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

Feke, Robert
(c. 1706-1750) American portrait painter. One of the most striking of the colonial artists, noted for his use of colour and depiction of textiles, his trademark paintings depict women with similar faces and men...

Felbrigg Hall
House in Norfolk, England, 3 km/2 mi southwest of Cromer, the home of the Windham family from the mid-15th century. The present house was built in...

Feldstein, Martin S
(1939) US economist. His contributions range from analysis of health and welfare economics to the economics of taxation. He served on President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers (1982-84)...

Feliciano, Felice
(1433-c. 1479) Italian epigraphist, antiquary, and calligrapher. During the 1460s he devised a way to carve Roman capital letters on mathematical rules derived from the study of ancient inscriptions at Rome,...

felicific calculus
In ethics, a technique for establishing the rightness and wrongness of an action. Using the calculus, one can attempt to work out the likely consequences of an action in terms of the pain or...

Felix II
(died 365) Antipope, 355-58, following the banishment of Liberius, who had refused to condemn Athanasius. He was regarded as a saint and martyr. ...

Felix the Cat
Cartoon-film character created by Australian cartoonist Pat Sullivan 1919. Felix, a perky and indestructible black cat, was the first cartoon character to make the crossing from screen to comic...

fellah
In Arab countries, farmer or farm labourer. The fellahin were thought to be the descendants of the ancient Egyptians who mixed with the various occupying peoples: Arabs, Persians, Greeks, and Turks....

Felltham (or Feltham), Owen
(c. 1602-1668) English essayist. He was noted for the volume of essays Resolves, Divine, Morall and Politicall 1623. His style was modelled on that of Francis Bacon, and has more to offer than the content. Later...

felony
In criminal law, former term for an offence that is more serious than a misdemeanour; in the USA, a felony is a crime generally punishable by imprisonment for a year or more. ...

felt
Matted fabric of wool fibres, formed when the scales on the surface of wool fibres `lock` together when subjected to heat, pressure, friction, and moisture. Small amounts of other fibres can be...

Felton, John
(1595-1628) English assassin. As a lieutenant in the army, he applied to the Duke of Buckingham for promotion and, when this was refused, he stabbed Buckingham to death, for which he was hanged. He was born...

female circumcision
See female genital mutilation. ...

female genital mutilation
The partial or total removal of female external genitalia for cultural, religious, or other non-medical reasons. There are three types:Sunna, which involves cutting off the hood, and sometimes the...

feminist criticism
Set of literary theories concerned with women as readers and writers of literary texts and as characters within them. Issues addressed include whether a specifically fe ...

feminist theology
Critique of theology from an avowedly feminist perspective. Originating in the work of US scholars such as Mary Daly (1928) in the 1970s, feminist theology has quickly become a major new...

femme fatale
(French `fatal woman`) woman who brings about the ruin of her lovers; contrasted with the femme fragile, the typical Pre-Raphaelite pale, unearthly woman. The femme fatale was common in...

Fencibles
During the American Revolution and the French Revolutionary Wars, military forces raised in the UK and in North America, where they were known as `the Royal Fencible Americans`. They were...

Feng Guozhang (or Feng Kuo-chang)
(1859-1919) Chinese militarist. He served as a provincial military governor before becoming acting president of the Chinese Republic 1917-18. During his one year in office China declared war on Germany. He...

feng shui
Ancient Chinese skill of keeping a balance of forces in the land. The land is regarded as living, and as reflecting the pattern of heaven, so that any development must be in...

Fenian movement
Irish-American republican secret society, founded in the USA in 1858 to campaign for Irish-American support for armed rebellion following the death of the Irish nationalist leader Daniel...

Fenians
Another name for the Fianna, legendary Irish warriors. ...

Fenno, John
(1751-1798) US journalist. Backed by Alexander Hamilton, he published and edited the pro-Federalist Gazette of the United States, a vitriolic partisan paper that rivalled a paper edited by Philip Freneau. He...

