End of the Line Trivia Quiz

Answer: Brandy

Charles II of Navarre, a European kingdom on both sides of the Pyrenees, was born in 1322 and went up in a puff of smoke in 1387. History has dubbed him Charles the Bad, and from all accounts he seemed to have earned the title with distinction. He murdered enemies, created havoc and discord between nations, double-crossed everyone he possibly could, and was generally considered to be one all round villain by all and sundry.

His horrific death, people said in hushed whispers, was punishment by God for the wicked life that Charles had led. Finding his body growing decayed and inefficient from years of bad living, Charles followed his doctor's advice and had himself wrapped from head to toe in linen bandages soaked in brandy. Why this was supposed to be helpful is anybody's guess.

His horrible end came about at the hands of the female seamstress who was charged with the task of sewing up all these bandages into a type of sack enclosing Charles. Instead of snipping off the end of the thread on completion of her task, she decided to burn the end off with a candle instead - and up Charles went like Mount St Helens!

Answer: A woman

Louis the III of France was only a young lad when he inherited the kingdom from his father, Louis the Stammerer, in 863. Both he and his two brothers, Carloman and Charles, inherited this land between them, and, on the advice of their quarreling nobles, made the wise decision to divide it up. Louis took the northern half, known then as Francia, where, from all accounts, he was soon well on the way to becoming a king of whom legends were written. He was fair of face, strong and healthy in body, and a proven and brave warrior already in battle.

Alas, however, one day his roving eye espied a buxom young wench nearby, and without further ado, the hot-blooded lad took after her as she ran screaming through a doorway. In a moment of light-hearted and laughing hilarity, the young king jumped on his horse to chase the girl, and sent it charging through the doorway after her. He was so excited that he didn't pay attention to where he was going, and knocked his block off. His brother Carloman inherited the part of the kingdom belonging to Louis, and on his own death two years later while chasing a prey on a hunting expedition, the now huge kingdom was united into the one under the rulership of the third brother, Charles the Fat. The moral of this story, ladies and gentlemen, is to buy a shorter horse.

Answer: Cricket

Poor Frederick took a blow to his body from a cricket ball while playing his much loved game. This became an infection which turned into an abscess, and poor Frederick was declared out for a duck on the 20 March, 1751. Born in Hanover, Germany, he had the misfortune in life to have two parents who truly detested their son.

This was partly owing to the fact that Frederick was separated from them when only a child, when they were called to England. He was left behind in the care of a great-uncle for fourteen years.

By the time he saw them again, they had produced several more children, and instead of welcoming their son back into the family fold with open arms, his parents evinced a strong and fixed dislike for him instead. His mother would describe her son as "the greatest ass, the greatest liar ... and the greatest beast in the world', while dear old dad contented himself with describing his heir as a changeling.

Their grief was remarkedly absent on Frederick's death in 1751. The throne consequently passed down to Frederick's eldest son, George III, upon the death of George II in 1760. What a sad and depressing tale!

Answer: He was bitten by a monkey

Alexander (1893-1920) became king of Greece in 1917 following the exile of his father and his older brother during the World War I. The new, and very reluctant, king was kept a virtual prisoner in his palace by those who had exiled his father and brother, and only met with their approval because of his support of Greece in their struggle against the Ottoman Empire. Alexander's short life was noted for his love affair and marriage to a Greek commoner, Aspasia Manos. Aspasia was not a commoner as we would perhaps understand the word today, but came instead from one of the most aristocratic families in Greece. However, she was not a member of royalty, and therefore considered to be an unsuitable match for a king. Alexander had known this lovely woman when both were children, but it wasn't until he was reintroduced to her at a party in 1915 when she had returned from being educated in France and Switzerland, that the two fell in love. After a courtship in which she at first resisted the young prince, the two were married in secret. When this was revealed, it caused such a scandal that the young couple had to leave Greece for months until the fuss died down.

In 1920, while walking his dog in the grounds of an estate in Tatoi, Alexander's dog and a monkey became involved in a dispute. Intervening to save the dog, another monkey joined in the fray, and Alexander was bitten twice. These wounds became infected by early evening that same day and septicemia set in. In spite of all attempts to save him, Alexander died on 25 October. Alexander's father eventually regained the throne. Aspasia, who was pregnant with the couple's first child on Alexander's death, lived on for another 52 years before passing away in 1972. Their child, a girl, blocked from taking the Greek throne because of her birth, grew up to marry into the Yugoslavian royal family with her wedding in 1944 to Peter II, the last king of that country. And they all lived unhappily ever after.

Answer: He fell off the toilet

George was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1727 until his death in 1760. Born in Germany, he was the last British monarch to be born out of the country. This played against him at first when he became ruler of the country, and history for a long time was unkind to this feisty little king. It wasn't until fairly recently that his reputation has been somewhat salvaged, revealing a king who was in far greater touch with his realm than previously given credit. Regarding the marriage stakes, and because his father had had an arranged marriage himself, George I did not want his son to experience this, and George II was given a much freer hand in his selection of a bride. His choice was Caroline of Ansbach and the two were married in 1705 in what was a happy marriage by the standards of the day even though George had several mistresses, something in which Caroline happily acquiesced. George was stricken with grief on her early death in 1737. The dying queen tried to soothe her sobbing husband by telling him to marry again after her death. "Nay", sobbed George uncontrollably, "I shall have mistresses instead!"

