MARCHE, a former province of central France, was bounded on the N. by Berri, on the N. E. by Bourbonnais, on the E. by Auvergne, on the S. by Limousin, and on the W. by Angoumois aud Poitou, embracing the greater part of the modern department of Creuse, a considerable portion of Haute-Vienne, and fragments of Charente and Indre. It derived its name from the circumstance of its being the “mark” or boundary between Poitou and Berri; it is sometimes referred to as Marche Limousine. It is first mentioned in history as a separate fief about the middle of the 10th century, when the countship of Marche was committed by Duke William III. of Aquitania to Boso I., count of Limoges and Charroux.

MARCHENA, a town of Spain, in the province of Seville, lies in a sandy valley, not far from the Corbones, a tributary of the Guadalquivir, about 30 miles eastsouth-east from Seville. It is a station on the line by which Seville and Utrera are connected with Osuna and the Cordova-Malaga line. Formerly it was surrounded wdth walls and towers, of which some traces still remain. Among the principal buildings is the palace of the dukes of Arcos (descendants of Ponce de Leon), within the enclosure of which is an ancient Moorish building, now the church of Santa Maria de la Mota, with a tower of considerable architectural merit. The ancient parish church of San Juan, rebuilt in 1490, has five naves. At the eastern end of the town is a sulphur spring which is a place of considerable resort for the cure of cutaneous diseases. The manufactures of the place are unimportant; there is some trade in the wheat, barley, olives, oil, and wine produced in the neighbourhood. The population in 1877 was 13,768. Marchena (the Castra Gemina of Pliny?) was taken from the Moors by St Ferdinand in 1240, and was presented to Ponce de Leon by Ferdinand IV. in 1309.