MARIAZELL

mariazell, a village of austria, in styria, 89 m. n. of graz. pop. (1900), 1499. it is picturesquely situated in the valley of the salza, amid the north styrian alps. its entire claim to notice lies in the fact that it is the most frequented sanctuary in austria, being visited annually by about 200,000 pilgrims. the object of veneration is a miracle-working image of the virgin, carved in lime-tree wood, and about 18 in. high. this was presented to the place in 1157, and is now enshrined in a chapel lavishly adorned with objects of silver and other costly materials. the large church of which the chapel forms part was erected in 1644 as an expansion of a smaller church built by louis i., king of hungary, after a victory over the turks in 1363. in the vicinity of mariazell is the pretty alpine lake of erlafsee. see m. m. rabenlehrer, _mariazell, osterreichs loreto_ (vienna, 1891); and o. eigner, _geschichte des aufgeshobenen benedictinerstiftes mariazell_ (vienna, 1900). marie amelie therese (1782-1866), queen of louis philippe, king of the french, was the daughter of ferdinand iv., king of naples, and the archduchess maria carolina, daughter of the empress maria theresa, and belonged to the house of bourbon. she was born at caserta, on the 26th of april 1782, and received a careful education which developed the naturally pious and honourable disposition that earned for her in the family circle the nickname of la santa. driven from naples in 1798, the neapolitan royal family fled to palermo, and the years from 1800 to 1802 were spent by marie amelie with her mother at the austrian court. in 1806 they were again in flight before the armies of massena, and it was during the second residence of her father's court at palermo that she met the exiled louis philippe, then duke of orleans, whom she married in november 1809. returning to france in 1814, the duke and duchess of orleans had barely established themselves in the palais royal in paris when the hundred days drove them into exile. marie amelie took refuge with her four children in england, where she spent two years at orleans house, twickenham. again in france in 1817, her life at neuilly until 1828 was the happiest period of her existence. neither then nor at any other time did she take any active share in politics; but she was not without indirect influence on affairs, because her strong royalist and legitimist traditions prevented the court from including her in the suspicion with which her husband's liberal views were regarded. her attention was absorbed by the care and education of her numerous family, even after the revolution of 1830 had made her queen of the french, a position accepted by her with forebodings of disaster justified by her early experience of revolutions. during her second exile, from 1848 to the end of her life, she lived at claremont, where her charity and piety endeared her to the many english friends of the orleans family. marie amelie died at claremont, on the 24th of march 1866. see a. trognon, _vie de marie amelie_ (1872); a. l. baron imbert de st amand, _la jeunesse de marie amelie_ (1891), _marie amelie au palais royal_ (1892), _marie amelie et la cour de palerme_ (1891), _marie amelie et la cour des tuileries_ (1892), _marie amelie et l'apogee de regne de louis philippe_ (1893), _marie amelie et la societe francaise en 1847_ (1894), and _marie amelie et la duchesse d'orleans_ (1893). marie antoinette (1755-1793), queen of france, ninth child of maria theresa and the emperor francis i., was born at vienna, on the 2nd of november 1755. she was brought up under a simple and austere regime and educated with a view to the french marriage arranged by maria theresa, the abbe vermond being appointed as her tutor in 1769. her marriage with the dauphin, which took place at versailles on the 16th of may 1770, was intended to crown the policy of choiseul and confirm the alliance between austria and france. this fact, combined with her youth and the extreme corruption of the french court, made her position very difficult. madame du barry, whose influence over louis xv. was at that time supreme, formed the centre of a powerful anti-choiseul cabal, which succeeded in less than a year after the dauphin's marriage in bringing about the fall of choiseul and seriously threatening the stability of the austrian alliance. thus the young princess was surrounded by enemies both at court and in the dauphin's household, and came to rely almost entirely upon the austrian ambassador, the comte de mercy-argenteau, whom maria theresa had instructed to act as her mentor, at the same time arranging that she herself should