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Sargon, king of Akkad

(Encyclopedia)Sargon särˈgŏn [key], king of Akkad in Mesopotamia (reigned c.2340–c.2305 b.c.). By conquest he established a great empire that included the whole of Mesopotamia and extended over Syria and Elam,...

Sargon, king of Assyria

(Encyclopedia)Sargon, d. 705 b.c., king of Assyria (722–705 b.c.), successor to Shalmaneser V. He completed Shalmaneser's siege of Samaria in 721 b.c., thus destroying the northern Israelite kingdom forever. In 7...

Perseus, king of Macedon

(Encyclopedia)Perseus, c.212–166 b.c., last king of Macedon (179–168 b.c.), son and successor of Philip V. He intrigued against his younger brother, Demetrius, eventually bringing about the latter's execution b...

Westminster Abbey

(Encyclopedia)Westminster Abbey, originally the abbey church of a Benedictine monastery (closed in 1539) in London. One of England's most important Gothic structures, it is also a national shrine. The first church ...

Wolsey, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Wolsey, Thomas wo͝olˈzē [key], 1473?–1530, English statesman and prelate, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. From 1514 to 1529 Wolsey virtually controlled domestic and foreign policy for th...

Peter III, king of Aragón and king of Sicily

(Encyclopedia)Peter III (Peter the Great), 1239?–1285, king of Aragón and count of Barcelona (1276–85) and king of Sicily (1282–85); son and successor of James I. In 1280 he established Aragonese influence o...

Louis XI, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Louis XI, 1423–83, king of France (1461–83), son and successor of Charles VII. A born diplomat, Louis skillfully checked his foreign and domestic enemies and set up an efficient central administ...

Lerma, Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas, duque de

(Encyclopedia)Lerma, Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas, duque de fränthēsˈkō gōˈmāth dā sändōvälˈ ē rōˈhäs do͞oˈkā dā lārˈmä [key], 1553–1625, Spanish statesman, favorite of King Philip ...

Cromwell, Thomas, earl of Essex

(Encyclopedia)Cromwell, Thomas, earl of Essex, 1485?–1540, English statesman. While a young man he lived abroad as a soldier, accountant, and merchant, and on his return (c.1512) to England he engaged in the wool...

Casaubon, Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Casaubon, Isaac flōräNsˈ ātyĕnˈ mārēkˈ [key], 1599–1671, who also was a classical scholar. See study by A. Grafton and J. Weinberg (2011). ...