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50 free English Civil War trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The English Civil War was really three wars between 1642 and 1651, fought over whether a king answered to Parliament. It started with a prayer book riot in Edinburgh and a tax on inland counties, ran through Edgehill, Marston Moor and Naseby, and ended with Charles I beheaded outside the Banqueting House, his son hiding in an oak tree and England briefly a republic under a Lord Protector. These 50 questions cover the causes, the campaigns and the aftermath: ship money and the Petition of Right, the Five Members, Nottingham and Oxford, Prince Rupert and Cromwell's Ironsides, the New Model Army, the Engagement and the Second Civil War, Pride's Purge, the 59 commissioners, Drogheda, Dunbar and Worcester, and the Restoration of 1660. Easy questions stick to Cavaliers, Roundheads and the big battles; the expert tier asks about the Jersey proclamation, the first colony to recognise Charles II, the number of regicides executed and Hobbes's forgotten history of the war. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and comes with a short explanation that adds something. Play it solo or print it for a history night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which years was the war fought?
1642 to 1651
Historians often split it into First, Second and Third wars, all part of the wider Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
Q 02Supporters of the king were nicknamed what?
Cavaliers
The word shares a root with the Spanish caballero and had been an Elizabethan insult implying pro-Spanish sympathies.
Q 03Parliament's supporters got which nickname from some Puritans' cropped hair?
Roundheads
Generals on both sides actually wore their hair at much the same length.
Q 04Charles I was beheaded on a scaffold in front of which Whitehall building?
Banqueting House
The 59 commissioners had judged him a 'tyrant, traitor, murderer and public enemy'.
Q 05In which year was Charles I executed?
1649
The Second Civil War of 1648 had convinced the Army that no settlement with him was possible.
Q 06What title did Oliver Cromwell hold when he ruled from 1653 until his death in 1658?
Lord Protector
His son Richard inherited the post but the Army had little confidence in him and removed him within months.
Q 07What name was given to Parliament's reorganised national force of 1645?
New Model Army
Its disciplined pikemen stood their ground against cavalry charges that had scattered earlier Parliamentary forces.
Q 08Who commanded Parliament's new army of 1645, with Cromwell as his second-in-command?
Thomas Fairfax
A constitutional monarchist, he refused to have anything to do with the king's trial and resigned as head of the army.
Q 09Which June 1645 battle, followed by Langport, effectively destroyed the king's armies?
Naseby
Within a year Charles had given himself up to a Scottish army at Southwell.
Q 10What was the first pitched battle of the war, fought on 23 October 1642?
Edgehill
Both sides claimed victory; the stand-off at Turnham Green soon after pushed Charles back to his base at Oxford.
Q 11Rupert's first victory, a cavalry skirmish on the River Teme in 1642, was fought where?
Powick Bridge
About 1,000 Royalist horse beat Colonel John Brown's detachment in the first major skirmish of the war.
Q 12Where did Charles I raise the royal standard on 22 August 1642?
Nottingham
He had about 2,000 cavalry with him and used the archaic Commission of Array to build an army around the flag.
Q 13Which city served as Charles I's base for the rest of the First Civil War?
Oxford
At one point more members of the Commons and Lords sat in the king's parliament there than at Westminster.
Q 21What happened to Prynne, Bastwick and Burton in 1637 for pamphlets attacking Laud?
They had their ears cut off
It was a rare penalty for gentlemen and caused real anger.
Q 22According to legend, who began the 1637 Edinburgh riot against the new prayer book?
Jenny Geddes
The riot may have started in St Giles' Cathedral; within months the Scots drew up the National Covenant.
Q 23What February 1638 document set out Scottish objections to Charles's religious policy?
National Covenant
Framed as a 'loyal protest', it rejected any innovation not first tested by free Parliaments and General Assemblies.
Q 14Which July 1644 victory, won with Scottish help, gave Parliament York and the north?
Marston Moor
Cromwell's conduct there first marked him out as a serious military and political leader.
Q 15Which German-born nephew of Charles I commanded the Royalist cavalry?
Prince Rupert
He used a Dutch tactic: charge at full speed and fire pistols just before impact.
Q 16What nickname was given to the disciplined cavalry troop Cromwell formed in 1643?
Ironsides
Unlike Rupert's horsemen, who chased stragglers after a charge, they were trained to fight as a single unit.
Q 17Which 1645 measure made members of both Houses give up their military commands?
Self-denying Ordinance
Cromwell was the conspicuous exception, staying on as Lieutenant-General of Horse.
Q 18Critics called Charles I's rule without Parliament from 1629 a tyranny of how many years?
Eleven
To avoid calling Parliament he had to avoid war, so he made peace with France and Spain.
Q 19Which naval tax, extended to inland counties in 1634–36, sparked a famous test case?
Ship money
Seven judges to five found for the king in 1638, but the fines on refusers caused widespread anger.
Q 20Which Archbishop of Canterbury pushed High Anglican ceremony and was executed in 1645?
William Laud
He replaced wooden communion tables with stone altars and had Puritan critics arrested.
Q 24What is the assembly Charles recalled in 1640 and dissolved within weeks called?
Short Parliament
John Pym's majority wanted grievances aired before any money for a war on Scotland.
Q 25Which royal adviser, Earl of Strafford, was executed by Bill of Attainder in May 1641?
Thomas Wentworth
Charles had promised not to sign, then did so fearing for his family; Strafford was beheaded two days later.
Q 26On 4 January 1642 Charles entered the Commons with soldiers to arrest how many members?
Five
They had been warned and escaped; the failed arrest turned more people against him.
Q 27Which governor refused Charles entry to Kingston upon Hull and its arsenal in 1642?
John Hotham
Charles issued a warrant for his arrest as a traitor but had no way of enforcing it.
Q 28Whom did Parliament appoint to command its army of volunteers in June 1642?
Earl of Essex
His orders were to 'rescue His Majesty's person' from the desperate men around him.
Q 29Cromwell's 1648 defeat of Hamilton's Scots at which battle ended the Second Civil War?
Preston
Most of the fighting took place at Walton-le-Dale in Lancashire over 17–19 August.
Q 30What was the secret December 1647 treaty between Charles I and the Scots called?
The Engagement
The Scots undertook to invade England and restore him in return for church reform.