Oh, a king Arthur did exist for real, but he had nothing in common with the hero of the saga. In fact it seems he was a ruffian not any better than most other local rulers of that time.
Britain has a high immigration, I wonder if different background of people being questioned could explain it.
On the other hand, we had polls amongst school students in Germany recently, revealing misconceptions like Merkel not being recognised as chancellor, USA originally having raised the Berlin wall, and Helmut Kohl having been the last head of state of the GDR - stuff like this.
Don't remember the exact numbers, though, but I think it was around one quarter to one third.
But they all knew the top ten of the handy ring tone charts. Hisotry lessons have been find to be too tough and demanding, so we have started an experiment that replaces history books - with a comic on the Nazi era. There is always a way to raise the mean value of school notes again - even if it means to lower the standard. Soon our students will shine with top notes in international comparison again. Just don't ask them questions.
