Monarchies Around the World Trivia Quiz

Answer: Queen Victoria

The birth of Prince Edward of York on June 23, 1894 gave the British monarchy three generations of living heirs to the throne for the first time ever. Prince Edward, the future King Edward VIII, became third in the line of succession when he was born. Ahead of him were his father, Prince George Duke of York (the future King George V) and his grandfather, Prince Edward Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII).

This situation would remain for a further seven years, until the death of Prince Edward's great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, in 1901. When Prince George of Cambridge was born in 2013, he also became third in line following his father Prince William of Cambridge and his grandfather Prince Charles Prince of Wales.

Answer: Denmark

Born sometime in the late 9th century, Gorm is said to be the son of the semi-legendary Danish king Harthacnut, who arrived in Denmark in the early 10th century and seized power from the young king of Western Denmark. When Harthacnut died sometime between 936 and 940, Gorm ascended to the throne and over the next two decades united the various rival states by force into the Kingdom of Denmark.
The House of Gorm sat on the Danish throne for the next century, until the death of the childless King Harthacnut in 1042.

Answer: Sailing

King Felipe VI ascended to the Spanish throne in June 2014, taking over after the abdication of his father (King Juan Carlos I) and becoming the youngest reigning monarch in Europe.
Prince Felipe was a member of the Spanish sailing team that dominated the sport at the 1992 games on home soil in Barcelona, winning four of the ten golds available. Prince Felipe himself competed in the 6-person boat captained by Fernando Léon, finishing sixth out of the 24 teams in the Soling event won by Denmark. Léon would go on to win gold in the Tornado class event at the Athens Olympics four years later.
Felipe's father, then Prince Juan Carols, competed in the Mixed 3-Person Keelboat event at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. His sister, Princess Cristina de Borbón, competed in the Mixed Multihull event at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Both Felipe's mother and uncle had also competed in sailing events at the Olympics, representing Greece in Rome in 1960.

Answer: The Netherlands

Born in Utrecht in 1967, the former Prince Willem-Alexander of Orange became king of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in April 2013 following the abdication of his mother, Queen Beatrix. He became the first male monarch to sit on the Dutch throne in more then a century: the death of King William III in 1890 had been followed by the long reigns of three queens, Wilhelmina (1890-1948), Juliana (1948-80) and Beatrix (1980-2013). Queen Maxima is, therefore, the country's first Queen Consort for 123 years. The couple married in 2002 and have three children, all girls: Princess Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange, born in 2003 and now heir apparent to the Dutch throne, Princess Alexia of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, born in 2005, and Princess Ariane, born in 2007.

Answer: Belgium

Born in 2001, Princess Elisabeth is the eldest child of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde (formerly Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz) of Belgium. Elisabeth acquired her ducal title and became heir apparent to the Belgian throne on the abdication of her grandfather, King Albert II, in July 2013. In contrast to the Dutch experience, with three female monarchs ruling for more than a century, the Belgians have never had a queen regnant.

It is only because of a 1991 law that Princess Elisabeth has a chance to become her country's first reigning queen, since she has three younger siblings, two of them male.

The 1991 law introduced 'absolute primogeniture', meaning that the eldest child comes first in the line of succession, irrespective of gender. Prior to this, any male child always took precedence over his sisters, irrespective of age.

Answer: Libya

He was born in Jaghbub, a remote desert oasis village in the eastern Libyan Desert near the Egyptian border. The British recognized him as the Emir of the territory of Cyrenaica, and in 1922 the Italians installed him as the Emir of Tripolitania. With London backing, he united the three traditional regions of Libya, Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan.

A National Congress elected Idris as king and proclaimed the country an independent sovereign state on Christmas Eve 1951. After more than 17 years on the throne, Idris was deposed while he was visiting Turkey for medical treatment.

The coup d'etat was led by a 27-year old army officer named Muammar Gaddafi, who would dominate the politics of the region for the next 40 years.

Answer: King Rama IX of Thailand

Born in April 1926, at the age of 87 Britain's Queen Elizabeth II was the world's oldest head of state at the end of 2013. Second on that list is Abdul Halim of Kedah, the 'Yang di-Pertuan Agong' (supreme head of state) of Malaysia, who was born in November 1927, just a week before the world's longest-reigning monarch, King Rama IX of Thailand.
Bhumibol Adulyadej was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in December 1927. The Thai monarchy dates back to 1238, when the Sukhothai Kingdom was founded. The current dynasty, the House of Chakri, was founded by Buddha Yodfa Chulalok the Great who ruled as King Rama I from 1782 until 1809. The current Thai king is the ninth of that line and ascended to the throne on June 9, 1946 and is Thailand's longest reigning monarch.
Queen Elizabeth II became Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries in February 1952. At the time of her Diamond Jubilee in 2012 she was less than four years short of Queen Victoria's record reign of 63 years 216 days. Hassanal Bolkiah became the 29th Sultan of Brunei at the age of 21 in October 1967. Queen Margrethe II, the first queen regnant in that country since the death of the first of that name in 1412, became Queen of Denmark aged 31 in January 1972.

Answer: Swaziland

He was born Prince Makhosetive Dlamini in 1968 in the city of Manzini in central Swaziland. Educated at Sherborne School in Dorset, England, he ascended to the Swaziland throne as King Mswati III on the death of his father in 1986: at 18 years old he became the world's youngest reigning monarch. Known for his practice of polygamy, he has at least 15 wives concurrently (two of which are appointed by the state), and is the father of at least 25 children. Mswati's mother, Ntombi Tfwala, rules jointly with her son as Queen Regent with the official title of ' Indlovukati' (meaning "Great She-Elephant").

Answer: Cambodia

Born in 1951 in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, Norodom Sihamoni has 14 half-brothers and half-sisters. With the royal family exiled by the Khmer Rouge, he spent most of his childhood in Prague: he is the world's only monarch known to be fluent in Czech. He became Cambodia's ambassador to UNESCO in Paris in 1993.

Answer: Tonga

The other three are Australia, New Zealand and the British Overseas Territory of the Pitcairn Islands. Tonga is the exception: King Tupou VI became King of Tonga on the death of his bachelor brother, King George Tupou V in 2012. Born ʻAho'eitu ʻUnuaki'otonga Tuku'aho Tupou in 1959 in the Tongan capital of Nuku'alofa, which is located in the southernmost of Tonga's island groups, he was formerly Tonga's High Commissioner to Australia.