The Wives of Kings Henry Trivia Quiz

Answer: Edith

Matilda of Scotland's marriage to King Henry I in 1100 was an important factor in the improved relations between England and Scotland in the early 12th century. Henry's reign (1100-1135) saw an unusual period of peace between the two countries, at a time when three of Matilda's brothers (Edgar, Alexander I, and David I) were consecutively on the throne of Scotland. Their marriage also helped to secure the support of the English lords for Henry, as she was descended from the previous line of English kings, from whom Henry's father, William the Conqueror, had taken the throne at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Matilda's father, King Malcolm III of Scotland, is featured as a character in the play 'Macbeth' by William Shakespeare. In the play, Malcolm's father, King Duncan, was murdered by Macbeth following a prophecy made by three witches that Macbeth would one day become King of Scotland. However, the historical King Duncan is believed to have been killed in battle, against forces led by Macbeth, in 1040.

Answer: None

Adeliza of Louvain's birth date is unknown but she is believed to have been in her late teens when she married the 53 year old King Henry I in 1121. They were married for 14 years until his death in 1135, but had no children together. The widowed queen remarried three years later and had at least seven children by her second husband, William D'Aubigny. Through these children she was an ancestor of Henry V, Henry VI, Henry VII and Henry VIII of England.

King Henry I had only two known legitimate children by his first wife, Matilda of Scotland, although he was the father of a large number of illegitimate children by numerous different mistresses. Following the death of his son he named his daughter, Empress Matilda, as his heir. However, on his death the throne was seized by his nephew, King Stephen, plunging England into a nineteen year civil war known as The Anarchy.

Louvain is the French name for the Belgian city of Leuven. Adeliza's father held the title of Count of Louvain. Adeliza was also known under a number of other names, including Adela, Adelicia and Aleidis.

Answer: Supporting her son in a revolt against his father

In 1173, Henry II and Eleanor's eldest son, Henry the Young King, led a revolt against his father and fled to France. Some sources suggest that Eleanor may have been involved in encouraging her younger sons, Richard and John, to join their brother's rebellion and in raising French troops to support them. Eleanor was arrested and on her return to England was held prisoner in various houses and castles until freed by her son, the new King Richard I, sixteen years later.

Eleanor was not implicated in any specific plots to kill her husband, by poison or otherwise, and was not accused of witchcraft. Henry II was the adulterer, as he fathered several illegitimate children during his marriage to Eleanor, one of whom, Geoffrey of York, was raised under Eleanor's care.

Eleanor's first marriage to King Louis VII was officially annulled on the grounds of consanguinity (they were distant cousins), although it is more likely that the real reason was a combination of the breakdown of their relationship, her failure to bear him a male heir and her unpopularity at the French court.

Answer: Margaret of France

Margaret of France was the wife of Henry the Young King. Henry was crowned king during the reign of his father Henry II, but pre-deceased him and was therefore never actually king of England. Margaret's parents were King Louis VII of France and his second wife Constance of Castile. She and her husband shared two half-sisters, Marie and Alix of France, the daughters of Margaret's father and Henry's mother.

Another Margaret of France did become the wife of an actual king of England when she married King Edward I in 1299. This Margaret was the daughter of King Philip III of France and the great-great-granddaughter of the younger half-brother of the wife of the Young King.

Joan of Kent, Anne Neville and Constance of France were all married to sons of English kings who pre-deceased their fathers and therefore never became king themselves. Joan was married to Edward, the Black Prince (eldest son of Edward III), Anne to Edward of Westminster (only son of Henry VI) and Constance to Eustace, eldest son of King Stephen.

Answer: The youngest, Beatrice, who was unmarried

Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence, left his lands to his unmarried youngest daughter, Beatrice. As his two eldest daughters were married to the Kings of France and England respectively, leaving Provence to either of them would have effectively handed the territory to their already powerful husbands. His third daughter, Sanchia, was also married to a powerful man, as the Earl of Cornwall was the younger brother of King Henry III. On her father's death Beatrice became a sought after heiress and shortly afterwards married the King of France's younger brother, but only on the proviso that Provence could never be inherited by the French crown.

All four sisters ended up becoming queens as Sanchia became Queen of the Romans when her husband was elected King of Germany in 1256, under the title King of the Romans. Beatrice became a queen when her husband was crowned King of Sicily in 1266.

Eleanor is generally considered by historians to have been a competent and ambitious queen consort who was instrumental in supporting her rather ineffectual husband. She acted as regent for her husband whilst he was abroad and raised an army to free Henry when he was captured by disaffected English barons. However she was unpopular in England with both the barons and the general populace. In one particularly notable incident in 1263 she had to be rescued from her barge on the River Thames after the citizens of London starting throwing various items such as rotten eggs and vegetables at the vessel.

