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Salisbury, Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3d marquess of

(Encyclopedia)Salisbury, Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3d marquess of sôlzˈbərē [key], 1830–1903, British statesman. He entered Parliament in 1853 as a Conservative and devoted himself for 50 years to ...

Somerset, Edmund Beaufort, 2d duke of

(Encyclopedia)Somerset, Edmund Beaufort, 2d duke of, d. 1455, English statesman and general. He fought in France in the Hundred Years War, receiving his first command in 1431, recapturing Harfleur in 1440, and reli...

Commonwealth of Nations

(Encyclopedia)Commonwealth of Nations, voluntary association of Great Britain and its dependencies, certain former British dependencies that are now sovereign states and their dependencies, and the associated state...

Erie, indigenous people of North America

(Encyclopedia)Erie ĭrˈē [key], indigenous people of North America of the Iroquoian branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). In the Iroquoian language the word erie means “lo...

Oxford, University of

(Encyclopedia)Oxford, University of, at Oxford, England, one of the oldest English-language universities in the world. The university was a leading center of learning throughout the Middle Ages; such scholars as Ro...

impressment

(Encyclopedia)impressment, forcible enrollment of recruits for military duty. Before the establishment of conscription, many countries supplemented their militia and mercenary troops by impressment. In England, imp...

Alexander I, czar of Russia

(Encyclopedia)Alexander I, 1777–1825, czar of Russia (1801–25), son of Paul I (in whose murder he may have taken an indirect part). In the first years of his reign the liberalism of his Swiss tutor, Frédéric ...

Davis, Richard Harding

(Encyclopedia)Davis, Richard Harding, 1864–1916, American author and journalist, b. Philadelphia; son of Rebecca Harding Davis. After attending Lehigh and Johns Hopkins universities, he became a reporter in Phila...

Rice, Condoleezza

(Encyclopedia)Rice, Condoleezza, 1954–, U.S. government official and educator, b. Birmingham, Ala. A political scientist who has specialized in Russian and E European studies, Rice has been a professor at Stanfor...

Council of the European Union

(Encyclopedia)Council of the European Union, institution of the European Union (EU) that has the final vote on legislation proposed by the European Commission and approved by the European Parliament; in some cases ...