History

Great epidemic of plague, mainly the bubonic variant, that ravaged Europe in the mid-14th century. Contemporary estimates that it killed between one-third and half of the population (about 75 million people) are probably accurate.

Series of wars undertaken by European Christians between the 11th and 14th cent. to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims.

Tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church established for the investigation of heresy.

Period in European cultural history that began in Italy around 1400 and lasted there until the end of the 1500s. Elsewhere in Europe it began later, and lasted until the 1600s.

The Enlightenment, a philosophical movement in eighteenth-century Europe, rejected traditional social, religious, and political ideas and adopted rational thinking as a way to develop new theories accounting for human behavior and feelings. These new explanations were then applied to the social and political spheres, changing the way people viewed and thought about government, and directly influencing the development of the modern world.

Extension of political and economic control over an area by a state whose nationals have occupied the area and usually possess organizational or technological superiority over the native population.

Scheme of action adopted by Napoleon I in his economic warfare with England from 1806 to 1812.

Political or social philosophy in which the welfare of the nation-state as an entity is considered paramount.

The framework of the modern nation-state seems to be nowadays the most natural political arrangement one can think of, and it is difficult to imagine an alternative political arrangement. Nevertheless, the state is a relatively new entity in the history of mankind, as it appeared only some 350 years ago.

Diet or national assembly in which the chief estates (see estate) of a nation—usually clergy, nobles, and towns (or commons)—were represented as separate bodies.

In politics, the theory that the best way of ensuring international order is to have power so distributed among states that no single state is able to achieve a dominant position.

Acceleration of technical and economic development that took place in Britain and the United States in the second half of the 18th century.

Use of the young as workers in factories, farms, and mines. Child labor was first recognized as a social problem with the introduction of the factory system in late 18th-century Great Britain.

From Chambers Dictionary of World History
King of England (978/1016). The son of Edgar, he was aged about 10 when the murder of his half-brother, Edward the Martyr, placed him on the throne. In 1002 he confirmed an alliance with Normandy by marrying, as his second wife, Duke Richard's daughter Emma – the first dynastic link between the two countries. ‘Unready’ is a mistranslation of Unraed, not recorded as his nickname until after the Norman Conquest, which means ‘ill-advised’ and is a pun on his given name, Ethelred (literally, ‘good counsel’).

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Battle on 14 October 1066 at which William, Duke of Normandy (William (I) the Conqueror) defeated King Harold II of England.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Battle on 25 September 1066 at Stamford Bridge, a crossing of the Derwent 14 km/9 mi northeast of York, England, at which Harold II defeated and killed Harold Hardraada, King of Norway, and Tostig, the English king's exiled brother.

This so-called tapestry is in fact an embroidery that chronicles the Norman Conquest of England by William the Conqueror (William I) in 1066. It is a long, narrow strip of coarse linen, 230 ft by 20 in. (70 m by 51 cm), embroidered in worsteds of eight colors in couching and stem stitch.

king of England, Norway, and Denmark. The younger son of Sweyn of Denmark, Canute accompanied his father on the expedition of 1013 that invaded England and forced Æthelred to flee to Normandy.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Record of a general census of England made (1085–86) by order of William I (William the Conqueror). The survey ascertained the economic resources of most of the country for purposes of more accurate taxation.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
D. 1053, earl of Wessex. He became chief adviser to King Canute, was created (c.1018) an earl, and was given great wealth and lands.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
King of Norway 1045-66, ruling jointly with Magnus I 1045-47. He engaged in an unsuccessful atempt to conquer Denmark 1045-62; and extended Norwegian rule in Orkney, Shetland, and the Hebrides.

Period in English history following the defeat (1066) of King Harold of England by William, duke of Normandy, who became William I of England.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
King of England from 25 December 1066. He was the illegitimate son of Duke Robert the Devil whom he succeeded as Duke of Normandy in 1035.

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 have brought about broad changes in all phases of English life. More recently historians have stressed the continuity of English law, institutions, and customs, but the subject remains one of controversy.

Or Magna Charta [Lat., = great charter], the most famous document of British constitutional history, issued by King John at Runnymede. In later centuries the Magna Carta became a symbol of the supremacy of the constitution over the king, as opponents of arbitrary royal power extracted from it various "democratic" interpretations.

