91 questions
Each test holds the same questions every time, so you can take them in any order.
This theme follows the crown from the first rulers of Britain to the King on the throne today. Its questions come from two different parts of the handbook, the history chapter and the chapter on government, so practising them together puts the whole story in one place rather than in two.
Most of the weight sits in the Tudor and Stuart years. Henry VIII and his six wives, his children Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, then the civil war between Cavaliers and Roundheads, the execution of Charles I in 1649, Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector, Charles II invited back from exile in 1660, and the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
Before that come the earlier rulers the handbook names, among them the Roman invasion under Claudius, Boudicca, Alfred the Great, the Danish kings and the Danelaw, and William the Conqueror and the Domesday Book. After it come George I and the Hanoverians, the Jacobites and Queen Victoria. The last part of the theme is the monarchy as it works now.
Most are plain recall. A name, a year, a title, a religion, or which side someone was on. A smaller number ask for an exact figure, such as an age or the length of a reign, and those are the ones worth a second look while you revise.
The modern questions are different in kind. They ask what the monarch actually does. The UK is a constitutional monarchy, which means the King reigns but does not govern. He is head of state, Acts of Parliament are made in his name, he opens each new session of Parliament, and he meets the Prime Minister regularly. Hold on to that one idea and several questions answer themselves, including the ones on the title the next in line holds, the national anthem, and the oath and affirmation a new citizen makes.
Two women called Mary. Mary, the Catholic daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, became known as Bloody Mary because Protestants suffered badly under her. Mary, Queen of Scots was somebody else, a Catholic queen of Scotland and Elizabeth I's cousin, whom Elizabeth held prisoner for years. Read the whole name in the question before you choose.
Two queens called Elizabeth. Elizabeth I was Protestant and died in 1603. Elizabeth II began her reign in 1952. Charles III became sovereign in 2022.
Three dates that sit close together. 1649, 1660 and 1688. Tie each one to what happened rather than learning the numbers on their own.
The six wives. Questions here ask about one wife in particular, so the order is worth knowing. Catherine of Aragon came from Spain and was first. Anne Boleyn was second and was Elizabeth I's mother. Jane Seymour gave Henry the son he wanted. Anne of Cleves was a princess of Germany. Catherine Howard was Anne Boleyn's cousin. Catherine Parr was still alive when he died.
One answer the world has moved past. The handbook was written while Queen Elizabeth II was on the throne, and it says that no British monarch before Victoria had reigned longer. Elizabeth II passed that record in 2015 and reigned for more than seventy years. The test still marks the handbook's answer correct, so answer the book. When a question like this one comes up in practice, a Worth knowing note appears beside the answer with the current fact, so you learn both.
Pick this one if the Tudor and Stuart names and dates are where your practice score drops, or if the questions about the King and Parliament still feel vague. It overlaps with Wars and Battles and with Religion and Beliefs where the crown, the church and the battlefield are the same story, but the questions themselves barely repeat, so neither of those tracks will cover this one for you. If the whole history chapter is the problem rather than the crown, the wider track is chapter 3.