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The 15th Century

Can you guess these notable people, places, and things from the 15th century?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Featured Quiz
Last updated: July 5, 2020
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First submittedMarch 31, 2014
Times taken37,271
Average score70.0%
Rating4.37
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Year
Description
Answer
1455–1502
This Spanish family produces two Popes, notorious for vice and corruption
Borgia
1497
This Portuguese explorer sails from Europe to India
Vasco da Gama
1494
First evidence of this "water of life" in Scotland
Scotch whisky
1492
This explorer "discovers" the New World
Christopher Columbus
1490
This artist draws "The Vitruvian Man"
Leonardo da Vinci
1487
The Duke of Bavaria makes laws concerning the purity of this substance
Beer
1485
This hunchbacked King of England meets his end at the
Battle of Bosworth Field
Richard III
1455–1487
The houses of Lancaster and York fight this series of war for
the English crown
Wars of the Roses
1469
This country is united after Ferdinand of Aragon marries Isabella of Castille
Spain
1448–1476
This Wallachian ruler becomes infamous for impaling enemies
Vlad the Impaler
1453
This city is captured by the Turks, ending the Byzantine empire
Constantinople
1450
Johannes Gutenberg invents this device (although it already existed in China)
Printing press
1431
This female French warrior is burned at the stake by the English
Joan of Arc
1405–1433
This country launches a "treasure fleet" of over 300 ships
dispensing gifts throughout the Indian Ocean
China
1430
Norse settlements on this island collapse with no survivors
Greenland
1415
Against great odds, Henry V defeats the French at this famous battle
Battle of Agincourt
1406–1420
The Forbidden City palace is built in this capital
Beijing
1400s
This sport is invented in Scotland
Golf
1400s
This giant bird is driven to extinction by Maori hunters in New Zealand
Moa
1400s
The Medici family become de-facto rulers of this city
Florence
plattitude
+3
Level 90
Apr 1, 2014
Ah, beer and whisky. The 1400s will always be remembered fondly.
smartcookie17
+10
Level 45
Jun 24, 2014
Istanbul was Constantinople, now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople, been a long time gone, no Constantinople, still, it's Turkish Delight on a moonlit night.

What?

postwaste
+4
Level 84
Jul 30, 2014
Why did they change it?
cranbeckh
+7
Level 68
Jul 31, 2014
People just liked it better that waaaaaay!
DrakiGuy
+3
Level 56
Nov 12, 2016
It got changed because of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, it got changed in 1922 when Turkey became a republic. Basically the goal was to nationalise Turkey, and to "Turkify" all conquered cities and minorities.
RobNobody
+11
Level 75
Feb 23, 2018
Perhaps, but that's nobody's business but the Turks.
dunkinggandalf2
+1
Level 67
Oct 26, 2020
Funny, because "Istanbul" is also a Greek name... it roughly means "this way to the City"!
Bernard62601
+6
Level 79
Feb 10, 2017
We will retake Constantinople from Sultan Erdogan once we launch the tenth crusade.
BlackJohn
+1
Level 74
Jan 16, 2023
Lol Instanbul is what the Turks thought the city was called by mispronouncing the greek phrase "Is tin Polin" i.e to the City

Constantinople had been referred to as "the City" by Byzantines, due to it being the Reigning City/City of all cities.

Hammond7249
+4
Level 50
Jun 26, 2014
It is spelled "whisky" in Scotland.
Quizmaster
+1
Level ∞
Jun 26, 2014
Fixed
ADX31
+2
Level 57
Jul 18, 2014
In France the name is Azincourt, not Agincourt...
FirePhantom
+2
Level 34
May 7, 2023
History is written by the winners. ;)
Ferbin
+1
Level 75
May 9, 2023
Yet the French won the war.
WhelchareHistroy
+1
Level 50
Sep 27, 2023
ruined the joke
drayen
+3
Level 74
Jul 30, 2014
It is not accepting Jeanne d'Arc or even Jeanne Darc
Mogysht
+1
Level 50
Jul 30, 2014
Yes, I noticed that and thought I am mistaken. Please, do accept that.
Quizmaster
+2
Level ∞
Jul 30, 2014
Okay, Jeanne will work now. FYI, punctuation never matters on JetPunk.
BlackJohn
+1
Level 74
Jan 16, 2023
Thank you had no idea she is called Joan in English
Thyme2018
+1
Level 54
May 7, 2023
It's not even accepting Arc. Last names work for men but not for women???
Ferbin
+2
Level 75
May 9, 2023
Not really a last name.
jriddycuz
+1
Level 68
Jul 30, 2014
It's spelled "Vasco da Gama", and the quiz should accept "Borja" for Borgia, as that was their native Valencian name.
Damangio
+1
Level 65
Oct 23, 2020
I knew of the Borgias, but I didn't get this one because I reasoned that "Borgia" couldn't possibly be a Spanish name, based on the spelling. Should have been more adventurous.
emwcee
+4
Level 45
Aug 1, 2014
I was disappointed that you didn't have anything about Prince Henry the Navigator.
RJF
+1
Level 64
Jul 24, 2021
Arguably the most important person of the 14th century, if we're going by sheer impact on history...
Carrion
+1
Level 17
Aug 2, 2014
Nothing about the Hussite wars? Seriously?

