Ivan V Alekseyevich Romanov was a joint Tsar of Russia (with his younger half-brother Peter I) who co-reigned between 1682 and 1696. He was the youngest son of Alexis I of Russia and Maria Miloslavskaya. His reign was only formal, since he...

Francisco Ximénez was a Dominican priest who is known for his conservation of an indigenous Maya narrative known today as Popol Vuh. There is, as Woodruff has noted, little biographical data about Ximénez. Aside from the year, his birth and...

Victor Amadeus II was Duke of Savoy from 1675 to 1730. He also held the titles of marquis of Saluzzo, duke of Montferrat, prince of Piedmont, count of Aosta, Moriana and Nizza. Louis XIV organised his marriage in order to maintain French in...

One of the more unfortunate events in the British naval history happened on 12 – 14th June. 1667, when a Dutch fleet sailed up the river Medway in Kent and destroyed several British ships laid up ijn Chatham Dockyard, capturing the...

Robert Hooke's hypotheses concerning the origin of terrestrial features were of major importance to the development of geology. This book interprets Hooke's Lectures and Discourses of Earthquakes, and Subterraneous Eruptions (1667-1694). Th...

The Great Turkish War refers to a series of conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and contemporary European powers, then joined into a Holy League, during the second half of the 17th century. The Great Turkish War was a disaster for the Otto...

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish writer who is famous for works like Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, and A Tale of a Tub. Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language, although he is also well known for his...

Johann Bernoulli was a Swiss mathematician and was one of the many prominent mathematicians in the Bernoulli family. He is known for his contributions to infinitesimal calculus and educated Leonhard Euler in his youth. Throughout Johann Ber...

François Couperin was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. François Couperin was known as "Couperin le Grand" (Couperin the Great) to distinguish him from the other members of the musically talented Couperin family. He wa...

Dutch physician, anatomist, botanist, chemist and humanist. One of the most influential clinicians and teachers of the 18th century, Boerhaave spent almost his entire life in Leiden, which became a leading medical centre of Europe. Like Tho...

Captain Thomas Coram was a philanthropist who created the London Foundling Hospital to look after unwanted children in Lamb's Conduit Fields, Bloomsbury. It is said to be the world's first incorporated charity. The Foundling Hospital cha...

The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. The company was incorporated by British royal charter in 1670 as The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England tra...

Arnold Joost van Keppel, 1st Earl of Albemarle KG, and lord of De Voorst in Guelders (Gelderland), was the son of Oswald van Keppel and his wife Anna Geertruid van Lintelo. De Voorst is a large country house near Zutphen, financed by Willia...

Frederick Augustus I or Augustus II the Strong was Elector of Saxony (as Frederick Augustus I) and King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (as Augustus II). Augustus's great physical strength earned him the nicknames "the Strong," "the S...

Bernard Mandeville was a philosopher, political economist and satirist. Born in the Netherlands, he lived most of his life in England and used English for most of his published works. He became famous for The Fable of the Bees. Mandeville's...