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George William

(Encyclopedia)George William, 1597–1640, elector of Brandenburg (1619–40). Mild and irresolute, he was a Calvinist, yet he ruled a Lutheran people. He failed to turn the strategic position of Brandenburg to adv...

Conradin

(Encyclopedia)Conradin kŏnˈrədĭn [key], 1252–68, duke of Swabia, titular king of Jerusalem and Sicily, the last legitimate Hohenstaufen, son of Holy Roman Emperor Conrad IV. While Conradin was still a child i...

Ezzelino da Romano

(Encyclopedia)Ezzelino da Romano ĕtˌsālēˈnō dä rōmäˈnō [key], 1194–1259, Italian Ghibelline leader (see Guelphs and Ghibellines) and soldier. After 1232 a faithful supporter of Holy Roman Emperor Frede...

Scala, Can Francesco della

(Encyclopedia)Scala, Can Francesco della käng gränˈdā [key], 1291–1329, lord of Verona, the greatest member of the pro-imperial, or Ghibelline, family that ruled Verona from 1277 to 1387 (see Guelphs and Ghib...

Southampton, Thomas Wriothesley, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Southampton, Thomas Wriothesley, 1st earl of, c.1500–1550, lord chancellor of England. Appointed a clerk of the signet in 1530, he rose in the favor of Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII, who granted hi...

Tancred, king of Sicily

(Encyclopedia)Tancred (Tancred of Lecce) tăngˈkrĭd;, lĕˈchā [key], b. 1130 or 1134, d. 1194, king of Sicily (1190–94), illegitimate son of Roger of Apulia and grandson of Roger II of Sicily. On the death of...

Bürgi, Joost

(Encyclopedia)Bürgi, Joost or Jost, 1552–1632, Swiss mathematician and instrument maker. As the official clockmaker (1579–92) to Duke Wilhelm IV of Hesse-Kassell, he developed the first clock with a minute han...

Maurice, Byzantine emperor

(Encyclopedia)Maurice môrˈĭs [key], c.539–602, Byzantine emperor (582–602). He was a successful general when, on his deathbed, Tiberius II, his father-in-law and the successor of Justin II, proclaimed him em...

Harsha, Indian emperor

(Encyclopedia)Harsha hûrˈshə [key], b. c.590, Indian emperor (606–47). He became (606) king of a small state in the upper Ganges Valley, and by 612 he had built up a vast army with which he forged nearly all I...

Vienna, Congress of

(Encyclopedia)Vienna, Congress of, Sept., 1814–June, 1815, one of the most important international conferences in European history, called to remake Europe after the downfall of Napoleon I. Although the territo...