175 Fun Facts About Kings & Royalty

Which English king was forced to seal the Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215?

King John sealed Magna Carta to buy peace with rebel barons who had taken London; within three months the Pope had annulled it, and the civil war it was meant to prevent broke out anyway.

What famous nickname was given to Louis XIV of France?

The Sun King took the sun, symbol of Apollo, as his personal emblem; at 14 he had danced as Apollo, the rising sun, in the Ballet de la Nuit of 1653.

Which wife bore Henry VIII his long-awaited son?

Jane Seymour died in October 1537, less than two weeks after giving birth to the future Edward VI; Henry later asked to be buried beside her.

Which king did William the Conqueror defeat at Hastings?

Harold Godwinson had marched north and crushed a Norwegian invasion at Stamford Bridge less than three weeks earlier, then hurried his army south to face William; he was killed on the field.

Which ancient Egyptian pharaoh's tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922?

Tutankhamun's tomb still held most of its treasures after more than 3,000 years; when Carter's patron Lord Carnarvon died months later of an infected mosquito bite, newspapers spun the tale of a pharaoh's curse.

After a 72-year reign, Louis XIV was succeeded in 1715 by which relative?

His great-grandson, aged five, became Louis XV: the old king had outlived both his son, who died in 1711, and his eldest grandson, who died a year later.

Which language was the mother tongue of Cleopatra, the first ruler of her dynasty to learn Egyptian?

Greek: her forebears had held Egypt for nearly three centuries without troubling to learn the local tongue, and Plutarch says Cleopatra spoke it along with several other languages.

What is the name of the palace built by Louis XIV outside Paris?

The Palace of Versailles grew out of his father's hunting lodge; Louis XIV moved the court and government there in 1682, and a Paris crowd forced the royal family to leave it for good in October 1789.

Which country has the oldest continuous hereditary monarchy in the world?

Japan's imperial house is the world's oldest continuous hereditary monarchy; tradition dates it to Emperor Jimmu in 660 BC, though historians regard the first several emperors as legendary.

In which ancient city did Alexander the Great die in June 323 BC?

Babylon was to be the capital of his new empire; he fell ill there with a fever after a long drinking bout and died some days later, and his generals were soon at war over the conquests.

Which cleric crowned Charles III in May 2023?

The Archbishop of Canterbury, then Justin Welby, crowned the King and first anointed him with holy oil behind an embroidered screen that hid the moment from the cameras.

Which Russian tsar traveled incognito across Europe on the "Grand Embassy" of 1697?

Peter the Great joined his own Grand Embassy of 1697-98 in disguise, travelling under an assumed name behind his ambassadors so that he could study shipbuilding at first hand in Dutch and English yards.

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

Richard I, the Lionheart, spent barely six months of his 1189-1199 reign in England; the rest went to crusading in the Holy Land, captivity in Germany, and defending his French lands.

Generations of cousin marriages gave which European dynasty a protruding lower jaw that now bears the family's name?

The Habsburgs kept marrying close relatives, and a 2019 study that had surgeons score the jaw in family portraits concluded that inbreeding was the likely cause.

Which queen of France was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution?

Marie Antoinette was sent from Austria at 14 to seal her country's new alliance with France; in October 1793 the Revolutionary Tribunal convicted her of treason and she went to the guillotine.

Who was the only woman in Chinese history to officially hold the title of Emperor?

Wu Zetian proclaimed her own Zhou dynasty in 690 in place of the Tang and ruled as emperor until a coup restored the Tang in 705.

Which conqueror founded the largest contiguous land empire in world history?

Genghis Khan, born Temüjin, united the feuding Mongol tribes and was proclaimed their ruler in 1206; the empire kept growing under his sons and grandsons until it reached from the Pacific to eastern Europe.

Elizabeth II's 1953 coronation service was the first carried on which medium?

Television took viewers inside the abbey for the first time: TV cameras had been kept out of her father's coronation service in 1937, and in 1953 more people watched than listened on the radio.

Which British monarch gave her name to an entire era spanning much of the 19th century?

Queen Victoria came to the throne at 18 in 1837 and reigned until 1901; after her husband Albert died in 1861 she wore mourning black for the remaining forty years of her life.

On which church festival was Charlemagne crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III?

Christmas Day 800 was when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne in St Peter's; his biographer Einhard claimed the king would never have entered the church that day had he known what the pope intended.

Which of Henry VIII's wives was beheaded in 1536 after being accused of adultery and treason?

Anne Boleyn, Henry's second wife, was convicted of adultery and treason and beheaded on 19 May 1536; the daughter she left behind, then aged two, would one day take the throne herself.

Why did Peter I of Russia put a tax on beards?

To make his subjects look Western: police could forcibly shave any man who had not paid, and those who had carried a copper or silver 'beard token' as proof.

Where are the British Crown Jewels kept and displayed?

