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Urraca

(Encyclopedia)Urraca o͞oräˈkä [key], d. 1126, Spanish queen of Castile and León (1109–26), daughter and successor of Alfonso VI. Her first husband, Raymond of Burgundy, died in 1107, and in 1109 she was marr...

Frederick the Fair

(Encyclopedia)Frederick the Fair, c.1286–1330, German antiking (1314–26), duke of Austria, son of Albert I, German king. On the death of Henry VII, Holy Roman emperor and German king, the split between the supp...

Two Sicilies, kingdom of the

(Encyclopedia)Two Sicilies, kingdom of the. The name Two Sicilies was used in the Middle Ages to mean the kingdoms of Sicily and of Naples (see Sicily and Naples, kingdom of). Alfonso V of Aragón, who in 1442 reun...

Waldemar II

(Encyclopedia)Waldemar II, 1170–1241, king of Denmark (1202–41), second son of Waldemar I. In the reign of his brother, Canute VI, he defended Denmark from German aggression and then extended Danish control ove...

Alexander VI, pope

(Encyclopedia)Alexander VI, 1431?–1503, pope (1492–1503), a Spaniard (b. Játiva) named Rodrigo de Borja or, in Italian, Rodrigo Borgia; successor of Innocent VIII. He took Borja as his surname from his mother'...

Fulk

(Encyclopedia)Fulk fŭlk [key], 1092–1143, Latin king of Jerusalem (1131–43), count of Anjou (1109–29) as Fulk V, great-grandson of Fulk Nerra. He journeyed (1120) to the Holy Land as a pilgrim and returned t...

Joanna II

(Encyclopedia)Joanna II, 1371–1435, queen of Naples (1414–35), sister and successor of Lancelot. The intrigues of her favorites kept her court in turmoil. Her second husband, James of Bourbon, tried to seize po...

Christian of Anhalt

(Encyclopedia)Christian of Anhalt, 1568–1630, prince of Anhalt (1603–30). He was a firm Calvinist and a skilled diplomat. As adviser to Frederick IV, elector palatine, he sought to build a strong Protestant all...

Victor Emmanuel I

(Encyclopedia)Victor Emmanuel I, 1759–1824, king of Sardinia (1802–21). His brother and predecessor, Charles Emmanuel IV, lost (1798) all his territories except the island of Sardinia to France in the French Re...

Raoul

(Encyclopedia)Raoul räo͞olˈ [key], d. 936, duke of Burgundy, king of France (923–36). Elected king to succeed his father-in-law, Robert I, Raoul fought the Normans and the Hungarians, who repeatedly invaded Fr...