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The History Channel - Encyclopedia Category: History and Culture > History Date & country: 02/12/2007, UK Words: 25833

guillotine
In politics, a device used by UK governments in which the time allowed for debating a bill in the House of Commons is restricted so as to ensure its speedy passage to receiving the royal assent...

guillotine
Beheading device consisting of a metal blade that descends between two posts. It was common in the Middle Ages and was introduced to France in 1791 by physician Joseph Ignace Guillotin...

Guimard, Hector Germain
(1867-1942) French architect. He was a leading exponent of the art nouveau style in France. His flamboyant designs of glazed canopies for a number of Paris Métro station exteriors are one of art nouveau's most...

Guinea
Name formerly applied to a large part of the west coast of Africa stretching from the Gambia to the Zaire rivers, and extending inland to the borders of western Sudan. The name came into use during...

Guinea
Country in West Africa, bounded north by Senegal, northeast by Mali, southeast by Côte d'Ivoire, south by Liberia and Sierra Leone, west by the Atlantic Ocean,...

guinea
English gold coin, notionally worth 21 shillings (£1.05). It has not been minted since 1817, when it was superseded by the gold sovereign, but was used until 1971 in billing professional fees....

Guinea-Bissau
Country in West Africa, bounded north by Senegal, east and southeast by Guinea, and southwest by the Atlantic Ocean. Government The 1984 constitution was amended in 1991 to legalize parties other...

Guinevere
In British legend, the wife of King Arthur. Her adulterous love affair with the knight Guinizelli, Guido
(c. 1230-1276) Italian poet. Only a handful of canzoni and sonnets by him are in existence, the best known being the canzone `Al cor gentil ripara sempre amore`, generally viewed as the manifesto of the dolce...

Guinness affair
In British law, a case of financial fraud during the takeover of Distillers by the brewing company Guinness in 1986. Those accused of acting illegally to sustain Guinness share prices included...

Guinness, Benjamin Lee
(1798-1868) Irish brewer, who was largely responsible for establishing the widespread popularity of the distinctive dark Guinness stout. Under his directorship, the family business grew into the largest of its...

Guinzburg, Alfred (Kleinert)
(1899-1961) US publisher. He cofounded Viking Press in 1925 and headed it until his death, acquiring the works of such authors as James Joyce, D H Lawrence, and August Strindberg. In 1926 he founded the...

Guiraut de Bornelh
Alternative spelling of Giraud de Borneil, Provençal troubadour. ...

Guise, Battle of
In World War I, unsuccessful French assault on German forces at St Quentin 29-30 August 1914. The attack failed to achieve its objective but succeeded in delaying the German advance. The attack,...

Guise, Francis
(1519-1563) French soldier and politician. He led the French victory over Germany at Metz in 1552 and captured Calais from the English in 1558. Along with his bro ...

Guise, Henri
(1550-1588) French noble who persecuted the Huguenots and was partly responsible for the Massacre of St Bartholomew in 1572. He was assassinated. ...

Guiteau, Charles Julius
(1841-1882) US assassin. He unreasonably expected to be offered a diplomatic post by the administration of President James Garfield, and when he failed in this pursuit Failing in this, he shot the president...

Guiterman, Arthur
(1871-1943) US poet. He published many volumes of popular light verse, including The Laughing Muse 1915, Ballads of Old New York 1920, and Brave Laughter 1943. ...

Guitry, Lucien-Germain
(1860-1925) French actor, theatre manager, and dramatist. He was for some years manager of the Théâtre de la Renaissance, where he acted in a number of his own plays. Among his other parts were Coupeau in...

Guitry, Sacha
(1885-1957) French dramatist, actor, and film director. He wrote over 100 pieces, mostly witty comedies, including Nono (1905), and acted in most of them. In 1919 he became the manager of his own theatre in...

Guittone d'Arezzo
(c. 1230-1294) Italian poet. In his youth he wrote mainly love poems, imitating the style of the Provençal troubadours, but he experienced a conversion about 1286 and entered a religious order. After this his...

Guizot, François Pierre Guillaume
(1787-1874) French politician and historian, professor of modern history at the Sorbonne, Paris 1812-30. He wrote histories of French and European culture and became prime minister 1847. His resistance to all...

Gujarati
Inhabitants of Gujarat on the northwest coast of India. The Gujaratis number approximately 30 million and speak their own Indo-European language, Gujarati, which has a long literary tradition....

gulag
Russian term for the system of prisons and labour camps used to silence dissidents and opponents of the Soviet regime. In the Stalin era (1920s-1930s), thousands of prisoners died from the harsh...

Gulf Cooperation Council
Arab organization for promoting peace in the Gulf area, established 1981. Its declared purpose is `to bring about integration, coordination, and cooperation in economic, social, defence, and...

