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John Frederick ... John VII

John Frederick: last elector of the Ernestine branch of the Saxon House of Wettin and leader of the Protestant Schmalkaldic League. His wars against the Holy Roman emperor Charles V and his ...
John George: elector of Brandenburg who in 1571 succeeded his father, Joachim II. Under his rule the divided electorate was reunited. His economies earned him the surname Oekonom (Steward) and made him ...
John George I: elector of Saxony from 1611, whose irresolution lost for Saxony, then the richest and most powerful of the German states, opportunities for ascendancy and territorial expansion.
John George II: elector of Saxony (1657-80), under whom Dresden became the musical centre of Germany.
John George III: elector of Saxony (1680-91).
John George IV: elector of Saxony (1691-94).
John Henry: hero of a widely sung U.S. black folk ballad. It describes his contest with a steam drill, in which John Henry crushed more rock than did the machine but died ...
John Hyrcanus I: high priest and ruler of the Jewish nation from 135/134 to 104 BC. Under his reign the Hasmonean kingdom of Judaea in ancient Palestine attained power and great prosperity, and ...
John Hyrcanus II: high priest of Judaea from 76 to 40 BC, and, with his brother Aristobulus II, last of the Maccabean (Hasmonean) dynastic rulers. Under Hyrcanus' vacillating leadership, Judaea (southern of the ...
John I: king of Aragon (1387-1395), son of Peter IV. Influenced by his wife, Violante, he pursued a pro-French policy but refused to become involved in the Hundred Years' War. He died ...
John I: king of France, the posthumous son of Louis X of France by his second consort, Clemence of Hungary. He died just a few days after his birth but is nevertheless ...
John I: king of Portugal from 1385 to 1433, who preserved his country's independence from Castile and initiated Portugal's overseas expansion. He was the founder of the Aviz, or Joanina (Johannine), dynasty.
John I: duke of Brittany (from 1237), son of Peter I. Like his father, he sought to limit the temporal power of the clergy; consequently he was excommunicated, upon which he journeyed ...
John I: king of Castile from 1379 to 1390, son of Henry II, founder of the dynasty of Trastamara.
John I Albert: king of Poland and military leader whose reign marked the growth of Polish parliamentary government.
John I Tzimisces: Byzantine emperor (969-976) whose extension of Byzantine influence into the Balkans and Syria and maintenance of domestic tranquillity assured the prestige and stability of the empire for his immediate successors.
John I, Saint: pope from 523 to 526 who ended the Acacian Schism (484-519), thus reuniting the Eastern and Western churches by restoring peace between the papacy and the Byzantine emperor Justin I.
John II: count of Hainaut (1280-1304) and of the Dutch provinces of Holland and Zeeland (1299-1304), who united the counties and prevented the northward expansion of the house of Dampierre, the counts ...
John II: king of France from 1350 to 1364. Captured by the English at the Battle of Poitiers on Sept. 19, 1356, he was forced to sign the disastrous treaties of 1360 ...
John II: duke of Brittany (from 1286) and count of Richemont, son of John I. He accompanied his father on St. Louis's crusade to Tunisia (1270) and fought also in Palestine. He ...
John II: king of Aragon (1458-79) and also king of Navarre (1425-79); he was the instigator of the union of Castile and Aragon through the historic marriage of his son Ferdinand with ...
John II: king of Castile from 1406 to 1454; his political weakness led him to rely on his favourite, Alvaro de Luna, whom he made constable. He was nevertheless considered a man ...
John II: king of Portugal from 1481 to 1495, regarded as one of the greatest Portuguese rulers, chiefly because of his ruthless assertion of royal authority over the great nobles and his ...
John II: pope from 533 to 535 and the first pontiff to change his original name, which he considered pagan.
John II Casimir Vasa: king of Poland (1648-68) and pretender to the Swedish throne, whose reign was marked by heavy losses of Polish territory incurred in wars against the Ukrainians, Tatars, Swedes, and Russians.
John II Comnenus: Byzantine emperor (1118-43) whose reign was characterized by unremitting attempts to reconquer all important Byzantine territory lost to the Arabs, Turks, and Christian Crusaders.
