Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

San Ildefonso, town, Spain

(Encyclopedia)San Ildefonso lä grängˈhä [key], town (1990 pop. 5,088), Segovia prov., central Spain, in Castile and León. Near the town is the Spanish royal summer residence, called La Granja, built by Philip ...

Thibaut IV

(Encyclopedia)Thibaut IV tēbōˈ [key], 1201–53, French trouvère, count of Champagne. He became Thibaut I, king of Navarre, in 1234, succeeding his uncle Sancho VII. He was defeated while leading a Crusade (123...

Nymphenburg

(Encyclopedia)Nymphenburg nümˈfənbo͝orkh [key], group of châteaus and a large park, Munich, Bavaria, S Germany. The main building is the Nymphenburg château (built 1664–1728), which belonged to the dukes (l...

Matthias

(Encyclopedia)Matthias, 1557–1619, Holy Roman emperor (1612–19), king of Bohemia (1611–17) and of Hungary (1608–18), son of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II. He was appointed governor of Austria (1593) by h...

Pole, English noble family

(Encyclopedia)Pole, English noble family. The first member of importance was William de la Pole, d. 1366, a rich merchant who became the first mayor of Hull (1332) and a baron of the exchequer (1339). His oldest so...

Henry of Burgundy

(Encyclopedia)Henry of Burgundy, d. 1112, count of Portugal. One of a group of French nobles called by Alfonso VI of León to assist in the fight against the Moors, he arrived in Spain c.1095. He was assigned a por...

Columbus, Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Columbus, Christopher, Ital. Cristoforo Colombo krēstōˈbäl kōlōnˈ [key], 1451–1506, European explorer, b. Genoa, Italy. Columbus was not the first European mariner to sail to the New World�...

Paul Knutson

(Encyclopedia)Paul Knutson no͞otsˈən [key], fl. 1354–64, Norse leader, alleged explorer of America. In 1354 or 1355 King Magnus VII of Norway directed him to conduct an expedition to Greenland to insure the co...

León, region and former kingdom, Spain

(Encyclopedia)León lā-ōnˈ [key], historic region and former kingdom, NW Spain, E of Portugal and Galicia, now part of Castile–León. It includes the provinces of León, Salamanca, and Zamora, named after thei...

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...