Pippin III: Pippin and Pope Stephen II: …April 757 a new king, Desiderius, became ruler of the Lombards. That year Stephen II also died, and Paul I was elected pope. He, too, constantly wrote to Pippin asking for help.

Gael García Bernal: …American (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) in Desierto (2015). He then starred in Neruda (2016) as an inspector chasing the Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda. García Bernal later lent his voice to the animated film Coco (2017), about a boy who goes on a journey through the Land of the Dead to…

Hugo Wast: …and Desierto de piedra (1925; A Stone Desert)—portray rural people in their struggle against nature and adversity and their ability to endure personal hardship. In such novels as La casa de los cuervos (1916; The House of Ravens), he told tales of adventure set against historical backgrounds. At times he…

civil engineering: Design: The design of engineering works may require the application of design theory from many fields—e.g., hydraulics, thermodynamics, or nuclear physics. Research in structural analysis and the technology of materials has opened the way for more rational designs, new design concepts, and greater economy of…

combinatorics: Early developments: …beginning of the theory of design. Among the earliest books devoted exclusively to combinatorics are the German mathematician Eugen Netto’s Lehrbuch der Combinatorik (1901; “Textbook of Combinatorics”) and the British mathematician Percy Alexander MacMahon’s Combinatory Analysis (1915–16), which provide a view of combinatorial theory as it existed before 1920.

Richard Fleischer: Early life and work: He subsequently coproduced Design for Death (1947), an Academy Award-winning documentary about Japanese culture that was intended as insight into that country’s participation in World War II, which had recently ended. Design for Death was assembled from newsreels seized by Allied forces.

Design for Living, comedy in three acts by Noël Coward, produced and published in 1933. Often compared to Coward’s Private Lives, this worldly tale of a ménage à trois involving a painter, a playwright, and the woman they both love is notable for its portrait of characters who are unable to live by

Ernst Lubitsch: Transition to sound: … before turning his attention to Design for Living (1933), another sophisticated masterpiece with an erotic tinge. A somewhat expurgated version of Noël Coward’s play of the same name, it starred Gary Cooper and Fredric March as an artist and a playwright, respectively, who live in Paris in a ménage à…

Walter Dorwin Teague: His Design This Day—the Technique of Order in the Machine Age (1940; rev. ed. 1949) traces the development of modern design and outlines the techniques necessary to the solution of design problems. He also wrote Land of Plenty, a Summary of Possibilities (1947) and, with John…

academy of art: …instruction, the Accademia del Disegno (“Academy of Design”), was established in 1563 in Florence by the grand duke Cosimo I de’ Medici at the instigation of the painter and art historian Giorgio Vasari. The two nominal heads of the institution were Cosimo himself and Michelangelo. In contrast to the guilds,…

Bauhaus: …New Bauhaus (later renamed the Institute of Design) in Chicago in 1937, the same year in which Gropius was appointed chairman of the Harvard School of Architecture. A year later Mies moved to Chicago to head the department of architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology (then known as the…

Japan: Local government: …be given the status of shitei toshi (designated city). Designated cities are divided into ku (wards), each of which has a chief and an assembly, the former being nominated by the mayor and the latter elected by the residents. The number of these cities has steadily increased since the first…

baseball: Records and statistics: …with the advent of the designated hitter rule (replacing the pitcher in the batting order with a better-hitting player) in the American League in 1973, all served to partially reverse the decline in offensive productivity.

Wallace Shawn: The Designated Mourner (1996; film 1997) touched on similar ground, telling the story—through actionless narrations by the three characters—of educated and privileged people who grapple with their humanity during a chaotic civil war in an unnamed country.

Michael J. Fox: …2009; The Good Wife; and Designated Survivor. He briefly starred in The Michael J. Fox Show (2013–14), a comedy in which he played a news anchor with Parkinson disease.

Poodle: …what was called the “designer dog” fad. The goal was to incorporate the Poodle’s intelligence and low-shedding coat into the offspring. All sizes of Poodles were crossed with other breeds, resulting in such mixed breeds as the Labradoodle (Labrador Retriever + Poodle), Schnoodle (Schnauzer + Poodle), and Pekepoo (

designer drugs: …of 1986, which contained a Controlled Substance Analogue Enforcement Act (commonly called the Designer Drug Act), which prohibited the manufacture of “substantially similar” analogues of banned chemicals.

designer drugs, in popular usage, illegal synthetic, laboratory-made chemicals. Although the term is not precisely defined, it is understood to refer to commonly abused drugs such as fentanyl, ketamine, LSD, PCP, quaaludes, methcathinone, and GHB (gammahydroxy butyrate), as well as to amphetamine

Vincente Minnelli: Films of the later 1950s: Lust for Life, Gigi, and Some Came Running: The romantic comedy Designing Woman (1957) starred Gregory Peck as a sportswriter and Bacall as a fashion designer. The film boasted wonderful sets and Minnelli’s meticulously re-created world of high fashion.

