Hello there.

I'm Ms. Roberts and it's time for another history lesson.

I'm really pleased you've decided to join me today.

This lesson is from our unit, which is all about ancient Greece.

It's about one specific ancient Greek figure in particular, and that person was Alexander the Great.

Alexander was a great king, and today we are going to find out what happened to turn Alexander the boy into Alexander the king.

By the end of the lesson today, you are going to be able to describe how that happened.

I'd like to begin as we usually do by looking at some very important key words that we are going to use in this lesson.

You may or may not have heard or used some of these words yourself before today, but they are very important words that you should be able to use to talk about Alexander the Great.

Listen to each word and then say them after me.

Our first word is Macedon.

That's a place name.

Can you say Macedon? Good job.

Our next word is kingdom.

Can you say kingdom? Good.

Our third word is another place and that place is Persia.

Can you say Persia? Well done.

Next we have league.

Can you say league? That's right.

And our last word today isn't a particularly nice word.

Our last word is murder.

Can you say murder? Well done.

I'm going to give you a definition now about what each of those words mean and then you'll be able to see them being used in context during the lesson.

So our first word was Macedon.

Now, Macedon was a kingdom in the northeast of ancient Greece.

So Macedon was part of ancient Greece.

Kingdom, which you heard there in the first sentence.

A kingdom is an area of land that could be a country or it could be a state, which Macedon here was a state ruled over by its own king or queen, and that's what we call a kingdom.

Now, our next word was also a place, wasn't it? That place was Persia, the civilization that was a rival or an enemy of ancient Greece to the east was called Persia, and sometimes we can refer to that area as the Persian Empire.

Our next word was league.

You might be more familiar with this from sports settings perhaps.

A league is a group of people or places that have a shared interest.

And now our last word, which was murder.

Now a murder is a crime and it's a crime that has happened when a person or more than one person choose to end the life of another person.

We are going to find out why we're using that word a little later in this lesson.

There are going to be two parts to this lesson today.

First, we are going to think about the kingdom of Macedon because that's where Alexander was from.

So that's where we need to start.

Later, we're going to look at exactly how he became king.

Let's make a start.

Macedon is shown here as the green shaded area on this map.

Macedon was a kingdom in the northeast of ancient Greece.

It was part of ancient Greece.

When the Persian empire was growing, they wanted to expand further into the west, and so they had set their sights on conquering ancient Greece.

They began to conquer ancient Greece by first conquering the kingdom of Macedon so they could use that kingdom as a gateway to entering the rest of ancient Greece.

This led to a great war between the Persian empire and the ancient Greeks.

As the Greeks fought bravely to try and win Macedon back from the Persians.

For many years this conflict continued and eventually in 359 BCE, the Greek forces finally succeeded in pushing the Persians out of the kingdom of Macedon and the Macedonian king, Philip II, took back control of the kingdom.

If you look at the picture here, this is a bust made of marble.

A bust is a statue of just the head of an important or historical figure.

This important figure is what we think King Philip II of Macedon might have looked like.

So let's pause here briefly and check on our learnings far.

I'm going to read you a true or false sentence.

Listen carefully and then decide if you feel that this is true or false.

Macedon was a kingdom that the ancient Greeks conquered after a war with Persia.

Is that true or is that false? Make your choice now.

Have you decided? I think that this statement is false.

Did you choose false as well? So we are saying that it is false that Macedon was a kingdom that the ancient Greeks conquered after a war with Persia.

As a historian, we can't just make statements and declare things to be true or false unless we have some additional explanation or some evidence to back up what we are saying.

So for that reason, I'm going to share two more sentences with you.

I would like you to decide which of these two sentences is the most appropriate to use here.

Sentence A says that Macedon was part of ancient Greece before the war with Persia, and sentence B says that Macedon had its own king.

It was not ruled by anybody else.

Which of those sentences is the most helpful piece of extra explanation for the sentence above? Have you made a choice? I think sentence A is the most helpful here because this explains that the ancient Greeks didn't conquer Macedon.

Macedon was already part of ancient Greece before that war with Persia even began.

Well done your working really hard today.

Good job.

Let's move on and find out some more about what happened when King Philip II regained control of Macedon King Philip helped Macedon to rebuild, to grow, to prosper, and to become much wealthier.

It became one of the most powerful kingdoms of ancient Greece.

During the reign of King Philip II Macedon actually began to produce its own coins.

The coins featured the head of Zeus on one side and an image of King Philip as a warrior on horseback on the other.

You can see those images in the picture here.

King Philip was well respected by the people of Macedon as well as by the people and leaders of the other city states of ancient Greece.

Whilst Philip was enjoying his very successful reign, his young son Alexander watched on.

He was learning a great deal from his father.

King Philip knew that there was still a potential threat from the Persians.

And because he had such respect from other rulers in ancient Greece, he suggested to those rulers that they would all be stronger if they worked together as allies.

You can think of allies as meaning friends and not enemies.

He convinced them that they would be stronger because this would mean that they would have a better chance of defeating the Persians and preventing them from conquering any more territories in ancient Greece.

