See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1290-1305.
MAID OF ORLEANS, The Mission of the.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1429-1431.
MAIDA, Battle of (1806).
See FRANCE: A. D. 1805-1806 (DECEMBER-SEPTEMBER).
MAILLOTINS, Insurrection of the,
See PARIS: A. D. 1381.
----------MAINE: Start--------
MAINE:
The Name.
"Sullivan in 'History of Maine,' and others, say that the
territory was called the Province of Maine, in compliment to
Queen Henrietta, who had that province in France for dowry.
But Folsom, 'Discourse on Maine' (Maine Historical Collection,
volume ii., page 38), says that that province in France did
not belong to Henrietta. Maine, like all the rest of the
coast, was known as the 'Maine,' the mainland, and it is not
unlikely that the word so much used by the early fishers on
the coast, may thus have been permanently given to this part
of it."
_W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay,
History of the United States,
volume 1, page 337; foot-note._
MAINE:
Aboriginal inhabitants.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES:
ABNAKIS, and ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.
MAINE:
Embraced in the Norumbega of the old geographers.
See NORUMBEGA;
also, CANADA: THE NAMES.
MAINE: A. D. 1607-1608.
The Popham colony on the Kennebec.
Fruitless undertaking of the Plymouth Company.
The company chartered in England by King James, in 1606, for
the colonization of the indefinite region called Virginia, was
divided into two branches. To one, commonly spoken of as the
London Company, but sometimes as the Virginia Company, was
assigned a domain in the south, from 34° to 41° North
Latitude. To the other, less familiarly known as the Plymouth
Company, or the North Virginia Company, was granted a range of
territory from 38° to 45° North Latitude.
See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1606-1607.
The first named company founded a state; the Plymouth branch
was less fortunate. "Of the Plymouth Company, George Popham,
brother of the Chief Justice, and Raleigh Gilbert, son of the
earlier navigator and nephew of Sir Walter Raleigh, were
original associates. A vessel despatched from Bristol by Sir
John Popham made a further survey of the coast of New England,
and returned with accounts which infused vigorous life into the
undertaking; and it was now prosecuted with eagerness and
liberality. But in little more than a year 'all its former
hopes were frozen to death.' Three ships sailed from Plymouth
with 100 settlers, amply furnished, and taking two of Gorges's
Indians [kidnapped on the voyage of Captain Weymouth in 1605] as
interpreters and guides. After a prosperous voyage they
reached the mouth of the river called Sagadahoc, or Kennebec,
in Maine, and on a projecting point proceeded to organize
their community. After prayers and a sermon, they listened to
a reading of the patent and of the ordinances under which it
had been decreed by the authorities at home that they should
live. George Popham had been constituted their President,
Raleigh Gilbert was Admiral. … The adventurers dug wells,
and built huts. More than half of the number became
discouraged, and returned with the ships to England.
Forty-five remained through the winter, which proved to be
very long and severe. … When the President sickened and
died, and, presently after, a vessel despatched to them with
supplies brought intelligence of the death of Sir John Popham,
and of Sir John Gilbert,—the latter event calling for the
presence of the Admiral, Gilbert's brother and heir, in
England,—they were ready to avail themselves of the excuses
thus afforded for retreating from the distasteful enterprise.
All yielded to their homesickness, and embarked on board of
the returning ship, taking with them a small vessel which they
had built, and some furs and other products of the country.
Statesmen, merchants, and soldiers had not learned the
conditions of a settlement in New England. 'The country was
branded by the return of the plantation as being over cold,
and in respect of that not habitable by Englishmen.' Still the
son of the Chief Justice, 'Sir Francis Popham, could not so give
it over, but continued to send thither several years after, in
hope of better fortunes, but found it fruitless, and was
necessitated at last to sit down with the loss he had already
undergone.' Sir Francis Popham's enterprises were merely
commercial. Gorges alone [Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who had been
among the most active of the original promotors of the
Company], 'not doubting but God would effect that which man
despaired of,' persevered in cherishing the project of a
colony."
_J. G. Palfrey,
History of New England,
volume 1, chapter 2._
ALSO IN:
_W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay,
Popular History of the United States,
chapter 12, volume 1._
_R. K. Sewall,
Ancient Dominions of Maine,
chapter 3._
{2079}
MAINE: A. D. 1623-1631.
Gorges' and Mason's grant and the division of it.
First colonies planted.
See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1621-1631.
MAINE: A. D. 1629-1631.
The Ligonia, or Plow Patent, and other grants.
"The coast from the Piscataqua to the Kennebec was covered by
six … patents, issued in the course of three years by the
Council for New England, with the consent, doubtless, of
Gorges, who was anxious to interest as many persons as
possible in the projects of colonization to which he was
himself so much devoted. Several of these grants were for
small tracts; the most important embraced an extent of 40
miles square, bordering on Casco Bay, and named Ligonia. The
establishments hitherto attempted on the eastern coast had
been principally for fishing and fur-trading; this was to be
an agricultural colony, and became familiarly known as the
'Plow patent.' A company was formed, and some settlers sent
out; but they did not like the situation, and removed to
Massachusetts. Another of these grants was the Pemaquid
patent, a narrow tract on both sides of Pemaquid Point, where
already were some settlers. Pemaquid remained an independent
community for the next forty years."
