1. Why did the glass break?
‘’Flo had invited her parents to dinner – she wanted to tell them about her exciting news. She wanted to make the apartment look as tidy as possible – her father was a real stickler for neatness. So busy was she arranging silver plates on the sofa that she knocked the purple vase onto the tiled floor. It broke into smithereens’’
An Historian might ask:
What was the background, or contextual cause?
What was the medium term cause?
What was the immediate, or trigger, cause?

2. What types of causes might historians use?
An Historian might ask about the purple vase:
What was the background, or contextual cause?
What was the medium term cause?
What was the immediate, or trigger, cause?
Background/contextual – something important that has to be present but might not cause the actual event itself
Medium term – something in the run-up to the event that allows it to occur
Immediate/trigger – something that causes the event to happen when it does

3. So… Can you identify the:
Background/contextual cause(s) of the purple vase breaking?
The medium term cause(s)?
The immediate/trigger cause(s)?
Now, can you identify the same types of causes that help answer the question:
‘Why was Simon Sudbury’s head on a spike?’