Stately Mates: British Consorts Quiz

Answer: He grabbed her braids and threw her down.

After reading the story about the beginning of William and Matilda's relationship, one has to wish that they had been there to watch! Apparently William sent a representative with a marriage proposal that was rather rudely rejected by Matilda. At the time she was a higher ranking noble than William, who was a bastard son.

She let it be known that she had no desire to marry someone so beneath her. There are two stories about what happened next, but both involve William grabbing her braids and throwing her to the ground.

After that she refused to marry anyone but him. Together they had nine or ten children; two sons eventually became William II and Henry I. Even after William's famous conquest of England, it is written that Matilda didn't spend much time there, preferring to stay and govern Normandy.

Answer: She replied that she would marry him if their sons would inherit the throne.

This is quite an interesting story because Emma was married to two kings, Ethelred II and Canute. The great-granddaughter of the Viking Rollo, who settled in France, Emma was sent to England to marry Ethelred, a man who was twenty years her senior. Plagued by a renewal of Viking raids, Ethelred ordered a massacre of the Danes who lived in England; the subsequent raiding by Sweyn Forkbeard, sent his family into exile, and while Ethelred tried to regain his throne after the death of Forkbeard, he died shortly thereafter. What of Emma? Sweyn Forkbeard's son, Canute, who was already married, apparently wanted to marry Emma.

It is said that she accepted, but only with the condition that her sons would inherit the throne. Emma's position was vulnerable once again after the death of her second husband; she was, however, known for making wise decisions.

As it turned out, Emma's son with Canute, Harthacanut, did eventually become King of England, allowing his mother to keep a property at Winchester that she had received from her first husband.

She apparently continued to live there - or at least nearby - until her death. Fourteen years later, her great-nephew, William, began his famous conquest of England.

Answer: Never

Berengaria is known as the queen who never visited England, although it is possible that she visited after the death of her husband, Richard the Lionheart, who is also more famously known for spending less than six months in England during his ten-year reign. Richard had long been betrothed to Alys of France (who had become his father's mistress) when he met Berengaria, but some sources say that there was an attraction between them. Apparently before the termination of Richard's first betrothal took place, Richard had already left for the Third Crusade.

His mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, traveled with Berengaria to Sicily, where they met up with Richard's sister, Joan. Berengaria and Joan continued to the Holy Land, but Richard had to come to their rescue when their ship wrecked in Cyprus, and the couple eventually married there.

Although Berengaria may never have set foot in England, she did send representatives to petition King John for her pension after her husband's death. While John died owing her quite a sum of money, it appears that his son, Henry III, did meet the obligation to her, and Berengaria lived on an estate in Le Mans, one of her dower properties, until her death.

Answer: She was royalty from Mercia. They married to united Mercia and Wessex.

When Ealhswith married Alfred of Wessex, he was his brother's heir-apparent. It is believed that his marriage to Ealhswith was made to unite Wessex and Mercia, as Ealhswith was descended from King Coenwulf of Mercia. Even though she was married to the King, Ealhswith was never given the title Queen. Alfred claimed that this was a custom that was derived from the accidental poisoning of King Beorhtric of Wessex by his wife, Queen Eadburh. Apparently the subsequent wives of kings were guilty by association - at least for a time! When Alfred died, Ealhswith was willed three of his important estates; she founded a convent at St Mary's Abbey, Winchester, and died three years later.

Answer: Complications of childbirth

The saga of Henry VIII and his six wives is well-known. Marrying Jane Seymour, his third wife, took some political maneuvering on Henry's part. The fact that Catherine of Aragon, who many still believed was the true Queen, had died helped his cause.

In addition, Anne Boleyn had just suffered another miscarriage, and Henry stated publicly that he had been bewitched into marrying her. She was executed a few days later. Why is Jane Seymour his match? Even though she was never actually crowned queen, she was the only wife who performed her 'real' duty, which was producing a male heir to the throne of England.

In addition, she was the only wife to receive a queen's burial and the only one buried next to Henry.

Answer: It was the first joint coronation in 175 years.

The daughter of Richard Neville, who was known as "The Kingmaker", Anne Neville became known as the Princess of Wales after she was engaged to Edward of Westminster, the son of King Henry IV. After his death at the Battle of Tewkesbury, the only English heir apparent to be killed in battle, Anne married Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who was the brother of Edward IV.

She became Queen of England when Richard declared his brother's sons illegitimate, and claimed the throne after his brother's death.

In 1483 they were crowned at a joint coronation - the first to take place in 175 years! Anne died two years later in March 1485; her husband, died five months later and is remembered (in part) as the last English king to be killed in battle.

Answer: The English people believed she was responsible for leading a coup against her husband.

