Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 http://archive.org/details/historyofgreecefOOfinl MEDIEVAL GREECE AND TREBIZ OND PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH THE HISTORY OF GREECE FROM ITS CONQUEST BY THE CRUSADERS TO ITS CONQUEST BY THE TURKS AND OF THE EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND 1204-1461 BY GEORGE FINLAY HONORARY MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE 'OX£W oans rrjs iaToplas Eo^e iia%r)(Tiv. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCLI TO WILLIAM MAETIN LEAKE, F.E.S. LATE LIEUTENANT-COLONEL OF THE ROYAL ARTILLERY, HON. D. C. L. IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, ONE OF THE VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE, MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AT BERLIN, CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE AT PARIS, ETC. ETC. ETC. WHOSE LONG AND LABORIOUS EXERTIONS IN CLEARING THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF GREECE FROM OBSCURITY, AND THE MODERN FROM MISREPRESENTATION, HAVE MERITED THE APPLAUSE OF BRITAIN AND THE GRATITUDE OF GREECE, THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE INSCRIBED AS A TESTIMONIAL OF PERSONAL RESPECT AND LITERARY HOMAGE, BY THE AUTHOR ADVERTISEMENT This work is au attempt to fill up a vacancy in English literature. It may, perhaps, form a useful supplementary volume to the work of Gibbon, until something more worthy to be placed beside the writings of the great historian shall replace it. The author has found it impossible to follow rigidly any fixed system in the orthography of Greek names. Our best authorities do not agree in their mode of writing them. Had a fixed rule been generally adopted, it would have been conformed to in this work. The names of the emperors of Trebizoncl are always written in their Greek form, as a convenient mode of distinguishing them from the Byzantine sovereigns. Other names are given in their English, Latin, or semi-Greek form, as accident may appear to render most suitable. A desire to avoid both confusion and singularity, has made etymology yield to sound in one case, and given sound a preference over etymology in another. Athens, June 1851. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. CHANGES OF THE POPULATION IN GREECE AFTER THE DECLINE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. A. D. 540-1460. Page § 1. Observations on the early population, . . . . • 1 2. Depopulation under the Roman government. Causes of the introduction of Sclavonian settlers, ...... 7 3. Sclavonians in the Peloponnesus, . . . • .14 4. Sclavonian names in the geographical nomenclature of Greece, . 27 5. Colonies of Asiatic race settled by the Byzantine emperors in Thrace and Macedonia, . . . . . . .31 6. Bulgarians and Vallachians in Greece, ..... 33 7. Albanians, ........ 36 8. Tzacones or Lacones, ....... 39 9. Summary, . . . . . . . .41 CHAPTER II. CAUSES OF HOSTILE FEELINGS BETWEEN THE BYZANTINE GREEKS AND THE WESTERN EUROPEANS. A. D. 867-1204. § 1. Political condition of the Byzantine empire, . . . .45 2. Social condition of the Greeks in the twelfth century, . . 52 3. Stationary condition of the agricultural population throughout Europe during the middle ages, . . . . . .58 4. Condition of the Normans when they conquered the Byzantine possessions in Italy, ........ 60 5. Normans invade the Byzantine empire. Their ravages in Greece, . 64 6. Separation of the Greek and Latin churches, .... 72 X CONTENTS. Page § 7. Great increase of the papal power during the eleventh and twelfth cen- turies, . . . . ... 75 8. Predominant position of the races speaking the French language in the west of Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, . 77 CHAPTER III. OVERTHROW OF THE BYZANTINE EMFIRE BY THE CRUSADERS. A.D. 1096-1204. § 1. The Crusades, ........ 79 2. Quarrels with the Byzantine emperors during the first and second Cru- sades. Conquest of Cyprus by Richard I. of England during the third Crusade, ....... 85 3. Fourth Crusade. Conquest of the Byzantine empire, ... 94 CHAPTER IV. EMPIRE OF ROMANIA. A. D. 1204-1261. § 1. Election of the first Latin emperor of Constantinople by the Crusaders and Venetians, . . . . . . .101 2. Establishment of the feudal system in Greece, .... 108 S. Baldwin L, . . . . . . . .113 4. Henry of Flanders. Ecclesiastical arrangements. Parliament of Ravenika, 115 5. Peter of Courtenay. Robert. John de Brienne. Baldwin II. Extinction of the empire of Romania, . . . . . .129 CHAPTER V. KINGDOM OF SALONICA. 1204-1222. 135 CHAPTER VI. DESPOTAT OF EPIRUS. EMPIRE OF THESSALON1CA. A.D. 1204-1469. § 1. Establishment of an independent Greek principality in Epirus, . 141 2. Empire of Thessalonica, ...... 144 3. Despotat of Epirus. Principality of Vallachian Thessaly. Family of Tocco, . . . . . . . .147 CHAPTER VII. DUKES OF ATHENS. — 1205-1456. § 1 . Athens becomes a fief of the empire of Romania, . . .153 2. State of Athens under the house of de la Roche, . . . 166 CONTENTS. xi Page § 3. Walter of Brienne. Catalan Grand Company, . . .169 4. Dukes of Athens and Neopatras of the Sicilian branch of the house of Aragon, . . . • • • • .177 5. Dukes of the family of Acciaiuoli of Florence. Termination of the Frank domination at Athens, . . . . . .182 6. Condition of the Greek population under the Dukes of Athens, . 193 CHAPTER VIII. PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA OR THE MOREA. 1205-1387. § 1. Conquest of Achaia, by William de Champlitte. Feudal organisation of the principality, . . . • • • .202 2. Acquisition of the principality by Geffrey de Villehardoin. Geffrey I. Geffrey II., 217 3. William Villehardoin completes the conquest of the Morea. Cedes Monemvasia, Misithra, and Maina, to the Emperor Michael VIII., 226 4. Alliance and feudal connection of Achaia with the kingdom of Naples, 239 5. Isabella de Villehardoin. Florenz of Hainault. Philip of Savoy, . 244 6. Maud of Hainault and Louis of Burgundy, .... 254 7. Achaia under the Neapolitan princes. Ruin of the principality, . 258 CHAPTER IX. BYZANTINE PROVINCE IN THE PELOPONNESUS. — A.D. 1262-1460. § 1 . Early state of the Byzantine province. Government of the despot Theo- dore L, ........ 268 2. The emperor Manuel II. attempts to ameliorate the Byzantine administra- tion in the Peloponnesus, ...... 277 3. Division of the Morea among the brothers of the emperor John VI., viz., Theodore II., Constantine, and Thomas. War of Constantine and Thomas with the Othoman Turks in 1446, . . . 284 4. Disorders in the Morea. Albanian revolution, . . . 297 5. First expedition of sultan Mohammed II. into the Morea, . . 304 6. Final conquest of the Morea by the Turks, . . . . 310 CHAPTER X. DUKES OF THE ARCHIPELAGO OR OF NAXOS. A.D. 1207-1 566. § 1. Observations on the Venetian establishments in the empire of Romania, 320 2. Dukes of the Archipelago of the families of Sanudo and Dalle Carceri, 324 3. Dukes of Naxos of the family of Crispo, . . . .339 4. Causes of the prolonged existence of the Frank power in the Archi- pelago, ........ 345 xii CONTENTS. EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND 1204-1461. CHAPTER I. FOUNDATION OF THE EMPIRE. — A.D. 1204-1222. Page § 1. Early history of Trebizond, ...... 353 2. Origin of the family of Grand-Komnenos, .... 364 3. Reign of Alexios I., ....... 370 CHAPTER II. TREBIZOND TRIBUTARY TO THE SELJOUK SULTANS AND THE MONGOLS. 1222-1280. § 1 . Reigns of Andronikos I. and Joannes I., .... 384 2. Reigns of Manuel I., Andronikos II., Georgios, . . . 392 CHAPTER III. TREBIZOND INDEPENDENT. INTERNAL FACTIONS. — 1280-1349. § 1. Reign of Joannes II. Alliance with the empire of Constantinople, . 396 2. Reign of Alexios II. Commercial importance of Trebizond. Trade of Genoa, ........ 405 3. Anarchy and civil wars. Reigns of Andronikos III., Manuel II., Basilios, Irene, Anna, Joannes III., Michael, . . . .416 CHAPTER IV. RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPEROIt's SUPREMACY. 1349-1446. § 1. Reign of Alexios III. Progress of the Turkomans. Revenge of Lercari. Magnificent ecclesiastical endowments, . . . .431 2. Reign of Manuel III. Relations with the empire of Timor, . . 447 3. Reign of Alexios IV. Kara Yousouf, chief of the horde of the Black Turkomans. Family crimes in the house of Grand-Komnenos, . 456 CONTENTS. xiii CHAPTER V. FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 1446-1461. Page § 1. Causes of the rapid rise and vital energy of the Othoman empire, . 464 2. Reign of Joannes IV. called Kalojoannes, .... 471 3. Reign of David. Conquest of Trebizond by Mohammed II., . . 481 APPENDIX. CHrvX)NOLOGICAL LISTS. I. Emperors of Romania, . . . . . .499 II. Kings of Saloniki, ....... 500 III. Despots of Epirus. Emperors of Thessaloirica. Princes of Vallachian Thessaly, ........ ib. IV. Dukes of Athens, . . . . . . .501 V. Princes of Achaia, . . . . . . .502 VI. Byzantine despots in the Morea, ..... 503 VII. Dukes of the Archipelago and Naxos, ..... 504 VIII. Emperors of Trebizond, ... . ib. IX. Genealogical list of the family of Grand-Komnenos, . . . 506 X. List of chiefs of the Turkoman horde of the White Sheep, . . 509 INDEX, ......... 510 MEDIEVAL GREECE CHAPTER I. CHANGES OF THE POPULATION AFTER THE DECLINE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. A. D. 540-1460 SECT. I. — OBSERVATIONS ON THE EARLY POPULATION OF GREECE The fate of the Greeks, after the loss of their liberty, continues to supply us with lessons of political experience that are to be found in no other portion of the annals of the human race. The Roman conquest first compressed the Hellenic race into a distinct nation. That union was effected by the destruction of the local patriotism that gives its greatest charm to ancient history. Fortunately, it had been fully accomplished before Greece was invaded by the northern nations ; for though the Greeks repulsed the Goths and Huns, they could not prevent the Sclavo- nians from creeping silently into the most secluded valleys of their primeval seats. Two leading facts form the basis of Greek history at the commencement of the Byzantine empire : the dimi- nution in the numbers of the Hellenic race, and the A 2 CHANGES OF THE POPULATION. chap. i. settlement of Sclavonian colonies throughout Greece. § i. The Byzantine writers inform us, that for several cen- turies the Sclavonians formed the bulk of the population in ancient Hellas. The precise extent to which this Sclavonian colonisation was carried has been the subject of warm discussion. One party still maintains that the present inhabitants of Greece are Byzantinised Sclavo- nians ; another upholds them to be the lineal descendants of the men who were conquered by the Romans. This latter party generally selects an earlier genealogical era, and talks only of a descent from the subjects of Leonidas and the fellow-citizens of Pericles. Both seem equally far from the truth. But nations affect antiquity of blood and nobility of race as much as individuals ; and surely the Greeks, who have been so long deprived of glory in their immediate progenitors, may be pardoned for dis- playing a zealous eagerness to participate directly in the fame of a* past world, with which they alone can claim any national connection. It is not, therefore, surprising that the work of Professor Fallmerayer, who attempted, with great ability, to prove that the Hellenic race in Europe was exterminated by the Sclavonians, deeply wounded both Greek patriotism and Philhellenic enthu- siasm. 1 Before reviewing the various immigrations into Greece during the middle ages, it is necessary to notice two ques- tions connected with the population in earlier times which still admit of doubt and discussion. Their importance in determining the extent to which the bulk of the popula- 1 The principal work of Fallmerayer is entitled Geschiclite der halbinsel Morea wdhrend des Mittelcdters. A subsequent tract forms a necessary appendix. It is entitled Welchen Einfluss hatte die Besetzung Griechenlands durch die Slaven mif das Schiclcsal der Stadt Aiken? oder die Entstehung der heutigen Griechen. In both these works, which contain much original matter, there is too much latitude in the use of authorities. The ablest opponent of Fallmerayer is Zinkeisen, but his Geschichte Griechenlands is far from a trium- phant refutation. It has the merit of exact references to the original autho- rities. Two Greeks at Athens have also attempted to reply to Fallmerayer, but their works contain nothing that has not been better stated in Germany. ELEMENTS OF THE POPULATION IN GREECE. 3 tion may have been of mixed race during the classic ages chap. i. is great. The one relates to the proportion in which the § 1. Pelasgi, or original inhabitants, combined with the agri- cultural classes of the Hellenic race ; the other, to the numbers of the slave population, and to the manner in which slavery declined and disappeared. A doubt arises whether the agricultural slaves were exterminated by the barbarian invaders of the Hellenic soil, or were absorbed into the mass of the Sclavonian or Byzantine population. These questions prove how uncertain all inquiries into the direct affiliation of whole nations must be. Of what value is the oldest genealogic tree, if a single generation be omitted in the middle 1 Whether the Greeks themselves were not a foreign tribe that intruded themselves on a race of which the Pelasgi were the prin- cipal branch, is a question that will probably always remain doubtful. Whether the Greeks exterminated this older race, as our own historians represent the Saxons to have exterminated the Britons, or mingled with them to form one people, like the Saxons and Normans, or whether the difference between the Greeks and Pelasgi was not so great as to exclude all consanguinity, are questions that belong to the realm of conjecture, not of history. As the two ablest modern historians of Greece, Grote and Thirlwal, adopt different views on the Pelasgic ques- tion, it may be considered as one that is not likely ever to be decided. 1 The question concerning the numbers of the slave population hardly admits of a more satisfactory answer. Liberated slaves certainly engrafted themselves into the 1 Thirlwal, History of Greece, vol. i. chap. 2. Grote, History of Greece, vol. ii. 349. The subject is treated with learning and judgment by Mr Mure of Cald- well, in his Critical History of the Language and Literature of Greece, vol. i. 48. After all, we have nothing explicit on the language of the Pelasgians but the passage of Herodotus, i. 57 ; and his words would authorise us to infer that the languages of the ancient Greeks and the Pelasgians were as different as those of the modern Greeks and the Albanians. Yet it would perhaps be as appli- cable if the difference were no greater than that between high and low German, or between Dutch and English. 4 CHANGES OF THE POPULATION. chap. i. native blood of Greece, to some extent, in Roman times ; § i. but it is difficult to ascertain what proportion of the freedmen that filled Greece were of foreign origin. Sla- very was for many ages the principal agent of productive industry in Greece ; the soil was cultivated by slaves, and all manufactured articles were produced by their labour. Throughout the whole country, they formed at least one- half of the population. 1 Now, although the freedmen and descendants of liberated foreign slaves never formed as important an element in the higher classes of the popu- lation of Greece as they did of Rome, still they must have exerted a considerable influence on society. And here a question forces itself on the attention,- — Whether the sin- gular corruption which the Greek language has undergone, according to one unvarying type, in every land where it was spoken, from Syracuse to Trebizond, must not be, in great part, attributed to the infusion of foreign elements, which slavery introduced into Hellenic society in number- less streams, all flowiug from a similar source % The Thracians and Sclavonians were for centuries to the slave- trade of the Greeks what the Georgians and Circassians have been for ages to the Mohammedan nations, and the Negroes of the African coast to the European colonies in America. Whatever may have been the operation of these causes in adulterating the purity of the Hellenic race and the Greek language, we know that they did not display any effect until about the middle of the sixth century of our era. At that time, the population of Greece presented all the external signs of a homogeneous people. In the third century, the Greek language was spoken by the rural population with as much purity as by the inhabi- 1 For the best information on the numbers of the slave population, see Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, vol. ii. 381. In comparing the numbers of the slaves in Greece with those in the slave states of North Amei'ica, we must recollect that the proportion of adults would be greater in Greece, as the importation was free. CORRUPTION OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE. 5 tants of the towns, and even the ancient peculiarities of chap. i. dialect were often preserved. 1 Nor did the condition of § i. the mass of the population, greatly as it was diminished, undergo any material change until after the time of Jus- tinian ; for the invasions of the Goths in the third and fourth centuries were temporary evils, that only caused a permanent decrease in the population in so far as they destroyed the productive powers of the country. The causes that transformed the ancient Greeks of Justinian's age into the modern Greeks who inhabited the soil of Hellas in the time of the Crusaders, seem, on the whole, to have been internal rather than external. Foreign invaders had less to do with the change than slavery, ignorance, and social degradation. Time alone might claim some share in the transformation ; but time ought to be an improver in every well-constituted com- munity ; and the Orthodox Church, which exercised a very powerful social influence on the Greek race during the period in question, must be supposed to have counter- acted the progress of corruption. Among an illiterate people like the Greeks of the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, each successive generation alters the language of oral communication, by neglecting inflexions and disregard- ing grammatical rules. A corrupted pronunciation con- founds orthography, and obscures the comprehension of the grammatical changes which words undergo. Indeed, the whole process of transforming the Hellenic language into the Romaic, or modern Greek dialect, seems to have arisen out of a long neglect of the rules of grammar and orthography ; and the pronunciation, though cor- rupted in the confusion it makes of vowels and diphthongs, is evidently based on the ancient, from the tenacity with which it has preserved the Hellenic accentuation, 1 Philostratus, though speaking of an earlier period, may be received as an authority for his own time, which may extend considerably into the third century. See the dialogue with Sostratus in the Life of Herodes Atticus, and the Life of Apollonius of Tyana, lib. viii. § 12. 6 CHANGES OF THE POPULATION. chap. i. after the disappearance of every trace of quantity. 1 § l. The modern language, with its inflexions correctly written, might easily be mistaken for a colloquial dialect of some ancient Greek colony, were it possible for a scholar unacquainted with the existence of the nation in modern times to meet with a Romaic translation of Thucydides. There is as much difference between the language of Homer and the New Testament, as between that of the New Testament and a modern Greek review. Greek and Arabic seem to be the two spoken languages that have suffered the smallest change in the lapse of ages. The inference is plain, that these are the nations which have admitted the smallest infusion of extraneous social elements, and been the least under foreign compulsion in modifying their habits and ideas ; or else, that the ties of blood and race are weaker than those of civilisa- tion and religion, and literature and religion have created Arabs and Greeks out of Syrians or Ethiopians, and Sclavonians or Albanians. Christianity opened the way for a great change in the Hellenic people. The principles of the gospel worked simultaneously with the oppressive administra- tion of the Roman government, in breaking down the barriers of caste and pride of race that, in the days of Hellenic liberty, kept the free citizens of each state separated from the strangers who frequented the exchange, and the slaves who laboured in the workshops, tilled the fields, or cultivated art or literature for profit in the city. The laws of Justinian blended all classes of 1 Ducangc traces the progress of corruption in the Latin language, in the preface to his Glossarium media? et injimce Latinitatis. Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe in Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. i. p. 69, Paris edit., notices a MS. in the British Museum, (Cotton. Galba, i. 18,) containing the Lord's Prayer in Greek, written in Anglo-Saxon characters, which proves the pronunciation to have been the same in the eighth century as at present. Turners History of the Anglo-Saxons, hi. 396. See also the German translation of Henrichsen's Tracts in Danish — Veber die Neugriechische Ausprache der Hdlenischen Sprache,]). 38; and Ueber die sogenannten politisclicu Verse bei den Griechen, 27. DESTRUCTION OF HELLENIC SOCIETY. 7 citizens into one mass, and facilitated the acquisition chap, l of the boon of freedom by every Christian slave. The § 2. pride of the Hellenic race was stifled, and the Greeks for centuries were proud of the name of Romans, and eager to be ranked with the freedmen and manu- mitted slaves of the masters of the world. The Greek church grew up ; and the Greek church was neither Greek nor Roman, but it created to itself a separate power under the name of Orthodox, which, by forming a partnership with the imperial authority, acquired a more energetic existence than any nationality could have conferred : it controlled the actions and the intellects of the Greeks with despotic power. A system of laws at variance with all the prejudices of ancient, private, and political life was framed, and the consequence was that a new people arose out of the change. Such seems to be the origin of the modern Greeks, a people which displays many appearances of homogeneity in character, though it is widely dispersed in various insulated districts, from Corfu to Trebizond, and from Philippopolis to Cyprus. But to what extent the original Hellenic race was mixed and adulterated with slaves and foreigners, is not very clear from the great patent facts of history. SECT. II. — DEPOPULATION OF GREECE UNDER THE ROMAN GOVERNMENT. CAUSES OF THE INTRODUCTION OF SCLAVONIAN SETTLERS. The depopulation of Greece under the Roman govern- ment, as well as the political oppression to which the people was exposed, and the social demoralisation that was its consequence, force themselves on the attention. This depopulation was increased and perpetuated by the immense landed estates which accumulated in the hands of individual proprietors. The expense of maintaining good roads and other adjuncts of civilisation, necessary for 8 CHANGES OF THE POPULATION. chap. i. bringing agricultural produce to market, is greater in § 2. Greece than in most other countries ; and it would be considered by proprietors of whole provinces as an unprofitable sacrifice. Their neglect consequently pro- duced the abandonment of the cultivation of the soil in a great part of the country, and its conversion into pasture land. From provinces in this condition the Byzantine government often derived very little revenue, for the large proprietors found facilities of gaining exemption from taxation, and the impoverished condition of the farmers or colons rendered the tribute insignificant. The defence of a province so situated became a matter of no interest to the central power at Constantinople, and it was abandoned to the invaders without a struggle. In Greece, the great proprietors seem to have been left to defend themselves against the intrusion or invasion of the Sclavonian nomades without assistance, and the progress of the first Sclavonian colonists may have been facilitated by the numbers of agricultural slaves of Sclavonian race whom they found established in the country. The Sclavonian lands were the great slave marts of the age. Such was the internal state of pre- paration in Greece to encounter the enemy when the Sclavonians attacked the Byzantine empire as a warlike and conquering race. The earliest steps by which the Sclavonians colonised the Hellenic soil are unnoticed in history. Like the subsequent increase in the number of the Greeks which expelled or absorbed them, its very causes pass unre- corded, and the greater part of what we know is learned by inferences drawn from incidental notices connected with other facts. Strange to say, this remarkable revolution in the population of Greece excited very little attention among modern historians until recently ; and the great vicissitudes that took place in the numbers of the Greek population of the Byzantine empire in Europe, during DEPOPULATION OF GKEECE. 9 different periods of the middle ages, is a subject which chap. r. has not jet been carefully investigated. 1 § 2. The fabric of the ancient world was broken in pieces during the reign of Justinian, and Greece presented the spectacle of ruined cities and desolate fields. Procopius, in recording one of the great irruptions of the Hunnish armies, whose course was followed by Sclavonian auxiliaries and subjects, mentions that the barbarians passed the fortifications at Thermopylae, and spread their ravages over all the continent inhabited by the Greeks, as far as the isthmus of Corinth. This notice places the commence- ment of the hostile incursions of the Sclavonians into Greece as early as the year 540. 2 But the colonisation of great part of the Hellenic soil by a foreign race is a fact first noticed long after its occurrence, and whose extent is proved more convincingly by its consequences than by the testimony of historians. In the adulatory work of Procopius on the buildings of Justinian, the conversion of a large part of Greece into pasture lands, by the repeated ravages of the barbarians, is incidentally revealed ; and the necessity of constructing forts, for the protection of the population engaged in the regular agricultural operations of husbandry, is distinctly stated. The fourth book is filled with an enumeration of forts and castles constructed and repaired for no other object. 1 Colonel Leake, in his Researches in Greece, published in 1814, first pointed out the proofs we have of the long residence of the Sclavonians in every part of Greece, and cited the principal Byzantine authorities which certify the political importance of these colonies, p. 379. Professor Fallmerayer became the champion of Sclavonianism, in his History of the Morea, in 1830 ; and he has ever since defended the cause with great eloquence, learning, and wit, but with some exaggeration. It was Colonel Leake who first observed that the Sclavo- nian names of places in Greece are often the same as those of places in the most distant parts of Kussia. By means of this discovery, Fallmerayer endeavours to exterminate the ancient Greeks. 2 Procopius, Be Bello Pers/co, lib. ii. c. 4, p. 95, (Paris edit.) He men- tions frequent incursions of the Sclavonians into Illyria and Thrace ; and in alluding to this very expedition in the secret history, he connects the Huns, Sclavonians, and Antes, together as allies, (c. 18, p. 54.) Several Byzantine historians speak of irruptions of the Huns and Sclavonians, in a united body, into Thrace in 559. — Malalas, 235 ; Theophanes, 197 ; Cedrenus, 386; Clinton, Fasti Romani, i. 810. 10 CPIANGES OF THE POPULATION. chap. i. The care, too, which the emperor devoted to fortifying the § 2. isthmus of Corinth, when he found that the greater part of the Peloponnesian cities were not in a state of defence, affords strong proof of the danger of an irruption of barbarous tribes, even into that secluded citadel of the Hellenic race. 1 The particular mention of the fortifications necessary to protect the fertile land on the river Rhechios, in Macedonia, and the construction of the city of Kastoria, to replace the ruined Diocletianopolis, while they prove the desertion of great part of Chalcidice and Upper Macedonia by the ancient inhabitants, prepare us for finding these districts occupied by a new race of emigrants. 2 Now, it is precisely in these districts that we find the Sclavonians first forming the mass of the inhabitants within the limits once occupied by the Hellenic race. 3 In these cases of colonisation, as in many others after- wards, it is possible that the Sclavonians occupied their new settlements without any opposition on the part of the Roman government ; and though their countrymen continued to ravage and depopulate the provinces of the empire as enemies, these peaceable settlers may have been allowed to retain their establishments as subjects and tributaries. It is certain that the Goths, and other Teutonic people who invaded the Eastern Empire, were nothing more than tribes of warriors, who, like the Dorians, the Romans, and the Othoman Turks, became great nations from the extent of their conquests, not from their original numerical strength. But the Sclavonian race, on the contrary, had for ages formed the bulk of the population in the wide -extended territories that spread from the shores of the Adriatic to the sources of the Dnieper and the Volga. In a considerable portion of the countries in which they subsequently appear as 1 Procopius, Be jfidificiis, lib. iv. c. 2, p. 71. 2 Ibid. lib. iv. c. 3-4. The Rhechios is supposed to be the river that flows from the Lake Bolbe to the Gulf of Strymon. 3 Tafcl, Be Thessalonicd ejusque Agro. Prolcg. lvii. SCLAVONIAN COLONISATION OF GREECE. 11 conquerors, a kindred race seems to have cultivated the chap, l soil, even under the Roman government ; but at what § 2. period the Sclavonians began to force themselves south- ward into the territories once occupied by the Illyrians and the Thracians, is a question of too much obscurity to be examined in this sketch. The successive decline of the Roman, Gothic, and Hunnish empires, in the provinces along the Danube, allowed the hitherto subject Sclavonians to assume inde- pendence, and form themselves into warlike bands, in imitation of their masters. The warlike and agricultural Sclavonians from that time became as distinct as if they belonged to two different nations. A contrast soon arose in their state of civilisation ; and this, added to the immense extent, and disconnected and diversified form of the territory over which the Sclavonian race was scattered, prevented it from ever uniting, so as to form one empire. The Sclavonians always make their appearance in the history of Greece as small independent hordes, or as the subjects of the Huns, Avars, or Bulgarians, and never, except in the Illyrian provinces, form independent states, with a permanent political existence. Their ravages as enemies are recorded, their peaceful immigrations as friends and clients pass unnoticed. No inconsiderable part of those provinces of the Eastern Empire that were desolated by the repeated inroads of the northern nations were nevertheless repeopled by Sclavonian colonists, who, often fearing to devote themselves to husbandry, lest they should invite fresh incursions, confined their attention to pasturing cattle, and adopted a nomadic life as the only method of securing their property. In this way they became, according to the vicissitudes of the times, the serfs or the enemies of their Greek neighbours in the walled towns. Tt was a characteristic of the Sclavonian colonists, in the Byzantine empire, for a long period, that they had an aversion to agriculture, and followed it only 12 CHANGES OF THE POPULATION". on a small scale, deriving their principal support from cattle. 1 The great extent of the Sclavonian colonies in Macedonia, at the end of the seventh century, is testified by the number that the Emperor Justinian II. was able to transport into Asia. On one occasion, a colony of upwards of a hundred and fifty thousand souls was settled on the shores of the Hellespont, collected from the tribes established in Thrace and the neighbourhood of Thessa- lonica. 2 In order to understand correctly how far the diminution of the Greek and Roman races might proceed in the countries between the Adriatic and the Danube, while a numerous population of subject people continued to inhabit the country, it is only necessary to compare it with the rapid extinction of the Goths in Italy, and of the Vandals in Africa, about the same period. In the Cis-Danubian provinces, neither the Greek nor the Roman element appears to have impregnated the whole mass of the inhabitants and both peoples, were always in the position of dominant races — liable consequently to that incessant diminution that sooner or later inevitably destroys all privileged orders. The progress of depopu- lation in the Roman empire is, however, attested from an earlier period by numerous laws, many of which prove the rapid diminution, in the members of the municipalities forcing the government to adopt regulations for the purpose of keeping every class of society in its own sphere and place. 3 The steady diminution of the Greek race, from the time of Justinian I. to that of Leo. III. the Isaurian, is testified by the whole history of the period ; 1 Institutions Militaires de V Empcreur Leon le Philosophe, traduites par Joly de Maizeroy, tome ii. p. 117. Tactica, c. xviii. § 99. Imp. Mauricii Ars Militaris, p. 272, (edit. Scheffer.) The spirit of the warlike Sclavonians, at the period they poured their conquering armies into the Eastern Empire, is described in Menander, Corpus Hist. Byzantince, p. 406, edit. Bonn; p. 165, edit. Paris. 2 Theophanes, p. 304, 305, 364. Thirty thousand troops were raised in this colony shortly after its establishment. 3 Codex Jmtinianeus, x. 32 ; xviii. xix. xx. xxi. 1. Even he who quitted his DIMINUTION OF THE GREEK RACE. 13 and it is evident that this diminution was more immediately chap. i. dependent on political causes, connected with a vicious § 2. administration of the government, and on moral ones arising out of a corrupt state of society, than on the desolation produced by foreign invaders. The utter extermination of the Illyrian and Thracian nations may have been completed by the repeated ravages of the northern barbarians ; but it could not have been effected unless these people had been weakened and decimated by bad administration and social degradation, otherwise their assailants could not have so outnumbered them as to effect their extermination. The same causes which operated in exterminating the Thracian and Illyrian races were at work on the Greek population, though operating with less violence. The maritime cities and principal towns, both in Thrace and Illyria, were in great part inhabited by Greeks ; and from these the rural population was repulsed, as a hostile band, when it appeared before their walls in a state of poverty, in order to seek refuge and food during the ravages of the barbarians. The citizens, in such cases, had always so many drains on their resources, to which interest com- pelled them to attend, that humanity only extended to the circle of their immediate neighbours. But when the Sclavonians colonised the wasted lands, the new popu- lation proved better able to protect themselves against the evils of war, from their previous rude habits of life, and from the artless method in which they pursued their agricultural occupations. The Sclavonians, therefore, soon became the sole and permanent possessors of the greater part of the territories once inhabited by the civil position as tax-payer to the fisc, to serve in the army, was ordered to be brought back to his estate, (law xvii.) — " Qui derelicta curia militaverit, revocetur ad curiam." No words could declare more strongly the decrease in the numbers of the tax -payers, nor mark more clearly that the treasury, not the army, gave its character and laws to the Eastern Roman empire. Modern nations, having reached the same crisis in their government, might study Byzantine history for lessons in politics. 1 1 CHANGES OF THE POPULATION. chap. i. Illyrians and the Thracians. For some centuries, the § 3. Sclavonians seem to have advanced into the Hellenic territory in the same manner in which they had possessed themselves of the country to the north ; but the circum- stances were somewhat changed by the greater number of towns they met with, and by the comparatively nourishing condition maintained by that large portion of the Greek population engaged in commerce and manufactures under the Byzantine government. Though the Sclavonians occupied extensive territories in Greece without apparently encountering much serious opposition, still their progress was arrested at many points by a dense population, living under the protection of walled towns and imperial officers. It is, however, quite impossible to trace the progress of the Sclavonians on the Hellenic soil in any detail ; and we learn only from a casual notice that it is probable their first great hostile irruptions into the Peloponnesus were made under the shelter of the Avar power, towards the end of the sixth century. Whether any colonies had previously settled in the peninsula as agriculturists, or whether they at that time formed populous settlements in northern Greece, is a mere matter of conjecture. The passage of the ecclesiastical historian Evagrius, in which the Avar invasion of Greece is mentioned, has been the object of much criticism. 1 SECT. III. — THE SCLAVONIANS IN THE PELOPONNESUS. It will assist our means of estimating the true extent of the Sclavonian colonisation of Greece, and the influence they were enabled to exercise in the country, if we pass in review the principal historical notices that have been preserved relating to their settlements, particularly in the Peloponnesus, the citadel of the Hellenic population. 1 Geschichte Griechenlands, von J. W. Zinkeisen, p. 697. FIRST SCLAVONIAN COLONY IN PELOPONNESUS. 15 Tlie ravages by which the barbarians prepared the way a. d. for the Sclavonians to colonise Greece as early as the 589-746. reign of Justinian have been noticed. The cotemporary Byzantine historian, Menander, records that about the year 581 the Sclavonians had acquired so great a degree of power that they ravaged Thrace with an army of their own amounting to a hundred thousand men, and extended their devastations into Greece. 1 About this time they were in hostile collision with the Chagan of the Avars, to whom they had formerly paid tribute. Many Sclavonian tribes, however, continued to be subject to the Avar power, and to furnish auxiliaries to their armies. 2 A few years afterwards another cotemporary historian, Evagrius, notices an invasion of the Avars into Greece in the fol- lowing words : " The Avars penetrated twice as far as the long wall of Thrace. Singidon, Auchialos, all Greece, and many cities and fortresses, were taken and plundered ; everything was laid waste with fire and sword, for the greater part of the imperial army was stationed at the time in Asia." 3 These words, unsupported by other evi- dence, would certainly not lead us to infer that any part of Greece had been then settled by either Avars or Scla- vonians, even were we assured that the Sclavonians com- posed the bulk of the Avar army. But this careless mention of Greece, by Evagrius, in connection with the 1 Excerpta ex- Menandri Historid, p. 327 and 404, edit. Bonn. 2 Ibid., p. 334. — The conquest of the Antse, a numerous Sclavonian race, is mentioned, p. 285. See Scbafarik's Slavische Alterthumer, i. 68. The impor- tance of the Sclavonian colonies in Macedonia, and their wars with the Greeks and the Byzantine government during the interval between 589 and 746, are noticed by the following authorities — Tafel, De Thessalonicd, &c, p. lviii., xci; and the authorities he quotes. Theophanes, p. 288, 304, 305. The Patriarch Nicephorus mentions the Sclavonians as united in great num- bers with the Avar armies, p. 13, 24. Ephraomius, 69, edit. Bonn. 3 Evagrius, Hist. Eccles., 1. vi. § 10. This took place before the year 591, as the Empei-or Maurice concluded peace with Persia in that year. Those who witnessed the complete desolation of Greece after the war of independence against the Turks, and the civil wars that followed the assassination of Capo- distrias, can alone understand to what extent it is possible for barbai-ians to desolate a country. The Avars probably understood the art as well as the Turks and Greek Palikari. I have myself ridden through the streets of Tri- politza, Corinth, Megara, Athens, Thebes, and Livadea, when hardly a single 16 CHANGES IN THE POPULATION. chap. i. plundering incursions of the Avars, receives some histori- § 3. cal value, and becomes united with the annals of the Sclavonian colonies in the Peloponnesus, by a passage in a synodal letter of the Patriarch Nikolaos to the Emperor Alexius I. The Patriarch mentions that the Emperor Nicephorus I., about the year 807, raised Patras to the rank of a Metropolitan see, on account of the miraculous interposition of the apostle St Andrew in destroying the Avars who then besieged it. " These Avars," says the Patriarch, " had held possession of the Peloponnesus for two hundred and eighteen years, and had so completely separated it from the Byzantine empire that no Byzantine official dared to put his foot in the country/' 1 The Patriarch thus dates the establishment of the Avars in the Peloponnesus from the year 589 ; and the accurate con- formity of his statement with the passage quoted from Evagrius, allows it to be inferred that he had some official record of the same invasion before his eyes, which recorded that the Avar invasion of Greece, mentioned by the ecclesiastical historian, extended into the Peloponnesus, and described its consequences in some detail. The circumstance that the Patriarch speaks of Avars, who in his time had been long extinct, instead of Sclavonians, who, at the time he wrote, continued to form a consider- able portion of the population of Greece, seems to prove house had escaped being levelled with the ground. No living soul was to be seen in the streets, through which the fallen walls of the houses rendered it difficult to penetrate, and no cattle could be found in the surrounding country. I have visited villages in which bread had not been made for a fortnight, the whole of the inhabitants living on herbs ; and I have seen cargoes of the copper- cooking vessels of the peasantry exported to Trieste, to obtain food for a few days. The consequence was, that two-thirds of the population perished. 1 Nikolaos III., called the Grammarian, occupied the Patriarchal chair from a.d. 1084 to 1111. Leunclavius, Jus Grceco-Romanum, torn. i. 278. Le Quien, Oriens Chrtstianus, torn. ii. 179. A Greek MS. in the library of Turin, quoted by Fallmerayer, Fragmente aus dem Orient, ii. 413, perhaps confirms the testi- mony of the Patriarch ; but the coincidence in the mode of expressing the chronology leads to the conclusion that the writer of the chronicle in this passage copied the synodal letter of the Patriarch. He, however, takes particu- lar notice of the ravages of the Avai-s in Attica and Eubcea, which he must have derived from another source, so that he may have seen the same original authority as the Patriarch. SCLAVONIANS ATTACK PATEAS. 17 his chronology to have been drawn from Byzantine official a. d. documents, and not from any local records concerning 807. the Sclavonian settlements in the Peloponnesus. The Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who is an earlier authority, differs from the Patriarch Nikolaos, and places the completion of the colonisation of the Peloponnesus by the Sclavonians in the year 74 6. 1 At all events these foreigners, who had invaded the peninsula at some period between the years 589 and 746, were sufficiently numerous to attempt the conquest of Patras, and to form the pro- - ject of expelling the Greeks from the Peloponnesus in the year 807. Indeed, they came so near success in the first part of their plan that Patras appeared to have been saved only by a miracle, and it was deemed necessary for St Andrew to take the field in person, as the champion and saviour of the Hellenic race. The Sclavonians must undoubtedly have become dangerous enemies, both to the Greek population and the Byzantine government, before it was the general opinion that they could only be defeated by miraculous interpositions. 2 Some considerable change took place in the state of the Peloponnesus about the end of the sixth century, though we are in the dark concerning the nature and extent of the revolution. During the reign of the Em- peror Maurice, a.d. 582-602, the episcopal see of Monem- vasia was separated from the diocese of Corinth, and raised to the rank of a metropolitan. Now, as the metropolitan bishops were at this period important agents of the central government for the civil administration of the provinces, this change indicates a necessity of furnish- ing the Greek population of the south-western part of the Peloponnesus with a resident chief of the highest adminis- trative authority ; and we may conjecture that this 1 Const. Porphyr., Be Them. ii. p. 25. 2 Compare Fallmerayer, Geschichte des hcdbinsel Morea, i. 138, and Zinkeisen, Geschichte Grieclienlands, 702. B IS CHANGES OF THE POPULATION. chap. i. became necessary in consequence of some new impedi- § 3. ments having arisen, rendering the communications with Corinth rarer and more difficult than in preceding times. 1 In the period between the reigns of Justinian I. and Heraclius, a considerable portion of Macedonia was entirely colonised by Sclavonians, who aspired at rendering themselves masters of the whole country, and repeatedly attacked the city of Thessalonica. 2 In the reign of Heraclius other warlike tribes of Sclavonian race, from the Carpathian Mountains, were invited by the Em- peror to settle in the countries between the Save and the Adriatic, on condition of defending these provinces against the Avars, and acknowledging the supremacy of the Byzantine government. By this treaty the last remains of the Illyrian race were either reduced to the condition of serfs, or forced southward into Epirus. 3 This emigration of the free and warlike Sclavonians, within the limits of the empire, as allies of the govern- ment, is of importance in elucidating the history of the Greeks. Though it is impossible to trace any direct communication between these Sclavonians, and those settled in Greece and the Peloponnesus, it is evident, that the new political position which a kindred people had thus acquired must have exerted a considerable influence on the character and movements of all the Sclavonian colonists in the Byzantine empire. The country between the Hsemus and the Danube was also conquered by the Bulgarians, under their chief Asparuch, about the year 678. The greater part of the territory subdued by the Bulgarians had already been 1 Compare Phrantzes, p. 398, edit. Bonn, and Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, ii. 216. The MS. chronicle of Monemvasia, in the library of Turin, mentioned by Fallmerayer, ought to throw some light on this subject. 2 See the learned exposition of all that relates to the Sclavonians in Mace- donia in Tafel's work, De Thessalonica ejiisque Agro. Polcg- civ. J Constantinus Porphyrogenitus, De Administ. Imp., cap. xxx., xxxi., xxxii. MACEDONIA AND THRACE BECOME SCLAVONIAN. 19 occupied by Sclavonian emigrants, who appear to have chap. t. exterminated the last remains of the old Thracian § 3. race. These Sclavonians were called the Seven Tribes ; and the Bulgarians, who conquered the country and became the dominant race, were so few in number that they were gradually absorbed into the mass of the Scla- vonian population. Though they gave their name to the country and language, the present Bulgarians are of Sclavonian origin, and the language they speak is a dialect of the Sclavonian tongue. 1 A few years after the loss of Mcesia, the Emperor Justinian IT. established numerous colonies of the Sclavonians who acknowledged the Byzantine sovereignty in the valley of Strymon, for the purpose of defending the possessions of the Greeks against the incursions of their independent countrymen on the frontiers. 2 In the early part of the eighth century, it seems that the greater part of the Peloponnesus was occupied by Sclavonians, for the peninsula was then regarded by European navigators as Sclavonian land. In the account of St Willibald's pilgrimage to J erusalem in 723, it is said that, after quitting Sicily and crossing the Adriatic sea, he touched at the city of Manafasia (Monemvasia) in the Sclavonian land. 3 The name of Sclavinia at times obtained a widely extended, and at times a very confined, geographical application. We find it used in reference to particular districts and cantons in Macedonia and Thrace, but it does not appear to have been permanently applied to any considerable province within the territories of ancient Greece. It is thus proved by sufficient authority that the Scla- 1 Theophanes, 298. Schafarik's Slavisclte Alterthwner, ii. 170. 2 Const. Porphyr., Be Thematibus, ii. p. 23. 3 Fallmerayer quotes this passage, Geschichte des kalbinsel Morea, ii. 444, from Acta Sanctorum apud Bolland, ad 8 Jul., p. 504 — " Et inde (e Sicilia) navigantes venerunt ultra mare Adriaticum ad urbem Manafasiam in Slavinica terra." 20 CHANGES OF THE POPULATION. chap. i. vonians had settled in the Peloponnesus in numbers at the § 3. very commencement of the eighth century. The com- pletion of the colonisation of the whole country of Greece and the Peloponnesus — for such is the phrase of the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus — is dated by the imperial writer from the time of the great pestilence that depopulated the East in the year 74 6. 1 The events, if really synchronous, could not have been very immedi- ately connected as cause and effect. The city population must have suffered with more severity from this calamity than the rural districts ; and it is mentioned by the chronicles of the time, that Constantinople, Monemvasia, and the islands of the Archipelago, w r ere principal suf- ferers ; and, moreover, that the capital was repeopled by additional drafts from the population of Greece and the islands. 2 Even in ordinary circumstances, it is well known that an uninterrupted stream of external population is always flowing into large cities, to replace the rapid con- sumption of human life caused by increased activity, forced celibacy, luxury and vice, in dense masses of man- kind. According to the usual and regular operation of the laws of population, the effects of the plague ought to have been to stimulate an increase of the Greek popula- tion in the rural districts w r hich they still retained ; unless w r e are to conclude, from the words of Constantine, that after the time of the plague all the Greeks were in the habit of dwelling within the walls of fortified towns, and the country was thus entirely abandoned to the Sclavonians, whose colonies, already established in Greece, found by this means an opportunity of extending their settlements. The fact seems to be so stated by the imperial writer, who declares that at this time "all the country became Sclavonian, and was occupied by 1 Constantinus Porphyrogenitus, Be Thematihus, lib. ii. p. 25, edit. Bund. Theophanes, 354. Cedrenus, ii. 462. 2 Nicephorus Cpolitanus, p. 40. Theophanes, p. 354, 360. SCLAVONIAN COLONISATION OF GREECE COMPLETED. 21 foreigners." 1 And in confirmation of the predominance a. d. of the Sclavonian population in the Peloponnesus, he 746. mentions an anecdote which does not redound to the honour of his own family. A Peloponnesian noble named Niketas, the husband of a daughter of his own wife's brother, was extremely proud of his nobility, not to call it, as the emperor sarcastically observes, his ignoble blood. As he was evidently a Sclavonian in face and figure, he was ridiculed by a celebrated Byzantine grammarian in a popular verse which celebrated his wily Sclavonian visage. 2 The Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus dates the completion of the Sclavonian colonisation of Greece in the reign of Constantine V. (Copronymus ;) and yet it is evident, from Byzantine history, that a mighty social revolution in the Greek race had commenced during the reign of his father Leo III., (the Isaurian) and that the people then began to awake reinvigorated from a long lethargy. From this period all the Sclavonians within the bounds of the empire, who attempted to display any signs of political independence, not only began to meet with a determined resistance, but were repeatedly attacked in the districts they had occupied. Still, it required all the energy of the Iconoclast emperors, men in general of heroic mould and iron vigour, to break the Sclavonian power, which had formed itself an independent existence in the northern provinces of the empire. This, however, 1 Const. Porphyr., Be Them., ii. 25. This passage is so important, from its official authority, that it must be transcribed in order that neither more nor less than it contains be attributed to it. Hucra r) 'EXXds re koI i) IleXoiTovprjaos: VTTo tt]V tcop 'Pcopdiov aayrjvqv eyevtTO, coare dovkovs dur iXev'Sepaov yeveoSai. 'EcrSXabcoS^ 8e naaa rj X<°P a KaL y^J ov ^ fidp€apos ore 6 XotpiKos Sararoy ndaau €g6 745. C 34 CHANGES OF THE POPULATION. chap. i. of the Bulgarians and Vallachians south of the Danube §6. against the Emperor Isaac II., in 1116, took place after the complete extinction of the old Bulgarian language, and this kingdom seems really more of a Vallachian than a Bulgarian or Sclavonian state. The court language, at least, appears to have been Vallachian, and the monarchs to have affected to regard themselves as descendants of the Romans. 1 Amidst the innumerable emigrations of different races, which characterise the history of Eastern Europe from the decline of the Roman empire to the conquest of Constantinople by the Othoman Turks, the Vallachians formed to themselves a national existence and a peculiar language, in the seats they still occupy, by amalgamating a portion of the Dacian, Roman, and Sclavonian popula- tion of the country into one people. That they grew out of the Roman colonies, which spread the language and civilisation of Italy in these regions, is generally admitted. They make their appearance in Byzantine history as inhabiting an immense tract of country, stretch- ing in an irregular form from the banks of the Theis, in Hungary, to those of the Dneister, and from the Car- pathian Mountains to the southern counterforts of the chain of Pindus, bordering the Thessalian plain. 2 But in this great extent of country, they were mingled with other races in a manner that makes it extremely difficult for us to know which was the most numerous portion of the population at different epochs. As early as the eleventh century, the Vallachian race had descended into the plains of Thessaly, and dwelt in 1 Epistolarum Innocentii III., lib. ii. epist. 266, torn, i. p. 513, edit. Baluze. Colonel Leake mentions that the Bulgarian language— that is, the Sclavonian dialect now spoken in Bulgaria — is still the language of some villages in the mountains to the south of Achrida. — Travels in Northern Greece, i. 341, 347. ' 2 Chalcocondylas, 16, 40. Nicetas, 236, speaks of the Vlachoi as inhabitants of Mount Haemus ; but the Greeks of his time, as now, probably used the word, indiscriminately of race, to indicate nomade shepherds. VALLACHIANS IN THESSALY. 35 several towns. 1 In the twelfth, they had become the chap. i. masters of a considerable part of the country, which had § 6. already acquired from their occupancy the name of Great Vallachia. 2 The close affinity of their language to Latin is observed at this period by the Byzantine historian, John Kinnamos. 3 Benjamin of Tudela, the famous Jew traveller, who visited Greece about the year 1161, records the great extent of their territorial possessions in Thessaly, and the independent position they held with regard to the imperial authorities. 4 These Vallachians may have been descendants of a population introduced by the Emperor Basil IL, to repeople the country which had been depopulated by his bloody war with the Bulgaro- Sclavonian monarchy of Achrida, recruited by new colonies from beyond the Danube, or increased by a natural augmentation arising out of the favourable circumstances in which they were placed in this peculiar locality. They seem, at all events, to have completely expelled the original Greek inhabitants within the limits of their dominions. Benjamin places the southern limit of Great Vallachia near Zeitouni. " Here are the confines of Vallachia, a country the inhabitants of which are called Vlachi. They are as nimble as deer, and descend from the mountains into the plains of Greece, committing robberies and making booty. Nobody ven- tures to make war upon them, nor can any king bring them to submission ; and they do not profess the Christian faith. Their names are of Jewish origin, 5 and some even say they have been Jews, which nation they call brethren. Whenever they meet an Israelite, they rob, but never kill him as they do the Greeks. They profess no religious creed." This account is evidently not to be 1 Anna Comnena, 138. 2 Nicetas, 410. 3 Cinnami Hist. 152; and Ducange's note, 483. 4 The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, translated by A. Asher, i. 40. 5 The frequency of the names of Samuel, Simeon, Daniel, Gabriel, and Moses, in Vallachian history, is marked on every page. 36 CHANGES OF THE POPULATION. chap. i. relied on as authentic information, for the Vallachians § 7. were undoubtedly Christians ; and Benjamin felt naturally very little desire to form a personal acquaintance with people who were in the habit of robbing Jews, even though they murdered Greeks, and were named Daniel. He only reports the information he had picked up in the neighbouring Greek towns from Jews, who may have suffered from the plundering propensities of these nimble- footed brethren of Israel. This district long continued to bear the name of Vallachia or Vlakia, both among the Greeks and the Frank conquerors of Greece. 1 A body of Vallaehian population still exists in the mountains of southern Epirus and Thessaly. They are found in the upper valley of the Aspropotamos (Achelous) about Malakasa, Metzovo, and Zagora, in the districts of Neopatras and Karpenisi, and in the country about Moskopolis, twelve hours' journey to the east of Berat. Their whole number, however, in all these districts, does not appear to exceed 50,000 souls. 2 SECT. VII. — ALBANIAN COLONIES IN GREECE. The Albanian or Skipetar race, which at present occupies more than one quarter of the surface of the recently constituted kingdom of Greece, first makes its appearance in Byzantine history in the year 1079, as forming part of the army of the rebel Nicephorus Vasi- lakes, when he assumed the imperial title. 3 The Alba- nians were then, as now, the inhabitants of the mountains near Dy rrachium. The existence of the Albanian name in these regions dates from a far earlier period. Albano- polis, which is the principal town of the northern district, 1 Acropolita, 23, 33. Pachymeres, i. 49. Chronicle of the Conquest, (French,) 414. 2 Pouqueville in his Voyage de la Grece, ii. 394, estimates their nnmbers at 74,470. He affects exactitude in his exaggerations. 3 bkylitzo? Hist, ad calcem Cedreni, 865. ALBANIANS IN GREECE. 37 bore that name in the time of Ptolemy, and continued to chap. i. retain it under the Byzantine government. 1 The Turks § 7. have corrupted the word in Elbassan. Reasonable doubts may nevertheless be eutertained, whether the Albanians of the present day have any greater resemblance to the Albanians of the time of Ptolemy, than the Britons of the present day have to the Britons of the time of Caesar. The history of no European race is more obscure than that of the Albanian, for it is impossible to fix with cer- tainty whether they are the descendants of some ancient people, Epirots or Macedonians, or a new nation, formed, like the French and English, from an admixture of more than one dissimilar race. The basis of their language seems to indicate a closer affinity to the Latin than to the Greek, but whether their language be a corruption of the Pelasgic, or of one of the ancient dialects of Epirus, Macedonia, Illyria, or Thrace, or a tongue framed like our own, by foreign emigrants, requires to be determined by a more critical study of its elements than has hitherto been bestowed on the subject. It may then, perhaps, be determined whether the Skipetar race is entitled to boast of a descent from the mountaineers of Epirus, or whether it consists of northern tribes, forced into the seats they now occupy by the great emigrations that marked the fall of the Roman empire. Anna Comnena mentions the Albanians more than once. She indicates that they had acquired some politi- cal importance, though in her time they do not appear to have occupied a very extensive territory. 2 In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, they are mentioned by more than one Byzantine writer. Pachymeres and Nicephorus Gregoras call them Illyrians, but Chalcocondylas objects to that name, and thinks they were rather of Macedonian 1 Ptolemcei Geog., lib. iii., cap. xiii. § 23. 2 Anna Comnena, 122, 165, 390. 38 CHANGES OF THE POPULATION. chap. i. descent. 1 In the fourteenth century, they had rendered § 7. themselves masters of a considerable extent of territory in Acarnania, Epirus, Thessaly, and Macedonia, and their colonies began to be established in the Peloponnesus. But they first made their appearance in the peninsula as mercenary troops in the service of the Greek despots of Misithra, and shortly after they were settled in great numbers as colonists on the waste lands in the province. 2 During the half century immediately preceding the con- quest of the Morea by the Turks, the Albanian population more than once assumed a prominent part in public affairs, and at one time they conceived the project of expelling the Greeks themselves from the Morea. The Albanian population of the Greek kingdom amounts to about 200,000 souls, and the whole race in Europe is not supposed to number more than a million and a quarter. 3 In continental Greece they occupy the whole of Attica and Megaris, with the exception of the capitals, — the greater part of Bceotia, and a portion of Locris. In the islands they possess the southern part of the island of Eubcea, and about one-third of Andros ; while the whole of the islands of Salamis, Poras, Hydra, and Spetza are exclusively peopled by a pure Albanian race, as well as a part of iEgina and the small island of Anghistri in its vicinity. In the Peloponnesus, they compose the bulk of the population in Argolis, Corinthia, and Sicyonia, and they occupy considerable districts in Arcadia, Laconia, Messenia, and Elis. In all this great 1 Pachymeres, i. 243, 347, edit. Rom. Niceph. Greg., 69, 334. Chalcocondy- las, 283. There seems to be a question whether Cantacuzenos, 289, in men- tioning the Malakassians, Bouians, and Mesarites as Albanian tribes, has not confounded them with the Vallachians. A Vallachian population now occupies these districts with the same names. But the names of Malakasa and Bouia are found botli in Attica and the Morea as favourite Albanian names of vil- lages, and they appear in other districts where the Vallachians are not known to have penetrated. 2 Chalcocondylas, 112, 127. Ducange, Ilistoire de Constantinople, 283. Phrantzcs, 38, edit. Bonn. Chronicon breve ad calcem Ducm Hist. Fall- merayer, Geschichte des halbinsel Morea, ii. 255. 3 Schafarik's Slavische Alterihiimer, i. 32. NUMBERS OF THE TZAKONES. 39 extent of territory the prevailing language is Albanian ; chap. i. and in many parts Greek is only spoken by the men, and § 8. very imperfectly, if at all, understood by the women. The soldiers of Suli and the sailors of Hydra, the bravest warriors and most skilful mariners in the late stru^ole of Greece to regain her independence, were of the purest Albanian race, unaltered by any mixture of Hellenic blood. SECT. VIII. — TZAKONES OR LACONES. Of all the inhabitants who now dwell on the Hellenic soil, the Tzakones, or Laconians — for the two words are identical — seem to possess the best title to connect their genealogy with their geographical locality. Part of the country conquered by the Spartans was always peopled by a race that differed from the Dorian. 1 When the Crusaders invaded Greece, they found the Tzakones occupying a much wider extent of country than they do at present. They are first mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenitus as troops employed in garrison duty. 2 Nicephorus Gregoras mentions them as furnishing a body of mariners to the imperial fleets in the time of the Em- peror Michael VIII. Pachy meres notices that they visited Constantinople in such numbers as to form a Tzakonian colony in the city with their families, while the men served on board the fleet. 3 The Chronicle of the Conquest of the Morea by the Franks, which appears to have been written towards the latter part of the four- teenth century, repeatedly mentions Tzakonia and its 1 Grote, Hist, of Greece, ii. 601, observes that the readiness with which Kanyae and the Maleates revolted against Sparta after the battle of Lenktra, exhibits them apparently as conquered foreign dependencies without any kindred of race. Kangae must fall within the Tzakonian territory in the middle ages. The Maleates, when expatriated by the Sclavonians, would retire to Mount Parnon, (Malevo.) The Dorians of Messenia seem not to have degraded the subject race so completely as the Spartans. 2 Be Cerem. Aul. Byz., torn. i. p. 402, edit. Lips.; p. 696, edit. Bonn. 3 Nicephorus Gregoras, 58. Pachymeres, i. 209, edit. Rom. 40 CHANGES OF THE POPULATION. chap. i. inhabitants as distinct from the rest of the Peloponnesus. 1 § 8. In the fifteenth century Mazaris, in enumerating the various races then inhabiting the peninsula, places the Lakones or Tzakones first in his list. He then passes to the Italians, for, at the time he wrote, they were masters of the principality of Achaia. The Peloponnesians, or modern Greeks, appear only as third in his list. 2 Crusius informs us that in the year 1573 the Tzakones inhabited fourteen villages between Monemvasia and Nauplia, and spoke a dialect different from the other Greeks. 3 They now occupy only seven villages, and the whole popu- lation does not exceed fifteen hundred families, of whom nearly one thousand are collected in the town of Lenidhi. The language of the Tzakones is marked by many peculiarities ; but whether it be a relic of the dialect of the Kynourians, who, Herodotus informs us, were, like the Arcadians, original inhabitants of the Peloponnesus, and consequently of the Pelasgic race, or of the Laconians called Oreatse — whose traditions, according to Pausanias, were different from those of the other Greeks — seems to be a question that admits of great doubt. 4 While the rest of the modern Greeks, from Corfu to Trebizond, speak a language marked by the same grammatical cor- ruptions in the most distant lands, the Tzakones alone retain grammatical forms of a distinct nature, and which prove that their dialect has been framed on a different type. 5 It cannot, therefore, be doubted that they have a strong claim to be regarded as the most direct descen- 1 See Chacoignie in the index to the Livre de la Conqueste, and T£a.KG>vla under the head of the letter T in the Index Geographique of the Greek text, edit. 1845. 3 Boissonade, Anecdota Grceca, torn. hi. p. 164. 3 Turcogrcecia, 489. 4 Herodotus, viii. 73. Pausanias, Lacon., xxiv. 5 Kodrika, in his Observations sur les Opinions de quelques Hellenistes touchant le Grec modern, reckons thirteen spoken dialects of modern Greek, including Tzakonian, which, however, can no more be considered a dialect of modern Greek than Dutch can be considered a dialect of English. VARIOUS RACES IN GREECE. 41 dants of the ancient inhabitants of the Peloponnesus that now exist ; and whatever may be the doubts of the learned concerning their ancestors, these very doubts establish a better claim to direct descent from the ancient inhabitants of the province they occupy, than can be pleaded by the rest of the modern Greeks, whose constant intercommuni- cations have assimilated their dialects, and melted them into one language. 1 The district of Maina has frequently been supposed to have served as an inviolable retreat to the remains of the Laconian race ; but the inhabitants of Maina have lost all memory of the very names of Laconia and of Sparta : they have adopted a foreign designation for their country and their tribe. Part of the district they now inhabit abounds in Sclavonian names of localities, and their language does not vary more than several other dialects from the ordinary standard of modern Greek. On the other hand, the people of the eastern mountain range of Laconia have only corrupted the pronunciation of the name of their country by the modification in the sound of a single letter, Zakonia for Lakonia, and their language bears the impression of a more ancient type than any modern Greek dialect. SECTION IX. SUMMARY. At the time Greece was conquered by the Othoman Turks, it was inhabited by six different nations as culti- vators of the soil. All these different people, conse- quently, formed permanent elements of the population, for the true test of national colonisation is the cultivation of the soil by the settlers. It is the only way in which 1 The most important works on the Tzakonian language are Leake's Researches in Greece, 196; Peloponnesiaca, 304; Thiersch Ueber die Sprache der Zalconen, in the Transactions of the Royal Academy of Munich. 42 CHANGES OF THE POPULATION. chap. i. a nursery of the colony can be created. These national § 9. races were — the Greeks, who had then become the most ' numerous portion of the population both in the Pelopon- nesus and the continent ; the Tzakones, who, though like the other Greeks they are the representatives of a Greek race, must still be considered a distinct people, since they speak a language unintelligible to the modern Greeks ; the Sclavonians, the Bulgarians, the Vallachians, and the Albanians. The whole civilisation and literature of the country were in the hands of the Greeks, and whatever the others learned, it was from them the knowledge was acquired. Greek priests were the teachers of religion to all, and the rulers of the church that guided every inha- bitant of the land. The Frank races and the Latin church, though enjoying great power and wealth for two centuries and a half, were unable to destroy this influ- ence, and were always regarded as strangers on the Hellenic soil. Nevertheless, we have seen that the tra- ditions of ancient Hellas were so completely forgotten by the modern population, that the ancient geographical nomenclature of the country had disappeared. The mountain-peaks visible to cultivators from valleys that rarely communicated with one another, and the rivers that fertilised distant plains, though their names must have been in daily use by thousands of tongues, lost their ancient names and received strange designations, which became as universally known as those which they sup- planted. Yet in some continental districts, and in most of the islands, we find Hellenic names still preserved, so that this very circumstance of their partial preservation is used as an argument for the complete extinction of the Hellenic race in those districts where Hellenic names have been utterly effaced. Numerous names, unquestion- ably of foreign origin, are scattered over the surface of the country, and many Greek names in use are derived from circumstances that attest the establishment of foreign REVOLUTIONS IN THE POPULATION OF GREECE. 43 colonists in the country. 1 It must, however, be observed, chap. i. that this change from Hellenic to modern Greek appears § 9. almost as complete in some portions of Greece into which we have no evidence that the Sclavonians ever penetrated, as in the heart of the Peloponnesus, where for ages they lived in a state of semi-independence. In Eubcea, the change is almost as great as in the Morrha of Elis. By what process, therefore, the ancient Hellenic population were melted into Byzantine Greeks — or, as they long called themselves, Romans — may therefore, by many, be con- sidered as an unsolved problem. The vicissitudes which the great masses of the nations of the earth have undergone in past ages have hitherto received very little attention from historians, who have adorned their pages with the records of kings, and the personal exploits of princes and great men, or attached their narrative to the fortunes of the dominant classes, without noticing the fate of the people. History, how- ever, continually repeats the lesson that power, numbers, and the highest civilisation of an aristocracy, are, even when united, insufficient to insure national prosperity, and establish the power of the rulers on so firm and per- manent a basis as shall guarantee the dominant class from annihilation. On the other hand, it teaches us that con- quered tribes, destitute of all these advantages, may continue to perpetuate their existence in misery and con- tempt. It is that portion only of mankind which eats bread raised from the soil by the sweat of its brow, that can form the basis of a permanent national existence. The history of the Romans and of the Jews illustrates these facts. Yet even the cultivation of the soil cannot always insure a race from destruction, " for mutability is nature's bane." The Tbracian race has disappeared. 1 Sklavokliorion, Phrangokastron, Arnaoutli, and Turkovryssi have been mentioned. Hebraiokastron (Jew being put as a term of contempt for stranger,) Pbrangolimiona, Phrangovryssi, Venetiko, Vlakhiko, Tiukokliorion, and many Albanian and Turkish proper names, might be added. 44 HOSTILITY OF GREEKS AND LATINS. chap. i. The great Celtic race lias dwindled away, and seems § 9. hastening to complete absorption in the Anglo-Saxon. The Hellenic race, whose colonies extended from Mar- seille to Bactria, and from the Cimmerian Bosphorus to the coast of Cyrenaica, has become extinct in many countries where it once formed the bulk of the popula- tion, as in Magna Grsecia and Sicily. On the other hand, mixed races have arisen, and, like the Albanians and Vallachians, have intruded themselves into the an- cient seats of the Hellenes. But these revolutions and changes in the population of the globe imply no degra- dation of mankind, as some writers appear to think, for the Romans and the English afford examples that mixed races may attain as high a degree of physical power and mental superiority as has ever been reached by races of the purest blood in ancient or modern times. CHAPTER II. CAUSES OF HOSTILE FEELINGS BETWEEN THE BYZANTINE GREEKS AND THE WESTERN EUROPEAN NATIONS. SECT. I. POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. The Byzantine empire was brought into direct collision with the western Europeans towards the end of the eleventh century. As the representative of the Roman empire, it counted a longer political existence, free from radical revolution, than had ever been attained by any preceding government. Alexius V., whom the Crusaders hurled from the summit of the Theodosian column, was the lineal political representative of Constantine and Augustus. The wide extent of territory over which the Greek race was dispersed, joined to its national tenacity of character, and the organisation of the Eastern Church, enabled the Roman administration in the Eastern Empire to quell the military anarchy that rendered the western provinces a prey to rebellious mercenaries and foreign invaders. The Goths, Huns, Avars, Persians, Saracens, and Bulgarians, in spite of their repeated victories, were all ultimately defeated. When Constantinople was apparently on the point of yielding to the united assaults of the Avars and Persians in the reign of Heraclius, the empire rose suddenly as if from inevitable ruin, and the imperial arms reaped a rich harvest of glory. Again, when assailed by the invincible Saracens in the first fer- 46 HOSTILITY OF GREEKS AND LATINS. chap, ii. vour of their religious enthusiasm, the administrative § L organisation of imperial Rome arrested the progress of their armies under the walls of Constantinople, and gradually rolled back the tide of conquest till Mount Taurus became the barrier of the empire. The Byzantine armies had stopped the full force of the torrent before Charles M artel encountered one of its minor rills. At a later period the Bulgarian kingdom was destroyed, and many of the lost provinces in Europe recovered, so that the Danube, in the eleventh century, became again the frontier of the Eastern Empire. Age succeeded age without witnessing any sensible decline in the fabric of this mighty empire ; and while the successors of Haroun Al Rashid and Charlemagne were humbled in the dust, and their power became as completely a vision of the past as the power of Alaric and Attila, the Byzantine govern- ment still displayed the vigour and energy of mature age. The great concentration of power systematically exer- cised in the hands of the emperor, the necessity imposed by the organisation of the government of selecting Emperors of talent, the systematic form of the administration, the regular and scientific dispensation of justice, the subser- vient position of the Greek church, some remains of the municipal and local institutions of the population, and the tenacity of national habits in the Greek race — all exerted their influence in maintaining the longevity of the Eastern Empire. The relations of these various elements to one another were, of course, like all things human, con- stantly undergoing change. The troubled government of the Iconoclast dynasties presents the imperial power striving to subject the church to the state, and to make the central government absolute in the local administra- tions. History boasts that the Iconoclasts failed to impose their pure religious forms of worship on their subjects, but it overlooks the fact that their policy was successful in as far as it subjected the church to the state, LONGEVITY OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. 