F Is for Fugger Trivia Quiz

Answer: Falkirk

Falkirk is a town in Scotland, on the Antonine wall that marked the north frontier of the Roman occupied England. On the stretch of about 50 km (30 miles) between the Firth of Forth in the east and the Firth of Clyde in the west, there were almost 30 fortifications built by the Romans, which evolved to present-day Scottish towns.

In 1298 the Scots fought the English to obtain independence, and more importantly, to avoid paying taxes to the English king Edward I or having to contribute soldiers to the English army. The Scots defeated the English near Stirling Bridge in September 1297. But Edward I prepared his revenge. In July 1298 an English army of approximately 15,000 troops confronted a Scottish army of about 6,000 troops. The exact site of the battlefield is not clear, but probably the battle was fought outside Falkirk, between the Glenburn river and the Callendar Wood. The English cavalry routed the Scottish archers, but could not chase away the Scottish pike men - until the English archers decimated them. All in all there were about the same amount of casualties on both sides, but the First Battle of Falkirk is considered a victory for the English.


In 1746, during the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, the Scots supported the claims of James Stuart (son of James II) to the British thrones, which King George III held firmly. January 1746 saw the confrontation between an English army of about 8,000 troops and a Jacobite army of about 7,000 troops. The Jacobite troops routed the English, but they didn't exploit the victory in the aftermath.

Answer: Finland

Mannerheim (1867-1951) started his career as an officer in the Russian army between 1887 and 1917. Because of different political views with the Bolshevik revolutionaries, Mannerheim was fired as Russian general and offered his services to Finland when it declared independence from Russia in 1917. Mannerheim tricked a larger Russian army into surrendering, and when the German-backed Finnish king Frederick Charles abdicated, Mannerheim was chosen as Regent awaiting elections.

After losing the first Presidential election, Mannerheim chose to withdraw from politics, heading the Finnish Red Cross instead. In 1933 he resumed his military career again (this time for his home country Finland), and in 1939 Mannerheim was appointed commander in chief. In August 1944, after concluding a peace treaty with Russia, Mannerheim was chosen as President of Finland for five years. But due to his advanced age and various ailments, he would step down in March 1946.

Answer: Fabian Society

Between the 1680s and the 1850s, the United Kingdom knew only two political movements: the Tories (which evolved to the Conservative Party) and the Whigs (the later Liberal Party). But around 1850, Karl Marx and others preached in favour of the working class. Marx and his followers (then called socialists, nowadays indicated with the denomination communists) wanted to have a revolution in which the capitalist free-market was destroyed and a classless society would be installed. A bit later there were other people who wanted to better the conditions of the working class, but without a violent transition: the people whom we would call nowadays socialists.

In 1883 Thomas Davidson gathered a number of intellectuals and founded the Fellowship of the New Life. A year later, the group split, and a large part continued as the Fabian Society to promote nationalisation of the industry and agricultural lands, equality between men and women, public authority over the entire school system... In 1900 the Fabian society helped to found the British Labour party, but the Fabian society did not disappear after the founding of the party. Instead the Fabian society evolved to a think tank where various ideas for Labour are discussed.

Farabundo is a political party in El Salvador. Fidesz is Hungarian. "Free Democratic Party" is the translation in English of the full name of the German FDP (Freie Demokratische Partei).

Answer: Ferdinand Foch

The rank of Maréchal de France is the French equivalent to a field marshal in several countries: the highest rank in the army, above a general. The USA don't have field marshals, but their highest ranking officer is the general of the army (a five-star general). The Maréchal de France is named a six-star general, but his insignia show seven stars.

Ferdinand Foch was born in 1851. In 1870 he started his military career in the infantry, but did not see any action during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. After this war, Foch followed the officer's courses for artillery (1871-1873) and took the rank of lieutenant. The next few years he took courses in the cavalry school. He rose rapidly through the ranks, and became a general in 1907. In 1917 Foch replaced Philippe Pétain as commander in chief of the French army, and in March 1918 he was promoted to coordinate the French, British and American forces on the western front.

Du Merle was Maréchal de France from 1302 to 1314. De Foix was Maréchal de France from 1511 till 1528. François de Montmorency was Maréchal de France from 1559 until 1579.

Answer: Florence

Florence was founded by the Romans, probably about 59 BC, about halfway between Rome and Milan. Up till about 1000 AD, it was a settlement of little importance. But then the Tuscan margrave moved his capital from Lucca to Florence, and Florence developed to an independent city. In 1115 Florence became a Republic, with in fact an oligarchic rule.

Cosimo de' Medici (1389-1464) was de facto the sole ruler of Florence between 1434 and 1464. He spent much of his wealth to patronize the Renaissance art in Florence, with commissions for the bronze David sculpted by Donatello and the dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore by Brunelleschi.

Cosimo was succeeded by his son, Piero, and his grandson, Lorenzo. Lorenzo (1449-1492) was such a grand patron of the arts that he earned the nickname "Il Magnifico" (the Magnificent).

Answer: Joseph Fouche

Joseph Fouché (1759-1820) started his political career as an anti-royalist member of the Assemblée Nationale from 1792 until 1795. Having complotted against Robespierre (the more or less absolute leader in 1794), it was not Fouché but Robespierre who literally lost his head. From 1799 until 1810 Joseph Fouché was Minister of Police in France and acted harshly on any complots. He was dismissed by Napoleon in 1810 because of some political differences, but came back to his former Ministry twice in 1815.