Isabella of France was just about twelve years old when her father, King Philip IV of France, arranged for her to marry Edward II of England. He was twenty-four, and had an advisor, Piers Gaveston, whom he adored. In fact, it was said that Edward paid more attention to Gaveston at the wedding banquet than he did to his beautiful wife, and even gave him some of Isabella's jewelry! After Gaveston's death it appears that the couple lived together as husband and wife; each of the four children born is believed to have been fathered by Edward. He did, however, eventually have new favorites, Hugh de Despenser the Younger and other members of his family. So why was Isabella called the "She-wolf of France"? Eventually she was instrumental in leading a coup that deposed both the Despensers and her husband in favor of their son, who became Edward III.

And, for those of you "Braveheart" fans - unfortunately there was very little truth in the portrayal of Isabella in the movie. She was beautiful and bold, apparently, but her father-in-law, Edward the Longshanks, died before her marriage to his son, and William Wallace did too.

Answer: She visited sick and wounded soldiers in the hospital.

Mary of Teck was originally engaged to Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale; he died, however, shortly after the betrothal. She later became the wife of his brother, George, who in history is known as George V. Before she became "Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Empress of India", she held the titles Duchess of York, Duchess of Cornwall, and Princess of Wales. Mary was crowned with her husband, who became George V, in 1911; her actions during WWI gained her the respect of many when she instituted a policy of rationing in the household and visited sick and wounded soldiers in the hospital. Post-WWI politics proved to be complicated in England, with questions about Irish and Indian independence, as well as social issues. Mary became a trusted advisor to her husband, and by all accounts, he credited her with not only his success, but also with nursing him back to health, as he had serious lung problems.

After her husband died, Mary wished to be known as "Her Majesty Queen Mary".

She weathered the storm caused by the abdication of her son, Edward VIII, and supported her second son, who became George VI. George V and Mary are the beloved grandparents of Queen Elizabeth II. While Mary lived to see the death of her son, and the ascension of her granddaughter as Queen, she passed away ten weeks before Elizabeth's coronation in 1953.

Answer: The title was given by George VI on the morning of his wedding to Princess Elizabeth.

Although Philip and Elizabeth married in 1947, they met for the first time at a wedding in 1934 when she was eight years old and he was thirteen. It was in 1939, at another meeting, that Elizabeth fell in love with him and the two began to exchange letters.

While Elizabeth's father, George VI, gave the couple permission to marry, he asked that they wait until she was twenty-one. In order to marry the future Queen, Philip had to give up all his Greek and Danish titles, convert to Anglicanism, and take the surname, Mountbatten, from his mother's British family.

The morning of the wedding Philip received the title, Duke of Edinburgh, and others as well. Elizabeth became Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, a title she retained until the death of her father in 1952.

After the death of her grandmother, Mary of Teck, and the resignation of Winston Churchill as prime minister, who were both against changing the family name, the Queen issued an order that the male descendants would adopt the surname Mountbatten-Windsor. Obviously the couple has pressures that non-royals never have to think about; Philip famously commented "I am nothing but a bloody amoeba. I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his own children".

His service to his country, however, is undeniable; he is patron of over 800 organizations. It has been said (Queen's ex-Private Secretary Lord Charteris) that Philip is the only person who treats Elizabeth as if she is an ordinary person. Prince Harry commented on the importance of his grandfather's role, "Regardless of whether my grandfather seems to be doing his own thing, sort of wandering off like a fish down the river, the fact that he's there - I don't think that she could do it without him". In 1997, at a golden anniversary celebration, the Queen said, "He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know".

Answer: She never had a coronation because she was Roman Catholic.

Henrietta Maria of France, wife of Charles I, never had a coronation as Queen of England. Why not? She was Roman Catholic, and therefore was excluded from the Anglican service. She also struggled with using the English language, which she had never known until becoming Queen.

Her Catholic beliefs, however, which she openly practiced, earned her the distrust of the English people in addition to the fact that she spent a vast amount of money on personal items once she was married. Apparently her marriage to Charles had a bit of a rocky start. Once the huge group of retainers that came from France with her were sent back home and a check was put on her spending, it seems that "Maria" (the English called her Queen Mary) and Charles found some common ground and forged a loving relationship. Charles wrote letters to her that were addressed to "Dear Heart".

Historians still disagree as to how much influence Maria had over her husband during the course of the Civil War. It is known that when the war began, she was in the Netherlands trying to sell pieces of jewelry to help raise money for the Royalists; the death of Charles in 1649 left her almost broke and in grave danger.

She went into exile with their sons, who became Charles II and James II, and returned with them to England briefly during the Restoration. It is said that she never recovered from the shock of her husband's death, and wore mourning clothes for the remainder of her life.