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Broadstairs and Saint Peter's

(Encyclopedia)Broadstairs and Saint Peter's, town, Kent, SE England. The town is in the region known as the Isle of Thanet. It is a residential area and resort and wa...

Rubens, Peter Paul

(Encyclopedia)Rubens, Peter Paul, 1577–1640, foremost Flemish painter of the 17th cent., b. Siegen, Westphalia, where his family had gone into exile because of his father's Calvinist beliefs. Almost every princ...

Livingston, Peter Van Brugh

(Encyclopedia)Livingston, Peter Van Brugh: see under Livingston, family. ...

Schubert, Franz Peter

(Encyclopedia)Schubert, Franz Peter fränts pāˈtər sho͞oˈbərt [key], 1797–1828, Austrian composer, one of the most gifted musicians of the 19th cent. His symphonic works represent the best legacy of the cla...

Biron, Ernst Johann von

(Encyclopedia)Biron or Biren, Ernst Johann von ĕrnst yōhänˈ fən bēˈrôn, bēˈrən [key], 1690–1772, duke of Courland (1737–43, 1763–69), favorite of Czarina Anna of Russia. A Baltic nobleman, he rose ...

boyars

(Encyclopedia)boyars bōyärzˈ [key], upper nobility in Russia from the 10th through the 17th cent. The boyars originally obtained influence and government posts through their military support of the Kievan prince...

Ishim, river, Russia and Kazakhstan

(Encyclopedia)Ishim, river, c.1,130 mi (1,819 km) long, W Siberian Russia and Kazakhstan. It rises N of Qaraghandy in Kazakhstan (where it is known as the Esil), flows W past Atbasar, N past Petropavl, and then joi...

Charles XII, king of Sweden

(Encyclopedia)Charles XII, 1682–1718, king of Sweden (1697–1718), son and successor of Charles XI. The regency under which he succeeded was abolished in 1697 at the request of the Riksdag. At the coronation he ...

Mansfeld, Peter Ernst von

(Encyclopedia)Mansfeld, Peter Ernst von pāˈtər ĕrnst fən mänsˈfĕlt [key], 1580?–1626, military commander in the Thirty Years War. Illegitimate son of a governor for the Hapsburgs in Luxembourg, he rendere...