Q 01/05

Which fantasy television series took its feuding noble houses from the Wars of the Roses?

A) The Witcher

B) Game of Thrones

C) The Wheel of Time

D) Shadow and Bone

Answer · why

B) Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones. George R. R. Martin, who wrote the novels behind the show, turned the rival houses of Lancaster and York into his warring Lannisters ...

Q 02/05

England's final defeat in which war came two years before the Wars of the Roses?

A) Seven Years' War

B) Nine Years' War

C) Thirty Years' War

D) Hundred Years' War

Answer · why

D) Hundred Years' War

The Hundred Years' War ended in defeat at Castillon in 1453. Henry VI suffered a mental collapse weeks later, and the nobles' struggle to rule in his ...

Q 03/05

Which novelist's 1829 book Anne of Geierstein brought the name 'Wars of the Roses' into common use?

A) Jane Austen

B) Charles Dickens

C) Sir Walter Scott

D) William Makepeace Thackeray

Answer · why

C) Sir Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott's label stuck more than 300 years after the fighting ended, even though Lancaster's red rose was hardly used as a badge until the war...

Q 04/05

Which famous English school did Henry VI, king from infancy, found in 1440?

A) Harrow School

B) Rugby School

C) Eton College

D) Winchester College

Answer · why

C) Eton College

Eton College. Henry set it up to house and teach 70 poor boys free of charge, then founded King's College, Cambridge, a year later for them to move on...

Q 05/05

What term, coined in 1885, describes the system of paid retinues that let late-medieval magnates defy the crown?

A) Bastard feudalism

B) The affinity system

C) Manorialism

D) Livery and maintenance

Answer · why

A) Bastard feudalism

Bastard feudalism. The crown itself fed the system by raising its armies for France under paid contracts; when those wars ended, the lords could use t...