Episode 6 The Quizeum

The foremost collection of arms and armour,

guns and helmets in Britain -

and all the legends and stories that accompany them -

are here at the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

And today, it's host to The Quizeum.

Welcome to a veritable palace of arms and armour here,

in the Leeds Dock in West Yorkshire.

We are in the War gallery

in a building that was specially designed

for the Royal Armouries in 1996,

but the collection itself dates back centuries

and constitutes one of the oldest museums in the world.

It holds over 70,000 pieces of artillery armoury and weaponry.

And in four rounds over the next 30 minutes,

I'll be asking questions about what they are, how you use them

and what sort of damage they're capable of doing.

And not flinching from that challenge are our two teams.

Tonight, to my left,

regular panellist and historian Professor Kate Williams,

joined this week by traveller and fearless adventurer

Benedict Allen.

Did you get attacked by...

-By a polar bear.

-..by a polar bear on the way here?

No. The deadliest thing of all, my little son.

Five-year-old Freddie, he charged his superbike into my bike and...

-OK.

-..snapped my thumb.

So, that is a definition of irony

in that very arm that we see there.

Having gone all over the world and faced fearsome tribes,

it was a five-year-old who did for him in the end.

On my right, historian art expert Dr Nina Ramirez,

and alongside Nina is the former head of English Heritage,

historian, archaeologist, curator, writer, broadcaster,

museum director, heritage crusader and today member of a Quizeum team...

-The most important.

-..Dr Simon Thurley.

Well, any weapons, Simon, of your own?

Yeah, I do have a few weapons on the wall at home, yes.

OK. As many of us do, I'm sure.

Yes.

OK, it's time to take up positions for our own tourney, or hastilude -

a mock battle in which nobody gets hurt,

but everybody gets aggressively competitive.

-Wow!

-That is accurate!

That's answer the one-point open question

to get hold of a two-point special question.

Fingers on the buzzers.

Why did this armour protect

the wrong part of the elephant? BUZZER

It doesn't properly protect their eyes and head.

Normally when you kill an elephant, you go up under it.

No. That's not the answer, I'm afraid.

Could you finish the question?

We'd like to have the whole question.

Why did this armour protect the wrong part of the elephant

when it met cannon fire?

Ah!

Because presumably it got its legs,

which were hit by shrapnel causing it to fall over.

No. No, I'm afraid not. That is not the answer.

When they took elephants into battle against British guns,

-it was the noise of the cannon fire...

-Ah!

-It scared them.

..that stampeded the elephants, and they should've covered the ears.

So, we're sticking with the elephant armour.

What empire is

this elephant armour associated with? BUZZER

-Kate.

-The Mughal Empire.

-The Mughal Empire.

So, here is your two-point question.

Let's look at this object, and you may discuss.

How did this helmet pass from fact to fiction and back to fact again?

So, it would be a factual... something real,

and then it was talked about or written about

as something very scary.

And then it's become so scary

that people actually start wearing it

-because it intimidates people so much.

-Yes.

Does that make sense?

-That does make sense, but I'm not...

-Where are they from?

It has got a little bit written on the side here,

and I'm not sure whether you can see that.

Oh, sorry. Oh, careful.

-So, it's...

-Oh, I see it has.

It's Persian. Is it Persian?

So...

Kate, do you want to give me an answer?

Modern.

Connected to the Farsi Empire,

and it was seen as something very scary,

and then people stopped wearing it because it went out of fashion.

Then it went into the myth, so they wore it again because

-it was so intimidating.

-No, I'm afraid that's not accurate.

I'm going to pass it over here and see...

Well, as soon as it came out,

I whispered to Simon, "That's very Darth Vader,"

-and it looks very Star Wars-y, doesn't it?

-Ah!

It's inspiration for the helmets in Star Wars.

They came here to do their research...

Right?

..because they wanted to get some historical basis to it,

and as you can see, it is the model for Darth Vader.

-OK, I can give you one point for that.

-Oh.

-But what do you mean?

-Because it's not the model for Darth Vader,

because the helmet was in fact used by Uday Hussein's men.

