Wednesday, May 23, 2012

How Well Do You Know British History?: Part 2

Here are the next nine groups of questions from Part 1 of last year's Townsend-Warner Preparatory Schools History Prize.

Answer these questions on brothers in history:

a) Who were the mythological founders of Rome?

b) What was the supposed fate of Edward V and his brother, Richard?

c) What did Humphrey Gilbert and his half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, have in common?

d) Who were the nineteenth century writers of children’s fairy tales, based on European folk tales?

e) Which brothers are credited with the first powered flight?

f) What was the surname of brothers Jack, Bobby and Edward, who played a major role in American politics in the last fifty years?

5. Explain briefly what historical understanding you have of the following:

a) Lollards

b) Pilgrimage of Grace

c) Dissolution of the Monasteries

d) Pilgrim Fathers

e) Popish Plot

f) Hundred Days

g) Crystal Palace

h) Miracle of Dunkirk

i) Bletchley Park


6. Answer these questions on world history:

a) Who became the ruler of the Franks in 771 and was crowned in Rome as Emperor in 800, uniting much of western Europe for the first time since the Romans?

b) Who ruled a North Sea empire in the early 11th century, which included Norway, Denmark, southern Sweden and England?

c) What name is given to the series of religious wars waged over more than two centuries for control of the holy lands of the Middle East?

d) What famous city was first called New Amsterdam by the Dutch, before being  captured by an English fleet and renamed in honour of their commander, the future James II?

e) Which modern European state was officially created on 18th January, 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles?

f) What was responsible for the deaths of up to 70 million people worldwide in 1918-1919?


7. With what do you associate the following individuals?

a) Alexander Selkirk

b) James Wolfe

c) Thomas Jefferson

d) Henry Hunt

e) David Livingstone

f) ‘Chinese’ Gordon

g) Robert Louis Stevenson

h) Cecil Rhodes

i) Vincent van Gogh

j) James Keir Hardie

k) Millicent Fawcett

l) Sir John Jellicoe

m) Mrs Wallis Simpson

n) Anne Frank

o) Pandit Nehru

p) Fidel Castro

8. What events in British history took place in these years?

a) 1485

b) 1588

c) 1688

d) 1707

e) 1832

f) 1914


9. Identify the following individuals:

a) The Queen of the Iceni tribe who led a revolt against Roman occupation in AD 60?

b) The priest who is reckoned to be England’s first Christian martyr, killed for his faith?

c) The priest who wrote The Ecclesiastical History of the English People<\i>, finished in 731?

d) The king who defeated the Danes at the battle of Edington in 878?

e) The prince who drowned in the wreck of the ‘white ship’ in 1120?

f) The first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe?

g) The grandson of James I, who was born in Prague in 1619, served his uncle as a cavalry leader in the English Civil War and later his cousin as an admiral?

h) The leader of a failed rebellion in England in 1685 against James II?

i) The general for whom the architect Vanbrugh designed Blenheim Palace in the early 18th century?

j) The landscaper of parkland in 18th century England?

k) The youngest Prime Minister, appointed at the age of 24?

l) The 19th century engineer and designer of tunnels, railways and ships?

m) The first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons?


10. Answer the following questions on British history:

a) What event in 1666 destroyed 13,000 homes in London and perhaps left 70,000 homeless?

b) What trading company collapsed in 1720, causing thousands of individuals to go bankrupt?

c) With what revolution do you associate the slogan ‘No taxation, without representation’?

d) What was the purpose of the Luddite Riots of 1811-1812?

e) Between 1788 and 1868 about 150,000 people were forced to leave Britain and were transported to work in harsh conditions overseas. Where were they sent?

f) Which bridge collapsed in 1879, whilst a train was crossing it?

g) For the last ninety years what has been the flower symbol used each November to remember the dead of World War One?

h) What began in 1936 by transmitting from Alexandra Palace in north London to about 400 households?< i) What name is generally given to the period between September 1940 and May 1941, when Britain was under serious aerial bombardment?

11. What is the link between each of the following?

a) John Ball, Richard II, Wat Tyler

b) Josiah Wedgwood, Josiah Spode, Thomas Minton

c) John Burgoyne, Charles Cornwallis, William Howe

d) 1807, Olaudah Equiano, William Wilberforce

e) William Howard Russell, Florence Nightingale, Inkerman


12. Link up these famous individuals with the ships they sailed in:

a) Francis Drake

b) James Cook

c) Horatio Nelson

d) Charles Darwin

e) Robert Scott

Beagle

Endeavor

Golden Hind

Terra Nova

Victory

I missed a couple questions in sections 5, 7, 9 and 10, and one in section 11. Maybe I don't know quite as much British history as I thought. I did quite well with the medieval, Georgian, and Regency questions, but not as well with the 20th century questions.


How did you do? Would you win the prize?


Susannah