The House magazine's history of Parliament Christmas Quiz

1. Who or what might have voted for Christmas...

a. in 1566?

b. in 1571?

c. In 1652?

d. in 1832?

e. in 1924?

2. Of these six parliaments, which was known as the “Good” Parliament? Which was known as the “Mad” Parliament? Which was known as the “Bad” Parliament?

a. 1258

b. 1376

c. 1377

d. 1614

e. 1640-48

f. 1886-92

g. 2017-19

3. Match the following fictional MPs to their creators:

1. Anthony Powell, Books do Furnish a Room (1966)	a. Mr Avario
2. Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil (1845)	b. Augustus Melmotte
3. George Eliot, Felix Holt (1866)	c. Charles Egremont
4. Chris Mullin, A Very British Coup (1983)	d. Sir Oran Haut-Ton
5. Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby (1839)	e. Mr Gregsbury
6. Ellen Wilkinson, The Division Bell Mystery (1932)	f. Philip Debarry
7. Anthony Trollope, The Way We Live Now (1875)	g. Richard Remington
8. HG Wells, The New Machiavelli (1911)	h. Robert West
9. Eliza Haywood, The Invisible Spy (1754)	i. Kenneth Widmerpool
10. Michael Dobbs, The House of Cards (1989)	j. Joan Cook
11. Thomas Love Peacock, Melincourt (1817)	k. Henry Collingridge

4. In which of the following towns or cities has Parliament never met?

a. Nottingham

b. Bristol

c. York

d. Stratford-upon-Avon

e. Worcester

f. Towcester

g. Cambridge

h. Shrewsbury

i. Oxford

j. Willesden

5. In which year did John Bellamy, deputy housekeeper of the House of Commons and manager of Bellamy’s refreshment rooms, die?

a. 1796

b. 1806

c. 1816

d. 1826

e. 1836

f. 1846

6. For what are the following fictional prime ministers most famous (apart from being fictional prime ministers)?

a. David

b. Viv Rook

c. Harriet Jones

d. Francis Urquhart

7. Grisly ends: match the following real MPs to their fates:

1. Summarily executed after capture in battle in 1485	a. Guy Cuthbert Dawnay
2. Murdered by a Harringay mob after escaping imprisonment in 1461	b. Henry Handcock
3. Hanged and burnt as a heretic in 1417	c. Sir William Payne Gallwey
4. Executed for treason in 1585 and beatified	d. Walter Powell
5. Last seen in a hot air balloon over the English Channel in 1881	e. William Parry
6. Run through with a spear by an unknown assailant and died on Christmas Day in 1599f. Victor Grayson	f. Victor Grayson
7. Died of Spanish flu in 1919. His remains were exhumed in 2008 in order to find samples of the virus.	g. Sir Thomas More
8. Executed for treason in 1535 and canonised	h. Sir Thomas Thorpe
9. Killed by a buffalo in 1889	i. William Catesby
10. Fell over a turnip and died of internal injuries in 1881	j. Sir John Oldcastle
11. Disappeared in 1920	k. Edward Aglionby
12. Killed by a tiger in 1858	l. Sir Tatton Benvenuto Mark Sykes

8. Great Escapes: which MP or peer

a. Escaped from a German PoW camp in 1944 wearing full British naval uniform passing himself off as Lieutenant L. Bugaroff (or Bagerov) from the Bulgarian Naval Delegation?

b. Escaped from Colditz in 1942?

c. Escaped from the Tower of London in 1642 by knotting sheets and dressing as a woman?

d. Escaped execution in 1547 because King Henry VIII died the day after his attainder had been passed by Parliament?

e. Escaped from the Tower of London in 1413 after he was condemned to be burnt for heresy?

9. Literary endeavours: match the following first sentences of literary works to their creators – all of whom were either Members or officers of one or other House

1. This book is the record of a struggle between two temperaments, two consciences and almost two epochs.	a. Ann Widdecombe
2. April 18th, 1906 Slonim, Poland: She only stopped screaming when she died.	b. Edward Bulwer-Lytton
3. This is not a story about spies.	c. Jeffrey Archer
4. He meant her to fall, was going to let go, was enjoying her fear now that he was sure she realised.	d. Edmund Gosse
5. “I wish,” said Frank Bridges venomously, “that somebody would sort out the bloody cow once and for all.”	e. Douglas Hurd
6. It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.	f. Edwina Currie

