A CAP OF MAINTENANCE, i.e. a cap of crimson velvet turned up with ermine, is borne, as one of the insignia of the British sovereign, immediately before him at his coronation or on such state occasions as the opening of parliament. It is carried by the hereditary bearer, the marquess of Winchester, upon a white wand. A similar cap is also borne before the lord mayor of London. The origin of this symbol of dignity is obscure. It is stated in the New English Dictionary that it was granted by the pope to Henry VII. and Henry VIII. It is probably connected with the “cap of estate” or “dignity,” sometimes also styled “cap of maintenance,” similar to the royal symbol with two peaks or horns behind, which is borne as a heraldic charge by certain families. It seems originally to have been a privilege of dukes. Where it is used the crest is placed upon it, instead of on the usual wreath.
MAINTENON, FRANÇOISE D’AUBIGNÉ, Marquise de (1635-1719), the second wife of Louis XIV., was born in a prison at Niort, on the 27th of November 1635. Her father, Constant d’Aubigné, was the son of Agrippa d’Aubigné, the famous friend and general of Henry IV., and had been imprisoned as a Huguenot malcontent, but her mother, a fervent Catholic, had the child baptized in her religion, her sponsors being the duc de la Rochefoucauld, father of the author of the Maxims, and the comtesse de Neuillant. In 1639 Constant d’Aubigné was released from prison and took all his family with him to Martinique, where he died in 1645, after having lost what fortune remained to him at cards. Mme d’Aubigné returned to France, and from sheer poverty unwillingly yielded her daughter to her sister-in-law, Mme de Villette, who made the child very happy, but converted or pretended to convert her to Protestantism. When this was known an order of state was issued that she should be entrusted to Mme de Neuillant, her godmother. Every means was now used to convert her back to Catholicism, but at the last she only yielded on the condition that she need not believe that the soul of Mme de Villette was lost. Once reconverted, she was neglected and sent home to live with her mother, who had only a small pension of 200 livres a year, which ceased on her death in 1650. The chevalier de Meré, a man of some literary distinction, who had made her acquaintance at Mme de Neuillant’s, discovered her penniless condition, and introduced his “young Indian,” as he called her, to Scarron, the famous wit and comic writer, at whose house all the literary society of the day assembled. Scarron took a fancy to the friendless girl, and offered either to pay for her admission to a convent, or, though he was deformed and an invalid, to marry her himself. She accepted his offer of marriage, and became Mme Scarron in 1651. For nine years she was not only his most faithful nurse, but an attraction to his house, where she tried to bridle the licence of the conversation of the time. On the death of Scarron, in 1660, Anne of Austria continued his pension to his widow, and even increased it to 2000 livres a year, which enabled her to entertain and frequent the literary society her husband had made her acquainted with; but on the queen-mother’s death in 1666 the king refused to continue her pension, and she prepared to leave Paris for Lisbon as lady attendant to the queen of Portugal. But before she started she met Mme de Montespan, who was already, though not avowedly, the king’s mistress, and who took such a fancy to her that she obtained the continuance of her pension, which put off for ever the question of going to Portugal. Mme de Montespan did yet more for her, for when, in 1669, her first child by the king was born, Mme Scarron was established with a large income and a large staff of servants at Vaugirard to bring up the king’s children in secrecy as they were born. In 1674 the king determined to have his children at court, and their governess, who had now made sufficient fortune to buy the estate of Maintenon, accompanied them. The king had now many opportunities of seeing Mme Scarron, and, though at first he was prejudiced against her, her even temper contrasted so advantageously with the storms of passion and jealousy exhibited by Mme de Montespan, that she grew steadily in his favour, and had in 1678 the gratification of having her estate at Maintenon raised to a marquisate and herself entitled Mme de Maintenon by the king. Such favours brought down the fury of Mme de Montespan’s jealousy, and Mme de Maintenon’s position was almost unendurable, until, in 1680, the king severed their connexion by making the latter second lady in waiting to the dauphiness, and soon after Mme de Montespan left the court. The new amie used her influence on the side of decency, and the queen openly declared she had never been so well treated as at this time, and eventually died in Mme de Maintenon’s arms in 1683. The queen’s death opened the way to yet greater