be kept informed of all that concerned her daughter, so that she might at once advise her and safeguard the alliance. hence arose the famous secret correspondence of mercy-argenteau, an invaluable record of all the details of marie antoinette's life from her marriage in 1770 till the death of maria theresa in 1780. marie antoinette soon won the affection and confidence of the dauphin and endeared herself to the king, but her position was precarious, and both mercy and maria theresa had continually to urge her to conquer her violent dislike for the favourite and try to conciliate her. the accession of the young king and queen on the death of louis xv. (may 10, 1774), was hailed with great popular enthusiasm. but her first steps brought marie antoinette into open hostility with the anti-austrian party. she was urgent in obtaining the dismissal of d'aiguillon, and did all in her power to secure the recall of choiseul, though without success. thus from the very first she appeared in the light of a partisan, having against her all the enemies of choiseul and of the austrian alliance, and was already given the nickname of "l'autrichienne" by mesdames the king's aunts. at the same time her undisguised impatience of the cumbrous court etiquette shocked many people, and her taste for pleasure led her to seek the society of the comte d'artois and his young and dissolute circle. but the greatest weakness in her position lay in her unsatisfactory relations with her husband. the king, though affectionate, was cold and apathetic, and it was not till seven years after her marriage that there was any possibility of her bearing him an heir. this fact naturally decreased her popularity, and as early as september 1774, was made the subject of offensive pamphlets and the like, as in the case of the _affaire beaumarchais_. (see beaumarchais.) the end of the period of mourning for the late king was the signal for a succession of gaieties, during which the queen displayed a passion for amusement and excitement which led to unfortunate results. being childless, and with a husband who could not command her respect, her longing for affection led her to form various intimate friendships, above all with the princesse de lamballe and the comtesse jules de polignac, who soon obtained such an empire over her affections that no favour was too great for them to ask, and often to obtain. thus for the benefit of madame de lamballe the queen revived the superfluous and expensive office of superintendent of her household, which led to constant disagreements and jealousies among her ladies and offended many important families. in frequenting the salons of her friends the queen not only came in contact with a number of the younger and more dissipated courtiers, whose high play and unseemly amusements she countenanced, but she fell under the influence of various ambitious intriguers, such as the baron de besenval, the comte de vaudreuil, the duc de lauzun and the comte d'adhemar, whose interested manoeuvres she was induced to further by her affection for her favourites. thus she was often led to interfere for frivolous reasons in public affairs, sometimes with serious results, as in the case of the trial of the comte de guines (1776), when her interference was responsible for the fall of turgot. at the same time her extravagance in dress, jewelry and amusements (including the gardens and theatricals at trianon, of the cost of which such exaggerated reports were spread about) and her presence at horse-races and masked balls in paris without the king, gave rise to great scandal, which was seized upon by her enemies, among whom were mesdames, the count of provence, and the duke of orleans and the palais royal clique. at this critical period her brother, the emperor joseph ii., decided to visit france. as the result of his visit he left with the queen a memorandum in which he pointed out to her in plain terms the dangers of her conduct.[1] he also took advantage of his visit to advise the king, with such success that at last, in 1778, the queen had the hope of becoming a mother. for a time the emperor's remonstrances had some effect, and after the birth of her daughter, marie therese charlotte (afterwards duchesse d'angouleme) in december 1778, the queen lived a more quiet life. the death of maria theresa (nov. 29, 1780) deprived her of a wise and devoted friend, and by removing all restraint on the rashness of joseph ii. was bound to increase the dislike of the austrian alliance and cause embarrassment to marie antoinette. her position was very much strengthened by the birth (oct. 22, 1781) of a dauphin, louis joseph xavier