50 free Napoleonic Wars trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Between Britain's declaration of war in May 1803 and the Second Treaty of Paris in November 1815, Napoleon fought seven coalitions, crowned his brothers, redrew the map of Germany and Poland, marched 450,000 men into Russia and brought 27,000 back across the Berezina. The wars invented mass conscription and guerrilla warfare, bankrupted Spain's empire and left Britain master of the seas for a century. This quiz covers the whole span: Ulm and Austerlitz, Nelson at Trafalgar, the nineteen days that destroyed Prussia, Tilsit and the Continental System, the Spanish ulcer and the Lines of Torres Vedras, Aspern-Essling and Wagram, the burning of Moscow, the Battle of the Nations, Vitoria, the Hundred Days, Ligny, Grouchy's late arrival at Wavre, and the rain that delayed Waterloo. Fifty questions with four options each and a short explanation after every answer. Play on your phone or print it for a history quiz night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Britain declared war on France, opening the Napoleonic Wars, on 18 May of which year?
1803
The declaration ended the short peace of the Treaty of Amiens.
Q 02Which 1805 battle is usually considered Napoleon's greatest victory?
Austerlitz
He inflicted 25,000 casualties on a larger Austro-Russian army while losing fewer than 7,000.
Q 03Whose Austrian army surrendered to Napoleon at Ulm in October 1805?
Karl Mack
Mack's roughly 72,000 men were surrounded with barely a fight.
Q 04Which British admiral died winning the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805?
Nelson
Napoleon never again had the chance to challenge Britain at sea or threaten invasion.
Q 05Which admiral commanded the Franco-Spanish fleet defeated at Trafalgar?
Villeneuve
He had been blockaded in Cádiz before sailing for Naples.
Q 06How many troops did Napoleon mass at Boulogne for a planned invasion of Britain?
180,000
The army marched east from Boulogne in July 1805 to face Austria instead.
Q 07Which December 1805 agreement took Austria out of the Third Coalition?
Treaty of Pressburg
Austria ceded Venetia to the Kingdom of Italy and the Tyrol to Bavaria.
Q 08Napoleon formed which grouping of small German states in July 1806?
Confederation of the Rhine
He raised the rulers of Saxony and Bavaria to the rank of king.
Q 09On 14 October 1806 Napoleon won at Jena while which marshal won at Auerstädt?
Davout
Davout's single corps defeated the bulk of the Prussian army.
Q 10After entering Berlin in 1806, Napoleon had his marshals remove hats at whose tomb?
Frederick the Great
'If he were alive we wouldn't be here today,' he said.
Q 11How many days did Napoleon need to knock Prussia out of the war in 1806?
19
Jena, Auerstädt and the capture of Berlin destroyed Prussia's principal armies.
Q 12Which February 1807 battle against the Russians ended in a bloody tactical draw?
Eylau
Napoleon's decisive win at Friedland followed four months later.
Q 13Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I made peace in July 1807 at which town?
Tilsit
New client states followed, including the Duchy of Warsaw and the Kingdom of Westphalia.
Q 14Britain answered Napoleon's trade blockade by bombarding which capital in 1807?
Q 21The British withdrew from Spain after which battle on 16 January 1809?
Corunna
Napoleon left the peninsula afterwards and never returned.
Q 22Which 1809 battle was Napoleon's first significant tactical defeat?
Aspern-Essling
Archduke Charles failed to follow up and Napoleon won at Wagram weeks later.
Q 23Which marshal, sacked mid-battle at Wagram, soon became Crown Prince of Sweden?
Bernadotte
He later fought against his former emperor.
Q 24The 1809 Walcheren Expedition failed to capture which French-held naval base?
Copenhagen
The Royal Navy seized the Dano-Norwegian fleet in August 1807.
Q 15Who was Grand Duke of Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw?
Frederick Augustus I of Saxony
Napoleon appointed the intendants who actually ran the country.
Q 16Napoleon's Berlin Decree of November 1806 established what?
The Continental System
It aimed to close French-controlled Europe to British trade.
Q 17Which brother did Napoleon install as King of Spain in 1808?
Joseph
The move sparked popular rebellion and the Peninsular War.
Q 18Historian David Gates called the Peninsular War what?
The Spanish ulcer
Napoleon himself wrote, 'That unfortunate war destroyed me.'
Q 19Behind which fortifications did Wellington's army shelter near Lisbon?
Lines of Torres Vedras
Their Spanish allies were besieged in Cádiz at the time.
Q 20How many major battles did the Peninsular War see, the most of any Napoleonic conflict?
60
It also featured 30 major sieges and lasted more than six years.
Antwerp
Its commander, the Earl of Chatham, never reached the objective.
Q 25Tyrolese rebels who kept fighting after the Treaty of Schönbrunn were led by whom?
Andreas Hofer
They were finally defeated in November 1809.
Q 26Napoleon married which Austrian archduchess in 1810?
Marie-Louise
The match aimed to secure Austria and provide the heir Joséphine had not.
Q 27Napoleon's brother-in-law Joachim Murat ruled which kingdom?
Naples
He married Napoleon's sister Caroline and was executed by firing squad in 1815.
Q 28The Grande Armée crossed which river to invade Russia on 24 June 1812?
Niemen
Russia proclaimed a Patriotic War; Napoleon called it a Second Polish War.
Q 29Roughly how large was the Grande Armée that invaded Russia in 1812?
450,000
Only about 200,000 were French; Poles alone supplied nearly 100,000.
Q 30Which Baltic German commander led the Russian retreat before being replaced by Kutuzov?
Barclay de Tolly
His scorched-earth withdrawal worked but made him unpopular with the Russian elite.