OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Gerberge

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GERBERGE,
Wife of Louis the Fourth, of France, was the daughter of Henry, who became King of Germany in 918. She married first Gislebert, Duke of Lorraine, who was drowned in the Rhine. In 940, Gerberge married Louis the Fourth. Five years after, her husband was taken prisoner by the Normans. Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks, wished to obtain possession of him; but the Duke of Normandy consented to give him up only on condition that Louis' two sons should become hostages for their father. Hugh sent to demand them of Gerberge, but she refused, well knowing that the race of Charlemagne would be entirely destroyed, if the father and children were all prisoners. She only sent the youngest son with a bishop; so Louis not being set free, Gerberge sent to demand aid from her brother Otho, King of Germany. Louis was at length liberated by Otho's assistance, and he confided to Gerberge the defence of the town of Rheims, in which she shut herself up with her troops. In 964, Louise died, and Gerberge exerted herself effectually to have her eldest son, Lothaire, although scarcely twelve, placed on his father's throne. She, together with her brother, Bruno, Duke of Lorraine, were appointed regents. She marched, with her young son, at the head of an army, and beseiged Poictiers; ​and, in 960, she retook the city and fortress of Dijon, which had been treacherously given up to Robert of Treves, and had the traitor beheaded in the presence of the whole army.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Germain, Sophia

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GERMAIN, SOPHIA,
Born at Paris in 1776, made, at a comparatively early age, an extraordinary progress in the mathematical sciences, and, in 1816, obtained the prize of the Academy of Sciences for a memoir on the vibration of elastic laminae. She pursued this subject further in her "Recherches sur la théorie des surfaces élastiques," published in 1820; in another memoir presented to the Academy in 1826, and in an article in the "Anales de Physique et Chiraie," which appeared in 1828. During the revolution of the three days, she was quietly engaged at Paris in the preparation of a memoir on the curvature of surfaces, which was, when finished, inserted in "Crelle's Journal of the Mathematics." She died in 1831, of a cancer. Distinguished as she was by her acquirements and performances in the exact sciences, her attention had been far from being exclusively confined to them, but was, on the contrary, directed, in no inconsiderable degree, also to natural science, geography, history, and the speculations of philosophy.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Gentileschi, Artemisia

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GENTILESCHI, ARTEMISIA,
Was the daughter of Orazio Gentileschi, an Italian historical and landscape painter, who was born at Pisa, but came to London where he died. Artemisia resided in London for some time with her father, where she painted the portraits of several of the royal family, and many of the English nobility. She died in Italy, in 1642. One of her paintings represents Judith killing Holofornes; it is a picture of deep and terrible passion; the other is the Temptation of Susanna, a work of much ease, softness, and grace. Her talents gained her a wide reputation; and her private life was excellent.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Geoffrin, Marie Theresa Rodet

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GEOFFRIN, MARIE THERESA RODET,
Born in 1699. She was a woman alike distinguished by her qualities of mind and heart, who, during half a century, was the ornament of the most polite and cultivated societies in Paris. An orphan from the cradle, she was educated by her grandmother, and early accustomed to think and judge justly. She afterwards became the wife of a man, of whom nothing can be said, excepting that he left her in possession of a considerable fortune, which she employed partly in assisting the needy, partly in assembling around her a select circle of distinguished persons. Her benevolence was exerted in a touching and delicate manner. An attentive study of mankind, enlightened by reason and justice, had taught Madame Geoffrin that men are more weak and vain than wicked; that it ​is necessary to overlook the weakness, and bear with the vanity of others, that they, in turn, may bear with ours. Her favourite maxim, therefore, was, "Give and forgive."
From her very childhood she was of a most charitable disposition. She wished to perpetuate her benevolence through the hands of her friends.
"They will be blessed," said she, "and they in their turn will bless my memory." Thus she assigned to one of them, who was poor, an income of twelve hundred livres for his lifetime. "If you should grow richer," said she, "distribute the money out of love to me, when I can use it no longer."
In her house the best society in Paris was assembled. Cultivated minds of every description found access to her; none could therefore claim a preference: the mistress of the house herself was far from desiring any precedence; she was only amiable and animating.
The abbe de St. Pierre, when she dismissed him, after a long conversation with these words, "Vous avez été charmant anjourd'hui," addressed to her the well-known and deserved compliment, "Je ne suis qu'un instrument, Madame, dont vous avez bien joué."
Among the great number of strangers who visited her house in Paris, the most distinguished was Count Poniatowsky, afterwards King of Poland. He apprised her of his accession to the throne in these words:—"Maman votre fits est roi;" inviting her at the same time, to Warsaw. On her journey thither, (1768,) she was received at Vienna in the most flattering manner, by the emperor and empress. The latter, having met Madame Geoffrin, while taking a ride with her children, immediately stopped and presented them to her. Upon her arrival at Warsaw, she found a room there, perfectly like the one she had occupied in Paris. She returned to Paris, after having received the most flattering marks of respect, and died in 1777. Three of her friends, Thomas, Morellet, and d'Alembert, dedicated particular writings to her memory, which, with her treatise, Sur la Conversation, have been lately republished.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Gersdorf, Wilhelmine von

