The King is Dead - Long Live the King Quiz

Answer: William IV

Victoria reigned in the UK from 1837 to 1901. She became heir presumptive in 1830 at the age of eleven on the death of her uncle George IV. Provision was made for the Duchess of Kent to act as regent in case Victoria became Queen whilst still a minor.

Her uncle William IV, who succeeded George IV, did not like this plan and declared that he would live until Victoria reached the age of eighteen. He died less than a month after her eighteenth birthday.

Answer: Peter III

Catherine the Great was the second Russian monarch to bear that name. She succeeded her husband Peter III in 1762 following a coup during which she had him arrested. They were estranged at the time. He died eight days later under mysterious circumstances, having been on the throne for only six months.

Answer: James II

Mary wed her first cousin William of Orange and in 1689 succeeded her father James II (and James VII of Scotland) after he was deposed by William during the Glorious Revolution. William and Mary were Protestants, unlike James II. They reigned jointly until her death from smallpox.

He became sole ruler and was known as William III in England, William II in Scotland and William III in Holland.

Answer: Charles VI

Maria Theresa succeeded her father Emperor Charles VI in 1740 to large chunks of Europe including Austria, Hungary, parts of the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Italy, and Bohemia. He probably died of mushroom poisoning, having spent the previous decades preparing the way for her succession through the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713.

Answer: Ferdinand VII

Isabella came to the throne in 1833 as an infant following the death of her father Ferdinand VII. His brother was unhappy with this, resulting in the Carlist Wars. Two of these wars were put down by the army, the third took place after she was deposed in 1868 during another "Glorious Revolution". She died in 1904 in exile in Paris.

Answer: Frederick IX

Margrethe succeeded her father in 1972 after the Danish Act of Succession of 1953 permitted female succession where there was no brother. A referendum in 2009 resulted in an amendment to the Act so that the first-born child, regardless of sex, would become heir.

Answer: James III

Catherine's husband James II of Cyprus died in 1473 a few months after their wedding. She was pregnant at the time and her son became James III of Cyprus. He died in 1474 and was succeeded by his mother Catherine. The island was controlled by Venetian merchants during her reign and they forced her abdication in 1487. Some believe that both James II and James III had suspicious deaths.

Answer: William III

Wilhelmina succeeded her father William III at the age of ten with her mother acting as regent until her coronation in 1898 when she was eighteen. She abdicated in 1948 with failing health to be succeeded by her daughter Juliana.

Answer: Joseph I

Married to Pedro, her father's younger brother, she succeeded her father Joseph I (or José I) on his death in 1777. Pedro III (or Peter III) and Maria I ruled jointly until his death in 1786, although the actual regal authority rested with her.

She unfortunately descended into madness and her surviving son became her regent in 1792, eventually succeeding her on her death in 1816. Marriages within the family were quite common then and so it was perhaps no surprise that she suffered some of the family's traits such as religious mania and melancholia.

Answer: William III

Anne was the younger sister of Mary, who reigned as Mary II jointly with her husband. It was smallpox which prevented Anne from attending their wedding and it was smallpox which killed Mary. Anne succeeded her sister's husband William III in 1702 on his death. Plagued by ill-health throughout her life, she left no heirs despite bearing five children from at least seventeen pregnancies.

Her eldest child died aged eleven.