The Lymond Chronicles Trivia Quiz

Answer: Christian Stewart

Oonagh enjoyed one night of passion with Francis, resulting in the birth of a son. Joleta seduced Francis, at the behest of her brother, Graham Reid Malett, with whom she had previously enjoyed an incestuous relationship, and who may or may not, have been the father of her son. Margaret seduced Lymond when he was a boy of 16 and she an experienced woman of 27. Christian, on the other hand, while she may have been (and, in fact, probably was) somewhat infatuated with Francis, never had anything other than a platonic relationship with him.

Answer: Dragut Rais

Dragut Rais was a corsair leader, in the service of the Sultan. The Agha Morat was actually more interested in Francis! Prince Vishnevetsky had paid court to the lady in Istanbul, but she turned him down. The Kislar Agha, as the Head Eunuch of Suleiman's seraglio, would not, one assumes, have had a mistress (at any rate, not in the carnal sense...)

Answer: Roxelana

Khourrem Sultan ("the Laughing One") was born in what is nowadays part of the Ukraine. She began her astonishing career in the harem of Suleiman the Magnificent as a slavegirl, but quickly won the heart of the Sultan, supplanting even his favourite concubine and mother of his son, the heir-apparent, Prince Mustafa. (She later instigated the death of this young man, to ensure the succession of her own son.) We are told, in "Pawn in Frankincense", the fourth book of the "Lymond Chronicles", that when Suleiman married Roxelana, it was the first time in several generations that a Sultan had taken a legal wife.

The name Roxelana means "the Russian Woman".

Answer: To protect her reputation

Lymond did actually first meet Philippa when he came to her home to interrogate her father, whom he (wrongly) suspected of being responsible for the charges of treason hanging over him. After she travelled all round the Mediterranean in his company and ended up in the Sultan's harem, all because of her determination to find and rescue Lymond's son, he understood that her reputation was ruined and married her, to save her good name.

It was only considerably later that he realised he had fallen in love with her.

Answer: A sapphire brooch

Lymond removed the brooch from his own doublet and pinned it on Philippa's night robe. We are told the sapphire was the colour of his eyes.

Answer: Midculter

Flaw Valleys was Philippa's home.

Answer: Marthe and Eloise

Sybilla was, of course, Lymond's mother. Marthe was Lymond's illegitimate half-sister born to his real father, the first Baron Culter (who was also called Francis Crawford) and to Béatris, daughter of Camille de Doubtance. Eloise was his full sister, born to Sybilla and the first Baron Culter. Mariotta was Lymond's sister-in-law, wife of his half-brother Richard.

Answer: Diccon Chancellor

The real Richard Chancellor had taken part in an expedition led by Sir Hugh Willoughby, in 1553, to find the fabled North-East Passage, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Of the three ships taking part in the expedition, two, including Willoughby's own, were wrecked by storms, but Chancellor's ship made it through to Archangelsk, from where he journeyed overland to Moscow.

There, he was made welcome by the Tsar, Ivan IV (the Terrible), who promised trade privileges to English merchants. In 1555, Chancellor returned to Russia as the representative of the Muscovy Company, and when he left for England the following year, he took with him the first Russian Ambassador to England, Osep Nepeja.

His ship was wrecked in a storm off the Scottish coast and Chancellor was drowned.

Answer: Jerott Blyth

Jerott married Lymond's half-sister, Marthe. It was not a happy marriage. Ludovic d'Harcourt, at one time a Knight of Malta, had had an affair with Joleta Reid Malett and believed himself to be the father of her son. He tried to murder Lymond, holding him responsible for the deaths of Joleta and her child. John Dee was a real person, an astrologer and mathematician. Leonard Bailey was the brother of Honoria, first wife of Francis Crawford the Elder and therefore, Lymond's supposed great-uncle.

Answer: Thady Boy Ballagh

The ollave Thady Boy Ballagh, of course, was none other than Lymond himself! This was the alias he adopted when first arriving at the French court in "Queen's Play". An ollave was a kind of master-poet or "super-bard".