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

Coppée, François-Edouard Joachim
(1842-1908) French writer and scholar. His numerous collections of poetry contain delightfully lyrical works and display his skill in writing Parisian elegies and idylls. He also wrote plays, and was archivist...

Copperhead
In US history, a term of abuse applied by people of the Northern states during the Civil War to fellow Northerners who opposed the Union government's war policy. Many opposed the policy because they...

Copt
Descendant of those ancient Egyptians who adopted Christianity in the 1st century and refused to convert to Islam after the Arab conquest. They now form a small minority (about 5%) of Egypt's...

Coptic art
The art of the indigenous Christian community of 5th-8th-century Egypt. Flat and colourful in style, with strong outlines and stylized forms, it shows the influence of Byzantine, late Roman, and...

copyright
Law applying to literary, musical, and artistic works (including plays, recordings, films, photographs, radio and television broadcasts, and, in the USA and the UK, computer programs), which...

Coquelin, Benoît-Constant
(1841-1909) French actor. He made his debut in 1860 at the Comédie Française, Paris, where he remained until 1886, proving himself inimitable in Molière's great comic parts. In 1890 he appeared with the...

Coques (or Cocx), Gonzales
(1618-1684) Flemish portrait and genre painter. In 1671 he became painter to Count Monterey, Governor General of the Low Countries. Sometimes he depicted tavern and rustic scenes, but he excelled in...

corbel
In architecture, a projecting piece of the stone, wood, or iron of a wall placed so as to support a pillar, beam, or roof-truss. In Norman architecture...

Corbière, Tristan
(1845-1875) French poet. His volume of poems Les Amours jaunes/Yellow Loves (1873) went unrecognized until Paul Verlaine called attention to it in 1884. Many of his poems, such as La Rhapsodie foraine/Wandering...

Corbin, Margaret (born Cochran)
(1751-c. 1800) American Revolution heroine. She accompanied her enlisted husband, John Corbin, and when he was mortally wounded in a battle in 1776, she assumed his position and...

Corbulo, Gnaeus Domitius
(died c.AD 67) Roman general under the emperors Claudius and Nero. He led a successful expedition against the Germanic Frisii and won outstanding victories in a series of campaigns against the Parthians 58-63....

Corbusier, Le
French architect; see Le Corbusier. ...

Corcoran, James (Andrew)
(1820-1889) US theologian and editor. A prominent Catholic theologian at church councils, he coedited (1846-61) the United States Catholic Miscellany and (from 1876) edited the...

Corcoran, Thomas (Gardiner)
(1900-1981) US lawyer and government official. At first a New York corporate lawyer 1927-32, he serveds President Roosevelt's legislative aide 1933-41, codrafting New Deal legislation including the...

Corcyra
Ancient name for the Greek island of Corfu. ...

Corday, Charlotte
(1768-1793) French Girondin (right-wing republican during the French Revolution). After the overthrow of the Girondins by the extreme left-wing Jacobins in May 1793, she stabbed to death the Jacobin leader,...

Cordier, Andrew W(ellington)
(1901-1975) US United Nations (UN) official and educator. He taught history and political science at Manchester College 1923-44, and was executive assistant to the UN secretary general 1946-62. He was...

CORE
Acronym for Congress of Racial Equality, US nonviolent civil-rights organization. ...

core
In archaeology, a solid cylinder of sediment or soil collected with a coring device and used to evaluate the geological context and stratigraphy of archaeological material or to obtain...

Corelli, Marie
(1855-1924) English romantic novelist. Trained for a musical career, she turned instead to writing (she was said to be Queen Victoria's favourite novelist) and published A Romance of Two Worlds in 1886. This...

Corey, Martha
Victim of witchcraft hysteria. Her date and place of birth are unknown. The wife of Giles Corey of Salem (now Danvers) in colonial Massachusetts, she was accused by two emotionally aroused young...

Corfu incident
International crisis 27 August-27 September 1923 that marked the first assertion of power in foreign affairs by the Italian fascist government. In 1923 an international commission was determining...

Corinna
(lived 6th century BC) Greek lyric poet. A native of Tanagra in Boeotia, she is said to have instructed Pindar. Very little was known of her work until the discovery in modern times, at Hermopolis in Egypt, of a papyrus...

Corinth
Port in Greece, on the Isthmus of Corinth connecting the Peloponnese with the mainland; population (2003 est) 32,000. The rocky isthmus is bisected by the 7 km/4 mi Corinth canal, opened in 1893....

Corinth, Battle of
In the American Civil War, unsuccessful ...

