox’s history. This time I think I’ll stick with the suggested chapters so that we can get a more varied selection, rather than just one book.

***Disclaimer: I am an affiliate with Heritage History. If you purchase from Heritage History and put in BLOSSOM3 at checkout, I may be credited as an affiliate, enabling me to receive monetary compensation. However, this post is written because I really appreciate HH and actually use it in our homeschool. There is also an Amazon.com affiliate link in this post. See Disclosure/Policies for more information.***