A Categorically Princely Quiz - Part Two

Answer: Niccolò Machiavelli

Machiavelli lived from 1469 to 1527 and is believed to have completed 'The Prince' around the year 1513. In addition to his work as a writer of historical, political and philosophical treatises, he was also heavily involved in the government of the Florentine Republic - the state that was centred on the city of Florence and existed from 1115 to 1532 before becoming a monarchy and then ultimately part of a unified Italy in the 19th century.

'The Prince' was basically a 'How to Rule Your Country' handbook for would-be princes. Advice in it ranged from 'how to go about conquering your neighbours' to the 'qualities' required of a good prince - such as being good at going to war or to be seen to be good, merciful and religious (but not actually bothering to be any of them in practice). Most famously perhaps he also put forward the guidance: "it is far safer to be feared than loved if you cannot be both".

The incorrect options are all Italian writers from the 13th or 14th centuries.

Answer: Barbra Streisand

'The Prince of Tides' tells the story of a man named Tom Wingo (Nick Nolte) who is forced to revisit his troubled and violent childhood in order to help his suicidal sister. Along the way he also meets and falls in love with her psychiatrist (Streisand), leaving him with a painful decision to make over his future with his wife and children. The film was based on a novel of the same title by Pat Conroy.

The seven Academy Award nominations for 'The Prince of Tides' included Best Picture, Best Actor (for Nick Nolte) and Best Supporting Actress (for Kate Nelligan as Tom's mother). Unfortunately though the team behind the film left the ceremony empty-handed - by contrast the connections of 'The Silence of the Lambs' walked away with five statuettes to show for their seven nominations...

The incorrect options are all other actresses who have directed themselves in various films.

Answer: Batdance

Prince, whose full name is Prince Rogers Nelson, first hit the music charts in the late 1970s and went on record numerous hits in the 1980s and 1990s. He has also written hit songs for other artists such as Sinead O'Connor's 'Nothing Compares to U' and The Bangles' 'Manic Monday'. However, he is also known for changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol in 1993 after a legal dispute with his record company over the use of the name 'Prince'. Although he subsequently changed it back, the phrase "the artist formerly known as Prince" will probably stick in people's minds for a long time!

'Batdance' topped the US singles charts for one week in August 1989. It was written for one of the soundtracks to the film 'Batman', which starred Michael Keaton as the "caped crusader" and had been released in the US a couple of months previously. In fact, Prince performed and wrote all of the songs on the soundtrack in question (in collaboration with Sheena Easton and John L. Nelson for two of the tracks) and that album spent six weeks at number one on the US Billboard 200 album chart in July and August 1989.

'Purple Rain', 'Raspberry Beret' and 'The Most Beautiful Girl in the World' were all songs by Prince, but none of them reached the number one spot at any time during the 1980s.

Answer: Prince Richard, Duke of York

The title of Duke of York has traditionally been granted to the second son of the English monarch since it was given to King Edward IV's ill-fated son, Prince Richard, in 1474. However, the title dates back to the 14th century when it was granted to Edmund of Langley, the fourth surviving son of King Edward III.

Prince Richard, also known as Richard of Shrewsbury after his birth-place, was just nine years old when he accompanied his elder brother into the Tower of London after the death of their father in 1483. Contemporary accounts record initial evidence of the two young brothers playing together in the Tower's grounds, but after their uncle had them declared illegitimate and took the throne for himself they were seen less and less often and the assumption was made that they had been murdered. No clear evidence of the fate of the 'Princes in the Tower' has ever been found - however, various skeletons found in the Tower over the years have been attributed to them and several suspects have been put forward, including King Richard III (their uncle), King Henry VII (their brother-in-law) and the Duke of Buckingham (a distant cousin).

The incorrect options were three of the sons of King Edward III otherwise known as Lionel of Antwerp, Thomas of Woodstock and John of Gaunt.

Answer: Moravian Serbia

Moravian Serbia is the term used to describe the largest of the former states of the Serbian Empire that were in existence during the late Middle Ages. The state was centred around and took its name from the Great Morava, West Morava and South Morava rivers. Its capital was the city of Krusevac, which is now in central modern-day Serbia, and is located to the north-west of the disputed territory of Kosovo.

Prince Lazar Hrebeljanovic was a powerful political and military leader of the time, who started out as a minor lord but quickly gained wealth, power and the title of 'knez' or prince. His military campaigns were initially successful - he extended his territory to the north at the expense of the Hungarians and gained access to the River Danube - but he met his downfall at the Battle of Kosovo when he was killed by forces of the Ottoman Empire and his country was taken under Ottoman control. Serbian history recorded him as both a martyr and a saint; his relics are located at the monastery he founded in Ravanica - they were moved there from Belgrade Cathedral on the 600th anniversary of the battle.

