Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Louvre lo͞oˈvrə [key], foremost French museum of art, located in Paris. The building was a royal fortress and palace built by Philip II in the late 12th cent. In 1546 Pierre Lescot was commissioned...

(Encyclopedia) Henry V, 1387–1422, king of England (1413–22), son and successor of Henry IV. Henry abandoned his early recklessness (celebrated and probably exaggerated by Shakespeare) and ruled with justice...

(Encyclopedia) Religion, Wars of, 1562–98, series of civil wars in France, also known as the Huguenot Wars. The immediate issue was the French Protestants' struggle for freedom of worship and the right of establis...

(Encyclopedia)  Rulers of Spain since 1474(including dates of reign) Union of Castile and Aragón Hapsburg Dynasty Bourbon Dynasty French Intrusion Bourbon Restoration Elective Monarchy First Republic ...

(Encyclopedia) Boleslaus III, 1085–1138, duke of Poland (1102–38). The kingdom had been divided by his father, Ladislaus Herman, between Boleslaus and his elder brother Zbigniew, whose legitimacy was disputed. Z...

(Encyclopedia) Kaunitz, Wenzel Anton, Fürst von vĕnˈtsəl änˈtôn fürst fən kouˈnĭts [key], 1711–94, Austrian statesman. He distinguished himself as a negotiator of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) an...

(Encyclopedia) Rainier III rĕnyāˈ [key], 1923–2005, prince of Monaco (1949–2005), a member of the Grimaldi family, which has ruled the tiny principality since 1297. Fiercely anti-Nazi, Ranier served with dist...

(Encyclopedia) Peter V, 1837–61, king of Portugal (1853–61), eldest son and successor of Maria II. Ascending the throne on the death of his mother, he ruled under the regency of his father, Ferdinand II, until 1...

(Encyclopedia) Casimir I kăsˈəmēr [key], c.1015–1058, duke of Poland (c.1040–1058), son of Mieszko II. He succeeded in reuniting the central Polish lands under the hegemony of the Holy Roman Empire, but he w...

(Encyclopedia) Hervey of Ickworth, John Hervey, Baron härˈvē, hûrˈvē [key], 1696–1743, English memoirist. A temperamental figure who served in various minor offices under Robert Walpole, he is chiefly rememb...