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Middle Kingdom

(Encyclopedia)Middle Kingdom or Middle Country, Mandarin Zhongguo, Chinese name for China. It dates from c.1000 b.c., when it designated the Chou empire situated on the North China Plain. The Chou people, unaware o...

Æthelfrith

(Encyclopedia)Æthelfrith ĕˈthəlfrĭth, ă– [key], d. 616, king of Northumbria (c.593–616). He was the first great Anglo-Saxon leader among the northern English; he united Bernicia and Deira into the kingdom...

Edred

(Encyclopedia)Edred or Eadred both: ĕdˈrĕd [key], d. 955, king of the English (946–55), son of Edward the Elder. He succeeded his brother Edmund and was faced with invasions of Danish Northumbria by Norsemen f...

David I, king of Scotland

(Encyclopedia)David I, 1084–1153, king of Scotland (1124–53), youngest son of Malcolm III and St. Margaret of Scotland. During the reign of his brother Alexander I, whom he succeeded, David was earl of Cumbria,...

Two Sicilies, kingdom of the

(Encyclopedia)Two Sicilies, kingdom of the. The name Two Sicilies was used in the Middle Ages to mean the kingdoms of Sicily and of Naples (see Sicily and Naples, kingdom of). Alfonso V of Aragón, who in 1442 reun...

Deira

(Encyclopedia)Deira dēˈĭrə [key], old English kingdom between the Humber and the Tyne rivers. In the late 6th cent. it was united with Bernicia, to the north, to form Northumbria. ...

Bernicia

(Encyclopedia)Bernicia bərnĭshˈə [key], Old English kingdom. Established in 547, it later extended from the Tees River to the Forth. In the late 6th cent. it was united with Deira to form Northumbria. ...

William the Lion

(Encyclopedia)William the Lion, 1143–1214, king of Scotland (1165–1214), brother and successor of Malcolm IV. Determined to recover Northumbria (lost to England in 1157), he supported the rebellion (1173–74) ...

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