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

monstrance
In the Roman Catholic Church, a vessel used from the 13th century to hold the Host (bread consecrated in the Eucharist) when exposed at benediction or in processions. ...

Monstrelet, Enguerrand de
(1390-1453) French chronicler. He was attached to the service of John of Luxembourg, and was at Compiègne when Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians. His Chronique, covering the years 1400-44,...

Montacute House
Elizabethan house in Somerset, England, 6 km/4 mi west of Yeovil. It was begun in 1588 by Thomas Phelips, and completed about 1601 by his son, Edward Phelips, Speaker of the House of Commons and...

montage
In art, a design made by sticking one material over another. Photomontage involves photographs being pasted together and overlaid, sometimes mixed with newspaper and magazine cuttings. This...

Montagna, Bartolommeo
(1450-1523) Italian painter. His religious works, their simplicity of design and sobriety of colour strongly influenced by Andrea Mantegna, made him the leading artist of Vicenza. His chief work is the...

Montagnard
Member of a group in the legislative assembly and National Convention convened after the French Revolution. They supported the more extreme aims of the revolution, and were destroyed as a political...

Montagu-Chelmsford reforms
Changes to the constitution of India in 1919, whereby Indians obtained greater control in local and some provincial matters such as health, education, and agriculture, while British administrators...

Montagu-Douglas-Scott
Family name of the dukes of Buccleuch; seated at Bowhill, Selkirk, Scotland; Boughton House, Northamptonshire, England; and Drumlanrig, Dumfriesshire, Scotland; descended from the Duke of Monmouth. ...

Montagu, (Montague Francis) Ashley
(1905-1999) British-born US anthropologist. As a critic of theories of racial determinism, he was a forceful defender of human rights and wrote such important works as Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy...

Montagu, Edwin Samuel
(1879-1924) British Liberal politician. He was financial secretary to the Treasury in 1914 and 1915, privy councillor and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1915, and minister of munitions in 1916. As...

Montagu, Elizabeth
(1720-1800) English writer. In 1742 she married Edward Montagu, grandson of the 1st Earl of Sandwich. She was one of the best-known and most popular of the bluestocking coterie, and entertained largely at...

Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley
(1689-1762) English society hostess. She was well known in literary circles, associating with writers such as the English poet Alexander Pope, with whom she later quarrelled. Her witty and erudite letters were...

Montague, C(harles) E(dward)
(1867-1928) English novelist and journalist. He was for many years chief leader writer on the Manchester Guardian. He was an important drama critic, and Dramatic Values (1911) contains some of his comments on...

Montague, John
(1929) Irish poet. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he spent his childhood on the family farm in County Tyrone, and studied in Dublin. His collections of verse include Tides (1970);The Rough Field (1972), about...

Montague, William Pepperell
(1873-1953) US philosopher. One of the `new realists` to coauthor a famous 1912 article expounding an alternative to the idealism then dominant in philosophy, his works include `The...

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de
(1533-1592) French writer. He is regarded as the creator of the essay form. In 1580 he published the first two volumes of his Essais; the third volume appeared in 1588, and the definitive edition was issued...

Montale, Eugenio
(1896-1981) Italian poet and writer. His pessimistic poetry expresses a personal, psychological drama, a sense of anguish at the immutability of destiny. For Montale, life is a vain search for salvation, yet in...

Montalvan, Juan Pérez de
Spanish dramatist; see Juan Pérez de Montalbán. ...

Montanes, Juan Martinez
(1568-1649) Spanish sculptor, widely considered one of Spain's greatest. His studio had a vast output of polychrome and gold-covered wooden altars and altar figures, some marked...

Montanism
Movement within the early Christian church that strove to return to the purity of primitive Christianity. It originated in Phrygia in about 156 with the teaching of a prophet named Montanus, and...

Montcalm-Gozon, Louis-Joseph de
(1712-1759) French general, appointed military commander in Canada in 1756. He won a succession of victories over the British during the French and Indian War, but was defeated in 1759 by James Wolfe at Québec...

