History quiz

[Conradus]

Battle of Rorke's Drift?

Commanding officer was Lt. Chard, with Lt. Bromhead? and Surgeon Major Reynolds.

Ironic because it began the same day the British got annihilated at Isandlwana only to be beaten by some hunderd soldiers in this hospital?

[Decker]

You go

[Conradus]

Thanks

The man I'm looking for was a gifted orator, surpassed by none, safe one in his age. He was also a skilled politician and perhaps the greatest general of his age. Or of all time. However like all great men, he had weaknesses. One of his was women. A foreign queen made his reputation sink, and one of his mistresses caused his death, albeit not by her hand. Who am I looking for?

[rajpoot]

Mark Antony.

[Conradus]

Close, but Antony wasn't a gifted orator, nor a skilled politician, nor the greatest general of his age.

[rajpoot]

Gah! Well, that is what Shakespeare seems to have thought anyway lol.
Julius Caesar then? Caesar and Cleopatra? The woman whos nose would have changed history had it been but a mite shorter

[Quintus.JC]

Thanks

The man I'm looking for was a gifted orator, surpassed by none, safe one in his age. He was also a skilled politician and perhaps the greatest general of his age. Or of all time. However like all great men, he had weaknesses. One of his was women. A foreign queen made his reputation sink, and one of his mistresses caused his death, albeit not by her hand. Who am I looking for?

It's probably Caesar, if Mark Antony was a close answer. The mistress was Servilia Caepionis,mother of Marcus Brutus, and she was a conspirator in Caesar's assasination.

[Conradus]

Gah! Well, that is what Shakespeare seems to have thought anyway lol.
Julius Caesar then? Caesar and Cleopatra? The woman whos nose would have changed history had it been but a mite shorter

I was looking for Caesar, so it's your turn asj_india

Cleopatra ruined his reputation in Rome and his mistress Servillia's son Brutus (maybe his own son) killed him. He was the greatest orator of Rome safe Cicero and managed to beat all his opponents. Though some argue Pompey was a greater general, Caesar did beat him, even when outnumbered.

[rajpoot]

All right, easy one.
This person took the first true test of Roman might and endurance on British soil. Many natives tired of opression joined her cause. Their army sacked London, Colchester and St Albans, slaying over 80,000 . They nearly annihilated the 9th Legion, and the crisis grew to a point where the Roman Emperor considered total withdrawal from the island.
This situation was brought under control, against all odds, in one big battle, where the superior discipline of Roman troops, outshone once again the greater numbers.
Give the name of rebel leader and the Roman general. Give the name of the Emperor for bonus.

[Pannonian]

Boudicca, Suetonius Paulinus, Nero.

[rajpoot]

Right. Your turn.

[Pannonian]

I'm looking for the name of a woman who was the wife of a man who wasn't a King, but who became one after his death. She refused a remarriage to a King so as to bring up her four sons, who later became Kings. An able politician in her own right, in a family of warlords, she manoeuvred her branch of the family to primacy, but her sons tore the empire apart after her death.

[Quintus.JC]

Since no one has stepped in, I'll be bold. May I have more clues please?

[Pannonian]

Her sons were unafraid of assassins. Indeed, assassins were afraid of them.

[Pannonian]

Will no-one try a guess?

[rajpoot]

Just a one more hint, please........is the person in question supposed to have been from the Orient or Occident?

[Pannonian]

That's for you to guess at.

Next clue: She was probably the most widely talked about woman of her time, her fame spreading across continents. Which was quite impressive for someone living in the medieval period.

[Pannonian]

Considering the interest posters here have in military history, I'm surprised no-one's managed to identify her, given that she lived in what was arguably the greatest warlord family of all.

[Decker]

Queen Amadala??

[Conradus]

Only medieval woman I can think of right now is Eleonore d' Aquitaine. But she doesn't really fit the descriptions.

[Pannonian]

You're thinking on far too small a scale with Eleanor of Aquitaine. Richard the Lionheart was an insignificant gnat compared with this woman's family. Think medieval, and think big, as big as it gets.

[scottishranger]

Am I allowed to say Pann...


PLEASE> I KNOW THE ANSWER!

[Pannonian]

No you're not, scott. That's cheating, after I posted the answer in the Den.

[Conqueror]

Sounds like she could be a wife of one of the mongol khans, but I don't know enough to answer and am too lazy to check with Google

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I'm going to guess Börte, but I'm probably wrong.

