Weddings, Beddings, and Beheadings Quiz

Answer: Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine and Henry, Count of Anjou, later Henry II of England

Eleanor and Henry's passion for each other produced 5 sons and 3 daughters within 13 years. The marriage proved tempestuous in later years, with family intrigues, infidelities, Eleanor taking sides with her sons against their father, resulting in her incarceration for 15 years, and so much more.
Ingeborg of Denmark was Phillip's second wife, but he took an active dislike to her right away and tried to have the marriage annulled on the grounds of non-consummation; Ingeborg, however, declared consummation had in fact taken place, and Phillip, in spite of having taken a third wife, not quite legally, was forced by the Pope to take Ingeborg back.
John of England divorced his first wife, Isabelle of Gloucester so he could marry the other Isabelle who was twenty years his junior.
And Matilda of Flanders initially turned down William's proposal, which made him furious and apparently sparked love in the tiny Matilda; at 4 foot 2 inches she was England's shortest queen, married to the 5 foot 10 inch William.

Answer: Mary, Queen of Scots and James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell

It's possible there was an earlier bedding between Mary and Bothwell and she may have been pregnant by him in April, thus requiring the so-called abduction and resulting marriage. Since Bothwell was the prime suspect in the murder of Mary's second husband, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, Mary lost all respect of the majority of her nobles and the people had certainly turned against her. Following the Battle of Carberry on 15th June, 1567 she was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle, forced to abdicate in favour of her son, James VI, and miscarried twins by Bothwell. He, meantime, had fled after Carberry and ended up in Denmark where he came to a very bad end. While novelists like to have Mary and Bothwell's affair as a passionate love-match, there is no evidence to suggest this, and over the rest of her life Mary made no attempts to find out what had happened to Bothwell.
Sir William Cavendish was Bess of Hardwick's second husband. As the daughter of an ordinary gentleman, Bess's four marriages made her an extremely wealthy woman. She and her fourth husband, the Earl of Shrewsbury were at one point, custodians of Mary, Queen of Scots when she was imprisoned in England, and Bess's jealousy over her husband's liking for Mary led to an estrangement in the marriage.
Jenny Geddes (1600-1660), has her place in history as the Edinburgh street-merchant who threw her stool at the minister of St. Giles Cathedral when he read from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer which smacked too much like Roman Catholicism for Jenny's liking. And John Knox (1514? - 1572), dubbed the Father of the Scottish Reformation was a contemporary of Mary, Queen of Scots, and who had several arguments with Mary over her staunch Catholicism. He himself caused some talk by taking as his second wife a girl of seventeen; he was 50 at the time!
Isabella Bruce married James, Earl of Douglas around 1380 and as far as I know were perfectly happy until he was killed in the Battle of Otterburn against the English - the Scots won the battle though!

Answer: Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat

Simon "The Fox" Fraser led a tumultuous life and according to his contemporaries, deserved to be hanged five times over for crimes committed throughout his long life. As a young man he tried to take over the Chieftainship of Clan Fraser by attempting marriage with the heiress of Lovat, but when she eluded him, he kidnapped her widowed mother, forced a priest to marry them and proceeded to consummate the marriage in front of a group of his companions. For this outrage he was found guilty of rape and breach of common law and declared outlaw. He eluded sentence by escaping the country.
After many adventures he returned to Scotland in 1715 and supported the Hanoverian King George I and for several years led a fairly quiet life building up the family fortunes. However, by the 1745 Jacobite rebellion, Lovat had changed allegiance and supported Bonnie Prince Charlie's bid for the throne. He was captured, tried and convicted of high treason, and holds the dubious distinction of being the last person in Britain to be executed by the headsman's axe.
Of the other three aristocrats named, John Campbell and Charles Gordon were law-abiding and useful citizens.
James Graham, Chief of Clan Graham, was a poet and a most distinguished soldier who is regarded as a hero in Scotland for the part he played in supporting King Charles I against the Scottish Covenanters who had controlled Scotland since 1639 and allied themselves with the English Parliament which was at odds with the King. His story is long and complicated, and in the end, terribly sad.

Answer: False

Diana had just turned 20 on 1st July of that year.
I can't think of one interesting thing to say about this wedding that isn't coloured by my own opinions. Oh, the weather was nice and the crowds were happy!

Answer: Lady Jane Grey

Lady Jane Grey, a great-niece of Henry VIII and fourth in line to the throne of England, was used as a stepping-stone to power by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, whose son, Guildford, Jane had been forced to marry. By persuading the dying Edward VI to bypass his 'illegitimate' half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, and naming Jane to the throne, Jane's doom was set. On Edward's death, Jane was proclaimed Queen, but she refused to name Guildford King, which showed a spark of her Tudor blood. Nine days later it was all over. Dudley had failed to take Mary into custody and as she had the support of the people and the city of London, was proclaimed Queen. Dudley was executed almost immediately, but Jane and Guildford lingered in the Tower of London for seven months before further plots required Queen Mary to reluctantly sign their death warrants. Jane was 16 years old, Guildford only slightly older.
Catherine Howard, Henry VIII's 5th wife, went to the block with dignity and grace. She had asked for the block to be brought to her apartment the night before her execution so she could practice kneeling gracefully. She was guilty of adultery which she admitted freely; though rather empty-headed and heedless, she died bravely.
Margaret Pole, the last Plantagenet, went to the block at age 67, and since she admitted to no crime she refused to put her head on the block, so the young, inexperienced executioner started swinging at her as she stood. Naturally she tried to run away from him and took quite a number of blows before finally succumbing.
Anne Boleyn was executed by a sword wielded by a French executioner brought in especially for the event. She had asked to see the sword and upon inspection declared it would do very well since, "I have but a little neck." She also went bravely, and probably innocent of the charges against her.

