Constitutional Monarchy
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40 free Constitutional Monarchy trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
A constitutional monarchy keeps the crown and takes away most of the power. The monarch still opens parliaments, signs laws and appears on the coins, but elected politicians make the decisions, and the rules that keep it that way are often centuries old and wonderfully strange. This quiz collects the best fun facts about constitutional monarchy: the documents and uprisings that first tied a king's hands in England, the ceremonies that still act out that old struggle, and the very different ways countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Pacific run a monarchy today. You will meet rulers who stepped aside over a single law, thrones that are filled by election, and countries that voted their royals in or out. It is written for students of government and history, quiz hosts looking for a fresh round, and anyone who has wondered what a modern monarch actually does all day. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn the story even when you guess wrong.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Southeast Asian country's king is elected to a five-year term by and from nine hereditary state rulers?
Malaysia
Malaysia in effect rotates its throne, with the nine Malay rulers taking turns as Yang di-Pertuan Agong. That makes it one of the world's few elective monarchies.
Q 02Which tiny European country has two princes as heads of state: the president of France and a Spanish bishop?
Andorra
Andorra has shared its throne this way since a treaty of 1278, so whoever wins France's presidency becomes a prince for the length of the term.
Q 03Which country's King Baudouin stepped aside for a day in 1990 so an abortion law could pass without his signature?
Belgium
Belgium's ministers declared the devoutly Catholic king unable to reign, signed the law themselves, and had parliament restore him the next day.
Q 04Which country has the world's only reigning emperor, defined by its constitution as the symbol of the state?
Japan
Japan's emperor has no powers of government at all, not even nominal ones. The postwar constitution says he derives his position from the will of the people.
Q 05Which document did rebel barons force King John to seal at Runnymede in 1215, limiting the English crown's power?
Magna Carta
Magna Carta was annulled by Pope Innocent III soon after it was sealed, which set off the First Barons' War. Later kings reissued it, and it became the symbol of limited royal power.
Q 06During the State Opening of Parliament, where is one MP held as a ceremonial hostage until the monarch returns?
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace holds the hostage MP, usually a government whip, as a surety for the sovereign's safe return. The custom recalls days when Parliament could be hostile ground.
Q 07Which House of Lords official has the Commons door shut in their face at every State Opening of Parliament?
Black Rod
Black Rod then knocks three times with the staff of office before being let in. The ritual symbolises the independence of the Commons from the monarch.
Q 08Which British king gave up the throne in 1936 after ministers opposed his plan to marry Wallis Simpson?
Edward VIII
Edward VIII reigned for less than a year and was never crowned. His prime minister had warned that the government would resign if the wedding went ahead.
Q 09In which language does a parliamentary clerk still endorse each new act with the British monarch's approval?
Norman French
Norman French supplies the formula "Le Roy le veult", meaning the King wills it. A refusal would be the polite "Le Roy s'avisera": the King will consider it.
Q 10Which Caribbean island removed Queen Elizabeth II as head of state in 2021 and swore in its first president?
Barbados
Barbados chose its last governor-general, Sandra Mason, as that first president, so the same person stayed on under a new title.
Q 11Who was the last British monarch to veto a law passed by Parliament, blocking a Scottish militia measure in 1708?
Queen Anne
Queen Anne blocked it because a Franco-Jacobite invasion fleet was heading for Scotland and the militia might prove disloyal. Her veto was barely commented on at the time.
Q 12Which king marched armed soldiers into the House of Commons in 1642, hoping to arrest five of its members?
Charles I
Charles I found the five had slipped away by boat. No English sovereign had ever entered the chamber before, and the raid pushed the country towards civil war.
Q 13What name is given to the 1688 overthrow of James II by his daughter Mary and William of Orange?
Glorious Revolution
Q 21Which newly independent country held a 1905 referendum on keeping a monarchy, then elected a Danish prince as king?
Norway
Norway got the vote because Prince Carl insisted on it: he would accept only if the people chose monarchy. Nearly four in five did, and he reigned as Haakon VII.
