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Vilnius

(Encyclopedia)Vilnius vĭlˈnēo͝os [key], Rus. Vilna, Pol. Wilno, city (1993 pop. 590,100), capital of Lithuania, on the Neris River. It is a rail and highway junction, a commercial and industrial city, and a cen...

Kutná Hora

(Encyclopedia)Kutná Hora ko͝otˈnä hôˈrä [key], Ger. Kuttenberg, city (1991 pop. 24,561), central Czech Republic, in Bohemia. Now an agricultural center, it was an important silver-mining center in the Middle...

Teutonic Knights

(Encyclopedia)Teutonic Knights or Teutonic Order to͞otŏnˈĭk [key], German military religious order founded (1190–91) during the siege of Acre in the Third Crusade. It was originally known as the Order of the ...

Eric XIV

(Encyclopedia)Eric XIV, 1533–77, king of Sweden (1560–68), son and successor of Gustavus I. To strengthen the power of the crown, he limited (1561) the privileges of the royal dukes. He forbade the marriage of ...

Condé, Louis II de Bourbon, prince de

(Encyclopedia)Condé, Louis II de Bourbon, prince de, 1621–86, French general, called the Great Condé; son of Henri II de Condé. Among his early victories in the Thirty Years War were those of Rocroi (1643), Fr...

Ferdinand II, king of the Two Sicilies

(Encyclopedia)Ferdinand II, 1810–59, king of the Two Sicilies (1830–59), son and successor of Francis I. Although initially he sought to improve the wretched conditions of his kingdom, he soon relapsed into the...

Francis II, king of the Two Sicilies

(Encyclopedia)Francis II, 1836–94, last king of the Two Sicilies (1859–61), son and successor of Ferdinand II. A weak ruler, he let his ministers follow his father's reactionary policy. Faced with the growing m...

John II, king of Aragón and Sicily

(Encyclopedia)John II, 1397–1479, king of Aragón and Sicily (1458–79), king of Navarre (1425–79), count of Barcelona. He succeeded his brother, Alfonso V, in Aragón, Catalonia, and Sicily and became king of...

Manuel II, 1889–1932, king of Portugal

(Encyclopedia)Manuel II, 1889–1932, king of Portugal (1908–10), second son of Charles I. He succeeded to the throne after the assassination of his father and elder brother, but in Oct., 1910, a revolution dethr...

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