England's Princes William Trivia Quiz

Answer: He was killed with an arrow while hunting in the New Forest

The reign of King William II ended in 1100 when he was killed in the New Forest, one of his favourite hunting grounds. No definitive account of his death has survived, although that is probably unsurprising given that the event occurred over 900 years ago. The most common theory put forward suggests that the king was shot with an arrow by a nobleman named Walter Tirel - probably by accident, although assassination cannot be ruled out.

Under modern rules for the inheritance of the British monarchy, William Rufus would have been unlikely to become king given that he was the third son of William the Conqueror and his queen, Matilda. However, William's second son, Richard, had died in 1075 (also thanks to a hunting accident in the New Forest) and the king subsequently divided his lands and titles between his two eldest surviving sons - Robert Curthose got the Duchy of Normandy, while William Rufus got the Kingdom of England.

Robert Curthose did try to depose his younger brother in the Rebellion of 1088, but the attempt failed miserably. Although he took part in the First Crusade, William II did not; their younger brother Henry seized the kingdom in the aftermath of William II's death. It was Henry who died after he over-indulged himself and consumed too many lampreys.

Answer: The White Ship

The White Ship disaster of the night of November 20th, 1120 took the lives of three of King Henry I's children - his illegitimate daughter Matilda Fitzroy, his illegitimate son Richard of Lincoln and, most importantly as far as history is concerned, William Adelin. Although he was only 17 years old at the time of his death, William had already been granted the title of Duke of Normandy and sent in his father's stead to pay homage to King Louis VI of France. The fact that both England and Normandy were under the joint rule of King Henry I meant that travel across the English Channel had become relatively commonplace, although it was not considered completely safe. Certainly William Adelin and his entourage can't have been particularly worried about traversing the distance as he apparently supplied large amounts of wine to fuel the party atmosphere on board and was happy to set off after dark with a drunken crew. Unsurprisingly, disaster struck quickly when the ship hit a rock outside the harbour at Barfleur, capsized and sank with the loss of around 300 lives - almost everyone on board. Interestingly, the historical records suggest that William Adelin could well have survived if he hadn't returned to the ship to try and save the life of his half-sister Matilda.

After the disaster, King Henry I was left with just one legitimate child - his daughter, the Empress Matilda. Although the English nobles swore to support Matilda as queen, they reneged on their promise after Henry's death in 1135 and instead supported the rule of his nephew, King Stephen. The vast majority of Stephen's 19-year reign was then marred by a civil war with Matilda known as 'The Anarchy'. Ironically, Stephen had also been due to sail on the White Ship, but had disembarked due to illness.

The Grace Dieu was a warship commissioned by King Henry V in 1416, while the Mary Rose and Henry Grace à Dieu were Tudor warships built during the early years of the reign of King Henry VIII.

Answer: Count of Poitiers

William, born in 1153, was the eldest son of King Henry II and his queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor had been a sought-after bride in medieval Europe thanks to the fact that she was the Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right. That title came with great wealth in the form of the lands of the Duchy of Aquitaine and additional titles, including that of Count of Poitiers - Poitiers being one of the main towns of the ancient region and the scene of Eleanor's marriage to Henry. Eleanor ceded the title of Count of Poitiers to her young son William, but he died in infancy in 1156. William therefore is known to history as William IX, as eight former Dukes of Aquitaine, including his maternal grandfather, had held the title of Count of Poitiers before him.

The title of Prince of Wales was not given to the eldest son of the monarch until the late 13th century, when King Edward I granted it to the future King Edward II. The title of Duke of Normandy was held by the King of England for the majority of the period between the reigns of William the Conqueror and King John, whose son, King Henry III, formally renounced the English claim on it in the Treaty of Paris of 1259. Earl of Wessex was a title held in the 11th century by King Harold II and it was also granted to the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II in 1999.

