Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Peter II ... petit point

Peter II: emperor of Russia from 1727 to 1730. Grandson of Peter I the Great (ruled 1682-1725), Peter II was named heir to the Russian throne by Catherine I (ruled 1725-27) and was crowned at the age of 11 (May 18 [May ...
Peter II: king of Portugal whose reign as prince regent (1668-83) and as king (1683-1706) was marked by the consolidation of royal absolutism and the reduction of the significance of the Cortes (National Assembly); at the same time he encouraged economic development ...
Peter II: king of Aragon from 1196 to 1213, the eldest son and successor of Alfonso II.
Peter II: duke of Brittany (from 1450), son of John V (or VI) and brother of his predecessor Francis I. He made an important innovation in limiting the right of asylum in churches and monasteries, enabling him to pursue his enemies at ...
Peter II: the last king of Yugoslavia.
Peter III: king consort of Portugal from 1777, with Queen Maria I. The younger son of John V of Portugal, he was married in July 1760 to the daughter of his elder brother, King Joseph. When she became queen as Maria I ...
Peter III: king of Aragon from July 1276, on the death of his father, James I, and king of Sicily (as Peter I) from 1282.
Peter III: emperor of Russia from Jan. 5, 1762 (Dec. 25, 1761, O.S.), to July 9 (June 28, O.S.), 1762.
Peter IV: king of Aragon from January 1336, son of Alfonso IV.
Peter Lombard: bishop of Paris whose Four Books of Sentences (Sententiarum libri IV) was the standard theological text of the Middle Ages.
Peter Martyr: name commonly used in English for (1) St. Peter Martyr, who was killed in 1252 by the Cathari, a heretical Christian sect; (2) Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, who was an Italian historian; and (3) Peter Martyr Vermigli, who was one of ...
Peter Martyr D'anghiera: chaplain to the court of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile, and historian of Spanish explorations, who became a member of Emperor Charles V's Council of the Indies (1518). He collected unidentified documents from the ...
Peter Martyr, Saint: inquisitor, vigorous preacher, and religious founder who, for his militant reformation, was assassinated by the neo-Manichaean sect, the Cathari (heretical Christians who held unorthodox views on the nature of good and evil).
Peter Nolasco, Saint: founder of the order of Our Lady of Ransom (Mercedarians, or Nolascans), a religious institute originally designed to ransom Christian captives from the Moors; today, the Mercedarians, whose numbers have declined, are engaged mostly in hospital work.
Peter Of Alcantara, Saint: Franciscan mystic who founded an austere form of Franciscan life known as the Alcantarines or Discalced (i.e., barefooted) Friars Minor. He is the patron saint of Brazil.
Peter Of Castelnau: Cistercian martyr, apostolic legate, and inquisitor against the Albigenses, most particularly the Cathari (heretical Christians who held unorthodox views on the nature of good and evil), whose assassination led to the Albigensian Crusade.
Peter the Apostle, Saint: disciple of Jesus Christ, recognized in the early Christian church as the leader of the disciples and by the Roman Catholic church as the first of its unbroken succession of popes. Peter, a fisherman, was called to be a disciple ...
Peter the Great Bay: inlet, Sea of Japan, northwestern Pacific Ocean, in the Maritime (Primorye) region of far eastern Russia. The bay extends for 115 miles (185 km) from the mouth of the Tumen River (on the Russian-Chinese border) northeast across to Cape Povorotny. ...
Peter the Hermit: ascetic and monastic founder, considered one of the most important preachers of the First Crusade. He was also, with Walter Sansavoir, one of the leaders of the so-called People's Crusade, which arrived in the East before the main armies of ...
Peter The Venerable: outstanding French abbot of Cluny whose spiritual, intellectual, and financial reforms restored Cluny to its high place among the religious establishments of Europe.
Peter V: king of Portugal who conscientiously and intelligently devoted himself to the problems of his country during his short reign (1853-61).
Peter, Apocalypse of: pseudepigraphal (noncanonical and unauthentic) Christian writing dating from the first half of the 2nd century AD. The unknown author, who claimed to be Peter the Apostle, relied on the canonical Gospels and on Revelation to John to construct a conversation ...
Peter, Gospel of: pseudepigraphal (noncanonical and unauthentic) Christian writing of the mid-2nd century AD, the extant portion of which covers the condemnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Jesus. Because the work reflects the view that Christ's body had only the appearance of reality, Serapion, ...
Peter, Hugh: English Independent minister, army preacher, and propagandist during the Civil War and Commonwealth.
Peter, Laurence J: Canadian teacher and author of the best-selling book The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong (1969).
Peter, letters of: two New Testament writings attributed to the foremost of Jesus' 12 Apostles but perhaps written during the early 2nd century.