advancement; in 1684 Mme de Maintenon was made first lady in waiting to the dauphiness, and in the winter of 1685-1686 she was privately married to the king by Harlay, archbishop of Paris, in the presence, it is believed, of Père la Chaise, the king’s confessor, the marquis de Montchevreuil, the chevalier de Forbin, and Bontemps. No written proof of the marriage is extant, but that it took place is nevertheless certain. Her life during the next thirty years can be fully studied in her letters, of which many authentic examples are extant. As a wife she was wholly admirable; she had to entertain a man who would not be amused, and had to submit to that terribly strict court etiquette of absolute obedience to the king’s inclination, which Saint-Simon so vividly describes, and yet be always cheerful and never complain of weariness or ill-health. Her political influence has probably been exaggerated, but it was supreme in matters of detail. The ministers of the day used to discuss and arrange all the business to be done with the king beforehand with her, and it was all done in her cabinet and in her presence, but the king in more important matters often chose not to consult her. Such mistakes as, for instance, the replacing of Catinat by Villeroi may be attributed to her, but not whole policies—notably, according to Saint-Simon, not the policy with regard to the Spanish succession. Even the revocation of the edict of Nantes and the dragonnades have been laid to her charge, but recent investigations have tended to show that in spite of ardent Catholicism, she at least opposed, if not very vigorously, the cruelties of the dragonnades, although she was pleased with the conversions they procured. She was apparently afraid to imperil her great reputation for devotion, which had in 1692 obtained for her from Innocent XII. the right of visitation over all the convents in France. Where she deserves blame is in her use of her power for personal patronage, as in compassing the promotions of Chamillart and Villeroi, and the frequent assistance given to her brother Comte Charles d’Aubigné. Her influence was on the whole a moderating and prudent force. Her social influence was not as great as it might have been, owing to her holding no recognized position at court, but it was always exercised on the side of decency and morality, and it must not be forgotten that from her former life she was intimate with the literary people of the day. Side by side with this public life, which wearied her with its shadowy power, occasionally crossed by a desire to be recognised as queen, she passed a nobler and sweeter private existence as the foundress of St Cyr. Mme de Maintenon was a born teacher; she had so won the hearts of her first pupils that they preferred her to their own mother, and was similarly successful later with the young and impetuous duchess of Burgundy, and she had always wished to establish a home for poor girls of good family placed in such straits as she herself had experienced. As soon as her fortunes began to mend she started a small home for poor girls at Ruel, which she afterwards moved to Noisy, and which was the nucleus of the splendid institution of St Cyr, which the king endowed in 1686, at her request, out of the funds of the Abbey of St Denis. She was in her element there. She herself drew up the rules of the institution; she examined every minute detail; she befriended her pupils in every way; and her heart often turned from the weariness of Versailles or of Marly to her “little girls” at St Cyr. It was for them that Racine wrote his Esther and his Athalie, and it was because he managed the affairs of St Cyr well that Michel Chamillart became controller-general of the finances. The later years of her power were marked by the promotion of her old pupils, the children of the king and Mme de Montespan, to high dignity between the blood royal and the peers of the realm, and it was doubtless under the influence of her dislike for the duke of Orleans that the king drew up his will, leaving the personal care of his successor to the duke of Maine, and hampering the duke of Orleans by a council of regency. On or even before her husband’s death she retired to St Cyr, and had the chagrin of seeing all her plans for the advancement of the duke of Maine overthrown by means of the parliament of Paris. However, the regent Orleans in no way molested her, but, on the contrary, visited her at St Cyr and continued her pension of 48,000 livres. She spent her last years at St Cyr in perfect seclusion, but an object of great interest to all visitors to France, who, however, with the exception of Peter the Great, found it impossible to get an audience with her. On the 15th of April 1719 she died, and was buried in the choir at St Cyr, bequeathing her estate at Maintenon to her niece, the only daughter of her brother Charles and wife of the maréchal de Noailles, to whose family it still belongs.
