Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Ryswick, Treaty of, 1697, the pact that ended the War of the Grand Alliance. Its signers were France on one side and England, Spain, and the Netherlands on the other. It was a setback for Louis XIV, w...

(Encyclopedia) Orléans, Gaston, duc d' dük dôrlāäNˈ [key], 1608–60, son of King Henry IV and Marie de' Medici, younger brother of Louis XIII. He took part in many of the conspiracies of the great nobles aga...

(Encyclopedia) Philip V (Philip the Tall), c.1294–1322, king of France (1317–22), son of King Philip IV. He became regent in 1316 on the death of his brother Louis X, who was survived by his pregnant wife and in...

(Encyclopedia) Verdun, Treaty of, the partition of Charlemagne's empire among three sons of Louis I, emperor of the West. It was concluded in 843 at Verdun on the Meuse or, possibly, Verdun-sur-le-Doubs, Soâne-et-L...

(Encyclopedia) Bourbon bo͞orbôNˈ [key], European royal family, originally of France; a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty (see Capetians). One branch of the Bourbons occupies the modern Spanish throne, and othe...

(Encyclopedia) Nanteuil, Robert rōbĕrˈ näNtöˈyə [key], 1623?–1678, French draftsman and engraver. His pastel portraits gained him popularity, and in 1658 Louis XIV made him draftsman to the royal cabinet. H...

(Encyclopedia) Anne de Beaujeu də bōzhöˈ [key], c.1460–1522, regent of France, daughter of the French King Louis XI. With her husband, Pierre de Beaujeu, duc de Bourbon, she acted as regent for her brother, Ch...

(Encyclopedia) Carpentier, Alejo älāˈhō kärpĕntyārˈ [key], 1904–80, Cuban novelist and musicologist. As a political exile in Paris between 1928 and 1939, Carpentier was strongly influenced by Antonin Artau...

(Encyclopedia) diminishing returns, law of, in economics, law stating that if one factor of production is increased while the others remain constant, the overall returns will relatively decrease after a certain poin...

(Encyclopedia) Frank, Joachim, 1940–, German-American physicist and biochemist, b. Siegen, Germany, Ph.D., Technical Univ. of Munich 1970. He became a U.S. citizen in 1997. Following several postdoctoral appointme...