Q 01/05

Which English king was forced to seal the Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215?

A) King Richard I

B) King John

C) King Henry III

D) King Edward I

Answer · why

B) King John

King John sealed Magna Carta to buy peace with rebel barons who had taken London; within three months the Pope had annulled it, and the civil war it w...

Q 02/05

What famous nickname was given to Louis XIV of France?

A) The Universal Spider

B) The Citizen King

C) The Iron King

D) The Sun King

Answer · why

D) The Sun King

The Sun King took the sun, symbol of Apollo, as his personal emblem; at 14 he had danced as Apollo, the rising sun, in the Ballet de la Nuit of 1653.

Q 03/05

Which wife bore Henry VIII his long-awaited son?

A) Anne of Cleves

B) Jane Seymour

C) Catherine Howard

D) Catherine Parr

Answer · why

B) Jane Seymour

Jane Seymour died in October 1537, less than two weeks after giving birth to the future Edward VI; Henry later asked to be buried beside her.

Q 04/05

Which king did William the Conqueror defeat at Hastings?

A) Harald Hardrada

B) Edward the Confessor

C) Harold Godwinson

D) Cnut the Great

Answer · why

C) Harold Godwinson

Harold Godwinson had marched north and crushed a Norwegian invasion at Stamford Bridge less than three weeks earlier, then hurried his army south to f...

Q 05/05

Which ancient Egyptian pharaoh's tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922?

A) Cleopatra VII

B) Ramesses II

C) Tutankhamun

D) Khufu

Answer · why

C) Tutankhamun

Tutankhamun's tomb still held most of its treasures after more than 3,000 years; when Carter's patron Lord Carnarvon died months later of an infected ...