Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Henry of Burgundy, d. 1112, count of Portugal. One of a group of French nobles called by Alfonso VI of León to assist in the fight against the Moors, he arrived in Spain c.1095. He was assigned a por...

(Encyclopedia) Urraca o͞oräˈkä [key], d. 1126, Spanish queen of Castile and León (1109–26), daughter and successor of Alfonso VI. Her first husband, Raymond of Burgundy, died in 1107, and in 1109 she was marr...

(Encyclopedia) San Ildefonso lä grängˈhä [key], town (1990 pop. 5,088), Segovia prov., central Spain, in Castile and León. Near the town is the Spanish royal summer residence, called La Granja, built by Philip ...

(Encyclopedia) Meissonier, Juste Aurèle māsônyāˈ [key], 1695–1750, French designer, b. Turin. At first a goldsmith, in 1724 he was appointed designer to the king under Louis XV, a position he held until his ...

(Encyclopedia) Mona Passage mōˈnä, –nə [key], strait, c.80 mi (130 km) wide, between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Connecting the N Atlantic Ocean with the Caribbean Sea, it is a favored shipping lan...

(Encyclopedia) Mérida, city (1990 pop. 53,732), capital of Extremadura, in Badajoz prov., SW Spain, on the Guadiana River. It is a rail hub and agricultural center producing textiles, leather, and cork. The colony ...

(Encyclopedia) New Smyrna Beach smûrˈnə [key], city (1990 pop. 16,543), Volusia co., NE Fla., on Indian River (a lagoon; part of the Intracoastal Waterway) and on Ponce de Leon Inlet of the Atlantic Ocean; inc. 1...

(Encyclopedia) Chautemps, Camille kämēˈyə shōtäNˈ [key], 1885–1963, French politician. A Radical Socialist leader, he was premier in 1930 and in 1933–34, when the Stavisky Affair (in which he was not dire...

(Encyclopedia) Coffin, William Anderson, 1855–1925, American landscape and figure painter and art critic, studied at the Yale School of Fine Arts and under Léon Bonnat in Paris. His landscapes were awarded numero...

(Encyclopedia) Coimbra kōēmˈbrə [key], city, capital of Coimbra dist., W central Portugal, on the Mondego ...