Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Saturday 6 June 2020

Scottish History Quiz Time


On the same website as the quiz I cited in my previous post there are several Scottish history quizzes set by Dr Allan Kennedy, a Dundee academic. I did three of these and will admit to you about being rather pleased with myself to score 100% on medieval Scotland and 100% on early modern Scotland. I even managed 53% without any assistance on the one described as especially hard on seventeenth century Scotland, though some answers were lucky guesswork. Not bad for a sassenach....

A questionnaire about which side I would have been on in the Scottish Civil War yielded the result I expected - but not being Scottish might mean that I skewed the result in advance for that one.

I was slightly intrigued when I did another one which was a questionnaire entitled “Which Scottish King James Are You?” about the seven reigning Kings of Scots who bore that name. As a late medievalist perhaps I should not have been surprised to come out as King James I (1406-37) with a score of 92%, but nevertheless I was. Now I know I am a bit overweight but I don’t play tennis. I shall just have to be careful if I am ever in Perth....
Which Scottish King James are you?
Your Result: James I (1406-1437)
92%
result
You're a king in a hurry! Having spent the first 18 years of your reign as a prisoner in England, your overriding aim is to restore the power and prestige of the monarchy, in the process augmenting your own authority. To this end, you're willing to use harsh, even duplicitous methods to force everybody into line. But you're also a person of culture, and you're keen to inject some refinement into your realm, for example by renovating Linlithgow Palace, one of your favourite residences. Ultimate fate: Assassinated in drains of a Perth monastery.
65%
James VI (1567-1625)
45%
James II (1437-1460)
45%
James VII (1685-1689)
34%
James III (1460-1488)
24%
James V (1513-1542)
8%
James IV (1488-1513)

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