1337–1453, conflict between England and France. Its basic cause was a dynastic quarrel that originated when the conquest of England by William of Normandy created the state of Guienne, lying on both sides of the English Channel.

English poet, noted for his narrative skill, humour, and insight, particularly in his most famous work, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer made a crucial contribution to English literature in using English at a time when much court poetry was still written in Anglo-Norman or Latin. His confidence in the English language encouraged his followers and imitators also to write in English and speeded the transition from French as the language of literature.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Traditional name given to the intermittent struggle (1455–85) for the throne of England between the noble houses of York (whose badge was a white rose) and Lancaster (later associated with the red rose).

Religious and political movement in 16th-century Europe to reform the Roman Catholic Church, which led to the establishment of the Protestant churches.

English dramatist and poet, b. Stratford-on-Avon. He is widely considered the greatest playwright who ever lived.

Fleet sent by Philip II of Spain against England in 1588. Consisting of 130 ships, it sailed from Lisbon and carried on a running.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Conspiracy to blow up the English Parliament and King James I on Nov. 5, 1605, the day set for the king to open Parliament.

1642–48, The conflict between King Charles I of England and a large body of his subjects, generally called the "parliamentarians".

From Brewer's Britain and Ireland
(2 July 1644). One of the most decisive engagements in the Civil Wars, in which the Royalists under Prince Rupert and the Earl of Newcastle were defeated by the Parliamentarians under the Earl of Manchester and Lord Fairfax and their Scots allies under Lord Leven.

In English history, the events of 1688–89 that resulted in the deposition of James II and the accession of William III and Mary II to the English throne. It is also called the Bloodless Revolution.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
1600–1874, company chartered by Queen Elizabeth I for trade with Asia. The original object of the group of merchants involved was to break the Dutch monopoly of the spice trade with the East Indies.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Series of conflicts between the English and Dutch during the mid to late 17th cent. The wars had their roots in the Anglo-Dutch commercial rivalry, although the last of the three wars was a wider conflict in which French interests played a primary role.

Empire covering, at its height in the 1920s, about a sixth of the landmass of the Earth, all of its lands recognizing the United Kingdom (UK) as their leader.

Struggle by which the Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic seaboard of North America won independence from Great Britain and became the United States.

British navigator and explorer who commanded three major voyages of discovery, charting and naming many islands of the Pacific Ocean.

British admiral. The most famous of Britain's naval heroes, he is commemorated by the celebrated Nelson Column in Trafalgar Square, London.

A war between Great Britain and the U.S., fought chiefly along the Canadian border (1812-14).

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
(Oct. 21, 1805) Naval engagement in the Napoleonic Wars that established British naval supremacy in Europe. It was fought west of Cape Trafalgar, Spain, between a Franco-Spanish fleet of 33 ships under Pierre de Villeneuve (1763–1806) and a British fleet of 27 ships under Horatio Nelson. Near the end of the battle, Nelson was mortally wounded by a sniper. No British ships were lost, and Napoleon abandoned his plan to invade England.

British naturalist who revolutionized the study of biology with his theory of evolution based on natural selection.

English author, born in Portsmouth, one of the world's most popular, prolific, and skilled novelists. His most famous works include A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities and Hard Times.

Or Reform Bills, in British history, name given to three major measures that liberalized representation in Parliament in the 19th century.

From Chambers Dictionary of World History
King of England (978/1016). The son of Edgar, he was aged about 10 when the murder of his half-brother, Edward the Martyr, placed him on the throne. In 1002 he confirmed an alliance with Normandy by marrying, as his second wife, Duke Richard's daughter Emma – the first dynastic link between the two countries. ‘Unready’ is a mistranslation of Unraed, not recorded as his nickname until after the Norman Conquest, which means ‘ill-advised’ and is a pun on his given name, Ethelred (literally, ‘good counsel’).

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
King of England from 25 December 1066. He was the illegitimate son of Duke Robert the Devil whom he succeeded as Duke of Normandy in 1035.

King of England (1272-1307); son of Henry III. He conquered Wales (1284) but failed to subdue Scotland.

