99 Fun Facts About British Monarchs

Which king is usually counted as the first to rule all of England, after taking Viking York in 927?

Æthelstan: ten years later he crushed an invading alliance of Scots and Dublin Vikings at the Battle of Brunanburh.

Which king is the subject of the legend about burning a peasant woman's cakes?

Alfred the Great: hiding from the Danes in the Somerset marshes, he supposedly let the cakes burn, yet months later he routed them at Edington.

Which Danish king won the English throne in 1016 and later ruled Denmark and Norway too?

Cnut: in the legend where he orders the tide to halt, the original point was to show his humility before God, not his arrogance.

Which king built Westminster Abbey and was buried there the day Harold was crowned?

Edward the Confessor: his new church was consecrated in December 1065, but he was too ill to attend and died days later.

Weeks before Hastings, Harold Godwinson defeated a Norwegian invasion at which battle?

Stamford Bridge: Harold killed both Harald Hardrada and his own brother Tostig there, then had to hurry south when William landed days later.

Which famous cloth tells the story of the Norman Conquest of England?

The Bayeux Tapestry: despite its name it is really an embroidery, since its scenes are stitched onto linen rather than woven.

What survey of English landholdings did William order in 1085-86?

The Domesday Book: its record was treated as so authoritative that courts cited it as evidence in land disputes for centuries.

Henry I's heir drowned in which 1120 disaster?

The White Ship: chroniclers said its crew were drunk when it struck a rock, and the heir's death later led to the civil war called the Anarchy.

According to a chronicler, Henry I died after eating a surfeit of what?

Lampreys: Henry of Huntingdon wrote that the king dined on them against his physician's advice, then fell ill and never recovered.

Empress Matilda was never crowned queen but held which title during the Anarchy?

Lady of the English: she even held King Stephen captive in 1141, yet she was never crowned.

Which archbishop was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral after clashing with Henry II?

Thomas Becket: four knights took Henry's angry outburst as a royal command, and the murdered archbishop was made a saint little more than two years later.

Which English king spent only about six months of his ten-year reign in England?

Richard the Lionheart: captured on his way home from crusade, he was freed for a 150,000-mark ransom, then soon left England, never to return.

Which king agreed to Magna Carta with his barons in 1215?

John: he soon claimed he had agreed to Magna Carta under duress, the Pope took his side, and England slid into civil war.

Edward I's epithet 'Longshanks' referred to what?

His long legs: standing about 6 ft 2 in, he also seized Scotland's coronation Stone of Scone and carried it off to Westminster Abbey in 1296.

Where did Edward II die in 1327 after being forced to give up his crown?

Berkeley Castle: his own wife Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer had invaded to depose him, and he was probably murdered there on the new regime's orders.

Which order of chivalry did Edward III found around 1348?

The Garter: in one later legend, Edward picked up a lady's fallen garter at a ball and silenced laughing courtiers with the order's motto.

What was the spark of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt that the young Richard II helped crush?

A poll tax: once in London, the rebels seized the Lord Chancellor, Simon Sudbury, and beheaded him.

Henry IV is also known by what name, after the castle where he was born?

Bolingbroke: Richard II had exiled him and blocked his inheritance, so he invaded while Richard was away in Ireland and took the crown.

Which weapon helped Henry V win the Battle of Agincourt?

The longbow: archers made up most of Henry's army, and their arrows struck French knights floundering across a freshly ploughed, muddy field.

Who is the youngest person ever to succeed to the English throne?

Henry VI: less than two months later his grandfather Charles VI of France died too, so the baby also inherited England's claim to the French throne.

Edward IV's 1464 marriage to which woman alienated Warwick the Kingmaker?

Elizabeth Woodville: Warwick was busy negotiating a foreign bride for Edward, but the king had secretly married her instead.

Edward V and his younger brother are remembered by what name?