Montecuccoli, Raimund
(1609-1680) Italian-born Austrian general. He fought in the Thirty Years' War, against the Swedes in 1657 and against the Turks who had invaded Transylvania 1660-64. In command of the imperial army sent to...

Montefiore, Moses Hayim
(1784-1885) Italian-born Jewish philanthropist. He became a member of the London Stock Exchange, made a large fortune, and retired from business in 1824 to devote himself to philanthropy. He did much to...

Montelius, Gustaf Oscar Augustin
(1843-1921) Swedish archaeologist. He devised a chronological system that divided the European Neolithic (New Stone Age) and Bronze Age into numbered periods with absolute dates. This system of classification...

Montemayor, Jorge de
(1519-1561) Spanish poet and novelist, born at Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal. He wrote the pastoral romance Diana in 1558, the first pastoral novel in Spain. ...

Montenegrin
Slavic inhabitants of Montenegro, whose culture has much in common with the Serbs. ...

Montenegro, Republic of
Country in southeastern Europe, bordering Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the sou ...

Montes, Ismael
(1861-1933) Bolivian liberal politician and president 1904-09 and 1913-17. His first term in office was marked by administrative reform and a rise in the success of, and support for, the Liberal Party....

Montesquiou-Fezensac, Robert
(1855-1921) French writer. His volumes of poetry include Les Chauves-souris 1893, Le Chef des odeurs suaves 1893, Les Hortensias bleus 1896, Les Perles rouges 1899, and Les Paons 1900. He will probably be...

Montez, Lola
(1818-1861) Irish actor and dancer. She appeared on the stage as a Spanish dancer, and in 1847 became the mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, whose policy she dictated for a year. Her liberal sympathies led...

Montezuma I
(c. 1390-1464) Aztec emperor of Mexico from 1436. He extended the Mexican conquest, rebuilt Tenochtitlán, the chief Aztec city, erecting houses of lime and stone on...

Montezuma II
(1466-1520) Aztec emperor of Mexico. He succeeded his uncle in 1502. Although he was a great warrior and legislator, heavy centralized taxation provoked resentment in outlying areas. When the Spanish...

Montfaucon, Bernard de
(1655-1741) French scholar. His edition of Athanasius 1698 established his reputation as a profound scholar. He published an account of his journey to Italy and three-year researches there, consulting...

Montfleury, Antoine Jacob
(1640-1685) French dramatist. He wrote numerous farces and comedies, many in imitation of Molière. They include L'Ecole des jaloux 1664, La Femme juge et partie 1669, and La Fille capitaine 1672. ...

Montfort, Simon de
(c. 1208-1265) English politician and soldier. From 1258 he led the baronial opposition to Henry III's misrule during the second Barons' War, and in 1264 defeated and captured the king at Lewes, Sussex. In 1265,...

Montgomerie, Alexander
(c. 1556-c. 1610) Scottish poet. His chief poem is The Cherrie and the Slae (1597), written in a 14-line stanza, of which Montgomerie may have been the inventor. Montgomerie also introduced the sonnet to Scotland....

Montgomery
State capital of Alabama, in Montgomery County, on the Alabama River; population (2000 est) 201,600. Linked to the port of Mobile by river, it is a long-established administrative and commercial...

Montgomery, Bernard Law
(1887-1976) English field marshal. In World War II he commanded the 8th Army in North Africa in the Second Battle of El ...

Montgomery, Edmund Duncan
(1835-1911) Scottish-born philosopher. His study, Philosophical Problems in the Light of Vital Organization (1907), analysed mind and body as aspects of one underlying reality. Born in Edinburgh, he emigrated...

Montgomery, Gabriel
(c. 1530-1574) French soldier and officer in the Scottish Guard of the king of France. He accidentally killed Henry II in a tournament and took refuge in England, where he became a Protestant. He returned to...