The Tower of London nearly lost them in 1671, when Colonel Thomas Blood flattened a crown with a mallet and tried to make off with it; caught, he was pardoned by the king and even given land in Ireland.

According to the Bible, which king of Israel was renowned for his extraordinary wisdom?

Solomon, son of David, asked God for wisdom rather than long life or riches (1 Kings 3); his judgment between two women claiming the same baby became the byword for royal wisdom.

From which capital city did Cleopatra and her dynasty rule Egypt?

Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, was the dynasty's capital for nearly three centuries; when Cleopatra died there in 30 BC, Egypt became a Roman province.

Which 'heretic' pharaoh swept aside Egypt's old gods for a single sun god?

Akhenaten built a new capital at Amarna for his sun god; after his death a boy king moved the court away, restored the old temples and dropped the god from his own name.

Which king is the only native-born English monarch to carry the epithet 'the Great'?

Alfred earned the epithet by saving Wessex: driven into the Somerset marshes by the Danes in 878, he rallied his men and beat them at Edington within months.

Which additional title did Parliament vote to give the British monarch in 1876?

Empress of India: Disraeli brought in the Royal Titles Act eighteen years after the Crown took over India from the East India Company, and George VI gave the imperial title up when India became independent.

Which king of Spain, the last of his line, suffered lifelong ill health often blamed on generations of royal inbreeding?

Charles II of Spain came at the end of generations of marriages between close relatives; when he died childless in 1700, the rival claims to his throne set off the War of the Spanish Succession.

Which Russian city, founded in 1703 on newly conquered Baltic marshland, was the country's capital for two centuries?

St. Petersburg gave Russia the Baltic seaport its founder had long wanted, and the court and government moved there from Moscow within a decade; the Bolsheviks moved the capital back in 1918.

Whose capture of Jerusalem in 1187 prompted three European monarchs to launch the Third Crusade?

Saladin took Jerusalem months after destroying the crusader army at Hattin; the Third Crusade won back much of the coast but not the city, and ended in a truce that let unarmed pilgrims visit.

What was the Domesday Book, commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1085?

A survey of English land and property: William's agents went shire by shire recording who held each estate and what it was worth, before the Conquest and after, so that he knew what was owed to him.

Which Crown Jewels diamond is claimed by India, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan?

The Koh-i-Noor ('Mountain of Light') is a 105.6-carat diamond originally from India. It passed through Mughal, Persian, Afghan, and Sikh hands before being acquired by the British. Multiple countries have demanded its return.

Which mystic gained sway over the family of Nicholas II by seeming to ease his son's haemophilia?

Grigori Rasputin, a Siberian peasant turned holy man, seemed able to calm the bleeding of the heir Alexei; nobles alarmed by his hold on the court murdered him in December 1916, less than three months before the monarchy fell.

Which 1534 Act of Parliament made Henry VIII head of the Church of England?

The Act of Supremacy made Henry VIII Supreme Head of the Church of England once the Pope had refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon; Thomas More, who would not accept it, was beheaded in 1535.

According to the Bible, which Babylonian king destroyed the First Temple in Jerusalem?

Nebuchadnezzar II's army took Jerusalem in 587/586 BC, burned the Temple and marched much of Judah's elite off to Babylonia, an exile that lasted about half a century.

Hirohito's 62-year reign, the longest of any Japanese emperor, is known by which era name?

Shōwa ran from December 1926 to January 1989, through war, defeat and economic boom; at home the emperor himself is now known by the era's name, as Emperor Shōwa.

Which Roman general allied with Cleopatra VII against Octavian before their defeat at the Battle of Actium?

Mark Antony ran himself through with his sword in 30 BC on a false message that Cleopatra was already dead; Plutarch says he was carried to her still alive and died in her arms.

What was the name of the tapestry that depicts the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings?

The Bayeux Tapestry is not a true tapestry but wool embroidery on linen, some 70 metres long; it was probably made for William's half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux.

Which French king was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution?

Louis XVI lost what trust he had left when he fled Paris in 1791 and was caught at Varennes; the Convention tried him for treason and he was guillotined on 21 January 1793.

Which ancient kingdom was Alexander the Great the ruler of before he began his conquests?

Macedonia passed to Alexander at 20 when his father, Philip II, was assassinated in 336 BC; within two years he had led its army into Asia against the Persian Empire.

At which royal residence did Queen Elizabeth II die on September 8, 2022?

Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire: two days before she died there, aged 96, she had appointed Liz Truss prime minister at the castle, a ceremony normally held at Buckingham Palace.

Which royal house has held the British throne since it was renamed in July 1917?

Windsor was taken from the royal castle in Berkshire when George V dropped the German name Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in July 1917, with anti-German feeling running high in the First World War.

Which pharaoh had the two temples at Abu Simbel carved into a cliff?

Ramesses II fronted the larger temple with four colossal statues of himself; in the 1960s engineers moved both temples to higher ground to save them from the lake rising behind the Aswan High Dam.