47 and annihilated the political importance of local institu- tions. The legislative and administrative system of the Basilian family consolidated the despotism planned by the Iconoclasts. Extensive reforms were effected in every branch of the government, and their fruits are visible in the vigorous administration which for a century and a half characterises the Byzantine annals. The warriors, the statesmen, and the legists of this period are worthy of a higher place in the world's history than they have attained ; but their personal renown is obscured, and their individuality lost, in the monotonous movements of a mighty administrative machine, which shows its own power sufficient to command results that even valour and wisdom are sometimes incompetent to secure. Yet even at the time the Byzantine empire exhibited the most striking evidence of its power, we perceive many marks of internal weakness. There was no popular energy in the inhabitants directed to their own improve- ment. But to solve the contradictions in the political and social condition of the Byzantine empire would require a review of the moral as well as the political civilisation of its varied population, extending far beyond the strict limits of historical research, into the field of analogy and conjecture. Some of the antagonistic prin- ciples at work in the Byzantine society must, however, be noticed. The government, the church, and the people were all three, for a long period, in constant opposition ; their material interests were so different, that no tie of common faith or national feeling could incorporate them into one body. The Emperor as head of the adminis- tration, and the Patriarch as chief of the clergy, frequently acted in direct opposition to the interests and feelings of the Greek nation. Yet the want of all popular municipal organisation emanating directly from, and responsible to the people, prevented the Greeks from creating within themselves the moral power of public opinion, and 48 HOSTILITY OF GREEKS AND LATINS. chap. ii. hindered them from attaining definite practical views § l. concerning the improvement of their condition. Local prejudices, growing out of restricted communications, pro- duced a blind selfishness that nourished rivalry and hatred in the servile communities that were allowed to exist. The Byzantine empire in the middle of the eleventh century embraced the richest and most civilised portion of the world ; both in extent and population, it greatly surpassed any other European state. The Danube served as its northern boundary, but it included under its power the southern part of the Crimea. With the exception of Bosnia, it embraced all Turkey in Europe, Greece, and the Ionian Islands. In Asia its eastern frontier commenced on the shores of the Black Sea, be- yond the mouth of the Phasis, and passing below the mighty peaks of the Iberian and Armenian mountains, by the summits of Ararat and the shores of the lake of Van, it descended to the plains of Mesopotamia, gained the banks of the Euphrates, and joined the Mediterranean at the northern slopes of Mount Libanon, including within its limits the populous city of Antioch and the rich island of Cyprus. 1 In judging the Byzantine government according to modern ideas, it is often necessary to regard the change of emperors and dynasties as something nearly equivalent to a change of ministers and parties. The imperial power was generally not more endangered by the murder of an emperor, than the monarchical principle by a change of ministers. Revolutions at Constantinople assumed the character of supreme criminal tribunals, and pretended to punish national crimes. Society had not then learned to frame measures for guarding against abuses of the executive power, and it had sense enough to perceive 1 The limits of the tliemes or provinces of Lykandos and Mesopotamia, and of the Dukedom of Antioch, were liable to frequent changes. The possessions on the Syrian coast, which the emperors proudly designated as their conquests in Palestine and Phoenicia, did not reach so far south as Tripolis. THEORY OF BYZANTINE GOVERNMENT. 49 that this power must be invested in government without chap. ii. direct control. The theory that the emperor concen- § 1. trated in his person the whole legislative, as well as the executive power, was universally admitted ; yet the people regarded his authority as a legal and constitutional sove- reignty, and not an arbitrary sway, for he presented him- self to their minds as a pledge for the impartial admini- stration of that admirable system of law which regulated their civil rights. The emperors, however, claimed to be the selected agents of divine power, and to be placed above those laws which they could make and annul. 1 Yet, absolute as their servants in the state and their flatterers in the church proclaimed them, many enlightened men repeated the truth that they were restrained in the exercise of their power by the promulgated laws of the empire, by the fixed order of the administration, by the immemorial privileges of the clergy, and by the established usages of local communities ; and each successive emperor, at his coronation, was compelled to subscribe his submis- sion to the decrees of the general councils and the canons of the Orthodox Church. 2 Thus the regular administra- tion of justice by fixed tribunals according to immutable rules of law, the order of the civil government based on well-defined arrangements, the limits on financial oppres- sion by established usages, the restraint of military violence by systematic discipline, and the immunities secured by ecclesiastical privileges and local rights, became parts of the Byzantine constitution, and were guaranteed by the murder of emperors, and by those revolutions and rebel- lions which the absence of hereditary right to the throne made so frequent. Strictly speaking, it is true that the state consisted only of the imperial administration, of 1 "E^eart yap tchs £k Qeov ttjv aluovoplav tcov KOv, p.ovs~ov ttjv nis"qv, MrjTe uno Ta avvqOud pas, tov vopov Ttov 'Papaioiv. FEUDAL ORGANISATION OF THE PELOPONNESUS. 209 conqueror bent on pillage. He offered terms of peace a. d. that put an end to all grounds of hostility ; while the 1206-7. continuance of the war would expose them to certain ruin, as the invading army must then be maintained by plunder. The Greek people, destitute of military leaders, freed from alarm by the small number of the French troops, and confiding in the strict military discipline that prevailed in their camp, submitted, without violent oppo- sition, to a domination which did not appear likely to become very burdensome. The French, for their part, sought rather to obtain possession of estates in the rural districts, and to establish themselves in castles at a distance from the towns, than to reside in the cities, and become embroiled in the political business of the town population. The two nations quickly perceived that their interests and habits of life would allow them to live together in greater harmony than they had supposed possible at first sight, from the strong contrast produced by their different states of civilisation, and the adverse prejudices of their religious feelings. William de Champlitte seems to have remained about three years in the Peloponnesus, and during that time he completed the conquest of more than one-half of the peninsula. 1 He organised the invading army into a feudal society, completed a register of the territory par- titioned among his knights and soldiers, in the style of the famous Doomesday-book of England, and regulated the terms and the nature of the service which the differ- ent vassals were bound to perform. The arrangements adopted afford us an interesting insight into the manner of life of the dominant class in this feudal colony, and throw considerable light on an interesting but dark period of medieval history. 1 His departure took place apparently in 1208, or early in 1209, as Geffrey Villeliardoin appeared as bailly of the principality at the parliament of Ravenika, in the summer of 1209. O 210 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. viii. The feudal organisation of Acliaia is now a dream of § i. the past, and a record of men who have left no inheritors ; but every dream or tradition that enters the domain of literature, must have exercised sufficient influence on the minds of men to make it deserving of calm investigation. Enthusiasts, by means of a few well-known phrases of sacred writ cunningly misapplied, have authorised deeds of rapine and murder by recollections of Jewish history. The songs of the Scandinavians encouraged the piracies of the Vikings of the north. The romances concerning Charlemagne and his twelve peers formed the political repertory of the French nobles during the middle ages, and from this strange magazine of the art of government they drew many of their rules of conduct in state affairs. One of these rules was, that in every well organised state the sovereign ought to be surrounded by twelve peers. It was necessary, therefore, for Champlitte, as prince of Achaia, to form his court of twelve peers, if he intended to arrogate to himself the position of a sovereign ; and it appears that such a court was really constituted, though it is difficult to ascertain at what precise period the arrangement was made. The Chronicle of the Conquest pretends that the complete distribution of the fiefs was effected by a commission consisting of Geffrey Villehar- doin, two knights, two Latin prelates, and four Greek archonts, on the same basis as that which had been adopted in the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, whose assize or code of laws had been adopted as the guide for the legislation of the new empire of Romania. The Greek archonts were evidently admitted as members of the commission only as representatives of the city population, to secure the observance of the capitulations, and to see that no encroachments were made on private property. The scheme of partition, when completed, was formally adopted by Champlitte and the army, with various general laws concerning the internal government of the FEUDAL SYSTEM IN ACHAIA. 211 principality. In short, what in modern language would chap. vhi. be called the constitution of Achaia was then promulgated. § l. The slight sketch of the institutions adopted at this time that has been transmitted to us is unfortunately inter- polated with additions of a more modern date, added after the house of Anjou of Naples had acquired a claim to the suzerainty of the principality. In its principal features, however, if not in all its details, we can easily trace the spirit of an earlier age. A domain was marked out for the prince ; and And- ravida, where probably a great confiscation of imperial property had taken place, was fixed upon as the capital of the principality and the residence of the sovereign. Twelve baronies were formed, and every baron possessing more than four knightVfees was bound to serve in person with two banners, one accompanying his own person and the other with his contingent, which consisted of a knight and two sergeants for each fief he possessed. The baronets who possessed only four fiefs, without having a town under their guardianship, had only a single banner, and, in addi- tion to their own personal service, were bound to appear accompanied by a knight and twelve sergeants. A number of single knight's-fees and sergeant's-lands were likewise distributed among the troops, and all were bound to per- sonal service. The archbishop of Patras was recognised as primate of the principality, and received eight fiefs to maintain the dignity of his position ; while his six suffragan bishops and the three military orders of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, the Temple, and the Teutonic Order, each received four. Military service in this feudal colony was declared to be permanently due by the vassals. Four months' duty in garrison and four months' service in the field compelled the vassal to be generally absent from his fief. Even during the four months which he was entitled to spend on his property, he was bound to hold himself in constant 212 PRINCIPALITY OP ACHAT A. chap. viit. readiness to brace on Lis armour, and defend both his own § !• possessions and those of his absent companions, in case of revolt or invasion. It was the duty of the prince and the parliament to arrange the various terms of service of the different vassals in such a manner as to insure a sufficient defence for the lands of those who happened to be absent on military service, and the nature of this duty greatly increased the authority of the prince. The prelates and the military orders were exempt from garrison-duty, but in other respects they were bound to furnish the military service due from the fiefs they held like the other vassals of the principality. The courts of justice were modelled on the institutions of France; but the assize of Jerusalem, which was adopted at Constantinople as the code of the Latin empire, under the title of the Assize of Romania, was received as the legal code of the principality. Indeed, the principality of Achaia presented a miniature copy of the empire, which proved more durable than the original. 1 The geographical division of the baronies of the prin- cipality throws considerable light on the early history of the conquest. The first vassal in rank and importance was unquestionably Geffrey Villehardoin, on whom Champlitte had conferred the fief of Kalamata imme- diately after its conquest, and who was elected bailly by the vassals on the death of Hugh, who had been left in that capacity when William was obliged to quit the prin- cipality to visit France. 2 But the list of the baronies as 1 The assize of Jerusalem, as we possess that code, was remodelled at a later period, but a number of regulations were established, and a register like Doomesday-book was formed either by Godfrey or his brother Baldwin. It was imitated in the kingdom of Cyprus by Richard Coeur-de-Lion and Guy de Lusignan. The Assises dm Royaume de Jerusalem have been published by count Beugnot, in the splendid work entitled Ilistoricns des Croisades, under the title Assises de Jerusalem, ou Recueil des Ouvrages de Jurisprudence, composes pendant le X/II e . Steele, dans les Royaumes de Jerusalem et de Chypre, 2 vols, folio, Paris, 1 841—43. A Greek text has been published in part by Zacharia, Histories Juris Grceco-Romani Delinatio, p. 137. The Assises de Romania are inserted in the work of Canciani, Barbarorum Leges Antiquce, torn. iii. Ven., 1781, 1792, 5 vols, folio. 2 Villehardoin, p. 123. Though Buchon's edition generally offers the best text, there appears to be an inadvertence at this place, as Coron is said to be SCLAVONIANS IN ACHAIA. 213 we now possess it elates after Villehardoin had gained a.d. possession of the principality, and in it the most important 1207. barony in a military point of view, and the largest in extent, was that of Akova. This barony embraced the valley of the Ladon, and the district that still retains the name of Achoves. It protected the rich valley of the Alpheus and the plains of Elis from the attacks of the Sclavonians, who occupied the mountains to the north of the upper valley of the Alpheus, immediately to the east of the possessions of the baron of Akova. The country inhabited by the Sclavonians was called Skorta, and the French had found it for their interest to detach these Sclavonians from the Greek cause by a separate treaty, concluded soon after the taking of Patras, which left them in possession of their local independence, with all the privileges they had enjoyed under the Byzantine emperors. 1 The Sclavonians of Skorta, or the Gortynian district, and of Melingon, or the slopes of Mount Tay- getus, were at this period the only survivors of the great immigration that had threatened to exterminate the Hellenic race in the eighth and ninth centuries. The barony of Akova, established to watch these independent mountaineers, was endowed with twenty-four knightV fees ; and the fortress which its barons constructed as a bulwark of the French power was called Mategrifon, or Stop-Greek. 2 The barony next in importance was that of Karitena the city granted to Geffrey ; but Coron in the act of partition is appropriated to the Venetians, and we know that Kalamata was the family fief of the Ville- hardoins. 1 Litre de la Conqueste, p. 39, where Skorta is called Escorta. The word appears to be a corruption of Gortys, in this locality. 2 Colonel Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 149, and Boblaye, Recherches Geogra- jihiqucssur les Rubies de la Moree, p. 152, agree in thinking that the ruined castle named Galata, near the site of Teuthis, marks the position of Akova, or Mate- grifon. Perhaps armorial bearings may be some day discovered in the ruins, that will identify this important position. Meletius calls it Iakova, and says it was in ruins in his time, p. 403. The western nations at this time generally called the Greeks Grifons. Ducange, Glossarium medice et injimce Latinitatis, v. Griffones. Compare Richard of Devizes. Bohn's Chronicles of the Crusaders, p. 19, 41. 214 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. viii. or Skorta, placed within the limits of the territory once § !• held by the Sclavonian Skortiots, and commanding the ordinary line of communication between the central plains of the Peloponnesus and the western coast. The castle of Karitena, which the French constructed, was well selected as a post for maintaining the command of the upper valley of the Alpheus, while it secured the passes into the maritime plain. This barony consisted of twenty- two knightVfees. The two great baronies of Akova and Karitena formed the barrier of the French possessions both against the Sclavonians of Skorta and the Greeks of Argolis, and the Byzantine garrisons of Corinth, Argos, and Nauplia. The other important military positions in which baronies were established, but which are now deserted and almost unknown, were Veligosti, Gritzena, Passava, Geraki, and Nikli. Veligosti was a considerable Greek town at the epoch of the invasion, but, like Andravida, it had grown up in a time of general security, and was without fortifications. It was situated on a low hill near the point of intersection of the ancient roads from Sparta to Megalopolis, and from Messene to Tegea, where they quit the mountains to enter the upper valley of the Alpheus. Its site is not far from the modern town of Leondari, which rose out of its ruins about the end of the fourteenth century. The barony of Veligosti consisted of only four knight's-fees, but the city lying within the baron's military jurisdiction gave him baronial rank. Gritzena was the barony created to watch the Sclavonian mountaineers on Mount Taygetus — the Melings of Byzan- tine history — and to defend the valley of the Pamisas against their incursions. 1 Passava was an advanced post established in the heart of Maina, to tame the Greek 1 Gritzena was in Lakkos, the name given to the upper part of the great Messenian Valley ; but its exact position is not known. — Booh of the Conqxicst, Greek text, p. 73, v. 617. BARONIES IN ACHAIA. 215 mountaineers of the savage peaks that run out into the chap. viii. sea to the south of the great summits of Taygetus, and § h to protect the Greek maritime community in the city of Maina, at the extreme southern point of the Peloponnesus. It was situated on the eastern coast of the promontory, about four miles to the south of Gythium, where the ruins of a castle destroyed by the Venetians under Morosini may still be seen rising over the foundations of a city of the heroic age. 1 Passava was rather a frontier garrison than a mere fief ; and as, from its situation, it was exposed to have its regular communications with the rest of the principality frequently interrupted, it required to be occupied by a permanent body of troops. The baron of Passava was consequently named hereditary marshal of Achaia, as being the head of what might be looked upon as the standing army and military establishment of the principality. His office gave him full baronial power in his territory, as well as peculiar judicial authority in the army, though his fief consisted of only four knight's-fees. The selection of this singular position for a French fortress, where the garrison could neither assist in protecting their own possessions from invasion nor attack the flank or rear of the enemy to advantage, and which was placed in a district where cavalry was utterly useless, leads us irresistibly to the conclusion that it was connected princi- pally with trade or naval warfare, and that its object was to protect the commerce of the Greek subjects of the principality, or perhaps the privateers which from the ports of Maina issued out to plunder any flag that was viewed with hostile feelings, or which promised profit and impunity to the corsairs. Geraki was built on the lower slope of the mountains that rise to the east of the valley of the Eurotas, near the site of Gerouthrse, 1 Colonel Leake identifies Passava with Las, a city destroyed by Castor and Pollux. — Leake's Travels in the Morea, i. 256. Strabo, lib. viii. c. v. 95, p. 36L Boblaye, Bccherches, 87. Coronelli gives a plan of the fort, p. 38. 216 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. viii. and was well situated for covering the lower plains from § i. the forays of the mountaineers of Tzakonia, and the incursions of the Byzantine garrison of Monemvasia. Nikli was a walled town of considerable importance, occupying the site of Tegea, and commanding the lines of communication between the southern provinces of Lace- dsemonia and Messenia, and the northern of Corinthia and Argolis. 1 Only a portion of the territory allotted to several of the feudatories had been subdued in the time of William de 1 The list of the feudatories of Achaia given by count Beugnot in his edition of the Assizes de Jerusalem, p. 428, is taken from the imperfect edition of the Greek Chronicle published in 1840. Buchon's subsequent editions of the French and Greek texts supply the means of correcting it ; but it must not be forgotten that, as far as its chronology is concerned, the authority is doubtful. The following is the list :— Fiefs. Geffrey de Villehardoin, Walter de Rosieres, Hugh de Brieres, . William de Alaman, Hugh de Charpigny, Robert de Tremouille, Otho de Tournay, . William Mathew de Mons, Luke Guy de Nivelet, John de Neuilly, hereditary Marshal, 1. Kalamata, . 2. Akova, Karitena or Skorta, Patras, Vostitza, Chalandritza, Kalavryta, . 8. Nikli, . 9. Veligosti, 10. Gritzena, 11. Geraki, 12. Passava, •24 •22 All those rated at only four knight's-fees must have had a city under their jurisdiction, or else been in possession of a baronial office. The list of the twelve barons of Achaia having the right to build fortresses and exercise supreme jurisdiction, which is given in the Achaian copy of the Assize of Romania, art. 43 and 94, is of a comparatively modern date, probably about the middle of the fourteenth century. Compare Buchon, Recherches et Materiaux, p. 118. The ecclesiastical barons were : — 1. The archbishop of Patras, primate of Achaia, 2. The bishop of Olenos or Andravida, . 3. ... Modon, 4. ... Coron, 5. ... Veligosti, 6. ... Nikli, afterwards transferred to Mouchli called Arnyclse, . 7. ... Lacedaomon, Fiefs. and The military orders : — 1. The knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, 2. Temple, 3. Teutonic order, HEIRS OF CHAMPLITTE DISPOSSESSED. 217 Champlitte, whom the news of his elder brother's death A . d. compelled to return suddenly to France, in order to 1210. secure his rank in the nobility of Europe by receiving investiture of his paternal inheritance, and taking the oath of fealty to his suzerain within a year. SECT. II. ACQUISITION OF THE PRINCIPALITY BY GEFFREY VILLEHARDOIN — GEFFREY T. ; GEFFREY II. William de Champlitte left his relation Hugh to act as his bailly in the principality during his absence; 1 but, Hugh dying soon after the prince's departure, Geffrey Villehardoin was elected by the feudatories to act as bailly, on account of the high reputation he enjoyed for ability and warlike skill, for his influence over the Greek population, and for his intimate connection with the family of Champlitte. The election was in strict con- formity with the feudal usages established in the empire of Romania. Geffrey availed himself of his position to increase his popularity with the feudatories and subjects of the principality, and did everything in his power to gain the friendship and favour of Henry, emperor of Romania, and the great vassals of the empire. He obtained from the emperor Henry a grant of the office of seneschal of Romania, which raised him to the rank of great feudatory of the empire at the parliament of Ravenika, where he had appeared previously only as the bailly of William de Champlitte. The manner in which he possessed himself of the principality of Achaia is extremely obscure, but it seems to have been done in an unjust and fraudulent way. From the terms in which the acquisition is stigmatised in the assize of Jerusalem, it is implied that William of Champlitte died while Villehardoin was acting as his bailly, and that the 1 We learn from a letter of Pope Innocent III. that the name of the bailly was Hughde Cham — , doubtless Champlitte. — Tom. ii. 488, edit. Baluze. 218 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. viii. bailly basely availed himself of the defenceless condition § 2. of his patron's infant children in France, to rob the absent orphans of their heritage. 1 The Chronicle of the Conquest of the Morea gives a different account of the method by which Geffrey Ville- hardoin gained possession of the principality. The character of the baillj gains very little by the altered circumstances. He is represented as having retained possession of the principality by a dishonourable fraud, instead of seizing it by a bold crime. It was known in the Peloponnesus that Champlitte proposed sending Robert de Champlitte, a young member of his own family, to replace his relation Hugh. The nomination was dis- pleasing both to Villehardoin, and to the barons and troops who had undergone all the fatigues of the conquest, and who feared to behold a crowd of young nobles arrive from France to share the spoils of war without having shared its dangers. A plot was formed to reject the title of the new bailly. It is said that Geffrey sent envoys to Venice, who induced the doge to retard as much as possible the arrival of Robert de Champlitte, and that the Venetian ship in which he had engaged a passage to the Morea treacherously left him on shore at Corfu. At last Robert arrived in the Morea, and then Geffrey avoided meeting him for some time, and led him into the interior of the province, where a meeting at length took place at Lacedsemon. An assembly of the barons, knights, and clergy, favourable to the projects of Villehardoin had already assembled, and in this parlia- ment Robert claimed to be received as bailly of Achaia in 1 Assises de Jerusalem, MS. de Venice, e. 272, appendix to count Beugnot's edition. It is evident that a general reprobation of the manner in which Villehardoin acquired Achaia prevailed, even from the expressions of the Livre de la Conqueste, p. 59. In a letter of pope Innocent III., dated 4th March 1210, Geffrey is called only Seneschal of Romania. — Tom. ii. p. 409, edit. Baluze. But at the end of March he receives the title of the Prince of Achaia in the Pope's letters. — Tom. ii. p. 420, ep. 23, 24, 25, edit. Baluze. CONQUESTS OF VILLEHARDOIN. 219 virtue of his cousin's act of investiture, which he produced, a. d. The assembly, however, had already concerted with 1209. Villehardoin the manner in which the claim was to be disallowed. It was pretended that William de Champ- litte had engaged to cede the principality to Villehardoin in case he failed to return, or send a bailly to govern it on his own account within a year from the day of his departure. The parliament now declared that, the year having expired, they were bound to acknowledge Villehar- doin as prince of Achaia. In vain Robert de Champlitte argued that, even according to this compact, he was entitled to be received as bailly, for he had landed in the princi- pality before the expiry of the year. The parliament replied that of that circumstance they were incompetent to judge, as the public act of his appearance in the parlia- ment of the principality could alone be taken into con- sideration. Robert, seeing that it was vain to resist, demanded a certificate of the decision and returned to France, while Geffrey Villehardoin was acknowledged prince of Achaia. Such is the story of the Chronicles — a story evidently false, but which proves that Villehardoin had really been guilty of something worse. Geffrey had conducted himself with great prudence and talent during the time he ruled as bailly. He had successively conquered the cities of Veligosti, Nikli, and Lacediemon, though the two last were fortified with strong walls ; and he had granted favourable terms of capitula- tion to the Greek inhabitants. He then laid siege to Corinth, which on the death of Leo Sguros had placed itself under the protection of Michael, despot of Epirus. 1 The conquest of Corinth was of vital importance to all the Frank establishments in Greece, for, so long as it remained in the hands of the despot of Epirus, the com- munications of Achaia with the great feudatories in 1 Acropolita, p. 6. Compare the lettei- of Innocent III., lib. xv. ep. 77 — torn, ii. p. 628, edit. Baluze. 220 PRINCIPALITY OF AC MAI A. chap. viii. northern Greece were exposed to be constantly interrupted, § 2. and their armies to be attacked on the flank and rear. In the spring of 1209, Geffrey Villehardoin and Otho de la Roche united their forces before the walls of Corinth, but they had hardly commenced the siege when they were summoned to attend the parliament of Ravenika, where Villehardoin was raised to the office of seneschal or high steward of Romania. The peace concluded shortly after between the emperor Henry and the despot Michael prevented the Franks from renewing their attack on Corinth. That fortress, with Argos, Nauplia, Monem- vasia, and the whole of Argolis and Tzakonia, remained in the possession of the Greeks. 1 The conduct of the Latin clergy, at this time, was far less charitable than that of the French nobles and knights ; and it required all the prudence and firmness of Geffrey to prevent their avarice and bigotry from interrupting the friendly relations established with the Greek population under the Frank government. Even pope Innocent III., the most zealous of pontiffs in the acquisition of temporal power, was compelled to rebuke the Latin archbishops for the violence with which they treated the Greek bishops who had recognised the papal supremacy. The Pope, satisfied with the acknowledgment of his own authority, was not inclined to allow the Latin prelates to drive the Greeks from their episcopal sees, in order to confer the vacant benefices on the herd of clerical emi- grants and poor relations of the barons, who flocked to the East to profit by the conquest. 2 The violent conduct of these ecclesiastical fortune-hunters compelled Geffrey to become the defender of the Greeks, and the enemy of clerical abuses. As the clergy of Achaia frequently sold 1 It seems, from a letter of Pope Innocent III., that the Franks had at one time gained possession of Argos. They must have lost it again, or restored it to the Greeks at the peace concluded with the despot of Epirus. — Ep. Innoc. IT I., lib. xv. ep. 77. 2 Epist. Innocent III., lib. x. ep. 51 ; lib. xi. ep. 179 ; torn. ii. p. 23, 228. CONDUCT OF PAFAL CLERGY. 221 the fiefs they had acquired, and returned home with the profit, Geffrey steadily enforced the law of the emperor Henry, prohibiting all donations of immovable property to the church, either in life or by testament ; and, even though the all-powerful Innocent III. threatened him with excommunication, he persisted in his course. At the same time, he sent envoys to Rome to explain to his holiness the peculiar difficulties and exigencies of his situation. After the death of Innocent, Gervais the patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated botli Geffrey and Otho de la Roche, for their conduct to the clergy ; but they were both relieved from this interdict by the order of Honorius III. 1 Geffrey I. strengthened his family influence and in- creased his political importance by the marriage of his son and successor Geffrey, with Agnes, daughter of the emperor Peter of Courtenay, and sister of the emperors Robert and Baldwin II. In the year 1217, the empress Yoland sailed from Brindisi to proceed to Constantinople by sea, when her husband undertook the unfortunate expedition through Epirus in which he perished. On the voyage the fleet of Yoland stopped at the port of Katakolo, then protected by a castle called by the French Beauvoir, of which the ruins, still existing, are distinguished by the degraded name of Pondikokastron, or the Castle of Rats. Geffrey Villehardoin immediately presented himself to the empress' as her seneschal, and invited her to repose a few days at the castle of Vlisiri, in the neighbourhood, while the fleet revictualled. During this visit the marriage of young Geffrey with Agnes Courtenay was celebrated with due pomp, in presence of the empress Yoland. 2 Geffrey I. appears to have died about the year 1218. 1 Epist. Innocent III., torn. ii. p. 421, 486. Raynaldi, Ann. Eccles., anno 1218, torn. i. p. 438, edit. Lucca. Buchon, Recherches et Materiaux, 141. 2 Buchon, Recherches et Materiaux, p. 146. The Chronicles of the Conquest give the following account of this marriage, which they pretend happened after the death of Geffrey I. They narrate that the emperor Robert (I) sent a 222 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. viii. The commencement of the reign of Geffrey II. was § 2. troubled by a serious quarrel with the Church. The joung prince proposed to assemble the whole military force of Achaia, in order to drive the Greeks from the fortresses they still possessed in the Peloponnesus, and complete the conquest of the peninsula. But when he summoned the clergy and military orders to send their contingents to the camp, they refused to obey his orders. In spite of all the opposition his father had offered to the aggrandisement of the church, the clergy and the military orders had acquired possession of almost one- third of the conquered territory ; and they now, in defiance of the constitution of the principality, refused to send their con- tingents into the field, declaring that the clergy held their fiefs from the Pope, and owed no military service, except at his command and for holy wars. Had Geffrey II. permitted these pretensions to pass unpunished, there would have been a speedy end of the principality of Achaia. Without a moment's hesitation, therefore, he seized all the fiefs held by the clergy on the tenure of military service ; and when it happened that a clerical vassal had no other revenue, he assigned him a pension sufficient for his subsistence from the public treasury. This statesmanlike conduct threw the Latin church in fleet to convey his daughter from Constantinople to Catalonia, as she was en- gaged to the king of Aragon. This fleet touched at Katakolo, and Geffrey II., then prince of Achaia, persuaded the young princess to accept him for her husband instead of the king of Aragon. The quarrel that ensued between the emperor and the prince was arranged at a parliament held at Larissa, where the emperor Robert conferred on his son-in-law the feudal superiority over the Archipelago, the title of prince of Achaia, the office of grand senes- chal, and the right of coining silver pennies, (petits tornoys.) The emperor also delivered to the prince a copy of the usages of Romania, which the em- peror Baldwin, Robert's brother, had received from Jerusalem. In return, the prince became the liege-man of the emperor. Now it is evident that this fable must have been invented after the Catalans had conquered Attica, and rendered themselves a terror to the French. It was a gratification to French vanity to hear of this imaginary insult inflicted on a Spanish king by a French prince. But after this specimen of the way in which times, places, and per- sons are confounded, it must be evident that history and chronology cannot by any process be extracted from such a mass of inaccuracy. On the other hand, much may be learned concerning manners and customs. PAPAL CHURCH SUBJECTED TO CIVIL POWER. 223 the East into a state of frenzy, and Geffrey II. was im- a. d. mediately excommunicated. But excommunication was 1219-1222. not a very terrific weapon where the majority of the population was of the Greek church, so that the prince of Achaia was enabled to pursue his scheme of compelling the church to submit to the civil power without much danger. In order to prove to the world that his conduct was not influenced by avarice, he proposed, in the parliament of the principality, that all profits resulting from the eccle- siastical fiefs placed under sequestration should be em- ployed in constructing a strong fortress, commanding the whole western promontory of Elis, as well as the port of Clarentza, which was then the principal seat of the trade of the principality with the rest of Europe. The walls of this fortress, called Chlomoutzi, and sometimes Castel Tornesi, by the Greeks, still exist, situated at the distance of about three miles from the remains of Clarentza ; and during the revolution against the Turks, it was defended for some time against the troops of Ibrahim Pasha. 1 Three years were employed in its construction. When it was terminated, the declining state of the Latin empire induced Geffrey II. to send an embassy to the Pope, to prevail on his holiness to interpose his authority in such a manner as to put an end to the quarrel with the church in Achaia. The prince expressed his readiness to restore all the fiefs that had been placed under sequestration ; but he required that the possessors should engage to per- 1 Chlomoutzi was frequently called Clarenza, as well as Castel Tornesi, by the Franks. It received the latter name probably from having contained the mint and treasury of the princes of Achaia. It was generally termed Clair- mont by the French of the principality. Colonel Leake derives Chlomoutzi from xXoo/ioy, xXe/ixof, or x^H-os. — Peloponnesiaca, p. 210. Most of the coins of the princes of Achaia extant are inscribed as coined at Clarencia, but many are found also with Corintum. Colonel Leake remarks — " An unfounded opinion has long prevailed, and has been repeated by some of the latest travellers, that the name of the English dukedom of Clarence was derived from Klarentza. But there can be no question that Clarentia or Clarencia was the district of Clare in Suffolk. The title was first given, in 1362, by Edward III. to his third son, Lionel, when the latter succeeded to the estates of Gilbert, earl of Clare and Gloucester." — Peloponnesiaca, p. 212. 224 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. viii. form military service : for without this service, he pointed §2. out that it would be impossible to defend the country against the Greeks, who were emboldened, by the suc- cesses of Theodore, despot of Epirus, and Theodore Las- karis, emperor of Nice, to contemplate the expulsion of the Franks from the Peloponnesus. Honorius III. was so satisfied that the pretensions of Geffrey II. were just and reasonable, that he ordered his legate at Con- stantinople, John Colonna, to absolve him from excom- munication. 1 The vigour displayed by Geffrey extended his power, by gaining the voluntary submission of a powerful vassal. The count of Zante and Cephalonia, though brother-in- law of Theodore, despot of Epirus, became a vassal of the principality of Achaia, in order to secure the support and alliance of Geffrey II. 2 In the year 1236, Constantinople was threatened by the united forces of the Greek emperor, John III. (Vatatzes,) and the Bulgarian king, John Asan. On this occasion Geffrey hastened to its relief with one hundred knights, three hundred crossbowmen, and five hundred archers, and with a considerable sum of money, raised by a tax which he had been authorised by Pope Gregory IX. to levy on the clergy of the principality, for the purpose of succouring the Latin empire. All these supplies were embarked in a fleet of ten war galleys. 3 The Greeks attempted in vain to intercept the Achaian squadron : their fleet was defeated, and Geffrey entered the port of Constantinople in triumph. 4 He again visited 1 Most of the facts relating to the quarrel between Geffrey II. and the clergy of Achaia are only mentioned in the Chronicles, but here their authority is confirmed by various documents. — Raynaldi, Annates Eccles., an. 1222, torn. i. p. 501, edit. Lucca. 2 Alberic, (trium fontium,) p. 558. Buchon, Histoire des Conquetes des Fntn- $ais dans les Etats de VAncienne Grece, p. 215. 3 Raynaldi, Annates Eccles., an. 1236, torn. ii. p. 15.0. 4 Alberic, 558. Philip Mouskes, in Ducange's edition of Villehardoin, p. 224, 227. UNJUST CONCESSIONS OBTAINED FROM BALDWIN II. 225 Constantinople in the year 1239, to honour the coronation of his brother-in-law, the emperor Baldwin II., by doing homage for his principality and for the office of seneschal. On this occasion he lent the young emperor a considerable sum of money ; and as he was a prudent prince rather than a generous relation, he exacted from the imprudent Baldwin the cession of the lordship of Courtenay, the hereditary fief of the imperial family in France, as the price of his assistance. This hard bargain was doubly usurious, since part of the money advanced consisted of the funds Geffrey had been authorised by the Pope to levy on the ecclesiastics of Achaia for the service of the empire. The cession of Courtenay, extorted from the young Baldwin by his brother-in-law, vassal and grand seneschal, under these circumstances, appeared to the equitable mind of Louis IX. of France so gross an act of rapacity, that as feudal suzerain he refused to ratify the act, and compelled the parties to annul the transaction. 1 It seems, however, not improbable that Geffrey received a compensation in the East in lieu of the lordship of Courtenay, for he continued to maintain a hundred knights and crossbowmen at Constantinople for the service of the empire — a contingent which, though he might have been bound to maintain it as a great feudatory, and in conse- quence of the tax levied under the papal grant, he would perhaps have found the means of eluding, had it not been particularly his interest to please and cajole the emperor. 2 It seems, therefore, that these events may be connected with the claim of suzerainty subsequently advanced by the principality of Achaia over the other great fiefs of Romania in Greece, though it must be remembered that there is no evidence of the circumstance in history. Geffrey may, indeed, only have wished to gain such a 1 Baldwin's reply to the letter of St Louis is printed in Buchon's Recherches et Mater iaux, p. 153. 2 Raynaldi, Annates Ecclcs , on. 1244, torn. ii. p. 304. 226 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. viii. suzerainty in lieu of the lordship of Courtenay, without § 3 - having succeeded ; which, indeed, appears to be the most probable conjecture. Geffrey II. died about the year 1246, without leaving any children, and was succeeded in the principality of Achaia by his brother William. SECT. III. — WILLIAM VILLEHARDOIN COMPLETES THE CONQUEST OF THE MOREA. CEDES MONEMVASIA, MISITHRA, AND MAINA TO THE EMPEROR MICHAEL VTII. William Villehardoin was born in the castle of Kala- mata, and was therefore the first prince of Achaia who had some pretensions to be regarded as a native of Greece. In the eyes of the Greek catholics, at least, he was a countryman, and as he spoke the language of the country, and entered into the prejudices and political views of the Eastern princes, he gave the principality of Achaia a more prominent position in the eyes of the Greeks than it had hitherto occupied. Even the Frank nobility of his dominions had now acquired something of an Eastern character, and become weaned from their attach- ment to France, where the rank and fortune of their ancestors had generally been much inferior to that which they themselves held in Greece ; and they began to drop their family designations, and adopt the titles of their Eastern possessions. The first act of William was to take measures for com- pleting the conquest of the Peloponnesus. But the Greek empire of Nicsea had now grown so powerful that he could not expect to besiege the maritime cities of Nauplia and Monemvasia with any prospect of success, unless he could secure the aid of one of the Italian com- mercial states. Policy pointed out the Venetian republic, which was in possession of Modon, as his natural ally ; and he concluded a treaty with the Venetians, by which CONQUEST OF CORINTH. 227 they engaged to maintain the blockade of Nauplia and a. d. Monemvasia with four war galleys, in consideration of the 1247. cession of Coron, to which they laid claim, as a portion of their territory under the original partition treaty of the Byzantine empire. The prince of Achaia considered it necessary, also, to increase his land forces, by obtaining the assistance of Guy de la Roche, the Grand-sire of Athens and Thebes ; and it would appear that this was purchased by a promise of the cession of Argos and Nauplia to the Athenian prince, to be held by the freest holding known to the feudal system. Guy joined the Achaian army with a considerable force, and the first operations of the Franks were directed against Corinth. The city was soon taken, and the Acrocorinth closely blockaded by the construction of two forts ; one to the south, on a peaked rock which was called Montesquiou, now corrupted into Penteskouphia ; the other to the north-east. The citadel was thus cut off from receiving any supplies. The impregnable fortress, well supplied with water and provisions, might have defied all the efforts of its besiegers, had its garrison not consisted in great part of the proprietors of the lands around. These men, when they saw their houses ruined by the Frank soldiers, their olive-trees cut down for fuel, their orchards and vineyards destroyed, their grain reaped by the enemy, and their own supplies gradually diminishing, began to think of submission ; and they soon consented to surrender the mighty bulwark of the Peloponnesus to the Franks, on condition of being allowed to retain possession of their private property and local privileges, like the other Greeks under the Frank domination. To these terms William Villehardoin consented, and took possession of the Acro- corinth. Nauplia was then invested, for Argos seems to have offered no serious resistance. The siege of a strong mari- time fortress offered many difficulties to the Franks. On 228 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. vin. the land side Nauplia was quite as impregnable as the § 3. Acrocorinth, while the position of its citadel, Palamedi, afforded greater advantages for sorties, and its port was sure to receive frequent supplies, in defiance of the efforts of the Venetians to keep up a strict blockade. The inhabitants of the neighbouring provinces of Argolis and Tzakonia were a warlike race of mountaineers, exercised in skirmishes with the Latins, and whose activity and knowledge of the country rendered it a matter of diffi- culty to the besiegers to prevent convoys of provisions, and foraging parties, from being cut off by the enemy. These circumstances sustained the courage of the besieged, so that very little progress was made towards reducing the place by military operations, when Guy de la Roche succeeded in disposing the minds of the Greeks to a capi- tulation, by his success in cutting off all supplies on the land side, and driving back the mountaineers into their own districts, while, at the same time, he negotiated with the Greek proprietors in the fortress ; and by contrasting the fiscal rapacity of the Byzantine government with the more moderate pecuniary demands of the French princes, he succeeded in persuading them to agree to terms of surrender. The terms of capitulation were such as to place the Greeks of Nauplia in much more favourable circumstances than the rest of their countrymen. They, as well as the free mountaineers of Argolis, submitted to the Frank domination under the same financial and municipal arrangements which were applied to the subject Greeks ; but, as a guarantee for the strict preservation of their commercial privileges, the citizens of Nauplia were allowed to keep possession of the fortifications of the town and the port, while the Franks only placed a permanent garrison in the citadel on Palamedi. 1 The Greeks con- 1 It seems singular that Palamedi is not mentioned by name in the Chroni- cles ; but there can hardly be a doubt that the two fortresses alluded to are Palamedi and Itch-kale. The insular fort is too insignificant to be the one that was left in the hands of the Greeks ; and Palamedi must then have been SQKREKDEll OF MONEMVASIA. 229 sidered it an additional security for the observance of the a. d. treaty, that Guy de la Roche was invested with the fiefs 1248. of Nauplia and Argos. Monemvasia was now the only fortress in the hands of the Greeks, and Tzakonia the only province that preserved its independence. The town of Monemvasia, situated on a rock rising out of the sea, so near the mainland as to be joined to it by a long bridge, was quite impregnable ; but the insecurity of its port, or rather, its want of a port capable of protecting ships from the enemy, exposed it to suffer every evil that could be inflicted by a naval blockade. The activity of the Venetian and Achaian squadrons, which had safe ports of retreat at Epidaurus, Limera, and Zarax, from whence they could watch the sea around, effec- tually excluded all supplies ; yet the place was defended until the third year. At last the inhabitants, seeing no prospect of relief from the Greek emperor, John III., who was then occupied with the war in Thrace, and hav- ing suffered all the miseries of famine, made an offer to capitulate. 1 They were allowed to retain possession of their private property ; and, instead of being bound to furnish a contingent of armed men for the military service, they engaged to supply a certain number of experienced sailors to man the galleys of the prince of Achaia, for the same rate of pay as they had hitherto been in the habit of receiving from the Byzantine emperors. The surrender of Monemvasia was followed by the com- plete submission of the Tzakonian mountaineers, who then occupied all the country from Argolis to Cape Malea. fortified, not only on account of the passion of the military engineers of the time for occupying almost inaccessible peaks, but also because an enemy, even with the engines then in use, could from its sides have set fire to the town below. 1 The three years of the Chronicles were 1246-7-8, for there is a letter of William, prince of Achaia, to Thibaut, king of Navarre, dated at Lacedaernon in Feb. 1248 ; and as the year then began in March, this is really Feb. 1249. This letter must have been written after the fall of Monemvasia. It is there- fore necessary to suppose that the blockade commenced at the same time as the siege of Corinth. 230 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. vm. William, having completed the conquest of the eastern § 3. coast, turned his arms against the Sclavonians of Mount Taygetus and the Greeks of Maina, whom he now resolved to reduce to the same state of immediate dependence on his government as the other inhabitants of the peninsula. The richest possessions of the Sclavonians were situated in the plain of the Eurotas, near the lowest slopes of the mountain. In order to cut them off from the resources they derived from this property, the prince of Achaia determined to build a fortress that should command their communications with these rich possessions. For this purpose he selected a rocky hill that bore the name of Misithra, about three miles from the city of Lacedsemon, and five from Sklavochorion, the chief town of the Scla- vonian population of the district. On this hill William erected a strong castle, and at its base his Frank followers constructed a fortified town, that they might live as much as possible separate from their Greek and Sclavonian subjects. Misithra soon became the capital of the district, and it still remains the most considerable place in the valley of the Eurotas. 1 The residence of the prince was established within its walls, and the medieval Lacedaemon soon sank into the same state of desolation as the ancient Sparta, over whose ruins it had risen ; nor have the ill- judged royal ordinances promulgated in the modern kingdom of Greece, to revive classic names and create imaginary cities by destroying existing towns, succeeded in rendering Sparta a rival to Villehardoin's city. The Sclavonians, overawed by the proceeding of the prince, which they did not dare to interrupt, sent envoys offering to submit to the Frank domination, to pay a fixed tribute, 1 The name of Misithra, pronounced generally at present Mistra, was the name applied to the locality before Villehardoin constructed his citadel. — Greek Chronicle, v. 1663. But whether the name was introduced by the Sclavonian colonists, or derived from ancient Greek, has been warmly disputed by the learned Zinkeisen, Geschichte Griechenlands, p. 855. Fallmcrayer, Enstehung derheutigen Griechen, 90. FOUNDATION OF MAINA AND LEFTBO. 231 and to furnish a contingent of armed men on the same a.d. terms as they had formerly acknowledged the supremacy 1248. of the Byzantine government ; but they demanded, and obtained, exemption from direct taxation and feudal services, and it was stipulated that no Frank barony was to be established within their limits. About the same time William likewise completed the conquest of the Mainiates, and ordered two castles to be constructed in their territory, to keep them in subjection. One of these castles was situated at Maina, in the vicinity of the Tsenarian promontory, and the other at Leftro, on the west coast near Kisternes. The Mainiates, intimidated by the garrisons of these fortresses, and by the galleys of the prince, which interrupted their communications, and cut them off from receiving supplies from the Greek empire, submitted to the same terms as had been imposed on the rest of their countrymen. It seems that the operations against the Tzakonians, Sclavonians, and Mainiates, were carried on simultaneously, and they were thus prevented from concentrating their forces and affording one another aid. The whole of the Pelo- ponnesus was thus reduced under the Frank domination by William Villehardoin, before the end of the year 124.8. 1 The prosperity of the Franks of Achaia had now attained its highest point of elevation. Their prince was the recognised sovereign of the whole peninsula. His revenues were so considerable, that he was enabled to 1 Pachymeres, torn. i. p. 52, edit. Bom., proves that Kisterna, or Kinsterna, was the name applied to the district along the north-western coast of Maina, below Zygos, which embraces the two modern capitaneries of Platza and Melaia. It is not incorrectly described by the Byzantine historian as a district abounding in good things, to nepl rr\v Kivsrepuav depa nokv ye ov to prjicos kol iroXhols (Bpvuv Toh dycftols. Leftro is the ancient Leuktron ; but there is a difference of opinion concerning the position of Maina. Colonel Leake thinks the castle erected by Villehardoin is that still called Maina, above Porto Quaglio ; and the vicinity of the only fountain in the promontory renders this opinion the most probable. — Peloponnesiaca, 142. There is a port called Kis- ternes, to the south of Porto Quaglio. The geographical nomenclature of Greece is singularly poor, and the same names are as often repeated as in Eng- 232 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. viii. build a cathedral at Andravida, and several fortresses in § 3. his principality, without oppressing his subjects by any additional taxes. The barons also constructed many well fortified castles and impregnable towers throughout the country, of which numerous ruins still exist. The wealth of all sought frequent opportunities of display, in festivals and tournaments that rivalled the most brilliant in western Europe, and their splendour was the theme of many minstrels. While the principality was in this flourishing condition, William took the cross and joined the crusade of St Louis, who invaded Egypt, after passing the winter in the island of Cyprus. The prince of Achaia, and Hugh, duke of Burgundy, sailed from the Morea in the spring of 1249, to join the king of France. On their way they stopped at Rhodes, to assist the Genoese in defending that island against the Greek emperor, John III. The Achaian and Burgundian forces soon compelled the Greeks to abandon the siege of Rhodes, and the two princes continued their voyage. They fell in with the fleet of St Louis off the coast of Cyprus, and the united force landed at Damietta on the 4th of June. As Louis remained several months at Damietta without advancing, William Villehardoin demanded permission to return to his principality, from which he did not consider it prudent to be long absent. William's ambition increased with his wealth and power, and he began to regret the liberality with which lish colonies. The only ruins of a considerable medieval town, in this vicinity, are on the west coast of the cape, at the site of the ancient Tasnaros, about four miles from the extreme southern point ; and this appears to be the town called Maina in the Byzantine period. — Const. Porph. de Adm. Imp., c. 50. p. 134. There are also considerable remains of a fortress to the north of Cape Grosso, on the peninsula called Tigani — from its resemblance to a frying-pan. This place is also called Kisternes, and is supposed by Boblaye to be the Maina of Villehardoin. — Eecherches Geographiques, p. 92. But the towns at Taenaros and Tigani appear both to have existed before Villehardoin's time. Here, however, we have three Mamas and three Kisternas to exercise the sagacity of antiquaries and the subtility of the Greeks, when they begin to devote some attention to the study of their own history. WILLIAM CLAIMS HOMAGE FROM SIRE OF ATHENS. 233 he had rewarded the services of his ally, Guy de la Roche, chap, vitl He sought a quarrel with his former friend, and called § 3. on the prince of Athens to do personal homage for the fiefs of Argos and Nauplia ; and, if we can credit the Chronicles, he even pretended to the suzerainty over the lordships of Athens and Thebes, on the plea that this superiority had been vested in the princes of Achaia by the king of Saloniki. The claim to a right of suzerainty may possibly have been made, but there can be doubt that it was never based by William Villehardoin on a grant to Champiitte. It could only have arisen out of something that had happened since the parliament of Ravenika. Guy de la Roche was now an old man ; he had arrived in Greece in the year 1208, and may have attended his uncle Otho, at the parliament of Ravenika, when the relations of all the grand feudatories of the empire of Romania were definitively arranged. What- ever claim Villehardoin may have really made, it excited the indignation of de la Roche, as an insulting and unjust demand. He replied, that he was willing to acquit him- self of the feudal obligations due for the fiefs of Argos and Nauplia, by furnishing the military service they owed to the prince of Achaia ; but he refused to pay any per- sonal service, or to swear fealty, for he declared the fiefs were conferred free of personal homage. War followed. The Athenian army was defeated at Karidhi, and the dispute was referred to the decision of king Louis of France, as has been already mentioned. The king of France evidently thought William the party most to blame in this transaction, as he had considered his brother, Geffrey II., deeply culpable in the matter of the lordship of Courtenay. The Villehardoins seem to have been rather too rapacious, and too sordidly addicted to seek profit in chicanery. Louis absolved the sovereign of Athens from all criminality, and considered that the question at issue, whatever its precise terms may have 234 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. viii. been, was one that justified private war between two § 3. great feudatories. 1 William Villehardoin married a daughter of Michael II., despot of Epirus. This alliance, joined to his own enterprising and warlike disposition, led the prince of Achaia to join his father-in-law in a war against the Greek empire. The disturbed state of the court of Nicsea, after the death of the emperor Theodore II., held out great hopes to the despot and his allies, of gaining both honour and an extension of territory by the war. William joined Michael with all the forces of Achaia ; but the united army was defeated, in the plains of Pelagonia, by the Byzantine troops, though inferior in number, in con- sequence of the skilful military combinations of John Paleologos, the brother of the emperor Michael VIII. Prince William of Achaia, after fighting bravely with the Frank cavalry, until he saw it all destroyed, fled from the field of battle. He gained the neighbourhood of Kastoria in safety ; but he was there discovered by his pursuers con- cealed under a heap of straw, and his front teeth, which projected in a remarkable manner, enabled them to identify their prize. 2 He was sent prisoner to the emperor Michael VIII., who retained him in captivity for three years. The conditions on which William at length regained his liberty inflicted an irremediable injury on the prin- cipality of Achaia. He was compelled to cede to the Greek emperor, as the price of his deliverance, the for- tresses of Monemvasia, Misithra, and Maina, the very cities which were especially connected with his own glory ; 1 Livrede la Conqucste, p. 114. 2 Acropolita, 94. The desertion of John Dukas, prince of Vallachian Thessaly, natural son of Michael II. despot of Epirus, was said to have caused the loss of this battle ; and this desertion was caused by the behaviour of William prince of Achaia. The wife of John Dukas, the heiress of Vlachia, who was extremely beautiful, had accompanied her husband to the camp : the French knights made unseemly demonstrations of gallantry to attract her attention. Her husband was offended, and quarrels ensued, in which blood was shed. The prince of Achaia, taking part with his young knights, accused John Dukas of exciting dissension in the camp, and insulted him to his face, by calling him a bastard, and no better than a slave. Pachymeres, i. p. 50, edit. Rom. FRENCH EXPELLED FROM LACONIA. 235 and he engaged, besides, with solemn oaths and the direst imprecations, never to make war on the Greek emperor — ratifying his assurances of perpetual amity by standing godfather to the emperor's youngest son, which was considered a sacred family tie amongst the Greeks. Yet the Chronicles, speaking in the spirit of the times, declare that he resolved to pay no attention to these engagements, as soon as he could obtain the authority of the Pope and the Latin church to violate his oath, trust- ing that his Holiness would readily release him from obligations entered into with a heretic and extorted by force. The ecclesiastical morality of the age viewed the violations of the most sacred promises as lawful whenever they interfered with the interests of the papal church. 1 But the emperor Michael VIII. respected his own pro- mises too little, to place any confidence in the good faith of the prince of Achaia, with whatever oaths it might appear to be guaranteed, and he would not release his prisoner until the three fortresses were consigned to Byzantine garrisons. From this period the history of the Morea assumes a new aspect. It now becomes divided into two provinces — one held by the Franks, and the other immediately dependent on the Greek emperor of Constantinople. The Greek population began to aspire at expelling their heterodox masters, and a long series of national wars was the con- sequence ; but as the numbers, both of the Franks and Greeks who bore arms, continually diminished, these wars were principally carried on by foreign mercenaries. The country was hourly exposed to be laid waste by rival rulers, and the people pillaged by foreign soldiers, and 1 The Greek Chronicle lays down the church principles of the time in very plain language : — u Oi opKoi eKeivoi ottov entice '. 7 ; and by Buchon, Recherches et Math iuvx, p. 30. The second son of Charles of Anjou is called Philip by the French historian, and Louis by the Chronicles of the Conquest. CONFISCATION OF BARONY OF AKOVA. 241 underwent a considerable change at this period, though it is impossible for us to trace in detail the connection of the causes with the effects produced. The commerce of the East was rapidly passing out of the hands of the Greeks, and centring itself in those of the citizens of the Italian republics, and of the Spanish coast ; besides this, many of the productions of which the Greeks had long enjoyed a monopoly, were now raised more abundantly and of better quality in Sicily, Italy, and Spain. The men of Tzakonia and Maina, no longer able to find con- stant employment in the merchant ships of the Byzantine empire, and cut off from continuing their forays into the Frank territory, sought service in the fleet at Constanti- nople, and aided in ravaging the islands of the Archi- pelago which were in the possession of the Franks, or the coasts of Asia Minor that had been conquered by the Turks. The women, old men, and children, were left as the principal inhabitants of the mountain districts in the Peloponnesus, because their labour was sufficient for the collection of the olives, valonia, dye-stuffs, and mulberry- leaves, and for weaving cloth and rearing silk-worms, which were the only occupations of any profit in their country. Many entire families, however, quitted their native moun- tains and settled at Constantinople. 1 The eventful reign of William Villehardoin at last drew to a close. The only act recorded of his latter years proves that rapacity was the characteristic feature of his mind, as it had been both of his brother and his father. Under the pretext of executing the strict letter of the feudal laws of Romania, which he had shown him- self so ready to infringe in the case of the duchy of Athens, he perpetrated a most disgraceful violation of every principle of equity, and for which he had no apology to offer. Ambition might be urged as a plea in excuse 1 Nicephorus Gregoras., 58. Pachymeres, i. 209, edit. Rom. Leake, Pelo- pomiesiaca, 35. 242 PRINCIPALITY OF ACIIAIA. chap. viii. for his attack on the independence of Guy de la Roche, § 4. but avarice and ingratitude darkened the infamous rapa- city he displayed in seizing the property of Margaret de Neuilly. When William had been released from his captivity by the Greek emperor, he had been forced to give hostages for his faithful execution of all the stipula- tions in the treaty. One of these hostages was a child, the daughter of his friend John de Neuilly, baron of Passava, and hereditary marshal of Achaia. The young lady was willingly allowed to reside at the court of Constantinople ; for at that time there was no better school for female education in Europe than the household of the princesses of the Byzantine empire ; and as Margaret would be received under the sacred character of a hostage, her parents knew that she would be treated with every care, and receive such an education as could hardly be obtained by a king's daughter in any feudal court. The young lady remained a prisoner until peace was concluded between the prince of Achaia and the emperor of Constantinople. She then returned to Greece to find her father, the mar- shal, dead, and her paternal castle of Passava in the hands of the Greeks. Her fortune, however, was still brilliant, for she was heiress of her maternal uncle, Walter de Rosieres, baron of Akova, the lord of four-and-twenty knight's-fees, who had died a short time before her father. When Margaret de Neuilly presented herself at the court of the principality of Achaia to claim the investiture of her father's empty title, and of her uncle's large estates, she met with an answer worthy of the pettifogging spirit of Villehardoin. The worthless investiture of the barony of Passava, and the empty honour of the hereditary title of marshal, were readily conferred on her, as her father had died within a year. But her claim to the barony of Akova was rejected on the plea that her uncle had been dead more than a year ; and in consequence of her not having demanded the investiture in person within a year MARGARET YILLEIIARD01N, LADY OF AKOVA. 243 and day after his decease, the fief was forfeited according a. d. to the provisions of the feudal code. 1 To her allegation, 1277. that she had only been prevented from appearing to claim the investiture of her heritage by the act of the prince of Achaia himself, who had placed her person in pledge as a hostage, William replied, that the terms of the law made no exception for such a case ; and as every vassal was bound to become hostage for his lord, he was equally bound to suffer every loss which might be entailed on him in consequence of fulfilling this obligation. The barony of Akova was, therefore, declared to have reverted to the prince of Achaia as its immediate lord-paramount. By this mean subterfuge William Villehardoin obtained pos- session of the most extensive barony in his principality, and defrauded the orphan daughter of his friend of her inheritance. Margaret de Neuilly married J ohn de Saint- Omer ; and her brother-in-law, Nicholas de Saint-Omer of Thebes, came to Andravida with great pomp to plead her cause before the high court of Achaia. The appeal, how- ever, proved fruitless. The influence of the prince secured a confirmation of the previous decision, legalising his meanness and ingratitude. Prudence, some slight respect for public opinion, and, perhaps, some fear of the great power of the family of Saint-Omer, induced the prince of Achaia to grant eight knight's-fees out of the barony to Margaret and her husband ; but he retained the others, which he bestowed on his younger daughter, Margaret, who was called the Lady of Akova, or more commonly the Lady of Mategrifon ; and on her the sins of her father were visited. William Villehardoin died at Kalamata, the place of his birth, in the year 1277. He left two daughters, Isabella and Margaret. Misfortune soon extinguished his race. Matilda of Hainault, the daughter of Isabella, 1 William's authority for his unjust seizure of the barony of Akova is found in chap. clxxii. bis of the Assises de Jerusalem, torn. i. p. 267, Beugnot. 244 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. viii. was deprived of the principality of Achaia, and died § s. childless, a prisoner in the Castel del Uovo at Naples ; Margaret, the lady of Akova, died a prisoner in the hands of the barons of Achaia, who were displeased at her sanctioning her daughter's alliance with the house of Aragon ; and her daughter Elizabeth, after marrying Fernand of Majorca, the enemy of the French, died in childbed at Catania. 1 SECT. V. ISABELLA DE VILLEHARDOIN. FLORENZ OF HAINAULT. PHILIP OF SAVOY. Isabella de Villehardoin lost her betrothed husband, Philip of Anjou, while both were children. During her minority the administration of the principality of Achaia was carried on by baillies appointed by Charles, king of Naples, in virtue of his rights as lord-paramount of the principality acquired by the treaty of Viterbo. Under these baillies, war was renewed with the Byzantine governors of Misithra ; and the Peloponnesus was wasted by the continual forays of the Franks and Greeks, until it fell into a state of anarchy, during which all the landed proprietors, but especially the Greek population of Achaia, suffered severely from the extortions of the poli- tical and military adventurers, who made the war a pretext for amassing wealth in the principality. William de la • Roche, duke of Athens, governed the principality for ten years, and his administration seems to have been tempe- rate and not unpopular : but after his death, the state of things became intolerable ; and at last the barons became so impatient of their sufferings, that they petitioned Charles II., king of Naples, to send them a prince, who, as the husband of Isabella, would take up his residence among them. Charles selected Florenz of Hainault, a Muntaner, chap, cclxv. Buchon's Genealogy of the House of Villehardoin — Recherches et Materktux. FLORENZ OF HAINAULT. 245 cadet of one of the noblest houses of Belgium, who had A . D . visited Naples to seek his fortune in the military service 1291-1297. of the house of Anjou, as a prince worthy to receive the ' hand of Isabella and the government of the principality of Achaia, in the critical condition to which it was reduced. After the celebration of the marriage, the king of Naples invested Florenz with sovereign power, as regent for his wife, and renounced for himself the use of the title of the prince of Achaia, which was to be borne by the actual sovereigns of the country, and not by the lords-paramount, who had begun to assume it ; but he reserved the homage due to the crown of Naples, and he added a provision, that in case Isabella should become a widow, without having a male heir, it should neither be lawful for her, nor for any female heir to the principality, to marry without the consent of the kings of Naples, as their feudal suzerains. 1 The reign of Isabella and Florenz lasted about five years. It was afterwards looked back to by the popu- lation of the Morea with regret, as the last prosperous epoch in the Frank domination. Florenz of Hainault showed that he really wished to remedy the evils under which the country was suffering. His first measure was to conclude a treaty of peace with the Greek emperor Andronicus II. ; and as soon as he was relieved from the necessity of keeping large bands of military retainers in constant movement, he occupied himself seriously in reforming the internal government. But though his administration was subsequently regretted, because suc- ceeding times were worse, still his government was marked by many scenes of violence, of a nature that prove the general state of society in the Morea to have been very little removed from the confines of intestine war. Men 1 Livre de la Conqueste, p. 291, 293, notes. Ducange, Hlstoire de Constan- tinople, edition de Buchon, torn. ii. 375, Extrait d'un Memoire touchant les Droits du Roi de Majorque. Muntaner, p. 521, edit. Buchon. 246 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. viii. who had it not in their power to revenge the injuries § 5 - they sustained with their own strength, had very little chance of obtaining justice. A few anecdotes, illustrative of the social state of Greece at this period, taken from the chronicles written during the next generation, will afford a more correct delineation of the nature of the government, and the condition of the people, than any narrative founded on the scanty official documents that have been preserved. Florenz named one of his Flemish relations, Walter de Luidekerke, governor of Corinth. Walter maintained a gallant establishment ; but the revenues of his barony being insufficient to support his magnificent style of housekeeping, he supplied the deficiency in his budget by various acts of pillage and extortion. In those days it was not easy for the prodigal to run into debt unless they possessed large landed estates; the luxurious and extravagant military chieftains could only repair their finances by robbing strangers and waylaying and ransom- ing travellers : it was reserved for a chivalry of a later age to preserve its social pre-eminence, by defrauding tradesmen or cheating friends. At a moment when Walter de Luidekerke was in want of money, it happened that a wealthy Greek, named Photes, visited some property he possessed within the limits of the province of Corinth. The governor, immediately on hearing of his presence, sent a party of his men-at-arms to seize Photes, pretending that he was violating the treaty with the Byzantine authorities, by living at free quarters within the limits of the Frank territory. When the prisoner was secured, the peasants of the district were incited to make a demand for damage done by Photes, to the amount of ten thousand perpers ; 1 and Walter insisted that this sum 1 These perpers must have been silver coins of ten to a gold florin, as mentioned page 249, note. Joinville says the gold besant was worthed sols $ argent. Such byzants cannot have been of the value of the old Byzantine gold pieces from the fall of the Western empire to the reign of Isaac II. Angelos. BARON OF VOSTITZA MURDERED. 