Montgomery, James
(1771-1854) Scottish poet and hymn-writer. In 1806 he produced his Wanderer of Switzerland and in 1810 published another volume of verse, The West Indies, appealing for the abolition of the slave trade. These...

Montgomery, Lucy Maude
(1874-1942) Canadian novelist. Her first novel, Anne of Green Gables 1908, was intended for children but delighted readers of all ages and became an international best-seller. OBE 1937. Sequels included Anne...

Montgomery, Robert
(1807-1855) English poet. He published The Omnipresence of the Deity 1828 and Satan 1830, which was scathingly reviewed in an article by Thomas Macaulay. This classic castigation appeared in the Edinburgh...

Montgomery, Treaty of
English treaty on 25 September 1267 in which Henry III recognized Llewellyn ap Gruffydd, king of Gwynedd as `Prince of Wales`. The treaty acknowledged his unique position in uniting the...

Monti, Vincenzo
(1754-1828) Italian poet. Most of his poems deal with current political events. La Bassvilliana 1793, on the murder of Hugo Basseville, the French ambassador in Rome, was written in imitation of Dante. His...

Monticelli, Adolphe Joseph Thomas
(1824-1886) French Romantic painter. He painted landscapes, portraits, and still lifes. His style, strongly influenced by Eugène Delacroix, is characterized by expressive brushwork and strong colours. A Walk...

Montmorency, Anne de
(1493-1567) French soldier. Became Marshal of France in 1522, and Constable in 1538. He distinguished himself in the wars between Francis I and Emperor Charles V, and after the French defeat at the battle of...

Montréal Protocol
International agreement, signed in 1987, to stop the production of chemicals that are ozone depleters by the year 2000. Originally the agreement was to reduce the production of ozone depleters by...

Montreux, Convention of
International agreement of 1936 allowing Turkey to remilitarize the Dardenelles. ...

Montségur
Site of the massacre in 1244 of the Albigenses as the infamous climax to the pope's `Albigensian Crusade`, organized in 1208. After being besieged for ten months in the fortress of Montségur,...

Montt, Manuel
(1809-1900) Chilean president 1851-61. He was a hardliner who promoted economic development, especially railway building, the telegraph, postal services, and gas lighting. His final years in office saw...

Montu
In ancient Egyptian mythology, the hawk-headed war god of the pharaohs from the 11th dynasty, when the Theban princes reunited Egypt. His chief cult centre was Hermonthis (Armant). He was later...

Monty Python's Flying Circus
English satirical TV comedy series 1969-74, written and performed by John Cleese, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, and the US animator Terry Gilliam. The series achieved cult...

Monument, the
Stone column commemorating the Fire of London in 1666, situated near the north approach to London Bridge and the site of the house in Pudding Lane where the conflagration began. It was designed by...

Moody, (Arthur Edson) Blair
(1902-1954) US journalist and senator. After winning acclaim as a Washington, DC, correspondent for the Detroit News, he was appointed to the US Senate (Democrat, Michig ...

Moody, Dwight Lyman
(1837-1899) US evangelist. During the American Civil War (1861-65), he provided medical and moral support to the troops. In the 1870s he became a popular evangelist, and founded the Northfield Seminary (now...

Moody, William Henry
(1853-1917) US Supreme Court justice. He prosecuted for Massachusetts in the Lizzie Borden murder trial. Born in Newbury, Massachusetts, Moody was elected to the US House of Representatives (Republican,...

Moody, William Vaughn
(1869-1910) US poet and playwright. Among his works are The Masque of Judgement 1900, a verse drama;Poems 1901;History of English Literature 1907; and The Great Divide 1909, a prose drama contrasting the...

Mool Mantra
Sikh mantra; the first hymn in the Guru Granth Sahib. The Mool Mantra sums up Sikh beliefs about God, and is said to be Guru Nanak's first teaching. Translated from the Gurmukhi script, it...

