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Swabian League

(Encyclopedia)Swabian League, association of Swabian cities and other powers in SW Germany for the protection of trade and for regional peace. The Swabian League of 1488–1534 is the best known of the long series ...

Shapur I

(Encyclopedia)Shapur I säˈpôr [key], d.272, king of Persia (241–72), son and successor of Ardashir I, of the Sassanid, or Sassanian, dynasty. He was an able warrior king. Although he was defeated by the Roman ...

Cyzicus

(Encyclopedia)Cyzicus sĭzˈĭkəs [key], ancient city, NW Turkey, at the neck of the Cyzicus Peninsula. Strategically located, it rivaled Byzantium in commercial importance. Founded (756 b.c.) by Greek colonists f...

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, ...

Golden Bull

(Encyclopedia)Golden Bull, term translated from the Latin bulla aurea and generally referring to a bull (edict) with a golden seal. Golden bulls were promulgated by medieval Byzantine rulers and by Western European...

uranium

(Encyclopedia)uranium yo͞orāˈnēəm [key], radioactive metallic chemical element; symbol U; at. no. 92; mass number of most stable isotope 238; m.p. 1,132℃; b.p. 3,818℃; sp. gr. 19.1 at 25℃; valence +3, +4...

Valentinian II

(Encyclopedia)Valentinian II, 371?–392, Roman emperor of the West (375–92), son of Valentinian I. Upon the death of his father, he was proclaimed emperor with his brother Gratian as coregent. After the death (3...

Skellefteälven

(Encyclopedia)Skellefteälven shĕlĕfˈtəĕlvˌĕn [key], river, c.255 mi (410 km) long, rising in Norrbotten co., N Sweden, in the mountains along the Norwegian border. It flows SE through Uddjaur lake (30 mi/48...

Alexius V

(Encyclopedia)Alexius V (Alexius Ducas Mourtzouphlos) do͞oˈkəsmo͝ortˈso͞oflŏs [key], d. 1204, Byzantine emperor (1204), son-in-law of Alexius III. The head of the Byzantine national party, he overthrew emper...

Widukind, Saxon leader

(Encyclopedia)Widukind wĭtˈə– [key], d. 807?, leader of the Saxons against the Frankish king Charlemagne (later emperor of the West). In 782, when Charlemagne organized Saxony as a Frankish province and ordere...