Q 01/05

Which Asian island nation takes its name from Philip II of Spain, honored by an explorer while he was a prince?

A) Papua New Guinea

B) The Philippines

C) Indonesia

D) Sri Lanka

Answer · why

B) The Philippines

The Philippines began as Las Islas Filipinas, a name a Spanish expedition gave to the islands of Leyte and Samar in 1543. It later spread to the whole...

Q 02/05

Which fictional spy's family motto, the world is not enough, also appeared on a 1583 medal of Philip II of Spain?

A) Jason Bourne

B) George Smiley

C) Harry Palmer

D) James Bond

Answer · why

D) James Bond

James Bond is given the Latin phrase Orbis non sufficit in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Philip took it up as Non sufficit orbis after adding Portu...

Q 03/05

Philip II of Spain became King of England in 1554 by marrying which Catholic Tudor queen?

A) Mary I

B) Jane Grey

C) Anne Boleyn

D) Jane Seymour

Answer · why

A) Mary I

Mary I wed Philip just two days after first meeting him, and he shared her titles only for as long as the marriage lasted. Her death in 1558 ended his...

Q 04/05

Which vast palace-monastery in the Guadarrama mountains did Philip II of Spain build and later die in?

A) The Alhambra

B) Aranjuez

C) El Escorial

D) El Pardo

Answer · why

C) El Escorial

El Escorial, finished in 1584 after 21 years of work, is often called the largest building of the Renaissance. Philip's bed there was placed so he cou...

Q 05/05

Which Spanish novelist lost the use of his left hand fighting the Ottomans in Philip II of Spain's fleet in 1571?

A) Lope de Vega

B) Francisco de Quevedo

C) Pedro Calderón

D) Miguel de Cervantes

Answer · why

D) Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes took three wounds aboard the galley Marquesa, decades before he wrote Don Quixote. He stayed proud of the battle all his life and ...