Mea Culpa: what is the best known treaty signed in Louis XIV’s palace?

Errors and redundancies in last week’s Independent, compiled by John Rentoul

William Orpen’s painting ‘The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors’, recording the Treaty of Versailles of 28 June 1919

It is not usually my job to correct quizzes, but last week’s Saturday Quiz included the question: “Where have there been seven treaties signed, the first in 1756 and the last, most famously, in 1871?” The answer was given as Versailles, in which case the best-known date must be the eighth treaty in 1919. Thanks to Mick O’Hare for appealing to the referee.

However, this was the only time last week when we might have been justified – if we had got the answer right – in using the word “famously”. We used it several other times when it was redundant.

We said: “Jose Mourinho’s Roma were famously humbled 6-1 at the 8,300-capacity Aspmyra Stadium last year.” We said that Charlotte Bronte had “famously” written something about her younger sister. We described General George Custer as “the famously doomed US cavalry commander”. And we said: “Ms Truss famously described the abolition of the 45p rate as ‘a decision the chancellor made’.”