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Quiz about Famous Dutchies
Quiz about Famous Dutchies

Famous Dutchies Trivia Quiz


The Netherlands: small in size, big in history. Can you identify the Dutchies who have made an impact on world stage?

A multiple-choice quiz by Debarrio. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Author
Debarrio
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
330,092
Updated
Jul 23 22
# Qns
15
Difficulty
Easy
Avg Score
12 / 15
Plays
664
Awards
Top 20% Quiz
- -
Question 1 of 15
1. I am an Augustinian monk from Rotterdam, but best known as philosopher, writer and humanist. My essay "In Praise of Folly" (1511), which sharply criticized the Church, was written on the estate of my good friend, Sir Thomas More, and influenced Martin Luther. Hint


Question 2 of 15
2. I painted "The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq" or, as people prefer to call it, the "Night Watch", as well as numerous self portraits. No further introduction needed: I am considered one of the greatest painters in European art history and the personification of the Dutch Golden Age. Hint


Question 3 of 15
3. I was a hardline Director-General of the Dutch colony New Netherland until that rotten ole English Captain Richard Nicholls forced me to cede the colony in 1664. Wall Street and a canal that is now Broadway were constructed under my direction. Hint


Question 4 of 15
4. I am a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish descent and am considered to have laid the groundwork for the 18th-century Enlightenment. My best known work is called "Ethica" and influenced Goethe, Hegel, and Shelley. Hint


Question 5 of 15
5. I am a famous painter from Delft, even though my legacy comprises only about 36 paintings. Surprisingly little is known about my life. My best known paintings show intimate stills of everyday life, such as a girl wearing my wife's pearl earrings, in a natural, radiant light. I died practically bankrupt. Hint


Question 6 of 15
6. I did not invent the microscope, but made some drastic improvements and have been called the "Father of Microbiology". I was the very first to discover and describe bacteria, red blood cells, and spermatozoa! Hint


Question 7 of 15
7. I am informally known as King Billy ever since the "Glorious Revolution" in 1689, during which I landed in England with a large military force and disposed of my Catholic uncle and father-in-law King James II. My wife Mary II of England and I were crowned "King and Queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland". Hint


Question 8 of 15
8. I was the eighth President of the United States and the first President without English ancestry. Even though I was an American citizen, English was only my second language. I preferred to speak Dutch in the White House. Hint


Question 9 of 15
9. I famously sold only one painting in my miserable life, cut off my ear and barely succeeded at committing suicide at the age of 37. Nowadays, my post-impressionist paintings, depicting sunflowers or cypresses, are among the most highly valued in the world. Hint


Question 10 of 15
10. As a promiscuous exotic dancer, I became a major hit in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century. I performed for the high and mighty everywhere in Europe, even in the Scala of Milan. Because of my intimate relations with several highly ranked officers and diplomats during World War I, I was (wrongfully) found guilty of espionage and executed by a French firing squad. Hint


Question 11 of 15
11. I did not live past the age of 15. Still, my diary was translated in over 65 languages and is one of the best selling publications of all time. I died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, just a few months before the end of World War II. Hint


Question 12 of 15
12. Wearing number 14, my soccer skills could only be matched by Pele and Diego Maradona. I was voted European Soccer Player of the 20th Century. I was also very successfull as manager of FC Barcelona, leading this club to its very first European Cup in 1992. Hint


Question 13 of 15
13. We were the first Dutch musicians to score a Billboard Top 100 #1 hit in the USA, way back in 1969. Oddly enough, our hit single "Venus" didn't even reach the #1 spot in the Netherlands. Hint


Question 14 of 15
14. Holland meets Hollywood. I directed Hollywood blockbusters like RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990), Basic Instinct (1992), Starship Troopers (1997), and Hollow Man (2000). Controversy because of explicit violence and sex scenes seems to surround most of my movies. Hint


Question 15 of 15
15. My name is Hendrik van der Decken and I am captain of a ship doomed to sail the oceans till the end of time, after I cursed God and the devil in the middle of a raging storm in the 1700s. Sightings of what black ship with blood red sails are reported to this very day? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. I am an Augustinian monk from Rotterdam, but best known as philosopher, writer and humanist. My essay "In Praise of Folly" (1511), which sharply criticized the Church, was written on the estate of my good friend, Sir Thomas More, and influenced Martin Luther.

