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Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII of England ruled as king from 1509 to 1547. The second Tudor king after his father Henry VII of England (r. 1485-1509), Henry had inherited a kingdom which enjoyed both unity and sound finances. Famous for his six wives as he searched...

Definition
Catherine de' Medici
Catherine de' Medici (l. 1519-1589) was the queen of France, mother of three kings and two queens and, between 1559 and c. 1576, the most powerful woman in France and, possibly, all of Europe. She was the strength behind the French throne...

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Selene
Selene (also known as Mene) is the personification and goddess of the moon in Greek mythology. Every night, she travels across the sky in her chariot, pulling the moon behind her. Selene is the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. She...

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Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was a German astronomer and mathematician most famous for creating what was up to that point the most accurate model of planetary astronomy with his three laws of planetary motion. Kepler was the first to present...

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James I of England
James I of England (r. 1603-1625), who was also James VI of Scotland (r. 1567-1625), was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and he unified the thrones of Scotland and England following the death of Queen Elizabeth I of England (r. 1558-1603...

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Thomas Cromwell
Thomas Cromwell (l. c. 1485-1540 CE) served as chief minister to Henry VIII of England (r. 1509-1547 CE) from 1532 to 1540 CE. With his king and the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer (in office 1533-55 CE), Cromwell masterminded the...

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Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn (c. 1501-1536) was the second wife of Henry VIII of England (r. 1509-1547). Anne, sometimes known as 'Anne of a Thousand Days' in reference to her short reign as queen, was accused of adultery and executed in the Tower of London...

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Atahualpa - Last of the Inca Rulers
Atahualpa (Atawallpa) was the last ruler of the Inca Empire. He reigned from 1532 until his capture and execution by the invading Spanish forces led by Francisco Pizarro in 1533. The troubled Incas had suffered six years of damaging civil...

Definition
Amorite
The Amorites were a Semitic people who seem to have emerged from western Mesopotamia (modern-day Syria) at some point prior to the 3rd millennium BCE. In Sumerian they were known as the Martu or the Tidnum (in the Ur III Period), in Akkadian...

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Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was an American author of novels and short stories, who produced some of the most memorable works of American literature: the novels The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables as well as the short...