Fenoglio, Beppe
(1922-1963) Italian novelist. His work is set mainly during World War II and depicts the Italian resistance fighters of his native region near Alba, northern Italy; novels include Il Partigiano Johnny...

Fenris
In Norse mythology, the monstrous wolf of the god Loki. Fenris swallowed the god Odin but was stabbed to death by Odin's son, Vidar. ...

Fenton, Elijah
(1683-1730) English poet. He worked with Alexander Pope on the translation of the Odyssey, the first, fourth, nineteenth, and twentieth books being translated by Fenton. He also edited the works of Milton and...

Fenton, James (Martin)
(1949) English poet and journalist who has achieved recognition for his mainly political and satirical poetry, winning the Whitbread Award for poetry with Out of Danger (1993). His first collection was...

Fenwick, John
(1645-1697) English Jacobite conspirator and professional soldier. A passionate supporter of James II, he was arrested in 1696 for his involvement in a plot to assassinate William III....

Ferard, Elizabeth Catherine
English deaconess. Inspired by the Lutheran Kaiserwerth community in Germany, where the deaconess order or diaconate, a nursing order, had been revived with the establishment of the first Protestant...

Ferber, Edna
(1887-1968) US novelist and dramatist. Her novel Show Boat 1926 was adapted as an operetta 1927 by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, and her plays, in which she collaborated with George S Kaufmann, include...

Ferber, Herbert
(1906-1991) US sculptor and dentist. He graduated in dentistry from Columbia University, simultaneously studying at the Beaux-Arts Institute, New York. A practising dentist and an abstract sculptor, he is...

Ferdausi
Alternative transliteration of Firdausi, a Persian poet. ...

Ferdinand
(1865-1927) King of Romania from 1914, when he succeeded his uncle Charles I. In 1916 he declared war on Austria. After the Allied victory in World War I, Ferdinand acquired Transylvania and Bukovina from...

Ferdinand
(1861-1948) King of Bulgaria 1908-18. Son of Prince Augustus of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, he was elected prince of Bulgaria in 1887 and, in 1908, proclaimed Bulgaria's independence from Turkey and assumed the...

Ferdinand (I) the Great
(c. 1016-1065) King of Castile from 1035. He began the reconquest of Spain from the Moors and united all northwestern Spain under his and his brothers' rule. ...

Ferdinand (I) the Just
(c. 1373-1416) King of Aragón, elected in 1410. He was the son of John I of Castile. He proved a strong ruler, and carried on the war against the Moors. Although he was at first a supporter of the antipope,...

Ferdinand I
(1503-1564) Holy Roman Emperor who succeeded his brother Charles V in 1556; King of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526, King of the Germans from 1531. He reformed the German monetary system and reorganized the...

Ferdinand II
(1578-1637) Holy Roman Emperor from 1619, when he succeeded his uncle Matthias; king of Bohemia from 1617 and of Hungary from 1618. A zealous Catholic, he provoked the Bohemian revolt that led to the Thirty...

Ferdinand II
(1452-1516) King-consort of Castile from 1474 (as Ferdinand V), King of Aragon from 1479, and Ferdinand III of Naples from 1504. In 1469 he married his cousin Isabella I, who succeeded to the throne of...

Ferdinand III
(1769-1824) Grand Duke of Tuscany 1790-99 and 1814-24. Although he was the first sovereign to acknowledge the French republic, he quarrelled with France, and Florence was occupied by the French in 1799. The...

Ferdinand III
(1608-1657) Holy Roman Emperor from 1637 when he succeeded his father Ferdinand II; king of Hungary from 1625. Although anxious to conclude the Thirty Years' War, he did not give...

Ferdinand III
(1199-1252) King of Castile from 1217 and King of Leon from 1230. With the kingdoms united, he successfully fought against the Moors, capturing Ubeda, Cordoba, Jaen, and then Seville,...