King of England (1307-27); son of Edward I. He invaded Scotland but was defeated by Robert Bruce at Bannockburn (1314). He was deposed by his wife Isabella and Roger Mortimer; died in prison.

Eldest son of Edward III of England. He was created duke of Cornwall in 1337, the first duke to be created in England, and prince of Wales in 1343. It was apparently the French who called him the Black Prince, perhaps because he wore black armor; the name was not recorded in England until the 16th century.

King of England (1461-70; 1471-83); son of Richard, duke of York. He defeated Henry VI in the Wars of the Roses and became king (1461).

1491–1547, king of England (1509–47), second son and successor of Henry VII.

Second queen consort of Henry VIII and mother of Elizabeth I. She was the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, later earl of Wiltshire.

King of England (1547–53), son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour. Edward succeeded his father to the throne at the age of nine.

Queen of England (1558-1603); daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Endowed with immense personal courage and a keen awareness of her responsibility as a ruler, she commanded throughout her reign the unwavering respect and allegiance of her subjects.

From Chamber's Biographical Dictionary
Mary was the daughter of James V of Scotland by his second wife, Mary of Guise. She was born at Linlithgow, while her father lay on his deathbed at Falkland. She became queen when she was a week old.

Charles was born in Dunfermline, the son of James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) and Anne of Denmark. He suffered from childhood frailty, which meant he had to crawl on his hands and knees until the age of seven, but overcame this to become a skilled tilter and marksman.

In The Columbia Encyclopedia
King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1685–88); second son of Charles I, brother and successor of Charles II.

From Chambers Biographical Dictionary
King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1660-85). When his father was executed in 1649, Charles was proclaimed monarch by Scotland; on arriving in Edinburgh he agreed to the Presbyterian Covenant and, despite the failure of his forces to defeat Oliver Cromwell at Dunbar, he was crowned at Scone on 1 January 1651.

Claimant to the British throne, son of James II and Mary of Modena; called the Old Pretender. His birth, falsely rumored by Whigs at the time to be supposititious (i.e., of other parents than professed), helped to precipitate the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1702–7), later queen of Great Britain and Ireland (1707–14), daughter of James II and Anne Hyde; successor to William III.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia: Queen of Great Britain and Ireland (1837–1901) and empress of India (1876–1901).

As increasingly urban, educated, and secular populations became dissatisfied with medieval values—first (circa 1350) in the Italian republics and principalities and then later north of the Alps—they sought to recover the knowledge and wisdom of the ancient world. A new and remarkable self-confidence in human agency resulted, and it sparked an intellectual, cultural, and artistic revolution known as the Renaissance.

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi was the greatest sculptor of the early Renaissance in Italy and one of the most versatile of all time, unmatched in his technical and expressive range.

Galileo’s fame rests partly on the discoveries he made with the telescope, an instrument which he did not invent but was certainly the first to exploit successfully. His discovery of heavenly bodies that were so demonstrably not circling Earth, together with his open public support for the Copernican heliocentric cosmology, was to bring him into conflict with the Church.

The mass of notes and drawings in which da Vinci recorded his ideas and experiments are not just revealing of the workings of his own mind, but vital for any understanding of the meaning of the Renaissance.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni is universally recognized as one of the greatest artists in history, perhaps the greatest. He excelled as a sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the Italian High Renaissance. During his long life, Michelangelo created some of the world's most recognizable works of art.

French Actor and Dramatist of the Renaissance era.

Major artist and painter of the Renaissance era.

France is bordered by the English Channel (N), the Atlantic Ocean and the Bay of Biscay (W), Spain and Andorra (SW), the Mediterranean Sea (S), Switzerland and Italy (SE), and Germany, Luxembourg, and Belgium (NE).

Queen consort first of Louis VII of France and then of Henry II of England. Daughter and heiress of William X, duke of Aquitaine.

Both a historical and mythical figure, Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc, also known as Jeanne la pucelle) was a peasant maid who guided the weak and contested dauphin Charles, son of Charles VI who submitted to English rule in France, into regaining the French crown and territory during the Hundred Years War between France and England (approximate dates, 1337–1457).