The Princes in the Tower: two children's skeletons dug up at the Tower in 1674 were buried in Westminster Abbey as theirs, though that has never been proven.

Richard III was killed at which 1485 battle?

Bosworth Field: Richard became the last English king to die in battle, and his body was put on display before a burial without ceremony in Leicester.

Richard III's remains were found in 2012 beneath what in Leicester?

A car park: it had been built over the lost Greyfriars friary, and DNA tests later confirmed the skeleton beneath it was his.

Who was the first monarch of the House of Tudor?

Henry VII: he pardoned the boy pretender Lambert Simnel and put him to work in the royal kitchens.

Which 1534 act made Henry VIII head of the Church of England in place of the Pope?

The Act of Supremacy: Henry broke with Rome after the Pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

Who was proclaimed queen on 10 July 1553 and deposed nine days later?

Lady Jane Grey: Mary at first spared her life, but her father's support for Wyatt's rebellion sealed her fate, and she was beheaded in 1554.

Mary I became queen consort of which country through her marriage to Philip?

Spain: fear of the Spanish match helped spark Wyatt's rebellion in January 1554, months before the wedding went ahead that July.

Which king of Scotland inherited the English crown in 1603?

James VI: after moving south in 1603, he returned to his Scottish homeland only once, in 1617.

Guy Fawkes guarded gunpowder beneath which building?

The House of Lords: the plot unravelled after an anonymous letter warned a lord to stay away from the opening of Parliament.

Charles I was beheaded outside which London building?

The Banqueting House: he wore two shirts that cold January morning so the crowd would not see him shiver and think he was afraid.

Which ruler took the title Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1653?

Oliver Cromwell: after the monarchy returned, his body was dug up from Westminster Abbey, hanged and beheaded, and his head put on public display.

After Worcester, Charles II hid from Parliament's soldiers in what?

An oak tree: the story made the Royal Oak one of England's most common pub names.

Who was the last Catholic monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland?

James II: his own daughter Mary and her Dutch husband William took his throne in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

William III died in 1702 after a fall from his horse, which had stumbled into what?

A mole's burrow: the fall broke his collarbone, and complications from the injury killed him within weeks.

Who was the first monarch of the Kingdom of Great Britain, created in 1707?

Anne: her only surviving son died in 1700, so when she died the crown passed to her German Protestant cousin, George of Hanover.

Which queen's coronation went so awry that the Archbishop of Canterbury pushed her ring onto the wrong finger?

Victoria: the ring took about an hour to work free afterwards, and she wrote in her journal that it came off only with great pain.

The last British monarch to lead an army in battle did so at which 1743 battle?

Dettingen: George II's victory there was marked by a new Te Deum, which Handel was commissioned to compose for the official celebrations.

George III was dubbed 'Farmer George' — at first to mock what?

His interest in mundane matters: he even wrote articles on farming, but the nickname later cast him as a thrifty man of the people.

Which blood disease has been proposed as the cause of George III's 'madness'?

Porphyria: whatever the true cause, his illness became so severe that his son ruled in his place as Prince Regent from 1811.

Which seaside palace did George IV have remodelled in the style of an Indian palace?

Brighton Pavilion: the prince's lavish spending ran up such huge debts that Parliament stepped in to pay them.

Which service did William IV join at the age of 13?

The Royal Navy: it earned him the nickname 'Sailor King', and while he served in New York, George Washington approved a plot to kidnap him.

Edward VII, related to nearly every European monarch, was known by what nickname?

The Uncle of Europe: his well-received state visit to Paris helped pave the way for the Entente Cordiale with France.

In 1917 George V renamed the royal house from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to what?

Windsor: anti-German feeling during the First World War led him to swap the German name for an English one.

Edward VIII abdicated in December 1936 to marry whom?

Wallis Simpson: his advisers held that the head of the Church of England should not marry a divorced woman, so he gave up the throne.

By what name was the future George VI known to his family?

