Q 01/05

King John, who agreed to Magna Carta, inherited the throne in 1199 from which crusading brother?

A) Henry the Young King

B) Richard I

C) Geoffrey of Brittany

D) William Longespée

Answer · why

B) Richard I

Richard I: paying for his crusade, and then the ransom to free him from a German emperor's prison, had already strained England before John's own war ...

Q 02/05

Runnymede, where Magna Carta was agreed, is a water-meadow on the bank of which river?

A) the Severn

B) the Thames

C) the Trent

D) the Avon

Answer · why

B) the Thames

The Thames: the meadow was neutral ground, lying between King John's stronghold at Windsor and the rebel barons' base, so neither side had to meet on ...

Q 03/05

Stephen Langton, who helped draft Magna Carta, is also credited with dividing which book into chapters?

A) The Domesday Book

B) Justinian's Code

C) The Bible

D) The Rule of St Benedict

Answer · why

C) The Bible

The Bible: Langton was a Paris theologian whom the pope made Archbishop of Canterbury over King John's objections, a quarrel that shut England's churc...

Q 04/05

The rebel barons demanded that John confirm the Charter of Liberties issued a century earlier by which king?

A) William II

B) Stephen

C) Henry II

D) Henry I

Answer · why

D) Henry I

Henry I: he issued it at his coronation in 1100 and then largely ignored it, but it handed the barons a precedent, and they built their own list of de...

Q 05/05

Which pope annulled Magna Carta in 1215, declaring it null and void?

A) Innocent III

B) Urban II

C) Gregory IX

D) Clement V

Answer · why

A) Innocent III

Innocent III: John had made England a papal fief two years earlier, so the pope backed his vassal and struck the charter down as extorted by force, ba...