Sort Your Eds Out Trivia Quiz

Edward succeeded his father Alfred the Great. But even though he was the reigning king's eldest son, it wasn't a foregone conclusion that he would succeed him as primogeniture had not been established at this stage of English history. Alfred had succeeded his brother as king because Aethelred's two sons were both infants at the time. Now an adult, Aethelwold, the eldest son of Aethelred claimed that he was the rightful king.

He raised an army, gained the backing of the Viking leaders in the north of England and began to attack lands in Edward's new kingdom.

The revolt lasted until 902 when Aethlered was killed at the Battle of the Holme in East Anglia.

Edward the Martyr had a brief and troubled reign as the King of England. His succession was disputed by supporters of his half brother and eventual successor, Aethelred the Unready. The main regent for Aethelred was his mother Aelfthryth, who it is suspected was responsible for the brevity of Edward's reign.

Primary historical sources about Edward's life are limited and the details of his death are not well established but it is believed that he was murdered, aged just 16, at the hands of Aelfthryth's men at her home, Corfe Castle. With her son in place on the throne, aged no more than 12 years old, Aelfthryth attained great power in governing the English lands until he came of age.

As the seventh son of King Aethelred the Unready, Edward had to wait a long time for his turn on the throne. Much of the wait was spent in exile after the Danes deposed his father. After more than 20 years away from England, Edward the Confessor finally claimed his right to be crowned after King Harthacnut died without an heir.

Edward was made a saint by Pope Alexander III in 1161 and a shrine to the newly canonised king was installed in his great legacy building, Westminster Abbey. Though St. Edward was renowned for his piety and his ability to heal the sick he wasn't averse to consolidating his power through the use of the sword, an example of which was the commissioning of the murder of Welsh leader, Rhys ap Rhydderch.

Longshanks was the nickname of King Edward I. Already a veteran of conflict by the time he acceeded to the throne, through his instigation of the Second Barons' War in support of his father, Henry III, Edward's early years as king saw him declare war on Welsh leader, Llewellyn. Llewellyn soon realised he was heavily outnumbered and lacked support among his own countrymen and surrendered the majority of his lands without bloodshed. Having dealt with Wales, the opportunity came later to acquire dominion over Scotland when there was a dispute over the succession to the Scottish throne. Asked to administer the process, Edward helped to put John Balliol on the throne. Within four years, Balliol was imprisoned in the Tower of London and Edward had put Scotland under English rule. This led to a new nickname for Edward of "Hammer of the Scots".

In case you were wondering why Longshanks was Edward I when he's the fourth in order in the quiz, it's because regnal numbering only began with Edward III, who was the third consecutive Edward on the throne. He was referred to in official documents as "King Edward, the third of that name since the Conquest". The reason they only went back to the conquest of William I is not known for sure but is likely to be because the history of how many Edwards had come before that point was uncertain.

Born in Caernarfon Castle in 1284 (hence the nickname), King Edward II's life was ended in another castle, Berkeley Castle, 43 years later (agreed by most but some historians argue that he died later). The manner of his death is not known but as he been forced to abdicate in January 1327 following an invasion led by his estranged wife Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer, it is assumed by many that he was murdered on their command.

Edward III was placed on the throne after his mother and her lover, Roger Mortimer, forced the abdication of his father. As Edward was just 14 years old at the time, Mortimer became the de facto ruler of England. Edward overthrew him three years later and immediately set about regaining the power in Scotland that his grandfather, Edward Longshanks, had established.

As Edward tried to deal with the Scots, the new French King Philip VI started to interfere in English lands on the continent, particularly in the region of Gascony. Rather than finding a diplomatic solution to the issue, Edward decided to assert his right to the French throne and declared war. This first phase of what was to become the Hundred Years' War was known as the Edwardian War and lasted for 23 years. It was largely successful for the English and led to the Treaty of Brétigny, which confirmed the return of Gascony to English control along with other lands in the south-west of France, in return for Edward renouncing his claim to the French throne.

Edward's father Richard was the leader of the House of York and heir presumptive to the English throne during the reign of King Henry VI of the House of Lancaster. Henry was a weak and unpopular king who had ascended to the throne as the King of France and England at just nine months, but had lost all of the English lands in France except for Calais as the Hundred Years' War came to an unsuccessful end.

Richard had been prepared to wait for Henry to die before taking the throne, but matters changed after he died, by which time Henry had produced an heir of his own, Edward of Westminster. In 1460, Edward, Earl of March, supported by the powerful nobles, the Earl of Warwick and the Duke of Clarence, decided that there was a need to take the crown by force. And so, the Wars of the Roses began.

Following defeat at the Battle of Towton, Henry fled to Scotland and the Earl of March was crowned Edward IV. With the Lancastrians apparently defeated, Edward had the tricky job of keeping his powerful supporters happy. But he lost their support after his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville. Warwick and Clarence led a revolt that saw Edward deposed in 1470. He was replaced on the throne once more by Henry VI. However, Henry's weaknesses as leader soon resurfaced and within a year, Edward had raised an army, regained the support of Clarence and defeated Warwick in battle. He was restored to the throne in 1471 and remained there until his death 12 years later.

Most widely remembered as one of the "Princes in the Tower", Edward reigned as, but was never crowned as, Edward V. The fate of the young king and his brother Richard is not known for certain.

What is known is that their uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, had them declared illegitimate because their father's marriage was deemed invalid due to a prior betrothal. Subsequently, an Act of Parliament declared Richard as the legitimate king and he was crowned Richard III.

The young princes soon disappeared from public view and by mid-1483, with Edward just 12 years of age, they were not seen again in public. It was written by 16th century statesman Thomas More, that the princes were smothered in their bed by Richard's men and this version of events was further amplified by William Shakespeare in his play "Richard III".

Edward VI was the only legitimate son of King Henry VIII. Although his reign was brief it was significant, especially in ecclesiastical terms. His father had first broken away from Rome but it was in the time of Edward that Protestantism was institutionalised and established as the state religion, breaking away from the Catholic tradition.

When it became apparent that Edward was terminally ill, aged just 15; it became his dying wish to ensure that the English Reformation was protected by excluding his eldest sister Mary, a devout Catholic, from the line of succession. He issued a "devise for the succession" that expressly forbade either of his sisters from inheriting the throne, in direct contrast to the Succession Act passed by his father that restored Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession after Edward. The consequence of the "devise" was that Lady Jane Grey was pronounced Queen in the days following Edward's death. Nine days later, she was deposed and Mary was proclaimed Queen of England.

Born as the first in line to the throne, Bertie, as he was known to his parents, had a record-breaking near 60-year stint as heir apparent to the throne, before becoming Edward VII on the death of his mother in 1901. He lost his record to the future King Charles III in 2011.

Unfortunately such a long wait for the throne meant a relatively short reign of just nine years. In this time though he gave his name to an era (the Edwardian era), oversaw major reforms to the British Army and Navy, and was the recipient of pioneering surgery to aid his recovery from appendicitis, a condition that had previously not been treated by surgical means.

David, who reigned as King Edward VIII, only became the Duke of Windsor after he abdicated his throne in 1936. The title was bestowed upon him by his successor, his brother Bertie, who ruled as George VI.

His abdication was forced by the UK government as the king refused to give up his relationship with Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee. The thought of the head of the Church of England being married to a divorcee was inconceivable at the time, though by the time that David's nephew Charles assumed the role in 2022, attitudes had changed enough for his marriage to a divorcee to not be a problem.

David and Wallis were never fully integrated back into the royal family, living out their life in exile, mostly in France, until his death in 1972.