Were Chaucer, Newton ever in the UK parliament? Test yourself
Thanks to Politico for drawing attention to a stunner of a year-starter, take your pick.
It’s a quiz by the History of Parliament Trust, which combines British politics and trivia. Some would say that’s a tautology but hey, t’was the season to be kindly and quite recently too.
Anyway, the Trust describes itself as a research project creating a comprehensive account of parliamentary politics in England, then Britain, from their origins in the thirteenth century.
This quiz is fascinating because it challenges those who think they know about these things, to dig deep into political history.
Have a look at this list of historical characters. Were they ever a member of parliament – House of Commons or House of Lords.
1: Geoffrey Chaucer (1340s — 1400), author of “The Canterbury Tales.”
2: Richard (Dick) Whittington (1354 — 1423), lord mayor of London and pantomime star.
3: Thomas More (1478 — 1535), adviser to Henry VIII turned Catholic saint.
4: Francis Drake (1540 — 1596), privateer, admiral and circumnavigator.
5: Christopher Marlowe (1564 — 1593), playwright and poet.
6: Thomas Fairfax (1612 — 1671), civil war commander in chief.
7: Isaac Newton (1642/3 — 1726/7), physicist, philosopher and mathematician.
8: George Stephenson (1781 — 1848), engineer known as the “Father of railways.”
9: William Henry Fox Talbot (1800 — 1877), photography pioneer.
10: Charles Dickens (1812 — 1870), author and social critic.
11: Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1847 — 1929), suffrage campaigner.
12: Ernest Shackleton (1874 — 1922), polar explorer.
13: Christabel Pankhurst (1880 — 1958), suffragette.
14: Megan Lloyd George (1902 — 1966), campaigner for Welsh rights.
15: Constance Markievicz (1868 — 1927), Irish Nationalist campaigner and suffragist.
Here’s the link to the answers.
