(Encyclopedia) CortesCorteskôrˈtĕz, Span. kōrˈtās [key], representative assembly in Spain. The institution originated (12th–13th cent.) in various Spanish regions with the Christian reconquest; until…
(Encyclopedia) Babangida, IbrahimBabangida, Ibrahimēbräˈhēm bäbänˈgēdä [key], 1941–, Nigerian military and political leader. After graduating (1963) from Nigeria's military college, he joined the…
(Encyclopedia) FormosusFormosusfôrmōˈsəs [key], c.816–896, pope (891–96), probably a Roman; successor of Stephen VI. Under Pope Nicholas I he had been bishop in Bulgaria, where he pursued a rigorous…
(Encyclopedia) Wenceslaus II, 1271–1305, king of Bohemia (1278–1305) and of Poland (1300–1305), son and successor of Ottocar II. From the death (1278) of his father until 1283 the regency was…
(Encyclopedia) boyarsboyarsbōyärzˈ [key], upper nobility in Russia from the 10th through the 17th cent. The boyars originally obtained influence and government posts through their military support of…
(Encyclopedia) Ba'ath partyBa'ath partybäˈäth [key], Arab political party, in Syria and in Iraq. Founded in Damascus in 1941 with an ideology of secularism, socialism, and pan-Arab unionism, it was…
(Encyclopedia) ArcadiaArcadiaärkāˈdēə [key], region of ancient Greece, in the middle of the Peloponnesus, without a seaboard, and surrounded and dissected by mountains. The Arcadians, relatively…
(Encyclopedia) Northumberland, John Dudley, duke of, 1502?–1553, English statesman. The son of Edmund Dudley, minister of Henry VII, John was restored to his inheritance in 1512 after his father's…