Answer: 11

Prince William was born on July 24th, 1689, the son of the then Princess Anne and her husband, Prince George of Denmark. His birth appeared to secure the line of succession established by the 1689 Bill of Rights, which was put in place following the Glorious Revolution that had brought his uncle and aunt (King William III and Queen Mary II) to the throne in place of his grandfather, King James II. However, he fell ill shortly after birth and was left with generally frail health and various disabilities, probably caused by hydrocephalus. William's precarious health was a serious issue for the nation as he was his mother's only surviving child. Between 1684 and 1700, Princess Anne had 17 documented pregnancies, which resulted in two young daughters who died of smallpox within days of each other in February 1687; Prince William; another son and daughter who died shortly after birth; five stillborn children; and seven miscarriages. William then died on July 30th, 1700, just six days after his 11th birthday, leaving Princess Anne childless when she succeeded to the throne as Queen Anne in 1702.

The government's answer to the succession crisis caused by William's death was the 1701 Act of Settlement. In the absence of any further heirs being born to either Anne or King William III, the crown was to pass to Sophia of Hanover - the Protestant granddaughter of King James I - or her heirs. In the end Anne was succeeded in 1714 by King George I, Sophia's eldest son, who became the first British monarch of the House of Hanover.

Answer: Battle of Culloden

Prince William Augustus (1721-1765) was the youngest son of King George II and was granted the title of Duke of Cumberland at the age of five. Like many members of the Royal Family he embarked on a military career and served in the Royal Navy before joining the army. In those days it was possible for the rich and wealthy to purchase positions as senior army officers, so William was able to start off as a colonel rather than having to work his way up the ranks on merit. By 1745, the prince was Commander-in-Chief of the British and allied forces in the War of the Austrian Succession, but ended up leading an embarrassing retreat after various tactical errors handed advantage to the French.

When the 'Young Pretender' Charles Edward Stuart (also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie) raised an army and marched into England during the Jacobite Rising of 1745, William was placed in charge of the British forces. His victory over Stuart's forces at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 earned him both hero status (amongst his political supporters) and the rather unflattering nickname of 'Butcher Cumberland' (from his Tory opponents). However, his military ineptitude was once again highlighted during the Seven Years' War and by 1757 his career was over - King George II was then quoted as having referred to the prince as "my son who has ruined me and disgraced himself".

The Battle of Falkirk took place in 1298 and saw the army of King Edward I defeat Scottish forces led by William Wallace (of 'Braveheart' fame); the Battle of Bannockburn, 1314, was a victory for Robert the Bruce against King Edward II of England; and the Battle of Sherrifmuir took place in 1715 during the first Jacobite uprising.

Answer: She was the widowed, illegitimate daughter of a commoner

The Royal Marriages Act passed by King George III in 1772 essentially stated that any descendant of King George II had to get permission to marry from the reigning monarch and that any marriage made without said permission would be null and void. George introduced the legislation after he was embarrassed when his brother Prince Henry married a widowed commoner the previous year. In addition to being widowed and a commoner (British princes at the time were expected to marry members of other European royal families), Prince William's wife Maria had the added disadvantage of her parents not having been married to each other.

As William's career in the army was largely ceremonial, he and Maria spent their life together at a large country mansion in Berkshire. They had three children (one of whom died in infancy) and Maria also had three daughters from her first marriage to Earl Waldegrave. As they were married before the Royal Marriages Act came into force, their marriage was considered valid and their children held royal titles - however, they were distinctly unwelcome at King George III's court.

Answer: The Reform Crisis

The third son of King George III, Prince William was known as the Duke of Clarence for the majority of his life and would not originally have expected to inherit the throne as his eldest brother had a daughter, Princess Charlotte. However, Charlotte's death in 1817 sparked a succession crisis and Prince William eventually became King William IV in 1830 at the age of 64, with his niece, the future Queen Victoria, as his heir presumptive.

