Pop. (1905), 7603. It has an Evangelical church, a Roman Catholic church, a non-commissioned officers’ school and a preparatory school; and the industries comprise wool-spinning, flax-dressing, the making of lace, toys and cigars, and silver-mining.
MARIENBURG (Polish, Malborg), a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of West Prussia, 30 m. by rail to the S.E.
of Danzig in a fertile plain on the right bank of the Nogat, a
channel of the Vistula, here spanned by a handsome railway
bridge and by a bridge of boats. Pop. (1905), 13,095. Marienburg
contains large chemical wool-cleaning works and several
other factories, carries on a considerable trade in grain, wood,
linen, feathers and brushes, and is the seat of important cattle,
horse and wool markets. Its educational institutions include
a gymnasium and a Protestant normal school. In the old
market-place, many of the houses in which are built with
arcades, stands a Gothic town-hall, dating from the end of the
14th century. The town is also embellished with a fine statue
of Frederick the Great, who added this district to Prussia, and a
monument commemorating the war of 1870–71. Marienburg
is chiefly interesting from its having been for a century and a
half the residence of the grand masters of the Teutonic order.
The large castle of the order here was originally founded in 1274
as the seat of a simple commandery against the pagan Prussians,
but in 1309 the headquarters of the grand master were transferred
hither from Venice, and the “Marienburger Schloss”
soon became one of the largest and most strongly fortified
buildings in Germany. On the decline of the order in the middle
of the 15th century, the castle passed into the hands of the Poles,
by whom it was allowed to fall into neglect and decay. It came
into the possession of Prussia in 1772, and was carefully restored
at the beginning of the 19th century. This interesting and
curious building consists of three parts, the Alt- or Hochschloss,
the Mittelschloss, and the Vorburg. It is built of brick, in a
style of architecture peculiar to the Baltic provinces, and is
undoubtedly one of the most important secular buildings of the
middle ages in Germany.
Of the numerous monographs published in Germany on the castle of Marienburg, it will suffice to mention here Büsching’s Schloss der deutschen Ritter zu Marienburg (Berlin, 1828); Voigt’s Geschichte von Marienburg (Königsberg, 1824); Bergau’s Ordenshaupthaus Marienburg (Berlin, 1871); and Steinbrecht, Schloss Marienburg in Preussen (8th ed., Berlin, 1905).
MARIENWERDER, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of West Prussia, 3 m. E. of the Vistula, 23 m. S. of Marienburg by rail. Pop. (1905), 10,258. The town was founded in the year 1233 by the Teutonic order. It has a cathedral of the same century, a triple Gothic edifice, restored in 1874 and containing the tombs of several grand masters of the Teutonic order; a (Gothic) town-hall (1880); a Roman Catholic basilica (1858); a non-commissioned officers’ school; a monument of the war of 1870–71 (1897); an archaeological collection; and a seminary for female teachers. The industries include iron-foundries, saw-mills, sugar-refineries, breweries and printing-works.
MARIE THÉRÈSE (1638–1683), queen consort of France, was born on the 10th of September 1638 at the Escurial, being the
daughter of Philip IV. of Spain and Elizabeth of France. By
pretending to seek a bride for his master in Margaret of Savoy,
Mazarin had induced the king of Spain to make proposals for the
marriage of his daughter with Louis XIV., and the treaty of the
Pyrenees in 1659 stipulated for her marriage with the French
king, Marie renouncing any claim to the Spanish succession.
As the treaty, however, hinged on the payment of her dowry,
which was practically impossible for Spain, Mazarin could evade
the other terms of the contract. Marie Thérèse was married
in June 1660, when Philip IV. with his whole court accompanied
the bride to the Isle of Pheasants in the Bidassoa, where she
was met by Louis. The new queen’s amiability and her undoubted
virtues failed to secure her husband’s regard and affection.
