Fame, Fortune and Foremost Family Quiz

Answer: Earl of Warwick

The Earl of Warwick was the power behind the Yorkist claim to the English throne during the early part of the Wars of the Roses - a 15th century civil war where two branches of the Royal Family fought for control of England. Warwick initially supported his cousin, Edward, Duke of York (whose victory at the Battle of Towton in 1461 led to him being crowned as King Edward IV), but later switched allegiance to the Lancastrian side, forced King Edward to flee the country and restored King Henry VI to the throne. However, the success of this later venture was short-lived as he was killed at the Battle of Barnet in 1471 by his former protégé's forces.

Warwick was also not above using his two daughters for political purposes. He had no sons and therefore was keen on seeing one of his daughters become Queen of England. However, he hedged his bets by marrying off his elder daughter, Isabel, to the Duke of Clarence (younger brother of King Edward) and his younger daughter, Anne, to Edward of Westminster (the son of King Henry VI). In the end Anne did become queen in 1483 as the wife of King Richard III (another of King Edward's brothers).

The picture clue shows Warwick Castle in Warwickshire, the ancestral home of the Earls of Warwick. Gloucestershire, Staffordshire and Leicestershire are all neighbouring counties to Warwickshire.

Answer: Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn was the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn - an important aide to both King Henry VII and King Henry VIII - and Lady Elizabeth Howard, the daughter of the Duke of Norfolk and a member of one of the most influential noble families of 16th century England. Her exact year of birth is unknown but is believed by historians to be somewhere between 1501 and 1507. She spent much of her later childhood in the Netherlands, where she joined the household of Margaret of Austria, and in France, at the court of both Queen Mary and Queen Claude.

Anne returned to England and joined the court of King Henry VIII in 1522, quickly becoming noted as one of its most stylish, influential and popular ladies. The rest of her story is well recorded by history: King Henry became infatuated with her; Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon was annulled so he could marry her (causing the English Reformation in the process); their daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth I, was born; she was charged with treason, adultery and incest, and finally she was executed on the scaffold of the Tower of London, less than three years after her coronation.

The picture clue shows Hever Castle, Anne Boleyn's ancestral home. The incorrect options are all women executed on Henry's orders: the nun, Elizabeth Barton, was executed in 1534 for prophesying the king's death; Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (Henry's mother's cousin) was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church after her execution in 1541 for supposedly assisting her son in a plot to overthrow Henry; and Catherine Howard (Anne's cousin) was his fifth wife, executed on charges of treason and adultery in 1542.

Answer: Bess of Hardwick

Despite relatively lowly beginnings as the daughter of a member of the gentry, Bess of Hardwick used her many marriages to rise to a position of power and prominence in Elizabethan England. Her first husband, Robert Barley, was a teenage neighbour who died young; her second husband, Sir William Cavendish, was much older than her and rich; the third husband, Sir William St Loe, was extremely wealthy and left her his entire fortune (disinheriting his daughters in the process); and the Earl of Shrewsbury, her fourth husband, gave her noble status and the title of countess.

(By the first decade of the 17th century she had an annual income of £60,000 - a staggering figure for the time. Calculating the modern value of this sum is problematical: using the rise in the cost of living the modern figure would be around £10 million, but if one calculates it as a proportion of GDP the figure would be much higher - a little over £3.2 billion. Neither figure is entirely satisfactory).

After all these marriages, Bess was left with large amounts of property across England. She used some of her great wealth to build grand homes including Hardwick Hall and the original Tudor version of Chatsworth House (the home of the Dukes of Devonshire - descendants of Bess and her second husband, Sir William Cavendish) as well as amassing a large collection of tapestries and textiles. In her will, Bess arranged for this collection to be protected and it can still be seen today at Hardwick Hall. In addition to collecting textiles, she was also an accomplished needlewoman and, together with Mary, Queen of Scots, was responsible for sewing the Oxburgh Hangings, now part of the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The building shown in the picture clue is the ruins of Hardwick Old Hall, the birthplace of Bess of Hardwick. The incorrect options are all other women who held the role of lady in waiting to Queen Elizabeth I.