Ah!

Uday, the son of Saddam Hussein,

was influenced by his love of Star Wars...

-It's the other way around.

-Oh!

-..to give his men...

-Other way around.

-..Darth Vader helmets.

-Oh, wow.

And his men wore these actual helmets in battle, but alas,

they were made from fibreglass

and therefore had no protective qualities at all.

The Darth Vader helmet had itself

been inspired by the samurai helmet, or kabuto,

with a dash of the German Stahlhelm thrown into the mix.

So, as you can see, it passed from fact to fiction

and then back to fact again.

OK, have a look at this.

Another opener worth one point.

How might this have saved

17 million lives?

-BUZZER AND BELL RINGS

-It is a bulletproof vest.

It's a bulletproof vest,

but how might it have saved 17 million lives?

If it was invented earlier, then men during, say,

the First World War would've been saved.

That's not in fact the answer.

You're right about the First World War,

but would you like to come in here? I'll read the question again.

How might this have saved 17 million lives?

If the fabric from which it was made had been invented before.

-No.

-Kevlar.

-It was invented at the time.

It's a silk bulletproof vest,

similar to one owned but not worn by Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

His murder in June 1914 sparked the First World War.

So, we're sticking with this vest for one point.

Fingers on the buzzers.

What was the name of the Bosnian Serb who assassinated...

BUZZER Franz Ferdinand?

Gavrilo Princip.

-Yes, correct. So, well done.

-Well, if I didn't get that...

You get your second specialist question,

which is worth two points.

Here's another object coming in for you to have a look at.

And can you tell me how might this have saved you from a Thug?

-A Thug?

-From a Thug.

-It's an Indian word, isn't it?

-Yeah, a Thuggee.

-Are we talking about Thuggee?

-Is it some kind of gun?

So, this is...

-What about if you wore this as a defence...

-Like a belt.

Looks like a projectile

-might come out of your stomach...

-HE IMITATES GUNSHOT

-OK.

-Get your Thuggee in the tummy.

-HE LAUGHS

Is that possible? So, it's an instrument of defence.

You wear it around your stomach.

It fires a projectile, because that looks like a flintlock.

OK. It is a defence against Thuggees, who were?

Northern India sort of assassins.

-A sect of...of killers...

-Yeah.

..who effectively befriended travellers and then killed them

-to steal from them.

-Yeah.

But you've got it facing in the wrong direction.

So, it's...to defend you being stabbed in the back,

so you fire from behind.

Exactly. I've helped you, but nonetheless,

I'm going to give you the two points for that,

because you got the majority of it.

In fact, the point was that a Thuggee garrotted you,

and so you had this behind you, or not this,

because the truth is that this handiwork was created

in response to a panic that swept through Europe

about garrotting in the 19th century,

the result of publicity about the activities of Thuggees in India.

This gun went round your waist

and enabled you to shoot anyone creeping up behind you.

Although, obviously, it could prove disastrous if you were in a queue

at the post office at the time. THEY LAUGH

OK. Let's go on to another opener question.

This is a Maxim gun.

In 1898, who wrote,

"Whatever happens, we have got the Maxim gun,

"and they have not"?

BUZZER AND BELL RINGS Kate.

-Queen Victoria.

-Not Queen Victoria, no.

-Kitchener.

-Not Kitchener.

In fact, it was Hilaire Belloc writing in The Modern Traveller.

-And you knew that, Benedict, but Kate popped in...

-Sorry!

..with Queen Victoria, who apparently...

-I didn't know she had an interest..

-She loves Maxim guns.

..in composing light verse.

So, sticking with this object,

how does a true machinegun use the principle of recoil?

BELL RINGS

It reloads the cartridge.

The motion backwards propels the next one forward.

Yes, so it acts like a machine...

You only have to pull the trigger and then the recoil is reloading

and firing the gun.

So, you get a special question.

Have a look at this. All right.

Around 1580, why is this breastplate

demonstrating its own redundancy?

Oh, yeah. Well, you can see, can't you...

-Mm.

-..what the answer is?

-There is a bullet...

