History

Question 1

Which playwright and anti-communist dissident became the last President of
Czechoslovakia, and after its breakup in 1993 the first President of the Czech
Republic?

Answer 1

Václav Havel

Question 2

Which Thomas, a Lord High Chancellor during the reign of King Henry VIII, was
the man for whom Hampton Court Palace was originally built? His appointment
as a Cardinal by Pope Leo X in 1515 gave him precedence over all English
clergy.

Answer 2

Thomas Wolsey

Question 3

Ruled by the first four successors of Muhammad, which 7th century empire was
the first of the Islamic caliphates, and saw rapid expansion and conquest of much
of the Middle East before being succeeded by the Umayyad caliphate in 661?

Answer 3

Rashidun Caliphate

Question 4

Which Nobel prize winning Chilean poet was also a politician, being elected
senator for the Communist Party in 1945 and later becoming a close advisor to
President Salvador Allende in the 1970s?

Answer 4

Pablo Neruda

Question 5

Which Islamic caliphate succeeded the Umayyads in 750 and ruled much of the
Middle East for five centuries, with their capital at Baghdad for the majority of that
time?

Answer 5

Abbasid Caliphate

Question 6

Which Thomas, a Lord High Chancellor during the reign of King Henry VIII, was
executed in 1535 for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy? He was canonised
as a martyr in 1935 and later declared the patron saint of politicians by Pope
John Paul II.

Answer 6

Thomas More

Question 7

Which battle of 490 BC, an Athenian victory over the Persians, had its result
famously reported by the herald Pheidippides?

Answer 7

Marathon

Question 8

What was the name of the Tudor pretender who claimed to be one of the princes
in the tower, Richard of Shrewsbury, to challenge the reign of Henry VII? He was
executed in 1499.

Answer 8

Perkin Warbeck

Question 9

What was the name of the Tudor pretender who claimed to be Edward
Plantagenet, becoming a figurehead of John de la Pole’s Yorkist rebellion? He
was pardoned by Henry VII due to his young age.

Answer 9

Lambert Simnel

Question 10

Which battle of 480 BC, ultimately a Persian victory over the Greeks, famously
included the heroic stand of king Leonidas and around 300 of his fellow Spartans
to delay the Persian armies?

Answer 10

Thermopylae

Question 11

Which archaeological hoax was a 10-foot tall figure, carved from gypsum, but
claimed to be a ‘petrified man’, and is named for the hamlet in New York state
where it was buried in 1868, rather than the Welsh city of the same name?

Answer 11

The Cardiff Giant

Question 12

Which museum and World Heritage Site in Lhasa, Tibet, was the winter palace of
the Dalai Lamas from 1649 to 1959?

Answer 12

Potala Palace

Question 13

The Mora was the flagship of which king of England? During his 1066 invasion, it
was reportedly so much faster than the rest of his fleet that he had time to stop
mid-Channel for breakfast with wine, to allow the rest to catch up.

Answer 13

William the Conqueror/William I

Question 14

Which ancient Roman festival, beginning on the 17th of December and lasting for
up to a week, was named for the God of agriculture? Some of its customs are
thought to have influenced later midwinter and Christmas festivities.

Answer 14

Saturnalia

Question 15

What era name is given to the period of Japanese history from 1926-89,
corresponding to the reign of Emperor Hirohito, who is also known by this name?

Answer 15

Shōwa

Question 16

Which ancient Roman festival of purification and fertility took place on the 15th of
February, and has a name thought to derive from the word for ‘wolf’? Some of its
customs are thought to have influenced the later romantic traditions of Valentine’s
Day.

Answer 16

Lupercalia

Question 17

Named after one of his military victories in the Civil War, the Naseby was a
flagship of which Lord Protector of England? After his death in 1658, it was
renamed the Royal Charles and was used to carry king Charles II back to Britain
for the restoration of the monarchy.

Answer 17

Oliver Cromwell

Question 18

What era name is given to the period of Japanese history from 1989-2019,
corresponding to the reign of Emperor Akihito, who is also known by this name?

Answer 18

Heisei

Question 19

Also known as the West Country Rebellion or Pitchfork Rebellion, the 1685 rebellion that culminated at the Battle of Sedgemoor is usually known by what name, after the Duke and eldest illegitimate son of Charles II who led it?

Answer 19

Monmouth Rebellion

Question 20

What two-word name is given to the series of trials of those involved in Monmouth’s rebellion, which were presided over by the notorious Lord Chief Justice George Jeffreys?

Answer 20

Bloody Assizes

Question 21

“Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you” were the words spoken by Alexander Graham Bell in his first demonstration of which invention, now an everyday device?

Answer 21

Telephone

Question 22

Justinian the Great and Theodora the Purple-Born were leaders of what Christian empire that was centred on Constantinople, and also known as the Eastern Roman Empire?

Answer 22

Byzantine Empire

Question 23

Suleiman the Magnificent and Mehmed the Conqueror were leaders of which Muslim empire, which seized Constantinople from the Byzantines in 1453 and lasted until the First World War?

Answer 23

Ottoman Empire

Question 24

Because of its greater contrast than human faces, a ventriloquist’s dummy called Stooky Bill was used by John Logie Baird in his first demonstration of which invention, now an everyday device?

Answer 24

Television

Question 25

What regnal name was shared by the kings who acceded to the English throne
in 1625 and 1660?

Answer 25

Charles

Question 26

What regnal name was shared by the kings who acceded to the British throne in
1714, 1727 and 1760?

Answer 26

George

Question 27

There is a tradition of leaving objects in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris in
honour of certain individuals. The tomb of which Frenchman who died in 1922 is
often adorned with distinctive shell-shaped sponge cakes?

Answer 27

Marcel Proust

Question 28

Which Queen of Castille, along with her husband, financed and authorised
Christopher Colombus’ first voyage to the New World?

Answer 28

Isabella I

Question 29

Which battle of 991 AD, that saw Anglo Saxons fail to repulse a Viking raid in
Essex, is the subject and title of an Old English poem of the same name?

Answer 29

Maldon

Question 30

The Spanish monarchy was de facto unified by the 1475 marriage of Isabella of
Castille to Ferdinand of which other kingdom?

Answer 30

Aragon

Question 31

The tomb of which 18th/19th century Frenchman in the Père Lachaise cemetery
is often adorned with potatoes? He heavily promoted them as a food and gives
his name to various potato dishes?

Answer 31

Antoine-Augustin Parmentier

Question 32

1881 also saw the assassination of which Russian tsar in an explosion caused by
the revolutionary socialist group Narodnaya Volya, whose name means ‘People’s
Will’?

Answer 32

Alexander II

Question 33

Which battle of 937 AD, the subject of an Old English poem in the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, saw King Aethelstan defeat an alliance of the kings of Dublin,
Strathclyde and Scotland? Its unknown location has caused much debate, with
one of several candidates being a village in the Wirral with a similar name.

Answer 33

Brunanburh