50 Fun Facts About Reign (TV Series)

Reign follows a teenage Mary, Queen of Scots, at the French court, and was made for which American network?

The CW ordered the pilot in February 2013 and kept the drama on air for 78 episodes before ending it in 2017.

In Reign's opening episode, where has the young Queen Mary been living in France since the age of nine?

A convent hid Mary until a failed attempt to poison her there sent her back to the royal castle for safety.

How is the increasingly mad King Henry II fatally injured in Reign's first-season finale?

Struck in a joust, Henry is brought down by his own son Francis, who had secretly swapped places with the opposing knight.

Which real-life seer at the French court in Reign predicts that marrying Mary will cost Francis his life?

Nostradamus is played by Rossif Sutherland, a son of actor Donald Sutherland and half-brother of Kiefer.

Alan van Sprang said he modelled Reign's womanising King Henry II on which American president?

Bill Clinton was the model, the actor said; in the show Henry keeps a long-term mistress and then takes Mary's lady Kenna as another.

Toby Regbo, who plays Francis in Reign, appeared as the teenage version of which wizard in a Harry Potter film?

Albus Dumbledore was his role in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, and he returned to it in 2018 for a Fantastic Beasts film.

Anna Popplewell, Reign's Lady Lola, starred as Susan Pevensie in which blockbuster fantasy film series?

The Chronicles of Narnia made her a teenage star, and its three films went on to gross over $1.5 billion worldwide.

Queen Catherine, the scheming mother of Francis in Reign, was born into which powerful Italian family?

Medici was the real queen's family too; the show's Catherine once rescues Mary and her ladies by poisoning their captors at a feast.

Reign's final episode leaps forward twenty-one years to show which event in Queen Mary's life?

Her execution in England closes the series, after her own son agrees to become Elizabeth's heir; Mary then wakes in the afterlife beside Francis.

Which Australian actress leads Reign as Mary, having first found fame in the soap opera Neighbours?

Adelaide Kane is part Scottish on both sides of her family and is possibly a descendant of the real Mary through her mother.

In Reign, Catherine punishes Lord Narcisse for kissing Lola by tricking him into eating a steak made from what?

His own horse, an animal he adored, is served to him on the eve of a siege of the castle, after Catherine hears about the kiss.

Which American folk-rock band recorded "Scotland", the song heard over Reign's opening titles?

The Lumineers also had a second song in the pilot, and string-quartet covers of their music turn up in later episodes.

Megan Follows, Reign's Queen Catherine, is best known in Canada for playing the heroine of which 1985 miniseries?

Anne of Green Gables won her the title part over 3,000 other girls, and she later directed three Reign episodes herself.

Reign's second season opens with the French castle locked down against an outbreak of which deadly disease?

The plague still gets inside, and a ruthless noble uses the panic to have a rival's whole family killed with infected water.

Bash, the king's illegitimate son in Reign, is the child of Henry II and which royal mistress?

Diane de Poitiers was a real royal mistress, but her son Bash was invented for the show and has no counterpart in history.

Which of Mary's ladies-in-waiting dies in Reign's first season after being poisoned and pushed down the stairs?

Aylee is killed so that Mary will believe a prophecy that one of her devoted ladies would soon die.

Stripped of her title and exiled from court in Reign, Lady Greer builds a thriving business running what?

A brothel makes Greer independent, and her workers later help end a coup by poisoning the rebel army's soldiers.

Which Protestant preacher is Queen Mary's chief enemy in Scotland during Reign's fourth and final season?

John Knox even pushes Mary's half-brother to dissolve the Scottish monarchy when she is believed lost at sea.

Which English Catholic with a claim to England's throne becomes Mary's second husband in Reign's final season?

Lord Darnley shared a royal English grandmother with Mary, which is why Elizabeth feared any child of theirs would have an undeniable claim to her crown.

Presumed dead after a shipwreck, Mary makes a triumphant entry before Scotland's nobles in which city in Reign?

Edinburgh hails her return while Elizabeth, believing her cousin drowned, sends troops north to take the Scottish throne.

Reign's lead actress was written out of which MTV series once she won the role of Mary, Queen of Scots?

Teen Wolf had her in a recurring part as Cora Hale when she auditioned, so its writers removed the character after she was cast.

Craig Parker, Reign's scheming Narcisse, appeared as the warrior Haldir in which blockbuster film trilogy?

The Lord of the Rings used him in its first two films; the New Zealand actor was born in Fiji and joined Reign in its second season.

Before playing Bash in Reign, Torrance Coombs appeared as Thomas Culpepper in which earlier royal drama series?

The Tudors also featured Alan van Sprang, Reign's King Henry, and shared its composer, Trevor Morris, with the later show.

Which Private Practice star was first cast as Mary's mother in Reign before Amy Brenneman took over the role?

Kate Walsh had to withdraw over a filming clash, so the part of Marie de Guise went to Brenneman, her Private Practice co-star.

Which hidden figure in Reign's first season lives in the castle's passageways and proves to be Catherine's daughter?

