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ordeal

(Encyclopedia)ordeal, ancient legal custom whereby an accused person was required to perform a test, the outcome of which decided the person's guilt or innocence. By an ordeal, appeal was made to divine authority t...

Augustus II

(Encyclopedia)Augustus II, 1670–1733, king of Poland (1697–1733) and, as Frederick Augustus I, elector of Saxony (1694–1733). He commanded the imperial army against the Turks (1695–96), but had no success a...

Constance, Holy Roman empress

(Encyclopedia)Constance, 1154–98, Holy Roman empress, wife of Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI; daughter of King Roger II of Sicily. She was named heiress of Sicily by her nephew King William II. On his death, however...

Sverre

(Encyclopedia)Sverre svĕˈrə [key], d. 1202, king of Norway (1184–1202). He claimed to be the illegitimate son of King Sigurd; the question of his paternity is still disputed. He spent his childhood in the Faer...

Witherspoon, John

(Encyclopedia)Witherspoon, John, 1723–94, Scottish-American Presbyterian clergyman, political leader in the American Revolution, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Haddingtonshire (now East Lothian...

Constantine I, king of Greece

(Encyclopedia)Constantine I, 1868–1923, king of the Hellenes, eldest son of George I, whom he succeeded in 1913. Married to Sophia, sister of the German emperor William II, he opposed the pro-Allied policy of the...

Amadeus

(Encyclopedia)Amadeus, 1845–90, king of Spain (1870–73), duke of Aosta, son of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy. After the expulsion (1868) of Queen Isabella II, Juan Prim urged the Cortes to elect Amadeus as king. ...

Amboise, Georges d'

(Encyclopedia)Amboise, Georges d' zhôrzh däNbwäzˈ [key], 1460–1510, French statesman, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He became archbishop of Rouen in 1493. In 1498, as an intimate friend of the new ki...

Helene

(Encyclopedia)Helene həlēnˈ, hĕlˈənə [key], in astronomy, one of the named moons, or natural satellites, of Saturn. Also known as Saturn XII (or S12), Helene is an irregularly shaped (nonspherical) body meas...

Görtz, Georg Heinrich von

(Encyclopedia)Görtz, Georg Heinrich von gāˈôrk hīnˈrĭkh fən görts [key], 1668–1719, Swedish diplomat and financial expert, a German. While in the service of Frederick V, duke of Holstein-Gottorp, he help...