Malmesbury. A town of England, in Wiltshire. This town was taken from the royalists by Sir William Walter in 1643, but it was soon recovered, and again taken a short time after.
Malo, St. A seaport of France, in the department of Ille-et-Vilaine, on the small island of Aron. This port sustained a tremendous bombardment by the English under Admiral Benbow in 1693, and under Lord Berkely in July, 1695. In 1758 the British landed in considerable force in Cancalle Bay, and went up to the harbor, where they burnt upwards of a hundred ships, and did great damage to the town, making a number of prisoners.
Maloi-Jaroslavitz. A town of Russia, in the government of Kaluga. It is noted for being the scene of a most sanguinary action between the French and Russians, in October, 1812, in which the former were defeated.
Malplaquet. A village of France, in the department of the North. It was the scene of a sanguinary battle in 1709, between the French under Marshal Villars, and the allies commanded by the Duke of Marlborough and the Prince Eugène, in which the latter were victorious.
Malta. An island belonging to Great Britain, situated in the Mediterranean, 54 miles from the Sicilian coast, and about 200 from Cape Bon, on the African coast. It is strongly fortified around the capital, Valetta, which was built by the Knights of St. John. Malta was colonized by the Carthaginians about 500 B.C., and as early as the first Punic war it was plundered by the Romans, but did not come finally into their possession until 242 B.C. During the 5th century it fell successively under the sway of the Vandals and Goths. The Romans, however, regained it under Belisarius in 533 A.D., and kept possession of it till it was conquered by the Arabs in 870. In 1090, Count Roger of Sicily drove out the Arabs, and established a popular council for the government of the island. Charles of Anjou, after overrunning Sicily, made himself master of it; but after a time, the houses of Aragon and Castile successively held the island. Subsequently, the emperor Charles V. took possession of Malta, and in 1530 granted it to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, from whom the Turks had recently captured their great stronghold at Rhodes. The knights raised by degrees the stupendous fortifications, and, moreover, spent their large income in beautifying the island in every way. Meanwhile they rendered incessant services to Christendom in the chastisement of the ferocious Barbary pirates. To revenge these acts, the Turks brought immense forces against Malta in 1557, and again in 1565. The siege in the latter year was carried on by the sultan Solyman himself, with the flower of the Ottoman army; but the grand master, La Valette, opposed a heroic resistance, and he was forced to re-embark, with the loss of more than 25,000 of his best troops. The defenders lost 260 knights and 7000 Maltese soldiers; and their gallantry was the theme of admiration throughout the world. After this siege the knights built Valetta. In 1571, they, with the Maltese, behaved most courageously at the battle of Lepanto, where the Turks lost 30,000 men. Though waging perpetual war with the Turks, the knights continued in possession of Malta until 1798, when it surrendered to Napoleon, and received a French garrison. In 1800 it was blockaded by a British squadron, and was forced to surrender to the English, in whose possession it has remained as a dependency.
Malta, Knights of. See [St. John of Jerusalem, Knights of].
Maltese Cross. A cross of eight points, of the form worn as a decoration by the Hospitallers and other orders of knighthood.
Malvern Hill. Near the James River, in Virginia. Here, on the night of June 30, 1862, all the divisions of the Army of the Potomac, under Gen. McClellan, were united in a strong position, after five days of incessant marching and fighting. About 4 A.M. on July 1 the Confederate forces advanced to storm this position, but were mowed down by a destructive fire of grape from the land batteries, and were obliged to seek shelter in the woods. The gunboats, also, which were within range, opened a destructive fire of shells on the enemy. The attack was a complete failure, the loss of the Confederates being considerable, while that of the Federals was insignificant. After this repulse, the Confederates retired to Richmond, and McClellan pursued his way to the James, arriving at Harrison’s Landing on July 3.
Mameliere (Fr.). Armor for the breast, from which depended two chains, one attached to the pommel, and the other to the scabbard of the sword.
Mamelukes (Arabic, mamluk, a “slave”). The name given to the slaves of the beys, brought from the Caucasus, and who formed their armed forces. When Genghis Khan desolated a great part of Asia in the 13th century, and carried away a multitude of the inhabitants for slaves, the sultan of Egypt bought 12,000 of them, partly Mingrelians and Tartars, but mostly Turks, and formed them into a body of troops. But they soon found their own power so great that, in 1254, they made one of their own number sultan of Egypt, founding the dynasty of the Baharites, which gave place to another Mameluke dynasty in 1382. The Caucasian element predominated in the first dynasty, the Tartar element in the second. Selim I., who overthrew the Mameluke kingdom in 1517, was compelled to permit the continuance of the 24 Mameluke beys as governors of the provinces; but in the middle of the 18th century they regained such a preponderance of power in Egypt that the pasha named by the Porte was reduced to a nominal ruler. The number of them scattered throughout all Egypt was between 10,000 and 12,000 men. Their number was kept up chiefly by slaves brought from the Caucasus, from among whom the beys and other officers of state were exclusively chosen. Their last brilliant achievements were on the occasion of the French invasion of Egypt, and during the time immediately following the retirement of the French. At this time Murad Bey stood at their head. But in 1811 they were foully massacred by Mehemet Ali.