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Kent, kingdom of

(Encyclopedia)Kent, kingdom of, one of the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England. It was settled in the mid-5th cent. by aggressive bands of people called Jutes (see Anglo-Saxons). Historians are in dispute over the auth...

Mackenzie

(Encyclopedia)Mackenzie, river, c.1,120 mi (1,800 km) long, issuing from Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada, and flowing generally NW to the Arctic Ocean through a great delta. Between Great Slave Lake...

Marlowe, Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Marlowe, Christopher, 1564–93, English dramatist and poet, b. Canterbury. Probably the greatest English dramatist before Shakespeare, Marlowe, a shoemaker's son, was educated at Cambridge and he wen...

Saint Paul's Cathedral

(Encyclopedia)Saint Paul's Cathedral, London, masterpiece of Sir Christopher Wren and one of the finest church designs of the English baroque. It stands at the head of Ludgate Hill, where, according to tradition, a...

Tristram and Isolde

(Encyclopedia)Tristram and Isolde trĭsˈtrəm, ĭsōlˈdə, ĭzōlˈ– [key], medieval romance. The earliest extant version (incomplete) was written (c.1185) by Thomas of Britain in Anglo-Norman French verse. Abo...

Nottingham

(Encyclopedia)Nottingham, city and unitary authority (1991 pop. 273,300), central England, on the Trent River. A center of rail and road transportation, the city's most important industries are the manufacture of l...

tallage

(Encyclopedia)tallage tălˈĭj [key], Fr. taille, a type of feudal tax. In its origins tallage is not clearly distinguishable from aids (a type of feudal due), and in Germany it never developed beyond an occasiona...

Calabria

(Encyclopedia)Calabria käläˈbrēä [key], region, 5,822 sq mi (15,079 sq km), S Italy, a peninsula projecting ...

Booth, John Wilkes

(Encyclopedia)Booth, John Wilkes wĭlks [key], 1838–65, American actor, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, b. near Bel Air, Md.; son of Junius Brutus Booth and brother of Edwin Booth. He made his stage debut at the...

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