Which Tudor monarch reigned over England's 'Golden Age' and never married?

Elizabeth I kept suitors hoping for decades, using the promise of marriage as a tool of diplomacy, but never took a husband; her death in 1603 ended the Tudor line.

Which king of Scotland was killed at the Battle of Flodden in 1513?

James IV of Scotland died at Flodden Field in Northumberland on 9 September 1513, the last monarch in Britain killed in battle, after invading England while Henry VIII campaigned in France.

In Arthurian legend, to which island is the wounded King Arthur carried after his last battle?

Avalon is where Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th-century history sends Arthur to be healed; around 1190 the monks of Glastonbury claimed to have dug up his grave, and their abbey has been tied to the isle ever since.

Catherine the Great came to power in 1762 through a coup against which ruler, her own husband?

Peter III, her husband, was deposed after six months on the throne and killed within days while in the custody of her supporters; Catherine went on to rule Russia for 34 years.

What did Emperor Hirohito publicly renounce in 1946?

His divine status: in a New Year's Day rescript issued at the urging of the American occupation, he denied that the emperor was a living god; the 1947 constitution then made him a symbol of the state.

Which king of England was killed at Bosworth Field in 1485, during the Wars of the Roses?

Richard III was the last English king to die in battle and was buried without ceremony in Leicester; his lost grave turned up under a city car park in 2012 and was confirmed by DNA.

Which Caribbean nation became a republic in 2021, leaving Charles III with fifteen realms when he acceded?

Barbados swore in its first president, Sandra Mason, in November 2021 with the future king in the audience; nine months later fifteen realms, from Canada to Tuvalu, recognised him as Charles III.

Which country's king is chosen every five years from among nine hereditary state rulers?

Malaysia's nine Malay rulers elect one of their number as king, in practice taking turns; in 2019 Muhammad V became the first to abdicate, two years into his five-year term.

Whose reign is counted at 82 years, from his selection as a baby?

Sobhuza II of Swaziland was four months old when he was chosen king, and a regent ruled until 1921; record lists that count from 1899 rank his the longest dated reign of any monarch.

A king born in Massachusetts in 1927 went on to reign for 70 years over which country?

Thailand's Bhumibol Adulyadej was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, because his father was studying public health at Harvard; he became king at 18 when his elder brother died in unexplained circumstances.

Which monarch became the longest-reigning living sovereign when Elizabeth II died in 2022?

Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei, sultan since 1967, became the longest-reigning living monarch in September 2022; when Brunei gained independence in 1984 he had made himself its prime minister as well.

Which African king renamed his country in 2018, dropping the colonial-era name Swaziland?

Mswati III renamed Swaziland as Eswatini in April 2018, marking 50 years of independence and his own 50th birthday; he rules sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarchy.

Which queen abdicated in January 2024 after exactly 52 years on the throne?

Margrethe II announced it in her televised New Year's Eve address, just two weeks before stepping down on 14 January 2024, 52 years to the day after her accession; her son became Frederik X.

In which sport did King Harald V of Norway compete at three Olympic Games?

Sailing: as Crown Prince, Harald raced for Norway at the 1964, 1968 and 1972 Games and carried his country's flag into the stadium at the Tokyo opening ceremony.

Since a constitutional reform that took effect in 1975, which European country's king has held no political power at all?

Sweden's 1974 Instrument of Government left Carl XVI Gustaf, then barely a year on the throne, without even the formal right to name a prime minister; that task passed to the Speaker of the Riksdag.

Which law did Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg refuse to sign in 2008, sparking a crisis?

A euthanasia law: when Grand Duke Henri refused to sign it, parliament voted 56-0 to change the constitution so that laws no longer needed his approval, and the bill went through.

Prince Albert II of Monaco competed at Winter Olympics in which sport?

Bobsleigh: Albert drove Monaco's sleds at five straight Winter Games from 1988 to 2002, entered simply as Albert Grimaldi, and carried his country's flag at opening ceremonies.

A 2003 referendum expanded the powers of which European prince?

Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein won a March 2003 referendum giving him the power to dismiss the government and veto laws; he handed day-to-day duties to his son Alois in August 2004.

Which Saudi king issued a 2017 decree allowing women to drive?

King Salman's decree ended the only ban on women driving anywhere in the world, yet weeks before it lifted in June 2018, several of the women who had campaigned against it were arrested.

King Letsie III has twice come to the throne of which southern African mountain kingdom?

Lesotho's Letsie III was made king in 1990 when his father was dethroned, stepped aside for him in 1995, and returned for good when his father died in a car crash a year later.

Which indigenous North African language did Morocco's 2011 constitution make official alongside Arabic?

Berber, called Amazigh or Tamazight by its speakers, won official status in the constitution Mohammed VI put to a referendum after the protests of 2011.

Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni worked in what artistic field before his reign?

Norodom Sihamoni trained in classical ballet in Prague, danced and taught in Paris for years, and served as Cambodia's ambassador to UNESCO before becoming king in 2004.

