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People Who Died in Battle

Name these famous people who died in battle.
Some answers are apocryphal
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: October 22, 2019
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First submittedMarch 22, 2014
Times taken20,072
Average score64.7%
Rating4.24
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Battle or War
Year
Clue
Answer
WWI
1918
Top ace of WWI
Manfred von
Richthofen
Battle of the Little Bighorn
1876
He had a last stand fighting the Sioux
George Armstrong
Custer
U.S. Civil War
1863
Confederate general shot by his own troops by
accident when returning to camp
Stonewall Jackson
Battle of the Alamo
1836
"King of the Wild Frontier"
Davy Crockett
Battle of Trafalgar
1805
One-armed British admiral
Horatio Nelson
Battle of Lützen
1632
Swedish king called "The Lion of the North"
Gustavus Adolphus
Battle of Bosworth Field
1485
English king who would have given his
kingdom for a horse
Richard III
Ottoman–Hungarian Wars
1476
Wallachian ruler known for impaling people
Vlad the Impaler
Battle of Hastings
1066
Last Anglo-Saxon king of England
Harold II
Battle of Lumphanan
1057
Scottish king written about by Shakespeare
MacBeth
Roman-Parthian Wars
53 BC
Richest man in Rome
Crassus
Third Servile War
71 BC
Gladiator who led a slave revolt against Rome
Spartacus
Battle of Thermopylae
480 BC
King of Sparta
Leonidas
Unnamed battle against
a steppe tribe
530 BC
"Great" founder of the first Persian Empire
Cyrus the Great
Trojan War
-
Greatest soldier of Troy
Hector
Trojan War
-
Shot in the heel by Paris
Achilles
Philistine-Israelite War
-
Giant who caught a rock to the forehead
Goliath
+6
Level 33
Apr 16, 2014
Not to be dickish, but do you really think Pat Tillman is 'famous', or will be in (say) ten years? In any case, he's absolutely not on a par with these famous figures of history & mythology.
+10
Level ∞
Apr 16, 2014
He's a guy that people know and I struggled to come up with enough to fill out the quiz. I was surprised at how FEW famous people died in battle. I guess Patton was right:

"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his"
+1
Level 33
Apr 20, 2014
thats wjhat i was thinking
+1
Level 60
Jun 10, 2014
If you are a football fan (and its the most popular sport in the US) you should know who Pat Tillman is. If you are a conspiracy theory fan (figures vary) you would also know Pat Tillman. Besides, it's trivia - some it will be trivial.
+3
Level 38
May 12, 2018
Outside of the US of A, Pat Tillman is definitely not famous.
+1
Level ∞
Oct 22, 2019
2019 update. Pat Tillman has been removed. He was the least-guessed answer at around 24%.
+3
Level 86
Oct 23, 2019
You've done well. He is absolutely unknown here in Europe.
+2
Level 89
Nov 11, 2019
I’m American and even I’ve never heard of him.
+1
Level 82
Apr 22, 2014
I knew his name, haven't lived in the US in almost a decade, and don't give a flip about football.
+1
Level 51
Apr 16, 2015
I remembered. I just couldn't think of his last name even though I knew it.
+4
Level 82
Sep 22, 2016
This is the first I'm hearing of him. I suspect Stonewall Jackson may be a slightly more well known figure. Alternatively, how about Constantine XI Palaeologus, last Emperor of Byzantium, who died in the Battle of Constantinople? There's an important figure who died in battle in a decisive turning point in history.
+2
Level 48
Apr 18, 2014
Yeah, some of these are really reaching. Goliath? Really?
+6
Level 27
Apr 18, 2014
I really liked that leonidaaaas was an acceptable answer!!!

This is Spartaaa.

