Royal We - The real royalty of Blackadder Quiz

Answer: Gloucester

Richard was born the third son of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York in 1452, and was appointed Duke of Gloucester following the coronation of his elder brother as King Edward IV in 1461. He became king following the death of his brother and his usurpation of his nephew Edward V in 1483.

Answer: Four

Richard was married in 1478 to the five-year-old Anne de Mowbray, Countess of Norfolk. Following her death in November 1481, Parliament passed an Act in January 1483 in which her estates and titles passed to Richard, creating him Duke of Norfolk in addition to his own titles.

Answer: Brittany

Henry fled into exile in 1471 upon the Yorkist King Edward IV regaining the throne from Henry's Lancastrian kinsman Henry VI, under the protection of Duke Francis II. It was with Francis' help that, in 1485, Henry was able to return to England where he eventually defeated King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth and became King Henry VII.

Answer: Anne Boleyn

Elizabeth came to the throne at the age of 25 in 1558, and went on to rule England for almost 45 years. She was only the second (undisputed) queen regnant in English history, and her reign is regarded as coinciding with the zenith of the English Renaissance.

Answer: Palace of Whitehall

The fate of Charles I was sealed by his refusal to cooperate with Parliament which led to his trial. Trying a king for treason was a novel concept and Charles remains the only monarch in English history to have been sentenced to death. England already had something of a reputation for killing kings - Edward II, Richard II and Richard III and possibly William II, but being put to death by commoners after a trial was seen as deeply shocking in the absolute monarchies of continental Europe.

Answer: Breda

The Declaration of Breda stated that Charles, upon his restoration, would issue pardons for all those that accepted his position as rightful monarch, allow those that had purchased property during the Interregnum to retain it, and recommission the army for service under the Crown.

The acceptance of the Declaration led Parliament to invite Charles to reclaim the throne, and he was proclaimed King Charles II on 29 May 1660.

Answer: Maria Fitzherbert

George and Maria were married in 1785 in a secret ceremony in her house in London. This alliance was, however, illegal as George had not received the consent of his father, the King. Being officially unmarried, George was subsequently persuaded to wed his cousin, Caroline of Brunswick, in 1795, on the promise that his debts would be paid.

Although his marriage to Caroline produced the required legitimate heir, husband and wife are said to have shared a mutual loathing of each other, to the extent that they only had marital relations once.

Answer: King of France

From the time of Edward III, the English (and subsequently British) monarch had claimed the title 'King of France'. However, the abolition of the French monarchy following the Revolution, and the peace treaty with Britain, led to George III electing to drop his claim to the French throne in 1800. Even when the monarchy in France was restored in 1814, the British monarchy did not resume its claim.

Answer: Benjamin Disraeli

In 1871, the North German Confederation and the independent states of southern Germany elected to unify as the new German Empire, with the King of Prussia as Emperor. This meant that Queen Victoria's eldest daughter Vicky, as Crown Princess of Prussia, would one day serve as Empress of Germany and outrank her mother, at least nominally. To this end, Victoria sought to be proclaimed as an Empress in her own right, succeeding when Disraeli arranged for her to become Empress of India.

Answer: First cousin

Albert was the second son of Duke Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who was the son of Franz, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Victoria was the daughter of Marie Luise Victoria, the younger sister of Duke Ernst I. Victoria and Albert first met when he visited London in 1836, but it was on his second visit, in 1839, that a marriage proposal was made.

This was from Victoria to Albert, as protocol demanded that a person of higher rank should propose - as queen, Victoria outranked Albert as a mere prince.