What a Way to Go! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Attila the Hun

Attila was not known for his appetite and tended to eat and drink quite sparingly at banquets. At his wedding banquet, however, he rather over-indulged himself on alcohol. During the night he suffered a nosebleed, but was too drunk to notice, and choked on his own blood. He was found dead the next morning - much to the delight of many of his subject peoples.

Answer: King George V

According to a programme aired on Channel 4 in Britain, the king, who had been in very poor health, lapsed into a coma. The doctor attending him then gave him a lethal injection of cocaine and morphine, which took effect in time for the news to be released to the press and make the first editions of the "quality" morning newspapers.

Answer: Francis Bacon

Bacon turned his hand to many things during his lifetime. The snow stuffing exercise gave him pneumonia, leading to severe complications, from which he did not recover.

Answer: Aeschylus

According to old legend, eagles used to pick up tortoises and drop them onto rocks in order to crack their shells and eat them. Apparently one eagle mistook Aeschylus' head for a rock because he was bald, and dropped a tortoise on it, killing him instantly.
Perhaps he should have worn a hat.

Answer: Jim Fixx

Jim Fixx wrote a best selling book called "The Complete Book of Running" which was partly responsible for the jogging craze of the 1970s. Out for a run one day, he had only gone a short distance when he was felled by a massive coronary. Despite the fact that he had suffered attacks in the weeks before his death, he ignored the warning signs and paid the ultimate penalty.

At the inquest, his coronary arteries were found to be massively blocked.

Answer: Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams died in the Elysée Hotel in New York. Despite his death being declared an accident at the inquest, there are some people who believe he was murdered.

Answer: A harmonica

Mexican musician Ramon Barrero was famous for playing the world's smallest harmonica. During a particularly inspired bit of playing he inhaled the instrument and, sadly, played no more.

Answer: Selfridges

Thomas Etholen Selfridge was travelling in a plane piloted by Orville Wright in 1908 when a manoeuvre resulted in the wing flexing and the propeller blade snapping off. The plane crashed and Selfridge was killed. Orville Wright survived but was badly injured and was hospitalised for several weeks.

Answer: Berkeley Castle

Edward's wife, Queen Isabella was sent by her husband to negotiate with her brother the French King Charles V. While at the French court she fell in love with Roger Mortimer, a nobleman who had left England, disaffected by the weak king's tendency to rely heavily on his 'favourites', one of whom was the notorious Piers Gaveston. Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer invaded England in 1326 and imprisoned the king, forcing him to abdicate in favour of his young son, who became Edward III. Eight months later, Edward II was murdered at Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire, in a calculatingly appalling way that cruelly mocked his homsosexuality.

His murderers used a horn or funnel, too, in the hope of hiding the true cause of death. However, medieval physicians weren't necessarily stupid, and the ghastly truth came out.

It is thought that he was murdered on the orders of Isabella and her lover. She gained the nickname of the "The She-Wolf of France". When Edward III achieved the age of majority he had his mother banished from England for life.

Answer: Hanged, drawn and quartered

The punishment known as "hanging, drawing and quartering" is among the most barbaric methods of execution ever prescribed by the laws of a supposedly civilised country. (The official justification for this horrific barbarity was that high treason was a form of sacrilege).

The last person to be "hanged, drawn and quartered" was Edward Despard in 1803 for plotting to murder the then king, George III. Despard was, however, allowed to die on the gallows and the rest of the process was performed on his corpse.