Abbeville
[Si]A gravel pit in the 45 m gravel terrace of the Somme Valley, France, from which numerous handaxes were obtained by Boucher de Perthes and others from ad 1836 onwards and which in 1939 gave its ...
Abbey of Savigny
In Normandy. In 1093 Vitalis of Mortain established a hermitage in the Forest of Savigny. Some of the hermits felt a call to follow the Rule of St Benedict in its primitive strictness, and the abbey ...
Abraham IbnEzra
(c.1089–1164).Jewish philosopher, poet, and biblical commentator. He wrote both secular and religious poetry, commentaries on all the books of the Bible (those to the early prophets, Chronicles, ...
absolutism
A state-form typical of societies in the process of transition from feudalism to capitalism and in which power is concentrated in the person of a monarch, who has at his or her disposal a centralized ...
Action Française
A French political movement, founded in 1898 at the height of the Dreyfus affair. In 1926 it was condemned by Pius XI on the grounds of extreme nationalism and a cynical misappropriation of Catholic ...
Adalbero of Laon
(c.947–1030)Politically active bishop of Laon (r. 977–1030). Adalbero is notorious for betraying Charles of Lorraine, the last Carolingian claimant to the throne, whom he turned over to Hugh Capet ...
Adelard of Bath
(c.1070–c.1145)English Benedictine remembered as a conduit for the introduction of Arabic astronomy and philosophy to the West.
administration, urban
The organization of an urban settlement with its complex social relations and its orientation towards secondary and tertiary economic activities necessitated an early administrative development ...
advocate, advocacy
From the Merovingian period, rulers granted churches an Immunity that protected them from the management and intervention of royal agents. Following a formula soon stereotyped, the latter were ...
Afonso III, king of Portugal
(1210–79; r. 1248–79)Second son of Afonso II and Urraca, daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile. The prince spent his youth in France at the court of his aunt, Queen ...
Agapitus II
(10 May 946–Dec. 955)The successor of Marinus II, he owed his promotion to Alberic II (c. 905–54), prince of Rome and from 932 to 954 its all-powerful ruler. Except that he was a Roman by birth, ...
Aigues-Mortes
*Louis IX of France chose this fishing village in the marshes of the Rhône delta in 1240 to be the port of departure for his crusades, since the southern French ...
Aix-en-Provence
This Roman resort town became a regional capital of Gaul in the late empire. Originally under the ecclesiastical control of Arles, it became an archbishopric in the 8th century, and ...
Alain Chartier
(c.1385–c.1435)French poet and prose writer. His most famous poem was La Belle Dame sans mercy (1424), a story of unrequited love in 800 octosyllabic lines; an English translation, falsely ...
Alan of Lille
(d. 1203), poet, theologian, and preacher. He probably studied and taught at Paris c.1150–c.1185. Later he moved to the South of France and towards the end of his life entered the abbey of Cîteaux. ...
Albert of Saxony
(1360–90)Secular Master of Arts at Paris, first rector of the University of Vienna, and later bishop of Halberstadt. His works included sets of questions on Aristotle’s Physics and De ...
Alexander of Roes
(13th century) Canon,probably identical to Andreas of Leysberg OFM, in service to Cardinal Jacob Colonna; criticised conditions at the Roman curia. In his major work Memoriale de Prerogativa Romani ...
Algerian War
(1954–62)On 1 November 1954, hostilities broke out between the Christian colonists of French descent and Algerian Muslim nationalists who were organized into the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) ...
allod and freehold
Allodial land was heritable property owned absolutely, that is, with full rights and no obligations to an overlord, subject to claims of relatives and tenants. In some regions of France ...
Alphonse Daudet
(1840–97)Popular French novelist. Influenced by naturalism, he is best known for his portrayal of life in his native Provence in Lettres de mon moulin (1869: Letters from my Windmill) ...
