Notional Facebook Status

If I still could be bothered to do them

TQG is DISGUSTED that neither Girton College nor (his alma mater ROFLLOLLOL!!!) Nottingham have ever heard of the Peter Cook book he got for Xmas a few years ago and that they couldn't even muster a member of Beyond the Fringe from their young pathetic minds. ABSOLUTELY BLOODY DISGUSTED. Today's youth, eh? Tsk. LOL.

Aujourd'hui L'histoire. Bonny appetites and all that...

History
1. China’s first treaty with a foreign power, which was regarded as an independent state rather than a vassal, was signed in 1689. It settled border disputes and checked Russia’s eastward expansion by removing outposts from the Amur River basin. It was named for which town?
2. In 385, which Bishop of Ávila became the first person in the history of Christianity to be executed for heresy, after founding an ascetic group that eschewed marriage and animal food?
3. Located in the Mekong delta, which state was founded, according to Chinese sources, in the 1st century AD and is therefore the earliest known state in south-east Asia?
4. Which niece of the Byzantine Emperor (c.955-91) married the Holy Roman Emperor Otto II in Rome as a symbol of the Eastern and Western Empire unity and, with mother-in-law Adelaide, secured the throne for Otto III on his father’s death and ruled Italy as her son’s regent?
5. What three-word French phrase described the French-Canadian fur traders who “went Indian”? Their work often meant they made annual trips into the pays d’en haut to deal directly with the natives, which frequently resulted in their deciding not to return to the settlements.
6. What nom de guerre was used by the Russian revolutionary Sergius Mikhailovich (1852-95)?
7. In which country was the nationalist and anti-communist movement, Balli Kombëtar (‘National Front’), established in October 1942 (or 1939, according to other sources)?
8. The most brilliant strategist on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, which soldier (1894-1966) organised the defence of Madrid in November 1936, as well as the Jarama and Guadalajara campaigns of 1937? He was made Chief of General Staff in May 1937.
9. Which great 13th century Sienese family of ambassadors and jurists later upped sticks and moved to Rome where they produced Pope Paul V (r:1601-21), and Prince Camillo, who married Napoleon’s sister, Marie Pauline, in 1803?
10. They were musketeers, who were recruited by Ivan the Terrible and disbanded for plotting against Peter the Great. What was Russia’s first regular regiment of soldiers (1550-1698)?

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Answers
1. Nerchinsk. A town in Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia, it is situated 644km/400mi east of Lake Baikal.
2. Priscillian. He came from Roman Gallaecia and based his doctrine on dualism.
3. Funan. It became a major international trading centre, but went into decline in the 6th century. Funan evolved a pattern of statecraft from the Indian model.
4. Theophano (or Theophanu). Her other achievements include securing Lotharingia for the empire.
5. Coureur des bois (‘runner of the woods’). It was also the name given to fur traders who worked without permission from the French authorities and operated during the late 17th/early 18th century in eastern North America. Those issued with (rare) permits became voyageurs.
6. Stepnyak (‘Son of the Steppe’). An artillery officer turned apostle of freedom, he left Russia and settled in Geneva in 1876, before ending up in London where he was unfortunately run over by a train. Author of La Russia Sotternea / Underground Russia (1881) and The Career of a Nihilist (1889), he was believed to be the assassin of St. Petersburg police head, General Mesentzieff.
7. Albania (formed by Ali Klissura and Midhat Frasheri). By the end of the war, Enver Hoxha and the Albanian Communist Party had wiped out many of its pro-republican members.
8. Vicente Rojo. He reorganised the Popular Army and planned the offensives of Brunete, Teruel, and the Ebro. Rojo returned from exile in 1957 and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.
9. Borghese. Paul V was born Camillo Borghese in 1552. Prince Camillo Filippo Ludovico Borghese (1775-1832) became Governor-General of Piedmont.
10. Streltsy. Increasingly influential in politics, they became involved in an attempt to keep Peter’s half-sister, Sophia, on the throne. Their fate was sealed when they tried to prevent him from returning from abroad.