Ferdinand III
King of Naples from 1504, also known as Ferdinand II. ...

Ferdinand, Franz (or Francis)
(1863-1914) Archduke of Austria. He became heir to Emperor Franz Joseph, his uncle, in 1884 but while visiting Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, he and his wife were assassinated by a Serbian nationalist. Austria used...

Fergus mac Roigh
In Celtic mythology, a king of Ulster, a great warrior. He was the tutor of Cuchulain. ...

Ferguson, `Ma`
(1875-1961) US governor. Following the impeachment of her husband, James Ferguson, she ran for governor and was twice elected. In effect, she promoted his essentially populist conservative agenda, including...

Ferguson, Homer
(1889-1982) US judge and senator. After serving on the Michigan circuit court, he was elected to the US Senate as a Republican for Michigan (1943-55). He was appointed ambassador to...

Ferguson, James Edward
(1871-1944) US governor. A lawyer, he won two elections as a Democratic governor. He was impeached for misusing state funds and forbidden ever to hold public office, and subsequently helped his wife, `Ma`...

Ferguson, Sarah Margaret
(1959) Former member of the British royal family. She was married to Prince Andrew, Duke of York, 1986-96. They had two daughters, Beatrice (1988) and Eugenie (1990). She has since written...

Fergusson, Honorable Muriel McQueen
(1899-1997) Canadian lawyer and politician who was the first woman speaker of the Senate of Canada. From her appointment to the Senate in 1953 to her appointment as speaker in 1972, Fergusson served on various...

Fergusson, Robert
(1750-1774) Scottish poet. His realist and humorous poems were first published 1773 and greatly influenced Robert Burns. In `The Daft Days`, `Hallow Fair`, `Leith Races`, and `Auld Reekie`...

feriae
In ancient Rome, holy days or sacred festivals. Political and legal business was suspended, and slaves were given a day of rest. There were many fixed feriae during the year, in addition to other...

Ferlinghetti, Lawrence Monsanto
(1919) US poet and writer. In San Francisco, he taught French and started the City Lights Bookstore. Regarded as one of the founders of the Beat Generation, he published collections of poems such as A...

Fermor, Patrick (Michael) Leigh
(1915) English travel writer who joined the Irish Guards in 1939 after four years' travel in central Europe and the Balkans. His books include The Traveller's Tree (1950), A Time to Keep Silence (1953),...

Fernandel
(1903-1971) French comic actor. He is remembered for the funny faces he pulled and his comic grin. Fernandel's acting career began in a troupe of actors playing in various vaudevilles, farces, and operettas,...

Fernandes, Joao
(lived 15th century) Portuguese navigator, reputed to be the first European to visit the interior of Africa. In 1445 he went with an expedition under Antonio Gonzala by way of Rio de Oro, where he remained for seven...

Fernández de Avellaneda, Alonso
Spanish novelist who in 1614 published a sequel to Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote, entitled Segundo tomo del ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha. He wrote under this pseudonym, and his...

Fernández de Moratín, Leandro
(1760-1828) Spanish dramatist and poet. Influenced by Molière, he wrote five comedies, including La comedia nueva 1792, a satire on extravagant melodramas;El sí de las niñas/A Daughter's Consent 1800,...

Fernandez de Quirós, Pedro
(1565-1614) Spanish navigator, one of the first Europeans to search for the great southern continent that Ferdinand Magellan believed lay to the south of the Magellan Strait. Despite a series of disastrous...

Fernández, Juan
(c. 1536-c. 1604) Spanish explorer and navigator. As a pilot on the Pacific coast of South America in 1563, he reached the islands off the coast of Chile that now bear his name. Alexander Selkirk was later maro ...

Fernández, Leonel
(1953) Dominican Republic centre-left politician, president 1996-2000. Selected as presidential candidate of the centre-left Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) following the retirement of Juan Bosch,...

