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Verhofstadt, Guy Maurice Marie-Louise

(Encyclopedia)Verhofstadt, Guy Maurice Marie-Louise, 1953–, Belgian political leader, prime minister of Belgium (1999–2008). A lawyer and member of the Flemish Party for Freedom and Progress (PVV; from 1991 the...

Alesia

(Encyclopedia)Alesia əlēˈzhə [key], hilltop town of Celtic and Roman Gaul, on the site of Alise-Sainte-Reine, near Dijon. It was held by Vercingetorix and his men (52 b.c.) when Caesar besieged it. Caesar preve...

Clotilda, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Clotilda, Saint klətĭlˈdə [key], d. 545, Frankish queen. She converted her husband, Clovis I, to Christianity and built with him in Paris the Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul, later renamed (...

Las Cases, Emmanuel, comte de

(Encyclopedia)Las Cases, Emmanuel, comte de ĕmänüĕlˈ kôNt də läs käz [key], 1766–1842, French historian. He accompanied Napoleon into exile to St. Helena, where the emperor dictated a part of his memoirs...

Argonne

(Encyclopedia)Argonne ärgônˈ [key], region of the Paris basin, NE France, in Champagne and Lorraine (Meuse, Marne, and Ardennes dept.), a hilly and woody district centering around the capital, Sainte-Menehould. ...

Noailles, Louis Marie Antoine, vicomte de

(Encyclopedia)Noailles, Louis Marie Antoine, vicomte de də nōīˈyə [key], 1756–1804, French general and statesman. During the American Revolution he fought with the marquis de Lafayette at Yorktown. As a mem...

Troilus and Cressida

(Encyclopedia)Troilus and Cressida troiˈləs, krĕsˈĭdə [key], a medieval romance distantly related to characters in Greek legend. Troilus, a Trojan prince (son of Priam and Hecuba), fell in love with Cressida ...

Nodier, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Nodier, Charles shärl nôdyāˈ [key], 1780–1844, French novelist and poet. From 1824 he was librarian of the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in Paris. His salon was the nucleus of the beginning romanti...

Dares Phrygius

(Encyclopedia)Dares Phrygius dârˈēz frĭjˈēəs [key], supposed author of a history of the Trojan War. Dares of Phrygia is mentioned by Homer in the Iliad as a priest of Troy. During the Middle Ages he was wide...

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