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Gilt-bronze Enceladus By Gaspar Mercy
The Giant Enceladus, gilt-bronze statue by Gaspar Mercy.
Bosquet de l'Encélade (Gardens of Versailles).
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William Cecil, Baron Burghley
A 1560's CE portrait of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (1520-1598 CE) who was Elizabeth I of England’s most important minister for much of her reign (1558-1603 CE). (National Portrait Gallery, London)
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How to Become a Medieval Knight
In medieval society a knight enjoyed a position of high status and often wealth, they were feared on the battlefield and known for their chivalry off it, but it took a long time and a lot of training to get there. Trained in weapons handling...
Definition
Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan, or Fernão de Magalhães (c. 1480-1521), was a Portuguese mariner whose expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe in 1519-22 in the service of Spain. Magellan was killed on the voyage in what is today the Philippines...
Definition
Eighty Years' War
The Eighty Years' War (1568-1648, also known as The Dutch Revolt and Dutch War of Independence) was a military conflict between the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands and Spain, which then governed them, beginning in the reign of King...
Definition
King John of England
King John of England (aka John Lackland) ruled from 1199 to 1216 CE and he has gone down in history as one of the very worst of English kings, both for his character and his failures. He lost the Angevin-Plantagenet lands in France and so...
Definition
Domesday Book
Domesday Book was a comprehensive survey and record of all the landowners, property, tenants and serfs of medieval Norman England. It was compiled in 1086-7 under the orders of William the Conqueror (r. 1066-87). The record is unique in European...
Definition
Sir Thomas Fairfax
Sir Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Baron Fairfax of Cameron (1612-1671), was the first and highly successful commander of the Parliamentarian New Model Army during the English Civil Wars (1642-1651). Fairfax's leadership, tactical prowess, and courage...
Definition
Magi
The Magi are the visitors who came to Bethlehem to worship the newly-born Jesus of Nazareth in the gospel of Matthew (2:1-2). 'Magi' is a transliteration of the Greek magos from old Persian magus ("powerful") as a reference to the Zoroastrian...
Definition
Portuguese Nagasaki
Nagasaki, on the northwest coast of Japan’s Kyushu Island, was an important Portuguese trading base from c. 1571 to 1639, and the most eastern outpost of the Portuguese empire. The Portuguese presence transformed Nagasaki from a small fishing...