Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Louise of Savoy, duchesse d'Angoulême düshĕsˈ däNgo͞olĕmˈ [key], 1476–1531, regent of France; daughter of Duke Philip II of Savoy and mother of King Francis I of France and Margaret, queen o...

(Encyclopedia) Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, accredited institution of higher education; in New York City; coeducational; chartered and opened in 1859. Founded by Peter Cooper, it pioneered in...

(Encyclopedia) Washington, Martha, 1731–1802, wife of George Washington, b. New Kent co., Va. The daughter of John Dandridge and Frances Jones Dandridge, she first married (1749) Daniel Parke Custis. She bore him ...

(Encyclopedia) Thatcher, Margaret Hilda Roberts Thatcher, Baroness, 1925–2013, British political leader. Great Britain's first woman prime minister, nicknamed the “Iron Lady” for her uncompromising political s...

(Encyclopedia) Waldemar IV (Valdemar Atterdag), c.1320–1375, king of Denmark (1340–75). He became king of a land completely dismembered by foreign rulers, but his ambition, unscrupulousness, and military ability...

(Encyclopedia) Des Périers, Bonaventure bōnävăNtürˈ dā pārēāˈ [key], c.1510–1544, French humanist and poet; protégé of Margaret of Navarre. His chief work, Cymbalum mundi (1537), a series of four skep...

(Encyclopedia) Newcastle, William Cavendish, duke of, 1593?–1676, English soldier and politician. Of great wealth, Cavendish became (1638) governor of the prince of Wales and a privy councilor. During the civil wa...

(Encyclopedia)  Coppola, Sophia Carmina, , 1971- , American director, screenwriter, and actress, b. New York City. The youngest child of director Francis Ford Coppola ...

(Encyclopedia) Saintonge săNtôNzhˈ [key], region of W France, on the Bay of Biscay. It is now part of the Charente-Maritime dept. Cattle and sheep raising, dairying, and the manufacture of cognac from grapes grow...

(Encyclopedia) Roses, Wars of the, traditional name given to the intermittent struggle (1455–85) for the throne of England between the noble houses of York (whose badge was a white rose) and Lancaster (later assoc...