She saw herself neglected in turn for Louise de la Vallière,
Mme. de Montespan and others; but Marie Thérèse was too
pious and too humble openly to resent the position in which she
was placed by the king’s avowed infidelities. With the growing
influence of Madame de Maintenon over his mind and affections
he bestowed more attention on his wife, which she repaid by
lavishing kindness on the mistress. She had no part in political
affairs except in 1672, when she acted as regent during Louis
XIV.’s campaign in Holland. She died on the 30th of July 1683
at Versailles, not without suspicion of foul play on the part of
her doctors. Of her six children only one survived her, the
dauphin Louis, who died in 1711.
See the funeral oration of Bossuet (Paris, 1684), E. Ducéré, Le Mariage de Louis XIV. d’après les contemporains et des documents inédits (Bayonne, 1905); Dr Cabanès, Les Morts mystérieuses de l’histoire (1900), and the literature dealing with her rivals Louise de la Vallière, Madame de Montespan and Madame de Maintenon.
MARIETTA, a city and the county-seat of Cobb county, Georgia, U.S.A., in the N.W. of the state, about 17 m. N.W. of Atlanta. Pop. (1890), 3384; (1900), 4446, of whom 1928 were negroes; (1910), 5949. The city is served by the Louisville & Nashville, the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis, and the Western & Atlantic railways, and is connected with Atlanta by an electric line. Marietta is situated about 1118 ft. above the sea, has a good climate, and is both a summer and a winter resort. The principal industries are the manufacture of chairs and paper, and the preparation of marble for the markets; there are also locomotive works, planing mills, a canning factory, a knitting mill, &c. At Marietta there is a national cemetery, in which more than 10,000 Federal soldiers are buried, and at Kenesaw Mountain (1809 ft.), about 212 m. west of the city, one of the fiercest battles of the Civil War was fought. After the Confederate retreat from Dalton in May 1864, General William T. Sherman, the Federal commander, made Marietta his next intermediate point in his Atlanta campaign, and the Confederate commander, General Joseph E. Johnston, established a line of defence west of the town. After several preliminary engagements Sherman on the 26th and 27th of June made repeated unsuccessful attempts to drive the Confederates from their defences at Kenesaw Mountain; he then resorted to a flanking movement which forced the Confederate general to retire (July 2) toward Atlanta. Marietta was settled about 1840, and was chartered as a city in 1852.
MARIETTA, a city and the county-seat of Washington county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the Ohio River, at the mouth of the Muskingum, about 115 m. S.E. of Columbus. Pop. (1890), 8273; (1900), 13,348, including 679 foreign-born and 361 negroes; (1910), 12,923. It is served by the Pennsylvania (Marietta Division), the Baltimore & Ohio (Marietta & Parkersburg, Marietta & Zanesville, and Ohio River divisions) and the Marietta, Columbus & Cleveland railways, and by steamboat lines to several river ports; a bridge across the Ohio connects it with Williamstown, West Virginia. The city is in a hilly country of much natural beauty, and is of considerable historic interest. On the banks of the Muskingum is a public park, facing which stood the oldest church in the state; this was burned in 1905, but was subsequently rebuilt in the old style. Near by are some 18th century buildings, some interesting earthworks of the “mound-builders,” and a cemetery in which are buried many soldiers who fought in the War of Independence. Marietta is the seat of Marietta College, dating from 1830, which in 1908 had more than 500 students. It possesses a library of 60,000 volumes, including some rare collections, especially the Stimson collection of books bearing on the history of the North-West Territory. Petroleum, coal, and iron-ore abound in the neighbouring region, and the city has a considerable trade in these and in its manufactures of chairs, leather, flour, carriages, wagons, boats, boilers, bricks and glass. In 1905 the factory products were valued at $2,599,287.
Marietta, named in honour of Marie Antoinette, is the oldest settlement in the state and in the North-west Territory. It was founded in 1788 by a company of Revolutionary officers from New England under the leadership of General Rufus Putnam, and in the same year the North-West Territory was formally organized here. The pseudo-classicism of the period of Marietta’s foundation is indicated by the names—Capitolium for one of
