Homeschool History – The Restoration (2)

Londoners could also pop along to the west of St Paul's Cathedral to see all sorts of rare and exotic oddities, including Egyptian mice, the thighbone of a giant, and even mermaid skin – for a small price of course, this isn't free.

Word of warning: Some of this stuff was fake. When I say 'some of this stuff', I mean 'all of this stuff' was fake. There's no such thing as mermaid skin.

So there we go, a lovely day out in the reign of King Charles II – well, lovely apart from the hanging criminal bodies.

But, that does bring us to the end of our whistle-stop tour of the Restoration. So it's time now for a quick-fire quiz to see how much you've learned. Pens, laptops and tablets ready, whatever you need to write down the answers.

OK, there are 5 questions.

Question No. 1: Who had been Lord Protector after King Charles I was executed?

Question No. 2: Before returning to England to be king, where had King Charles II been living?

Question No. 3: During the Restoration theatres reopened ad women were finally allowed to act on stage. Which famous actress was also King Charles II's girlfriend?

Question No. 4: Charles ordered that the people who'd had his dad executed should be dug up and put on spikes. Now, what was the posh Latin word for them?

And question No. 5: What did King Charles unsuccessfully try to ban for fear that people were gossiping about him?

OK, here are the answers:

The answer to Question 1 was: Oliver Cromwell.

The answer to Question 2 was: the Netherlands and France.

The answer to Question 3 was: Nell Gwyn.

The answer to Question 4 was: the regicides – great name for a punk band.

The answer to Question 5 was: coffee houses.

How did you do in the quiz? Did you get 5 out of 5?

OK, if you didn't then that's OK but you can go back and listen to the show again as a podcast and see if you can get 5 out of 5 the second time around.

Hopefully you've enjoyed today's rambunctious romp through the Restoration and you've learned some stuff, too.

Tune in next time for some more Homeschool History with me, Greg Jenner, and make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode.

Thanks very much for listening, take care and goodbye!

This was a Muddy Knees Media production for Radio 4 and BBC Sounds. The script was by Emma Nagouse, Gabby Hutchinson Crouch and me, the producer was Ben Green and the historical adviser was Rebecca Rideal.