_R. Hildreth,
History of the United States,
chapter 7 (volume 1)._
The Plow Patent "first came into notoriety in a territorial
dispute in 1643. The main facts of the case are told shortly
but clearly by Winthrop. According to him, in July, 1631, ten
husbandmen came from England, in a ship named the Plough, with
a patent for land at Sagadahock. But as the place did not
please them they settled in Massachusetts, and were seemingly
dispersed in the religious troubles of 1636. … At a later
day the rights of the patentees were bought up, and were made
a ground for ousting Gorges from a part of his territory."
_J. A. Doyle,
The English in America: The Puritan Colonies,
volume 1, chapter 7._
ALSO IN:
_J. W. Thornton,
Pemaquid Papers; and Ancient Pemaquid,
(Maine Historical Society Collection, volume 5)._
MAINE: A. D. 1639.
A Palatine principality.
The royal charter to Sir Ferdinando Gorges.
"In April 1639 a charter was granted by the King constituting
Gorges Lord Proprietor of Maine. The territory was bounded by
the Sagadahock or Kennebec on the north and the Piscataqua on
the south, and was to extend 120 miles inland. The political
privileges of the Proprietor were to be identical with those
enjoyed by the Bishop of Durham as Count Palatine. He was to
legislate in conjunction with the freeholders of the province,
and with the usual reservation in favour of the laws of
England. His political rights were to be subject to the
control of the Commissioners for Plantations, but his
territorial rights were to be independent and complete in
themselves. He was also to enjoy a monopoly of the trade of
the colony. The only other points specially worth notice were
a declaration that the religion of the colony was to be that
of the Church of England, a reservation on behalf of all
English subjects of the right of fishing with its necessary
incidents, and the grant to the Proprietor of authority to
create manors and manorial courts. There is something painful
in the spectacle of the once vigorous and enterprising soldier
amusing his old age by playing at kingship. In no little
German court of the last century could the forms of government
and the realities of life have been more at variance. To
conduct the business of two fishing villages Gorges called
into existence a staff of officials which might have sufficed
for the affairs of the Byzantine Empire. He even outdid the
absurdities which the Proprietors of Carolina perpetrated
thirty years later. They at least saw that their elaborate
machinery of caciques and landgraves was unfit for practical
purposes, and they waived it in favour of a simple system
which had sprung up in obedience to natural wants. But Gorges
tells complacently and with a deliberate care, which contrasts
with his usually hurried and slovenly style, how he parcelled
out his territory and nominated his officials. … The task of
putting this cumbrous machinery into motion was entrusted by
the Proprietor to his son, Thomas Gorges, as Deputy-Governor."
_J. A. Doyle,
The English in America: The Puritan Colonies,
volume 1, chapter 7._
"The Province was divided into two counties, of one of which
Agamenticus, or York, was the principal settlement; of the
other, Saco. … The greatness of York made it arrogant; and
it sent a deputation of aldermen and burgesses to the General
Court at Saco, to save its metropolitan rights by a solemn
protest. The Proprietary was its friend, and before long
exalted it still more by a city charter, authorizing it and
its suburbs, constituting a territory of 21 square miles, to
be governed, under the name of 'Gorgeana,' by a Mayor, twelve
Aldermen, a Common Council of 24 members, and a Recorder, all
to be annually chosen by the citizens. Probably as many as two
thirds of the adult males were in places of authority. The
forms of proceeding in the Recorder's Court were to be copied
from those of the British chancery. This grave foolery was
acted more than ten years."
_J. G. Palfrey,
History of New England,
volume 1, chapter 13._
ALSO IN:
_Sir F. Gorges,
Brief Narration
(Maine Historical Society Collection, volume 2)._
MAINE: A. D. 1643-1677.
Territorial jurisdiction in dispute.
The claims of Massachusetts made good.
"In 1643, the troubles in England between the King and Commons
grew violent, and in that year Alexander Rigby bought the old
grant called Lygonia or 'Plow Patent,' and appointed George
Cleaves his deputy-president. Governor Thomas Gorges about
that time returned to England, and left Vines in his place.
Between Cleaves and Vines there was of course a conflict of
jurisdiction, and Cleaves appealed for aid to Massachusetts;
and both parties agreed to leave their claims (1645) to the
decision of the Massachusetts Magistrates, who decided—that
they could not decide the matter. But the next year the
Commissioners for American plantations in England decided in
favor of Rigby; and Vines left the country. In 1647, at last,
at the age of 74, Sir Ferdinando Gorges died, and with him
died all his plans for kingdoms and power in Maine. In 1651,
Massachusetts, finding that her patent, which included lands
lying three miles north of the head waters of the Merrimack,
took in all the lower part of Maine, began to extend her
jurisdiction, and as most of the settlers favored her
authority, it was pretty well established till the time of the
Restoration (1660).
