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Sforza

(Encyclopedia)Sforza sfôrˈtsä [key], Italian family that ruled the duchy of Milan from 1450 to 1535. Rising from peasant origins, the Sforzas became condottieri and used this military position to become rulers i...

Francis Borgia, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Francis Borgia, Saint bôrˈjə [key], 1510–72, Spanish Roman Catholic reformer, third general of the Jesuits (see Jesus, Society of). He was a member of the famous Borgia family, a great-grandson o...

Friedrichshafen

(Encyclopedia)Friedrichshafen frēˈdrĭkhs-häˌfən [key], city, Baden-Württemberg, S Germany, a port on Lake ...

Mitchell, Silas Weir

(Encyclopedia)Mitchell, Silas Weir, 1829–1914, American physician and author, b. Philadelphia, M.D. Jefferson Medical College, 1850, studied in Paris. A pioneer in the application of psychology to medicine, he wo...

Luna, Pedro de

(Encyclopedia)Luna, Pedro de dā lo͞oˈnä [key], 1328?–1423?, Aragonese churchman, antipope (1394–1417) with the name Benedict XIII. He was a doctor of canon law and as cardinal (1375) became an outstanding ...

Beaufort, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Beaufort, Henry bōˈfərt [key], 1377?–1447, English prelate and statesman. The son of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, and his mistress (later wife) Catherine Swynford, he was half-brother to Hen...

Conrad the Red

(Encyclopedia)Conrad the Red, d. 955, duke of Lotharingia (Lorraine; 944–53). A Franconian adherent of the German king Otto I (later Holy Roman emperor), he was made duke of Lotharingia and married Otto's daughte...

Enzio

(Encyclopedia)Enzio ānˈtsō [key], c.1220–72, king of Sardinia, illegitimate son of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. He married a Sardinian heiress and was made king of Sardinia by his father. In the wars betwe...

Field of the Cloth of Gold

(Encyclopedia)Field of the Cloth of Gold, locality between Guines and Ardres, not far from Calais, in France, where in 1520 Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France met for the purpose of arranging an alliance...

Ave Maria

(Encyclopedia)Ave Maria äˈvā märēˈä [key] [Lat.,=hail, Mary], prayer to the Virgin Mary universal among Roman Catholics, also called the Ave, the Hail Mary, and the Angelic Salutation. The words in English a...