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Balzac, Honoré de

(Encyclopedia)Balzac, Honoré de bălˈzăk, bôl–, Fr. ōnôrāˈ də bälzäkˈ [key], 1799–1850, French novelist, b. Tours. Balzac ranks among the great masters of the novel. Of a bourgeois family, he himsel...

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...

Louis XVII, titular king of France

(Encyclopedia)Louis XVII (Louis Charles), 1785–1795?, titular king of France (1793–95), known in popular legend as the “lost dauphin.” The second son of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, he became ...

Lesdiguières, François de Bonne, duc de

(Encyclopedia)Lesdiguières, François de Bonne, duc de fräNswäˈ də bôn dük də lādēgyĕrˈ [key], 1543–1626, marshal and constable of France. He fought on the Huguenot (Protestant) side in the Wars of Re...

Foix, Gaston de

(Encyclopedia)Foix, Gaston de gästôNˈ də fwä [key], 1489–1512, duc de Nemours, French general in the Italian Wars; nephew of King Louis XII. As commander of the French army in Italy in 1512, he proved his ou...

Barrault, Jean-Louis

(Encyclopedia)Barrault, Jean-Louis zhäN-lwē bärōˈ [key], 1910–94, French actor and director. A pupil of Charles Dullin, he joined the Comédie Française in 1940. After World War II he organized his own comp...

Fuertes, Louis Agassiz

(Encyclopedia)Fuertes, Louis Agassiz fo͞oĕrˈtēs [key], 1874–1927, American artist and naturalist, b. Ithaca, N.Y., grad. Cornell, 1897. His paintings of birds appear in most of the leading American ornitholog...

Tourville, Anne Hilarion de Cotentin, comte de

(Encyclopedia)Tourville, Anne Hilarion de Cotentin, comte de än ēläryôNˈ də kôtäNtăNˈ kôNt də to͞orvēlˈ [key], 1642–1701, French naval commander. He served in the wars of King Louis XIV and was mad...

Malus, Étienne Louis

(Encyclopedia)Malus, Étienne Louis ātyĕnˈ lwē mälüsˈ [key], 1775–1812, French artillery officer and physicist. In 1810 he stated his discovery of the polarization of light by reflection and published a me...

Davout, Louis Nicolas

(Encyclopedia)Davout, Louis Nicolas lwē nēkôläˈ dävo͞oˈ [key], 1770–1823, marshal of France. One of Napoleon's ablest generals, Davout defeated a Prussian army at Auerstedt (1806) and played a brilliant p...

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