247 should be paid to him by his prisoner. Photes, who chap. viii. knew the accusation was got up as a pretext to extort § 5. money, treated the demand with contempt ; and though he was imprisoned and treated with great severity, resisted the demands of Walter with constancy, not thinking that the governor would dare to make use of any personal violence, which might become a ground of war with the Byzantine government. But the governor of Corinth was determined to obtain money, even at the most desperate risk; and in order to compel Photes to agree to his demands, he ordered two of the Greek's teeth to be extracted. As it was now clear that William was ready to proceed to extremities, Photes consented to purchase his liberty, by paying one thousand perpers. 1 As soon as Photes was released from confinement, he applied for justice to the Byzantine governor of Misithra, who represented the matter to the prince of Achaia ; but Florenz, who was anxious to protect his relation, and not inclined to regard his extorting money from a Greek as a very serious offence, affected to believe that the accusa- tion brought by the peasants was well founded, and rejected the claim for satisfaction. The Byzantine authorities did not consider the moment favourable for taking any measures that might lead to a renewal of hostilities ; so that Photes, disgusted with his ineffectual attempt to obtain justice, resolved to seek revenge. Hearing that his enemy was returning to Corinth from Patras, he assembled some armed men, and placed himself in ambush near the road along the southern shore of the Corinthian gulf. While he was thus on the watch, a galley was perceived coining from the entrance of the gulf, and bearing the pennon of a Frank knight. It approached the shore, and a young noble, with light hair and a fair complexion, landed to dine near a fountain shaded with plane-trees, not far from the ambush. The 1 This would be one hundred gold florins. 248 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. viii. Greeks cautiously crept up to the spot ; and Photes, § 5. seeing a man the picture of Walter cle Luidekerke seated on a carpet, as his attendants prepared his meal, became inflamed with rage at the sight of his oppressor ; and rushing forward, with his drawn sword struck the knight several blows, exclaiming, " There, my lord Walter, take your quittance." The attendants of the prostrate noble recognised the assailant, and shouted " Photy, Photy ! what are you doing 1 It is the lord of Vostitza, not lord Walter." But the information came too late : the blond hair and handsome countenance of the lord of Vostitza had made him the sacrifice for Walter's vices. Both parties raised the wounded knight from the ground, with feelings of deep regret ; for the lord of Vostitza was as much beloved as he of Corinth was disliked. He was conveyed in his galley to Corinth, where he expired next day. The prince of Achaia now called on the Byzantine governor to deliver up Photes, but he met with the same denial of justice he had formerly used. The Byzantine authorities declared that the crime com- mitted was accidental, and originated in a mistake while Photes was in search of a legitimate revenge. In spite of the high rank of the young baron of Vostitza, the affair was allowed to drop ; for it was evident that Florenz could obtain no satisfaction without war, and he did not think it prudent to renew hostilities on account of a private injury. The Sclavonians of Mount Taygetus were still governed by their own local magistrates. They were tributary to the Byzantine government, but not subject to the Byzan- tine administration. Two Sclavonian chiefs, who resided at Ghianitza, about three miles from Kalamata, formed a plan to surprise that fortress. This design was carried into execution by scaling a tower that commanded the internal defences of the citadel, during a stormy night, with a band of fifty followers. At daybreak, the assail- FLORENZ RECOVERS KALAMATA BY BRIBERY. 249 ants were joined by 600 of their countrymen, in good hauberks, who drove the Franks out of the citadel, and garrisoned Kalaniata. The moment prince Florenz heard of this disaster, he hastened to Kalamata, and formed the siege of the place in person ; but the Sclavonians had sufficient time to augment the garrison, and the citadel contained ample magazines of provisions and military stores. The surprisal of Kalamata was an open infraction of the treaty, and Florenz called on the Byzantine governor of Misithra to compel the Sclavo- nians to surrender the place they had so treacherously seized ; but the governor replied that the Sclavonians were a people who lived according to their own customs, and paid no obedience to the laws of the Byzantine empire. Nothing, therefore, remained for the prince but to send an embassy to Constantinople, to demand justice from the emperor Andronicus II. ; and, in the mean time, he prosecuted the siege with the greatest vigour. His ambassadors received very much the same reply from the emperor as the prince had received from the imperial authorities in Greece. At last, however, they succeeded in obtaining the nomination of a Greek commissioner to examine into the facts on the spot, with full powers to terminate the business. This commissioner, whose name, Sguros-Mailly, indicates a family connection with the Latins, was bribed by the Achaian ambassadors, and through his treachery Florenz succeeded in recovering possession of Kalamata, merely on paying the traitor three hundred gold florins, and making him a present of a valuable horse. 1 At this period the Peloponnesus was rich in that 1 Livre de la Conqueste, 350-355. This chronicle makes three thousand perpers equal to three hundred gold florins ; so that it would seem the perper, at this time, was a silver coin about the size of the gros tournois of France, and the gold florin equal in value to those of St Louis or Philip IV. Sguros- Mailly, from his name, must have been what was called a Gasmule — half Greek, half Frank. 1 250 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. viii. accumulation of capital on landed property which forms § 6. the surest mark of a long period of civilisation, and which it often takes ages of barbarism and bad government to annihilate. Roads, wells, cisterns, aqueducts, and plan- tations, with commodious houses, barns, and magazines, enable a numerous population to live in ease and plenty, where, without this accumulation of capital, only a few ploughmen and shepherds could drag out a laborious and scanty existence. Abundance creates markets where the difficulties of communication are not insurmountable. In a fine meadow, near the town of Vervena, a fair of some importance was held, during the thirteenth century, in the month of June. Vervena was subject to the Franks, and was still included in the district of Skorta, once inhabited exclusively by Sclavonians. A rich Greek, named Chalkokondylas, 1 from Great Arachova, on the western side of the Tzakonian mountains, had visited this fair to sell his silk. In consequence of some dispute in the public square, a Frank knight struck him with the stave of a lance. There was no hope of redress for the insult at Vervena, so Chalkokondylas returned home, and laid plans for revenging himself on the Franks by expelling them from the castle of St George, the frontier fortress on the eastern limits of their territory, situated not far from Great Arachova. He succeeded in his project, by gaining over the Greeks employed in the castle to act as cellarer and butler ; and with the aid of a few troops, lent by the Byzantine governor of Misithra, who considered the prize of sufficient value to warrant the treachery, and risk a renewal of hostilities with the prince of Achaia, he made himself master of the strong castle of St George. Florenz, who was never wanting in activity and energy, hastened to besiege the castle in person, hoping to recover possession of it before the Greeks were able to lay in a 1 Called in the French chronicle Corcondille, p. 378. SUZERAINTY OF ACHAIA. 251 store of provisions. Its situation, however, rendered it a. d. almost impregnable, so that a very small force sufficed 1297. for its defence, and there seemed little chance of taking it, except by famine. In order, therefore, to prevent the Byzantine garrison which occupied it from command- ing the roads leading to Nikli and Veligosti, Florenz found it necessary to construct a new castle, called Beaufort, in which he stationed a strong body of men. In the mean time, he sent agents to Italy to enrol veteran troops, experienced in the operations of sieges, and hired the services of Spany, the Sclavonian lord of the district of Kisterna, who joined the Achaian army with two hundred infantry, pikemen, and archers, accus- tomed to mountain warfare, and habituated to besiege their neighbours in the rock forts of their native province. 1 Spany received from the prince of Achaia two fiefs in the plain near Kalamata, and in return engaged to maintain an armed vessel at the command of the prince. But before all the necessary preparations for making a vigorous attack on the castle of St George were completed, Florenz of Hainault died in the year 1297. During the reign of Isabella and Florenz, the suzerainty of Achaia was transferred from the crown of Naples by king Charles II., and conferred on Philip of Tarentum, his second son, on the occasion of his marriage with Ithamar, daughter of Nicephorus, despot of Epirus. Philip received from his father-in-law the cities of Nau- paktos, Vrachori, Angelokastron, and Vonitza, as the dowry of his wife ; and his father bestowed on him Corfu, and all the lands possessed by the crown of Naples in Epirus, in actual sovereignty. These possessions, united to the suzerainty of Achaia, were intended to form the foundations of a Greco-Latin kingdom. The 1 The district of Kisterna, above Kardamyle and Lenktron, appears from existing remains to have been then, as now, filled with defensible towers. Spany was the master of several castles in the district. — Livre cle la Conqueste, 384. 252 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. viii. death of Ithamar, and the subsequent marriage of Philip § 5. of Tarentum with Catherine of Valois, the titular empress of Romania, opened new prospects of ambition to the house of Anjou. Isabella, princess of Achaia, after a widowhood of four years, married Philip of Savoy. The marriage was ratified by Charles IT. of Naples, who invested Philip of Savoy with the actual sovereignty of the principality of Achaia, in the name of his son Philip of Tarentum, the real suzerain. 1 Philip of Savoy, on arriving in the Morea, was compelled by the feudatories of the prin- cipality to take an oath to respect the usages and privi- leges of the state before they would consent to offer him their homage as vassals. He was considerably younger than his wife ; and his fear of losing the government of the principality after her death, and of sinking into the rank of a titular prince on his Italian lands, induced him to employ his time in amassing money, in violation of all the usages he had sworn to respect. In order to avoid awakening the opposition of the Frank knights and barons, he directed his first attacks against the purses of the Sclavoniaus and Greeks who inhabited the privileged territory of Skorta, on whom he imposed a tax. This was a direct violation of the charter under which these people had long lived in tranquillity, and they determined to resist it. The Byzantine authorities at Misithra were invited to assist the insurrection ; and the population of Skorta, with the auxiliary force sent to aid them from the Byzantine province, succeeded, by a sudden attack, 1 For the act of investiture, dated at Rome, 23d Feb. 1301, see Giiichenon, Preuves de VHistoire de la Maison de Savoie, p. 103 ; Buchon's edition of Mun- taner, p. 505. But Buchon in his Nouvdles Rccherches, vol. i. p. 236, and vol. ii. p. 339, has published an act, dated at Calvi, 6th Feb. 1301, in which Charles II. of Naples declares that Isabella bad forfeited her title to the principality, in virtue of the stipulation entered into at the time of her marriage with Florenz of Hainault, prohibiting her or her female heirs to marry without the consent of the kings of Naples, as lords-paramount. It would appear that the influence of Pope Boniface VIII. effected the change in the conduct of the king of Naples ; but Buchon does not even mention this discrepancy in his last work. UNION OF THE GREEKS AND SCLAVONIANS. 253 in capturing the two castles of St Helena and Crevecceur, in the passes between Karitena and tbe lower plain of the Alpheus, both of which they levelled with the ground. The vigour of Philip, who collected all the military force of the principality, and hastened to the scene of action, arrested the progress of the rebellion, and recovered the ground lost by the Franks; but the country was laid waste, the wealth of the knights in the district was diminished, two strong castles were utterly destroyed, and there seemed little probability that means would be found to rebuild them. The ruinous effects of the avarice of the prince became evident to all, and it was made too apparent that the tenure on which the Franks continued to hold their possessions in the centre of the Peloponnesus would, by a repetition of such conduct, become extremely precarious. The Greeks and Sclavonians henceforward made common cause ; and whenever an opportunity was afforded them, they threw off the yoke of the Franks, in order to place themselves under the protection of their Byzantine coreligionaries, who gradually gained ground on the Latins, and year after year expelled them from some new district. To this union of the Greeks and Sclavo- nians for a common object, we must attribute the com- plete amalgamation of the two races in the Peloponnesus, and the creation of social feelings, which soon led to the utter extinction of the Sclavonian language, and the abolition of all the distinctive privileges still retained by the Sclavonian population. Isabella and Philip of Savoy quitted Greece in the year 1304. They appear to have taken this step in consequence of differences with their vassals in the principality, and of disputes with Philip of Tarentum, their lord-paramount, who, after the death of Boniface VIII., seems to have called in question the legality of the investiture granted by his father to Philip of Savoy. 1 1 Ducange, Histoire de Constantinople, 213. 254 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. viii. Isabella died at her husband's Italian possessions in the § 6 - year 1311, and Philip of Savoy then became merely titular prince of Achaia, without having subsequently any direct connection with the political affairs in the principality. 1 SECT. VI. — MAUD OF HAINAULT AND LOUIS OF BURGUNDY. Maud or Matilda, the daughter of Isabella Villehar- doin and Florenz of Hainault, though only eighteen years of age when she succeeded to the principality of Achaia, was already widow of Guy II., duke of Athens. 2 In the year 1313, two years after her accession, she was married to Louis of Burgundy, a treaty having been concluded between the king of France, the duke of Burgundy, and Philip ofTarentum, in which her rights were most shame- fully trafficked to serve the private interests of these princes. Hugh, duke of Burgundy, had been already engaged to Catherine of Valois, the titular empress of Romania ; but it now suited the interests of all parties that Philip of Tarentum, who was a widower, should marry Catherine of Valois ; and in order to bribe the duke of Burgundy to consent, Maud of Hainault was forced to cede her prin- cipality to her husband, Louis of Burgundy, the duke's brother, and to his collateral heirs, even to the exclusion of her own children by any future marriage. Pope Clement V., the royal houses of France and Naples, and the proud dukes of Burgundy, all conspired to advance their political schemes, by defrauding a young girl of nineteen of her inheritance. 3 1 Neither Philip's daughter by Isabella, nor his son by a subsequent marriage, though that son assumed the title of prince of Achaia, had any influence on the public affairs of Greece. — Buchon, Recherches ct Materiaux, p. 260, 280. Data Storia del Principi di Savoia del Ramo d" Achaia, 2 vols. Turin, 1832. 2 Maud, Mahaut, Matilda, Maiatis, and Madr, are all variations of her name found in documents and chronicles, and on coins. 3 On the subject of these arrangements, see page 140, note, and Duchesne, Histoire generale des Dues de Bourgogne de la maison de France, preuves, p. 115. Buchon, Recherches et Materiaux, 238, has printed that part of the treaty which relates to the principality of Achaia. MAUD AND LOUIS OF BURGUNDY. 255 About the end of the year 1315, Maud and Louis set a.d. out from Venice with a small army, to take possession of 1315 - their principality, which was governed by the Count of Cephalonia as bailly for Maud. In the mean time, how- ever, Fernand, son of Don Jayme I., king of Majorca, had married Elizabeth, only daughter of Margaret de Villehardoin, the lady of Akova, or Mategrifon, 1 and he advanced a claim to the principality on the pretext that William Villehardoin had by will declared that the sur- vivor of his daughters was to inherit his dominions. The French barons of Achaia, however, were not inclined to favour the pretensions of a Spanish prince, who might easily deprive them of all their privileges by uniting with the Grand Company which had already conquered eastern Greece. As a precautionary measure they imprisoned the lady of Akova on her return from Messina, where the marriage of her daughter was celebrated, and sequestrated her estates while waiting anxiously to hear from Louis of Burgundy. The lady of Akova died shortly after her arrest. Her daughter Elizabeth only survived a few weeks, dying after she gave birth to Jayme II., king of Majorca, one of the most unfortunate princes that ever bore the royal title. 2 Fernand was a widower before he quitted Sicily to invade Achaia, and he counted far more on the valour of his Almogavars, than on the validity of his son's title to render him master of Achaia. Taking advantage of the war that had broken out between Robert, king of Naples, and Frederic, king of Sicily, he collected a fleet on the Sicilian coast, and sailed from Catania with 1 Elizabeth is sometimes called Isabella d'Adria. The stipulations relating to her marriage with Don Fernand of Majorca are given in d'Acheny, Spici- legium, torn. hi. p. 704, and Buchon's translation of Muntaner, p. 508, edit. 1840. 2 Jayme II., the last king of Majorca, was driven from his dominions by Don Pedro IV., the ceremonious king of Aragon, and fell in battle like his father. It is said that he incurred the implacable hatred of Don Pedro, in consequence of a Majorcan squire in his train giving the horse on which the ceremonious king of Aragon rode, a cut with his whip in a contemptuous manner, as that monarch was making his public entry into Avignon. 256 PRINCIPALITY OP ACHAIA. chap. viii. a corps of five hundred cavalry, and a strong body of the § G - redoubtable infantry of Spain, in 1315. Clarentza and Pondikokastron surrendered on his arrival, and the greater part of the western coast of the Morea was soon subdued ; but Fernand, though a gallant knight, was no general, and his wilfulness ruined the enterprise, and cost him his life, at a moment when it seemed probable that he might have completed the conquest of Achaia, and expelled the French from the Peloponnesus as effectually as his coun- trymen had driven them out of Athens. 1 Early in the year 1316, Louis of Burgundy, who had just arrived in Achaia, led out his army against Fernand, who was slain in a petty skirmish where he had no busi- ness to be present. After his death, his Spanish followers abandoned all idea of conquering the principality. Their force was inadequate to the undertaking ; and what was worse, they had no expectation of finding another leader who was likely to possess the influence necessary to procure the supplies of men and money required to prosecute the war in such a manner as might bring it to a profitable ter- mination. The Spaniards were, however, very generally accused of treachery in yielding up the fortified places in their possession to the French party, who were considerably their inferiors in warlike energy. 2 Louis of Burgundy survived his rival only about two months. It was said that he was poisoned by the Count of Cephalonia, who 1 Muutaner, who seems to have loved Fernand as if he had been his son, complains in amusing terms of his princely wilfulness when they quitted the Grand Company together in 1308, and Fernand ran himself into captivity at Negrepont. " It is always a service of danger to wait on the son of a king when he is young," says the stout old Spaniard ; " for on account of their high blood, they can never believe that anything in the world can induce other people to do what will not please them. . . . And it must be confessed also, that they hold themselves such great lords, that no one dare contradict anything which they wish to be done ; and this was what happened to us ; so Don Fernand forced us to consent to our own ruin." — Ch. ccxxxv. 2 Extracts from a curious memoir, relating to the circumstances that attended the death of Fernand, are given in Ducange, Ilistuire de Constantinople, torn, ii. p. 175. Buchon's edit., and in a note to Buchons translation of Muutaner, p. 518, edit. 1840. CRUEL TREATMENT OF MAUD. 257 was one of a family in which poisoning appears to have been a common practice. The death of Louis rendered his widow Maud merely a liferenter in her own here- ditary dominions, since, by her contract of marriage and the will of her deceased husband, it now descended in fee after her death to Eudes IV., duke of Burgundy ; while even her own personal rights were exposed to confiscation, in case she should marry again without the consent of Philip of Tarentum, the lord-paramount of the principality. The Neapolitan house of Anjou was as famous for relentless cruelty as for unprincipled ambition and bound- less rapacity. The object of Robert, king of Naples, and Philip of Tarentum, was to unite the sovereignty as well as the suzerainty of the principality in their own family. They expected to do this, and to find a pretext for frus- trating the claims of the duke of Burgundy, by marrying the princess Maud to their brother John, count of Gra- vina ; but to this marriage the young widow refused to consent. In vain entreaties and threats were employed to make her yield ; at last the king of Naples carried her before the pope, John XXII., when she declared that she was already secretly married to Hugh de la Palisse, a French knight. The princes of Anjou determined that this secret marriage should not prove a bar to their ambitious projects. The king of Naples declared the marriage null, and ordered the marriage ceremony to be celebrated between Maud and his brother, the count of Gravina, in defiance of the determined opposition of the young princess. Immediately after this infamous cere- mony, the unfortunate Maud was immured in the prisons of the Castel del Uovo, which she was never allowed to quit, and where she is supposed to have died about the year 1324. She was the last of the line of Villehardoin who possessed the principality of Achaia. The frauds of Geffrey I., and of William his son, seem to have been punished in the third and fourth generation of his house, E 258 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. viii. on every member of which they appear to have brought § 7. misfortune. 1 SECT. VII. — ACHAIA UNDER THE NEAPOLITAN PRINCES. RUIN OF THE PRINCIPALITY. John of Gravina assumed the title of Prince of Achaia immediately after his pretended marriage with the princess Maud, in 1317, and gained possession of part of the prin- cipality ; but his brother, Philip of Tarentum, reclaimed her liferent, as lord-paramount, in virtue of her forfeiture ; and the eventual right to the sovereignty was vested in the duke of Burgundy. Eudes IV., however, sold his claim to Philip of Tarentum, in the year 1320, for the sum of forty thousand livres ; and, Maud dying soon after, he became the real sovereign as well as the lord- paramount of Achaia. Philip died in 1322, and was succeeded by his son Robert, whose real sovereignty was disputed by his uncle, John of Gravina. Catherine of Valois, who acted as regent for her son Robert, in order to terminate this family dispute, ceded to John of Gravina the duchy of Durazzo, thereby obtaining a complete renun- ciation of all his claims on Achaia. During this period of confusion in the claims to the principality, the barons of the Morea endeavoured to extend their privileges, and to acquire virtual indepen- dence, by forming amongst themselves associations to support that claimant whose interests seemed most likely to coincide with their own ; while in some cases new claimants were invited to enter the field, merely to em- barrass the proceedings of those who might otherwise become too powerful. All patriotism was lost by the 1 Jayme III., titular king of Majorca, who married Jeanne I., queen of Naples, and Isabella, who married John II., marquis of Montferrat, were the children of Jayme II., son of Elizabeth of Adria. Jayme died without issue, but Isabella, Elizabeth, or Esclarmonde, was the mother of Otho, John, and Theodore, who became in succession Marquis of Montferrat. — Art de verifier les Dates — compare Rois de Majorque and Marquis de Montferrat. ROBERT OF TARENTUM. 259 French of Acliaia ; and in the year 1341, immediately a.d. after tbe death of the Greek emperor Anclronicus III., a 1332-1364. party of nobles sent a deputation to Constantinople to offer their fealty to the Byzantine empire. The rebellion of Cantacuzenos put an end to this intrigue, by depriving them of all hope of obtaining any effectual aid from this quarter. 1 The same party then turned their atten- tion to Don Jayme IT., king of Majorca, as the represen- tative of the family of Villehardoin, and they invited him to invade the Morea in the year 1344 ; but Jayme, who was an exile from Spain, was more intent on recovering possession of his hereditary kingdom than on acquiring a distant principality. 2 Philip of Tarentum bequeathed the suzerainty of Achaia to his wife, Catherine of Valois, titular empress of Romania. At her death, in 1346, her son Robert reunited in his person the suzerainty with the actual sovereignty of the principality ; and, as titular emperor of Romania, he became lord-paramount of the duchies of Athens and of the Archipelago, as well as of the other fiefs of the empire still in the possession of the Franks. It is needless to say that the Catalans, the Venetians, and the Genoese, attached very little importance to this remnant of feudal pretensions. Still the position of the emperor Robert might, in the hands of a man of talent and energy, have been converted into a station of great power and eminence ; but he was of a very feeble character, and in his hands the feudal suzerainty sank into an insignificant title. He died in the year 1364, leaving the real sovereignty of Achaia to his wife, Mary de Bourbon ; while the direct suzerainty passed, with the title of emperor, to his brother Philip III. Mary de 1 Cantacuzeni Hist., p. 384. 2 Ducange, Jlistoire de Constant inoiple, torn. ii. p. 375, Bucbon's edit., and in the notes to Buchon's edition of Muntaner, p, 521, edit. 1840, where the memorial sent by the barons of the Morea to Don Jayme II. of Majorca is printed. 260 PK1NCIPAL1TY OF ACHAIA. chap. vm. Bourbon established herself in Greece, but her authority § 7. was circumscribed by the power of the barons, and by the claims which others advanced to the princely title ; while the ravages of the Turkish pirates, who now began to infest all the coasts of Greece, and the increasing power of the Byzantine governors in the Morea, rendered the administration in that portion of the peninsula still in the possession of the Franks a task of daily increasing diffi- culty. Disgusted with her position, Mary de Bourbon retired to Naples, where she died about the year 1387. She was the last sovereign whose title was recognised in the whole of the principality. The barons of the Morea had succeeded in defending their privileges and local independence even against the power of the house of Anjou. The configuration of the country, in which the richest valleys are encircled by stupendous and rugged mountains, rising to a height that prevents all communication between contiguous districts except through a few narrow and defencible passes, must always enable the people of the Peloponnesus, when they are moved by a strong feeling of patriotism, to secure their local independence. The lord of every little valley in the Frank principality of Achaia was thus enabled to live in as complete a state of exemption from direct control as the greatest prince of the Germanic empire. The spirit of separation inherent in the feudal system was assisted by the same physical and geographical causes which had secured the existence of the little republics of Pellene, Tritsea, and Methydrium, in ancient Greece, and which now enabled the barons of Chalandritza, Akova, and Karitena to hold a share in the political sovereignty of the Peloponnesus along with the princes of Achaia, the dukes of Argos and Nauplia, and the Greek despots of Misithra. Whenever the power and wealth of their sovereign appeared to threaten any encroachment on their privileges, JOHN DE HEREDIA. 261 the Moreote barons united to resist his measures ; but a. d. after the death of Robert of Tarentum left the succession 1377. divided between his wife and brother, the barons began separately to form projects for their individual aggran- disement, at the expense of their sovereigns. Various confederacies were constituted for organising a new constitution of things in Greece. John de Heredia, grand-master of the order of the Hospital at Rhodes, claimed the principality in virtue of a grant from Jeanne I., queen of Naples, confirmed by pope Clement VII. The grand-master stormed Patras sword in hand, and for a short time stood at the head of a powerful confederacy, which threatened to place the whole of Achaia under his dominion ; but difficulties presented themselves, and the power of the order soon melted away. 1 Subsequently, in the year 1391, Amadeus of Savoy, titular prince of Achaia, was invited by another confederacy to assume the govern- ment of the principality ; but he died in the midst of his preparations. 2 In the mean time, the predominant influence in the country was exercised by Peter San Super- ano, bailly of the titular emperor of Romania, Jacques de Baux (Balza) ; by Asan Zacharias Centurione, baron of Chalandritza and Arcadia; and by Nerio Acciaiuoli, gover- nor of Corinth. It is unnecessary to record the names of any more pretenders to the title of Prince of Achaia. This portion of history belongs to the family annals of the houses of Anjou, Aragon, and Savoy ; but has hardly any connection with the progress of events in Greece, or any influence on the fate of the population of the country. It would be an unprofitable task to trace the intrigues 1 Vertot, Histoire des Chevaliers Hospitallers de St Jean de Jerusalem, torn, ii. p. 94. Jayme III., titular king of Majorca, son of Jayme II., was the third husband of Jeanne I. of Naples. He died in 1375 without leaving issue, but his widow assumed the right to dispose of the inheritance of the Villehardoins, of which he was heir, as if it had reverted to the crown of Naples by his marriage. 2 Data Storia del Principi di Savoia del Ramo d'Acaia, torn. i. p. 271. Clement VII. recalled his confirmation of the grant to the grand-master of Rhodes, and issued a new bull in favour of Amadeus of Savoy. 262 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. viii. and negotiations of tbe barons, their civil broils and petty § 7. wars with the Catalans, Greeks, and Turkish pirates, in detail. Achaia was a scene of anarchy ; but we should err greatly if we concluded that such a state of things was considered by contemporaries as one of intolerable suffering. It is unquestionably the source of much trouble and confusion to the historian, who must wade through torrents of wearisome phrases before he can form any classification of the records of the time, or understand the spirit of the age in a society which care- fully avoided expressing its thoughts with truth. We may, however, form a not incorrect estimate of the general feeling, if we reflect that the men of that age, whether nobles, gentlemen, burghers, or peasants, were obliged to choose between two evils. On the one hand, the sovereign, whether emperor, king, prince, or duke, was always engaged in extorting as much money as possible from his subjects, both by taxes, monopolies, and forced contributions ; and this treasure was expended for distant objects in distant lands, so that those who paid it rarely derived the smallest benefit from their sacrifices. On the other hand, the local signors, whatever might be the evils caused by their warlike propensities, were compelled to cultivate the good-will of those among whom they passed their lives : their quarrelsome nature was restrained by habits of military fellowship, and their insolence to inferiors softened by personal intercourse. The Greeks could not be oppressed with impunity, for they could easily make their escape into the Byzantine province. Thus prudence placed a salutary restraint on the conduct of the local nobles. To guard against hostile forays and piratical incursions were necessities of exis- tence ; and, as far as personal position was concerned, it must not be forgotten that what the historian feels him- self compelled to call anarchy, cotemporaries usually dignified with the name of liberty. SELJOUK PIRATES RAVAGE GREECE. 263 While the possession of the principality was disputed a. d. by rival princes, and the country governed by the baillies 1350-1400. of absent sovereigns, the Franks were compelled to devote all their attention to plans for mutual defence. Their position was one of serious danger : they were a foreign caste, incapable of perpetuating their numbers without fresh immigrations, for they were cut off by national and religious barriers from recruiting their ranks by the enrolment of individuals from the native Greek popula- tion. They were consequently obliged to watch carefully every sign of domestic discontent, for rebellion was always likely to prove more dangerous than hostile attacks from abroad. In a society living in such a state of insecurity, it is natural that the wealth of the country should decline. But the slow decay wrought by these causes was sud- denly converted into a general destruction of property, and ruin of industry, by the piratical expeditions of the Seljouk Turks of Asia Minor, who about the latter half of the fourteenth century filled the Grecian seas with their squadrons, and laid waste every coast and island inhabited by Greeks. Amour the son of Aidin, the friend of the usurper Cantacuzenos, was the bloodiest pirate of the Eastern seas ; and, under the name of Morbassan, he has obtained a detestable celebrity in the pages of European writers. His power was great, and his insolence even greater. While he depopulated the shores of Greece by his piracies, without occupying a single town, he assumed the title of Sovereign master of Achaia ; and he gloried in the appellation of the Scourge of the Christians. 1 Large bodies of the Seljouk pirates repeatedly landed in the Morea, under the guidance of their countrymen who had served as mercenaries in the Byzantine province, and acquired an accurate knowledge 1 We find the ravages of the Seljouk pirates complained of by the inhabitants of Corinth in a letter to the emperor Robert, prince of Achaia, dated in 1358 — " Insupportabiles afflictiones quibus ab infidelibus Turchis affligimur omni die." — Buchon, Nouvelles Recherches, Diplomes, torn. ii. p. 145. 264 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. viii. of the topography of the peninsula. These plunderers § 7. destroyed everything that was spared in Christian warfare : other enemies only carried off movable wealth ; they left the peasant and his family to renew their toil, and be plundered on a future occasion. The Turks, on the contrary, burned down the wretched habitations of the labourer, destroyed the olive and fruit trees, in order to depopulate the country and prepare it for becoming a fit residence for their own nomadic tribes ; and they carried off the young women and children, as the article of com- merce that found the readiest sale in the slave-markets of the Asiatic cities. Indeed, for several generations the Seljouk Turks recruited their city population, throughout the greater part of their wide-extended empire, not by the natural influx of the rural population of the neigh- bourhood, but by foreign slaves, obtained by their warlike expeditions by land and sea. This accumulation of ills diminished the Greek population to such a degree that the country was prepared for the immigration of the Albanian colonists who soon after entered it : the wealth and power of the Frank lords of the soil was undermined, and the principality was ready to yield to the first vigorous assailant. Other causes of decay were also at work, which of them- selves were adequate to effect the ruin of any political establishment. The princes of Achaia possessed the right of coining money, and, like all avaricious and needy sovereigns who possess the power of cheating their sub- jects by issuing a debased coinage, they availed them- selves of the privilege to an infamous extent. They were also masters of several commercial ports of some impor- tance, and possessed the power of levying taxes on the foreign trade of the Peloponnesus. This power they abused to such a degree, that the whole trade of the prin- cipality was gradually transferred to the ports of the Peninsula in possession of the Venetians. As a conse- RUIN OF THE PELOPONNESUS. 265 quence of the change, much of the internal trade of the a. d. country was annihilated. The value of produce in the 13 50-1400 . interior was depreciated, on account of the increased cost of its transport to the point of exportation ; the sale in some distant provinces became impossible ; roads, bridges, and other material requisites of civilisation, fell to ruin ; property ceased to yield any rent to the signors ; many castles in the poorer districts were abandoned, and a few foot-soldiers guarded the walls of others, from which, in former days, bands of horsemen in complete panoply might be seen to issue at the slightest alarm. The extent of the change which a single century had produced in the state of Greece became apparent when the Othoman Turks invaded the country. These barbarians found the Morea peopled by a scanty and impoverished population, ruled by a few wealthy and luxurious nobles — both classes equally unfit to oppose the attacks of brave and active invaders. The condition of the Frank portion of the Morea was even more degraded, morally, than it was financially impoverished and politically weakened. The whole wealth of the country flowed into a few hands, and was wasted in idle enjoyments ; while the vested capital that supplied a considerable portion of this wealth was sensibly diminishing from year to year. The surplus revenue which the principality of Achaia, even in its latter days, contributed to the treasury of its princes, after deducting the sums required for payment of the per- manent garrisons maintained in the fortresses of the state, and the expenses of the civil administration, amounted to one hundred thousand gold florins. This, therefore, was what we term, in modern language, the civil list of the sovereign of Achaia towards the end of the fourteenth century ; and it is more than Otho, the present king of Greece, succeeds in extracting from the whole Hellenic soil south of the Ambracian and Malian gulfs, though, with reference to the revenues of the country he governs, 266 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA. chap. vin. king Otlio has the largest civil list of any European § 7 - monarch. 1 The Franks had now ruled the greater part of the Peloponnesus for two centuries ; and the feudal system which they introduced was maintained in full vigour for sufficient time to admit of its effects on civilised com- munities living under the simpler system of personal rights, traced out in the Roman law, being fully developed. The result was that the Franks were demoralised, the Greeks impoverished, and Greece ruined. The study of the feudal government in Greece offers much that is peculiarly worthy of an Englishman's atten- tion, since it supplies an illustration of a state of things resembling, in many points, the condition of society that resulted from the Norman Conquest. The fate of Eng- land and Greece proved very different. No inconsiderable share in the causes that produced the discordant results are to be attributed to the discipline of the private family, and to the domestic and parish life of the two countries. Order and liberty grew up in the secluded districts of England, as well as in the towns and cities ; self-respect in the individual gradually gained the reverence of his fellow-citizens ; society moved forward simultaneously, and bore down gradually the tyranny of the Norman master, the rapacity of the monarch, and the jobbing of the aristocracy. The spirit of liberty never separated from the spirit of order, so that in the end it achieved the most difficult task in the circle of politics — it converted the rulers of the country to liberal views. In Greece, on the other hand, anarchy and slavery demoralised all 1 This amount is given in the memoir of the barons of Achaia, who invited Jayme II. of Majorca to invade the principality in 1344. — Ducange, Histoire tie Constantinople, ii. 375, edit. Buchon. Muntaner, 522, note to Buchon's transla- tion of 1840. The domains of the prince were immense at a later period. In 1391 the barons possessed fiefs Avith 1904 hearths, the prince with 2320. This enumeration can hardly be assumed as a guide for determining the total of the population, nor perhaps even the relative extent of country occupied by the parties, since the prince was lord of the populous fiefs of Clarentza and Saint-Omer. — Buchon, Rccherches et Materiaux, 296. FEUDAL SYSTEM IN GREECE AND ENGLAND. 267 classes of society, and involved the ruling class and their chap. vm. subjects in common destruction. § Both in England and Greece, the conquest was effected as much by the apathy of the natives as by the military superiority of the conquerors, and in both the feudal system was forced upon the conquered in spite of their efforts to resist it, and their detestation of its principles. Unfortunately we cannot contrast the effects of the system on the very different social condition of the two countries, for the records of the Frank domination in Greece are almost entirely confined to the political history of the country, and afford us but scanty glimpses into the ordinary life of the people. We see few traces of any- thing but war and violence ; and we are led to the lamentable conclusion that the great result of the power of the Franks in Greece was to extirpate that portion of Byzantine civilisation which existed at its commencement, and to root out all the institutions of Roman law, and the principles of Roman administration, which had so long protected it. The higher and educated classes of Greek society very naturally vanished, as might be expected, where their masters made use of the French language and reverenced the Latin church. In England, the conflict of the Normans and the Saxons prepared the way for the submission of both to the law ; while in Greece the wars of the French and Greeks only prepared the country to seek repose under the shade of Turkish despotism. The Norman Conquest proved the forerunner of English liberty, the French domination the herald of Turkish tyranny. The explanation of the varied course of events must be sought in the family, the parish, the borough, and the county ; not in the parliament, the exchequer, and the central government. CHAPTER IX. BYZANTINE PEOVINCE IN THE PELOPONNESUS RECONQUERED FROM THE FRENCH. SECT. I. — EARLY STATE OF THE BYZANTINE PROVINCE. GOVERN- MENT OF THE DESPOT THEODORE I. The emperor Michael VIII. no sooner took possession of Misithra, Monemvasia, and Maina, which had been surrendered to him as the ransom for William Villehar- doin, then he sent able officers into the Peloponnesus to command these fortresses, with instructions to spare no exertions or intrigues for recovering possession of the whole peninsula — for he hoped with ease to raise such a rebellion of the Greeks as would expel the French from the territory they retained. The Sclavonians of Mount Taygetus, covered by the Byzantine garrison of Misithra, which was made the residence of the principal officers from Constantinople ; the Tzakones, finding their com- munications with the rest of the empire opened by sea, in consequence of the possession of Monemvasia ; and the Mainiates, assisted by the imperial troops in their country — all flew to arms, and drove the French from their terri- tories. The Sclavonians of Skorta were less fortunate, for they were surrounded on every side by French barons, and all the avenues into their mountains were guarded by strong feudal fortresses. Indeed, Akova and Karitena, two of the impregnable holds of the feudal lords of the WAR OF GREEKS AND FRANKS. 269 soil, commanded the very heart of their country. After a. d. a vain resistance their power was completely broken. 1264-1268. But the Greeks, though they swept over nearly the whole peninsula in the first tide of national enthusiasm, and displayed the imperial eagle before the palace of the princes of Achaia, at Andravida, were still unable to encounter the French on the field of battle. They received two overthrows- — the first at Prinitza, where a small body of French knights and men-at-arms, under John de Katavas, defeated the Byzantine army with great loss. But this disaster did not prevent the advance of the Greeks into the plain of Elis. The second defeat of the imperial troops was more decisive. The armies met at the defile of Makryplagi, and the Byzantine troops were routed with great slaughter. Their generals were taken prisoners, and the commander-in-chief, the grand- domestikos Alexis Philes, died in prison ; while Makrinos, the second in command, on being ransomed by his suspi- cious master, who suspected him of secretly plotting with the prince of Achaia, was deprived of his eyesight as soon as he returned to Constantinople. 1 For five years, (1264 to 1268) the war was prosecuted with varied success ; but at length the exhaustion of both parties induced them to conclude a truce, which was subsequently converted into a permanent treaty of peace. These events have been already noticed in reviewing the history of the reign of William Villehardoin, prince of Achaia. 2 It has also been mentioned that, in the year 1341, a number of the French barons offered the sovereignty of Achaia to the Greek emperor. 3 The Byzantine throne was at that time occupied by John V., (Paleologos,) and the regency was in the hands of his mother, Anne of Savoy : but John Cantacuzenos, the grand-domestikos, 1 Pachymeres, torn. i. p. 138, edit. Rom., confirms the general account of the events recorded by the Chronicles of the Conquest. 2 See page 237 of this volume. 3 Cantacuzenos, 384, page 259 of this volume. 270 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. acted as prime-minister. This treason of a portion of § the French nobility would probably have proved the forerunner of the speedy subjection of the whole prin- cipality to the Greek empire, had the rebellion of Canta- cuzenos not prevented the Byzantine administration from paying any attention to the affairs of this distant pro- vince. The Byzantine strategos at Misithra, who governed the Greek portion of the peninsula, was unable to show much activity, for he was watched with as much jealousy by the primates and archonts of the province, to prevent an increase of his administrative power, as the Frank princes and baillies at Andravida were by the barons and knights of the principality of Achaia. At last the suc- cess of the rebellion of Cantacuzenos enabled that emperor to send his son Manuel to the Peloponnesus as imperial viceroy, with the title of Despot, in the year 1349. The despot Manuel Cantacuzenos found the country suffering severely from the incessant forays of the Franks of Achaia, the Catalans of Attica, and the Seljouk pirates. Each district was exclusively occupied with its own separate measures of defence ; each archont and landlord pursued his own private interest as his only rule of action, without any reference to the national cause. The open country was everywhere left exposed to be plundered by foreign enemies, while the walled cities were weakened by intestine factions. Manuel, however, arriving in the peninsula with a strong body of troops, succeeded in con- cluding a peace with the principality of Achaia ; and this circumstance left at his disposal a force sufficient to repulse the attacks of the Turkish pirates, and to put an end to the civil dissensions that prevailed among the Greek archonts themselves, so that the Peloponnesus enjoyed more security under his government than it had known for many years. The despot had, nevertheless, his own personal views to serve, for patriotism was not an active principle in any class of the Byzantine Greeks. The KANCOUK OF THE PELOPOOTESIANS. 271 position of his family at Constantinople was by no means ghap. ix. secure, aad lie resolved to take measures for maintaining § 1. his own authority as despot in the Peloponnesus, no matter what might happen elsewhere. Under the pre- text that it was necessary to keep a fleet cruising off the eastern and southern coasts of the peninsula, to protect the country from the ravages of the Seljouk pirates, he imposed a tax on the Byzantine province. The collec- tion of this tax was intrusted to a Moreot noble, named Lampoudios, whose previous intrigues had caused him to be exiled, but whose talents induced Manuel to recall him to office. The arbitrary imposition of a tax by the despot was considered an illegal act of power, and the Greeks everywhere flew to arms. Lampoudios, consider- ing the popular cause as the one in which he was most likely to advance his own fortunes, deserted his patron and joined his insurgent countrymen. For a moment all the intestine broils and municipal quarrels, which even time rarely assuaged in the rancorous hearts of the Pelo- ponnesian Greeks, were suddenly suspended. The mutual hatred which the archonts cherished to the hour of death, and the feuds which were regularly transmitted as a deathbed legacy to children and to heirs, as an inalienable family inheritance, were for once suspended. 1 The Moreots, if we may believe the perfidious Cantacuzenos, in this record of his son's fortunes, were on this single occasion sincerely united, and made a bold attempt to surprise the despot in the fortress of Misithra ; but Manuel was a soldier of some experience, trained in the arduous school of a treacherous civil war, and with a guard of three hundred chosen men-at-arms, and a body of Alba- nian mercenaries, who now for the first time make their appearance in the affairs of the Morea, he sallied out from the fortress, and completely defeated the Moreot 1 These strong expressions, which depict the present state of Maina, are copied from Cantacuzenos, Hist. p. 751. 272 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. army. 1 The patriotic confederacy was dissolved by the § i« loss of this one battle. Some of the archonts submitted to the terms imposed on them by the despot, some attempted to defend themselves in the fortified towns, while others endeavoured to secure their independence by retiring into the mountains, and carrying on a desultory warfare. But the landlords, as soon as they saw their property ravaged by the Byzantine mercenaries, quickly made their peace with the despot. The fall of the emperor Cantacuzenos induced the people of the Peloponnesus to take up arms a second time, in the hope of expelling Manuel ; and they wel- comed Asan, the governor deputed by the emperor John V. to supersede the despot, with every demonstra- tion of devotion. Manuel was compelled to abandon the whole province, and shut himself up in the fortress of Monemvasia with the troops that remained faithful to his standard. His administration had been marked by great prudence, and his unusual moderation, in pardoning all those concerned in the insurrection against his plans of taxation, had produced a general feeling in his favour. When the first storm of the new outbreak was in some degree calmed, the archonts came to the conclusion that it would be more advantageous to their interests to be ruled by a governor who was viewed with little favour by the central power at Constantinople, than to be exposed to the commands of one who was sure of energetic support. The consequence of their intrigues was, that Manuel Cantacuzenos received an invitation to return to Misithra, and soon succeeded in regaining all his former power, and more, perhaps, than his former influence. He contrived, also, to obtain the recognition of his title from the feeble court at Constantinople, and he continued to 1 These Albanians were from the despotat of Acamania, a name then given not only to the ancient Acamania and tbe west of JEtolia, but also to the southern part of Epirus. OTHOMAN TUKKS INTRODUCED INTO MO HE A. 273 rule the Byzantine possessions in the Peloponnesus, until a. d. the time of his death, in 1380. His administration was 1388. only troubled by partial hostilities on the part of the Franks of Achaia, with whom he usually succeeded in maintaining a close alliance, in order that both might be able to employ their whole military force in protecting their territories against the incursions of the Catalans and the Turkish pirates. On one occasion, a joint expe- dition of the Greek and Frank troops invaded Boeotia, to punish the Grand Company for plundering in the Morea. This expedition took place while the duchy of Athens and Neopatras was governed by Roger Lauria, as viceroy for Frederic, duke of Randazzo. In the year 1388, Theodore Paleologos, the son of the emperor John V., arrived at Misithra, as governor of the Byzantine possessions in the Peloponnesus ; and from that time, until the final conquest of the country by the Othoman Turks, it was always governed by members of the imperial family of Paleologos, bearing the title of Despot. In latter years, when the territory of the Byzantine empire became circumscribed to the vicinity of Constantinople, several despots were often quartered on the revenues of the Morea at the same time. Theodore I., however, reigned without a colleague. But the archonts having taken measures to prevent his governing with the degree of absolute power which he considered to be the inherent right of a viceroy of the emperors of the East, he brought to support his despotic authority a corps of Turkish auxiliaries under the command of Evrenos, whose name became subsequently celebrated in Othoman history as one of the ablest generals of sultan Murad I. This was the first introduction of the Otho- man Turks into the Peloponnesus. But 4l\e incapacity of the Byzantine despots, and the selfishness of the Greek archonts, soon rendered them the arbiters of its fate. In the year 1391, hostilities broke out with the Franks, and s 274 BYZANTINE PE0V1NCE. chap. ix. Evrenos, who had quitted the Morea, was invited to § l. return, for no Greek could be found fit to be intrusted with the command of the army. The Othomans displayed their usual military energy and talent, and in the first campaign they captured the celebrated fortress of Akova, or Mategrifon. 1 About the same time, a corps of Alba- nian and Byzantine troops, issuing from Leondari, which had now risen up as a Greek town on the decline of the Frank city of Veligosti, defeated a body of the Franks, and took the prince who commanded them prisoner. This prince, however, redeemed himself before the end of the year, by paying a ransom. 2 Incessant hostilities had now destroyed all the farm- houses of the better class, and the people were either crowded into the walled towns and fortified castles, or lodged in wretched huts concealed in the valleys, so that the destruction of these temporary habitations might be a matter of little importance. The great plains were almost depopulated ; the Greeks had generally entirely abandoned the occupation of agriculture, restricting them- selves to the cultivation of their olive-groves, orchards, mul- berry trees, and vineyards. A new race of labourers was required to till the soil for the production of grain, and to guard the cattle that were becoming wild in the mountains : such a race was required to endure greater hardships and perpetuate its existence on coarser food, and with less clothing, than could be done by either the Greeks or the Sclavonians who previously pursued the occupation of agriculturists. This class was found among the rude 1 The Chronicon Breve, at the end of Ducas, says that Evrenos united with the prince ; but the context warrants the inference that the despot is thereby meant, who had moved from Leondari before the arrival of the Othoman general. 2 This prince appears to have been Hugh, prince of Galilee, son of the empress Mary de Bourbon, widow of Robert, emperor and prince of Achaia, by her first marriage with Guy de Lusignan. Hugh was his mother's bailly in Achaia at the time of her death in 1387, and continued to possess considerable fiefs in the principality. In the year 1391, the principality of Achaia was governed by Peter of San Superano, as vicar-general, in virtue of an appoint- ment from the titular emperor James de Baux, the lord-paramount. INVASION OF OTHOMAN TURKS. 275 peasantry of Albania, who began about this time to emi- a. d. grate into the Peloponnesus as colonists and labourers, 1397. as well as in the capacity of mercenary soldiers. An immigration of about ten thousand souls is mentioned as having taken place at one time ; and from year to year the Albanian population of the peninsula acquired increased importance, while the Sclavonians rapidly diminished, or became confounded in the greater numbers of the Greeks. 1 In the year 1397, sultan Bayezid I. sent his generals Iakoub and Evrenos into the Peloponnesus, to punish the despot Theodore for having taken part in the confederacy of the Christian princes that was broken up by the defeat of Sigismund, king of Hungary, at the battle of Nicopolis on the Danube. On this occasion a powerful Othoman army entered the peninsula by the isthmus of Corinth, and extended its ravages as far as the walls of Modon. Argos at this time belonged to the Venetian republic, which had purchased it from Mary d'Enghien, the last heir of the fief granted by William Villehardoin to Guy de la Roche. 2 Though it was defended by a Venetian garrison, the Othoman troops stormed the place, and the inhabitants were either massacred or carried away as slaves and sold in the Asiatic markets. The sultan's object in this invasion was merely to punish the despot and to employ and enrich his troops, not to take per- manent possession of the country. His army there- fore retired in autumn, carrying with it an immense booty and about thirty thousand slaves. The destruc- tion of the crops and cattle, and the depopulation and 1 The last mention of the Sclavonians as an element in the population of the Peloponnesus of some political importance, is contained in an enumera- tion of the various races inhabiting the country, by Mazaris, a Byzantine writer of the first quarter of the fifteenth century. He enumerates Lacedemonians (Tzakones,) Italians (Franks,) Peloponnesians (Greeks,) Sclavonians, lllyrians (Albanians,) Egyptians (Gipsies,) and Jews. Boissonade, Anecdota Grceca, torn. hi. p. 174. See Chapter i. § viii. p. 40. 2 Crusius, Turcogrcecia, Zyg., epist. 92. Compare Chalcocondylas, 51, Phrantzes, 62, p. 83, edit. Bonn., correcting the year. The indiction, however, is right. Clivonicon Breve, Ducas, anno 1389--1394. 276 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. desolate condition of the country, produced a severe § l. famine. The despot Theodore, alarmed at the deplorable state to which his territory was reduced, in his eagerness to procure some ready money sold the city of Misithra to the grand-master of the knights of the Hospital at Rhodes, as if the Morea had been his own private domain. This unwarranted exercise of power met with so deter- mined an opposition from the Greek inhabitants, who refused to transfer their allegiance to a society of Latin military monks, that it was impossible to complete the transaction, and by the advice and intercession of the archbishop of Lacedaemon, the Greek archonts consented to receive the despot Theodore again as their prince, on his taking a solemn oath not to take any important step in the government of the province without convoking an assembly of the Greek aristocracy, and receiving their consent to the proposed measure. Had the Greek archonts of the Morea possessed any capacity for govern- ment, or any patriotism, they might from this time have conducted the public administration ; but their mutual jealousies and family feuds soon enabled the despot to make their own selfishness and malicious passions the instruments for regaining all the authority he had lost. Theodore died in the year 1407, and was succeeded by his nephew, Theodore Paleologos II., son of his brother the emperor Manuel II. 1 At the time of his death, the Byzantine possessions had increased so much in extent that they embraced fully two-thirds of the peninsula. He had annexed Corinth to the despotat in the year 1404. The Frank principality of Achaia was divided among several barons. The counts of Cephalonia, of the family of Tocco, who had risen to power by the favour of the house of Anjou, were in possession of Clarentza, and divided the sovereignty of the rich plain of Elis 1 Chalcoconctylas, 114. THE EMPEROR MANUEL II. 277 with the family of Centurione, who held Chalandritza, a. d. the city of Arcadia, and a part of Messenia. The his. Pope was the possessor of Patras, which was governed by its Latin archbishop ; and the Venetian republic kept garrisons in Modon, Coron, Nauplia, Argos, and Thermisi, which were their only possessions in the Peloponnesus. 1 SECT. II. — THE EMPEROR MANUEL II. ATTEMPTS TO AMELIORATE THE BYZANTINE GOVERNMENT IN THE PELOPONNESUS. In the year 1415 the emperor Manuel II. visited the Peloponnesus, in order to strengthen the position of his son Theodore II. by reorganising the province, which, in consequence of the rapid conquests of the Othoman Turks, had now become the most valuable possession of the Byzantine empire beyond the Hellespont, and began to excite an attention it had never before received from the statesmen of Constantinople. As it was the native seat of the Greek race, and the only country that offered profitable posts, these Byzantine politicians at last made the discovery that they were themselves Greeks, and not Romans. To the Peloponnesus, therefore, the imperial government turned its regards, in the hope that this most important part of ancient Greece might prove the means of restoring the Greek name to some share of its former glory. Manuel II. devoted himself to the task he had undertaken both with zeal and judgment. He regulated the amount of taxes to be paid by the inhabitants with justice, and with what he conceived to be great modera- tion ; and he introduced so many administrative reforms that he destroyed the local domination of the archonts, 1 Thermisi is a castle of the middle ages, on the coast of Argolis, nearly opposite the town of Hydra. It is now in ruins. It was built to command the anchorage, which was often used by vessels ascending the Archipelago when met by a northerly wind. A few traces of Hellenic remains are visible in the walls, and the modern name is evidently connected with the temple of Ceres Thermesia. — Pausanias, lib. ii. chap, xxxiv. 278 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. and restored the executive power to the central adminis- § 2. tration of the despotat at Misithra. But it was far beyond the genius of Manuel, or of any man then living, to infuse a spirit of unity into the discordant elements of Greek society in the fifteenth century. The vices of the Greeks were nourished by the constitution of their social life more than by the defects of their political institutions. This insuperable barrier to their improve- ment could not be removed by financial and administra- tive reforms ; the moral regeneration of every class would have been necessary, to remove the prohibition which Greek society then imposed on all national progress. Had the demoralised, rapacious, and intriguing aristocrats of the Morea been all suddenly destroyed, they would immediately have been replaced by men equally vicious, for no healthier social elements existed in the classes below. Under the most favourable possible circumstances, one generation would have been necessary even for a good system of education to produce any effect ; and there was no time to lose, for the avengers of the moral degradation of Greece were at the gate. The armies of the Othoman sultan waited only for a word to destroy the troops, fortresses, government, and people of Greece. There is no doubt that the emperor Manuel, and many statesmen of the time, were fully aware of the evil state of things. The depopulation of the country was a fact apparent from the remains that were everywhere visible of recently abandoned habitations, and it was justly connected with the disorganisation of society as cause and effect. But still no one was able to point out the precise method by which the cause produced its effect, and con- sequently doubt and hesitation prevailed concerning the application of the necessary remedy. All perceived that it was the increasing weakness of the country that invited the ravages of the Franks, Catalans, and Turks, and not the incursions of these invaders that was the ALBANIAN COLONIES IN PELOPONNESUS. 279 original cause of the weakness. But how to infuse new chap. ix. strength into society was a problem none could solve. § 2. The emperor Manuel, in a funeral oration he delivered at Misithra, in memory of his deceased brother the despot Theodore I., praised him for the great care he had devoted to establishing Albanian colonies on the waste lands in the Peloponnesus ; but it does not appear to have struck the emperor's mind that Greeks ought to have been able, under a proper system of government, to multiply in a country into which foreigners could immi- grate with advantage. In the United States of America at present we see an immense annual immigration, but we see at the same time a greater proportional increase of the native population. The Greek emperor, however, could see no means of preventing the native seats of the Greek race from becoming an uninhabited waste, except by repeopling them with Albanian colonists. The defence of the peninsula was not neglected. The plan adopted by Manuel for completing the fortifications at the Isthmus of Corinth, Avhere he believed a Greek army might effectually resist the Othoman forces, affords us a curious illustration of the state of society at the time. Either the Byzantine government must have been unwill- ing to pay for labour, or it must have found that money alone, in the condition to which the Morea was then reduced, would not have sufficed to procure a competent supply. It was therefore determined to construct the wall across the isthmus by forced labour. The archonts and landed proprietors, the local magistrates and govern- ment officials were ordered to collect a certain number of labourers in their respective districts, and the fortifications from the shore of the Saronic Gulf to that of the Gulf of Corinth were divided into suitable portions, according to the numerical strength or masonic skill of the different contingents, and each was intrusted with the construction of a fixed portion of the wall or of the ditch. The 280 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. emperor and the imperial engineers directed the progress § 2 - of the works, which were carried across the narrowest part of the isthmus, on the remains of the earlier fortifica- tions constructed by Justinian on still older foundations, and just behind the Diolkos, or railroad, bj which vessels were dragged over the isthmus from sea to sea. The distance was estimated at about seven thousand six hundred yards, or forty-two stades, and the wall was strengthened by one hundred and fifty-three towers. 1 Remains of the work are still visible, but it proved utterly useless for the defence of the Peloponnesus ; yet, had a well-disciplined army, and a general inspired by patriotism, been found to guard these fortifications, they might have done as good service as the lines of Torres Vedras. When the emperor Manuel had completed his plans for the reorganisation and defence of the Peloponnesus, he returned to Constantinople, carrying with him the most turbulent of the Moreot archonts, who had attempted to thwart his designs. He left his son, the despot Theodore II., to govern the province under the most favourable circumstances ; but the attempt of the emperor to infuse vigour into the Byzantine administration proved unsuccessful. His plans, indeed, never received a fair trial, for the government of the Morea was after his death divided among his sons, two or three of whom were generally established in different parts of the province, living at the expense of the inhabitants, and each main- taining a princely retinue and assuming the authority of a sovereign. Yet we see some good effects resulting from the emperor's labours : the Byzantine government gradually 1 Phrantzes, p. 96, edit. Bonn., gives three thousand eighthundred orgyaisasthe breadth of the isthmus ; Chalcocondylas, p. 98 edit. Par., forty-two stades. The real distance from sea to sea in a straight line is about three miles and a-half, but the wall is longer. There is a memorable instance of the diolkos having been used for transporting a fleet across the isthmus in the middle ages, during the reign of Basil I., a.d. 883. Niketas Oryphas, the Byzantine admiral, conveyed his fleet over the isthmus in order to surprise the Saracens who were ravaging the western coasts of Greece. The best account of the Isthmus of Corinth is contained in Leake's Travels in the Morea, iii. 286. TURKISH INVASION". 281 gained ground on the Franks of Achaia, and the progress was made more by the favourable disposition of the Greek people than by the military force employed by the Byzan- tine authorities. Manuel also succeeded in giving to the Peloponnesus a greater degree of security from foreign attacks than it had experienced for many years. To- wards the end of his reign, he was unfortunately involved in hostilities with the Othoman Turks, and the Pelopon- nesus suffered severely in the quarrel. In 1423, sultan Murad II., after having been compelled to raise the siege of Constantinople, sought to revenge himself by ruining the Byzantine possessions in the Morea. An Othoman army under Turakhan invaded the Pelopon- nesus, and, meeting with no resistance from the despot Theodore, plundered the whole country. The Albanians established at Gardiki and Tavia alone had courage to oppose the Turks. Their courage was vain ; they were completely defeated, and all the prisoners that fell into the hands of Turakhan were massacred without mercy, in order to intimidate the rest of the Christians from offering such a resistance as would have deprived the Mussulmans of the profits of their expedition. Pyramids of human heads were erected by the Turks, in commem- moration of this victory over the Christians ; but the sultan, not thinking that the hour had yet arrived for taking possession of all Greece, ordered Turakhan to evacuate the Morea and return to his post in Thessaly. 1 The despot Theodore was a weak and injudicious man, utterly incapable of directing the government : he took no measures either to circumscribe the extent of the Turkish ravages, or to alleviate the evils they had pro- duced, after the retreat of the Othoman army. Every thinking man then began to feel that nothing 1 Ruins retaining the name of Gardiki, and a church called Kokala (Bones), in a deep glen in one of the counterforts of the rugged mountain Hellenitza, to the south of Leondari, mark the site of this tragedy. Tavia or Davia still exists as a village in the valley of the Helisson, west of Tripolitza. 282 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. but a radical change in the government and administra- § 2 - tive arrangements of the province, as well as a great reform in the social condition of the inhabitants, could save the country from ruin. Mazaris, a Byzantine satirist, describes the inhabitants of the Peloponnesus as a barbarous and demoralised rabble, consisting of a mixture of Tzakones, Franks, Greeks, Sclavonians, Albanians, Gipsies, and Jews, of whose improvement there was no hope. 1 A political moralist of the time, Gemistos Plethon, with the boldness that characterises speculative politicians, proposed schemes for the regeneration of the people as daringly opposed to existing rights, and as impracticable in their execution, as the wildest projects of any modern socialist. 2 Plethon's project was to divide the population into three distinct classes, cultivators of the soil, capitalists or landlords — for he unites land, buildings, and stock under one head, on account of the profits they yield in the shape of rent — and defenders of society, whether soldiers, administrators, lawyers, or princes. It is not necessary to review the details of his scheme, for, though they frequently display much acuteness and pro- found observation, their practical introduction was impos- sible. The evils that appear to have struck him most forcibly in the social condition of the peninsula were, — the wretched state of the military force ; the oppressive nature of the system of taxation, which ruined the people with numerous imposts of different natures ; the imperfect 1 The work of Mazaris is entitled A Visit to Hades. Boissonade, Anecdota Grceca, torn. iii. p. 112. See above p. 275, note 1. 2 George Gemistos Plethon is best known as a Platonic philosopher, whose reputation was great in Italy in the fifteenth century. He attended the Byzantine emperor John VI. to the councd of Ferrara and Florence, in 1433, and became a public lecturer under the patronage of Cosmo de' Medici. His two discourses on the political condition of the Peloponnesus are printed in Canter's edition of Stobceus — Antwerp, 1575. Fallmerayer, in his Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea, first drew the public attention of modern scholars to these works. The Boyal Library at Munich contains a MS. of Plethon, which appeal's to be a description of the Peloponnesus — a work of some value, pro- bably, for the geography of the middle ages. It is to be regretted that it has not been printed. REFORMS OF GEMISTOS PLETHON. 