Answer: All of these

By express order of the Duke's brother who was now King George VI, Duchess Wallis was not to be recognized as a "Royal Highness." Also, it is said that members of the Royal Family were forbidden by the King from attending the wedding, partly out of respect for Queen Mary, who viewed her oldest son's abdication as nothing short of dereliction of duty.
Regarding the financial settlement, Parliament refused to allocate an allowance to the Duke from the Civil List, so the King undertook this responsibility. However, the Duke has not been fully truthful about the size of his personal fortune and when King George discovered the extent of the fortune, he consequently reduced the amount he paid to his brother.
Interestingly, the Duchess of Windsor, who will always be known as Wallis Simpson, had her name changed legally shortly before the wedding, so she was actually Wallis Warfield when she married the Duke, effectively wiping out two previous husbands.

Answer: "Malmesbury, I am not well, get me a glass of brandy."

The wedding took place on 8th April, 1795, with George totally drunk and ill, and Caroline thoroughly enjoying herself. She was, in fact, coarse, dirty, flamboyant, and highly sexed, the latter proving useful in that she became pregnant on their wedding night and nine months later produced the desired heir, the Princess Charlotte. Following the consummation, George and Caroline never again shared a bed.

After the death of King George III, at the new King's Coronation, he had Queen Caroline barred out of Westminster Abbey, denying her the right to be crowned. To the delight of the crowds, Caroline made a huge scene by banging on the doors of the Abbey. Caroline went on to live a life of vulgar eccentricity, and George, who was despised by his people, took solace in the arms of a number of elderly ladies of the court.

Answer: True

Or at least as true as any mythical story. This story goes that after the birth of the twins, they were thrown into the Tiber to drown. Rhea Silvia underwent the ghastly punishment of any Vestal Virgin who broke her vows of celibacy; she was buried alive. However, Tiberinus, the river god, rescued the twins and gave them to the wolf Lupa, who suckled them, ensuring their survival. Tiberinus then rescued Rhea Silvia and married her. Personally, I think if the poor young maiden was raped, then she didn't break any vows, but who am I to question standard mythology?

Answer: Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

It is said that Elizabeth fell in love with Philip as a very young girl and never looked at another man; rumours about Philip's roving eye fizzled out over the years. What mattered was that they were fond of each other. Their offspring: King Charles III, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.

Queen Elizabeth II died on 8th September 2002 at the age of 96 and the Duke of Edinburgh on 9th April 2021, two months short of his 100th birthday. Queen Elizabeth II reigned for 70 years 7 months, the longest-ever in the UK (Queen Victoria was 63 years 7 months). She was the second longest-ever of any monarch, behind Louis XIV of France at 72 years 3 months.

The Swedish royal couple married in June, 1976. Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik wed in June, 1967. On July 2nd, 1959, Albert Felix Humbert Theodore Chretien Eugene Marie, Prince of Liege, married Princess Donna Paola Margherita Maria Antonia Consiglia Ruffio di Calabria, subsequently King and Queen of the Belgians.

Answer: Sir Thomas More

Thomas More, once the trusted friend and counsellor of Henry VIII, could not bring himself to swear to either the Act of Succession which named the heirs of the King and Queen Anne Boleyn as legitimate, or the Oath of Supremacy which named Henry as Supreme Head of the Church in England, thus by-passing the authority of the Pope. He was found guilty of treason after a travesty of a trial and sent to the Tower of London where he languished for 15 months before his execution. More is famed for his good humour under the worst of circumstances and it is said that when he came to mount the scaffold he asked the officials there to "See me safe up; as for my coming down, I can shift for myself. Before kneeling he addressed the people gathered and declared that he died, "the King's good servant, but(and) God's first." More was canonized in the Catholic Church by Pope Pius XI in 1935, four hundred years after his execution.
Cardinal John Fisher (1469 - 1535) also was a victim of Henry VIII's wrath when he supported Queen Katharine of Aragon and refused to swear to the Act of Succession or the Oath of Supremacy. He also was kept prisoner for many months until tricked into admitting that he could never agree to the King being the Supreme Head of the Church in England. The axe fell on 22nd June, 1535. He, along with Thomas More, was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935, and they both share the same feast day of June 22nd.
Thomas Cromwell, an able administrator to Henry VIII, also made sure whatever Henry wanted, Henry got, including testimony against Sir Thomas More which was very likely perjury. Unfortunately, Cromwell's involvement in convincing Henry to marry Anne of Cleves as his fourth wife (number three, Jane Seymour, having died in childbirth), incurred the wrath of the increasingly bad-tempered monarch who couldn't stand the sight of poor Anne, and Cromwell lost his head to the axe on July 28th, 1540.
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (1489 - 1566) was King Henry's man right through the King's Great Matter of divorcing Katharine and marrying Anne Boleyn. He was responsible for the Books of Common Prayer issued during Edward VI's reign. However, when Queen Mary came to the throne after Edward's death, his fate was sealed, as Mary wished to reinstate the Catholic religion to England. Cranmer was burned at the stake on 21st March, 1556.