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George V, king of Hanover

(Encyclopedia)George V, 1819–78, last king of Hanover (1851–66), son and successor of Ernest Augustus. He was blind after 1833. Fearing Hanover's absorption by Prussia, he sided with Austria in the Austro-Pruss...

John of Ávila, Saint

(Encyclopedia)John of Ávila, Saint, c.1500–1569, Spanish Catholic preacher, author, clerical reformer, and spiritual leader, Doctor of the Church. After studying law, philosophy, and theology in Salamanca and Al...

John I, Byzantine emperor

(Encyclopedia)John I (John Tzimisces) tsĭmĭsˈēz [key], c.925–976, Byzantine emperor (969–76). With the aid of Emperor Nicephorus II's wife, Theophano, John had Nicephorus murdered and himself proclaimed emp...

Charles X, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Charles X, 1757–1836, king of France (1824–30); brother of King Louis XVI and of King Louis XVIII, whom he succeeded. As comte d'Artois he headed the reactionary faction at the court of Louis XVI....

Henry IV, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Henry IV, 1553–1610, king of France (1589–1610) and, as Henry III, of Navarre (1572–1610), son of Antoine de Bourbon and Jeanne d'Albret; first of the Bourbon kings of France. Henry's marri...

Rochester, John Wilmot, 2d earl of

(Encyclopedia)Rochester, John Wilmot, 2d earl of, 1647–80, English poet and courtier, b. Ditchley, Oxfordshire. Most notorious and dissolute of the Restoration rakes, he lost the favor of Charles II on several oc...

Louis XVIII, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Louis XVIII, 1755–1824, king of France (1814–24), brother of King Louis XVI. Known as the comte de Provence, he fled (1791) to Koblenz from the French Revolution and intrigued to bring about forei...

Philip I, Spanish king of Castile

(Encyclopedia)Philip I (Philip the Handsome), 1478–1506, Spanish king of Castile (1506), archduke of Austria, titular duke of Burgundy, son of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy. Heir to his mot...

Romanus II

(Encyclopedia)Romanus II, 939–63, Byzantine emperor (959–63), son and successor of Constantine VII. A profligate, he came under the domination of his second wife, Theophano. She, along with the eunuch Joseph Br...

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