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Leopold I, king of the Belgians

(Encyclopedia)Leopold I, 1790–1865, king of the Belgians (1831–65); youngest son of Francis Frederick, duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. After serving as a page at the court of Napoleon I and as a general of the Ru...

Delescluze, Louis Charles

(Encyclopedia)Delescluze, Louis Charles lwē shärl dəlāklüzˈ [key], 1809–71, French journalist and radical republican. In his active career he was often in prison or in exile. He supported the July Revolutio...

Tuileries

(Encyclopedia)Tuileries twēˈlərēz, Fr. twēlrēˈ [key], former palace in Paris. Planned by Catherine de' Medici and begun in 1564 by Philibert Delorme, it occupied part of the present Tuileries gardens. It was...

Foreign Legion

(Encyclopedia)Foreign Legion, French volunteer armed force composed chiefly, in its enlisted ranks, of foreigners. Its international character and the tradition of not revealing enlistees' backgrounds have helped t...

French art

(Encyclopedia)French art, the artistic production of the region that constitutes the historic nation of France. See also French architecture. The innovations of postimpressionism, combined with the influence of C...

Faguet, Émile

(Encyclopedia)Faguet, Émile āmēlˈ fägāˈ [key], 1847–1916, French literary critic and historian. His prolific studies stimulated interest in French intellectual history of the 17th, 18th, and 19th cent. His...

Flourens, Pierre

(Encyclopedia)Flourens, Pierre (Marie Jean Pierre Flourens) pyĕr flo͞oräNsˈ [key], 1794–1867, French physiologist. He demonstrated the respiratory center in the medulla and the function of the cerebellum in m...

undine

(Encyclopedia)undine əndēnˈ, ŭnˈdēn [key], in folklore, female water sprite who could acquire a soul by marrying a human being. If, however, her lover proved unfaithful, she had to return to the sea. The lege...

Bollandists

(Encyclopedia)Bollandists bŏlˈəndĭsts [key], group of Jesuits in Belgium, named for their early leader, Jean Bolland, a Flemish Jesuit of the 17th cent. They were charged by the Holy See with compiling an autho...

Périer, Casimir Pierre

(Encyclopedia)Périer, Casimir Pierre käzēmērˈ pyĕr pĕryāˈ [key], 1777–1832, French statesman. He was a member of a wealthy bourgeois family. His father, Claude Périer, a manufacturer and financier of Gr...