Lucille Ball: …Ball and her husband formed Desilu Productions, which, after experimenting with a radio program, launched in October 1951 a television comedy series entitled I Love Lucy. Starring the two of them in a comedy version of their real lives, the show was an instant hit, and, for the six years…

Desio, town, Lombardia (Lombardy) regione, northern Italy. The town’s name derives from the Latin ad decimum, Desio being 10 (decimus) Roman miles north of Milan on the road to Como (one Roman mile was a thousand paces, approximately 4,860 feet, or 1,482 m). In the European Middle Ages the parish

Compagnia dei Desiosi, one of the Italian acting troupes performing commedia dell’arte (improvised popular comedy) in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. This period is considered the golden age of the genre, and the performers were noted for their sophistication and varied skills. The

antidepressant: include imipramine, amitriptyline, desipramine, nortriptyline, and a number of other compounds. These drugs relieve symptoms in a high proportion (more than 70 percent) of depressed patients. As with the MAOIs, the antidepressant action of tricyclic drugs may not become apparent until two to four weeks after treatment begins.

Bharati Mukherjee: Desirable Daughters (2002) attracted considerable acclaim for its intricate depictions of Indian caste relations and the immigrant experience of reconciling disparate worldviews. Mukherjee delved further into the family history of the characters from that novel in The Tree Bride (2004), broaching issues of the time-spanning…

La Désirade, island in the Lesser Antilles, eastern Caribbean Sea, and a dependency of Guadeloupe, an overseas département of France. It lies 6 miles (10 km) east of the island of Grande-Terre. La Désirade is made of coral and is roughly oblong in shape. For more than 200 years, until 1958, it was

Bob Dylan: Dylan in the 1970s: …Billboard album chart, as did Desire, released one year later. In 1975 and 1976 Dylan barnstormed North America with a gypsylike touring company, announcing shows in radio interviews only hours before appearing. Filmed and recorded, the Rolling Thunder Revue—including Joan Baez, Allen Ginsberg, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and

ethics: Hobbes: …all human action is the desire for pleasure. Like later psychological hedonists, Hobbes was confronted with the objection that people often seem to act altruistically. According to a story told about him, Hobbes was once seen giving alms to a beggar outside St. Paul’s Cathedral. A clergyman sought to score…

Marlene Dietrich: …showed a lighter side in Desire (1936), directed by Frank Borzage, and Destry Rides Again (1939).

Frederick William Rolfe: …appeared after his death, notably The Desire and Pursuit of the Whole (1934). Rolfe was also a prolific letter writer, engaging in long and heated correspondence with his enemies.

Delbert Mann: Feature films: In 1958 Mann directed Desire Under the Elms, a widely criticized adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s tragic play; Sophia Loren was miscast as a newlywed who falls in love with her stepson (Anthony Perkins). Separate Tables (1958)—adapted by Terence Rattigan from his play—was better, a potent drama that examined

Desire Under the Elms, tragedy in three parts by Eugene O’Neill, produced in 1924 and published in 1925. The last of O’Neill’s naturalistic plays and the first in which he re-created the starkness of Greek tragedy, Desire Under the Elms draws from Euripides’ Hippolytus and Jean Racine’s Phèdre,

Henry Koster: The 1950s: But Koster’s next costume drama, Désirée (1954), was less successful. The lavish production, which largely eschewed historical accuracy, featured Marlon Brando as Napoleon, Jean Simmons as his seamstress lover Désirée, and Merle Oberon as his wife, Josephine. A Man Called Peter (1955) was better, a stately biopic about

Désirée’s Baby, short story by Kate Chopin, first published in Vogue magazine in 1893 and then reprinted in her collection Bayou Folk in 1894. A widely acclaimed, frequently anthologized story, “Désirée’s Baby” is set in antebellum Louisiana and deals with slavery, the Southern social system,

Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival: …name from the 1974 album Desitively Bonnaroo by New Orleans pianist and vocalist Dr. John. In the Creole slang of New Orleans, bonnaroo means, roughly, “best on the street.”

credit union: …1900 at Lévis, Quebec, by Alphonse Desjardins, a legislative reporter whose work had alerted him to the hardships caused by usury. Desjardins also helped organize the first credit union in the United States in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1909. In that same year Massachusetts passed the first state law recognizing…

Marcel Proust: Life and works: … (his cousin by marriage) and Paul Desjardins and by the historian Albert Sorel. Meanwhile, via the bourgeois salons of Madames Straus, Arman de Caillavet, Aubernon, and Madeleine Lemaire, he became an observant habitué of the most exclusive drawing rooms of the nobility.

Pete Desjardins was a Canadian-born American diver who won a silver medal in the springboard at the 1924 Olympics in Paris and gold medals in the springboard and platform events at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam, an achievement that was not matched by a male diver until Greg Louganis won both events

Pete Desjardins was a Canadian-born American diver who won a silver medal in the springboard at the 1924 Olympics in Paris and gold medals in the springboard and platform events at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam, an achievement that was not matched by a male diver until Greg Louganis won both events

desk, a table, frame, or case with a sloping or horizontal top particularly designed to aid writing or reading, and often containing drawers, compartments, or pigeonholes. The first desks were probably designed for ecclesiastical use. Early English desks derived from the church lectern were

Antoni Tàpies: …objects, as in his assemblage Desk and Straw (1970), in which an actual desk serves as the “canvas.” His works of lithography were noted for their cryptic, spontaneous effects. He also collaborated with poet Joan Brossa on a number of illustrated books.

Desk Set, American romantic comedy film, released in 1957, that was the first colour movie featuring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. It was one of the earliest movies to deal with the issue of labour anxiety amid the advent of the computer age. Tracy portrayed Richard Sumner, an efficiency

fax: Analog telephone facsimile: …1948 Western Union introduced its desk-fax service, which was based on a small office machine. Some 50,000 desk-fax units were built until the service was discontinued in the 1960s.

Donald Deskey was an American industrial designer who helped establish industrial design as a profession. Deskey attended the University of California at Berkeley, the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art (now San Francisco Art Institute), and the Art Institute of Chicago before studying in Paris in

desktop publishing, the use of a personal computer to perform publishing tasks that would otherwise require much more complicated equipment and human effort. Desktop publishing allows an individual to combine text, numerical data, photographs, charts, and other visual elements in a document that

videophone: Videoconferencing: Desktop videophones usually consist of inexpensive cameras connected to a personal computer (PC), video-sharing software, and an Internet connection (either dial-up or broadband) between two PCs. Because of bandwidth limitations, desktop systems are usually of lower quality than business videoconferencing systems. Some desktop conferencing software…

Henri-Alexandre Deslandres was a French physicist and astrophysicist who in 1894 invented a spectroheliograph, an instrument that photographs the Sun in monochromatic light. (About a year earlier George E. Hale had independently invented a spectroheliograph in the United States.) After graduating

desman, either of two species of amphibious Eurasian moles that den on land but seek prey underwater instead of burrowing through soil. The protruding flexible snout is flat and grooved with a lobed tip. Desmans have tiny eyes and no external ears; the ear holes and nostrils close underwater. The

desman: The tail of the Russian desman (Desmana moschata) is flattened horizontally and has scent glands at its base that exude a strong musky odour that envelops the animal. The Pyrenean desman (Galemys pyrenaicus) of western Europe has similar scent glands. It has a cylindrical tail, flat near its tip…

Western painting: Central Europe: In Georg Desmarées the court at Munich gained a painter in whose Rococo portraits there is more than a hint of decadence.

Marie Champmeslé was a French tragedienne who created the heroines in many of Jean Racine’s plays. The daughter of an actor, she married the actor Charles Chevillet Champmeslé in 1666, and by 1669 both were members of the Théâtre du Marais in Paris. In 1670 they joined the Hôtel de Bourgogne, where

hutia: …12 inches), to the raccoon-sized Desmarest’s Cuban hutia (Capromys pilorides), with a body 32 to 60 cm long and weight of up to 8.5 kg (19 pounds). The tail ranges from very short and inconspicuous in Brown’s hutia (Geocapromys brownii) to pronounced and prehensile in the long-tailed Cuban hutia Mysateles…

