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Monreale
Monreale , town (1991 pop. 26,256), NW Sicily, Italy, near Palermo. An agricultural market and tourist center, it commands a magnificent view of the fertile Conca d'Oro plain. A famous cathedral, one of the masterpieces of Norman-Sicilian architecture, was begun there (1174) by William II of Sicily....
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Rosamond
Rosamond (Rosamond Clifford), d. 1176, mistress of Henry II of England. She was not openly acknowledged by the king until 1174, after he had imprisoned his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine . On Rosamond's death soon afterward she was buried in Godstow Abbey, but her remains were removed to the chapter...
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Wace
Wace , c.1100-1174, Norman-French poet of Jersey. King Henry II made him canon of Bayeux. His Roman de Brut (1155) is a long, rhymed chronicle of British history based on the Historia of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Wace's account is much more personal, vigorous, and dramatic than Geoffrey's. The Brut...
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Kirov
Kirov kē´ref , formerly Vyatka , city (1989 pop. 440,000), capital of Kirov region, central European Russia, on the Vyatka River. It is a river port and an industrial center that produces machinery and metalwork, chemicals, wood products, and armaments. The 17th-century cathedral and ...
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Richard de Clare Pembroke, 2d earl of
Richard de Clare Pembroke, 2d earl of d. 1176, English nobleman, also known as Richard Strongbow. He went as an adventurer (1170) to Ireland at the request of the hard-pressed Dermot McMurrough , king of Leinster. Strongbow subdued much of E Ireland, including Dublin, in victories over Rory O'Conn...
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William of Tyre
William of Tyre , b. c.1130, d. before 1185, historian and churchman. Born in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and possibly of French extraction, he received his education at Antioch and in Europe. In 1167 he was appointed archdeacon of Tyre, an important Christian city in the Middle East. He was empl...
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Almohads
Almohads , Berber Muslim dynasty that ruled Morocco and Spain in the 12th and 13th cent. It had its origins in the puritanical sect founded by Ibn Tumart , who stirred up (c.1120) the tribes of the Atlas Mts. area to purify Islam and oust the Almoravids . His successors, Abd al-Mumin , Yusuf II, ...
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Almoravids
Almoravids , Berber Muslim dynasty that ruled Morocco and Muslim Spain in the 11th and 12th cent. The Almoravids may have originated in what is now Mauritania . The real founder was Abd Allah ibn Yasin, who by military force converted a number of Saharan tribes to his own reformed religion and then...
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William the Lion
William the Lion 1143-1214, king of Scotland (1165-1214), brother and successor of Malcolm IV. Determined to recover Northumbria (lost to England in 1157), he supported the rebellion (1173-74) of the sons of Henry II of England. The result was that he was captured by Henry, who forced him to sign t...
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Alexander III
Alexander III d. 1181, pope (1159-81), a Sienese named Rolandus [Bandinelli?], successor of Adrian IV. He was a canonist who had studied law under Gratian and had taught at Bologna. He came to Rome under Eugene III, was made a cardinal, and became a trusted adviser of Adrian IV. Alexander's electio...
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