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.
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Q 01Where was Henry born in June 1491?
Greenwich
He was the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, and never expected to be king.
Q 02Which elder brother of Henry died in 1502, only 20 weeks after marrying his Spanish bride?
Arthur, Prince of Wales
Ten-year-old Henry inherited his duties, his title and eventually his widow.
Q 03At the age of two, Henry was appointed to which post?
Constable of Dover Castle
His father collected lucrative offices for the infant so as not to share them with great families.
Q 04How old was Henry when he succeeded his father in April 1509?
17
Within weeks he declared he would marry his brother's widow after all, calling it his father's dying wish.
Q 05Which two unpopular ministers of his father did Henry arrest after his coronation and execute in 1510?
Empson and Dudley
Politically motivated executions became one of his primary tactics.
Q 06Who was Henry's first wife?
Catherine of Aragon
She was the daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, and the widow of Henry's brother.
Q 07Which mistress bore Henry an acknowledged illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy, in 1519?
Elizabeth Blount
The boy was made Duke of Richmond and died in 1536, just as Parliament weighed a bill that might have let him inherit.
Q 08At which 1513 battle, fought while Henry was campaigning in France, was King James IV of Scotland killed?
Flodden
Queen Catherine oversaw the English army in his absence.
Q 09Which minor 1513 victory over the French did Henry seize on for propaganda?
The Battle of the Spurs
He then took Tournai and kept it for five years.
Q 10To seal peace in 1514, Henry married his sister Mary to which elderly king?
Louis XII of France
She had previously been pledged to the young Charles, future emperor.
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 air of competition killed any hope of renewing the Treaty of London.
Q 12Which title did Pope Leo X give Henry in 1521 for his book defending the seven sacraments?
Defender of the Faith
British monarchs still use it, though a later pope rescinded the grant after Henry's excommunication.
Q 13Which churchman ran Henry's domestic and foreign policy as Lord Chancellor from 1514 to 1529?
Thomas Wolsey
Q 21What was the great northern uprising of October 1536 against Henry's religious changes called?
The Pilgrimage of Grace
Henry promised the 20,000–40,000 rebels a pardon, then executed their leader Robert Aske and about 200 others.
Q 22Who led the northern rebels of 1536?
Robert Aske
He told the rebels they had won and could go home; Henry then had him arrested and executed for treason.
Q 23How did Henry dress the day after learning that his first wife had died in January 1536?
All in yellow, with a white feather in his bonnet
He fell when he failed to secure the annulment, was charged with praemunire, and died awaiting a treason trial.
Q 14Which Old Testament book did Henry cite to argue his marriage to his brother's widow Catherine was cursed?
Leviticus
Martin Luther argued the Bible allowed polygamy but not divorce, so Henry should just take a second wife.
Q 15Which papal legate was sent to England in 1529 to hear the annulment case, with no power to decide?
Lorenzo Campeggio
After less than two months the pope recalled the case to Rome, where it was clear it would never re-emerge.
Q 16Which pope refused Henry's annulment and later excommunicated him?
Clement VII
The papacy was effectively controlled by Catherine's nephew, Emperor Charles V.
Q 17Which archbishop of Canterbury declared Henry's first marriage void in 1533?
Thomas Cranmer
He sat in judgment at a special court at Dunstable Priory and five days later validated 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
Refusing the accompanying oath became high treason punishable by death.
Q 19Which chancellor was executed in 1535 on the evidence of one conversation with Richard Rich?
Thomas More
He had carefully avoided breaking the Treasons Act, which did not forbid mere silence.
Q 20Which bishop of Rochester was executed with More for denying the king was head of the Church?
John Fisher
He is counted among Henry's victims as the one cardinal the king had killed.
Anne Boleyn miscarried a son on the day of Catherine's funeral, three weeks later.
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
In canon law that placed the marriage within a forbidden degree of affinity, just like the first.
Q 25Where was Anne Boleyn executed at 8 am on 19 May 1536?
Tower Green
Five men, including her brother George, had been executed two days earlier on charges of adultery with her.
Q 26How soon after Anne Boleyn's execution did Henry become engaged to his third wife?
The next day
They married ten days after that, in Anne's own closet at Whitehall, with Bishop Stephen Gardiner officiating.
Q 27Which wife gave Henry his longed-for son in October 1537 and died twelve days later?
Jane Seymour
She was buried at Windsor, and Henry was eventually interred beside her.
Q 28Which act of 1535–36 united England with its western neighbour as a single nation?
The Laws in Wales Act
It was followed by a Second Succession Act declaring both Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate.
Q 29Which painter was sent to Cleves to portray Henry's prospective fourth bride?
Hans Holbein
Henry declared he loved her not, but the portrait was probably accurate and the painter stayed in favour.
Q 30How long did Henry's fourth marriage last before it was annulled in July 1540?
About seven months
It was never consummated; the bride's prior betrothal to Francis of Lorraine gave extra grounds.