Nicolas Desmarest was a French geologist whose discovery of the volcanic origin of basalt disproved the Neptunist theory that all rocks were formed by sedimentation from primeval oceans. From 1757 Desmarest was employed by the government to help spread better manufacturing methods throughout

Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin was a French prose writer, poet, dramatist, Christian polemicist, and political figure. One of the original members and the first chancellor of the French Academy, Desmarets opened the long literary battle, since called the querelle des anciens et des modernes (see

Nicolas Desmarets, marquis de Maillebois was the minister of finance during the last seven years of the reign (1643–1715) of Louis XIV of France. A nephew of Louis’s great finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Desmarets rose rapidly in financial administration, but on Colbert’s death (1683) he

fat and oil processing: Extractors: In the DeSmet extractor, popular in Europe and in a number of developing countries, a bed of flakes on an endless horizontal traveling belt is extracted by solvent percolation. The Blaw-Knox Rotocell has become the most popular extractor in the huge American soybean industry. The flakes are…

antidepressant: include imipramine, amitriptyline, desipramine, nortriptyline, and a number of other compounds. These drugs relieve symptoms in a high proportion (more than 70 percent) of depressed patients. As with the MAOIs, the antidepressant action of tricyclic drugs may not become apparent until two to four weeks after treatment begins.

Algeria: The conquest of Algeria: The treaty signed between General Louis-Alexis Desmichels and Abdelkader in 1834 included two versions, one of which made major concessions to Abdelkader again without the consent or knowledge of the French government. This miscommunication led to a breach of the agreement when the French moved through…

desmid, (order Desmidiales), order of single-celled (sometimes filamentous or colonial) microscopic green algae, comprising some 5,000 species in about 40 genera. Desmids are sometimes treated as a family (Desmidiaceae) of the order Zygnematales. Desmids are characterized by extensive variation in

desmid, (order Desmidiales), order of single-celled (sometimes filamentous or colonial) microscopic green algae, comprising some 5,000 species in about 40 genera. Desmids are sometimes treated as a family (Desmidiaceae) of the order Zygnematales. Desmids are characterized by extensive variation in

long-horned beetle: …lepturids (subfamily Lepturinae) include the elderberry longhorn (Desmocerus palliatus), also called the cloaked knotty-horn beetle because it looks as if it has a yellow cloak on its shoulders and has knotted antennae. It feeds on leaves and flowers of the elderberry bush, and its larvae bore into the pithy stems.

gerbil: Natural history: The smallest is probably Desmodilliscus braueri of northern Africa, weighing a mere 6 to 14 grams (0.2 to 0.5 ounce) and measuring 4 to 8 cm long, not including the shorter, scantily haired tail.

vampire bat, (family Desmodontidae), any of three species of blood-eating bats, native to the New World tropics and subtropics. The common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus), together with the white-winged vampire bat (Diaemus, or Desmodus, youngi) and the hairy-legged vampire bat (Diphylla ecaudata)

vampire bat, (family Desmodontidae), any of three species of blood-eating bats, native to the New World tropics and subtropics. The common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus), together with the white-winged vampire bat (Diaemus, or Desmodus, youngi) and the hairy-legged vampire bat (Diphylla ecaudata)

vampire bat: The common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus), together with the white-winged vampire bat (Diaemus, or Desmodus, youngi) and the hairy-legged vampire bat (Diphylla ecaudata) are the only sanguivorous (blood-eating) bats. The common vampire bat thrives in agricultural areas and feeds on livestock such as cattle, pigs, and…

vampire bat: … (Desmodus rotundus), together with the white-winged vampire bat (Diaemus, or Desmodus, youngi) and the hairy-legged vampire bat (Diphylla ecaudata) are the only sanguivorous (blood-eating) bats. The common vampire bat thrives in agricultural areas and feeds on livestock such as cattle, pigs, and chickens. The other two vampires are primarily restricted…

Caudata: Annotated classification: …genera, placed in 2 subfamilies: Hemidactyliinae, with 21 genera (including Bolitoglossa) and about 373 species in North America, Central America, and South America, and Plethodontinae, with 7 genera (including Plethodon and Desmognathus in North America and Hydromantes in western North America and the central

Caudata: Annotated classification: …genera, placed in 2 subfamilies: Hemidactyliinae, with 21 genera (including Bolitoglossa) and about 373 species in North America, Central America, and South America, and Plethodontinae, with 7 genera (including Plethodon and Desmognathus in North America and Hydromantes in western North America and the central

Caudata: Annotated classification: …7 genera (including Plethodon and Desmognathus in North America and Hydromantes in western North America and the central Mediterranean region) and about 105 species. Family Proteidae (olms and mud puppies) The olm is blind, has

palm: Characteristic morphological features: …modified into recurved hooks (Desmoncus), or the tip of the central axis may be produced into a long slender whiplike strand armed with recurved spines in climbing palms such as the rattan palm.

