Part 678

"No one with any tincture of literary knowledge is ignorant of the fame at least of the great Malatesta family—the house of the Wrongheads, as they were rightly called by some prevision of their future part in Lombard history. … The story of Francesca da Polenta, who was wedded to the hunchback Giovanni Malatesta and murdered by him with her lover Paolo, is known not merely to students of Dante, but to readers of Byron and Leigh Hunt, to admirers of Flaxman, Ary Scheffer, Doré—to all, in fact, who have of art and letters any love. The history of these Malatesti, from their first establishment under Otho III. [A. D. 996-1002] as lieutenants for the Empire in the Marches of Ancona, down to their final subjugation by the Papacy in the age of the Renaissance, is made up of all the vicissitudes which could befall a mediæval Italian despotism. {2081} Acquiring an unlawful right over the towns of Rimini, Cesena, Sogliano, Ghiacciuolo, they ruled their petty principalities like tyrants by the help of the Guelf and Ghibelline factions, inclining to the one or the other as it suited their humour or their interest, wrangling among themselves, transmitting the succession of their dynasty through bastards and by deeds of force, quarrelling with their neighbours the Counts of Urbino, alternately defying and submitting to the Papal legates in Romagna, serving as condottieri in the wars of the Visconti and the state of Venice, and by their restlessness and genius for military intrigues contributing in no slight measure to the general disturbance of Italy. The Malatesti were a race of strongly marked character: more, perhaps, than any other house of Italian tyrants, they combined for generations those qualities of the fox and the lion, which Machiavelli thought indispensable to a successful despot. … So far as Rimini is concerned, the house of Malatesta culminated in Sigismondo Pandolfo, son of Gian Galeazzo Visconti's general, the perfidious Pandolfo. … Having begun by defying the Holy See, he was impeached at Rome for heresy, parricide, incest, adultery, rape, and sacrilege, burned in effigy by Pope Pius II., and finally restored to the bosom of the Church, after suffering the despoliation of almost all his territories, in 1463. The occasion on which this fierce and turbulent despiser of laws human and divine was forced to kneel as a penitent before the Papal legate in the gorgeous temple dedicated to his own pride, in order that the ban of excommunication might be removed from Rimini, was one of those petty triumphs, interesting chiefly for their picturesqueness, by which the Popes confirmed their questionable rights over the cities of Romagna. Sigismondo, shorn of his sovereignty, took the command of the Venetian troops against the Turks in the Morea, and returned in 1465, crowned with laurels, to die at Rimini."

_J. A. Symonds, Sketches in Italy and Greece, pages 217-220._

ALSO IN: _A. M. F. Robinson, The End of the Middle Ages, pages 274-299._

MALAYAN RACE, The.

