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British History Multiple Choice #2

Can you answer these multiple choice questions about the history of Great Britain?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: May 12, 2020
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First submittedMay 12, 2020
Times taken27,019
Average score73.3%
Rating4.35
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1. What group of people formed the priestly class in ancient Celtic society?
Druids
Gurkhas
Haruspices
Jesuits
2. What type of flower is a symbol of remembrance for World War One?
Orchid
Poppy
Rose
Tulip
3. Which monarch holds the record for the longest reign in British history?
Elizabeth II
Henry VIII
Victoria
4. What physical description is often associated with Richard III?
Blackbearded
Gigantic
Hunchbacked
Toothless
His remains were discovered in a Leicester car park in 2012. His spine showed severe scoliosis, proving the description at least partially apt.
5. What holiday did Parliamentary Puritans ban in 1647, replacing it with a day of fasting?
Christmas
Hallowe'en
New Year's Day
Valentine's Day
6. Which of these was not an actual coin minted in Great Britain?
Drachma
Farthing
Guinea
Shilling
The drachma is a former currency of Greece
7. Who was Winston Churchill talking about when he said "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few"?
The British cavalry at Waterloo
The codebreakers at Bletchley Park
The Royal Air Force
8. What does the archaic word "forsooth" mean?
Indeed
Long ago
On top of
9. True or False. The Black Death didn't have a major effect on the British Isles.
True
False
In addition to killing about half of the population, the Black Death caused major societal changes
10. What did Alexander Fleming discover in 1928?
Penicillin
Pluto
Protons
11. Which war did Richard the Lionheart fight in?
The English Civil War
The Hundred Years War
Third Crusade
12. Who were expelled from England in 1290, not being allowed to return until 1657?
Buddhists
Catholics
Jews
Muslims
13. What part of the British isles was ruled by Llywelyn the Great?
Cornwall
Isle of Man
Scotland
Wales
14. When did the United Kingdom return Hong Kong to China?
1901
1945
1997
15. Who was known as "The Lady with the Lamp"?
Emmeline Pankhurst
Florence Nightingale
Jane Austen
Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, carried a lamp while making her rounds checking on injured soldiers during the Crimean War
28 Comments
+11
Level 80
May 12, 2020
Not sure about the forsooth question belonging in a British history quiz, but otherwise good quiz!
+4
Level 79
May 13, 2020
Ever heard of Shakespeare?
+9
Level 72
May 13, 2020
So? there are a lot of words, some old some new, some still in use. I didn't stand out for me untill blizzard mention it, but I agree.

You could put 1+2 in a quiz and then say yes well they was a mathematician born in this country.

Just because words exists and a person that was born in that country used words is not a reason to put it on a quiz. Not even if that someone had a way with words and invented many himself. (And to be clear forsooth is not one of those words)

That said I don't mínd it being there, but if there was a question which of these might not belong on this quiz, the vocabulary one would be the answer ;)

+2
Level 47
Jul 6, 2020
History quiz, not literature quiz
+4
Level 79
Jul 7, 2020
@Sifhraven No, forsooth fits well on a British history quiz because it pertains well to British history.
+1
Level 39
Apr 25, 2021
I think a word like thee might be better or like a fill in the word from the Shakespeare quote
+2
Level 82
Apr 11, 2022
Yeah, I don't think it really belongs here. Other than the fact that the English language is from Britain, there's nothing that particularly links this word to the subject of British history, anymore than asking a calculus question on the grounds a British person was a principal figure in its development.
+2
Level 70
May 13, 2020
Good quiz, all round knowledge needed here.
+3
Level 73
May 13, 2020
Got all but the Churchill quote. I think the people from the second answer would have deserved it just as well.
+4
Level 57
Jul 6, 2020
Just so you know the answers are in a different order each time, so 'the second answer' isn't very helpful :)

the codebreakers were definitely deserving as well, I don't know anything about the battle of waterloo so I can't say whether they were also deserving.

