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

Cid, The
Tragicomedy by Pierre Corneille (1637) based on the epic of El Cid. The lovers Rodrigue and Chimène are separated by a quarrel between their fathers. Rodrigue kills Chimène's father in a duel, but...

Cielo D'Alcamo
Italian poet. He is known only as the author of a spirited Contrasto between a lover and his lady, which is among the earliest documents of Italian literature. ...

cigarette card
Card included in packets of cigarettes, bearing a printed view, drawing, portrait, or other illustration, usually one of a numbered series. Cigarette cards originated in the USA in the 1870s and...

Cigoli, Lodovico Cardi da
(1559-1613) Italian painter. Nearly all of his paintings are fervent treatments of religious subjects, usually saints, typical of the Italian art of the Cilian, St
(c.640-689) Irish apostle. Born at Mullagh in County Cavan, he set off on a mission with Saints Colman and Totnan to bring Christianity to the Germanic tribes of Thuringia and Franconia. He and his companions...

Ciller, Tansu
(1946) Turkish politician, prime minister 1993-96 and a forthright exponent of free-market economic policies. She won the leadership of the centre-right True Path Party and the premiership on the...

Cima, Giovanni Battista
(c. 1459-c. 1517) Italian painter. His use of colour was distinctive and he often set his Madonnas against a landscape: his Virgin and Child used his native town and its castle as the background. His work resembles...

Cimabue, Giovanni
(c. 1240-1302) Italian painter. Active in Florence, he is traditionally styled the `father of Italian painting`. His paintings retain the golden background of Byzantine art but the figures have a new...

Cimbri
A Germanic people probably from north Jutland, Denmark. They migrated south in the second century BC, but were driven out of Spain by the Celtiberi and were annihilated by the Romans under Gaius...

Cimmerii
Ancient tribe which originally occupied the region of the Sea of Azov, northeast of the Black Sea, and Asiatic Sarmatia. Driven out by the Scythians, they moved into Asia Minor and invaded Lydia...

Cimon
(c. 512-449 BC) Athenian general and statesman, son of Miltiades. He helped Aristides in the formation of the Delian League (478-77 BC) against Persia and commanded the Athenian fleet in campaigns in the Aegean,...

Cincinnatus, Lucius Quinctius
(lived 5th century BC) Roman general. Having served as consul in 460 BC, he retired from political life to work on his farm. However, he was called back and appointed dictator in 458 BC, and he defeated the Aequi (an...

Cinderella
Traditional European fairy tale, of which about 700 versions exist, including one by Charles Perrault. Cinderella is an ill-treated youngest daughter who is enabled by a fairy godmo ...

cinerary urn
Any vessel for containing the ashes of a cremated body. Usually made of clay, glass, or sculptured marble, a typical urn is large and flowerpot-shaped, decorated only on the top. Other varieties...

Cinna, Gaius Helvius
(died 44 BC) Roman poet and friend of Catullus. As tribune of the plebs, he was murdered by the mob after Caesar's funeral in mistake for his namesake, L Cornelius Cinna. Fragments of his poems `Smyrna` and...

Cinna, Lucius Cornelius
(died 84 BC) Roman magistrate and politician, and opponent of the leader of the senatorial party Sulla. He was consul 87 BC and again 86-84 BC, having seized power by force. Before leaving Rome to campaign...

Cino da Pistoia
(c. 1265-c. 1336) Italian poet and jurist. His love lyrics, although generally classified as belonging to the dolce stil nuovo (the sweet new style, characterized by clarity and philosophical treatment), anticipate...

Cinque Ports
Group of ports in southern England, originally five, Sandwich, Dover, Hythe, Romney, and Hastings, later including Rye, Winchelsea, and others. Probably founded in Roman times, they rose to...

Ciompi, the Revolt of
A revolt in Florence, Italy, in July 1378 by the Ciompi - the low-paid day-labourers in Florence's wool industry - against the guilds who ran the industry. They seized power with the help of...

Circassian
Member of a group of Caucasian-speaking peoples living in the northern Caucasus in Russia, and in small groups in Syria, Jordan, and Turkey. Until the middle of the 19th century they inhabited...

Circe
In Greek mythology, an enchantress living on the island of Aeaea. In Homer's Odyssey, she turned the followers of Odysseus into pigs. Odysseus, protected by the herb moly provided by Hermes,...

circuit
In law, the geographic district that constitutes a particular area of jurisdiction. In the USA the Court of Appeals sits in ten judicial areas or circuits - hence circuit courts - and...

circular flow of income
Model that describes how money and resources flow round the economy. In a simple circular-flow model where there is no government and no foreign trade, money spent on consumer goods flows from...

circulating asset
Or current asset any asset of a business that could be turned into cash in a limited period of time, generally less than a year. ...

circumcision
Surgical removal of all or part of the foreskin (prepuce) of the penis, usually performed on the newborn; it is practised among Jews (b'rit milah) and Muslims as a sign of God's covenant with the...

