The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 301

MARCH, the third month of our year; was before 1752 reckoned first month as in the Roman calendar, the legal year beginning on the 25th; it is proverbially dusty and stormy, and is the season of the spring equinox; it was dedicated to the Roman G.o.d Mars, whence the name.

MARCHAND, MAJOR, a French emissary in Africa; was sent in 1890 to explore the sources of the Niger and other districts, and was afterwards appointed to push on to the Nile, where he arrived in 1898, hoisting the French flag by the way, and finally at Fashoda, from which he was recalled; with extreme disgust he was obliged to retire and find his way back to France; _b_. 1863.

MARCION, a heretic of the 2nd century, born at Sinope, in Pontus, who, convinced that the traditional records of Christianity had been tampered with, sought to restore Christianity to its original purity, taking his stand on the words of Christ and the interpretation of St.

Paul as the only true apostle; he held that an ascetic life was of the essence of Christianity, and he had a following called Marcionites.

MARCUS AURELIUS. See ANTONINUS.

MAREMMA, a malarial coast district of Italy, N. of the Campagna, stretching from Orbitello to Guardistallo, with few villages or roads.

Part of it was improved by draining and planting (1824-44), and the inhabitants come down from the neighbouring Apennine slopes in summer to cultivate it; healthier in winter, it affords good pasturage.

MARENGO, a village of N. Italy, SE. of Alessandria, where Napoleon defeated the Austrians on 14th June 1800.

MAREOTIS, LAKE, a lagune in the N. of Egypt, 40 m. long by 18 m.

broad, separated from the Mediterranean by a tongue of land on which part of Alexandria is situated.

MARGARET, queen of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, was the daughter of Waldemar IV. of Denmark, whose crown, on his death in 1375, she received in trust for her son Olaf; her husband, Hacon VIII. of Norway, died in 1380, and left her queen; Olaf died 1387, when she named her grand-nephew, Eric of Pomerania, her heir; the Swedes deposed their king next year, and offered Margaret the throne; she accepted it, put down all resistance, and ultimately brought about the Union of Calmar (1397), which provided for the perpetual union of the three crowns; her energy and force of character won for her the t.i.tle of "Semiramis of the North"

(1353-1412).

MARGARET, a simple, innocent girl in Goethe's "Faust," who is the victim of a tragic fatality; Faust meets her as she comes from church, falls in love with her, and seduces her; she slays the infant born, is convicted and condemned to death, and loses her reason; Faust would fain save her, but he is hurried away by Mephistopheles, and she is left to her fate.

MARGARET, ST., the type of female innocence, represented as a beautiful young maiden bearing the palm and crown of a martyr and attended by a dragon; is patron saint against the pains of childbirth.

Festival, July 20.

MARGARET, ST., queen of Scotland, wife of Malcolm Canmore, and sister of Edgar Atheling, born in Hungary; brought up at the court of Edward the Confessor; after the conquest sought refuge in Scotland, and winning the heart of the Scotch king, was married to him at Dunfermline; was a woman of beautiful character and great piety, and did much to civilise the country by her devotion and example; she died in Edinburgh Castle, and was in 1250 canonised by Innocent IV.; Lanfranc had been her spiritual instructor (1047-1093).

MARGARET OF ANGOULeME, queen of Navarre, Sister of Francis I., married in 1527 Henri d'Albret, king of Navarre, by whom she became the mother of JEANNE D'ALBRET (q. v.); protected the Protestants, and encouraged learning and the arts; she left a collection of novels, under the name of "Heptameron," and a number of interesting letters, as well as some poems (1492-1549).

MARGARET OF ANJOU, queen of Henry VI. of England, and daughter of the good King Rene of Anjou; was distinguished for the courage she displayed during the Wars of the Roses, though, after a struggle of nearly twenty years, she was defeated at Tewkesbury and committed to the Tower, from which, after four years of incarceration, she was afterwards released by ransom (1429-1482).

MARGARET OF VALOIS, third daughter of Henry II. of France and Catherine de' Medicis; married Henry IV., by whom she was divorced for her immoral conduct (1552-1615).

