Norman adventurer who settled in Apulia, in southern Italy, about 1047 and became duke of Apulia (1059). He eventually extended Norman rule over Naples, Calabria, and Sicily and laid the foundations of the Kingdom of Sicily.
Latin emperor of Constantinople from 1221 to 1228. He was so ineffective that the Latin Empire (consolidated by his uncle, Henry of Flanders) was largely dissolved at the end of his reign.
French poet, originally from the village of Boron, near Delle. He was important for his trilogy of poems (Joseph d'Arimathe, Merlin, Perceval). It told the early history of the Grail and linked this independent legend more firmly with Arthurian legend, ...
count of Flanders (1071-93), second son of Count Baldwin V. In 1063 he married Gertrude and became guardian of her son, who had inherited Frisia east of the Scheldt River. Upon this marriage, Robert's father also invested him with Imperial ...
younger son of Robert the Strong of Neustria, and briefly king of France (922-923), or West Francia. His decisive victory over the Northmen at Chartres (911) led to a treaty settling one group of these fierce warriors in Normandy.
duke of Normandy (1027-35), the younger son of Richard II of Normandy and the father, by his mistress Arlette, of William the Conqueror of England. On the death of his father (1026/27), Robert contested the duchy with his elder brother ...
king of Scotland (1306-29), who freed Scotland from English rule, winning the decisive Battle of Bannockburn (1314) and ultimately confirming Scottish independence in the Treaty of Northampton (1328).
duke of Normandy (1087-1106), a weak-willed and incompetent ruler whose poor record as an administrator of his domain was partly redeemed by his contribution to the First Crusade (1096-99).
king of Scots from 1371, first of the Stewart (Stuart) sovereigns in Scotland. Heir presumptive for more than 50 years, he had little effect on Scottish political and military affairs when he finally acceded to the throne.
count of Flanders (1093-1111), one of the most celebrated of crusaders. The son of Robert I, he sailed for the Holy Land on the First Crusade in 1096 and earned fame perhaps second only to that of Godfrey of Bouillon. ...
king of Scots from 1390, after having ruled Scotland in the name of his father, Robert II, from 1384 to 1388. Physically disabled by a kick from a horse, he was never the real ruler of Scotland during the years ...
Norman magnate, soldier, and outstanding military architect, who for a time was the most powerful vassal of the English crown under the second and third Norman kings, William II Rufus (died 1100) and Henry I. His contemporary reputation for sadism ...
early Middle English chronicler known only through his connection with the work called "The Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester"-a vernacular history of England from its legendary founding by Brut (Brutus), great-grandson of Aeneas, to the year 1270. It was written, ...
French Benedictine monk and abbot, monastic reformer, and founder of Citeaux (Latin Cistercium) Abbey (1098), which developed into the Cistercian Order.
legendary son of a duke of Normandy, born in answer to prayers addressed to the devil. He uses his immense strength only for crime. Directed by the pope to consult a certain holy hermit, he is delivered from his curse ...
French landscape painter sometimes called "Robert des Ruines" because of his many romantic representations of Roman ruins set in idealized surroundings.
popular Swahili writer, Robert was the product of two cultures-his father was a Christian, but Shaaban returned to Islam. His work ranges from poetry to essay and didactic tale, influenced in style by the Oriental tradition. Many poems follow the ...
French magician who is considered to be the father of modern conjuring. He was the first magician to use electricity; he improved the signalling method for the "thought transference" trick; and he exposed "fakes" and magicians who relied on supernatural ...
pirate captain of a succession of ships-the "Royal Rover," "Fortune," "Royal Fortune," and "Good Fortune"-who burned and plundered ships from the coasts of West Africa to the coasts of Brazil and the Caribbean and as far north as Newfoundland. His ...
Southern American novelist, poet, and short story writer noted especially for her vivid, impressionistic depiction of her protagonists' inner life and for her accurate portrayal of life in Kentucky.
British field marshal, an outstanding combat leader in the Second Afghan War (1878-80) and the South African War (1899-1902), and the last commander in chief of the British Army (1901-04; office then abolished). Foreseeing World War I, he was one ...
molecular biologist, the winner, with Phillip A. Sharp, of the 1993 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his independent discovery of "split genes."
poet who was the first to express the new national feeling aroused by the Canadian confederation of 1867. His example and counsel inspired a whole nationalist school of late 19th-century poets. Also a prolific prose writer, Roberts wrote several volumes ...
British civil engineer who pioneered new design and construction methods in a series of major bridges including the 3,300-foot (1,006-metre) Firth of Forth highway bridge in Scotland, the seventh longest in the world.
American educator and public official, remembered for her work with Native American and other schools in Oklahoma and as a U.S. congressional representative from that state.
American basketball player who starred in both the collegiate and professional ranks and was considered one of the top players in the history of the game. As a player with the Cincinnati (Ohio) Royals of the National Basketball Association (NBA) ...
field marshal, chief of the British Imperial General Staff during most of World War I, who supported Sir Douglas Haig, the British commander in chief in France, in urging concentration of manpower on the Western Front.
British playwright whose realistic social comedies and pioneering work as a producer-director helped establish the late-19th-century revival of drama in England. Many of his plays long remained in the repertory, and his Caste is still performed.
Scottish historian and Presbyterian minister. He is regarded, along with David Hume and Edward Gibbon, as one of the most important British historians of the 18th century.
city, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region, south-central Quebec province, Canada, on the southwest shore of Lac-Saint-Jean. Settled in 1855, it was named after the sieur de Roberval, the first viceroy of Canada. The city, 130 miles (210 km) north-northwest of Quebec city, is ...
linked mechanism invented in 1669 by the French mathematician Gilles Personne de Roberval and used in commercial weighing machines. As shown in the , AB is an equal-armed beam pivoted to the vertical member G at C, while DE is ...