-Shot.

-Yeah, shot.

..that's going into it.

There's one there that didn't get through.

I'm not sure that one went through either, actually.

But I think... Is it because...?

So, plate armour was brought in particularly to help

-with arrow shots.

-Hence the ridge here.

-Bends it off, yeah.

-Bends it off.

Whereas what I think we've got here are probably shots

-from our very early firearms.

-Yeah.

And the plate armour is no good against it.

That's right.

That actual plate armour, that breastplate,

was a demonstration model.

Aha.

Were they firing different types of firearm at it?

Either they were doing that...

I think you're close enough, I can give you the two points.

In fact, the manufacturer of this breastplate,

before they sold it, would've fired something at it

to prove that it would keep bullets out,

and then they would've been bought and people would say, "Great,"

-and then along came something...

-So not having this one.

So they don't know whether it was tested to destruction...

Ah.

..or that somebody actually took it away and then found out

the hard way that it really wasn't as good as was claimed.

Fingers on the buzzers for another opener.

Why might the wearer of this hat make you duck?

BELL RINGS AND BUZZER

-I think you are first on this side.

-Yes!

-Yes, Nina?

It's a quoit turban, and it was used by Sikh warriors.

And they could pull out all sorts of crazy things like swords

and neck wires and brilliant tricks

that they hid in the turban.

Yes. It's a Akali Sikh turban,

and it was loaded with throwing devices

and murderous frisbees...

-Yes!

-..of one kind or another.

So, a final two-pointer in this round goes to you.

So, your question is, how might this device

still get in the works today?

-The works?

-Hmm.

-Well, what is it?

-Well, it's a tool that does two things.

-OK.

It's got a screwdriver at that end and it's got a sort of socket

into which you put a nut at that end.

There are two things that you could wind up.

One is a crossbow, and I think that's too small for a crossbow.

-Mm.

-But the other thing is a pistol.

It is indeed. It's a device for winding up a wheel-lock pistol.

That's one point.

So, how might this device still get in the works today?

Still get in the works today?

Well, is it universal, the sockets?

You could use it for bleeding your radiator.

No. I'm looking for a more subtle and cleverer idea than that.

There was a problem with those pistols

because they had a lot of tension in them,

therefore you were quite worried when you pointed at someone

if it had been wound up long before, that it was going to go off or not.

No, that's not right.

-Do you want to have a go?

-It is true, though.

-It's a very good...

You've obviously pointed a wheel-lock pistol

at a few people in your time. THEY LAUGH

So, how might this still get in the works?

In the works today.

As in factory works?

Yeah, put a spanner in the works.

-Cause a problem.

-It's a sort of early spanner?

-I don't know.

-Early spanner?

-An early spanner.

I'm going to give you a point for that

-because that is exactly the point.

-Oh!

The German word to span,

which means to tighten things,

was used about guns, about these,

and hints the origins of our word, a spanner.

And at the end of that fascinating round,

I think it's time to have a look at the scores.

So, Simon and Nina, you're doing very with six.

And, Kate and Benedict,

you're just trailing by one, with five.

In the next round, we're going to bring two objects

from the museum collection to the table, one for each team.

Two stories, though, to tell you what they are,

but only one of them is true

and the other team has to decide which.

There are three points to be gained if they are right.

It's all a question of attribution.

Nina and Simon, you go first.

So, what the hell is this, Nina?

-SHE LAUGHS

-What the hell is it?

OK, this is a tsukubo.

It's Japanese. 19th century.

Whereas in Britain, you traditionally think of police,

law enforcement involving a sort of wooden baton,

this was what the Japanese used to grab people.

Well, it's a man catcher,

so it would've been on a long stick,

and as and when something bad happened,

you could grab the pole, the tsukubo,

and you could pull your criminal off their feet.

-Right.

-Thank you!

So, Simon, you have a different theory of what this is.

Well, that's a nice thought.

I mean, you're right in that it is actually Oriental.

It's actually Chinese.

And of course, the Chinese army was based initially on chariots.

Fixed onto their axle hubs, they had these things.