+1
Level 33
Apr 20, 2014
Gadaffi died in battle... sorta. As did Richard I, Watt Tyler and many famous Romans inc. Brutus, Julian, Crassus, Valens etc.
+1
Level 82
Apr 22, 2014
Qaddafi was killed by a mob of people who were carrying him around, definitely not in battle.
+1
Level 54
Jun 17, 2014
^^^ this
+1
Level ∞
Oct 22, 2019
Not sure Richard I's death really counts plus we already have Richard III. Brutus committed suicide. Added Crassus.
+2
Level 74
Oct 24, 2019
How about Catiline? Maybe a little bit niche, but he holds a famous place in history and had an awesome death.
+2
Level 75
Nov 11, 2019
I got Croesus in my head and couldn't go the extra step to Crassus.
+1
Level 61
Nov 11, 2019
Neither Brutus nor Wat Tyler were killed in battle.
+1
Level 48
May 20, 2014
This is like the twelfth quiz I've taken that involves good ol' Vlad. Just sayin.'
+2
Level 68
Jun 7, 2014
I'd say that Stonewall and Adolphus should be included, that's all. Besides that, great quiz. Got 'em all.
+2
Level 88
May 24, 2019
I second Gustavus Adolphus
+2
Level ∞
Oct 22, 2019
Added those two!
+1
Level 86
Oct 23, 2019
I didn't know them but I approve.
+1
Level 92
Dec 5, 2019
Almost missed him. Just Adolphus wasn't accepted, and for some reason I thought his first name as Gudmund.
+1
Level 70
Aug 31, 2017
NFL player doesn't really belong imo... Not someone a military history buff would know.
+2
Level 71
Dec 11, 2017
Henry Moseley: Isaac Asimov said that Moseley's death aged 27 at Gallipoli in 1915, was the greatest lost to science of all time. Henry In his classic study of the x-ray spectra of elements established the truly scientific basis of the Periodic Table by arranging chemical elements in the order of their atomic numbers. Moseley was a sure thing for a Nobel Prize in three different criteria;....... all lost.
+1
Level 38
May 12, 2018
So mythological characters like Hector, Achilles and Goliath instead of historical figures like Cyrus the Great, Richard the Lionheart or Constantinos XI ?
+3
Level 76
Aug 31, 2019
Constantine XI would be a really good choice. Varus might be another good one that many people might know, if only for the famous "Quinctilius Varus, give me back my Legions!" quote from Augustus.
+1
Level 79
Oct 22, 2019
I had also thought Varus died in battle at Teutoburg Forest, but it turns out he committed suicide.
+1
Level 76
Oct 22, 2019
A few of these people didn't actually die *in* battle. Spartacus was captured and crucified, Crassus was captured and executed via molten gold to the face (apparently), but it's close enough I think.
+1
Level 86
Oct 23, 2019
The molten gold story is probably a legend, related by Dion Cassius who lived 250 years later. In fact, nobody knows for sure, maybe Crassus died in the ambush, maybe he was captured then executed. As for Spartacus, don't trust the movie, modern research show that he probably died in battle, though a bunch of his followers were crucified (which was the regular execution for escaped slaves anyway).
+1
Level ∞
Oct 22, 2019
Added Cyrus the Great.
+1
Level 60
Jan 21, 2021
Richard the Lionheart died almost 14 days after sustaining the injury, in a "hospital" (monastery). Is it a death IN battle or not? You bet there would be a lot of "actually" comments if it was included.
+4
Level 83
Oct 22, 2019
Custer is not accepted.
+1
Level ∞
Oct 22, 2019
Fixed, thanks.
+1
Level 89
Oct 22, 2019
How about Bubba Blue?
+5
Level 38
Oct 25, 2019
Wilfred Owen?
+5
Level 73
Nov 11, 2019
Adolphus was not accepted as a correct answer when usually the last name is sufficient.
+1
Level 56
Nov 11, 2019
A Honza je jako kde more
+1
Level 77
Nov 11, 2019
Stonewall is not accepted
+1
Level 88
Nov 11, 2019
Might say your answer was stonewalled! Sorry...I'll show myself out...
+4
Level 61
Nov 11, 2019
Magellan was killed in battle in the Philippines.
+2
Level 57
Sep 24, 2020
Please accept Godwinson for Harold II
+2
Level 88
Feb 22, 2022
I kept thinking Charles XII for the Swedish one lol.
+1
Level 62
Feb 3, 2024
Crassus was killed in the aftermath of the battle by capturing him near a hill and pouring molten gold down his throat.

Cyrus getting killed vs the Steppe queen is a fantasy by Herodotus, no other source confirms it. Persian historians claim he died in Babylon in his sleep.