Moon
In mythology, the Moon has been revered by humans from very early times, and lunar myths are found among widely different races and cultures. These usually account for the waxing and waning of the...

Mooney, Edward (Francis)
(1882-1958) US Catholic prelate. As an official of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, he was a major Catholic spokesperson on social issues. Born in Mt Savage, Maryland, and ordained in 1909, he was a...

Mooney, James
(1861-1921) US ethnologist who became absorbed by North American Indian culture at an early age. Born in Richmond, Indiana, the son of Irish immigrants, he worked on a local newspaper before moving to...

Mooney, Ria
(1903-1973) Irish actor and drama teacher. She had a long association with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, her home town, and was its...

Mooney, Thomas (Joseph)
(1882-1942) US labour radical. Born the son of coal miner in Chicago, Illinois, he was converted to socialism on a trip to Europe (1907). Settling in San Francisco (1911), he became dedicated to left-wing...

Moonie
Popular name for a follower of the Unification Church, a religious sect founded by Sun Myung Moon. ...

Moor
Any of the northwestern African Muslims, of mixed Arab and Berber origin, who conquered Spain and ruled its southern part from 711 to 1492, when they were forced to renounce their faith and became...

Moor Park
House on the River Wey in Surrey, England, 3 km/2 mi from Farnham. It was the residence of William Temple, a diplomat, and here Jonathan Swift first met `Stella` (Hester Johnson), and wrote The...

Moorcock, Michael John
(1939) English writer. Associated with the 1960s new wave in science fiction, he was editor of the magazine New Worlds (1964-69). He wrote the Jerry Cornelius novels, collected as The Cornelius...

Moore, (John) Jeremy
(1928) British major general of the Commando Forces, Royal Marines, 1979-82. He commanded the land forces in the UK's conflict with Argentina over the Falklands in 1982. He was knighted in 1982. ...

Moore, Albert Joseph
(1841-1893) English painter and designer. His early works were Pre-Raphaelite, though by the mid-1860s, inspired by the Elgin marbles, he had turned to highly decorative recreations of ancient Greek...

Moore, Alfred
(1755-1810) US Supreme Court justice. He fought in the American Revolution (1776-81) and served as North Carolina's attorney general (1782-91), and on the state legislature (1782) before President John...

Moore, Brian
(1921-1999) Irish-born novelist. Born into a Catholic family in Belfast, he emigrated to Canada in 1948 and then to the USA in 1959. His books include Judith Hearne (1955), reissued in the USA as The Lonely...

Moore, Charles
(1925-1993) US architect with an eclectic approach to design. He was an early exponent of postmodernism in, for example, his students' housing for Kresge College, University of California at Santa Cruz,...

Moore, Clarence Bloomfield
(1852-1936) US archaeologist. He was a meticulous fieldworker; of his many studies of Indian mounds throughout southeastern USA, his excavations of the St John's shell middens in Florida (1892-94) were of...

Moore, Edward
(1712-1757) English dramatist. His domestic tragedy The Gamester 1753 had some influence on the development of French bourgeois drama. ...

Moore, Francis
(1657-c. 1715) English astrologer and almanac maker. His Vox Stellarum/Voice of the Stars, an almanac containing forecasts based on astrology, first appeared in 1700 and is still published yearly...

Moore, G(eorge) E(dward)
(1873-1958) English philosopher who generally defended common-sense views of the world and what is said about it in ordinary language. In ethics, he held that any attempt to identify goodness with another...

Moore, Gabriel
(1785-1845) US representative and senator. A lawyer, congressman (Democrat, Alabama; 1821-29), and governor (1829-31), he began the Muscle Shoals Canal and the state university before going to the Senate...

Moore, George Augustus
(1852-1933) Irish novelist. In his early work he introduced an element of the realism associated with the French novelist Emile Zola, revitalizing the Victorian novel. His debut A Modern Lover 1883 was sexually...

