Match the Plantagenet King To Their Queen Quiz

Answer: Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor of Aquitaine was originally married to Louis VII of France. Their marriage was annulled after 15 years as no sons had been born to them during this time. Eleanor married Henry II (at that time Duke of Normandy) some two months after the annulment. Rather embarrassingly for Louis, Eleanor's second marriage produced five sons.

Eleanor and Henry's marriage was tempestuous and Henry had Eleanor imprisoned for sixteen years after she supported their son in a rebellion against his father.

Eleanor died in 1204 aged around eighty, a great age at that time. She was a fascinating character and easily merits several quizzes to herself.

Answer: Berengaria of Navarre

All UK pub quizzers will know that Berengaria is the Queen of England who never set foot in England while she was queen, although she may have done so after she was widowed. Although she accompanied Richard at the start of the Third crusade, she mainly lived in France. Richard himself only spent six months of his reign in England.

Their marriage was childless. Berengaria was widowed in 1199 and died in 1230.

Answer: Isabelle of Gloucester

Isabelle was the granddaughter of an illegitimate son of King Henry I. She was Countess of Gloucester in her own right. Because of the blood relationship between her and John, the Archbishop of Canterbury pronounced their marriage null. However, the Pope gave dispensation for the marriage but forbade them from having sexual relations, which may account for the fact that the marriage was childless.

John himself had their marriage annulled in 1199 shortly after he became King, and kept Isabelle's property for himself. Isabella married twice more after the annulment.

Answer: Eleanor of Provence

Eleanor was around twelve years old when she married Henry, although this was not that unusual for royal marriages in mediaeval times. Henry was around sixteen years older than her.

She had five children, including the future King Edward I. The fact that many of her relatives were given influential positions at court led to her being an unpopular figure with the public.

Answer: Isabella of France

Isabella was another young bride, being only thirteen years old when she married Edward. Initially the marriage went well and Isabella had four children, including the future King Edward III. However, Edward had his 'favourites' (he was rumoured to be homosexual) and Isabella was sidelined, with her lands being confiscated and her younger children taken away from her.

Isabella had an affair with Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March. Isabella and Mortimer raised an army and deposed Edward, with Isabella acting as regent for her young son. Edward II is thought to have die in Berkeley Castle in 1327. The commonly held belief is that Isabella and Mortimer arranged to have him killed in a particularly gruesome way, but there is no proof of this.

However, Edward III took full control of the throne in 1330 and had Mortimer executed. Isabella was not punished and lived apart from the court until her death.

Answer: Philippa of Hainault

Philippa was married to Edward III when she was thirteen years old. She had fourteen children, but sadly only outlived five of them. Five of her sons lived to adulthood and had sons of their own, and it was the in-fighting of the descendants of these sons that led to the Wars of the Roses, which ravaged England for more than thirty years.

Answer: Catherine of Valois

Catherine married at the comparatively elderly age of nineteen. She gave birth to the future Henry VI the following year, shortly after being widowed when Henry V died of dysentery. Some years after this she had an affair with a Welshman, Owen Tudor. There are some reports that they were married but there is no proof of this. Her eldest son by Owen Tudor married Margaret Beaufort, great great granddaughter of Edward III and they became the parents of the future King Henry VII.

Catherine died aged 35, shortly after childbirth.

Answer: Margaret of Anjou

Margaret married Henry VI at the age of fifteen. They had one son, Edward of Westminster. Henry VI was mentally unstable and Margaret often took the reins of leadership during his bouts of insanity.

Edward died during the battle of Tewkesbury in the Wars of the Roses. Margaret and Henry VI were taken prisoner then. Henry was imprisoned in the Tower of London and died in 1471. The cause of his death is unknown. Margaret was ransomed to Louis XI of France in 1475. She spent the rest of her living quietly in France, dying at the age of 52.

Answer: Elizabeth Woodville

Elizabeth was a widow when she married Edward IV. Her first husband, Sir John Grey, was killed at the Second Battle of St Albans during the Wars of the Roses. Her marriage to Edward was not received well; she was one of his subjects and the widow of a Lancastrian supporter. There were ten children of the marriage, including the future Edward V and his brother Richard (the 'Princes in the Tower') and Elizabeth of York, future wife of Henry VII and mother of Henry VIII.

Edward IV died in 1483 after a short illness. His brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, declared her marriage to Edward to be invalid due to his previous engagement to Lady Eleanor Butler. He declared the children of the marriage to be illegitimate and took the throne for himself, becoming Richard III.

Elizabeth was then known as Dame Elizabeth Grey. However, when her daughter Elizabeth married Henry VII she was given the respect due to the mother of the queen. She did not remarry and died aged 55.

Answer: Anne Neville

Anne was the youngest daughter of the powerful Earl of Warwick. At the age of fourteen she was married to Edward of Westminster, son of Henry VI and thus became Princess of Wales. She was widowed only months later.

She married Richard in 1472, becoming Countess of Gloucester. She had one son, Edward, who died in childhood. Anne herself died at the age of 28, possibly of tuberculosis. Richard III was said to be genuinely grief-stricken at her death, although there were rumours that he had her poisoned in order to marry his niece, Elizabeth of York. This seems highly unlikely, many of the unpleasant rumours regarding Richard were made after his death.