legal means by which an owner of property disposes of his assets in the event of his death. The term is also used for the written instrument in which the testator's dispositions are expressed. There is also an oral will, ...
Flemish composer who contributed significantly to the development of the Italian madrigal, and who established Venice as one of the most influential musical centres of the 16th century.
watercourse of western Oregon, U.S. It is formed by the confluence of the Coast and Middle forks southeast of Eugene. It flows northward for 183 miles (295 km) past Corvallis, Albany, Salem, and Oregon City into the Columbia River near ...
American educator whose work in women's education, particularly as founder of Troy Female Seminary, spurred the establishment of high schools for girls and of women's colleges and coeducational universities.
American educator, reformer, and founder of the World Woman's Christian Temperance Union (1883). An excellent speaker, a successful lobbyist, and an expert in pressure politics, she was a leader of the national Prohibition Party.
U.S. prizefighter, world heavyweight boxing champion from April 5, 1915, when he knocked out Jack Johnson in 26 rounds in Havana, to July 4, 1919, when he was knocked out by Jack Dempsey in three rounds in Toledo, Ohio.
U.S. clockmaker, creator of the timepiece that came to be known as the banjo clock, and a member of a Massachusetts family of clockmakers designing and producing brass-movement clocks from 1765 to 1850.
game sanctuary in Free State province, South Africa, adjoining Allemanskraal Dam northeast of Bloemfontein. Established in 1956, it occupies 46 sq mi (120 sq km) in the Highveld plateau typical of the Free State. It includes the Doringberg hills, a ...
French Franciscan friar whose eyewitness account of the Mongol realm is generally acknowledged to be the best written by any medieval Christian traveller. A contemporary of the English scientist and philosopher Roger Bacon, he was cited frequently in the geographical ...
white or greenish-yellow silicate mineral, zinc silicate, Zn2SiO4, that is found as crystals, grains, or fibres with other zinc ores in many deposits. Included are various localities in Sussex County, N.J., where it occurs in crystalline limestone and constitutes an ...
Belgian novelist and playwright whose playful strategies and fascination with language, doubles, analogies, and mirror images mask a modern tragic sensibility. He expressed the identity crisis of postwar Belgium in an idiosyncratic and often savagely ironic style.
chief town of Curacao and capital of the Netherlands Antilles (q.v.) in the Caribbean Sea, on the southern coast of Curacao. It is divided into two parts by the Sint Anna Baai (Saint Anne Bay) leading to Schottegat Harbour. The ...
(Catoptrophorus semipalmatus), large, long-billed shorebird of America, belonging to the family Scolopacidae (order Charadriiformes), which also includes the snipes, turnstones, and curlews. The willet is named for its loud call. Willets are about 40 centimetres (16 inches) long and gray, ...
German king from Oct. 3, 1247, elected by the papal party in Germany as antiking in opposition to Conrad IV and subsequently gaining general recognition. As William II he was also count of Holland, succeeding his father, Count Floris IV, ...
style of decorative arts produced during the reign (1689-1702) of William III and Mary II of England. When William came to the English throne from the house of Orange, he encouraged many Dutch artisans to follow him. In addition to ...
state coeducational university of liberal arts at Williamsburg, Virginia, U.S. The second oldest institution of higher education in the United States (after Harvard College), it was chartered in 1693 by cosovereigns King William III and Queen Mary II of England ...
count of Flanders and titular duke of Normandy (as William IV, or as William III if England's William Rufus' earlier claim to the duchy is not acknowledged).
Norman adventurer, the eldest of 12 Hauteville brothers, a soldier of fortune who led the first contingent of his family from Normandy to southern Italy. He undertook its conquest and quickly became count of Apulia.
English philosopher and theologian, advocate of the traditional Neoplatonic-Augustinian school of Christian philosophy, and leading critic of the Aristotelian thought introduced by Thomas Aquinas.
king of The Netherlands and grand duke of Luxembourg (1815-40) who sparked a commercial and industrial revival following the period of French rule (1795-1813), but provoked the Belgian revolt of 1830 through his autocratic methods.
Norman king of Sicily, an able ruler who successfully repressed the conspiracies of the barons of his realm. His epithet was bestowed on him by his hapless enemies. He patronized science and letters and showed religious tolerance; among those who ...
duke of Normandy (as William II) from 1035 and king of England from 1066, one of the greatest soldiers and rulers of the Middle Ages. He made himself the mightiest feudal lord in France and then changed the course of ...
son of Rollo and second duke of Normandy (927-942). He sought continually to expand his territories either by conquest or by exacting new lands from the French king for the price of homage. In 939 he allied himself with Hugh ...
