Bruce’s claims by addressing him as king of Scotland. In the spring of 1326 he was again in France, when he concluded an offensive and defensive alliance between France and Scotland. The death of Bruce in 1329 made Moray regent of Scotland and guardian of the young king David II. in accordance with enactments made by the Scottish parliaments of 1315 and 1318. He died at Musselburgh on the 20th of July 1332, while preparing to resist an invasion by the English barons. Allegations of poisoning are made both by Barbour and Wyntoun, but without substantial grounds.
Moray married Isabel, daughter of Sir John Stewart of Bonkyll. His son Thomas, the 2nd earl, was killed at the battle of Dupplin in 1332; his second son John, the 3rd earl, was killed at Neville’s Cross in 1346. The earldom then became extinct and the estates passed to their sister Agnes (c. 1312–1369), countess of Dunbar and March, known as “Black Agnes,” and celebrated for her gallant defence of Dunbar Castle in 1337 and 1338. (See March, Earls of.)
MORBHANJ, or Mayurbhanj, a native state of India, in the Orissa division of Bengal. Area 4243 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 610,383, showing an increase of 14·7% in the preceding decade; revenue, £64,000. It contains a large proportion of mountain and forest, where wild elephants are numerous, and also some of the richest iron ores in India. The capital is Baripada (pop. 5613), which is connected by a narrow-gauge line with the Bengal-Nagpur railway.
MORBIHAN, a department of western France on the Atlantic seaboard, formed of part of Lower Brittany, and bounded S.E. by the department of Loire-Inférieure, E. by that of Ille-et-Vilaine, N. by Côtes-du-Nord, and W. by Finistère. Area, 2738 sq. m. Pop. (1906), 573,152. From the Montagnes Noires on the northern frontier the western portion of Morbihan slopes southward towards the Atlantic, being watered by the Ellé, the Blavet with its affluent the Scorff, and the Auray; the eastern portion, on the other hand, dips towards the south-east in the direction of the course of the Oust and its feeders, which fall into the Vilaine. Though the Montagnes Noires contain the highest point (974 ft.) in the department, the most striking orographic feature of Morbihan is the dreary, treeless, streamless tract of moorland and marsh known as the Landes of Lanvaux, which extends (W.N.W. to E.S.E.) with a width of from 1 to 3 miles for a distance of 31 miles between the valley of the Claie and that of the Arz (affluents of the Oust). A striking contrast to this district is afforded by the various inlets of the sea, whose shores are clothed with vegetation of exceptional richness, large fig-trees, rose-laurels, and aloes growing as if in Algeria. The coast-line is exceedingly irregular: the mouth of the Vilaine, the peninsular of Ruis, the great gulf of Morbihan (Inner Sea), from which the department takes its name, and the mouth of the Auray, the long Quiberon peninsula attached to the mainland by the narrow isthmus of Fort Penthièvre, the deep-branching estuary of Etel, the mouths of the Blavet and the Scorff uniting to form the port of Lorient, and, finally, on the borders of Finistére the mouth of the Laita, follow each other in rapid succession. Off the coast lie the islands of Groix, Belle-Île (q.v.), Houat and Hoedik. Vessels drawing 13 ft. can ascend the Vilaine as far as Redon; the Blavet is canalized throughout its course through the department; and the Oust, as part of the canal from Nantes to Brest, forms a great waterway by Redon, Josselin, Rohan and Pontivy. The climate of Morbihan is characterized by great moisture and mildness. Unproductive heath occupies more than a quarter of the department, about a third of which is arable land. Rye, buckwheat and wheat, potatoes and mangels are the chief crops; hemp and flax are also grown. Horned cattle are the chief livestock and beekeeping is extensively practised. The sea-ware gathered along the coast helps greatly to improve the soil of the region bordering thereon. Outside of Lorient (q.v.), a centre for naval construction, there is little industrial activity in Morbihan. The catching and curing of sardines and the breeding of oysters (Auray, St Armel, &c.) form the business of many of the inhabitants of the coast, who also fish for anchovies, lobsters, &c., for tinning. The forges of Hennebont are of some importance for the production of sheet-tin.
