Facts, Names And Events From British History Quiz

Answer: Cinque Ports

Later Winchelsea and Rye were added. Their role was to "defend" the English Coast. In exchange for the expenses they had to incur, they got certain privileges.
They are not all Kentish, and "Channel Ports" applies to more than just those five on the British side of the Channel.

Answer: House of Tudor

The Court of Star Chamber (1487-1641) was named for the star pattern painted on the ceiling of the room at Westminster Palace, where its meetings were held. It did not have the power to impose the death sentence.

Answer: None

King John sealed the Magna Carta. This was the standard way that important people indicated assent to documents, so it says nothing about whether or not he could write.

Answer: By having the Monmouth rebels hanged

The Lollards were the followers of John Wycliffe. The Chartist Movement (from 1836 on) wanted equal electoral districts,universal manhood suffrage, vote by ballot, annual parliaments, abolition of the property qualifications for MPs and payment of MPs. An ordinance of 2 Sept. 1642 commanded the closing of the theatres and the total suppression of stage plays. Judge George Jeffreys was born on May 15,1645 (?), at Acton,near Wrexham, Denbighshire, Wales. Nicknamed "hanging Judge Jeffreys". Became Lord Chief Justice of England at the age of 33.

In 1688 after his protector, James II, had fled the country, he was thrown into the Tower. Some say that in this way, intentionally or not, his life was saved. Anyway the following year he died of kidney disease.Merely 44 years old. The Duke of Monmouth had tried to seize the throne after Charles II's death. Via Judge Jeffrey's "Bloody Assize" ample revenge was taken.

Answer: Short Parliament

The Short Parliament lasted from April 13th till May 5th 1640. It had been summoned to raise money to put down a Scottish revolt. When Charles I noticed that some Members of Parliament (e.g. Pym) were aginst such a war and preferred to discuss old grievances such as ship money, the King dissolved the Parliament again.

The Long Parliament was summoned by the King and convened on 3 Nov 1640. Soon it became a revolutionary body and was at the heart of the Civil War which started in 1642. After "Pride's Purge" (1648) only 75 Members were left: the so-called Rump Parliament. Later a new reform (1653)led to a kind of "nominated parliament", which was mockingly called the "Little Parliament" or "Barebones Parliament" as very little was left of any real "parliamentary power".

It soon was dissolved, on 12 December 1653, some five months after it had been established.

Answer: The Queen refused to accept the new "ladies of the household" the government had appointed for her

It was the Peel government that got into this spot of 'domestic trouble' at court.

Answer: General Strike 1926

The Luddite Riots were part of a machine-breaking movement. The Gordon Riots were a "No Popery" movement that got its name after its instigator Lord George Gordon.
The Co-operative Movement started at Rochdale. Robert Owen, 'the father of English Socialism' was its founder.
Another famous incident in English social history was the transportation to Australia of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, some Dorset farm labourers who had been found 'guilty' of forming a union.
A more recent example of 'social trouble' is the "Winter of Discontent" : 1978-1979.

Answer: Soldiers attacking a meeting at St. Peter's Fields, Manchester

The event took place in 1819. The high number of people attending a meeting had made the authorities very nervous. Their decision to use cavalry to arrest the "ringleaders" and to "disperse the crowd" of some 50,000 people led to a completely unnecessary bloodbath. Later it was claimed that the soldiers had been drunk.

The 'victory' of the soldiery over the unarmed crowd of civilians was mockingly named Peterloo after the Battle of Waterloo.

Answer: Kaiser Bill by calling them a contemptible little army

Joffre (1852-1931) was the French chief of Staff during WW1. Sir John French(1852-1925) was his English counterpart. His evident incapability to collaborate with the French, and his emotional instability, made his replacement in 1915 by Douglas Haig a necessity. Kaiser William (1859-1941), once an adored leader in Germany, lost all his credibility in the course of the war.

He was lucky enough to be given shelter in the Netherlands, which had stayed out of the World War and refused to hand him over to the victors. Recent history gives some support to his claim that he had not wanted the war.

It cannot be denied however that he played a major role in the build-up of a German Navy and of a submarine fleet, and in the outrageous behaviour of that Navy, as was shown in the case of the execution of Captain Fryatt.

Answer: British monarchs must be Church of England

It was the Irish-born victor of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington, who as Tory Prime Minister, decided to support Catholic emancipation. The Bill was passed in 1829. The Sovereign also being Head of the Church dates back to the Act of Supremacy (1534). The Act of Settlement dates back to 1701.