Gulf War
War 16 January-28 February 1991 between Iraq and a coalition of 28 nations led by the USA. The invasion and annexation of Kuwait by Iraq on 2 August 1990 provoked a build-up of US troops in...

Gulliver's Travels
Satirical novel by the Irish writer Jonathan Swift published in 1726. The four countries visited by the narrator Gulliver ridicule different aspects of human...

Gumilev, Nikolai Stepanovich
(1886-1921) Russian poet, essayist, and translator. Together with his wife, the poet Anna Akhmatova, he founded in 1912 the Acmeist movement, which promoted clarity and precision, in a reaction to the...

Gummer, John Selwyn
(1939) British Conservative politician. He was minister of state for employment 1983-84, chair of the party 1983-85, paymaster general 1984-85, minister...

gun control
Attempts to legislate the right to own and bear arms. The difference in the situation between Britain and the USA with regard to gun laws is in marked contrast - Britain's gun laws have always...

gun tank
In World War I, British tank designed to carry a 60-pounder (5-inch) gun across broken ground. It resembled the regular tanks of the period but...

gunboat diplomacy
Form of diplomacy in which threats of force are used to achieve an end. The term arose during the Agadir Incident. ...

Gundestrup Cauldron
Silver-plated copper bowl of uncertain date (c. 100 BC-c.AD 300) now in the National Museum, Copenhagen. Embossed scenes possibly include representations of the Celtic...

Gunn, Neil Miller
(1891-1974) Scottish novelist. His first novel, Grey Coast (1926), at once brought him recognition and was followed by a series of others including The Lost Glen (1932), Butcher's Broom (1934), Wild Geese...

Gunn, Thom(son) William
(1929-2004) English poet. One of his finest works is `Misanthropos`, in the collectionsTouch (1967), which explores the tough humanism of the last man alive after an atomic catastrophe. His other volumes of...

Gunning, Elizabeth
(1734-1790) Irishwoman. In 1751 she and her sister, Maria Gunning, went to London and in 1752, Elizabeth married James, 6th Duke of Hamilton, who died in 1758. In the following year she married John Campbell,...

Gunning, Maria
(1733-1760) Irishwoman. She married George William, 6th Earl of Coventry. ...

Gunpowder Plot
In British history, the Catholic conspiracy to blow up James I and his parliament on 5 November 1605. It was discovered through an anonymous letter. Guy Fawkes was found in the cellar beneath the...

Gunther
King of Burgundy and husband of Brunhild in the German epic poem the Nibelungenlied. He corresponds to Gunnar in the Norse legend of the Nibelungs. ...

Gunther, John
(1901-1970) US author and journalist. His best-selling book, Inside Europe (1936), was followed by a series of Inside.. books, including Inside USA (1944), which combined personal observation with historic...

Guomindang
Chinese National People's Party formed in 1912 after the overthrow of the Manchu Empire, and led by Sun Zhong Shan (Sun Yat-sen). The Guomindang was an amalgamation of small political groups,...

Gupta dynasty
Indian hereditary rulers that reunified and ruled over much of northern and central India 320-550. The dynasty's stronghold lay in the Magadha region of the middle Ganges valley, with the capital...

Gur, Lough
Crescent-shaped lake central to an extensive prehistoric settlement in County Limerick, Republic of Ireland; one of the most complete Neolithic and Bronze Age habitation sites in Europe. Neolithic...

Guralnik, David B(ernard)
(1920) US lexicographer. He coedited Webster's New World Dictionary (1953) for the World Publishing Company and thereby established a major new line of college dictionaries in the American market. As...

Gurdjieff, George Ivanovitch
(1877-1949) Russian occultist and mystic who influenced the modern human-potential movement. He wrote a book called Meetings with Remarkable Men (English translation 1963). The mystic Ouspensky was a disciple...

gurdwara
Sikh place of worship and meeting. As well as a room housing the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book and focus for worship, the gurdwara contains the langar, a kitchen and eating area for the communal...

Gurkha
Member of any of several peoples living in the mountains of Nepal: the Gurung, Limbu, Magar, Rai, and Tamang, whose young men have been recruited since 1815 for the British and Indian armies. They...

Gurney, Ivor (Bertie)
(1890-1937) English poet and composer. He was a poet both of the Gloucestershire countryside and of the war at the front. Severn and Somme was published in 1917 and War's Embers in 1919. Though his third volume...

Gurney, Joseph
(1788-1847) English Quaker and philanthropist. He worked for the abolition of slavery and of capital punishment and for prison reform. In the latter he was closely associated with his sister, Elizabeth Fry. He...

gurpurb
Sikh festival celebrating a special event associated with the lives of the gurus. The most important celebrate...

