The Character Beneath the Crown

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  

1. At his coronation, this French ruler crowned himself standing before the altar in the cathedral of Notre Dame. His emblem was a bee, and although he hated cats he loved horses, in particular his Arab stallion Marengo and mare Desirée. Napoleon I Louis XIV Charles X Henry IV

2. She was the first English queen to be crowned in her own right. Although she had been betrothed three times by the age of 11, she didn't in fact marry until she was in her late 30s, her husband being 11 years her junior. Mary I Anne Elizabeth I Victoria

3. This Prussian king was the eldest son of ten surviving children, and a grandson of England's King George I. His sister, Ulrika, was the Queen of Sweden. Known as "Fritz" to his family, he wrote and spoke mainly in French, and owned whippets, greyhounds and a camel! Frederick I Frederick II William I William II

4. At only four feet seven inches tall this English king was slow to progress as a child, not able to speak until the age of five (and then only with a stammer, which he never conquered), or walk until he was seven. His elder brother, Henry Frederick, had the dubious distinction of being the first recorded death from typhoid. His elder sister, Elizabeth, married Frederick V of Bohemia. William I James I George I Charles I

5. Born in France, this Roman emperor, although tall and handsome, suffered from a nervous tic and a stammer, as well a tendency to stumble due to a weakness in his knees. Particularly fond of playing dice, he wrote a book on the subject, and another to promote three new letters he had invented for the Roman alphabet. Nero Claudius Vespasian Augustus

6. As queen of Egypt, she was traditionally considered a great beauty, bathing regularly in asses' milk. Charismatic and highly educated, she was actually the only Egyptian Ptolemaic pharaoh who learned to speak Egyptian! Hatshepsut Berenice Cleopatra VII Nefertiti

7. This English monarch, having survived an assassination attempt on Constitution Hill, was the first to live in Buckingham Palace; spoke only German as a child; was left-handed, and wrote 100 volumes of diaries spanning almost 70 years. George III Victoria William IV Anne

8. According to legend (later made popular by Sir Walter Scott) this Scottish king learned the art of perseverance by sitting in a cave on the island of Rathlin and observing a spider weave its web. True or not, his steadfastness paid off, and he managed, on his seventh attempt, to liberate Scotland. James II Robert I Alexander III Malcolm IV

9. Although he ruled England for ten years, this king only paid two brief visits to the country during that time, and then only to raise money for his overseas campaigns. He was fond of music and was said to have written songs with the famous French troubadour, Blondel. Henry II Stephen John Richard I

10. One of the first European monarchs to receive the smallpox innoculation, this Russian ruler, although poor at spelling and grammar, compiled a dictionary of the language as well as writing such fairy tales and plays as "Prince Khlor" and "The Paladin of Misfortune". Nicholas II Catherine II Peter I Ivan III