You gotta be kidding me...

tshalla
+2
Level 74
Nov 12, 2016
Nothing about Great Zimbabwe? Oh wait - that's Africa. Never mind.
Bernard62601
+1
Level 79
Feb 10, 2017
Africa has a history?
camus
+2
Level 78
Oct 23, 2020
I tried to make a history quiz about Africa that doesn't include European/Mediterranean/American powers. Here's the result.
Quizmaster
+3
Level ∞
Jan 16, 2023
People should be forced to score at least 75% on Camus's quiz before whining about these quizzes being too Euro-centric.

Nearly always, the people doing the complaining are woefully ignorant themselves.

AlmostAGenius
+3
Level 78
May 7, 2023
Got 13 out of 14 so I’m here to complain about the limited African history on this quiz :P
Amilcar
+3
Level 61
May 8, 2023
Me too. It's not really a complaint because I really enjoyed the quiz, but I do think these are more interesting when there's more world history - even if I and most other quiz users get much lower scores.
kiwiquizzer
+2
Level 68
Nov 12, 2016
Moa is the least guessed??? FINALLY an easy one for me!!
TheNewPotato
+1
Level 49
Nov 12, 2016
I have to agree with you on that.
ander217
+5
Level 75
Nov 12, 2016
From your user name I'm guessing there is a reason it was easy for you. I can remember dodo but not moa. No idea why, but I always miss it on these quizzes.
Hectorselector
+2
Level 58
Sep 23, 2022
It's just moa difficult
Amilcar
+1
Level 61
May 8, 2023
Eggsactly
Rozzi
+2
Level 60
Nov 12, 2016
I do think the number should be required for English kings. Too easy to guess otherwise given how many Richards, Henrys, Edwards and Georges there were.

And Richard III was not a hunchback - his skeleton proves it.