Which guiding principle did Bhutan's fourth king coin in the 1970s as a truer goal than economic output?

Gross National Happiness: King Jigme Singye Wangchuck declared it more important than gross domestic product, and Bhutan's 2008 constitution commits the state to pursuing it.

Before becoming king of Tonga in 2012, Tupou VI spent six years in which government post?

Prime minister: he led the government from 2000 to 2006 as a younger son, and became heir to the throne only afterwards, when his unmarried brother George Tupou V succeeded their father.

Which Qing emperor's 61-year reign is the longest in Chinese history?

Kangxi reigned from 1661 to 1722, 61 years, the longest of any Chinese emperor; his grandson Qianlong abdicated after 60 years in 1796 so as not to surpass him.

Which ruler unified China in 221 BC and coined a new imperial title?

Qin Shi Huang: rather than remain a king he joined two words once used for legendary rulers into huangdi, a title China's monarchs kept for some two thousand years.

Which bloody war around 260 BCE led a remorseful Ashoka to renounce armed conquest?

The Kalinga War: Ashoka's own rock edict counts 100,000 killed and 150,000 carried off, and says his remorse led him to seek conquest by dharma, or right conduct, instead of arms.

Which syncretic creed did the Mughal emperor Akbar promulgate?

Akbar promulgated Din-i Ilahi, the 'Religion of God', in 1582; it drew on Islam, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Christianity and never won more than a handful of courtiers.

Which 1529 siege stopped Suleiman the Magnificent's advance into Europe?

Vienna held out in 1529 because a rain-soaked march had forced Suleiman's army to abandon its heaviest guns in the mud, and the cannon it had left could not breach the walls.

Which Persian king founded the Achaemenid Empire?

Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Empire around 550 BC by overthrowing the Medes, then conquered Lydia and, in 539 BC, the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Darius the Great divided his empire into provinces run by officials called what?

Satraps ran Darius's provinces and gathered their yearly tribute, but he kept them in check with travelling royal inspectors known as the king's eyes and ears.

Which strait did Xerxes cross with his army into Europe in 480 BC?

Xerxes crossed the Hellespont (the Dardanelles) on two pontoon bridges at Abydos in 480 BC; Herodotus says he had the strait whipped after a storm wrecked the first bridges.

Which female pharaoh initially ruled as regent for her stepson Thutmose III?

Hatshepsut ruled as regent for her stepson Thutmose III from about 1479 BC before taking full pharaonic titles; her statues show her in male royal garb, including the false beard.

By what name did ancient Greek sources refer to Ramesses II?

Ozymandias: Shelley's 1818 sonnet borrowed the Greek name and pictured the pharaoh's boast carved on a shattered statue, with nothing around it but empty sand.

Which battle of Ramesses II is generally regarded as a stalemate?

Kadesh: the pharaoh's own inscriptions hail a triumph, but the fight with the Hittites was a draw, and years later the two powers sealed the oldest peace treaty whose text survives.

Which son did Cleopatra make her co-ruler in 44 BC, only for Octavian to have him killed?

Caesarion, her son by Julius Caesar, shared her throne from the age of three; after her death Octavian lured the 17-year-old back from his flight south and had him put to death.

Which codification of Roman law did the emperor Justinian order compiled in the sixth century?

Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis, compiled 529-534 under the jurist Tribonian, gathered imperial law into the Code, Digest and Institutes and became the foundation of Europe's civil-law tradition.

Which decree under Constantine decriminalised Christian practice?

Edict of Milan: agreed by Constantine and his co-emperor Licinius in 313, it let everyone worship whatever god they pleased and ordered confiscated property handed back to Christians at once.

Charlemagne took which people's crown in 774 after besieging their king in Pavia?

The Lombards: their king Desiderius had been Charlemagne's ally and father-in-law only a few years earlier, before the Frankish army entered Italy and besieged him in his capital.

Which Norse leader was William the Conqueror descended from?

Rollo, a Viking raider, was given the land that became Normandy by the French king Charles the Simple in return for an end to his raids; William was his great-great-great-grandson.

Eleanor of Aquitaine was queen consort of which two countries?

France and England: about two months after her marriage to Louis VII of France was annulled in 1152 she wed Henry of Anjou, who took the English throne as Henry II in 1154.

In which war, begun in 1337, did Edward III press his claim to the French throne?

The Hundred Years' War opened when Philip VI confiscated Edward's duchy of Guyenne and Edward answered by claiming France itself through his mother Isabella, a French king's sister.

Who was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587?

Mary, Queen of Scots had fled south in 1568 hoping for refuge and was locked up instead; the discovery in 1586 of a plot to kill her English cousin and crown her sealed her fate.

Which 1597 book on witchcraft did James VI write?

Daemonologie grew out of the North Berwick witch trials of 1590, which James himself attended after storms battered the ships bringing him and his Danish bride home.

Which king was beheaded outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall in January 1649?