Many ethnologists set up as a distinct stock "the '.Malayan' or 'Brown' race, and claim for it an importance not less than any of the darker varieties of the species. It bears, however, the marks of an origin too recent, and presents Asian analogies too clearly, for it to be regarded otherwise than as a branch of the Asian race, descended like it from some ancestral tribe in that great continent. Its dispersion has been extraordinary. Its members are found almost continuously on the land areas from Madagascar to Easter Island, a distance nearly two-thirds of the circumference of the globe; everywhere they speak dialects with such affinities that we must assume for all one parent stem, and their separation must have taken place not so very long ago to have permitted such a monoglottic trait as this. The stock is divided at present into two groups, the western or Malayan peoples, and the eastern or Polynesian peoples. There has been some discussion about the original identity of these, but we may consider it now proved by both physical, linguistic and traditional evidence. The original home of the parent stem has also excited some controversy, but this too may be taken as settled. There is no reasonable doubt but that the Malays came from the southeastern regions of Asia, from the peninsula of Farther India, and thence spread south, east and west over the whole of the island world. Their first occupation of Sumatra and Java has been estimated to have occurred not later than 1000 B. C., and probably was a thousand years earlier, or about the time that the Aryans entered Northern India. The relationship of the Malayic with the other Asian stocks has not yet been made out. Physically they stand near to the Sinitic peoples of small stature and roundish heads of southeastern Asia. The oldest form of their language, however, was not monosyllabic and tonic, but was disyllabic. … The purest type of the true Malays is seen in Malacca, Sumatra and Java. … It has changed slightly by foreign intermixture among the Battaks of Sumatra, the Dayaks of Borneo, the Alfures and the Bugis. But the supposition that these are so remote that they cannot properly be classed with the Malays is an exaggeration of some recent ethnographers, and is not approved by the best authorities. … In character the Malays are energetic, quick of perception, genial in demeanor, but unscrupulous, cruel and revengeful. Veracity is unknown, and the love of gain is far stronger than any other passion or affection. This thirst for gold made the Malay the daring navigator he early became. As merchant, pirate or explorer, and generally as all three in one, he pushed his crafts far and wide over the tropical seas through 12,000 miles of extent. On the extreme west he reached and colonized Madagascar. The Hovas there, undoubtedly of Malay blood, number about 800,000 in a population of five and a half millions, the remainder being Negroids of various degrees of fusion. In spite of this disproportion, the Hovas are the recognized masters of the island. … The Malays probably established various colonies in southern India. The natives at Travancore and the Sinhalese of Ceylon bear a strongly Malayan aspect. … Some ethnographers would make the Polynesians and Micronesians a different race from the Malays; but the farthest that one can go in this direction is to admit that they reveal some strain of another blood. This is evident in their physical appearance. … All the Polynesian languages have some affinities to the Malayan, and the Polynesian traditions unanimously refer to the west for the home of their ancestors. We are able, indeed, by carefully analyzing these traditions, to trace with considerable accuracy both the route they followed to the Oceanic isles, and the respective dates when they settled them. Thus, the first station of their ancestors ou leaving the western group, was the small island of Buru or Boru, between Celebes and New Guinea. Here they encountered the Papuas, some of whom still dwell in the interior, while the coast people are fair. Leaving Boru, they passed to the north of New Guinea, colonizing the Caroline and Solomon islands, but the vanguard pressing forward to take possession of Savai in the Samoan group and Tonga to its south. These two islands formed a second center of distribution over the western Pacific. The Maoris of New Zealand moved from Tonga—'holy Tonga' as they call it in their songs—about 600 years ago. The Society islanders migrated from Savai, and they in turn sent forth the population of the Marquesas, the Sandwich islands and Easter island. The separation of the Polynesians from the western Malays must have taken place about the beginning of our era."

_D. G. Brinton, Races and Peoples, lecture 8, section. 2._

ALSO IN: _A. R. Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, chapter 40._

_R. Brown, The Races of Mankind, volume 2, chapter 7._

{2082}

MALCOLM III., King of Scotland, A. D. 1057-1093.

Malcolm IV., King of Scotland, 1153-1165.

MALDON, Battle of.

Fought, A. D. 991, by the English against an invading army of Norwegians, who proved the victors. The battle, with the heroic death of the English leader, Brihtnoth, became the subject of a famous early-English poem, which is translated in Freeman's "Old English History for Children." The field of battle was on the Blackwater in Essex.

MALEK SHAH, Seljuk Turkish Sultan, A. D. 1073-1092.

MALIANS, The.

One of the early peoples of Greece, who dwelt on the Malian Gulf, in the lower valley of the Sperchæus. They were a warlike people, neighbors and close allies of the Dorians, before the migration of the latter to the Peloponnesus.

_C. O. Müller, History and Antiquity of the Doric Race, volume 1, book 1, chapter 2._

MALIGNANTS.

"About this time [A. D. 1643] the word 'malignant' was first born (as to the common use) in England; the deduction thereof being disputable, whether from 'malus ignis,' bad fire, or 'malum lignum,' bad fuel; but this is sure, betwixt both, the name made a combustion all over England. It was fixed as a note of disgrace on those of the king's party."

_T. Fuller, Church History of Britain, book 11, section 4 (volume 3)._

MALINES: Taken by Marlborough and the Allies (1706).

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1706-1707.

MALLUM. MALL. MALLBERG.

"The Franks … constituted one great army, the main body of which was encamped round the abode of their Kyning or commander, and the rest of which was broken up into various detachments. … Every such detachment became ere long a sedentary tribe, and the chief of each was accustomed, as occasion required, to convene the mallum (that is, an assembly of the free inhabitants) of his district, to deliberate with him on all the affairs of his immediate locality. The Kyning also occasionally convened an assembly of the whole of the Frankish chiefs, to deliberate with him at the Champs de Mars on the affairs of the whole confederacy. But neither the mallum nor the Champs de Mars was a legislative convention. Each of them was a council of war or an assembly of warriors."