Desmond, an ancient territorial division of Ireland approximating the modern counties of Kerry and Cork. Between the 11th and 17th centuries, the name was often used for two quite distinct areas. Gaelic Desmond extended over the modern County Kerry south of the River Maine and over the modern

Kinsale: …wine museum is located in Desmond Castle, a former customs house that was built in the 15th century. St. Multose, a medieval church built in the late 12th century, is among the Church of Ireland’s oldest churches. The town has a fishery pier and a harbour and is a sport…

Desmond Tutu was a South African Anglican cleric who in 1984 received the Nobel Prize for Peace for his role in the opposition to apartheid in South Africa. (Read Desmond Tutu’s Britannica entry on the South African truth commission.) Tutu was born of Xhosa and Tswana parents and was educated in

Ireland: The Desmond rebellion: Despite his pardon, Fitzmaurice fled to the European continent in 1575, returning to Ireland in 1579 with papal approval for a Roman Catholic crusade against Queen Elizabeth. Although neither France nor Spain supported the crusade and Fitzmaurice was surprised and killed in August…

Viola Desmond: Entrepreneur and community leader: …opened a beauty school, the Desmond School of Beauty Culture, and expanded her business across the province. (Desmond created a line of beauty products, which were sold at venues owned by graduates of her beauty school.) Aware of her obligation to her community, Desmond created the school in order to…

Gerald Fitzgerald, 14th or 15th earl of Desmond was an Irish Roman Catholic nobleman who led one of the three major Irish rebellions against English rule under Queen Elizabeth I. The son of James FitzJohn, 13th earl of Desmond, he succeeded to his father’s title and lands in Munster (southwestern

Dave Brubeck: …the addition of alto saxophonist Paul Desmond. Within several months they attained a measure of national fame, largely by word of mouth among West Coast critics who championed the group’s innovations. Also during this time, Brubeck became one of the first jazz musicians to regularly tour and conduct seminars at…

Viola Desmond was a Canadian businesswoman and civil libertarian who built a career as a beautician and was a mentor to young Black women in Nova Scotia through her Desmond School of Beauty Culture. However, it is the story of her courageous refusal to accept an act of racial discrimination that

Viola Desmond was a Canadian businesswoman and civil libertarian who built a career as a beautician and was a mentor to young Black women in Nova Scotia through her Desmond School of Beauty Culture. However, it is the story of her courageous refusal to accept an act of racial discrimination that

tortoise beetle: Physical description: …pits and grooves covering the South American leaf beetle (Desmonota variolosa) give it an iridescent green color with depth resembling that of an emerald. The coloring disappears at death because of the drying and shrinkage that occur, and the dead beetle turns dull brown.

fern: Annotated classification: Family Desmophlebiaceae Plants have a thickened vein inside the edge of each compound leaflet; 1 genus (Desmophlebium) with 2 species. Family Diplaziopsidaceae Plants medium to large in soil or on rocks; rhizomes short- to long-creeping or erect, scaly; leaves pinnately divided, glabrous, hairy, glandular, or occasionally…

human skin: Major layers: …appearance due to the numerous desmosomes on their surface. Studies with the electron microscope have revealed that desmosomes are symmetrical, laminated structures in which some layers are contributed by the plasma membranes of adjoining cells and some form an intercellular component.

Camille Desmoulins was one of the most influential journalists and pamphleteers of the French Revolution. The son of an official of Guise, Desmoulins was admitted to the bar in 1785, but a stammer impeded his effectiveness as a lawyer. Nevertheless, after the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, he

Camille Desmoulins was one of the most influential journalists and pamphleteers of the French Revolution. The son of an official of Guise, Desmoulins was admitted to the bar in 1785, but a stammer impeded his effectiveness as a lawyer. Nevertheless, after the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, he

Desna River, river that rises in the Smolensk Upland in western Russia and flows for about 700 miles (1,130 km) south into the Dnieper River near Kiev,