Gursel, Cemal
(1895-1966) Turkish soldier and politician. Became commander-in-chief of the Turkish land forces in 1958. After leading an army coup in 1960 he became president of the Committee of National Unity, head of...

guru
Hindu or Sikh leader, or religious teacher. Hinduism In Hindu tradition, the guru, who is well versed in the scriptures, offers valuable spiritual assistance. He or she may assist their listener in...

Guru Granth Sahib
The holy book of Sikhism, a collection of nearly 6,000 hymns by the first five and the ninth Sikh gurus, but also including the writings of some Hindus...

Gush Emunim
Israeli fundamentalist group, founded 1973, which claims divine right to settlement of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights as part of Israel. The claim is sometimes...

Gusmão, Xanana Alexandre
(1946) East Timorese politician, president 2002-2007. Gusmão was head of the Frente Revoluciánaria do Timor Leste Independente (Fretilin; Revolutionary Front of an Independent East Timor)...

Gustav Gerät
German railway gun of World War II, the largest gun ever built. Of 80 cm/31.5 in calibre, it weighed 1,328 tonnes and fired a 4.73 ton shell to 47 km/29.2 mi or a 7 ton shell to 38 km/23.6 mi range....

Gustav Line
In World War II, German defensive line in Italy running from the mouth of the Garigliano River through Cassino and across the Apennines to a point south of Ortona. After the US 5th Army's breakout...

Gustavus Adolphus
(1594-1632) King of Sweden from 1611, when he succeeded his father Charles IX. He waged successful wars with Denmark, Russia, and Poland, and in the Thirty Years' War became a champion of the Protestant cause....

Gustavus I (or Gustaf I)
King of Sweden, better known as Gustavus Vasa. ...

Gustavus II (or Gustaf II)
King of Sweden, better known as Gustavus Adolphus. ...

Gustavus III
(1746-1792) King of Sweden from 1771. After his coup d'etat (1772) he attempted to rule as an enlightened despot, but his increasing dictatorship led to opposition. After political opposition at home and...

Gustavus IV
(1778-1837) King of Sweden from 1792. He joined the Northern powers (1800), changed sides to the Bourbons (1803) and subsequently allied himself with the coalition against Napoleon. By the end of 1808 it was...

Gustavus V (or Gustaf V)
(1858-1950) King of Sweden from 1907, when he succeeded his father Oscar II. He married Princess Victoria, daughter of the Grand Duke of Baden 1881, thus uniting the reigning Bernadotte dynasty with the former...

Gustavus Vasa
(1496-1560) King of Sweden from 1523, when he was elected after leading the Swedish revolt against Danish rule. He united and pacified the country and established Lutheranism as the state religion. ...

Gustavus VI (or Gustaf VI)
(1882-1973) King of Sweden from 1950, when he succeeded his father Gustavus V. He was an archaeologist and expert on Chinese art. He was succeeded by his grandson Carl XVI Gustavus. His first wife was Princess...

Guston, Philip
(1913-1980) Canadian-born US painter. Initially inspired by the Mexican muralists, he developed a fluid, abstract style in the 1950s. He later returned to a harsh, dynamic figuration, satirizing contemporary...

Guterson, David
(1956) US author. He is perhaps best known for Snow Falling on Cedars (1995) which won the PEN/Faulkner award (and was filmed in 1999). Other books include The Country Ahead of Us, the Country Behind...

Guthrie, (William) Tyrone
(1900-1971) English theatre director. He was notable for his innovative approach. Administrator of the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells theatres 1939-45, he helped found the Ontario (Stratford) Shakespeare Festival...

Guthrie, Thomas
(1803-1873) Scottish preacher and philanthropist. He was appointed as one of the ministers of Old Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh (1837), and to St John's parish in the same city (1840). A pioneer of Scottish...

Guthrum
(died 890) Danish soldier. He was defeated by Alfred at the battle of Edington, Wiltshire (878). The subsequent treaty at Wedmore divided England between the Danes and Alfred. The portion north and east of a...

Guthrum
Danish king of East Anglia. He led a large Danish invasion of Anglo-Saxon England 878 but was defeated by King Alfred at the Battle of Edington 878. His reign 880-890 was mostly peaceful. ...

Gutman, Herbert (George)
(1928-1985) US historian. He emerged as a social historian who advocated study of the `faceless masses who worked to make America what it is today` for the goal of empowering social change. At the City...

Guttuso, Renato
(1912-1987) Italian painter. He was a leading exponent of social realism during and after World War II and a committed anti-Fascist. While other artists explored abstraction in the 1950s, Guttuso adhered to...

Gutzkow, Karl Ferdinand
(1811-1878) German dramatist and writer. He was imprisoned for one month for bringing Christianity into contempt in his novel Wally, die Zweiflerin/Wally the Skeptic 1835. His plays include the tragedy Richard...

Guy of Warwick
Hero of a Middle English romance of about 1300, versions of which existed in France in the 13th century. The story is an account of Guy's foreign wars and his love of and marriage to Felice,...