Answer: Battle of Blenheim

John Churchill is generally regarded as one of England's greatest military heroes. He grew up in some obscurity, but his career blossomed through service at the court of the future King James II. He was granted the Earldom of Marlborough by King William III after Churchill chose to support the Protestant side in the Glorious Revolution. His marriage to Sarah Jennings, a close friend of the future Queen Anne further cemented his position. Unfortunately though, his popularity took a dive in the 1690s when he was accused of high treason and locked up in the Tower of London under suspicion of supporting a Jacobite plot to restore King James II to the throne. However, he and his wife recovered their position at court and Queen Anne elevated him to Duke of Marlborough shortly after her accession to the throne in 1702.

He is however best remembered for his victory at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704, for which Queen Anne granted him royal land near Woodstock in Oxfordshire and agreed to state funds being used to help him build a grand palace on the site. The result of this was Blenheim Palace, one of the largest houses in England and the only non-royal 'palace' in the country. The construction work was fraught with financial difficulties, particularly after Marlborough again fell from royal favour. He died in 1722, over ten years before Blenheim could be completed.

The grand building shown in the picture clue is Blenheim Palace - the incorrect options were battles in the Napoleonic War (Waterloo), Crimean War (Balaklava) and the First World War (the Somme).

Answer: Hawaii

The Earl of Sandwich gained lasting fame for supposedly inventing sandwiches as a handy means of eating a meal without interrupting his gambling sessions - although there is little documentary evidence for this and other theories give the more flattering description of him inventing sandwiches to eat at his desk because he was too busy working to take a meal break. The desk in question could have been that of First Lord of the Admiralty (the politician in charge of the Royal Navy) as the earl held this position on three separate occasions during the mid to late 18th century. Sandwich was also responsible for approving state funding for the expeditions of Captain James Cook that resulted in the first crossing of the Antarctic Circle, the first charting of North America's north-west coast and the discovery of the extent of Alaska.

Cook named several places after the Earl of Sandwich - the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawaii), the South Sandwich Islands (located in the far South Atlantic Ocean) and two 'Montague Island's, one in the entrance to Prince William Sound, Alaska and the other off the coast of New South Wales, Australia. The name 'Sandwich Islands' was used for the Hawaiian Islands from Captain Cook's arrival in 1778 until around the 1840s.

The picture clue shows a satellite image of the Hawaiian Islands. The incorrect options are all islands groups with alternative or former names derived from British men: the Malvinas are also known as the Falkland Islands (after a nearby sound that was named in honour of Viscount Falkland, a treasurer of the Royal Navy); Kiribati was known as the Gilbert Islands (after a British sea captain, Thomas Gilbert); and Tuvalu was formerly called the Ellice Islands (after the English politician Edward Ellice).

Answer: Earl Grey

Lady Georgiana Spencer became the Duchess of Devonshire when she married the 5th Duke of Devonshire at the age of just 17. She became a leading light of London society and a prominent supporter of Charles James Fox and the Whig party. Her tumultuous relationship with her husband was marred by numerous affairs and both partners had illegitimate children during the course of the marriage. In 1792, Georgiana's affair with Charles Grey (he hadn't yet inherited the title of Earl Grey) resulted in the birth of a daughter, named Eliza Courtney, who was brought up by Grey's parents. The duke had forced his wife to give up her youngest child by threatening her with the loss of contact with her three older children - a somewhat hypocritical move since he expected Georgiana to not only live with his array of illegitimate children, but to share her home with his mistress (who also happened to be her best friend).

While Georgiana died in 1806, at the age of 48, with massive gambling debts, Charles Grey went on to spend nearly four years as British Prime Minister (1830-1834). Her life story was told in the 2008 film 'The Duchess', starring Keira Knightley in the title role.

The teapot in the picture clue is a reference to Earl Grey's other claim to fame - the fact that his name has come to be associated with a type of black tea flavoured with bergamot. The incorrect options also held the role of British Prime Minister during the 19th century.

