Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bonatti, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Bonatti, Walter, 1930–2011, Italian mountain climber. He became famous for such feats as the first climb (1951) of Grand Capucin in the Mont Blanc massif and the ascent (1958) of Gasherbrum IV in th...

Adolf of Nassau

(Encyclopedia)Adolf of Nassau näˈsou [key], d. 1298, duke of Luxembourg, German king (1292–98). He owed his election to the ecclesiastical electors, who, fearing the growing power and ambition of the Hapsburgs,...

Berwick-upon-Tweed

(Encyclopedia)Berwick-upon-Tweed bĕrˈĭk [key], former district, Northumberland, NE England, at the mouth of the Tweed River. The district included the Holy Islands and the Farne Islands and extended SW to the Ch...

Regency style

(Encyclopedia)Regency style, in English architecture, flourished during the regency and reign of George IV (1811–30) and was chiefly represented by the court architect John Nash. The period is characterized by th...

Beaufort, François de Vendôme, duc de

(Encyclopedia)Beaufort, François de Vendôme, duc de fräNswäˈ də väNdōmˈ dük də bōfôrˈ [key], 1616–69, French courtier and politician; grandson of King Henry IV of France and his mistress Gabrielle d...

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...

Simnel, Lambert

(Encyclopedia)Simnel, Lambert sĭmˈnəl [key], c.1475–1525, imposter and pretender to the English throne. Little is known of his early life, but before 1486 he caught the attention of an Oxford priest, Richard S...

Acton, Sir John Francis Edward

(Encyclopedia)Acton, Sir John Francis Edward, 1736?–1811, Neapolitan statesman of British origin, b. Besançon, France. Called upon by Queen Marie Caroline and King Ferdinand IV of Naples (later Ferdinand I of th...

Religion, Wars of

(Encyclopedia)Religion, Wars of, 1562–98, series of civil wars in France, also known as the Huguenot Wars. The immediate issue was the French Protestants' struggle for freedom of worship and the right of establis...

Turks

(Encyclopedia)Turks, term applied in its wider meaning to the Turkic-speaking peoples of Turkey, Russia, Central Asia, Xinjiang in China (Chinese Turkistan), Azerbaijan and the Caucasus, Iran, and Afghanistan. They...