The Jacobean England is Fun! Quiz

Who or what in the reign of James VI & I

James VI of Scotland and I of England has an uncomfortable position in English history sandwiched between Gloriana, the reign of one of Eng;and’s greatest monarchs, and the drama of the Civil Wars and the Interregnum. But he is unjustly dismissed as the bloke with the slobbery mouth and codpiece fiddler. Not only was he a canny politician, but he was an intellectual, unusually religiously tolerant. He left a range of publications – including Basilikon Doron, Daemonologie, and a number of poems.

So, to try to convince you that he and his reign are fascinating for their own reasons, rather than as an anteroom to somewhen else, here is a quiz for you of 17 questions about major events, people or buildings. Let’s be clear – this is not supposed to be fun, we’ve all been subjected to that old line at school – ‘Hey kids, learning can be fun!’ Harrumph. Sp this is supposed to be educational, not fun, just so you know. It is also both incomplete and random – but see how well you can do.

By the way to see the answer and progress to the next question, click the ‘Check’ button when you’ve supplied your answer.

 

26 thoughts on “The Jacobean England is Fun! Quiz

  1. I didn’t do as well as hoped….David, I will listen to the HofE from the beginning(again) …I promise to do better next time (sigh)

    1. Ha! Obviously cheating is in the finest tradition of the quiz. Sounds as though you need to work on the cheating skills?!

  2. I didn’t do as well as I expected to. “Pride goeth before a fall and a haughty spirit before destruction”, I guess.

    1. I did not know the whole quote, so this, Sarah, this is what they mean when they talk about the learning community!

  3. Good fun helped immensely having a daughter whose Cambridge M Phil in Early Modern England aided my attempt. Cheating, I think not!

  4. Great Quiz! I was a full 0.8 or so above average so feeling very proud of myself – I strive to reach the giddy heights mediocrity!

  5. Bottom of the leaderboard. Like most poor students, I blame my teacher. Just kidding, l love David. A big issue might be that I reside in the nation that’s undefeated in wars with England.

    1. I plead guilty! Though need to correct you on the last point of course, and raise 1812, where you got your arses kicked but then followed the time honoured protocol of declaring victory anyway…

  6. I confess that I had an advantage, having listened to James’ reign on Pax Britannica. That said, I should have done better than 11!

  7. Thanks for doing this… I did terrible, but it was fun, lots of guessing…poor guessing. I made the mistake of overthinking, and double guessing my first instinct, sure way to change the correct answer to the wrong one…it’s good for me to suck at something – keeps me humble! Take care!

  8. 11 of 17 – that’s what I deserve for getting all my historical knowledge of my ancestors’ homelands from Winston.

  9. As a Yank, I’m not that upset with my 9. I got two right because of listening to The History of England podcast!! But I think I got more right from just dumb guessing.

    1. It’s a triumph. And dumb guessing is much underrated anyway – you could call it instead an educated guess!

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