MARGATE (18), seaport and watering-place, 3 m. W. of the North Foreland, Kent, is with its firm sands, bathing facilities, and various attractions a favourite resort of London holiday-makers. Its church-tower, 135 ft., is a prominent landmark. There are large almshouses and orphanages, and other charitable inst.i.tutions; J. M. W.

Turner was at school here.

MARHEINECKE, a German theologian, born at Hildesheim; professor successively at Erlangen, Heidelberg, and Berlin; was a Hegelian in philosophy; his chief works, a "System of Catholicism" and a "History of the German Reformation" (1780-1846).

MARIA LOUISA, empress of France, daughter of Francis I., Emperor of Austria; was married to Napoleon in 1810 after the divorce of Josephine, and bore him a son, who was called King of Rome; after Napoleon's death she became the wife of Count von Neipperg (1791-1847).

MARIA THERESA, empress of Austria, daughter of the Emperor Charles VI., a queenly woman; was in 1736 married to Francis of Lorraine; ascended the throne in 1740 on the death of her father, a.s.sociating her husband with her in the government under the t.i.tle of Francis I.; no sooner had she done so than, despite the PRAGMATIC SANCTION (q. v.), which a.s.sured her of her dominions in their integrity, she was a.s.sailed by claimants one for this and one for another portion of them, in particular by Frederick the Great, who by force of arms wrenched Silesia from her and kept it fast; the war thus occasioned is known as the war of the Austrian Succession, which lasted seven years, and was concluded by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748; this peace, however, was soon broken, and Maria, backed by France and counselled by Kaunitz, renewed hostilities in the hope of compelling Frederick to restore what he had taken; all in vain, for the end of this war, known as the Seven Years' War, was to leave Frederick still in possession of the territory which he had sliced from her empire as in the former; in the interim of these wars Maria devoted her attention to the welfare of her subjects, who were conspicuously loyal to her, and before the end of her reign she saw what she had lost made up to her in a measure by the part.i.tion of Poland, in which she took part (1717-1780).

MARIAMNE, the wife of Herod the Great, whom he put to death on suspicion of her unfaithfulness.

MARIANA, JUAN, Spanish historian and political philosopher, born at Talavera; joined the Jesuits in 1554, and taught in their colleges in Rome, Sicily, and Paris; returning to Toledo he gave himself to literature; his "History of Spain" appeared in 1592 and 1605, theological writings incurred persecution, and his greatest work, "De Rege et Regis Inst.i.tutione," in which he defended the right of the people to cast out a tyrant, was condemned by the general of his order (1536-1624).

MARIE ANTOINETTE, queen of France, fourth daughter of Maria Theresa; was married in 1770 to the dauphin of France, who in 1774 succeeded to the throne as Louis XVI.; was a beautiful woman, but indiscreet in her behaviour; had made herself unpopular and impotent for good when the Revolution broke out; when matters became serious the queenliness of her nature revealed itself, but it was in haughty defiance of the million-headed monster that was bellowing at her feet; the heroism she showed at this crisis the general ma.s.s of the people could not appreciate, though it won the homage of such men as Mirabeau and Barnave; all she wanted was a wise adviser, for she had courage to follow any course which she could be persuaded to see was right; in Mirabeau she had one who could have guided her, but by his death in 1791 she was left to herself, and the course she took was fatal to all the interests she had at heart; fatality followed fatality: first she saw her husband hurried off to the guillotine, and then she followed herself; hers, if any, was the most tragic of fates, and any one who has read that heart-moving apostrophe to her by Carlyle on the way to her doom must know and feel that it was her fate; she and her husband suffered as the representatives of the misgovernment of France for centuries before they were born, and were left a burden on their shoulders which they could not bear and under which they were crushed to death (1756-1793).

MARIE DE FRANCE, a poetess and fabulist of Henry III.'s time; her fables are translations into French from an English version of old Greek tales; a greater work was her "Las," consisting of 12 or 14 beautiful narratives in French verse.