L. A. la Beaumelle published the Lettres de Madame de Maintenon, but much garbled, in 2 vols. in 1752, and on a larger scale in 9 vols. in 1756. He also, in 1755, published Mémoires de Madame de Maintenon, in 6 vols., which caused him to be imprisoned in the Bastille. All earlier biographies were superseded by Théophile Lavallée’s Histoire de St Cyr, reviewed in Causeries du lundi, vol. viii., and by his edition of her Lettres historiques et édifiantes, &c., in 7 vols. and of her Correspondance générale, in 4 vols. (1888), which latter must, however, be read with the knowledge of many forged letters, noticed in P. Grimblot’s Faux autographes de Madame de Maintenon. Saint-Simon’s fine but biased account of the court in her day and of her career is contained in the twelfth volume of Chéruel and Regnier’s edition of his Mémoires. See also Mademoiselle d’Aumale’s Souvenirs sur Madame de Maintenon, published by the Comte d’Haussonville and G. Hanotaux (Paris, 3 vols., 1902-1904); an excellent account by A. Geffroy, Madame de Maintenon d’après sa correspondance authentique (Paris, 2 vols., 1887); P. de Noailles, Histoire de Madame de Maintenon et des principaux évènements du règne de Louis XIV. (4 vols., 1848-1858); A. de Boislisle, Paul Scarron et Françoise d’Aubigné d’après des documents nouveaux (1894); É. Pilastre, Vie et caractère de Madame de Maintenon d’après les œuvres du duc de Saint-Simon et des documents anciens ou récents (1907); A. Rosset, Madame de Maintenon et la révocation de l’édit de Nantes (1897).
(H. M. S.)
MAINZ (Fr. Mayence) a city, episcopal see and fortress of Germany, situated on the left bank of the Rhine, almost opposite the influx of the Main, at the junction of the important main lines of railway from Cologne to Mannheim and Frankfort-on-Main, 25 m. W. of the latter. Pop. (1905), 91,124 (including a garrison of 7500 men), of whom two-thirds are Roman Catholic. The Rhine, which here attains the greatest breadth of its upper course, is crossed by a magnificent bridge of five arches, leading to the opposite town of Castel and by two railway bridges. The old fortifications have recently been pushed farther back, and their place occupied by pleasant boulevards. The river front has been converted into a fine promenade, commanding extensive views of the Taunus range of mountains, and the “Rheingau,” the most favoured wine district of Germany. Alongside the quay are the landing-places of the steamboats navigating the Rhine. The railway, which formerly incommoded the bank, has been diverted, and now, following the ceinture of the new line of inner fortifications, runs into a central station lying to the south of the city. The interior of the old town consists chiefly of narrow and irregular streets, with many quaint and picturesque houses. The principal street of the new town is the Kaiserstrasse, leading from the railway station to the river.
The first object of historical and architectural interest in Mainz is the grand old cathedral, an imposing Romanesque edifice with numerous Gothic additions and details (for plan, &c. see [Architecture]: Romanesque and Gothic in Germany). It was originally erected between 975 and 1009, but has since been repeatedly burned down and rebuilt, and in its present form dates chiefly from the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries. The largest of its six towers is 300 ft. high. The whole building was restored by order of Napoleon in 1814, and another thorough renovation was made more recently. The interior contains the tombs of Boniface, the first archbishop of Mainz, of Frauenlob, the Minnesinger, and of many of the electors. Mainz possesses nine other Roman Catholic churches, the most noteworthy of which are those of St Ignatius, with a finely painted ceiling, of St Stephen, built 1257-1328, and restored after an explosion in 1857, and of St Peter. The old electoral palace (1627-1678), a large building of red sandstone, now contains a valuable collection of Roman and Germanic antiquities, a picture gallery, a natural history museum, the Gutenberg Museum, and a library of 220,000 volumes. Among the other principal buildings are the palace of the grand duke of Hesse, built in 1731-1739 as a lodge of the Teutonic order, the theatre, the arsenal, and the government buildings. A handsome statue of Gutenberg, by Thorwaldsen, was erected at Mainz in 1837. Mainz still retains many relics of the Roman period, the most important of which is the Eigelstein, a monument believed to have been erected by the Roman legions in honour of Drusus. It stands within the citadel, which occupies the site of the Roman castrum. A little to the south-west of the town are the remains of a large Roman aqueduct, of which upwards of sixty pillars are still standing. The educational and scientific institutions of Mainz include an episcopal seminary, two gymnasia and other schools, a society for literature and art, a musical society, and an antiquarian society. The university, founded in 1477, was suppressed by the French in 1798.