ander217
+5
Level 75
May 22, 2017
It's also too easy to just start adding numbers in order to the names, so we could still easily get the correct answer without specific knowledge. If there were twenty or thirty of each name I might agree, but for the sake of time I'm for keeping it simple.
NCsupercade
+3
Level 56
Nov 12, 2016
It wasn't called Beijing back then. It was called Peaking.
ander217
+3
Level 75
May 22, 2017
Thanks for the chuckle this morning.
stone222
+2
Level 48
Oct 28, 2018
or maybe even Peking ?
EcceHomo
+1
Level 77
Oct 27, 2020
I think you missed the gag. Forbidden City? Ah forget it.
Raffles
+1
Level 66
Jul 27, 2022
It was known as Peking, but the Chinese have always called it Beijing
OldSailor
+1
Level 89
Nov 12, 2016
Why are there names in English for Munich and Moscow, but not Peking or Bombay? None of them are really close to the originals in the native language. Why are some changed and not others?
Corrode
+4
Level 60
Nov 13, 2016
It's just a change in cartographical conventions. English used to use Anglicised names for foreign places, but somewhere in the last few hundred years the convention changed to using "native" names. The other thing to remember is that sometimes the English name for a place preserves an older form that changed in the foreign language itself - so for example the English name "Florence" is closer to the Latin "Florentia" than the modern Italian "Firenze." Once upon a time it was the same word, but then language shifts happened and the words became further apart.
camus
+2
Level 78
Oct 23, 2020
It happens in other languages, too. San Francisco used to be known as "San Franzisko" in German, but that would look quite odd today. Nonetheless, we still Germanize Warszawa as Warschau, for example.
ahg123
+5
Level 71
Nov 14, 2016
"First evidence of" is a weird way to put it. It's not like Glenlivet was discovered in a cave.
InterAlia
+2
Level 73
May 10, 2023
Seems like a reasonable way to acknowledge that whisky making may have been happening earlier, but we haven't found evidence to show that. How would you propose to say that?
gzx5
+1
Level 70
May 22, 2017
I don't think the air quotes you used in your title about Columbus fit here. While the Vikings were the first foreigners who discovered the Americas, it wasn't until Columbus landed in what is now the Bahamas that the world began to learn extensively of the Americas. Political correctness strikes again.
RobNobody
+5
Level 75
Feb 23, 2018
Okay, but it's kinda weird to say he "discovered" it when millions of people had been living there for thousands of years.
jmellor13
+9
Level 67
Oct 23, 2020
That's not political correctness. It's an allusion to the fact that the land had already been discovered. A stubborn insistence on dismissing demonstrated but uncomfortable facts as "political correctness" strikes again.
camus
+4
Level 78
Oct 23, 2020
Where the Aztecs, Incas, etc. not part of "the world"?
RJF
+1
Level 64
Jul 24, 2021
@camus Essentially they weren't, which is why the terms 'Old World' and 'New World' exist. They weren't part of our world (speaking as a European), and we weren't part of theirs, until the Old World discovered the New World, which could have gone the other way if history's dice had landed a bit differently.
Ferbin
+2
Level 75
May 9, 2023
And of course only what Europeans consider the "world" matters. >__>
AllenY
+3
Level 69
May 10, 2018
Accept Ming for China and Byzantium for Constantinople please
cornflakesfu
+2
Level 85
Jul 16, 2018
So you tried "Ming" and it didn't work, but you didn't think to try "China"?
RJF
+2
Level 64
Jul 24, 2021
I tried that too. I'm really not used to using the word 'China' for anything pre-revolution, as I just tend to use the dynasty name.
Amilcar
+1
Level 61
May 8, 2023
Its name was changed from Byzantium more than 1,000 years before the 15th century
overtired
+2
Level 83
Jan 30, 2020
That Norse settlement question made me wonder what it would have been like for the last person left alive as "leaving no survivors" makes it sound like they all died out. Chilling thought. Did a little reading though and it seems there isn't any definitive evidence for that and they may have simply gone home. According to the lead author of a 2012 University of Copenhagen study: "If anything they might have become bored with eating seals out on the edge of the world."
PHG1960
+1
Level 69
Mar 11, 2020
Research suggests that the Norse settlement didn't so much as die out as get subsumed by the natives (Inuit?).
TheOrca
+1
Level 49
May 7, 2023
Interestingly, they were the first settlers in that part of Greenland, meaning they literally were the natives.
Ferbin
+1
Level 75
May 9, 2023
Recent research suggests rising tides due to climate change pushed them away, as their villages and fields were slowly getting flooded. Very slowly, but still. Also, increased salinization of the earth probably made cultivating more difficult.
Quizmaster
+1
Level ∞
Jul 5, 2020
I remember reading in "Collapse" by Jared Diamond that they found bones from baby cows dated to the final couple years of settlement. Meaning that the settlers were so desperate that they ruined their future means of subsistence to survive a little while longer. That said, it's not impossible that the settlers were able to escape back to Iceland (though there's no record of that).
NeilV
+1
Level 51
Jul 8, 2020
Got 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 correct!
kavven
+4
Level 27
Oct 23, 2020
Ming should be an accepted answer for China, just as much as Dracula is an accepted answer for Vlad the Impaler
Yeoryios
+2
Level 73
Oct 23, 2020
Should've put a question about the Empire of Trebizond or something.
Jango
+2
Level 63
Sep 20, 2021
It's inconsistent to accept Constantinople, but not Istanbul, then Beijing not Peking. Please accept both for each question
Finnisme
+1
Level 58
Mar 16, 2022
thought this was a european quiz until the question about New Zealand
RobNobody
+2
Level 75
May 7, 2023
I'd think the question about China would've tipped you off before that.
InterAlia
+1
Level 73
May 10, 2023
Both of them.
Freedom84
+1
Level 61
May 8, 2023
Could have given agincourt spelt as agincort, some people are dyslexic.
Gurminator
+1
Level 64
Jul 16, 2023
Maybe a little too Eurocentric, but nevertheless an enjoyable quiz to play. Thanks.
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