William proved more popular with the general public than his elder brother, King George IV, thanks to his approachable nature and relative frugality. He was affectionately known as the 'Sailor King' because of his former career in the Royal Navy. However, the early 1830s proved to be a time of significant political unrest in Britain, with increasingly insistent calls for reform of the political system and the enfranchisement of a wider group of the population. Although William proved willing to support the reform movement by dissolving the House of Commons and forcing fresh elections in 1831, he drew the line at creating new peers to help the Reform Bill through the House of Lords in 1832. His attempt to replace Earl Grey's government drew public scorn and literal mud-slinging at him - needless to say, he backed down and the threat of the new peers was enough to bring the House of Lords into line and allow the bill to pass.

The Catholic Emancipation crisis was largely resolved in 1829 just prior to William's reign. The Irish Potato Famine began in 1845 and the Highland Clearances took place throughout the late-18th and early-19th centuries.

Answer: He married a daughter of King George III

Prince William Frederick was the only son of Prince William Henry, a younger brother of King George III. Although he was born a British prince as a male-line great-grandson of a former monarch, he was not entitled to use the title 'His Royal Highness' as that appellation was restricted to the children and male-line grandchildren of monarchs. William's grandfather, Frederick, Prince of Wales, had died before he could inherit the throne. He was appointed a Royal Knight of the Order of the Garter in 1794 and inherited the title of Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh on the death of his father in 1805 - however, neither event prompted a change in his royal status.

On July 22nd, 1816, the 40-year-old prince married his first cousin, Her Royal Highness The Princess Mary - the fourth daughter (and eleventh child) of King George III. To ensure his rank was in keeping with that of his wife, and to befit his new position as the King's son-in-law, Prince William Frederick was granted the use of the title 'His Royal Highness' by the Prince Regent on his wedding day. It is however possible that this honour went to his head as he was apparently a somewhat unintelligent, pompous man who was extremely conscious of his status and the deference with which he thought he should be treated. His nickname of "Silly Billy" was an apt one.

Answer: Porphyria

Porphyria is not a specific illness but the name given to a group of hereditary diseases that can cause a range of symptoms, including skin blisters, sensitivity to sunlight, intense abdominal pain, high blood pressure, muscle weakness, seizures and a variety of short-term psychiatric problems. It first became associated with the British royal family when it was proposed in the 1960s as a potential cause of the "Madness of King George" - the illness and mental incapacitation of King George III in the years prior to his death in 1820. The appearance of the disease in some of the king's descendants was used as additional evidence for the theory. While the retrospective diagnoses of Princess Charlotte of Prussia and Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen are subject to significant medical doubt, the contemporary diagnosis of Prince William of Gloucester using modern medical techniques added more weight to the argument.

Haemophilia became associated with the British royal family when Queen Victoria passed it to her one of her sons and several descendants, famously including Tsarevich Alexei of Russia. Gout became associated with royalty and wealth because it tends to occur in people who are overweight or have a particularly rich diet; King George IV was a known sufferer. Scrofula is a term used for various skin diseases; in medieval times it was believed that it could be cured by the touch of a king or queen.

Answer: Air Ambulance pilot

In 1982 when Prince William was born, his father, Charles, was Prince of Wales and heir apparent to his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. As a result, William automatically took over the position of second in line to the throne from his uncle, Prince Andrew. William's mother was Diana, Princess of Wales; her tragic death in a road accident in Paris in 1997 occurred when William was 15 and his younger brother, Prince Harry, was 12. Prince William studied at the University of St. Andrews (where he met his future wife, Kate Middleton) before joining the British Army in 2006. His initial training as a helicopter pilot took place with the army and he then transferred to the RAF to work as a search and rescue pilot. Longstanding concerns over his safety and political difficulties meant that he was never deployed to a war zone on active service during his military career.

After leaving the armed forces in 2013, Prince William retrained as a civilian helicopter pilot and took a job as a pilot of the East Anglian Air Ambulance, a charity that airlifts seriously injured or ill people to hospital. Air ambulances are particularly vital when a patient needs to be transferred to the hospital as quickly as possible, or when they are injured or taken ill when in an otherwise inaccessible environment.