283 administration of justice, and the debased state of the chap. ix. metallic currency, which filled the country with foreign § 2. coin of base alloy. Plethon thought that all wealth resulted from the cultivation of the soil, and he supposed that society could prosper if the former received one third of its produce, the landlord and capitalist another third, and the government, including every branch of public expenditure, the remaining third. The soldiers were to be quartered in the families of the peasantry to consume the produce appropriated to the government. All money taxes, according to Plethon, were to be abolished ; and the revenue which was necessary for the court of the prince, and some higher officials, was to be raised alone by the export of the surplus produce of the country. It is evident that the project of Gemistos Plethon would have rendered society even more barbarous than he found it, but it would be a waste of time to expose its theoretical errors. The test by which we can decide on the imprac- ticability of his scheme is very simple, and very generally applicable to many other schemes, which have a good practical as well as theoretical aspect. Though he boldly offered himself to the emperor Manuel as the agent for carrying his plans into immediate execution, he fails to indicate the primary step which it would be necessary to take, to prevent the administrative powers already in existence from opposing the gradual introduc- tion of measures which, from their very nature, required a certain lapse of time before they could be brought into operation. He ranges one class of men against the existing order of things, and leaves another with an interest to support it, without indicating any predominant influence that could prevent anarchy and civil war. Now it is evident that no project of gradual reform can ever be carried through, unless the first step in the change creates a strong feeling in favour of the ulterior scheme, in addition to a powerful body of partisans interested in 284 BYZANTINE PKOVINCE. chap. ix. pushing it forward ; for unless the opposition of those § 3 - inclined to oppose the scheme be paralysed, and their interests be rendered subordinate to the general interest of the society, a perpetual struggle may ensue, which may lead in the end to something very different from what was proposed by the reformer, though equally removed from the state of things overthrown. The difficulty of describing a better state of society than that in which we are living is never great, and most men believe that, if they could lay all mankind asleep, and only awaken each individual when his place in a new scheme of politi- cal government would be ready to receive him, then they could create a better state of things. The fact, however, that all men are moving on, while the politician can only guide a very small number, deranges general calculations. The wisest practical statesmen have taught, by their conduct, that it is only possible to point out with certainty the first step that ought to be taken in the path of improvement. That single step can be taken without preparation, and without delay ; but that step, when taken, may reveal unseen impediments, and open new paths, which require fresh measures and additional resources for further progress. The statesman concentrates all his powers on the first step ; the theoretical political philoso- pher undertakes to arrange all society, with the exception of this first step. SECT. III. DIVISION OF THE MOREA AMONG THE BROTHERS OF THE EMPEROR JOHN VI. WAR OF THE DESPOTS CONSTANTINE AND THOMAS WITH THE OTHOMAN TURKS, IN 1446. The emperor John VI. succeeded his father, Manuel II., in the year 1426, and in the autumn of 1427 he visited the Peloponnesus, in order to create for his brothers Constantine and Thomas suitable establishments in the province. The despot Theodore had announced THEODORE II., CONSTANTINE, AND THOMAS DESPOTS. 285 his intention of retiring into a monastery, and the emperor chap. ix. proposed conferring the most important part of the pro- § 3. vince, with the general direction of the administration, on his favourite brother Constantine. Thomas had already received an appanage in the peninsula by his father's will. Before the emperor reached Misithra the melan- choly and discontented Theodore had changed his mind, and announced his intention to retain possession of his government. For some years, therefore, the three brothers governed different portions of the Byzantine province simultaneously, almost with the power of independent princes. None of them were well adapted for the times. Theodore, as has been already noticed, was fanciful and weak ; Constantine, the last unfortunate emperor of Con- stantinople, was brave but imprudent ; while Thomas was a cruel and unprincipled tyrant. During the remaining years of the Byzantine domina- tion in the Peloponnesus, the great historical event which concentrates attention is the progress of the Othoman power ; and the fortunes of the despot Constantine acquire a prominent interest, from his fate being linked with the conquest of Constantinople and the ruin of the Greek race. His bold and restless character renders his personal history often the means of presenting a correct picture of the condition of the whole Morea. When the emperor John VI. found that Theodore was no longer inclined to resign his authority, he made arrangements for effecting the territorial establishment of Constantine at the expense of the Franks. Charles Tocco, count- palatine of Cephalonia, was threatened with war ; and as the wealth of the Byzantine empire, even in its impover- ished condition, would have enabled it to range under the imperial standards an overwhelming mercenary force, he was glad to purchase peace by marrying his niece Theo- dore to the despot Constantine, and ceding the city of Clarentza, and all his possessions in the Peloponnesus, as 286 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. her dowry. After the celebration of this marriage, the emperor conferred the government of Vostitza and Mes- senia on Constantine, and that of Kalavryta on Thomas, and then returned to ConstantiDople. Constantine established himself at Clarentza, where he possessed the feudal jurisdiction of a Frank prince over the Latin inhabitants, whom he endeavoured to con- ciliate ; while at the same time he entered into plots with the Greeks who resided in Patras, to gain possession of that place by treachery. The Latin archbishop, Pandolfo Malatesta, who governed as the temporal no less than spiritual deputy of the Pope, was at the moment absent in Rome. The attempt to surprise Patras failed, and a skirmish ensued, in which the historian Phrantzes was taken prisoner while bravely covering the retreat of Con- stantine, to whom he was attached as chamberlain. 1 The despot, undismayed by his failure to surprise the city, soon returned with a sufficient force to form the siege in regu- lar order ; and though he received an order from sultan Murad IL,who had constituted himself the arbiter of all the Christian princes in Greece, to suspend hostilities, he prosecuted his undertaking, and succeeded in persuading both the inhabitants of Patras to submit to his authority, and the sultan to acknowledge the validity of the acquisi- tion. The Latin archbishop arrived at Naupaktos with succours a few days after the Byzantine troops had entered the place ; but it was found impossible to introduce any supplies into the citadel, which still held out, and whose garrison continued to defend themselves for a year. Phrantzes, who had been released by the Latins after forty days' imprisonment, was the envoy employed by Constan- tine to negotiate with the Turks. In the mean time a papal fleet, consisting of ten Catalan galleys, finding it impossible to open any communication with the besieged garrison in the citadel of Patras, left their anchorage, and, 1 Phrantzes, 138, edit. Bonn. END OF FRANK POWER. 287 sailing to Clarentza, suddenly stormed that city during the a. d. absence of Constantine. The Catalans threatened to 1430. destroy the town, unless they received immediately the sum of twelve thousand sequins as its ransom ; and this sum the despot consented to pay, in order to obtain liberty for all the prisoners who had been captured in the place. The despot knew that the fortifications of Clarentza were so strong that the Catalans might have kept possession of this position for some time, and he feared lest some other Frank power might, by seizing the place, become master of a port in his dominions. To prevent this, he no sooner recovered possession of the city than he ordered the walls to be destroyed, and intrusted the defence of the whole coast to the garrison of the neighbouring fortress of Chlo- moutzi, or Castel Tornese, which is only about three miles distant. From this time Clarentza gradually declined. The Catalans continued to cruise in the Ionian seas, and they subsequently captured the unlucky Phrantzes, who appears to have been as severely perse- cuted by fortune as his unlucky master, without being so directly the cause of his own misfortunes. He had on this occasion been sent to the Ionian islands to arrange some differences in the family of Tocco, and he was now compelled by the Spaniards to ransom himself, and the other Greek prisoners who had fallen into their hands, by paying five thousand sequins. 1 War was at that time an honourable mode of plundering ; it had not even assumed the pretext of being prosecuted as a means of obtaining justice. 1 It would be more interesting to follow the private fortunes of the his- torian Phrantzes, at this period, than to pursue the record of public events in the Morea. The simplicity with which he recounts his bad and good fortune gives a character of truth to his narrative that is often wanting in the Byzan- tine writers. He tells us in the most entertaining manner of the presents he received from the despot Constantine on his release from the prison of Patras ; and the sincere joy shown by his prince, on this occasion, inspires us with a feeling of affection for the unfortunate and imprudent despot. He really must have felt a warmth of friendship for Phrantzes not often experienced in the chilly atmosphere of a court, and his affection was repaid by sincere devotion. Phrantzes also narrates with diplomatic shamelessness and self-gratulation how 288 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. The only Frank sovereign who now possessed any §3. part of the principality of Achaia in which the feudal system might be still considered as the established law of the land, was Azan Zacharias Centurione, baron of Chalandritza and Arkadia, who had assumed the title of Prince of Achaia. During the siege of Patras, Thomas Paleologos had invested Chalandritza ; and after its capture, Centurione, cut off from all hope of receiving succour from Italy, or from the Catalan fleet, found himself compelled to make the best terms he was able with the Greeks. It was agreed that Thomas should marry Katherine his daughter, who was declared the heir of all his territorial possessions, and on this condition her father was allowed to enjoy a liferent of his baronies. This act virtually extinguished the last trace of the principality of Achaia, after it had existed two hundred and twenty-five years. In consequence of his exploits on this occasion, Thomas was honoured by his brother the emperor with the title of despot, (a.d. 1430.) The whole of the Peloponnesus, with the exception of the five maritime fortresses held by the Venetians, was now reunited to the Byzantine empire, and its government administered by the three despots, Theodore, Constantine, and Thomas. The demon of discord had so long established his court in the Peloponnesus, and hatred, envy, and avarice had so thoroughly transfused themselves into Greek society, that it is not surprising to find the three brothers who ruled the province soon involved in disputes. The he picked the pockets of the Turkish ministers of their despatches, after he had succeeded in making them drunk, and himself, according to his own con- fession, very nearly so. Thus we see that the irresponsible nature of diplo- macy can hardly fail to stain the character even of the worthiest man. No gentleman who had not been a diplomatist would boast of his exploits as a pick- pocket. But the event of the historian's life which seems to have given him the greatest satisfaction, and which he hoped might induce his readers to rank the name of Phrantzes with the Spartan heroes of old, was the fact that he was intrusted by the despot with the government of the city of Misithra and its environs, consisting of the citadel, the Jew's quarter, Tzeramios, Pankotes, Sklavochorion, and some other villages. QUARRELS OF THE DESPOTS. 289 nature of society, the configuration of the country, and chap. ix. the corruption of the Byzantine financial administration, § 3. invested the archonts and chieftains with considerable local power, while it debarred them from all participation in the legislation of their country, and all control over the abuses that might take place in the general govern- ment. They were consequently excluded from direct authority in the public affairs of their own districts, except what arose out of their becoming the financial or administrative agents of the central power. The consequence was, that the attention of every man in the country was directed to the courts of the despots, where every intrigue was employed to secure the favour of those individuals whose position as ministers or courtiers enabled them to influence the prince in the nomination of officials, and in decisions concerning local affairs, which it would be infinitely better, in every government, to leave entirely to the decision of municipalities and pro- vincial councils. The fraternal discord which disgraces the last period of the Byzantine domination was produced as much by Moreot intrigue as by Constantinopolitan immorality ; for, though the house of Paleologos knew nothing of brotherly love, no violent personal hatred inflamed the passions of the brothers in their quarrels for power. There was more of meanness than of wicked- ness in their conduct ; their very vices partook of the weakness of the empire, and the degradation of the Greek race. In the year 1436 the despots Theodore and Constan- tine visited Constantinople, and John VI. showed a disposition to select Constantine, though the younger of the two, to be his heir on the imperial throne. He knew that Theodore was utterly incapable of preserving the city of Constantinople from falling into the hands of the Turks ; while, if it were possible to prolong the existence of the Byzantine empire, the courage and popu- T 290 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. larity of Constantine alone held out a hope that he § 3. might be successful in the task. Prudence, however, was no part of Constantine's character ; and, in order to make sure of the imperial succession, he resolved to take measures for immediately ejecting his brother Theodore from the government of Misithra, hoping that the blow would induce the melancholy despot to retire into a monastery, to which he often expressed an inclination. Leaving Constantinople secretly, he hastened to Cla- rentza, where he assembled a band of soldiers, composed in great part of the Frank military adventurers who still lingered in the western part of the Peloponnesus. He persuaded his brother Thomas to join in his plans, and marched forward to invade the territories of Theodore, where he expected to meet with little opposition ; but his project had transpired in time to allow Theodore to reach Misithra before Constantine arrived to besiege it. A civil war was now kindled in the peninsula, which soon spread over the whole country ; and by this unprincipled act of Constantine a pretext was afforded to the Moreot chiefs to gratify private revenge, under the colour of serving the hostile despots. While the quarrel of the brothers was languidly prosecuted, the personal vengeance of individuals wasted the country and deluged it with blood. Constantine on this occasion displayed an utter want of patriotism, and showed that, in order to reign, he was ready to become a vassal of the Turks. Phrantzes was sent as envoy to sultan Murad II., to solicit his interference ; and it was with difficulty that the emperor John VI. could prevail on his infatuated brothers to conclude a peace, without making the sultan the arbiter of their differences. Constantine at last consented to return to Constantinople, and to cede his government in the Peloponnesus to the despot Thomas, who continued to live in discord with Theodore until the year 1443. In that year Theodore finally quitted the Morea, and CONSTANTINE DEFEATED BY OMAR. 291 received in exchange the city of Selymbria as an appanage, a. d. He, however, soon resigned his power, and retired into a 1444. monastery, where he died, before witnessing the final ruin of his country. On the retreat of Theodore from the Peloponnesus, Constantine was invested with the government of Misithra, including Laconia, Argolis, Corinthia, and the coast of Achaia as far as Patras. Thomas continued to rule the w r hole of Elis and Messenia, with part of the ancient Arcadia, and of Achaia. 1 About this time the Othoman power was threatened with serious embarrassments; and the despot Constantine immediately forgot the friendship he had professed for sultan Murad II., when he was soliciting Turkish assistance to drive his own brother from Misithra. The news that the Hungarians had overthrown the Othoman army at Isladi, and that George Castriot, or Scanderbeg, had re-established a Christian principality in Albania, induced Constantine to strengthen the wall at the isthmus of Corinth, and repair the breeches made in it by Turakhan when he invaded the Peloponnesus in 1423. As many troops as it was possible to collect were assembled at Corinth ; and Constantine advanced into northern Greece with a considerable force, in order to invade the pashalik of Thessaly, and distract the operations of the Turks by attacking their rear. Nerio II., duke of Athens, was compelled to join the league against the sultan ; and the Albanians of Epirus and the Vallachians of Pindus were incited, as Christians, to commence hostilities with the Mohammedans. The military operations of Con- stantine were soon brought to a conclusion by the approach of an Othoman army, under Omar, the son of Turakhan, who without difficulty dispersed the Greek 1 In order to avoid confounding the name of the modern city of Arkadia, (the ancient Cyparissiao, the fief of the Centurione,) with the ancient state of Arcadia, it is convenient to make a difference in the spelling. 292 BVZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. troops assembled to invade Thessaly, and, advancing to § Thebes, gave the duke of Athens an opportunity of separating from the Greek alliance, to which he had entered in order to avert an attack on his own dominions. Constantine, finding that his troops were unable to face the well-disciplined army of Omar, abandoned all the conquests he had made beyond the isthmus, and thought only of defending himself in the Peloponnesus. Circum- stances seemed to promise him success. Sultan Murad II., after destroying the Christian army at the battle of Varna, hastened to bury himself again in his beloved retirement at Magnesia, and left the direction of the Othoman government in the hands of his son Mohammed II. The young sultan, able as he proved himself to be a very few years afterwards, could not then preserve order in the mass of armed men who formed the nucleus of the Othoman empire, and the janissaries broke out into open rebellion. It was neces- sary for Murad to quit his Asiatic retreat a second time, to occupy the throne. The victory at Varna had put to flight the dreams of independence and national re- generation which were floating in the minds of a few enthusiastic Greeks ; the return of Murad II. threatened the nation with immediate destruction : for nothing but foreign wars could insure obedience in the Othoman armies. Murad's first resolution was to punish Con- stantine for what he considered his ungrateful and rebel- lious conduct. Late in the year 1445, Murad II. marched from Adrianople into Thessaly ; and taking with him the veteran pasha Turakhan, whose long acquaintance with Greece and its inhabitants rendered him an invaluable counsellor, he pushed forward to Thebes, where he was joined by Nerio II., duke of Athens, a willing vassal in any enterprise against the Greeks. The Turkish army was accompanied by a number of waggons laden with CONSTANTINE NEGOTIATES WITH MURAD II. 293 bronze, to cast cannon. 1 In order to prepare the artillery necessary for attacking the fortifications of the isthmus, the army halted for a few days at Minzies, and the sultan advanced to reconnoitre the wall in person. The imposing appearance of its well-constructed battlements, manned by a numerous army of defenders, under the personal orders of the despots Constantine and Thomas, astonished Murad by a military display he had not ex- pected to behold, and he reproached Turakhan for having persuaded him to engage in the attack of these impreg- nable lines at the commencement of winter. Turakhan assured his master that many years' acquaintance with the Greeks enabled him to despise their military array ; and he declared that the army, even though covered by fortifications, would not long resist a vigorous assault. The conduct of the Christians verified his opinion. The Greek officer sent by Constantine to reconnoitre the Turkish preparations returned with alarming accounts of the Othoman force, and declared to the despots that it would be impossible to resist its attack. He advised them to abandon the lines at the isthmus without delay, and seek refuge in the impregnable fortresses in the interior of the Peloponnesus. Either from cowardice or treachery, he behaved so disgracefully that Constantine found it necessary to imprison him, in order to prevent his report from spreading a panic among the soldiery. The sultan soon established his camp before the Greek fortifications. Constantine then deputed Chalcocondylas, an Athenian in his service, to propose terms of peace. 2 1 Daru, Histoire de Venise, vii. 1 95. 2 This Chalcocondylas must have been the father of the historian, whom his son had previously mentioned in his work as having been sent on an embassy to Murad by the widow of Antonio Acciaiuoli, duke of Athens, in 1435. It appears to me that this is implied in the manner in which he is mentioned at this place, though Hammer draws a contrary inference, and considers that the historian is speaking of himself. — Histoire de I 'Empire Othoman, torn. ii. p. 500, note 10, trad, par Hellert. Vossius mentions that the historian was alive in 1490, so it seems not very probabie that he could have been intrusted with this important embassy forty-four years before ; but it is 294 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. The Greek leaders must have been singularly ignorant of § s. the true grounds of military success, and possessed with extraordinary confidence in their own talents, for we have seen that they could not repose much in the courage of their troops. Chalcocondylas was instructed to demand that the sultan should acknowledge Constantine as inde- pendent sovereign of the Peloponnesus, and all the territory beyond the isthmus which still recognised the Byzantine government. On this condition, he offered to abstain from all future hostilities against the Othoman dominions. The proposition appeared to Murad a much greater insult than the previous invasion of Thessaly. Chalcocon- dylas was thrown into prison, and the military operations were pursued with vigour. The Othoman camp was established before the middle of the wall, on the last slopes of Mount Geranion, overlooking the whole isthmus and the two seas, with the Acrocorinth and the long range of the rugged mountains of the Morea in the back- ground. The excellent police observed in the Turkish army, the plentiful supply of provisions that everywhere attended its march, the regular lines of shops that formed a market at every halt, the crowd of sutlers, with their well-laden mules, accompanying the troops in perfect security, and the regularity with which the soldiers received a daily advance on their monthly pay, calls forth, on this occasion, the admiration of the Greek historian. Chalcocondylas must often have been witness himself of the influence of the Turkish system in creating plenty, even while the army was marching through the most barren districts ; but the order and discipline which were very natural that his father, who had already been employed to negotiate with the sultan, should be again employed in the same way, when we recollect that he had been expelled from Athens by the Latin party, in consequence of his first embassy, and must have sought refuge at the court of the Greek despots in the Morea. — Vossius, Be Historicis Grcecis, ii. 30. Compare Chal- cocondylas, 169, 181 . Demetrius Chalcocondylas, one of the restorers of learn- ing in Italy, who died in Milan a.d. 1511, at the age of eighty-seven, and is buried in the church of St Mary of the Passion, was a member of the same family as the historian. ISTHMUS STORMED. 295 preserved among the soldiery may have been more deeply impressed on his memory on this occasion, in consequence of his having heard his father often dwell with wonder on the arrangements he had witnessed, while detained as a prisoner. This description of the Othoman commis- sariat explains to us the cause of that long series of success that attended the Turkish arms, better even than a description of the field tactics of the generals, or the manual exercise of the troops. The valour of the janis- saries was a consequence of their discipline ; the talents of the Othoman generals a result of the superior system, moral as well as military, in which they were trained. 1 On the fourth morning after the Turkish batteries had opened on the wall, the troops mounted to the assault. In the centre of the lines, opposite to the principal battery, the sultan himself overlooked the storming party ; and under his eye a young Servian janissary first gained the summit of the rampart, and planted the crescent firmly in sight of the two armies from sea to sea. His followers mastered the central towers, broke open the gates of the great road into the Peloponnesus, and admitted the whole Othoman army. The Greek troops abandoned the whole line of the wall the moment they heard that the breach had been stormed. Constantine and Thomas, unable to rally a single battalion, fled with precipitation to Misithra. Their imprudence had been so great that the Acrocorinth was destitute of all means of affording a cover for the defeated army. It had been left without provisions and without a garrison, so that it surrendered to the first party of the Turks that approached it. Three hundred Greeks alone attempted to resist the enemy. Entrenching them- selves in Mount Oxi, above Kenchries, they allowed themselves to be besieged by the Turks. Cut off from all supplies, they were soon compelled to surrender at dis- cretion. They were fettered with six huudred prisoners 1 Cbalcocondylas, p. 182. 296 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. the sultan had purchased from his janissaries, and orders § 3 - were given to lead out the whole to execution. They were beheaded without mercy ; yet Murad II., according to the testimony of historians, was one of the mildest and most humane of the Othoman sovereigns. Constantine, the author of the war, was so alarmed at the sultan's vigour and cruelty, that he thought of quitting the Peloponnesus and abandoning the Greeks to their fate. The movements of the Othoman army saved him from this disgrace. The main body of the Turks was directed along the coast of Achaia to Patras ; while Tura- khan, at the head of a light division, was sent into the interior of the Peninsula, merely for the purpose of laying waste the country and collecting booty. The greater part of the inhabitants of Patras escaped over the gulf into the Venetian territory in Etolia ; but about four thousand Greeks who remained in the city, and threw themselves on the mercy of the sultan, were all reduced to slavery. The citadel made a brave defence, and though the Turks succeeded at last in making a breach in the walls, they were repulsed in the assault, and the besieged gained time to erect a second line of defence. In the mean time Turakhan joined the sultan, bringing with him an immense amount of spoil ; and Murad, who was not inclined to waste any more time so far from the centre of the Othoman power, gave orders to the army to resume its march, and led it back to Thebes. He is said to have carried away about sixty thousand Greeks into slavery, who were distributed throughout the slave-markets in every part of the Othoman dominions. Constantine had now received so severe a lesson that he was glad to accept peace on the terms the sultan dictated, and to acknow- ledge himself a tributary of the Porte. 1 1 Chalcocondylas, 168-180. Phrantzes, 202. Ducas, 125. The slight mention made of this campaign by Phrantzes, who was then in the Peloponnesus, and the care with which he throws a veil over everything disgraceful in the con- duct of Constantine, gives us the standard of veracity in most of the Byzantine PELOPONNESUS TRIBUTARY TO TURKS. 297 A. D. 1446. SECT. IV. — DISORDERS IN THE MORE\ DURING THE GOVERNMENT OF THE DESPOTS THOMAS AND DEMETRIUS. ALBANIAN REVOLUTION. The death of the emperor John VI. called Constantine from Misithra to fill the imperial throne at Constanti- nople, and the government of the Peloponnesus was divided between his brothers Thomas and Demetrius. Thomas received Patras and a considerable portion of Achaia in addition to his former possessions ; while Demetrius was established as despot in Laconia, Argolis, and the eastern parts of Arcadia and Achaia. Both were at Constantinople when the partition was made, and, before quitting the capital to assume the administra- tion of their respective provinces, they swore in the most solemn manner, with all the fearful imprecations of which the Greek church makes liberal use, not to invade one another's possessions, but to live together in constant harmony. These oaths were disregarded the moment thej set foot in the Peloponnesus. Thomas was a cruel tyrant, who assassinated his enemies and put out the eyes of his captives without remorse. Demetrius was an idle, luxurious, and worthless prince, who neglected all the business of his station. Both had more than an ordinary share of Byzantine avidity for money, and a princely contempt for the feelings and interests of their subjects. Strictly speaking, the despots who ruled in Morea were nothing more than viceroys of the emperor of Constantinople ; but the circumstances in which the empire was placed had, for a long time, rendered them in writers. From the conquest of Italy by the Lombards, to the desolation of the Peloponnesus by sultan Murad II., the Greek historians frequently leave the most important events connected with the history of the Greek nation unrecorded. Phrantzes says the isthmus was forced on the 1 Oth December, 1 446. The Breve Chronicon says on Saturday 3d December peace was concluded, early in 1447. Chalcocondylas, 185. A Turkish historian speaks of the immense quantity of silver plate carried off by the Othoman troops, and says that the booty was so great that the most beautiful women were sold for 300 aspers. — Daru, Histoirc de Venisc, 7, 196. 298 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. point of fact absolute and independent sovereigns. The § 4. administration both of Thomas and Demetrius, neverthe- less, afforded an example of that peculiar system of government, by means of courtly dependents imported from Constantinople in the train of the prince, which, in modern times, lias produced the ruin and demoralisation of Vallachia and Moldavia. It is a system creating, wherever it exists, the deepest execration in the hearts of those submitted to its tyranny. In modern times, the race of Byzantine officials, who have been the agents of this system of rapacity and oppression, have been called Phanariotes, from the name of the quarter of Constanti- nople in which they usually resided ; and this class of men has been one cause of the general detestation with which the Greeks are regarded by all other races in the East. Before the conquest of the Byzantine empire by the Turks, the officials at Constantinople were a powerful class, too much honoured to have any nickname. 1 The two despots were naturally inclined to quarrel ; the Byzantine officials who composed their courts expected new places and additional profits from their hostilities, so that their passions were pandered to by these adven- turers. Their disputes were so violent that nothing but the fear of the Turks prevented the more energetic Thomas from attacking his brother Demetrius. 2 When Mahommed II. prepared to attack Constanti- nople, he deemed it prudent to give the two despots in the Morea sufficient employment at home to prevent them from sending any assistance to their brother Constantine in the capital of the empire. In October 1452, a Turkish army under Turakhan and his two sons, Achmet and Omar, passed the isthmus, where a Greek corps stationed to guard the wall was cut to pieces. Leaving Corinth 1 The aversion felt by the Peloponnesian Greeks for the Byzantine officials is expressed by Chalcocondylas, p. 216. 2 Chalcocondylas informs us that Thomas compelled Demetrius to yield up Skorta, and receive Kalamata in exchange, p. 200. TURKISH INVASION. 299 unattacked, Turakhan divided his army, and extended A . D . his ravages over the whole of the great Arcadian 1452. plain, from whence he marched by Leondari into the rich valleys of Messenia. He took Neochorion on the way ; but on reaching Siderokastron he vainly endeavoured to storm that place, and was in the end compelled to aban- don the attempt. The Othoman troops passed the winter in the soft climate of Messenia. After collecting an ample supply of plunder and slaves, they were ordered in the spring to evacuate the Morea, having fulfilled the object of their winter campaign. As the last division of the Turkish army under Achniet was retiring by the narrow pass on the road from Argos to Corinth, called by the ancients Tretos, and celebrated in modern times for the defeat of a Turkish army under Dramali Pasha in 1822, the Othomans were vigorously assailed by a Greek corps, commanded by Matthew Asan, a noble who pos- sessed both valour and military talents. The Turks were routed with severe loss, and Achmet their general was taken prisoner and delivered up to the despot Demetrius at Misithra. Demetrius received his captive with the greatest attention, and released him without ransom as a mark of gratitude to Turakhan for the services he had received from that pasha during his quarrels with his brother Thomas. 1 The fall of Constantinople, and the conviction that the great bulk of the inhabitants of the Peloponnesus feared Turkish cruelty less than Byzantine rapacity, induced the despots to solicit peace on any terms Mahommed II. might be pleased to dictate. The sultan received them as vassals of the Porte on their engaging to pay a yearly tribute of twelve thousand gold 1 Chalcocoudylas, 202. Phrantzes, 235, edit. Bonn. Fallmerayer, ii. 352. The author of this work once passed a night, bivouacked with a body of Greek troops under the chief Odysseus, at the entrance of this pass, and, sitting round the camp fire, listened to the description of the defeat of Dramali's army, re- counted by one of the captains of the band under Niketas. The interest of the narrative was heightened by the sharp and characteristic questions of the cunning and suspicious Odysseus. .300 BYZANTINE PEOVINCE. chap. ix. ducats ; yet these miserable princes were so blinded by § 4 - avidity, the master passion of their existence, as to neglect remitting this tribute until the sultan sent them an order either to send the tribute or quit the Morea. This message was delivered in a tone that met with implicit obedience. 1 At this unfortunate epoch in the history of the Greek nation, the people, oppressed by rulers who were aliens in every moral and political feeling, began to lose all wish to defend their national independence ; while the Albanian colonists in the Morea had increased so much in numbers and wealth that they aspired at complete political liberty. The extent of land thrown out of cultivation by the depopulating ravages of the Turks had enabled the Albanian population to increase considerably, by spread- ing their flocks and herds over the districts left desolate. The reports that daily reached the Morea of the great exploits of their countryman, Scanderbeg, or George Castriot, inspired the Albanians with aspirations after liberty ; and their only idea of liberty was to become absolute masters of the soil they occupied, and to refuse paying their Greek landlords the rent that had hitherto been exacted for the pasturage of their cattle. The Albanians lived in so rude a condition, that the plenty they enjoyed enabled them to increase in numbers, amidst the general desolation that afflicted every other class of the population in the Morea. The Greeks, on the other hand, were too civilised, and nurtured among too many artificial wants, to be able to perpetuate their numbers in the state of privation in which they were now com- pelled to live. The peasantry, crowded into the towns, were daily perishing from want ; the artisans and traders, deprived of their occupations, were rapidly emigrating to other countries. This inauspicious moment was selected by the Moreot archonts, and the Byzantine officials, as a fit conjuncture for demanding from the Albanians an 1 Ducas, 177, 191. Chalcocondylas, 215, 219. ALBANIANS BESIEGE THE DESPOTS. 301 additional rent for the land they occupied. The exaction roused the people to resist ; and the leaders, considering the moment favourable for a general insurrection, boldly proclaimed their project of expelling the Greek population from the Morea. The Greek race was quite as near extinction in the Morea, from the Albanians on this occasion, as it had ever been from the Sclavonians in pre- ceding ages, and Turkish interference perhaps alone saved the peninsula from becoming an Albanian land. A num- ber of discontented political adventurers deserted their Greek countrymen, and became the most active leaders in this revolution — which was, on the whole, much more a movement of Albanian cupidity and Greek intrigue, than a contest of national ambition and patriotic feeling. Manuel Cantacuzenos, a Byzantine noble who had acquired great influence among the semi-independent mountaineers of Taygetus and Maina, placed himself at the head of the principal body of the insurgents. By assuming an Albanian name, he expected that the rebels would be per- suaded to elect him Prince of the Morea. Instead of Manuel, he adopted the Albanian appellation Ghin ; and his wife, instead of Maria, called herself Cuchia. 1 The Albanian insurgents, with Ghin at their head, besieged the despot Demetrius in Misithra. Centurione, the brother of the wife of the despot Thomas, was at this time confined in the castle of Chlomoutzi along with a Greek named Loukanos, who possessed considerable influ- ence in the affairs of the Peloponnesus. The two pri- soners succeeded in making their escape at this critical moment. Centurione, who styled himself Prince of Achaia, collected all the remains of the Latins and Greeks in communion with the papal church, and advanced to besiege Patras with a considerable body of armed men. Loukanos became an Albanian patriot, and, assembling all 1 Theodori Spandwgini Diss, de Orig. Tmp. Turcicorum, in Sansovino's Collec- tion, p. 200. Fallrnerayer, ii. 357. 302 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. the discontented of every class and nation in the west of the § 4. Morea, united his forces with those of Centurione, before Patras, into which they had driven the furious Thomas, who had been as unable to make head against the insur- gents as his weaker brother Demetrius. Neither Patras nor Misithra could have offered any prolonged resistance, so that the fate of the Peloponnesus depended on the Turkish sultan. Both parties sent deputations to Mohammed, to gain his favour. The Albanian chiefs offered to pay the same tribute that had been imposed on the Greek despots, begging to be allowed to occupy the whole peninsula as vassals of the Porte. On the other hand, however, Matthew Asan, who commanded the Greek garrison in Corinth, assured the sultan that any party would readily pay the tribute ; and he solicited assistance from the Turk to subdue the Albanian rebels, whose projects, he persuaded Mohammed, were partly directed to conquest and partly to plunder. The hatred the sultan entertained against Scanderbeg made him feel no inclination to countenance the movement of the Albanians, who had commenced conquering and plunder- ing the Greeks, whom he considered as his vassals, without any authority. It suited his policy for the moment to maintain the two rival races in joint possession of the country, but it now seemed that, unless he immediately interfered, the Greeks might be completely subdued. To prevent such a catastrophe, Turakhan was again ordered to march into the Peloponnesus, and deliver the despots from their Albanian besiegers. The popular fury of the rebellion was exhausted before the Othoman army entered the peninsula ; for as soon as the Greek adventurers suc- ceeded in intruding themselves into the principal com- mands over the insurgent army, the Albanian population perceived that they were engaging in a war for the profit of new masters, and not in a revolution for their own advantage. TURKS RE-ESTABLISH THE GREEKS. 303 Turakhan crossed the isthmus in October 1454, and hastened to attack the district of Borbotia, where the Albanians had secured the greater part of their wealth. This place served them as a citadel. The approach of the Turks compelled the Albanians to raise the siege of Misithra. The despot Demetrius, with a number of followers, immediately joined the Turkish army ; which, aided by the topographical knowledge of these volunteers, was enabled to penetrate into the enemy's stronghold and capture ten thousand women and children, as well as the greater part of the riches that had been accumulating by plundering the Greeks during the insurrection. The siege of Patras was raised about the same time, and Turakhan, on advancing into Messenia, was met by the despot Thomas, who conducted the Turks to the fortress of Aetos, where the Albanian partisans of Centurione and Loukanos had secured their share of the plunder. This party of the insurgents purchased impunity and pardon, by delivering up one thousand slaves to the Turks, with a quantity of arms and a large supply of provisions and cattle. The Albanians now everywhere laid down their arms, and sued for peace. The terms which Turakhan thought fit to dictate were by no means severe, for he was too politic a statesman to allow the Greeks to gain any very decided superiority over their enemies in conse- quence of his victories. The terms of the pacification he forced on the despots are a sad testimony of the utter ruin that had overwhelmed the Greek agricultural popu- lation. The Albanians were allowed to retain possession of all the cattle they had plundered. This seems to indicate that few private individuals of rank appeared to reclaim their property. The Albanians were also per- mitted to colonise all the waste lands they had occupied, on paying a fixed rent to the proprietors. After he had settled the affairs of the country, Turakhan gave the two despots some good advice, which, if it be correctly reported 304 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. by Chalcocondylas, does honour both to the head and the § 5 - heart of this experienced warrior, who had grown grey in the Grecian wars. The Albanian insurrection was marked by many atrocities, both at its commencement and during its progress : it reduced whole districts to a state of desolation, and converted many Greek towns into mere sheepfolds, or Mandra. 1 SECT. V. — FIRST EXPEDITION OF SULTAN MOHAMMED II. INTO THE MOEEA. The suppression of the Albanian revolt did not tran- quillise the Peloponnesus. The country continued to be troubled with plots and convulsions. Byzantine nobles, Greek archonts, and Albanian chieftains, were running a race for plunder through the mazes of political intrigue. Constant complaints reached the Porte, and at last Mohammed II. resolved to examine the state of the country in person. On the 15th of May 1458, he passed the ruined wall of the isthmus, and entered the town of Corinth. The Acrocorinth was in a neglected state ; but Matthew Asan, with his usual promptitude, introduced a supply of provisions and military stores into it from the port of Kenchries, though he had to convey them almost through the middle of the Turkish camp during the night. The impregnable position of the fortress then defied any attempt at assault. Mohammed therefore left a body of troops to blockade it, while he advanced into the centre of the Morea with the rest of his army. In order to avoid traversing the Venetian possessions round Argos and Nauplia, as he was then at peace with the republic, he turned off from the road thither at Nemea, to march by the lake Stymphalos, from whence he crossed a moun- tain road to Tarsos in the valley of the river of Phonia. Tarsos was inhabited by Albanians, who purchased 1 Chalcocondylas, 215. Phrantzes, 383, edit. Bonn. Spandugino, 200. CAMPAIGN OF MOHAMMED II. S05 immunity by furnishing the sultan with three hundred boys to recruit the ranks of the janissaries. A fortress called Aetos bravely resisted the Othoman arms ; but after suffering every extremity of thirst, the inhabitants saw their walls stormed by the janissaries, who pillaged all their property. Their lives were spared, that the young and active might be selected as slaves. From Aetos the sultan marched to Akova, where numbers both of Greeks and Albanians had sought refuge with their families. The place was attacked without success for two successive days ; but when the sultan was on the point of raising the siege, the garrison sent an offer to capitulate. The inhabitants were personally well treated, but they were transported to Constantinople, which Mohammed was endeavouring to repeople with contin- gents from most of the cities he conquered. Twenty Albanians, who were found in Akova, were condemned by Mohammed to be executed with the most horrid cruelty, for having violated the capitulation of Tarsos, and again borne arms against the Mussulmans. 1 The sultan now turned back, and entered the great Arcadian plain near the ruins of Mantinea. The Albanians of Pentechoria, or Pazenika, were summoned to surrender by the agency of Manuel (or Ghin) Cantacuzenos, the leader of the Albanian revolt, who was now serving with the Turkish army ; but they rejected all the sultan's offers, and repulsed the Othoman troops. Mohammed continued his march to Mouchli on Mount Parthenios. Mouchli was at this time one of the principal towns in the peninsula, and its ruins still cover a considerable space, and are said by the peasantry of the neighbourhood to contain the remains of three hundred and sixty-five churches. Though nothing 1 The sultan Mohammed II. ordered the ankles and wrists of these Alba- nians to be broken with clubs, and in this state they were left to die. With that fiendish exultation in cruelty which characterises Othoman history, the place was called Tokmak Hissari, or the Castle of Ankles. Akova is called Rupela by Chalcocondylas ; but Hammer, Histoire de V Empire Othoman, iii. 48, observes that the Turkish historian Seaddin agrees with Phrantzes in calling it Akova. U 306 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. but rudely built walls are now visible, the Albanian § population around connect this Byzantine rubbish with vague traditions of imperial grandeur, and of ancient wealth and prosperity, while they look with indifference on the Hellenic walls of Mantinea, as the work of heathen giants. Mouchli was soon compelled to surrender from want of water, the besiegers cutting off the supply by the aqueduct, and the cisterns being insufficient for the demands of the inhabitants. From Mouchli, Mohammed returned to Corinth, where he bombarded the Acrocorinth with such effect that the bakehouse and magazines were reduced to ashes. 1 Want of provisions and the treachery of the archbishop caused the surrender of the place. The Greek archbishop secretly informed the sultan of the con- dition to which the garrison was reduced ; and when Asan saw there was no hope of the siege being raised, or of his receiving any further supplies, lie surrendered the fortress. Mohammed had the generosity to treat this brave enemy with honour. He deputed him to the two despots, to communicate the terms on which they would be allowed to retain their posts. The country visited by the sultan as far as Mouchli, with the whole coast of Achaia as far as Patras, was annexed to the pashalic of Thessaly, and intrusted to the command of Omar, the son of Turakhan. The tribute of the two despots was fixed at five hundred Staters of gold, and Demetrius was ordered to send his daughter as a bride to the sultan's harem. 2 1 According to Chalcocondylas, 240, the balls of Mohammed's artilleiy weighed seven talents, which, if the talent be estimated, with Suidas, at one hundred and twenty-five pounds, gives a ball of eight hundred and seventy-five pounds' weight. These balls were propelled to the distance of fourteen stades, or about a mile and a half. 2 Chalcocondylas, 240. Phrantzes, 387, edit. Bonn. Chronicon Breve, a.m. 696G, a.d. 1458. I am not aware how we are to fix the value of what Chalco- condylas, with Byzantine pedantry, calls a Stater of gold. Hammer supposes that he means a centner or hundred pounds' weight, as that was the usual mode of reckoning with the Byzantine officials at an earlier period. Until the time of the conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders, the centner was one hundred pounds' weight of gold, and the pound contained seventy-two nomis- mata or byzants ; but the centner left by the emperer John VI. at Florence, and preserved in the collection of medals, is only worth about one hundred DESPOT THOMAS ATTACKS DEMETRIUS. 307 When Mohammed had quitted Greece, the despot a. d. Thomas, fancying that the attention of the Othoman 1459. government was exclusively occupied with the affairs of Servia and the troubled state of Asia Minor, resolved to attack his brother Demetrius and the Turkish garrisons in the peninsula at the same time, hoping to render himself master of the whole of the Peloponnesus before the sultan could send any aid. Thomas then trusted to the chapter of accidents for the means of making his peace with the sultan, or for resisting his attacks. Vanity whispered that his power as the prince of the Greeks made him a more redoubtable enemy than Scanderbeg the chieftain of the Albanians, whose exploits were then the theme of universal admiration, and whose great success proves to us the worthlessness of his Christian cotem- poraries. In the month of January 1459, Thomas assembled all the troops he could engage in his service, and in this way formed a considerable army. Karitena, St George, Bordonia, and Kastritza were induced to drive out the officers of Demetrius, and join the war party that allied itself with Thomas. The national hatred of the Turks, and the contempt felt for Demetrius as their ally, joined to a public proclamation that the municipalities and provinces should be allowed to manage their local affairs, were the sentiments on which Thomas counted for securing the support of the whole Christian population of the Peloponnesus. 1 One division of his army besieged the Turkish garrison in Patras, while the other captured the fortresses of Kalamata, Zarnata, Leftron, and the castles in the Zygos of Maina. The whole peninsula was, by this ill-judged insurrection, con- verted into a scene of anarchy, pillage, and bloodshed. and seventeen pounds sterling. The gold coinage of Constantinople lost its ancient purity in the empire of Nice and the restored Byzantine empire. Reiskii Commentarii ad Constantinum Porphyrogenitum de Ceremoniis Aulce Byzantince, edit. Lips., torn. ii. p. 44 ; edit. Bonn., torn. ii. p. 139. 1 Phrantzes, 389, l[v 'avSts txcoaiv avra ovx 1 ® s irpcorjv invfiepvovv, dXX' cos avSevrai t'Stoi. 308 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. The Albanians, in order to revenge themselves for their § 6 - former defeat, plundered all the Greeks alike, whether they were the partisans of one brother or the other ; and they availed themselves of the general anarchy to lay waste the villages whose farms they were eager to convert into pasture-lands. The Turkish garrisons of Mouchli, Vastitza, and Corinth, however, found opportunities of making continual sorties, burning down the villages, and carrying off the cattle in the surrounding country, in order to prevent the possibility of the Greeks being able to concentrate a sufficient force to besiege them. To repress these disorders, Mohammed II. sent the pasha of Thessaly against Thomas. The Moslems marched from Patras along the western coast of the Morea into the plain of Messenia, from which they ascended by the pass of Makryplagia into the valley of Leondari. Here Thomas had drawn out a numerous army to await their attack, close under the walls of the town. The great English general of our age is said to have observed that, if fifty thousand men were drawn up in close order in Hyde Park, there would probably not be found three men in London who could move them out of it without producing a scene of confu- sion and disorder as dangerous as a battle. The Greek despot, in his long embroidered robes, surrounded by a crowd of ceremonious courtiers better versed in the formalities of Byzantine etiquette than the movements of troops in front of an enemy, surveyed his army in helpless pride and dignity. Younisbeg, the commander of the Othoman sipahis, after reconnoitring the position occupied by the close array of the Greeks, made a remark on the ignorance of their commanders not unlike the observation of the Duke. He soon verified the correctness of the judgment he had pronounced, by a charge which threw one flank of the army into inextricable confusion, while the great body of the troops remained utterly useless ALLIANCE OF THOMAS AND DEMETKIUS. 309 and helpless. The rapid flight of the Greeks, however, showed the Turkish general that fear can often accom- plish with ease manoeuvres which military science only effects with difficulty. The defeated army left only two hundred men on the field of battle. The speedy capture of Leondari and the submission of Thomas seemed now inevitable ; but at this critical moment a violent contagious disease broke out in the Turkish army, and compelled it to retire. 1 The Greeks again advanced ; Patras was once more besieged, and patriotism was revived ; but the arrival of a fresh body of Turkish troops from continental Greece soon compelled the besiegers of Patras to take to flight, abandoning their camp-baggage and artillery to the enemy. Thomas, convinced that his troops were utterly unfit to cope with the Turkish militia, sued for peace, which the saltan, whose attention was occupied with more important affairs, readily granted. He was ordered to pay three thousand gold staters as indemnity for the expenses of the war, and to present himself to a Turkish envoy at Corinth within twenty days, in order to ratify the conditions of the peace. Fear of treachery on one hand, and a vague conviction that the sultan would not have consented to any terms had he been prepared for war, inspired Thomas with the courage of despair, and he ventured to disobey the order. He reconciled himself with his brother Demetrius through the mediation of the bishop of Lacedaemon, and the two brothers met at the church of Kastritza. The meet- ing was singularly solemn : the bishop, clothed in sack- cloth, performed high mass in a small church, while the two despots stood side by side in his presence. They then stepped forward and swore perpetual amity, mutual oblivion of every past injury, and brotherly love — receiving the holy communion from the hands of the bishop as a guarantee of their oaths. But to these unprincipled 1 Cbalcocondylas, 243. 310 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. Byzantine lords their plighted word was a jest ; the § e. ceremonies of their church mere mummery, to deceive the people ; and their religion a mockery, by which they could cheat heaven out of pardon for the worst crimes. The light of the tapers they had held in their hands, as they uttered their imprecations on their own perjuries, was hardly extinguished before they were plotting how to violate their oaths. Before the end of the year 1459 both were in arms, ravaging one another's possessions, and exterminating the scanty remains of the Greek population in the Peloponnesus. The Albanian shepherds and herdsmen had good reason to adore the Constantinopolitan rulers of Greece : to the Hellenic race they were far more destructive enemies than the Sclavonians or the Crusaders. We need not wonder when we find that, in this age, many Greeks quitted their religion to embrace Mohammedanism. The Greek church imposed no restraint on the worst vices, and the moralist might well fancy that such Christianity was less productive of moral good, and more at variance with the scheme of the crea- tion, than the faith of Mahomet. 1 SECT. VI. — FINAL CONQUEST OF THE MOREA BY MOHAMMED II. Instead of remitting the tribute to the sultan, and ratifying the treaty of peace, Thomas devoted all his endeavours to conquering his brother's territories before the Turks could send a force to his assistance. This insolence exhausted the patience of Mohammed, who delayed his proposed expedition into Asia in order to lead an army in person into the Peloponnesus, and put an end to these disorders, by extinguishing any trace of Greek indepen- dence. He passed the Isthmus of Corinth in the month of May 1460, and marched direct to Misithra, where the 1 It would be very easy to make a long list of distinguished men in the service of the sultans Mui-ad II. and Mohammed II. who were renegades. CRUELTIES OF MOHAMMED II. 311 despot Demetrius received him with marks of profound sub- a. d. mission ; but the sultan immediately informed him that 1460. the state of affairs in the peninsula no longer admitted of a Greek governing any portion of the country, and ordered him to close his reign by transmitting commands to all his officers, and to every city and fort in his territory, to receive Turkish officers. The inhabitants of Monemvasia, whose situation had enabled their municipal government to retain some degree of independence, boldly refused to comply with these commands ; and as they possessed a body of armed citizens sufficiently numerous to garrison their walls, they proclaimed the despot Thomas as their sovereign — .preferring a Christian tyrant, against whom they could defend themselves, to a Mohammedan, who would soon destroy their liberties. The sultan marched from Misithra to Kastritza, which also refused to sur- render — but, after a vigorous defence, it was compelled to capitulate ; and Mohammed, in order to strike terror into all who might feel inclined to resist his arms, excluded three hundred of its brave defenders from the benefit of the capitulation, and ordered them to be put to death. Leondari offered no resistance, but the Turks found it abandoned by the greater part of its inhabitants, who had retired with their families and property to the secluded town of Gardiki. They hoped in this rocky retreat to escape notice, until the storm should roll over, like so many that had preceded it ; but the sultan had now resolved to exterminate all those who possessed the means of offering the slightest resistance to the Turkish authority at a future period. He led his troops into the defiles of Mount Hellenitza, and stormed Gardiki. The citadel, in spite of its rocky and impregnable position, capitulated as soon as the town was taken. Men, women, and children were then all collected in one spot, and massacred without mercy, by the orders of the sultan. Six thousand souls, among whom were the principal .312 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. families of Leondari, perished on this occasion to expiate § 6 - the vices and folly of their Byzantine princes. 1 The inhabitants of Old Navarin and Arkadia surrendered, and from their environs ten thousand persons were trans- ported to repeople Constantinople. Amidst these scenes of desolation, the despot Thomas conducted himself with the basest cowardice. As soon as he heard that Mohammed had entered Misithra, he fled to the port of Navarin, and embarked in a ship he had prepared to be ready for his own escape, in case of any accident. When Mohammed approached the western coast, the despot sailed to Corfu. The authority of the Byzantine despots was now at an end. Most of the political adventurers from Constan- tinople, who had been one of the chief causes of the ruin of Greece, now abandoned the country. They could no longer expect that the central government would allow them to extort wealth from the unhappy population — for the Othomans systematically preferred levying the tribute by the agency of local primates. The implicit submission of the whole Peloponnesus might have been expected to follow the resignation of one sovereign, and the flight of the other, as a natural consequence — but it was not so. The fall of the Greek people was more dignified than that of their Byzantine rulers. Each separate community now acted on its own feelings, and the true national character of the population was for a moment visible ere it was extinguished in blood by the Turks. Cowardice, at least, does not seem to have been the prevailing vice. The spirit " attached to regions mountainous," which, under a better system of family training, enabled the Swiss to maintain their national independence by the exertions of local communities, was not utterly wanting among the Greek and Albanian population of the Morea, even in 1 Chalcocondylas, 252. Phrantzes, 406. Gardiki was the scene of the first great massacre perpetrated by the Turks in the Morea, in 1423. The cruelty of Turakhan excited the emulation of Mohammed. — See page 281. BRAVE RESISTANCE OF THE PEOPLE. 313 this period of Greek degradation. Central governments a. d. are easily destroyed by a victorious enemy; local inde- U60. pendence engenders permanent feelings that almost insure success, in a national struggle, against the most powerful conqueror. While Mohammed II. led the main body of the Turkish army in person into the centre of the Morea, he had detached Zagan pasha in command of another division, to complete the conquest of the northern part of the peninsula. Zagan executed the task intrusted to him with a degree of inhumanity which displeased even Mohammed, who was so little inclined to mercy that he ordered an Albanian chief named Doxa, who had re- peatedly deserted from the Greeks to the Turks, and from the Turks to the Greeks, to be sawn in two, as a punishment for earlier treacheries, though he now gave up Kalavryta to the sultan's troops. Part of the garrison of Kalavryta were sold as slaves, and the rest were beheaded. Zagan besieged Grevenos, which repulsed his attacks with great valour; but Santimeri, in which all the wealth of the surrounding country had been laid up, opened its gates on receiving from the pasha a promise that he would protect the lives and property of the inhabitants. 1 When he gained possession of the place, he allowed the Turkish troops to plunder the houses and murder the inhabitants. This open violation of his word caused such hatred against him that the whole population of the surrounding districts flew to arms, and, considering that it was vain to treat with such a monster, offered a determined resistance to the further progress of the Othoman arms. Zagan lost his master's favour by imitating too closely his master's example. Mohammed II., who had met with no resistance, advanced from Arkadia through the plain of Elis, where all the towns opened their gates on his approach, and 1 Santimeri was founded by Nicholas de Saint-Omer about the year 1273. 314 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. their inhabitants were uniformly treated with humanity. § 6. Grevenos, unable to resist any longer the additional force that attacked it, was compelled to surrender, and one- third of its inhabitants were selected by the conquerors to be sold as slaves. Salmeniko was occupied by a garrison commanded by Paleologos Graitzas, and it made a desperate defence. For seven days the sultan's troops reiterated their attempts to storm the walls, but were repulsed by the gallantry of its defenders. At last the Turks cut off the supply of water, and thus compelled the town to surrender. Six thousand of the inhabitants were reduced to slavery, and nine hundred young men were enrolled among the janissaries. But the citadel continued to hold out, as the cisterns were sufficient for its supply. Nothing, however, now remained for the garrison to protect ; and the commandant offered to evacuate the place, on condition that the garrison should be allowed to cross the Gulf of Corinth into the Venetian territory at Lepanto. Mohammed gave his consent to the terms proposed, and withdrew his army to Vostitza to afford the besieged a free passage to the shore. The commandant, however, entertained great distrust of the Turks, in consequence of their conduct at Santimeri, and, in order to guard against any treachery, he sent forward a detachment with a considerable quantity of baggage, trusting that this display of booty would allure any ambuscade from its concealment. The plan was success- ful. Hamza pasha, the successor of Zagan, who had been charged by Mohammed to receive the surrender of the fortress, allowed his troops to waylay this detachment, and plunder the baggage. The commandant of Sal- meniko, finding that it was impossible to place any reliance on the capitulations he had concluded, sent a message to the sultan to announce that he was determined to defend the citadel to the last extremity. Mohammed disgraced Hamza, perhaps as much for his awkwardness COMPLETE SUBJECTION OF GREECE. 315 as his treachery, and restored Zagan to his former post. a. d. He then continued his march, leaving troops to blockade 1460. the citadel of Salmeniko, which continued to hold out for a year. The garrison then obtained a capitulation, with proper guarantees for its faithful execution, and retired in safety into the Venetian territory. The gallant leader of this patriotic band was named Graitzas. 1 Mohammed II. quitted the Morea in the autumn of 1460. On his way back to Constantinople he visited Athens for the second time ; while the main body of his army, laden with spoil and encumbered with slaves, moved slowly northward from Megara by Thebes. This last campaign in the Morea was attended with wanton destruction of property and waste of human life. Moham- med's policy evidently was to ruin the resources of the country, as a preventive against insurrection, and a security that it would hold out little inducement to any Christian power to occupy it with an army. His measures were successful. The diminished population remained long in such a state of poverty and barbarism, that it could devote little care to anything beyond procuring the means of subsistence. Even the payment of the annual tribute of their children, which the Christians were compelled to send to Constantinople, in order to recruit the strength of the Othoman power, failed to awaken either patriotism or despair among the Greeks. The fate of the two last despots hardly merits the attention of history, were it not that mankind has a morbid curiosity to pursue the most trifling records con- cerning the fortunes of the most worthless princes. 1 His family name was not Paleologos, for Phrantzes proves that he was not of the blood of the imperial family — of which Phrantzes was himself a member — by calling him, with Phanariot insolence, a certain Paleologos, whose surname was Graitzas. — Phrantzes, 409. Chalcoconclylas, 256, 258. Sir James Emerson Tennent, in his History of Modern Greece, i. 141, copying the Turkish History of Knolles, i. 242, speaks of the cowardly despot Thomas Paleologos as the valiant chieftain who defended Salmeniko, and compelled Mohammed II. to exclaim " that in the country of Peloponnesus he had found many slaves, but never a man but him." 316 BYZANTINE PK0V1NCE. chap. ix. Demetrius was sent by the sultan to reside at Enos, § 6. where he received from Mohammed's bounty an annual pension of six hundred thousand aspers. 1 He died a monk at Adrianople in 1471. It is said that the sultan never married his daughter whom he had been compelled to send into the imperial harem. Thomas, after attempt- ing to purchase an appanage from the sultan, by offeriug to cede Monemvasia to the infidels, finding his offers despised by Mohammed, finished his life as a pensionary of the Pope, who was so liberal as to allow him three hundred ducats a month, to which the cardinals added two hundred more. He died at Rome in 1465. The papal pension of three hundred ducats a month was con- tinued to his children. His eldest son, Andrew, married a woman from the streets of Rome, and, dying childless in 1502, left the visionary empire of the East, of which he deemed himself the heir, to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. His second son Manuel, tired of papal patronage, escaped from Rome to Constantinople, where he threw himself on the protection of the sultan. Mohammed gave him a hospitable reception, and supplied him with the means of maintaining a more decent harem than his brother. Manuel left a son named Andrew, who became a Mussulman, and received the name of Mohammed. Thus ended the contemptible race of the imperial house of Paleologos. 2 1 i ~E$;r)KovTa [xvptddas apyvplov. — Chalcocondylas, 257. If we suppose the proportion to have continued the same between the common silver coin and the common gold coin in circulation at this period, as it was more than a century earlier, thirty of these silver pieces were equal to a gold piece. This would make the pension of Demetrius equal to twenty thousand ducats. The sultan Mohammed I. allowed the emperor Manuel II. only three hundred thousand aspers for the maintenance of his brother Mustapha; and this sum the Turkish historians make equal to thirty thousand ducats. Compare Ducas, 67, 90, and Hammer's Hhtoire de V Empire Ottoman, ii, 474. As it is not pro- bable that Mohammed II. allowed Demetrius more than Mohammed I. allowed Mustapha, we must suppose that in the first case a smaller coin is alluded to than in the second. There were aspers of twice the value of the ordinary silver coin in circulation, fifteen aspers being equal to thirty sterlings. — Ducange, Gloss. Med. et Inf. Latinitatis, v. Asperi. .Both sizes are found in the coinage of Trebizond. 2 Ducange, Familice Augustce Byzantince, 248. The pretended descent of a VENETIAN POSSESSIONS. 317 The city of Monemvasia defended its independence a. d. for four years ; but in 1464, when the inhabitants heard 1464. that the despot Thomas had offered to surrender their city to the Turks, they found it necessary to call in the . assistance of the Venetian republic and receive an Italian garrison. The Venetians continued to hold possession of Nauplia, Argos, Thermisi, Coron, Modon, and Navarin, as well as Acarnania, Arta, Missolonghi, Naupaktos, and Eubcea. In the year 1463, the Turks renewed their attempt to complete the conquest of the Morea by attack- ing the Venetian possessions. Argos was betrayed into their hands by a Greek priest, and the greater part of its Greek inhabitants were transported to Constanti- nople. The territory of Coron and Modon was laid waste, and Acarnania invaded. But Venice, on this occasion, nobly exerted herself to gain the title of Europe's bul- wark against the Othoman. A powerful expedition was fitted out, and great exertions were made to rouse the Greek population to attempt a general insurrection. The Italian condottiere and foreign mercenaries who composed the armies of Venice, were no match for the severely disciplined regular troops of the Othoman empire, attended by the well-organised batteries of field and siege artillery, without which no Turkish army now entered on a campaign. The pashas who commanded the Othoman armies were almost the only soldiers in Europe accustomed to direct and combine the constant movements of large bodies of men for one definite result. The Venetians had a short gleam of success : Argos was recovered • the Isthmus of Corinth was occupied. Thirty thousand men were employed to work by relays, night and day, in order to repair the wall, which expe- Paleologos, buried in the parish church of Landulph in Cornwall, from the despot Thomas, cannot be admitted as authentic. — See the account by the Rev. F. Vy vyan Jago, F.S.A., rector of Landulph, in the eighteenth volume of the Archceologia. The name Paleologos became, and continues to be, a common one, and ail who bear it are, of course, prepared to substantiate their preten- sions to descent from the imperial family. 318 BYZANTINE PROVINCE. chap. ix. perience had so frequently proved to be useless as a § 6. fortification. For a fortnight the work was pursued with ardour ; but, in the mean time, the Venetian army was repulsed in all its attacks on Corinth ; and, the season setting in with intense cold early in autumn, the lines at the isthmus were abandoned, and the whole Venetian force retreated to Nauplia. In 1466, the Venetians, under Victor Capello, the advocate of the war, succeeded in taking Athens ; but subsequently, on debarking his troops near Patras, they sustained a disastrous defeat. When peace was concluded between Venice and the Porte in 1479, the republic retained possession of Nauplia, Monemvasia, Coron, Modon, and Navarin ; but it was compelled to cede to the Turks the fortresses of Maina, Vatica, and Rampano, which had been captured during the war. In the year 1500, sultan Bayezid II. gained possession of Modon and Coron ; and in 1540 the Venetians were driven from all their remaining pos- sessions in the Peloponnesus by Suleiman, who took Nauplia and Monemvasia. To the last hour of the Byzantine domination in Greece learning was not neglected ; and all men of any rank in society devoted some portion of their youth to study, and the acquirement of a knowledge of ancient Greek and of the history and laws of the Greek church. The annals of the Morea have given us the means of estimating the value of such an education as can be obtained from books alone, without the soul- inspiring culture of the moral and religious feelings that can be gained only in the domestic circle, and which must have its seeds sown before books can enlarge the mind. Some Greek manuscripts have been preserved, written at this disastrous period, even in the mountains of Zakonia and the city of Misithra, one of which contains the history of Herodotus, and another treats of the miraculous light on Mount Thabor. The selection STATE OF LEAKN1NG. 319 indicates the nature of the Hellenic mind at this epoch, a. d. The classes that floated on the surface of society were in 1360-1460. their mental dotage, and their pride and superstition sought gratification equally in the legends of Christian fable, narrated in pedantic phraseology, and in the tales of the father of history, sketched with the noble simplicity of nature. 1 1 See notice of these MSS. in Mountfaucon's Palceographia Grceca, p. 72. The discourses on the miraculous light were toanscribed at Misithra in 1370. Herodotus was copied at Astros in 1372. Mountfaucon, at p. 71, a.d. 1362, mentions another MS. by the same scribe of Misithra ; and at page 70 he notices several medical works by an Athenian scribe, a.d. 1339. There is also a MS. of the Etymologicum Magnum from Chalcis in Eubcea, 1386, and one of five books of Polybius, by an Athenian, a.d. 1417 and 1435. — See pages 76, 79. CHAPTER X. DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO, OR NAXOS. 1 SECT. I. — OBSERVATIONS ON THE VENETIAN ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE EMPIRE OP ROMANIA. It must not be supposed that the Venetian republic succeeded in establishing a greater degree of order, in the different portions of the empire of Romania which fell to its share, than the Frank Crusaders. The govern- ment of Venice was not jet either rich or powerful ; its strength lay in the wealth, patriotism, and greatness of individual citizens. But her nobility partook of the spirit of the age, and were as deeply imbued with pride of caste as the haughtiest of the crusading barons. Within the walls of the capital the wealth of a numerous middle class, and the independent position of a maritime population, compelled the feudal pride of the nobles to yield to their interest ; but abroad, the Venetian nobles were as eager to act the territorial baron as any adven- turer in the crusading army at Constantinople. When 1 The principal authority relating to the duchy of the Archipelago is a little work entitled Histoire Nouvelle des Anciens Dues, et autres Souverains, de I'Archipel., Paris, 1699, 12mo, published without the name of the author, but known to have been written by Pere Sauger, a Catholic missionary who spent many years in the Levant. Some additional materials, enabling us to rectify the chronology of this work, have been collected by recent travellers who have examined documents still existing in the islands. Genealogical tables of the dukes will be found in James Emerson's (Sir J. E. Tennent) History of Modern Greece, vol. i. p. 181, and Buchon's Recherches et Materiaux four servir a une Histoire de la Domination Frangaise en Orient — Tables des Genealogies, vii. ; but both require some corrections. VENICE GRANTS FIEFS IN ISLANDS. 321 the partition of the Byzantine empire was settled, and a. d. the republic became sovereign of a quarter and an eighth 1207. of the whole empire of Romania, the senate soon per- ceived that its resources would be inadequate to conquer the territory to which it had thus acquired a right. 