Chapter Kilderkin to King of K by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Kilderkin to King

Kilderkin (Ned), keeper of an eating-house at Greenwich.—Sir W. Scott: Fortunes of Nigel (time, James I.).

Kilian (St.), an Irish missionary who suffered martyrdom at Würzburg, in 689. A cathedral was erected to his memory in the eighth century.

Kilian of Kersberg, the ’squire of sir Archibald von Hagenbach.—Sir W. Scott: Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).

Killed by Kindness. It is said that the ape not unfrequently strangles its young ones by hugging them too hard.
The Athenians, wishing to show nohour to Draco the law-giver, showered on him their caps and cloaks, and he was smothered to death by the pile thus heaped upon him.

Killing no Murder. Carpentier de Marigny, the enemy of Mazarin, issued, in 1658, a tract entitled Tuer un Tyran n’est par un Crime.

Sexby wrote a tract entitled Killing no Murder, generally thought to have been the production of William Allan. The object of the book was to show that it would be no crime to murder Cromwell.

Kilmansegg (Miss), an heiress with great expectations, who had an artificial leg of solid gold.—T. Hood: Miss Kilmansegg and her Golden Leg a Golden Legend (1828).

KING, a title of sovereignty or honour At one time, crown tenants were called kings or dukes, at the option of the sovereign; thus, Frederick Barbarossa made one of his brothers a king-vassal, and another a duke-vassal, simply by the investiture of a sword. In English history, the lord of Man was styled “king;” so was the lord of the Isle of Wight, and the lord of Connaught, as clearly appears in the grants of John and Henry III. Several examples might be quoted of earls conferring the title of “king” on their vassals.—See Selden’s Titles of Honour, iii. (1614).

Like a King. When Porus, the Indian prince, was taken prisoner, Alexander asked him how he expected to be treated. “Like a king,” he replied; and Alexander made him his friend.

The Factory King, Richard Oastler of Bradford, the successful advocate of the “Ten Hours Bill” (1789–1861). Since then a clamour has arisen for the reduction to eight hours (1871).

The Railway King, George Hudson; so called by the Rev. Sydney Smith (1800–1871).

The Red King, the king of Persia; so called from his red turban.

Rufus of England, and Barbarossa (redbeard) of Germany.

Credo ut Persam nunc propter rubea tegumenta capitis Rubeum Caput vocant, ita reges Moscoviæ, propter alba tegumenta Albos Reges appellari.—Sigismund.

The Snow King, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, killed in the “Thirty Years’ War” at the battle of Lûtzen, 1632. (See Snow King.)

At Vienna he was called “The Snow King,” in derision. Like a snow-ball, he was kept together by the cold, but as he approached a warmer soil he melted away and disappeared.—Dr. Crichton: Scandinavia, ii. 61 (1838).

(Sweden and Norway are each called “Snow Kingdom.”)

Let no vessel of the kingdom of snow [Norway] bound on the dark-rolling waves of Inistore [the Orkneys.—Ossian: Fingal, i.