Clarissa was abandoned as a newborn because of a birthmark on her face, and later tries to take revenge on Catherine's young sons.

In Reign's first season, villagers in the woods offer blood sacrifices to a feared figure known as what?

The Darkness turns out to be nothing more than a man, who claims the sacrifices keep disease away before Bash kills him.

In Reign, King Henry II's madness is eventually traced to slow poisoning from which of his personal possessions?

His Bible had poison in its pages, a plot traced to the King of Navarre, and Catherine falls ill too after handling the book.

Which symptom in Reign fulfils the prophecy about Francis and signals that the young king's illness is fatal?

A bleeding ear was foreseen on the day of his wedding, in a vision that gave him just one year of marriage.

Although Reign is set in France and Scotland, most of the series was filmed in and around which Canadian city?

Toronto hosted most of the shoot, while an Ontario estate and a conservation area near Guelph doubled for 16th-century Scotland.

Reign first aired straight after which supernatural drama, its network's biggest hit with young women?

The Vampire Diaries led into the pilot in October 2013; by its third season Reign had been moved to Fridays and then Mondays.

Queen Elizabeth's secret love in Reign is which married courtier, whom she later makes Earl of Leicester?

Robert Dudley is then sent to France to wed Mary instead, a match Elizabeth arranges herself in the hope of saving his life.

Which Scottish noble is unmasked in Reign as the "Loyal Watchman" who sends Mary anonymous warnings?

Lord Bothwell had promised Mary's mother that he would protect her, and he later serves openly as the queen's bodyguard.

Which adviser to Queen Mary is stabbed to death in Reign when rebel nobles storm her chambers?

David Rizzio first meets Mary when he relays a prophecy from Bash: she may have love or an heir, but not both.

After Francis dies in Reign, which younger brother inherits the French throne while still under age?

Charles is crowned as a boy, and in the final season Catherine finds him living happily with a peasant family.

Which daughter of Catherine returns to court in Reign's second season, suspected of killing her twin sisters?

Claude is innocent: the infant twins died after the king's mistress shattered the nursery window in a rage and left it open.

Which cousin of Francis falls for Mary in Reign's second season and later weds Queen Elizabeth by proxy?

Louis of Condé then raises a rebel army against the crown, and Mary stabs him herself as the coup collapses.

Which foreign prince does Mary agree to marry in Reign's third season, until she learns he plans to kill her?

Don Carlos wanted revenge for a head injury suffered in her company, and asked for the crown matrimonial of Scotland first.

In Reign's first season, Mary briefly accepts a proposal from Prince Tomas, illegitimate son of which country's king?

Portugal's prince promises troops for Scotland, but he had tipped off the English himself, and Francis kills him in a fight.

Which English ambassador is ordered by Queen Elizabeth to seduce Mary in Reign, only to fall in love with her?

Gideon Blackburn was acting under duress: Elizabeth was holding his young daughter hostage to make sure he obeyed.

Which English-held port does Francis help capture for France near the end of Reign's first season?

Calais falls after Francis diverts an army that Mary had wanted to send to her besieged mother in Scotland.

Which Torchwood star guest-stars in Reign as Munro, leader of the murderous McFee clan?

John Barrowman, a Scottish-American actor, plays the clan chief who works out who Mary is, only for her to kill him.

Reign was named Favorite New TV Drama of 2014 at which annual awards show?

People's Choice voters handed the series a win in its first season; the pilot also took a Hollywood Post Alliance award for its color grading.

Reviewers often compared Reign to which earlier young-adult drama, which its own costume designer had also worked on?

Gossip Girl veteran Meredith Markworth-Pollack began with rented and thrift-store costumes, then darkened the wardrobe as Mary grew older.

Reign's theme song got its title because its driving drumbeat reminded the band of battle drums in which film?

Braveheart came to mind for singer Wesley Schultz, who admitted the resulting name was a strange one for the track.

After Francis dies in Reign, which powerful post does Lord Narcisse win in a council vote, beating Catherine?

Regent is the title he takes after a cardinal produces a blackened liver as supposed proof that Catherine poisoned her son.

Bash leaves Mary's side at the end of Reign's third season to join which group in Scotland?

The druids had healed him after the shipwreck, and he joins them to hone supernatural gifts of his own.

Which healer in white, whose miracles always carry a price, revives Francis from death in Reign's third season?

Delphine names her price as a life for a life, and Mary's mother dies in Scotland at the moment Francis wakes.

Which secret order in Reign's third season plots to destroy the House of Valois and frames Catherine for murder?

The Red Knights number thirteen and claim to avenge thirteen men put to death by an earlier French king.

A servant named Penelope becomes King Henry's mistress in Reign after winning which contest to rule for a day?

Queen of the Bean makes Penelope queen for a day; as Henry's mistress she undermines Catherine until a staged scare makes him dismiss her.

Which castle servant in Reign falls for Lady Greer and rises to become a soldier and a royal bodyguard?

Leith is promised lands and a title after fighting beside Francis, yet Greer still refuses to marry him.