Henry VIII Trivia
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70 free Henry VIII trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Henry VIII trivia quiz covers the second Tudor king from Greenwich to Windsor: the spare son who inherited his brother's widow and his father's fortune, the young athlete of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, the Defender of the Faith who broke with Rome to marry Anne Boleyn, the dissolver of 800 monasteries, and the immobile, ulcerated tyrant of the 1540s. The easy questions cover the outline: the six wives in order, who was beheaded, who gave him a son, the minister who fell, the daughters who followed. The harder half is for readers of Scarisbrick and Starkey: the ministers arrested two days after his coronation, the mistress who bore Henry FitzRoy, the treaty that put his sister on the French throne, the verse from Leviticus, the legate who stalled the annulment, the grounds Cranmer found to void the Boleyn marriage, the bishop who married him to Jane, the painter sent to Cleves, the title given to the wife he could not bear, the yellow he wore when Catherine of Aragon died, the fall that left him unconscious for two hours, the coffin later used for Nelson, and the blood-group theory for his rages. Every answer was checked against Henry VIII's encyclopaedia entry before publishing. If you enjoy this, try our Tudors, Elizabeth I and British monarchs quizzes next.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Where was Henry born in June 1491?
Greenwich
Henry was born at Greenwich Palace (Placentia) on 28 June 1491, the second son of Henry VII, and was never expected to reign.
Q 02Which elder brother of Henry died in 1502, only 20 weeks after marrying his Spanish bride?
Arthur, Prince of Wales
Arthur, Prince of Wales, died at Ludlow on 2 April 1502, about twenty weeks after his wedding; ten-year-old Henry inherited his title and, eventually, his widow.
Q 03At the age of two, Henry was appointed to which post?
Constable of Dover Castle
In 1493, aged about two, Henry was made Constable of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports; Henry VII heaped offices on the infant rather than share them with great families.
Q 04How old was Henry when he succeeded his father in April 1509?
17
Born 28 June 1491, Henry was 17 when Henry VII died on 21 April 1509; within weeks he announced he would marry his brother's widow after all.
Q 05Which two unpopular ministers of his father did Henry arrest after his coronation and execute in 1510?
Empson and Dudley
Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley, Henry VII's hated tax collectors, were arrested in 1509, attainted for treason and beheaded on Tower Hill in August 1510.
Q 06Who was Henry's first wife?
Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella and widow of Henry's brother, married Henry on 11 June 1509, weeks after his accession.
Q 07Which mistress bore Henry an acknowledged illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy, in 1519?
Elizabeth Blount
Elizabeth 'Bessie' Blount, a maid of honour, bore Henry FitzRoy in June 1519; the boy was made Duke of Richmond in 1525 and died in July 1536.
Q 08At which 1513 battle, fought while Henry was campaigning in France, was King James IV of Scotland killed?
Flodden
James IV was killed at Flodden on 9 September 1513 by an English army under the Earl of Surrey while Henry campaigned in France; the queen, as regent, oversaw the defence.
Q 09Which minor 1513 victory over the French did Henry seize on for propaganda?
The Battle of the Spurs
The Battle of the Spurs (16 August 1513) was a cavalry rout near Thérouanne that Henry trumpeted as a triumph; he then took Tournai and held it for about five years.
Q 10To seal peace in 1514, Henry married his sister Mary to which elderly king?
Louis XII of France
Mary Tudor married the 52-year-old Louis XII of France on 9 October 1514 to seal the Anglo-French peace; he died within three months. She had earlier been betrothed to the Habsburg heir.
Q 11At what lavish 1520 meeting near Calais did Henry spend a fortnight with Francis I of France?
The Field of the Cloth of Gold
The Field of the Cloth of Gold (7-24 June 1520), staged between Guînes and Ardres, featured jousts, feasts and a wrestling bout between the kings, yet produced no lasting alliance.
Q 12Which title did Pope Leo X give Henry in 1521 for his book defending the seven sacraments?
Defender of the Faith
Leo X named Henry Defender of the Faith (Fidei Defensor) in October 1521 for his Assertio Septem Sacramentorum; Paul III revoked it after the break with Rome, and Parliament re-conferred it in 1544.
Q 13Which churchman ran Henry's domestic and foreign policy as Lord Chancellor from 1515 to 1529?
Q 21What was the great northern uprising of October 1536 against Henry's religious changes called?
The Pilgrimage of Grace
The Pilgrimage of Grace, which began in Yorkshire in October 1536, drew some 30,000 rebels; Henry promised a pardon, then used fresh risings in early 1537 to execute its leaders and about 200 others.