MARIE DE' MEDICI, daughter of the Grand-Duke of Tuscany, born at Florence; was married to Henry IV. of France in 1600, with whom she lived unhappily till his murder in 1610; she was then regent for seven years; in 1617 her son a.s.sumed power as Louis XIII.; she was for two years banished from the court, and on her return so intrigued as to bring about her imprisonment in 1631; though a lover of art she was neither good wife nor good queen, and escaping from confinement she died in dest.i.tution at Cologne (1573-1642).

MARIENBAD, a high-lying Bohemian watering-place, 18 m. S. of Carlsbad; it is much frequented for its saline springs.

MARIETTE PASHA, FRANcOIS AUGUSTE FERDINAND, Egyptologist, born at Boulogne; became professor in the college there in 1841, entered the Egyptian department of the Louvre in 1849, and next year set out for Egypt; eight years later he was made keeper of the monuments to the Egyptian government, and in 1879 was made a pasha; he died at Cairo; he made many valuable discoveries and excavations, among which were the burial-place of the Apis bulls, the Sphinx monument, and many temples (1821-1881).

MARIO, GIUSEPPE, a celebrated tenor, born in Cagliari; acquired a large fortune as a professional singer, but lost it through unsuccessful speculations; in the circ.u.mstances a concert was given in London for his benefit which realised 1000; he was a handsome man and of charming manners (1808-1883).

MARIOTTE, EDME, a French physicist, born at Dijon; discoverer of the law named after him, that the volume of a gas is inversely as the pressure; called also Boyle's; it bears the name of Mariotte's law on the Continent, and Boyle's in England (1620-1684).

MARIUS, CAIUS, a celebrated Roman general, born near Arpinum, uncle by marriage to Julius Caesar and head of the popular party, and the rival of Sulla; conquered the Teutons and the Cimbri in Gaul, and made a triumphal entry into Rome; having obtained command of the war against Mithridates, Sulla marched upon the city and drove his rival beyond the walls; having fled the city, he was discovered hiding in a marsh, cast into prison, and condemned to die; to the slave sent to execute the sentence he drew himself haughtily up and exclaimed, "Caitiff, dare you slay Caius Marius?" and the executioner fled in terror of his life and left his sword behind him; Marius was allowed to escape; finding his way to Africa, he took up his quarters at Carthage, but the Roman praetor ordered him off; "Go tell the praetor," he said to the messenger sent, "you saw Caius Marius sitting a fugitive on the ruins of Carthage"; upon this he took courage and returned to Rome, and along with Cinna made the streets of the city run with the blood of the partisans of Sulla; died suddenly (156-88 B.C.).

MARIVAUX, a French dramatist and novelist, born in Paris; was a man of subtle wit, and his writings reveal it as well as an affectation of style named _Marivaudage_ after him; his fame rests on his novels rather than his dramas (1688-1763).

MARK, GOSPEL ACCORDING TO, is mainly a narrative of the doings of Christ and of the events of His life in their historical sequence; moves on at an even pace, abounds in graphic touches, and adds minute traits as if by an eye-witness; it represents Christ as the Son of man, but manifesting Himself by such signs and wonders as to show that He was also the Son of G.o.d; it is written for Gentile Christians and not for Jewish, and hence little stress is laid on Old Testament fulfilments or reference made to those antagonisms to Christianity which had a merely Jewish root.

MARK, JOHN, the author of the second Gospel, the son of Mary, Barnabas' sister, who ministered to Christ, and whose house in Jerusalem was a place of resort for the disciples of Christ after the resurrection; accompanied Paul and his uncle on their first missionary journey, afterwards accompanied Peter, who calls him "my son," and to him it is thought he is indebted for his Gospel narrative; he is regarded as the founder of the Coptic Church, and his body is said to have been buried in Venice, of which he is the patron saint, and the cathedral of which is named St. Mark's after him; he is represented in Christian art as a man in the prime of life accompanied by a winged lion, with his Gospel in his left hand and a pen in his right.