70 Fun Facts About British History

Which Roman emperor launched the successful invasion of Britain in AD 43?

Caesar had raided in 55 and 54 BC, but Claudius's invasion began the near four-century occupation. He came over himself briefly, reportedly with elephants.

Boudica, who led a revolt against Rome around AD 60, was queen of which tribe?

Her forces burned Colchester, London and St Albans before being crushed. A statue of her in a chariot stands by Westminster Bridge.

Roughly how long is Hadrian's Wall?

It runs coast to coast from the Tyne to the Solway Firth and is the largest Roman archaeological feature in Britain. Work began in AD 122.

In roughly which year did Roman rule in Britain finally end?

The legions were pulled out to defend the continent, and the emperor Honorius reportedly told the British cities to look to their own defence. The Anglo-Saxon migrations followed.

The 793 raid marking the start of the Viking Age in Britain hit which Northumbrian monastery?

The monks eventually fled with the body of St Cuthbert, which ended up in Durham Cathedral. The island is still cut off from the mainland at high tide.

At which 878 battle did Alfred the Great decisively defeat the Vikings, leading to the Danelaw?

After the battle Alfred stood godfather to the Viking leader Guthrum at his baptism. He is the only English king known as 'the Great'.

The Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk was excavated in which year?

Self-taught archaeologist Basil Brown dug it at the invitation of landowner Edith Pretty, on the eve of the Second World War. The famous helmet is held by the British Museum.

Which Danish king ruled England, Denmark and Norway in what historians call the North Sea Empire?

He is the king of the legend about commanding the tide to stop, usually told as a lesson to flattering courtiers rather than an act of vanity.

On what date was the Battle of Hastings fought?

Harold Godwinson had marched south after beating a Norwegian army at Stamford Bridge less than three weeks earlier. The fighting lasted from about 9 am until dusk.

How is Harold II traditionally said to have died at Hastings?

The story rests on a Bayeux Tapestry figure and on chroniclers writing decades later; historians still argue about which figure is Harold.

The Bayeux Tapestry is technically not a tapestry at all. What is it?

It is stitched in wool on linen and runs nearly 70 metres. It is still kept in Bayeux, Normandy.

William the Conqueror's great survey of England, the Domesday Book, was completed in which year?

Its nickname came from the sense that its judgments were as final as the Last Judgment. It is held at the National Archives in Kew.

Which Archbishop of Canterbury was murdered in his own cathedral in December 1170?

Four knights acted after Henry II's outburst against him. His shrine became England's greatest pilgrimage site, the destination in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

King John sealed Magna Carta in June 1215 at which riverside meadow?

Within weeks the pope annulled it and the barons went to war. Only four copies of the 1215 charter survive.

At which 1314 battle did Robert the Bruce defeat Edward II's English army?

It secured Bruce's hold on the Scottish throne, though England did not formally recognise Scottish independence until 1328.

The Black Death reached England in June 1348 through which port?

The first known case was a sailor arriving from Gascony. The plague went on to kill perhaps 40 to 60 per cent of the population.

The third poll tax that triggered the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 was set at what flat rate per person?

Wat Tyler was killed at Smithfield when the Lord Mayor of London, William Walworth, stabbed him during a parley with the fourteen-year-old Richard II.

Which day of the calendar gave its name to the 1415 battle where Henry V's archers routed the French?

English and Welsh longbowmen made up nearly 80 per cent of Henry's army. Shakespeare's 'band of brothers' speech is set the morning of the battle.

In the Wars of the Roses, which side was symbolised by the red rose?

York took the white. Henry VII combined the two into the Tudor rose after marrying Elizabeth of York.

Richard III, killed at Bosworth in 1485, was found in 2012 buried under what in Leicester?

He was the last English king to die in battle. DNA from a living descendant of his sister confirmed the identification in 2013.

What did Tower of London workmen find in a box under a staircase in 1674, long linked to the Princes in the Tower?

The bones were reburied in Westminster Abbey on Charles II's orders. Whether they belong to Edward V and his brother has never been proven.

How many times did Henry VIII marry?

Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. Only Jane Seymour gave him a legitimate son.

What title did Henry VIII take under the Acts of Supremacy after his break with Rome?

