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spinning

(Encyclopedia)spinning, the drawing out, twisting, and winding of fibers into a continuous thread or yarn. From antiquity until the Industrial Revolution, spinning was a household industry. The roughly carded fiber...

sonnet

(Encyclopedia)sonnet, poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, restricted to a definite rhyme scheme. There are two prominent types: the Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet, composed of an octave and a sestet (rh...

Norfolk, Thomas Howard, 3d duke of

(Encyclopedia)Norfolk, Thomas Howard, 3d duke of, 1473–1554, English nobleman, prominent in the reign of Henry VIII; son of Thomas Howard, the 2d duke. He married (1495) a daughter of Edward IV and thus became br...

Mary I, 1516–58, queen of England

(Encyclopedia)Mary I (Mary Tudor), 1516–58, queen of England (1553–58), daughter of Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragón. During the spread of Protestantism in the reign of her half-brother, Edward VI, Mary w...

Margaret Tudor

(Encyclopedia)Margaret Tudor, 1489–1541, queen consort of James IV of Scotland; daughter of Henry VII of England and sister of Henry VIII. Her marriage (1503) to James was accompanied by a treaty of “perpetual ...

Alfonso III, king of Aragón and count of Barcelona

(Encyclopedia)Alfonso III, 1265–91, king of Aragón and count of Barcelona (1285–91), son and successor of Peter III. He was forced to grant wide privileges to the cortes of the Aragonese nobles. At first he su...

Anne of Denmark

(Encyclopedia)Anne of Denmark, 1574–1619, queen consort of James I of England (James VI of Scotland), daughter of Frederick II of Denmark and Norway. She married James in 1589. Brought up a Lutheran, she became a...

Mar, John Erskine, 2d (or 7th) earl of

(Encyclopedia)Mar, John Erskine, 2d (or 7th) earl of, 1558–1634, Scottish nobleman; son of the 1st (or 6th) earl. In 1578 he was persuaded by James Douglas, 4th earl of Morton, to assert his claims to Stirling Ca...

Douglas, Archibald, 5th earl of Douglas

(Encyclopedia)Douglas, Archibald, 5th earl of Douglas, 1391?–1439, Scottish nobleman; son of Archibald Douglas, 4th earl of Douglas. He fought in France for the French against the English in 1421 and persuaded hi...

Hamilton, John Hamilton, 1st marquess of

(Encyclopedia)Hamilton, John Hamilton, 1st marquess of, 1532–1604, Scottish nobleman; second son of James Hamilton, 2d earl of Arran. He was in his earlier years hostile to Mary Queen of Scots, but he later becam...