Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Æthelred, king of England

(Encyclopedia)Æthelred, 965?–1016, king of England (978–1016), called Æthelred the Unready [Old Eng. unrœd=without counsel]. He was the son of Edgar and the half-brother of Edward the Martyr, whom he succeed...

Agassiz, Louis

(Encyclopedia)Agassiz, Louis (Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz) ăgˈəsē [key], 1807–73, Swiss-American zoologist and geologist, b. Môtiers-en-Vuly, Switzerland. He studied at the universities of Zürich, Erlangen ...

Larne

(Encyclopedia)Larne lärn [key], town (1991 pop. 18,224) and district, NE Northern Ireland, on an inlet of the North Channel. The town is a seaport and a tourist center. Metal ores, beef, and potatoes are exported ...

May, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)May, Thomas, 1595–1650, English author, b. Sussex, grad. Cambridge, 1612. Besides writing several tragedies on classical subjects, he wrote two comedies, The Heir (1620) and The Old Couple (c.1620)....

Maritime Provinces

(Encyclopedia)Maritime Provinces or Maritimes, Canada, term applied to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, which before the formation of the Canadian confederation (1867) were politically distinct...

Havering

(Encyclopedia)Havering hāˈvərĭng [key], outer borough of Greater London, SE England. The borough is largely ...

Hawkwood, Sir John de

(Encyclopedia)Hawkwood, Sir John de, d. 1394, English soldier. He fought in the French wars of Edward III and was knighted, although it is not known when or where. With his “white company” of mercenaries, he en...

graveyard school

(Encyclopedia)graveyard school, 18th-century school of English poets who wrote primarily about human mortality. Often set in a graveyard, their poems mused on the vicissitudes of life, the solitude of death and the...

Browse by Subject