Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Alexander III, king of Scotland

(Encyclopedia)Alexander III, 1241–86, king of Scotland (1249–86), son and successor of Alexander II. He married a daughter of Henry III of England and quarreled with Henry, and later Henry's son Edward I, over ...

Northumberland, Henry Percy, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Northumberland, Henry Percy, 1st earl of, 1342–1408, English nobleman. He fought in France in the Hundred Years War, became warden of the Scottish Marches, and was a supporter of John Wyclif. Create...

Canossa

(Encyclopedia)Canossa känôsˈsä [key], village, in Emilia-Romagna, N central Italy, in the Apennines. There are ruins of the 10th-century castle of the powerful feudal family that took its name from the place. I...

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...

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, ...

Mary of England

(Encyclopedia)Mary of England (Mary Tudor), 1496–1533, queen consort of Louis XII of France, daughter of Henry VII of England and sister of Henry VIII. She was betrothed in 1507 to the future Holy Roman Emperor C...

Alfonso VIII, Spanish king of Castile

(Encyclopedia)Alfonso VIII (Alfonso the Noble), 1155–1214, Spanish king of Castile (1158–1214), son and successor of Sancho III. Chaos prevailed during his minority, but he quickly restored order after assuming...

Bohun, Humphrey V de, 2d earl of Hereford and 1st earl of Essex

(Encyclopedia)Bohun, Humphrey V de, 2d earl of Hereford and 1st earl of Essex, d. 1275, English nobleman; son of Henry de Bohun, 1st earl of Hereford. A member of the household of Henry III, he inherited the earldo...

Conrad II, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire

(Encyclopedia)Conrad II, c.990–1039, Holy Roman emperor (1027–39) and German king (1024–39), first of the Salian dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire. With the end of the Saxon line on the death of Henry II, the ...

poker

(Encyclopedia)poker, card game, believed to have originated in Asia and first played in the United States in the 19th cent. A traditional cutthroat gambling game at first, it is now also an internationally popular ...