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Lee, Spike

(Encyclopedia)Lee, Spike (Shelton Jackson Lee), 1957–, African-American filmmaker, b. Atlanta, Ga. As a student at New York Univ., he won recognition with his gradu...

Mansart, François

(Encyclopedia)Mansart or Mansard, François both: fräNswäˈ mäNsärˈ [key], 1598–1666, French architect. His work is noted as being an outstanding expression of French classical design. In 1635 he was commiss...

Stanley, Sir Henry Morton

(Encyclopedia)Stanley, Sir Henry Morton, 1841–1904, Anglo-American journalist, explorer, and empire builder, b. Denbigh, Wales. He grew up in poverty and came to America as a worker on a ship, which he jumped (18...

West, Kanye Omari

(Encyclopedia) West, Kanye Omari, 1977- , African American rapper, b. Atlanta (some sources give Douglasville), Al. West’s father, Ray, was a Black Panther who ...

Fronde

(Encyclopedia)Fronde frôNd [key], 1648–53, series of outbreaks during the minority of King Louis XIV, caused by the efforts of the Parlement of Paris (the chief judiciary body) to limit the growing authority of ...

Retz, Gilles de Laval, seigneur de

(Encyclopedia)Retz or Rais, Gilles de Laval, seigneur de zhēl də lävälˈ sānyörˈ də rĕts, rĕs [key], 1404–40, marshal of France, a lord of the Breton marches. A noted soldier, he was at Orléans with Jo...

Loire, river, France

(Encyclopedia)Loire, longest river of France, c.630 mi (1,010 km) long, rising in the Cévennes Mts., SE France, and flowing in an arc through central and W France to the Atlantic Ocean at Saint-Nazaire. The upper ...

Cinq Mars, Henri Coëffier Ruzé d'Effiat, marquis de

(Encyclopedia)Cinq Mars, Henri Coëffier Ruzé d'Effiat, marquis de äNrēˈ kōĕfyāˈ rüzāˈ dĕfyäˈ märkēˈ də săNmärˈ [key], 1620–42, French conspirator. Introduced at court by Cardinal Richelieu a...

Armagnacs and Burgundians

(Encyclopedia)Armagnacs and Burgundians, opposing factions that fought to control France in the early 15th cent. The rivalry for power between Louis d'Orléans, brother of the recurrently insane King Charles VI, an...

Barbizon school

(Encyclopedia)Barbizon school bärˌbĭzōNˈ, bärˈbĭzŏnˌ [key], an informal school of French landscape painting that flourished c.1830–1870. Its name derives from the village of Barbizon, a favorite residen...
 

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