Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Montfort, Simon de mŏntˈfərt, Fr. môNfôrˈ [key], c.1160–1218, count of Montfort and earl of Leicester. A participant in the Fourth Crusade (1202–4), he did not join in the sack of Constantin...

(Encyclopedia) West, Paul Noden, 1930–2015, British-American writer, b. Eckington, Derbyshire, England, B.A. Univ. of Birmingham (1950), M.A. Columbia (1953). After serving in the Royal Air Force and teaching at M...

(Encyclopedia) Dunois, Jean, comte de zhäN kôNt də dünwäˈ [key], c.1403–1468, French general, called the Bastard of Orléans; natural son of Louis, duc d'Orléans. He joined the Armagnacs in the civil war du...

(Encyclopedia) Charles III (Charles the Simple), 879–929, French king (893–923), son of King Louis II (Louis the Stammerer). As a child he was excluded from the succession at the death (884) of his half-brother ...

(Encyclopedia) Charles II (Charles the Lame), 1248–1309, king of Naples (1285–1309), count of Anjou and Provence, son and successor of Charles I. In the war of the Sicilian Vespers between Charles I and Peter II...

(Encyclopedia) Cluniac order klo͞oˈnē-ăkˌ [key], medieval organization of Benedictines centered at the abbey of Cluny, France. Founded in 910 by the monk Berno and Count William of Aquitaine, the abbey's consti...

(Encyclopedia) appendix, small, worm-shaped blind tube, about 3 in. (7.6 cm) long and 1⁄4 in. to 1 in. (.64–2.54 cm) thick, projecting from the cecum (part of the large intestine) on the right side of the lower ...

(Encyclopedia) Kun, Béla bāˈlŏ ko͞on [key], 1886–1937, Hungarian Communist. A prisoner of war in Russia after 1915, he embraced Bolshevism. After the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917 he was sent to ...

(Encyclopedia) Stuart or Stewart, Charles Edward, 1720–88, claimant to the British throne, b. Rome. First son of James Francis Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender), he was known as Bonnie Prince Charlie and as the Yo...

(Encyclopedia) Trans-Siberian Railroad, rail line, linking European Russia with the Pacific coast. Its construction began in 1891, on the initiative of Count S. Y. Witte, and was completed in 1905. The completion of...