Answer: Desiderius Erasmus

The essay Erasmus (1467-1536) wrote served as a catalyst for the Protestant Reformation, ridiculing the corrupt practices and superstitious abuse within the Roman Catholic Church and the folly of its pendants. Much to his surprise, the essay was hugely successful. Even Pope Leo X was reported to have been amused by it.

Lots of European students will know his name since the European Union student exchange program bears his name, as does the University of Rotterdam. On the other hand, a 2003 poll indicated that 65% of the Rotterdammers thought that Erasmus was the architect of the famous local Erasmus Bridge. So much for fame...

Boeyens was the successor of Pope Leo X and to date the only "Dutch" Pope (Hadrianus VI). Agricola was another Dutch humanist.
2. I painted "The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq" or, as people prefer to call it, the "Night Watch", as well as numerous self portraits. No further introduction needed: I am considered one of the greatest painters in European art history and the personification of the Dutch Golden Age.

Answer: Rembrandt van Rijn

Rembrandt (1606-1669) does not need a surname (some people assume it WAS his surname). He was hugely successful during his life, but still managed to go bankrupt by living beyond his means. In order to circumvent the restrictive regulations of the painters' guild, his wife and son set up an art dealership with Rembrandt as an employee.

Bol, Flinck and Maes are just three of the many students of Rembrandt who went on to become well known painters themselves.
3. I was a hardline Director-General of the Dutch colony New Netherland until that rotten ole English Captain Richard Nicholls forced me to cede the colony in 1664. Wall Street and a canal that is now Broadway were constructed under my direction.

Answer: Peter Stuyvesant

Peter Stuyvesant (1592-1672) climbed the social ladder of the Dutch West India Company by working hard. He was the governor of the Caribbean island Curaçao which he transformed into a major hub for the slave trade. In a bid to conquer St. Martin from the Spanish, Stuyvesant lost his right leg. After the English take-over, Stuyvesant continued to live on his farm ("de Bouwerij" or the Bowery) just outside the town walls. He is interred at St. Mark's-in-the-Bowery in Manhattan, New York.

Officially, the Netherlands and England "traded" the colonies of New Netherland and Surinam as a result of the Peace of Westminster (1674). Unofficially, however, it was "an offer we couldn't refuse".

Hudson was the explorer who claimed Manhattan for the Dutch. Bronck came from Sweden and "jonker" Van der Donck were early settlers who gave their names to the Bronx and Yonkers, respectively.
4. I am a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish descent and am considered to have laid the groundwork for the 18th-century Enlightenment. My best known work is called "Ethica" and influenced Goethe, Hegel, and Shelley.

Answer: Benedictus Spinoza

Spinoza (1632-1677, born Baruch d'Espinosa) was one of the key thinkers during the Age of Reason. His philosophy was that God does not exist outside creation, but manifests Himself in everything created, including mankind itself. These "heresies" led to Spinoza's excommunication from the Jewish Congregation in Amsterdam in 1656.

The "Ethica" is not an easy read, but, hey, in Spinoza's own words: 'All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.'

Spinoza featured on the 1,000 Dutch Guilder bank-note until the introduction of the Euro in 2002. Pascal, Leibnitz and Descartes were of course non-Dutch great minds of the 17th century. Descartes, however, did live and work in the Netherlands for 20 years.
5. I am a famous painter from Delft, even though my legacy comprises only about 36 paintings. Surprisingly little is known about my life. My best known paintings show intimate stills of everyday life, such as a girl wearing my wife's pearl earrings, in a natural, radiant light. I died practically bankrupt.

Answer: Johannes Vermeer

Vermeer (1632-1675) enjoyed some local fame in his day, but was no match for his contemporaries, like Rembrandt. However, because of his limited output and his exceptional style and chosen subjects, the value of paintings by Vermeer have skyrocketed (resulting in many forgeries). Nowadays, Vermeer is even more popular than Rembrandt, as the movie "The Girl with a Pearl Earring" with the stunning Scarlett Johansson may attest.