Charles I is said to have asked for an extra shirt that icy morning so that nobody would take a shiver for fear; England then went eleven years without a king.

Charles II's return to London in 1660, on his 30th birthday, opened which period of English history?

The Restoration: Parliament made 29 May a yearly holiday, later known as Oak Apple Day after the oak in which Charles had hidden from Cromwell's soldiers nine years earlier.

William of Orange's 1688 invasion of England became known as what?

The Glorious Revolution of 1688 saw William of Orange land at Torbay in November and James II flee to France; Parliament then passed the 1689 Bill of Rights.

George III's madness has been attributed to bipolar disorder or which other condition?

Porphyria, a hereditary blood disorder, was long blamed for George III's bouts of madness, but researchers who studied his letters now think the cause was psychiatric, most likely bipolar disorder.

Which queen consort bore George III 15 children?

Queen Charlotte was picked unseen from a list of German Protestant princesses and married George on the very evening she reached London.

Which seaside resort is home to the Royal Pavilion, the domed, Indian-style palace John Nash built for George IV?

Brighton: the prince's long stays turned a decayed fishing town into a resort for the rich and famous, and in 1850 the town bought his pleasure palace from the Crown.

What title did Edward VIII hold after abdicating in 1936?

Duke of Windsor was the title his brother and successor George VI gave him days after he gave up the throne in December 1936 to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

Which wartime organisation did Princess Elizabeth join in 1945?

Auxiliary Territorial Service: the princess trained as a lorry driver and mechanic, and on VE Day she slipped unrecognised into the crowds celebrating in London's streets.

In which country did the teenage Charles III spend two school terms in 1966 at a bush campus called Timbertop?

Australia: Charles left Gordonstoun for Geelong Grammar School's outpost in the Victorian high country, and later called it the most enjoyable part of his education.

Which ancient stone was carried to Westminster Abbey for Charles III's coronation?

The Stone of Scone: Scottish nationalists stole it from the Abbey in 1950, and since its formal return to Scotland in 1996 it travels south again only for coronations.

Which crown, used only at the moment of crowning, was placed on Charles III's head?

St Edward's Crown replaced a medieval crown that Parliament had melted down in 1649, and the monarch swaps it for the lighter Imperial State Crown before leaving the Abbey.

Where is the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire kept today?

The Hofburg in Vienna: Hitler had the crown taken to Nuremberg after annexing Austria in 1938, and it was sent back to Vienna in January 1946.

Which Bavarian king built Neuschwanstein and patronised Richard Wagner?

Ludwig II had Neuschwanstein's rooms painted with the medieval legends behind Wagner's operas; declared insane in June 1886, he was found dead in Lake Starnberg within days.

Which German emperor reigned for only 99 days in 1888?

Frederick III had already lost his voice to throat cancer when he succeeded his father in March; his son followed in June, which is why Germans call 1888 the Year of the Three Emperors.

Which chancellor did Wilhelm II dismiss in 1890?

Otto von Bismarck had run Germany since 1871, but he and the young Kaiser fell out over a new anti-socialist law, and in March 1890 Wilhelm forced him to resign.

In which city were Russia's deposed imperial family shot in a cellar in July 1918?

Yekaterinburg: the family had been moved there from Tobolsk and were shot in the Ipatiev House, which Soviet leaders had demolished in 1977; a church now stands on the spot.

Which Spanish king reigned from birth in 1886 until the republic of 1931?

Alfonso XIII was king from his birth in May 1886, as the posthumous son of Alfonso XII, until he left Spain when the Second Republic was proclaimed in April 1931; an anarchist's bomb marred his 1906 wedding.

Which Spanish king helped stop a 1981 coup attempt made in his name?

Juan Carlos I went on television in the early hours of 24 February 1981 to order the army back to barracks, ending the Tejero coup; Franco had named him successor in 1969.

Napoleon escaped from which island of exile in 1815?

Elba could not hold him: Napoleon slipped away, reached Paris on 20 March 1815 to begin the Hundred Days, and after Waterloo was shipped to far remoter Saint Helena.

Which crop did Frederick the Great order Prussian farmers to plant, and visitors now leave on his grave?

Potatoes: Frederick ordered his wary peasants to grow and eat them, and legend adds that he had soldiers guard the royal potato fields so that villagers would think the crop worth stealing.

Which daughter of Russia's last tsar did Anna Anderson claim to be for decades, until DNA tests disproved her?

Anastasia: genetic tests in the 1990s found no link between Anderson and the Romanovs and pointed instead to Franziska Schanzkowska, a Polish factory worker.

Which region did Catherine the Great annex after victories over the Ottomans?

Catherine annexed Crimea in 1783, nine years after the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca ended her first war with the Ottomans; she had earlier installed her former lover Stanisław Poniatowski on the Polish throne.

Which onion-domed Moscow cathedral did Ivan the Terrible build to mark his conquest of Kazan?

