A Right Royal Place - Births Trivia Quiz

Answer: Queen Elizabeth II

In 1926, the grand townhouse at 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair belonged to the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. It became the birthplace of his granddaughter, Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary of York, on 21 April that year. Princess Elizabeth was the daughter of Prince Albert, Duke of York (the second son of King George V) and the Earl's youngest daughter (also named Elizabeth) and as such at the time of her birth it was never expected that she would one day inherit the throne. However, the death of her grandfather in 1936, the abdication of her uncle later that year and then the death of her father in 1952 left her in exactly that position. Queen Elizabeth II then went on to break records as both Britain's oldest and longest serving monarch at the time.

Sadly the house at 17 Bruton Street was demolished in 1937, leaving just a simple plaque to mark the spot where such a historic event once took place.

Answer: King William III

The Binnenhof, a complex of buildings on the shores of the Hofvijver Lake in central The Hague, has been associated with the hereditary rulers of Holland and what is now the Netherlands since the 13th century. In addition to housing the country's monarchy, the Binnenhof has also been the meeting place of the House of Representatives and the Senate for centuries - making it the oldest House of Parliament in the world to still be in use in the 21st century.

Britain's King William III (known as King William II in Scotland) was born at the Binnenhof in November 1650 as the eldest son and heir of William II, Prince of Orange. He gained the thrones of England and Scotland as part of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when he and his wife (Princess Mary, the daughter of King James II) were invited by parliament to mount an invasion, overthrow James, secure the throne for the Protestants and become the country's first joint monarchs.

Answer: King Henry IV

Bolingbroke Castle was built in the early 13th century by the Earl of Chester, but became the property of John of Gaunt (the fourth son of King Edward III) following his marriage in 1359. It was the birthplace of John's son Henry in 1367 - a fact that earned the child the title of 'Henry of Bolingbroke'. Henry might have remained simply a minor member of the royal family, but in 1399 (disgruntled by having been denied inheritance of his father's lands) he led a military uprising against his cousin King Richard II and promptly deposed him in order to claim the throne himself as King Henry IV.

The castle is now a ruin, having been badly damaged and subsequently demolished during the English Civil War. All that is now left of this once grand fortress are some of the lower walls, foundations and earthworks - however, that has not prevented the structure from being granted Grade I status as a historic monument.

Answer: King Edward II

Caernarfon Castle in north-west Wales was constructed on the orders of King Edward I over a fifty year period in the late 13th and early 14th century and is one of many castles built in Wales as part of Edward's campaign to conquer the country. Amazingly, 700 years later the majority of the castle's walls and towers are still intact - although only the foundations remain of the castle's residential buildings.

King Edward I's son, Prince Edward (the future King Edward II), was born at Caernarfon Castle in 1284, only a year or so after building work on the current structure had begun. This was a deliberate decision on the part of his father, who wished to emphasise English rule over the newly conquered area. In 1301, Prince Edward became the first English prince to be declared 'Prince of Wales', a title which is now traditionally granted to the monarch's eldest son and heir.

Answer: King James I

King James I of England was also King James VI of Scotland, so it should come as no surprise that he was born at the castle in Scotland's capital city. He was the only child of Mary, Queen of Scots and her husband Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and became king at the age of just 13 months when his mother was forced to abdicate her throne. In addition to being King of Scotland, James was the great-great-grandson of King Henry VII of England, so when the Tudor dynasty ended with the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, James also inherited the English throne.

Edinburgh Castle is the major landmark in the City of Edinburgh, being situated on Castle Rock, an extinct volcano plug that towers over the surrounding area. The exact date of the construction of the castle is unclear, but the St. Margaret's Chapel, which dates from the 12th century, is believed to be one of the oldest surviving buildings on the site. The Scottish Crown Jewels (or 'Honours of Scotland') are housed in the Crown Room in the Royal Palace, a part of the castle which dates from the mid-15th century.