John III: king of Portugal from 1521 to 1557. His long reign saw the development of Portuguese seapower in the Indian Ocean, the occupation of the Brazilian coast, and the establishment of ...
John III: duke of Brittany (from 1312), son of Arthur II. His death without heirs resulted in the War of the Breton Succession, pitting two indirect heirs, John of Montfort and Charles ...
John III: king of Sweden (1568-92), a deeply religious ruler who attempted to reconcile the Swedish Lutheran Church with the Catholic leadership in Rome and to revive discarded elements of the Catholic ...
John III: pope from 561 to 574.
John III Ducas Vatatzes: emperor of Nicaea (1222-54) who, by acquiring territory, encouraging economic growth, and supporting a cultural revival from his capital at Nicaea (modern Iznik, Turkey), paved the way for the recovery ...
John III Sobieski: elective king of Poland (1674-96), a soldier who drove back the Ottoman Turks and briefly restored the kingdom of Poland-Lithuania to greatness for the last time.
John IV: duke of Brittany from 1365, whose support for English interests during the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) nearly cost him the forfeit of his duchy to the French crown. The instability ...
John IV: also called (1630-40) Joao, 8^o Duque (8th duke) De Braganca, byname John The Fortunate, Portuguese Joao O Afortunado king of Portugal from 1640 as a result of the national revolution, ...
John IV: pope from 640 to 642.
John IV Lascaris: emperor of Nicaea whose brief reign as a minor was filled with intrigue and conspiracies that culminated in the seizure of power by Michael Palaeologus, the future Byzantine emperor Michael ...
John IV Of Odzun: Armenian Hovhannes Iv Otznetzi Armenian Orthodox catholicos (supreme head of the Armenian Church), a learned theologian and jurist who strove for greater ecclesiastical autonomy for the Armenian Church and supported ...
John IX: pope from 898 to 900.
John Leonardi, Saint: founder of the Roman Catholic Ordo Clericorum Regularium Matris Dei (Clerks Regular of the Mother of God), whose members were commonly called Leonardini; the order was distinguished for learning and ...
John Maurice Of Nassau: Dutch colonial governor and military commander who consolidated Dutch rule in Brazil (1636-44), thereby bringing the Dutch empire in Latin America to the peak of its power.
John o'Groats: village-near Dunnet Head, the northernmost point of mainland Great Britain-in the Highland council area, historic county of Caithness, Scotland. The scattered village is the site of a house, now only ...
John of Avila, Saint: reformer, one of the greatest preachers of his time, author and spiritual director whose religious leadership in 16th-century Spain earned him the title Apostle of Andalusia.
John Of Beverley, Saint: bishop of York, one of the most popular medieval English saints.
John of Capistrano, Saint: one of the greatest Franciscan preachers of the 15th century and leader of an army that liberated Belgrade from a Turkish invasion.
John of Damascus, Saint: Eastern monk and theological doctor of the Greek and Latin churches whose treatises on the veneration of sacred images placed him in the forefront of the 8th-century Iconoclastic Controversy, and ...
John Of Ephesus: Monophysite bishop of Ephesus, who was a foremost early historian and leader of Monophysites (q.v.) in Syria.
John Of Fordun: first chronicler to attempt a continuous history of Scotland. His work is nationalistic in attitude and reliable where he is not dealing with legendary subjects. Evidence about his life is ...
John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster: English prince, fourth but third surviving son of the English king Edward III and Philippa of Hainaut; he exercised a moderating influence in the political and constitutional struggles of the ...
John Of God, Saint: founder of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God (Brothers Hospitallers), a Roman Catholic religious order of nursing brothers. In 1886 Pope Leo XIII declared him patron of hospitals ...
John Of Jandun: foremost 14th-century interpreter of Averroes' rendering of Aristotle.
John of Jerusalem: theologian and bishop, a strong advocate of the Platonistic Alexandrian tradition during the 5th-century doctrinal controversies of the Eastern church, and co-author of a celebrated collection of catechetical conferences on ...
