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Borgia, Cesare

(Encyclopedia)Borgia, Cesare or Caesar bōrˈjä [key], 1476–1507, Italian soldier and politician, younger son of Pope Alexander VI and an outstanding figure of the Italian Renaissance. Throughout his pontificat...

Rákóczy

(Encyclopedia)Rákóczy räˈkôtsĭ [key], noble Hungarian family that played an important role in the history of Transylvania and Hungary in the 17th and 18th cent. Sigismund Rákóczy, 1544–1608, was elected (...

Ferdinand IV, Spanish king of Castile and León

(Encyclopedia)Ferdinand IV, 1285–1312, Spanish king of Castile and León (1295–1312), son and successor of Sancho IV. His mother, María de Molina, was regent during his turbulent minority. He tried unsuccessfu...

Isabella II

(Encyclopedia)Isabella II, 1830–1904, queen of Spain (1833–68), daughter of Ferdinand VII and of Maria Christina. Her uncle, Don Carlos, contested her succession under the Salic law, and thus the Carlist Wars b...

Pully

(Encyclopedia)Pully pülēˈ [key], town, Vaud canton, W Switzerland, on the Lake of Geneva. It is a residential suburb of Lausanne. The town has a 15th-century church and a museum honoring Charles Ferdinand Ramuz,...

Desaix de Veygoux, Louis Charles Antoine

(Encyclopedia)Desaix de Veygoux, Louis Charles Antoine lwē shärl äNtwänˈ dəsāˈ də vāgo͞oˈ [key], 1768–1800, French general in the French Revolutionary Wars. He served under J. B. Jourdan and J. V. Mor...

Du Maurier, George Louis Palmella Busson

(Encyclopedia)Du Maurier, George Louis Palmella Busson dyo͞o môrˈēā [key], 1834–96, English artist and novelist, b. Paris of a French father and an English mother. He studied chemistry, but later turned to a...

Guyton de Morveau, Louis Bernard, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Guyton de Morveau, Louis Bernard, Baron lwē bĕrnärˈ bärôNˈ gētôNˈ də môrvōˈ [key], 1737–1816, French chemist and lawyer. He wrote the chemical section of the Encyclopédie méthodique ...

Goncourt, Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de

(Encyclopedia)Goncourt, Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de zhül älfrĕdˈ [key], 1830–70, French authors. Brothers, they were known, for their close association in art and literature, as “les deux Goncourt.” They...

Noailles, Louis Marie Antoine, vicomte de

(Encyclopedia)Noailles, Louis Marie Antoine, vicomte de də nōīˈyə [key], 1756–1804, French general and statesman. During the American Revolution he fought with the marquis de Lafayette at Yorktown. As a mem...

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