Renaissance Women Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jane Seymour

Jane Seymour (1508[?] - 24 October 1537) was his third wife. She died after giving birth to the later Edward VI. Katherine of Aragon was the mother of Mary I, Anne Boleyn was the mother of Elizabeth I.

Answer: Mary Queen of Scots

Mary I of Scotland was convicted of treason for being involved in a plot to kill Elizabeth I, Queen of England. She claimed the English throne because Henry VII was her great-grandfather. (Her father was James V of Scotland, her grandmother was Margaret Tudor.) Friedrich Schiller's drama "Maria Stuart" written by in 1801. (Schiller includes a dramatic confrontation between the two queens, but this is poetic licence as in fact the two queens never set eyes on one another).

Answer: Spain

She married Philip II of Spain in 1554. He was eleven years younger. They were both Catholic, and she had about 300 Protestants ('heretics') executed, including Sir Thomas Wyatt and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. This gave her the nickname Bloody Mary. She was the daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon.

Answer: 0

She was nicknamed the Virgin Queen. It's possible that she was involved with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, but she never married. She was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

Answer: Anguissola

There were six sisters: Sofonisba, Elena, Lucia, Europa, Minerva and Anna Maria. Elena became a nun; Anna Maria and Europa gave up painting when they married. Minerva was a writer and a Latin scholar. Lucia and Sofonisba were the two best painters, but Lucia died young. Sofonisba met Michelangelo, and later worked at the Spanish court.

Answer: Catherine de' Medici

This daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici was born in Florence. Her husband was Henry II of France. Three of her sons also became king of France: Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III.

Answer: Heptameron

She wanted to write a hundred stories, following the example of Boccaccio's "Decameron". She died after finishing the second story of the eighth day. "Heptameron" means "seven days".

Answer: She was declared insane

She was the daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, King and Queen of Spain. She married Philip I the Handsome, the later King of Spain. She became nominally Queen of Castile, but was locked up in the castle of Tordesillas. She probably suffered from schizophrenia, and was nicknamed Joanna the Mad (Juana la Loca).

Answer: Margaret of Parma

Her mother was Johanna Maria van der Gheynst, a Flemish servant girl. He acknowledged her in 1533, and allowed her to assume the name Margaret of Austria.

Answer: She was the daughter of the Pope

Her father was Rodrigo Borgia, the later Pope Alexander VI. She was the femme fatale of the 16th century. Her first marriage, to Giovanni Sforza, was annulled. Her second husband was murdered by a servant of her brother Cesare. Her third marriage was more successful.

She had a child Giovanni, the "infans Romana", probably the son of Pedro Calderon. There were rumours about incestuous relations with her father. She died in Ferrara at the age of 39. Victor Hugo wrote a tragedy about her.