1 The Venetians were not inclined to quit mercantile enter- prises which secured them a certain profit, in order to toil for the glory of the state ; nor would the nobles have been willing to act as governors of the many petty dependencies which the partition placed under the com- mand of the senate. On the other hand, the enormous pay then exacted by knights and men-at-arms, who were the only efficient troops of the age, rendered it impossible to preserve any conquest with advantage to the republic by means of mercenary garrisons. Indeed, mercenary leaders in distant possessions, where they must have enjoyed unrestrained power, would immediately have rendered themselves independent, or transferred their allegiance to some rival protector. If the Venetian conquests in the empire of Romania had been intrusted to foreign troops, the noblemen and gentlemen who commanded these mercenaries would have been the liep*e- men of other sovereigns ; and though they might have paid homage to the mercantile republic, in order to secure their pay, would immediately have cast off that allegiance when they found that they could secure greater profits by seizing the revenues of the country they were employed to guard. These considerations induced the republic to adopt a singular policy in order to take possession of its share of the empire — a policy which produced little immediate advantage to the Venetian state, but saved Venice from all expense, and at least excluded its rivals, whether Frank Crusaders or citizens of the other commercial 1 " Quartae partis et dimidia? totius imperii Romanise." — Andrese Dandolo Chronicon. Muratori, Script. Rev. Hal. xii. 331. X .322 DUKES OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. chap. x. republics of Italy, from the territories in question. The § i. senate authorised individual nobles to conquer certain " ~ portions of the empire, on condition that their conquests should be held as fiefs from the Venetian republic. In consequence of this authorisation, it would seem that Mark Dandolo and Jacomo Viaro occupied Gallipoli ; that Marino Dandolo conquered the island of Andros ; the family of Ghisi seized linos, Mykone, Skyros, Skiathos, and Skopelos ; Justiniani and Michieli the island of Keos or Zea ; Navigajosa that of Lemnos, and Quirini that of Astypalia. 1 It was the intention of the government to reserve Corfou and Crete as dominions of the republic. In the partition of the empire, the twelve islands of the Archipelago, which had formed the theme of the Egean sea in the provincial division of the Byzantine empire, fell to the share of the crusading barons ; but Mark Sanudo, one of the most influential of the Venetian nobles in the expedition, obtained possession of the principal part of the ancient theme — though whether by purchase from the Frank barons to whom it had been allotted, or by grant to himself from the emperor, is not known. 2 Sanudo, how- ever, made his appearance at the parliament of Ravenika as one of the great feudatories of the empire of Romania, and was invested by the emperor Henry with the title of Duke of the Archipelago, or Naxos. It is difficult to say on what precise footing Sanudo placed his relations with 1 Ramnusius, De Bello Constanthiopolitano, lib. vi. p. 273, edit. 1634. When the Greek emperor Michael VIII. recovered possession of Constantinople, he encouraged the Genoese nobles to make conquests in the Archipelago, in order to counterbalance the power of the Venetians. The Embriachi gained pos- session of Lemnos, the Centurioni of Mytilene, the Gatilusi of Enos, the Catanei of Phokea, and the family of Zacharia, and at a later period the Justiniani, of Chios. 2 We find in the Crusaders' portion, Provin. Preseppet et Dodecanisos. The theme of the Egean is mentioned by Const. Porphyr., De Thematibus, lib. 1 p. 18, edit. Banduri, as the seventeenth Asiatic province. The name AcoSe Kavvrjaov is found applied to it as early as the year 780. Theophanes, Chron. 383. The larger islands of the Byzantine theme which escaped from the domination of Sanudo were replaced by smaller, to complete the number twelve. VENETIAN POWER IN THE EAST. 323 the republic. His conduct in the war of Crete shows chap. x. that he ventured to act as a baron of Romania, or an § 1. independent prince, when he thought his personal interests at variance with his born allegiance to Venice. The good- will of the republic was, nevertheless, of such importance to some of the other great feudatories of the empire, that Ravan dalle Carceri, the possessor of two-thirds of the baron j of Negrepont, paid tribute to the Venetians, and acknowledged himself a vassal of their state, though he was not born a subject of the republic. 1 A passion for seeking foreign territorial establishments is said, at this time, to have taken such possession of the minds of all classes at Venice, that it was publicly discussed whether the seat of government might not be advantageously transferred from the then humble city of Venice to the comparatively magnificent quarter of Constantinople, of which the republic had become the master. 2 The conquests of the republic in the East belong to Venetian rather than to Greek history, for the condition of the Greek nation was not directly influenced by the political conduct of the republic until a later period, except in the island of Crete, which lies beyond the circle of our present inquiries. Crete never formed a part of the Latin empire of Romania, and was never subjected to the feudal law. The valour with which the Cretans defended their local independence, and their repeated insurrections against the republic, form an interesting sub- ject of inquiry, as presenting a marked contrast to the tame submission displayed by the majority of the Greek race to their foreign conquerors ; but the history of Crete 1 Oreos and Karystos, in Euboea, belonged to the Venetian portion ; but Chalcis appears to have been included in the baron's share. Ravan dalle Carceri may, therefore, have held a part of the territory of the republic. He paid to Venice annually two thousand one hundred perpers of gold, and a piece of cloth-of-gold with an altar-cloth for the church of St Mark. — Libri dei Patti of the archives of St Mark, vol. ii. fol. 212, quoted by Buchon in his Histoire de V Etablissement des Fran$ais en Grece, 262. 2 This project has been attributed to the doge Pietro Ziani in 1225, but without any good aiithority. — Daru, vii. 8. 324 DUKES OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. chap. x. has very little of a Byzantine or Frank character, and § 2. would require a volume to do it justice. 1 Our task is to review the history of the Duchy of the Archipelago as the connecting link between feudal, Venetian, and Greek society, in the dismembered provinces of the Byzantine empire. The independent existence of this duchy, long after the Turks had conquered the rest of the Frank possessions in Greece, and extinguished the independence of the Greek nation in the Morea, exhibits an accurate outline of the general political and social relations that existed between the dominant Venetians and the subject Greeks throughout the Levant, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. SECT. II. DUKES OF THE FAMILIES OF SANUDO AND DALLE CARCERI. Mark Sanudo, who founded the duchy of the Archi- pelago, was one of those great merchant-nobles of his age who moved as the equal of the proudest princes and feudal barons in Europe. He was among the ablest and the wealthiest of the Venetians who had taken the cross ; but, like old Dandolo, he seems never to have bestowed a thought on visiting the Holy Land, or on warring with the infidels. Many of the privateering merchants of his age, in the commercial republics of Italy, were warriors as well as traders ; and their experience in war and diplomatic business enabled them at times to assume the station of princes, when their actions were those of pirates. Sanudo was one of the great men of this class : he was a man of ability, both as a soldier and a statesman. He had acquired so much influence in the camp of the Crusaders that he was selected by the republic to act with Ravan dalle Carceri, as Venetian commissioner, to 1 Daru mentions fourteen different insurrections of the Cretans against the Venetian government between the years 1207 and 1365. — Histoire de Venise i. 320. CONQUEST OF NAXOS. 325 conclude the treaty with Boniface, marquis of Montferrat a. d. and king of Saloniki, for the purchase of the island of 1207. Crete. While the crusading barons were occupied in taking possession of their fiefs in Greece, Sanudo fitted out his own galleys, and, assembling a strong body of mercenaries with the money he had received at the taking of Constantinople, sailed to conquer the barony of the twelve islands of the Archipelago. It was not, however, before the year 1207 that he invaded the island of Naxos. He landed with his troops at the port of Pota- midhes, and immediately laid siege to Apaliri, the strongest fortress in the island, situated on a rugged rock and sur- rounded by a triple line of walls. The place, like all the fortified posts in the Byzantine empire, had been long neglected, and was ill prepared to offer a prolonged resis- tance. After a siege of five weeks it capitulated, and on its surrender the rest of the island submitted to Sanudo. The Greeks of Naxos, like their countrymen on the con- tinent, obtained very favourable terms from their con- queror. Sanudo guaranteed them in the possession of their property, both landed and movable, in the exercise of their local privileges and immunities, and in the free practice of all the rites of their religion, according to the usage and doctrines of the Greek church ; and he con- firmed the Greek archbishop, the priests, and the monks, in the possession of their property. The imperial domains, the estates of the Greek proprietors who had attached themselves to the fortunes of the emperors of Nice or Tre- bizond, or to the despot of Epirus, and the ecclesiastical possessions of Greek churches or monasteries abroad, were alone confiscated. From the wealth thus placed at his command, Sanudo was able to reward his followers, and yet to retain in his own possession an extensive domain. His own wealth, and the inferior rank of many of the mercenaries he had hired, enabled him to reward their services with money, and to grant fewer fiefs to his mili- 326 DUKES OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. chap. x. tary dependants than was the case with the other great § 2. vassals in the feudal empire of Romania. The military power of Sanudo consequently appeared to rest solely on the pecuniary resources which supplied him with the means of hiring foreign mercenaries, and his power seemed, therefore, at the mercy of innumerable vicissitudes of for- tune in a warlike and piratical age. But naval expedi- tions are always expensive, and the object of their pre- paration is rarely kept as profoundly secret as in the case of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt, so that the enemy can usually take measures of defence. Sanudo knew well how to watch the signs of the times, and this principality, which he founded on what was at the time deemed but an insecure basis, enjoyed the longest existence and the greatest degree of internal tranquillity of all the Latin establishments erected in the dismembered provinces of the Byzantine empire. The first object of Sanudo in his new conquest was to improve the communications of Naxos with the capital of the Latin empire at Constantinople, and with the centre of the commercial power at Venice. For this purpose he rebuilt the ancient town on the sea-shore, repaired the port by constructing a new mole, formed an arsenal for his own galleys, and fortified the citadel which commanded the town with great care. A tower that still remains attests the solidity of his buildings, rivalling in its strength the tall tower in the Acropolis of Athens, and the thick walls of the palace of Santameri at Thebes. Within the city constructed by Sanudo everything was Latin. Its population flourished by the commercial relations they maintained with the other Latins, and secured their supe- riority over the Greeks by the great additional facilities they enjoyed for receiving foreign assistance. A catholic bishop was sent by the Pope to guide the political opinions as well as the religious consciences of the Latins of Naxos ; and Sanudo, in order to secure the good- SANUDO INVADES CRETE. 327 will of the papal power and clergy, built a cathedral in his new capital, and liberally endowed its chapter. While these improvements were in progress in Naxos, he found time to prosecute his conquests, and extend his dominions over the islands of Paros, Antiparos, Ios, Sikinos, Polykandros, Kimolos, Melos, Amorgos, Thera or Santorin, and Anaphe, which formed the twelve islands of his barony. At the parliament of Ravenika, Mark Sanudo appeared with the other great feudatories of the empire of Romania, and received from the emperor Henry the investiture of his conquests, with the title of Duke of the Archipelago. The conduct of the new duke to his native country, when Venice was involved in a serious struggle for the possession of the island of Crete, shows that Sanudo, with the ability of a statesman and the ambition of a prince, had also the lax conscience of a piratical adventurer. The inhabitants of Crete had risen in rebellion against the Venetians, and the rebels had received aid from the Genoese and the count of Malta. 1 Tiepolo, the Venetian governor of Candia, sent to Naxos to solicit aid from Sanudo, as a citizen of the republic. The duke of the Archipelago hastened to the scene of action with a force that might have rendered great service ; but, moved either by unprincipled ambition, or by a frantic desire to avenge himself on Tiepolo for some imaginary affront, he entered into a plot to expel his countrymen from the island, and render himself king of Candia. A Greek named Sevastos was labouring at the same time to 1 The annals of Genoa speak of this expedition against the Venetians in Crete as a private enterprise of Henry the Fisherman, count of Malta, who from a humble citizen of Genoa had become a distinguished adventurer and corsair, and had made himself master of Malta very much as Sanudo had acquired the duchy of the Archipelago. — Ogerius Panis, Contin. Caffari. Annal. Genuens., lib. iv. ad. ann. 1206, 1209, p. 394-400 ; Sismondi, Histoire des Republiques Italiennes du Moyen Age, ii. 41 1, note. It appears, however, that the republic of Genoa expended the sum of twenty thousand livres for succours sent to the count of Malta, in Crete, on one occasion. — Vincens, Histoire de GSnes, i. 259 ; Nicetas, p. 411. 328 DUKES OF THE AKCHIPELAGO. chap. x. organise a plan for the deliverance of his country from a § 2. foreign yoke. Sanudo, hoping to render the patriotic projects of the Greek subservient to his own schemes of ambition and revenge, conspired secretly to assist him — opening, at the same time, communications with the count of Malta, who was a sworn enemy to Venice. The plan of the conspirators was to overpower the garrison and surprise Tiepolo. But though the conspiracy broke out unexpectedly, before any suspicions were enter- tained, Tiepolo was fortunate enough to escape from Candia to Retymos in woman's clothes, and to collect all the Venetian fugitives around him ; while Sanudo was occupied in rendering himself master of Candia, by establishing his own partisans in all the positions of strength, and in getting himself proclaimed king of Candia. As soon as the new king had secured his supre- macy in the capital, he marched, with all his disposable force, to besiege Retymos ; but before he could form the siege, his progress was arrested by the arrival of reinforce- ments from Venice, under the command of Querini, who auchored at Retymos. Tiepolo availed himself most skilfully of the arrival of these succours. He embarked with Querini, and instantly set sail for Candia, which a favourable wind enabled him to reach before the garrison was informed of the approach of the Venetian fleet ; so that, sailing into port during the night, Tiepolo landed his troops, and recovered possession of the city without difficulty. Sanudo, who was preparing to march back from Retymos, heard to his confusion that the Venetians were again masters of Candia, and that his treachery and royal title had availed him nothing. Finding that he could no longer maintain his ground in Crete, he concluded a capitulation with the Venetian leaders, who allowed him to depart from Naxos, on his consenting to quit the island immediately, and abandon his allies — Sevastos and the Genoese — to their fate. On his return SANUDO EXPELLED FKOM CRETE. 329 to his own duchy, he sent envoys to Venice to deprecate a. d. the vengeance of the republic, and urge such excuses for 1208. his proceedings as he was able to frame. These explana- " tions were accepted, for the senate wished to secure his alliance, in order to include his dominions within the circle of the commercial monopolies which it was the policy of Venice to extend as far as possible, to the exclusion of the Genoese and Pisans. Mark Sanudo died in the year 1220, and was succeeded by his son Angelo. The new duke and his successors were compelled by their position to acknowledge them- selves, in some degree, vassals both of the empire of Romania and of the republic of Venice ; yet they acted as sovereign princes, and endeavoured to secure to them- selves a considerable share of political independence in practice, by concluding separate alliances and commercial treaties with the Greek emperors and despots, with the dukes of Athens, and with the princes of Achaia. Angelo assisted John de Brienne when he was besieged in Con- stantinople by the Greek emperor and the king of Bulgaria ; and the duke Mark II. gave some assistance to the Venetians during the Cretan revolt, in the year 1247; but he was compelled to withdraw his succours and return home, to secure the tranquillity of his own domi- nions by his presence, in consequence of the demonstrations of the Greek emperor John VII., (Vatatzes,) who sup- ported the insurgents, and threatened the islands of the Archipelago with his fleets. Mark II. also furnished a squadron of three galleys to assist the emperor Baldwin II. in his last war with Michael VIII. ; and when Con- stantinople was retaken by the Greeks, the duke of the Archipelago sent an embassy to Chalcis, where the fugitive emperor had sought refuge, to console him in his misfor- tunes, and furnished him with money to continue his voyage to Italy. The decline of the Latin power augmented the bigotry 330 DUKES OF THE AECHIPELAGO. chap. x. of the Catholic clergy ; and Mark II. was so much § 2. alarmed by the discontent of the orthodox Greeks that he deemed it necessary to construct a fortress in the interior of Naxos, to command the fertile plain of Drymalia, which then contained twelve large villages, a number of farm-buildings, country-houses, and towers, with about ten thousand inhabitants. The duke Mark II. had reason to distrust his Greek subjects, for he had been far more intolerant of their superstitions than his father and grandfather. Induced by religious zeal, or by a mistaken policy, he had destroyed an altar dedicated to the service of St Pachys, the saint of the Naxiotes, whose mediation in heaven was supposed to confer on mortals the rotundity of figure requisite for beauty in women and respectability in men. The devotion paid to this sancti- fication of obesity was probably a relic of superstition inherited from pagan times. A hollow stone existed in the island, which St Pachys was believed to have taken under his peculiar care. Through this stone the mothers of lean or languishing children were in the habit of making their offspring pass ; and the Naxiote matrons were convinced that this ceremony, joined to a due number of prayers to Saint Fat, an offering in his chapel, and some pieces of money placed in the bauds of the priests, would infallibly render their children stout and healthy — unless, indeed, some evil eye of extraordinary power deprived the good-will of the saint of due effect. History has not recorded whether duke Mark II. was fat or lean. He, however, broke the altar in pieces, and then found that it was necessary to replace it by a fortress. In the year 1262, when the Byzantine troops took possession of the maritime fortresses of Monemvasia and Maina, and the people of the eastern and southern coast of the Morea broke out in rebellion against the Frank power in Achaia, the inhabitants of the island of Melos also seized the opportunity of driving out the ducal DUKE NICHOLAS AT CAFF A. 331 garrison, and claiming the assistance of the Byzantine officers. Mark II. was a man of energy in war, with men as well as with saints ; and on receiving the first tidings of the insurrection, he hastened to besiege the city of Melos, with a fleet of sixteen galleys, and a troop of Frank refugees, collected from the soldiers who had fled from Constantinople. The place was invested before any succours could reach it, and, after repeated attacks, the duke at last carried it by storm. The Greek priest suspected or convicted of being the author of the insur- rection was thrown into the port, with his hands and feet tied together. The rest of the inhabitants were pardoned. Mark II. died at Melos a short time after he had reconquered the island. William, the fourth duke, maintained his independent position, as sovereign of his little state, by keeping a small and efficient naval and military force constantly ready for action, in a high state of discipline, and by adroitly balancing his negotiations with the emperor Michael VIII. and Charles of Anjou. The fifth duke, Nicholas, had served the republic before he ascended the throne, and as sovereign prince he took an active part in the wars that were carried on by the Venetians in the Levant. He was the ally of the republic in its war with the Genoese, which commenced in 1293. He accompanied the sixty galleys of the Venetian admiral, Roger Moro- sini, when he ruined Galata, and he remained with the squadron of John Soranzo in the Black Sea. The city of Theodosia or Caffa was plundered, and its buildings destroyed ; but the Black Sea fogs surprised the Vene- tians in the place, and they were compelled to pass the winter in a rigorous climate, without having made due preparations to resist the cold. The barbarity with which they had destroyed the city of Caffa now met with its punishment. A contagious disorder broke out, in consequence of the hardships to which they were 332 DUKES OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. chap. x. exposed, and the bad food with which they were supplied, § 2. and a great mortality ensued. The duke of Naxos was one of those who suffered severely from the disorder. Soranzo himself died ; but the squadron, though reduced to sixteen galleys, boldly anchored before Constantinople on its return, and de- manded from the emperor Andronicus II. an indemnity for the losses the Venetian merchants had suffered, in con- sequence of a popular tumult which ensued after the destruction of Galata. The only answer the Venetian commanders received was a demand for forty thousand gold crowns, for Greek property wantonly destroyed at Galata ; and the fleet, too feeble to linger within the Dar- danelles, after ravaging the islands in the sea of Marmora, hastened to seek security in Candia and Naxos. 1 The duke Nicholas soon refitted his squadron. He was pre- sent with the Venetian fleet at the disastrous defeat of Andrea Dandolo at Cuzola, from which he escaped with difficulty ; but in the following year he was wounded and taken prisoner, when the Venetians were defeated by the Genoese in the straits of Gallipoli. 2 From this captivity he was soon released by the treaty of peace concluded between the two republics before the end of the year, (1299 ;) but as he was considered in the char- acter of an independent prince, he was compelled to take an oath that he would not in future serve against Genoa. After this he turned his attention to carrying on war against the Seljouk Turks, who then occupied a consider- able portion of the coast of Asia Minor. This warfare consisted of incessant incursions and plundering expe- ditions, in which the duke and his followers collected considerable wealth. The treasury of Naxos was filled with money, soldiers flocked to the ducal standard, and 1 These events took place in 1296 and 1 297.— Pachymeres, ii. 164, edit. Rom. ; Nicephorus Gregoras, 128, edit. Par. 2 The battle of Cnzola was fought in the yoar 1298, according to L"Art de verifier les Bates, torn. 5, p. 253, edit, in quarto. JOHN 1. 3.33 his fame as a brave warrior and a devoted son of the a. d. church, who spent his time warring against the infidels, 1306-1307. spread far and wide in Europe. He now, when it suited his interest, fought side by side with the Genoese adven- turers in the East. In the year 1306 he aided Bene- detto Zacharia to conquer the island of Chios, which the Turks had gained possession of the preceding year, by driving out the Catalan garrison. 1 Nicholas died shortly after the conquest of Chios, apparently in the same year. No braver or more active prince ever sat on the throne of Naxos. He left no children, and was succeeded by his brother John. John, the sixth duke, was called to preside over the government of the Archipelago from a hermitage in the plain of Engarais, where he had passed several years. He retired to this solitude on the death of his wife, and he manifested an intention of entering the priesthood, when the death of his brother Nicholas induced the Latin nobles and clergy to persuade him to quit his retreat, and mount the ducal throne. 2 Mark Sanudo, the duke's younger brother, had expected to possess the dukedom on the death of Nicholas ; for John's retirement from the world, and his having only one daughter, seemed to open the succession to Mark as a matter of right. All his hopes were destroyed by the sudden installation of the hermit in the ducal palace ; and when the new duke, as one of the first acts of his reign, married his daughter Florence to J ohn dalle Carceri, the most power- 1 Moncada, Expedicion de los Catalanes y Aragoneses contra Turcos y Griegos, cap. xxiv. 2 The Histoire Nouvelle des Anciens Dues et autres Soverains de V Archipelago, p. 119, erroneously places the marriage of John after he mounted the ducal throne; but the age of his daughter and her marriage during his reign render this impossible. The whole chronology of this period is erroneous in this curious little work, being framed by the author, without any aiithorities to guide him. The death of duke Nicholas, after the taking of Chios in 1 306, and the fact that John dalle Carceri was duke of the Archipelago when the Catalans conquered Athens in 1311, (sometimes placed in 1309,) are limits to the reign of John Sanudo, which are mentioned by the author himself. 334 DUKES OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. chap. x. fill baron of Negrepont, and established his son-in-law in § 2 - the direction of the government of Naxos, Mark took up arms to defend what he pretended were his rights. He was governor of the island of Melos at the time ; and John, to prevent a civil war in the Archipelago, agreed to acknowledge him as sign or of that island. Of the duke John I. nothing farther is recorded, and he does not appear to have occupied the throne of Naxos more than a year, though it is difficult to determine when his reign finished, and that of his son-in-law, John II. dalle Carceri, commenced. Mark Sanudo, signor of Melos, governed that island with prudence. He increased its trade very considerably, by affording every facility to foreign ships to touch at the island with as little delay and expense as possible. He abolished all anchorage-duties in the port, and by this concession rendered it the resort of most of the ships that entered the Archipelago, whose masters visited Melos to learn the state of the markets in the Levant, to know whether the sea was free from pirates and hostile fleets, and to take on board experienced pilots. Melos prospered greatly under his rule. Mark left a daughter, who was named Florence, as well as her cousin. She was married to a Greek named Francis Crispo, who become signor of Melos at the death of his father- in-law. John II., of the family of dalle Carceri, became seventh duke of the Archipelago, in right of his wife Florence Sanudo, daughter of the last duke. He was the grandson of William dalle Carceri, grand-feudatory of Negrepont, who assumed the title of King of Saloniki in consequence of his marriage with Helena of Montferrat. At his death he divided the island of Eubcea by testament among his three children, Francis, Conrad, and a daughter (married to a relation, Boniface of Verona,) whose capitals were respectively Chalcis or Negrepont, Oreos, and Kanyskos. NICHOLAS II. SPEZZABANDA, AND FLORENCE. 335 John II., duke of the Archipelago, was the son and heir A . d. of Francis, baron of Negrepont. Not long after his 1326-1345. accession to the ducal throne, his hereditary dominions were threatened by the ambition of Walter de Brienne, duke of Athens, and subsequently by the victorious Catalans, so that the whole attention of John was directed to the continent of Greece. He died about the year 1326, leaving an infant son, named Nicholas. His widow, the duchess Florence, soon married her second cousin, Nicholas Sanudo, called Spezzabanda. 1 Nicholas II. mounted the ducal throne in virtue of the matrimonial coronet he received from his wife. No braver soldier ever lived ; but his virtues were those of a popular captain, not of a wise prince. His character was described by the surname of Spezzabanda, or the Disperser, conferred upon him for his impetuous valour. The decline of the prosperity of the Archipelago commences from the manner in which he misemployed the resources of his dukedom, and drew on it the ravages of war. He was an honour- able guardian to his stepson, and his first military expe- dition as duke was to defend the hereditary dominions of the infant Nicholas in Negrepont, against the attacks of the Catalans of Athens. He carried on the war with them in Thessaly, at the head of an army of Albanian mercenaries, and, in conjunction with the Vallachians and Greeks of the country, succeeded in driving them out of all their conquests north of the valley of the Sperchius. He was recalled to his own dominions by the ravages of the Seljouks. At this time the coast of Asia Minor was occupied by several Seljouk emirs, called often sultans, who maintained 1 The duke Nicholas II. Spezzabanda was grandson of Mark, younger brother of William, fourth duke, and not of Mark, signor of Melos, who was son of duke William. The genealogical table of the dukes of Naxos in the History of Modern Greece, by James Emerson, (Sir J. E. Tennent,) vol. i. p. 181, may be corrected, both by the Histoire Nouvelle des Anciens Dues, &c, p. 133, and by the table in Buchon's Recherches et Materiaux— 1'able des Genealogies, vii. 336 DUKES OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. chap. x. their armies almost entirely by plunder. 1 Several of the § 2. Turkish princes possessed considerable fleets, by which they extended their piratical expeditions over all the coasts and islands of the Levant. These devastations were pursued both by land and sea with systematic rapa- city, in a spirit of destruction that tended more to anni- hilate the accumulated wealth of civilisation, and to render the land in future incapable of nourishing an equal number of inhabitants, than ages of fiscal extortion could have effected. The Seljouk Turks destroyed not only fortifications and towers, but also all solid buildings, cisterns, aqueducts, roads, and bridges, and often filled up wells and burned plantations, to prevent pursuit or facilitate future invasions. It would have required a long period of security and commercial prosperity to restore the degradation of property in the small islands of the Archi- pelago, and such an epoch has never since visited Greece. The most celebrated of the Seljouk pirates was Amour, son of the sultan of Aidin, called by the Franks Morbas- san, whose disinterested friendship for the imperial usurper Cantacuzenos has been much lauded by that hypocritical historian and worthless prince. The duke Spezzabanda, after he had secured the dominions of his stepson, engaged in an incessant warfare with the Seljouk emirs — sometimes acting as ally of the Venetians or the Genoese, and some- times alone. The Turks had landed in the island of Naxos while Spezzabanda was absent in Negrepont, and laid waste the open country with their usual merciless barbarity. The villages and olive-groves were destroyed with fire, to prevent the inhabitants from uniting their forces ; and a number of the inhabitants were carried off 1 The extent to which piracy was carried at this period may be estimated from the fact recorded by Pergolotti, that the freight in ordinary merchant- ships was only the half of what was paid in armed galleys. Vincens, Histoire de Genes, i. 379 n^te, 382 note. The Pratica della Mercature of Francis Bal- ducci Pergolotti contains much curious information concerning the commerce of the East in the middle ages. He was connected with the great Florentine house of Bardi, and travelled in the Levant in 1335. RAVAGES OF THE SELJOUK TURKS. S3 7 as slaves. The duke, who had heard of the sailing of the Turkish fleet, was fortunate enough to return to Naxos in time to find their ships still at anchor. With only twenty well-equipped galleys, he did not hesitate a moment to attack the enemy, whose numerous ships were encumbered with plunder and slaves ; and, in spite of their superior force, he gained a complete victory, destroying or captur- ing twenty of the enemy's ships, and delivering two thou- sand of his own subjects from bondage. But the ruin this expedition had inflicted on Naxos was irreparable ; and the duke subsequently declared that it had diminished the population of the island by at least fifteen thousand souls. The ravages of the Seljouk Turks in the Latin posses- sions induced pope John XXII. to proclaim a crusade and organise a confederation against them. The Pope, the Venetian republic, Philip VI. of Valois king of France, Robert king of Naples, the king of Cyprus, the grand-master of Rhodes, and the duke of the Archipelago, formed a united fleet of thirty-seven galleys, which fell in with that of Morbassan near Mount Athos. The battle was long and bloody ; but the Turks were at length defeated, and sixty of their vessels were destroyed, while forty more were captured by the allies. They are sup- posed to have lost about six thousand men in the action. The duke Spezzabanda commanded his own contingent in person, and distinguished himself greatly in the action. In sight of the two fleets, he captured the galley com- manded by the Turkish vice-admiral. The Christians lost four galleys and about five hundred men ; and this pro- bably affords the means of forming a more correct idea of the engagement than the pompous enumeration of the numbers of the small Turkish vessels that were destroyed and captured. This battle was fought in the year 1330. Spezzabanda took also an active part in the war which the Genoese carried on with the emperor Andronicus III., 338 DUKES OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. chap. x. in defence of Phoksea, in which the Greeks were aided by § 2 - the emirs of Savoukhan and Aidin. The duke was at last slain in the unsuccessful attempt made by the Genoese admiral, Martin Zacharia, to raise the siege of Smyrna, when it was attacked by Morbassan in 1345. 1 He left an only daughter, Maria, who was married to Gaspard Sommariva, signor of Paros. Nicholas III. dalle Carceri now succeeded to his mother's duchy. He formed an alliance with Manuel Cantacuzenos despot of Misithra, with the Franks of Achaia, and the Catalans of Athens, in order to defend their possessions against the Seljouk pirates. But the great naval warfare of the Venetians and Genoese, that commenced in 1348, soon engaged universal attention, and filled the Levant with its effects. The duke Nicholas III., with the other Frank princes in the East, joined the Venetians. The consequence was that the Genoese admiral, Pisani, took and plundered Negrepont, the capital of the hereditary principality of the Dalle Carceri, and pillaged Keos (Zea), one of the islands then annexed to the dukedom of the Archipelago. The duke could only hope for vengeance by serving with the Venetian fleet, which he joined, and with which he partook of all the varying fortune of the war. In the great battle off Sapienza in 1354, when Pagan Doria destroyed the Venetian fleet, the duke escaped capture by gaining the port of Modon, from which he fled to Skyros, where he fortified himself as in a safe retreat, for he feared the Genoese might pursue him to Naxos. While engaged in putting Skyros in a state of defence, that island was invaded by a squadron of Turkish pirates, who expected to turn the defeat of the Venetians to advantage by ravaging the Archipelago with impunity. Nicholas attacked them when they little expected to encounter any resistance. He captured six of their galliots, with a valu- 1 Daru, Ilistoire de Venise, i. 532. NICHOLAS III. ASSASSINATED. 339 able supply of money, arms, and provisions. When peace was concluded between Venice and Genoa, Nicholas III. returned to Naxos, where he devoted his attention to restore the prosperity of the island, which had suffered much during the war. In the midst of his schemes, he was assassinated at a hunting-party by his relation Francis Crispo, the signor of Melos, who was on a visit to his court, and who had formed a conspiracy to render himself master of the duchy by means of the Greeks. This happened about the year 1381. SECT. III. — DUKES OF THE FAMILY OF CRISPO. Francis Crispo was successful in seizing the duchy after the assassination of the duke Nicholas III. He appears to have been the grandson of that Crispo who married Florence Sanudo, the daughter of Mark signor of Melos ; for as Mark was the son of duke William, who was born in the year 1243, and died in 1285, and the duke Francis Crispo died in 1414, it seems impossible to sup- pose that he was the son of Florence. 1 The children of Maria Sanudo daughter of Nicholas III., Spezzabanda and the duchess Florence, were the lawful heirs to the dukedom ; but Francis Crispo excluded them from the succession by means of his popularity with the Greeks, whose support he had secured by his lavish promises of sympathy and protection, and by publicly boasting of his Greek descent. He had already, as signor of Melos, formed a close alliance with the Venetian republic. There was therefore no enemy powerful enough to dispute 1 Pere Sauger, Histoire Nouvelle des Anciens Dues, &c, p. 185; Sir J. E. Tennent, History of Modem Greece, i. 181 ; and Buchon, Rechercheset Materiaux, Table des Geneal. vii. ; — all agree in making duke Francis tbe son of Florence, daughter of Mark signor of Melos ; but Florence seems not to have been born later than 1307, and may have been born much earlier. Now, as Francis died in 1414, aged seventy, this would make his mother at least thirty-seven years' old at the time of his birth. 340 DUKES OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. chap. x. his usurpation ; but both he and his son James I. passed § 3. the greater part of their lives in guarding their pos- sessions against the hostile projects of their relations, whom they had deprived of their legitimate rights. They were also exposed to plots caused by the ambition of individuals of their own family, who, from that want of morality and honourable principle which marks the society of the Levant, whether Greek or Frank, during this age, were ever ready to intrigue against their nearest relatives. Francis I. died about the year 1414 — his son, James I., in the year 1438, without leaving any children. John III., the second son of duke Francis I., pur- chased tranquillity in his own family by dividing the duchy with his younger brothers. Nicholas was appointed prince of Thera or Santorin ; Mark, of Ios and Therasia; and William, of Anaphe. Mark found the island of Ios almost depopulated, from the uncultivated state in which it had been left for many years in consequence of the repeated ravages of piratical squadrons. In order to restore the land to cultivation, he transported a colony of Albanian families into the island from the Morea, and paid so much attention to their wellbeing, that in a short time Ios was again in a flourishing condition. Of John III., duke of Naxos, history has nothing to record. His son, James II., was officially recognised as a friend and ally of the republic of Venice by Mo- hammed II., in the treaty he concluded with the republic after the taking of Constantinople. The Venetian government, however, began now to regard the dukes of Naxos, on account of their diminished wealth and power, rather in the light of subjects than of allies. James II. died in 1454, and his uncle, William, prince of Anaphe, assumed the regency of Naxos. John James was the name of the posthumous child of James II. This infant died, after holding the ducal title REBELLION OF THE GREEKS. 341 for little more than a year. William II., who was acting as regent, proclaimed himself duke, to the exclusion of his nephew, Francis, prince of Santorin, who was the lawful heir ; but, on the death of William II., Francis II. reco- vered his rights, and mounted the throne of Naxos. Both these dukes were compelled, by the power of the Othoman sultan, to act as subjects of Venice, and attach themselves closely to the fortunes of the republic both in war and peace — suffering on one side from their exposure to the attacks of the Turks, and on the other from their subjec- tion to the commercial monopolies of Venice. James III., the son and successor of Francis II., was included in the peace between the Venetians and Mohammed II. in 1478; but the expenses into which he had been plunged, by the naval armaments that Venice called upon him to maintain during the war, had ruined his finances. In order to raise money to pay his debts, he was compelled to pledge the island of Santorin to his cousin, the prince of Ios. His weakness, as well as the policy of the Vene- tian republic, made him an inactive though anxious spec- tator of the siege of Rhodes by Mohammed II., when it was successfully defended by the knights under the grand- master D'Aubusson. James III. was succeeded by his brother, John IV., who levied such heavy taxes on the inhabitants of Naxos, in order to redeem the island of Santorin, that the Greeks broke out in rebellion, drove the Latins from the open country, and besieged the duke in the citadel. Duke John IV. was in imminent danger of being forced to sur- render at discretion to his infuriated subjects, when he was saved from ruin by the accidental arrival of the general of the galleys of Rhodes in the port of Naxos with a small squadron of ships. This force enabled the general to offer an effectual mediation. The Greeks, fearing that the knights might unite their forces with the duke, were persuaded to submit to the greater part of the 342 DUKES OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. chap. x. duke's pecuniary demands ; and he, on his part, promised § 3. to bury in oblivion all memory of the insurrection. The people, as is usually the case, observed their word better than their prince : they fulfilled their engagements — he violated his. Francis III., his son, served the Vene- tians in person during the war with the Turks that commenced in 1492. When peace was concluded in 1504, he retired to Naxos, in order to restore his affairs by economy. John V., son and successor of Francis III., was again compelled to remain neuter, by the political interests of his Venetian protectors, when Rhodes was besieged and taken by sultan Suleiman II. The republic, however, was shortly after involved in hostilities with the Ottoman empire ; and the duke of Naxos having been detected sending information to the Venetians concerning the movements of the Turks, the celebrated admiral, Barba- rossa, availed himself of the circumstance to put an end to the independence of the duchy, or perhaps we might say, more correctly, to transfer the suzerainty from the Venetian republic to the Othoman empire. Barbarossa appeared before Naxos with a fleet of seventy galleys, from which he landed a body of troops, and took pos- session of the town and citadel without meeting with the slightest resistance. The duke, seeing the immense force of the Turks, hastened on board the admiral's ship the moment it anchored, and declared his readiness to submit to any terms Barbarossa, as capitan pasha, might think fit to impose. From the deck of the Turkish ship, where he was obliged to remain three days, Duke John V. saw his capital plundered by the Turkish troops, and all his own wealth, and even the furniture of his palace, trans- ported into the cabin of Barbarossa. He was at length allowed to return on shore and resume his rank of duke, after signing a treaty acknowledging himself a vassal of the Sublime Porte, and engaging to pay an annual tribute INTRIGUES OF GREEKS. 343 of six thousand sequins. This happened in the year a. d. 15 3 7.1 1558-1566. From this period the Latin power in the island of ' ' Naxos was virtually extinguished. The Greek inhabi- tants, who preferred the domination of the Turks to that of the Catholics, no longer respected the orders of their duke. The heads of the communities, who were charged with the collection of the taxes levied to pay the tribute, placed themselves in direct communication with the Turkish ministers, and served as spies on the conduct of their sovereign, under the pretext of attending to fiscal business. Both the Greek primates and the Turkish ministers contrived to render this connection a source of pecuniary profit. The primates obtained pretexts for extorting money from their countrymen at Naxos, and the ministers at Constantinople shared the fruits of their extortions. The Greek clergy, too, by their dependence on the Patriarch, who served the Porte as a kind of under-secretary of state for the affairs of the orthodox, were active agents in preparing the Greek people for the Turkish domination. John VI., after writing a letter addressed to Pope Paul III. and the princes of Christendom, in which he announced the degradation into which he had fallen, died in peace unmolested by the Turks, against whom his lamentations had vainly incited the Christians. He was succeeded by his son, James IV., in the year 1546. The impoverished treasury and enfeebled authority of the ducal government required the greatest prudence on the part of the new sovereign to preserve his position. James 1 The plunder the Turks carried off from Naxos was estimated at twenty- thousand sequins. — Paruta, lib. viii. p. 617; Sagredo, lib. v. p. 245. The curious letter of Duke John V., giving a circumstantial account of the taking of Naxos, is dated 1st Dec. 1537. It is printed in the Chronicorum Turcicorum in quibus Turcorum origo, principes, imperatives, bella, prcelia, ccedes, victovice, veique mili- taris ratio exponuntur ; omnia collecta a Philippo Lonicevo, Francofurti, 1584, 2 vols. 8vo, torn. ii. p. 153-161; and in Buchon's Recherches et Materiaux, p. 360. DUKES OF THE A11CHIPELAG0. chap. x. IV. seemed to consider that he was destined to be the § 3. last duke of Naxos ; and, to console himself for his political weakness, he resolved to enjoy all the pleasures within his reach. Circumstances favoured his schemes, and he was allowed for twenty years to live a life of the most shame- less licentiousness. His court was a scene of debauchery and vice : the Latin nobles, who were his principal associates, were poor, proud, and dissolute : the catholic clergy, in whose hands the chief feudal estates in the island had accumulated, were rich, luxurious, and de- bauched, and lived openly with their avowed concubines. 1 The Greeks laboured for a long time in vain to put an end to the scandal of such a court and government, which was both oppressive and disgraceful ; but the Turks re- mained indifferent, as the annual tribute was regularly remitted to the Porte. At last the whole Greek inhabi- tants of Naxos united to send deputies to the sultan, to complain of some extraordinary exactions of the duke, to demand the extinction of his authority, and to petition the sultan to name a new governor. The Patriarch and the Greek clergy had aided the intrigues of the primates, and the Porte was prepared to give the petition a favourable reception. The duke was made sensible of his danger. Collecting a sum of twelve thousand crowns, he hastened to Constantinople to countermine the intrigues of his enemies ; but he arrived too late — his destiny was already decided. He was thrown into prison, and his property was confiscated ; but, after a detention of six months, he was released and allowed to depart to Venice. Such was the final fate of the duchy of the Archipelago, the last of the great fiefs of the Latin empire of Romania, which was extinguished in the year 1566, after it had been governed by catholic princes for about three hundred and sixty years. The last duke, James IV., was the twenty-first of the series. After the loss of his dominions 1 IJisloire Nouvelle des Anciens Dues, p. 300. END OF THE DUCHY OF NAXOS. 345 he resided at Venice with his children, living on a pension which the republic continued to his descendants until the male line became extinct. The Greeks gained little by their complaints, for the sultan, Selim II., conferred the government of Naxos on a Jew named John Michez, who never visited the island in person, using it merely as a place from which to ex- tract as much money as possible. The island was governed by Francis Coronello, a Spaniard, who acted as his deputy, and who was charged to collect the tribute and overlook the public administration. The fortunes of the Hospitallers of St John of J eru- salem, and other Frank, Venetian, and Genoese princes, signors, and adventurers, who at various times ruled different islands in the Grecian seas as independent sovereigns, though their history offers much that is curious, really exercised so little peculiar influence on the general progress of society among the Greeks, that they do not fall within the scope of the present work. SECT. IV. — CAUSES WHICH PROLONGED THE EXISTENCE OP THE FRANK POWER IN THE ARCHIPELAGO. The long duration of the Latin power in the Archi- pelago is a fact worthy of observation. When the Greeks found the means of expelling the Franks and Venetians from Constantinople and the greater part of the Morea, and even to attack the Venetians in Crete, it seems strange that they should have failed to recover possession of the Greek islands of the Archipelago ; or if they failed to achieve the conquest, it seems even more surprising that the duchy should not have fallen into the hands of the Venetians. The peculiar circumstances which enabled a long line of foreign princes to maintain themselves in a state of independence as sovereigns of the Archipelago 346 DUKES OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. chap. x. require some explanation. The popes, who were power- § 4. ful temporal princes on account of their great wealth, ' were the natural protectors of all the Latins in the East against the power of the Greek emperors — and they pro- tected the dukes of the Archipelago ; but it was unques- tionably the alliance of the republic of Venice, and the power of the Venetian fleets, rather than the zealous activity of the Holy See, that saved the duchy from being reconquered by Michael VIII., though the papal protection may have acted as a defence against the Genoese. In forming our idea of the true basis of the Latin power in the Byzantine empire, we must never lose sight of the fact that the Venetians, who suggested the conquest, were drawn in to support the undertaking by their eager- ness to obtain a monopoly of the Eastern trade ; and the conquests of the republic were subordinate to the scheme of excluding every rival from the markets of the East. Monopoly was the end which all commercial policy sought to attain in the thirteenth century. After the loss of Constantinople, and the close alliance of the Genoese with the Greek empire, which enabled those rival republicans to aim at a monopoly of the trade of the Black Sea, the islands of the Archipelago acquired an increased importance both in a military and commercial point of view. Venice at this period found it an object of great consequence to exclude her rivals from the ports of the duchy ; and, to obtain this end, she granted such effectual protection to the dukes, and formed such treaties of alliance with them, as persuaded them to include their dominions within the system of commercial privileges and monopolies which was applied to all the foreign settle- ments of Venice, and to hold no commercial communica- tions with the western nations of Europe except through the port of Venice. The distinguished military character of several of the dukes of the family of Sanudo con- MONOPOLY OF VENICE. 347 tributed to give the duchy more importance in the eyes chap. x. of the Venetian government than it might otherwise § 4 - have held. When Mark Sanudo established the duchy, the islands he conquered were in a happy and prosperous condition. The ravages of the Saracen pirates had long ceased : the merchants of Italy had not yet begun to act the pirate on a large scale. The portion of the landed property in their conquests which the dukes were enabled to seize as their own domains was immense, and the fiefs they granted to their followers were reunited to the ducal domain more rapidly than in the continental possessions of the other Latin princes ; though we have seen that, both in Achaia and Athens, the mass of the lauded property had a tendency to accumulate in the hands of a few individuals, from the constitution of feudal society among the Franks settled in Greece. The duke of the Archi- pelago, whose power was at first controlled by his Latin feudatories, and by the existence of a considerable body of Greek proprietors and merchants, as well as by a native clergy possessing some education, wealth, and influence, became an absolute prince before the end of the thirteenth century, in consequence of the decline of all classes of the native population, who were impoverished by the monopolies introduced in order to purchase the alliance of Venice, and the fiscal exactions imposed to fill the ducal treasury. It is not easy to fix the precise extent of the privileges and monopolies accorded to the commerce of Venice in the duchy ; but foreign ships always paid double duties on the articles they imported or exported, and many articles could only be exported and imported in Venetian ships direct to Venice. This clause was in virtue of the right the Venetians claimed to the exclusive navigation of the Adriatic ; so that the Greeks in the islands were compelled to sell to the Venetians alone the portion of 348 DUKES OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. chap. x. their produce that was destined for the consumption of § 4. England and the continental ports on the ocean, from Cadiz to Hamburg, and which could only be carried beyond the Straits of Gibraltar by the fleet periodically despatched from Venice, under the title of the Fleet of Flanders. 1 The commercial system of Venice caused a stagnation of industry in Greece : the native traders were ruined, and either emigrated or dwindled into retail shopkeepers : all great commercial transactions passed into the hands of the Venetians, who left to the duke's subjects only the trifling coasting trade necessary to collect large cargoes at the ports visited by Venetian ships. The landed proprietors soon sank into idle gentle- men or rustic agriculturists ; capital ceased to be accu- mulated on the land, for its accumulation promised no profit ; the intercommunication between the different islands gradually diminished ; time became of little value ; population declined ; and, in this debilitated con- dition of society, the dukes found a consolation in the thought that this state of things rendered any attempt at insurrection on the part of the orthodox Greeks hopeless. The wealth of the dukes, and even of the signors of the smaller islands, enabled them to main- tain a small body of mercenaries sufficient to secure their castles from any sudden attack, while the fleets of Venice were never far distant, from which they were sure to receive effectual support. At the same time a Latin population, consisting partly of descendants of the con- quering army, and partly of Greeks who had joined the Latin church, lived mingled with the native population, and served as spies on its conduct. The Greeks, how- ever, who lived in communion with the papal church, like the family of Crispo, were always regarded by the mass of the inhabitants as strangers, just as much as if they had been of Frank or Venetian extraction. 1 Marin, Storia Civile e Politico, del Commercio de' Veneziani, torn. v. lib. 3. LATIN NOBILITY. 349 Orthodoxy was the only test of nationality among the chap. x. Byzantine Greeks. § 4 - The power of the Dukes was thus rendered so firm, that they oppressed the Greeks without any fear of revolution ; and the consequence was, that their financial exactions exceeded the limits which admit of wealth being reproduced with greater rapidity than it is devoured by taxation. A stationary state of things was first pro- duced ; then capital itself was consumed, and the ducal territories became incapable of sustaining as large a population as formerly. History presents innumerable examples of society in a similar state, produced by the same causes. Indeed, it is the great feature of Eastern history, from the fall of the Assyrian empire to the decay of the Othoman power. Empires and central govern- ments are incessantly devouring what provinces and local administrations are labouring to produce. Towards the middle of the fifteenth century, the depopulation of some of the islands of the Archipelago had proceeded so far that it was necessary to colonise them with Albanian families, in order to restore the land to cultivation. It has been mentioned that Mark, brother of duke John III., repeopled Ios with Albanian families. About the same time Andros, Keos, and Kythnos (Thermia), received a considerable influx of Albanian cultivators of the soil. Nearly one-half of the island of Andros is still peopled by Albanians ; but many of these are the descendants of subsequent colonists. The Latin nobility in the Greek islands generally passed their lives in military service or in aristocratic idleness. Their education was usually begun at Venice, and completed on board the Venetian galleys. When the wealth of the islands declined, only one son in a family was allowed to marry, in order to preserve the wealth and dignity of the house. The sons sought a career in the Venetian service or in the church, the 350 DUKES OF THE AKCHIPELAGO. chap. x. daughters retired into a monastery. The consequence of § 4. these social arrangements was a degree of demoralisation and vice that rendered Latin society the object of just detestation among the Greek population. The moral corruption of a dominant class soon works the political ruin of the institutions it upholds ; and the Latins in Greece were almost exterminated by their own social laws, imposed for the purpose of maintaining their respec- tability, before they were conquered by the Turks. HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND CHAPTER I. FOUNDATION OF THE EMPIRE. SECT. I. EARLY HISTORY OP TREBIZOND. The empire of Trebizond was the creation of accident. 1 No necessity in the condition, either of the people or the government, called it into existence. The popular resources had undergone no development that demanded change ; no increase had taken place in the wealth or knowledge of the inhabitants ; nor did any sudden aug- mentation of national power impel them to assume a 1 The history of Trebizond was almost unknown, until Professor Fallme- rayer discovered the Chronicle of Michael Panaretos among the books of Cardinal Bessarion, preserved at Venice. From this chronicle, with the aid of some unpublished MSS., and a careful review of all the published sources of information, he wrote a history of Trebizond, which displays great critical acuteness. His able work is entitled, Geschichte des Kaxserthums von Trapezunt, Miinchen, 1827, 4to. After visiting Trebizond, in 1840, the learned professor published the results of his personal researches at Trebizond and Mount Athos in the Transactions of the Historical Glass of the Royal Academy of Munich, vol. iii. part 3, and vol. iv. part 1. The Chronicle of Panaretos, and a discourse of Eugenikos in praise of Trebizond, were published by the learned Professor Tafel of Tubingen, who has also by his researches shed much light on several dark periods of Byzantine history. — Eustathii Metropolitce TJiessa- lonicensis Opuscida, accedunt Trapezuntince Historian Scriptores Panaretus et Eugenicus, Francofurti ad M., 4to. Z 354 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. i. dominant position, and claim for their residence the rank § i. of an imperial city. They might have been governed by the Greek emperors of Nice with as much advantage to themselves as they had been previously by the Byzantine emperors, or as they were subsequently by the emperors of Trebizond. The destruction of a distant central government, when Constantinople was conquered by the Frank crusaders, left their provincial administration without the pivot on which it had revolved. The con- juncture was seized by a young man, of whom nothing was known but that he bore a great name, and was descended from the worst tyrant in the Byzantine annals. This youth grasped the vacant sovereignty, and merely by assuming the imperial title, and placing himself at the head of the local administration, founded a new empire. Power changed its name and its dwelling, but the history of the people was hardly modified. The grandeur of the empire of Trebizond exists only in romance. Its government owed its permanence to its being nothing more than a continuation of a long- established order of civil polity, and to its making no attempt to effect any social revolution. The city of Trebizond wants only a secure port to be one of the richest jewels of the globe. It is admirably situated to form the capital of an independent state. The southern shores of the Black Sea offer every advan- tage for maintaining a numerous population, and the physical configuration of the country supplies its inhabi- tants with excellent natural barriers to defend them on every side. There are few spots on the earth richer in picturesque beauty, or abounding in more luxuriant vege- tation, than the south-eastern shores of the inhospitable Euxine. The magnificent country that extends from the mouth of the Halys to the snowy range of Caucasus is formed of a singular union of rich plains, verdant hills, bold rocks, wooded mountains, primeval forests, and EAliLY HISTORY OF TKEBIZOND. 355 rapid streams. In this fertile and majestic region, Trebizond has been, now for more than six centuries, the noblest and the fairest citj. At an early period its trapezoid citadel was occupied by a Greek colony, and received its name from the tabular appearance of the rock on which the first settlers dwelt. In these early days, the Hellenic race occupied a position among the nations of the earth not dissimilar to that now held by the Anglo-Saxon population. Greek society had embraced a social organisation that enabled the people to nourish a rapidly -augmenting population in territories where mankind had previously barely succeeded in gleaning a scanty supply of necessaries for a few families, who neither increased in number, nor deviated from the footsteps traced by their fathers in agriculture or commerce. Many cities on the shores of the Black Sea, which received Greek colonists, perhaps seven centuries before the Christian era, have ever since retained a body of Greek inhabitants. The conquests of peace are more durable than those of war. The Chronicle of Eusebius places the foundation of Trebizond 756 B.C. 1 Sinope was an earlier settlement ; for Xenophon informs us that both Trebizond and Kerasant were colonies of Sinope. 2 But it is in vain to suppose that we can see any forms distinctly in the twilight of such antiquity. Trebizond rose to a high degree of commercial impor- tance in the time of the Roman empire. The advantages of its position, as a point of communication between Persia and the European provinces of Rome, rendered it the seat of an active and industrious population. The municipal institutions of Grecian colonies, less dependent on the central administration than those of Roman origin, insured an excellent local government to all the wealthy Greek cities which were allowed to retain their own communal organisation ; and we know from Pliny that 1 Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, i. 156. 2 Anabasis, iv. 8, 22 ; v. 3, 3. 356 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. Trebizond was a free city. 1 The emperor Hadrian, at the representation of Arrian, constructed a well-sheltered port, to protect the shipping from winter storms, to which vessels had been previously exposed in the unprotected anchorage. From that time the city became one of the principal marts for the produce of the East. Three great Roman roads then connected the city with the rest of Asia — one from the westward, along the shores of the Euxine ; another eastward, to the banks of the Phasis ; and a third southward, over the great mountain barrier to the banks of the Euphrates, where, separating into two branches, one communicated with the valley of the Araxes, and proceeded to Persia, while the other conducted to Syria. 2 The country from Trebizond eastward to the summits of Caucasus was anciently called Colchis ; but in the time of Justinian the district as far as the banks of the Phasis had received the name of Lazia, from one of the many small nations which have composed the indigenous population of this singular region from the earliest period. The Chalybes, the Chaldaians, the Albanians, the Iberians, the Thianni, Sanni, or Tzans, the Khazirs, and the Huns, appear as separate nations round the Caucasian moun- tains in former days, just as the Georgians and Mingre- lians, the Circassians, the Abazecs, the Ossitinians, the Tchenchez, the Lesguians, and the Tzans — who each speak a distinct language — cluster round the counterforts of this great range at the present hour. The history of Trebizond from the time of Justinian to the accession of Leo III. (the Isaurian) is almost without interest. The iconoclast hero infused new life into the attenuated body of the Eastern Empire, and his stern spirit awakened new springs of moral and religious feeling in the breasts of the Christians in Asia. The palsy that threatened Christian society with annihilation, 1 Natar. Hist., lib. vi. 4. 2 Tabulce Pcntingeriance. TREBIZOND THE CAPITAL OF CHALDIA. 357 under the reigns of the successors of Justinian, was healed, chap. r. The empire was restored to some portion of its ancient § *• power and glory, and remodelled by reforms so extensive, that Leo may justly be termed the reformer of the Roman, or, more properly, the founder of the Byzantine empire. In this reformed empire Trebizond acquired an additional degree of importance. It became the capital of the frontier province called the theme of Chaldia, and the centre from which the military, political, commercial, and diplomatic relations of the Byzantine empire were conducted with the Christian princes of Armenia and Iberia. 1 The direction of the complicated business that resulted from the incessant warfare between the Chris- tians and Saracens, on the frontiers of Armenia, was necessarily intrusted to the dukes of Chaldia, who made Trebizond their habitual residence. The freedom of action accorded to these viceroys afforded them frequent opportunities of forming personal alliances with the neigh- bouring princes and people, and when the central govern- ment at Constantinople displayed any weakness, the power of the dukes of Chaldia often suggested to these officers the desire of assuming the rank of independent princes. The position of the city of Trebizond, the nature of its mixed population, the condition of its society, divided into many separate classes, and the individual ambition of the leading men in the neighbour- ing provinces, all tended in the same direction. The decline of the population in the surrounding country, caused by the ravages of the Saracen wars, the diminution in the relative numbers of the Greek race throughout Asia Minor, and the dilapidated condition of the means of intercommunication, had paralysed the authority of the central government at Constantinople, and destroyed the 1 The people who inhabited this country before the arrival of the Romans were called Chaldaioi and Sanni. — Strabo, lib. xii. p. 548. The Byzantine theme of Chaldia dates from the commencement of the tenth century. — Constantinus Porphyrogenitus, De Thematibus, lib. i. p. 12, edit. Band. 358 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. i. internal trade which had supported the middle classes, § i- except along a few principal caravan roads leading to the capital, or to the large commercial cities that served as depots for the exportation of produce. The political and commercial position of Trebizond continued to insure to its inhabitants a considerable share of local liberty, and an unusual freedom from financial oppression. The Byzantine authorities feared to tyran- nise over a population composed of various nations, many of whom could escape by emigration, and all of whom possessed close ties and pecuniary interests with powerful foreigners in the vicinity. The principal source of the imperial revenue was, moreover, derived from a transit trade, having its fountains and its recipients placed far beyond the control of the emperors of Constantinople. The prospect of annihilating the actual revenue by any attempt at unreasonable severity arrested the fiscal rapacity of the Byzantine government. Under the vigorous and prudent administration of the iconoclast emperors, and the legislative wisdom of the Basilian dynasty, the Byzantine empire held a dominant position in the commercial world ; and Trebizond, secure from anarchy, blessed with municipal liberty, and protected against external danger, flourished in repose. Its commu- nications with the rest of the empire were in great part carried on by sea ; but as the Roman roads were not then utterly ruined, its caravans proceeded also to foreign countries by land. The duties levied on this trade formed an immense revenue. Still, though the wealth of Trebizond preserved the people in the enjoyment of some advantages, little care was bestowed by the central administration on their local interests. Many of the public works constructed in Roman times, while Trebizond was a free city, were allowed to fall into decay ; while their ruins, which were constantly before the eyes of the inhabitants, tended to keep alive some aspirations after TREBIZOND DURING THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. 359 political independence. The people in the Byzantine chap. i. empire were insensible to the advantages of popular § 1. institutions ; indeed, these institutions were regarded by the majority of all classes with aversion, as containing the seeds of anarchy. On the other hand, there existed a strong prejudice in favour of despotic power, as the only method of insuring legal order and the impartial admin- istration of justice. Still, a considerable part of the population in the provinces desired the establishment of a state of things that would lead to the expenditure of a portion of the heavy taxes they paid on local improve- ments, and on indispensable repairs of old and useful public works. It was not unnatural, therefore, for the people of Trebizond to recur to the memory of the days when the Romans allowed the municipality to expend part of the money levied on the inhabitants in the city itself, and to contrast it with the Byzantine government, which had converted the ancient municipalities into police and fiscal offices, and had made it a state maxim to collect the whole taxes of the empire at Constantinople, where report said that immense treasures were expended in the pomp- ous ceremonies of an idle court, or in pampering the mob of the capital with extravagant shows in the hippodrome. The dukes of Chaldia frequently availed themselves of these aspirations after local improvements, and this incipient spirit of reform, to awaken the people to a desire of independence. The Byzantine viceroys were placed by their position so near the rank of tributary sovereigns that they were frequently impelled, by the unprincipled ambition which then formed a feature in the character of every man of talent, to aim at ascending the imperial throne. It was always easy for them to obtain the support of some warlike prince in the mountains of Armenia or Iberia ; the people were gained without difficulty by promising them a reduction of taxation ; while an army was quickly assembled among the moun- 360 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOKD. chap. i. tain population, which furnished mercenaries to most of § i. the princes of western Asia, or from the populace of the city, where many bad passions were always ready to burst into open insurrection, on account of some fiscal oppression or social inequality. About the period of the extinction of the Basilian dynasty, the Byzantine administration fell into disorder : the imperial government ceased to be regarded by its subjects as the only human type of power that could guarantee religious orthodoxy, political order, and security of private property. The spell was then broken that for centuries had bound together the various provinces and nations of the Eastern Empire into one state. The grow- ing incapacity of the Byzantine government to execute the duties imposed on it as the heirs of the Romans, added to the great changes that time had effected in the very elements of society, destroyed all public ties. Politics and society were both in a state of revolution at the con- clusion of the eleventh century, and an impatience of con- trol manifested itself in every grade of social life. Public opinion had done more to uphold the fabric of the Byzan- tine empire than the sword : civil virtues, as well as military, had driven back the Saracens beyond Mount Taurus, and rescued southern Italy from Charlemagne and his successors ; the laws of Rome, rather than the fleets of Greece, had upheld the emperor of Constantinople as the autocrat of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. As long as the Byzantine emperor was looked up to, from the most distant provinces of his dominions, as the only fountain of justice on earth, so long did a conviction of the necessity of maintaining the supremacy of the central administration find an advocate in every breast ; and this conviction, as much as devotion to the divine right of the orthodox emperor, saved the empire both from the Sara- cens, the Bulgarians, and the Sclavonians, and from rebellion and dismemberment. CHANGES IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. 361 But from the period when the Asiatic aristocracy chap. i. mastered the Byzantine administration, and placed Isaac § 1. I. (Comnenos) on the imperial throne, in the year 1057, a change took place in the conduct of public affairs. Provinces were bartered as rewards for political and military support, and the law began to lose a portion of its previous omnipotence. The people, as well as the provincial governors, showed themselves ready to seize every opportunity of escaping from the fiscal avidity of the central government, even at the risk of dissolving the ties that had hitherto bound them to the orthodox emperor. The imperial power was felt to be daily more arbitrary and oppressive, as the administration grew less systematic. The arrival of the Seljouk Turks in the west of Asia, about the same period, changed the condition of the inhabitants of all the countries between the Indus and the Halys. These warriors swept from the face of the earth many of the accessaries of civilisation, and of the vested accumulations of labour and capital, which afforded the means of life to millions of men. Wherever these Turkish nomades passed, cities were destroyed, water- courses were ruined, canals and wells were filled up, and trees cut down ; so that provinces which, a few years before their arrival, nourished thousands of wealthy inhabitants, became unable to support more than a few families. A horde of nomades could barely find subsistence by wander- ing over territories that had previously maintained several populous cities. Provinces where mankind had once been reckoned by millions, saw their inhabitants counted by thousands. The defeat of Romanos IV. (Diogenes) at the battle of Manzikert, in 1071, led to the expulsion of the Greeks from the greater part of Asia Minor, and carried the conquests of the Seljouk Turks up to the walls of Trebizond. The province of Chaldia was wasted by their incursions, but the city was saved from their attacks. It owed its safety, however, more to the strength of its 362 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. i. position, defended by a great mountain barrier to the § l. south, and to the spirit of its inhabitants, than to its Byzantine garrison, or to the protection of the emperors of Constantinople. The Turks were ultimately expelled from the Tre- bizontine territory by the skill and prudence of Theodore Gabras, a nobleman of the province, who ruled Chaldia almost as an independent prince during part of the reign of the Byzantine emperor Alexius I. The personal differ- ences of Theodore Gabras with Alexius I., in the year 1091, are recorded by Anna Comnena, but they afford us little insight into the real nature of the position of Gabras at Trebizond, except in so far as they prove that the emperor feared his power, and was unwilling to risk hostilities with an able vassal who could count on popular support. 