Corinth, Isthmus of
Neck of land joining the Peloponnese to central Greece, lying between the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Gulf. The isthmus is about 32 km/20 mi long and 6-12 km/4-7 mi wide. A ship canal...

Corinthian
In classical architecture, one of the five types of column; see order. ...

Corinthians
Two epistles (Corinthians I, Corinthians II) in the New Testament to the church at Corinth; attributed to St Paul. ...

Coriolano
Family of engravers. Cristoforo (died 1600), a native of Nuremberg, cut the portraits for the second edition of Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Painters, published in Florence...

Coriolanus, Gaius (Gnaeus) Marcius
(lived 5th century BC) Legendary Roman general of the early Republic. Named Coriolanus because of his bravery at the taking of Corioli from the Volsci, enemies of Rome, his aristocratic arrogance led to his rejection in...

Corkery, Daniel
(1878-1964) Irish writer. Born and educated in Cork, he later became professor of English literature at University College, Cork, 1931-47. His short stories accurately depict provincial life and speech and at...

Cormac MacArt
Pseudo-historical king of Ireland in the first half of the 3rd century, alledgedly reigning, according to various sources, for around 40 years. Grandson of Conn Cétchathach (Conn of the Hundred...

Cormac MacCulinan
(836-908) King of Ireland 901-07 and bishop of Munster. His reign was troubled by Danish invasions, and he was killed by Danes in the battle of Moy Albe. He was also a poet and scholar. A chronicle in Irish...

Corn Laws
In Britain until 1846, laws used to regulate the export or import of cereals in order to maintain an adequate supply for consumers and a secure price for producers. For centuries the Corn Laws...

Cornaro, Caterina
(1454-1510) Queen of Cyprus 1473-89. A Venetian noblewoman, she married James II, King of Cyprus, in 1472. She was left a widow in 1473 and governed for her son, James III, until his death in 1475. She was...

Corneille de Lyon
(died 1574) Dutch-born French painter. He became a naturalized French subject in 1547 and was court painter to Henry II and Charles IX, working in Lyon 1541-74. He is known to have painted small portraits,...

Corneille, Pierre
(1606-1684) French dramatist. His tragedies, such as Horace (1640), Cinna (1641), and Oedipe (1659), glorify the strength of will governed by reason, and established the French classical dramatic tradition. His...

Cornelia
(lived 2nd century BC) Mother of the Roman reformers Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus (whom she described as `her jewels`) and daughter of Scipio Africanus Major who defeated the Carthaginian Hannibal 202. Her daugher...

Cornelia
(died c. 69 BC) Daughter of the Roman politician Lucius Cornelius Cinna, and first wife of Julius Caesar, by whom she had a daughter, Julia, Caesar's only (legitimate) child. ...

Cornelisz, Cornelis
(1562-1638) Dutch historical and portrait painter. He was one of the leading Dutch Mannerists of his time, creating large historical pictures filled with contorted, life-size nudes. His Banquet of the Archers...

Cornelisz. (van Oostzanen), Jakob
(1477-1533) Dutch painter. He is one of the Dutch `primitives`, his style modelled on that of the south Netherlands but adding to it a hard precision, as in the Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene...

Cornelisz., Lucas
(1495-1552) Dutch subject and portrait painter. Probably trained by his father, Cornelisz Engelbrechtsz, he moved to England around 1527 and became one of Henry VIII's court painters. He was later employed in...

Cornelius, Peter von
(1783-1867) German painter. He was a member of the Nazarenes. He worked first in Frankfurt and in 1811 joined Johann ...

Cornell, Joseph
(1903-1972) US assemblage artist. Cornell's art consisted of collecting ephemera in junkshops, which then gained power by their juxtaposition in a box or display-case (termed `magic peep holes`),...

Cornell, Katherine
(1898-1974) German-born US actor. Her first major success came with an appearance on Broadway in Nice People 1921. This debut was followed by a long string of New York stage successes, several of which were...

cornet
In the 18th century and up to 1871, the lowest rank of commissioned officer in the British cavalry. In 1871 the title was replaced by `second lieutenant`. ...

Cornford, Frances Crofts
(1886-1960) English poet. Her verse includes Spring Morning (1915), Mountains and Molehills (1934), and Travelling Home (1948); her Collected Poems appeared in 1954. Her poem `To a Fat Lady Seen from a...

Corning, Erastus
(1794-1872) US entrepreneur and politician. He became the owner of large ironworks and banks, and contributed to early American railway development. He was twice elected to Congress as a Democrat. ...

Cornish literature
The earliest surviving written Cornish is found in some 10th-century glosses. The late Middle Ages produced some religious writing. Other literature is scanty, consisting mainly of...