Because of his enigmatic life, his (19th century) nickname was "The Sphinx of Delft".

Hals, Steen and Cuyp are just some of the other well known painters from the 17th century. No wonder they call it "The Golden Age".
6. I did not invent the microscope, but made some drastic improvements and have been called the "Father of Microbiology". I was the very first to discover and describe bacteria, red blood cells, and spermatozoa!

Answer: Antoni van Leeuwenhoek

Van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) was an autodidact without any scientific background. He didn't write any books, but made his dicoveries public in letters to the Royal Society of London. His discovery of single celled organisms met with a lot of sceptisism, but Van Leeuwenhoek was fully vindicated. Leibnitz, King William III and Tsar Peter the Great all visited him in order to have a peek at the organisms themselves.

Swammerdam, a young Dutch biologist using an early type of microscope, was actually the first to describe red blood cells, but wasn't credited for it. Huygens was a Dutch mathematician, astronomer and physicist, whose work included the discovery of the rings of Saturn and the invention of the pendulum clock. Dutchman Drebbel invented the first navigable submarine in 1620.
7. I am informally known as King Billy ever since the "Glorious Revolution" in 1689, during which I landed in England with a large military force and disposed of my Catholic uncle and father-in-law King James II. My wife Mary II of England and I were crowned "King and Queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland".

Answer: William III of Orange

William III (1650-1702) was also Stadtholder of the Dutch Provinces as well as High Admiral of the Dutch fleet. The moniker "King of France" was only nominal, as was customary for every English king since Edward III. No doubt William's rival, Louis XIV of France, had quite a different perspective on the matter.

In 1690 William defeated James II and his French-backed army for a second time at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. This victory is still commemorated annually by Northern Irish and Scottish Protestants on July 12.

The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia is named after King Billy and his wife ... and so is Williamsburg.
8. I was the eighth President of the United States and the first President without English ancestry. Even though I was an American citizen, English was only my second language. I preferred to speak Dutch in the White House.

Answer: Martin Van Buren

Martin Van Buren served as US President from 1837 to 1841. Before his presidency, he was the eighth Vice President and the 10th Secretary of State under Andrew Jackson. He was not the only US President with Dutch blood in his veins; ancestors of Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt were among the first colonists in New Amsterdam and hailed from the Dutch province of Zeeland.

I inserted this question for the American players, because in the Netherlands Van Buren is just about as famous as American folktale hero Hans Brinker (who is erroneously believed to have saved Holland by putting his finger in a dike), which is to say: not at all!
9. I famously sold only one painting in my miserable life, cut off my ear and barely succeeded at committing suicide at the age of 37. Nowadays, my post-impressionist paintings, depicting sunflowers or cypresses, are among the most highly valued in the world.

Answer: Vincent van Gogh

There is actually some debate whether it was Van Gogh (1853-1890) who cut off his ear. Some scholars believe that it was actually done by his friend and fellow painter Paul Gauguin in a quarrel over a girl they both loved. For the sake of their friendship, Van Gogh decided not to press charges.

Van Gogh committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest. However, he missed his heart and it took him two agonising days to die of internal bleedings.

Van Gogh's highest selling painting up 2010 is "Portrait of Dr. Gachet", bought by Japanese paper merchant Ryoei Saito for US$ 82.5 million in 1990. Just hours after this purchase, Saito died. The painting is rumoured to have been cremated with his body.
10. As a promiscuous exotic dancer, I became a major hit in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century. I performed for the high and mighty everywhere in Europe, even in the Scala of Milan. Because of my intimate relations with several highly ranked officers and diplomats during World War I, I was (wrongfully) found guilty of espionage and executed by a French firing squad.

Answer: Mata Hari

Margaretha Zelle (1876-1917) made a name for herself as Mata Hari (Malaysian for "Sun" or "Eye of the Day") in the Parisian salon of Madame Kiréevsky and was an instant hit. Her Asiatic or Egyptian type of dance fitted well with the preferences of the belle époque.

