asted seven years, and was
concluded by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748; this peace, however,
was soon broken, and Maria, backed by France and counselled by Kaunitz,
renewed hostilities in the hope of compelling Frederick to restore what
he had taken; all in vain, for the end of this war, known as the Seven
Years' War, was to leave Frederick still in possession of the territory
which he had sliced from her empire as in the former; in the interim of
these wars Maria devoted her attention to the welfare of her subjects,
who were conspicuously loyal to her, and before the end of her reign she
saw what she had lost made up to her in a measure by the partition of
Poland, in which she took part (1717-1780).

MARIAMNE, the wife of Herod the Great, whom he put to death on
suspicion of her unfaithfulness.

MARIANA, JUAN, Spanish historian and political philosopher, born at
Talavera; joined the Jesuits in 1554, and taught in their colleges in
Rome, Sicily, and Paris; returning to Toledo he gave himself to
literature; his "History of Spain" appeared in 1592 and 1605, theological
writings incurred persecution, and his greatest work, "De Rege et Regis
Institutione," in which he defended the right of the people to cast out a
tyrant, was condemned by the general of his order (1536-1624).

MARIE ANTOINETTE, queen of France, fourth daughter of Maria Theresa;
was married in 1770 to the dauphin of France, who in 1774 succeeded to
the throne as Louis XVI.; was a beautiful woman, but indiscreet in her
behaviour; had made herself unpopular and impotent for good when the
Revolution broke out; when matters became serious the queenliness of her
nature revealed itself, but it was in haughty defiance of the
million-headed monster that was bellowing at her feet; the heroism she
showed at this crisis the general mass of the people could not
appreciate, though it won the homage of such men as Mirabeau and Barnave;
all she wanted was a wise adviser, for she had courage to follow any
course which she could be persuaded to see was right; in Mirabeau she had
one who could have guided her, but by his death in 1791 she was left to
herself, and the course she took was fatal to all the interests she had
at heart; fatality followed fatality: first she saw her husband hurried
off to the guillotine, and then she followed herself; hers, if any, was
the most tragic of fates, and any one who has read that heart-moving
apostrophe to her by Carlyle on