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Urraca

(Encyclopedia)Urraca o͞oräˈkä [key], d. 1126, Spanish queen of Castile and León (1109–26), daughter and successor of Alfonso VI. Her first husband, Raymond of Burgundy, died in 1107, and in 1109 she was marr...

Thomas of Erceldoune

(Encyclopedia)Thomas of Erceldoune ûrˈsəldo͞onˌ [key], fl. 1220?–1297?, Scottish seer and poet, also known as Thomas the Rhymer and Thomas Learmont. Evidence of his existence is founded on the mention of his...

Peter II, king of Portugal

(Encyclopedia)Peter II, 1648–1706, king of Portugal (1683–1706), younger son of John IV; brother and successor of Alfonso VI. In 1667, he seized power from his incompetent brother and ruled the country as princ...

Cecilia, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Cecilia, Saint səsĭlˈyə, –sēl– [key], 2d or 3d cent., Roman virgin martyr. An ancient and famous account of her life is factually valueless. As patron of music, she is represented at the orga...

Benson, Robert Hugh

(Encyclopedia)Benson, Robert Hugh, 1871–1914, English author and clergyman; 4th son of Archbishop Benson. He was converted to Roman Catholicism in 1903 and ordained the next year. In 1911, as a monsignor, he beca...

Williams, Emlyn

(Encyclopedia)Williams, Emlyn, 1905–87, Welsh actor and dramatist. His best-known plays are Night Must Fall (1935) and The Corn Is Green (1941). His Collected Plays were published in 1961. As an actor he is noted...

Gregory XIII

(Encyclopedia)Gregory XIII, 1502–85, pope (1572–85), an Italian named Ugo Buoncompagni, b. Bologna; successor of St. Pius V. He is best known for his work on the calendar, and the reformed calendar, the Gregori...

Waldenses

(Encyclopedia)Waldenses wôldĕnˈsēz [key] or Waldensians, Protestant religious group of medieval origin, called in French Vaudois. They originated in the late 12th cent. as the Poor Men of Lyons, a band organize...

Tudor

(Encyclopedia)Tudor, royal family that ruled England from 1485 to 1603. Its founder was Owen Tudor, of a Welsh family of great antiquity, who was a squire at the court of Henry V and who married that king's widow, ...

Feckenham, John de

(Encyclopedia)Feckenham, John de fĕkˈənəm [key], 1518?–1585, English abbot. He became a Benedictine monk at Evesham, studied at Oxford, and later served as chaplain to the bishop of Worcester and to Edmund Bo...