_Sir J. Stephen, Lectures on the History of France, lecture 8._

"The Court was mostly held in a field or on a hill, called 'mallstatt,' or 'mallberg,' that is, the place or hill where the 'mall' or Court assembled, and the judge set up his shield of office, without which he might not hold Court."

_J. I. Mombert, History of Charles the Great, book 1, chapter 3._

ALSO IN: _W. C. Perry, The Franks, chapter 10._

See, also. PARLIAMENT OF PARIS.

MALMÖ, Armistice of.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1848 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).

MALO-JOROSLAVETZ, Battle of.

See RUSSIA: A. D.1812 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).

MALPLAQUET, Battle of (1709).

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1708-1709.

MALTA: Start--------

MALTA: A. D. 1530-1565. Ceded by the emperor, Charles V., to the Knights of St. John. Their defense of the island against the Turks in the great siege.

See HOSPITALLERS OF ST. JOHN: A. D. 1530-1565.

MALTA: A. D. 1551. Unsuccessful attack by the Turks.

See BARBARY STATES: A. D. 1543-1560.

MALTA: A. D. 1798. Seizure and occupation by Bonaparte.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1798 (MAY-AUGUST).

MALTA: A. D. 1800-1802. Surrender to an English fleet. Agreement of restoration to the Knights of St. John.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1801-1802.

MALTA: A. D. 1814. Ceded to England.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (APRIL-JUNE).

MALTA: End--------

MALTA, Knights of.

During their occupation of the island, the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem were commonly called Knights of Malta, as they had previously been called Knights of Rhodes:

See HOSPITALLERS OF ST. JOHN.

MALVASIA, Battle of (1263).

See GENOA: A. D. 1261-1299.

MALVERN CHASE.

An ancient royal forest in Worcestershire, England, between Malvern Hills and the River Severn. Few remains of it exist.

_J. C. Brown, Forests of England._

MALVERN HILL, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (JUNE-JULY: VIRGINIA).

MAMACONAS.

See YANACONAS.

MAMELUKE, OR SLAVE, DYNASTY OF INDIA.

See INDIA: A. D. 977-1290.

MAMELUKES OF BRAZIL.

See BRAZIL: A. D. 1531-1641.

MAMELUKES OF EGYPT; their rise; their sovereignty; their destruction.

See EGYPT: A. D. 1250-1517; and 1803-1811.

MAMELUKES OF GENEVA, The.

See GENEVA: A. D. 1504-1535.

MAMERTINE PRISON, The.

"Near the Basilica Porcia, and at the foot of the Capitoline Hill [in ancient Rome], was the ancient carcer or prison. The original erection of it has been attributed to Ancus Martius, as we learn from Livy, who says 'he made a prison in the middle of the city, overlooking the Forum.' The name by which it is known—Mamertinus—may have been derived from its being built by Ancus Martius. Mamers was the Sabine name of the god Mars, and consequently from the name Mamertius, the Sabine way of spelling Martius, may have been derived Mamertinus. In this prison there are two chambers, one above the other, built of hewn stone. The upper is square, while the lower is semicircular. The style of masonry points to an early date, when the Etruscan style of masonry prevailed in Rome. … To these chambers there was no entrance except by a small aperture in the upper roof, and a similar hole in the upper floor led to the cell below. From a passage in Livy it would appear that Tullianum was the name given to the lower cell of the carcer. … Varro expressly tells us that the lower part of the prison which was underground was called Tullianum because it was added by Servius Tullius."

_H. M. Westropp, Early and Imperial Rome, page 93._

{2083}

"The oldest portion of the horror-striking Mamertine Prisons … is the most ancient among all Roman buildings still extant as originally constructed."

_C. I. Hemans, Historic and Monumental Rome, chapter 4._

"Here, Jugurtha, king of Mauritania, was starved to death by Marius. Here Julius Cæsar, during his triumph for the conquest of Gaul, caused his gallant enemy Vercingetorix to be put to death. … The spot is more interesting to the Christian world as the prison of SS. Peter and Paul."

