Tales of the Abbey Trivia Quiz

Answer: Geoffrey Chaucer

Although Chaucer is mostly remembered for his work, "The Canterbury Tales", he appears to have had quite an interesting life. He was an astronomer who wrote about the astrolabe, and a diplomat who traveled with the king's son during the Hundred Years' War. During that time he was captured and held for a ransom, which was paid by King Edward III.

He was a comptroller for the London port customs. As Clerk of the King's Works he was in charge of overseeing the king's building projects. Considered by many to be the great medieval English poet, and known as the Father of English Literature, Chaucer was the first to be buried in 1400 in what was to become the famous Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Answer: Anne Neville

The daughter of Richard Neville, who was known as "The Kingmaker", Anne gained the title Princess of Wales after she was engaged to Edward of Westminster, the son of King Henry VI. After his death at the Battle of Tewkesbury, the only English heir apparent to be killed in battle, Anne married Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who was the brother of Edward IV.

She became Queen of England when Richard declared his brother's sons illegitimate, and claimed the throne after his brother's death. In 1483 they were crowned in a joint coronation - the first to take place in 175 years! Anne died two years later in March 1485; her husband died five months later and is remembered (in part) as the last English king to be killed in battle.

Answer: Edward the Confessor

Considered one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings and the last king of the House of Wessex, Edward the Confessor expanded his territory by conquering Wales and parts of Scotland; he is, however, largely blamed for the Norman Conquest that followed his death.

It is possible that he promised his throne to both William the Conqueror and Harold Godwinson, but the truth of the matter is that he failed to produce his own heir to the throne, which left his kingdom vulnerable after his death. The only king of England to be made a saint, Edward is known as the "Confessor" due to his piety. (The title distinguishes a saint who died a natural death from one who died a martyr).

The rebuilding of St. Peter's Abbey, which eventually became known as Westminster Abbey, is considered to be Edward's major building project; it was built specifically to be his burial church, and he was the first monarch to be interred there.

Answer: Edmund Spenser

Although he was born in London, Edmund Spenser traveled to Ireland and served as Lord Grey's secretary during the Siege of Smerwick in 1580. Spenser stayed in Ireland after Grey was recalled to England, and eventually was awarded a large plantation called Kilcolman, where he wrote what is considered to be his greatest poetry, including the "The Faerie Queene", which was published in 1590. For this poem, Spenser created a new style of stanza - a nine-line stanza with a rhyme pattern of ababbcbcc. By 1598 Kilcolman was burned during the Nine Years' War in Ireland, and Spencer subsequently returned to London, where he died a year later.

He was buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Answer: Oliver Cromwell

During the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell was the leader of the Roundheads, the group which opposed the rule of King Charles I. After the execution of the king, Cromwell took the title Lord Protector; during this time he wanted to create a stable government and institute moral reform.

A strict Puritan, he attempted to force his beliefs, which proved to be largely unpopular, on others. Cromwell's internment in Westminster Abbey was a bit unusual because after its first burial there in 1658, his body was exhumed and "executed" three years later; his head was placed on public display until 1865, after which it was apparently "owned" by many people, and his body was placed in chains and then thrown into a pit.

His head was eventually reburied (1960) at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge.

Answer: Elizabeth I

To say that Elizabeth I became Queen of England during troubled times is a bit of an understatement. Her father, Henry VIII, began a reformation that changed England's state church from the Roman Catholic to the Anglican. Her mother had been beheaded for treasonous activities when she was just two years old.

Her brother, Edward, died; her sister, known as Mary I, reverted to Catholicism, and began a brutal campaign of purging Protestants. Elizabeth's reign, which eventually spanned forty-four years, offered England a welcome period of stability, earning her the nickname, "Good Queen Bess". Even though it was her responsibility to produce an heir, Elizabeth elected to remain the Virgin Queen, perhaps because she was reluctant to share her power with a husband. Elizabeth insisted that she was married to her kingdom and people. Gloriana was the main character in Edmund Spencer's "The Faerie Queene", which was written about Elizabeth I. Elizabeth's coffin was first placed in the same vault as her grandfather's, Henry VII, in 1603 but was moved three years later and placed on top of the coffin of her sister.

Answer: Margaret Cavendish

Margaret Cavendish served as Maid of Honour to Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of the executed Charles I during her exile at the court of Louis XIV in France during the English Civil War. After two years she met and married her husband, William Cavendish, who later became the Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

The first woman to attend a meeting of the Royal Society of London, she not only met, but also debated with the likes of Thomas Hobbes and René Descartes. Her book, "The Blazing World", is considered to be one of the first examples of the science fiction genre.

Incidentally, she published her works in her own name, an action very rare for female writers of the time. She is buried in Westminster Abbey with her husband, who died in 1676, three years after Margaret.

Answer: Aphra Behn

Aphra Behn is one of the first English women to make a living as a writer by publishing plays, poems, and short stories. Not only did she write, using the pen name of Astrea, she also used the alias while working as a spy in Belgium for King Charles II. Apparently she was to try and obtain information from William Scot, the son of Thomas Scot, who had been put to death in 1660 for his part in the execution of King Charles.

After a brief stay in a debtor's prison, Aphra continued to make a living, becoming not only an important playwright of the seventeenth century, but also contributing to the development of the English novel.

When she died in 1689, she was buried in the East Cloister of Westminster Abbey.

Answer: Mary Henrietta

Mary Henrietta was the daughter of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, and the first to be given the title, Princess Royal, that is still in use today to designate the oldest daughter of a British monarch. After her marriage to William, the Prince of Orange in the Netherlands, Mary gained the titles Princess of Orange and Countess of Nassau.

Their only son became William III, of the famous co-regnants, William and Mary, who ruled England during the Glorious Revolution. After her death in 1660 Mary was buried near her brother, Henry, in Westminster Abbey.

Answer: Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell began composing at an early age; the earliest composition that can be attributed to him was written for the king's birthday when Purcell was eleven. When he was twenty, his teacher, Dr. John Blow, resigned his office as Organist of Westminster Abbey so that Purcell could take his place.

A composer of Baroque music, a collection of Purcell's works called "Orpheus Britannicus" was published after his death. Purcell's father and brother are also buried in Westminster Abbey; Henry, who died in 1695 when he was just thirty-seven years old, is said to have been buried on the spot where the organ stood in his time.