Leon Faucher (1803-1854) was Minister of the Interior in France in 1848-1849 and in 1851. Victor Fialin, duc de Perigny (1808-1872) was Minister of the Interior in France in 1852-1854 and in 1860-1863. Forcade la Roquette (1820-1874) was Minister of the Interior in France in 1868-1870.

Answer: Jakob Fugger

Jakob Fugger (1459-1525) was born into the Augsburg family of Fugger, a family that came to great wealth via the textile industry - the patriarch Hans Fugger (1350-1408) was a weaver. Jakob diversified into banking, mining (for copper) and housing. His project for housing poor Augsburg citizens in cheaper buildings was started in 1523 and is still in use 500 years later. Jakob Fugger was one of the richest persons ever: his personal property at one time exceeded 2% of the wealth of the whole known world.

Marcus Goldman founded an investment bank in New York in 1869. As his son-in-law Samuel Sachs joined his forces a few years later, Goldman renamed the bank Goldman-Sachs. Mayer Rothschild founded an eponymous bank in the decade 1760-1770. It soon split in different branches. In 1690 John Freame and Thomas Gould started a bank in London. This bank was renamed Barclays, after Freame's son-in-law James Barclay.

Answer: Frederick I of the Holy Roman Empire

Frederick I (1122-1190) became Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1155. He was portrayed with a red moustache and beard, hence his nickname Federico Barbarossa (in Italy) or Kaiser Rotbart (in Germany). In some portraits the beard was finely trimmed, in other his beard reached down to halfway his chest. Most historians agree that Frederick died on the Third Crusade by drowning in a river, but legend has it that he is not dead at all: he would be asleep in the Kyffhäuser Mountains in Thuringia, only to awake when Germany is in great peril.

Fyodor III of Russia (1661-1682) was only portrayed clean shaven, although on one of his portraits he wore a fine brown moustache. He seems to have had no nickname at all. Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452-1516) was nicknamed Ferdinand the Most Catholic King and Ferdinand the King of Jerusalem (although he never controlled that city). According to one of his portraits, he had a grey or black five-o-clock shadow beard. Ferdinand's number may vary: he was Ferdinand II of Aragon, Ferdinand I of Navarre, Ferdinand III of Naples and even Ferdinand V of Castile and Leon. Francis I of France (1494-1547) had several nicknames. The one that refers to his outer appearance was rather belittling: "François au grand nez", literally "Francis with the Big Nose". He was portrayed with a finely trimmed black beard.

Answer: Fenian Brotherhood

If you noticed the title and the introduction to this quiz, you should have eliminated all answers that don't start with the letter F.

In 1848 John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny were two of the leaders of an Irish rebellion. The British troops soon quelled the rebellion, and most leaders had to flee abroad. O'Mahony and Doheny ended up in the USA, where they came up with a daring plan. They founded the Fenian Brotherhood, printed Irish war bonds (to be repaid six months after the Irish independence) and bought large quantities of rifles.
In 1866 - 1867 some hundreds members of the Fenian Brotherhood crossed the American - Canadian border with the intent of occupying the Canadian railroads and swapping them for Ireland, thus obtaining Irish independence. The British troops in Canada and the American authorities joined forces against the Fenian Brotherhood, and thus this "invasion" was halted quite soon. In 1867 Fenians tried to invade Cork in Ireland, but missed local support and thus failed once again.

Right to Change was a left-wing Irish party with ideas based on trade unionism. It was founded in 2020. People Before Profit/Solidarity was an alliance of two socialist movements aspiring the reunification of the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, the abandonment of the capitalist free market and an environment-friendly socialism. The alliance was formed in 2015. Aontu was an Irish political party founded in 2019. Its ideology was social conservatism.

Answer: Fontainebleau

The castle of Fontainebleau has given its name to about a dozen treaties that were signed there, the first one being signed in 1631. This question is about the 1814 treaty, the eleventh treaty signed in Fontainebleau.

Napoleon, who once conquered almost the entire mainland of Europe, faced several defeats in 1813-1814. The alliance led by Austria, Prussia, Russia and the UK (with support of Sweden and some minor German states) had conquered Paris in March 1814. When the French senate voted to oust Napoleon and all of his family, Napoleon offered to abdicate in favour of his (still minor) son, with Empress Marie-Louise as regent. The allied powers refused, and finally Napoleon convened with Austria, Prussia and Russia that he would abdicate, that the whole family Bonaparte would be excluded eternally from governing France, and that Napoleon himself would go into exile to Elba - the island that would temporarily be exalted to a principality under Napoleon's sovereignty.

The Treaty of Fontainebleau (1814) was signed by Prince Metternich for Austria, Count Nesselrode for Russia and Baron Hardenberg for Prussia on the one hand, and the French marshals Caulaincourt, Ney and Macdonald on the other side.

The Treaty of Fotheringhay (1482) was a secret agreement between king Edward IV of England, Alexander Duke of Albany and Richard Duke of Gloucester to gather an army to invade Scotland with the ambition of gaining the Scottish throne for Alexander (who, by the way, was the younger brother of the Scottish king James III). The Treaty of Frankfurt (1489) was signed by Maximilian of Austria on the one side, and Charles VIII of France on the other side. The Treaty of Füssen (1745) made an end to Bavarian support to France in the War of the Austrian Succession.