Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Frederick IV, king of Denmark and Norway

(Encyclopedia)Frederick IV, 1671–1730, king of Denmark and Norway (1699–1730), son and successor of Christian V. He allied himself (1699) with Augustus II of Poland and Saxony and with Peter I of Russia against...

Margaret of Austria

(Encyclopedia)Margaret of Austria, 1480–1530, Hapsburg princess, regent of the Netherlands; daughter of Emperor Maximilian I. She was betrothed (1483) to the dauphin of France, later King Charles VIII, and was tr...

Uladislaus II

(Encyclopedia)Uladislaus II o͞oˌläˈdĭslous [key], Hung. Ulászló II, c.1456–1516, king of Hungary (1490–1516) and, as Ladislaus II, king of Bohemia (1471–1516); son of Casimir IV of Poland. Designated b...

Marsilius of Padua

(Encyclopedia)Marsilius of Padua märsĭlˈēəs, păˈdyo͞oə [key], d. c.1342, Italian political philosopher. He is satirically called Marsiglio. Little is known with certainty of his life except that he was rec...

John Frederick I

(Encyclopedia)John Frederick I, 1503–54, elector (1532–47) and duke (1547–54) of Saxony; last elector of the Ernestine branch of the house of Wettin. Like his father, John the Steadfast, whom he succeeded, Jo...

Colonna

(Encyclopedia)Colonna kōlônˈnä [key], noble Roman family that played a leading part in the history of Rome from the 12th to the 16th cent. They were hereditary enemies of the Orsini and Caetani families, genera...

Bavarian Succession, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Bavarian Succession, War of the, between Austria and Prussia, 1778–79. With the extinction of the Bavarian line of the house of Wittelsbach on the death of Elector Maximilian Joseph in 1777, the duc...

Maurice, duke and elector of Saxony

(Encyclopedia)Maurice, 1521–53, duke (1541–47) and elector (1547–53) of Saxony. A member of the Albertine branch of the ruling house of Saxony, he became duke of Albertine Saxony during the Protestant Reforma...

Manuel I, Byzantine emperor

(Encyclopedia)Manuel I (Manuel Comnenus) kŏmnēˈnəs [key], c.1120–1180, Byzantine emperor (1143–80), son and successor of John II. He began his reign with a war against the Seljuk Turks, the subjugation of R...

Augustus III

(Encyclopedia)Augustus III, 1696–1763, king of Poland (1735–63) and, as Frederick Augustus II, elector of Saxony (1733–63); son of Augustus II, whom he succeeded in Saxony. Elected king of Poland by a minorit...