How much do you know about the mottoes of monarchs and their consorts? Test yourself with this fun quiz.
Mottoes Quiz
Correct! Katherine Parr was Henry VIII's sixth and final wife.
Wrong! It was Katherine Parr, Henry VIII's sixth and final wife.
Correct!
Wrong! It's "Humble and loyal".
Correct!
Wrong! It's "humble and reverent".
Correct!
Wrong! It was Katherine Howard's.
Correct!
Wrong! It was Richard III's.
Correct!
Wrong! It was "Ainsi sera, groigne qui groigne", or Grumble All You Like, This is How it's Going to Be .
Correct! It was semper eadem, always the same.
Wrong! It belonged to Elizabeth I. In Latin , it was semper eadem.
Correct! She embroidered the motto while she was a prisoner in Elizabeth I's reign.
Wrong! Mary, Queen of Scots, embroidered the motto while she was a prisoner in Elizabeth I's reign.
Correct!
Wrong! The answer is Mary I.
Correct! They mean "comfort and joy" and "method and order"
Wrong! It's Comfort et liesse, comfort and joy, and modus et ordo, method and order.
Elizabeth 1st had a political motto as well which was “video et taceo.”. Basic translation is “I see all and say nothing” Actually this seems to sum Elizabeth up very well, whatever she saw as a child or in the wilderness years before she became Queen must have played a big part in her life.
Really? Mary I used “Truth, the daughter of time”??? That’s straight out of Aulus Gellius’ _Attic Nights_ (Aulus Gellius was an author of the ancient Roman Empire who is relatively unknown these days since classic antiquity is out of vogue these days). Of course the expression got a lot of common currency because of Josephine Tey’s _Daughter of Time_ murder mystery book about the princes in the Tower (what? You hadn’t figured out I’m a Richardian yet?). I confess, I was guessing on this one…but Mary used it? Awesome. I guess she read Aulus Gellius at some point in her education.
Here’s a link to a photo of the arms of Philip and Mary at Windsor Castle which has the motto on it – https://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/archives/archive-features/image-of-the-month/title1/royal-arms-of-philip-and-mary.html. Yes, I remember that Tey book.