Q 22Which Nordic country's 1974 constitution left its monarch as head of state but not even nominal chief executive?
Sweden
Sweden transferred all executive power to the government itself, though its sovereign still enjoys absolute immunity from criminal charges while in office.
Q 23Liechtenstein's prince threatened to move to which city in 2003 unless voters backed his wider veto powers?
Vienna
Vienna had long been the princely family's home, and they moved into their Alpine realm only in 1938. Voters backed Hans-Adam II, so he stayed put.
The Glorious Revolution began with a letter: seven Englishmen invited William to invade, and James's army melted away before he fled into exile in France.
Q 14Which 1689 English act made it illegal for a monarch to suspend laws or levy taxes without Parliament's consent?
Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights also protected free speech in Parliament, an article still cited in court in Britain and other Commonwealth realms.
Q 15Which title did Oliver Cromwell keep in 1657 after turning down Parliament's offer to make him king?
Lord Protector
Lord Protector it stayed, after Cromwell agonised over the crown for six weeks. He was then re-installed in a ceremony with a purple robe, a sceptre and a coronation chair.
Q 16Which Whig statesman, in office from 1721 to 1742, is generally regarded as Britain's first prime minister?
Robert Walpole
Robert Walpole rejected the title himself, because "prime minister" began as a term of abuse. In 1741 he flatly denied being one.
Q 17Which prime minister, removed by William IV in 1834, was the last to be dismissed by a British monarch?
Lord Melbourne
Lord Melbourne was back in office five months later, and went on to guide the young Queen Victoria through her first years on the throne.
Q 18Which Victorian journalist's 1867 book The English Constitution said a monarch may be consulted, encourage and warn?
Walter Bagehot
Walter Bagehot split the constitution into "dignified" parts that win the public's loyalty and "efficient" parts that do the governing, with the Crown among the first.
Q 19Who actually writes the speech read from the throne by the King or Queen to open a session of parliament?
The cabinet
The cabinet writes it to set out its law-making plans for the session, so the sovereign is reading out someone else's programme.
Q 20Which 1701 law, passed to secure a Protestant succession, still bars Roman Catholics from the British throne?
Act of Settlement
The Act of Settlement gave the crown to Sophia of Hanover and her Protestant heirs. She died less than two months before the throne fell vacant, so her son became George I.
Q 24Which European country inaugurates its monarchs without crowning them, and saw three queens in a row abdicate?
Netherlands
The Netherlands displays the crown, orb and sceptre at the ceremony, but nobody wears them: swearing the oath is what makes a new monarch.
Q 25Which Spanish king appeared on television in military uniform in 1981 to face down an attempted coup?
Juan Carlos I
Juan Carlos I had been hand-picked by the dictator Franco as his successor, yet he steered Spain to democracy and then helped foil the plot to undo it.
Q 26Which European queen announced her abdication live on television in a New Year's Eve address after 52 years?
Margrethe II
Margrethe II stepped down two weeks later, on the exact anniversary of her accession. Support for the Danish monarchy stood at around eighty per cent by then.
Q 27Which European country voted to become a republic in 1946, sending its last king, Umberto II, into exile?
Italy
Italy chose the republic by 54 per cent to 46, and Umberto II left for Portugal without waiting for the appeals against the result to be decided.
Q 28Which king of France accepted a constitution limiting his powers in 1791, then went to the guillotine in 1793?
Louis XVI
Louis XVI had tried to flee France three months earlier and was caught at Varennes. A year after he accepted the constitution, France abolished the monarchy.
Q 29Which country adopted Europe's first modern written constitution on 3 May 1791, only to be partitioned soon after?
Poland
Poland, then joined with Lithuania, saw its constitution last under 19 months before a Russian invasion swept it away. Only the United States had a codified one sooner.
Q 30Which Himalayan kingdom's fourth king gave up his own absolute power, then abdicated in 2006 before its first elections?
Bhutan
Bhutan's king went further and let parliament impeach the monarch by a two-thirds vote. Many of his subjects did not want him to hand over power at all.