The Royal Oui Trivia Quiz

Answer: King Richard II

Royal engagements in the medieval period did not tend to be romantic, down-on-one-knee affairs as they were generally arranged solely for political gain and to promote alliances between nations. However, they were particularly unromantic when the bride was a few days short of her seventh birthday and her husband-to-be was a 29-year old widower.

These were the circumstances surrounding the marriage of England's King Richard II to Isabella, the daughter of King Charles VI of France. The wedding was arranged as part of a peace settlement between the two countries and the ceremony took place in Calais - which was then an English territory - on October 31st, 1396. Given her young age, Isabella was given her own court at Windsor Castle.

Her husband visited her there regularly until 1399 when he was deposed and imprisoned by his cousin, the new King Henry IV. Apparently Isabella had become rather attached to Richard as she went into mourning when he died in mysterious circumstances shortly afterwards.

She refused to marry Henry IV's son and was eventually allowed to return to her family in France (minus her dowry). Her father then managed to wait until she was 15 before he married her off again.

Answer: King Henry III

During the early medieval period, Provence - an area of south-east France - was ruled by a Count; it did not come under the control of the French King until the late 15th century. Eleanor of Provence was a daughter of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence and Beatrice of Savoy (a daughter of the Count of Savoy). She was born around 1223 and married King Henry III of England at Canterbury Cathedral in 1236. Like most queen consorts of the period, Eleanor came to England with a retinue of ladies and servants from her home country in tow, but she also went a step further and brought a large number of her maternal male relatives as well. They became known as the 'Savoyards' after Henry granted many of them positions in government at the expense of the English nobility. The most notable of these was William of Savoy, who was instrumental in arranging his niece's marriage to King Henry and then served as head of the king's council of advisors. However, he died just two years later amidst rumours that he had been poisoned.

Eleanor also became profoundly unpopular with the people of London; in 1263 - after nearly 30 years as their queen - she was pelted with rotten food as her barge sailed down the River Thames.

Answer: King Edward I

Margaret, the daughter of King Philip III of France, married King Edward I of England in 1299 when she was around 20 years old. By contrast, her groom was a 60-year-old widower whose deep grief after the loss of his first wife, Eleanor of Castile, had led him to build a series of 12 elaborate stone crosses to mark the 12 points where her funeral procession stopped on its journey to bring her body back to London for burial. Edward's marriage to Margaret was arranged by her half-brother, King Philip IV of France, as part of a peace settlement between the two countries in 1294, but was delayed by five years after war broke out again. In the end the couple had two sons together (which secured the line of succession since Edward had only one surviving son from his first marriage) and a young daughter who was named Eleanor in honour of Eleanor of Castile. However, the little girl died when she was around four years old.

The large age gap between them meant that Margaret was widowed at the age of just 26. She did not remarry and remained in England and lived at Marlborough Castle until her death in 1318.

Answer: King Henry VI

Margaret was the daughter of Rene, King of Naples but was known as Margaret of Anjou as her father was a member of the House of Valois-Anjou (part of the French royal family) and later became Duke of Anjou before he took the title of King of Naples. Margaret married King Henry VI of England in 1445 at Titchfield Abbey in Hampshire when she was 15 years old.

She was a strong and capable leader, which was lucky as her husband was the exact opposite. Henry was ill-suited to the position of king (although he had held the position since he was six months old) as he was a poor decision maker and shied away from conflict.

He became completely incompetent following a series of breakdowns and mental illness and was ousted from the throne in 1461 by King Edward IV.

It was then left to Margaret to fight for both Henry's cause and her son's inheritance, which she eventually managed with the help of the 'Kingmaker', the Earl of Warwick. Henry was reinstated on the throne in 1470, but Margaret's success was short-lived as her forces were defeated at the Battle of Tewksbury in 1471.

Her son, the Prince of Wales, was killed in the battle and her husband was again dethroned and died shortly afterwards at the Tower of London. Margaret herself was sent back to France and spent the rest of her life at the French court.

Answer: King John

Isabella of Angoulême was the second wife of King John, who reigned from 1199 until his death in 1216. Angoulême is the capital of the Charente department of modern-day south-west France and Isabella was a great-granddaughter of King Louis VI of France. John was only able to marry Isabella after arranging for an annulment of his first marriage to the Countess of Gloucester.

Their wedding took place in 1200 when Isabella was around 12 to 14 years old and the couple went on to have five children. After John's death, Isabella returned to rule over Angoulême as she had inherited the position of Countess of Angoulême from her father Aymer, Count of Angoulême.

Her marriage to Hugh X of Lusignan was somewhat controversial for two reasons - firstly because she had originally visited his court with the intention of arranging a marriage between him and her eldest daughter, Joan, and secondly because she had once been betrothed to his father, Hugh IX. Isabella and Hugh had nine children together, many of whom eventually ended up in England at the court of their half-brother, King Henry III.

