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Chouans

(Encyclopedia)Chouans sho͞oˈənz, Fr. shwäN [key] [Norman Fr.,=owls], peasants of W France who rose against the French Revolutionary government in 1793. One of their first leaders was Jean Cottereau, traditional...

Volney, Constantin François de Chassebœuf, comte de

(Encyclopedia)Volney, Constantin François de Chassebœuf, comte de kôNstäNtăNˈ fräNswäˈ də shäsböfˈ kôNt də vôlnāˈ [key], 1757–1820, French scholar. He traveled in Egypt and Syria in the 1780s an...

Canova, Antonio

(Encyclopedia)Canova, Antonio äntôˈnyō känôˈvä [key], 1757–1822, Italian sculptor. He was a leading exponent of the neoclassical school whose influence on the art of his time was enormous. Canova's monume...

Alexander I, czar of Russia

(Encyclopedia)Alexander I, 1777–1825, czar of Russia (1801–25), son of Paul I (in whose murder he may have taken an indirect part). In the first years of his reign the liberalism of his Swiss tutor, Frédéric ...

Ferdinand VII, king of Spain

(Encyclopedia)Ferdinand VII, 1784–1833, king of Spain (1808–33), son of Charles IV and María Luisa. Excluded from a role in the government, he became the center of intrigues against the chief minister Godoy an...

Laeken

(Encyclopedia)Laeken läˈkən [key], part of Brussels, central Belgium. The palace built there (early 19th cent.) by Napoleon I is used as a Belgian royal residence. ...

Arcole

(Encyclopedia)Arcole ärˈkōlā [key], village (1987 est. pop. 4,500), Venetia, N Italy. There, in Nov., 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Austrians in a three-day battle. ...

Bute, John Stuart, 3d earl of

(Encyclopedia)Bute, John Stuart, 3d earl of byo͞ot [key], 1713–92, British politician. He was prominent as a friend of Frederick Louis, prince of Wales, as early as 1747 and became the tutor of Frederick's impre...

Walewska, Countess Maria

(Encyclopedia)Walewska, Countess Maria märēˈä välĕfˈskä [key], 1789–1817, Polish noblewoman. She became (1807) the mistress of Emperor Napoleon I and bore (1810) him a son, Alexandre Walewski. ...

MacMahon, Marie Edmé Patrice de

(Encyclopedia)MacMahon, Marie Edmé Patrice de märēˈ ĕdmāˈ pätrēsˈ də mäkmäōNˈ [key], 1808–93, president of the French republic (1873–79), marshal of France. MacMahon, of Irish descent, fought in ...