Dalmatia is a historical region of modern day Croatia, Transylvania is a historical area of central Romania and the Ligurian Republic was created by Napoleon in the area of north-west Italy around Genoa.

Answer: Ferdinand

If Uranus had any inhabitants (and there is no known evidence to suggest it has!), they would be hard pushed to spot Ferdinand in their night sky as it has a diameter of just 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) and orbits at a mean distance of over 20.9 million kilometres (13 million miles). At the time of its discovery it was the third smallest moon of Uranus to be identified and was also the one located furthest away from the planet.

Its Shakespearean namesake is Prince Ferdinand, the son of the King of Naples. In 'The Tempest' both he and his father were stranded on an island during a storm magically created by the island's main resident - Prospero, the distinctly disgruntled former Duke of Milan. Prospero's plots included encouraging a relationship between the young prince and his daughter, Miranda, in order to ensure that she at least could return to her rightful place in society. However, Ferdinand and Miranda fall in love and (unlike some other Shakespeare plays) pretty much everyone gets a happy (or at least tolerable) ending.

The incorrect options are other moon of Uranus named after characters from 'The Tempest'. Caliban was the son of the witch, Sycorax; Stephano was a drunken servant of the King of Naples; and Francisco was a minor lord of the King's court.

Answer: Featherweight

Featherweight class is for boxers weighing no more than 126 pounds (57.2 kg). 'Prince Naseem' was born in 1974 in Sheffield, England and was noted for his somewhat flamboyant personality - the fact that he once entered the boxing ring on a flying carpet gives some idea of the gimmicks he and his team came up with to promote his career. Nonetheless he was a successful boxer, winning the WBO world title in 1995 by defeating the defending champion Steve Robinson. He held that title for nearly five years, adding the IBF title to his collection in 1997 and the WBC title in 1999 (although he never held all these titles simultaneously due to voluntarily relinquishing both the IBF and WBC titles shortly after winning them). Hamed was forced to retire from boxing in 2002 due to hand injuries.

However, it was not just his unconventional boxing style that made Hamed controversial. He was jailed in 2006 for dangerous driving and as a result he was stripped of his MBE by the Queen.

Flyweight is for boxers weighing up to 112 pounds (50.8 kg), middleweight for up to 160 pounds (76.2 kg) and heavyweight boxers have no upper weight limit at all.

Answer: West Philadelphia

'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' first aired on US TV in 1990 and featured a fictionalised version of the teenage life of Will Smith. Prior to the show Smith was part of hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince; after it he became one of Hollywood's most sought after actors, starring in a range of films including 'Independence Day', the 'Men in Black' series, 'The Pursuit of Happyness' and 'Ali'. By contrast, Jeff Townes (aka DJ Jazzy Jeff) remains best known for his appearances as himself on 'The Fresh Prince'.

The premise of the show is set out in the lyrics of the theme tune 'Yo Home to Bel-Air'. Smith, "in West Philadelphia born and raised" is sent to live with his rich relatives in Bel-Air thanks to the fact that he "got in one little fight" and his "Mom got scared". However, despite being a working-class kid living in one of the USA's richest areas, he was soon able to live up to his final statement: "to sit on my throne as the prince of Bel-Air".

Answer: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

The first game to be released under the title of 'Prince of Persia' appeared on the shelves in 1989 and ran on the Apple II system and was subsequently ported to over 20 other game systems including the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Sega Master System, Game Boy and Nintendo Wii. It featured the eponymous (and otherwise unnamed) prince and his mission to escape the palace dungeons; overthrow the evil wizard, Jaffar; and rescue the Sultan's daughter.

The answer options given were all later sequels or reboots of the 'Prince of Persia' franchise. However, it was 'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time' (originally released in 2003) that formed the basis for the 2010 Jake Gyllenhaal film. The film followed roughly the same premise and storyline as the game, with the notable exception of the fact that the prince was granted a name - Prince Dastan. I suppose it was too awkward to produce a feature length film and expect everyone to just call him "prince" or "hey, you"...

Answer: Nassau Hall

Nassau Hall is one of the US's National Historic Landmarks - not just for the fact that at the time it was built to house Princeton University (in 1756) it was the largest academic building in America, but because it played an important role in the 1777 Battle of Princeton during the American Revolutionary Wars and briefly acted as the seat of the US government in 1783. It remains in use by Princeton University in the 21st century despite various calamities over the years including two major fires during the 19th century.

Prior to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, King William III of England, Scotland and Ireland was known as the Prince of Orange, and was a member of the House of Orange-Nassau. It is also believed that the town of Princeton was named in his honour although there is no formal documentary evidence to support the claim.

Nassau is also the name of the capital city of the Bahamas. The incorrect options are all other (regal-sounding) capitals of island nations: Kingston is the capital of Jamaica, Kingstown is the capital of St Vincent and the Grenadines and Port-au-Prince is the capital of Haiti.