The site of Mainz would seem to mark it out naturally as a great centre of trade, but the illiberal rule of the archbishops and its military importance seriously hampered its commercial and industrial development, and prevented it from rivalling its neighbour Frankfort. It is now, however, the chief emporium of the Rhenish wine traffic, and also carries on an extensive transit trade in grain, timber, flour, petroleum, paper and vegetables. The natural facilities for carriage by water are supplemented by the extensive railway system. Large new harbours to the north of the city were opened in 1887. The principal manufactures are leather goods, furniture, carriages, chemicals, musical instruments and carpets, for the first two of which the city has attained a wide reputation. Other industries include brewing and printing. Mainz is the seat of the administrative and judicial authorities of the province of Rhein-Hessen, and also of a Roman Catholic bishop.
History.—Mainz, one of the oldest cities in Germany, was originally a Celtic settlement. Its strategic importance was early recognized by the Romans, and about 13 B.C. Drusus, the son-in-law of Augustus, erected a fortified camp here, to which the castellum Mattiacorum (the modern Castel) on the opposite bank was afterwards added, the two being connected with a bridge at the opening of the Christian era. The Celtic name became latinized as Maguntiacum, or Moguntiacum, and a town gradually arose around the camp, which became the capital of Germania Superior. During the Völkerwanderung Mainz suffered severely, being destroyed on different occasions by the Alamanni, the Vandals and the Huns. Christianity seems to have been introduced into the town at a very early period, and in the 6th century a new Mainz was founded by Bishop Sidonius. In the middle of the 8th century under Boniface it became an archbishopric, and to this the primacy of Germany was soon annexed. Charlemagne, who had a palace in the neighbourhood, gave privileges to Mainz, which rose rapidly in wealth and importance, becoming a free city in 1118. During the later middle ages it was the seat of several diets, that of 1184 being of unusual size and splendour. In 1160 the citizens revolted against Archbishop Arnold, and in 1163 the walls of the city were pulled down by order of the emperor Frederick I. But these events did not retard its progress. In 1244 certain rights of self-government were given to the citizens; and in 1254 Mainz was the centre and mainspring of a powerful league of Rhenish towns. Owing to its commercial prosperity it was known as goldene Mainz, and its population is believed to have been as great as it is at the present day. But soon a decline set in. In 1462 there was warfare between two rival archbishops, Diether or Dietrich II. of Isenburg (d. 1463) and Adolph II. of Nassau (d. 1475). The citizens espoused the cause of Diether, but their city was captured by Adolph; it was then deprived of its privileges and was made subject to the archbishop. Many of the inhabitants were driven into exile, and these carried into other lands a knowledge of the art of printing, which had been invented at Mainz by Johann Gutenberg in 1450. During the Thirty Years’ War Mainz was occupied by the Swedes in 1631 and by the French in 1644, the fortifications being strengthened by the former under Gustavus Adolphus; in 1688 it was captured again by the French, but they were driven out in the following year. In 1792 the citizens welcomed the ideas of the French Revolution; they expelled their archbishop, Friedrich Karl Joseph d’Erthal, and opened their gates to the French troops. Taken and retaken several times during the next few years, Mainz was ceded to France by the treaty of Campo Formio in 1797, and again by the Treaty of Lunéville in 1801. In 1814 it was restored to Germany and in 1816 it was handed over to the grand duke of Hesse; it remained, however, a fortress of the German confederation and was garrisoned by Prussian and Austrian troops. Since 1871 it has been a fortress of the German Empire. There were disturbances in the city in 1848.