Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Ottocar II or Přemysl Ottocar II, c.1230–1278, king of Bohemia (1253–78), son and successor of Wenceslaus I. Ottocar shrewdly exploited the disorders of the great interregnum in the Holy Roman Em...

(Encyclopedia) Feodor II, 1589–1605, czar of Russia (1605). He succeeded his father, Boris Godunov, but was assassinated when the first false Dmitri was proclaimed czar. ...

(Encyclopedia) Humbert II, 1904–83, last king of Italy (1946), son and successor of Victor Emmanuel III. On the abdication (May, 1946) of his father, who was tainted by his long acquiescence (1922–43) to Fascist...

(Encyclopedia) Stephen II, d. 757, pope (752–57), successor of Pope St. Zacharias. When Rome was threatened by the Lombard king Aistulf, Stephen went to Gaul and appealed to Pepin the Short for help. He became the...

(Encyclopedia)  Russian and Soviet Rulers since 1462(including dates of rule) House of Rurik House of Godunov Usurpers House of Romanov Provisional Government(premiers) Soviet Russia (1917–22) and the U...

(Encyclopedia) Clotaire II, d. 629, Frankish king, son of Chilperic I and Fredegunde. He succeeded (584) his father as king of Neustria, but his mother ruled for him until her death (597). In 613, after the death of...

(Encyclopedia) Pavlovsk pävˈləfsk [key], city (1989 pop. 25,500), NW Russia, a summer resort near St. Petersburg. Founded by Catherine the Great in 1777, it was named for Czar Paul I, for whose country estate it ...

(Encyclopedia) Hakam II, al- äl-häkämˈ [key], 914–76, Umayyad caliph of Córdoba (961–76), son and successor of Abd ar-Rahman III. In the early part of his reign he successfully waged war against the Christi...

(Encyclopedia) Danilo II (Danilo Petrović-Njegoš), 1826–60, prince of Montenegro (1851–60). He secularized (1852) his principality (chiefly in order to be able to marry) and transferred his ecclesiastic functi...

(Encyclopedia) Alexius II (Alexius Comnenus), 1168–83, Byzantine emperor (1180–83), son and successor of Manuel I. His mother, Mary of Antioch, who was regent for him, alienated the population by favoring the La...