England Trivia
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99 free England trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
England covers about 62 percent of Great Britain, holds 84 percent of the UK's population and has not had a government of its own since 1707. It named itself after a Germanic tribe from Schleswig-Holstein, borrowed its flag from Genoa, and gave the world football, cricket, the jet engine and the common law. This quiz covers the country from the ground up: the Severn and the Thames, Scafell Pike and Windermere, the 48 ceremonial counties and the 50 cities, the record 40.3 °C at Coningsby. Then the history — Boudica, Æthelstan's unification in 927, Hastings, the Black Death, Bosworth, the Armada, Cromwell, the Bill of Rights and the first passenger railway — and the culture, from Capability Brown's gardens and Hammer Horror to Cooper's Hill cheese-rolling, the Proms and the 1966 World Cup final that 32 million Britons watched. Early questions suit anyone who has visited; later ones ask for dates, dimensions and the tribe Julius Caesar left a client king with. Fifty questions, every one sourced.
30 of 99 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which is England's largest offshore island?
The Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is England's largest island, and Queen Victoria died there in 1901 at Osborne House, her seaside retreat.
Q 02England's name comes from which tribe?
The Angles
They came from Angeln in today's Schleswig-Holstein; 'Englaland' means 'land of the Angles'.
Q 03At the 2021 census, England's 56.5 million people outnumbered the population of which country?
Canada
Canada's own 2021 census counted about 37 million people, though Canada covers more than 70 times England's area.
Q 04The Acts of Union of 1707 merged the Kingdom of England with which other kingdom?
Scotland
Scotland accepted partly because its failed Darien colony in Panama had swallowed about a fifth of the nation's wealth, and the treaty paid compensation.
Q 05Which is the oldest university in the English-speaking world?
Oxford
Oxford has no known founding date, though there is evidence of teaching there by 1096; Cambridge began in 1209 when scholars fled Oxford after clashes with townspeople.
Q 06Which poetic name for England was popularised by Arthurian legend?
Loegria
Loegria, from Lloegr, the Welsh word for England, is Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin name for Logres, King Arthur's realm.
Q 07Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain in 55 and 54 BC failed to conquer it; which emperor's AD 43 invasion succeeded?
Claudius
Claudius was granted the title Britannicus for the conquest but never used it himself, passing the name to his son instead.
Q 08Constantine was proclaimed emperor in 306 AD at Eboracum, the Roman name for which city?
York
York is where Emperor Constantius died in 306, and his troops at once acclaimed his son Constantine as emperor.
Q 09Which 664 gathering settled the Roman-versus-Celtic dispute over the date of Easter?
The Council of Whitby
At the Council of Whitby, King Oswiu of Northumbria sided with Rome against the Irish monks of Iona, bringing his kingdom into line with Roman practice.
Q 10Which kingdom under Alfred the Great was the only one to survive the Danish conquests?
Wessex
Wessex survived because Alfred, driven into hiding in the Somerset marshes in 878, regrouped within months and routed the Danes.
Q 11Who first accomplished the political unification of England, in 927?
Æthelstan
Æthelstan, Alfred the Great's grandson, conquered Northumbria in 927 to become the first king to rule the whole of England.
Q 12Harold Godwinson beat a Norwegian army at which battle weeks before losing at Hastings?
Stamford Bridge
Harald Hardrada was killed at Stamford Bridge, and the Norwegians, who had sailed in with about 300 ships, needed only around 24 to carry the survivors home.
Q 13Worker shortages after the Black Death helped spark which 1381 uprising?
The Peasants' Revolt
The Peasants' Revolt grew from anger at laws freezing wages at pre-plague levels, even though plague survivors were suddenly scarce and valuable.
Q 21At the 2024 general election, which party won 347 of England's 543 Commons seats?
Labour
Labour's 347 English seats helped deliver a UK landslide of 411, while the Conservatives suffered their worst-ever defeat.
Q 22Which London borough contains Buckingham Palace?
Westminster
Westminster is one of 32 London boroughs, while the City of London, the historic core next door, is not a borough at all.
Q 23England is just 21 miles from continental Europe at which narrow strait?
The Strait of Dover
The Strait of Dover's narrowest crossing, from the South Foreland near Dover to Cap Gris-Nez, is the classic route for Channel swimmers.
Q 14At which 1485 battle was King Richard III killed?
Bosworth
Richard III, the last English king to die in battle, fell at Bosworth, and in 2012 his skeleton was found under a Leicester car park.
Q 15What was Walter Raleigh's failed 1585 colony in Virginia, England's first in the Americas, called?
Roanoke
The Roanoke settlers of 1587 had vanished by the time a supply ship returned in 1590, and 'CROATOAN' was found carved on a palisade post.
Q 16Who commanded the English fleet that harried the Spanish Armada in 1588?
Lord Howard of Effingham
Lord Howard of Effingham was Lord High Admiral, with Francis Drake as his vice admiral and John Hawkins as rear admiral.
Q 17Which title did Oliver Cromwell rule England under?
Lord Protector
Cromwell was Lord Protector from 1653 until his death, and in 1657 he refused Parliament's offer to make him king.
Q 18Which 1689 statute barred the king from raising taxes or an army without Parliament?
The Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights also says that nothing said in Parliament can be questioned in any court, the root of MPs' freedom of speech there.
Q 19Which two towns did the world's first public railway to use steam locomotives link in 1825?
Stockton and Darlington
The Stockton and Darlington hauled coal by steam from the start, but its passengers rode in horse-drawn coaches until 1833.
Q 20Which minister launched the National Health Service on 5 July 1948?
Aneurin Bevan
Aneurin Bevan won over reluctant hospital consultants partly by letting them keep private practice; as he later put it, he had to 'stuff their mouths with gold'.
Q 24Which is the longest river flowing through England, at 220 miles?
The Severn
The Severn rises in Wales and is Britain's longest river; the Thames, at 215 miles, is the longest river entirely within England.
Q 25England's highest mountain, Scafell Pike, rises in which national park?
The Lake District
The Lake District holds both England's highest mountain and Windermere, the largest natural lake in England.
Q 26Which mountain chain is nicknamed the 'backbone of England'?
The Pennines
The Pennines carry the 268-mile Pennine Way, which opened in 1965.
Q 27Which prehistoric stone monument stands on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire?
Stonehenge
Stonehenge's smaller bluestones were hauled some 140 to 150 miles from the Preseli Hills in Wales.
Q 28Which Buckinghamshire new town, designated in 1967, was granted city status in 2022?
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes became a city in Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee honours, which took England's total to 55 cities.
Q 29The Bank of England first funded war against which country?
France
France was the enemy in the Nine Years' War, and the 1694 Act behind the Bank of England raised private loans 'towards the carrying on the Warr against France'.
Q 30Which is the longest motorway in England, at 232 miles?
The M6
The M6 has a relief road, the M6 Toll, which opened in 2003 as the only major toll road in Great Britain.