Many of those rulers from the other ancient Greek city states agreed with King Philip.

And so together, united in around 338 BCE, they formed a special group called the League of Corinth.

June has made a good observation here, and I think I mentioned this earlier.

Today, we use the word league for groups of teams in sports like football or hockey.

In England, you might have heard of the Premier League, for example.

Leagues are groups of people or things that have a shared interest.

Today, the Premier League's shared interest is the game of football.

In ancient Greece, the League of Corinth's shared interest was defending ancient Greece against the Persians.

To form the league of Corinth, King Philip and every other member made a very special agreement called an oath.

An oath is a binding agreement and everybody that takes the same oath trusts that all of those other people that made that oath will also abide by it.

It takes a great deal of trust in one another.

The member states of the League of Corinth agreed that they would never fight against each other and that they would fight together to defeat their common enemies like the Persians.

King Philip became the military leader of the League of Corinth.

This is an example of part of the oath that was taken by the member states.

I swear by Zeus, Gaia, Helios, Poseidon, and all the gods and goddesses.

I will abide by common peace and I will neither break the agreement with Philip nor take up arms on land or sea harming any of those abiding by the oaths.

This meant that each of the member states agreed that they were not going to hurt each other and they used their gods and goddesses as something to swear by.

That was very, very important in ancient Greece.

So to swear by the Gods made other people have great faith that the oath would be kept.

When the League of Corinth had been established, they then began to make their plans to join together their military forces and find a strategy to conquer Persia.

Let's pause here for some activities on what we know so far about the kingdom of Macedon.

First, I would like you to talk to a learning partner.

There is a question here for you to discuss.

Do you think that creating the League of Corinth was a good idea? You may or may not agree with each other, but do make sure that whatever your opinion, you can explain your thinking to your learning partner.

Pause the video now while you complete the activity.

All done? You have some really good ideas.

Great work.

Some of the Oak Academy children are going to share their thoughts with us now.

Aisha says that yes, she thinks that creating the League of Corinth was a good idea because the members agreed to never fight with each other and work together.

And Lucas says that he agrees with Aisha, especially because they swore on their gods, so they would definitely keep the oath.

I think they're great ideas.

Well done Aisha and Lucas, and well done you for your hard work too.

Let's move on to another activity about what we know about what was happening in the kingdom of Macedon.

Here are some statements, and I'm going to read them aloud for you.

You are going to decide whether these statements are true or false.

Put a check in the correct column in each case.

Then for the second part of the activity, I want you to look back at the statements you decide are false and turn them into correct statements.

I'm going to read the statements for you now and then you can pause the video while you complete both parts of the activity.

Macedon was a kingdom in the northwest of ancient Greece.

The Persian empire conquered Macedon.

When Greece drove the Persians away, Philip II became the king of Macedon.

King.

Philip II was the uncle of Alexander.

The kingdom of Macedon made coins.

King Philip II created the League of Athens.

Members of the league swore an oath to King Philip II.

Pause the video now and complete both parts of this activity.

You ready? Good job.

Let's look through some examples together then.

Macedon was a kingdom in the northwest of ancient Greece.

This is false.

The Persian empire conquered Macedon.

That's true.

When Greece drove the Persians away, Philip II became the king of Macedon.

That is also true.

King Philip was the uncle of Alexander.

That's false.

The kingdom of Macedon made their own coins.

That is true.

King Philip II created the League of Athens.

That's false.

Members of the league swore an oath to King Philip II.

That's also false.

For the second part of the activity, you've been asked to correct the false statements.

Let's look at those together next.

This is what you may have written.

Macedon was a kingdom in the northeast of ancient Greece.

It was in the northeast, not the northwest.

King Philip II was Alexander's father, not his uncle.

King Philip II created the League of Corinth, not the league of Athens, the League of Corinth.

Members of the league swore an oath to Zeus.

Zeus was the king of the of the gods in ancient Greece and to other ancient Greek gods and goddesses.

You may not have remembered Zeus, and that's okay if you just put gods or goddesses, that's great.

Well done.

You've worked really hard.

It's time now though to move on to our second part of the lesson.

We're going to find out more about exactly how Alexander became the king of Macedon.

The point we are up to right now is that the ancient Greeks have won back control of Macedon.

King Philip II has regained control of the kingdom and he has set up the League of Corinth to try and defend the rest of ancient Greece against the Persians.

So let's find out what happens next.

Two years after the League of Corinth was formed, in the year 336 BCE, a terrible event happened and this event would lead to great changes.

King Philip was attending the wedding of his daughter Cleopatra of Macedon, in a place called Agate, the capital city of the kingdom of Macedon.

The whole family had gathered there at a large theatre for the celebration.

Olympias, who was the mother of the bride, and the mother of Alexander, as well as other siblings and relatives, and hundreds of Macedonian people, plus other important people from across ancient Greece were all gathered there for this wedding.

It was a joyful occasion.