Moore, John
(1761-1809) Scottish-born British general. In 1808 he commanded the British army sent to Portugal in the Peninsular War. After advancing into Spain he had to retreat to Coruña in the northwest, and was...

Moore, John
(1729-1802) Scottish novelist. Thomas Carlyle made use of...

Moore, John Bassett
(1860-1947) US international jurist. He was the first US judge on the World Court (1921-28). Among his extensive writings and compilations was Digest of International Law (8 vols. 1906). Born in Smyrna,...

Moore, Mary
(1862-1931) English actor. She acted in numerous plays with her second husband, Charles Wyndham, and became a partner with him in running the Criterion, Wyndham's, and the New (now Albery) Theatre, London. Her...

Moore, Mike
(1949) New Zealand Labour centre-left politician, prime minister in 1990. He was in power for only 60 days - the second shortest time in office (behind F H Dillon Bell) of the 20th century - being...

Moore, Thomas
(1779-1852) Irish poet. Among his works are the verse romance Lalla Rookh (1817) and Irish Melodies (1807-34), for which the music was arranged by John Stevenson (1761-1833); the songs include `The...

Moore, Thomas Sturge
(1870-1944) English poet and art critic. His chief volumes of verse are The Vinedresser 1899, The Centaur's Booty 1903, Danae 1903, Marianne 1911, The Sea is Kind 1914, Medea 1920, and Psyche in Hades 1930....

Moorhouse, Geoffrey
(1931) English travel writer. His books include The Fearful Void (1974), The Best-Loved Game (1979) (on cricket), To The Frontier (1984), and Sydney (2000). His later novel, Sun Dancing: A Medieval...

Moorish
In architecture, a style similar to Moroccan and Islamic art. It featured horseshoe arches, elaborate decorative, intertwining patterns, and intricate mosaic work. The Moors were a mixed Berber and...

mop fair
Formerly an annual event in country towns, held every Michaelmas (29 September), at which farmers and landowners engaged their labourers and servants for the year ahead. The custom fell into disuse...

Mopla
Member of a Muslim people living on the Malabar Coast of India, They are traders, and trace descent through the female line. ...

moquette
Textile woven in the same manner as velvet (with cut or uncut pile) from coarse wool and linen yarns, usually for upholstery or carpeting. By introducing rods during weaving, the thread...

Mor, Anthonis
(c. 1517-1577) Dutch portraitist. He became court painter to the Spanish rulers in the Netherlands in 1549 and was widely patronized at the courts of Europe. Suitably formal and austere, his portraits of...

Moraes, Dom
(1938-2004) English poet. His first book of verse, A Beginning (1957), won the Hawthornden prize. Gone Away (1960) is a travel book and My Son's Father (1968) an autobiography. His collected poems were...

Morais, Sabato
(1823-1897) Italian-born rabbi. An abolitionist, he later concerned himself with raising funds for the Russian Jews who settled in the USA. In opposition to the rising tide of Reform Judiasm, he helped found...

moral argument
One of four traditional lines of reasoning for the existence of God. It has several subtle forms. One is that without a just God to ensure that virtue is rewarded by happiness, morality would be...

moral majority movement
In the USA, a right-wing evangelical Christian pressure group, which promotes traditional family values and is opposed to abortion, gay rights, single parenthood, feminism, the Equal Rights...

Moral Rearmament
International movement calling for `moral and spiritual renewal`, founded by the Christian evangelist F N D Buchman in the 1920s as the Oxford Group. It based its teachings on the `Four...

Morales, Luis de
(1509-1586) Spanish painter. He worked in isolation, developing a style that brought both Flemish and Italian elements to a strong Spanish tradition. A typical work, often repeated with slight variations, is...

morality
In ethics, a morality can be defined as having three essential components: (1) a community of responsible agents, for morality concerns our behaviour towards others and their behaviour towards us;...

morality play
Didactic medieval European verse drama, in part a development of the mystery play (or miracle play), in which human characters are replaced by personified virtues and vices, the limited humorous...