Criminal history quiz answers
Are you a criminal history whiz? Check out how many answers you got right to our challenging quiz.
1. Which two of Henry VIII’s six wives were beheaded? What crimes were they accused of committing?
Anne Boleyn and Kathryn Howard. After failing to produce a son and suffering two stillbirths, Anne was beheaded in 1536 after her husband’s ministers accused her of adultery and incest. Kathryn, Henry VIII’s fifth wife and Anne’s cousin, was also executed for adultery. She was beheaded in 1542, just two years after she wed Henry.
2. What were bridewells? Where did the name originate?
Bridewells were early types of prisons, named after England’s first house of correction, Bridewell, established in 1555 in a converted royal palace near St Bride’s Well off Fleet Street. Throughout Cambridgeshire a number of bridewells were used as local prisons, mainly for people who had committed petty offences.
3. Who was the last woman to be executed in the UK? What was her crime?
Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be executed in the UK. She was convicted of murdering her lover, David Blakely, and was hanged at Holloway Prison in London on July 13, 1955.
4. Why are police officers nicknamed “bobbies”?
The nickname “bobbies” originates from the founder of the Metropolitan Police, Robert Peel. In 1829 he set up the world’s first organised police force. Early policemen were also known as “peelers”.
5. What were the Rebecca Riots about? Why were they so called?
The Rebecca Riots were a series of Welsh uprisings between 1839 and 1842. The protests were against having to pay high charges at tollgates on turnpike roads. The origin of the protesters’ collective name is thought to come from a verse in the Bible: “And they blessed Rebekah and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them'.” Another theory is that the leader of the first lot of uprisings wore women’s clothes during the protests, borrowed from a woman called Rebecca.
6. What was Guy Fawkes’ occupation? How old was he when he was executed for plotting to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1606?
Guy Fawkes was a soldier by occupation. The Yorkshireman was one of the ringleaders of a group of revolutionaries plotting to blow up the Houses of Parliament with gunpowder on November 5, 1605. He had planned to kill King James I and overthrow Protestant rule. His plan was foiled after one of the conspirators, concerned that Catholics could be killed in Parliament too, wrote a warning letter to Lord Monteagle, revealing that gunpowder was being stored in a cellar below the House of Lords. The night before he was due to carry out his plan, he and some of his accomplices were caught red-handed in the cellar. After a trial, the ringleaders were sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered. Fawkes was 35 at the time of his execution.
7. How many people were executed during the Salem Witchcraft Trials? In which American state is Salem?
Twenty people were executed as a result of the Salem Witchcraft Trials in the Puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. The trials came about after doctors became baffled by a series of fits experienced by girls living in Salem. The girls said their fits were the result of witchcraft, instigating a massive witch-hunt in the town. The executions resulted in a massive outcry, largely due to a lack of evidence of actual “witchcraft”.
8. What sorts of criminal cases were heard in the Assize Courts? What were the Assizes replaced with in 1972, following the Courts Act the year before?
The most serious cases were heard in the Assizes, periodic criminal courts held around England and Wales. Cases were committed to the Assizes by the Quarter Sessions, local county court hearings held four times a year. The Assizes and Quarter Sessions were replaced by the Crown Court as a result of the Courts Act 1971.
9. When was the first borstal opened? How did it get its name?
The first borstal (youth detention centre) in Britain was opened in 1902. It was called Borstal Prison because it was based in a village called Borstal, near Rochester in Kent.
10. Why did the transportation of British convicts to America stop in 1775? When transportation to the colonies resumed 12 years later, where were convicts most commonly sent?
Since 1717 it was common practise to transport prisoners convicted of crimes such as stealing cattle, robbery and handling stolen goods to America. This stopped in 1775 as a result of the American War of Independence. Transportation as a punishment resumed in 1787. This time convicts were sent to Australia instead.