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[English Version] (gest.628), christl. Großkönigin von Persien. Die zur Apostolischen Kirche des Ostens gehörende Š. heiratete den Großkönig Khosroe II. (590–628; Iran: II.,4.). Sie protegierte die Christen im Sasanidenreich und nahm Einfluß auf die Religionspolitik; später wandte sie sich den sog. »Monophysiten« zu. Als die Kreuzesreliquie 614 im Krieg mit Byzanz in die Hände der Perser fiel, bewahrte sie diese auf. Gespräche zw. den christl. Kirchen unter ihrem Einfluß sollten zu einer Einheitsk…

[English Version] Tamara, Königin von Georgien 1184–1213. Die Urenkelin des georgischen Königs David »des Erbauers« wurde 1178 Mitregentin ihres Vaters Georg III. Aus ihrer zweiten Ehe mit dem ossetischen Fürsten David Soslan gingen ihre Nachfolger Georg IV. und Russutuna hervor. – Die in Kleinasien eingedrungenen Seldschuken wurden zurückgedrängt. T. schaltete sich 1204 in den Vierten Kreuzzug ein; Trapezunt wurde von David Soslan erobert und unter dem verwandten Alexios Komnenos ein Pufferstaat zw.…

[English Version] (Sigmund, Sigismund von Luxemburg, 15.2.1368 Nürnberg – 9.12.1437 Znaim), röm.-dt. Kaiser (1410–1437), König von Ungarn (1387–1437) und Böhmen (1419–1437). Der jüngere Sohn Karls IV. und Bruder Wenzels von Böhmen (gest.1419), war zunächst Markgraf von Brandenburg und nach seiner Verlobung mit Maria (gest.1395), der Tochter König Ludwigs von Ungarn und Polen, ab 1382 Mitregent von Ungarn. 1387 wurde er zum König von Ungarn gekrönt, wo er sich nach langen Auseinandersetzungen behau…

[German Version] (1247, Monte Corvino, Italy – 1320, Peking), missionary to China and archbishop of Peking (Khanbalik). John, a Franciscan, was sent to Persia by his general in 1280. In 1289, he returned to Rome with letters from the Ilkhan Arghun. Pope Nicholas IV sent John back to the Ilkhan and to the Great Khan Kubilai in Khanbalik (Peking). John first traveled to India where he arrived in 1291. He seems to have reached Peking only after the death of Kubilai (1294). As the first Catholic bisho…

[German Version] (Jan 10, 1480, Brussels – Dec 1, 1530, Mechelen). The daughter of Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy, Margaret was married as a child to Charles (VIII) of France in 1482, but he sent her back to her father in 1493. In 1497 she went to Spain, where she married Juan, the heir to the throne, who died a few months later. In 1499 she returned to the Netherlands, where she married Duke Philibert of Savoy (died 1504). In 1507, after the death of her brother Philip, she became regent of th…

[German Version] (Sigmund, Sigismund of Luxemburg; Feb 15, 1368, Nuremberg – Dec 9, 1437, Znojmo), Holy Roman Emperor (1433–1437), German king of the Romans (1410–1437), king of Hungary (1387–1437) and Bohemia (1419–1437); the younger son of Charles IV and the brother of Wenceslas of Bohemia (died 1419). He was initially margrave of Brandenburg; ¶ after his betrothal to Mary of Hungary (died 1395), the daughter of King Louis of Hungary and Poland, he became co-regent of Hungary in 1382. In 1387 he was crowned king of Hungary; after lengthy conflict…

[German Version] (died 1331), theologian, born c. 1250, studied in the cathedral school (Cathedral schools) in Prague for three years and from 1276 to 1285 in Padua, first at the university with William of Brescia and, after 1281, in the Dominican monastery. It remains unclear whether Engelbert is identical with the homonymous abbot of St. Peter in Salzburg (1286–1297). From 1297 to 1327, Engelbert was …

[German Version] (died 628), Christian queen of Persia. A member of the Apostolic Church of the East, Šīrīn married King Khosrau II (590–628; Iran: II, 4). She protected the Christians in the Sassanian Empire and influenced religious policy. Later she embraced so-called Monophysitism (Monophysites). She preserved the relic of the True Cross when it fell into the hands of the Persians in 614 during the war with Byzantium. Conversations among the Christian churches under her influence were intended …

[German Version] (papacy 1352 – Sep 12, 1362) (Étienne Aubert; b. 1282 or 1295 in Les-Monts-de-Beyssac, Limousin). He began his career as professor of civil law at Toulouse and as bishop of Noyon and Clermon; in 1342 he was made a cardinal. From the conclave of 1352 there survives the earliest capitulation signed by the cardinal electors stipulating their rights. After his election, Innocent withdrew his signature. He was a frugal administrator who shrank the papal household and promoted reform of…

[German Version] (c. 1130/1135, Celico, Calabria – 1202, San Giovanni in Fiore). In 1176, he began work on the Concordia Novi ac Veteris Testamenti (completed in 1195). From 1171 to 1177 he was abbot of Corazzo, and in 1183/1184 in the Cistercian abbey of Casamari, where he began the composition of the Expositio in Apocalypsim. In 1184, he had a “trinitarian enlightenment ¶ experience” that let him see the “ten-stringed psalter” as the image for understanding the Trinity. In the same year he interpreted a prophecy for Pope Lucius III. In 1188, Pope Clement …

[German Version] This important European ruling family was first known in the middle of the 10th century in the Aargau and upper Alsace. Bishop Werner of Straßburg built the Habichtsburg near Brugg in the Aargau in 1029. Before 1135, the Habsburgs obtained the governorship of Lucerne, and in 1173 of Säckingen and Waldshut. In 1264, Count Rudolph I (d. 1291), from the Hohenstaufen entourage, obtained the inheritance of the Counts of Kyburg in the Thurgau along with Freiburg in Üchtland (Fribourg). …

[German Version] queen of Georgia (1184–1213). The great-granddaughter of the Georgian king David IV became co-regent with her father George III in 1178. The children of her second marriage, to the Ossetian prince David Soslan, succeeded to the throne as George IV and Russutuna. The Seljuks, who had invaded Asia Minor, were driven back. In 1204 Tamara joined the Fourth Crusade. Trebizond was taken by David Soslan; under his kinsman Alexius Comnenus, it was turned into a buffer state between Georgia and the Seljuks. The most important figu…

[German Version] (Mar 22, 1459, Wiener Neustadt – Jan 12, 1519, Wels), king of Germany (from 1486) and Holy Roman emperor of the German Nation (from 1509). The son of Frederick III of Habsburg-Austria, he laid the foundations of his dynasty's rise to a world power. Maximilian's marriage to Mary, the daughter of Charles the Bold, established the rule of the Habsburgs over Burgundy, which was maintained against France in the Peace of Senlis (1493). His election as king of Germany opened up the succe…

[German Version] John XXIII, Antipope, Antipope, May 17, 1410 – May 29, 1415 (Baldassare Cossa; c. 1370, Naples – Dec 27, 1419, Florence). John was able to drive out the Roman pope, Gregory XII, take possession of Rome, and open the Council of Rome in April 1412; in 1413, he had to leave Rome. He made contact with the German king ¶ Sigismund, who used the weakness of the papacy to summon the Council of Constance (Constance, Council of). One consequence of John's flight from Constance was the declaration of the superiority of the council …