22 February, 2007

Short, random post

I'm going to be mostly offline for the next few days, so in the meantime, here are two quizzes to test your knowledge of Edward II and his reign. I got all the answers correct (I'd have been deeply ashamed if I hadn't! ;) By the way, one of the questions is wrong - it doesn't give the correct alternative for the number of Edward and Isabella's children. Hint: go one higher.

For those of you who like quizzes, here's a link to loads more, on medieval history in general. I particularly like the 'Henry Who?' one (and got them all correct, she boasted).

The Rules for Historical Fiction some of us did last year have surfaced again, on Erastes' journal (and several others). Erastes has done a few Rules of his own, on Regency fiction - hilarious and well worth a read!

I've added a new poll to the sidebar on the left, 'who's your least favourite medieval king of England?' To the two people who've voted for Edward II - I'm assuming that you misread the poll and thought you were voting for your favourite king. Otherwise, shame on you! :) However, my lovely Edward is currently in second place in the 'favourite king' poll with 14% of the vote, behind Richard III with 17%. Henry II is making a late challenge, though, with 13%. Henry III is the only king without a single vote, the poor man. To be honest, I'm amazed that nineteen people besides me have voted for Edward II as their favourite medieval king. I was sure Susan Higginbotham and I would be the only ones.

It's also great that 20% of people who've voted in the 'fate of Edward II in 1327' poll believe in something other than Edward being murdered in his cell at Berkeley. 62% believe in the 'red-hot poker' death - not as high as I might have thought, given that it's usually presented as the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I'm planning a series of posts on the events of 1327 to 1330, and some of the oddities and implausibilities in the traditional narrative...watch this space!

9 comments:

Susan Higginbotham said...

I passed with flying colors too and can therefore hold my head up for the rest of the day. (But what's with that fifth child? At least they were overcrediting Edward instead of undercrediting him for a change. Maybe they counted Adam as a child by Isabella?)

Daphne said...

Those are fun! I managed to score 100% on the first on, but only managed 9 out of 15 on the tougher one. Guess I'd better do some more reading...

Kathryn Warner said...

Susan: congratulations, but I expected nothing less from you! ;) I also wondered if they were counting Adam - or, there's a theory that Isabella had a miscarriage in 1313, so perhaps they meant that. (Or perhaps it was just a silly mistake...;)

Daphne: congrats to you too, 9 out of 15 on the difficult test is highly respectable!

ilya said...

i didn't know the castle where he was imprisoned but i am proud to present myself as quite an expert on edward with an astonishing 9/10 result :D

Kathryn Warner said...

Nice one, Ilya! :)

Carla said...

I can't compete with Alianore and Susan, but I'd have done even worse if I hadn't been reading this blog for a year! I got 9/10 on the first one (because I muddled up Berkeley with Kenilworth, duh), and 10/15 on the second one.

Kathryn Warner said...

That's a pretty good result, Carla!

Gabriele Campbell said...

I muddled up Berkeley and Kenilworth, too. Blame in on Sir Walter Scott. :) But I got the rest on that one right, and 8/15 for the other.

Kathryn Warner said...

Interesting that it's the Berkeley/Kenilworth question that's tripping people up - I suppose most people automatically associate Edward with Berkeley castle, not Kenilworth.