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Worms, Concordat of

(Encyclopedia)Worms, Concordat of, 1122, agreement reached by Pope Calixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V to put an end to the struggle over investiture. By its terms the emperor guaranteed free election of bis...

Frederick William IV

(Encyclopedia)Frederick William IV, 1795–1861, king of Prussia (1840–61), son and successor of Frederick William III. A romanticist and a mystic, he conceived vague schemes of reform based on a revival of the m...

Rienzi, Cola di

(Encyclopedia)Rienzi or Rienzo, Cola di kôˈlä dē rēĕnˈtsē, rēĕnˈtsō [key], 1313?–1354, Roman popular leader. In 1343 on a mission to Pope Clement VI at Avignon, he won the papal confidence. While ther...

Eutropius, Roman historian

(Encyclopedia)Eutropius yo͞otrōˈpēəs [key], fl. 4th cent. a.d., Roman historian, a protégé of the emperors Julian and Valens. His Breviarium ab urbe condita (10 books) is a summary of Roman history. ...

Michael II, Byzantine emperor

(Encyclopedia)Michael II (Michael the Stammerer), d. 829, Byzantine emperor (820–29). A native of Phrygia, he fought with Emperor Leo V, whom he had helped gain the throne. Leo had him arrested for heading a cons...

Henry IV, Spanish king of Castile and León

(Encyclopedia)Henry IV, 1425–74, Spanish king of Castile and León (1454–74), son and successor of John II. His weakness opened the way to civil strife and anarchy. The Castilian nobles refused to recognize Hen...

Klesl, Melchior

(Encyclopedia)Klesl or Khlesl, Melchior both: mĕlˈkhyôr klāˈsəl [key], 1552–1630, Austrian politician, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. The son of a Protestant baker, he was converted to Catholicism b...

Joseph I

(Encyclopedia)Joseph I, 1678–1711, Holy Roman emperor (1705–11), king of Hungary (1687–1711) and of Bohemia (1705–11), son and successor of Leopold I. Joseph became Holy Roman emperor in the midst of the Wa...

Spoleto

(Encyclopedia)Spoleto spōlĕˈtō [key], city (1991 pop. 37,763), Umbria, central Italy. It is a light industrial and tourist center. An Umbrian and later an Etruscan town, the city flourished after being taken (2...

John George

(Encyclopedia)John George, 1585–1656, elector of Saxony (1611–56). A drunkard, he nonetheless ruled the leading German Protestant state during the Thirty Years War. He vacillated in his policy between support o...