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Christian III

(Encyclopedia)Christian III, 1503–59, king of Denmark and Norway (1534–59). At the death of his father, Frederick I, his election was delayed because he was a Lutheran. The German city of Lübeck invaded Denmar...

Zähringen

(Encyclopedia)Zähringen tsĕrˈĭng-ən [key], noble German family. It took its name from a now ruined castle near Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden, and can be traced to the 10th cent. The family held extensive fiefs i...

Home, 14th earl of

(Encyclopedia)Home, 14th earl of: see Douglas-Home, Alexander Frederick, Baron Home of the Hirsel. ...

William I, emperor of Germany and king of Prussia

(Encyclopedia)William I, 1797–1888, emperor of Germany (1871–88) and king of Prussia (1861–88), second son of the future King Frederick William III of Prussia and Louise of Mecklenburg. Essentially conservati...

music hall

(Encyclopedia)music hall. In England, the Licensing Act of 1737 confined the production of legitimate plays to the two royal theaters—Drury Lane and Covent Garden; the demands for entertainment of the rising lowe...

Lecouvreur, Adrienne

(Encyclopedia)Lecouvreur, Adrienne ädrēĕnˈ ləko͞ovrörˈ [key], 1692–1730, French actress. With Michel Baron she helped change the traditional acting techniques of the French stage to a simpler, more natura...

folk drama

(Encyclopedia)folk drama, noncommercial, generally rural theater and pageantry based on folk traditions and local history. This form of drama, common throughout the world, declined in popularity in the West (althou...

Spinola, Ambrogio

(Encyclopedia)Spinola, Ambrogio ämbrôˈjō spēˈnōlä [key], 1569–1630, Spanish general, b. Italy, of a noble Genoese family. In 1602, Spinola entered Spanish service in the Netherlands. He took (1604) Ostend...

Blake, Toe

(Encyclopedia)Blake, Toe (Hector Blake), 1912–1995, Canadian ice hockey player and coach. A left wing, Blake played (1934–35) with the National Hockey League's Montreal Maroons, spent time in the minor leagues,...

impressment

(Encyclopedia)impressment, forcible enrollment of recruits for military duty. Before the establishment of conscription, many countries supplemented their militia and mercenary troops by impressment. In England, imp...