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Kit-Cat Club

(Encyclopedia)Kit-Cat Club, London political and literary club, active c.1700–1720. The membership of some four dozen included leading Whig politicians and London's best young writers. Among them were Charles Sey...

Malory, Sir Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Malory, Sir Thomas mălˈərē [key], d. 1471, English author of Morte d'Arthur. It is almost certain that he was Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revell, Warwickshire. Knighted in 1442, he served in the ...

Wharton, Edith Newbold Jones

(Encyclopedia)Wharton, Edith Newbold Jones, 1862–1937, American novelist, b. New York City, noted for her subtle, ironic, and superbly crafted fictional studies of New York society at the turn of the 20th cent. T...

Coe, Sebastian Newbold, Baron Coe of Ranmore

(Encyclopedia)Coe, Sebastian Newbold, Baron Coe of Ranmore, 1956–, British runner, politician, and athletic official. He set several world records as a middle-distance runner, including one in the 800-m race that...

Oates, Titus

(Encyclopedia)Oates, Titus, 1649–1705, English conspirator. An Anglican priest whose whole career was marked with intrigue and scandal, he joined forces with one Israel Tonge to invent the story of the Popish Plo...

Fairfax, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Fairfax, Edward, 1580?–1635, English translator. His excellent translation of Tasso's Gerusalemme liberta was published in 1600 under the title Godfrey of Buloigne. He also wrote a Discourse on Witc...

Albany Congress

(Encyclopedia)Albany Congress, 1754, meeting at Albany, N.Y., of commissioners representing seven British colonies in North America to treat with the Iroquois, chiefly because war with France impended. A treaty was...

Henry III, Holy Roman emperor and German king

(Encyclopedia)Henry III, 1017–56, Holy Roman emperor (1046–56) and German king (1039–56), son and successor of Conrad II. He was crowned joint king with his father in 1028, and acceded on Conrad's death in 10...

Gawain, Sir

(Encyclopedia)Gawain, Sir gäˈwān, –wĭn [key], one of the most popular heroes of Arthurian legend; nephew of King Arthur. He was regarded, particularly in the early romances, as the model of chivalry—pure, b...

Galahad, Sir

(Encyclopedia)Galahad, Sir gălˈəhădˌ [key], hero of Arthurian legend. He was the son of Launcelot and Elaine, the daughter of King Pelles. Because he was the noblest and purest of the knights of Christendom, h...