+3
Level 82
Apr 11, 2022
Well the Battle of Waterloo only involved a small number of British (most of Wellington's army was German and Dutch, to make no mention of Blucher's Prussians), about 31,000. At the time Britain's population was around 19 million. Around 10,000 worked at Bletchley Park during WWII, and the UK's population was about 48 million. During the Battle of Britain, around 2,950 pilots and other aircraft crew were involved. Which gives us 0.163% of the population at Waterloo, 0.021% at Bletchley Park, and 0.006% in the Battle of Britain. I'd say, of these examples, Churchill's words should indeed apply to the Battle of Brtain - as they in fact did.
+1
Level 57
Sep 14, 2024
Especially since, arguably, the RAF during the Battle of Britain had a more consequential impact than the codebreakers at Bletchley Park did. Obviously this is debatable but anyway
+1
Level 79
Jul 7, 2020
Really? That's one of his most famous quotes, famously referring to The Few during the Battle of Britain.
+9
Level 58
Jul 11, 2020
Churchill would never have made a speech about the codebreakers of Bletchley Park because it was a tightly-kept state secret. It wasn't until the last 1970s (i.e. a decade after Churchill's death) that it became public knowledge.
+2
Level 74
Jul 6, 2020
I'm surprised at how many people missed Christmas. It's legit the only answer that makes sense.
+1
Level 76
Jul 6, 2020
Minor point: I would change the question to "The Black Death had a major effect ....". True/false questions can be confusing when the statement is a negation.
+1
Level 86
Jul 6, 2020
Floridian here, but only missed the Florence Nightingale question. Thought the lamp lady must have something to do with the fog or the Great Smog.
+6
Level 74
Jul 6, 2020
Easy one for me. The oil lamp is a symbol of the nursing profession. When my husband was in nursing school, during their pinning ceremony at graduation each classmate was given a ceramic replica of Nightingale's oil lamp. Someone had the good sense at some point to replace them with penlights - much less chance of dripping oil on sleeping patients. :)
+1
Level 45
Jul 10, 2020
Love this! Yeah easy for me too, I grew up learning the same ‘cause my auntie is a nurse :)
+1
Level 67
Jul 6, 2020
First attempt, only had the forsooth question wrong. It ended up the one I thought i might mean, but i guessed the one i felt a bit more sure about. pretty pleased for a first attempt. :) (i'm not British by the way, just for context).
+1
Level 67
Jul 6, 2020
I never knew Nightingale was British. I assumed she was American because we learned about her in primary school. Not that she isn't worthy of repute, but it's odd to me that American history books (or at least mine) plucked her among so many other British people whom we never learn about. Usually it's just kings, government leaders, and military leaders.
+1
Level 39
Oct 31, 2020
Ah, dumb of me, misread Elizabeth II as Elizabeth I
+3
Level 73
Sep 23, 2021
Just a little point, although it wouldn’t make any difference to how you’d answer the question, but might be of interest to someone: The poppy’s origins as a symbol of remembrance certainly are in the First World War. It’s said that the fields of Flanders bloomed with millions of poppies after the war was over - sounds daft, but the finale of Blackadder represents this in a surprisingly heartfelt and poignant way. However, it is now taken as a symbol of remembrance for ALL wars including and since the First World War, whether that’s WWII, the Falklands, Gulf, Afghanistan etc. and we are very, very serious about how we honour and remember our war dead. I happen to think that it’s one of our remaining uniting qualities: we can be very vocal and demonstrative in opposition to war, or other overseas actions, but nonetheless uphold our traditions of remembrance and respect to the fallen, recognising the line between politics and duty -something you’ll find very little disagreement on here.
+1
Level 79
Oct 26, 2021
'Forsooth' is the only question in this series I missed.
+1
Level 79
Apr 11, 2022
Too America-centric. Brits would never end a question with a preposition!
+1
Level 63
Apr 11, 2022
15/15 thanks for the 5 points
+1
Level 57
Apr 11, 2022
Is the poppy a Britain-only thing then?? I had no idea.
+1
Level 68
Apr 11, 2022
Poppies are worn throughout the british commonwealth. In Australia and New Zealand on ANZAC Day (25 April) which serves as their remembrance day being the anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli. In both those countries that date was very formative in their sense of nationhood. the day is a national holiday and is widely observed even over 100 years later with people turning out to observance ceremonies in their tens of thousands.

Other countries to adopt the poppy include USA and Ukraine.