Ironically the pope had earlier named him Defender of the Faith for attacking Luther, a title British monarchs still use.

At which castle was Mary, Queen of Scots beheaded in 1587?

She had spent eighteen and a half years as Elizabeth I's prisoner. Her son James inherited Elizabeth's throne sixteen years later.

In which year did the Spanish Armada sail against England?

Fireships scattered the fleet at Calais and the wind did the rest, driving it around Scotland and Ireland where many ships were wrecked.

Where did Elizabeth I deliver her famous speech to the troops in August 1588?

The speech contains the line about having 'the heart and stomach of a king'. By then the Armada had already been driven off.

How many barrels of gunpowder was Guy Fawkes guarding when he was found under the House of Lords in 1605?

He was caught late on 4 November after an anonymous letter tipped off the authorities. The cellars are still ceremonially searched before each State Opening.

How many years did Charles I rule without calling a Parliament, in the so-called Personal Rule?

He funded the Personal Rule with devices like Ship Money, and it ended only when he needed cash to fight the Scots. Civil war followed within two years.

Charles I was executed in January 1649 outside which London building?

He reportedly wore two shirts so he would not shiver and appear afraid. The Rubens ceiling he had commissioned was above him as he walked out.

What title did Oliver Cromwell hold from December 1653 until his death?

After the Restoration his body was dug up and hanged at Tyburn on the anniversary of Charles I's execution, and his head sat on a spike for years.

Charles II entered London to restore the monarchy on 29 May 1660, which was also what?

The date was later celebrated as Oak Apple Day, recalling the oak tree he hid in after the Battle of Worcester in 1651.

The Great Plague of 1665 killed roughly what share of London's population?

About 100,000 people died in 18 months. Samuel Pepys stayed in the city and recorded it in his diary.

The Great Fire of London in 1666 began in a bakery on which street?

Thomas Farriner's bakery caught fire shortly after midnight on 2 September. The Monument stands 202 feet from the spot, and is 202 feet tall.

In the Glorious Revolution, William of Orange landed with an army in which English county in 1688?

He came ashore at Brixham in Torbay. James II fled to France within weeks, and Parliament declared the throne vacant.

The Acts of Union creating the Kingdom of Great Britain took effect on 1 May of which year?

England and Scotland had shared a monarch since 1603 but kept separate parliaments. Ireland joined the union in 1801.

Culloden in 1746, which crushed the Jacobite rising, is remembered as the last what?

It was over in under an hour, near Inverness. Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped to France, and the Highland clan system was broken up afterwards.

Which Lancashire weaver invented the spinning jenny in 1764?

Crompton later crossed it with Arkwright's water frame to make the spinning mule, so called because it was a hybrid.

Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar in 1805, on which he was fatally shot, was which ship?

He died shortly before the battle ended, having been hit by a French musketeer. The ship is preserved in dry dock at Portsmouth.

Which Prussian field marshal's army arrived to help Wellington defeat Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815?

Waterloo was then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and is now in Belgium. It was Napoleon's last battle.

The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 ended slavery across the British Empire by what method?

The compensation went to the slave-owners, not the enslaved, in nineteen separate pots covering the Caribbean, South Africa and Mauritius.

How long did Queen Victoria reign?

Her 63 years and 216 days stood as the record until Elizabeth II passed it in 2015. She was eighteen when she came to the throne in 1837.

Who designed the Crystal Palace that housed the Great Exhibition of 1851?

He drew on his experience building greenhouses for the Duke of Devonshire, and the whole thing went from plan to opening in nine months.

Florence Nightingale's famous nursing work in the Crimean War was done at a military hospital in which place?

Scutari is modern Üsküdar in Istanbul, across the Bosporus from the old city. Her night rounds earned her the nickname 'The Lady with the Lamp'.

The 'canonical five' Jack the Ripper murders took place in which London district in 1888?

The killer was never identified. Police files linked eleven murders in the area between 1888 and 1891 but could tie only five together.

Emmeline Pankhurst founded the militant Women's Social and Political Union in which year?

Its motto was 'deeds, not words'. Its members were the original 'suffragettes', a name coined by the Daily Mail as an insult.

