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Walter of Henley

(Encyclopedia)Walter of Henley or Walter de Henley, fl. 13th cent., English writer on agriculture. His treatise Husbandry, written in Norman French in the mid-13th cent., was the great medieval authority in England...

Díaz del Castillo, Bernal

(Encyclopedia)Díaz del Castillo, Bernal bārnälˈ dēˈäth dĕl kästēˈlyō [key], c.1492–1581, Spanish conquistador and chronicler. He had served in the New World under various commanders—Pedro Arias de �...

Arawak

(Encyclopedia)Arawak äˈräwäk [key], linguistic stock of indigenous people who came from South America and, at the time of the Spanish Conquest, occupied the islands of the Greater Antilles, the Bahamas, Trinida...

Ahmad al-Mansur

(Encyclopedia)Ahmad al-Mansur äˈməd äl-mänso͞orˈ, Arabic äkhmädˈ [key] [al-Mansur,=the victorious], d. 1603, emir of Morocco (1578–1603). Proclaimed ruler after his brother's death at the battle of Ksar...

Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)Benjamin [Heb.,=son of fortune], younger son of Jacob and Rachel, eponymous ancestor of one of the 12 tribes of Israel. His mother, dying, named him Benoni bĕnōˈnī [key] [Heb.,=son of my sorrow]. ...

Ordericus Vitalis

(Encyclopedia)Ordericus Vitalis ôrdĕrˈĭkəs vĭtălˈĭs [key], 1075–c.1143, Norman monk and chronicler, b. England. He spent most of his life in Saint-Évroul in Normandy. His Ecclesiastical History (4 vol.,...

Anglo-Saxons

(Encyclopedia)Anglo-Saxons, name given to the Germanic-speaking peoples who settled in England after the decline of Roman rule there. They were first invited by the Celtic King Vortigern, who needed help fighting t...

Pizarro, Francisco

(Encyclopedia)Pizarro, Francisco pĭzäˈrō, Span. fränthēsˈkō pēthärˈrō [key], c.1476–1541, Spanish conquistador, conqueror of Peru. Born in Trujillo, he was an illegitimate son of a Spanish gentleman a...

Durham, town, England

(Encyclopedia)Durham, town, county seat of Durham, NE England, on the sides of a hill nearly encircled by the Wear River. The town's small factories produce organs an...

Cefalù

(Encyclopedia)Cefalù chāfälo͞oˈ [key], town, N Sicily, Italy, a port on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is a co...