Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/821

Rh M O N M N 791 the province of Cordova, 32 miles to the south of the city of Cordova, on the Malaga railway, is strikingly situated on two hills which command a beautiful and extensive prospect of the surrounding country. The manufactures (princi pally weaving) are unimportant, and the trade of the place is chiefly in agricultural produce. The oil of the surround ing district is abundant and good ; and it is the peculiar flavour of the pale dry light wine of Montilla that gives its name to the sherry known as Amontillado. The popu lation in 1878 was 13,207. Montilla was the birthplace of &quot; The Great Captain,&quot; and still shows the ruins of the castle of his father, Don Pedro Fernandez de Cordova. MONTLUC, BLAISE DE LASSERAN-MASSENCOME, SEIG NEUR DE (c. 1503-1577), marshal of France, was born about 1503, at the family seat near Condom in the modern department of Gers. He was the eldest son, and his family was a good one, but it was large and poor, and, like most gentlemen of Gascony, he had to trust for endow ment to his sword. He served first as a private archer and man-at-arms in Italy, with Bayard for his captain, fought all through the wars of Francis I., and was knighted on the field of Cerisoles (1538). Having apparently enjoyed no patronage, he was by this time a man of middle age. Thenceforward, however, his merits were recognized by his appointment to various important posts. His chief feat was the famous defence of Siena (1555), which he has told so admirably. When the religious wars broke out in France, Montluc, a staunch royalist, held Guienne for the king, and exercised severe but impartial justice on Catholics and Protestants alike. He would have nothing to do with the Massacre of St Bartholomew. Henry III., however, made him marshal of France, an honour which he had earned by nearly half a century of service and by numerous wounds. He died at Estillac near Agen in 1577. Montluc s eminence above other soldiers of fortune in his day is due to his Commentaires (Bordeaux, 1592), in which he described his fifty years of service. This book, the &quot; soldier s Bible &quot; (or &quot;breviary,&quot; according to others), as Henry IV. called it, is one of the most admirable of the many admirable books of memoirs produced by the unlearned gentry of France at that time. It is said to have been dictated, which may possibly account in some degree for the singular vivacity and picturesqueness of the style. Hardly any author excels Montluc in the clearness with which he brings military operations before the reader. As with most of his con temporaries, his work is didactic in purpose, and he often pauses to draw morals for the benefit of young commanders, but never tediously. The eloquence displayed in some of the speeches is remarkable. These Commentaires are to be found conveniently in the collection of Michaud and Poujoulat, but the standard edition is that of the Societe de VHistoire de France, edited by M. de Ruble (5 vols. 1865-72). MONTLUC/ON, the industrial capital of the centre of France, sometimes called the French Manchester, is the head of an arrondissement, and the largest town (26,079 inhabitants in 1881) of the department of Allier. The upper town consists of steep, narrow, winding streets, and preserves several buildings of the 15th and 16th centuries ; the lower town, traversed by the river Cher (there converted into a canal communicating with that along the Loire), is the seat of the manufacturing industries, which embrace glass, steel, and iron works, lime-kilns, saw-mills, and a wool-spinning factory. The Commentry coal-mines are only a few miles distant. There is railway connexion with Moulins (50 miles to the east-north-east), Bourges, Limoges, and Clermont-Ferrand, and a new line is about to be opened to Tours via Chateauroux. Of the churches, Notre Dame is of the 15th century, St Pierre partly of the 12th, and St Paul modern. The town-hall, with a library, occupies the site of an old Ursuline convent, and two other convents now serve as college and hospital. Montlu9on, which existed as earl} as the 10th century, was taken by the English iu 1171 and by Philippe Auguste in 1181 ; the English were beaten under its walls in the 14th century. The castle, rebuilt by Louis II., duke of Bourbon, was taken by Henry IV. during the religious wars ; at present it is occupied as a barracks. MONTMORENCY, the name of one of the oldest and most distinguished families in France, is derived from Montmorency, now in the department of Seine-et-Oise, in the immediate neighbourhood of Enghien and St Denis, and about 9 miles to the north-north-Avest of Paris. The family, since its first appearance in history in the person of BOUCHARD or BURCHARD I., sire de Montmorency in the 10th century, has furnished six constables and twelve marshals of France, several admirals and cardinals, numerous grand officers of the crown and grand masters of various knightly orders, and was declared by Henry IV. to be, after that of the Bourbons, the first house in Europe. MATTHIEU I., sire de Montmorency, received in 1 138 the post of constable, and died in 1 1 60. His first wif e was Aline, the natural daughter of Henry I. of England ; his second, Adelaide or Alice of Savoy, widow of Louis VI. and mother of Louis VII. According to Duchesne, he shared the regency of France with Suger, during the absence of the latter king on the second crusade. MATTHIEU II. had an important share in the victory of Bouvines (1214), and was made grand constable in 1218. During the reign of Louis VIII. (1223-1226) he distinguished himself chiefly in the south of France (Niort, Ilochelle, Bordeaux). On the accession of Louis IX. he was one of the chief supports of the queen- regent Blanche of Castile, and was successful in reducing all the vassals to obedience. He died in 1 230. His younger son, Guy, in right of his mother, became head of the house of Montmorency- Laval. ANXE de Montmorency (1-493-1567), so named, it is said, after his godmother Anne of Brittany, was the first to attain the ducal title. He was born at Chantilly in 1-493, and was brought up with the dauphin, afterwards Francis I., whom he followed into Italy in 1515, distinguishing himself especially at Marignano. In 1516 he became governor of Novara ; in 1520 he was present at the Field of Cloth of Gold, and afterwards had charge of important negotiations in England. Successful in the defence of Mezieres (1521), and as commander of the Swiss troops in the Italian campaign of the same year, he was made marshal of France in 1522, accompanied Francis into Italy in 1524, and was taken prisoner at Pavia in 1525. Released soon afterwards, he was one of the negotiators of the treaty of Madrid, and in 1530 reconducted the king s sons into France. On the renewal of the war by Charles V. s invasion of France in 1536, Montmorency compelled the emperor to raise the siege of Marseilles ; he afterwards accompanied the king of France into Picardy, and on the termination of the Netherlands campaign marched to the relief of Turin. In 1538, on the ratification of the ten years truce, he was rewarded with the office of constable, but in 1541 he fell into disgrace, and did not return to public life until the accession of Henry II. in 1547. In 1548 he repressed the insurrections in the south-west, particularly at Bordeaux, with great severity, and in 1549- 1550 conducted the war in the Boulonnais, negotiating the treaty for the surrender of Boulogne on 24th March 1550. In 1551 his barony was erected into a duchy. Soon after wards his armies found employment in the north-east iu connexion with the seizure of Metz, Toul, and Verdun by the French king. His attempt to relieve St Quentin issued in his defeat and captivity (10th August 1557), and he did not regain his liberty until the peace of Cateau-Cambresis in 1559. Supplanted in the interval by the Guises, he was treated with coldness by the new king, Francis II., and compelled to give up his mastership of the royal house-