It remains unclear to what extent she was actually involved in espionage. It is clear, however, that she had contacts with the German intelligence service and that she offered her services to the French intelligence. In 1917, a German military attaché transmitted an intercepted message to Berlin describing the spying services by Mata Hari. Oddly, the message was in a code that German intelligence knew had already been broken by the French, leaving some room for conspiracy theories.

Mata Hari has become an iconic sample of an irresistible courtesan-spy. Greta Garbo in 1932 and Jeanne Moreau in 1965 featured in movies about her life.
11. I did not live past the age of 15. Still, my diary was translated in over 65 languages and is one of the best selling publications of all time. I died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, just a few months before the end of World War II.

Answer: Anne Frank

Poor Anne (1929-1945). An icon.

Her diary was published by her father, the sole survivor of the eight Jews hiding in the Annex. The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam is now one of the most visited museums in the Netherlands.

Bonus points if you knew that Anne wasn't Dutch at all, but German. More precisely, she was officially stateless, as in 1941 the Nazi régime stripped all German refugees of citizenship, but she lived in the Netherlands since age 5. She spoke and wrote in Dutch and is therefore generally accepted as a Dutch citizen. Anne Frank came in 8th in the election of the "Greatest Dutchmen of the 20th Century".
12. Wearing number 14, my soccer skills could only be matched by Pele and Diego Maradona. I was voted European Soccer Player of the 20th Century. I was also very successfull as manager of FC Barcelona, leading this club to its very first European Cup in 1992.

Answer: Johan Cruyff

Cruyff is a living legend in the Netherlands and in Spain (well ... Catalonia actually). The fact that he failed to lead his "Clockwork Orange" team to World Cup victory in 1974 is the only blemish on his exceptional career. The Dutch national squad was clearly the best, but the resulting playful arrogance was probably not the best idea playing the Germans on their home turf.

Franz Beckenbauer was the iconic captain of the German national team in the 70s. Neeskens and Van Hanegem were team mates of Cruyff and legends in their own right
13. We were the first Dutch musicians to score a Billboard Top 100 #1 hit in the USA, way back in 1969. Oddly enough, our hit single "Venus" didn't even reach the #1 spot in the Netherlands.

Answer: Shocking Blue

Bananarama and Stars on 45 also reached the #1 spot in the USA with (adaptations of) the same song, making to the first song to hit gold three times. Of course, Bruce Springsteen is as American as they get, but his ancestors were among the first Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam (New York).
14. Holland meets Hollywood. I directed Hollywood blockbusters like RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990), Basic Instinct (1992), Starship Troopers (1997), and Hollow Man (2000). Controversy because of explicit violence and sex scenes seems to surround most of my movies.

Answer: Paul Verhoeven

His movie "Showgirls" (1995) was considerably less successful, winning 7 Raspberry Awards or Razzies and and a bonus Razzie in the category "Worst Picture of The Decade" for the 90s. Verhoeven, however, was the first winner ever to attend the ceremony and graciously accept the awards in person. This gesture of good sportsmanship was later repeated by Halle Berry and Sandra Bullock.
15. My name is Hendrik van der Decken and I am captain of a ship doomed to sail the oceans till the end of time, after I cursed God and the devil in the middle of a raging storm in the 1700s. Sightings of what black ship with blood red sails are reported to this very day?

Answer: The Flying Dutchman

Even though this is open for debate, Van der Decken is generally thought to be the captain behind the saga of the Flying Dutchman. In 1676, on its way to the Dutch Indies, his ship had to anchor in the Table Bay and ride out a terrible storm. After six days of waiting and with no signs of an abating storm, the captain could not take it any longer and set off on Easter morning. Battling all day against furious headwinds, Van der Decken cried out: "By God, I will round the Cape of Good Hope even if it takes until Doomsday!". All of a sudden the sea became calm and his crew dropped dead. Van der Decken would never call at port again.

The myth was made into a famous opera by Richard Wagner: "The Flying Dutchman" (1843).
Source: Author Debarrio

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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