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GERSDORF, WILHELMINE VON,
Is a very voluminous German novelist; her writings are of the 'spirituelle' cast, and though comprising over thirty volumes, are sufficiently varied in scenes and characters to secure popularity, and encourage her unflagging industry.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Gethin, Lady Grace

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GETHIN, LADY GRACE,
Was the daughter of Sir George Norton, of Abbots-Leith, in Somersetshire, and born in 1676. She was liberally educated, and married Sir Richard Gethin, of Gethin-grott, in Ireland. Lovely and beloved, and possessed of many and great accomplishments, both natural and acquired, she did not live long enough to display them to the world; for she died in her twenty-first year. She was buried in Westminster Abbey, where a beautiful monument is erected over her; and, moreover, for perpetuating her memory, provision was made for a sermon to be preached in the Abbey, yearly, on Ash-Wednesday, for ever. She wrote, and left behind her in loose papers, a work which, soon after her death, was published under the title of "Reliquiæ Grethineanæ; or some remains of the most ingenious and excellent lady. Lady Grace Grethin, lately deceased; being a collection of choice Discourses, pleasant Apothegms, and witty Sentences, written by her, for the most part by way of Essay, and at spare hours, 1700." This work consists of discourses upon friendship, love, gratitude, death, speech, lying, idleness, the world, secresy, prosperity, adversity, children, cowards, bad poets, indifferency, censoriousness, revenge, boldness, youth, age, custom, charity, reading, beauty, flattery, riches, honour, pleasure, suspicion, excuses, etc. It is now very scarce.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Ginassi, Caterina

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GINASSI, CATERINA,
Was born of a noble 'family at Rome, in 1590. She was the niece of Cardinal Domenico Ginassi. She studied painting under Giovanni Lanfranco, from whose designs she executed several pictures in the convent of St. Lucia. She died in 1660.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Brighite

​Brighite, Brigid (2).
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Briga (4)

​St. Briga (4), Jan. 7, was the sister of St. Brendan, the navigator. After his seven years’ voyage, he founded the monasteries of Clonfert and Annadown, and set his sister over the latter, and there, in 577, he died in her arms, at the age of ninety-four. Smith and Wace. This Briga is thought to be the same as St. Breaca, who settled in Cornwall, but it does not seem very likely that, when her brother had died at ninety-four, she could have been young enough to start on a missionary tour to another country.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Brigid (10)

​St. Brigid (10), March 6. Daughter of Lenin, one or several saints descended from the family of St. Foillan. One of six sisters to whom is dedicated the “church of the Sisters,” at Kill-naninghean, in the district of Ui-Brivin.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Brig

​St. Brig, Breaca.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Briga (3)

