Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Spanish Succession, War of the, 1701–14, last of the general European wars caused by the efforts of King Louis XIV to extend French power. The conflict in America corresponding to the period of the ...

(Encyclopedia) Lost Dauphin: see Louis XVII, titular king of France. ...

(Encyclopedia) Le Daim or Le Dain, Olivier both: ôlēvyāˈ lə dăN [key], d. 1484, favorite of King Louis XI of France. His original surname was Necker. Beginning as the king's barber and valet, he gained great i...

(Encyclopedia) Charles IV, 1748–1819, king of Spain (1788–1808), second son of Charles III, whom he succeeded in place of his imbecile older brother. Unlike his father, Charles IV was an ineffective ruler and in...

(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) Louis period styles, 1610–1793, succession of modes of interior decoration and architecture that established France as a leading influence in the decorative arts. The restraint of the later Louis ...

(Encyclopedia) Philip III, 1578–1621, king of Spain, Naples, and Sicily (1598–1621) and, as Philip II, king of Portugal (1598–1621); son and successor of Philip II of Spain. He was as pious as his father, but ...

(Encyclopedia) Alphonse älfôNsˈ [key], 1220–71, count of Poitiers and of Toulouse, brother of King Louis IX of France. By his marriage to the daughter of Raymond VII, count of Toulouse, he inherited Raymond's l...

(Encyclopedia) Proust, Joseph Louis zhôzĕfˈ lwē pro͞ost [key], 1754–1826, French chemist. He was professor of chemistry at the artillery school in Segovia, Spain, and director of the laboratory of Charles IV ...

(Encyclopedia) Raoul räo͞olˈ [key], d. 936, duke of Burgundy, king of France (923–36). Elected king to succeed his father-in-law, Robert I, Raoul fought the Normans and the Hungarians, who repeatedly invaded Fr...