👑 Royal History & Events Trivia Questions & Answers
Coronations, abdications and the great moments of royal history. Below are 30 free royal history & events trivia questions with answers — part of Royalty trivia on BUZZ. Want a real challenge that adapts to what you know? Play the Royalty quiz — no signup needed to start.
30 Royal History & Events trivia questions
Q1. What nickname is commonly given to Charles Edward Stuart, leader of the 1745 Jacobite rising?
Answer: Bonnie Prince Charlie
💡 He was actually born in Rome, where the exiled Stuarts had taken refuge.
Q2. In 1897, Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee marked how many years on the throne?
Answer: 60 years
💡 Three million visitors flooded into London to see the jubilee's colonial parade.
Q3. What 1066 battle saw William the Conqueror defeat Harold II, ending Anglo-Saxon rule of England?
Answer: The Battle of Hastings
💡 Harold was reportedly killed by an arrow to the eye, though the story comes mainly from the Bayeux Tapestry.
Q4. In 1588, Elizabeth I's England saw off an invasion fleet of some 130 ships sent by which country?
Answer: Spain
💡 The fleet was nicknamed 'the most fortunate armada' before storms and English guns proved otherwise.
Q5. In 2012, archaeologists in Leicester found Richard III's 500-year-old remains beneath what spot?
Answer: A car park
💡 DNA and dental tests confirmed the skeleton's identity with 99.999% accuracy.
Q6. Which Paris fortress did revolutionary crowds storm on 14 July 1789, starting the French Revolution?
Answer: The Bastille
💡 The prison only held seven inmates at the time, but it symbolized royal power.
Q7. What year were Tsar Nicholas II and his family executed by Bolshevik guards in Yekaterinburg?
Answer: 1918
💡 It happened in the early hours of 17 July 1918, in the basement of a merchant's house.
Q8. Which English king was forced to seal the Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215?
Answer: King John
💡 Rebellious barons pushed him into it after years of unpopular taxes and disputes with the Church.
Q9. Which British king gave up the throne in December 1936 so he could marry Wallis Simpson?
Answer: Edward VIII
💡 He famously said he couldn't carry his duties "without the help and support of the woman I love."
Q10. Who became king after his brother's abdication in December 1936, later leading Britain through WWII?
Answer: George VI
💡 He overcame a severe stammer, later depicted in the film The King's Speech.
Q11. Which two kingdoms merged into Great Britain under one parliament via the 1707 Acts of Union?
Answer: England and Scotland
💡 They'd already shared a monarch since 1603, but 1707 joined them politically too.
Q12. In the Wars of the Roses, which color rose symbolized the House of Lancaster?
Answer: Red
💡 The rival white rose belonged to the House of York, their rival claimants.
Q13. In what year was the Battle of Culloden, the last pitched battle fought on British soil?
Answer: 1746
💡 The battle crushed the Jacobite cause in less than an hour of fighting.
Q14. Charles I was executed in 1649 on a scaffold outside which London building?
Answer: The Banqueting House
💡 He was moved from St James's Palace beforehand, to avoid the noise of the scaffold's construction.
Q15. After the 1688 Glorious Revolution, deposed King James II fled England for which country?
Answer: France
💡 William of Orange, his own son-in-law, had just landed in England to take the crown.
Q16. After 11 years under Cromwell's Commonwealth, England restored its monarchy in 1660 with which king?
Answer: Charles II
💡 He landed at Dover and reached London on his 30th birthday, 29 May 1660.
Q17. Which French king was executed by guillotine in January 1793 during the Revolution?
Answer: Louis XVI
💡 The blade fell at 10:22 am on 21 January 1793 in Paris.
Q18. Which Russian dynasty ended violently when Nicholas II and his family were executed in 1918?
Answer: The Romanovs
💡 Their execution in Yekaterinburg ended roughly three centuries of Romanov rule.
Q19. Which ambitious general crowned himself Emperor of the French at Notre-Dame in December 1804?
Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte
💡 He famously took the crown from the Pope's hands and placed it on his own head.
Q20. Which pope traveled to Paris and personally attended Napoleon's 1804 coronation ceremony?
Answer: Pope Pius VII
💡 Napoleon still crowned himself rather than let the pope place the crown on his head.
Q21. English king Edward III's claim to which foreign throne helped spark the Hundred Years' War in 1337?
Answer: The French throne
💡 He claimed it through his mother Isabella, sister of the last direct Capetian king.
Q22. In 800 AD, which pope crowned Charlemagne as emperor at a Christmas Day ceremony in Rome?
Answer: Pope Leo III
💡 The ceremony made Charlemagne the first western emperor in over 300 years.
Q23. Charlemagne's 800 AD coronation is seen as the forerunner of which European imperial title?
Answer: Holy Roman Emperor
💡 That title lasted, in various forms, into the 19th century.
Q24. Which Scottish king first became joint monarch of England in 1603's Union of the Crowns?
Answer: James VI
💡 He became James VI and I after inheriting the English throne from his cousin Elizabeth I.
Q25. The 1618 'Defenestration of Prague' — officials thrown from a window — helped spark what war?
Answer: The Thirty Years' War
💡 Remarkably, none of the three men thrown from the window were seriously hurt.
Q26. In 1077, Emperor Henry IV stood barefoot in snow at Canossa to beg forgiveness from whom?
Answer: Pope Gregory VII
💡 The phrase 'going to Canossa' still means making a humiliating climbdown.
Q27. After Japan's 1868 Meiji Restoration, the capital moved from Kyoto to which renamed city?
Answer: Tokyo
💡 Tokyo means 'Eastern Capital' — the city had previously been called Edo.
Q28. Joan of Arc stood beside which French king at his 1429 coronation in Reims?
Answer: Charles VII
💡 The ceremony let Charles finally use a title his rivals had denied him for years.
Q29. Which French king was captured on the battlefield at Poitiers in 1356 by the Black Prince?
Answer: John II
💡 He was held for a huge ransom that crippled the French treasury for years.
Q30. What 1689 document, accepted by William and Mary, curbed the English monarch's powers?
Answer: The Bill of Rights
💡 It also barred any future Catholic from ever inheriting the English throne.
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