Odd Facts From French History Quiz | European

Odd Facts From French History Trivia Quiz

Odd things happen in history. Which of these statements are historic fact and which are fiction? You have one chance out of two to guess right, because you can answer with F (False) or T (True).

A multiple-choice quiz by flem-ish. Estimated time: 5 mins.

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Charles the VIII, nicknamed the Affable, died after striking his head on the lintel of a particularly low door in Amboise castle in 1498.

Answer: True

He was the one who by marrying the heiress to Britanny in 1491, annexed that province to the French Crown. Born at Amboise in 1470, he became King in 1483 and was succeeded to in 1498 by Louis XII.

2. When the French King Charles VII first met Joan of Arc, he had disguised himself as a woman.

Answer: False

He tested her by hiding among his courtiers.

3. Louis the XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X were all brothers.

Answer: True

They were the sons of Louis of France, Heir Presumptive to Louis XV. Louis XVI was the one that was executed in 1793. Louis XVIII is the one that took over from Napoleon when the latter was sent to Elba. Charles X unsuccessfully tried to restore the Ancient Pre-Revolutionary Monarchy.

4. One of the earlier French Kings, Hugo Capet, was so wise that he had his own son crowned as his successor in the same year as his own coronation in 987.

Answer: True

Hugo Capet's son, Robert the Pious, finally took over the throne in 996, after having been crowned for 9 years already!

5. The last of the Merovingian Kings got the nickname Louis The-Do-Nothing.

Answer: False

Though it's correct that the last of the Merovingian Kings were nicknamed Lazy Kings, there was no Louis among them. They all were called Childeric, Dagobert, Chlotar, Chilperic, Clovis or other such antique names. Historians say the label 'Do-Nothing' was an unfair nickname for Louis V who ruled from 896 till 897 when he died as a result of a hunting accident in Compiegne Forest.

6. The son of Louis X died when he was only five days old and got the name ... "John I the Posthumous".

Answer: True

He died in Paris in 1316.

7. During the One Hundred Years' War,one of the French Kings, John II, surrendered himself again to the English and died in a London prison, after his son had broken an agreement that he- the son- was to replace his captured father as a detainee of the English.

Answer: True

This is indeed what happened to John II the Good, who had been captured by the English at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356 and signed with them the Treaties of London 1359 and of Bretigny in 1360. In those treaties it had been arranged for the French King to be set free on a provisional basis and for him to be given the opportunity to raise the money for the ransom he owed to the English.

In the meantime, his son, the Duke of Anjou, was to be held by the English as a hostage until the sum would have been paid. Alas John II's son Louis did not stick to the agreement, and abused of the flexible conditions of detainment the English had given him in their continental "bridgehead" of Calais by "going awol".

The chivalrous French King felt that his son had, by running away, dishonoured the family and he generously decided to make up for his son's misconduct by giving himself up again into the hands of his opponent Edward III.

8. The famous Hundred Years' War was indirectly caused by Louis VII marrying the divorced wife of Henry II Plantagenet, the famous Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Answer: False

It was the other way round: Henry II married Eleanor after she had left her French husband Louis VII. Louis VII was born in Paris in 1120, became King in 1137 and died in Paris in 1180. By this marriage, the English Kings inherited such territories as Normandy, Auvergne, Aquitaine and Guyenne.

9. The son of Charles the Mad was ironically enough nicknamed Charles the Wise.

Answer: False

It's the other way round, wisdom begot madness. Charles V was nicknamed the Wise (ruled from 1364 till 1380.) In 1380, Charles VI (the Mad) took over and ruled till 1422!

10. At the time of the Battle of Waterloo, 18th June 1815, near Brussels, the legal ruler of France was not Napoleon but one of the many Bourbon Kings named Louis.

Answer: True

Louis XVIII was waiting for the outcome of the battle in the Flemish town of Ghent. The house where he stayed can still be visited.

Source: Author flem-ish

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Odd Facts From French History Trivia Quiz

Odd things happen in history. Which of these statements are historic fact and which are fiction? You have one chance out of two to guess right, because you can answer with F (False) or T (True).

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