Cornplanter
(born Gaiant-wa'ka), also known as John O'Bail (c. 1735-1836) American Indian Seneca chief. He fought with distinction for the British during the American Revolution and for the USA during the War of 1812. An accommodationist, in his old age he renounced...

cornucopia
In Greek mythology, one of the horns of the goat Amalthaea, which Zeus caused to refill perpetually with food and drink. As an artistic symbol it denotes prosperity. In paintings, the cornucopia is...

Cornwall, Barry
Pseudonym of English poet Bryan Waller Procter. ...

Cornwallis, William
(1744-1819) English admiral. He was engaged in the actions off Grenada in 1779, St Kitts in 1782, and Dominica in 1782, and commanded the Channel fleet in 1801 and 1803-06 during...

Cornwell, Patricia
(1956) US crime writer. Cornwell's first successful novel, Postmortem (1990), introduced the popular character of medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, who continued to star in Cornwell's mysteries. Other novels...

corona
In architecture, the lower vertical part of a cornice, the underside of which has a drip moulding in order to carry off the rain. The term is also used of the crown or circlet suspended from the...

Coronado, Francisco Vásquez de
(c. 1510-1554) Spanish explorer who sailed to the New World in 1535 in search of gold. In 1540 he set out with several hundred men from the Gulf of California on an exploration of what are today the...

coronation
Ceremony of investing a sovereign with the emblems of royalty, as a symbol of inauguration in office. Since the coronation of Harold in 1066, English sovereigns have been crowned in Westminster...

Coronea
Ancient town in Boeotia, central Greece. It was the site of a battle in which the Boeotians defeated the Athenians 447 BC. Here also the Spartan king Agesilaus II overwhelmed the combined forces of...

Coronel, Battle of
In World War I, German naval victory over a British squadron off the coast of Chile 1 November 1914. It was one of the first British naval defeats of the war. At the outbreak of war, the German...

coroner
Official who investigates the deaths of persons who have died suddenly by acts of violence or under suspicious circumstances, by holding an inquest or ordering...

coronet
Small crown worn by a peer at coronations. A duke's coronet consists of a golden circlet, above which are eight strawberry leaves; a marquess's has four strawberry leaves with four points surmounted...

Corot, Jean-Baptiste Camille
(1796-1875) French painter. He created a distinctive landscape style using a soft focus and a low-key palette of browns, ochres, and greens. His early work, including Italian scenes of...

corporal punishment
Physical punishment of wrongdoers - for example, by whipping. It is still used as a punishment for criminals in many countries, especially under Islamic law. Corporal punishment of children by...

corporation
Another name for company. In the USA, corporations are the legal equivalent of UK public limited companies. In the UK, some public limited companies, such as the British Sugar Corporation, call...

Corporation Act
In England, statute of 1661 which effectively excluded religious dissenters from public office. All magistrates in England and Wales were obliged to take sacrament according to the Church of...

corporation tax
Tax levied on a company's profits. It is a form of income tax, and rates vary according to country, but there is usually a flat rate. It is a large source of revenue for governments. The standard...

corporatism
Belief that the state in capitalist democracies should intervene to a large extent in the economy to ensure social harmony. In Austria, for example, corporatism results in political decisions often...

corporative state
State in which the members are organized and represented not on a local basis as citizens, but as producers working in a particular trade, industry, or profession. Originating with the syndicalist...

corps
Military formation consisting of two to five divisions. Its strength is between 50,000 and 120,000 people. All branches of the army are represented. A corps is commanded by a lieutenant general or,...

Corpus Christi
Feast celebrated in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, and to some extent in the Anglican church, on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. It was instituted in the 13th century through the...

Correggio
(c. 1494-1534) Italian painter of the High Renaissance. His style followed the classical grandeur of Leonardo da Vinci and Titian, but anticipated the baroque in its emphasis on movement, softer forms, and...

Corregidor
Island fortress off the Bataan Peninsula at the mouth of Manila Bay, Luzon, the Philippines. On 6 May 1942, Japanese forces captured Corregidor and its 10,000 US and Filipino defenders, completing...

corresponding society
In British history, one of the first independent organizations for the working classes, advocating annual parliaments and universal male suffrage. The London Corresponding Society was founded in...

corroboree
Australian Aboriginal ceremonial dance. Some corroborees record events in everyday life and are non-sacred, public entertainments; others have a religious significance and are of great ritual...

corsair
Pirate based on the North African Barbary Coast. From the 16th century onwards the corsairs plundered shipping in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, holding hostages for ransom or selling them as...