Bertie: the family's name for Albert, his first name, which he set aside as king, reigning as George to signal continuity with his father.

In which country was Elizabeth II when she learned she had become queen in 1952?

Kenya: she was on a royal tour and had been staying at the Treetops lodge, and she flew straight back to London as queen.

Which prime minister was in office when Elizabeth II came to the throne in 1952?

Winston Churchill: already ageing and unwell, he stayed on until poor health forced him to resign in 1955.

At which royal estate did Elizabeth II die in September 2022, making Charles III king?

Balmoral: just two days earlier she had appointed Liz Truss as prime minister there, instead of at Buckingham Palace.

Which birds, when unmarked and living on open water, belong to the British Crown by ancient prerogative right?

Mute swans on the Thames are rounded up and counted each July in a ceremony called swan upping, a tradition that began in the 12th century.

On which holiday in 1066 was William the Conqueror crowned king of England at Westminster Abbey?

Christmas Day 1066 fell about ten weeks after his victory at Hastings, and the ceremony made William the first Norman king of England.

Elizabeth II owned more than 30 dogs of which breed, most descended from her 18th birthday present, Susan?

Corgi after corgi followed Susan, a Pembroke Welsh who even went along on the royal honeymoon in 1947.

Which queen was the last of Henry VIII's six wives, still married to him when he died in 1547?

Catherine Parr was also the first woman in England to publish an original book in English under her own name. With four husbands, she is the most-married English queen.

Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953 was the first British coronation carried in full by which medium?

Television carried the whole service because the BBC's cameras, kept outside the abbey in 1937, were finally let in. The anointing, shielded by a canopy, stayed off screen.

Which Russian tsar, a first cousin of George V, lost a British offer of asylum after the king objected in 1917?

Nicholas II was offered asylum in March 1917, but George V feared the tsar's presence could stir unrest at home. The Romanovs were shot the following year.

The 1666 fire that destroyed much of London under Charles II began in a bakery on which street?

Pudding Lane was home to Thomas Farriner's bakery, where the blaze broke out soon after midnight. Charles II ordered houses pulled down to halt the flames.

In the English Civil War, supporters of Charles I were given which nickname by their Roundhead enemies?

Cavaliers was meant as a term of abuse for the wealthier Royalists, but the king's party soon adopted it as a title of honour.

Which sea captain did Elizabeth I reward with a knighthood aboard the Golden Hind in 1581?

Francis Drake had just led the first English voyage around the world. The dubbing itself was performed by a French diplomat at Deptford.

Which jubilee, marking 70 years on the throne, did Elizabeth II celebrate in 2022?

Platinum celebrations peaked in June 2022, three months before she died as the longest-reigning monarch in British history.

Which Scottish relic did Edward I seize in 1296 and have fitted into the Coronation Chair at Westminster Abbey?

The Stone of Scone was taken as spoils of war, and most English and British sovereigns since have been crowned above it. It was handed back to Scotland in 1996, 700 years later.

Which Thames-side residence did Cardinal Wolsey hand to Henry VIII in 1529 in a bid to save himself?

Hampton Court had been built for Wolsey from 1514, and the king had stayed there as his guest. The gift did not restore the cardinal to favour.

Which royal cousin of Elizabeth I was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587 after years in English captivity?

Mary, Queen of Scots had inherited her own throne at six days old. She spent eighteen and a half years as a prisoner before being found guilty of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth.

What name is given to the 1688 overthrow that brought William of Orange and his wife Mary to the throne?

Glorious Revolution became the name for a largely bloodless coup: William landed at Torbay, far enough from London to give the old regime time to collapse on its own.

George I became king of Great Britain in 1714 while already ruling which German state as its prince-elector?

Hanover supplied the new king because he was the nearest Protestant heir. More than fifty Catholics with stronger hereditary claims were passed over.

Which London residence, bought by George III in 1761 for Queen Charlotte, became known as The Queen's House?

