Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Wall, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Wall, Richard, 1694–1778, Spanish statesman. Born in France of Irish parents, Wall entered the Spanish military service as a young man and later held important diplomatic posts. He helped negotiate ...

Grafton, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Grafton, Richard, d. c.1572, London publisher and printer. In 1539 with Edward Whitchurch he printed the Great Bible in black letter (see type). He printed the first edition of the Book of Common Pray...

Cheke, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Cheke, Sir John chēk [key], 1514–57, English scholar. As professor of Greek at Cambridge he taught Roger Ascham and later was tutor to Edward VI. A Protestant, he was imprisoned by Mary I. Although...

Chaeronea

(Encyclopedia)Chaeronea kĕrənēˈə [key], ancient town of Boeotia, Greece, in the Cephissus (now Kifisós) River valley and NW of Thebes. There the Athenians and Thebans were defeated (338 b.c.) by the Macedonia...

Tolentino

(Encyclopedia)Tolentino tōlāntēˈnō [key], town (1991 pop. 18,346), in the Marche, central Italy, on the Chienti River. In 1797, Pope Pius VI signed at Tolentino a humiliating treaty with Napoleon Bonaparte, un...

Peter I, czar of Russia

(Encyclopedia)Peter I or Peter the Great, 1672–1725, czar of Russia (1682–1725), major figure in the development of imperial Russia. Peter's personal traits ranged from bestial cruelty and vice to the most ...

Andronicus III

(Encyclopedia)Andronicus III (Andronicus Palaeologus), c.1296–1341, Byzantine emperor (1328–41), grandson of Andronicus II, whom he deposed after a series of civil wars. His chief minister was John Cantacuzene ...

Ormonde, James Butler, 5th earl of

(Encyclopedia)Ormonde, James Butler, 5th earl of, 1420–61, Irish nobleman. He was knighted in his youth by Henry VI of England and was created earl of Wiltshire in 1449. He succeeded to the earldom of Ormonde in ...

Melville, Sir James

(Encyclopedia)Melville, Sir James, 1535–1617, Scottish diplomat. He was a page to Mary Queen of Scots in France and, after her return to Scotland, was employed as Mary's representative at the court of Elizabeth I...

Christian VIII

(Encyclopedia)Christian VIII, 1786–1848, king of Denmark (1839–48), nephew of Christian VII; successor of Frederick VI. As governor and king (May–Oct., 1814) of Norway he accepted a liberal Norwegian constitu...
 

Browse by Subject