Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Blanqui, Louis Auguste lwē ôgüstˈ [key], 1805–81, French revolutionary and radical thinker. While a student in Paris, he joined (1824) a branch of the Carbonari, a revolutionary secret society; ...

(Encyclopedia) Montespan, Françoise Athénaïs, marquise de fräNswäzˈ ätānäēsˈ märkēzˈ də môNtəspäNˈ [key], 1641–1707, mistress of King Louis XIV of France. She was maid of honor to Queen Marie Th...

(Encyclopedia) Carlos (Carlos María Isidro de Borbón), 1788–1855, second son of Charles IV of Spain. He was the first Carlist pretender. After his father's abdication (1808) he was, with the rest of his family, ...

(Encyclopedia) Maintenon, Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de fräNswäzˈ dōbēnyāˈ märkēzˈ də măNtənôNˈ [key], 1635–1719, second wife of the French king Louis XIV. Her grandfather was Théodore Agrippa...

(Encyclopedia) Laffitte, Jacques zhäk läfētˈ [key], 1767–1844, French banker and politician. He rose from poverty to become one of the wealthiest and most influential men in France. He was director (1809) and ...

(Encyclopedia) Cheverus, Jean Louis Anne Madeleine Lefebvre de zhäN lwē än mädəlĕnˈ ləfĕˈvrə də shəvrüsˈ [key], 1768–1836, French churchman, first Roman Catholic bishop of Boston (1810–23). He was...

(Encyclopedia) Savary, Anne Jean Marie René än zhäN märēˈ rənāˈ sävärēˈ [key], 1774–1833, French general in the Napoleonic Wars. He presided (1804) at the trial of the duc d'Enghien and was created (1...

(Encyclopedia) Boleslaus II, c.1039–1081, duke (1058–76), and later king (1076–79) of Poland; son and successor of Casimir I. Throughout his reign he opposed the influence of the Holy Roman Empire. He asserted...

(Encyclopedia) Ferdinand II or Ferdinand the Catholic, 1452–1516, king of Aragón (1479–1516), king of Castile and León (as Ferdinand V, 1474–1504), king of Sicily (1468–1516), and king of Naples (1504–16...

(Encyclopedia) Louis, Séraphine sāräfēnˈ lwē [key], 1894–1934, French neoprimitive painter. Louis was a shepherdess and kitchen helper who taught herself to paint. Her powerful floral paintings are fantasies...