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Gildas, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Gildas, Saint gĭlˈdəs [key], d. 570, British historian, possibly a Welsh monk. Shortly before 547 he wrote the De excidio et conquestu Britanniae, a Latin history of Britain dealing with the Roman ...

Kingston upon Thames

(Encyclopedia)Kingston upon Thames, outer borough (1991 pop. 130,300) of Greater London, SE England. Mainly residential, it has light engineering works and manufactures electronic equipment. It also contains one of...

Brunanburh, battle of

(Encyclopedia)Brunanburh, battle of bro͞oˈnənbûrg [key], a.d. 937, a victory won by Athelstan, king of the English, over a coalition of Irish, Scots, and Britons (or Welsh) of Strathclyde. The site of the battl...

Purbeck, Isle of

(Encyclopedia)Purbeck, Isle of, peninsula, c.12 mi (20 km) long and c.8 mi (13 km) wide, Dorset, S England, between Poole Harbour and the English Channel. St. Albans Head is the most southerly point of the rocky sh...

Anglo-Saxons

(Encyclopedia)Anglo-Saxons, name given to the Germanic-speaking peoples who settled in England after the decline of Roman rule there. They were first invited by the Celtic King Vortigern, who needed help fighting t...

Norman Conquest

(Encyclopedia)Norman Conquest, period in English history following the defeat (1066) of King Harold of England by William, duke of Normandy, who became William I of England. The conquest was formerly thought to hav...

Aldhelm, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Aldhelm, Saint ôldˈhĕlm [key], 639?–709, English churchman and scholar. He was abbot of Malmesbury (from 675) and became the first bishop of Sherborne (705). A distinguished student of the classi...

Gurney, A. R.

(Encyclopedia)Gurney, A. R. (Albert Ramsdell Gurney, Jr.), 1930–2017, American dramatist, b. Buffalo, N.Y., B.A. Williams College, 1952, M.F.A. Yale School of Drama, 1958. He is best known for often humorous anal...

Otfried von Weissenburg

(Encyclopedia)Otfried von Weissenburg ôtˈfrēt fən vīˈsənbo͝orkh [key], 9th-century German monk and poet; pupil of Rabanus Maurus Magnentius. His Liber Evangeliorum (863–71) is a counterpart in Old High Ge...

Kenneth II

(Encyclopedia)Kenneth II, d. 995, Scottish king (971–995). The son of Malcolm I (reigned 943–54), he became king of the united Picts and Scots in 971 and immediately led a savage raid on the British in Northumb...