francois, and on the death of maurepas, which left the king without a chief minister, she might have exerted a considerable influence in public affairs had she taken a consistent interest in them; but her repugnance to serious matters triumphed, and she preferred to occupy herself with the education of her children, to whom she was a wise and devoted mother,[2] and with her friends and amusements at trianon. personal motives alone would lead her to interfere in public affairs, especially when it was a question of obtaining places or favours for her favourites and their friends. the influence of the polignacs was now at its height, and they obtained large sums of money, a dukedom, and many nominations to places. it was madame de polignac who obtained the appointment of calonne as controller-general of the finances,[3] and who succeeded madame de guemenee as "governess of the children of france" after the bankruptcy of the prince de guemenee in 1782.[4] again, in response to mercy and joseph ii.'s urgent representations, marie antoinette exerted herself on behalf of austria in the affairs of the opening of the scheldt (1783-1784) and the exchange of bavaria (1785), in which, though she failed to provoke active interference on the part of france, she succeeded in obtaining the payment of considerable indemnities to austria, a fact which led to the popular legend of her having sent millions to austria, and aroused much indignation against her. later, on the recommendation of mercy and vermond, she supported the nomination of lomenie de brienne in 1787, an appointment which, though widely approved at the time, was laid to the queen's blame when it ended in failure. two more children were born to her; louis charles, duke of normandy, afterwards dauphin, on the 27th of march 1785, and sophie helene beatrix (d. june 19, 1787), on the 9th of july 1786. in 1785-1786 the affair of the diamond necklace (q.v.) revealed the depth of the hatred which her own follies and the calumnies of her enemies had aroused against her. the public held her responsible for the bankrupt state of the country; and though in 1788, following the popular outcry, she prevailed upon the king to recall necker, it was impossible for him to avert the revolution. the year 1789 was one of disaster for marie antoinette; on the 10th of march her brother joseph ii. died, and on the 4th of june her eldest son. the same year saw the assembling of the states-general, which she had dreaded; the taking of the bastille, and the events leading to the terrible days of the 5th and 6th of october at versailles and the removal of the royal family to the tuileries. then began the negotiations with mirabeau, whose high estimate of the queen is well-known (e.g. his famous remark, "the king has only one man on his side, and that is his wife"). but the queen was violently prejudiced against him, believing him among other things to be responsible for the events of the 5th and 6th of october, and he never gained her full confidence. she was naturally incapable of seeing the full import of the revolution, and merely temporised with mirabeau. she dreaded the thought of civil war; and even when she had realized the necessity for decisive action the king's apathy and indecision made it impossible for her to persuade him to carry into effect mirabeau's plan of leaving paris and appealing to the provinces. her difficulties were increased by the departure of mercy for the hague in september 1790, for montmorin who now took his place in the negotiations had not her confidence to the same extent. feeling herself helpless and almost isolated in paris, she now relied chiefly on her friends outside france--mercy, count axel fersen, and the baron de breteuil; and it was by their help and that of bouille that after the death of mirabeau, on the 8th of april 1791, the plan was arranged of escaping to montmedy, which ended in the flight to varennes (june 21, 1791). after the return from varennes the royal family were closely guarded, but in spite of this they still found channels of communication with the outside world. the king being sunk in apathy, the task of negotiation devolved upon the queen; but in her inexperience and ignorance of affairs, and the uncertainty of information from abroad, it was hard for her to follow any clear policy. her courageous bearing during the return from varennes had greatly impressed barnave, and he now approached her on behalf of the feuillants and the constitutional party. for about a year she continued to negotiate with them, forwarding to mercy and the emperor leopold ii. letters and memoranda dictated by them, while at the same time secretly warning her friends not to accept these letters as her own opinions, but to realize that she was dependent on the constitutionals.