Ferragus
Giant of medieval romance. Orlando slew him with a wound in the navel, his only vulnerable part. In Valentine and Orson he is described as a giant of Portugal who took Bellisant under his care after...

Ferrante I (or Ferdinand I)
(1423-1494) King of Naples (1458-94). The illegitimate son of Alfonso V of Aragon, his reign was dominated by attempts to secure his kingdom against external opposition. His authoritarian rule provoked...

Ferrar, Nicolas
(1592-1637) English mystic and founder in 1625 of the Anglican monastic community at Little Gidding, Cambridgeshire, in 1625, which devoted itself to work and prayer. It was broken up by the Puritans in 1647. ...

Ferrari, Gaudenzio
(1484-1546) Italian painter and sculptor of the Lombard School. Among his works, which combine Italian and German styles, is a Crucifixion (Sanctuary of Sacro Monte, Varallo), a fresco with 26 life-size...

Ferrari, Paolo
(1822-1889) Italian dramatist. His works are characterized by lively dialogue and a fresh and piquant style, though many are forced and confused in plot. His principal works are Goldoni e le sue sedici commedie...

Ferraro, Geraldine Anne
(1935) US Democratic politician, vice-presidential candidate in the 1984 election. Ferraro, a lawyer, was elected to Congress in 1981 and was selected in 1984 by Walter Mondale to be the USA's first...

Ferré, Luis Antonio
(1904-2003) Puerto Rican industrialist, politician, and arts patron. He participated in the constitutional committee that made Puerto Rico a commonwealth, then served in the US House of Representatives. The San...

Ferrers, Lawrence Shirley, 4th Earl
(1720-1760) English peer. In 1760, he was hanged at Tyburn for killing his steward in a fit of temper, and became the last peer to be put to death as a criminal in England. ...

Ferrier, Susan (Edmonstone)
(1782-1854) Scottish novelist. Her anonymously published books are Marriage (1818), The Inheritance (1824), and Destiny (1831), all of which give a lively picture of Scottish manners and society. ...

Ferry, Elisha Peyre
(1825-1895) US governor. A successful lawyer, he was a member of the Illinois constitutional convention before General Grant appointed him governor of the Washington Territory. After helping to establish...

Ferry, Jules François Camille
(1832-1893) French republican politician, mayor of Paris during the siege of 1870-71. As a member of the republican governments of 1879-85 (prime minister 1880-81 and 1883-85), he was responsible for...

Ferry, Orris Sanford
(1823-1875) US representative and senator. A Yale graduate, he served in Congress as a Republican for Connecticut 1859-61) and became a brigadier-general in the Union army (1861-65). He was a moderate...

Fersen, Hans Axel, Count
(1755-1810) Swedish marshal. He served in the American War of Independence. During the French Revolution, he made the preparations and accompanied Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette on their flight...

Fertile Crescent
Region of the Middle East stretching from the Gulf to the Nile Valley, and including the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. The name comes from the extensive irrigated cultivation of crops in this area,...

Fescennine verses
Early form of Italian poetry, named after Fescennia in Etruria, consisting of obscene and abusive verse dialogues sung by masked dancers at harvest, weddings, and other festivals. Originally...

Fess, Simeon Davidson
(1861-1936) US educator and senator. President of Antioch College (1907-17), he was elected to the US House of Representatives as a Republican for Ohio (1913-23), where he championed women's suffrage. In...

Fessenden, William Pitt
(1806-1869) US lawyer, representative, and senator. He was admitted to the bar and went to the House of Representatives as a Whig for Maine. He then became one of the founders of the Republican Party and went...

Festival of Britain
Artistic and cultural festival held in London May-September 1951 both to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Great Exhibition and to boost morale after years of post-war austerity. The...

Festubert, Battle of
In World War I, battle between British and German forces in northern France May 1915. Although the British gained about half a mile, they suffered some 25,000 casualties. The British launched a...