​St. Briga (3), or Brigh, Feb. 1. End of 5th or beginning of 6th century. An abbess in Leinster, contemporary and friend of St. Brigid (2). At one of her frequent visits to St. Briga’s convent, when the nuns had washed the feet of their beloved guest, one of them, who had long lost the use of hers from gout, put them into the same water. Before she had time to dry them, they were perfectly well. When Brigid, Briga, and the nuns were at dinner, they noticed that Brigid kept her eyes fixed on one spot. They asked her the reason. She said she saw the devil sitting there amongst them. At Briga’s request she made the sign of the cross on her eyes, and so enabled her to see him too. He had an immense head, a black face, fiery eyes, flaming breath, thick knees and ankles. Brigid asked him why he and his companions bore so fierce a hatred towards the human race. He answered, “Because we do not wish any one to ​enjoy the glories of heaven, since we ourselves have lost all hope of entering there.” “Ah!” said the saint, “how different is my inclination! If I could not go to heaven myself, I should wish to open to all others the gates that I knew to be shut against me.” She then asked what business he had in a religious community. He told her that he was harboured there by one of the nuns, who did his will rather than that of her ostensible Master. Brigid ascertained from him the name of the nun, and then opened her eyes with the sign of the cross, that she might see what a hideous and cruel master she served. The nun, with tears, besought her prayers, and promised to amend her life. Brigid then banished the devil from amongst them, and the nun led a holy, penitential life, and was saved. Boll., AA. SS., in the fifth Life of St. Brigid.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Brigid (1)

​St. Brigid (1), Feb. 1, with Helen (4), Sapientia (2), cousins of St. Ursula, and daughters of St. Kilian, one of the conductors of her campaign. AA. SS., Oct. 21.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Brigid (11)

​St. Brigid (11), sister of St. Sedna, abbot of Killaine, and of SS. Gorba and Lassara, all descended from Erc, the ancestor of the kings of Albanian Scotia.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Briga

​St. Briga, or Brigh. Briga is one of the names of St. Brigid, besides which there are several Brigas, called also Brigh. (1) A pious matron, daughter of Feargna, who assisted St. Patrick in his labours; (2) Brigh of Coirpre, Jan. 7, who is possibly the same as Briga (1). Smith and Wace. O’Hanlon.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Briga (5)

​Briga (5), Breaca.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Brighe

​Brighe, Brigid (2).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/William of St Calais

See also William of St Calais on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​WILLIAM OF ST CALAIS (Carilef) (d. 1096), bishop of Durham and chief counsellor of William Rufus, was a Norman monk and prior of St Calais in Maine, who received the see of Durham from the Conqueror (1081). In Durham annals he is honourably remembered as the prelate who designed the existing cathedral, and also for his reform of ecclesiastical discipline. His political career is less creditable. Honoured with the special confidence of William Rufus he deserted his patron's cause at the first sign of rebellion, and joined with Odo of Bayeux in urging Duke Robert of Normandy to claim the crown (1088). After the collapse of this plot William was put upon his trial before the Great Council. He claimed the right to be judged by his fellow-bishops alone; this claim being rejected he appealed to the see of Rome. This was the first case of an appeal to the pope from an English tribunal which had occurred since the 7th century. Rufus and Lanfranc did not venture to dispute the right of appeal, but contended that the bishop, as a royal vassal, could not appeal against the forfeiture of his temporalities. These were confiscated, and William left the kingdom, but no more was heard of his appeal, and in 1091 he regained the royal ​favour and his see. Thenceforward he showed the utmost subservience. He managed the king's case against Anselm, and at Rockingham (1095) actually claimed the right of appeal, when it was claimed by the archbishop. Notwithstanding his zeal for the royal interests, William was soon afterwards disgraced. He died in January 1096.
See E. A. Freeman, William Rufus (1882), and Symeon of Durham, vol. i. pp. 170-195 (Rolls ed.).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/William the Clito

