Mason, William, friend and biographer of Gray; wrote Caractacus and some odes (1725-97).
Mathias, a noted Anabaptist who, with John of Leyden, committed great excesses in the endeavour to set up a Kingdom of Mount Zion in Munster, Westphalia (1535).
Maurice, Elector of Saxony (1521-23) and leader of the Protestants of Germany against the Emperor Charles V.
Mayor of the Palace, the chief minister of the Kings of France between 638 and 742.
Mayor of the Palace, the name given to the comptroller of the household of the Frankish kings. By successive encroachments these officials became at length more powerful than the monarchs, whom they finally ousted.
Mazarin(e) Cardinal, chief minister of France during the first eighteen years of Louis XIV.’s reign.
Memmius, Roman Governor of Bithynia, distinguished for his rhetorical and literary gifts, 270.
Merovingian line, a dynasty of Frankish kings in the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. They were gradually superseded in power by their “Mayors of the Palace,” and were succeeded by the Carolingians.
Middleton, Conyers, a Cambridge theologian who had some controversy with Bentley; distinguished for his “absolutely plain style” of writing (1683-50).
Miguel, Don, King of Portugal, whose usurpation of the throne, refusal to marry Maria, daughter of Don Pedro of Brazil, and general conduct of affairs, led to a civil war, as a result of which he had to withdraw to Italy (1802-66).