On 25 October 1760, George rose early and has his normal cup of hot chocolate, before making his way to the royal dunny. Shortly after the king had entered this holy of holies, his valet head a loud crash. Upon timidly opening the door, he found the king lying unconscious on the floor. Carried to his bed, George II passed away shortly afterwards, dethroned at last.

Answer: Hit on the head by a roof tile

Pyrrhus was an outstanding statesman, orator and king during the height of the Hellenistic period in history. He lived from c. 318 to 272 BC. Though a great warrior as well, many of the victories of Pyrrhus came at a huge cost of lost lives, destroyed cities and ruined economies.

This has given rise to the term "a pyrrhic victory" that we use today, an expression meaning a victory that has come at too great a price. Pyrrhus also antagonised many of the people he ruled over, as well as his enemies, and it was not at all uncommon for him to experience rebellion after rebellion in any area over which he held sway. With his treasuries almost empty, this man of unfortunate choices still insisted on continuing with his endless wars, and it was during one of these that he met his end - at the hands of an elderly woman, if you please. During a battle in a narrow street in Argos, an area in southern Greece, he was hit on the head with a roof tile, thrown by an old woman watching the struggle below from a rooftop.

This so dazed the noble Pyrrhus that his enemies overcame him and quickly removed his head brought down defeated by an old woman wielding a portion of her roof.

Answer: Stuffing a chicken

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was a famous English scientist, writer and orator who also served as Lord Chancellor and Attorney General of that country during the reign of the Tudor Queen, Elizabeth I, and the early Stuart kings. After receiving a first rate education from private tutors and at Cambridge and the University of Poitiers, the three goals that would stick with him for the rest of his life were to discover the scientific truth, to serve his country with all his heart and to serve his church with all his soul.

His two great written works, a compilation of all his findings, were the volumes published as "Scientifical Works", devoted to knowledge, scientific investigation and improving the lives of his fellow man; and his "Religious/Literary Works", in which he discusses all his philosophical and theological beliefs.

In 1626, Bacon was investigating his theory that food could be preserved by being frozen. To this end, he is believed to have had a chicken killed and cleaned. He then took it outside on a particularly cold evening, where he proceded to stuff its body with snow. From this, the great man contacted pneumonia and died not long afterwards. Well, that's how the myth goes at any rate. No doubt it has some elements of truth to it. Bacon, it seems for once, was not a good combination with eggs after all.

Answer: He was one of the greatest athletes who ever lived

King Hussein of Jordan led that country from 1952 until his death in 1999. His father had had to abdicate his position as ruler of this country through ill health, and the young Hussein stepped in to take his place at the young age of sixteen. Born in 1935, Hussein, believed to be a descendant of Muhammad, was initially educated in Egypt and then at Harrow School in England.

He completed his education at Sandhurst Royal Military College. He worked very hard during his reign to improve the economy of his country in as many areas as possible, and through his direct intervention, the country's highways, water supplies, sanitation and electricity developed to such an extent that by his death, 99% of his people could avail themselves of these facilities.

When he took over as ruler, the country could only claim that 10% of its population had such necessities of life. King Hussein also made the incredibly far-sighted decision in 1994, in an attempt to stabilise the simmering tensions in the Middle East, of officially recognising Israel as a nation.

This astute ruler and politician, whom it is believed Mariah Carey thought was a basketball star (!), died from cancer in 1999. Let us console ourselves with the thought, however, that at least she didn't think he was the winner of "Big Brother".

Answer: Alfred Nobel

Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) was a Swedish inventor, chemist, engineer and arms manufacturer. His is the mind that gave the world dynamite. Although he came up with the idea for 350 inventions in all, it is with dynamite that his reputation is inextricably linked. Dynamite, after many trials and errors on the part of Nobel, including accidentally blowing up a shed and killing five people, was introduced to the world in 1867. This man was as intriguing as Albert Einstein in that he was a total pacifist himself, but owned, and made a fortune from, a total of 90 armaments factories. Not that Einstein owned any armaments factories of course, but he believed that mankind has to fight to maintain peace.

When visiting Cannes in 1888, Nobel read in the paper that he had died, and saw himself described in the starkest of terms as a merchant of death. This so upset the gentle man that he set aside the vast proportion of his enormous wealth to establish the Nobel Prizes, endowed by him, and awarded to people who have made the greatest cultural or scientific contributions to mankind.

Answer: Samuel Goldwyn

The Polish born Samuel Goldwyn (1879-1974) moved first to live in England for several years while he was a young man, before leaving there to take up a new home in America in 1898. His is the story of the young, penniless man making good through sheer hard work and initiative. He first began work as a salesman working for a glove manufacturing company, but by 1914 had set up a small business with three other men, one of whom was Cecil B. DeMille, to make motion pictures - and you know the rest. His is one impressive story. The list of his outstanding films are of course way too many to discuss here, but include such classics as the 1939 "Wuthering Heights", the 1955 "Guys and Dolls", and the 1959 musical "Porgy and Bess".

On a personal level, Goldwyn was renowned for the many malapropisms and speech errors he constantly made. Many of these are included in the 1976 book "Goldwyn: The Man Behind the Myth" by Arthur Marx. An example of his unique way of expressing himself is given in the question above, but they also include such gems as the time he purchased a book "The Well of Loneliness" in order to turn it into a film. On being told by his advisers that this wouldn't be a good idea because the story was about lesbians and wouldn't make it past the censors Goldwyn is reported to have replied "That's all right. We'll make them Hungarians instead".