Noble Steeds II: Europe Trivia Quiz

Answer: White Surrey

White Surrey is killed from under him, but Richard continues seeking the Earl of Richmond afoot. When the two meet, Richard is slain.

Answer: Savoy

Savoy apparently fought with great kicks and leaps to disengage from a press of enemy forces. Philip de Commines, an eye-witness to the battle, described the horse as 'beautiful.' Other sources indicate that it was small and missing an eye. The horse was named for the Duc de Savoy, who had given it to the king.

Answer: El Morzillo

Detailed records preserved by the Spaniards reveal that El Morzillo ('Blackie') served Cortez long and faithfully, on at least one occasion saving the conquistador's life by leaping a chasm whose bridge the poor poxy Aztecs had destroyed. However, the beast eventually went lame, and Cortez left him in the care of a Mayan chieftain in Guatemala.

It is said that the Mayans treated the animal as a divinity, and eventually worshipped him as an avatar of sorts of their thunder god Tziminchac.

Answer: Sorrel

Sorrel was small, and blind in one eye, which did not prevent William from favoring him. The beast is known to have been William's favorite horse, and bore him some nineteen hours at the 1690 Battle of the Boyne. Sorrel also caused his own master's death, by tripping over a molehill and throwing him.

The fall broke the king's collar bone, and he ultimately died of resulting complications, including a fatal pneumonia. It is recorded that after the funeral the king's left-footer enemies raised a toast to 'the little Gentleman in black velvet' who caused the affair -- namely, the mole who threw up the hill.

Answer: Black Bess

Eighteenth-century gentleman of the road Dick Turpin was certainly a colorful character, but apparently the fame of his horse and his exploits astride her were colored in after the fact. The famous nonstop ride from London to York -- memorialized in the names of literally dozens of inns and wayhouses called 'Black Bess' where he supposedly tarried or slept along the way -- was, according to historians, not an exploit of Turpin's at all but rather of a seventeenth-century highwayman called Nevison. Worse still, I have seen it written that Black Bess herself never existed, but rather was the creation of nineteenth-century novelist Harrison Ainsworth. What a rip-off!

Answer: Copenhagen

The ducal steed (a chestnut) was named for the Battle of Copenhagen, at which Nelson famously put his telescope to his blind eye and announced that he could not see the signal to withdraw which had been raised by Admiral {Parker;} ships under Nelson's command subsequently destroyed the Danish fleet.

The day before the Battle of Waterloo, Copenhagen carried the Duke over sixty {miles;} at the battle the Duke was in the saddle over fifteen hours. It is said that when the Duke finally dismounted, the war-horse still had sufficient energy left in him to deliver a kick with both back legs, narrowly missing Wellington's head. Copenhagen was seven years old at Waterloo, and survived another twenty-one years.

Answer: Marengo

Legend has it that the white Arab stallion which bore Bonaparte at the battles of Austerlitz, Jena, Wagram and Waterloo (among others), was captured during the future emperor's Egyptian campaign. Fact has it that no horse named Marengo was registered in Bonaparte's stables.

It seems Napoleon had a habit of bestowing nicknames on horses (and on women as {well;} the Empress Josephine was born with the given name Rose). Several of his horses were nick-named for Bonaparte's victories (Cirus was called Austerlitz, Ingenu and Mon Cousin were both called Wagram, {etc.);} similarly, Marengo was the site of a napoleonic victory.

Some historians have concluded that Marengo may have been registered as Ali, a horse records indicate Bonaparte frequently rode.

In any event, the beast known to the world as Marengo was captured after Waterloo and put on display along with Napoleon's coach, and did not die until 1831, sixteen years after capture, at the age of thirty-eight.

Answer: Jenny Geddes

In a letter to a friend, Burns described his mare as 'a yald, poutherie Girran for a' {that;} and has a stomach like Willie Stalker's meere that wad hae digested tumbler-wheels.' She is said to have been named for a seventeenth century woman who threw a stool at the Bishop of Edinburgh for attempting to introduce the Book of Common Prayer to the Church of Scotland.

Answer: Ronald

Ronald's stuffed head, tail, and a single hoof are apparently still kept among the Seventh Earl's Crimean memorabilia by the Cardigan estate. ...I knew about the head before writing this quiz, but I didn't know about the rest of his remains. Apparently one hoof is kept in the Guardroom of Windsor Castle, one hoof is kept in the Officer's Mess of the 11th Hussars, and the final resting place of the rest of Ronald is unknown.

Answer: Brown Adam

According to Scott's biographer Lockhart, Brown Adam would not accept anyone but Scott as his master, and indeed broke the arm of one groom and the leg of another rash enough to attempt to handle him in Scott's absence. In Scott's presence, however, the beast was submissive and loyal.

It appears that Scott's other two favorite steeds, Captain and Lieutenant, similarly preferred Scott over all other humans, if not to the same violent degree. According to Scott's biographer Hutton, 'Scott's life might well be fairly divided---just as history is divided into reigns---by the succession of his horses and dogs.

The reigns of Captain, Lieutenant, Brown Adam, Daisy, divide at least the period up to {Waterloo;} while the reigns of Sybil Grey, and the Covenanter, or Douce Davie, divide the period of Scott's declining years.' (Special thanks to chrissie_26 who pointed out that my 'original' question 10, treating the donkey travels with which Robert Louis Stevenson memorialized in 'Travels with a Donkey', was flawed in that Modestine was a pack animal and not a steed.)