_A. J. C. Hare, Walks in Rome, chapter 3. _

MAMERTINES OF MESSENE, The.

See PUNIC WAR, THE FIRST.

MAMUN, AL, Caliph, A. D. 813-833.

MAN, Kingdom of.

See MANX KINGDOM, THE.

MANAOS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: GUCK OR COCO GROUP.

MANASSAS: Start--------

MANASSAS: A. D. 1861 (July). First battle (Bull Run).

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (JULY: VIRGINIA).

MANASSAS: A. D. 1862 (March). Confederate evacuation.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861-1862 (DECEMBER-MARCH: VIRGINIA).

MANASSAS: A. D. 1862 (August). Stonewall Jackson's Raid. The Second Battle.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (AUGUST: VIRGINIA); and (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER: VIRGINIA).

MANASSAS: End--------

MANCHESTER: Start--------

MANCHESTER: Origin.

See MANCUNIUM.

MANCHESTER: A. D. 1817-1819. The march of the Blanketeers, and the "Massacre of Peterloo."

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1816-1820.

MANCHESTER: A. D. 1838-1839. Beginning of the Anti-Corn-Law agitation.

See TARIFF LEGISLATION (ENGLAND): A. D. 1836-1839.

MANCHESTER: A. D. 1861-1865. The Cotton Famine.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1861-1865.

MANCHESTER: A. D. 1894. Opening of the Ship Canal.

A ship canal, connecting Manchester with Liverpool, and making the former practically a seaport, was opened on the 1st day of January, 1894. The building of the canal was begun in 1887.

MANCHESTER: End--------

MANCHU TARTAR DYNASTY OF CHINA, The.

See CHINA: A.D. 1294-1882.

MANCUNIUM.

A Roman town in Britain which occupied the site of the modern city of Manchester.

_T. Wright, Celt, Roman and Saxon, chapter 5._

MANDANS, MANDANES, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.

MANDATA, Roman Imperial.

See CORPUS JURIS CIVILIS.

MANDUBII, The.

A tribe in ancient Gaul, which occupied part of the modern French department of the Côte-d'Or and whose chief town was Alesia, the scene of Cæsar's famous siege.

_Napoleon III., History of Cæsar, book 3, chapter 2, footnote (volume 2)._

MANETHO, List of.

"Of all the Greek writers who have treated of the history of the Pharaohs, there is only one whose testimony has, since the deciphering of the hieroglyphics, preserved any great value—a value which increases the more it is compared with the original monuments; we speak of Manetho. Once he was treated with contempt; his veracity was disputed, the long series of dynasties he unfolds to our view was regarded as fabulous. Now, all that remains of his work is the first of an authorities for the reconstruction of the ancient history of Egypt. Manetho, a priest of the town of Sebennytus, in the Delta, wrote in Greek, in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, a history of Egypt, founded on the official archives preserved in the temples. Like many other books of antiquity, this history has been lost; we possess now a few fragments only, with the list of all the kings placed by Manetho at the end of his work—a list happily preserved in the writings of some chronologers of the Christian epoch. This list divides into dynasties, or royal families, all the kings who reigned successively in Egypt down to the time of Alexander."

_F. Lenormant, Manual of Ancient History of the East, book 3, chapter 1, section 2 (volume 1)._

See, also, EGYPT: ITS HISTORICAL ANTIQUITY.

MANHATTAN ISLAND: Start--------

MANHATTAN ISLAND: Its aboriginal People and name.

