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50 free England trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
England covers about 62 percent of Great Britain, holds 84 percent of the UK's population and has not had a government of its own since 1707. It named itself after a Germanic tribe from Schleswig-Holstein, borrowed its flag from Genoa, and gave the world football, cricket, the jet engine and the common law. This quiz covers the country from the ground up: the Severn and the Thames, Scafell Pike and Windermere, the 48 ceremonial counties and the 50 cities, the record 40.3 °C at Coningsby. Then the history — Boudica, Æthelstan's unification in 927, Hastings, the Black Death, Bosworth, the Armada, Cromwell, the Bill of Rights and the first passenger railway — and the culture, from Capability Brown's gardens and Hammer Horror to Cooper's Hill cheese-rolling, the Proms and the 1966 World Cup final that 32 million Britons watched. Early questions suit anyone who has visited; later ones ask for dates, dimensions and the tribe Julius Caesar left a client king with. Fifty questions, every one sourced.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01England covers roughly what share of the island of Great Britain?
62%
It also includes more than 100 smaller adjacent islands, among them the Isle of Wight and the Isles of Scilly.
Q 02England's name comes from which Germanic tribe?
The Angles
They came from Angeln in today's Schleswig-Holstein; 'Englaland' means 'land of the Angles'.
Q 03What was England's population at the 2021 census?
About 56.5 million
That is 84 percent of the United Kingdom's total, with nine million in its largest city alone.
Q 04On what date did the Kingdom of England cease to be a separate sovereign state?
1 May 1707
The Acts of Union merged it with Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain; there has been no English government since.
Q 05Which is the oldest university in the English-speaking world?
Oxford
It dates to 1096; Cambridge followed in 1209.
Q 06Which poetic name for England was popularised by Arthurian legend?
Loegria
It relates to Lloegr, the Welsh word for England; Albion originally meant the whole island of Britain.
Q 07Julius Caesar's largely unsuccessful invasions of 55 BC left a client king from which tribe?
The Trinovantes
The Romans returned in force under Claudius in 43 AD.
Q 08Boudica, who rose against Rome, was queen of which tribe?
The Iceni
Her revolt ended with defeat at the Battle of Watling Street and her suicide.
Q 09Constantine was proclaimed emperor in 306 AD at Eboracum, the Roman name for which city?
York
Emperor Septimius Severus had died in the same city in the early 3rd century.
Q 10Which 664 gathering settled the Roman-versus-Celtic dispute over the date of Easter?
The Council of Whitby
It was ostensibly about tonsures and Easter but really about whose authority prevailed.
Q 11Which Anglo-Saxon kingdom under Alfred the Great was the only one to survive the Danish conquests?
Wessex
Its later kings expanded at the Danelaw's expense until Æthelstan unified the country in 927.
Q 12Who first accomplished the political unification of England, in 927?
Æthelstan
Eadred definitively secured it in 953 after further fighting.
Q 13Harold Godwinson beat a Norwegian army at which battle weeks before losing at Hastings?
Stamford Bridge
Harald Hardrada fell there in late September 1066; William of Normandy won on 14 October.
Q 21The National Health Service began operating on 5 July of which year?
1948
It followed the Beveridge Report and the National Health Service Act 1946.
Q 22How many MPs represent English constituencies in the 650-seat House of Commons?
543
After the 2024 election, 347 of them were Labour.
Q 23How many London boroughs make up the ceremonial county of Greater London?
32
The City of London is a separate ceremonial county on its own.
Q 24How wide is the sea gap separating England from France at its narrowest?
Q 14Starting in 1348, the Black Death killed up to what share of England's population?
Half
The Wars of the Roses followed a century later, from 1453 to 1487.
Q 15At which 1485 battle was the Yorkist king Richard III killed?
Bosworth
Henry Tudor won with Welsh and Breton mercenaries and founded the Tudor dynasty.
Q 16What was Walter Raleigh's failed 1585 colony in Virginia, England's first in the Americas, called?
Roanoke
It was found abandoned when the late supply ship returned and became known as the lost colony.
Q 17Who commanded the English fleet that harried the Spanish Armada in 1588?
Lord Howard of Effingham
Spain sent two more armadas in 1596 and 1597; Atlantic storms scattered both.
Q 18Oliver Cromwell declared himself Lord Protector in which year?
1653
His son Richard resigned the post, and Charles II returned at the Restoration of 1660.
Q 19Which 1689 statute barred the king from raising taxes or an army without Parliament?
The Bill of Rights
Since then no monarch has entered the Commons while it sits — hence the slammed door at the State Opening.
Q 20The world's first permanent steam-hauled passenger railway opened in 1825 between which two towns?
Stockton and Darlington
George Stephenson's Liverpool and Manchester line followed in 1830 as the first inter-city railway.
21 miles
The Channel Tunnel near Folkestone bridges it; it was completed in 1994.
Q 25Which is the longest river flowing through England, at 220 miles?
The Severn
The Thames, at 215 miles, is the longest river entirely within England.
Q 26England's highest point, Scafell Pike, rises to what height?
978 metres
It stands in the Lake District, which also holds Windermere, England's largest lake.
Q 27Which mountain chain is nicknamed the 'backbone of England'?
The Pennines
About 300 million years old, they contain the Yorkshire Dales and Peak District national parks.
Q 28England's record high temperature of 40.3 °C was set in 2022 at which Lincolnshire village?
Coningsby
The record low, −26.1 °C, was measured at Edgmond in Shropshire in January 1982.
Q 29How many settlements in England hold designated city status?
50
Size is not a requirement: Wells, Ely, Ripon and Truro are cities because of their cathedrals.
Q 30The Bank of England was founded in which year?
1694
It was private banker to the government until nationalisation in 1946.