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Behn, Aphra

(Encyclopedia)Behn, Aphra ăfˈrə bān, bēn [key], 1640–89, first professional female English author. Little is known of her early life, but there is evidence that c.1658 she married a London merchant of Dutch ...

shipping

(Encyclopedia)shipping, transportation of passengers and goods on waterways. From prehistoric times shipping has had a major influence on human social development. Water routes, unlike roads, did not need building,...

Henry IV, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Henry IV, 1553–1610, king of France (1589–1610) and, as Henry III, of Navarre (1572–1610), son of Antoine de Bourbon and Jeanne d'Albret; first of the Bourbon kings of France. Henry's marri...

Charles XIV, king of Sweden and Norway

(Encyclopedia)Charles XIV (Charles John; Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte) zhäN bäptēstˈ zhül bĕrnädôtˈ [key], 1763–1844, king of Sweden and Norway (1818–44), French Revolutionary general. Bernadotte ros...

Guido of Siena

(Encyclopedia)Guido of Siena sēĕnˈə [key], fl. 13th cent., Italian painter. All that is known of him is an inscription on a large and almost completely repainted Virgin and Child Enthroned, formerly in San Dome...

Angelico, Fra

(Encyclopedia)Angelico, Fra frä änjĕlˈĭkō [key], c.1400–1455, Florentine painter, b. Vicchio, Tuscany. He was variously named Guido (his baptismal name), or Guidolino, di Pietro; and Giovanni da Fiesole. Af...

Fronde

(Encyclopedia)Fronde frôNd [key], 1648–53, series of outbreaks during the minority of King Louis XIV, caused by the efforts of the Parlement of Paris (the chief judiciary body) to limit the growing authority of ...

Fortescue, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Fortescue, Sir John fôrˈtĭskyo͞o [key], c.1394–1476, English jurist. A supporter of the Lancastrian king Henry VI, he was chief justice of the Court of King's Bench from 1442 until 1461, when He...

Fleury, André Hercule de

(Encyclopedia)Fleury, André Hercule de äNdrāˈ ĕrkülˈ də flörēˈ [key], 1653–1743, French statesman, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Tutor of the young Louis XV, he became, at the age of 73, chief...

Borgia, Cesare

(Encyclopedia)Borgia, Cesare or Caesar bōrˈjä [key], 1476–1507, Italian soldier and politician, younger son of Pope Alexander VI and an outstanding figure of the Italian Renaissance. Throughout his pontificat...