Family Politics Trivia Quiz

Answer: Newcastle upon Tyne

The Duke of Newcastle had two terms of office as Prime Minister, from 1754 to 1756 and 1757 to 1762. He was a member of the Whig party and leader of the House of Lords during the majority of his younger brother's tenure as Prime Minister. The Whig Party controlled the government for most of the early to mid-18th century, having gained power due to their support for King George I during the Jacobite rising of 1715.

Pelham-Holles was given the title Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1715 at the age of 22. This revived a title previously held by his uncle, John Holles, whose surname he had added to his own in 1711 when he inherited his uncle's estate. He was also Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, a town in Staffordshire. (His dukedoms are spelled slightly differently from the places they represent. The Staffordshire town is actually known as Newcastle-under-Lyme, while Newcastle upon Tyne is usually spelt without the hyphens).

Answer: William Pitt

William Pitt the Elder was known as 'The Great Commoner' as he spent the majority of his political career as plain William Pitt, before accepting the Earldom of Chatham in 1766.

William Pitt the Younger had two terms as Prime Minister, firstly from 1783 to 1801 and then again from 1804 to 1806, before he died in office at the age of just 46. Pitt was one of the longest serving Prime Ministers, leading Britain through a large part of the Napoleonic Wars with France.

Sir Robert Walpole (in office from 1721 to 1742) is generally recognised as the first British Prime Minister, although the position was not actually given full legal recognition until 1937 when the 'Ministers of the Crown Act' was passed. Henry Addington was Prime Minister between Pitt the Younger's two terms in office, while John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams were both early Presidents of the USA.

Answer: Stamp Act

The Stamp Act, 1765 was one of the first attempts by the British government to impose direct taxation on the American colonies. Widespread protests and intimidation meant the tax was never successfully collected and the act was repealed almost exactly one year after it had been signed into law. The Stamp Act is generally listed as one of the causes of the American Revolution.

The three wrong answers were all acts introduced by a later Prime Minister, Lord North, in 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party, and generally known collectively (along with the Massachusetts Government Act and the Quebec Act) as the 'Intolerable Acts'.

Interestingly, George and William Grenville were closely related to William Pitt the Elder and William Pitt the Younger (the first father and son to both become Prime Minister). George Grenville's sister was married to Pitt the Elder and therefore William Grenville and William Pitt the Younger were first cousins.

Answer: Lord Castlereagh and George Canning

The Duke of Portland's first ministry lasted for only eight months in 1783. Although Portland held the role of Prime Minister, the government was effectively led by Lord North (the Home Secretary) and Charles Fox (the Foreign Secretary). The main achievement in this period was the signing of the Treaty of Paris to end the American Revolutionary War.

His second ministry floundered due to both his ill-health (he died only 26 days after leaving office) and the scandal caused when a disagreement between the Foreign Secretary (George Canning) and the War Secretary (Lord Castlereagh) got so out of hand that they ended up shooting at each other in a duel held on Putney Heath. The result was Canning being shot in thigh and both men being forced to resign!

Lords Eldon, Camden, Westmorland, Hawkesbury and Mulgrave, and Spencer Perceval, were all other ministers in the Duke of Portland's second government.

Answer: He was Britain's second Prime Minister

Spencer Compton was First Lord of the Treasury (a role now considered synonymous with Prime Minister) from 1742 to 1743, having taken over the position from Sir Robert Walpole. As a result he is considered to be Britain's second Prime Minister. However, he was actually leader of the government in name only and his time in office is usually referred to as the 'Carteret Ministry' after Lord Carteret, its true leader.

Although Spencer Compton sat in the House of Lords as Earl of Wilmington, the last Prime Minister to lead government from the Lords was the Marquess of Salisbury who had three periods in office, the last of which ended in 1902. The Prime Minister at the time of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 was the Earl of Liverpool, and Spencer Compton was actually Spencer Perceval's great-great uncle.

Answer: 1830 to 1834

Earl Grey is not just famous for the type of tea named after him. During his time in office he passed the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 which abolished slavery in (most of) the British Empire and was also responsible for passing the Reform Act of 1832, which introduced long called for parliamentary reform. The Act abolished many 'rotten boroughs', extended the franchise to cover about 1 in 6 adult men, and introduced voter registration. Despite its clear limitations, historians often point to this law as the start of modern democracy in Britain.

Earl Grey's affair with Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire - the wife of the 5th Duke, who was the son of the former Prime Minister - was portrayed in the 2008 film 'The Duchess', with Grey being played by Dominic Cooper.

Answer: Balfour

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (commonly known as Lord Salisbury) had three terms as British Prime Minister between 1885 and 1902, when he was succeeded by his nephew Arthur Balfour. Balfour had previously held a number of posts in his uncle's governments, including Leader of the House of Commons.

Lord Salisbury's promotion of his nephew to the position of Minister for Ireland in 1887 is a common suggestion for the origin of the phrase "Bob's your uncle", which is generally used to indicate something being successfully completed or achieved.

Wellesley was the Duke of Wellington's surname while Arthur Miller was a famous 20th century playwright.

Answer: Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill had a long career in politics before becoming Prime Minister at the age of 65 in May 1940, eight months after the start of the Second World War. He was an inspirational leader, declaring in his first speech to parliament after being appointed Prime Minister that he had "nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat" and in a later speech before the Battle of Britain that "we shall never surrender".

Sir Anthony Eden was the first divorced British Prime Minister, and his re-marriage to Clarissa Spencer-Churchill in 1952 caused some debate in the press, particularly since King Edward VIII's abdication due to his desire to marry a divorced woman was still relatively fresh in the public's memory. In addition to his family connection to Winston Churchill, Eden was also a distant relative of Earl Grey (Prime Minister from 1830 to 1834) through his mother's family.

Answer: John Major

Margaret Thatcher's appointment as Prime Minister on 4 May 1979 was a landmark for British politics, as she became the first woman to hold the office. She remained in power for over 11 years, and enjoyed varying degrees of popularity until she was ousted from office when Michael Heseltine challenged her for the leadership of the Conservative Party. However, Heseltine lost the resulting election to John Major, who was installed as Prime Minister on 28 November 1990. Thatcher died on 8 April 2013 at the age of 87.

Major's period in office saw some successes, such as the signing of the Maastricht Treaty (which created the modern European Union) and the start of the peace process in Northern Ireland. However, there were also some disasters such as 'Black Wednesday' when economic problems meant that the UK was forced to withdraw its currency from the Exchange Rate Mechanism.

In the early 1990s, genealogists discovered that Margaret Thatcher and John Major were both descended from a couple named John and Elizabeth Crust, who were mid-18th century Lincolnshire farmers. Apparently that made them fifth cousins, once removed.

Answer: David Cameron

Despite failing to secure a majority in the House of Commons at the May 2010 General Election, David Cameron (the leader of the Conservative Party) became Prime Minister by joining forces with the Liberal Democrat Party. The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, became Deputy Prime Minister. The coalition replaced the Labour government which had been in power since 1997 under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

David Cameron is the five times great-grandson of King William IV and his mistress, the actress, Dorothea Jordan. Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, was the great-great grandson of King Charles II and the Duchess of Cleveland. Illegitimate children of the King of England were often given the surname FitzRoy, as it originally meant 'son of the King'. However, William IV's children with Dorothea Jordan were given the surname FitzClarence as, at the time they were born, their father had not yet inherited the throne and was known as the Duke of Clarence.

Both men are descended from King James I of England (and VI of Scotland), making them fifth cousins, eight times removed.