Buckingham Palace began as a private retreat and only became the monarch's principal residence in 1837. It has since grown to 775 rooms.

At which Norfolk country house, bought for the future Edward VII in 1862, did both George V and George VI die?

Sandringham was where Elizabeth II chose to spend each anniversary of her father's death and her own accession, privately with her family.

At which battle near Stirling in 1314 did Robert the Bruce defeat the invading army of Edward II?

Bannockburn was a decisive Scottish victory and a turning point in the war, which ended 14 years later with a treaty restoring Scotland's independence.

Edward III's claim to the French throne in 1337 triggered which conflict between England and France?

The Hundred Years' War is usually charted as lasting 116 years, with truces splitting the fighting into three separate phases.

By what name is Edward of Woodstock, the eldest son of Edward III who died before he could be king, known?

The Black Prince owed the name, one early historian wrote, to his dreaded acts in battle and not his colouring. His son took the throne instead, as Richard II.

Edward I raised twelve memorial crosses for his dead queen, and the last gave its name to which London landmark?

Charing Cross held the largest and most ornate of the twelve, one for each overnight stop of her funeral procession. Road distances from London are measured from the spot.

Which duchess had been queen of France for fifteen years before she married the future Henry II in 1152?

Eleanor of Aquitaine later backed her sons' revolt of 1173 against her husband, who kept her imprisoned for the rest of his reign.

Which rebel earl captured Henry III at Lewes in 1264 and called a parliament that included ordinary townsmen?

Simon de Montfort ruled England for just over a year before forces loyal to the king killed him at Evesham. He is regarded as a forefather of parliamentary democracy.

Which king took the throne in 1135 ahead of his cousin Matilda, starting the civil war known as the Anarchy?

Stephen was a grandson of William the Conqueror through his mother. The fighting dragged on for years and ended only when he accepted Matilda's son as his successor.

Which leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt was struck down at Smithfield while negotiating with the young Richard II?

Wat Tyler was slashed by the Lord Mayor of London, William Walworth, then dragged from a hospital for the poor and publicly beheaded.

Which royal house, remembered by its red rose badge, gave England three kings beginning with Henry IV in 1399?

Lancaster supplied three kings in a row, all named Henry, before losing the crown to its white-rose rival in the Wars of the Roses.

Which dynasty, named after a nickname of Henry II's father Geoffrey of Anjou, held the English throne from 1154 to 1485?

Plantagenet may refer to the yellow blossom of the common broom, called genista in medieval Latin, though that is only one of many popular theories about the nickname.

Which comic actress, once an orange seller in a London theatre, became a longtime mistress of Charles II?

Nell Gwyn was on the king's mind as he lay dying: he asked his brother not to let her starve, and her debts were duly paid.

Which era of British history takes its name from the arrangement made in 1811 for George III's final illness?

The Regency officially lasted only until 1820, when the Prince Regent became king in his own right, yet the label is commonly stretched to cover about 1795 to 1837.

Which Australian speech therapist helped the future George VI manage a severe stammer from 1926 onwards?

Lionel Logue was engaged after the then Duke of York's closing speech at the 1925 Wembley exhibition proved an ordeal for speaker and listeners alike.

Elizabeth II's husband Philip, carried into exile as a baby in a fruit box, was born a prince of which country?

Greece was his birthplace: Philip was born on the dining room table of a villa on Corfu, into the Greek and Danish royal families.

Which duchy, created by Edward III in 1337, exists to provide an income for the heir to the British throne?

Cornwall's duchy passes to the monarch's heir, who enjoys its net income but has no right to sell its assets for personal benefit.

Æthelred the Unready's nickname is a pun on his name in Old English, where 'unræd' originally meant what?

Ill-advised is the sense of 'unræd', or bad counsel, which mocked a name meaning noble counsel. Only later did the word slide into 'unready'.

