Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Blarney, village, Co. Cork, SE Republic of Ireland. Those who kiss the Blarney Stone, placed in an almost inaccessible position near the top of the thick stone wall of the 15th-century castle, are sup...

(Encyclopedia) Derby, Thomas Stanley, 1st earl of därˈbē [key], 1435?–1504, English nobleman. During the Wars of the Roses, Stanley was ostensibly a supporter of the Lancastrian Henry VI, but he had Yorkist sym...

(Encyclopedia) Haakon IV (Haakon Haakonsson), 1204–63, king of Norway (1217–63), illegitimate son of Haakon III and grandson of Sverre. Secretly reared by the Birkebeiner faction (see Sverre), he was chosen king...

(Encyclopedia) Owen, John, 1616–83, English Puritan divine and theologian. In the civil war Owen supported the parliamentary cause. Oliver Cromwell took him as chaplain to Ireland and Scotland and had him appointe...

(Encyclopedia) Charles I (Charles of Anjou), 1227–85, king of Naples and Sicily (1266–85), count of Anjou and Provence, youngest brother of King Louis IX of France. He took part in Louis's crusades to Egypt (124...

(Encyclopedia) Tennent, William, 1673–1745, American Presbyterian clergyman and educator, b. Ireland, grad. Univ. of Edinburgh, 1695. He was ordained in the Church of Ireland in 1706. He emigrated to America c.171...

(Encyclopedia) Charles, William, 1776–1820, American cartoonist, etcher, and engraver, b. Edinburgh, Scotland. He probably came to the United States to avoid prosecution for his satirical drawings. He is best know...

(Encyclopedia) Henry I, 1204–17, Spanish king of Castile (1214–17), son and successor of Alfonso VIII. At his death after a short, uneventful reign, his sister Berenguela renounced her rights to the crown in fav...

(Encyclopedia) Lancelot lădˈĭslôs, –ləs [key], c.1376–1414, king of Naples (1386–1414), son and successor of Charles III. Almost his entire reign was consumed by his struggle with the Angevin rival king o...

(Encyclopedia) Worcester, John Tiptoft, earl of wo͝osˈtər [key] 1427?–1470, English nobleman. He studied at Oxford and was created earl of Worcester in 1449. He served as treasurer of the exchequer (1452–55) ...