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Heaney, Seamus

(Encyclopedia)Heaney, Seamus (Seamus Justin Heaney) shāˈməs, hēˈnē [key], 1939–2013, Irish poet, one of the finest contemporary English poets, b. Londonderry (now Derry), Northern Ireland, grad. Queen's Uni...

Anthony, Susan Brownell

(Encyclopedia)Anthony, Susan Brownell, 1820–1906, American reformer and leader of the woman-suffrage movement, b. Adams, Mass.; daughter of Daniel Anthony, Quaker abolitionist. From the age of 17, when she was a ...

Gloucester, Humphrey, duke of

(Encyclopedia)Gloucester, Humphrey, duke of, 1391–1447, English nobleman; youngest son of Henry IV and Mary de Bohun. He was well educated and had a great interest in humanist scholarship. After the accession of ...

John XXIII, Saint, pope

(Encyclopedia)John XXIII, Saint, 1881–1963, pope (1958–63), an Italian (b. Sotto il Monte, near Bergamo) named Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli; successor of Pius XII. He was of peasant stock. Educated at Bergamo and t...

Maria Theresa

(Encyclopedia)Maria Theresa mərēˈə tərāˈzə [key], 1717–80, Austrian archduchess, queen of Bohemia and Hungary (1740–80), consort of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and dowager empress after the accession (...

Madrid, city, Spain

(Encyclopedia)Madrid mədrĭdˈ, Span. mäᵺhrēᵺˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 3,120,732), capital of Spain and of the autonomous community and prov. of Madrid, central Spain, on the Manzanares River. The newest of ...

Louis IV, Holy Roman emperor

(Encyclopedia)Louis IV or Louis the Bavarian, 1287?–1347, Holy Roman emperor (1328–47) and German king (1314–47), duke of Upper Bavaria. After the death of Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII the Luxemburg party amo...

Pole, English noble family

(Encyclopedia)Pole, English noble family. The first member of importance was William de la Pole, d. 1366, a rich merchant who became the first mayor of Hull (1332) and a baron of the exchequer (1339). His oldest so...

pragmatic sanction

(Encyclopedia)pragmatic sanction, decision of state dealing with a matter of great importance to a community or a whole state and having the force of fundamental law. The term originated in Roman law and was used o...

Russell

(Encyclopedia)Russell, English noble family. It first appeared prominently in the reign of Henry VIII when John Russell, 1st earl of Bedford, 1486?–1555, rose to military and diplomatic importance. He was lord hi...