Keeping it in the Family Trivia Quiz

Answer: The pope granting positions of authority to his nephews

The New Catholic Dictionary gives the definition of nepotism as "Preferment shown by rulers to relatives in the bestowal of offices on grounds of relationship rather than those of merit." The root of the word lies in the Latin "nepos" which means "nephew" or "grandson".

The use of nepotism was particularly popular amongst popes, who having no legitimate issue of their own to bestow favour upon, chose to benefit their wider family, to the extent that the position of Cardinal Nephew came into being. Many popes were alleged to have illegitimate offspring however and, to this day, one definition of nephew given in dictionaries is "an illegitimate son of a clergyman who has vowed celibacy".

Papal nepotism effectively met its end with the Papal Bull, "Romanum decet Pontificem", issued by Innocent XII in 1692. This Bull decreed that the office of Cardinal Nephew be abolished and restricted the promotion of family members to Cardinal for future Popes to just one relative each.

Answer: Arthur Balfour

In 21st century usage the phrase roughly translates as "there you go" or "job done" but when first coined "Bob's Your Uncle" was used to sarcastically describe a situation where an outcome was pre-ordained due to undue favouritism. The Bob in question was Robert Cecil, the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, who had no fewer than three separate spells as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries.

Ironically, Cecil was a proponent of self-help suggesting that nobody could attain personal improvement other than by "their own personal efforts". Balfour, nevertheless, seemed to many to benefit purely due to his familial connection; subsequent to his unexpectedly huge promotion to the crucial post of Chief Secretary for Ireland, Balfour was appointed as First Lord of the Treasury, and in 1902, when Salisbury resigned as Prime Minister, Balfour succeeded him.

Balfour never won the Premiership at the ballot box and remained as PM for only three years before defeat in the General Election of 1905 to the Liberals led by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman.

Answer: Kim Il-Sung was declared Eternal President of the Republic

Kim Jong-il was appointed Chairman of the National Defence Commission, which made him de facto ruler of the Republic, but his father remained as President for Eternity (which is one up on the classic despot's role as President for Life). This position was confirmed with a change in the country's constitution in 1998 that declared that "the Korean people will hold the great leader Comrade Kim Il-sung in high esteem as the eternal President of the Republic". Whether the people were consulted about this remains open to debate (although probably not in North Korea which the Economist Intelligence Unit declared in 2006 to be the most authoritarian country on the planet).

Answer: Each was the wife of the head of state

Hillary Clinton was a very active First Lady when her husband was in the Oval Office (Bill was quite busy too). Her role heading up the Task Force on National Health Care Reform produced proposals that failed to meet with significant support and were shelved in 1994. After leaving the White House, she was elected as Senator for New York in 2000 and ran for the Democratic nomination for the 2008 Presidential election, losing out to Barack Obama. She ran again for the 2016 nomination, and was successful, but lost the election itself to Donald Trump.

Elena Ceausescu's life after her husband lost power was considerably less successful and, indeed considerably shorter. After the Romanian Revolution in 1989, she and her husband were captured, tried and executed within three days. She was held responsible by many Romanians for the poor state of the nation's health, particularly regarding the AIDS crisis and the shortages of food.

Jiang Qing, wife of Mao Zedong, was purportedly the inspiration for Elena Ceausescu's lust for power. Qing, through her work during the Cultural Revolution, became a powerful political figure in China, being elected to the Politburo in 1969 and forming the "Gang of Four", a Mao-backed radical left-wing faction within the Chinese Government, which dominated policy thinking in Mao's latter years.

After Mao's death Jiang Qing and the Gang of Four were arrested and tried for treason, for allegedly planning to seize power by a series of coups. In 1981 Qing was found guilty and sentenced to death; the sentence being commuted to life imprisonment two years later.

Answer: Sonia Gandhi

Nehru was the first post-independence Prime Minister of India and remained in the position until his death in 1964. His daughter, Indira Gandhi, also died in office, at the hands of an assassin in 1984 having been Prime Minister, except for three years in opposition, since 1966. Indira had been grooming her youngest son, Sanjay, as her successor but his death in a plane crash in 1980 meant the mantle passed to his older brother, Rajiv. His premiership began with his mother's death and lasted for five years until he was defeated at the ballot box. Rajiv eventually suffered the same fate as his mother when he too was assassinated when on the campaign trail in 1991.

Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born wife of Rajiv, became leader of the Indian National Congress in 1998 and in 2004 led the party to election victory. Despite being expected to become Prime Minister, Sonia turned down the offer to lead the parliamentary party amidst protests from opponents over her nationality, instead proposing the Premiership of Dr. Manmohan Singh.