10. Which of the following were members of either House of Parliament, and which were unacknowledged legislators?

a. Geoffrey Chaucer

b. Sir Thomas Wyatt

c. Sir Philip Sidney

d. William Shakespeare

e. John Donne

f. Andrew Marvell

g. Percy Bysshe Shelley

h. George Byron

i. Alfred Tennyson

j. Rudyard Kipling

k. Hilaire Belloc

l. Sir Edmund Uvedale

---

ANSWERS:

1. Voting for Christmas:

a. the electors of Colchester, for George Christmas

b. the electors of Chipping Wycombe, for Robert Christmas

c. the House of Commons, which resolved on Christmas Eve “that no observation shall be had on the 25th day of December, commonly called Christmas Day”

d. the electors of Waterford, for William Christmas

e. the electors of Wrexham, for Christmas Price Williams

2. Named Parliaments: The “Good Parliament” was the name given to the Parliament of 1376 which impeached Edward III’s minister, Lord Latimer, and demanded the banishment of his mistress, Alice Perrers. The “Mad” Parliament is the name given to the Oxford Parliament of 1258 which confronted Henry III and insisted he rule with the advice of his barons. There is some dispute about whether the chronicle in which the word “insane Parlamentum” appears originally said “insigne parlamentum,” i.e. famous. The “Bad’ Parliament” is the name given to the Parliament of 1377, which overturned the reforms of the “Good” one.

3. Fictional MPs:

A=9; b=7; c=2; d=11 (Sir Oran was, in fact, an Orangutan, and may not therefore have been allowed to sit. The novel is not clear on this point, but it is clear that he was elected); e=5; f=3; g=8; h=6; i=1; j=4; k=10.

4. Peripatetic Parliaments: (b), (d), (f) and (j). There is no evidence of a parliament ever having met at Bristol, though one was originally summoned there in 1409 only to be moved to Westminster. Preparations were made for Parliament to meet in Willesden and Stratford-upon-Avon during the Second World War, but they were never put into effect. No one ever suggested meeting at Towcester, as far as we’re aware.

5. Bellamy’s: (c) and (f): there were two John Bellamys, father and son, who held the position.

6. The Prime Minister

a. David, played by Hugh Grant in Love Actually (2003) was rude to the president of the United States.

b. Viv Rook, played by Emma Thompson in Years and Years (BBC TV 2019), shut down the BBC, introduced death camps and failed to deal with the monkey flu pandemic.

c. Harriet Jones, played by Penelope Wilton in The Christmas Invasion: Dr Who special (2005) was teleported to the Sycorax invasion fleet and prevented by Dr Who from destroying their ship.

d. Francis Urquhart, played by Ian Richardson in To Play the King and The Final Cut (1995) was assassinated.

7. Grisly ends:

A=9; b=12; c=10; d=5; e=4; f=11; g=8; h=2; i=1; j=3; k=6; l=7

8. Great Escapes

a. David James, MP for Brighton Kemptown 1959-64 and North Dorset 1970-9

b. Airey Neave, MP for Abingdon from 1953 until his assassination in 1979

c. Daniel O’Neill, MP for St Ives, 1662-4

d. Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk

e. Sir John Oldcastle, MP for Herefordshire in 1404, although he was recaptured in Wales four years later and hanged and burnt.

9. Literary endeavours:

A=4 (The Dancing Detective, 2014); B=6 (Paul Clifford, 1830); C=2 (Kane and Abel, 1979); D=1 (Father and Son, 1907); E=3 (Palace of Enchantments, 1985); F=5 (This Honourable House, 2001). Ann Widdecombe, Jeffrey Archer, Douglas Hurd and Edwina Currie need no explanation. Edward Bulwer-Lytton was a popular 19th century novelist and MP from 1831-41 and 1852-66. He was secretary of state for the colonies 1858-9 and became Baron Lytton. Edmund Gosse, a literary lion of late Victorian London, was librarian of the House of Lords 1904-14.

10. Poetry and Politics: Shelley claimed that poets were the “unacknowledged legislators of the world” in his Defence of Poetry in 1821. Chaucer, Wyatt, Sidney, Donne, Marvell and Belloc were all poets and Members of the House of Commons. Uvedale was a member of the Commons; unlike the others he was not himself a poet, but killed one, George Whetstone, in a duel in 1587. Byron and Tennyson were members of the House of Lords. Shakespeare (unless he was really Francis Bacon), Shelley himself and Kipling were never Members of either House.

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