So, their horses would not run at these chariots

because they had these great spindling spikes

coming out of their wheels.

OK, so, is it a Chinese war wheel hub

or a Japanese man grabber?

Yeah, I've seen a few man grabbers in my time.

This doesn't look like a man grabber, does it, to you?

If you're going to grab someone...

It would be longer.

..you'd have a proper grabber. You'd have a loop.

This wouldn't really grab you, would it, Benedict?

-It wouldn't grab me.

-No, bicycles get him.

-THEY BOTH LAUGH

-It would grab that bit of you.

I'm going to have to ask you to make a decision.

Man grabber or wheel hub?

I'd say the wheel hub.

Like Boadicea, but more Oriental.

So, Simon, is it the wheel hub?

-No.

-He was lying!

She was...!

It is a man grabber!

-No.

-It's a man grabber.

-Yes.

-It is a man grabber.

It is in fact a tsukubo, or a sleeve entangler.

It was used by the police in Edo,

and it was used specifically to catch criminals who had a lot of clothes on

and then you could get it entangled in their clothes and pull them down.

So, we must now move on to the other object

and see what stories we get about that.

Right.

Kate and Benedict, can you tell us what this horrible thing is?

This is 18th-century, from Mysore, and it is called a bagh nakh.

Say I was really angry with Benedict

for having gotten no points and I just wanted to get him back,

what I would do is I would capture him outside the armouries

and I would get him with the bagh nakh.

And the purpose of the bagh nakh

is to make it look as if Benedict had died of tiger attack

and no-one would think it was me,

and it fits very well in a turban too.

OK. Benedict, you have another theory.

No, actually. This is a Persian instrument of torture.

15th century.

It's called a fatetan in Persian, or Farsi.

If you're being tortured, if you're in a cell,

you're waiting for your fate and someone suddenly produced this,

you'd know what was going to happen,

which was you were going to be left with horrible, very visual scars.

You're going to be slashed,

and there's a sort of knife attachment and that was...

Nasty things were going to be written in your face and so on.

Permanent scars.

All right.

Is it a Persian torture instrument

or an Indian tiger simulator?

My first instinct was, "Yes, yes, it's got to be Persian,

"it's got to be something very, you know, more ancient,"

but actually, I'm not averse to this idea of it being

an 18th-century mock-up for tiger attacks.

But how many claws does a tiger have? Does it have four?

Yeah, cos they're like cats, aren't they?

They've got the little stumpy thumb one back there.

I mean, I'm actually not convinced about the torture instrument,

and why have something so elaborate?

-I'm with the tiger thing.

-Shall we take a risk?

Kate, is it a fake tiger claw?

-It is a fake tiger claw.

-Hey!

It is a way of killing your enemy

and everyone thought they were killed by a tiger.

The bagh nakh.

It literally means the tiger's claw in Hindi.

It's a deadly weapon, and despite appearances,

not something that Nicky Clarke might wield in one of his salons.

-It does look like a hair grip.

-It does.

-Pretty good.

-Afterwards, we'll have a little demonstration,

see if we can get it to work.

In the meantime, we better carry on with the rest of the show.

But if you want to watch that at any point,

then do join the Quizeum Extra,

which will show these various weapons being put to use.

But at the end of the round, we can now attribute scores,

and they stand as follows.

Kate and Benedict, you didn't make any points,

so you stay at five.

But the team on this side have gone up from six to nine.

So it's nine versus five.

It's time to go on a guided tour with each of our teams.

Nina and Simon, you're first up.

We're going to look at two objects.

Three questions and three points available to make one connection.

Let's start by having a close look

at these two artefacts here.

OK, Nina, so your first question is -

why was this armour made to impress

but ultimately failed to do so?

OK, I do know. I do know now. OK, so, I think...

Is this the armour that was made for Henry VIII

on the Field of the Cloth of Gold?

-No? Am I wrong?

-There's a big clue...

-OK, help me out.

-..which is this thing here,

-which is a ragged staff.

-Oh, yes! OK.

And that there is the bear with the ragged staff,

so that is the armour of the Earl of Leicester...