[5] she agreed with their plan of an armed congress, and on this idea both she and fersen insisted with all their might, fersen leaving brussels and going on a mission to the emperor to try and gain support and checkmate the _emigres_, whose desertion the queen bitterly resented, and whose rashness threatened to frustrate her plans and endanger the lives of her family. as to the acceptance of the constitution (sept. 1791), "tissue of absurdities" though the queen thought it, and much as she would have preferred a bolder course, she considered that in the circumstances the king was bound to accept it in order to inspire confidence.[6] mercy was also in correspondence with the constitutionals, and in letter after letter to him and the emperor, the queen, strongly supported by fersen, insisted that the congress should be formed as soon as possible, her appeals increasing in urgency as she saw that barnave's party would soon be powerless against the extremists. but owing to the lengthy negotiations of the powers the congress was continually postponed. on the 1st of march 1792 leopold ii. died, and was succeeded by the young francis ii. marie antoinette's actions were now directed entirely by fersen, for she suspected mercy and the emperor of sacrificing her to the interests of austria (_fersen_, i. 251; arneth, pp. 254, 256, &c.). the declaration of war which the king was forced to make (april 20) threw her definitely into opposition to the revolution, and she betrayed to mercy and fersen the plans of the french generals (arneth, p. 259; _fersen_, ii. 220, 289, 308, 325, 327). she was now certain that the life of the king was threatened, and the events of the 20th of june added to her terrors. she considered their only hope to lie in the intervention of the powers and in the appeal to force, and endorsed the suggestion of a threatening manifesto[6] which should hold the national assembly and paris responsible for the safety of the king and royal family. immediately after brunswick's manifesto followed the storming of the tuileries and the removal of the royal family to the temple (aug. 10). during all these events and the captivity in the temple marie antoinette showed an unvarying courage and dignity, in spite of her failing health and the illness of her son. after the execution of the king (jan. 17, 1793) several unsuccessful attempts were made by her friends to rescue her and her children, among others by jarjayes, toulan and lepitre, and the "baron de batz," and negotiations for her release or exchange were even opened with danton; but as the allied armies approached her trial and condemnation became a certainty. she had already been separated from her son, the sight of whose ill-treatment added terribly to her sufferings; she was now parted from her daughter and madame elizabeth, and removed on the 1st of august 1793 to the conciergerie. even here, where she was under the closest guard and subjected to the most offensive espionnage, attempts were made to rescue her, among others michonis' "conspiration de l'oeillet." on the 14th of october began her trial, her defence being entrusted to chauveau-lagarde and tronson-ducourdray. her noble attitude, even in the face of the atrocious accusations of fouquier-tinville, commanded the admiration even of her enemies, and her answers during her long examination were clear and skilful. the following were the questions finally put to the jury:-- (1) is it established that manoeuvres and communications have existed with foreign powers and other external enemies of the republic, the said manoeuvres, &c., tending to furnish them with assistance in money, give them an entry into french territory, and facilitate the progress of their armies? (2) is marie antoinette of austria, the widow capet, convicted of having co-operated in these manoeuvres and maintained these communications? (3) is it established that a plot and conspiracy has existed tending to kindle civil war within the republic, by arming the citizens against one another? (4) is marie antoinette, the widow capet, convicted of having participated in this plot and conspiracy? the jury decided unanimously in the affirmative, and on the 16th of october 1793 marie antoinette was led to the guillotine, leaving behind her a touching letter to madame elizabeth, known as her "testament." as to the justice of these charges, we have seen how the queen was actually guilty of betraying her country, though it was only natural for her to identify the cause