Elizabeth II Trivia
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67 free Elizabeth II trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This Elizabeth II trivia quiz covers the longest reign in British history: the girl who called her grandfather Grandpa England, the teenage mechanic in the ATS, the bride who needed ration coupons, the princess who became queen in a Kenyan treehouse, the sovereign who paid income tax after her annus horribilis, the grandmother who spoke to the nation before Diana's funeral, and the 96-year-old who appointed her fifteenth prime minister two days before she died. The easy questions cover the outline: her husband, her children, her nickname, the jubilees, the corgis, the Bond sketch and her successor. The harder half is for readers of Ben Pimlott and Robert Hardman: the Caesarean birth in Mayfair, the governess who wrote a tell-all, the service number and rank in the ATS, the eve of the coronation, the man who called her out of touch and was slapped for it, the eight-day delay after Aberfan, the horse she calmed under fire, the hoax caller from Montreal, the letter recommending a divorce, the laser torch at the Dome, the peacetime Cabinet she attended, the day she gave up driving, and the crossbow in the Windsor gardens. Every answer was checked against Elizabeth II's encyclopaedia entry before publishing. If you enjoy this, try our British royal family, Queen Victoria and Prince Philip quizzes next.
30 of 67 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Rather than a palace, Elizabeth's 1926 birthplace was a Mayfair town house belonging to whom?
Her mother's parents
Her mother's parents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore, owned 17 Bruton Street; the baby was only third in line to the throne, and almost nobody expected her to reign.
Q 02What was Elizabeth's family nickname, based on what she called herself as a small child?
Lilibet
Lilibet was her own first attempt at saying Elizabeth, and it stuck in the family for life; in 2021 Prince Harry and Meghan gave the name to their daughter.
Q 03What did the young Elizabeth call her grandfather King George V?
Grandpa England
Grandpa England was a stern king who doted on her, and in 1929 she was sent to the seaside to help him recover from a grave illness.
Q 04Whose 1936 abdication over Wallis Simpson made ten-year-old Elizabeth heir presumptive?
Her uncle Edward VIII
Her uncle Edward VIII reigned for less than eleven months; her shy, stammering father took the throne much against his will as George VI, which put Elizabeth next in line.
Q 05Henry Marten, who tutored the young Elizabeth in constitutional history, was Vice-Provost of which famous school?
Eton College
Eton College saw Marten rise to Provost in 1945, the year George VI knighted him on the steps of the college chapel.
Q 06Who met a wartime call to send the princesses to safety in Canada by saying the King would never leave?
Their mother, Queen Elizabeth
Their mother, Queen Elizabeth, put it in three steps: the girls would not go without her, she would not go without the King, and the King would never leave. They spent most of the war at Windsor Castle instead.
Q 07On which BBC programme did the 14-year-old Elizabeth make her first radio broadcast in 1940?
Children's Hour
Children's Hour carried her message to boys and girls sent away from home by the war, and at the end her ten-year-old sister Margaret joined her at the microphone to say goodnight.
Q 08In 1945 Elizabeth trained as a driver and mechanic in which branch of the Army?
The Auxiliary Territorial Service
The Auxiliary Territorial Service took her on at 18 as a second subaltern; she learned to drive and to strip an engine, and within months had risen to junior commander, the equivalent of captain.
Q 09What did Elizabeth and Margaret do on VE Day in 1945?
Mingled incognito with the crowds in London
Mingled incognito with the crowds in London: the sisters slipped out of the palace with a party of Guards officers, and Elizabeth pulled her uniform cap low, terrified, she later said, of being recognised.
Q 10What did Elizabeth pledge on her 21st birthday?
That her whole life would be devoted to service
That her whole life would be devoted to service, "whether it be long or short", was her 1947 vow by radio from Cape Town; 75 years on, her Platinum Jubilee message renewed the pledge.
Q 11Thirteen-year-old Elizabeth said she fell in love with Philip in 1939 when he was a cadet at which college?
Dartmouth
Dartmouth's Royal Naval College is where his uncle Lord Mountbatten had cadet Philip, 18, sent to entertain the visiting princesses; the pair began exchanging letters afterwards.
Q 12What did Elizabeth need in order to buy the material for her Norman Hartnell wedding gown in 1947?
Ration coupons
Ration coupons paid for the gown in austerity Britain; hundreds of well-wishers posted her their own coupons, which had to be returned because passing them on was illegal.
Q 13What nickname did the Queen Mother reportedly give Philip when he was courting Elizabeth?
The Hun
Q 21Whom did Elizabeth appoint prime minister in 1957 after Eden resigned, on Lords Salisbury and Kilmuir's advice?
Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan emerged from soundings of the Cabinet, since the Conservatives had no leadership ballot until 1965; the same process embroiled her again in 1963, when Douglas-Home was preferred to Rab Butler.
Q 22Who called Elizabeth 'out of touch' in his magazine in 1957, and was slapped in the street for it?
Lord Altrincham
Lord Altrincham, the historian John Grigg, was himself a Tory who had stood for Parliament as a Conservative; his article also likened her speaking style to that of "a priggish schoolgirl".
Q 23Which of Elizabeth's four children was the first born to a reigning British monarch in 103 years?
The Hun was her reported jibe at Philip's German ties: his sisters had married German noblemen with Nazi links, and Elizabeth's parents were at first reluctant about the match.
Q 14Where did Elizabeth and Philip live intermittently in 1949–51 while he served in the Royal Navy?
Malta
Malta let her live as an ordinary naval officer's wife at Villa Guardamangia, driving herself around the island; Malta's government bought the crumbling villa in 2019 to restore it.
Q 15Where was Elizabeth when her father died and she became queen on 6 February 1952?
Kenya
Kenya was only a stop on a long Commonwealth tour; after her night at the Treetops game lodge, hunter Jim Corbett wrote that she climbed the tree a princess and came down a queen.
Q 16Why did the 'II' in Elizabeth's title offend some Scots?
She was the first Elizabeth to rule in Scotland
She was the first Elizabeth to rule in Scotland, as Elizabeth I reigned only in England; in 1953 the prime minister told the Commons future monarchs should take whichever numeral was higher.
Q 17Which prime minister, with Queen Mary, pressed Elizabeth to keep the royal house's name as Windsor in 1952?
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill and Queen Mary opposed a House of Mountbatten; Philip fumed that he was the only man in the country barred from giving his name to his children.
Q 18Which divorced group captain did Princess Margaret wish to marry in the 1950s?
Peter Townsend
Peter Townsend, her late father's equerry, was revealed as her suitor when reporters saw Margaret brush fluff from his jacket at the 1953 coronation; she publicly gave him up in 1955.
Q 19What was new about the coronation of 2 June 1953?
It was televised for the first time
It was televised for the first time, over the objections of some palace advisers; 27 million Britons watched, many on sets bought or rented for the day.
Q 20About three-quarters of which country's people saw the queen in person on her 1954 tour?
Australia
Australia had about nine million people and an estimated three in four glimpsed her at least once; no reigning monarch had ever visited, and the country did not yet have television.
Andrew
Andrew arrived in 1960, eight years into her reign, whereas Charles and Anne were born while she was still a princess; the last such birth had been Princess Beatrice's in 1857.
Q 24Which Rhodesian prime minister declared independence in 1965 with Elizabeth as queen?
Ian Smith
Ian Smith still professed loyalty to the Queen while breaking with her government, and Rhodesia cut its last link with the Crown only in 1970, when it became a republic.
Q 25After which 1966 disaster did Elizabeth wait eight days before visiting, reportedly a lasting regret?
Aberfan
Aberfan lost 116 children and 28 adults when a colliery tip engulfed its school; her private secretary later said he had wrongly advised her to stay away until the first shock had passed.
Q 26Which was the first communist country Elizabeth visited, in October 1972?
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia's President Tito met her at the airport himself and thousands thronged Belgrade's streets; no British monarch had visited a communist country before.
Q 27Which prime minister did Elizabeth's governor-general, Sir John Kerr, dismiss in 1975?
Gough Whitlam
Gough Whitlam told the crowd, "Well may we say God save the Queen, because nothing will save the Governor-General"; he had been sacked to break a budget deadlock, which inflamed republican feeling for decades.
Q 28Which communist leader's 1978 state visit did Elizabeth endure, privately thinking he had blood on his hands?
Nicolae Ceaușescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu received an honorary knighthood on the visit; she stripped him of it in December 1989, the month he was toppled and executed, and sent back the Romanian order he had given her.
Q 29Which Canadian prime minister pirouetted behind Elizabeth's back at Buckingham Palace in 1977?
Pierre Trudeau
Pierre Trudeau spun on his way in to a summit dinner; photographer Doug Ball later said the woman in his famous shot is Princess Margaret, with the Queen just out of frame.
Q 30What horse was Elizabeth riding when six blank shots were fired at her at Trooping the Colour in 1981?
Burmese
Burmese was a black mare given to her by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1969, so a Canadian police horse carried the Queen at her birthday parade for eighteen consecutive years.