1 In the year 1104, the office of duke of Tre- bizond was filled by Gregorias Taronites, who was allied to the imperial family. Taronites went a step beyond Gabras, and, not satisfied with being virtually independent, he acted as a sovereign prince, and set the orders of the emperor at defiance. Alexius sent an expedition against him, by which he was defeated and taken prisoner ; but though he was kept imprisoned for some time at Con- stantinople, he was subsequently, for reasons of which we are not informed, released and reinstated in the govern- ment of Trebizond. He ruled the province until the year 1119. In that year he formed an alliance with the emir of Kamakh, to attack the Seljouk prince of Melitene. The confederates were defeated, and Taronites fell into the hands of the Turks, who compelled him to purchase his freedom by paying a ransom of thirty thousand gold byzants — a sum then regarded in the East as the usual ransom of officers of the highest rank in the Byzantine empire. 2 1 Anna Comnena, 240. a The ransom of Richard Cceur-de-Lion, who was regarded as the richest king of his time in the west of Europe, was fixed at 150,000 marks of pure TREBIZOND IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 363 It would appear that Constantine Gabras succeeded in chap. i. obtaining the government of Trebizond after the misfor- § L tune of Taronites. Nicetas mentions him, in the year 1139, as having long governed the province as an inde- pendent prince. In that year the emperor John II. (Comnenus) led an expedition into Paphlagonia, with the expectation of being able to advance as far eastward as Trebizond, where he hoped to re-establish the imperial authority, and recover possession of the whole southern shore of the Black Sea. But the emperor found Paphla- gonia in such a depopulated condition that his progress was interrupted by the difficulty of procuring supplies, and it was late in the year before he reached Neokaisareia. That city was in the hands of the Seljouk Turks, who defended it with such valour that John was compelled to abandon the siege, and retreat to Constantinople after a fruitless campaign. 1 During the reign of his son, Manuel L, however, we find the imperial authority completely re-established in Trebizond ; and the city continued to remain in immediate subjection to the central administra- tion at Constantinople, until the overthrow of the Byzan- tine empire by the Crusaders, in 1204. 2 History has preserved no documents for estimating the proportions in which the different races of Lazes and silver, in the year 1193. The mark was eight ounces troy weight, which, at sixty shillings an ounce, makes £300,000. But supposing the proportion of the value of silver to that of gold to have been as twelve to one, the sum was equivalent to about 600,000 gold byzants. Fallmerayer, Kaiserthum von Trapezunt, p. 1 9, calls Gregorias Taronites the son of Theodore Gabras ; but Byzantine history, I believe, does not certify this affiliation. It is true Anna Comnena, p. 241 and 364, tells us that Gabras had a son named Gregorias. The capture of Taronites is mentioned by Abul- pharagius, who alone connects him with the family of Gabras, p. 300. — Com- pare Ducange, Familim Aug. Byzantince, p. 172, and 177. Cinnamus, p. 31, mentions a Gabras about this time, who was born in the Byzantine empire, but bred up among the Seljouk Turks, in whose armies he served. 1 Nicetas, 23. A Constantine Gabras was sent by the emperor Manuel I., as ambassador to sultan Kilidj-Arslan of Iconium. — Nicetas, 79. 2 Cinnamus, 171. A Michael Gabras is noticed as charged with the care of assembling the troops of Pontus and Trebizond, and he is mentioned as hav- ing commanded the Byzantine army on the Danube, 150. Nicetas recounts an anecdote not much to his credit as a soldier, 87. 364 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. i. Greeks inhabited the city of Trebizond and the surround- § 2. ing country, nor can we arrive at any precise idea of the relative influence which each exercised on the various political changes that occurred under the Byzantine government. Even the extent of the commercial rela- tions of the citizens, and the political tendency of these relations on the conduct of the neighbouring nations, is in a great measure a matter of conjecture. We know, indeed, that there was always a numerous Greek popula- tion dwelling in all the maritime cities of Colchis and Pontus, though whether these colonists had perpetuated their existence by descent, or recruited their numbers by constant immigrations from those lands where the Greek race formed the native population of the soil, is by no means certain. This Greek population permanently established at Trebizond lived in a state of opposition to the power and pretensions of the Byzantine aristocracy, which grew up in the province from among the officials, who accumulated wealth under the shadow of the central administration. Both these sections of Greeks were regarded with jealousy by the indigenous population of Lazes or Tzans, who inhabited the mountain districts that overhang the coast. We are wholly ignorant by what system of policy, and through what peculiar connection of interests, the trading classes secured protection for their wealth and obtained the amity of all parties. SECT. II. — ORIGIN OF THE FAMILY OF GRAND KOMNENOS OR COMNENUS. The name of Komnenos, or Comnenus, was originally borrowed from Italy. But Roman names were too generally diffused in the provinces among the clients, the freedmen, and the followers of distinguished Romans, for us to draw any inference concerning the descent of an Asiatic family, merely because it bore a name once known FAMILY OF GRAND-KOMNENOS. 365 in Italy. All Gaul was filled with families of the name chap. r. of Julius, few of whom had the slightest claim to any § 2. relationship with the Julian house of Rome. The family of Komnenos, which gave a dynasty of able sovereigns to the Byzantine empire, and a long line of emperors to Trebizond, first made its appearance in Eastern history about the year 976, when Manuel Komnenos held the office of prefect in Asia. Manuel, at his death, left his children under the guardianship of the emperor Basil IT. 1 Of these children the eldest was Isaac I., who seated himself on the imperial throne after the extinction of the Basilian dynasty, by heading a successful rebellion of the Asiatic aristocracy in the year 1057. After occupying the throne for little more than two years, he voluntarily retired into a monastery, without attempting to secure the empire as a heritage to his family. The domains of the house of Komnenos, their hereditary castle and the seat of their territorial power, was at Kastamona, in Paphlagonia, before that province was depopulated by the ravages of the Seljouk Turks. 2 The emperor Alexius I. was the third son of John Komnenos, the brother of Isaac I. Like his uncle, he mounted the imperial throne by head- ing a successful rebellion. Andronicus I. dethroned and murdered Alexius II., then about sixteen years of age, who was the lawful emperor, and the great-grandson of Alexius I., of whom Andronicus was the grandson. In the year 1185, the savage cruelty of Andronicus produced a terrible revolution at Constantinople. Its immediate consequences effected little change at Tre- bizond, but it ultimately laid the foundations of a new empire in that city. Andronicus was dethroned and murdered by a popular insurrection. The anarchy and confusion with which the revolt was conducted, levelled the barriers that had for some time with difficulty opposed 1 Niceph. Bryenii Com., 16. Ducange, Families Aug. Byzantium, 169. 2 Cedrenus, 798. 366 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. i. the complete demoralisation of the central administration. § 2. A city mob overthrew the imperial government, executed the emperor as a criminal, and remained masters of Con- stantinople for several days. The people plundered the treasury, and celebrated their orgies in the palace. These acts dissolved the spell that had invested the power of the emperor with a halo of divine authority. All legisla- tive, judicial, civil, and military power, remained annulled by the will of the rabble. The new sovereign, Isaac II. (Angelos,) was a man destitute of capacity and courage, and he only gradually recovered the semblance of the power held by his predecessors. But a mortal wound had been inflicted on the imperial government, and from the hour that the aged tyrant Andronicus, with his long-forked beard, was led through the streets of Constantinople on a mangy camel, to perish amidst inhuman tortures, a hideous spectacle to the mob in the hippodrome, the public administration became daily more anarchical. 1 The worthless princes of the house of Angelos were high priests well suited to conduct the sacrifice of an empire exhausted by the energetic tyranny of the bold house of Komnenos. The people had certainly good reason to hate the name of Komnenos, for the princes of that able and haughty race had been severe rulers, treating their subjects as the instruments of their personal aggrandisement, wasting the wealth of the state, and pouring out the blood of the people with a lavish hand, to gratify every whim of power. Yet the grandeur of their name was a spell on the minds of the populace, throughout every province where the Greek language was spoken ; and when the empire broke up into fragments, the sovereigns of its several pieces used the mighty name as a passport to power. Manuel Komnenos, the eldest son of the tyrant 1 Nicetas, 222, mentions the forked beard of Andronicus, and it is distinctly represented on both his gold and copper coins. MANUEL KOMNENOS, FATHER OF ALEXIOS. 367 Andronicus, had acquired some popularity by opposing the chap, t, cruelties of his father, and by declaring that his respect § 2. for the authority of the Greek church compelled him to refuse marrying Agnes of France, the betrothed of his murdered relation Alexius II., — the affinity established by the ceremony of betrothal, according to the ecclesi- astical rules of the Greeks, creating a bar to marriage where the parties stand as Alexius II. and Manuel did, in the relationship of second cousins. The prudent con- duct of Manuel, and his reverence for established laws, excited distrust in the breast of his passionate father, who deprived him of his birthright, and raised his younger brother John to the imperial dignity, investing him with the rank of colleague and successor. Yet the virtues of Manuel proved no protection, when the popular fury was roused against his father. The very name of Komnenos was for a while hateful, and every one who bore it was proscribed. The good qualities of Manuel were forgotten, and it was only remembered that he was the son of a cruel tyrant. The new emperor, Isaac II., weak, envious, and cruel, was induced, by the memory of the popularity which these good qualities had once inspired, to guard against a reaction in Manuel's favour. To prevent the possibility of his ever being called to the throne, Isaac ordered his eyes to be put out ; and the sentence was executed with such barbarity that Manuel died from the effects of the operation. He left two children, Alexios and David. Alexios was only four years old at the time of his father's murder. The friends of his family placed him and his infant brother in security during the fury of the revolution, keeping them concealed from the jealousy of Isaac II. and the vengeance of the enemies of their house. When all danger was passed, the two children were allowed to reside unmolested at Constantinople, where they received their education, neglected and forgotten by 368 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOKD. chap. i. the imperial court. Their title to the throne could give § 2. little disquietude to the reigning sovereign in a government which, like that of the Byzantine empire, was recognised to be elective, and in which their father had been excluded from the throne by the exercise of an acknowledged consti- tutional prerogative. In virtue of the same power of selecting a successor, to be publicly ratified by what was termed the Senate and the Roman people, the emperor John II., the best prince of the name of Komnenos, had excluded his eldest son, Isaac, from the succession, and left the empire to Manuel, his youngest. Alexios and David lived in obscurity until the Crusaders besieged Constantinople. Before the city was taken, the two young men escaped to the coast of Colchis, where their paternal aunt, Thamar, possessed wealth and influence. Assisted by her power, and by the memory of their tyrannical grandfather, who had been popular in the east of Asia Minor, they were enabled to collect an army of Iberian mercenaries. At the head of this force Alexios entered Trebizond in the month of April 1204, about the time Constantinople fell into the hands of the Crusaders. He had been proclaimed emperor by his army on crossing the frontier. 1 To mark that he was the legitimate repre- sentative of the imperial family of Komnenos, and to prevent his being confounded with the numerous descen- dants of females, or with the family of the emperor 1 Fallmerayer, in his Kaiserthum von Trapezunt, corrects the errors of Ducange and Gibbon concerning Alexios I., whom these authors represent as not having assumed the title of emperor. But he does not appear to have sufficient authority for representing Thamar as having escaped from Constantinople, with her nephews, at the time of the revolution against Andronicus. When he argues that this flight was necessary to save their lives, he attributes too much importance to hereditary rights in the Byzantine empire. Had the young Alexios been educated as a pretender to the throne, this could only have been done under the protection of some powerful independent sovereign like Queen Thamar of Georgia, or Sultan Kilidj-Arslan of Iconium ; and of this there is no evidence in history. Indeed, Manuel, the father of Alexios, never having received the title of emperor, Alexios, according to Byzantine ideas, had no claim to the empire. He required to conquer it, when of age, like his ances- tors Isaac I. and Alexius I. Panaretos, in his Chronicle, informs us that Alexios leaving Constantinople, arrived in Iberia, where he assembled an army by the influence of his aunt Thamar, and gained possession of Trebizond m FOUNDATION OF EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. 369 Alexius III. (Angelos,) who had arrogated to themselves a. d. his name, he assumed the designation of Grand-Komne- 1204. nos. 1 Wherever he appeared, he was acknowledged as the lawful sovereign of the Roman empire. The Greeks of Trebizond were in a state of alarm at the frightful revolu- tion which had overwhelmed the political and commercial position of their race, by the proceedings of the Crusaders and the Venetians. The duke who then governed the province of Trebizond possessed neither the talents nor the power necessary to convert his government into an independent principality ; nor had he the energy or the influence required to oppose the progress of the young Alexios, who had a considerable share of the active vigour and decision of character for which so many of his ances- tors had been remarkable. The inhabitants of the city were sensible of the danger they would incur should the Franks or the Georgians attack them while isolated from the other provinces of the empire, and their fear of foreign conquest and domestic anarchy operated in favour of the claims of an emperor who could boast a name renowned in the East. Trebizond was sure of enjoying the advan- tage of being the seat of government for some time. It might become the capital of an empire. At all events, if victory attended the arms of the young Grand- Kom- nenos, and if he succeeded in expelling the Franks from Constantinople, and restoring the Byzantine empire to the April 1204. This is really all we know of his life before he ascended the throne ; and this leads to the conclusion that Thamar, but not Alexios, had been long established in Iberia. She may have been the widow of some Col- chian prince who had maintained his independence against Queen Thamar of Georgia, or, as the Georgian historians call her, on account of her great exploits, King Thamar — the Georgian queen having only succeeded in extend- ing her dominions as far westward as the shores of the Black Sea for a short time. She died in 1201. — Saint-Martin, Memoires de VArmenie, ii. p. 249, 255 ; Lebeau, Histoire du Bas-Empire, xvii. p. 256, Brosset's note. It seems probable that the emperor Andronicus I. had married an Iberian princess, who intro- duced the Georgian names of Thamar and David into his branch of the family of Komnenos, and connected it by ties of consanguinity with the Colchian regions. 1 It has been considered convenient, for distinction, to employ the usual Latin names for the Byzantine emperors, and to adopt the Greek orthography for the sovereigns of Trebizond. 2 A 370 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. wealth and power it had formerly possessed under the emperors of his family, there could be no doubt that his early partisans would reap a rich harvest of reward. SECT. HI. REIGN OF ALEXIOS I., GRAND-KOMNENOS. Alexios Grand-Komnenos was twenty-two years of age when he was crowned emperor in Trebizond. 1 The title to which he laid claim was, The Faithful Emperor of the Romans. Such had been the title of the emperors of Constantinople until the dismemberment of the Eastern empire by the Crusaders ; and Alexios, regarding the family of Angelos as dethroned usurpers, naturally laid claim to the position from which they had fallen, and which had been long occupied by his ancestors. The title of the emperors of Trebizond subsequently underwent some modification, particularly when it became necessary to conciliate the house of Paleologos, after Michael VIII. had reconquered Constantinople ; and the title of Em- peror of the Romans was then exchanged for that of Emperor of all the East, Iberia, and the Transmarine dominions. The conquests of Alexios at the commencement of his career were rapid and brilliant. The helplessness and incapacity of the Byzantine provincial authorities, how- 1 It was the fashion of this age to magnify titles. There was a Grand Chan of Tartary, a Grand Sultan of the Seljouk Turks, a Grand Sire of Athens ; and when the Greeks recovered possession of Constantinople, they called their sovereign the Grand Emperor, Meyas Baaikevs. The first modification of the title of the emperors of Trebizond, after they ceased to style themselves emperors of the Romans, is stated to have been, The faithful Emperor and Autocrat of all the East, Iberia, and Perateia ; Ukttos Baaikevs kcu AvroKparcop naarjs 'AvciToXrjs, Ifiripoop, Kai Hepareias, 6 Meyas Kopvrjvos. Perateia, or the transmarine province, was the name given to the possessions of Trebizond in the Tauric Chersonesos, Cherson, and Gothia. It may be doubted whether they used this title before the reign of the emperor John II., who married Eudocia, the daughter of Michael VIII. Paleologos, emperor of Constantinople. The earlier emperors of Trebizond, however, appear to have attached less im- portance to the title of Grand than the later, for Manuel I. is called simply Komnenos, emperor and autocrat of the Romans, in the inscription which exists in the church or mosque of St Sophia, and which appears contemporaneous. PROGKESS OF ALEXIOS. 371 ever, favoured the progress of his arms quite as much as his own talents, for whenever he met with a determined resistance his advance was arrested. The governors of most of the cities before whose walls he appeared, know- ing that they could entertain no hope of support from the central government, unable to place any reliance on their own administrative powers, and without any chance of receiving assistance from the native population, sub- mitted to the new emperor as their lawful sovereign. The Byzantine troops flocked to his standard with enthu- siasm, for under his command a new career of activity was suddenly opened to the ambitious, while long dor- mant hopes of plunder, glory, and power were awakened in many breasts. There was another cause affecting the minds of all the Greek Christians in the East, which made the mass of the population embrace his cause with ardour. The fear of the Mussulman yoke was becoming daily more alarming. The family of Angelos had neglected the defence of the eastern Asiatic provinces, while the Seljouk Turks had taken advantage of their indifference with vigour, and threatened to overwhelm the orthodox from the south. The invasion of the Latin Christians had cut off all retreat to the westward. The firm per- suasion of the Eastern nations had been long fixed in the belief, that the power of the Greek emperors could alone offer a successful resistance to the progress of Mohammedanism, and drive the Seljouk Turks out of Asia Minor, as their predecessors had driven the Saracens. Alexios Grand-Komnenos presented himself in the East at the appropriate moment to profit by this state of public opinion. In the course of a few months Alexios had rendered himself master of the fortresses of Tripolis, Kerasunt, Mesochaldaion, J asonis, and Oinaion, and without a single battle he had conquered the whole country from the Phasis to the Thermodon. In the mean time his brother 372 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. David, as soon as it was evident that no resistance would be encountered in Colchis, invaded Paphlagonia at the head of a strong body of Iberian mercenaries and Lazian volunteers. His success was as great as that of his brother. The whole coast, from Sinope to Heracleia, submitted to his orders, and was incorporated into the empire of Alexios. The rich and strongly fortified cities of Sinope, Amastris, Tios, and Heracleia, opened their gates, and welcomed David as the representative of the lawful emperor of the Romans. He then advanced to the Sangarios, hoping soon to render his brother master of all the country which the Greeks still defended against the Crusaders. The condition of the Greeks at Nicsea favoured the pro- ject. Theodore Laskaris then ruled in Bithynia, but he still contented himself with the title of despot, and acted in the disadvantageous position of appearing as the viceroy of his worthless father-in-law Alexius III., whose tyrannical government and cowardly flight from Constan- tinople, after the first assault of the Crusaders, rendered him universally detested. David, confident in the popu- larity of his family, satisfied by the rapidity of his con- quests of the general feeling in favour of his brother's claims, and trusting to the valour of his Iberian cuirassiers, expected to enter Nicomedia without resistance. But Theodore Laskaris was a better soldier and abler states- man than either David or Alexios. He made every pre- paration in his power for stopping the tide of conquest which had borne forward the banner of Grand-Komnenos with uninterrupted success over all the southern shores of the Euxine. To prevent the two brothers from uniting the armies under their command, Theodore concluded a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, with Ghaiaseddin Kaikhosrou, sultan of Iconium or Roum, 1 who like him- 1 The Seljouk sultans of Minor Asia, who held their court at Iconium, called themselves the sultans of Roum, or Romania, as having subdued the most valuable portion of the dominions of the Byzantine emperors, who called them- selves emperors of the Romans. DEFEAT OF DAVID IN BITHYNIA. 373 self was alarmed at the progress of the crusaders at Con- chap. i. stantinople, and of the new Greek emperor of Trebizond. § 3. While Theodore prepared to encounter the army of David in Bithynia, the sultan marched against Alexios, who had laid sier]v6s, or Grand-Komnenos, for Komnenos the Great. Fallmerayer, Geschichte, 135, has explained the true connection of the passages of Ogerius, the protonotary of Michael VIII., and of the Armenian historian Haithon, cited by Ducange, by means of the light thrown on this period by the Chronicle of Panaretos. Fallmerayer, however, thinks that Joannes II. made a great change in the title of the emperors of Trebizond by receiving the crown as emperor of the Romans ; but the date of the embassy of Ogerius, and the words of Pachy- meres, i. 353, who says that Michael sent several embassies to Trebizond on the subject of the imperial title, indicates that the preceding emperors bore the same designation. Joannes, indeed, could not otherwise, as we are informed he did, plead the impossibility of laying aside a title familiar to his subjects by long usage. JOANNES II., THE EIVAL OF MICHAEL VIII. 399 The fealty of the Greeks was not considered to be due to chap. nr. an emperor of doubtful orthodoxy. Michael had been § 1. pardoned, by the lax morality of the Greek people and church, for dethroning and putting out the eyes of his young ward, the emperor John IV.; but he was con- demned as an outlaw, by the ecclesiastical bigotry of Byzantine society, for seeking to unite the Greek and Roman, or orthodox and catholic, sections of the Christian church. A powerful party in his own dominions, and a large body of Greeks living beyond the bounds of his empire, were eager to dethrone him. Fortunately for Michael, the people of Europe and Asia were not agreed on the rival emperor they wished to place on the throne of Constantinople. The European Greeks looked to the despot of Epirus, or to John, prince of Thessalian Vlakia, both of whom called themselves Komnenos ; but the Asiatics, and a considerable party at Constantinople, invited Joannes II. of Trebizond to place himself at the head of the orthodox Christians, as the undoubted heir of the imperial house of Komnenos, and as already crowned emperor of the Romans. Michael was regarded as a usurper, from the fact of his having ceased to be orthodox, since no apostate could reign over the true believers. Joannes was utterly destitute of the talents necessary to profit by the advantages of his position, nor had he any councillors around him capable of contending with a veteran diplomatist and experienced sovereign like Michael. No man estimated the exact danger of his situation better than Michael himself ; and though his fears at times seemed to indicate a nervous sensibility, there can be no doubt that there was reason to apprehend a general rebellion in support of any rival claim to the imperial title at this momentous crisis. At the very time Joannes II. was crowned emperor of the Romans at Trebizond, Charles of Anjou, the papal vassal-king of Naples, threatened to invade the Byzantine empire, as 400 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. in. the champion of the rights of Philip of Courtcnay, the § i- heir of the Latin empire of Romania, and thus deprived Michael of all hope of finding any support from the Latin Christians, with whose church he had endeavoured to unite. In this critical conjuncture, Michael, who feared domestic treason more than foreign invasion, was anxious to secure the alliance of the young emperor of Trebizond. Knowing his weak character, and the fac- tious views of the nobility of Trebizond, he sought to neutralise all opposition from that quarter by a combi- nation of cajolery, bribery, and intimidation, that would induce the government of Trebizond to dread the danger of an open rupture with the Byzantine empire. The first embassy sent by Michael to sound the dis- position of the young emperor of Trebizond was intrusted to the experience of the veteran statesman and valuable historian George Acropolita, in the year 128 1. 1 But the ambassador could neither persuade John to lay aside the use of his title of emperor of the Romans, nor inspire him with a wish to unite his fortunes with those of Michael, by forming a matrimonial alliance with the family of Paleologos. Acropolita, however, whose duty it was to ascertain the party views and political designs of the aristocracy as well as of the court, seems to have dis- covered the means of preparing the mind of Joannes to admit the conviction, that it would be impossible for him to wage war with the Byzantine court, and that it would 1 Smith's valuable dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mytho- logy, v. Acropolita, and the improved German translation of Schoell's History of Greek Literature, vol. iii. 274, both state that the historian was sent, in the year 1282, on an embassy to John, king of Bulgaria. This is an error which has arisen from transcribing Hankius, De JByzantinorum Rerum Scriptoribus Grcecis, without referring to his authorities. The learned work of Hankius is generally a safe mine of Byzantine lore ; but in this case he seems inadvertently to have written Bulgarorum instead of Lazorum Principem, for he quotes at length the passage of Pachymeres as his authority, which states-distinctly that Acropolita was sent to the prince of the Lazes, as the vain Constantinopolitan writers called the emperor of Trebizond. The date given by Hankius also seems to require correction, since the unsuccessful embassy of Acropolita must have happened in the year preceding the marriage. — Hankius, 562. Pachymeres, lib. vi. c. xxxiv., torn. i. p. 354, edit. Rom. NEGOTIATIONS WITH MICHAEL VIII. 401 even be dangerous to neglect forming a close alliance with chap. nr. the emperor. Acropolita had hardly quitted Trebizond § 1. before a general insurrection, headed by a Greek named Papadopoulos, drove the ruling party from power. The rebels rendered themselves masters of the citadel, and kept Joannes II. for some time a prisoner in his palace. It is true that Joannes soon escaped out of the hands of the insurgents and recovered his power. Nor is it possible to establish the complicity of the Byzantine agents in this business ; but there cannot be a doubt that it was the cause of producing a great change in the views of the emperor of Trebizond and his court, and that it suggested to them the necessity of forming a close alliance with the emperor of Constantinople, on the basis of consolidating a league of the two sovereigns, for their mutual protection against the rebellious movements of their subjects. The veteran Acropolita was not the man to have overlooked this obvious condition of public affairs in his arguments with the court of Trebizond, nor to have neglected taking measures for making events confirm his reasoning. After the failure of Papadopoulos's insurrection, a new embassy arrived at Trebizond, and the emperor J oannes soon expressed a wish to form a close political and family alliance with Michael ; but while he expressed his eager- ness to espouse Eudocia, the emperor's youngest daughter, he declared that it was impossible for him to lay aside the imperial title which had been borne by his ancestors. The title of Basileus, the purple boots, the robes embroidered with eagles, and the prostrations of the powerful chiefs of the aristocracy, were dear to the pride of the citizens of Trebizond, and attached them to the person of the emperors, of whose heart these vanities formed the inmost delight. Neither the personal honour of Joannes, nor his political position, nor the feelings of his people allowed him to think for a moment of aban- doning the title of emperor. Michael himself soon saw 2 c 402 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. in. clearly that the change was impossible ; and this very § i. circumstance rendered it more important that the rival emperor should be included within the circle of his own family. But his notorious bad faith, and the just suspi- cions it awakened in the breast of Joannes, still created some difficulties. The young emperor of Trebizond feared to trust himself in the power of Michael, lest, instead of becoming the husband of Eudocia, he should meet the fate of the unfortunate J ohn Laskaris. At last, however, he received such assurances of his personal safety, and such pledges of the sincerity of Michael, that he repaired to Constantinople, where his marriage was celebrated in the month of September 1282. 1 The reception of the emperor of Trebizond at the Byzantine court displays all the vanity and meanness of the Constantinopolitan Greeks in a striking manner. Michael VIII. was a perfect type of this class, and his agents were worthy of their master. When Joannes reached the capital, he found Michael absent at Lopadion, and every species of intrigue, persuasion, and intimidation w r as employed to induce the young emperor to lay aside his purple boots and imperial robes. Seeing himself surrounded by the unprincipled instruments of Byzantine tyranny, and retaining always a lively recollection of the fate of the blind Laskaris, he consented, at last, to present himself before his future father-in-law in black boots, and in the dress of a despot of the Byzantine court. He was even induced to carry his concession to Byzantine vanity so far, as not to resume the insignia of an emperor until the celebration of his marriage. It seems that it was at this time the emperor of Trebizond first used the style of Emperor of the East, instead of his earlier designation of Emperor of the Romans ; and probably his 5 Ducange, Fam. Aug. Byz., 234, makes Eudocia the second daughter of Michael VIII. instead of Anna. But Pachymeres says distinctly she was the third. Tom. i. 354. CHANGE OF IMPERIAL TITLE. 403 robes, adorned with single-headed eagles, were viewed by the Constantinopolitan populace as marking a certain inferiority to the family of his wife, who appeared in a dress covered with double-headed eagles, to mark her rank in the empire of the East and West as a princess born in the purple chamber. 1 Both J oannes II. and his successors found it advisable to cultivate the alliance of the Byzantine court after this period. Policy, therefore, prompted them to lay aside the use of their ancient title of Emperor of the Romans, which was reserved exclusively for the sovereigns of Constantinople, while those of Trebizond confined themselves to that of Emperor of all the East, Iberia and Perateia. 2 The emperor Joannes returned home shortly after his marriage. His dominions had suffered severely during his absence, in consequence of David, king of Iberia, availing himself of the conjuncture to attempt the con- quest of the capital. The Iberian army ravaged the whole country up to the walls of the citadel of Trebizond, which David besieged for some time ; but with so little success, that he was compelled to effect his retreat without being able to carry off any booty. The reign of Joannes was not without its troubles after his return. Georgios, his brother and predecessor, was released by the Turkomans, and found a faction of discontented nobles to support his pretensions to recover the throne. The attempt proved unsuccessful. The followers of Georgios were defeated ; and the dethroned emperor, after wandering in the mountains in a condition between a knight-errant and 1 Full-length portraits of the emperor Joannes II., and of the empress Eudocia, in their imperial robes, may be seen, though sadly defaced, in the porch of the church of St Gregory of Nyssa, now used as the metropolitan church of Trebizond. The robes of the emperor are adorned with single- headed eagles, those of the empress with double-headed. 2 The title of Emperor of the East, Iberia and Perateia, ought really only to have been used by Alexios I. and Andronikos I., since the province of Iberia was lost in the reign of the latter. But sovereigns are in the habit of assum- ing and retaining titles to which they have no right. See the golden bulls of the emperor Alexios III. — Fallmerayer, Or'ig. Frag., 1st Abth., p. 87, 92. 404 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. in. a brigand, was at last taken prisoner and brought to § i- Trebizond. In order to insure family concord as well as public tranquillity, Joannes allowed his brother to retain the title of Emperor, without, however, admitting him to take any part in the administration of public affairs. A new revolution suddenly drove Joannes again from his throne. His sister Theodora, the eldest child of Manuel I. by his first marriage with Roussadan, an Iberian princess, availed herself of the party intrigues of the nobles, and the popular dissensions in the capital — perhaps also of the civil war between her two brothers — to assemble an army and mount the throne. Her reign occurred in the year 1285 ; but its duration is unknown, though the existence of coins, bearing her name and effigy, attest that her power was not destitute of political stabi- lity, and that she was fully and permanently recognised as sovereign of the empire. 1 No clue exists that affords us the means of explaining how Theodora obtained the throne, or how she lost it, but Joannes appears soon to have recovered possession of his throne and capital. He died at the fortress of Limnia in the year 1297, after a reign of eighteen years, and his body was transported to Trebizond, where it was entombed in the cathedral of Panaghia Ohry- sokephalos. He left two sons, Alexios II. and Michael. The effects of the incessant domestic revolutions and civil wars in the empire of Trebizond can be more clearly traced than their causes. One of their immediate con- sequences, in the reign of Joannes, was the loss of the extensive and valuable province of Chalybia, with its strange metallic soil, from which, since the days of the Argonauts, the inhabitants have scraped out small nodules of iron in sufficient quantity to form a regular branch of industry. 2 The Turkomans, availing themselves of the 1 Pfaffenhoffen, Essai sur les Aspres Comnenats, p. 88. 2 See an interesting account of the modern Chalybes in Hamilton's Researches in Asia Minor, Pontus, and Armenia, vol. i. p. 274. REIGN OF JOANNES II. 405 internal disorders at the capital, laid waste the province, a. d. and drove out the greater part of the ancient population, 1280-1297. in order to convert the whole country into a land of pasture suitable for the settlement of their nomadic tribes. Joannes II. enjoyed a reputation among the nations of western Europe totally incommensurate with his real power. The magnificent title of Emperor of Trebizond threw a veil over his weakness, and distance concealed the small extent of his dominions behind the long line of coast that acknowledged his sway. He was invited by pope Nicholas IV. to take part in the crusade for the recovery of Ptolemais, in which his Holiness flattered himself that the emperor of Trebizond would be joined by Argoun, the Mongol khan of Tauris, and all the Christian princes of the East, from Georgia to Armenian Cilicia. The invitation proved of course ineffectual. Joannes was too constantly employed at home watching the movements of domestic faction, and guarding against the inroads of the Turkomans of the great horde of the Black Sheep, to think of aiding the Latin adventurers in Palestine, even had he felt any disposition to listen to papal exhortations. 1 SECT. II. — REIGN OP ALEXIOS II. INCREASED COMMERCIAL IMPOR- TANCE OF TREBIZOND. TRADE OF GENOESE — A.D. 1297-1330. Alexios II., the eldest son of Joannes II., succeeded his father at the early age of fifteen. He was naturally for some time a mere nominal sovereign, acting under the guidance of the ministers of state who held office at the time of his father's death. His father's will placed him under the guardianship of his maternal uncle, the Byzan- tine emperor Andronicus II. ; but the courtiers and nobles 1 Wadding, Annates ordinis Minorum, torn. v. p. 254, ad. ann. 1291 ; Fall- merayer, Qeschichte, 157. 406 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. in. of Trebizond easily persuaded the young sovereign to § 2. assume complete independence, and emancipate himself from all control. Andronicus, on the other hand, was eager to direct his conduct even in his most trifling actions. His first attempt to enforce his authority was ridiculous and irritating, like many of the acts of that most orthodox and most injudicious sovereign. He ordered the young emperor of Trebizond, an independent foreign prince, to marry the daughter of a Byzantine subject, Choumnos, his own favourite minister. 1 The idea of this marriage was offensive both to Alexios and the people of Trebizond ; so that, when the young emperor married the daughter of an Iberian prince, in contempt of his guardian's commands, the act gained him great popularity in his own dominions. Andronicus, who was fond of regarding himself as espe- cially the orthodox emperor, conceived that he could always make the Greek church a subservient instrument of his political enterprises. In order to carry into exe- cution his plans concerning the marriage of the daughter of his favourite, he put the whole Eastern church in a state of movement, and treated the question as if it was of equal importance with papal supremacy or the doctrine of the Azymites. He assembled a synod at Constanti- nople, and demanded that the marriage of his ward, the emperor of Trebizond — or the prince of the Lazes, as the Byzantines in the excess of their pride had the insolence to term the young Alexios — should be declared null by the Greek church, because it had been contracted by a minor without the sanction of his guardian, the 1 Nikephoras Choumnos was prefect of the Kanikleion, or keeper of the purple ink with which the imperial signature was written — something between a lord-chancellor and a privy-seal. He was the author of several works that still exist in MS. in the libraries of Europe. Some of his writings have been published by Boissonade in the Anecdota Grceca, vols. i. and ii. One consists of consolations to his daughter Irene, who, after being rejected by Alexios of Trebizond, was married to the despot John, the third son of Andronicus. The despot died in 1 304, and Irene, left a widow at an early age, took the veil under the name of Eulogia. There is also a discourse of Choumnos on the death of the despot John, addressed to his father the emperor Andronicus II. ALEXIOS II. 407 orthodox emperor. The patriarch and clergy, alarmed a. d. at the ridiculous position in which they were likely to be 1297-1330. placed, took advantage of the interesting condition of the bride, to refuse gratifying the spleen of Andronicus. At this time Eudocia, the mother of Alexios, was at Constan- tinople. She had rejected her brother's proposal to form a second marriage with the kral of Servia, and was anxious to return to her son's dominions. By persuading Androni- cus that her influence was far more likely to make her son agree to a divorce than the sentence of an ecclesiastical tribunal whose authority he was able to decline, she ob- tained her brother's permission to return to Trebizond. On arriving at her son's court she found him living happily with his young wife ; and, on considering the case in her new position, she approved of his conduct, and confirmed him in his determination to resist the tyrannical preten- sions of his uncle. 1 Eudocia showed herself as much superior to her brother Andronicus in character, judg- ment, and virtue, as most of the women of the house of Paleologos were to the men. The difference between the males and females of this imperial family is so marked, that it would form a curious subject of inquiry to ascer- tain how the system of education of the Byzantine empire, at this period, produced an effect so singular and uniform. The ecclesiastical culture of the Greek clergy may possi- bly have tended to strengthen the female mind, while it weakened and dogmatised that of the men. Alexios II. displayed both firmness and energy in his internal administration. He defeated an invasion of the Turkomans in the year 1302. Their army, which had ad- vanced to the neighbourhood of Kerasunt, was routed with great slaughter, and their general Koustaga taken prisoner. The danger to which the empire was exposed by the insolent pretensions of the Genoese, and their endeavours to secure a monopoly of the whole commerce of the Black 1 Pachymeres, torn. ii. 184, 198, edit. Rom. 408 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. in. Sea, was as great as that which threatened it from the § 2 - Turkomans and Mongols. This bold and enterprising people had already gained possession of the most impor- tant part of the commerce carried on between western Europe and the countries within the Bosphorus, both on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof. These commercial relations had been greatly extended after the expulsion of the Latins from Syria, Palestine, and Constantinople ; and the Genoese colonies at Galata and Caffa, joined to the turbulence and activity of the people, rendered them dangerous enemies to a maritime state like Trebizond, which was dependent on foreign trade for a considerable portion of its revenues. At this time the ruin of the commercial cities of Syria, by the invasions of Khoarasmians and Mongols, the inse- curity of the caravan roads throughout the dominions of the Mamlouk sultans, the bull of the Pope, forbidding the Christians to hold any commercial intercourse with the Mohammedans under pain of excommunication, and the impossibility of European merchants passing through Syria and Egypt to purchase Indian commo- dities, all conspired to drive the trade of eastern Asia through the wide-extended dominions of the grand khan of the Mongols, where security for the passage of caravans could be guaranteed from the frontiers of China and Hindostan to the shores of the Caspian and Black Seas. The grand khans, Mongou and Kublai, had cherished the useful arts ; and during their reigns the vigorous administration of Houlakou in Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, had allowed merchants to wander in safety with their bales from Caffa, Tana, and Trebizond, to Samar- cand, Bokhara, and other entrepots of Indian and Chinese productions. The importance which this trade suddenly acquired, and the amount of wealth it kept in circulation, may be estimated by observing the effects of the Mongol invasions on the commerce of lands that might be sup- COMMERCE OF TREBIZOND. 409 posed to have lain far beyond the sphere of their direct C hap. in. influence. Gibbon mentions, that the fear of the Tartars § 2. prevented the inhabitants of Sweden and Friesland from sending their ships to the fisheries on the British coast, and thus lowered the price of one article of food in England. 1 Akaba, the son and successor of Houlakou, on the vassal throne of the Mongols at Tauris, was a friend of the Christians, and an ally of both the Greek emperors, Michael VIII. of Constantinople, and Joannes II. of Trebizond. On ascending the throne he married Maria, the natural daughter of Michael, though she had been destined to become his father's bride. 2 The political interests of the Mongols of Tauris suggested to them the advantages to be derived by constituting themselves the protectors of the commercial intercourse between the Chris- tians of Europe and the idolaters of India. The desperate valour of the Mussulmans of western Asia made even the dreaded Tartars seek every means of diminishing the wealth and financial resources of the restless warriors who ruled at Iconium, Damascus, and Cairo. The approval of this policy by the grand khans created an active intercourse with the Tartar empire, and suggested to the Christians hopes of converting the Mongol sovereigns to the papal church. Frequent embassies of friars were sent to the court of Karakorum, whose narratives supply us with much interesting information concerning the state of central Asia in the thirteenth century. 3 The commerce of the farthest East had at this period returned to a route it had followed during the wars of the Romans with the Parthians, and of the Byzantine emperors with the Sassanides and the early caliphs. 4 1 Decline and Fall, chap. lxiv. note e., vol. xi. p. 422. 2 Pachymeres, torn. i. 116, edit. Rom. 3 Recueil de Voyages et de Memoires, publie par la Societi de Geograp7iie, Paris, 1839, 4to, ably edited by M. d'Avezac. 4 The importance of the commercial relations of the Romans by this route is attested by several passages of Strabo, lib. xi. c. 2 and 3. For later times, compare Menander, 398, edit. Bonn. — Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. ii. 410 EMPIRE OF TKEBIZOND. chap. in. The treaty of alliance which Michael VIII. had § 2. entered into with the Genoese, before the recovery of Constantinople from the Latins and Venetians, conceded excessive commercial privileges to the republicans. Sub- sequent grants placed them in possession of Galata, and rendered them masters of a large part of the port of Constantinople. Their own activity and daring enabled them to convert this factory into a fortress under the eyes of the Byzantine emperor, and within a few hundred yards of the palace of Boukoleon. New factories on the northern shores of the Black Sea soon became even more important for their commerce than the colony of Galata ; and the trade they carried on from CafFa and Tana was of such value, that CafFa became the greatest commercial factory, and the most valuable foreign colony, of the republic. The advantages the Genoese derived from these establishments enabled them to extend their com- merce, until it far exceeded that of any other power. 1 Their long chain of factories, from Chias and Phokaia to CafFa and Tana, gave them the power of supplying every market both of Asia, Europe, and Africa, more speedily, and at a cheaper rate, than their Pisan, Catalan, and Venetian rivals. When they feared that the mercantile competition of rival traders was becoming too keen, their turbulent disposition led them to plunge into open hostilities with the party whose commercial activity alarmed them. Their insolence increased with their prosperity, and at last they aspired at securing to them- selves a monopoly of the Black Sea trade. To carry their project into execution, it was necessary to obtain from the emperor of Trebizond all the privileges in his dominions which they enjoyed in the empire of Constan- 1 Every commercial people was eager to participate in this trade, and Niccphorus Gregoras, p, 60, informs us that the sultan of Egypt obtained from the emperor of Constantinople the right of sending annually two ships into the Black Sea. One of the principal objects of commerce for the sultan was male and female slaves ; and this was an article of export the Genoese did not neglect. DISPUTES WITH GENOESE. 411 tinople. They had already formed an establishment at a. d. Daphnous, the anchorage of Trebizond, where the eastern 1306-1316. suburb overhangs the beach ; and if they could obtain the permission to fortify this position, they would have rendered themselves as completely independent of the government at Trebizond, as their fortress of Galata made them of the government at Constantinople. To obtain their object, they commenced disputing with the imperial officers, hoping to find a pretext for employing force whenever a favourable opportunity presented itself. They denied the title of the revenue officers to open their merchandise, in order to levy the transit-duties, and they made the amount of these duties a constant subject of contestation. They expected in this way to induce the emperor to agree to a commutation of the transit- duties into a regular tribute of a fixed amount, which they regarded as the first step to the formation of an independent colony. These disputes lasted several years. A formal embassy was at last sent from Genoa to Alexios II., to demand the conclusion of a commercial treaty on the same terms as that which the republic had concluded with the emperor of Constantinople, whom the government of Genoa affected to regard as the suzerain of Trebizond. The ambassadors declared that unless the Genoese merchants were freed from the examination of their goods in levying the transit-duties, and allowed to farm the tax for a fixed sum, they would quit the dominions of Alexios and transfer their commercial establishments to the neighbouring states. The admis- sion of this pretension would have greatly curtailed the revenues of the empire, and would have placed the Genoese in the possession of immense warehouses, into which the imperial authorities would have had no right to enter. These buildings, from their very nature and extent, would have soon formed a fortified quarter. The Genoese would then have repaired the ruins of Leonto- 412 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. ni. kastron, overlooking the port in the position now occupied § 2 - by the Lazaretto ; and the emperor of Trebizond, in the old fortress and citadel, would have sunk into a mere vassal of the republic. 1 The proposals of the Genoese were peremptorily rejected by Alexios ; and, in refusing their demands, he added that they were all at perfect liberty to depart with all their property as soon as they paid the duties on the merchandise then in his dominions. The emperor knew well that, if they withdrew from Trebizond, their place would be immediately occupied by the Venetians, Pisans, or Catalans. The Genoese, enraged at the prompt rejection of their terms, acted with violence and precipita- tion. They were always the most reckless and quarrel- some of merchants, and ever ready to balance their books with the sword. They began immediately to embark their property without offering to pay any duties. This was opposed by the imperial officers of the revenue, and a battle was the consequence. The Genoese, pressed by numbers, set fire to the houses of the Greeks towards the Hippodrome, (Meidan,) expecting to distract the atten- tion of their enemies and impede the arrival of troops from the citadel. Their infamous conduct was severely punished. The variable state of the wind drove the fire in the direction they least expected it, and, descending the hill to the port, it destroyed the greater part of the merchandise about which the battle had arisen, and laid the warehouses of the Genoese in ashes. This unfortu- nate result of their passion brought the traders to their 1 The Genoese appear to have acquired the property of Leontokastixm previous to or during these quarrels ; buttbey had been able to fortify it in a way to resist Alexios. The present lazaretto is constructed on the ruins of the palace of a pasha, built out of the remains of Leontokastron, of which some foundations may be traced. The palace was destroyed by order of the Porte, in consequence of the strength of the position. It appears that an old castle had occupied the site before the establishment of the Genoese at Trebizond, and that it had fallen to ruin. It was repaired and strengthened by Alexios, in consequence of these disputes with the republic ; but in the year 1349 it was surrendered to the Genoese by the emperor Michael, shortly before he was dethroned, and remained in their hands until the fall of the empire. POPULATION OF TREBIZOND. 413 senses. They felt that they had suffered a far greater chap. hi. loss than it was in their power, under any circumstances, § 2. to inflict on their enemy. The destruction of their goods would serve as a premium to other merchants, and quicken the eagerness of the rival Italian republics to supplant them. Very little hesitation on their part, therefore, was likely to place either the Venetians or the Pisans in possession of the profitable trade they were on the eve of losing, after having long enjoyed almost a monopoly of its advantages. In this critical conjuncture they forgot their passion and their pride, and hastened to conclude peace with Alexios, on condition that they should be allowed to resume their usual trade on the previous terms. Alexios prudently consented to this demand ; and a treaty was signed by which the Genoese were allowed to re-establish themselves at Trebizond. But they were compelled to quit the position occupied by the warehouses that had been burnt, and form their new quarter deeper in the bay at the Darsena. Their industry soon enabled them to repair their losses ; and these indefatigable merchants grew richer and more powerful from year to year, while the Greeks became as rapidly poorer, and saw their political influence hourly decline. The summit of the position previously occupied by the Genoese was fortified by Alexios II., who repaired the ruins of an old castle, called Leontokastron, as a check on the naval power of the republicans. 1 The Greeks in general had now lost much of their taste for naval affairs, as well as that skill which had made them, in the early part of the middle ages, the rulers of the sea. 2 The people of Trebizond had participated in 1 Pachymeres, ii. 310, places these events in the year 1306 ; Panaretos, whose chronology is more to be depended on, in the year 1311. — Chron. Trapez., p. 363, edit. Tafel. Fallmerayer, Orvjinal-Fragmente, ii. Abth. p. 15, informs us that a copy of the treaty which put an end to this contest exists in the archives of Turin. It is dated at Trebizond the 9th June 1315, and ratified by the republic of Genoa the 16th March 1316. 2 Constantinus Porphyr, De Them, p. 58, edit. Bonn. 414 EMP1KE OF TREBIZOKD. chap. in. the national decay. The city was filled with that inert § 2 - population which congregates round an idle and luxurious court, when the sovereign or the government expends immense revenues, extracted from the industry of an extensive realm, within the walls of a palace or a single city. In such a state of things men's minds are turned away from every useful occupation and enterprising course of life. Wealth and distinction are more easily gained by haunting the antechambers of the palace, or frequenting the offices of the ministers, than by any honest exertion in private undertakings. The merchant is generally despised as a sordid inferior, and exposed to insult, peculation, and injustice. Merit cannot even make its way without favour, either in the military or naval service. A large body of the populace lives without exer- tion, by performing menial service about the dwellings of the courtiers, or acting as military retainers and instruments of pomp to the nobles. The public taxes and private rents, levied from the agricultural classes in the provinces, supplied to a certain number of favoured individuals the means of perpetuating a life of worthlessness and power. Such was the state of Greek society in the city of Trebizond. In the Mohammedan city of Sinope everything was different. There, valour and military skill were the shortest road to riches and distinction. But as the con- tinent offered no field of conquest to the small force at the disposal of the emir of Sinope, his attention, and that of his people, was directed to naval affairs. The Black Sea became the scene of their enterprises. Every merchant-ship was the object of their covetousness. The rich commerce of the Christians, joined to the skill and bravery of the Italian mariners, made the war against the trade of the western nations a profitable but dangerous occupation. This very danger, however, tended to make it an honourable employment in the eyes of the Mussul- mans of Sinope. The merchant-ships of this age were PIRATES OF SINOPE. 415 compelled to sail on their trading voyages in small fleets, well armed and strongly manned. In the Archipelago they were exposed to the attacks of the Seljouk pirates of Asia Minor ; in the Black Sea, to the corsairs of Sinope. Even the Genoese, Pisans, Venetians, and Catalans were ready to avail themselves of slight pretexts for plundering one another. Piracy was a vice of the Christians as well as the Mohammedans. 1 The difference was, that it was a deviation from their ordinary pursuits on the part of the maritime population of the Christian states, w T hile it was the chief occupation of the ships of the Mussulman princes. The corsairs of Sinope were thus sure of meeting enemies worthy of their valour ; nor had they any chance of success, unless they became experienced seamen as well as daring warriors. Their usual expeditions were directed against the flags of the Italian republics ; but when it happened that they met with no booty at sea, they turned their arms to other sources of gain, and ravaged the coasts inhabited by the Christians. Every article of property on which they could lay their hands, even to the metal cooking-utensils of the poorest peasants, were carried away, and all the inhabitants they could seize were sold as slaves. In the year 1314 a band of these pirates landed in the vicinity of Trebizond, and, after ravaging the sur- rounding country, plundered the suburbs of the city, and set fire to the buildings without the gates. The confla- gration spread far and wide, and many splendid edifices were destroyed. Alexios II., in order to protect the western suburb, and the space between the fortress and the sea, from all future attacks, constructed a new wall to the city. This addition to the fortress extended from the tower that 1 Pegolotti, Pratica delict Mercatura, who was engaged in commercial affairs in the East about this time, tells us that the freight paid for merchandise embarked in vessels not armed was only the half of what was paid for its embarkation in armed galleys. 416 EMPIRE OF TREB1ZOND. chap. in. protected the bridge over the western ravine, in a line § running down to the sea. The style of the new fortifi- cation was modelled on the land wall of Constantinople ; and it still exists in tolerable preservation, particularly where it covers the bridge over the romantic ravine that forms the noble ditch of the citadel. 1 Pope John XXII. seems to have entertained some hope of inducing Alexios to acknowledge the supremacy of the see of Rome, though we are aware of no grounds that could lead him to adopt such an opinion. There exists a letter of his Holiness, addressed to the emperor, dated in 1329, inviting him to co-operate in bringing about the union of the Greek and Latin churches, and recommending some missionaries to his good offices. 2 The emperor Alexios died in the year 1330, after a prosperous reign of thirty-three years. He left a brother named Michael, and four sons, besides two daughters — one of whom, Anna, occupied the throne of Trebizond for a short period. SECT. III. — PERIOD OF ANARCHY AND CIVIL WARS. REIGNS OF AN- DRONIKOS III., MANUEL II., BASIL, IRENE, ANNA, JOHN III., AND MICHAEL— 1330-1349. Andronikos III., the eldest son of Alexios II., reigned little more than a year and a half. He is accused of having murdered his two younger brothers, Manuel and George. If the crime was committed from motives of political suspi- cion, we may conclude that his second brother Basilios, and his uncle Michael, only escaped the same fate by being absent, or by effecting their escape to Constantinople. 1 An inscription on this wall, though much defaced, proves that it was terminated in 1324. — Fallmerayer, Crig. Frag. Erste Abth., 133. There is another inscription, of the reign of Alexios III., in the tower to the left of the gate.— Zw. Abth., 103, v. 2 Wadding, Annal. Minor, ann. 1329, n. xi. Raynaldi, Annal. Eccles., ann. 1329, n. 95. Fallmerayer, Geschichte, 165. INVASION OF TURKOMANS. 417 Manuel II. was only eight years old when his father a. p. Anclronikos III. died. The crimes of his parent had 1332. utterly depraved a society already deeply stained with vice. No measures were now too violent for those who hoped to obtain w r ealth or power by civil broils or private murders. The chiefs of the different factions incited the populace to tumult, and goaded them to rebellion, in order to gratify their own ambition. The city was a scene of disorder, and the interior of the palace became the theatre of many an act of bloodshed. As soon as Andronikos III. died, the ministers of state, the clergy, the nobility, the provincial governors, and the leaders of the troops commenced intriguing one against the other, in order to obtain the sole direction of the central government, and the command of all the patronage of the court. The moment seemed favourable for the Turkomans to invade the empire : but it not unfrequently happens that a country apparently on the verge of ruin, from intestine troubles, is peculiarly ready to encounter a foreign enemy, on account of the very preparations which have been made to perpetrate political offences ; and all parties are found eager to gain popularity, by evincing extra- ordinary patriotism in defence of their native land. Each leader wishes to strengthen his own faction, by performing deeds that all must approve. This was expe- rienced by the Turkomans, who invaded the empire of Trebizond in the year 1332. They advanced as far as Asomatos, where they were defeated with considerable loss, and compelled to escape with such precipitation that they abandoned the greater part of their horses and baggage to save their lives. The disorder within the walls, however, was not diminished by this victory, and the whole population became at length seriously alarmed for the fate of the empire. In order to put an end to this state of anarchy, Basilios, the second son of Alexios II., was invited from Constantinople to govern the empire. 2 D 418 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. in. Basilios arrived at Trebizond in the month of Septeni- §3. ber 1332, and was immediately proclaimed emperor. Manuel II. was deposed, after his name had been used for eight months to authorise every kind of violence and disorder. The young prince was kept in a state of seclu- sion, with the view, doubtless, of compelling him, when he grew older, to become a monk ; but in the course of a few months an insurrection was produced by the intrigues of a eunuch, who held the office of grand-duke, during which Manuel was stabbed. Basilios, on mounting the throne, had allowed his partisans to commit the most shocking enormities. The grand-duke Leka, and his son Tzamba, the grand-domestikos, were slain ; while the grand-duchess, a member of the family of Syrikania, one of the most illustrious houses in the empire, was stoned to death. 1 The reign of Basilios lasted seven years and six months. It was disturbed by the exorbitant power and independent position which the great officers had acquired during the preceding anarchy. The principal territorial nobles of the provinces had assumed the rank of petty sovereigns, and their wealth and influence enabled them to form parties in the capital. The Scholarioi, or privileged militia, in the fortress, possessed a constitution and a degree of power not unlike that of the Janissaries of the Othoman empire, in the century preceding their destruction. 2 The emperor found it necessary to sur- round his person with a body of Frank, Iberian, and Byzantine guards, to guard the citadel and the palace ; and their insolence and rapacity increased the unpopu- larity of the government. The personal conduct of Basilios was ill suited to extend his influence or gain respect for his dignity. He married 1 Irene, the third wife of the emperor Manuel I., the great captain, and mother of the emperors Georgios and Joannes II., was a daughter of the same family. 2 See what Agathias says of the Scholarioi, 1 59. lie considered them only a burden to the state. REIGN OF IRENE. 419 Irene, the natural daughter of the Byzantine emperor, Andronicus III. ; and, had he availed himself with pru- dence of this alliance, he might have rendered the defeat of the Turkomans, who again ventured to advance to the walls of his capital, extremely advantageous to the empire. His conduct, however, was such that it excited the popular indignation ; and an eclipse of the sun being interpreted by the people as a proof of divine reprobation, he was pursued w T ith insults, and driven with stones to seek re- fuge in the citadel. The empress Irene had no children. Basilios, not contented with living in open adultery with a lady of Trebizond, also named Irene, by whom he was the father of two sons, determined to open the way for their succession to the throne, by celebrating a public marriage with his Trebizontine mistress. Whether he ever succeeded in obtaining any divorce from his first wife, except by his own decree, seems doubtful, and on what plea he could pretend that his marriage was invalid is not known ; but it is recorded that he persuaded or forced the clergy of Trebizond to celebrate his second marriage in the month of July 1339. He died in the following year, in the month of April. 1 Irene Paleologina, who was universally considered as the lawful wife of Basilios, was suspected of having had some share in causing his death. She was found pre- pared for the event, and had already organised the move- ments of a party which placed her on the throne. This promptitude in profiting by her husband's death certainly looked suspicious ; while the readiness of mankind to repeat calumnious reports concerning their rulers, the known immorality of the society in the imperial palace, and the careless levity of Irene herself, all tended to give circulation and credibility to the rumour. Irene, as soon 1 Compare Panaretos, 363, with Nicephorus Gregoras, 424. Fallmerayer, Geschichte, 176, has pointed out the errors of Ducange, Fam. Aug. Byz., 193, concerning Basilios and Irene, in his usual lucid manner. 420 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. in. as she had secured possession of the capital, sent off her § 3 - rival and the two sons of her husband to Constantinople, to be detained by her father, Andronicus, as hostages for the tranquillity of Trebizond. A powerful party among the nobility, however, was both alarmed and offended by the success of her schemes, which deranged all the plans they had formed of acquiring wealth and power during the minority of the children of Basilios, through the favour of the Trebizontine Irene, whom they had intended to name regent. The empire of Trebizond became, for several years, a prey to civil wars and intestine disturbances. Two great parties were formed, called Amytzantarants and Scho- larants. 1 Civil war in itself, though more to be deprecated than any foreign hostilities, may nevertheless be as neces- sary and legitimate. Its instigator may be a true patriot, its duration may be a proof of social progress, and its successful termination in favour of those who were stigma- tised as rebels at its commencement, may be an indispen- sable step to the establishment of national prosperity. Where war is undertaken by the people for the purpose of establishing the empire of the law, it indicates a healthy condition of society, even though it be a civil war. It is when internal contests take place among those who have no object to obtain but power, and no feelings to gratify but party spirit, revenge, or avarice, that civil war marks a state of the body politic so demoralised as to serve for a sure herald of national degradation. In the fourteenth century, neither the governments of Trebizond nor Constantinople, nor the Greek people, felt any disposition to submit their power, their passions, their prejudices, or their factions to the dictates of law or justice ; and nowhere did the blind violence of individuals represent the demoralised condi- 1 Fragment of Lazaros the Skevophylax, in Original- Fragmente von Fall- merayer, Erste Abth., p. 85. CIVIL WAR. 421 tion of Greek society more clearly than in the city of Trebizoncl. The empress Irene was no sooner established on the throne than civil war broke out. Assisted by the Amyt- zantarants, by a powerful party among the nobles, and by the Italian and Byzantine mercenaries, she held pos- session of the fortress, with its citadel and small port. The rebels, who affected to consider themselves the patriotic champions of native rights, headed by the lord of Tzanich, who was the captain-general of the Scholarioi, or city militia, and supported by the great families of the Doranites, Kabasites, and Kamakh — joined to a detachment of the imperial guard which remained faithful to the memory of the emperor Basilios, and a body of the people, who hated Irene as a Constantinopolitan stranger — established themselves in possession of the great monastery of St Eugenios. This monastery then rose like a fortress over the eastern ravine that enclosed the citadel ; and though it was almost within rifle range of the imperial palace, the distance, when combined with the advantages of its situation, was at that time sufficient to render it impregnable on the side of the old city, while another ravine separated it from the populous suburb extending to the Meidan and the great port. A third party, under the command of the grand-duke, the eunuch John, who had murdered the young emperor Manuel II., held possession of the fortress of Limnia, then the most important military station in the empire beyond the walls of the capital. It was situated at a distance of only two hundred stades to the westward of Trebizond. 1 For two months the parties of the empress Irene and of the Scho- larioi and great nobles remained in arms, watching one another, within hearing of their mutual cries, and engaging in daily skirmishes leading to no permanent result. The circumstance of a grand-duke, who was a eunuch, 1 Nicephorus Gregoras, p. 425. 422 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. in. holding Limnia as if it was his private estate, indicates § 3. sufficiently that the power of many of the factious leaders was not so much hereditary and territorial as official and administrative. The oligarchs of Trebizond were repre- sentatives of a Roman, not a feudal aristocracy, and partook more of the ancient and Asiatic type than of the medieval characteristics of the nobility of western Europe. The eunuch at last declared in favour of the empress, and advanced with his troops to her assistance. The commu- nications of the citadel with the country to the westward had always remained open, as they were completely pro- tected against the nobles at St Eugenios by the two deep ravines that surround the old city. As soon as the troops of the grand-duke had effected a junction with those in Trebizond, the party intrenched in St Eugenios was vigorously attacked. The approaches were made from the south, battering-rams were planted against the walls, and fire-balls were hurled into the place, which was soon set on fire. The immense monastery and the splendid church — the rich plate, images, and relics, and the old mural paintings, which would have been more valuable in modern times even than the bones of martyrs — the pride and palladium of the empire of Trebizond, was on this occasion reduced to a shapeless heap of ruins by a foreign empress and a factious eunuch. 1 The leaders of the aristocratic party and the Scholarioi were captured by the warlike eunuch, who sent them prisoners to Limnia, where they were put to death in the following year, when the throne of Irene was threatened by Anna Anachoutlou, her deceased husband's sister. Irene was of a gay, thoughtless, and daring disposition, 1 Nature has adapted the position of St Eugenios to form a petty rival to the citadel of Trebizond, when missiles of only short range are in use. Pley- sonnel, in his Commerce de la Mer Noire, informs us that it served again for this purpose during the civil broils between the Turkish aitillerymen of the upper citadel and the Janissaries of the lower fortress, which occurred in the last century. REIGN OF ANNA. 423 like her father Andronicus III. She soon overlooked the danger of her position, though she fully understood that her tenure of power was exposed to hourly perils. It was evident that, without a husband who could wear the imperial crown, she could not hope to maintain her position long ; and she urged her father to send her a hus- band, chosen from among the Byzantine nobles, who could direct the administration, command the armies of the empire, and aid her in repressing the factions that were constantly plotting against her authority. Her ambassa- dors found Andronicus occupied in preparing for his campaign against the despotat of Epirus, and he died before he had found time to pay any serious attention to his daughter's request. Irene consoled herself for the delay by falling in love with the grand-domestikos of her own empire. The favour this passion led her to confer on a few individuals divided her own court into factions, and afforded her old enemies, who had escaped the catastrophe at St Eugenios, an opportunity of again taking up arms, so that a new storm burst on the head of the thoughtless empress. Another female now appeared to claim the throne, with a better title than Irene. Anna, called Anachoutlou, the eldest daughter of the emperor Alexios II., had taken the veil, and until this time had lived in seclusion. The opposition party persuaded her to quit her monastic dress and escape to Lazia, where she was proclaimed empress as being the nearest legitimate heir of her brother Basilios. The Lazes, the Tzans, and all the provincials, preferred a native sovereign of the house of Grand-Kom- nenos to the domination of a Byzantine scion of Paleolo- gos, who seemed determined to marry a foreigner. Anna, strong in the popular opinion that it was a fundamental law of the empire that Trebizond could only be ruled by a member of the house of Grand-Komnenos, marched directly to the capital without encountering any opposi- 424 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. in. tion. The government of Irene was unpopular, both on § 3. account of her personal conduct and the losses which a recent Turkish expedition had inflicted on all classes. Her Constantinopolitan mercenaries had fled without giving battle to the infidels, who had advanced to the walls of the capital and burned the suburbs on both sides of the fortress, leaving the blackened ruins encumbered with such numbers of unburied bodies that a fearful pestilence was the consequence. At this conjuncture Anna arrived at Trebizond. She was immediately admitted within the citadel, and universally recognised as the lawful empress. Irene was dethroned after a reign of a year and four months. On the 30th of July 1341, when Anna had only occupied the throne for about three weeks, Michael Grand-Komnenos, the second son of Joannes II., arrived at Trebizond. He had been selected by the regency at Constantinople as a suitable husband for Irene ; but he had attained the mature age of fifty-six — a circumstance which may have rendered it a piece of good fortune for him that she was dethroned before his arrival. 