Answer: King Stephen

Matilda was born in the city of Boulogne on France's northern coast in around 1105. She and her husband, Stephen of Blois, ruled Boulogne following the death of her father in 1125. Stephen was the son of Stephen, Count of Blois and Adela of Normandy, a daughter of William the Conqueror.

In 1135, Stephen's uncle, King Henry I of England, died and Stephen moved swiftly to claim the English crown despite Henry's desire for the throne to pass to his daughter, the Empress Matilda. Matilda of Boulogne was crowned as Stephen's queen consort in 1136.

She was instrumental in helping Stephen's cause during the civil war that followed and even negotiated his release after he was imprisoned by the Empress Matilda in 1141. The couple had three sons, but none of them succeeded to the English throne as Stephen nominated Henry I's grandson as his successor in 1153 - shortly after his wife's death - in order to end nearly 20 years of bloodshed.

Answer: King Henry V

Catherine of Valois was the youngest daughter of King Charles VI of France and the younger sister of Isabella of Valois, the wife of King Richard II of England. Catherine was 18 years old when she was married to King Henry V of England in 1420, five years after his great success at Agincourt. The marriage was agreed as part of the terms of the Treaty of Troyes, which was signed by the French king after Henry had inflicted a series of military defeats on his forces. However, the treaty did not end the Hundred Years' War and Henry continued to fight the French despite his marriage to Catherine. He died on campaign in France in 1422, leaving a 21-year-old widow and a six-month-old son who then became King Henry VI. In later life, Henry VI suffered from various mental breakdowns, a fate he shared with his mother's father, who was known by the less than flattering nickname of "Charles the Mad".

After her husband's death, Catherine began an affair with a member of her household named Owen Tudor. Their grandson became King Henry VII in 1485 and was the first monarch of the powerful Tudor dynasty.

Answer: King Edward II

Isabella, the daughter of King Philip IV of France, married England's King Edward II in 1308 when she was probably around 13 years old and Edward was 23. The marriage was an unhappy one as Edward spent most of his time with his "favourites" (firstly Piers Gaveston and then Hugh Despenser), confiscated Isabella's lands and restricted her access to her children. Eventually, in 1325, Edward sent Isabella to France to negotiate a peace treaty and then made the mistake of sending his eldest son and heir to the French court as well. Isabella refused to return Prince Edward to his father, started an affair with Sir Roger Mortimer, raised an army with the help of the Count of Hainault (in exchange for betrothing her son to his daughter) and then led the invasion fleet. Their attempt to seize power proved successful when they captured Edward II in South Wales in November 1326 and had him deposed in January 1327. Edward and Isabella's 14-year-old son was then declared King Edward III with Isabella and Mortimer acting as his regents. Edward II died in captivity in suspicious circumstances later that year.

Isabella's period of control over England in her son's name ended in 1330 when Edward III exerted his power and had Mortimer executed and his mother placed under house arrest. Isabella eventually returned to her son's court and enjoyed an expensive lifestyle there until shortly before her death in 1358.

Answer: King Henry II

Eleanor became Duchess of Aquitaine, a region of south-eastern France, in 1137 upon the death of her father, Duke William X. This inheritance made her the most eligible royal bride in Europe and she was swiftly snapped up by Prince Louis, the heir to King Louis VI of France. About a week after the wedding, the death of Louis VI left Eleanor as Queen of France as the wife of the new King Louis VII.

The couple had two daughters together, but they became estranged and their marriage was annulled in 1152. Eleanor then married Henry, Duke of Normandy, who had been designated as heir to the throne of England under the terms of the Treaty of Wallingford.

The treaty ended the English civil war known as 'The Anarchy', which had been fought between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda, daughter of King Henry I, for almost the whole duration of Stephen's reign. Eleanor's husband became King Henry II of England on Stephen's death in 1154.

While Eleanor's second marriage proved more successful than her first (the couple had five sons and three daughters), she eventually became estranged from Henry as well and in 1873 supported her sons in a failed revolt against their father.

As a result she spent the final 16 years of her marriage imprisoned in various English castles and wasn't freed until her favourite son, King Richard I, inherited the throne in 1189.

Answer: King Charles I

Henrietta Maria, the daughter of King Henry IV of France, was born at the Louvre Palace in Paris in 1609. She became the last French princess to marry an English king when her wedding to the ill-fated King Charles I took place in 1625. Like most of the French royal family, Henrietta was a staunch Catholic, which proved to be somewhat awkward given that England had been a Protestant country since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Their religious affiliation goes a long way to explaining why no other French princesses became English queens for the rest of the 17th and 18th centuries, and the series of revolutions that resulted in the abolition of the French monarchy ensured that there weren't any French princesses available in later years.

The latter part of Charles and Henrietta's marriage was dominated by the English Civil War.

Initially, Henrietta Maria played an active role in raising finances for the Royalists and securing European support (and weapons) for Charles's army. However, after giving birth to her last child, Princess Henrietta, in 1644, she escaped to France and spent the remainder of the war at the court of her nephew, King Louis XIV.

She never saw her husband again as he remained in England until his defeat and execution in 1649.