Answer: King William I

Falaise is a town located approximately 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the city of Caen in Normandy, France. It is home to the Château de Falaise, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Normandy and was the birthplace of the future King William I of England - better known as William the Conqueror - in around 1028. William was an unusual candidate for both inheriting his father's dukedom of Normandy and for claiming the English crown as he was an illegitimate son. Nevertheless, he became Duke of Normandy when just a young child, then went on to face England's King Harold II in the famous Battle of Hastings of 1066 and become King of England in the process.

Construction of the Château de Falaise was begun in 1123 by William's youngest son, King Henry I. It passed into the ownership of the Kings of France in the 13th century and was protected as a French 'monument historique' in 1840.

Answer: King George I

Hanover was the birthplace of the first British monarch of the House of Hanover, King George I. He was the son of the Elector of Hanover and his wife Sophia, a granddaughter of King James I. His accession to the throne was governed by the terms of the Act of Settlement 1701, which designated Sophia and her heirs as the next in line to the throne after King William III and the future Queen Anne. This was simply due to the fact that they were Protestant, while all more senior descendants of the House of Stuart were Roman Catholic.

Modern day Hanover (or Hannover) is a large city in central Germany and the capital of Lower Saxony. Prior to German unification, it was the seat of the Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Electors of Hanover, before being upgraded to a kingdom in its own right during the reign of King George III. Hanover did not allow women to inherit the throne, so when Queen Victoria became British Queen, her uncle, Ernest Augustus, became King of Hanover. However, its independence lasted less than thirty years - as it was annexed by Prussia in 1866.

Answer: Queen Victoria

Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent was born at London's Kensington Palace on May 24th 1819. Her father, the Duke of Kent, was one of the younger sons of King George III. He and his brothers had been forced to seek brides and father legitimate children in order to secure the Hanoverian succession to the throne, following the unexpected death in childbirth of the only heir - Princess Charlotte of Wales. The Duke of Kent died when his daughter was less than a year old and the young princess was left to be brought up by her mother (and her mother's rumoured lover, Sir John Conroy) under a strict and isolating set of rules, known as the 'Kensington System'. She succeeded to the throne as Queen Victoria following the death of her uncle, King William IV, in 1837.

Kensington Palace has been home to a large number of members of the royal family since the 17th century, from the first occupants, King William III and Queen Mary II, right through to Diana, Princess of Wales in the late 20th century and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in the early 21st.

Answer: King Henry VII

Henry Tudor, the 2nd Earl of Richmond, became King Henry VII when he defeated King Richard III in battle at Bosworth in 1485. He was raised by his uncle, Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, after his father died before he was born - which explains why he was born in Pembroke Castle! Through his father he was a half-nephew of the Lancastrian King Henry VI and through his mother he was a descendant of the powerful Lancastrian Beaufort family. After many years spent in exile in France, Henry invaded England in 1485 with the backing of a French army and seized the throne.

Pembroke Castle itself was the seat of the Earls of Pembroke as early as the 11th century. However, Jasper Tudor was not a direct descendant of these ancient noblemen - he was just granted the title and ownership of the castle by his half-brother, King Henry VI, in 1452. However, he only held on to it for 16 years, as he was stripped of his titles and assets in 1468 for his support for the Lancastrian cause.

Answer: King Edward V

Generally, churches tend to be connected with the baptism of a baby rather than the actual birth itself - however, the future King Edward V was born at Westminster Abbey in November 1470. His birth occurred during the brief period in which his father, King Edward IV, had been deposed by his former friend and ally the Earl of Warwick in favour of the ex-King Henry VI. His mother, Elizabeth Woodville, had sought protection for herself and her children during this time by claiming sanctuary at the Abbey.

King Edward V's story was a short one. He was just twelve years old when his father died and he inherited the throne. However, he was never crowned, as his uncle, King Richard III, had him declared illegitimate and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Edward, along with his younger brother Richard, became one of the infamous 'Princes in the Tower' whose ultimate fate remains unknown, although it is almost certain that they were murdered at a tragically young age.