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Urraca

(Encyclopedia)Urraca o͞oräˈkä [key], d. 1126, Spanish queen of Castile and León (1109–26), daughter and successor of Alfonso VI. Her first husband, Raymond of Burgundy, died in 1107, and in 1109 she was marr...

Prajadhipok

(Encyclopedia)Prajadhipok räˈ mä [key], 1893–1941, king of Siam (1925–35). He was educated in England and France. He succeeded his brother Rama VI, and in 1932 a coup forced him to grant a constitution, whic...

Heraclea Pontica

(Encyclopedia)Heraclea Pontica pŏnˈtĭkə [key], ancient Greek city, a port on the southern shore of the Black Sea. Founded in the 6th cent. b.c. by colonists from Megara and Boeotia, it rose to a position of gre...

Peter II, king of Portugal

(Encyclopedia)Peter II, 1648–1706, king of Portugal (1683–1706), younger son of John IV; brother and successor of Alfonso VI. In 1667, he seized power from his incompetent brother and ruled the country as princ...

Mercator, Gerardus

(Encyclopedia)Mercator, Gerardus gārˈhärt krāˈmər [key], 1512–94, Flemish geographer, mathematician, and cartographer. He studied in Louvain, where he had a geographical establishment (1534). From 1537 to 1...

Pleiad

(Encyclopedia)Pleiad plēˈăd [key] [from Pleiades], group of seven tragic poets of Alexandria who flourished c.280 b.c. under Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Of the works of the men usually given in lists of the Pleiad ...

Marmousets

(Encyclopedia)Marmousets märmo͞ozāˈ [key], [Fr.,=little fellows], ministers of King Charles V of France, so called by the great nobles, who were contemptuous of their humble origins. Olivier de Clisson was the ...

Schönbrunn

(Encyclopedia)Schönbrunn shönbro͝onˈ [key], former imperial palace in Vienna, built during the reigns of Emperor Charles VI and Maria Theresa. Mainly designed by Fischer von Erlach, it is a splendid example of ...

Feckenham, John de

(Encyclopedia)Feckenham, John de fĕkˈənəm [key], 1518?–1585, English abbot. He became a Benedictine monk at Evesham, studied at Oxford, and later served as chaplain to the bishop of Worcester and to Edmund Bo...

Stuart, Ludovick, 2d duke of Lennox and duke of Richmond

(Encyclopedia)Stuart or Stewart, Ludovick, 2d duke of Lennox and duke of Richmond, 1574–1624, Scottish nobleman; son of Esmé Stuart, 1st duke of Lennox, and cousin of James VI of Scotland (James I of England). H...