of the monarchy with that of france. to civil war she was consistently opposed, and never ceased to dissociate herself from the plans of the _emigres_, but here again her very position made her an enemy of the republic. in any case, all her actions had as their aim--firstly, the safeguarding of the monarchy and the king's position, and later, when she saw this to be impossible, that of securing the safety of her husband and her son. for a bibliographical study see: m. tourneux, _marie antoinette devant l'histoire. essai bibliographique_ (2nd ed., paris, 1901); id. _bibliogr. de la ville de paris ..._ (vol. iv. 1906), nos. 20980-21338; also _bibliogr. de femmes celebres_ (turin and paris, 1892, &c.). the most important material for her life is to be found in her letters and in the correspondence of mercy-argenteau, but a large number of forgeries have found their way into certain of the collections, such as those of paul vogt d'hunolstein (_correspondance inedite de marie antoinette_, (3rd ed., paris, 1864), and f. feuillet des conches _louis xvi., marie antoinette et madame elisabeth, lettres et documents inedits_ (6 vols., paris, 1864-1873), while most of the works on marie antoinette published before the appearance of arneth's publications (1865, &c.) are based partly on these forgeries. for a detailed examination of the question of the authenticity of the letters see the introduction to _lettres de marie antoinette. recueil des lettres authentiques de la reine, publie pour la societe d'histoire contemporaine, par m. de la rocheterie et le marquis de beaucourt_ (2 vols., paris, 1895-1896); also a. geffroy, _gustave iii. et la cour de france_ (2 vols., paris, 1869), vol. ii., appendix. of the highest importance are the letters from the archives of vienna published by alfred von arneth and others: a. von arneth, _maria theresia und marie antoinette, ihr briefwechsel_ 1770-1780 (paris and vienna, 1865); id., _marie antoinette, joseph ii. und leopold ii. ihr briefwechsel_ (leipzig, paris and vienna, 1866); id. and a. geffroy, _correspondance secrete de marie-therese et du comte de mercy-argenteau_ (3 vols., paris, 1874); id. and j. flammermont, _correspondance secrete du comte de mercy-argenteau avec joseph ii. et le prince de kaunitz_ (2 vols., paris, 1889-1891); for further letters see comte de reiset, _lettres de la reine marie antoinette a la landgrave louise de hesse-darmstadt_ (1865); id. _lettres inedites de marie antoinette et de marie-clotilde, reine de sardaigne_ (1877). see also _correspondance entre le comte de mirabeau et le comte de la marck, 1789-1791, recueillie ... par f. de bacourt_ (3 vols., paris, 1857), and baron r. m. de klinckowstrom, _le comte de fersen et la cour de france_ (2 vols., paris, 1877-1878). _memoirs_: see most contemporary memoirs, e.g. those of the prince de ligne, choiseul, segur, bouille, dumouriez, &c. some, such as those of madame campan, weber, clery, mme de tourzel, are prejudiced in her favour; others, such as those of besenval, lauzun, soulavie, are equally prejudiced against her. m. tourneux (_op. cit._) discusses the authenticity of the memoirs of tilly, clery, lauzun, &c. the chief of these memoirs are: mme campan, _memoires sur la vie privee de marie antoinette_ (5th ed., 2 vols., paris, 1823, eng. trans. 1887), the inaccuracy of which is clearly demonstrated by j. flammermont in _etudes critiques sur les sources de l'histoire du xviii^e siecle: les memoires de mme campan_, in the _bulletin de la faculte des lettres de poitiers_ (4th year, 1886, pp. 56, 109); j. weber, _memoires concernant marie antoinette_ (3 vols., london, 1804-1809; eng. trans., 3 vols., london, 1805-1806); _memoires de m. le baron de besenval_ (3 vols., paris, 1805); _memoires de m. le duc de lauzun_ (2nd ed., 2 vols., paris, 1822); e. bavoux, _mems. secrets de j. m. augeard, secretaire des commandements de la reine m. antoinette_ (paris, 1866); mme vigee-le-brun, _mes souvenirs_ (2 vols., paris, 1867); _memoires de mme la duchesse de tourzel_, ed. by the duc de cars (2 vols., paris, 1883); _memoires de la baronne d'oberkirch_ (2 vols., paris, 1853). general works:--see the general works on the period and on louis xvi., and bibliographies to articles louis xvi. and french revolution. a. sorel, _l'europe et la rev. fr._ (ii. _passim_) contains a good estimate of marie antoinette. see also e. and j. de goncourt, _histoire de marie antoinette_ (paris, 1859); p. de nolhac, _marie antoinette, dauphine_ (paris, 1897); id. _la reine marie antoinette_ (8th cd., 1898), which gives good descriptions of versailles, trianon, &c.; m. de la rocheterie, _histoire de marie