Crescent is a geometrical form resembling the moon in its first quarter, and used as a charge in heraldry. It is perhaps better known as the symbol of the Ottoman Turks and a symbol of Islam. The crescent as an emblem is of very high antiquity, being that of the Greek goddess Artemis or Diana. It is found on medals of many ancient cities, particularly of Byzantium, from whence it is supposed to have been borrowed by the Ottomans. The crescent has given name to a Turkish order of knighthood from the form of the badge, instituted by Selim, sultan of Turkey, in 1801. Research Crescent
The Diana Monkey (Cercopithecusdiana) is an endangered species of monkey of the family Cercopithecidae found in the middle layer of tropical rain forests of Liberia, Ivory Coast and Ghana. The Diana Monkey is predominantly black with a white crescent on the forehead resembling the symbol of the goddess Diana and whence the name Diana monkey, white beard, chest, and throat; a white stripe along each thigh; and a deep reddish patch on the back. It is whitish, yellowish, or reddish on the inside of the thighs. The Diana Monkey is fast reducing in numbers due to the logging of the forests and the replanting of them with non-native species of trees. Research Diana Monkey
Catherine de Medici (Catharine de Medici) was the wife of Henry II, King of France. She was born in 1519 at Florence and died in 1589. She was the only daughter of Lorenzo de Medici, duke of Urbino, and the niece of Pope Clement VII. She was married to the Duke of Orleans, afterwards Henry II, in 1533, but had little or no influence at the French court either during the reign of her husband, who was under the influence of his mistress Diana de Poitiers, or during the reign of her eldest son, Francis II, who, in consequence of his marriage with Mary Stuart, was devoted to the party of the Guises. The death of Francis II placed the reins of government, during the minority of her son Charles IX, in her hands. Wavering between the Guises on one side, who had put themselves at the head of the Catholics, and Conde and Coligny on the other, who had become very powerful by the aid of the Protestants, she played off one faction against the other in the hope of increasing her own power; and the thirty years of civil war which followed were mainly due to her. Her influence with Charles IX was throughout of the worst kind, and the massacre of St Bartholomew's Day was largely her work. After the death of Charles IX, in 1574, her third son succeeded as Henry III, and her mischievous influence continued. She died in 1589, shortly before the assassination of Henry III. Of her two daughters, Elizabeth married Philip II of Spain, and Margaret of Valois married Henry of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV. Research Catherine de Medici
Diana of Poitiers was a mistress of Henry II of France and the Duchess of Valentinois. She was born in 1499 and died in 1566. She was descended from the noble family of Poitiers, in Dauphiny. At an early age she married the Grand-seneschal of Normandy, Louis de Breze, became a widow at thirty-one, and some time after the mistress of the young Duke of Orleans. On his accession to the throne, in 1547, as Henry II, Diana continued to exercise an absolute empire over him until his death in 1559. After that event she retired to her castle of Anet, where she died in 1566. Research Diana of Poitiers
Diana Ross is an American Motown singer. She was born in 1944. She is remembered for singing with a band called the Supremes and later, from 1970, as a solo artist. Research Diana Ross
Henry Constable was an English poet. He was born in 1562 and died in 1613. He was educated at Cambridge. He early became a Roman Catholic, and endeavoured to secure the removal of the disabilities of English Catholics. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London for a time in 1604, on his return from a long sojourn abroad. His chief work was his book of sonnets, Diana, published in 1592, when few sonnets in the Italian form had been written. His pastoral in England's Helicon (1600), entitled The Shepherd's Song of Venus and Adonis, is said to have suggested Shaekspeare's Venus and Adonis. Research Henry Constable
Henry II was King of France. He was born in 1519 and died in 1559 in a jousting accident. He succeeded his father, Francis I, in 1547. Throughout his reign his mistress, Diana of Poitiers, exercised an important influence over king and court. After a brief war with England for the recovery of Boulogne, a war of longer duration and more serious results originated in 1551 in disputes between Henry and the pope as to the duchies of Parma and Placentia, and continued to devastate Europe until the general peace of Cateau-Cambresis, 1559. To confirm the peace Philip II, who had become a widower by the death of Mary of England, was to marry Elizabeth, Henry's eldest daughter by Catharine de Medici. In the course of a tournament held to celebrate the event, Henry was mortally wounded by a splinter from the lance of LordMontgomery, captain of the Scottish guard. He was succeeded in 1559 by his eldest son, Francis II. Research Henry II of France
William Hepworth Dixon was an English writer. He was born in 1821 at Manchester and died in 1879. In 1849 he published a memoir of Howard the philanthropist, which was followed by the Life of WilliamPenn (1851), and by a work on Admiral Blake (1852). In 1853, after having been a contributor, he became chief editor of the Athenaeum, a post which he retained until 1869. During this period he published several very popular works, including the Personal History of LordBacon, The Holy Land, and New America, the last being followed by Spiritual Wives. After his retirement from the Athenaeum, and in the last ten years of his life, he gave to the world somewhere about twenty-five volumes of history, travel, and fiction, among others, Free Russia; Her Majesty's Tower; The Switzers; History of Two Queens, Catharine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn; Diana Lady Lyie, and Ruby Grey (both novels); and his last work, Royal Windsor. Research William Dixon
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Crescent