Suffragette Emily Davison died after stepping in front of the king's horse at which 1913 race?

The horse was George V's Anmer. Seventeen other women ran onto the course with her that day.

How many casualties did the British Army suffer on the first day of the Somme, 1 July 1916?

Of those, 19,240 were killed. The battle dragged on until November for an advance of a few miles.

Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 in order to marry which American divorcee?

He reigned for less than a year and was never crowned. His brother became George VI, father of Elizabeth II.

What was the codename of the Dunkirk evacuation of May and June 1940?

Over 338,000 soldiers were lifted off in nine days by a fleet of more than 800 vessels, including the civilian 'Little Ships'.

From 7 September 1940, London was bombed by the Luftwaffe on how many of the following 57 nights?

The Blitz lasted until May 1941. At its peak 177,000 people sheltered in Underground stations in a single night.

Which Labour health minister drove the creation of the National Health Service after the 1945 election?

The service launched on 5 July 1948. Bevan famously said he had won over the doctors by stuffing their mouths with gold.

Winston Churchill won which award in 1953?

He was cited for his historical writing and oratory. He was serving his second stint as prime minister at the time.

How many days did the Falklands War of 1982 last?

Argentina invaded on 2 April and surrendered on 14 June. Margaret Thatcher's popularity soared and she won a landslide the next year.

A journalist from which country gave Margaret Thatcher the nickname 'the Iron Lady'?

It was meant as an insult after a 1976 speech attacking Moscow, and she adopted it happily. She was the first woman to be British prime minister.

The Good Friday Agreement, which ended most Troubles violence, was signed on 10 April of which year?

It is also called the Belfast Agreement and was approved by referendums on both sides of the Irish border the following month.

At what time and date did the United Kingdom formally leave the European Union?

The odd hour was midnight in Brussels. An eleven-month transition period followed before the trade deal took effect.

Which 1120 shipwreck killed Henry I's heir William Adelin and set up the succession crisis?

Henry made his barons swear to accept his daughter Matilda instead, but they backed Stephen when he died.

The 12th-century civil war between Stephen and Matilda is known by what name?

Nobles threw up unlicensed 'adulterine' castles during the breakdown of royal authority.

In which year did Edward I expel the Jews from England, the first permanent expulsion in Europe?

The 1275 Statute of the Jewry had already banned Jews from money-lending, their previous role.

Which nation signed an alliance with England in 1373 that is claimed as the world's oldest still in force?

Edward III's reign also brought a naval win over Castile off Winchelsea in 1350 in a rivalry that ran until the Armada.

Roughly how many English people may have died in the Great Famine of 1315–1317?

That was more than 10 per cent of the population, decades before the Black Death struck.

Which Welsh prince declared himself Prince of Wales in 1400 in the last major Welsh rising against English rule?

The rebellion was finally defeated in 1412 by Prince Henry, the future Henry V.

In the South Sea Bubble of 1720, the company's share price rose from £130 to roughly what before it collapsed?

Robert Walpole wound the scandal down, launching the career that made him de facto first prime minister.

In reaction to the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, Lord Liverpool's government passed which repressive laws?

They banned drilling, outlawed public meetings of more than 50 people and taxed radical newspapers.

In which year did the Chartists issue the People's Charter demanding manhood suffrage and secret ballots?

Chartism grew out of anger that the 1832 Reform Act had not enfranchised the working class.

Whose famous wartime report laid out the plan for a universal welfare state and NHS?

All the major parties endorsed its principles, and they were largely enacted after 1945.

Roughly what fraction of the British economy did the Attlee government nationalise?

It began with the Bank of England, coal and civil aviation and finished with iron and steel.

Which French president vetoed Britain's applications to join the Common Market in 1963 and 1967?

Britain finally joined in 1973 under Edward Heath, and voted to stay in a 1975 referendum.

The 1997 Scottish devolution referendum was held on the 700th anniversary of which battle?

Scots voted overwhelmingly yes; a week later Wales approved its Assembly by a very narrow margin.

By what margin did Scotland vote to remain in the UK in the 2014 independence referendum?

Alex Salmond resigned as First Minister afterwards and was succeeded by Nicola Sturgeon.