antoinette_ (2 vols., paris, 1890); a. l. bicknell, _the story of marie antoinette_; r. prolss, _konigin marie antoinette, bilder aus ihrem leben_ (leipzig, 1894); g. desjardins, _le petit-trianon_ (versailles, 1885). for her trial and death, see e. campardon, _marie antoinette a la conciergerie_ (1863). h. belloc's _marie antoinette_ (london, 1909) is very biassed and sometimes misleading. (c. b. p.) footnote: [1] see arneth, _marie antoinette, joseph ii. and leopold ii._, pp. 1-18. [2] v. the _instructions donnees a la marquise de tourzel_, governess of the children of france, dated the 24th of july, 1789, in la rocheterie and beaucourt, _lettres de marie antoinette_, ii. 131. [3] but see arneth and flammermont, i. 228, foot-note. [4] this had reflected discredit on the queen, madame de guemenee having been one of her intimate friends. [5] letters of 31st july 1791 to mercy. arneth, p. 193 and 194, and letter of 1st august. [6] arneth, pp. 196, 203; klinekowstrom, _fersen_, i. 192. [7] h. belloc, _marie-antoinett_, pp. 311-312, states that clause viii. of brunswick's manifesto was "drafted" by marie antoinette, i.e. that the idea of holding paris responsible for the safety of the royal family was first suggested by her. he bases this statement entirely upon the queen's letters of july 3rd to fersen, of july 4th to mercy, the reception of which fersen notes in his journal on july 8th and 9th (fersen ii. 21). but these letters were obviously the answer to fersen's letter of june 30th to the queen (fersen ii. 315), in which he tells her the terms of the manifesto. moreover, the suggestion of holding the assembly responsible is to be found as early as in the memo. of the constitutionals of september the 8th, 1791, and is included in the instructions of mallet du pan (mems. ed. sayous, i. 281, and appendix 445). fersen (_fersen_ ii. 329, 337, 18th july and 28th july to the queen, and p. 338, 29th july to taube) states that it was he who drew up the manifesto by means of the marquis de limon. marie de france (fl. c. 1175-1190), french poet and fabulist. in the introduction (c. 1240) to his _vie seint edmund le rey_[1] denis pyramus says she was one of the most popular of authors with counts, barons and knights, but especially with ladies. she is also mentioned by the anonymous author of the _couronnement renart_. her lays were translated into norwegian[2] by order of haakon iv.; and thomas chestre, who is generally supposed to have lived in the reign of henry vi., gave a version of _lanval_.[3] very little is known about her history, and until comparatively recently the very century in which she lived remained a matter of dispute. in spite of her own statement in the epilogue to her fables: "marie ai num, si suis de france," generally interpreted to mean that marie was a native of the ile de france, she seems to have been of norman origin, and certainly spent most of her life in england. her language, however, shows little trace of anglo-norman provincialism. like wace, she used a literary dialect which probably differed very widely from common norman speech. the manuscripts in which marie's poems are preserved date from the late 13th or even the 14th century, but the language fixes the date of the poems in the second half of the 12th century. the _lais_ are dedicated to an unknown king, who is identified as henry ii. of england; and the fables, her _ysopet_, were written according to the _epilogus_ for a count william, generally recognized to be william longsword, earl of salisbury. the author of _couronnement renart_, says that marie had dedicated her poem to the count william to whom the unknown poet addresses himself. this is william of dampierre (d. 1251), the husband of the countess margaret of flanders, and his identification with marie's count william is almost certainly an error. marie lived and wrote at the court of henry ii., which was very literary and purely french. queen eleanor was a provencal, and belonged to a family in which the patronage of poetry was a tradition. there is no evidence to show whether marie was of noble origin or simply pursued the profession of a _trouvere_ for her living. the origin of the _lais_ has been the subject of much discussion. marie herself says that she had heard them sung by breton minstrels. it seems probable that it is the lesser or french brittany from which the stories were derived, though something may be due to welsh and cornish sources. gaston paris (_romania_, vol. xv.) maintained that marie had heard the stories from english minstrels, who had assimilated the celtic legends. in any case the breton lays offer abundant evidence of