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​WILLIAM THE CLITO (1101–1128) was the son of Robert, duke of Normandy, by his marriage with Sibylla of Conversano. After his father's defeat and capture by Henry I. of England at the battle of Tinchebrai (1106) the young William fell into the hands of the conqueror. Henry magnanimously placed his nephew in the custody of Helias of Saint Saens, who had married a natural daughter of Duke Robert. Fearing for the safety of the boy, Helias carried him, in 1111, to the court of Louis VI. of France. That sovereign joined with the discontented Norman barons and others of Henry's enemies in recognizing William as the rightful claimant to the duchy; Robert, a prisoner whom there was no hope of releasing, they appear to have regarded as dead in the eye of the law. William's claims furnished the pretext for two Norman rebellions. The first which lasted from 1112 to 1120 was abetted by Louis, by Fulk V. of Anjou and by Baldwin VII. of Flanders. In the second, which broke out during 1123, Henry I. had merely to encounter the forces of his own Norman subjects; his diplomatic skill had been successfully employed to paralyse the ill-will of other enemies. In 1122 or 1123 William married Sibylle, daughter of Fulk of Anjou, and with her received the county of Maine; but Henry I. prevailed upon the Curia to annul this union, as being within the forbidden degrees. In 1127, however, the pretender obtained from Louis the hand of Johanna of Montferrat, half-sister of the French queen, and the vacant fief of Flanders. His own rigorous government or the intrigues of Henry I. raised up against William a host of rebels; a rival claimant to Flanders appeared in the person of Thierry or Dirk of Alsace. In besieging Alost, one of the strongholds of the rival party, William received a wound which mortified and proved fatal (July 28, 1128). He left no issue; although Duke Robert survived him and only died in 1134, the power of Henry I. was thenceforth undisputed by the Normans.
See Ordericus Vitalis, Hist. ecclesiastica, and Sir James Ramsay's Foundations of England, vol. ii. (1898).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/William of Poitiers

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​WILLIAM OF POITIERS (c. 1020-c. 1090), Norman chronicler, was born at Préaux, near Pont Audemer, and belonged to an influential Norman family. After serving as a soldier he studied at Poitiers, and then returning to Normandy became chaplain to Duke William (William the Conqueror) and archdeacon of Lisieux. He wrote an eulogistic life of the duke, the earlier and concluding parts of which are lost; and Ordericus Vitalis, who gives a short biography of him in his Historia ecclesiastica, says that he also wrote verses. William's Gesta Guilelmi II. ducis Normannorum, the extant part of which covers the period between 1047 and 1068, is valuable for details of the Conqueror's life, although untrustworthy with regard to affairs in England. According to Freeman, “the work is disfigured by his constant spirit of violent partisanship.” It was written between 1071 and 1077, and was used by Ordericus Vitalis.
The Gesta was first published by A. Duchesne in the Historiae Normannorum scriptores (Paris, 1619); and it is also found in the Scriptores rerum gestarum Willelmi Conquestoris of J. A . Giles (London, 1845). There is a French translation in tome xxix. of Guizot's Collection des mémoires relatifs à l'histoire de France (Paris, 1826). See G. Körting, Wilhelms von Poitiers Gesta Guilelmi ducis (Dresden, 1875); and A. Molinier, Les Sources de l'histoire de France, tome iii. (Paris, 1903).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/William of Valence

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​WILLIAM OF VALENCE (d. 1296), brother of Henry III. of England, was a son of John's widow, Isabelle of Angoulême, by her second marriage. William came to England with his brothers in 1247, and at once became a court favourite. He married Joan de Munchensi, the heiress to the Pembroke estates, whence he is sometimes styled earl of Pembroke. In 1258 he was attacked by the baronial opposition and forced to leave England. He returned in 1261, after Henry III. had repudiated the Provisions of Oxford, and fought on the royal side at Lewes (1264). Escaping from the pursuit of the victorious Montfortians, he later appeared at the head of a small army in Pembrokeshire. This gave the signal for the outbreak of a new civil war which ended with the defeat of Montfort at Evesham (1265). Valence accompanied Prince Edward to the Holy Land and, in later years, became a trusted agent of the crown, especially in the Welsh wars. The position of his estates made him the natural leader of all expeditions undertaken against Llewelyn from South Wales. He was also employed in Aquitaine. He died at Bayonne in 1296. Despite his origin he had become, in course of time, a respected leader of the baronage; and as a military commander rose high above the average level.
See R. Pauli's Geschichte von England, vol. iii. (Hamburg, 1853); W. H. Blaauw, Barons' War (1871).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Williams, John (missionary)