Magna Carta was sealed in June 1215 at which water-meadow on the south bank of the River Thames?

Runnymede was a traditional place for assemblies and lay on neutral ground between a royal fortress and the rebel base at Staines, so neither side risked a military disadvantage.

Which Gascon favourite of Edward II was hunted down and executed by a group of angry magnates in 1312?

Piers Gaveston had already been sent out of the realm once on the orders of the king's father, who was exasperated by the lavish gifts his son heaped on him.

Which animal, shown in white, was the personal badge that Richard III gave out in thousands to his supporters?

Boar badges marked political loyalty during the Wars of the Roses, and a single order of 13,000 cloth ones is recorded for the investiture of his young son.

Which warship of Henry VIII sank in the Solent in 1545 and was raised from the seabed in 1982?

Mary Rose went down while leading an attack on a French invasion fleet. Raising her was one of the most complex and expensive maritime salvage projects in history.

Henry VIII seized about a quarter of England's landed wealth between 1536 and 1541 by dissolving which institutions?

Monasteries, priories, convents and friaries were all disbanded. Much of their property was then sold off to fund his military campaigns of the 1540s.

Charles II founded a Royal Observatory in 1675 on a hilltop in which royal park?

Greenwich gave its name to the world's time standard because the meridian ran through the observatory, whose first director was the astronomer John Flamsteed.

Which 1746 battle in the Highlands crushed Bonnie Prince Charlie's bid to regain the British throne for the Stuarts?

Culloden was the last pitched battle fought on British soil. The Jacobite army was decisively beaten by a government force under the Duke of Cumberland.

Which title of British monarchs was first granted by Pope Leo X to Henry VIII in 1521 for backing the papacy?

Defender of the Faith rewarded his book upholding the seven sacraments and papal authority. After his break with Rome, Parliament conferred the title on him afresh.

Which diamond, found in South Africa in 1905 and given to Edward VII, supplied the great gem in the royal sceptre?

The Cullinan is the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found. The sceptre, made in 1661, had to be redesigned in 1910 to hold the biggest gem cut from it.

Which Suffolk site held a ship burial, uncovered in 1939, thought to be the grave of King Rædwald of East Anglia?

Sutton Hoo yielded a masked ceremonial helmet, gold dress fittings set with gems and silver plate from the Eastern Roman Empire, among the most significant finds ever made in England.

Which Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of Britain was transformed into the Kingdom of England during the tenth century?

Wessex kept expanding until Northumbria accepted West Saxon rule in 954, the final step in the unification of England.

Which French king met Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520 and beat him at wrestling?

Francis I won quickly after Henry sprang the challenge, breaking the tournament's own rule that the two kings would not compete. The summit was named for its tents of gold-threaded fabric.

Henry V's victory at Agincourt in 1415 fell on the feast day of which saint, named in a famous Shakespeare speech?

St Crispin's Day falls on 25 October. Shakespeare has the king rally his soldiers just before the fighting in one of the most heroic speeches he ever wrote.

Which favourite of Elizabeth I, long a suitor for her hand, lost his wife to a fatal fall downstairs in 1560?

Robert Dudley stayed her favourite from her accession until his death. Amy Robsart's fall left him free to marry the queen, yet the wedding never came.

Which royal yacht, launched by Elizabeth II in 1953 and retired in 1997, became a visitor attraction in Edinburgh?

Britannia served the royal family from 1954 to 1997, after which the government decided she would not be replaced. She is permanently berthed at Leith.

Which ceremony on Horse Guards Parade in London has marked the British sovereign's official birthday since 1748?

Trooping the Colour was first performed in the reign of Charles II, and has grown into the biggest event of Britain's ceremonial calendar.

In which Midlands town did Charles I raise the royal standard in August 1642, opening the English Civil War?

Nottingham saw the standard go up only after last-ditch negotiations with Parliament had proved futile, turning a political quarrel into a call to arms.