traditions from scandinavian and oriental sources. the _guigemar_ of marie de france presents marked analogies with the ordinary oriental romance of escape from a harem, for instance, with details superadded from classical mythology. marie seems to have contented herself with giving new literary form to the stories she heard by turning them into norman octosyllabic verse, and apparently made few radical changes from her originals. joseph bedier thinks that the lays of the breton minstrels were prose recitals interspersed with short lyrics something after the manner of the cante-fable of _aucassin et nicolette_. marie's task was to give these cante-fables a narrative form destined to be read rather than sung or recited. the _lais_ which may be definitely attributed to marie are: _guigemar_, _equitan_, _le frene_, _le bisclavret_ (the werewolf), _les deux amants_, _laustic_, _chaitivel_, _lanval_, _le chevrefeuille_, _milon_, _yonec_ and _eliduc_. the other similar lays are anonymous except the _lai d'ignaure_ by renant and the lai du cor of robert biket, two authors otherwise unknown. they vary in length from some twelve thousand lines to about a hundred. _le chevrefeuille_, a short episode of the tristan story, telling how tristan makes known his presence in the wood to iseult, is the best known of them all. laustic[4] (_le rossignol_) is almost as short and simple. in _yonec_ a mysterious bird visits the lady kept in durance by an old husband, and is turned into a valiant knight. the lover is killed by the husband, but in due time is avenged by his son. the scene of the story is partly laid in chester, but the fable in slightly different forms occurs in the folk-lore of many countries.[5] _lanval_[6] is a fairy story, and the hero vanishes eventually with his fairy princess to the island of avallon or avilion. _eliduc_ is more elaborately planned than any of these, and the action is divided between exeter and brittany. here again the story of the man with two brides is not new, but the three characters of the story are so dealt with that each wins the reader's sympathy. the resignation of the wife of eliduc and her reception of the new bride find a parallel in another of the lays, _le frene_. the story is in both cases more human and less repugnant than the, in some respects, similar story of griselda. marie's _ysopet_ is translated from an english original which she erroneously attributed to alfred the great, who had, she said, translated it from the latin. the collection includes many fables that have come down from phaedrus, some oriental stories derived from jewish sources, with many popular apologues that belong to the renard cycle, and differ from those of older origin in that they are intended to amuse rather than to instruct. marie describes the misery of the poor under the feudal regime, but she preaches resignation rather than revolt. the popularity of this collection is attested by the twenty-three mss. of it that have been preserved. another poem attributed to marie de france is _l'espurgatoire seint patriz_, a translation from the _tractatus de purgatorio s. patricii_ (c. 1185) of henri de salterey, which brings her activity down almost to the close of the century. see _die fabeln der marie de france_ (1898), edited by karl warnke with the help of materials left by eduard mall; and _die lais der marie de france_ (2nd ed., 1900), edited by karl warnke, with comparative notes by reinhold kohler; the two works being vols. vi. and iii. of the _bibliotheca normannica_ of hermann suchier; also an extremely interesting article by joseph bedier in the _revue des deux mondes_ (oct. 1891); another by alice kemp-welch in the _nineteenth century_ (dec. 1907). for an analysis of the _lais_ see _revue de philologie francaise_, viii. 161 seq.; karl warnke, _die quellen der esope der marie de france_ (1900). the _lais_ were first published in 1819 by b. de roquefort. _l'espurgatoire seint patriz_ was edited by t. a. jenkins (philadelphia, 1894). some of the _lays_ were paraphrased by arthur o'shaughnessy in his _lays of france_ (1872). footnotes: [1] cotton ms. domit. a xi. (british museum), edited for the rolls series by thomas arnold in 1892. [2] edited by r. keyser and c. r. unger as _strengleikar eða lioðabok_ (christiania, 1850). [3] chestre's _sir launfal_ was printed by j. ritson in _ancient english metrical romances_ (1802); and by l. erling (kempten, 1883). [4] the _soi-disant_ breton folk-song "ann eostik" on the same subject translated by la villemarque in his _barzaz-breiz_ (1840) is rejected by competent authorities. similar stories in which the nightingale is slain by an angry