Robert Desnos was a French poet who joined André Breton in the early Surrealist movement, soon becoming one of its most valuable members because of his ability to fall into a hypnotic trance, under which he could recite his dreams, write, and draw. Texts from this period appeared in the Surrealist

Auguste-Gaspard-Louis, Baron Desnoyers was a French engraver, one of the most eminent line engravers of his time. Desnoyers studied engraving and drawing and, after visiting Italy, entered the studio of Pierre-Alexandre Tardieu in 1800. His fame was established in 1805 by an engraving after

geochronology: Completion of the Phanerozoic time scale: In 1829 Jules Desnoyers of France, studying sediments in the Seine valley, proposed using the term Quaternary to encompass all of these various post-Tertiary formations. At nearly the same time, the important work of Lyell on the faunal succession of the Paris Basin permitted finer-scaled discrimination of…

Gabriela Mistral: …collection of her early works, Desolación (1922; “Desolation”), includes the poem “Dolor,” detailing the aftermath of a love affair that was ended by the suicide of her lover. Because of this tragedy, she never married, and a haunting, wistful strain of thwarted maternal tenderness informs her work. Ternura (1924, enlarged…

Yasmina Reza: …later wrote Une Désolation (1999; Desolation), a monologue delivered by an elderly man who cannot understand how others can be foolish enough to find happiness in life, and Adam Haberberg (2002), which centres on an unsuccessful, unhappy middle-aged writer whose happenstance encounter with an old friend from high school reminds…

Jack Kerouac: Sketching, poetry, and Buddhism: Kerouac recounted this experience in Desolation Angels (1965) using haiku as bridges (connectives in jazz) between sections of spontaneous prose. In 1956 he wrote a sutra, The Scripture of the Golden Eternity. He also began to think of his entire oeuvre as a “Divine Comedy of the Buddha,” thereby combining…

Kerguelen Islands: …of Kerguelen (also known as Desolation Island) and nearly 300 islets, which together cover about 2,400 square miles (6,200 square km). Heavily glaciated Kerguelen Island, about 100 miles (160 km) in length, has active glaciers and peaks up to 6,445 feet (1,965 metres).

Yasmina Reza: …later wrote Une Désolation (1999; Desolation), a monologue delivered by an elderly man who cannot understand how others can be foolish enough to find happiness in life, and Adam Haberberg (2002), which centres on an unsuccessful, unhappy middle-aged writer whose happenstance encounter with an old friend from high school reminds…

Tadeus Reichstein: …discovered, among them cortisone and desoxycorticosterone, which was used for many years to treat Addison’s disease.

methamphetamine, potent and addictive synthetic stimulant drug that affects the central nervous system (the spinal cord and brain). Methamphetamine is prescribed for the treatment of certain medical conditions, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, and obesity. In

reggaeton: … and Daddy Yankee released “Despacito,” and it became the most-streamed song at the time within six months. The single, a mix of pop music and reggaeton, not only brought renewed attention to reggaeton, but it also drew interest to Latin music more generally. In 2015 there were two mostly…

Edward Marcus Despard was a British army officer and colonial administrator and organizer of a conspiracy against the British government. Despard entered the army in 1766 and attained the rank of colonel. After serving in Jamaica, he was sent to Central America in 1781; there he was made governor

Despenser family, unpopular favourites of England’s King Edward II, who were executed by Edward’s opponents, Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer. Hugh Le Despenser (in full Hugh Le Despenser, earl of Winchester; b. 1262—d. Oct. 27, 1326, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Eng.), also known as Hugh the Elder,

Despenser family: Hugh Le Despenser (in full Hugh Le Despenser, earl of Winchester; b. 1262—d. Oct. 27, 1326, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Eng.), also known as Hugh the Elder, was summoned to Parliament as a baron in 1295. He fought in France and Scotland for Edward I and was…

Despenser family: …the interests of his son, Hugh Le Despenser (Hugh the Younger; d. Nov. 24, 1326, Hereford, Herefordshire, Eng.), who had been in the king’s household when he was prince of Wales. The younger Hugh was appointed the king’s chamberlain in 1318, but both father and son were attacked in Parliament…

Despenser family: …the interests of his son, Hugh Le Despenser (Hugh the Younger; d. Nov. 24, 1326, Hereford, Herefordshire, Eng.), who had been in the king’s household when he was prince of Wales. The younger Hugh was appointed the king’s chamberlain in 1318, but both father and son were attacked in Parliament…