Lesson Y7-U06-L05

Y7-U06-L05 The Spanish Armada & Tudor Society Quiz: KS3 History, Unit 6

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y7-U06-L05, The Spanish Armada & Tudor Society: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 History (National Curriculum), Unit 6: Year 7: The Tudors, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. In what year did the Spanish Armada sail against England?

    • 1588
    • 1558
    • 1649
    • 1603

  2. Which Spanish king sent the Armada against England?

    • Philip II
    • Charles V
    • Ferdinand II
    • Henry VIII

  3. What was the planned role of the Armada?

    • To escort an invasion army across from the Netherlands, led by the Duke of Parma
    • To sink all English ships in one great battle at sea close to the city of London
    • To deliver a magnificent gift of gold and silver coins to Queen Elizabeth I in person
    • To carry English prisoners and treasure back across the sea to the court of Spain

  4. What was a fireship?

    • An old ship set on fire and steered into an enemy fleet
    • A ship that carried only soldiers for boarding
    • A warship powered by steam engines
    • A merchant ship that traded in silk

  5. What did England send into the anchored Armada at Calais?

    • A flotilla of wooden castles
    • Two hundred ships full of soldiers
    • Eight burning fireships
    • A giant floating chain

  6. Which battle saw English guns batter the broken Spanish formation after the fireships?

    • Battle of Hastings
    • Battle of Culloden
    • Battle of Bosworth
    • Battle of Gravelines

  7. What did Protestants call the storm that scattered the Armada?

    • The Calais Storm
    • The Catholic Tempest
    • The Spanish Gale
    • The Protestant Wind

  8. Which event was one reason Philip II launched the Armada?

    • Elizabeth's execution of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1587
    • A Dutch invasion of Spanish ports in 1566
    • An English attack on Spanish wool merchants in 1550
    • A Scottish invasion of Spanish colonies in 1570

  9. Why did the Armada's northern route home make the losses worse?

    • The English navy blockaded the northern route with chains
    • Without anchors, the fleet could not stop itself from being wrecked on rocks in storms
    • The route passed through Spanish ports that refused to shelter the fleet
    • The ships were too heavy to sail north and had to be abandoned at once

  10. What does the word 'vagrant' mean in Tudor England?

    • A poor, homeless person with no job, wandering to look for work
    • A servant who worked in a grand manor house and was paid a small wage each year
    • A soldier who fought on the Armada and returned home to his village in Devon
    • A rich merchant who owned several ships and traded goods across the wide seas

  11. Which belief said God had ordered society from top to bottom?

    • The Doctrine of Transubstantiation
    • The Great Chain of Being
    • The Poor Law
    • The Act of Supremacy

  12. What was the main effect of the 1601 Elizabethan Poor Law?

    • It banned vagrancy completely and made begging a legal right for the poorest people
    • It gave the poor the right to vote in parish meetings and to choose the local constable
    • It ended all taxes on the rich and abolished the property rights of the nobility
    • It made each parish collect a tax to help its own poor, instead of relying only on charity

  13. Which group was at the very top of Tudor society?

    • Labourers and servants
    • Merchants and yeomen farmers
    • Craftsmen and vagrants
    • The monarch, nobles and rich gentry

  14. A family lives in a one-room cottage of mud and straw and eats bread and pottage. Which group do they belong to?

    • The rich at the top of the social pyramid
    • The merchants in the middle of the social pyramid
    • The poor at the bottom of the social pyramid
    • The nobility who owned manor houses

  15. Under the 'significant' rule, which combination makes an event significant?

    • Caused by the English alone, without any help from foreign powers or allies
    • Recorded on a medal or a coin that was struck to commemorate the great event
    • Short, exciting and well-known events that are remembered by the whole country
    • Big effects, on many people, for a long time

  16. Which group in Tudor England was MOST likely to be described as 'deserving' poor and given charity?

    • Old people, the sick and children who could not work
    • Sailors who had fought in the Armada and returned home badly injured
    • Merchants who had lost their money at sea in a storm off the coast
    • Fit adults who refused to take any work when it was offered to them

  17. Source A says God 'blew with His winds'. Why might English people in 1588 have liked this message?

    • It credited God for victory and made England seem blessed as a Protestant nation
    • It showed the English navy had no part in the victory at all, only the weather
    • It proved the Spanish had won the battle at sea before the storms arrived
    • It was a medal made by Philip II to celebrate his proud and mighty fleet

  18. Why was the Armada's planned meeting with Parma's army so risky?

    • There was no deep, safe port in which the two forces could wait to join up
    • Parma had already invaded England and been defeated before the Armada had left Spain
    • The Armada had no guns on board, so it could not fight back against English ships
    • Parma's army was in Scotland, far from the Armada, and could not be reached in time

  19. What was the main advantage of smaller, faster English ships in the battles of 1588?

    • They could carry more soldiers on board for close fighting and boarding attacks
    • They could sail across dry land on wooden rollers to escape enemy warships
    • They could fire longer-range cannon from a distance instead of being boarded
    • They had heavier armour plating to survive collisions with the larger galleons

  20. Which single factor killed the MOST Spanish sailors and destroyed the most ships overall?

    • The English fireships at Calais
    • The Spanish plan to meet Parma
    • The storms around Scotland and Ireland
    • The cannon at the Battle of Gravelines

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