Circumcision, Feast of
Roman Catholic and Anglican religious festival, celebrated annually on 1 January in commemoration of Jesus' circumcision. ...

circumnavigation
Sailing around the world. The first ship to sail around the world was the Victoria, one of a Spanish squadron of five vessels that sailed from Seville in 1519 under the Portuguese navigator...

circus
Entertainment, often held in a large tent (`big top`), involving performing animals, acrobats, and clowns. In 1871 P T Barnum created the `Greatest Show on Earth` in the USA. The popularity...

cire perdue
Bronze-casting method. A model is made of wax and enclosed in an envelope of clay and plaster, with a small hole in the bottom. When heat is applied, the wax melts...

Cisalpine Gaul
Region of the Roman province of Gallia (northern Italy) south of the Alps;Transalpine Gaul, the region north of the Alps, comprised what is now Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. The...

Cisneros, Henry (Gabriel)
(1947) US mayor and secretary of Housing and Urban Affairs 1993-97. As mayor of his home city of San Antonio, Texas, 1982-90, he gained a national reputation for being a Latin American progressive in...

cist
Receptacle for the body or ashes in early burials. Made from a variety of materials including tiles, dressed or rough stone, wood, or brick, cists...

Cistercian order
Roman Catholic monastic order established at Cîteaux in 1098 by St Robert de Champagne, abbot of Molesmes, as a stricter form of the Benedictine order. Living mainly by agricultural labour, the...

Citizen's Charter
Series of proposals aimed at improving public services in the UK, unveiled by prime minister John Major in 1991. Major's `programme for a decade` covered the activities of a range of...

citizenship
Status as a member of a state. In most countries citizenship may be acquired either by birth or by naturalization. The status confers rights such as voting and the protection of the law and also...

Civic Forum
Czech democratic movement, formed in November 1989, led by Václav Havel. In December 1989 it participated in forming a coalition government after the collapse of communist rule in Czechoslovakia....

civil disobedience
Deliberate breaking of laws considered unjust, a form of nonviolent direct action; the term was coined by the US writer Henry Thoreau in an essay of that name in 1849. It was advocated by Mahatma...

civil law
Legal system based on Roman law. It is one of the two main European legal systems, English (common) law being the other. Civil law may also mean the law relating to matters other than criminal law,...

civil list
In the UK, the annual sum provided from public funds to meet the official expenses of the sovereign and immediate dependents; private expenses are met by the privy purse. The amount is granted by...

civil protection
Alternative term for civil defence. ...

civil rights
Rights of the individual citizen. In many countries they are specified (as in the Bill of Rights of the US constitution) and guaranteed by law to ensure equal treatment for all citizens. In...

Civil Rights Act 1957
US legislation that created the Commission on Civil Rights to investigate civil rights violations, and the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division to enforce federal civil rights, especially...

Civil Rights Act 1964
US legislation that outlawed discrimination on the grounds of a person's colour, race, national origin, religion, or sex. Rights protected under the act include a person's freedom to seek...

Civil Rights Cases
Five Supreme Court cases 1883 that tested the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which guaranteed protection from racial discrimination by private citizens. Congress considered this protection implicit in...

civil service
Body of administrative staff employed to carry out the policy of a government. Members of the UK civil service may not take any active part in politics, and do not change with the government. In the...

civil war
War between rival groups within the same country. ...

Civil War, American
War (1861-65) between the Southern or Confederate States of America (see Confederacy) and...

Civil War, English
Conflict between King Charles I and the Royalists (also called Cavaliers) on one side and the Parliamentarians (also called Roundheads) on the other. Their differences centred initially on the...

Civil War, Irish
In Irish history, a conflict, 1922-23, that followed the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921), which established the partition of Ireland into the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. In...

Civil War, Spanish
War (1936-39) precipitated by a military revolt led by General Franco against the Republican government. Inferior military capability led to the gradual defeat of the Republicans by 1939, and the...

civil-list pension
In the UK, pension paid to people in need who have just claims on the royal beneficence, who have rendered personal service to the crown, or who have rendered service to the public by their...

civil-rights movement
US movement especially active during the 1950s and 60s that aimed to end segregation and discrimination against blacks, as well as affirm their constitutional rights and improve their status in...

