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 is well worth reading; the author made liberal use of some important unpublished documents, taken for the greater part from the archives of Simancas. He devoted some volumes to a history of Spain, which had a well-deserved success—Charles Quint, son abdication, son séjour, et sa mort au monastère de Yuste (1845); Antonio Perez et Philippe II. (1845); and Histoire de la rivalité de François I. et de Charles Quint (1875). At the same time he had been commissioned to publish the diplomatic acts relating to the War of the Spanish Succession for the Collection des documents inédits; only four volumes of these Négociations were published (1835–1842), and they do not go further than the peace of Nijmwegen; but the introduction is celebrated, and Mignet reprinted it in his Mélanges historiques.

MIGNON, ABRAHAM (1640–1697), Dutch painter, was born at Frankfort. His father, a merchant, placed him under the still-life painter Jacob Merrel, by whom he was taken to Holland about 1660. He then worked under de Heem at Utrecht, where in 1675 he married the daughter of the painter Cornelis Willaerts. Sibylle Merian (1647–1717), daughter of the engraver Matthew Merian, became his pupil and achieved distinction as a flower painter. He died at. Wetzlar. Mignon devoted himself almost exclusively to flowers, fruit, birds and other “still life,” though at times he also attempted portraiture. His flower pieces are marked by careful finish and delicate handling. His favourite scheme was to introduce red or White roses in the centre of the canvas and to set the whole group of flowers against a dark background. Nowhere can his work be seen to better advantage than at the Dresden Gallery, which contains fifteen of his paintings, twelve of which are signed. Six of his pictures are at the Louvre, four at the Hermitage, and other examples are to be found at the museums of Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Brussels, Munich, Karlsruhe, Brunswick, Cassel, Schwerin, Copenhagen and Turin.

MIGNONETTE, or (i.e. “little darling”), the name given to a popular garden flower, the Reseda odorata of botanists, a “fragrant weed,” as Cowper calls it, highly esteemed for its delicate but delicious perfume. The mignonette is generally regarded as being of annual duration, and is a plant of diffuse decumbent twiggy habit, scarcely reaching a foot in height, clothed with bluntish lanceolate entire or three-lobed leaves, and bearing longish spikes—technically racemes—of rather insignificant flowers at the ends of the numerous branches and branchlets. The plant thus naturally assumes the form of a low dense mass of soft green foliage studded over freely with the racemes of flowers, the latter unobtrusive and likely to be overlooked until their diffused fragrance compels attention. It is probably a native of North Africa and was sent to England from Paris in 1742; and ten years later it appears to have been sent from Leiden to Philip Miller at Chelsea. Though originally a slender and rather straggling plant, there are now some improved garden varieties in which the growth is more compact and vigorous, and the inflorescence bolder, though the odour is perhaps less penetrating. The small six-petalled flowers are somewhat curious in structure: the two upper petals are larger, concave, and furnished at the back with a tuft of club-shaped filaments, which gives them the appearance of being deeply incised, while the two lowest petals are much smaller and undivided; the most conspicuous part consists of the anthers, which are numerous and of a brownish red, giving the tone of colour to the inflorescence. In the varieties named Golden Queen and Golden Machet the anthers have a decided tint of orange-yellow, which imparts a brighter golden hue to the plants when in blossom. A handsome proliferous or double-flowered variety has also been obtained, which is a very useful decorative plant, though only to be propagated by cuttings; the double white flowers grow in large massive panicles (proliferous racemes), and are equally fragrant with those of the ordinary forms.

MIGNONS, LES. In a general sense the French word mignon means “favourite,” but the people of Paris used it in a special sense to designate the favourites of Henry III. of France, frivolous and fashionable young men, to whom public malignity attributed dissolute morals. According to the contemporary chronicler Pierre de l’Estoile, they made themselves “exceedingly odious, as much by their foolish and haughty demeanour, as by their effeminate and immodest dress, but above all by the immense gifts the king made to them.” The Guises appear to have stirred up the ill will of the Parisians against them. From 1576 the mignons were attacked by popular opinion, and historians accredited without proof the scandalous stories of the time. The best known of the mignons were the dukes of Toyeuse and of Epernon.

MIGNOT, CLAUDINE FRANÇOISE [commonly called ] (c. 1617–1711), French adventuress, was born near Grenoble, at Meylan. At the age of sixteen she attracted the notice of the secretary of Pierre des Portes d’Amblérieux, treasurer of the province of Dauphiny, and Amblérieux promised to promote their marriage. He married the girl himself, however, and left her his fortune. His will was disputed by his family, and Claudine went to Paris in 1653 to secure its fulfilment. She sought the protection of François de l’Hôpital, marshal of France, then a man of seventy-five. He married her within a week of their first meeting, and after seven years of marriage died leaving her part of his estate. By a third and morganatic marriage in 1672 with John Casimir, ex-king of Poland, a few weeks before his death, she received a third fortune. Immediately on her marriage with Amblérieux she had begun to educate herself, and her wealth and talents assured her a welcome in Paris. She retired in her old age to a Carmelite convent in the city, where she died on the 30th of November 1711.

MIGRATION. Under this title will be considered movements of men with intention of changing their residence or domicile. Such migration (Lat. migrare) may be either external—that is, from one country to another, including emigration from mother country to colony; or it may be internal—that is, within