Originally the name for the inhabitants of walled towns in medieval France; as artisans and craftsmen, the bourgeoisie occupied a socioeconomic position between the peasants and the landlords in the countryside. The term was extended to include the middle class of France and subsequently of other nations. The word bourgeois has also long been used to imply an outlook associated with materialism, narrowness, and lack of culture.

French Protestants, followers of John Calvin. The term is derived from the German Eidgenossen, meaning sworn companions or confederates.

French novelist, poet, and dramatist.

French landscape painter; the leading exponent of impressionism. His interest in the effect of light on colour led him to paint series of pictures of the same subject at different times of day.

Fiscal crises and years of feudal repression were among factors leading to a revolution in France (1789–1799) marked by the storming of the Bastille, the guillotining of Louis XVI, and the Reign of Terror. Although the revolution abolished legal privilege based on birth and guaranteed freedom of religion, its legacy is ambiguous; gains must be seen in the context of the suffering produced by denunciations, purges, executions, and war.

Patriotic political club of the French Revolution.

Wars occurring in the era of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic era, the decade of 1792-1802. The wars began as an effort to defend the Revolution and developed into wars of conquest under the empire

Queen of France, wife of King Louis XVI and daughter of Austrian Archduchess Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I.

Swiss-born French Revolutionary leader, physician, and journalist.

French statesman and one of the leading figures of the French Revolution.

Leader of the Jacobins and one of the leading figures of the French Revolution.

From 1793-94, a period of the French Revolution characterized by a wave of executions of presumed enemies of the state. Directed by the Committee of Public Safety, the Revolutionary government's Terror was essentially a war dictatorship, instituted to rule the country in a national emergency.

Charlemagne’s influence in both political and social spheres was so great that historians have nicknamed him the “father of Europe.” His use of military force and ability to improvise new systems expanded a struggling western Europe into a strong empire. Additionally, his emphasis on learning created a Carolingian Renaissance that helped form cultural identity in western Europe and laid the groundwork on which the Middle Ages flourished.

King of France (1643-1715), son and successor of King Louis XIII.

From 1678 Versailles was the principal residence of the kings of France until 1793, and the seat of government from 1682 to 1789.

Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon Bonaparte), 1808-73, emperor of the French (1852-70), son of Louis Bonaparte (see under Bonaparte, family), king of Holland.

king of the French (1830-48), known before his accession as Louis Philippe, duc d'Orléans.

French military leader and emperor.

Catherine II or Catherine the Great, 1729-96, czarina of Russia (1762-96).

Ivan the Terrible, 1530-84, grand duke of Moscow (1533-84), the first Russian ruler to assume formally the title of czar.

Agreement among the emperors of Russia and Austria and the king of Prussia, signed on Sept. 26, 1815. Specifically, it accomplished nothing, since it was merely a vague agreement that the sovereigns would conduct themselves in consonance with Christian principles.

The problem of European territory controlled by the decaying Ottoman Empire in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th cent.

General European conflict, fought in N and E Europe at the same time that the War of the Spanish Succession was fought in the west and the south. It arose chiefly from the desire of the neighbors of Sweden to break Swedish supremacy in the Baltic area, and from the conflicting ambitions of Peter I of Russia and Charles XII of Sweden.

From 1853-56, a war between Russia on the one hand and the Ottoman Empire, Great Britain, France, and Sardinia on the other.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia:
Last Czar of Russia (1894-1917).

two short wars occurring between 1912 and 1913, fought for the possession of the European territories of the Ottoman Empire.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia:
1904-5, imperialistic conflict that grew out of the rival designs of Russia and Japan on Manchuria and Korea.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 was an event of enormous significance in twentieth-century world history. It marked the end of the distinctive society of czarist Russia, the world’s largest country at the time, and the beginning of the first large-scale effort to construct a modern socialist society.

Russian novelist. Remarkable for their profound psychological insight, Dostoevsky's novels have greatly influenced Russian writers, and since the beginning of the 20th century have been increasingly influential abroad.

1872-1916, Russian "holy man," a notorious figure at the court of Czar Nicholas II.

Count Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828–1910) moved from being a novelist with social concerns to being a Christian ANARCHIST who wrote polemics.

Russian composer, pianist, and conductor.

Russian composer.

A towering figure in Russian music and one of the most popular composers in history.