Love, Alphabetically Trivia Quiz

Answer: Albert

Victoria and Albert were married in 1840, and produced nine children. Dynastic marriages were arranged for these, and for their children. Most of the Royal families of Europe included at least one descendant of Victoria, who became known as the 'Grandmother of Europe' as a result. Albert was known as Prince Consort, not King, and died from typhoid in 1861.

Answer: Beatrice

Beatrice was Dante's ideal woman, and was the person who guided him through Paradise in the poem. Virgil, the Roman poet, was his guide through Hell and Purgatory. The other names have no significance, other than starting with the letter 'B'.

Answer: Clementine

Churchill married Clementine Hozier in 1908, and they had five children together, four girls and one boy. Churchill died in 1965 and Clementine in 1977. Churchill is best remembered for his leadership during World War II, when he delivered many rousing speeches.

Answer: Tess Durbeyfield

Angel and Tess are characters from Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles'. They married, only for Angel to cast Tess aside when he learned she had given birth to an illegitimate child, who had subsequently died. He eventually realised he still loved Tess and forgave her, but too late to avert tragedy.

Lorna Doone is from the novel bearing her name, Catherine De Bourgh from 'Pride and Prejudice' and Elinor Dashwood from 'Sense and Sensibility'.

Answer: Echo

Unfortunately for Echo, Narcissus could love only himself, having fallen in love with his own reflection in a pool. Echo, having been spurned, pined away leaving only her voice to repeat the last words she heard. Erato is the muse for lyric love and poetry, Euterpe is the muse for music and Electra was the daughter of King Agamemnon.

Answer: Mia Farrow

Sinatra was married to Nancy Barbato, Ava Gardner and Barbara Marx as well as Mia Farrow. They married in 1966, when she was 21 and he was 50 and divorced two years later. Mia went on to marry André Previn and also had a twelve year relationship with Woody Allen. This ended when he turned his attention to Mia's adopted daughter, Soon-Yi who he went on to marry.

Answer: Lady Godiva

Lady Godiva is remembered for riding naked through Coventry in protest at her husband's draconian taxation. This event also gave us the expression 'Peeping Tom', who was the only person who did not obey the order for everyone to stay indoors with shuttered windows. Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen of England for nine days only, after the death of Edward VI.

She was imprisoned by Mary I and eventually executed. Martha Graham is an American choreographer and Nell Gwynn was an actress and long term mistress of King Charles II of England.

Answer: Henry VII

Henry VII defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. He married Elizabeth of York to bring about an end to the fighting between the Lancastrian and Yorkist factions known as the War of the Roses. He reigned for 23 years and was succeeded by his second son, who ruled as Henry VIII.

Henry II was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry IV to Mary of Bohun and Joanna of Navarre. Henry V's spouse was Catherine de Valois.

Answer: Io

Zeus had a wandering eye, and Hera was well aware of this. Having fallen for Io, he turned her into a white cow, but this did not fool Hera who asked for the cow as a gift. Hera then sent horseflies to torment the cow, who went into the sea to find relief, giving her name to the Ionian Sea. Iphigenia was the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra and Ianthe was an ocean nymph. Iris was the personification of the rainbow.

Answer: Jessica

Jessica was the daughter of Shylock in 'The Merchant of Venice' and eloped with Lorenzo taking much of Shylock's money with her. She also converted to Christianity to enable her to marry Lorenzo. Julia was from 'Two Gentlemen of Verona', Juno made an appearance in 'The Tempest' and Joan (La Pucelle) was Joan of Arc, who was in Henry VI, Part 1.

Answer: Imran Khan

Jemima married Imran Khan in 1995, when she was aged 21 and he was 42. They settled in Lahore, Pakistan and had two sons together. They divorced in 2004 and Jemima then embarked on a relationship with Hugh Grant, which ran out of steam in 2007. Imran Khan was a former captain of the Pakistan cricket team, Nick Knight played for England and Kapil Dev for India. Kallis played for South Africa.

Answer: Lara

The book was written by Boris Pasternak, and was adapted as a film in 1965, starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie. Lolita is the title of a novel by Nabokov and Lucinda is a character in Don Quixote by Cervantes. One literary Lorna is Lorna Doone from the novel by R D Blackmore.

Answer: Marian

Robin Hood is remembered as robbing the rich to give to the poor. He lived in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire with his band of 'merrie men', which included Little John, Friar Tuck, Will Scarlett and Much the miller's son. Marian is usually referred to in the stories as 'Maid Marian'. There have been many portrayals of the story on television and film.