Q 22Who led the northern rebels of 1536?
Robert Aske
Robert Aske, a York lawyer, led the 1536 northern rebels; after Henry's promised pardon, renewed risings in early 1537 gave the pretext to arrest him, and he was hanged in chains at York in July 1537.
Q 23How did Henry dress the day after learning that his first wife had died in January 1536?
Thomas Wolsey
Thomas Wolsey, cardinal and Lord Chancellor from 1515, fell in 1529 after failing to win the annulment, was charged with praemunire and died at Leicester in November 1530 on his way to trial.
Q 14Which Old Testament book did Henry cite to argue his marriage to his brother's widow Catherine was cursed?
Leviticus
Henry leaned on Leviticus 20:21, which warns that a man who takes his brother's wife shall be childless; opponents countered with Deuteronomy, which commands marrying a childless brother's widow.
Q 15Which papal legate arrived in 1528 to hear Henry's annulment case, under orders to delay?
Lorenzo Campeggio
Lorenzo Campeggio reached London in October 1528; the legatine court opened at Blackfriars on 31 May 1529 and was adjourned in July when the pope revoked the case to Rome.
Q 16Which pope refused Henry's annulment and later excommunicated him?
Clement VII
Clement VII, a virtual prisoner of the emperor after the 1527 Sack of Rome, refused the annulment and in July 1533 declared Henry excommunicate unless he took back his first wife.
Q 17Which archbishop of Canterbury declared Henry's first marriage void in 1533?
Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer, consecrated archbishop in March 1533, pronounced the first marriage null at Dunstable Priory on 23 May 1533 and five days later upheld the Boleyn marriage.
Q 18Which act of 1534 declared Henry the only Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England?
The Act of Supremacy
The Act of Supremacy (November 1534) made Henry 'the only Supreme Head in earth of the Church of England'; the Treasons Act passed the same session made denying that title high treason.
Q 19Which chancellor was executed in 1535 on the evidence of one conversation with Richard Rich?
Thomas More
Thomas More was convicted of treason on Richard Rich's account of a single Tower conversation and beheaded on 6 July 1535; he had relied on silence, which the Treasons Act did not punish.
Q 20Which bishop of Rochester was beheaded in June 1535 for denying the royal supremacy?
John Fisher
John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, was beheaded on Tower Hill on 22 June 1535, weeks after Paul III made him a cardinal, making him the only cardinal Henry put to death.
All in yellow, with a white feather in his bonnet
Ambassador Chapuys reported Henry appearing all in yellow, with a white feather in his bonnet, the day after his first wife died on 7 January 1536; Anne Boleyn miscarried on the day of the funeral, 29 January.
Q 24On what grounds did Cranmer probably annul the marriage to Anne Boleyn two days before her execution?
Henry's earlier affair with her sister Mary
The archbishop voided the marriage on 17 May 1536, most likely on the affinity created by Henry's earlier affair with her sister Mary; Henry Percy had sworn there was no precontract.
Q 25Where was Anne Boleyn executed on 19 May 1536?
Tower Green
Anne Boleyn was beheaded by a French swordsman on a scaffold on Tower Green, inside the Tower of London, on 19 May 1536; five men, including her brother George, had died on Tower Hill two days earlier.
Q 26How soon after Anne Boleyn's execution did Henry become engaged to his third wife?
The next day
Henry became engaged the next day, 20 May 1536, and married his third wife ten days later, on 30 May, in the Queen's Closet at Whitehall.
Q 27Which wife gave Henry his longed-for son in October 1537 and died twelve days later?
Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour bore Prince Edward on 12 October 1537 and died of childbed complications on 24 October; she was buried at St George's Chapel, Windsor, where Henry was later laid beside her.
Q 28Which act of 1535–36 united England with its western neighbour as a single nation?
The Laws in Wales Act
The Laws in Wales Act of 1535 (in force 1536) annexed Wales to England, extending English law and shire administration and giving Welsh constituencies seats in Parliament.
Q 29Which painter was sent to Cleves to portray Henry's prospective fourth bride?
Hans Holbein
Hans Holbein the Younger painted Anne of Cleves at Düren in 1539; Henry later said he liked her not, yet the portrait was thought truthful and Holbein kept his post as King's Painter.
Q 30What was the chief ground for annulling Henry's fourth marriage in 1540?
Non-consummation
The marriage to Anne of Cleves, made on 6 January 1540, was annulled that July on grounds of non-consummation, with her earlier precontract to Francis of Lorraine cited as further support.