"The earliest notice we have of the island which is now adorned by a beautiful and opulent city is to be found in Hudson's journal. 'Mana-hata' is therein mentioned, in reference to the hostile people whom he encountered on his return from his exploring of the river, and who resided on this island. De Laet … calls those wicked people Manatthans, and names the river Manhattes. … Hartger calls the Indians and the island Mahattan. … In some of the early transactions of the colony, it is spelled Monhattoes, Munhatos, and Manhattoes. Professor Ebeling says, that at the mouth of the river lived the Manhattans or Manathanes (or as the Englishmen commonly called it, Manhados), who kept up violent animosities with their neighbours, and were at first most hostile towards the Dutch, but suffered themselves to be persuaded afterwards to sell them the island, or at least that part of it where New York now stands. Manhattan is now the name, and it was, when correctly adopted, so given by the Dutch, and by them it not only distinguished the Indians, the island and the river, but it was a general name of their plantations. … Mr. Heckewelder observes that hitherto an his labours had been fruitless in inquiring about a nation or tribe of Indians called the 'Manhattos' or 'Manathones'; Indians both of the Mahicanni and Delaware nations assured him that they never had heard of any Indian tribe by that name. He says he is convinced that it was the Delawares or Munseys (which last was a branch of the Delawares) who inhabited that part of the country where New York now is. York Island is called by the Delawares to this day [1824] Manahattani or Manahachtanink. The Delaware word for 'Island' is 'Manátey'; the Monsey word for the same is 'Manáchtey' … Dr. Barton also has given as his belief that the Manhattæ were a branch of the Munsis."

_J. V. N. Yates and J. W. Moulton, History of the State of New York, volume 1, pages 223-224._

ALSO IN: _Memorial History of the City of New York, volume 1, chapter 2._

See, also, AMERICAN ABORIGINES: DELAWARES, and ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

MANHATTAN ISLAND: A. D. 1613. First settlements. Argall's visit.

See NEW YORK: A. D. 1610-1614.

MANHATTAN ISLAND: End--------

{2084}

MANICHEANS, The.

"A certain Mani (or Manes, as the ecclesiastical writers call him), born in Persia about A. D. 240, grew to manhood under Sapor, exposed to … various religious influences. … With a mind free from prejudice and open to conviction, he studied the various systems of belief which he found established in Western Asia—the Cabalism of the Babylonian Jews, the Dualism of the Magi, the mysterious doctrines of the Christians, and even the Buddhism of India. At first he inclined to Christianity, and is said to have been admitted to priest's orders and to have ministered to a congregation; but after a time he thought that he saw his way to the formation of a new creed, which should combine all that was best in the religious systems which he was acquainted with, and omit what was superfluous or objectionable. He adopted the Dualism of the Zoroastrians, the metempsychosis of India, the angelism and demonism of the Talmud and Trinitarianism of the Gospel of Christ. Christ himself he identified with Mithra, and gave Him his dwelling in the sun. He assumed to be the Paraclete promised by Christ, who should guide men into all truth, and claimed that his 'Ertang,' a sacred book illustrated by pictures of his own painting, should supersede the New Testament. Such pretensions were not likely to be tolerated by the Christian community; and Manes had not put them forward very long when he was expelled from the church and forced to carry his teaching elsewhere. Under these circumstances he is said to have addressed himself to Sapor [the Persian king], who was at first inclined to show him some favour; but when he found out what the doctrines of the new teacher actually were, his feelings underwent a change, and Manes, proscribed, or at any rate threatened with penalties, had to retire into a foreign country. … Though the morality of the Manichees was pure, and though their religion is regarded by some as a sort of Christianity, there were but few points in which it was an improvement on Zoroastrianism."

_G. Rawlinson, The Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy, chapter 4._

First in Persia and, afterwards, throughout Christendom, the Manicheans were subjected to a merciless persecution; but they spread their doctrines, notwithstanding, in the west and in the east, and it was not until several centuries had passed that the heresy became extinct.

_J. L. Mosheim, Christianity during the first 325 years, Third Century, lectures 39-55._

See, also, PAULICIANS.

MANIFESTATION, The Aragonese process of.

See CORTES. THE EARLY SPANISH.

MANILIAN LAW, The.

See ROME: B. C. 69-63.

MANIMI, The.

See LYGIANS.

MANIN, Daniel, and the struggle for Venetian independence.

See ITALY: A. D.1848-1849.

MANIOTO, MAYNO, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ANDESIANS.

MANIPULI.

See LEGION, ROMAN.

MANITOBA.

See CANADA: A. D. 1869-1873.

MANNAHOACS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: POWHATAN CONFEDERACY.

MANNHEIM: Start--------

MANNHEIM: A. D. 1622. Capture by Tilly.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1621-1623.

MANNHEIM: A. D. 1689. Destroyed by the French.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1689-1690.