{2080}
Upon the Restoration of Charles II., the heir of Gorges
claimed his rights to Maine. His agent in the province was
Edward Godfrey. Those claims were confirmed by the Committee
of Parliament, and in 1664 he obtained an order from the King
to the Governor of Massachusetts to restore him his province.
In 1664 the King's Commissioners came over, and proceeded
through the Colonies, and among the rest to Maine; where they
appointed various officers without the concurrence of
Massachusetts; so that for some years Maine was distracted
with parties, and was in confusion. In 1668, Massachusetts
sent four Commissioners to York, who resumed and
re-established the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, with which
the majority of the people were best pleased; and in 1669 the
Deputies from Maine again took their seats in the
Massachusetts Court. Her jurisdiction was, however, disputed
by the heirs of Mason and Gorges, and it was not finally set
at rest till the year 1677, by the purchase of their claims
from them, by Massachusetts, for £1,250."
_C. W. Elliott,
The New England History,
volume 1, chapter 26._
ALSO IN:
_R. K. Sewall,
Ancient Dominions of Maine,
chapters 3-4._
_W. D. Williamson,
History of Maine,
volume 1, chapters 6-21._
MAINE: A. D. 1664.
The Pemaquid patent purchased and granted
to the Duke of York.
See NEW YORK: A. D. 1664.
MAINE: A. D. 1675.
Outbreak of the Tarentines.
See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1675 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
MAINE: A. D. 1689-1697.
King William's War.
Indian cruelties.
See CANADA: A. D. 1689-1690; and 1692-1697.
MAINE: A. D. 1722-1725.
Renewed Indian war.
See NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1713-1730.
MAINE: A. D. 1744-1748.
King George's War.
See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1744; 1745; and 1745-1748.
MAINE: A. D. 1814.
Occupied in large part and held by the English.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1813-1814.
MAINE: A. D. 1820.
Separation from Massachusetts.
Recognition as a distinct commonwealth and
admission into the Union.
"Petitions for the separation of the District of Maine were
first preferred to the legislature of Massachusetts in 1816,
and a convention was appointed to be holden at Brunswick. This
convention voted in favor of the step, but the separation was
not effected until 1820, at which time Maine was erected into
a distinct and independent commonwealth, and was admitted into
the American Union."
_G. L. Austin,
History of Massachusetts,
page 408._
"In the division of the property all the real estate in
Massachusetts was to be forever hers; all that in Maine to be
equally divided between the two, share and share alike. …
The admission of Maine and Missouri into the Union were both
under discussion in Congress at the same time. The advocates
of the latter, wishing to carry it through the Legislature,
without any restrictive clause against slavery, put both into
a bill together,—determined each should share the same fate.
… Several days the subject was debated, and sent from one
branch to the other in Congress, till the 1st of March, when,
to our joy, they were divorced; and on the 3d of the month
[March, 1820] an act was passed by which Maine was declared to
be, from and after the 15th of that month, one of the United
States."
_W. D. Williamson,
History of Maine,
volume 2, chapter 27._
See, also,
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1818-1821.
MAINE: A. D. 1842.
Settlement of the northern boundary disputes,
by the Ashburton Treaty.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1842.
----------MAINE: End----------
MAIWAND, English disaster at (1880).
See AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1869-1881.
MAJESTAS, The Law of.
"The law of Majestas or Treason … under the [Roman] empire
… was the legal protection thrown round the person of the
chief of the state: any attempt against the dignity or safety
of the community became an attack on its glorified
representative. Nevertheless, it is remarkable that the first
legal enactment which received this title, half a century
before the foundation of the empire, was actually devised for
the protection, not of the state itself, but of a personage
dear to the state, namely, the tribune of the people. Treason
to the State indeed had long before been known, and defined as
Perduellio, the levying of war against the commonwealth. …
But the crime of majesty was first specified by the demagogue
Apuleius, in an enactment of the year 654 [B. C. 100], for the
purpose of guarding or exalting the dignity of the champion of
the plebs. … The law of Apuleius was followed by that of
another tribune, Varius, conceived in a similar spirit. …
[After the constitution of Sulla] the distinction between
Majestas and Perduellio henceforth vanishes: the crime of
Treason is specifically extended from acts of violence to
measures calculated to bring the State into contempt."
_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 44._
MAJORCA:
Conquest by King James of Aragon.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1212-1238.
MAJORIAN, Roman Emperor (Western), A. D. 457-461.
MAJUBA HILL, Battle of (1881).
See SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1806-1881.
----------MALAGA: Start--------
MALAGA: A. D. 1036-1055.
The seat of a Moorish kingdom.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1031-1086.
MALAGA: A. D. 1487.
Siege and capture from the Moors by the Christians.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1476-1492.
----------MALAGA: End--------
MALAKHOFF, The storming of the (1855).
See RUSSIA: A. D. 1854-1856.
MALAMOCCO.
The second capital of the Venetians.
See VENICE: A. D. 697-810; and 452.
MALATESTA FAMILY, The.
"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._