Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/677

Rh M A X M A X 645 allegory setting forth adventures in connexion with his marriage with Mary of Burgundy. At Wels, in Upper Austria, on the 12th of January 1519, he died. See Eliipfel, Kaiser Maximilian I., 1864. MAXIMILIAN II. (1527-1576), holy Roman emperor, son and successor of Ferdinand I., was born at Vienna on the 1st of August 1527. He was of a mild and tolerant disposition, and in youth received a favourable impression of Protestantism from his tutor, Wolfgang Severus, an impression which was not effaced by a residence of three years at the Spanish court. In 1562 he became king of Bohemia and king of the Romans, in 1563 king of Hungary, and in 1564 emperor. At the time of his accession to the imperial throne Hungary was at war with Turkey. The sultan Soliman II. was conciliated by the cession of all the territories he had conquered in Hungary, and by the promise of a yearly tribute of 300,000 florins. Soon afterwards Soliman renewed the war on behalf of the prince of Transylvania; but after his death in 1566 his successor, Selim, concluded with Maximilian an armistice of eight years. Maximilian s brothers, Ferdinand and Charles, fought incessantly against Protestantism in their respective lands ; but it was tolerated by Maximilian in Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary. His authority, however, was greatly limited by the influence of the Jesuits. He died on the 12th of October 1576. Of his eight children (six sons and two daughters) two Rudolph II. and Matthias became emperors. See Koch, Quclkn zur Geschichtc dcs Kaisers Maximilian II., 18f&amp;gt;7-61; and Wertheimer, Zur Geschichtc dcs Tilrkcnkriegs Maxi milians II., 1875. . MAXIMILIAN (1832-1867), archduke of Austria (Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph) and emperor of Mexico, was the second son of the archduke Francis Charles, and was born in Vienna on July 6, 1832. He was trained for the navy, and ultimately attained a high command in that branch of his country s service. In February 1857 he was appointed governor of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, and in the same year he married the Princess Charlotte, daughter of Leopold I., king of the Belgians. On the outbreak of the war of 1859, he retired into private life, chiefly at Trieste, until 1863, when at the instance of Napoleon III. he accepted the crown which had been offered to him by the notables of Mexico. He landed at Vera Cruz on May 28, 1864, but from the commencement of his reign found himself involved in difficulties of the most serious kind, which in 1866 made apparent to almost every one outside of Mexico the necessity for his abdicating. This, however, he declined to do. With drawing, in February 1867, to Queretaro, he there sustained a siege for several weeks, but on May 15 resolved to attempt an escape through the enemy s lines. He was, however, arrested before he could carry out this resolution, and, after trial by court martial, was condemned to death. The sentence was carried out on June 19, 1867. His remains were conveyed to Vienna, where they were buried in the imperial vault early in the following year. See MEXICO. Maximilian s papers were published in 1867 in seven volumes, under the title Aiis mcinem Leben, Reise- skizzen, Aphorismen, &.c. MAX1MINUS, CAIUS JULIUS VERUS, Roman emperor from 235 to 238, was of barbarian parentage, his father being a Goth and his mother an Alan, and was born in a village on the confines of Thrace, where his immense stature and enormous feats of strength first drew the attention of the emperor Septimius Severus. From being a shepherd he became a soldier, and under Caracalla rose to the rank of centurion. He carefully absented himself from court during the reign of Elagabalus, but rose to tho first military command under his successor Alexander Severus. On March 19, 235, the troops saluted him emperor, and shortly afterwards Alexander was put to death. The three years of his reign, which were spent whollyln the camp, were marked by great cruelty and oppression ; the widespread discontent thus produced culminated in a revolt in Africa and the assumption of the purple by GORDIANUS (q.v.). Maximin, who was in Pannonia at the time, marched against Rome, and passing over the Julian Alps descended on Aquileia ; while detained before that city he and his son were murdered in their tent by a body of prcetorians. Their heads were cut off and despatched to Rome, where they were burnt on the Campus Martius by the exultant crowd (May 238). MAXIMINUS, GALERIUS VALERIUS, Roman emperor from 308 to 314, was originally an Illyrian shepherd, and bore the name of Daza. His mother was a sister of him who afterwards became the emperor Galerius. He rose to high distinction after he had joined the army, and in 305 he was raised by his uncle to the rank of Caesar, with the honorary appellation of Jovius, Syria and Egypt being the government assigned to him. In 308, after the elevation of Licinius, he insisted on receiving the title of Augustus ; on the death of Galerius in 311 he succaeded to the supreme commaijd of the provinces of Asia, and, when Licinius and Constantine began to make common causa with one another, Maximin entered into a secret alliance with Maxentius. He came to an open rupture with Licinius in 313, sustained a crushing defeat in the neighbourhood of Heraclea on April 30th, and, having fled with extraordinary celerity first to Nicomedia and after wards to Tarsus, perished at the latter city in August following. His death was variously ascribed &quot; to despair, to poison, and to the Divine justice.&quot; Maximin, in every respect a worthless character, has a bad eminence in the annals of the Christian church as having renewed persecu tion after the publication of the toleration edict of Galerius. MAXIMUS, the name of four Roman emperors. In chronological order the first was M. Clodius Pupienus Maximus, who was associated with Balbinus in the imperial dignity by the senate for a short time in 238, before and after the death of the hated Maximin. The second was Magnus Clemens Maximus, a native of Spain, who shared the imperial dignity with Valentinian and Theodosius from 383 to 388. He had accompanied Theodosius on several expeditions, and from 368 held high military rank in Britain. The disaffection of the Roman troops towards the emperor Gratian found expres sion in 383 in the proclamation of Maximus as emperor, whether with or without his complicity in the act is uncertain. Voluntarily or under compulsion Maximus forthwith attacked Gratian in Gaul, and drove him from Paris to Lyons, where the fugitive was murdered. Circum stances made it difficult for Theodosius at the time to avenge the death of his colleague by war, and an agree ment was therefore come to by which Maximus was recog nized as Augustus and sole emperor in Gaul, Spain, and Britain, while Valentinian was to remain unmolested in Italy and Illyricum, Theodosius retaining his sovereignty in the East. A prosperous reign of four years having tempted Maximus, in 387, to pass the Alps, Valentinian was speedily put to flight, while the invader established himself in Milan, and for the time became master of Italy. Theodosius now took vigorous measures : advancing a powerful army by land, he utterly defeated the western, troops at Siscia (Sciszek) in Pannonia, and, passing the Julian Alps with great rapidity, came upon Maximus, who had fled to Aquileia, seized him, and caused him to be beheaded (August 388). The third, Maximus Tyrannus, was made emperor in Spain by the Roman general Gerontius,