33 short questions and answers on history, based on the official handbook. Read them, then test yourself with the free mock tests.
William, Duke of Normandy, defeated King Harold. It was the last successful foreign invasion of England.
A charter King John was forced to agree to. It limited the king's power and established that even the king was subject to the law.
A plague in 1348 that killed about one third of the population of England.
A series of wars between England and France (1337–1453). England lost almost all its land in France.
A royal family starting with Henry VII after the Wars of the Roses. Famous Tudors: Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
Six. Remember: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.
The Pope refused to let him divorce Catherine of Aragon, so he set up the Church of England with himself as head.
A Catholic who became Queen of Scotland in 1542 as a baby and grew up in France. She was forced to give up the throne to her Protestant son, James VI, and fled to England. Elizabeth I held her prisoner for about 20 years and had her executed in 1587 for plotting against her. Her son James later became James I of England (1603).
A failed plan by Guy Fawkes and others to blow up the Houses of Parliament. It is remembered on Bonfire Night, 5 November.
A war (1642–1651) between Royalists (Cavaliers) supporting Charles I and Parliamentarians (Roundheads) led by Oliver Cromwell. Parliament won and Charles I was executed in 1649. Key battles: Marston Moor (1644) and Naseby (1645), both won by Parliament's New Model Army.
Protestant William of Orange replaced the Catholic King James II, who fled. William and Mary ruled together and Parliament's power grew.
Confirmed the rights of Parliament and limited the powers of the monarch.
United England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain, with one Parliament at Westminster. Scotland kept its own legal and education systems and church.
Sir Robert Walpole, from 1721 to 1742.
Britain's change from farming to industry from the mid-1700s. Key names: James Watt (steam engine), Richard Arkwright (factories).
William Wilberforce, an evangelical Christian and MP.
The slave trade was banned in 1807. Slavery itself was abolished across the British Empire in 1833.
A sea battle in 1805. The British navy defeated the combined French and Spanish fleets.
Admiral Lord Nelson commanded the British fleet at Trafalgar in 1805 and was killed in the battle. Nelson's Column stands in Trafalgar Square, London. His ship, HMS Victory, is in Portsmouth.
1832 Reform Act: many more men could vote and 'rotten boroughs' were abolished. 1867: more working men could vote. 1918: women over 30. 1928: women at 21, the same as men. 1969: voting age lowered to 18 for everyone.
1853–1856. Britain fought with Turkey and France against Russia. Florence Nightingale nursed the soldiers and is seen as the founder of modern nursing. The Victoria Cross medal was introduced during this war.
1837 to 1901. The British Empire grew to its largest during her reign.
Women over 30 in 1918. Women got the vote at 21, the same as men, in 1928.
Emmeline Pankhurst. The Suffragettes campaigned for women's right to vote.
1914–1918. It ended at 11am on 11 November 1918, which is why Remembrance Day is 11 November.
Winston Churchill, from 1940. He replaced Neville Chamberlain.
1939–1945. It began when Hitler's Germany invaded Poland in September 1939; Britain and France had promised to protect Poland, so they declared war on Germany. The Battle of Britain (1940) was fought in the air by the RAF. The war in Europe ended in May 1945.
6 June 1944: Allied forces landed in Normandy, France, to begin freeing Europe.
Labour Prime Minister from 1945 to 1951, after the war. His government created the NHS (1948), nationalised major industries like coal and railways, and gave India and Pakistan independence.
Independence was granted to nine countries, including India, Pakistan and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
1948. Aneurin (Nye) Bevan led its creation. It gives healthcare free at the point of use.
1973. The EEC later became the European Union, which the UK left in 2020.
The UK's first woman Prime Minister, Conservative, from 1979 to 1990. She was the longest-serving PM of the 20th century. Her government privatised industries, reduced trade union power and won the Falklands War (1982).