King Again Trivia Quiz

Answer: Denmark and Norway

Canute (or Knud II as he is known in Denmark and Knut in Norway) won the English crown by a mixture of conquest and diplomacy in 1016. In 1018 he inherited the throne of Denmark from his brother and then gained Norway by conquest in 1028. He ruled all three kingdoms until his death in 1035.

Canute married Emma of Normandy who had previously been the wife of the English king, Ethelred II (Ethelred the Unready), making her the only woman to have been married to two English kings. Two of her sons, Harthacanute (her son by Canute) and Edward (the Confessor, the son of Ethelred), went on to become kings of England.

Answer: Serbia

The Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was created in 1918 following the end of the First World War. It was an amalgamation of the kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro as well as Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzogovina which until that time had been parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Peter was succeeded in 1921 by his son, Alexander I who changed the name of the country to Yugoslavia in 1929.

Answer: Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor was one of the most powerful women of the Middle Ages. The daughter and heir of Duke William X of Aquitaine, she became duchess in her own right in 1137 and married Louis VII of France in the same year becoming his queen. Her marriage with him was annulled in 1152 and married Henry, Duke of Anjou later that same year.

When he became Henry II of England in 1154 Eleanor became a queen for the second time.

Answer: Ferdinand I of Castile

Known as Ferdinand the Great, he was proclaimed king of Castile in 1033 and five years later was proclaimed king of Leon. His claim to be emperor of Hispania was not recognised by the pope or by the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry III, who saw it as a challenge to his own authority. Castile and Leon remained united under the same monarch until 1195 but were reunited permanently in 1230. Garcia III of Navarre and Ramiro I of Aragon were brothers of Ferdinand while Alfonso V of Leon was his cousin.

Answer: Francis II

Better known as Mary, Queen of Scots, Mary was only eight days old when she succeeded her father, James V of Scotland. She was engaged at a young age to her second cousin, Edward, Prince of Wales, the son of England's Henry VIII but the engagement was broken off by the Scots and Mary was sent to the court of Henry II of France and betrothed instead to the Dauphin, Francis.

The couple married in 1558 with Francis being declared king of Scots. Francis became king of France in 1559 with Mary as his queen but died a year later.

Answer: William I

William became king of Prussia in 1861 on the death of his brother, Frederick William IV. As a result of the political manoevering of William's chancellor, Bismarck, Prussia was able to bring about the unification of the German states and William was elevated to the imperial throne.

Answer: Qin

Ying Zheng became king of Qin during the late Warring States Period - a time when China was divided into seven warring kingdoms (Qin, Chu, Qi, Yan, Han, Zhao & Wei). Ying Zheng won control of all these kingdoms through conquest and took the name Qin Shi Huangdi (First Emperor of China) in 221 BC.

Answer: Sardinia

Victor Emmanuel II had become king of Sardinia (often referred to as Piedmont or Piedmont-Sardinia) in 1849. At the time Italy was divided into a number of states. Unification of these states came about largely due to the efforts of Guiseppe Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II's prime minister, Camillo Cavour. Victor Emmanuel became king of Italy in 1861.

Answer: Hanover

Georg, Elector of Hanover became George I of Great Britain and Ireland in 1714. The title elector originally designated one who was entitled to elect the Holy Roman Emperor. When the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved during the Napoleonic Wars the title was changed to king of Hanover.

When William IV died in 1837 his heir was his niece, Princess Alexandrine Victoria. She became Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland but as Salic Law prevented a woman succeeding to the Hanoverian throne, that title passed to her uncle, Ernest.

Answer: King of Hungary

Many Hungarian kings came from outside Hungary. Wencelas III was king of Hungary 1301-05 and of Bohemia 1305-06. He was killed in 1306 pursuing his claim to be king of Poland. Ludwik I was king of Hungary (as Lajos or Louis I) 1342-82 and king of Poland 1370-82. Charles III was king of Naples 1381-86 and (as Charles II) king of Hungary 1385-86, contesting the throne with Queen Mary, the daughter of Louis I, being killed during that dispute.