Pazzi conspiracy, 1478, plot against Lorenzo de' Medici (Lorenzo il Magnifico) and his brother Giuliano, designed to end the hegemony of the Medici in the Florentine state and to enlarge papal...

Amboise, conspiracy of, 1560, plot of the Huguenots (French Protestants) and the house of Bourbon to usurp the power of the Guise family, which virtually ruled France during the reign of the y...

Hotman, François, 1524–90, French jurist. Converted (1547) to Protestantism and implicated (1560) in the conspiracy of Amboise (see Amboise, conspiracy of), he spent large parts of his life in...

Cadoudal, Georges, 1771–1804, French royalist conspirator. A commander of the Chouans, he led the counterrevolutionists in the Vendée. He fled to England in 1801 after the failure of an attemp...

Ten, Council of, in the republic of Venice, a special tribunal created (1310) to avert plots and crimes against the state. It was a direct result of the unsuccessful Tiepolo conspiracy against...

Batavi, ancient Germanic tribe that settled (1st cent. B.C.) in the Rhine delta. Batavian regiments served under Rome, although this relationship was interrupted in A.D. 70 by the anti-Roman c...

Orlov, Aleksey Grigoryevich, Count, 1737–1808, Russian nobleman; brother of Grigori G. Orlov. He and his brother headed the conspiracy to put Catherine II on the throne of Russia. It is allege...

Tiy, fl. 1167 B.C., queen of ancient Egypt, wife of Ramses III (see under Ramses). To gain the throne for her son, Pentewere, she led a palace conspiracy to displace her aging husband. At the ...

Francis II, 1544–60, king of France (1559–60), son of King Henry II and Catherine de' Medici. He married (1558) Mary Queen of Scots (Mary Stuart), and during his brief reign the government was...

Cinq Mars, Henri Coëffier Ruzé d'Effiat, marquis de, 1620–42, French conspirator. Introduced at court by Cardinal Richelieu at an early age, Cinq Mars rapidly rose in King Louis XIII's favor a...