Queens and Empresses Trivia Quiz

It was rare for a woman to rule in Egypt in her own right. Hatshepsut was the eldest daughter of Thutmose I and became Great Royal Wife (principal wife) of her half-brother Thutmose II. On his death she became regent for the young Thutmose III before becoming queen regnant with Thutmose III as her junior co-regent. She adopted many of the traditional (male) pharaonic symbols such as the lion-form sphynx with the uraeus (stylised beard). It was a time of prosperity and she re-established some trade networks and commissioned many building projects.

The death of Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator in 30 BC, reportedly from the bite of an asp, brought to an end the longest-lasting and final Egyptian dynasty. This dynasty traced its roots to Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt in 332 BC. In effect a Greek ruling class was imposed on Egyptian society and culture. Cleopatra was the only known Ptolemaic ruler to learn the Egyptian language.

She had a child with Julius Caesar and, following his murder, three with Mark Antony. She sparked a civil war in the Roman Republic (the War of Actium) causing her downfall and ultimately her death.

Boudica (also spelt Boudicca or Boadicea) was a queen of the Iceni tribe in ancient Britain. She is best known for a failed uprising against the Romans who had occupied Britain from AD 43. An ally of Rome, when Boudica's husband Prasutagus died around AD 60 leaving his kingdom jointly to his daughters and the Roman emperor, his will was ignored by the local Roman protector and the kingdom annexed.

The Roman historian Tacitus blamed the uprising on the brutal mistreatment of Boudica and her daughters, whilst another attributed it to the confiscation of money, the recall of loans and the imposition of slavery. Boudica led the uprising and achieved considerable success before defeat in battle by a vastly-outnumbered Roman force brought an end to the revolt.

From humble beginnings Theodora rose to rule the Eastern Roman Empire following the death of Justin I in 527 AD. An actress, she was married to Justinian I after the then Emperor Justin I changed the law in 524 AD to permit such a marriage. She became empress in 527 AD and was a highly-influential advisor to her husband who is best known for his partially-realised ambition of recovering the Western Roman Empire.

It is believed that she died of cancer.

Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the wealthiest and most powerful people during the latter half of the 12th century in Western Europe. Married twice, she was at times queen consort of France with Louis VII (1137-52) and then of England with Henry II (1154-89).

She also co-ruled England with her sons Richard I (1189-99) and John (1199-1204) before dying in 1204. She bore ten children for her husbands with only two surviving her. Her second husband Henry II in effect placed her under house arrest in 1173 for 16 years for supporting a revolt against him.

Queen Isabella I of Castile (1474 - 1504), also known as Isabella the Catholic, and her husband King Ferdinand II of Aragon were responsible for financing the four transatlantic expeditions of Christopher Columbus, which opened the way for European colonisation of the Americas.

They were also responsible for creating the Spanish Inquisition. The death of her half-brother King Henry IV of Castile in 1474 led to a war with King Alfonso V of Portugal, who had married Henry's daughter to secure a claim on the Castille throne. Effective propaganda following the inconclusive Battle of Toro (1476) resulted in Isabella being accepted as queen.

A daughter of King Henry VIII, Elizabeth I was the last of the Tudor monarchs. An Anglican, she survived being imprisoned by her Roman Catholic half-sister Mary on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels. She ruled for 45 years but had no children by her death in 1603 and was succeeded by her first cousin twice removed James VI of Scotland who became James I of England.

She had had his mother (Mary, Queen of Scots) executed in 1587 after Mary was found guilty of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth.

Catherine II, better known as Catherine the Great, was Empress of Russia between 1762 and 1796. Born a German princess with the name Sophie Auguste Frederike von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, she came to power after conducting a coup d'état against her husband Peter III.

He had ruled for 186 days and died soon after his displacement, officially of the unlikely cause of haemorrhoids. Catherine II helped Russia to thrive during her reign in a period of expansion through conquest and diplomacy.

The Victorian Era in the history of the UK is normally defined as the period of Queen Victoria's reign. This was a time when the British Empire was expanding to become the foremost global power through its colonial possessions, its industrialisation and its naval superiority. Married to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, she had nine children.

They all survived to marry into various royal and noble families, leading to Victoria earning the nickname of 'grandmother of Europe'. Thirty-four grandchildren survived into adulthood.

Reigning for nearly 58 years, Wilhelmina of the Netherlands was queen during both the First and Second World Wars. She managed to maintain the country's neutrality during the First World War. She proved to have business acumen and became the first female billionaire (in US dollar terms) through her investments, which she used to help the Netherlands emerge as an industrial power.

When German invaded in 1940, she escaped to the UK and took charge of the Dutch government-in-exile. After the war, ill health saw her abdicate in 1948.

She died in 1962.