Peter, Paul and Mary: American folksingers at the forefront of the folk music revival of the 1960s who created a bridge between traditional folk music and later folk rock. The group comprised Peter Yarrow (b. May 31, 1938, New York, N.Y., U.S., ), Paul ...
Peterborough: city, seat of Peterborough county, southeastern Ontario, Canada. It lies along the Otonabee River, 70 miles (115 km) east-northeast of Toronto. In 1821 Adam Scott founded a sawmill and gristmill at the site, which became known as Scott's Plains. In ...
Peterborough: city and unitary authority, geographic county of Cambridgeshire, England. At the core of the city and unitary authority is a historic region called the Soke of Peterborough, which encompasses the original town of Peterborough and an area extending west between ...
Peterborough: town (township), Hillsborough county, southern New Hampshire, U.S., that lies at the confluence of the Contoocook and Nubanusit rivers. It includes the communities of Peterborough and West Peterborough. The site, granted in 1737 and named for Charles Mordaunt, 3rd earl ...
Peterborough, Soke of: historic region surrounding the town of Peterborough, now part of the city and unitary authority of Peterborough, in the historic county of Northamptonshire, England. The Soke was historically also known as the Liberty of Peterborough, since it was originally under ...
Peterhead: town and fishing port, council area and historic county of Aberdeenshire. Peterhead is the most easterly town in Scotland. Founded in 1593, it developed as a port and functioned briefly as a fashionable 18th-century spa. By the early 19th century ...
Peterloo Massacre: (Aug. 16, 1819), in English history, the brutal dispersal by cavalry of a radical meeting held on St. Peter's Fields in Manchester. The "massacre" (likened to Waterloo) attests to the profound fears of the privileged classes of the imminence of ...
Petermann Ranges: low mountains extending for 200 miles (320 km) from east-central Western Australia southeast to the southwest corner of Northern Territory. A continuation of the granite and gneiss formations in the Musgrave Ranges to the southeast, the Petermanns rise to a ...
Peters, Carl: German explorer who advanced the establishment of the German East African protectorate of Tanganyika, now a part of Tanzania.
Peters, Ellis: English novelist especially noted for two series of mysteries: one featuring medieval monastics in Britain and the other featuring a modern family.
Peters, Lenrie: physician, novelist, and one of western Africa's most important poets.
Petersburg: city, administratively independent of, but located in, Dinwiddie and Prince George counties, southeast Virginia, U.S. It lies along the Appomattox River (bridged), adjacent to Colonial Heights and Hopewell, 23 miles (37 km) south of Richmond.
Petersburg: city, seat (1839) of Menard county, central Illinois, U.S. It lies on the Sangamon River, about 20 miles (30 km) northwest of Springfield. The area was settled about 1820, and in 1836 a plat for Petersburg (named for Peter Lukins, ...
Petersburg Campaign: (1864-65), series of military operations in southern Virginia during the final months of the American Civil War that culminated in the defeat of the South.
Peterson, Esther: American consumer advocate who worked to make product information available to the public.
Peterson, Oscar: Canadian jazz pianist best known for his dazzling solo technique.
Peterson, Roger Tory: American ornithologist, author, conservationist, and wildlife artist whose field books on birds, beginning with A Field Guide to the Birds (1934; 4th ed. 1980), did much in the United States and Europe to stimulate public interest in bird study.
Petherick, John: British trader and explorer who investigated the western tributaries of the Nile River and made zoological and ethnological discoveries in the Sudan and central Africa. He was the first European to encounter the Zande of the northeastern Congo River basin.
Pethick-Lawrence, Frederick William Pethick-Lawrence, Baron: British politician who was a leader of the woman suffrage movement in Great Britain during the first two decades of the 20th century; he later served (1945-47) as secretary of state for India and Burma (now Myanmar).
Petion de Villeneuve, Jerome: politician of the French Revolution who was at first a close associate, and later a bitter enemy, of the Jacobin leader Maximilien de Robespierre.
Petion, Alexandre Sabes: Haitian liberator and president remembered by the Haitian people for his liberal rule and by South Americans for his support of Simon Bolivar during the struggle for independence from Spain.
Petionville: eastern suburb of Port-au-Prince, southern Haiti, on the cool northern hills of the Massif de la Selle. Named for Alexandre Sabes Petion, who fought in Haiti's wars for independence in the early 19th century and was later president of the ...
Petipa, Marius: dancer and choreographer who worked for nearly 60 years at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and had a profound influence on modern classical Russian ballet. He directed many of the greatest artists in Russian ballet and developed ballets that ...
petit jury: a group chosen from the citizens of a district to try a question of fact. Distinct from the grand jury, which formulates accusations, the petit jury tests the accuracy of such accusations by standards of proof.
petit point: form of canvas embroidery similar to cross-stitch embroidery (q.v.), but even finer because of its small scale. The squareness and regularity of the outlines of the forms represented is less apparent at ordinary viewing distance. The stitch used-also called petit ...