Historic Nobility
This general category includes a selection of more specific topics.
Historic Nobility Encyclopedia Articles
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Robert
Robert, Norman adventurer who settled in Apulia, in southern Italy, about 1047 and became duke of Apulia (1059). He eventually extended Norman rule over Naples, Calabria, and Sicily and laid the foundations...
Mohammed bin Salman
Mohammed bin Salman is the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, known for his aggressive foreign policy, ambitious economic vision, and controversial social reforms. He formally serves as crown prince (2017–...
Philip
Philip, landgrave (Landgraf) of Hesse (1509–67), one of the great figures of German Protestantism, who championed the independence of German princes against the Holy Roman emperor Charles V. Philip was...
Ivan the Terrible
Ivan the Terrible grand prince of Moscow (1533–84) and the first to be proclaimed tsar of Russia (from 1547). His reign saw the completion of the construction of a centrally administered Russian state...
Saint Alexander Nevsky
Saint Alexander Nevsky, ; canonized in Russian Church 1547; feast days November 23, August 30), prince of Novgorod (1236–52) and of Kiev (1246–52) and grand prince of Vladimir (1252–63), who halted the...
William I
William I duke of Normandy (as William II) from 1035 and king of England (as William I) from 1066, one of the greatest soldiers and rulers of the Middle Ages. He made himself the mightiest noble in France...
Cosimo I
Cosimo I second duke of Florence (1537–74) and first grand duke of Tuscany (1569–74). Cosimo was the great-great-grandson of Lorenzo the Elder, the son of Giovanni di Bicci and brother of Cosimo the Elder,...
Itō Hirobumi
Itō Hirobumi, Japanese elder statesman (genro) and premier (1885–88, 1892–96, 1898, 1900–01), who played a crucial role in building modern Japan. He helped draft the Meiji constitution (1889) and brought...
Ludovico Sforza
Ludovico Sforza, Italian Renaissance regent (1480–94) and duke of Milan (1494–98), a ruthless prince and diplomatist and a patron of Leonardo da Vinci and other artists. Ludovico Sforza was the second...
Louis IV
Louis IV, duke of Upper Bavaria (from 1294) and of united Bavaria (1340–47), German king (from 1314), and Holy Roman emperor (1328–47), first of the Wittelsbach line of German emperors. His reign was marked...
Diana, princess of Wales
Diana, princess of Wales former consort (1981–96) of Charles, prince of Wales (later Charles III); mother of the heir apparent to the British throne, Prince William (born 1982); and one of the foremost...
Ivan III
Ivan III grand prince of Moscow (1462–1505) who subdued most of the Great Russian lands by conquest or by the voluntary allegiance of princes, won again parts of Ukraine from Poland–Lithuania, and repudiated...
Casimir IV
Casimir IV grand duke of Lithuania (1440–92) and king of Poland (1447–92), who, by patient but tenacious policy, sought to preserve the political union between Poland and Lithuania and to recover the lost...
Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester
Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, leader of the baronial revolt against King Henry III and ruler of England for less than a year. Simon de Montfort, wholly French by birth and education, was the son...
Charles
Charles last of the great dukes of Burgundy (1467 to 1477). The son of Duke Philip III the Good of Burgundy, Charles was brought up in the French manner as a friend of the French dauphin, afterward Louis...
Bohemond I
Bohemond I, prince of Otranto (1089–1111) and prince of Antioch (1098–1101, 1103–04), one of the leaders of the First Crusade, who conquered Antioch (June 3, 1098). The son of Robert Guiscard (the Astute)...
Henry III
Henry III, duke of Saxony (1142–80) and of Bavaria (as Henry XII, 1156–80), a strong supporter of the emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. Henry spent his early years recovering his ancestral lands of Saxony...
Montesquieu
Montesquieu French political philosopher whose principal work, The Spirit of Laws, was a major contribution to political theory. Montesquieu’s father, Jacques de Secondat, belonged to an old military family...
Roger II
Roger II grand count of Sicily (1105–30) and king of the Norman kingdom of Sicily (1130–54). He also incorporated the mainland territories of Calabria in 1122 and Apulia in 1127. Roger was the son of Count...