Various 16th Century Trivia Quiz

Answer: Persian

The most able of them was Abbas the Great (1586-1628), who fought several successful wars, added Iraq to his empire, and with English help took the island of Ormuz from the Portuguese (1622). He raised splendid buildings and encouraged trade and arts, especially the art of carpet-making.

But he had his children blinded, fearing them as rivals. Later rulers were less successful than Abbas, and the attacks of the Afghans, Turks, Russians and other old enemies brought chaos to Persia. The last Safawid shah, a little child, died in 1736.

Answer: Wittenberg

It was not the first time the church and the Pope had been criticized. Others had condemned the practise of 'indulgences' - offering forgiveness of sins in return for cash - and some had been burned as heretics. Earlier critics had attacked the behaviour of the Roman Church, but Luther attacked its beliefs.

A man, said Luther, is saved by his faith, not by indulgences. He condemned the power and wealth of the the Pope and the influence of priests over the people.

Answer: San Juan de Ulua

The rulers of Mexico were the Aztecs, a race of warriors who controlled the longer standing inhabitants of the region by force. When Cortez landed, Aztec power was not fully established, and Cortes gained support from some of their rebellious subjects. Cortes had other advantages unknown in Mexico, like guns and horses.

His small force captured the capital, Tenochtitlan, and took their Aztec king, Montezuma II, prisoner. Later, while Cortes was absent, a rising took place in the city. Returning, the Spaniards were allowed to enter, but fighting began again. Montezuma was killed and Cortes' small band narrowly fought their way out of safety.

They raised a new army among the native people and in April, 1521, renewed the attack on the capital. The city was ruined.

Answer: Brittany

Cartier (1491-1557) sailed along the north shore of Newfoundland and entered what is now the Gulf of St Lawrence, taking possesion of the country in the name of Francis I of France. Having spent five months away from France he then returned to Brittany.

The following year Cartier set out again to explore the St Lawrence river, sailing up it as far as an Indian village on a hill which he named Mont Real (Mount Royal). In 1541 Francis i decided to colonize New France, as he called Canada, so Cartier set off on a third expedition.

But no colonists would settle there for they disliked the winter cold and the wilderness. Fifty years later another French expedition was sent to colonize New France.

Answer: Thomas Cromwell

Thomas Cromwell (1485-1540) had been Thomas Wolsey's secretary. After Wosley's death, Cromwell was admitted to the the Privy Council and soon bcame Henry VIII's principle adviser. Cromwell would be the architect of the English Reformation, supporting the king in his break from Rome, arranging Catherine of Aragon's divorce and the dissolution of the English monasteries.

He was so active in the latter work that he earned himself the name of malleus monachorum ('hammer of the monks'). When king Henry VIII recoiled from his choice of marriage, Cromwell's days were numbered.

He was arrested on June 10, 1540 and charged with high treason, without cause. Found guilty, he was beheaded six weeks later. Henry soon realised his mistake and until his own death in 1547 spoke of the loss of the "best servant I ever had."

Answer: The Lawgiver

Suleiman was known in the West as the Magnificent, but is known in the Islamic world as Lawgiver due to organizing a new set of laws for the Ottomans. He proved a prince of good fortune from childhood. From his father, Selim I, he inherited a well-trained and disciplined army, a full treasury and a prosperous and contented country.

He was surrounded by wise councillors and although he listened to them, he preferred the company of his generals. With their help he set out on a number of campaigns of conquest, thirteen of which he led himself.

Although regarded as a great warrior he was also a just man.

Answer: John Hawkins

John Barton was one of the nine members of the "Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade". John Brown was the first person prosecuted in America under the federal slave importations law in 1796. Thomas Clarkson was a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire. On one of John Hawkins's (1532-1595) privateering voyages, with a fleet that included two ships financed by Queen Elizabeth herself, he fell foul of a Spanish fleet in the Bay of San Juan de Ulua.

After a fierce fight, all but two of the English ships were sunk and Hawkins barely escaped with his life.

He afterwards rose to high rank in the navy, but died at sea in November, 1595. He is also credited with a more honourable innovation, being the first Englishman to introduce the potato into England in 1563, Sir Walter Raleigh showing it to the queen some twenty years later.

Answer: Lepanto

The Turks had been capturing many of the finest harbours in the Eastern Mediterranean, their fleets sailing from Constantinople. They were ruled over by Suleiman the Magnificent and then by his son Selim II, who was most ambitious. For a time things went his way, for the Christian powers were jealous of each other, but at last Pope Pius V called venice and Spain together to form a Holy League to fight the Turks.

By the summer of 1571 a fleet of more than three hundred ships, commanded by Don John of Austria, a young man of twenty-four, was ready.

It sailed for the Greek harbour of Lepanto and on October 7, 1571 one of the world's greatest naval battles took place. The fight ended at dusk when the Turkish fleet of two hundred and seventy-five galleys were virtually destroyed. Battle of Ponza (1552) ; Battle of Terceira (1582).

Answer: Singeing the King of Spain's beard

In 1585 England was at war with Spain and Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596) took a fleet to the Spanish Main where he sank a large number of Spanish ships and plundered several of their cities. A year after Cadiz, Drake was at Plymouth when news was received by him and his fellow captains that a great Spanish fleet had been sighted in the Channel. Known later as the Spanish "invincible" Armada, its lumbering galleons were chased by the lighter and more agile ships of the English fleet along the Flanders coast and into the North Sea where they were left to the violence of a fierce storm. Few of the ships that once the great Armada returned to Spain.

Answer: Microscope

A lot of confusion still reigns over who really developed the first microscope. Credit has gone to Hans Lippershey (who also developed the first real telescope), or Hans Jansen, father of Zacharais. The first type of microscope was the optical microscope. Thank you for participating in my first quiz. Hope there's more to come!