Answer: His brother, Raul

Fidel's younger brother was a loyal right-hand man who played his part in the success of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 that brought Fidel to power. Together they approached the capital of Santiago on January 1 of that year to demand the surrender of the city.

Raul's dedication to his brother's cause was rewarded with a series of top jobs within the regime culminating in his appointment as Vice-President of the Council of Ministers in 1976, which formalised his position as second-in-command within the ruling party.

Fidel Castro passed temporary power to Raul in July 2006 when the President underwent surgery for a gastric complaint. However, the temporary nature of Fidel's absence became permanent when the President announced in February 2008, without ever returning to work, that he was resigning as Cuba's leader.

Answer: Megawati Sukarnoputri

Megawati Sukarnoputri became the first female President of Indonesia in 2001, twenty-four years after her father Sukarno, the first President of an independent Indonesia, had been forced from office by the country's military. Though Sukarno was to die whilst under house arrest in 1970, it has not been suggested that his death was suspicious.

Benigno Aquino was assassinated on the runway of Manila airport (which now bears his name) on his return to the Philippines in 1983 after three years in exile in the US. Cory Aquino became President in 1986 when President Ferdinand Marcos, who had exiled her husband, fled the country in the wake of a rigged election that had returned him to power.

Begum Khaleda Zia had not been involved in politics before the assassination of her husband, President Ziaur Rahman, in a failed coup in 1981. Following his death, his widow was appointed Vice-chair of the ruling BNP party, rising to chairperson in 1984. In February 1991, the BNP won an outright majority in parliamentary elections and Zia became President.

Joseph Kabila succeeded his father, Laurent, as President of the Democratic Republic of Congo after his father was shot and killed in 2001 in another failed coup. Joseph was just 29 years old when he became President.

Answer: He was too young to assume office

Bashar was not his father's initial choice as his successor. His preferred choice, Basil, died in a car crash in 1994. From that point Bashar became the designated heir and was groomed for the position, albeit out of the public eye for fear of upsetting the military, many of whose top brass, it is said, coveted the position.

Hafez's unexpected demise at the age of sixty-nine potentially upset the succession plans as Bashar was at the time only thirty-four years of age when the constitution specified forty as the minimum age. Parliament immediately reduced this minimum, conveniently, to thirty-four.

Hafez was very keen on keeping his family close by him when in power; as well as Basil and Bashar, another son, Maher, was head of the Presidential Guard and his son-in-law Assef was head of military intelligence. It was not always beneficial to have family so near however; his brother Rifaat, who was security chief, attempted a coup against him in 1984.

Answer: Franklin D Roosevelt

Research by then 12-year-old BridgeAnne d'Avignon discovered that all bar one of the first 44 presidents was related, either by blood or by marriage, to King John of England. Further to this research, it was discovered that the one who was not (8th President Martin Van Buren), was in fact related to John's mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, thereby linking all of them to the one, very large, family tree.

Franklin D Roosevelt, the 32nd President, was not a direct descendant of 26th President Theodore Roosevelt, but they were fifth cousins. George W. Bush, the 43rd President, is of course the son of the 41st President George H.W. Bush, but he is also related to the 14th President Franklin Pierce (fifth cousin, five times removed). Bush Jr is also a seventh cousin of both the 26th President Theodore Roosevelt and the 16th President, Abraham Lincoln and an eleventh cousin of 38th President, Gerald Ford.

Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd President, was the grandson of the 9th President, William Henry Harrison. He was also related to 10th President John Tyler (fifth cousin), 27th President William Taft (7th cousin) and 30th President Calvin Coolidge (9th cousin).

John Quincy Adams, the 6th President, was the son of John Adams, the 2nd. He was also a fourth cousin of Calvin Coolidge and Franklin Roosevelt.

Answer: They were identical twin brothers

Jaroslaw stood as a Prime Ministerial candidate in parliamentary elections in 2005 but withdrew his candidacy after his party won the election so as not to damage his brother's chances of becoming President.

Lech then stood for the Presidency, vowing that should he win the election, he would not appoint his brother to the Premiership. But when the sitting PM, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, tendered his resignation, Kaczynski called up the man he could trust the most and offered him the position. That made Poland the first state where identical twins were head of state and head of the government at the same time.

When the matter came back to the electorate sixteen months later, Jaroslaw and his party failed to match the performance of 2005 and he stood down from the role.