So King Philip thought that he had no need to wear armour or to carry a weapon, and besides he had royal bodyguards that would follow him for protection if anything were to happen.

However, just as King Philip entered the theatre suddenly when it was least expected, he was attacked by a man with a sword.

Before he could do anything to defend himself, one of his bodyguards jumped in.

But instead of helping the king, the bodyguard took the opportunity to murder Philip.

The bodyguard's name was Pausanias.

He was later caught and he was punished for his crime.

And although there are some suggestions, historians are still not completely sure of the reasons for the murder of King Philip II of Macedon.

Before we find out what happened next, let's have a quick check on all learning so far.

I want you to decide which of these statements can correctly describe King Philip II.

A, king of Macedon.

B, husband of Olympias.

C, king of all of ancient Greece.

D, leader of League of Corinth.

Now be careful.

There's probably more than one correct answer there.

Pause the video now while you make your choices.

Ready? Lovely.

Now, I think actually there is only one of these that doesn't describe King Philip II.

Let's see.

A, king of Macedon.

Yes.

He certainly was the king of Macedon.

B, husband of Olympias.

Yes, that's right.

He was there at the wedding with Olympias to celebrate the marriage of their daughter.

Philip and Olympias were the parents of Alexander the Great.

C, king of all of ancient Greece.

Hmm, I'm not sure about this one.

He was a king in a kingdom that was part of ancient Greece, but he was not king of all of ancient Greece.

So that's not right.

And that takes us to Statement D, leader of the League of Corinth.

And yes, he was leader of the League of Corinth.

It was him that actually set it up.

Let's continue now and go back to Macedon and see what happened after the tragic death of King Philip II.

This picture shows a marble bust of the very young Alexander.

A bust is a statue of the head of an important figure or a historical person.

At the age of only 20, Alexander became king of Macedon, straight after the very unexpected death of his father.

Alexander had spent many years watching his father, learning how to rule from him, and like his father, Alexander also had the same great desire to defeat the Persians and to defend ancient Greece.

Earlier in his life, Alexander had also travelled to Athens to receive an education.

He'd actually been taught by one of ancient Greece's greatest teachers, and their name was Aristotle.

So Alexander was also known to be very clever.

Alexander was a strong soldier.

He was a general in the Macedonian army, and in the year 334 BC, less than two years after his father's death, Alexander had come up with his own military plan to defeat and conquer the Persian empire forever.

Little did that young man know that one day he would go on to be known as Alexander the Great, and he would become one of the most famous ancient Greek people of all time.

It's very exciting, isn't it? I really do feel like his story is only just beginning.

Let's have some activities now to see what we know so far about how Alexander became king.

There are three dates on this timeline that are key points in the history of Alexander the Great becoming king of Macedon.

338 BCE, two years later, 336 BCE, and then two years later, again, 334 BCE.

So we are not talking about hundreds of years.

We are only talking about a six year time span here, but they were very important years.

I would like you to make a note about what happened in each of those years.

We have just found out about them now, so do feel free to look back at the resources for this lesson for extra support.

Pause the video now while you complete this activity.

All done? Excellent.

I'm going to share some examples now.

You may have written sentences similar to these.

You may have only made very brief notes.

You may even have drawn a picture about what happened.

In 338 BCE, the key event was that the League of Corinth was formed by King Philip II.

In 336 BC, which is just two years later.

The key event is that that is when the murder of King Philip II took place.

It is also the same time that Alexander became the new king of Macedon, and two years after that, in a very short space of time, Alexander had already come up with his own plan to defeat the Persian empire.

To end the lesson today, I would like you to think about everything you now know about how Alexander became the King of Macedon, and write one paragraph to explain it.

You might include details about what happened to his predecessor, his father, the King of Macedon, Philip II.

You might want to write about Alexander's family tree or his childhood or things that happened to him when he was younger.

And you may want to write about things that Alexander was known for.

When you finish, you can share and compare your work with a learning partner.

So pause the video now while you complete your paragraph about Alexander the Great Finished? Great stuff.

You have some really good ideas.

Let's look at an example together.

Sophia from Oak Academy has written that Alexander became king of Macedon in 336 BCE at the age of 20.

This happened because of the murder of his father, King Philip II.

Alexander was a general in the Macedonian army and he had been educated by Aristotle.

He was known as a clever and strong warrior.

Soon he came up with his own military plan to defeat and conquer Persia.

Thank you, Sophia.

That's excellent work.

Well done.

You've all heard a lot of information today, so let's end by reviewing everything we now know about how Alexander went from boy to king.

We now know that Macedon was a kingdom in the northeast of ancient Greece that was conquered by the Persians.

We know that the Greek army drove the Persians out of Macedon and Philip II became king.

We know that King Philip II formed the League of Corinth with other Greek city states to work together to defeat Persia.

We know also that the murder of King Philip II led to his son, Alexander, becoming the new king of Macedon.

Alexander was a very strong soldier and he wanted to continue his father's work.

I'm very excited to find out what happens next in this story.

Are you? Join me again for another history lesson to find out.

Bye for now.