Answer: Nelson

Although both were married to other people, Emma and Horatio Nelson started a relationship which was tolerated by her husband, Sir William Hamilton to the extent that the three of them lived under the same roof. Nasser was President of Egypt, Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India and Napoleon II succeeded his father as Emperor of France.

Answer: Othello

Othello described himself as having 'loved not wisely but too well', having just murdered his wife. He had been convinced of her infidelity by Iago and killed her without giving her any chance to explain the circumstantial evidence against her. Orlando was from 'As You Like It', Orsino from 'Twelfth Night' and Oberon from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.

Answer: Persephone

Persephone's mother was Demeter, the goddess of agriculture. She was so heartbroken at her daughter's loss that she would allow nothing to grow. Hades was persuaded to allow Persephone to leave, but she had to return for six months each year. The story is used to explain the seasons of the year. Peitho was the goddess of persuasion and Phaedra was the wife of Theseus. Pandora was the first woman, responsible for releasing all the evils of the world by opening the box where they were contained.

Answer: Quasimodo

Quasimodo was 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame', written by Victor Hugo. He had been born deformed, and abandoned at Notre Dame cathedral and grew up to become the bellringer. The bells caused him to become deaf, to add to his problems. He fell in love with Esmeralda, who did not return the love. Quiller was a spy created by Elleston Trevor and Queeg was from 'The Caine Mutiny' by Herman Wouk. Quatermass was from a sci-fi series created for television by Nigel Kneale.

Answer: Rainier

Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier III in 1956, having starred in several Hollywood films, including 'Dial M for Murder'. She died in 1982 following a car accident. Richard is the name of three kings of England and Robert of three kings of Scotland (the first of these being better known as Robert the Bruce). Rex is the Latin word for king.

Answer: Ringo Starr

Barbara is probably best known for her role in the James Bond movie 'The Spy Who Loved Me', which came out in 1977. She and Ringo both appeared in the film 'Caveman'(no, I don't remember it either) and married the following year. Of the other options, they have several wives and ex-wives between them. Paul Simon's marriages include Carrie Fisher, Rod Stewart's Alana Hamilton and Rachel Hunter and Bruce Springsteen's first wife was Julianne Phillips.

Answer: Francis Troy

The book was written by Thomas Hardy, and told Bathsheba's story. She was dazzled by Troy's army uniform and dashing ways and they married. He was really in love with another woman, who died giving birth to his child, after which event Troy was believed to have drowned himself.

His later return led to tragedy, but freed Bathsheba to marry the man who had always been faithful to her. Tom Tulliver was from 'The Mill on the Floss' by George Eliot, Squire Trelawney was in 'Treasure Island' by R L Stevenson and Henry Tilney featured in Jane Austen's 'Northanger Abbey'.

Answer: Ulysses

Ulysses is known as Odysseus in Greek mythology, but the story is the same. He left Penelope to fight in the Trojan War, which lasted ten years, and then managed to spend another ten years finding his way home. During this time, Penelope remained faithful, fending off suitors in a variety of ways. Uranus is the Roman god of the sky and Ushas is a Hindu deity associated with the dawn. Uther refers to Arthurian myth, as he was the father of Arthur Pendragon.

Answer: Voltaire

Émilie was a noted mathematician and scholar in her own right, but was held back by her gender. Among her notable achievements was the translation of Isaac Newton's 'Principia Mathematica' into French. Although she was married, she followed the French upper class tradition of taking lovers. With Voltaire, there was a meeting of minds as well as bodies and both produced much academic work while living together.

Answer: Wallis

Edward met Mrs Simpson in 1931, when she was married to her second husband, Ernest Simpson. The Simpsons divorced in 1936, after Edward had succeeded his father as king, and Edward told the then Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, of his wish to marry Wallis.

The government could not agree to this and Edward decided his only course was to abdicate. After their marriage, the couple were known as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Answer: William Butler Yeats

Yeats fell in love with Maud and proposed marriage to her on numerous occasions, but was refused each time. She is commemorated in many of his poems including these beautiful words 'I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams'. Brigham Young was a leader of the Latter Day Saints, Neil Young is best known as a Canadian singer/songwriter, and Charles (Chuck) Yeager was the first man to fly at supersonic speed.

Answer: Zacharias

Note that I have used the spellings from the Authorised King James Version. Luke 1:5 tells the story of John the Baptist's birth to the formerly barren Elisabeth. Zebedee was the father of Apostles James and John and Zadok was a High Priest in the time of Kings David and Solomon. Zebulun was one of the sons of Jacob and Leah and founder of one of the tribes of Israel.