husband occur in renard _contrefait_ and in the _gesta romanorum_. [5] cf. the _oiseau bleu_ of mme d'aulnoy. [6] sir lambewell in bishop percy's folio ms. (ed. hales and furnivall, vol. ii., 1867), is another version of _lanval_, and differs from chestre's. for the relations between _lanval_ and the _lai de graelent_, wrongly ascribed to marie by roquefort, see w. h. schofield, "the lays of graelent and lanval, and the story of wayland," in the _publications_ of the mod. lang. assoc. of america, vol. xv. (baltimore, 1900). marie de' medici (1573-1642), queen consort and queen regent of france, daughter of francis de' medici, grand duke of tuscany, and joanna, an austrian archduchess, was born in florence on the 26th of april 1573. after joanna's death in 1578 duke francis married the notorious bianca capello, and the grand-ducal children were brought up away from their father at the pitti palace in florence, where after the death of her brother and sister and the marriage of her elder sister eleonora, duchess of mantua, a companion was chosen for marie, this being leonora dori, afterwards known as leonora galigai. she received a good education in company with her half-brother antonio. after many projects of marriage for marie had failed henry iv. of france, who was under great monetary obligations to the house of medici, offered himself as a suitor although his marriage with marguerite de valois was not yet dissolved; but the marriage was not celebrated until october 1600. her eldest son, the future louis xiii., was born at fontainebleau in september of the next year; the other children who survived were gaston duke of orleans; elizabeth queen of spain; christine duchess of savoy; and henrietta maria queen of england. during her husband's lifetime marie de' medici showed little sign of political taste or ability; but after his murder in 1610 when she became regent, she devoted herself to affairs with unfailing regularity and developed an inherited passion for power. she gave her confidence chiefly to concini, the husband of leonora galigai, who squandered the public money and secured a series of important charges with the title of marechal d'ancre. under the regent's lax and capricious rule the princes of the blood and the great nobles of the kingdom revolted; and the queen, too weak to assert her authority, consented at sainte menehould (may 15, 1614) to buy off the discontented princes. in 1616 her policy was strengthened by the accession to her councils of richelieu, who had come to the front at the meeting of the states general in 1614; but louis xiii., who was now sixteen years old, was determined to throw off the tutelage of his mother and concini. by his orders concini was murdered, leonora galigai was tried for sorcery and beheaded, richelieu was banished to his bishopric, and the queen was exiled to blois. after two years of virtual imprisonment she escaped in 1619 and became the centre of a new revolt. louis xiii. easily dispersed the rebels, but through the mediation of richelieu was reconciled with his mother, who was allowed to hold a small court at angers, and resumed her place in the royal council in 1621. but differences between her and the cardinal rapidly arose, and the queen mother intrigued to drive richelieu again from court. for a single day the _journee des dupes_, the 12th of november 1630, she seemed to have succeeded; but the triumph of richelieu was followed by her exile to compiegne, whence she escaped in 1631 to brussels. from that time till her death at cologne on the 3rd of july 1642 she intrigued in vain against the cardinal. among contemporary authorities for the history of marie de' medici, see mathieu de morgues, _deux faces de la vie et de la mort de marie de medicis_ (antwerp, 1643); j. b. matthieu, _eloge historial de marie de medicis_ (paris, 1626); florentin du ruau, _le tableau de la regence de marie de medicis_ (poitiers, 1615); f. e. mezeray, _histoire de la mere et du fils, ou de marie de medicis et de louis xiii._ (amsterdam, 1730); and a. p. lord, _the regency of marie de medicis_ (london, 1904). for the political history see the bibliographies to henry iv. and louis xiii. there are lives by thiroux d'arconville (3 vols., paris, 1774) by miss j. s. h. pardoe (london, 1852, and again 1890); and by b. zeller, _henri iv. et marie de medicis_ (paris, 1877). there is a technical discussion of the causes of her death in a. masson's _la sorcellerie et la science des poisons au xvii^e siecle_ (paris, 1904), and the minutest details of her private life are in l. batiffol's _la vie intime d'une reine de france_ (paris, 1906; eng. trans., 1908).