Q 01/05

Which modern English word for a wicked character began as the name of a feudal class of half-free peasants?

A) Knave

B) Rogue

C) Villain

D) Scoundrel

Answer · why

C) Villain

Villain comes from the Old French vilain, a peasant or farmhand, and the class's low status turned the word into an insult that outlived it.

Q 02/05

Which Channel Island was governed on feudal lines by a hereditary Seigneur until its first general election in 2008?

A) Sark

B) Herm

C) Jersey

D) Alderney

Answer · why

A) Sark

Sark's parliament had seated the owners of its 40 tenements by right, alongside just 12 elected deputies, until the reforms of 2008.

Q 03/05

Which sport from the age of feudalism became Maryland's official state sport in 1962, the first adopted by any US state?

A) Archery

B) Jousting

C) Falconry

D) Fencing

Answer · why

B) Jousting

Jousting has been held in Maryland since colonial times, and today's riders gallop at small hanging rings and spear them with a lance.

Q 04/05

Which 14th-century pandemic left so few labourers alive that surviving peasants in Europe could demand higher pay?

A) Black Death

B) Antonine Plague

C) Sweating sickness

D) Plague of Justinian

Answer · why

A) Black Death

Black Death survivors found land plentiful and wages high, and the old duty to stay on a lord's estate withered across western Europe.

Q 05/05

Which great survey, ordered by the king in 1085, recorded who held land across England and what it was worth?

A) Pipe Rolls

B) Hundred Rolls

C) Domesday Book

D) Book of Fees

Answer · why

C) Domesday Book

Domesday Book got its nickname in the 12th century because its rulings, like those of the Last Judgement, could not be appealed.