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Agesilaus II

(Encyclopedia)Agesilaus II əjĕˌsĭlāˈəs [key], c.444–360 b.c., king of Sparta. After the death of Agis I (398? b.c.), he was brought to power by Lysander, whom he promptly ignored. After the Peloponnesian W...

Darius II

(Encyclopedia)Darius II, d. 404 b.c., king of ancient Persia (423?–404 b.c.); son of Artaxerxes I and a concubine, hence sometimes called Darius Nothus [Darius the bastard]. His rule was not popular or successful...

Hakam II, al-

(Encyclopedia)Hakam II, al- äl-häkämˈ [key], 914–76, Umayyad caliph of Córdoba (961–76), son and successor of Abd ar-Rahman III. In the early part of his reign he successfully waged war against the Christi...

Oscar II

(Encyclopedia)Oscar II, 1829–1907, king of Sweden (1872–1907) and Norway (1872–1905), younger son of Oscar I. He succeeded his brother, Charles XV. He refused to concede to Norway its own consular representat...

Louis XV, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Louis XV, 1710–74, king of France (1715–74), great-grandson and successor of King Louis XIV, son of Louis, titular duke of Burgundy, and Marie Adelaide of Savoy. The domestic abuses of Louis XIV...

James I, king of Majorca

(Encyclopedia)James I, 1243–1311, king of Majorca (1276–1311), count of Roussillon and Cerdagne, lord of Montpellier, son of James I of Aragón. In 1278 he was forced to become a vassal of his brother, Peter II...

Wenceslaus I, king of Bohemia

(Encyclopedia)Wenceslaus I, d. 1253, king of Bohemia (1230–53), son and successor of Ottocar I. He invited large numbers of Germans to settle in the villages and towns of Bohemia and Moravia. In some villages pea...

Stephen II

(Encyclopedia)Stephen II, d. 757, pope (752–57), successor of Pope St. Zacharias. When Rome was threatened by the Lombard king Aistulf, Stephen went to Gaul and appealed to Pepin the Short for help. He became the...

Stuart, Alexander, duke of Albany

(Encyclopedia)Stuart or Stewart, Alexander, duke of Albany, 1454?–1485, Scottish nobleman; second son of James II of Scotland. He was captured (1463) by the English while he was at sea en route to the Low Countri...

Albert I, king of the Belgians

(Encyclopedia)Albert I, 1875–1934, king of the Belgians (1909–34), nephew and successor of Leopold II. He married (1900) Elizabeth, a Bavarian princess. In World War I his heroic resistance (1914) to the German...