I'm cheating a bit by changing the date - I'm typing this on Sunday - but I did learn and record this yesterday, but couldn't get to the computer (amazing how time-consuming Trivial Pursuit can be). My team won with a question on King Canute, which my good buddy Lee answered - apparently, he sat on a throne by a shoreline and commanded the tide to recede. King Canute that is, not Lee. The foolhardy king subsequently drowned. I tried and failed to verify this last night, but this is all I could come up with:
King Canute lived in Bosham, West Sussex, and it is believed that it was at the coastline nearby that he infamously failed to turn the tide of the encroaching sea.
To be honest, I didn't even know King Canute was a real person, and to find that his legendary activities happened close to my previous residence in Portsmouth is quite exciting, even if it was 1000 years ago. Lee thought that it was the tide at Langstone Harbour, which runs along the right-hand of the city (and is also in close proximity to Bosham) which failed to heed it's Kingly call. I can't prove that anywhere, but who I am to argue? Won us the game, that's all that matters.
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