Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Gustavus IV

(Encyclopedia)Gustavus IV, 1778–1837, king of Sweden (1792–1809). On the assassination of his father, Gustavus III, he succeeded under the regency of his uncle, later King Charles XIII, a liberal. Attaining his...

Wenceslaus, Holy Roman emperor

(Encyclopedia)Wenceslaus, 1361–1419, Holy Roman emperor (uncrowned) and German king (1378–1400), king of Bohemia (1378–1419) as Wenceslaus IV, elector of Brandenburg (1373–76), son and successor of Emperor ...

Guise

(Encyclopedia)Guise gēz, gwēz [key], influential ducal family of France. Henri's brother Louis de Lorraine, Cardinal de Guise, 1555–88, was killed at the same time as Henri. After their deaths the leadersh...

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...

Leopold I, king of the Belgians

(Encyclopedia)Leopold I, 1790–1865, king of the Belgians (1831–65); youngest son of Francis Frederick, duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. After serving as a page at the court of Napoleon I and as a general of the Ru...

Louis XII, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Louis XII, 1462–1515, king of France (1498–1515), son of Charles, duc d'Orléans. He succeeded his father as duke. While still duke, he rebelled against the regency of Anne de Beaujeu and was impr...

Roses, Wars of the

(Encyclopedia)Roses, Wars of the, traditional name given to the intermittent struggle (1455–85) for the throne of England between the noble houses of York (whose badge was a white rose) and Lancaster (later assoc...

Haakon IV

(Encyclopedia)Haakon IV (Haakon Haakonsson), 1204–63, king of Norway (1217–63), illegitimate son of Haakon III and grandson of Sverre. Secretly reared by the Birkebeiner faction (see Sverre), he was chosen king...

Henry III, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Henry III, 1551–89, king of France (1574–89); son of King Henry II and Catherine de' Medici. He succeeded his brother, Charles IX. As a leader of the royal army in the Wars of Religion (see Religi...

Waldemar I

(Encyclopedia)Waldemar I (Waldemar the Great) wälˈdəmär [key], 1131–82, king of Denmark (1157–82). In 1147, Waldemar, Sweyn III, and Canute (son of Magnus the Strong and grandson of King Niels) each claimed...
 

Browse by Subject