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Rákóczy

(Encyclopedia)Rákóczy räˈkôtsĭ [key], noble Hungarian family that played an important role in the history of Transylvania and Hungary in the 17th and 18th cent. Sigismund Rákóczy, 1544–1608, was elected (...

López de Ayala, Pedro

(Encyclopedia)López de Ayala, Pedro pāˈᵺrō lōˈpāth ᵺā äyäˈlä [key], 1332–1407, Spanish statesman, poet, and chronicler. As a royal official in Castile, he served Peter the Cruel, Henry II, John I,...

Melchites

(Encyclopedia)Melchites or Melkites both: mĕlˈkīts [key], members of a Christian community in the Levant and the Americas, mainly Arabic-speaking and numbering about 250,000. They are in communion with the pope ...

Holstein

(Encyclopedia)Holstein, former duchy, N central Germany, the part of Schleswig-Holstein S of the Eider River. Kiel and Rendsburg were the chief cities. For a description of Holstein and for its history after 1814, ...

Iráklion

(Encyclopedia)Iráklion kănˈdēə [key], city, capital of Crete governorate and Iráklion prefecture, N C...

Charles II, king of Navarre

(Encyclopedia)Charles II (Charles the Bad), 1332–87, king of Navarre (1349–87), count of Évreux; grandson of King Louis X of France. He carried on a long feud with his father-in-law, John II, king of France, p...

Wittelsbach

(Encyclopedia)Wittelsbach vĭˈtəlsbäkh [key], German dynasty that ruled Bavaria from 1180 until 1918. The family takes its name from the ancestral castle of Wittelsbach in Upper Bavaria. In 1180 Holy Roman Emper...

Bouvines

(Encyclopedia)Bouvines bo͞ovēnˈ [key], village, Nord dept., N France, in Flanders. In a battle there in 1214, Philip II of France defeated the joint forces of King John of England, Emperor Otto IV, and the count...

Louis IV, Holy Roman emperor

(Encyclopedia)Louis IV or Louis the Bavarian, 1287?–1347, Holy Roman emperor (1328–47) and German king (1314–47), duke of Upper Bavaria. After the death of Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII the Luxemburg party amo...

Burgh, Hubert de

(Encyclopedia)Burgh, Hubert de hyo͞oˈbərt də bûrg, bûrˈə [key], d. 1243, chief justiciar of England under kings John and Henry III. Having served as a royal minister and commander in France, he was appointe...