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Wallace, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Wallace, Sir William, 1272?–1305, Scottish soldier and national hero. The first historical record of Wallace's activities concerns the burning of Lanark by Wallace and 30 men in May, 1297, and the s...

Bruce

(Encyclopedia)Bruce, Scottish royal family descended from an 11th-century Norman duke, Robert de Brus. He aided William I in his conquest of England (1066) and was given lands in England. His son was granted fiefs ...

Enlightenment

(Encyclopedia)Enlightenment, term applied to the mainstream of thought of 18th-century Europe and America. Centered in Paris, the movement gained international character at cosmopolitan salons. Masonic lodges pla...

Seymour, Jane

(Encyclopedia)Seymour, Jane, 1509?–1537, third queen consort of Henry VIII of England. She served as a lady in waiting to both of Henry's first two queens, Katharine of Aragón and Anne Boleyn. Henry became inter...

Calais

(Encyclopedia)Calais kälāˈ [key], city, Pas-de-Calais dept., N France, in Picardy, on the Straits of Dov...

Montfort, Simon de, earl of Leicester

(Encyclopedia)Montfort, Simon de, earl of Leicester, 1208?–1265, leader of the baronial revolt against Henry III of England. By 1258 Simon was an active member of the baronial opposition that forced the king to...

Philip IV, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Philip IV (Philip the Fair), 1268–1314, king of France (1285–1314), son and successor of Philip III. The policies of his reign greatly strengthened the French monarchy and increased the royal reve...

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, ...

Semliki

(Encyclopedia)Semliki sĕmˈlĭkē [key], river, c.130 mi (209 km) long, E Congo (Kinshasa), E central Africa, flowing N from Lake Edward to Lake Albert. It forms part of the Congo-Uganda border. ...

Balliol

(Encyclopedia)Balliol, Scottish family: see Baliol, Edward de; Baliol, John de. ...