1 As he was the legitimate male heir of his house, and had a son Joannes already nineteen years old, there were certainly strong political reasons in favour of his election. Michael reached Trebizond accompanied by three Byzantine ships of war and a chosen body of troops. He landed without opposition, attended by Niketas the captain-general of the Scholarioi, and it appeared that his title to the throne would be readily acknowledged by all parties. But the circumstance that he came to marry Irene, surrounded by Byzantine mercenaries and supported by the faction of the Scholarioi, irritated without intimidating the native party of the Lazic nobility, who had driven Irene from the throne. They were not willing to lose the fruits of a successful revolution without a contest ; but as they 1 Niccphorus Gregoras, 424. REIGN OF ANNA. 425 were doubtful of the support of the people, aud not pre- a. d. pared for open resistance, they resolved to gain their ends 1341-1342. by treachery. Michael was received by the archbishop Akakios with due ceremony. He received the oath of allegiance of the assembled nobles and officers of state, and retired to the palace to prepare for his coronation on the morrow. At daybreak the scene was changed. The people had been incited during the whole night to resist the in- vasion of a new swarm of Constantinopolitan adventurers, and they now rose in rebellion. The treacherous nobles and officers of state facilitated their enterprise. Michael was seized in the palace and sent prisoner to Oinaion (Unieh.) 1 The Lazes, after a severe engagement, captured the three Byzantine ships, and Irene was embarked in a European vessel, and sent off to Constantinople with the adventurers who had escaped from the people in the tumult. The nobles of the Lazian faction now became the sole possessors of political power, and used the name of the empress Anna to govern the empire by an association of powerful chiefs. The Greek people were too deeply imbued with an administrative organisation, and too firmly persuaded of the necessity of a powerful central authority, to remain long satisfied with this state of things. Niketas, the captain-general of the Scholarioi and the Greek party, which looked to the Byzantine alliance as the surest guarantee of civil order, resolved to make another attempt to drive their rivals from power. It was evident they could expect no success, unless they placed at their head a member of the family of Grand- Komnenos. Michael was in a distant prison ; his son Joannes, who resided at Constantinople, was now twenty years old, and to him the Scholarioi resolved to apply. Niketas and the chiefs of the party left Trebizond in a Venetian galley, to per- suade the young man to embark in the project. The 1 He was afterwards removed to Lhrmia. 426 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. in. expedition was undertaken without any open support § 3. from the Byzantine government. Three Genoese galleys were hired, in addition to two fitted out by the chiefs of Trebizond ; and a body of chosen troops was enrolled, for an attack on the government of the empress Anna. They reached Trebizond in the month of September 1342, and effected a landing and a lodgment in the great eastern suburb, about the Hippodrome. The Scholarioi, the Midzomates, and the Doranites, joined them ; and after a fierce contest in the streets the invaders forced their way into the fortress, and proclaimed Joannes III. emperor. Anna was taken prisoner in the imperial palace, and, to guard against the possibility of any reaction in her favour, she was immediately strangled. She had occupied the throne rather more than a year. Many nobles of the Lazic party, particularly the Amytzantarants, were mur- dered ; and a lady of rank was strangled, as well as the empress Anna, during the tumults that accompanied this revolution. Joannes III. celebrated his coronation in the church of Chrysokephalos. So little concern did he give himself about his father's fate, that he allowed the eunuch John to retain him a prisoner at Limnia. But before a year elapsed the grand-duke was murdered ; and soon after this event, the party who had placed Joannes III. on the throne became disgusted with his conduct. The young emperor had never possessed much power beyond the walls of the capital, nor did he pay much attention to the duties of a sovereign. He found money enough in the public treasury to enable him to indulge in every species of luxury and idle amusement, and he trusted to his foreign guards for repressing any dangerous effects of popular discontent. At the same time, the preference he gave the young nobility of the native party, who, to gain his goodwill and recover power, flattered his follies and his vices, alienated the attachment of those states- MICHAEL. 427 men and soldiers who had placed him on the throne, a. d. The captain-general Niketas, who had taken the lead in 1344-1349. so many revolutions, again commenced his factious move- ments. It is true there is no mode of reforming an absolute sovereign : he must be dethroned, as the first step to a better state of things. Niketas and his party marched to Limnia, and, releasing the imprisoned Michael, conducted him to Trebizond and proclaimed him emperor, in May 1344. Joannes III. was dethroned, after a reign of a year and eight months, and confined by his father in the monastery of St Sabas. 1 The emperor Michael seems to have made some attempt to improve the condition of the government, but his talents were unequal to the task. The two great parties of the Lazian nobles and Greek leaders of the citizens maintained themselves in a condition to control the imperial administration, by personal combinations and political arrangements, arising out of temporary and local causes. Michael resolved to break the power of both parties. Immediately after his accession, he con- demned to death the most eminent of the nobles of the Lazian party — a measure in which he was supported by the Greek party, to whom a distribution was made of all the great offices of state. Niketas was made grand-duke. 2 All parties now felt the evils of the vicissitudes to which they were continually exposed in their civil contests, and became seriously alarmed at the bloody massacres which followed every change. Those who had recently secured power attempted on this occasion to give their authority a greater degree of permanence, by establishing 1 There are some slight remains of this monastery before a cavern in the rocky face of Bos-tepe, which overlooks the harbour. a Gregorios Meizomates was created general-in-chief ; Leo Kabasites, grand- domestikos ; Constantine Doranites, vestiarios or treasurer ; his son, high- steward ; John Kabasites, grand-chancellor of the finances ; the son of Gregorios Meizomates, chamberlain ; Michael Meizomates, amirtzaoutzes — that is, emir tchaous, or marshal of the empire; and Stephanos Tzanichites, grand-constable. — Panaretos, p. 364, edit. Tafel. 428 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. in. an organic law for regulating the administration of the § 3. empire. In short, the confederacy of Scholarioi attempted to give Trebizond an oligarchical constitution. The emperor Michael was compelled to sign an act, ratified by a solemn oath, promising to leave the whole of the legislative power, and the direction of the public admi- nistration, in the hands of the great officers of state and members of the senate; and to remain satisfied with the imperial dignity, a liberal civil list, and the rule over his own palace. 1 Neither party violence nor imperial ambition could be long restrained by such a convention ; while the knowledge that the nobles had circumscribed the power of the emperor excited indignation among the people, who looked to the sovereign as their protector against the aristocracy, and as the only pure fountain of law and justice. The emperor Michael seized the earliest opportunity that presented itself to rid himself of the tutelage in which he was held. The people of the capital and the Lazes flew to arms, and declared that they were deter- mined to live under the government of their lawful emperors, and not under the arbitrary rule of a band of nobles. The enthusiasm of the people for the mere shadow of the laws of Rome enabled Michael to resume absolute power, and declare the concessions he had made to the ministers and the senate null. The grand-duke Niketas and several of the great officers of his party were arrested ; but on this occasion no blood appears to have been shed. The emperor, to guard against further troubles, sent his son Joannes to be kept in ward at Adrianople, w r here he could find few opportunities of communicating with the factious at Trebizond. 2 1 Nicephorus Gregoras, 426. 2 In the year 1362, during the reign of Alexios III., the dethroned Joannes III. escaped from Adrianople, to attempt recovering the throne ; but he was arrested at Sinope by the Turks, and died there. He left a son, who escaped to Kaffa and Galata.— Panaretos, 367, § 31. WAR WITH GENOESE. 429 The absolute swaj of the emperor Michael brought no more prosperity to the city and empire of Trebizond than the government of the nobles had done. The great plague that about this time devastated every country in Asia and Europe visited Trebizond in the year 1347, where it swept off numbers of the population, and increased the social disorder, by dissolving all family ties. 1 The Tur- komans, who occupied the country from Arsinga and Erzeroum to the castle of Baibert, invaded the empire, and ravaged the valley of the Pyxites up to the walls of the capital. 2 A more serious war than any which had yet occurred broke out about this time with the Genoese, who availed themselves of the enfeebled condition of the empire to seize on some of the most important positions in the imperial territories. In the year 1348, they captured the city of Kerasunt, after burning great part of the buildings. Two expeditions from Kaffa were successively directed against the capital. The first consisted of only two large Genoese men-of-war. The imperial officers considered that the force ready for action in the port was sufficient to capture these enemies. The Trebizontine squadron, consisting of one large ship, a galley, and several smaller vessels, left the harbour of Daphnous to attack the republicans ; but the Greeks were no match for the Genoese. The large imperial ship was burned ; the grand-duke John Kabasites, Michael Tzanichites, and many more who bravely engaged in the fight, were slain. The Greeks now revenged themselves by attacking all the Franks settled at Trebizond ; their houses and warehouses were plundered, and those were imprisoned who escaped death from the popular fury. The Genoese, however, returned from Kaffa in a few weeks, with a 1 This was the great plague known in Europe by the name of the Black Death, of which Bocaccio has left us the well-known description. 2 The modern name of the Pyxites is Deyirmenderisi, or mill-stream. 430 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. in. stronger force, determined to exact signal satisfaction for § 3. the treatment of the Europeans. Affairs at Trebizond were in a state of anarchy. Michael was stretched on a sick-bed, incapable of action. An internal revolution was on the eve of explosion. With much difficulty peace was negotiated with the Genoese ; but it was only obtained by ceding to them the fortress of Leontokastron, which Alexios II. had constructed to restrain their insolent pretensions, (1349.) Kerasunt, however, was restored to the Trebizontine government. From this period the Genoese acquired the complete command of the harbour of Daphnous, and the importance of the empire of Trebizond began to decline. Against all these misfortunes, an old man like Michael, worn out with sickness, and naturally destitute of talent, either as a soldier or a statesman, was ill suited to contend. Party spirit revived, conspiracies were formed, and popular tumults broke out, until at last Michael was dethroned, on Sunday the 13th December 1349, after a reign of five years and seven months. He was compelled by the partisans of his successor, Alexios III., to enter the monastery of St Sabas ; but after a short time, the imperial monk was sent to Constantinople for greater security. CHAPTER IV. RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE IMPERIAL SUPREMACY IN THE ILLEGITIMATE BRANCH OF THE HOUSE OF GRAND-KOM- NENOS. SECT. I. REIGN OF ALEXIOS III. PROGRESS OF THE TURKOMANS. REVENGE OF LERCARI. MAGNIFICENT ECCLESIASTICAL ENDOW- MENTS— a.d. 1349-1390. Alexios III., son of Basilios by Irene of Trebizond, had been brought from Constantinople by the party of the Scholarioi and the citizens to occupy the throne. He was now declared emperor by the senate and the people, and solemnly crowned in the church of St Eugenios, though he had not yet completed his twelfth year. His real name was John, but he adopted that of Alexios, which was the name of his deceased brother, on account of the auspicious influence it was supposed to exert over the family of Grand-Komnenos. The youth of the prince secured the aristocracy from all immediate attempts to diminish their power, and they hoped to profit by their tenure of admini- stration, in such a way as to consolidate their authority, without openly restricting the exercise of the imperial prerogative, to which the people had given so many proofs of devotion. The young emperor had received his education at Con- stantinople, and the usurper John Cantacuzenos assisted in placing him on the throne, in order to exclude the 432 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. iv. legitimate branch of the family of Grand-Komnenos, § represented by the emperors Michael and Joannes III., from the empire, on account of their alliance with the house of Paleologos, the lawful emperors of Constantinople. That the union might be drawn as close as possible between the two dynasties of intruders, the young Alexios, when only fourteen years old, was married to Theodora, the daughter of Nicephorus, cousin of the emperor of Constantinople. 1 The marriage ceremony of the imperial children was celebrated in the church of St Eugenios, whom the young Alexios selected as the patron saint of his dynasty, in addition to the previous duties of the saint, as protector of the family of Grand-Komnenos and guardian of the empire of Trebizond. The church and monastery, which had been ruined by the conflagration during the reign of Irene Paleologina, (1340,) were both rebuilt, and enriched with great external splendour ; but the appearance of the existing church proves that the arts had already declined at Trebizond, and the restora- tion of the shrine of his patron saint by the magnificent Alexios will bear no comparison, either in solidity or purity of architectural decoration, with the earlier church of St Sophia — and it is doubtless far inferior in these qualities to the preceding building whose place it occupied. 2 The rebellions of the aristocracy and the seditions of the people continued with unabated violence during the early part of this reign. Each noble and senator strove, by intrigue or force, to secure for himself some private 1 Panaretos, p. 365, § 16. Cantacuzenos mentions that he had a brother, to whom he intrusted the government of Adrian ople, named Nicephorus. — Cant., Hist., p. 841, 879. 2 The church is converted into a mosque, called Yeni Djama djami, or New Friday mosque. Some very defaced paintings of emperors, with one-headed eagles embroidered on their robes, and fragments of inscriptions, may still be traced on the external wall to the west, where the portico stood, which has now disappeared. Of the monastery, which so often served as a fortress in the civil wars of Trebizond, no remains exist, unless they are concealed in the Turkish houses near the church. ALEXIOS III. 433 advantage, before the prevailing system of partitioning a. d. the resources of the state should be brought to a conclu- 1349-1390. sion. No concessions of the ministers of state could satisfy even the pretensions of a single faction, so that plot was succeeded by plot. Nor were the people always inclined to submit tamely to see their interests sacrificed to the rapacity of the aristocracy, or stand idle spectators while the officers of state squandered the heavy taxes, that were employed to maintain bands of armed followers, who did little else than plunder the country they ought to have been guarding against the inroads of the Turko- mans. On one occasion the family of Doranites, master- ing the whole administration, of which they had for some time held the principal offices, forced the young emperor to retire to Tripolis ; but they were soon after over- powered by the people, who often changed sides in their vain endeavours to find individual leaders willing to establish order, and conduct the government according to law. The fortresses of Limnia, Tzanicha, Kerasunt, and Kenchrina were for a time in the hands of various parties of rebel nobles. Limnia was recovered from the Doranites by an expedition led by the emperor's mother, with Panaretos, the author of the dull Chronicle which has preserved a place for the revolutions of Trebizond in the world's history, as one of her council. It would hardly tend to give us a clearer insight into the state of society at this period, if we were to repeat the meagre enumera- tion Panaretos has left us of the various revolutions that followed one another for some years in quick succession. A few prominent facts will paint with greater accuracy the universal disorder. The grand-duke Niketas, who was the leader of the Scholarioi, had been invested with the direction of the public administration at the popular rising which drove the Doranites from power ; but in the course of about two years, the young emperor having 2 E 434 EMPIEE OF TREBIZOND. chap. iv. recovered possession of the fortresses of Limnia, Tzanicha, § l. and Kenchrina, and displaying both the power and the will to take upon himself the direction of the administra- tion, the grand-duke and his partisans retired to Kerasunt. Counting on their influence over the factious native militia, and their popularity with the citizens, they made an attempt to recover their power by force. The rebels presented themselves before the capital in the spring of 1355, with a fleet of one large ship and eleven smaller vessels. Their arrival caused great disorders ; but they found the young emperor's authority firmly established, and they were compelled to return to Kerasunt without having gained their object. This retreat marks the period at which the power of the emperor was again re- established in its fall supremacy ; but an altered state of society, and a general feeling that individuals, whether high or low, must trust to their individual position, and not to the law or the central administration, for justice, gave the authority of the emperors of Trebizond, henceforth, rather the characteristics of feudal suzerainty blended with Oriental despotism, than the old Byzantine ascen- dency of supreme legislator and incorruptible and all- powerful judge. Force, to the exclusion of justice, acquired the same influence over public opinion among the Greek race, that it had long held in western Europe and among the Mohammedan nations ; and as the social organisation of the Greek people was now essentially unwarlike, their repudiation of law produced nothing but degradation ; and their appeal to force, from their want of discipline and courage, rendered them despicable, and soon lowered them in the scale of society. The defeat of the grand-duke before Trebizond was followed up by Alexios with some vigour. He sailed to attack the rebels in Kerasunt with two ships and a small fleet of transports, and after a single engagement the place capitulated. The grand-duke assembled his troops ALEXIOS III. 435 at KencKrina, of which he had gained possession, and the a. d. emperor marched to besiege him ; but the place was so 1349-1390. strong that he was compelled to rest satisfied with a simple acknowledgment of his authority, and the apparent submission of the rebels who retained possession of the fortress. But Alexios III. gradually extended his power, and consolidated the central authority. In this eventful year John Kabasites, the duke of Chaldia, recovered the forts of Cheriana and Sorogaina from the Turkomans, and restored the imperial power in these districts. The dethroned emperor Michael was also defeated in an attempt he made to profit by the rebellion of his old ally, Niketas the grand-duke. The partisans of the Byzantine emperor John V. (Paleologos,) had favoured the escape of Michael from Constantinople, and assisted him in his enterprise, in order to weaken the party of Cantacuzenos by the fall of their ally the young Alexios. Michael, however, was too well known at Trebizond to find any support, and he was obliged to return to Constantinople without having had it in his power even to create a revolt. Before the end of the year, the grand-domestikos, Meizo- mates, and the grand-general, Michael Sampson, took Kenchrina and put an end to the civil war. The grand- duke Niketas, whose administrative talents were very great, was soon received into favour ; and when he died in the year 1361, the emperor Alexios, to mark his grief for the loss of so able a man, led the funeral procession clad in white robes — the mourning garb of the emperor. The authority of Alexios III. was now re-established along the whole line of coast, from Oinaion to Batoun ; but very little order existed in the interior of the country, at a distance from the sea-ports. Even the possessions of the great monastery of the Virgin at Sumelas, not thirty miles from the capital, was exposed to constant attacks on the part of the neighbouring Mohammedans. Many of the great landed proprietors continued to be almost indepen- 436 EMPIKE OF TREBIZOND. dent, and their conduct kept several districts in a state bordering on anarchy. Domestic raid, and foreign inroads of plundering tribes, were events of frequent occurrence during the whole reign of Alexios. 1 On one occasion the emperor himself had very nearly fallen into the hands of a party of his subjects, who had the boldness to attempt making him a prisoner, in order to carry him off to the mountains, from under the walls of his palace in the citadel of Trebizond. Alexios had formed a party of pleasure in the ravine of St Gregorios, and while he was enjoying the fresh air on the picturesque banks of this deep ravine, a band of nobles of the party of the Kaba- sites attempted to seize him, and it was with difficulty that he effected his escape into the citadel by the southern sally-port. This daring outrage occurred in the month of October 1363. The emperor Alexios III. was less fortunate in his wars with the Turkomans than in the civil broils with his own subjects. The fall of Kenchrina encouraged him to make an expedition against the tribes established in the district of Cheriana. The chronicler Panaretos says, that the idea of the expedition must have been inspired by the machinations of the devil. The imperial troops marched forward without any plan of operations, ravaging the country, plundering, and making prisoners. In the midst of their career they were suddenly assailed by a small body of the enemy's cavalry. Emperor, generals, and troops, were all seized with a panic, and fled without offering any resistance. Four hundred were left dead on the field. John Kabasites, the duke of Chaldia, who a few months before had reconquered the forts of Cheriana and Sorogaina, perished. Not only was all the plunder lost, 1 The golden bull of Alexios to the monastery of Sumelas, dated in 1365, gives a dark picture of the violence and oppression of the imperial officers, as well as of the neighbouring nobles, in levying exactions from the monks and their serfs, or ndpoiKoi. The emperor says, lLior)\'3oi> coarrep rives Srjpes aypioi. Fallmerayer, Original-Fragmente, Erste Abth., p. 97. PROGRESS OF TURKOMANS. 437 but the whole of the baggage of the troops, the military a. d. chest of the army, and the personal equipage and tents 1349-1390. of the emperor, fell into the hands of the Turkomans. Alexios fled among the foremost, and Panaretos followed him close. The historian declares, that if the Lord had not been with him, and strengthened his horse, so that he galloped after the emperor for three days, posterity would have lost the imperial notary, and the history of Tre- bizond would have been at this hour a blank. 1 The fugitives never stopped a moment, either to rally the troops or take a single measure for their safety ; nor did they hold their own persons to be perfectly secure until they entered the walls of Trebizond, to which they brought the news of the disgraceful overthrow. The Turkish hordes which attacked the long slip of territory that composed the empire of Trebizond belonged to different independent tribes. They were united by 110 political tie, and generally acted without concert. Indeed, they formed not unfrequently hostile races, more inclined to contract alliances even with the Christians than with one another. The great impulse that carried them on- ward in their career of conquest and colonisation was the necessity of securing new lands for their augmenting population, and for their increasing flocks and herds. Why the nomadic population should have increased in an augmented ratio, at this, or at any other given period of history, is one of the social problems that lies beyond the sphere of Greek history ; or, at least, it would require to be examined in greater detail, and involve a deeper inves- tigation of the state of society among the Oriental nations, during the middle ages, than falls within the scope of this historical sketch. A few prominent facts alone require to be noticed. The Turkish nomades were compelled yearly to occupy a greater extent of land with their migratory encampments. Necessity obliged them either 1 Panaretos, 366, § 20. 4.38 EMPIRE OF TREB1ZOND. chap. iv. to exterminate other nomades, or to push before them the § i. civilised cultivators of the soil, just as the civilised culti- vators of the soil in our day, acting under the impulse of similar motives, are now driving before them the nomadic tribes of North America, Southern Africa, and Australia. The Turkomans on the frontiers of the empire of Tre- bizond, when they met with a numerous population, or a strong castle capable of resisting their progress, usually began their attacks by ruining the resources of the natives, not by risking a battle with them in the field. A success- ful foray in autumn would generally enable them to burn the standing grain, even when they were powerless to carry away plunder. The farm-houses, the cattle, and the fruit-trees, little by little, would be all destroyed ; until at last the population was so reduced in numbers, and so impoverished, as either to emigrate or to become incapable of longer defending their paternal possessions. In this way the Mussulman nomades in Asia, and the Sclavonian and Bulgarian herdsmen and shepherds in Europe, occupied many extensive provinces, and exter- minated millions of the Greek race. Their progress, it is true, was aided by the rapacity of the central governments at Constantinople and Trebizond, which neglected the defence of the country, and, by the very nature of their administrative agency, fomented a spirit of local dissen- sion and selfishness that took away from the Greek people all power of acting in common, paralysed their courage, and taught them a degree of social degradation in which they hailed slavery as a welcome repose. The process of depopulation was likewise at times effected by internal changes in the profits of industry. A dense population of cultivators of the soil often, in the declining period of the empire, gave way to a few graziers. This change was brought about by the fiscal severity of the government, which taxed gardens, vineyards, olive- groves, and orchards, while it neglected to repair the PEOGEESS OF TURKOMANS. 439 aqueducts, the roads, and the bridges, which could alone a. d. secure to the cultivator the power of converting his sur- 1349-1390. plus produce into money at a profitable price. The peasantry made the discovery that the government could not so easily absorb the gains of a pastoral population as they could tax the fruits of the soil, and consequently it became the interest both of the great landed proprietors and of the peasantry to produce cattle, wool, and hides, rather than corn, wine, and oil, Every person who has paid attention to the condition of society in the interior of the thorn an empire must have frequently observed traces of the practical results of similar causes. In the decline of all absolute governments, the expenses of the sovereign absorb so large a portion of the public revenues that every department of the executive power is weakened to increase the splendour of the court. Distant lines of communications are allowed to become useless for transport. Military positions and strong for- tresses are neglected, because the immediate district they cover is insufficient to pay the expense of their mainte- nance. Weak princes prefer dismantling fortresses to reducing the number of their chamberlains and court pageants. Of this spirit of economy the Turkomans frequently reaped the fruits. Every successive generation saw them gain possession of some frontier fortress, or encroach far into some province, that the emperors regarded as hardly worth defending. 1 It must not, however, be supposed that they were always allowed to advance in an uninterrupted career of conquest. The army of Trebizond inherited some portion of the mili- tary discipline and science which enabled the Byzantine 1 The emperor Alexios III., in his golden bull to the monastery of Sumelas, affords a strong illustration of this. The emperor says expressly that the pos- sessions of the monastery were endangered by the frequent inroads of the Mussulmans ; yet, to guard this important pass into the valley of the Pyxites, he only recommends the abbots to select their most trustworthy serfs (ndpuiKoi) that good watch may be kept in the little fort near the monastery. — Fallmera- yer, Original-Frag mente, Erste Abth., p. 99. 440 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. iv. sovereigns to repulse the Saracens, not only from the § i- walls of Constantinople, but to drive them back beyond Mount Taurus. On the field of battle, if properly com- manded, it was still superior to the nomade cavalry of the Turkomans. Even the reign of a sovereign so desti- tute of military talents as Alexios III. was distinguished by several successful military enterprises. The emir of Baibert was defeated and slain ; and the emir of Arsinga, who had laid siege to Golacha, was repulsed with loss. On the other hand, however, the forts of old Matzouka and Golacha were ultimately captured by the Mussulmans. Limnia was either conquered by Tadjed- din, who married Eudocia, the daughter of Alexios, or it was ceded to him by the emperor as the dowry of the princess, to prevent its conquest. 1 Alexios made a second attempt to reconquer Cheriana ; but his military incapa- city and the severity of the weather destroyed his army, which suffered greater loss from hunger and cold than from the sword of the enemy. Fortunately for the em- pire, the chiefs of the Turkomans directed their forces against one another, instead of uniting to conquer the Christians. Tadjeddin, the emir of Limnia, attacked Suleimanbeg, the son of Hadji-Omer, emir of Chalybia, at the head of an army of twelve thousand men. A great battle was fought between these princes, who were both sons-in-law of the emperor of Trebizond. Tadjeddin was defeated, and perished on the field of battle with six thousand of his army. The character of the emperor Alexios III. was stained with far deeper disgrace by a quarrel in which he was involved with a Genoese merchant, than by all the defeats he suffered from the Turkomans. The disgraceful cir- cumstances connected with this affair rendered the empire 1 The Liuinia coded to Tadjeddin cannot have been the fortress mentioned by Nicephorus Gregoras as only two hundred stades distant from Trebizond. It appears to have been the name of a district between Kerasunt and Oinaion. KEVENGE OF LERCARI. 441 of Trebizond a byword of contempt throughout all the a. d. commercial cities of the East. A Genoese merchant 1380. noble, named Megollo Lercari, was settled at the colony of Caffa. 1 He was in the habit of residing a good deal at Trebizond, partly on account of the facilities it afforded him for conducting some part of his business, and partly to enjoy the agreeable climate and gay society. As a man of rank and wealth he frequented the court of Alexios, where his knowledge of the world and intelligent conversation gained him a degree of intimacy with the emperor that excited the jealousy of the Greek courtiers. It happened one day, while playing at chess, that he became involved in a dispute with a page whom Alexios was reported to treat with unseemly favour. The young Greek, knowing that Lercari was regarded with jealousy by all who were present, carried his insolence so far as to strike the Genoese. The surrounding courtiers prevented Lercari from revenging himself on the spot ; and when he demanded satisfaction from the emperor, Alexios treated the affair as a trifle and neglected his com- plaint. Lercari was so indignant at the treatment he received that he quitted Trebizond, declaring that he would hold the emperor accountable for his favourite's insolence. In 1 A doge of Genoa of this family, J. B. Lercari, was celebrated for the injustice with which he was treated by his countrymen on quitting office, and for the patriotic dignity with which he bore his persecutions, and refused to seek revenge, a.d. 1565. The doge whom Louis XIV., in the height of his insolence, compelled to visit Versailles in 1685, after the unjust bombardment of Genoa, was also a Lercari. His sarcastic reply to the vain Frenchmen, who, to make a boast of the magnificence of Versailles, asked him what he thought most wonderful in the palace, is well known — " To see me here." The high rank held by the Genoese in the East at this period is testified by the chronicler Panaretos, who recounts that, when he was sent with several great officers of Trebizond on an embassy to Constantinople in 1363, they paid visits of cere- mony not only to the emperor John V., and his father-in-law, the monk Josaphat, as the dethroned Cantacuzenos was called, but also to the podestat of the Genoese, whose name he disfigures. Leonardo de Montaldo, a distin- guished lawyer memorable for his intrigues, was then captain-general of the Genoese possessions in the Levant— an office to which he had been named by the doge Boccanegra, in order to remove him from Genoa. Leonardo de Montaldo was raised to the rank of doge by his talents and his intrigues, in 1383. 442 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. iv. order to prepare the means of gratifying his revenge § i. he returned to Genoa, where, with the assistance of his friends and relations, he fitted out a piratical expedition, consisting of two war galleys, to cruise in the Black Sea. He soon made his appearance off Trebizond, where he captured the imperial ships, ruined the commerce of the Greeks, ravaged the coasts, and took many prisoners, whom he treated with horrid cruelty — cutting off the ears and noses of all those who were in any way connected with the imperial service. Alexios sent out a squadron of four war galleys of superior size, manned with his best mariners and favoured by a leading wind, in the fullest confidence that the Genoese would be easily overtaken and conquered by the superior swiftness and size of these ships. But, even at this great disadvantage, the naval skill and undaunted courage of the unruly republicans gave them a complete victory over the Greeks. By a feigned flight, the Genoese succeeded in separating the four galleys from one another, and then by a combined attack they captured them all in succession. The prisoners were mutilated as usual, and sent on shore in the boats. On this occasion an old man was taken prisoner with his two sons. When the sons were brought up to be mutilated, the old man entreated Lercari to take his life and spare his children. They had only obeyed their father's orders in taking arms against the Genoese. Lercari was moved by the noble earnestness of the father's entreaties, and for the first time a sentiment of compassion touched his heart for the innocent victims of a worthless monarch's pride, and he perhaps felt ashamed of his own brutal revenge. The old man and his sons were released and sent on shore ; but they were charged to deliver to the emperor a barrel full of the salted ears and noses of bis subjects, and a letter declaring that the REVENGE OF LERCARI. 443 only means of delivering the empire from the exaction of this species of tribute was to send the author of the insult to Lercari, as a prisoner. Alexios, seeing his best galleys captured and his subjects exposed unprotected to the fury of the Genoese, submitted. The insolent page, in spite of the imperial favour, was delivered over to the vengeance of Lercari. As soon as the young Greek courtier beheld the revengeful Genoese, he threw himself on his knees, and begged with many tears to be put to death without torture. Lercari, whose revenge was gratified by having humbled an emperor, felt nothing but contempt for the despicable page. He understood that his honour would gain more by sparing the weeping courtier, than by treating the blow he had received as a thing which of itself merited a moment's consideration. He only pushed the kneeling suppliant from him with his foot, adding with a significant sneer, " Brave men do not revenge themselves by beating women." The revenge of Lercari appears to have been connected with some diplomatic transactions between the empire of Trebizond and the Genoese colonies in the Black Sea, for, at the peace which followed this transaction, the emperor Alexios engaged to put the Genoese merchants at Tre- bizond in possession of an edifice to serve as a warehouse. This must have been one of those great buildings like the caravanseries of the East — storehouses for goods, lodgings for merchants, and castles for defence, which, in the same way as the monasteries of the period, formed fortresses in the midst of every city, and of whose walls remains may yet be traced even in the fire-devastated city of Constan- tinople. The emperor also published a golden bull, confirming all the privileges enjoyed by the Genoese traders throughout his dominions. The facts relating to the vengeance of Lercari have not been noticed by any Greek writer, and they are evidently 444 EMFIKE OF TREBIZOND. chap. iv. strongly coloured by the pride and passion of the Genoese § 1 - chronicles. Yet the whole history of the enterprise is so characteristic of the violence and daring of the citizens of Genoa la superba, that, even had it rested on a slenderer basis of fact than probably supported it, still it would have merited notice as a correct portraiture both of the people and the age. 1 The emperor Alexios III., though neither a successful warrior nor an able statesman, walked through life with some show of dignity as a sovereign. He received the empire, in boyhood, in a state of anarchy ; he gradually restored it to order, and reconstructed the central admi- nistration. In completing this great work, he did every- thing in his power to secure the aid of the clergy. Policy required him to gain their goodwill, in order to render their influence over the people of some practical use in re-establishing the imperial supremacy over the rival factions of the Amytzantarants and Scholarants. He may also have felt that something was necessary to calm his own conscience. Whether from policy, the memory of his vices, or the expression of heartfelt piety, certain is it that the ecclesiastical endowments of Alexios were singularly magnificent. He restored the church of St Eugenios to something resembling its ancient splendour. He discovered that the 24th of June was the saint's birth- day, and celebrated it annually with great pomp at the expense of the imperial treasury. He rebuilt other churches, and founded and repaired several monasteries and almshouses. The convent of nuns of Panaghia 1 This episode is recounted by most of the historians of Genoa — Ann. de Genova da Agostino Giustiniano, lib. iv. ; Petri Bizari ScnatHs Populique Genuensis rcrum gestarum Hist., p. 145, edit. Anv. ; U. Folietke Hist. Genuensium, lib. viii. p. 483 ; Paolo Interiano, Ristretto delle Hist. Genova, lib. iv. The insolence of the Genoese Avas as great on the coasts of France as of Colchis. They complained to the seneschal of Beaucaire and to the consuls of Nismes, that the inhabitants carried on maritime commerce, from which they pretended that even the native citizens were excluded, by an exclusive privilege conceded to the Genoese by the counts of Toulouse. — Histoire de la P^jublique de Genes, par Emile Vinccns, torn. i. p. 391. MAGNIFICENT ECCLESIASTICAL ENDOWMENTS. 445 Theoskepastos, which occupies a fine position before a a. cavern in the rocky face of Mount Mithrios, overlooking 1360_ the romantic city of Trebizoncl, was enlarged, decorated, and enriched by his care and liberality. 1 He built a church and founded a monastery of St Phokas at Kordyle. 2 The great monastery of Sumelas, buried in an immense cavern amidst the sublime rocks and magnificent forests which overhang the roaring torrents of the Melas, was enriched and protected by his imperial bounty, and still possesses the golden bull he signed as the charter of its privileges. 3 But the most splendid existing monument of the liberality of Alexios is the monastery of St Dionysius, situated in an enchanting site, overlooking the sea, on the south-western coast of the holy mountain. It was the last constructed of the two-and-twenty great monas- teries which consecrate the mountain in the eyes of the Eastern church. The golden bull of Alexios, the charter of its foundation, is still preserved in its archives, and forms one of the most valuable monuments of the pictorial and caligraphic art of the Greeks in the middle ages. This imperial charter of foundation consists of a roll of paper, a foot and a half broad and fifteen feet long, surrounded by a rich border of arabesques. The imperial titles are 1 Inscriptions commemorating the generosity of Alexios and the imperial family to this monastery are given by Tournefort, Relation oVun Voyage die Levant, torn. iii. p. HI, edit, in 8vo; by Fallmerayer, Oriyinal-Fragmente, Erste Abth., p. 101 ; and Pfaffenhoffen, Essai sur les Aspres Comnenats, pi. xiv. The paintings of Alexios, his mother, the lady Irene of Trebizond, and the empress Theodora, the size of life and clad in their imperial robes, which were seen in the vestibule of the church by Tournefort and Fallmerayer, were effaced in 1843. The church was then repaired and the vestibule replastered by the liberality of an ignorant abbess, when some hideous figures, true types of modern Greek art, were daubed over the ancient paintings. 2 The site of Kordyle is now occupied by the Turkish fort of Ak-kala. 3 The romantic district in which the monastery of Sumelas is situated, amidst primeval forests, often impenetrable from the thick underwood of azaleas and rhododendrons, was called Matzouka. The distance from Trebizond is reckoned at twelve hours, but is not more than thirty miles. The golden bull of Alexios is not so magnificent as that of the monastery of St Dionysius on Mount Athos. The imperial portraits are only about six inches high, and the seals are wanting. It is dated in December 1365. 446 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. iv. set forth in capitals about three inches high, emblazoned § i« in gold and ultramarine; and the word Majesty, wherever it occurs in the document, is always written, like the emperor's signature, with the imperial red ink. This curious document acquires its greatest value from con- taining at its head, under a half-length figure of our Saviour with hands extended to bless the imperial figures, two full-length portraits of the emperor Alexios and the empress Theodora, about sixteen inches high, in which their features, their imperial crowns, their rich robes and splendid jewels, are represented in colour, with all the care and minuteness of the ablest Byzantine artists. Immediately under the imperial titles, below the portraits, are the two golden bulla or seals, each of the size of a crown-piece, bearing the respective effigies and titles of the two sovereigns. The seals are attached to the bull by clasps of gold. 1 Alexios III. died in the year 1390, after a reign of forty-one years. The period in which he lived was one of almost universal war, civil broils, and anarchy ; and few countries in Europe enjoyed as much internal tran- quillity, or so great security for private property, as the empire of Trebizond. By his diplomatic arrangements he succeeded in preserving a degree of political influence which his military reverses frequently endangered, and the commercial advantages of his territories gave him financial resources vastly exceeding the apparent wealth of his small empire. The most powerful princes in his vicinity were eager to maintain friendly relations with his court, for all their subjects profited by the trade carried on in the city of Trebizond. Alexios availed himself of this disposition to form matrimonial alliances 1 The account of this interesting document is given by Fallmerayer, who has published the text both of it and of the golden bull of Smnelas in the Transactions of the Academy of Munich, 1843 — Original-Fragmente, Erste Abth. Montfaucon's Paleographia Grceca, p. 476, notices this monastery in the description of Mount Athos by John Comnenus, M.D. MANUEL III. 447 between the princesses of his family and several neigh- a. d. boivring sovereigns, both Mohammedan and Christian. 1390-1417. His sister Maria was married to Koutloubeg, the chief of the great Turkoman horde of the White Sheep ; his sister Theodora to the emir of Chalybia, Hadji-Omer. His daughter Eudocia was first married to the emir Tadjeddin, 1 who gained possession of Limnia ; and after Tadjeddin was slain by the emir of Chalybia, she became the wife of the Byzantine emperor, John V. That prince had selected her as the bride of his son, the emperor Manuel IT., (Paleologos ;) but when she arrived at Constantinople, her beauty made such an impression on the decrepid old debauchee that he married the young widow himself. Anna, another daughter of Alexios, was married to Bagrat VI., king of Georgia ; 2 and a third daughter was bestowed on Taharten, emir of Arsinga or Erd- zendjan. 3 Constantinople was now tributary to the Othoman Turks ; and its vassal emperor was glad to find an ally in the wealthy and still independent emperor of Trebizond. The countenance and whole personal appearance of Alexios were extremely noble. He was florid, blonde, and regular-featured, with an aquiline nose, which, his flatterers often reminded him, was considered by Plato to be a royal feature. In person he was stout and well formed ; in disposition he was gay and liberal ; but his enemies reproached him with rashness, violence, and brutal passions. SECT. II. REIGN OF MANUEL III. RELATIONS WITH THE EMPIRE OF TIMOR — 1 390-1417. Manuel III. had received the title of emperor from his 1 Tadjeddin is called Dschiatincs, Zetines, and Tatziatin. He occupied the coast of Pontus between the cities of Kerasunt and Oinaion. 2 Bagrat VI. reigned at Teflis from 1360 to 1396. 3 Clavijo, p. 92 ; cited by Fallmerayer, 209. 448 EMPIEE OF TREBIZOND. chap. iv. father in 1376, when only twelve years of age. As a § 2. sovereign, he appears to have been more prudent than his father, and to have possessed all his diplomatic talent. He lived in critical times, and fortune favoured his prudence. The great Tartar irruption that desolated the greater part of Asia Minor during his reign left his little empire unscathed. Though he was compelled to acknowledge himself a vassal of the mighty Timor, and pay tribute to the Mongol empire for a few years, still his government was disturbed by no political vicissi- tudes of any general importance. The only interest we feel in his reign, of twenty-seven years' duration, is derived from its transitory connection with the exploits of Timor. Alexios III. left the empire of Trebizond reduced to a narrow strip of coast, extending in an uninterrupted line from Batoun to Kerasunt, and including also the territory of Oinaion, separated from the rest of the empire by the possessions of Arsamir, the son of Tadjeddin, emir of Limnia. Its breadth rarely exceeded forty miles, its frontier running along the high range of moun- tains that overlook the sea. Within these limits several Christian nobles owned a doubtful allegiance to the imperial authority. The city of Oinaion, with its terri- tory, extending westward to the Thermodon, was governed by a Greek named Melissenos. As his possessions were separated from the imperial garrison at Kerasunt by the possessions of the emir of Limnia, he was almost virtually independent. Arsamir, the emir of Limnia, was, however, fortunately closely allied wit]] Manuel, both by relation- ship and political interest. He was the son of Manuel's sister, the beautiful Eudocia. Leo Kabasites, the head of a distinguished family, which had long possessed great influence in the empire, ruled an extensive territory in the mountains, and held several fortified castles, that gave him the command of LEO KABASITES AND CLAVIJO. 449 the caravan route leading southward from the capital. 1 The possession of these castles, which after the Othoman conquest became the residence of Dere-Begs, enabled him to levy tribute on all travellers who passed through his district, along the great road leading to Persia and Armenia. The Spanish traveller Gonsalez de Clavijo, who was sent by Henry III., king of Castile, as ambassador to Timor, has left us a curious account of the power of Leo Kabasites, and of the manner in which he exercised it on those who came within his jurisdiction as duke of Chaldia. 2 The picture he gives of the insubordination and rapacity of the great nobles in the empire of Trebizoncl shows how generally the frame of society was convulsed by aristocratic anarchy, which was a feature of the social movement of the human race, not merely of a change in the feudal system of Europe. Clavijo confirms the expressions used by Alexios III., in his golden bull to the monastery of Sumelas, which he wished to protect against the exactions of his nobles. The Spanish traveller accompanied an envoy sent to Henry by Timor, on his way back to Samarcand. After quitting Trebizond, they were stopped by Leo Kabasites, as they entered his terri- tory, and required to pay toll or make a present. In vain the Mongol envoy protested that an ambassador of the great Timor was not bound to pay toll like the agent of a merchant, and insisted that he was entitled to a free passage through a land which was tributary to the Great Mongol — for Leo, as a vassal of the emperor of Trebizond, had no pretext for exacting toll from the representative of the suzerain of his prince. To all this Leo replied, 1 John Kabasites, who was killed in the shameful flight at Cheriana, was duke of Chaldia, or that portion of the mountains to the south-east of Trebizond inhabited by the Lazes, who still resisted the advances of the Turkoman power. 2 The Itinerary of Clavijo and the Historia del Gran Tamerlan were pub- lished by Gongalo Argote de Molino, Sevilla, 1582, folio. Also in the Oronicas de los Reyes de Costilla, Madrid, 1782, 4 to, vol. 3. 450 EMPIRE OF TKEB1ZOND. chap. iv. that his duty was to keep the road open, which was done § 2. solely by his care, and that he was consequently entitled to receive toll from every traveller who passed. He lived in a desert district, where it was necessary to maintain a larger body of guards than the inhabitants could furnish, otherwise the mountain passes would be left open to the incursions of the nomad Turkomans, and would soon become impassable. Nay, he added significantly, at times he found it necessary to make incursions himself into the more fertile districts of the empire, to carry off provisions by force when travellers were rare. Clavijo was com- pelled to give the chieftain a piece of scarlet cloth, and a silver dish ; and the Mongol ambassador offered him at first a piece of fine linen, and a dress of scarlet ; but Leo was not satisfied with this present, and would not allow the two ambassadors to proceed on their journey until they had purchased a bale of camlet from a merchant in their caravan, and added it to their previous presents. Leo Kabasites then treated them as his guests, and supplied them with an escort through the Christian terri- tories, but at the same time he made as much profit as he could of their passage, by letting them pack-horses for the transport of their baggage as far as Arsinga. 1 The other Christian chiefs who acknowledged the suze- rainty of the emperor of Trebizond were the signors of Tzanich, Dora, Larachne, Chasdenik, and the prince of Gouriel. Timor was now the lord of Asia. Gibbon thought that this great conqueror had overlooked the little empire of Trebizond, amidst those mighty projects of ambition which led him to plan the conquest of China while encamped before the walls of Smyrna. Speaking of the flight of Mohammed, the son of Bayezid, from the dis- astrous defeat of Angora, the historian observes, " In his rapid career, Timor appears to have overlooked this 1 Clavijo quoted by Fallmeraycr, Geschichte, 240. EMPIRE OF TIMOR. 451 obscure and contumacious angle of Anatolia." 1 But it a. r>. was not so. Timor neither overlooked Trebizond nor 1387-uos. forgot Mohammed ; but neither the Greek empire nor the Othoman prince possessed a degree of importance that called for his personal presence to arrange their affairs. It reflects no discredit on the measures of Timor, either as a general or a statesman, that the empire of Trebizond outlived the Tartar power in Asia Minor, or that Mohammed I. became the second founder of the Otho- man empire. Timor did not advance to the decisive battle with Bajezid until he had secured his right flank from every danger, and taken due precautions that no serious attempt could be made to interrupt his com- munications with the countries in his rear, by a diversion from the shores of the Black Sea. All the princes who ruled in the countries between the gulf of Alexandretta and the sea of Trebizond, whether Christian or Mohammedan, were compelled to contribute their contingents to swell the numbers, and to form magazines to supply the wants, of the Tartar army. The king of Georgia was forced to abjure the Christian religion, and to deliver up to Timor the coat of mail which was believed by all the votaries of the Koran to have been forged by king David the psalmist, with his own hands. 2 Taharten the emir of Arsinga, and Kara Yolouk, the chief of the Turkomans of the White Horde, became the voluntary vassals of the Mongol empire. Kara Yousouf, the redoubted leader of the Black Horde, was driven from the vast possessions over which he had wandered with his nomade army, and was a fugitive under the protection of the Othoman court. 1 Decline and Fall, chap. lxv. vol. xii. p. 50. 2 Sale's Koran, chap. 21 — tt And we taught him [David] the art of making coats of mail for you, that they may defend you in your wars." This passage proves that little reliance can be placed on the pictures of society drawn by the romantic historian, translated by Ockley, who represents the Saracens, when they conquered Syria from the veteran troops of Hcraclius, as mere naked warriors. 452 EMPIRE OF TKEBIZOKD. chap. iv. Bayezid liad pushed forward the frontiers of the Otho- § 2. man empire to the banks of the Thermodon, and his territories were contiguous with the empire of Trebizond. Amasia, Tokat, and Sivas were in the possession of the sultan, who was also master of a fleet which would enable him to attack Trebizond by sea. In this state of things it became impossible for Timor to overlook the position of Manuel, nor could he without great imprudence have allowed the emperor of Trebizond to enjoy even a nominal independence. The precise period at which Timor reduced Trebizond to the rank of a tributary state cannot be exactly determined, but it seems to have taken place after the Georgian campaign in the spring of 1400. Timor detached a division of the northern army, then under his own immediate orders, to attack the empire ; and Manuel made an attempt to arrest the progress of the Tartars by occupying the mountain passes. But the troops who had stormed the inaccessible cliffs, and plunged into the precipitous ravines and dark caverns of the Georgian mountains, defended by the bravest moun- taineers and hardiest warriors of Asia, made light of the obstacles which the mercenary forces of Manuel could oppose to them. The prudence and diplomatic talents of Manuel served him better than his military skill or the courage of his army. By some negotiations of which we are ignorant, he succeeded in averting the march of a Tartar army on Trebizond, by acknowledging himself a tributary of the Mongol empire, and placing his whole land and sea forces at the orders of Timor. When the grand army of the Tartars was marching against Bayezid, Timor ordered the emperor of Trebizond to appear in person at the headquarters of the army, in command of his contingent. By some means or other, and most probably for the purpose of hastening the pre- paration of the naval force which Timor had ordered to be prepared to cover his flank, Manuel obtained the RELATIONS OF TREBIZOND WITH TIMOR. 453 relaxation of this order, for there is no doubt that he was a. d. not present at the battle of Angora. His dignity and 1400-1405. fame as a Christian emperor, and the deep detestation felt by all Christians against Bayezid, who had so often defeated the chivalry of the west, would have embalmed the name of Manuel in glory as a champion of a holy war, had he taken any part in the victory of Angora. We have too many accounts of that great battle, both by cotemporary Christians and Mohammedans, to leave any doubt on the subject. At the same time, the close political alliance that existed between Taharten, the emir of Arsinga, who was highly distinguished at the court of Timor, and his brother-in-law Manuel, would alone be sufficient to establish the impossibility of the wary Mongol having overlooked the importance of the empire of Tre- bizond. Indeed, so minute was Timor's attention to every circumstance that could contribute to aid his cause in the severe struggle he anticipated with the Othoman forces, that he resolved to distract the attention of Bay- ezid, and deprive him of succours from his European dominions, by attacking the flank and rear of the Turkish army. For this purpose he ordered a fleet to be assem- bled at Trebizond ; and there exists proof of this in a letter of Timor, addressed to John Paleologos, the nephew of Manuel II., emperor of Constantinople, who governed the Byzantine empire while his uncle was begging assis- tance against the Turks in western Europe. This com- munication shows the importance attached by Timor to a naval diversion, in case of a prolonged campaign in the interior of Asia Minor. The letter is dated about two months before the battle of Angora. The Tartar monarch orders John Paleologos to prepare immediately twenty galleys, to unite with a fleet of the same number which the emperor of Trebizond was fitting out, and to hold them ready for further orders. 1 It is true that no 1 This letter is given by Fallmeraycr with his usual judicious observations, 454 EMPIRE OF TREB1ZOND. chap. iv. use was made of these fleets, and that Timor did not § 2 - cross the Bosphorus and lay waste the Serai of Adrianople, nor enter the walls of Constantinople ; but this must be attributed to the utter destruction of the Othoman forces at Angora, and to the disappearance of every trace of further resistance in every corner of the Othoman empire ; not, as Gibbon supposes, because " an insuperable though narrow sea rolled between the two continents of Europe and Asia, and the lord of so many tomans or myriads of horse was not master of a single galley/' 1 The reason was different. The same political views which made Timor disdain to visit Trebizond and Brusa led him to despise Adrianople and Constantinople. Timor ruled the world as the general of an army, not as the sovereign of a state. He was a nomad of sur- passing genius, but he gloried in remaining a nomad. His camp was his residence, hunting was his favourite amusement, and, as long as he lived, he resolved that no city should relax the discipline of his invincible cuiras- siers. In his eyes, wisdom and virtue existed only in tents ; vice and folly were the constant denizens of walled cities and fixed dwellings. Before the battle of Angora, Timor had wisely prepared for a long war by calculating that all the resources of the immense empire of Bayezid would have been ably employed to resist the Tartars. But after the irreparable defeat of the sultaD, and the Geschichte, 224. See also Muratori Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, torn. xxii. p. 806 ; Marini ISanuti Vite de I)uchi di Venezia. Ascala, the principal minister of Timor, was well acquainted with the naval affairs of the Black Sea. He is said to have been born at Caffa, of Genoese origin. Silvestre de Sacy, Memoires de I' Acad, des Inscriptions, torn. vi. 410, has published the corre- spondence of Timor with Charles VI. of France in 1403. He had previously- written to the republics of Venice and Genoa, to incite them to attack Bayezid. 1 The army of Timor is usually represented by historians as so numerous, that common-sense tells us no such numbers could find food in the countiies through which he marched. Its admirable discipline and the excellence of its equipments, the real causes of its success, are passed unnoticed. It was one of the first armies in which the various bodies of men were distinguished by the colours of their uniforms. Hammer says that Timor had the first regi- ment of cuirassiers mentioned in the annals of warfare. — Ilistoire de VEmpire Ottoman, ii. 83. RELATIONS WITH TIMOR. 455 total dissolution of the Turkish arrny, he overlooked the a. d. vitality of the administrative institutions on which the 1400-1405. Othoman power reposed ; and, in consequence of the con- tempt he felt for the Turks as a nation, he erroneously believed that the Othoman empire was based on the military strength of a tribe that appeared to be almost exterminated. Timor saw no Othoman army in the field, while he beheld the Seljouk princes of Asia Minor resuming all the power torn from them by Bayezid. The different tribes of Turks and Turkomans were now only vassals of the Mongol empire, and among them the thorn an s appeared by no means more powerful than many others. When the grand army of Timor quitted Asia Minor, a division of the troops visited Kerasunt. But the steep mountains, the winding and precipitous paths, and the want of forage for the cavalry and beasts of burden along the coast, between Kerasunt and Trebizond, saved the capital from their unwelcome presence. 1 Manuel, we may rest assured, did everything in his power to collect abundant supplies of provisions and furnish ample means of transport on the shorter lines of road, in order to pre- serve the caravan routes in the immediate vicinity of Trebizond free from interruption. Fortunately none of these routes conducted to the westward. The revenues of the empire were now in a great measure dependent on the commercial importance of the capital. On quitting western Asia, Timor established his nephew, Mirza Halil, as immediate sovereign over the tributary states of Tre- bizond, Georgia, and Armenia, as well as over the chief- tains of the Turkoman hordes. 2 The troubles that ensued in the Mongol empire after Timor's death, and the departure of Mirza Halil to occupy the throne of 1 Schiltberger's Eeisen, edit. Penzel, Muncben, 1813, quoted by Fallmerayer, Geschichte, 231. 2 Histoire de Timur-Bec, eeritc en Persan par Cherefeddin Ali, traduite par Petis de la Croix, torn. iv. p. 120. 456 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. iv. Sarnarcand, enabled Manuel to throw off all dependence § 3 - on the Tartars, and deliver the empire from tribute. Manuel III. died in the year 1417. He was twice married; first to Eudocia of Georgia, in the year 1377, by whom he had a son, Alexios IV., and after her death to Anna Philanthropena of Constantinople, by whom he left no children. Alexios was suspected of having hastened his father's death. SECT. III. — RETGN OF ALEXIOS IV. RELATIONS WITH THE TURKOMAN HORDES. FAMILY CRIMES IN THE HOUSE OF GRAND-KOMNENOS 1417-1446. After the retreat of the grand army of the Mongols, the empire of Trebizond was exposed, almost without defence, to the attacks of the two great Turkoman hordes of the Black and White Sheep, who wandered over the whole country between Sinope and Bussora. Kara Yousouf, the chief of the horde of the Black Sheep, appeared for a time to be on the point of founding a great empire between the Mongols and the Turks. His conquests extended from the Euxine to the Persian Gulf. The career of Kara Yousouf was marked by the strangest vicissitudes, and a history of his empire would be nothing more than a record of his own singular adventures. Born the hereditary chieftain of a tribe that mustered thirty thousand cavalry, he was more than once forced to gain the necessaries of life as a common robber, while at other times he swept through Mesopotamia at the head of sixty thousand of the finest troops in Asia. As early as the year 1387, he had tried his fortune in battle with Timor; but he was no match for the military skill of the wary Tartar. Undaunted by his first misfortune, he renewed the war in 1393 ; and though defeated a second time, he again raised his standard against the Tartars in 1400. In this last war, his army was so completely routed, and KARA YOUSOUF OF THE BLACK TURKOMANS. 457 lie was himself so hotly pursued, that, unable to conceal a. d. his movements either in the mountains of Assyria or 1387-1420. the deserts of Mesopotamia, he fled to the court of Bayezid. The refusal of the Turkish sultan to deliver him up to Timor, who claimed him as a rebellious vassal, was the immediate cause of the invasion of the thorn an empire by the Mongols. When Bayezid became the prisoner of Timor, Kara Yousouf fled to Cairo, where the Mamlouk king, Furreg the son of Berkouk, gave him an asylum until Timor's death. He then hastened to the banks of the Euphrates, and once more collected the Turkomans round his stan- dard. The genius of Timor no longer directed the move- ments of the Tartar armies, and success attended the enterprises of Kara Yousouf. Tauris itself was captured, and became the capital of his empire. Kara Yousouf then occupied Arsinga, driving out the family of Ta- harten. He also defeated Oulough, who commanded the troops of the White Horde of the Turkomans for his brother Hamsa, their chieftain. Alexios IV. was a helpless spectator of these sudden revolutions in his vicinity. He had trusted, when he heard rumours of the impetuous career of Kara Yousouf, that the emir of Arsinga and the chieftain of the White Horde, who were both allied to his family, would serve as a barrier to protect his empire. 1 The defeat of these allies compelled the emperor to throw himself on the mercy of the conqueror, and to declare his readiness to submit to any conditions of peace. Kara Yousouf ordered the suppliant monarch to send his daughter, the most beautiful princess of the house of Grand-Komnenos, which had long been celebrated in Asia for the beauty of its daughters, to be the wife of his son Djihanshah, and to pay the same amount of tribute to the Black Turko- 1 Kara Youlouk, or the Black Leech, the father of Hamsa and Oulough, or Alibeg, was the son-in-law of Alexios III.— Ducas, p. 69. 458 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOKD. chap. iv. mans that his father, Manuel III., had paid to the § 3. Mongols. 1 Kara Yousouf died, in the year 1420, in as strange a manner as he had lived. A fit of apoplexy smote him in his tent as he was speculating on the consequences of an approaching conflict with the Tartars, in which he felt confident of victory. The next day was to have witnessed a great battle with Shah Roukh, the youngest son of Timor ; and had victory continued faithful to the stan- dard of Kara Yousouf, the empire of Asia would have passed from the Tartars to the Black Turkomans. The death of their leader, however, served as a signal for the dispersion of the Turkoman army. Each captain, the moment he heard the news, hastened from the camp to gain possession of some province rich enough to supply the means of keeping his troops together, until he could find an opportunity of selling his services to a new sovereign. Kara Yousouf had never thought of employing his power to frame any regulations tending to connect the instruments of his personal authority with a systematic administration extending over all his dominions. The consequence of his ignorance deserves to be contrasted with the fate of the Othoman administration after the catastrophe of Angora. While the Othoman empire revived with undiminished vigour even after the annihi- lation of its armies, the empire of the Black Turkomans melted away, on the death of its ruler, before any disaster had shaken its fabric. Kara Yousouf s corpse lay in his tent, surrounded by a chosen body of hardy veterans, while tribe after tribe marched off from the camp ; but at length these guards, on beholding the troops in their immediate vicinity striking their tents, suddenly began to inquire what was to be done. They could not wait until Shah Roukh fell upon them. All their hopes had 1 Clialcocondylas, p. 245. KARA YOUSOUF. 459 been coucentrcd in the dead prince, who had ridden a. d. proudly through their ranks the day before, promising 1417-1446. them victory. To him they had looked for rewards and wealth, and he could serve them no longer. In this crisis, every man felt that there was no time to lose. With one accord, as if seized by a common spirit of demoniacal impulse, the whole regiment of guards rushed in silence within the royal enclosure, hitherto held sacred from intrusion, and guarded by the black eunuchs. They plun- dered the treasury ; and, loading all the wealth in the royal tents on the first baggage horses on which they could lay hands, they departed from the camp, leaving the body of the mighty Kara Yousouf in a royal enclosure of empty canvass, surrounded by weeping women, howling eunuchs, and helpless mutes. The Tartars were more compassionate than the Turkomans. When the body was taken up for interment, it was seen that the ears had been cut off. Some avaricious officer of the Turkoman guards, who knew the inestimable value of the diamond earrings of his sovereign, on approaching the body, as if to mark his reverence for his deceased master, had taken this strange way, as the quickest, to perpetrate the robbery, and prevent any one from sharing the plunder. After the death of Kara Yousouf, the White Horde recovered its independence ; and the emperor of Trebi- zond, protected by its power, ceased to pay tribute to the Black Turkomans. We must now record the existence of a state of moral degradation in the house of Komnenos, calculated to insure the ruin of a state and nation so degenerate as to submit to such a dynasty. Without attaching much importance to the details of those anecdotes, concerning the vices of the court of Trebizond, that are transmitted to us by the Latins, we still find enough in the Byzantine writers to confirm the picture they give of the crimes habitually per- petrated in the palace of the later emperors of Trebizond. 4C0 EMPIRE OF TREB1ZOND. chap. iv. Manuel III. had associated Alexios IV. with him in § 3. the imperial dignity, but he met neither with gratitude nor filial affection. Clavijo relates an anecdote which paints the state of society in the capital, as well as the relations between the two emperors. Manuel had taken into his favour a page of low birth, but of great personal advantages. This upstart obtained a degree of influence in public affairs that excited the jealousy of the nobility, accustomed to divide among themselves all the favours of the court. The discontented did everything in their power to increase the general dissatisfaction, and succeeded in awakening a popular outcry against the favourite. Alexios availed himself of the public indignation to form a conspiracy for seizing the reins of government, and dethroning his father. He raised the standard of revolt, and, with the assistance of the people, demanded that the young bowbearer should be driven from the palace. Manuel was besieged in the upper citadel, and compelled to banish his favourite. The ambition of Alexios was now disappointed; for the people, having obtained their object, and having probably observed that he possessed worse vices than his father, ceased to support his rebellion. He succeeded, however, in making his peace with his father; and, perhaps as the price of his reconciliation, he retained the exiled bowbearer about his own person. 1 His subsequent conduct led to the suspicion, already alluded to, that he caused his father's death. Alexios IV. was a weaker and a worse man than his father. An avenger of his own filial ingratitude stepped - forward in the person of an undutiful son. According to the usage of the empires of Trebizond and Constantinople, Alexios had raised his eldest son, Joannes, as heir- apparent, to share the dignity of the imperial throne. Alexios IV., like his grandfather, Alexios III., married a lady of the family of Cantacuzenos, who likewise bore 1 See the interpretation of Fallmerayer from Clavijo, GcscMchte, p. 216. CRIMES IN THE IMPERIAL FAMILY. 461 the name of Theodora. 1 The empress Theodora was A#D# impatient of her husband's conduct, and consoled herself 1417-1446. for his neglect by too close an intimacy with the proto- vestiarios. Her son Joannes, indignant at his mother's disgrace, assassinated her lover in the palace with his own hand. But the young hypocrite contemplated the perpetration of crimes of a blacker dye than those he pretended to punish. Having made himself master of the upper citadel, he imprisoned both his father and mother in their apartments. The nobles, alarmed that he was about to commit a double parricide, and the people, persuaded that the young tyrant would prove a worse sovereign than the old debauchee, interfered, and delivered Alexios IV. from the hands of his son. Joannes, who was called Kalojoannes, from his per- sonal beauty, not from his mental accomplishments, fled to the court of Georgia, where he married a daughter of the king. Alexios IV. raised his second son, Alexander, to be his colleague in the imperial dignity, conferring on him all the rights of heir-apparent. 2 The greater part of the long reign of Alexios IV. was passed in luxury and idleness. The first rebellion of his son Kalojoannes occurred in the early part of his reign ; about twenty years later, a second brought the emperor to a premature and bloody grave. 3 The death of Alexander seems to have suggested to Kalojoannes the necessity of making a vigorous attempt to dethrone his father, as the only means of securing the succession to the empire. He succeeded in opening communications with the power- ful family of Kabasites, who stood in opposition to Alexios. 1 Chalcocondylas, p. 246; but his text is confused. Panaretos, § 55, men- tions that the name of this empress was also Theodora. 