The department is served by the Orleans railway. It is divided into four arrondissements—Vannes, Lorient, Ploermel and Pontivy—with 37 cantons and 256 communes. The capital Vannes is the seat of a bishopric of the province of Rennes. The department belongs to the region of the XIth army corps and to the académie (educational division) of Rennes, where also is its court of appeal. The principal places are Vannes, Lorient, Ploermel, Pontivy, Auray, Hennebont, Carnac and Locmariaquer, the last two famous for the megalithic monuments in their vicinity. Other places of interest are Erdeven and Plouharnel, also well known for their megalithic remains; Elven, with two towers of the 15th century, remains of an old stronghold; Josselin which has the fine château of the Rohan family and a church containing the tomb (15th century) of Olivier de Clisson and his wife; Guern with a chapel of the 15th and 16th centuries and le Faouët with a chapel of the 15th century; Quiberon, which is associated with the disaster of the French émigrés in 1795; Sarzeau, near which is the fortress of Sucinio (13th and 15th centuries); Ste Barbe with a chapel, dating from about the end of the 15th century, finely situated, overlooking the Ellé; St Gildas-de-Ruis, with a ruined Romanesque church and other remains of a Benedictine abbey of which Abelard was for a time abbot. The principal pardons (religious festivals) of the department are those of Ste Anne-d’Auray and St Nicolas-des-Eaux.
MORCAR, EARL (fl. 1066), son of Earl Ælfgar, brother of Edwin, earl of the Mercians. They assisted the Northumbrians to expel Tostig, of the house of Godwin, in 1065 and Morcar was chosen earl by the rebels. Harold, Tostig’s brother, consented to this extension of the power of the Mercian house. In spite of this concession, and the help which he gave them against Tostig and Harold Hardrada, the two brothers left him to fight alone at Hastings. After trying to secure the crown for their own house, they submitted to William, but lost their earldoms. They attempted to raise the North in 1068, and failed ignominiously. They were pardoned, but Morcar afterwards joined Hereward in the Isle of Ely (1071), while Edwin perished in attempting to raise a Welsh rebellion. Morcar died in prison; at what date is unknown.
See E. A. Freeman, Norman Conquest and William Rufus, vol i.
MORDECAI BEN HILLEL, a German rabbi, who died as a martyr at Nuremberg in 1298. His great legal (Halachic) work is usually cited as “the Mordecai,” and its value consists in its thorough use of the medieval authorities. It acquired wide authority, and was one of the sources of the Code of Joseph Caro. Mordecai was also the author of Responsa.
See L. Ginzberg in Jew. Ency. ix. 10–13.
MORDVINIANS, otherwise called Mordva, Mordvs, or Mordvins, a people numbering about one million, belonging to the Ural-Altaic family, who inhabit the middle Volga provinces of Russia and spread in small detached communities to the south and east of these. Their settlement in the basin of the Volga is of high antiquity. One of the two great branches into which they are divided, the Erzya, is perhaps the same as the Aorses mentioned by Ptolemy as dwelling between the Baltic Sea and the Ural Mountains. Strabo mentions also the Aorses as inhabitants of the country between the Don, the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus. The Russians made raids on the Mordvins in the 12th century, and after the fall of Kazan rapidly invaded and colonized their country.
The Mordvins are now found in the governments of Simbirsk, Penza, Samara and Nizhniy-Novgorod, as well as Saratov and Tambov. But their villages are dispersed among those of the Russians, and they constitute only 10 to 12% of the population in the four first-named governments, and from 5 to 6% in the last two. They are unequally distributed over this area in ethnographical islands, and constitute as much as 23 to 44% of the population of several districts of the governments of Tambov, Simbirsk, Samara and Saratov, and only 2 or 3% in other districts of the same provinces. They are divided into two great