Guyana
Country in South America, bounded north by the Atlantic Ocean, east by Suriname, south and southwest by Brazil, and northwest by Venezuela. Government Guyana is a sovereign republic within the...

Guys, Constantin
(1805-1892) Dutch-born French illustrator. He is remembered for his witty drawings of Paris life during the Second Empire. He was with the English poet Byron at Missolonghi, Greece, and made sketches of the...

Guzmán Blanco, Antonio
(1829-1899) Venezuelan dictator and military leader (caudillo), who seized power 1870 and remained absolute ruler until 1889. He modernized Caracas to become the political capital; committed resources to...

Guzmán de Alfarache
A novel by the Spanish writer Mateo Alemán, published 1599-1604. One of the first picaresque novels, it became extremely popular, was widely translated, and established the fashion for the genre...

Gwyn (or Gwynn), Nell (Eleanor)
(1650-1687) English comedy actor from 1665. She was formerly an orange-seller at Drury Lane Theatre, London. The poet Dryden wrote parts for her, and from 1669 she was the mistress of Charles II. ...

Gwynedd, kingdom of
Medieval Welsh kingdom comprising north Wales and Anglesey. It was the most powerful kingdom in Wales during the 10th and 11th centuries: its king Gruffydd ap Llewellyn dominated Wales in the...

Gyanendra, Bir Bikram Shah Deva
(1947) King of Nepal from 2001. He took the throne on 4 June 2001 after the death of his nephew, Crown Prince Dipendra, who had massacred Gyanendra's brother, King Birendra, Birendra's wife and Dipendra's...

Güiraldes, Ricardo
(1886-1927) Argentine novelist and poet. Contact with French avant-garde writing in Paris in 1910 influenced the controversially innovative poetry and prose of his collection El cencerro de cristal/The...

gymnasium
In ancient Greece, originally a public sports ground. The gymnasium later formed a complex of buildings, with separate places for the various exercises, a stadium, baths, and a covered portico for...

Gypsy
English name for a member of the Romany people. ...

Gysi, Gregor
(1948) German politician, elected leader of the Communist Party in December 1989 following the resignation of Egon Krenz. He continued to lead the party after it was renamed the Party of Democratic...

ha-ha
In landscape gardening, a sunken boundary wall permitting an unobstructed view beyond a garden; a device much used by Capability Brown. ...

ha-Levi, Judah
(c. 1080-1140) Spanish poet, philosopher, and physician. Over 1,100 of his poems survive, 800 of which are secular and 300 religious. His religious verses are still used as prayers by Jewish congregations. He...

Haakon (I) the Good
(c. 915-961) King of Norway from about 935. The son of Harald Hárfagri (`Finehair`) (c. 850-930), king of Norway, he was raised in England. He seized the Norwegian throne and tried unsuccessfully to...

Haakon IV
(1204-1263) King of Norway from 1217, the son of Haakon III. Under his rule, Norway flourished both militarily and culturally; he took control of the Faroe Islands, Greenland in 1261, and Iceland 1262-64. His...

Haakon VII
(1872-1957) King of Norway from 1905. Born Prince Charles, the second son of Frederick VIII of Denmark, he was elected king of Norway on the country's separation from Sweden, and in 1906 he took the name...

Haarlem, Battle of
Seige of the town of Haarlem, capital of the province of North Holland, by 30,000 Spanish troops from 11 December 1572-12 July 1573 during the Netherlands War of Independence. Although severely...

Haavelmo, Trygve
(1911-1999) Norwegian economist who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1989 for his work in econometrics, published as Probability Approach in Econometrics (1944). After 1947, he turned away from econometrics...

Habakkuk
Prophet in, and book of, the Old Testament. ...

Habberton, John
(1842-1921) US writer. His most popular work was Helen's Babies 1876. He also wrote the play Deacon Crankett 1880 and the novel Other People's Children 1877. He was on the editorial staff of the...

habeas corpus
In law, a writ directed to someone who has custody of a person, ordering him or her to bring the person before the court issuing the writ and to justify why the person...

Habermas, Jürgen
(1929) German social theorist, a member of the Frankfurt school. His central concern is how a meaningful engagement in politics and society is possible in a society dominated by science...

Habib, Philip C(harles)
(1920-1992) US diplomat. He was a US delegate to the Vietnam War negotiations in Paris (1968-71), where he was noted for his skill and flexibility. He subsequently served as ambassador to the Republic of...

Habibie, Bacharuddin Jusuf
(1936) Indonesian politician, president 1998-99. Elected vice-president of Indonesia in March 1998, he became president in May after president Habington, William
(1605-1654) English poet. In 1634 he published Castara, a volume of lyrical poems, some of which are notable for their purity. He also wrote The Historie of Edward the Fourth 1640;The Queene of Arragon 1640, a...