Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Sikeston sīksˈtən [key], city (1990 pop. 17,641), New Madrid and Scott counties, SE Mo., in the Mississippi plain; inc. 1874. It is the shipping, marketing, and processing center of a cotton, wheat...

(Encyclopedia) Wayland Smith, in English folklore, a skillful blacksmith and great armor maker, whose forge was near the White Horse (Oxfordshire). He appears in the Old English Beowulf and Deor and in Sir Walter Sc...

(Encyclopedia) Grant, Sir Francis, 1803–78, Scottish portrait painter. He was self-taught in painting, for which he abandoned a career in law. He began as a painter of hunting scenes (The Melton Hunt and The Cotte...

(Encyclopedia) James I (James the Conqueror), 1208–76, king of Aragón and count of Barcelona (1213–76), son and successor of Peter II. After a minority was disturbed by private wars among the nobles, James soon...

(Encyclopedia) James II, c.1260–1327, king of Aragón and count of Barcelona (1291–1327), king of Sicily (1285–95). He succeeded his father, Peter III, in Sicily and his brother, Alfonso III, in Aragón. James...

(Encyclopedia) Ferdinand I, 1379?–1416, king of Aragón and Sicily and count of Barcelona (1412–16), second son of John I of Castile; nephew and successor of Martin of Aragón. In 1406, Ferdinand became regent o...

(Encyclopedia) Charles I (Charles of Anjou), 1227–85, king of Naples and Sicily (1266–85), count of Anjou and Provence, youngest brother of King Louis IX of France. He took part in Louis's crusades to Egypt (124...

(Encyclopedia) Henry II, 1133–89, king of England (1154–89), son of Matilda, queen of England, and Geoffrey IV, count of Anjou. He was the founder of the Angevin, or Plantagenet, line in England and one of the a...

(Encyclopedia) Ladislaus I, 1260–1333, duke (1306–20) and later king (1320–33) of Poland; called Ladislaus the Short. He restored the Polish kingdom, which had been partitioned since 1138 (see Piast). In his c...

(Encyclopedia) Philip VI, 1968–, king of Spain (2014–). The only son and youngest child of Juan Carlos I, he was created prince of Asturias in 1977. As heir apparent, he traveled widely as a representative of Sp...