St Basil's Cathedral rose beside the Kremlin from 1555 to mark the fall of Kazan; the old tale that Ivan had its architect blinded so it could never be copied is almost certainly a myth.

Which Zulu king was assassinated by his half-brothers in 1828?

Shaka was killed in September 1828 by his half-brothers Dingane and Mhlangana with the help of Mbopa, one of his own officers; Dingane then seized the Zulu throne.

Which religion regards Emperor Haile Selassie as divine?

Rastafari arose in Jamaica soon after his coronation in 1930 and takes its name from Ras Tafari, the noble title and birth name he had gone by until then.

Which dynasty, founded in 1270, did Haile Selassie belong to?

The Solomonic dynasty, founded by Yekuno Amlak in 1270, claimed descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba; Haile Selassie was its last emperor, deposed in 1974.

Mansa Musa's Mali grew rich by controlling the trans-Saharan trade in which two goods?

Salt and gold: on his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 Musa is said to have handed out so much gold in Cairo that its value there slumped for years.

Which king of Sweden was shot at a masked ball in 1792?

Gustav III of Sweden was shot by the nobleman Jacob Johan Anckarström at a masked ball in the Stockholm opera house on 16 March 1792 and died thirteen days later; Verdi's Un ballo in maschera dramatises the plot.

Which Hollywood star gave up acting in 1956 to marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco?

Grace Kelly had not long won the Best Actress Oscar for The Country Girl when she retired from films at 26 to become Princess of Monaco.

Which term means inheritance by the firstborn child regardless of sex?

Absolute primogeniture reached Sweden in 1980, when a change in the law took the title of crown prince from the infant Carl Philip and made his elder sister Victoria heir instead.

Which doctrine did James VI and I defend in his 1598 tract The True Law of Free Monarchies?

The divine right of kings had no keener champion in Britain than James, yet it all but vanished from English politics once his grandson James II was driven from the throne in 1688.

What is the Latin word for 'king'?

Rex is Latin for king; from its adjective regalis, 'royal', English took 'regalia', which meant a king's rights and powers before it came to mean his crown and sceptre.

Which country did Pedro II rule as emperor from the age of five until a military coup in 1889?

Brazil: his father Pedro I abdicated in 1831 and sailed for Europe to fight for his daughter's claim to the Portuguese throne, leaving the boy to nine years of rule by regents.

Which Albanian leader rose from premier to president and then, in 1928, king?

Zog I leaned ever harder on Mussolini's Italy for loans and protection, and it was Mussolini who threw him out in April 1939 and sent him into exile.

Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico was the younger brother of which European monarch?

Maximilian was the younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and commanded the Austrian navy before accepting the Mexican crown in 1864; Juárez's restored republic had him shot at Querétaro in June 1867.

Which Hawaiian king proclaimed the Law of the Splintered Paddle to shield ordinary people from attack?

Kamehameha I named the law, by tradition, for a paddle a fisherman once broke over his head; Hawaii's state constitution still quotes it, letting every elder, woman and child lie by the roadside in safety.

Which Hawaiian queen was overthrown in 1893 by a coup backed by American businessmen?

Liliʻuokalani, Hawaii's last monarch, was deposed on 17 January 1893 by a Committee of Safety of mostly American businessmen backed by US Marines; she composed the song 'Aloha ʻOe'.

The word 'chivalry', the code of the medieval knight, comes from the French word for which animal?

Horse, or cheval in French, gave chivalry its name: the word first meant a body of mounted warriors, and only later the ideals expected of them.

Which title was held by the heir whose 1914 assassination in Sarajevo sparked the First World War?

Archduke was a title unique to one ruling family, invented in the 1350s by a duke who wanted to outrank his rivals and not officially recognised for another century.

Which Scottish title does Shakespeare's Macbeth hold over Glamis, and later Cawdor, before he seizes the throne?

Thane was the title of a local royal official in medieval eastern Scotland, who headed an administrative district known as a thanage.

Which title, the female equivalent of a knight's 'Sir', was introduced into the British honours system in 1917?

Dame arrived with the Order of the British Empire in 1917; until the 17th century the word had instead been the title of a knight's wife, a role later taken by Lady.

Which small crown have British peers traditionally worn at a coronation, its shape varying with the wearer's rank?

A coronet follows models laid down in the 16th century, but the occasions for wearing one are so rare that many peers entitled to it never have one made.

Which body of knights, founded by Edward III in 1348, is the most senior knighthood in the British honours system?

The Order of the Garter is capped at 24 companions beside the sovereign and the Prince of Wales; legend says it began when a lady's garter slipped at a court ball in Calais.

In feudal Europe, what name was given to a knight or noble who swore loyalty to a lord in return for land?

A vassal sealed the bargain in a two-part ceremony of homage and fealty, and the land granted in return was known as a fief.

Which word describes a titled widow such as Violet, the Countess of Grantham played by Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey?