Festus, Porcius
(died AD 62) Roman procurator, governor of Judea. He succeeded Antonius FelixAD 60. Festus conducted a trial against St Paul for sedition and was inclined to accept his innocence, but sent him to Rome for a...

Feti (or Fetti), Domenico
(1589-1624) Italian painter. He worked for Cardinal Ferdinando Gonzaga, who became duke of Mantua, and was made court painter in Mantua. After 1622 he lived in Venice. Small pictures, many illustrative of the...

fetiales (or feciales)
Ancient Roman college of 20 priests. The fetiales held office for life and were responsible for rituals relating to the declaration of war and for procedures performed when...

fetishism
In anthropology, belief in the supernormal power of some inanimate object that is known as a fetish. Fetishism in some form is common to most cultures, and often has...

Fetterman, William Judd
(c. 1833-c. 1866) US soldier. He survived combat in the Civil War only to be killed, along with his entire 80-man command, in an American Indian ambush near Lodge Trail Ridge, Wyom ...

Fetterman's Massacre
Killing of a detachment of 80 US Army cavalry by American Indian Oglala Sioux on 21 December 1866 during Red Cloud's War of 1865-68, a campaign of the Plains Wars. The troops, led by Lt-Col...

Feuchtwanger, Lion
(1884-1958) German author. He published the novels Die hässliche Herzogin/The Ugly Duchess 1923 and Jud Süss/Jew Süss 1925. The latter presents a picture of the lives of central European Jews in the 18th...

feud
Lasting dispute, often leading to warfare, between two families, clans, or tribes. In many societies, for example in East Africa and New Guinea, members of kin groups have lasting obligations of...

feudalism
The main form of social organization in medieval Europe; the term was first used in 1839. A system based primarily on land, feudalism involved a hierarchy of authority, rights, and power that...

Feuerbach, Anselm
(1829-1880) German painter. His subjects were drawn largely from ancient history and mythology, his neoclassical style similar to that of Frederic Leighton in England. An typical example is Medea 1870...

Feuerbach, Ludwig Andreas
(1804-1872) German philosopher who argued that religion is the elevation of human qualities into an object of worship. His main work is Das Wesen des Christentums/The Essence of Christianity 1841. He influenced...

Feuillet, Octave
(1821-1890) French novelist and playwright. His best-known work is the novel Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre 1858; other novels include Bellah 1850, L'Histoire de Sibylle 1863, and La morte 1886. His plays...

Feuillière, Edwige
(1910-1998) French actor. Her stage appearances at the Comédie Française, Paris, 1931-33 included roles in La Dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils, L'Aigle a deux têtes by Cocteau, and Phèdre by...

Fewkes, J(esse) Walter
(1850-1930) US ethnologist and archaeologist. On the staff of the Bureau of American Ethnology, he founded and edited the Journal of American Ethnology and Archaeology. A scholar of t ...

Feydeau, Ernest Aimé
(1821-1873) French writer. Fanny 1858 is his best-known novel; others include Daniel 1859, Sylvie 1861, and La Comtesse de Chalis 1867. ...

Feydeau, Georges Léon Jules Marie
(1862-1921) French comic dramatist. He is the author of over 60 farces and light comedies, which have been repeatedly revived in France at the Comédie Française and abroad. These include La Dame de chez...

Feyerabend, Paul K
(1924-1994) Austrian-born US philosopher of science, who rejected the attempt by certain philosophers (such as Karl Popper) to find a methodology applicable to all scientific research. His works include...

Fezzan
Former province of Libya, a desert region with many oases, and with rock paintings dating from about 3000 BC. It was captured from Italy in 1942, and placed under French control until 1951 when it...

Fiammingo, Giovanni
See Calcar, Jan Steven van. ...

Fianna
Legendary band of Irish warriors, led by Finn Mac Cumhaill. His headquarters were at Almu (Allen) in County Kildare. The adventures of the Fianna are the subject of many...