Answer: She died before he came to the throne

Mary de Bohun died in 1394, five years before her husband deposed his cousin, Richard II, and became King Henry IV. She died as a result of giving birth to her youngest daughter, Philippa, who went on to become Queen of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. In total Henry and Mary had seven children together, including the future King Henry V.

At the time of their marriage Henry was known as Henry Bolingbroke, as he was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire. He also used the courtesy title Earl of Derby, one of the titles his father, John of Gaunt, had obtained when he married the rich heiress, Blanche of Lancaster.

Answer: Brittany

Joan ruled Brittany for four years as regent for her eldest son who inherited the title of Duke of Brittany on the death of his father in 1399. She then became queen consort of England on her marriage to the widowed King Henry IV in 1403. Henry and Joan had no further children together during their 10 year marriage, which ended with his death in 1413.

Although apparently having had a good relationship with her step-children whilst their father was alive, her relationship with Henry IV's eldest son and successor, Henry V, broke down in 1419 when she was imprisoned for allegedly plotting to kill him by witchcraft. The charges meant that in addition to imprisonment she was also stripped of her land and property. No real attempt was made at the time to produce evidence to substantiate the charges and many historians agree that they were actually designed to provide a pretext for seizing her assets for the crown. She was eventually pardoned by Henry V shortly before his death in 1422.

Brittany was an independent duchy from the 10th century to its union with France in the mid-16th century. The area of the duchy was slightly larger than the modern administrative region. Joan was the daughter of Charles II of Navarre, a kingdom in the area around the Pyrenees, now split between modern day France and Spain.

Answer: 8 months

Henry VI was born on 6 December 1421 and became king, at just over 8 months of age, when his father died on 31 August 1422. Henry V and Catherine were only married for two years before his death, leaving her a widow at 21 years old. Catherine went on to have a relationship (and possibly a secret marriage) with Owen Tudor, a member of her household. One of Catherine's sons by Tudor was the father of King Henry VII and through him Catherine is a direct ancestor of the modern day royal family.

Henry had two separate periods as King of England; one from 1422 to 1461 before being deposed and then a short-lived second reign from 1470 to 1471.

Mary, Queen of Scots (Catherine of Valois' great-great-great-granddaughter) inherited her throne at the age of 6 days. Both Henry III and Edward VI were 9 years old when they became king.

Answer: Margaret of Anjou

The Wars of the Roses, fought between 1455 and 1485, pitted the rival royal houses of Lancaster and York against each other in a lengthy struggle for control of the English throne. The Lancastrian King Henry VI, and his wife Margaret of Anjou, were deposed in 1461 when Edward of York won the Battle of Towton and declared himself King of England as Edward IV. Margaret escaped initially to Scotland, and then returned to France where she was instrumental in raising an army to restore her husband to the throne and, perhaps more importantly, her son to his position as heir.

Margaret led her own troops at the Battle of Tewkesbury, but her army was defeated by Edward IV and her only son, Edward of Westminster, was killed. Margaret was taken prisoner, but was eventually released to live at the court of her cousin, King Louis XI of France.

Anne Neville, Elizabeth Woodville and Margaret Beaufort were all key female figures in the Wars of the Roses. Elizabeth Woodville was the queen consort of Edward IV; Anne Neville was the wife of both Margaret of Anjou's son Edward and of King Richard III; and Margaret Beaufort was the mother of King Henry VII, whose victory at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 finally ended the conflict.

Answer: George, Duke of Clarence

Elizabeth of York, born 1466, was the eldest daughter of King Edward IV and his wife, Elizabeth Woodville. She was first betrothed to George Neville in 1469. He was the nephew of the Earl of Warwick, who had been instrumental in putting Edward IV on the throne. He was granted the title of Duke of Bedford in anticipation of the marriage, but it fell through when Warwick rebelled against the King.

In 1475 an agreement was reached with King Louis XI of France for her to marry his son, the future King Charles VIII, but this had again fallen through by 1482. In 1483, the future King Henry VII swore an oath to marry Elizabeth and a year later her uncle, King Richard III, began negotiations for her marriage to the future King Manuel I of Portugal, despite rumours that he wanted to marry her himself! George, Duke of Clarence was another of Elizabeth's uncles, but not one who was ever believed to want to marry her.

Elizabeth was finally married to Henry VII in 1485, shortly after his coronation. She became the first woman to be both a daughter, sister, niece, wife and mother of a King of England.