Dowager comes from 'dower', the title or property a widow keeps from her late husband, and some dowagers move into a separate residence known as a dower house.

Which French phrase expresses the idea that privilege and high birth carry a duty to behave honourably and generously?

Noblesse oblige literally means 'nobility obliges', and the phrase is credited to a book of maxims published in 1808 by a French duke, Gaston de Lévis.

Which rank of the British peerage has no feminine form of its own, so a holder's wife is called a countess?

Earl is an Old English word, kin to the Old Norse jarl, that replaced the older title ealdorman under Danish influence; the Normans never brought in the title count, only countess.

Which British noble title, ranking just below a duke, comes from an Old French word for the ruler of a border area?

Marquess shares its root with the German margrave: both once governed a frontier district called a march, and a marquess's wife is a marchioness.

Which hereditary title did James I create in 1611 to raise funds, ranking its holders just above most knights?

Baronet was an honour James I offered to 200 gentlemen with an income of at least £1,000 a year; holders are styled 'Sir' and may show the Red Hand of Ulster in their arms.

Which title, at first the extra name of a 12th-century count, was held by the heir to the French throne?

Dauphin began as a name borne by a 12th-century count of Albon; his successors' lands were handed to the French royal house in 1349, and the title came with them.

Which decree of 1356 fixed how seven princes would choose each Holy Roman Emperor for the next four centuries?

The Golden Bull, named for the seal it carried, ruled that four of the seven electors' votes were enough, so three of them could no longer block a choice.

Which title was held by the feudal lords who ruled great domains under the Tokugawa shoguns until 1871?

Daimyo commanded the loyalty of their own samurai and peasants, but when the domains became prefectures the lords were simply pensioned into retirement.

Which rank of untitled Spanish nobility, a word contracted from 'son of something', does Don Quixote claim?

Hidalgo rank freed its holder from paying taxes, and Cervantes made his hero just such a gentleman, with far more honour than income.

Which title was held by the highest-ranking nobles of medieval Russia, second only to the ruling princes and tsars?

A boyar sat on a council called the duma that advised the grand prince, until rulers from Ivan III onward stripped that influence away.

Which term describes a marriage between a royal and a lower-ranked spouse whose children cannot inherit the title?

Morganatic comes from the 'morning gift' a groom gave his bride the day after the wedding, and such unions were also known as left-handed marriages.

What collective name is given to the Church of England bishops who sit in the upper house of the UK Parliament?

The Lords Spiritual once outnumbered the lay peers, back when abbots sat beside the bishops; they now hold at most 26 seats.

Which word for the sword-tap on the shoulders that makes a knight now also means an award or expression of praise?

Accolade descends from the Latin for 'neck': an earlier French rite made a knight with an embrace or a rough blow to the neck, long before the gentler sword-tap.

Which dynasty ruled Russia for just over three centuries, from the election of Tsar Michael in 1613 until 1917?

Romanov was a name the tsars themselves seldom used, since reigning dynasties went by titles, so in 1917 a decree of the Provisional Government gave the surname to every member of the family.

Which wireless technology takes its name from the nickname of Harald, a 10th-century king who united the Danish tribes?

Bluetooth began as a codename, chosen because the king united the Danes as the standard unites devices, and its logo merges the two runes for his initials.

Which American socialite did Edward VIII give up the British throne to marry, less than a year into his reign?

Wallis Simpson, raised in Baltimore, had two living ex-husbands, and the king's wish to marry her set off a constitutional crisis across Britain and the Dominions.

Which dog breed did Elizabeth II keep from childhood, owning more than 30 of them between 1952 and 2022?

Corgi number one of her own was Susan, an 18th-birthday present in 1944; the Queen had fallen for the breed as a small child and kept at least one until 2018.

Which European microstate has two co-princes as its heads of state, one of them always the president of France?

Andorra's arrangement dates from a 1278 treaty between a Spanish bishop and a French count; the count's share passed to the French crown and then to the republic's president.

Which Belgian king was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a colony he never once visited?

Leopold II ran the Congo for personal gain through a mercenary force, and its abuses prompted one of the first uses of the phrase 'crimes against humanity', in 1890.

Which British king was a first cousin of both Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany?

George V saw the First World War topple both of his cousins' empires, and in 1917 he dropped his own family's German name to calm anti-German feeling at home.

Which family has ruled Monaco since 1297, when, by tradition, its men seized the fortress disguised as friars?

The Grimaldi house was founded in Genoa in 1160, more than a century before it took Monaco, and historians treat the tale of the friar disguise as largely anecdotal.

Which country voted to abolish its monarchy in June 1946, sending King Umberto II into exile in Portugal?

Italy's last king reigned for only 34 days, which earned him the nickname 'the May King', and for decades the republic barred his male heirs from returning.

Which kind of animal is Sir Nils Olav, the Edinburgh Zoo resident knighted in 2008 as mascot of Norway's King's Guard?

A penguin has carried the name since 1972, when the regiment adopted one from the zoo's colony; the knighthood was approved by King Harald V himself.