[Quintus.JC]

Sorghaghtani Beki, wife of Tolui, daughter in law of Genghis Khan and mother of Kublai Khan.

Heck of a question, gotta thank the Conqueror for the clue.

[Pannonian]

The answer is Sorghaghtani Beki, the wife of Tolui, Genghis' youngest son. When Tolui died, Ogedei offered to remarry her to his son Guyuk, who would later become Great Khan, but Sorghaghtani declined, saying that she needed to bring up her four sons by Tolui: Mongke, Hulegu, Khubilai, and Arik Boke. After Guyuk's short reign, there was a lot of manoeuvring by the various branches of the Golden Family, but Sorghaghtani used her possession of the Mongolian homeland (Tolui's inheritance) to push her sons' case, aided by an alliance struck with Batu, who in return got to keep his territories in Russia as a virtually independent kingdom. After Mongke became Great Khan, he and Sorghaghtani purged the Chaghatid and Ogedeid branches of the family. To give greater legitimacy to his rule, Mongke retrospectively made his father Tolui a Great Khan.

Once he'd settled affairs at home, Mongke sent Hulegu and Khubilai to conquer the two richest empires of the time - Hulegu was to conquer the Islamic Caliphate all the way to Egypt, while Khubilai was to conquer Song China. En route to the heart of the Islamic empire, Hulegu would eradicate the sect of Assassins, subduing their citadel of Alamut and capturing the Imam. Hulegu went on to sack Baghdad, and pushed on to the Holy Land. However, Berke, who had succeeded Batu and was a Muslim, was displeased by Hulegu's treatment of Baghdad, and made an alliance with the Mamelukes, attacking Hulegu's territories through the Caucasus while the Mamelukes attacked from Egypt, forcing Hulegu to retreat east of the Tigris. Meanwhile, Mongke was displeased with how Khubilai was conducting his campaign in China, taking over the command himself.

After Mongke died, Khubilai and Arik Boke competed for the title of Great Khan, while Hulegu contented himself with his Ilkhanate. Both Khubilai and Arik Boke were elected Great Khan, Khubilai in China and Arik Boke in Mongolia. Arik Boke tried his mother's strategy of pushing his custodianship of the Mongolian homeland, but Khubilai used the far greater resources of his Chinese territories to starve him into submission, aided by a harsh winter that severely depleted Arik Boke's strength. Khubilai held another meeting, this time in Mongolian territory, to reaffirm his status as Great Khan, but his treatment of Arik Boke was such that none of the other Khans trusted him enough to come. Probably justified, as Arik Boke died soon afterwards, probably from poison. Although Khubilai was Great Khan in name, he'd lost control of the empire outside China and the Mongolian lands.

Sorghaghtani was widely praised by peoples from China to Europe. She trained her sons to become the rulers of a wide-ranging empire, not just steppe warlords, gearing each's education to the territories they would later rule - Khubilai's love and understanding of Chinese culture was known to have been groomed by his mother. She moved the emphasis of the Mongolian empire from a steppe overlordship collecting tribute to a settled empire collecting taxes from citizens, with freedom of movement, culture, religion, and encouraging trade under the Mongol aegis. The Arab physician Bar-Hebraeus said that, if he found another such as she in this world, it would prove the race of women to be superior to the race of men.

A bloody interesting historical figure, whose scope easily surpasses that of more popularly-discussed topics here. When people argue about kings of tiny little kingdoms in Europe, here was a woman whose politics spanned continents (Batu was the leader of the European expedition that annihilated the Teutons at Liegnitz and Mohi), and who trained her sons to rule an empire that stretched from China to Syria. I hope this question makes people want to learn more about history outside the European norms. Over to you Cicero.

[Quintus.JC]

Excellent question Pannonian, I honestly should have knew this earlier considering my heritage as a Chinese and lived close to the Mongolian border before migrating to Italy and later England. Should have noticed the clue about the Hashshashins.

Okay, here's the next question:

I was a Duke of my kingdom and had four sons. All of whom would later become the ruler of the kingdom at one time or another and all of them were either murdered or died under mysterious circumstances. I was the son of one of the most important rulers in the history of my kingdom. And I myself was a successful general, accomplished ruler, and ordained medieval royalty, but best remembered as the father to one of my sons, who was probably one of the most notorious and perhaps controversial rulers of all time. I was eventually assassinated along with my eldest son who was allegedly buried alive.

[Quintus.JC]

Still no one?

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Can we get another hint? Maybe which continent (Europe or Asia) or which region of Europe?