Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Agesilaus II

(Encyclopedia)Agesilaus II əjĕˌsĭlāˈəs [key], c.444–360 b.c., king of Sparta. After the death of Agis I (398? b.c.), he was brought to power by Lysander, whom he promptly ignored. After the Peloponnesian W...

Ahmed II

(Encyclopedia)Ahmed II, 1642–95, Ottoman sultan (1691–95), brother and successor of Sulayman II to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). Soon after his reign began, the Turkish defeat at Slankamen, Serbia ...

Urban II

(Encyclopedia)Urban II, c.1042–1099, pope (1088–99), a Frenchman named Odo (or Eudes) of Lagery; successor of Victor III. He studied at Reims and became a monk at Cluny. He went to Rome, as prior of Cluny, earl...

Huysmans, Jacob

(Encyclopedia)Huysmans, Jacob hoisˈmäns [key], c.1633–1696, Flemish portrait painter. In the reign of Charles II he settled in England, where he became one of the fashionable painters of the court. His chief p...

Henry III, Spanish king of Castile and León

(Encyclopedia)Henry III, 1379–1406, Spanish king of Castile and León (1390–1406), son and successor of John I. His marriage (1388) to Catherine, daughter of John of Gaunt, ended a long dynastic conflict. Henry...

Charles IX, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Charles IX, 1550–74, king of France. He succeeded (1560) his brother Francis II under the regency of his mother, Catherine de' Medici. She retained her influence throughout his reign. After 1570, ho...

Sandwich, Edward Montagu, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Sandwich, Edward Montagu, 1st earl of mŏnˈtəgyo͞o [key], 1625–72, English admiral. He fought in the parliamentary army during the civil war, became (1653) a member of the council of state of the...

Orlov, Grigori Grigoryevich, Count

(Encyclopedia)Orlov, Grigori Grigoryevich, Count grĭgôrˈyəvĭch, ərlôfˈ [key], 1734–83, Russian nobleman. One of the first lovers of Catherine II, he and his brother led the conspiracy that deposed Peter ...

Banks, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Banks, Thomas, 1735–1805, English neoclassical sculptor, studied at the Royal Academy. A traveling scholarship enabled him to study in Rome from 1772 to 1779. In 1781 he went to Russia, where Cather...

Derzhavin, Gavril Romanovich

(Encyclopedia)Derzhavin, Gavril Romanovich gəvrēlˈ rəmäˈnəvĭch dyĭrzhäˈvĭn [key], 1743–1816, Russian classical poet. His satirical ode to Catherine II, Felitsa (1782), won her favor, and he became poe...