German emperor from 1871, as well as king of Prussia from 1861, a sovereign whose conscientiousness and self-restraint fitted him for collaboration with stronger statesmen in raising his monarchy and the house of Hohenzollern to predominance in Germany.
king of Scotland from 1165 to 1214; although he submitted to English overlordship for 15 years (1174-89) of his reign, he ultimately obtained independence for his kingdom.
first of the hereditary stadholders (1572-84) of the United Provinces of the Netherlands and leader of the revolt of the Netherlands against Spanish rule and the Catholic religion.
king of The Netherlands and grand duke of Luxembourg (1840-49) whose reign saw the reestablishment of fiscal stability and the transformation of The Netherlands to a more liberal monarchy through the constitution of 1848.
son of William I the Conqueror and king of England from 1087 to 1100; he was also de facto duke of Normandy (as William III) from 1096 to 1100. He prevented the dissolution of political ties between England and Normandy, ...
prince of Orange, count of Nassau, stadtholder and captain general of six provinces of the Netherlands from 1647, and the central figure of a critical struggle for power in the Dutch Republic. The son of Frederick Henry, prince of Orange, ...
German emperor (kaiser) and king of Prussia from 1888 to the end of World War I in 1918, known for his frequently militaristic manner as well as for his vacillating policies.
the last Norman king of Sicily; under a regency from 1166, he ruled in person from 1171. He became known as William the Good because of his policy of clemency and justice toward the towns and the barons, in contrast ...
conservative king of The Netherlands and grand duke of Luxembourg (1849-90) who was influential in forming Dutch ministries until 1868 but was unable to prevent Liberal control of the government.
stadholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands as William III (1672-1702) and king of Great Britain (1689-1702), reigning jointly with Queen Mary II (until her death in 1694). He directed the European opposition to Louis XIV of France and, ...
grand duke of Luxembourg (1905-12), eldest son of grand duke Adolf of Nassau. Falling severely ill soon after his accession, he eventually on March 19, 1908, had his consort Maria Anna of Braganza named regent, or governor (Statthalterin). Also, having ...
king of Great Britain and Ireland and king of Hanover from June 26, 1830. Personally opposed to parliamentary reform, he grudgingly accepted the epochal Reform Act of 1832, which, by transferring representation from depopulated "rotten boroughs" to industrialized districts, reduced ...
landgrave (or count) of Hesse-Kassel from 1567 who was called "the Wise" because of his accomplishments in political economy and the natural sciences. The son of the landgrave Philip the Magnanimous, he participated with his brother-in-law Maurice of Saxony in ...
medieval troubadour, count of Poitiers and duke of Aquitaine and of Gascony (1086-1127), son of William VIII and grandfather of the famous Eleanor of Aquitaine.
count of Nassau, stadholder of Friesland, Groningen, and Drenthe, who with his cousin, Maurice of Nassau, prince of Orange, formulated the military strategy of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, or Dutch Republic (now The Netherlands), against Spain from 1588 ...
also called William Of Paris, or William Of Alvernia, French Guillaume D'auvergne, or De Paris the most prominent French philosopher-theologian of the early 13th century and one of the first Western scholars to attempt to integrate classical Greek and Arabic ...
French philosopher-theologian who contributed to the adaptation of classical Greek philosophy to Christian doctrine. He is considered the first medieval writer to develop a systematic treatise on free will and the natural law.
French bishop, logician, theologian, and philosopher who was prominent in the Scholastic controversy on the nature of universals (i.e., words that can be applied to more than one particular thing).
German cleric, Benedictine abbot, and monastic reformer, the principal German advocate of Pope Gregory VII's clerical reforms, which sought to eliminate clerical corruption and free ecclesiastical offices from secular control.
Flemish cleric, archbishop, and classical scholar whose Latin translations of the works of Aristotle and other early Greek philosophers and commentators were important in the transmission of Greek thought to the medieval Latin West.
English chronicler who is remembered as the author of one of the most valuable historical works on 11th- and 12th-century England. He entered the Augustinian priory of Newburgh as a boy to study theology and history and apparently remained there ...