Leicester.

..who was the person who was in love with Queen Elizabeth I.

-Yes.

-And he didn't get his oats.

Well, he might have done, but he didn't get the ring on his finger.

So, that's really good. So, this armour was made

in the early 1570s for an event that happened in 1575 in Kenilworth.

Do you know of that event?

Basically, she went on a Royal Progress.

-She arrives in Kenilworth and he gives her...

-Tries to impress her.

..an entire week of tournaments and festivities and all the rest.

But, Simon, that's absolutely brilliant. OK.

Well done, cos that was it. Thank you.

Let's move on to the helmet, which is an extremely famous helmet,

as we all know,

but why did Henry's fool

fool Max's helmet?

So, this is actually known as Max.

It was made for Henry VIII as a young man by Maximilian,

who was the Holy Roman Emperor. Am I right here?

And originally, I don't think it had the horns,

and they were possibly added later

to bring a foolishness to the helmet.

You've got all the elements of Max

and the fact that it was made as a gift,

but what is the association with Henry's fool?

Simon, can you fill us in there?

-With Henry's fool?

-Yes.

Erm, I'm not sure I can.

This is one of these terrible moments when you ought to know.

Is it that the fool wore it in an entertainment

and that's when the horns were added?

Well, now, do you know what the name of the fool...?

-Well, his fool was...

-Will...

-..Will Sommers.

-..Sommers.

-Will Sommers.

-Now, You were so close, I'm going to give you this point.

-Yay!

Because in fact, for a long time, right through the 17th century,

it was assumed that this was Will Sommers' armour

because it appeared to be so foolish,

so that leads us to our third question.

-Right, we're braced.

-Excellent.

What is the connection forged here

between the helmet

and this suit of armour?

Forged is the key, isn't it?

This is presumably from Germany

because it was a gift from Maximilian.

And this is made in England.

-In Greenwich.

-One of the Greenwich armours, yeah.

And in Greenwich, wasn't it that the Greenwich Armouries

were brought in from Germany cos there wasn't enough

decent armouries in England, is that right?

There weren't any. Yeah.

So, this one is a gift made in Germany.

Which inspired Henry VIII

-to have German armour made in England!

-In England.

And that is the connection.

Effectively, it was this helmet,

or the suit of armour that this helmet belonged to,

that inspired Henry to have his very own armoury in Greenwich

and resulted in suits of armour like this.

-Just looking through, I think I'll have a give you three points.

-Yeah!

That's perfectly fair and reasonable.

Good. Well, I'll have to go and see how the others get on.

It's the same principle.

Three questions and three points to play for.

So...

Here we go. Two objects.

Now, your first question is about this one.

Yes.

How did this gun help deliver more than shot?

-Kate.

-How does it deliver more than shots?

Well, it's obviously a very modern-ish gun,

by the standards of what they've got in here.

Is it a flintlock gun?

-Yes.

-The new flintlock gun?

Well, that was an innovation. It was very popular in 18th century.

Mm, but this one dates from the 1840s.

Ah, so it's a Victorian flintlock gun.

So, Benedict, what sort of gun is it?

Well, it's a blunderbuss.

You can see the widened barrel, so the shot would be dispersed,

-which was good for a close target or a crowd, say.

-All right.

I'm going to read the question again, because that's very important.

The wording is important.

How did this gun help DELIVER more than shot?

-Deliver.

-Deliver.

Well, either it's delivering the mail, which I don't think,

or it's stand and deliver like a highwayman.

Well, actually, it's to do with both.

I can't...

I don't know how...

A mail-delivering highwayman?

-Hmm.

-No.

-What, a highwayman delivering the mail?

-I'm just joking.

-I'm just desperate.

-Very generous, kind-hearted.

-No.

I see you're certainly along the right lines here, finally.

So, maybe not a highwayman.

Yes. So, we've got a different type of delivery.

-No. I'm going to stop you because...

-Babies?

..you haven't offered an answer between the two of you.

But you are on the cusp of it.

The real answer is because this was a gun which was issued

to a postman on a mail coach.

