Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) masque, courtly form of dramatic spectacle, popular in England in the first half of the 17th cent. The masque developed from the early 16th-century disguising, or mummery, in which disguised guests be...

(Encyclopedia) Bill of Rights, 1689, in British history, one of the fundamental instruments of constitutional law. It registered in statutory form the outcome of the long 17th-century struggle between the Stuart kin...

(Encyclopedia) essay, relatively short literary composition in prose, in which a writer discusses a topic, usually restricted in scope, or tries to persuade the reader to accept a particular point of view. Although ...

(Encyclopedia) Raleigh or Ralegh, Sir Walter both: rŏlˈē, rălˈē [key], 1554?–1618, English soldier, explorer, courtier, and man of letters. Raleigh was made governor of Jersey in 1600, but his fortunes e...

(Encyclopedia) Tudor, royal family that ruled England from 1485 to 1603. Its founder was Owen Tudor, of a Welsh family of great antiquity, who was a squire at the court of Henry V and who married that king's widow, ...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Barbados bärbāˈdōz [key], island state (2020 est. pop. 287,371), 166 sq mi (430 sq km), in ...

(Encyclopedia) Mary Queen of Scots (Mary Stuart), 1542–87, only child of James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise. Through her grandmother Margaret Tudor, Mary had the strongest claim to the throne of England after t...

(Encyclopedia) Knussen, Oliver (Stuart Oliver Knussen), 1952–2018, British composer, conductor, and teacher, b. Glasgow, Scotland. A musical prodigy, he began to compose at age 6 and studied with, among others, Gu...

(Encyclopedia) Chippendale, Thomas chĭpˈəndālˌ [key], 1718–79, celebrated English cabinetmaker. His designs were so widely followed that a whole general category of 18th-century English furniture is commonly ...

(Encyclopedia) James V, 1512–42, king of Scotland (1513–42), son and successor of James IV. His mother, Margaret Tudor, held the regency until her marriage in 1514 to Archibald Douglas, 6th earl of Angus, when s...