Civiletti, Benjamin R (Richard)
(1935) US lawyer and attorney general. Assistant attorney general in the new Carter administration in 1977, he was promoted to deputy attorney general in 1978 and then to attorney general 1979-81. He...

civilization
Highly developed human society with structured division of labour. The earliest civilizations evolved in the Old World from advanced Neolithic farming societies in the Middle East (Sumer in 3500 BC;...

cladding
Thin layer of external covering on a building; for example, tiles, wood, stone, concrete. ...

Claes, Willy
(1938) Belgian politician, secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) 1994-95, with a proven reputation as a consensus-builder. He was a clear favourite for the post, but...

Claflin, Tennessee Celeste
US spiritualist, entrepreneur, and activist; see Woodhull and Claflin. ...

Claiborne, Craig
(1920-2000) US chef and author. A trained journalist, he was food editor of the New York Times 1957-88; his stylish but impartial restaurant reviews set a new standard for food reporting. His cookbooks...

Claiborne, William
(c. 1587-c. 1677) English-born American colonist and agitator. A Virginia colonist, he feuded with the Lords of Baltimore over the right to a settlement on Kent Island in the Chesapeake Bay. He incited an...

claim of right
Declaration by the Scottish estates in 1689 accompanying their recognition of the new regime of William and Mary following the `Glorious Revolution` of 1688. The declaration asserted the right...

Clain, Samuil
(1745-1806) Romanian historian and philologist. In his historical works he argued the Latin origin of the Romanians. Elementa linguae Daco-Romanae (1780) proposed the use of Latin orthography for writing...

clairaudience
In parapsychology, the alleged faculty of being able to hear sounds inaudible to the normal ear, associated with spiritualist mediums and clairvoyance. ...

Clairon
(1723-1803) French actor. She made her debut in 1743 at the Comédie Française, Paris, in the part of Phaedra in Racine's Phèdre, and went on to play many roles 1743-66. She...

clairvoyance
Alleged faculty of being able to see objects, events, and persons that are not visible by ordinary means and may even be distant in time or place. It is a prominent feature of spiritualism and has...

Clampitt, Amy
(1920-1994) US poet. Her first major collection of poems, The Kingfisher (1983), influenced by the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, contained descriptions of the...

clan
Social grouping based on kinship. Some traditional societies are organized by clans, which are either matrilineal or patrilineal, and whose members must marry into another clan in...

Clan-Na-Gael
Secret society formed by Fenians (see Fenian movement) in the USA about 1883. Its object was to force the British government to give home rule to Ireland. The headquarters of the society were in...

Clancy, Tom
(1947) US writer who originated the genre `techno-thriller`. He writes about the US military and his attention to technological detail is so great that some of his novels are on the reading lists of...

Clandon Park
House near Guildford, Surrey, England, which was built around 1735 by Giacomo Leoni (1686-1746) for the 2nd Lord Onslow. It was given to the National Trust by the Countess of Iveagh in 1956. The...

Clann na Poblachta
Former Irish political party founded by Sean MacBride in 1946. Its aims included the reintegration of the whole of Ireland as an independent republic and the restoration of the Irish language. It...

Clanvowe, John
(c. 1341-1391) English poet and courtier. His poem The Cuckoo and the Nightingale was once attributed to Geoffrey Chaucer and later associated with his nephew Thom ...

Clapham sect
Early 19th-century evangelical group within the Church of England which advocated paternalist reforms for the underprivileged. Based on Rev. John Venn's church in Clapham between 1792 and 1830,...

Clapperton, Hugh
(1788-1827) English explorer who crossed the Sahara from Tripoli with Dixon Denham (1785-1828) and reached Lake Chad, of whose existence they had been unaware, 1823. With his servant Richard Lander...

claque
Body of people formerly hired to applaud in theatres and thus ensure the success of a play. According to the Roman historian Suetonius, the emperor Nero had 5,000 paid applauders who attended his...

Clare, John
(1793-1864) English poet. His work includes Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery (1820), The Village Minstrel (1821), The Shepherd's Calendar (1827),...

Clare, Richard de
(died 1176) Anglo-Norman soldier. At the request of the exiled king of Leinster, Dermot MacMurrough, he invaded Ireland in August 1170 to support MacMurrough's reinstatement, sparking a full-scale...

Clare, St
(c. 1194-1253) Christian saint. Born in Assisi, Italy, at 18 she became a follower of St Francis, who founded for her the convent of San Damiano. Here she gathered the first members of the Order of Poor Clares. In...

