William Pitt the Younger Trivia Quiz

Answer: Earl of Chatham

Pitt the Elder served as Prime Minister from 1766 to 1768. However, his most notable achievments were perhaps before and after this period - before becoming Prime Minister he oversaw British military success in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) and after leaving office he desperately urged British politicians to take the arguments of American colonists more seriously in the build-up to the War of Independence. Newcastle, Rockingham and Grafton were all mid-18th century prime ministers. (Note. 'Chatham' is pronounced as if were written 'Chat-ham').

Answer: Lawyer

After graduating from Cambridge University in 1776 (aged only 17!), where he was at Pembroke Hall (College since 1856), he received legal training at Lincoln's Inn, London.

Answer: 21

After failing to get elected for the University of Cambridge, he was returned as member for Appleby (in Cumbria), a 'pocket borough' controlled by his patron Sir James Lowther. (At the that time the British universities were represented in the House of Commons). Twenty-one was the youngest age at which one could enter Parliament.

Answer: Reform of the East India Company

Lord North did have to resign as Prime Minister after the British surrendered at Yorktown in the War of Independence, but this was during his first period in office, before he served as part of the Fox-North coalition. The coalition, which George III had always hated, fell because the king made his opposition to the proposed East India Company reforms very clear.

Answer: The University of Cambridge

In those days the British universities had their own MPs, with an electorate consisting each university's MAs. These university seats were abolished with effect from 1950. Hayes in Kent was Pitt's birthplace, Chatham his father's title, and Westminster the constituency of his rival Charles James Fox.

Answer: Campaigning for the abolition of the slave trade

Wilberforce was devoted to the suppression of slavery. In 1807 the transportation of slaves within the British Empire was banned, but Wilberforce died one month before all slaves in the Empire were finally emancipated, in 1833.

Answer: Income Tax

Pitt was heavily involved in the Sinking Fund, reforming it and improving its performance dramatically - however it was a fund into which money was paid to reduce the National Debt, not to finance the war with France. In fact, the costs of the war meant that the government were no longer able to make the necessary payments into the Sinking Fund and national debt grew.

This is why Pitt had to turn to income tax. The idea that government could analyse people's incomes and demand a cut was seen by many at the time as an unprecedented invasion of privacy. Window tax was introduced under William III in 1698, and VAT was first introduced in France in 1954.

Answer: Catholic Emancipation

Pitt and George III had had their disagreements from time to time - notably over Pitt's desire to try and negotiate a peace with France - but Pitt had always managed to talk the King round to his way of thinking. However, George's firm belief in his role as Defender of the Faith caused him to totally oppose Pitt when the Prime Minister argued that giving Catholics the right to sit in Parliament was the only way to prevent disorder in Ireland.

Answer: Gillray

Gillray was probably paid by the Pittites to concentrate his satire more on Charles James Fox than on Pitt, but on this occasion decided to make Pitt the subject of his viciously accurate pen.

Answer: I think I could eat one of Bellamy's pies

The 19th century Prime Minister Lord Palmerston is reported to have said that dying would be the 'last thing I shall do'. Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa allegedly implored newspaper reporters to tell the public 'I said something'. Finally, Charles II is reported to have apologised for the 'unconscionable time' he took to die.