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Pyrenees, Peace of the

(Encyclopedia)Pyrenees, Peace of the, 1659, treaty ending the warfare between France and Spain that, continuing after the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years War, had been complicated by French interv...

Conti

(Encyclopedia)Conti kôNtēˈ [key], cadet branch of the French royal house of Bourbon. Although the title of prince of Conti was created in the 16th cent., the founder of the continuous line was Armand de Bourbon,...

Chouteau

(Encyclopedia)Chouteau sho͞otōˈ [key], family of American fur traders. René Auguste Chouteau, 1749–1829, b. New Orleans, accompanied (1763) his stepfather, Pierre Laclede, on a trading expedition to the Illin...

Bonaparte

(Encyclopedia)Bonaparte bwōnäpärˈtā [key], family name of Napoleon I, emperor of the French. Of the second generation of the family the most important was Louis Bonaparte's son, Louis Napoleon, who became e...

French literature

(Encyclopedia)French literature, writings in medieval French dialects and standard modern French. Writings in Provençal and Breton are considered separately, as are works in French produced abroad (as at Canadian ...

Gérard, François Pascal Simon, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Gérard, François Pascal Simon, Baron zhārärˈ [key], 1770–1837, French portrait and historical painter, b. Rome. In Paris, after brief study under Pajou and others, he became a favorite pupil o...

Deschanel, Paul Eugéne Louis

(Encyclopedia)Deschanel, Paul Eugéne Louis dāshänĕlˈ [key], 1855–1922, president of the French republic (1920); son of Émile Deschanel. A member of the chamber of deputies from 1885 and several times its p...

Dumont, Pierre Étienne Louis

(Encyclopedia)Dumont, Pierre Étienne Louis pyĕr ātyĕnˈ lwē dümôNˈ [key], 1759–1829, Swiss jurist and political writer. Dumont knew Mirabeau well and wrote many of his speeches. His Souvenirs sur Mirabeau...

Davies, Sir Louis Henry

(Encyclopedia)Davies, Sir Louis Henry dāˈvĭs [key], 1845–1924, Canadian jurist, b. Charlottetown, P.E.I. While a member of the provincial legislature (1872–79), he also served (1876–79) as prime minister o...

Daguerre, Louis Jacques Mandé

(Encyclopedia)Daguerre, Louis Jacques Mandé lwē zhäk mäNdāˈ dägârˈ [key], 1789–1851, French scene painter and physicist, inventor of the daguerreotype, a photograph produced on a silver-coated copper pla...