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​WILLIAMS, JOHN (1796-1839), English Nonconformist missionary, was born at Tottenham near London on the 29th of June 1796. He was trained as an ironmonger, and acquired considerable experience in mechanical work. Having offered himself to the London Missionary Society, he was sent, after some training, in 1816 to Eimeo, in the Society Islands, where he rapidly acquired a knowledge of the native language. After staying there for a short time, he finally settled at Raiatea, which became his permanent headquarters. His success as a missionary here and elsewhere was remarkable. The people rapidly became Christianized and adopted many of the habits of civilization. Williams was fairly liberal for his age, and the results of his labours among the Pacific Islands were essentially beneficial. He travelled unceasingly among the various island groups, planting stations and settling native missionaries whom he himself had trained. From the Society Islands he visited the Hervey group, where he discovered, and stayed for a considerable time on, the island of Rarotonga. Most of the inhabitants of the group were converted in a remarkably short time, and Williams's influence over them, as over the people of other groups, was very great. Besides establishing Christianity and civilization among them, he also, at their own request, helped them to draw up a code of laws for civil administration upon the basis of the new religion. While at Rarotonga he, with the help of the natives, built himself a 60-ft. ship, “The Messenger of Peace,” within about four months; with this he returned to Raiatea, and made voyages among other island groups, including Samoa and the neighbouring islands. Williams returned to England in 1834 (having previously visited New South Wales in 1821); and during his four years' stay at home he had the New Testament, which he had translated into Rarotongan, printed. Returning in 1838 to the Pacific, he visited the stations already established by him, as well as several fresh groups. He went as far west as the New Hebrides, and, while visiting Eromanga, one of the group, for the first time, was murdered by cannibal natives on the 20th of November 1839.
His Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands was published in 1837, and formed an important contribution to our knowledge of the islands with which the author was acquainted. See Memoir of John Williams, by Ebenezer Prout (London, 1843); C. S. Horne, The Story of the L.M.S., pp. 41-54.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/William the Breton

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​WILLIAM THE BRETON (c. 1160–c. 1225), French chronicler and poet, was as his name indicates born in Brittany. He was educated at Mantes and at the university of Paris, afterwards becoming chaplain to the French king Philip Augustus, who employed him on diplomatic errands, and entrusted him with the education of his natural son, Pierre Charlot. William is supposed to have been present at the battle of Bouvines. His works are the Philippide and the Gesta Philippi II. regis Francorum. The former, a poem three versions of which were written by the author, gives some very interesting details about Philip Augustus and his time, including some information about military matters and shows that William was an excellent Latin scholar. In its final form the Gesta is an abbreviation of the work of Rigord (q.v.), who wrote a life of Philip Augustus from 1179 to 1206, and a continuation by William himself from 1207 to 1220. In both works William speaks in very laudatory terms of the king; but his writings are valuable because he had personal knowledge of many of the facts which he relates. He also wrote a poem Karlotis, dedicated to Pierre Charlot, which is lost.
William’s works have been edited with introduction by H. F. Delaborde as Œuvres de Rigord et de Guillaume le Breton (Paris, 1882–1885), and have been translated into French by Guizot in Collection des mémoires relatifs à l’histoire de France, tomes xi. and xii. (Paris, 1823–1835). See Delaborde's introduction, and A. Molinier, Les Sources de l’histoire de France, tome iii. (Paris, 1903).
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Spilberg, Adriana

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SPILBERG, ADRIANA,
Was born at Amsterdam, in 1646. She was taught painting by her father, John Spilberg, an eminent historical and portrait painter. Her best works were portraits in crayon, though she sometimes painted in oil. Her eminent abilities caused her to be invited to ​the court of the electress, at Dusseldrop, where she was received with marks of respect and honour. She married the celebrated painter, Eglon Vander Neer.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Spilimbergo, Irine di

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SPILIMBERGO, IRINE DI,
Was of a noble family at Venice, and is said to hare been instructed by Titian, whose style she certainly followed. She painted merely for amusement; and flourished about 1560. Titian, who lived on terms of friendship with her family, drew her portrait.