Corso, Gregory (Nunzio)
(1930-2001) US poet. He was a central member of the Beat poetry movement in the 1960s, with such poems...

Corson, Juliet
(1841-1897) US cookery educator. She enjoyed wide success as a pioneer advocate of better food and cooking for poor families, writing pamphlets and lecturing throughout the northeast USA; in the 1880s she was...

Cort, Henry
(1740-1800) English iron manufacturer. For the manufacture of wrought iron, he invented the puddling process and developed the rolling mill (shaping the iron into bars), both of which were significant in the...

Cortázar, Julio
(1914-1984) Argentine writer. His novels include The Winners (1960), Hopscotch (1963), and Sixty-two: A Model Kit (1968). One of his several volumes of short stories includes Blow-up, adapted for film by...

Cortes
Name of the national assemblies of Spain and Portugal. In Spain there were formerly several Cortes representing various districts, the chief being the Cortes of Castile and that of Aragón, each...

Cortés, Hernán Ferdinand
(1485-1547) Spanish conquistador. He conquered the Aztec empire 1519-21, and secured Mexico for Spain. Cortés went to the West Indies as a young man and in 1518 was given command of an expedition to Mexico....

Cortona, Pietro da
Italian baroque painter; see Pietro da Cortona. ...

Coruña, Battle of
Battle 16 January 1809, during the Peninsular War, to cover embarkation of British troops after their retreat to Coruña; the British commander in Portugal, John Moore, was killed after ensuring a...

corvette
Small-armed vessel, such as those escorting convoys in World War II. The term, now obsolete, was revived from sailing days. ...

Corvo, Baron
Assumed name of English writer Frederick Rolfe. ...

Corwin, Thomas
(1794-1865) US governor, representative, and senator. He served as a Whig in the US House of Representatives for Ohio, 1831-40, then became Ohio's governor 1841-43. In...

Cory, William Johnson
(1823-1892) English schoolteacher and poet. His collection of lyrics Ionica was first published anonymously 1858. He wrote skilful Latin and Greek verses, his best-known poem being `Heraclitus`, a...

Coryate, Thomas
(c. 1577-1617) English traveller, writer, and eccentric. In 1608 he travelled through France and Italy to Venice, returning via Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands. His account of this tour, Coryate's...

Cosa
(lived 6th century) Merchant and traveller of the 6th century. After trading in Ethiopia and parts of Asia he became a monk and wrote his Christian Topography. This work, written in Greek, is a fanciful and...

Cosa, Juan de la
(c. 1450-1509) Spanish navigator and cartographer who accompanied Columbus on his voyage in 1492, as pilot. He held the same position under Alonzo de Hojeda in 1499, and in 1504 himself led an expedition to North...

Cosgrave, Liam
(1920) Irish politician, Taoiseach (prime minister) 1973-77, leader of Fine Gael 1965-77. Cosgrave signed the ill-fated Sunningdale agreement of December 1973 with the British government and...

Cosgrave, William Thomas
(1880-1965) Irish revolutionary and politician; president of the executive council (prime minister) of the Irish Free State 1922-32, leader of Cumann na nGaedheal 1923-33, and leader of Fine Gael 1935-44....

coshery
Ancient right of an Irish chief, exercised in the Dark Ages, to quarter himself and his retainers in his tenants' lodgings. ...

Cosin, John
(1594-1672) English prelate, bishop of Durham from 1660. He was a friend of Archbishop William Laud and a high churchman. He had a large part in the revision of the Prayer Book of 1661-62. Cosin was born in...

Cosmas and Damian, Sts
(died c. 303) Arabian brothers, patron saints of medicine. They were physicians at Aegea in Cilicia, where they suffered martyrdom under the Roman emperor Diocletian. Their relics were brought to Rome. Their...

cosmological argument
Any line of reasoning for the existence of God that proceeds from the inexplicable existence of the universe to an allegedly self-explanatory being, God. The cosmological argument originates in...

Cossa, Francesco
(1435-1477) Italian painter. He worked at the court of Ferrara and also in Bologna, where he painted altarpieces. He was largely responsible for a series of frescoes of The Months at the Schifanoia Palace,...

Cossa, Pietro
(1830-1881) Italian dramatist. His tragedy Nerone/Nero (1872) was acted with success, and after this he continued to write classical and historical plays, such as Messalina (1876) and Plauto e...

Cossack
People of southern and southwestern Russia, Ukraine, and Poland, predominantly of Russian or Ukrainian origin, who took in escaped serfs and lived in independent communal settlements (military...

cost
For a business, the amount of money spent in order to meet a specific aim, such as producing goods and services for sale. It is also the term used to describe the amount spent acquiring a particular...