Answer: Duke of Wellington

Despite being given a dukedom based on the name of an English town, Arthur Wellesley was actually born in Dublin, Ireland to an aristocratic Anglo-Irish family. The Wellesley family originated from the area south of Wells in Somerset, hence the choice of dukedom later bestowed on Wellesley. As well as the dukedom, the nation also gifted him the estate of Stratfield Saye House in Hampshire, which remains the seat of the dukes of Wellington in the 21st century. Although the Duke of Wellington achieved great success in his military career, his subsequent political career was not quite as notable. He rose to the office of Prime Minister, holding the job twice - firstly from 1828 to 1830 and then temporarily in 1834 until Sir Robert Peel was able to take up the position - but his time in office was fraught with difficulties surrounding the issues of Catholic Emancipation and political reform.

The Duke of Wellington died in 1852, at the grand old age of 83. He was given a state funeral and interred in a tomb in St Paul's Cathedral in London. His name has been given to many locations around the world, including the capital city of New Zealand and various towns in Canada.

The picture clue shows several pairs of wellington boots, which take their name from the 1st Duke of Wellington. The incorrect options all include the names of towns in Somerset: Wells has a large cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells; Bridgwater gave its name to the dukedom of Bridgewater; and Glastonbury is synonymous with wellington boots thanks to the annual (and often very muddy) music festival held there.

Answer: Salisbury

The Marquess of Salisbury was born in Hatfield, England in 1830 and held the title of British Prime Minister three times: 1885-1886, 1886-1892 (following William Gladstone's short-lived third ministry of 1886) and 1895-1902. He also held the position of foreign secretary four times from 1878 onwards so he had both control over British foreign policy for a large chunk of the late Victorian era.

Salisbury stepped down from office in 1902, just a year before his death in 1903, and handed over power to his nephew Arthur Balfour. Salisbury had previously shown familial patronage towards Balfour in 1887 when Balfour was appointed to the post of Chief Secretary for Ireland. This event is one theory put forward for the origins of the phrase "Bob's your uncle!" - used to indicate a successful (and often simple) solution to a problem.

Salisbury Cathedral is the subject of the image shown in the picture clue. It has the tallest spire of any British cathedral. The incorrect options are all English cathedral cities, but are not associated with marquessates.

Answer: Viscount Mountbatten of Burma

Prince Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas of Battenberg, a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, was born in Windsor, England in 1900 and, despite the huge choice of names he was given by his parents, was known within his family as 'Dickie'. During the First World War, members of the British royal family renounced any German princely or noble titles, so Prince Louis became known as Louis Mountbatten - an anglicised version of his original title.

Mountbatten served in the Royal Navy during both the First and Second World Wars, rising to the position of Supreme Allied Commander of the Southeast Asia Theatre. During his time in this office (1943 to 1946), the allies recaptured Burma (now Myanmar) and the Japanese forces in the area surrendered. Following his return to Britain he was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Mountbatten of Burma, a title which was upgraded a year later to Earl Mountbatten of Burma. He went on to forge a diplomatic career, serving a few months as the last Viceroy of India and then as the first Governor-General of an independent India from 1947 to 1948, a position that only existed until the country became a republic in 1950. Mountbatten was killed by an IRA bomb in 1979.

The picture clue shows a map of Burma (Myanmar). The incorrect options are all invented titles based on the former names of other south-east Asian nations - Siam (now Thailand) and Malaya and Malacca (that are now part of Malaysia).

Answer: Snowdon

The Earl of Snowdon is known for his photographic career, particularly his portraiture and society and fashion images. He worked for several major UK newspapers and magazines including 'The Sunday Times' and 'Vogue' as well as being an official royal photographer - even before his marriage to the Queen's sister. The National Portrait Gallery have a collection of over 250 of Snowdon's portraits of an wide variety of celebrities including an array of British royalty; artists, such as David Hockney and Lucien Freud; authors, such as Agatha Christie and J.R.R. Tolkien; as well as actors, sporting stars, politicians, scientists and even a self-confessed Soviet spy (Anthony Blunt).

Snowdon's marriage to Princess Margaret was tumultuous and ended in divorce in 1978 - although the couple's relationship had been in difficulties for many years before that date. He married his second wife, Lucy, within months of the divorce - but that marriage also failed when it was revealed that he had later fathered a baby with another woman.

The picture clue shows Mount Snowdon, the highest in Wales, and one of the few mountains in the world to have a train service running up it. The incorrect options are all mountains in the Lake District region of England.