King George III
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free King George III trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
King George III is remembered in America as the king the colonies broke away from and in Britain as the monarch who lost his mind. The real man was odder and more likeable than either story: a shy, dutiful ruler who loved the countryside, collected books and scientific instruments, and stayed devoted to his wife and large family. This quiz covers his whole life, from an unexpected path to the throne to the homes he lived in, the wars fought in his name, the strange episodes of his illness and the way plays, films and musicals show him today. It suits history fans, students and curious kids alike. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so each question doubles as a fun fact you can keep.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which job gave King George III a nickname, first used to mock his homely tastes and later to praise his thrift?
Farmer
Farmer George began as a jibe and ended as a compliment, setting the king's plain, thrifty habits against his eldest son's extravagance.
Q 02Which planet, discovered in 1781, did its discoverer first name George's Star in honour of King George III?
Uranus
Uranus was first named Georgium Sidus by astronomer William Herschel, who earned a £200 yearly royal salary. Britain's Nautical Almanac kept the royal name until 1850.
Q 03Which famous London royal residence grew from a house King George III bought as a family home?
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace began as Buckingham House, which the king bought as a private home for his wife; it became known as The Queen's House.
Q 04In which hit musical does King George III sing comic break-up songs to his rebellious American colonies?
Hamilton
Hamilton uses the king as comic relief in numbers such as You'll Be Back, a role first played on Broadway by Jonathan Groff.
Q 05Which festive tradition did King George III's German-born wife introduce to Britain at a children's party in 1800?
Christmas tree
The Christmas tree grew out of a custom from her German homeland, where she had earlier decorated a single yew branch for the royal household.
Q 06Which child prodigy composer, then aged eight, performed for King George III and his queen in London in 1764?
Mozart
Mozart played tricky pieces at sight to the amazement of the court, then accompanied the queen while she sang an aria.
Q 07After a gunman shot at King George III in a London theatre in 1800, what did the king do during the interval?
Fell asleep
He fell asleep, quite unbothered, after the pistol shot missed him in the royal box at Drury Lane. The shooter, James Hadfield, was acquitted as insane.
Q 08What was the lead from King George III's toppled New York statue reportedly melted down to make in 1776?
Musket balls
Musket balls for the Continental Army are said to have been cast from the 4,000-pound gilded statue, which showed the king on horseback in Roman dress.
Q 09Which Netflix period drama spawned a spin-off series about King George III's wife as a young queen?
Bridgerton
Bridgerton led to a 2023 prequel that follows the royal couple from their first meeting, with Corey Mylchreest as the young king and James Fleet as the older one.
Q 10Which long-reigning queen, who came to the throne aged 18 in 1837, was King George III's granddaughter?
Victoria
Victoria was the only legitimate child of the king's fourth son, Edward. She inherited the crown because her uncles left no surviving legitimate children.
Q 11Which German princess did King George III marry in 1761, only hours after she first arrived in London?
Charlotte
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz reached London in the afternoon and was married that same evening. The couple went on to have 15 children.
Q 12At which royal residence beside the Thames did King George III live out his last decade in seclusion?
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle was where he died in 1820, aged 81, by then blind and increasingly deaf. He is buried there in St George's Chapel.
Q 13Which title did King George III's eldest son hold while ruling in his sick father's place from 1811?
Prince Regent
Q 21Which seaside town became a fashionable resort after King George III spent fourteen summer holidays there?
Weymouth
Weymouth in Dorset hosted him between 1789 and 1805, and he even ventured into the sea there in a bathing machine.
Q 22Which politician was only 24 when King George III appointed him prime minister in December 1783?
William Pitt
William Pitt, known as Pitt the Younger, was expected to fall within weeks, so rivals mocked his mince-pie administration. It lasted seventeen years.
Q 23Which prime minister led King George III's government through the American Revolutionary War from 1770 to 1782?
Lord North
Lord North asked more than once to step down as the war went badly, but he stayed in office at the king's insistence until 1782.
Prince Regent was the future George IV's title for almost nine years, a period whose fashions and buildings are still called Regency style.
Q 14King George III inherited the throne in 1760 from which relative, because his own father had already died?
His grandfather
His grandfather George II outlived his own heir, Frederick, who died in 1751 when the future king was only twelve.
Q 15Which German territory did King George III rule for his whole reign without ever once visiting it?
Hanover
Hanover was his family's homeland, and he was its elector and later its king, yet he spent his entire life in southern England.
Q 16In which American port did colonists dump tea into the harbour in 1773, protesting a tax King George III kept?
Boston
Boston saw the tea go overboard after most other duties had been withdrawn; the king wanted the tea duty kept as one tax to uphold the right to levy them.
Q 17Which 1815 battle in present-day Belgium ended the long wars against Napoleon during King George III's reign?
Waterloo
Waterloo was won by the Duke of Wellington's allied army when the old king was too ill to rule, so his eldest son was governing in his place.
Q 18Which 1805 sea battle, won by Admiral Nelson, ended fears that Napoleon would invade King George III's Britain?
Trafalgar
Trafalgar came two years after the king reviewed 27,000 volunteers in Hyde Park and vowed to lead his troops himself if an invasion force landed.
Q 19In which church were King George III and his bride crowned together, a fortnight after their wedding?
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey hosted the double coronation on 22 September 1761; the wedding itself had taken place in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace.
Q 20Which 1776 document lists 27 grievances against King George III, accusing him of tyranny over the colonies?
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence blames the king personally, though modern historians say that before the war he mostly backed measures his ministers chose.
Q 24Which Virginia town saw the 1781 British surrender that led King George III to accept defeat in America?
Yorktown
Yorktown saw Lord Cornwallis give up his besieged army in late 1781, and the news brought down the king's prime minister the following year.
Q 25Which future US president met King George III in 1785 as his new country's minister to Britain?
John Adams
John Adams heard the king say he had been the last to agree to the separation, but would be the first to welcome the friendship of the United States.
Q 26Which 1776 pamphlet by Thomas Paine called King George III the Royal Brute of Great Britain?
Common Sense
Common Sense was read aloud in taverns and meeting places across the colonies, spreading its case against rule by any monarch at all.
Q 27Which 1765 tax on colonial documents and newspapers was scrapped a year later with King George III's support?
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act's repeal was so popular in America that New Yorkers put up a statue of the king in thanks.
Q 28King George III dropped a centuries-old claim to be king of which country from his royal titles in 1801?
France
France had been claimed by English monarchs since Edward III in the Middle Ages. The king also turned down a grander new title, Emperor of the British Isles.
Q 29Which rare blood disorder did a 1966 study blame for King George III's bouts of madness, a theory now disputed?
Porphyria
Porphyria was widely accepted for decades and shaped the famous play and film about him, but recent scholars think bipolar disorder is more likely.
Q 30Which poison turned up at high levels when preserved strands of King George III's hair were tested in 2005?
Arsenic
Arsenic may have come from his medicines or cosmetics, and it can cause the kind of blood disorder that one theory blames for his illness.