Claremont Park
Palladian mansion in Esher, Surrey, England, built for Robert Clive, and now a girls' school. Clive bought the original house, designed by Vanbrugh, in 1768, and in 1770 began the rebuilding to...

Clarence
English ducal title, which has been conferred on a number of princes. The last was Albert Victor (1864-92), eldest son of Edward VII. ...

Clarence House
House in London, residence of HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. It stands immediately opposite Friary Court, St James's Palace, and was built by John Nash in 1825-29 for William IV when he was...

Clarendon, Constitutions of
In English history, a series of resolutions agreed by a council summoned by Henry II at Clarendon in Wiltshire in 1164. The Constitutions forbade the church to convict laymen on secret information,...

Clarendon, Edward Hyde
(1609-1674) English politician and historian, chief adviser to Charles II from 1651 to 1667. A member of Parliament in 1640, he joined the Royalist side in 1641. The Clarendon Code (1661-65), a series of acts...

Clarissa
Novel (1747-48) by Samuel Richardson in the form of letters between the characters. The heroine is pursued by the attractive but unprincipled Lovelace. He rapes her and the consequent loss of...

Clark
US art collectors. Robert was an heir of the Singer sewing machine fortune. The Clarks settled in Williamstown, Massachusetts in 1949; there they collected Old Master and 19th-century American...

Clark, (James Beauchamp) Champ
(1850-1921) US representative. Elected as a Democrat to Congress for Missouri, 1893-1921, he served on the powerful Foreign Affairs and Ways and Means Committees, supporting the Spanish-American War, yet...

Clark, (John) Grahame (Douglas)
(1907-1995) British archaeologist. He excavated a Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) hunting settlement discovered at Star Carr, near Scarborough, Yorkshire, 1949-1951. Waterlogged materials were recovered, as...

Clark, Alan Kenneth McKenzie
(1928-1999) British Conservative politician and military historian. He served as a minister of state for defence 1989-92 but failed to achieve Cabinet rank. In 1997 he returned to politics as MP for...

Clark, Edna McConnell
(1886-1982) US philanthropist. Her father, David Hall McConnell, founded the perfume company that became Avon Products, the largest cosmetics company in the world. As heir to her father's fortune, she...

Clark, Edward
(1811-1882) US lawyer and entrepreneur. Sewing machine inventor Isaac Merritt Singer employed him to defend a patent infringement suit brought by Elias Howe in 1854. Clark became a partner in the Singer Company...

Clark, Francis Edward
(1851-1927) Canadian-born US minister. He became pastor of a Congregational church in Portland, Maine, in 1876 and founded the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavour in 1881. He was...

Clark, George Rogers
(1752-1818) American military leader and explorer. He was made commander of the Virginia frontier militia at the outbreak of the American Revolution 1775. During 1778-79 he led an attack on the American...

Clark, Grenville
(1882-1967) US lawyer and peace advocate. He believed in limitations on national sovereignty and he wrote A Federation of Free Peoples (1939). With Louis B Sohn (1914-2006), he coauthored...

Clark, Helen Elizabeth
(1950) New Zealand Labour politician, prime minister from 1999. A former political scientist who figured prominently in the Labour administration of the mid-1980s that brought free-market economics to...

Clark, Joe (Charles Joseph)
(1939) Canadian Progressive Conservative politician who became party leader in 1976, and in May 1979 defeated Pierre Trudeau at the polls to become the youngest prime minister in Canada's history....

Clark, Joseph S (Sill)
(1901-1990) US Democratic senator. A crusading mayor of Philadelphia 1951-56, he was elected to the US Senate for Pennsylvania 1957-69, where he sponsored antipoverty legislation. He...

Clark, Mark Wayne
(1896-1984) US general in World War II. In 1942 he became Chief of Staff for ground forces, and deputy to General Eisenhower. He led a successful secret mission by submarine...

Clark, Ramsey (William)
(1927) US attorney general and political activist. He was attorney general 1967-69, when there was much opposition to the Vietnam War. Although he prosecuted activists such as the Berrigan brothers,...

Clark, Tom C (Thomas Campbell)
(1899-1977) US Supreme Court justice. He joined the Department of Justice and rose to assistant attorney general in 1943. As attorney general under President Truman 1945-49, he supported the anticommunist...

Clark, William
(1770-1838) US explorer. He accompanied Meriwether Lewis on a US government survey, later known as the Lewis and Clark expedition, across North America from St Louis to the mouth of the Columbia River...

Clarke, Arthur C(harles)
(1917) English science fiction and non-fiction writer. He originated the plan for a system of communications satellites in geostationary orbit in 1945. His works include the short story `The...