Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/229

MAURETANIA. 201 MAUKICE. Mauru^ii, a general designation for the numer- ous trilies it contained. At the time of its great- est expansion it included the present Morocco and more than two-tliirds of Algeria, extending from the Atlantic to the Ampsaga River (Wady-el- Kebir). Among the kings of Mauretania were Bocchus I., the father-in-law of Jugurlha, Boc- chus II.. who espoused the cause of Ciesar against the Pompeians, and Juha, the son of the Ponipeian partisan Juba I. of Xumidia. Under the Emperor Claudius it was made a Roman prov- ince and divided into Mauretania C'jesarensis and Mauretania Tingitana, separated by the Mulucha (Muluya) River. The country was noted for its extraordinary fertility, and its upland plains, stretching from the Atlas Mountains to the sea, supplied Italy with grain. From the hands of the Romans it passed in succession to the Vandals, the Byzantines, and the Arabs. See Bahbaby .States. MAURICE, ma'ris, Flavus Tiberius Mau- BICIIS (c.53!I-Ij02) . Byzantine Emperor from 582 to 602. He was descended from an ancient Roman family. During the reigns of Justin II. and Tiberius II., Maurice was in the mili- tary service, and in 578 was appointed by the latter Emperor to the command of the army sent against the Persians. In 582 he obtained the rare honor of a triumph at Constantinople, became son-in-law of Tiberius, and in August of the same year succeeded him on the throne. Immediately after his accession, the Persians invaded the Byzantine territories; a fierce con- test of nine years' duration ensued, which, chiefly owing to the internal convulsions that distracted Persia, resulted in favor of the Byzantines. The King of Persia. Kliosru II., driven from his throne, fled to the Byzantines, an army was im- mediately assembled, and in 591 Khosru was re- stored to his throne, giving up to JIaurice the fortresses of Daras, ilartyropolis, and Persar- menia. In 500 the Avars demanded ransom money for 12,000 soldiers whom they held as pris- oners. The Emperor refused to ransom them, and they were consequently put to death. This ex- cited a deep resentment in the army, and in G02, when the Emperor ordered his troops to take up their winter quarters on the north side of the Danube, they broke out Into open revolt, proclaimed Phocas Emperor, and marched upon Constantinople. ilaurice with all his family and many of his friends was put to death on November 27, 002. Consult: Gibbon, Decline and Fall. ch. xlv., ed. by Bury (London. 1890-1900) ; Bury, LnUr Roman Empire (London, 1889). MAURICE, Prince of Orange and Count of Nassau, commonlv stvled Maurice of Nassau (1507-1625). Stiidthdlder of the Netherlands, and one of the most distinguished generals of his age. He was the son of William the Silent, founder of the Dutch Republic, and was born at Dillenburg. in Nassau, in 1507. After the assas- sination of his father in 1584. the provinces of Holland and Zealand, and later Utrecht, elected him their Stadthnlder. A great portion of the Netherlands was ^till in the hands of the Span- iards; and though during the first part of his ad- ministration he was unsuccessful, later Maurice rapidly wrested cities and fortresses from the enemy. In 1591 Zutphen, Deventer, Nimeguen, and other places fell into the hands of the Dutch ; in 1593 Gertruydenberg, and in 1594 the Province of Groningen. In 1597, with the help of some English auxiliaries, Maurice defeated the Span- iards at Turnhout in Brabant, and in 1000 won a splendid victory at Nieuwport. In 1(>04, how- ever, Ostend, after a siege of three years, sur- rendered to the Spaniards. Finally in 1009 Spain agreed to a truce of twelve years, which meant the practical achievement of their inde- pendence by the Dutch. In 1021 the struggle was renewed. Maurice from political motives was the bitter enemy of Barneveldt (q.v.), whose death he caused. MAURICE, Duke and Elector of Saxony ( 1521-53 ) . He was the eldest son of Duke Henry the Pious of the Albertine line. He was born at Freiburg, March 21, 1521, married in 1541 Agnes, daughter of the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, and later in the same year succeeded his father in the Duchy of Saxony. He was early involved in dis- putes with his cousin, the Elector John Frederick of the Ernestine line. Though a Protestant, he did not join the Sclimalkaldic League, and was finally won over by the Emperor Charles V., who, pre- paring to crush German Protestantism by force of arms, promised him (June 19, 154G) the pos- sessions of the Ernestine line and the electoral dignity as soon as John Frederick, who was one of the leaders of the League, should be dispossessed. He invaded electoral Sa.xony, but Avas driven from it and from his own domains and only saved by the timely assistance of the Emperor and the Duke of Alva, who at the battle of Miililberg (1547) annihilated the army of the Schmalkaldie League and took John Frederick prisoner. Maurice now became ruler of the whole of Saxony, with the electoral dignity. The imprisonment of Philip of Hesse, whom MauriCQ had prevailed upon to submit to the Em- peror, was the first cause of estrangement between Charles and Maurice. The attempts of the Em- peror to increase his own preponderance, and. so to say, the influence of Spain in Germany, supplied another; a further source of trouble was the re- fusal of the Emperor to hand over to ^laurice the episcopal territories of ^Magdeburg and Halber- stadt, the prospect of whose possession had been held out to him ; in addition Maurice was alarmed for the safety of Protestantism. Although the new Elector zealously supported the Augsburg Interim of 1548, he gradually came to see that his close alliance with the Emperor was alien- ating from him the affections of his Protes- tant subjects. He accordingly abandoned the cause' of the Emperor with as little scruple as he had formerly sacrificed the interests of his relatives and co-religionists, and arranged an alliance against Charles V., comprising a num- ber of German princes and Henry II. of France, to whom the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Ver^ dun were promised as a reward for his assist- ance. In March, 1552, Maurice suddenly ap- peared with an army in South Germany and compelled the Emperor, who was then at Inns bruck. to take refuge in flight, leaving to his brother Ferdinand the conduct of negotiations. Finally, at a convocation of the electors and princes of the Empire at Passau, the terms of a treaty of peace were arranged, in which it was agreed that the Lutheran States should be free to maintain their mode of worship. In the sununer of 1553 Maurice took the field against Albert, Margrave of Brandenburg-Culmbach, who had re- fused to accede to the terms of the Treaty of Pas-