Kings and Queens of England from 1066 Quiz

Answer: Elizabeth II

If you picked Mary, Queen of Scots or Bonnie Prince Charlie, you'd better stop taking this quiz, because neither of them were rulers of England. Queen Elizabeth crossed underneath the Channel in the Chunnel (all right, Channel Tunnel) in 1994.

Answer: William II

Isn't this an interesting bit of trivia? William II, nicknamed Rufus, did not have a happy life. He was killed in a 'hunting accident' in 1100.

Answer: Elizabeth I

Elizabeth was given the toilet, nicknamed 'Ajax', by a penitent courtier banished from court. She forgave him.

Answer: 5

The kings were: Edward III. The war started in his reign. Then came Richard II. He was overthrown by his cousin Henry, who became Henry IV. His son, Henry V, is very famous, thanks to Shakespeare mainly, but died shortly after his victory at Agincourt.

The war ended during the reign of Henry VI, but his success was short-lived. Eight years later, in 1461, there was a rebellion. This began the Wars of the Roses.

Answer: James I

James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, who was executed at Elizabeth's command in 1587. James was one of the few who disapproved of tobacco, but before you think he was quite sensible for a seventeenth-century person, he was obsessed with witchcraft (Macbeth was written for him) and had Sir Walter Raleigh executed for no obvious reason, though it is sometimes claimed that he did so in order to ingratiate himself to Spain.

Answer: Queen Eleanor

Eleanor of Aquitaine was a truly amazing woman. She was born in 1122, married the French Dauphin Louis at age fifteen (Aquitaine was a major French vassal), divorced him at age thirty-one, married Henry, gave him ten children, only one of whom died, a great track record for the middle ages.

It's unlikely that she poisoned Rosamund, {however;} she was under house arrest in Salisbury at the time. Henry put her there for fifteen years for helping his sons rebel against him. She spent the last years of her life helping her two sons to rule (Richard was far and away her favorite) and was buried at Fontevrault with Richard when she died in 1204.

Answer: True

Even though Mary was imprisoned in England for nineteen years until her execution at Fotheringhay while rebellions centered around her and Catholics fumed, she and her cousin Elizabeth never met. (In Schiller's play, 'Maria Stuart', there is a dramatic, face-to-face confrontation between the two queens, but it is pure poetic license).

Answer: George V

Most of the royal families in Europe were related in the early twentieth century. George was perfectly aware of his cousin Nicholas's growing danger and could have sheltered him, but decided that his own position was too dangerous and didn't. The Romanovs were shot.

Answer: Jane Grey

Jane was the queen for nine days in 1553 when there was a power vacuum for a few weeks and the Duke of Northumberland, who had held a lot of power in the previous regime (Edward VI, who was 15 years old and ill most of the time) decided to take the initiative to place his young, relatively royal daughter-in-law on the throne.

She was acknowledged queen by two towns before she was deposed by Mary I, placed in the Tower of London, and executed, all before she was 17.

Answer: Mary I

Edward VI died young. His Lord Protector, Northumberland, didn't want to lose his power, so he convinced Edward to name Lady Jane Grey next in line for the throne (his son was married to her). Mary, who would have had the throne, didn't like this. During the nine days Jane was queen, she gathered an army and threw her down.

She then went on to burn 300 men, women and children as heretics during her five-year reign.

Answer: Henry VIII

Cardinal Wolsey was the original owner of Hampton Court. Henry decided that it would make a nice palace and confiscated it. Cardinal Wolsey fell out of favor with Henry anyway for failing to secure a divorce from Henry's first wife, and almost certainly committed suicide on the way to trial.

Answer: George I

George I inherited the throne from Queen Anne, whose children had all predeceased her. He was quite unpopular, both for his refusal to learn the English language (but he spoke French!) and his mistreatment of his wife, Dorothea. Parliament, however, loved this, as it meant that they could run the country.

Answer: The wife of George II

Caroline was quite unpopular as well. She was German, and that may account for some of it. Maybe the English people wanted an English queen.

Answer: Edward II

Isabella led a rebellion against Edward, which actually worked. Edward was imprisoned and killed. Isabella wanted this so that her son, Edward III, could be king and she could control him.

Answer: Queen Victoria

Apparently, Victoria had an affair with a Scotsman called Brown ... I'm not sure I entirely agree with this...

Answer: Matilda

She was queen for one year. Then Stephen overthrew her. Matilda had to give up, but her son, Henry, got the throne after Stephen died.

Answer: King John

John was always something of an idiot. He tried to cross the Wash, a stretch of water between Norfolk and Lincolnshire. The area floods at high tide. John mistimed his crossing and lost his gems.

Answer: Edward I

He was also the Hammer of the Welsh...Edward took over most of the British Isles during his reign. Interestingly enough, the railway station Charing Cross got its name from him. When his wife died, Edward was in Scotland. He was so incredibly grieved that as he traveled down from Scotland, he left a cross at every place he stopped in memory of her (her name was Eleanor, by the way). Charing Cross, which means "Beloved Queen", was the site of the last cross, the last place Edward stopped before her funeral.

Answer: Henry VI

George III was regarded as insane but was not the subject of a Shakespeare play. Henry IV was "uneasy lies the head that wears a crown" but not entirely insane as portrayed by Shakespeare. Henry VI thought he heard angels singing to him and seemed to walk around in a stupor half the time. He was killed by his enemies during the Wars of the Roses.

Answer: Guilford Dudley

Guilford and Jane married because the Duke of Northumberland, Guilford's father, wanted a connection between Jane, who had potential links to the throne, and his family. After he lost power from behind the throne (Edward VI died), he tried to place Jane and Guilford on the throne. However, Mary I raised a rebellion and had most of the family executed.