Which Disney queen accidentally plunges Arendelle into an eternal winter on the evening of her coronation?

Elsa is loosely based on the title character of a Danish fairy tale, and in earlier drafts of the script she was the story's villain rather than its heroine.

Which ruler in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland plays croquet with flamingoes for mallets and keeps ordering executions?

The Queen of Hearts is often confused with the Red Queen of the sequel, a different character, and for all her death sentences few people in the book are actually beheaded.

Which queen in Game of Thrones destroys the Great Sept of Baelor by detonating wildfire beneath it during a trial?

Cersei Lannister wipes out her rivals in the blast, among them the High Sparrow, the religious leader she had herself raised to power.

Which Star Wars character first appears in The Phantom Menace as the newly elected fourteen-year-old queen of Naboo?

Padmé Amidala holds an elected throne rather than an inherited one, and the teenage ruler was likened in development to Princess Ozma of the Oz novels.

Which fairy queen in A Midsummer Night's Dream is enchanted into loving a weaver with a donkey's head?

Titania is tricked by her own husband, Oberon, who puts a love potion on her eyes as she sleeps while the couple are quarrelling over which of them should keep a changeling boy.

Which self-styled queen keeps Narnia frozen in an endless winter until the lion Aslan returns?

The White Witch, whose real name is Jadis, was never Narnia's rightful ruler: she came from another world entirely, where she had been the last queen of the city of Charn.

In the Brothers Grimm's Snow White, how is the wicked queen punished at her stepdaughter's wedding?

Dancing in red-hot shoes until she drops dead is the queen's fate in the Grimms' tale, and in their first edition of 1812 she was Snow White's own mother, not a stepmother.

Which queen of Camelot's love affair with Sir Lancelot leads, in Arthurian romance, to the fall of the Round Table?

In the medieval romances Guinevere brought the Round Table itself to Arthur as her dowry, in a marriage that Merlin had warned him not to make.

Which fictional European kingdom does Julie Andrews's Queen Clarisse rule in the film The Princess Diaries?

Genovia is only a principality in Meg Cabot's novels, ruled by Mia's father, a prince; the 2001 film promoted it to a kingdom with her grandmother as its queen.

Which legendary queen of Carthage kills herself on a pyre when the Trojan hero Aeneas leaves her in Virgil's Aeneid?

Dido is said to have founded her city by a trick, asking for only as much land as an oxhide could cover, then cutting the hide into strips long enough to ring a hill.

Which daughter of the chief Powhatan married an English tobacco planter and was presented to London society in 1616?

Pocahontas was treated as a princess in London, where her marriage caused a stir at court because a commoner had dared to wed royalty; she died at Gravesend at the start of the voyage home.

In which London church did Lady Diana Spencer marry Prince Charles in 1981, picked over Westminster Abbey for its size?

St Paul's Cathedral offered more seating and a longer procession through London, and an estimated 750 million people around the world watched the ceremony.

In which African country was Princess Elizabeth on tour in February 1952 when her father's death made her queen?

Kenya was only a stop on the way to New Zealand; she had just spent a night at the Treetops Hotel, a game-viewing lodge, when the news of her father's death arrived.

Which Spanish princess came to England to marry Prince Arthur in 1501 and later became the first wife of Henry VIII?

Catherine of Aragon served as Spain's envoy in London in 1507, the first known female ambassador in European history, and as regent in 1513 she helped see off a Scottish invasion.

Which princess gave up Group Captain Townsend, her father's equerry, under pressure from church and government?

Princess Margaret was told to wait until she turned 25, which spared her sister the Queen from publicly opposing a match with a divorced man; she ended the romance anyway.

Which British princess refused to get out of her car when a gunman tried to kidnap her near Buckingham Palace in 1974?

Princess Anne's attacker wanted a ransom of millions, which he claimed he would donate to the NHS; two years later she rode at the Montreal Olympics.

Which title, first granted in 1642, is customarily given for life to the eldest daughter of a British monarch?

Princess Royal was invented by a French-born queen who wanted her daughter styled like the French king's eldest, known as Madame Royale; no holder has ever acceded to the British throne.

Which 1656 Velázquez painting shows a five-year-old Spanish princess among her maids of honour, two dwarfs and a dog?

Las Meninas means 'the ladies-in-waiting', and a mirror on the back wall of the room reflects the princess's parents, the king and queen of Spain.

Which princess's marriage to Henry VII in 1486 joined the rival houses that had fought the Wars of the Roses?

Elizabeth of York became the mother of Henry VIII, and two of her daughters went on to be queens consort of Scotland and of France.

Which princess, the last heir to Hawaii's throne, travelled to Washington in 1893 after the monarchy was overthrown?

Kaʻiulani, not yet eighteen, paid an informal call on President Grover Cleveland, but her efforts were in vain; as a girl she had strolled with the author of Treasure Island, who wrote her a poem.