John Of Kronshtadt: Russian Orthodox priest-ascetic whose pastoral and educational activities, particularly among the unskilled poor, contributed notably to Russia's social and spiritual reform.
John Of Matha, Saint: cofounder of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity for the Redemption of Captives, commonly called Trinitarians, or Mathurins, a Roman Catholic mendicant order originally dedicated to freeing Christian slaves ...
John Of Mirecourt: French Cistercian monk, philosopher, and theologian whose skepticism about certitude in human knowledge and whose limitation of the use of reason in theological statements established him as a leading exponent ...
John of Nepomuk, Saint: patron saint of the Czechs, who was murdered during the bitter conflict of church and state that plagued Bohemia in the latter 14th century.
John Of Paris: also called John The Deaf, or John Quidort, French Jean De Paris, Jean Le Sourd, or Jean Quidort, medieval Latin Johannes De Soardis Dominican monk, philosopher, and theologian who advanced ...
John Of Saint Thomas: philosopher and theologian whose comprehensive commentaries on Roman Catholic doctrine made him a leading spokesman for post-Reformation Thomism, a school of thought named after its foremost theorist, St. Thomas Aquinas ...
John Of Salisbury: one of the best Latinists of his age, who was secretary to Theobald and Thomas Becket, archbishops of Canterbury, and who became bishop of Chartres.
John Of Scythopolis: Byzantine theologian and bishop of Scythopolis, in Palestine (c. 536-550), whose various treatises on the person and work of Christ and commentaries on Neoplatonic philosophy sought to integrate all possible ...
John of the Cross, Saint: one of the greatest Christian mystics and Spanish poets, doctor of the church, reformer of Spanish monasticism, and cofounder of the contemplative order of Discalced Carmelites.
John Paul I: pope whose 33-day pontificate in 1978 was the shortest in modern times. He was the first pope to choose a double name and did so in commemoration of his two ...
John Paul II: the bishop of Rome and head of the Roman Catholic church (1978-2005), the first non-Italian pope in 455 years and the first from a Slavic country. His pontificate of more ...
John Scholasticus: patriarch of Constantinople (as John III), theologian, and ecclesiastical jurist whose systematic classification of the numerous Byzantine legal codes served as the basis for Greek Orthodox Church (canon) law.
John Sigismund: elector of Brandenburg from 1608, who united his domain with that of Prussia.
John Talaia: theologian and bishop of Alexandria, Egypt, whose struggle to maintain his episcopal office and preserve the ascendancy of the orthodox party in conjunction with Popes Simplicius (468-483) and Felix III ...
John the Apostle, Saint: in Christian tradition, the author of three letters, the Fourth Gospel, and the Revelation to John in the New Testament. He played a leading role in the early church at ...
John the Baptist, Saint: Jewish prophet of priestly origin who preached the imminence of God's Final Judgment and baptized those who repented in self-preparation for it; he is revered in the Christian Church as ...
John the Faster, Saint: patriarch of Constantinople (John IV) and mediator of theological disputes between the Orthodox and Monophysites (q.v.). He reinforced Constantinople's preeminence among patriarchal cities in the Eastern Church by assuming the ...
John V: duke of Brittany from 1399, whose clever reversals in the Hundred Years' War and in French domestic conflicts served to strengthen his duchy.
John V: king of Portugal from 1706 to 1750, whose relatively peaceful reign saw an increase in the wealth and power of the crown and a generous patronage of learning, culture, and ...
John V: pope from July 23, 685, to Aug. 2, 686.
John V Palaeologus: Byzantine emperor (1341-91) whose rule was marked by civil war and increased domination by the Ottoman Turks, despite his efforts to salvage the empire.
John VI: pope from 701 to 705.
John VI: prince regent of Portugal from 1799 to 1816, and king from 1816 to 1826, whose reign saw the revolutionary struggle in France, the Napoleonic invasion of Portugal (during which he ...
John VI Cantacuzenus: statesman, Byzantine emperor, and historian whose dispute with John V Palaeologus over the imperial throne induced him to appeal for help to the Turks, aiding them in their conquest of ...
John VII: pope from 705 to 707.