Oh!

So, this was why it helped deliver the mail,

but your second question is why was the owner of this rattle

at a disadvantage compared to the coachman?

Oof.

So, this is a rattle that you'd use to make noise,

so this is what you'd use to scare off criminals

-coming towards you.

-But why would you need...

Why might you use it? Who might use it to make a noise?

-Police, I think. Police.

-Police.

I think it was an early deterrent or early alert.

-It's like an early whistle.

-Exactly.

So, it is a police rattle,

and why was the policeman at a disadvantage from the mailman?

Because the mailman had a gun and you're going to be more afraid

of a man with a gun than with a rattle.

Why didn't the policeman have a gun?

Because policemen have never been armed in this country,

and that's part of their founding principles.

I'll give you a point for that.

So, your third question.

Which distinct sound

made both of these objects obsolete?

That is the whistle.

The police whistle. Yes.

So, what you're saying is that the whistle supplanted the rattle.

What whistle then made this redundant?

Well, we could no longer have an armed coach.

Why did we not need armed coaches any more?

Because we had the train,

and the train, the man on a train, uses a whistle,

so he put all the mail in the train...

Not only just the man on the train use a whistle, the train itself...

-Has a whistle.

-..has a whistle, does it not?

-It does.

-It does.

Anyway, I'm going to give you two out of your three there,

because I think I had to give you a little bit of help and assistance.

But we'll go back, see how the others got on.

So, it's time to say that, Kate and Benedict,

you only got two points, which brings you up to seven.

But Simon and Nina, they got all their three points,

so they're ahead with 12.

But everything is still up for grabs

because we're entering our final quick-fire round.

More items from the collection,

but only one go at getting the right answer.

So, have a look at this.

What process of heating and cooling gives steel swords their strength?

-BELL RINGS Heating and cooling.

-Tempering.

-Tempering, correct.

-Well done.

Against what sort of enemy would you use this?

BELL RINGS

-A vampire.

-A vampire, correct.

-Oh!

This horse armour is engraved with pomegranates. Which Queen of...

BUZZER AND BELL RINGS You were first, Kate.

-Catherine of Aragon.

-Catherine of Aragon.

On a canon like this,

which part is the trunnion? BELL RINGS

The little round bits that stick out the side.

The side, that hold it up, yes indeed.

This Baby Browning pistol owes its decoration

to which artistic movement? BUZZER

-Art Deco.

-Art Deco, correct.

Which profession used

this etched blade? BELL RINGS

-Assassin.

-Not assassin.

-Is it executioner?

-Executioner, yes.

This is a cranequin.

What was it used for? BELL RINGS AND BUZZER

-Simon.

-It was used for winding up a crossbow.

Quite right.

Which part of a samurai warrior

was believed to be contained in his sword?

BUZZER AND BELL RINGS

His stomach.

-His stomach? No, not his stomach.

-His spirit.

His spirit, his soul, yes. Correct.

What might you hunt with this? BELL RINGS

-Eels.

-Eels. Correct.

What would you fire from this gun? BELL RINGS

A very large ball.

A large ball, no.

-A flare.

-Not a flare.

-A grenade, in fact.

-No!

Yes.

What name is given to this gold decoration?

BUZZER AND BELL RINGS Kate.

-It's a Damascene decoration.

-Damascene, yes.

This partisan was created

for which monarch? BELL RINGS AND BUZZER

-Louis XIV.

-Louis XIV, Simon.

The Sun King, yes. TRUMPET

And I'm afraid that is all we have time for.

My God. I'm sweating.

We have to dismount and lay down our weapons, please,

because it's the end of that very close competition.

Hard-fought and extremely difficult for me to sit here and watch

because I was frightened for both of you.

THEY LAUGH

Here are the final scores.

Kate and Benedict, you have 11 points.

But Simon and Nina, with a last spurt there, you've got 19 points,

so you take away this a victory here,

in a place of tourneys and battles.

And we live to fight another day,

which is more than you can say for anyone on the receiving end

of most of the weapons here in Leeds Dock.

Thank you, and goodnight.