2 Chalcocondylas, p. 246. It appears that the Turkish language had already begun to corrupt the Greek dialect of Trebizond, for Chalcocondylas calls Alexander, Skantarios. 3 Theodora, the mother of Kalojoannes, died in 1426 according to the Chronicle, Panaretos, § 56. Her death, perhaps, followed close after the first rebellion of her son. 462 EMPIRE OF TEEBIZOND. chap. iv. Kalojoannes then repaired to the Genoese colony of § 3. CafFa, where he hired a large ship, which he fitted out as ~~" a man-of-war. Engaging a band of military adventurers in his service, he crossed the Euxine, invaded the empire, and seized the monastery of St Phokas at Kordyle, where he fortified himself, in order to wait until some movement of his partisans should enable him to enter the capital. But the people were so satisfied with their condition that Alexios, secure of his capital, marched out to attack his rebellious son. The imperial camp was pitched at Achantos. It seems that a party of the emperor's attendants had been gained over to betray him, for two emissaries of Kalojoannes were allowed to pene- trate into his tent at midnight. In the morning, Alexios IV. was found murdered in his bed. The parricide entered Trebizond without opposition, being everywhere hailed as emperor by his demoralised subjects. But it was necessary, even in the vicious state to which Greek society had then fallen, to repudiate the charge of having suborned his father's assassins. The obsequies of Alexios were celebrated with unusual pomp. His body, after remaining many days entombed in the monastery of Theoskepastos, was subsequently transported into the metropolitan church of Chrysokephalos. The agents of the assassination were punished as murderers ; for the new emperor declared that, though he had sent them to secure his father's person, he had charged them to pay the strictest attention to his safety. Probably there was not a single individual in his empire capable of believing in the possibility of such an undertaking ; or, had it been possible, could any one credit the possibility of its being- attempted at midnight in the midst of an army ? The lives of the assassins were spared. One was punished with the loss of his hand ; the other with that of his eyes. 1 1 Chalcocondylas, 240. CRIMES IN THE IMPERIAL FAMILY. 463 The murder of Alexios IV. occurred about the year a.d. 1446, for he was alive in the year 1445 ; and in the 1446-1449. year 1449 Joannes IV. was sole emperor, and had been for some time in the enjoyment of sovereign power. 1 1 Compare a letter of Gregorios in Leo Allatius, De Consensu Utriusque Ecclesicn, p. 954, with Phrantzes, p. 206, edit. Bonn. Iu the text of Phrantzes, 6955 is erroneously given as the year. It ought to be 6958, as Phrantzes learned the death of Murad II., who died in February 6959, (1451,) while be was still at Trebizond. CHAPTER V. END OF THE EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. SECT. I. — CAUSES OF THE RAPID RISE AND VITAL ENERGY OF THE OTHOMAN EMPIRE. The first attack of the Othomau Turks on the empire of Trebizond occurred during the reign of Alexios IV., in the year 1442. Sultan Murad, who was an accomplished statesman as well as an able general, fitted out a fleet which he sent into the Black Sea to surprise Trebizond. In case the attempt on the city should fail, the admiral was instructed to lay waste the territories of the empire wherever they were open to attack, and to carry off as many slaves as possible. By this means the resources of the Christians would be diminished, and the ultimate conquest of the country accelerated. The attack on the city of Trebizond was repulsed, but the Turks landed at several places on the coast, plundered the country, destroyed the habitations, and carried off the young men and women to be sold in the slave-markets of Brusa and Adrianople. After ravaging the territories of the emperor of Trebizond, the fleet crossed the sea, and laid waste the Genoese possessions round Caffa. Before quitting the Black Sea, however, just as the Turks had directed their course to the Gulf of Moudania, which was then the naval station of the Othomans, this fleet was assailed by a furious tempest. Many of the largest ships EISE OF OTHOMAN EMPIRE. 465 were wrecked on the Asiatic coast near Heracleia, and chap. v. those that escaped through the Bosphorus to Moudania § and Ghiumlek brought back so little glory and plunder, that the sultan was not encouraged to try a second mari- time expedition. The Othoman empire is one of the most singular creations of human genius. It owed its rapid growth to institutions and laws more than arms ; and the institu- tions on which its greatness was more particularly founded, were the work of an individual chief at the head of a small band of followers, not of the chosen lawgiver of a united nation. Hence the name of Orkhan has not been ranked among the great legislators of mankind. His contemporaries were unable to appre- ciate the profundity of his views, and historians have regarded the Othoman empire with feelings of religious and political prejudice, so strong as to have surveyed its ethnical anomalies with a species of mental blindness. The grandfather of Orkhan entered the Seljouk empire, then in a state of decline, at the head of a tribe of only four hundred horsemen. Othinan, his father, became the territorial chief of a Seljouk province, which he succeeded in appropriating to himself as an independent principality, at the dissolution of the Turkish empire of Roum. His power increased ; and his own little tribe of followers, whose very name is lost to history, became confounded in the various nomad hordes who soon filled the ranks of his army. At length Orkhan conquered Nicsea, which had been for a time the capital of the Greek empire ; he then commenced giving systematic institutions to the people he ruled, and laying the foundations of a political society, destined to grow into a mighty nation. Let European pride contrast what Orkhan did with what Napoleon failed to do. Orkhan's own respect for religion, and the reverence paid by the tribe his grand- father had led into western Asia to their religious 2 G 466 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. v. and moral duties, gave the Othomans a high rank among § l. the Mussulmans. They were virtuous men in the corrupt mass of Seljouk society. The family education of this tribe may be more correctly estimated by its superiority for several generations over all its contempo- raries, than by the declamations of historians against the vices of the seraglio. It was not chance that conferred on Orkhan and his successors a character so pre-eminent for firmness, that both Christians and Mohammedans sought to become their subjects, as a security for a stricter administration of justice, and a greater respect for personal rights, than was then to be found under any other government. This moral superiority, though it was mixed with many vices, must not be overlooked in search- ing for the causes of the rapid conquests of Orkhan and the earlier sultans : it is the key to the facility with which both the Seljouk Turks and the Greeks submitted to a power originally so weak as that of the Othomans. It also illustrates the extent to which moral superiority will efface the impressions of religious truth ; for we must attribute the numerous apostasies of the Greek renegades, who filled some of the highest commands in the Othoman armies, to a preference for valour and morality over policy and religion. The most remarkable institution of Orkhan, and that which exercised the greatest influence in extending the power of his house, was the manner in which he organised a regular army into a permanent society. This army had no home but its barracks ; the soldiers had no parents and no relations but their father the sultan. The choicest portion of this force was separated from the people by birth, as much as by habits and residence. It was composed of Christian children — neophytes, who became the adopted children of the sultan — and votaries especially consecrated to enlarging the domains of the prophet. Many of these children were orphans, whom JANISSARIES. 467 the devastations of the Turkish armies would have left chap. v. to perish, had Orkhan not converted them into instru- § 1. ments for the creation of the Othoman empire. But no permanent institution can trust to casual supplies. Orkhan, therefore, imposed a fixed tribute of children on every Christian village and town that he added to his territory. The habit was then so prevalent of selling Christians as slaves, that this inhuman tax was by no means so appalling to the conquered as we are inclined to suppose it must have proved to a Christian population. From these tribute children, Orkhan formed the celebrated corps of Janissaries, whose ranks were every year recruited and augmented by new votaries, drawn from successive conquests. Corps of regular troops, formed of purchased slaves, had been created in the Byzantine empire by Tiberius II., towards the end of the sixth century. In different Mohammedan states, the same species of troops, under the name of Mamlouks, composed the principal military force. But the Janissaries differed from all preceding soldiers in the careful and systematic character of their education. The art with which their moral training was developed, and the success with which they were formed into enthusiasts, not less adroitly fitted for their peculiar mission than the Jesuits themselves, must place Orkhan, and the counsellors who aided him in establishing this strange college of destruction, among the greatest masters of political science. Perhaps they themselves did not perceive that they were among the worst corrupters of human society. Few institutions, formed to educate mankind for good purposes, have been so successful as this accursed college of infant proselytes of war, by means of which the Othoman sultans conquered Christi- anity in the East. In the time of Orkhan the Janissaries received an annual addition of two thousand tribute children. No accumulation of noble idlers encumbered 468 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. v. their ranks with insufficient aristocratic or titled officers ; § l. nor could wealth or favour introduce military incapacity to a permanent command over such a band of well-dis- ciplined enthusiasts. The institutions of the Janissaries at last declined ; but the Greeks had lost their political existence long before the decline was perceptible. Orkhan also gave the cavalry and infantry of his dominions a new organisation, which rendered them the centre of a civil and financial administration, around which a mighty empire and a populous nation arose. But the details of these remarkable measures of policy belong to the history of the Othoman empire : enough has been said to indicate how Orkhan's administration began to absorb the better and more energetic portions of the Greek race, and convert the majority of the aspiring and ambitious among the Christian population of the East into agents of the Othoman power. That the steady progress of the Othoman conquests could not be the result of brutal force or of individual talent alone, is sufficiently evident. No combinations, not based on permanent institutions and enduring causes, could have given a small tribe of nomads the power of invariably increasing in power at every change in the circumstances of those around them, and of surviving the greatest mis- fortunes. The defeat of Angora would have annihilated any other Asiatic dynasty and empire. It has been noticed that Timor believed the Othoman power dissolved by that battle ; yet little more than ten years from the day that Mohammed I. fled, attended by one faithful vizier, from the bloody field which seemed to have destroyed his race, he had reunited under his sway nearly the whole of the dominions of his father Bayezid. The Seljouk principalities of Ai'din, Sarou- khan, Mentshe, Kermian, and Karamania had been restored by Timor to their ancient extent ; so that each of these Turkish states appeared to have as good a OTHOMAN EMPIRE : CIVIL ADMINISTRATION. 469 chance of subduing its neighbours as the Othomans. chap. v. The sagacious Tartar overlooked the tendency of the § institutions of Orkhan : he did not perceive that the tribute of Christian children levied in Europe rendered the foundations of the Othoman power at Adrianople every day more firm. The numerous Christian population of the European provinces, which the Tartars never entered and wasted, became the element that revived the Othoman empire. The civil administration of the Othoman government was as intimately connected with the tribute children as the military power. Orkhan, like the Greek philosophers of antiquity, was aware of the importance of commencing the education of the servants of the state at the earliest period of life. The tribute children were collected in colleges, at the age of eight and nine. In the earlier days of the empire they were all educated in the imperial palace. Those of superior mental capacity were trained as administrators and jurists ; those who appeared to possess only bodily strength and activity became pages, guards, and J auissaries ; while any happy combination of physical and mental advantages insured their possessors the rank of generals, pashas, and viziers. The Jesuits conducted their projects of domination over the human mind with less skill than Orkhan, for their system was not so closely interwoven with the physical principles of the aristocracy of nature. It is not, therefore, surprising that the Othoman administration was superior, both in the field and the cabinet, to all its contemporaries. Systematic education and true discipline existed, at that time, only in the papal church and the Otlioman govern- ment; and they had far deeper roots in the hearts of the individuals composing the latter than the former, because the seeds were planted at an earlier age. Though the genius of Orkhan and his counsellors was able to organise an admirable system of personal agency 470 EMPIRE OF TEEBIZO^D. chap. v. for the administration, it would be a great error to infer § 1 - that they possessed the acquirements and views necessary for creating the machine of civil government, even in the imperfect form in which it existed in the Othoman empire. Such a task can only be performed by a great man in an intelligent society ; for the work requires to be consolidated by a succession of generations moving in a uniform course, each contributing to improve the road that has already been travelled over, while pushing forward new paths advancing in the same direction. In so far as the scheme of civil government, independent of the per- sonal execution of administrative business, was concerned, in the departments of law and finance, the Othoman empire remained in a defective condition in its best days. Its civil and fiscal organisation was adopted from the degraded provinces of the Byzantine empire, as they were subdued ; and all the economical and legal science it possessed was inspired by the corrupt race of Constan- tinopolitan officials, called Phanariots. Whatever merit can be found in the Turkish civil government was derived from traditions of the Roman power, corrected by the simple feelings of military leaders. The municipal insti- tutions of the people, and the ecclesiastical and financial organisation of the state, were long allowed to exist among the Christian population in the condition in which they were found. The great improvement visible under the government of the earlier sultans arose from the employment of a better and honester class of men in the administration ; for in that age the Turks were far superior in moral character and sound judgment to the Greeks. A mass of official corruption was swept away ; and thus society under the Othoman government acquired a degree of energy, of which it had been deprived by the governments of Constantinople and Trebizond. But the Mussulmans could not adopt the greatest benefit which the Roman empire had conferred on mankind. The REIGN OF JOANNES IV. 471 Roman law, which had upheld the Byzantine empire for a. d. seven centuries, was repudiated by the Koran. For this U46-1458. reason the Othoman race has never developed a perfect national existence in its extensive conquests. The Otho- man administration has been wise and just, the Othoman armies have been numerous, well-disciplined, and victorious, but the Othoman Turks have formed only a comparatively weak and insignificant nation. SECT. II. REIGN OF JOANNES IV. CALLED KALOJOANNES a. t>. U46-H58. The Greeks of Trebizond had now lost all feeling of national independence : they thought only of pursuing their schemes of official intrigue or commercial gain without interruption. The example of their Georgian neighbours, who defended their liberty with determined courage, made no impression on the Greeks. The vices of the government nourished the worthlessness of the people. The dynasty of Grand-Komnenos began to be regarded by the Christian population of the country, Tzans or Lazes, as a race of foreign tyrants, and its alliances with the Turkoman plunderers of the frontiers increased the aversion. Bitter observations on the imperial diplomacy must have been often wrung from the native clergy, while profound hatred frequently rankled in the hearts of the Colchian mountaineers. 1 The state of moral degradation into which all the Greek princes of this age had fallen, the mean spirit of the Greek archonts, and the avarice of the Greek dignified clergy, were so offensive, that the common people everywhere looked to their conquest by the Othomans as an event preferable to the continuance of their actual miseries. Joannes IV. was hated by his subjects for his crimes ; yet the force of social habits upheld the established order 1 Chalcocondylas indicates this state of things, 245. 472 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. v. of things in his dominions, and the foreign attacks on his § 2 - government were repulsed without creating any domestic disturbances. The decline of the empire of Trebizond was, however, now so apparent to strangers, that one of the small independent Mussulman princes in the Arme- nian mountains made a bold- attempt to render himself master of the city of Trebizond, a few years after the accession of Joannes. He was called the Sheik of Ertebil. 1 His army was composed of troops collected from the neighbouring tribes, and particularly from the population of the district of Samion. 2 With this force the sheik of Ertebil marched to Meliares, and rendered himself master of the pass of Kapanion, near Cape Kereli. The emperor Joannes advanced to oppose the progress of the enemy, and encamped at the monastery of Kordyle, in the position he occupied when his father was assassi- nated. The cluke of Mesochaldion, chief of the house of Kabasites, then held the rank of Pansevastos, and com- manded the imperial forces under the eye of the emperor. It was resolved to make a joint attack on the army of sheik Ertebil by land and sea. The duke led the troops forward to storm the pass of Kapanion, while the fleet was ordered to harass the flank and rear of the enemy. The violence of the wind raised such a swell at the moment of attack, that the ships were unable to approach the shore, and the Mussulmans, deriving every advantage from their position, routed the Christians without much difficulty. The pansevastos, his son, and thirty chosen men, who were leading the attack, were killed. On beholding the defeat of the advanced guard, terror seized the army at St Phokas — the troops, probably considering 1 Hammer says that the Zi'^r/s ''ApratlXas of Chalcocondylas, 247, was the grandfather of the founder of the dynasty of the Sons. — Histoire de V Empire Ottoman, hi. 78. 2 The Samion of Chalcocondylas appears to be the Samtskche of the Arme- nians — one of the provinces of Iberia or Georgia. — Memoires Hist, et Geog. sur I 'Armenie, par Saint-Martin, ii. 357, 427. DEFEAT OF JOANNES IV. 473 it a Divine judgment on an act of parricide, fled to the chap. v. capital in confusion. The emperor escaped on board the § 2 - fleet, and was among the first to reach Trebizond. The sheik of Ertebil took many prisoners, most of whom he ordered to be immediately put to death. He then occupied the camp of the Greeks, and secured the plunder. In the mean time Trebizond was thrown into such a state of alarm, that he would probably have suc- ceeded in capturing it, had he not wasted his time in murdering his prisoners and collecting the plunder of the camp in person. Rumour declared that he was already in possession of the monastery of St Sophia, and all the inhabitants of the western suburb crowded into the citadel for safety. An Armenian woman, whose house was situated within the western wall built by Alexios II., felt so alarmed, that, for additional security, she trans- ported all her wealth into the city and took up her abode there. Unfortunately she had left some charcoal burning in her abandoned dwelling. In the middle of the night fire burst from the building, and quickly communicated to the adjoining houses. The confusion caused by this sudden conflagration was extreme. The people believed that the Mussulmans had stormed the outer fortifications, and the greatest terror prevailed lest, by seizing the western bridge, they should be able to attack the city. It was repeated from mouth to mouth that a conspiracy was formed to deliver up the citadel to the sheik of Ertebil, and this report increased the suspicions enter- tained by each section of the motley population of Tre- bizond for the citizens of a different race, and prevented every man from placing confidence in the conduct of his neighbour. On this critical occasion the emperor Joannes showed both prudence and courage. The stake was his empire and his life. He ordered all the gates of the fortifica- tions to be immediately closed, and allowed no communis 474 EMPIRE OF TREB1ZOND. chap. v. cations between the different parts of the capital, except § 2. to the troops acting under bis own orders. The towers of the western enclosure and the monastery of St Eugenios were garrisoned. The emperor, at the head of a guard of fifty men-at-arms, hastened in person to the fire, and then made the round of the western enclosure during the remainder of the night. In this manner he prepared the troops for offering an efficient resistance to the invaders, and succeeded in restoring some degree of order among the inhabitants of the quarter most exposed to attack. The energy of the people was restored when it was found that the fire was accidental, and that the fortifications were uninjured. But in the quarter towards the Meidan, which was unprotected by walls, confusion continued to prevail. The inhabitants sought safety at the port, endeavouring to embark on board the vessels in the harbour. The nobles, whose palaces were situated in this quarter, instead of repairing to the citadel to aid in defending their country, placed themselves in security, by a precipitate flight to Iberia in the first ships they could hire. On the following day the sheik of Ertebil encamped on the hill above the quarter of Imaret Djamisi, extend- ing his lines to the ground now occupied by that pictur- esque mosque, and the tomb of the mother of sultan Selim I. 1 The towers of the fortification of Alexios defended the approach to the western bridge, and the great western ravine separated the enemy by an impassable gulf from the upper citadel. Though the sheik arrived too late to take advantage of the confusion of the preced- ing night, he still hoped to profit by the general alarm. His army was too small to attempt forming the regular 1 The mosque of Imaret buried in trees, the tomb of the sultana, the medressi or college cloisters, the public kitchen and bakehouse, and the stables for the steed of the lonely traveller, present a noble relic of the bright days of the Othoman power, when charity was as much an Osmanlee virtue as ferocious valour. They are all now crumbling under the finger of time and neglect. DEFEAT OP SHEIK OF ERTEBIL. 475 siege of a place so large as Trebizond, with its extensive chap. v. suburbs ; and the central citadel, protected by its two § 2. ravines, could only be assailed from the narrow isthmus to the south. The sheik of Ertebil, however, expected to terrify the Greeks into a surrender. He ordered his guards to bring out his most distinguished prisoner, Mavrokostas, an imperial equerry and postmaster of the empire, whom he had spared at the massacre of the other prisoners, but whom he now beheaded before the walls. This cruelty inflamed the garrison to seek revenge instead of disposing them to surrender, and the Mussulmans were repulsed in all their assaults on the western suburb. It was soon necessary to retreat from Trebizond ; and the sheik only encountered an additional repulse when he made an attack on the fort of Mesochalclion, in the hope that, by its capture, he might palliate his loss before the capital. In evacuating the territory of the empire, how- ever, he revenged himself for his failures by carrying off an immense booty and a crowd of slaves. 1 The empire of Trebizond was on the brink of ruin ; yet self-conceit blinded the emperor and his Greek sub- jects to the extent of the dangers that surrounded them. On no subject did their scholastic presumption so com- pletely stultify the Byzantine Greeks in every age as on their foreign policy. They always underrated the intellectual powers of their opponents, more, even, than they overrated their own political talents and physical force. Their minds were always confused by echoes of old Hellenic names, which they mistook for practical proofs of their own merits. Under the influence of this habitual defect, the emperor Joannes rejoiced when he heard of the death of the politic Murad II., and im- mediately began to project the means of converting the young sultan, Mohammed II., into a serviceable ally, believing that an experienced Greek like himself 1 Chalcocondylas, 247. 476 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. v. would easily mislead and overreach an inexperienced § 2. Turkish youth in the paths of diplomacy. In this he mistook both his own capacity and the character of the young sultan. It must seem strange to those who do not appreciate the full extent of the immemorial presumption of the Byzantine court, to find that all the Greek princes in this age shared the absurd fancy, that they should be able to direct the career of Mohammed II. to their own ends. Their diplomatic agents at the court of Murad II. must have had their perceptions strangely obscured by vanity, when they were unable to give their masters any presentiment of the great talents and firm character of the fiery Mohammed. Constantine, the last emperor of Constantinople, allowed himself to be so far deluded by this national self-conceit, as, in his diplomatic commu- nications with the Sublime Porte, to remind the sultan that it was in his power to raise a rebellion among the Turks, by releasing Orkhan, the great-grandson of sultan Bayezid, who was allowed to reside at Constantinople as a hostage, with a Turkish pension. Such menaces are rarely forgotten even by the weakest sovereigns. The young Mohammed revenged himself for the insult by putting an end to the Byzantine empire. With this example before him, the emperor Joannes IV. formed the plan of expelling the Othoman Turks from Asia Minor ; a plan which he vainly believed he could find others to execute under his direction. His negotiations did not escape the watchful eye of the young sultan, who, as soon at he had taken Constantinople, determined to give the emperor of Trebizond some fore- taste of the Othoman power. The first operations were intrusted to Chitir Bey, the governor of Amasia, who was ordered to make a vigorous attack on the empire by land and sea. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the towns inhabited by the Greeks, both in Europe and Asia, OTHOMANS ATTACK TttEBIZOND. 477 were visited by fearful pestilential maladies in such rapid chap. v. succession, that plague alone seemed to threaten the nation § 2 - with extinction. 1 This calamity was caused by the neglect of the people as much as by the rapacity of the government. No attention was any longer paid to the most necessary police and sanatory regulations, either by emperors, archonts, or municipal authorities. Each man in power was occupied in rendering his situation as profitable as possible, in a pecuniary point of view, to himself, his relations, and clients. Those measures which are absolutely requisite for the maintenance of health in crowded cities were disregarded, and the moral degrada- tion of the Greek people was fitly represented by the filthy condition in which the inhabitants of the densely populated localities were living. No human prudence, it is true, can guarantee mankind from every visitation of pestilence, but the corruption of society invariably pro- duces an augmentation of physical sufferings. At the time Ohitir Bey invaded the empire of Trebi- zond, the plague was carrying off the inhabitants of the capital with such fearful rapidity, that the emperor was unable to take any steps for defending his dominions. The Othomans plundered all the open country, and marched up to the walls of the capital, without meeting the slightest resistance. Chitir Bey descending from Bostepe, on which he had established his camp, attacked the eastern suburb, and made himself master of the Meidan and the neighbouring quarter. All the houses and magazines east of the fortified monastery of St Eugenios were pillaged, and two thousand prisoners were secured ; for the Turks, bold from their confidence in predestination, despised the danger of the plague. The emperor, unable to carry on war in the midst of a dying 1 In the short Chronicle at the end of Ducas, nine great plagues are men- tioned between the years 1348 and 1431, besides a partial pestilence in the Peloponnesus in 1422. Panaretos informs us that the state of Trebizond was no better. 478 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. v. population, and surrounded by sickly troops, offered to § 2. submit to any terms Chitir Bey thought fit to impose. The Othoman leader, seeing that the force under his command was inadequate to besiege the citadel, and having performed the task of reconnoitring the military power and political resources of the empire, consented to retire, and even to release his prisoners, on Joannes acknowledging himself a vassal of the Othoman empire. The emperor engaged to send an embassy to Constanti- nople, to receive the sultan's orders concerning the price of the definitive treaty of peace, and his brother David was the ambassador who presented himself before Mohammed II. Peace was granted on very easy terms, the sultan fixing the annual tribute of the empire of Trebizond at the paltry sum of three thousand pieces of gold. 1 The sultan, however, seems to have had no intention of abstaining from hostilities longer than suited his interests. This treaty put an end to the political independence of the Greeks, if, indeed, we are authorised to consider the mongrel and semi-Asiatic inhabitants of Trebizond and its territory as at this time possessing a claim to be regarded as true Greeks. The emperor Joannes knew that his tenure of power would be of short duration, unless he could break the chain that now bound him to the Sublime Porte. The last years of his reign were occupied in preparing for revolt. As the military resources of his own empire were inadequate to sustain a contest with a single pasha, and as he knew that he could count on no patriotic feelings in the breasts of his Greek subjects, who were absorbed in selfishness, nor on the hardy Lazian mountaineers, who were oppressed by the exactions of a host of imperial tax-gatherers, and impoverished by the extortions of senators and nobles, he was compelled to look abroad for some powerful ally. The daring courage and pros- 1 Chalcocondylas, 221, 248, edit. Par. OUZOUN HASSAN, CHIEF OF WHITE TURKOMANS. 479 perous fortunes of Ouzoun Hassan, the chieftain of the chap. v. Turkomans of the White Horde, who was then advancing § 2 - in a rapid career of conquest, made him a rival of Mo- hammed II. in the general estimation. 1 On being invited to join in a league against the Othoman Turks, Hassan demanded, as the price of his assistance, the hand of the emperor's daughter Katherine, who was renowned over all Asia as the most beautiful virgin in the East. He required also to be invested with the sovereignty of Cap- padocia as her dowry ; for it seems the Christians of that province, who were still numerous in the cities, attached some importance to the vain concession. Joannes IV. was delighted to purchase his alliance on such easy terms. Yet, in order to save the honour of a Christian emperor with the Christian world, and, perhaps, as a balm to his own conscience, more tender about marrying his daughter to an infidel than murdering his father, he inserted in the treaty a clause by which the beautiful Katherine was insured the exercise of her own religion, and the privilege of keeping a certain number of Christian ladies as her attendants, and of Greek priests in her suite, to serve a private chapel in the harem. To the honour of Hassan, it may be observed that he strictly fulfilled his engage- ments, after the empire of Trebizond and the house of Grand-Komnenos had ceased to exist. 2 Joannes also concluded alliances, offensive and defen- sive, with other princes, particularly with the Turkish emir of Sinope, who still maintained his independence, with the Seljouk sultan of Karamania, and with the Christian princes of Georgia and Cilician Armenia. All 1 Hassan, called Ouzoun Hassan, on account of his tall stature, was the grandson of Kara Youlouk. (the black leech) the first celebrated chieftain of the horde of the White Sheep. 2 Katherine was called by the people Despina Katon. Ramnusio, Delle Navigat. et Viaggi, torn. ii. 84. Fallmerayer, Geschichte, 261. The beauty of the princesses of Trebizond was a theme of universal praise, and its fame was echoed in the romances of the West. The sad lot which the fair face of the beautiful widow Eudocia procured her at Constantinople has been mentioned. 480 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. v. these allies engaged to make preparations for a vigorous § 2. attack on the Othoman dominions, and high expectations were entertained that the young Mohammed would be expelled from Asia Minor ; but, as often happens among allies, each member of the alliance trusted that his neigh- bour would prove more active and energetic than himself. At this critical conjuncture Joannes IV. died before witnessing the effects of the storm he had laboured to raise. He left a son named Alexios, only four } 7 ears old, who was set aside to allow his uncle David to mount the imperial throne. No respect for the rights of their nearest relations seems ever to have influenced the minds of Greek princes or nobles, to whom any chance of ascend- ing a throne presented itself. The ambition of wearing a crown annihilated every private virtue. From the days of the tyrants of Hellenic history, to those of the emperors of Constantinople and Trebizond, the feelings of family affection and the ties of duty were habitually neglected or contemned. The depravity of the house of Grand-Komnenos may have led David to violate his duty ; but the peculiar difficulties of the times would have served him as an apology for departing from the ordinary rules of succession, had it been possible by such a change to place an able administrator or an experienced warrior at the head of the government. In an ill-organised state a regency is often a greater evil than a usurpation. David, the new emperor, was a weak and cowardly man, and his conduct in usurping his nephew's place was the result of mere pride and vanity, not of noble or patriotic ambition. He had secured the support of the powerful family of the Kabasites, who were now independent lords of the province of Mesochaldion ; and this alliance, joined to the indifference of the people, fortified him against all opposition. 1 He could likewise pretend that the rule of succession to the empire was not so 1 Clmlcocondylas, 262. REIGN OF DAVID. 481 clearly laid clown as to exclude an uncle of full age, in a. d. preference to his nephew when a minor. im-im. SECT. III. — REIGN OP DAVID. CONQUEST OF TREBIZOND BY SULTAN MOHAMMED II. — 1458-1461. David was a fit agent for consummating the ruin of an empire. Proud, effeminate, and incapable, he blindly rushed forward in the course of policy his more energetic brother had traced out. All his attention was required to prepare for the coming war with the Othoman sultan ; and he was fortunate enough to gain a respite of two years before the commencement of hostilities, in consequence of Mohammed considering that the affairs of the Greek despots in the Morea required to be finally adjusted be- fore transferring the bulk of the Othoman armies into Asia. The haughty stupidity of David appears to have rendered him unable to appreciate the value of the strict discipline of the Janissaries, and the admirable organisa- tion of the sultan's armies, though he had seen them in full activity as he stood a suppliant before the Sublime Porte when soliciting the treaty for his brother. He was too little either of a soldier or a statesman to be sensible of the dangers of the contest into which he was hurrying. Yet he must have contemplated the possibility of his capital being besieged by Mohammed II., as it had often been by far weaker enemies. But even for this contin- gency he made no reasonable preparation. Nothing but the most complete ignorance of the changes which had recently taken place in the military art could induce any officer in Trebizond to fancy that the antiquated defences of the capital could offer any prolonged resistance to the system of attack with heavy artillery, of which the fall of Constantinople was a recent and terrific example. The romantic tower, crowning the highest point of the citadel, 2 H 482 EMPIRE OF TBEBIZOND. chap. v. recently added to the fortifications by Joannes IV., could § 3 - hardly, even in the opinion of David, have been considered a work capable of serving as a palladium against the Othoman power, any more than the bones of St Eugenios and other martyrs. Yet the emperor acted as if such was his firm conviction. The first step of David, as emperor, was to complete the matrimonial alliance of his family with Ouzoun Hassan; for Joannes IV. had died before the marriage of the beautiful Katherine had been celebrated. The fair princess was now sent to her bridegroom with suitable pomp. She soon acquired great influence over his mind, and in her conduct generally displayed more sense and talent than any other member of her house. New treaties of alliance were signed with Ismael of Sinope, and with the Christian princes of Georgia, Imerethi, Mingrelia, and Cilician Armenia. David even made an attempt to revive the expiring spirit of crusading zeal among the nations of western Europe ; but in his propositions for rendering the passions of the warlike Franks subservient to the transparent selfishness of Greek policy, he miscalculated the political sagacity of the Latins, and the diplomatic astuteness of the papal court. In the letters addressed by David to Pope Pius II. (iEneas Sylvius,) and to Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, to invite them to make a diversion in his favour on the side of Hungary, he indulged in such exaggeration and bombast, while enumerating the forces of his allies in Asia, that Pius II., though really disposed to do everything in his power against the Turks, could not trust the writer. After the capture of Trebizond, this Pope wrote a letter to Mohammed II., begging him to treat the Christians who had fallen under his sway with less severity ; but this request was probably of little service to the poor captives, for his Holiness availed himself of the opportunity to recommend the sultan to COMMUNICATIONS WITH POPE PIUS II. 483 embrace the Christian faith. 1 Philip of Burgundy was chap. v. as little pleased with the letter of the emperor as the § 3. Pope. David, in offering to reward his services by the futile promise that he would acknowledge the duke as king of Jerusalem, seemed to treat Philip as a child ; for if the duke of Burgundy could conquer this distant kingdom, he certainly stood in no need of the acknow- ledgment of a suppliant ally, who was begging aid to defend his own capital. To attack the Othoman sultan on the banks of the Danube, at the recommendation of the Greek sovereign of Trebizond, was, moreover, not the nearest way to conquer the kingdom of J erusalem, which was then in the hands of the Mamlouk kings of Egypt. The assistance the empire of Trebizond received from the Catholics was limited to the mission of a Minorite monk, who was sent by the Pope to preach war against the Othoman sultan among the Christians in Asia, and to promise support to their Mussulman allies. This emissary passed through Trebizond, on his way to Iberia, Georgia, Diarbekr, Cilicia, and Karamania. On his return, he brought back letters from the emperor of Trebizond, and the princes of Iberia and Georgia, and he was accompanied by their envoys, as well as by ambas- sadors from Ouzoun Hassan to the duke of Burgundy. 2 But Trebizond was taken by the Turks before Pope Pius II. could concert any steps for its defence. His zeal for a holy war was sincere ; and he died at Ancona in 1464, hastening forward preparations for an expedition against the Turks. The only result of the coalition against the Othoman 1 The letter of Pius II. is printed in the collection of Sansovino, Historia Universale delV Origine ed Imperio dV Turchi. 2 Wadding, Annul. Minor, torn. xiii. The letters of David and Pius II. to the duke of Burgundy are given by Fallmerayer, Geschichte, 266, from the work of the Pope himself, (iEneas Sylvius.) — See Opera Geoyraphica et Historica, Helmstadii, 1699, 4to. 484 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. v. power was to point out to Mohammed II. the enemies § 3. against whom it was necessary to turn his arms and make use of his diplomatic arts. It was evident that the only member of the alliance whose power and talents rendered him dangerous to the Othoman power w T as Ouzoun Hassan, and, at first, the Turkoman chief showed no eagerness to involve himself in the contest. His whole attention was directed to establishing his supremacy over the rival horde of the Black Turkomans. But the persuasion of his beautiful w r ife determined him to embark in the war with Turkey. In 1459 he sent an embassy to the Porte, to ask Mohammed to release David from the annual tribute of three thousand pieces of gold imposed on the empire, and at the same time he reminded the sultan that the Othoman Porte was indebted to the White Horde. Sultan Mohammed I. had agreed to purchase the friendship of Kara Youlouk, the grandfather of Ouzoun Hassan, by the payment of an annual tribute of one thousand prayer carpets, and an equal number of cavalry equipments ; but this tribute had now remained unpaid for nearly sixty years. The demand was justly considered by the sultan as an insulting bravado. His reply was worthy of the haughty race of Othman. After hearing the Turkoman envoy patiently to the end, he replied calmly, " Depart in peace ; I will soon come to Mesopotamia, and discharge all my debts." 1 As soon as Mohammed II. had completed the subju- gation of the Greeks in the Morea, he resolved to conquer those in Asia. In order to secure his European domin- ions from all inquietude during his Asiatic campaigns, he concluded peace with his brave enemy, the Albanian prince Scanderbeg, in the month of June 1461. 2 A large naval 1 Ducas, 192. Chalcocondylas, 261. 2 The chronology of Mohammed's operations in Asia Minor is rather doubtful. Little reliance can be placed on the Turkish historians, according to Hammer. Chalcocondylas, 258, says that the campaign against Sinope com- menced in the year after the conquest of the Morea, as soon as it was spring. MOHAMMED II. PREPARES FOR WAR. 485 and military force was already prepared for action. A fleet of a hundred and fifty galleys had been fitted out in the port of Constantinople during the winter, and a powerful army collected at Brusa in the spring. It would appear that about this time Mohammed wrested Amastris from the Genoese. That city was the principal Genoese fortress on the coast of Asia Minor, yet it surrendered the moment the sultan appeared in person before its walls ; and the republic felt itself too weak to declare war with the Othoman empire, even after this attack. The Genoese were willing to make any territorial sacrifice in the East, in order to preserve their commerce in the Black Sea. 1 The preparations of Mohammed had been immense, and their precise object was never communicated even to his own ministers. The inhabitants of Sinope, of Tre- bizond, and of CafFa, were all equally filled with conster- nation ; but their rulers felt so confident that the whole force of the storm would be directed against the Turko- mans, that they neglected to take the necessary precau- tions for an immediate siege. Before the Othoman army moved, it is said that the cadi of Brusa ventured to ask the sultan against what enemy he intended to direct his forces. The young sultan turned sharply to the inquisi- tive old judge, and replied, " If a hair of my beard knew my secret, I would pluck it out and cast it into the fire." The power of Mohammed II. was great, his military and naval resources inexhaustible, the valour and discip- line of the Othoman armies unrivalled, and their sove- reign's confidence in his own military talents boundless. Yet he did not disdain to employ deception and falsehood But Mohammed did not leave his capital before the end of June, as his letter, accepting the peace with Scanderbeg, is dated at Constantinople, 22d June 1461 ; Baiietius, 193; Lavardin, Histoire de Georges Castriot, surnomme Scan- derbeg, 323 ;) consequently the conquest of Trebizond must have taken place late in the year 1461. 1 Chalcocondylas, 245, mentions the conquest of Amastris at an earlier period ; but as he says that the sultan was present in person, which is con- firmed by the Turkish historians, it seems that it must have taken place in 1461, before the affair of Sinope. 486 EMPIRE OF TllEBIZOND. chap. v. for the furtherance of his ends. The Phanariots had § 3. already taught their Turkish lords that these were the most effective weapons of political experience. Moham- med's eagerness to increase his territorial possessions, as the real foundation of a prince's glory, led him to con- found deceit with wisdom, and ferocity with valour. No falsehood appeared to be dishonourable, if it tended to aid him in his conquests, or enabled him to spare the blood of his veteran troops ; nor did any cruelty appear blamable that was exercised against the Christian faith, or the enemies of the house of Othinan. The sultan's first object was to detach Tsmael, the emir of Sinope, from his alliance with the emperor of Tre- bizond. The fortress of Sinope was strong, and in a con- dition to make a long defence. Its port is the best on the southern shore of the Black Sea ; so that its posses- sion was absolutely necessary for the security of the left flank of the Othoman army. If it were besieged, the whole summer might be wasted, and the Turkomans, by making an irruption into the heart of Asia Minor, might find an opportunity of raising the siege. Mohammed, therefore, conceived that he could gain possession of the place more rapidly by deceit than by force of arms. An envoy was sent to Ismael, to assure him that the expedi- tion of the Othoman army was destined to bestow the inestimable gift of the true faith on the infidels of Tre- bizond, and that he had nothing to fear. The emir of Sinope, willing, on the near approach of danger, to secure peace for himself, and fearing perhaps to appear as the ally of Christians, and the enemy of Mussulmans engaged in a holy war, allowed himself to be deceived by the sultan's assurances, and neglected to put his capital in a state of defence. When Mohammed had made himself master of Amas- tris, and concluded his treaty with Scanderbeg, he hastened to the headquarters of his army, which had advanced to WEALTH AND RESOURCES OF SINOrE. 487 Angora. The son of Ismael presented himself in the a.d. camp, bearing rich presents from his father. The position i46i. of the Othoman army now cut off all hope from the emir of Sinope of receiving aid from the Turkomans. Amasia was occupied by a powerful body of troops, and the Othoman fleet was already in sight. The sultan, though still wearing the mask of friendship, changed his tone, and communicated his orders to Ismael in a hypocritical strain of advice. He counselled the emir to surrender Sinope, since the Othoman power alone was capable of defending a city whose possession was so important to the true faith, and he offered in exchange a territory in Europe of equal value. Ismael, who was a weak man, destitute of energy, and inspired by no feeling of patriot- ism, felt so alarmed at this sudden display of hostile feeling on the part of his powerful neighbour, that he was glad to secure what we may call a large civil list : he resigned his dominions, and received the government of Philippopolis as an indemnity for the hereditary prin- cipality of Sinope. The resources at the command of this feeble prince, and the strength of the situation of Sinope, were, in the opinion of Mohammed II., cheaply purchased by a sacri- fice of truth and honour. Ismael was one of the wealthiest sovereigns of his time. He possessed a well-filled treasury, besides an annual income of two hundred thousand gold staters or ducats. The rich copper mines in his territory alone yielded about fifty thousand staters annually to the sultan, after he entered on their possession. The ram- parts of the isthmus which connects Sinope with the mainland, and the fortifications which overlooked its two ports, were crowned with four hundred pieces of artillery, large and small. The garrison consisted of two thousand musketeers, and ten thousand soldiers armed in the ordinary manner of the age, with spear, bow, sword, and iron mace. Many war-galleys and large ships were 488 EM PI EE OF TREBIZOKD. chap. v. ready for sea in the ports ; and one of these was of the § 3. burden of nine hundred pithoi, which we may perhaps call tons. It was then the largest vessel in the Eastern seas. The magazines were filled with provisions and military stores. But the cowardice of Ismael rendered all these advantages unavailing, and Mohammed II. became master of Sinope without opposition. 1 The sultan hastened eastward by the road of Amasia and Sivas. An army of Turkomans attempted to arrest his progress ; but it was swept from his path by the charge of the Janissaries, and Arsinga and Kayounlon Hissar were occupied without further opposition. Ouzoun Hassan, who had taken up a position in the passes lead- ing to Kamakh, perceived that he had nothing to hope in a pitched battle with the thorn an army, which ex- ceeded his own in numbers as much as in discipline. The country was ill adapted for the effective employment of cavalry, and it was only by availing himself of the excellence of his light horse that the Turkoman chieftain could expect victory. He saw the necessity of soliciting peace, and sent his mother as his ambassador to the sultan. Mohammed was fully aware of the impolicy of involving himself in a protracted war either amidst the mountains of Armenia or in the great plains beyond the Euphrates, into which it would be easy for the Turkomans to retire, and from whence they could renew their attacks as soon as the Othoman army was compelled to disperse in order to garrison its conquests. Under these circum- stances, Mohammed listened with pleasure to the suppli- cations of Hassan's mother, and a treaty of peace was 1 Sinope still presents an interesting but rude miniature of Strabo's descrip- tion. The land wall across the isthmus is in such a neglected state, that several towers are inclining from the perpendicular, so that it offers no traces of that strength which could have resisted the attacks of Mohammed. It contains hardly five thousand inhabitants ; yet the natural advantages of its situation, and its valuable port enlivened by the Greek quarter rising on the peninsula that overlooks it, with the houses shaded by frees, impress the mind of the traveller with wonder, that human institutions can so completely neutralise every advantage of nature as they now do in this celebrated spot. MOHAMMED II. ATTACKS TREBIZOND. 489 concluded. Its principal condition was, that the Chris- tians of Trebizond were abandoned to their fate by the chieftain of the White Turkomans. Thus ended the coalition with the Mussulmans, which the emperor Joannes IV. had regarded as a masterpiece of diplomatic skill, and on which he had counted for the ruin of the Othoman power, and the aggrandisement of the Greek empire of Trebizond. David was now left to encounter the whole force of his enemy without any ally. In the year 1459, when he expected an immediate attack, he had made arrangements for enrolling twenty thousand troops and fitting out thirty galleys. The mountaineers of Georgia were ready to furnish experienced warriors, and among the Frank and Italian adventurers in the Black Sea he could have found many brave and skilful mariners. The storm was delayed ; David forgot his danger; and the autumn of 1461 found him utterly unprepared to sustain a prolonged siege in his capital. When the sultan led his army against the Turkomans, the fleet quitted Sinope, and began to blockade Trebi- zond, in order to cut off its communications with Caffa and Georgia. The troops on board the fleet landed, burned the suburbs, and invested the fortress. For thirty-two days the place was closely blockaded, but little progress was made in pushing forward the siege. The news then reached the camp that the Turkomans had been defeated, and that Ouzoun Hassan had concluded a separate peace, and abandoned his Christian ally to his fate. The emperor David, on hearing the news, lost all hope of defending his empire, and thought only of preserving his treasures and his life. The example of Constantine, the last emperor of Constantinople, who, by falling gloriously in the breach, had raised an imperishable monument in the hearts of all the Greeks, awakened no sympathetic feeling in the breast 490 EMPIRE OF TKEBIZOND. chap. v. of the last emperor of the degraded race of Grand- § 3. Komnenos. Mohammed II. lost no time in leading his army over the lofty and inhospitable chain of mountains that serves as a barrier to the city of Trebizond. The advanced guard, under Mahmoud Pasha, took up its position at Skylolimne, 1 and summoned David to surrender his capital. The cowardly prince declared that he was ready to enter into negotiations for a capitulation. Messengers were instantly despatched to inform the sultan of the humble sentiments of his enemy, and spare the advance of any more troops from the interior to the sea-coast. Mohammed II. dictated the terms on which he was willing to accept the submission of David. He required the instant surrender of the fortress and citadel of Tre- bizond, and offered, in exchange, to assign the emperor an indemnity in the shape of an appanage equal in value to that which he had conferred on Demetrius Paleologos, the dethroned despot of Misithra. To hasten the decision of the timid emperor, Mohammed added a threat, that in case his offer was not immediately accepted, he would storm Trebizond, and put all the inhabitants to the sword. David had no thought of resisting ; he only desired to secure the terms most advantageous to his own personal interests : of his subjects he took no heed, for he trans- ferred them to the sultan without even one single request in their favour. He would fain have bargained with the sultan for better conditions for himself ; but when he found this to be hopeless, he embarked with his family and his treasures on board one of the Turkish galleys, to enjoy luxurious ease in his European appanage. Pope Pius II. endeavoured to do more for the Greeks than either the emperor of Trebizond or the despots of the Morea. 1 Skylolimne, dog-lake, is called by the Turks Gultchai'r, or rose-meadcw. It is a small marsh about three miles from Trebizond. COWARDLY SURRENDER OF TREBIZOND. 491 Kerasunt, which was occupied by a garrison of im- perial troops, and Mesochaldion, the stronghold of the Kabasites, surrendered on the first summons. Even the inhabitants of the mountains submitted to the sultan's government without an attempt at resistance. The people generally found the Othoman administration less rapa- cious than that of the Greek emperors ; and the tyranny of the nobles prevented the rural population from feeling any attachment to the semi-independent princes in the different parts of the empire. The population of the city of Trebizond, however, had cause to repent bitterly the cowardice of their emperor. Had their city been taken by storm, their condition could not have been worse. There can hardly be a doubt that had Trebizond been defended by a man possessing a small portion of the courage and military skill of the Albanian prince Scanderbeg, Mohammed II. would have been compelled to abandon the siege and withdraw his army until the following spring ; or, had he persisted in attacking the place so late in the year, he would have met with a repulse as disastrous as that which he suffered under the walls of Belgrade. In a few weeks the Othoman fleet must have quitted the open anchorage of Trebizond, and it would have been impossible to keep the army properly supplied with provisions and stores by sea during the storms of an Euxine winter. To attempt the collection of provisions for the army in the mountainous districts around would have been unavailing, while it would have involved the troops in a desultory warfare with a brave and hardy population, and exposed the sultan to have all his communications by land cut off, even during the intervals when the weather in this cold and rainy district left the road passable. Sultan Mohammed saw and appreciated these difficulties. His rapid advance from Sinope had prevented the army from bringing up the 492 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. v. necessary tents and baggage for an autumnal encampment. § 3. No siege artillery had arrived with the fleet, nor had preparations been commenced for casting battering-guns by the blockadiDg squadron. In all probability, there- fore, if the emperor of Trebizond had boldly refused to listen to any terms of surrender, and contented himself with offering an increase of tribute, and a sum of money to the sultan for the expenses of the war, prudence would have induced Mohammed to accept these terms as the best he could obtain, and withdraw his army without loss of time. The thorn an troops could never have passed the winter encamped in this secluded corner of Asia without suffering great losses, and exposing even the empire of Mohammed II. to some great disaster. The force of these observations, and the natural pro- pensity of mankind rather to accuse a subject of treachery than to believe a sovereign can be guilty of meanness and cowardice, led the Greeks to accuse George, the protovestiarios of the empire of Trebizond, of having caused the surrender of the capital by the treacherous communications he made to the sultan, and the bad advice he gave to the emperor. George happened to be the cousin of Mahmoud Pasha, the commander of the first division of the Othoman army ; he was, therefore, selected as the envoy sent to negotiate the surrender. This was sufficient to excite the imaginations of the Greeks, who held it less dishonourable to their nation to suppose that the last independent Greek state was conquered by the treachery of an individual, than by the cowardice of its sovereign and the degradation of its people. They had found a melancholy consolation in attributing the fall of Constantinople to the weakness of Justiniani, yet they ought to have felt that if a few hundred Greeks had fought by the side of Constantine until the last day of the siege as bravely as Justiniani, Mohammed II. might have been foiled in his attack. SUFFERINGS OF TREBIZOND. 493 George, the protovestiarios, was perhaps accused with as A . d. much injustice as Justiniani. After all, little persuasion U61-1462. must have sufficed to induce the timid David to sur- render a fortress he had made no proper preparations to defend. 1 Sultan Mohammed passed the winter at Trebizond. The internal administration of this important conquest, forming an advanced post amidst people still hostile to the Othoman domination, required to be regulated with care, in order to prevent the Christians from finding an opportunity of future rebellion. No infliction of human suffering affected the policy of Mohammed, so that the measures he adopted were of frightful efficacy. Only one-third of the Christian population, composed exclu- sively of the lower classes, was allowed to remain in the capital ; and even this remnant was compelled to take up its residence in the distant suburb of St Philip, beyond the Meidan, overlooking the dwellings of the fishermen. The wealthy Greeks, the independent nobles, the Kabasites, and other members of the territorial aris- tocracy, were ordered to emigrate to Constantinople. Their estates in the country, and their palaces in the capital, were conferred on Othoman officers, unless some individual in the family of the possessor became a rene- gade ; in that case, he was usually put in possession of the family property. The remainder of the population, consisting of young persons of both sexes, were set apart as slaves for the sultan and the army. The boys of the noblest families, remarkable for strength and beauty, were placed in the imperial serai as pages, or in the schools of administration as pupils. Eight hundred youths were selected to be enrolled in the corps of Janissaries, and crowds were dispersed among the soldiers in the capacity of slaves. 1 Dorotheos, metrop. of Monemvasia, Greek History, p. 553, edit. 1631. Crusius, Tarco-Grcecia, 21. 494 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. v. The whole Christian population having been expelled § 3. from the ancient city, the houses were distributed among a Mussulman colony of Azabs ; and for many years no Christian was allowed to pass the two narrow bridges over the magnificent ravines of Gouzgoun-dere and Isse- lepol, which form the gigantic ditches to the table-rock of Trapezous. The citadel was garrisoned by a body of Janissaries, and the palace of the emperors became the residence of the pasha, who, from the tower recently constructed by Joannes IV., looked out over the amphitheatre where the emperor Joannes I. had died playing at Tchoukan. The dethroned emperor David was not long permitted to enjoy the repose he had purchased at the price of so much infamy. For a few years he lived undisturbed at Mavronoros, near Serres, which he had received in ex- change for his empire. At length he was suddenly arrested by order of the sultan, and sent with his whole family to Constantinople. Mohammed began to suspect that the dethroned emperor was carrying on secret communications with Ouzoun Hassan, and plotting to re-establish the empire of Trebizond. The great Turkoman chieftain had prospered after his defeat. He had com- pleted the subjugation of the Black Horde, and conquered all Persia, so that Mohammed felt seriously alarmed lest he should join his forces to the army of the sultan of Karamania, who was preparing to attack the Othoman empire. At this crisis a letter from Despina Katon to her uncle David was intercepted by the Othoman emis- saries. The fair Katherine requested David to send her brother, or one of her cousins, to be educated at the court of her husband. This letter afforded convincing proof to the suspicious sultan that David was plotting with the enemies of the Porte and Ouzoun Hassan, to recover possession of Trebizond and re-establish the empire. Mohammed's suspicion was a sentence of death to the DAVID AND HIS WHOLE FAMILY PUT TO DEATH. 495 whole race of Grand-Komnenos. When David arrived cuav. v. at Constantinople he was ordered to embrace the Moslem § 3. faith, under pain of death. Adversity had improved the unfortunate prince. Though he had been formerly a contemptible emperor, he was now a good Christian. He rejected the condition proposed with firmness, and pre- pared to meet his end with a degree of courage and dignity very unlike his conduct in quitting the palace of his ancestors. His nephew Alexios, whom he had ex- cluded from the throne, and his own seven sons, perished with him. 1 Even George, the youngest, who had been separated from his family and compelled to become a Mussulman, was executed with the rest of his family, lest he should find an opportunity, at some future period, of joining the Turkomans and reviving his claims to the sovereignty of Trebizond. The bodies of the princes were thrown out unburied beyond the walls. No one ventured to approach them, and they would have been abandoned to the dogs, accustomed during the reign of Mohammed II. to feast on Christian flesh, had the empress Helena not re- paired to the spot where they lay, clad in a humble garb, with a spade in her hand. She spent the day guarding the remains of her husband and children, and digging a ditch to inter their bodies. In the darkness of the night com- passion, or a sense of duty, induced some of the friends and followers of her house to aid in committing the bodies to the dust. The widowed and childless empress then retired to pass the remainder of her life in mourning and prayer. Her surviving daughter was lost to her in a Turkish harem. Grief soon conducted her to a refuge in the grave. 2 1 Alexios, the son of Joannes IV., Lad been assigned a residence in Pera. The name Beyoglou, by which this suburb is known to the Turks, is said to have been given it when it became his residence. — Constantiniade, oil Descrip- tion de Constantinople Ancienne et Moderne, p. 162. 2 Chalcocondylas, 265 ; Phrantzes, 414, edit. Bonn.; Crusius, Tnrco Grcecia, 21 ; and Spandugino, recount the facts relating to the fall of Trebizond. The execution of David took place in the interval between 1466 and 1472. 496 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. v. The Greek population of Trebizond never recovered § 3. from the blow inflicted on it by Mohammed II. No Christian descendants of the families who inhabited the city in the times of the emperors now survive. Of the four hundred families who at present dwell in the suburbs, all have emigrated from the neighbouring provinces within the last two centuries. 1 The only undoubted remains of the ancient race of inhabitants are to be found in a class of the population that has embraced Islam, or, to speak more correctly, that conforms to the external rites of the Moslem faith, while it retains a traditional respect for Christianity. A large portion of the mountaineers of Colchis embraced Islam ; some became confounded with the rest of the Mussulmans in the Othoman empire ; but the inhabitants of some districts retained a slight tincture of Christianity in the interior of their own families, and for four centuries they have preserved this attach- ment to the religion of their ancestors. Their con- version, which for many generations was simulated, be- came at last almost complete. They always, however, openly boasted of their descent from Christian ances- tors, and they owed the toleration they obtained from the Osmanlees more to a conviction of the strength of their sinews than to any confidence in the purity of their faith. 2 In concluding the history of this Greek state, we inquire in vain for any benefit that it conferred on the human race. It seems a mere eddy in the torrent of events that connects the past with the future. The Mohammed II. marched against Ishak, sultan of Karamania, in 1466, shortly after David was arrested. But his execution may have been delayed until Ouzoun Hassan became the chief object of the sultan's attention. In 1472 Mohammed II. defeated Ouzoun Hassan at Otloukbeli, in the mountains near Arsinga. 1 Fallmerayer, Fragmente mis dem Orient, vol. i. p. 67. 2 The Greeks call them Krumlidhes, a name which seems connected with, or derived from, the same source as that of a distinguished family of Mussul- man-Christians in Crete, of whom a good account will be found in Pashley's Travels in Crete, i. 105. CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 4.97 tumultuous agitation of the stream did not purify a single chap. v. drop of the waters of life. Yet the population enjoyed § 3 - great advantages over most of the contemporary nations. The native race of Lazes was one of the handsomest, strongest, and bravest in the East. The Greek colonists, who had dwelt in the maritime cities until they were children of the soil, have always ranked high in intellectual endowments. The country is one of the most fertile, beautiful, and salubrious on the face of the earth. The empire enjoyed a regular civil administration, and an admirable system of law. The religion was Christianity that boasted of the purest orthodoxy. But the results of all these advantages were small indeed. The brave Lazes were little better than serfs of a proud aristocracy. The Greeks were slaves of a corrupted court. The splendid language and rich literature which were their best inheri- tance were neglected. The scientific fabric of Roman ad- ministration and law was converted into an instrument of oppression. The population was degraded, demoralised, and despised, alike by Italian merchants and Turkish warriors. Christianity itself was perverted into an ecclesiastical institution. The church, too, subject to that of Constantinople, had not even the merit of being national. Its mummery alone was popular. St Euge- nios, who seems to have been a creation of Colchian paganism as much as of Greek superstition, was the prominent figure in the Christianity of Trebizond. The greatest social defect that pervaded the population was the intense selfishness which is evident in every page of its history. For nine generations no Greek was found who manifested a love of liberty or a spirit of patriotism. The condition of society which produced the vicious education so disgraceful in its effects, must have arisen from a total want of those parochial and local institutions that bind the different classes of men together by ties of duty and benevolence, as well as of interest. No practical 2 I 498 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND. chap. v. acquaintance with the duties of the individual citizen, in § 3 - his every-day relations to the public, can ever be gained, unless he be trained to practise them by constant disci- pline. It is, doubtless, far more difficult to educate good rulers than good subjects ; but even the latter is not an easy task. No laws can alone produce the feeling of self- respect ; and where the sense of shame is wanting, the very best laws are useless. The education that produces suscep- tibility of conscience is more valuable than the highest cultivation of legislative, legal, and political talents. The most important, and in general the most neglected, part of national education, in all countries, has been the primary relations of the individual to the commonwealth. The endless divisions and intense egoism that arose out of the Hellenic system of autonomy, where every village was a sovereign state, disgusted the higher classes with the basis of all true liberty and social prosperity. Despotism was lauded as the only protection against anarchy, and it often afforded the readiest means of securing some degree of impartiality in the administration of justice. But despot- ism has ever been the great devourer of the wealth of the people. The despotism of the Athenian democrats de- voured the wealth of the free Greek cities and islands of the Egean. The Roman empire of despots annihilated the accumulated riches of all the countries from the Euphrates to the ocean. The empires of Byzantium and of Trebi- zond were mild modifications of Roman tyranny, on which weakness had imposed a respect for order and law that contended with the instincts of the imperial government. Yet, with all the imperfections of its society, and all the faults of its government, it is probable that the two centuries and a half during which the empire of Trebizond existed, contributed to effect a beneficial change in the condition of the mass of the population over the East. That change, however, was developed in the general condition of man- kind, and must be traced in a more enlarged view of society than falls within the scope of the History of Trebizond. APPENDIX i. Chronological List of the Emperors of Romania. Baldwin I., count of Flanders and Hainault, Henry, Peter of Courtenay, Robert, . Baldwin II., John de Brienne, Baldwin II., 1204 to 1205 1206 — 1216 1216 1220 1228 1231 1219 1228 1237 1261 Titular Emperors. Baldwin II. until his death, . . . . 1273 Philip I. of Courtenay, .... 1273 — 1286 Catherine I. of Courtenay, married to Charles of Valois, ..... 1286 — 1308 Catherine II. of Valois, married to Philip of Tar- entum, . . . . .1308 Philip II. of Tarentum, . . . 1313 Robert of Tarentum, prince of A chaia, . . 1346 Philip III. of Tarentum, . . . 1364 James de Baux or Balza, . . . 1373 1346 1332 1364 1373 1383 The descendants of Baldwin II. became then extinct. 500 APPENDIX. II. Chronological Ltst of the Kings of Saloniki. no. ii. Boniface ; marquis of Montferrat, . . 1204 to 1207 Demetrius, ..... 1207 — 1222 Titular Kings. Demetrius, . . . . . 1222 — 1227 Boniface III., marquis of Montferrat, (the Giant,) 1227 — 1254 William, marquis of Montferrat, (the Great,) . 1254 — 1284 William ceded the title to the Byzantine emperor, Andronicus IT., who married his daughter Irene. William dalle Carceri, signor of Negrepont, married a daughter of King Demetrius, and assumed the title of King of Saloniki, which he bore in 1243. 1 The house of Burgundy received a grant of the kingdom of Saloniki from Baldwin II. in 1266, when he was only titular em- peror of Romania. Hugh IV. of Burgundy, .... 1266 to 1272 Robert, . . . . .' .' 1272 — 1305 Hugh V., 1305 — 1313 Louis, prince of Achaia, . . . 1313 — 1315 Eudes IV., duke of Burgundy, sold his royal title to Philip of Tarentum, by which it became reunited with the empire of Romania, . 1315 — 1320 III. Chronological List of the Despots of Epirus, the Emperors of Thessalonica, and the Princes of Thessalian Vlakia. Despots of Epirus. Michael I., Angelos Comnenos Ducas, . . 1204 to 1214 Theodore, became emperor of Thessalonica . 1214 1 Rainaldi, Annates Ecdes., aim. 1213, torn. xxi. p. 298. APPENDIX. 501 Emperors of Thessalonica. Theodore, . Manuel, . John, son of Theodore, John governed Thessalonica as despot, Demetrius, his brother, Despots of Epirus. Michael II., natural son of Michael I., Nicephorus I., Thomas I., Thomas II., count of Cephalonia, John, count of Cephalonia, Nicephorus II., count of Cephalonia, Princes' of Thessalian Ylakia. John Dukas, natural son of Michael II., Son of John Dukas, John Dukas II., . 1222 to 1230 no. iv. 1230 — 1232 ■ 1232 — 1234 1234 — 1244 1244 — 1246 1230 1267 1293 1258 1290 1300 1267 1293 1318 — 1337 1290 1300 1308 Despot of Epirus of Servian origin. Thomas Prelubos, .... 1367 — 1385 Esau Buondelmonte married the widow of Prelubos, 1386 — 1399 Despots of Epirus of the Family of Tocco. Charles I., count palatine of Cephalonia, duke of Leucadia, ..... 1400 — 1429 Charles II., 1429 — 1452 Leonard, ..... 1452 — 1469 IV. Chronological List of the Dukes of Athens. House of De la Roche. Otho, .... Guy I., de Ray, John, son of Guy, William, brother of John, Guy II., son of William, House of Brienne. Walter de Brienne, cousin of Guy II., 1205 to 1225 1225 — 1264 1264 — 1275 1275 — 1290 1290 — 1308 1308 — 1311 502 APPENDIX. Catalan Grand Company. Roger Deslau, . 1311 to 1326 House of Ar agon, Dukes of Athens and Neopatras. Manfred, son of Frederic II., king of Sicily, William, son of Frederic II., John, regent of Sicily, son of Frederic II., Frederic, marquis of Randazzo, son of John, Frederic III., king of Sicily, Maria, daughter of Frederic III., married Mar tin, king of Aragon, House of Acciaiuoli, Nerio I., .... Antonio, his natural son, Nerio II,, grand-nephew of Nerio I., Infant son of Nerio II., with his mother as regent, ..... Franco, nephew of Nerio II., . 1326 1330 1338 1348 1355 1330 1338 1348 1355? 1377 1377 — 1386 1386 1394 1435 1453 1455 1394 1435 1453 1455 1456 V. Chronological List of the Princes op Achaia and Morea. William de Champlitte, . . . 1205 to 1210 Geffrey I. Villehardoin, . . . 1210 — 1218 Geffrey IL, ..... 1218 — 1246 William, 1246 — 1277 Isabella, married thrice — . . . 1277 — 1311 1. Philip, son of Charles of Anjou, king of Naples, died 1278 2. Florenz of Hainault, , 1291 to 1297 3. Philip of Savoy, . ] 301 — 1311 Maud of Hainault, married thrice — . . 1311 — 1317 1. Guy II., duke of Athens, who died . . 1308 2. Louis of Burgundy, . 1313 to 1315 3. Hugh de la Palisse, . 1316 Claimants of the Principality. John, count of Gravina, pretended husband of Maud of Hainault, . . . 1317 — 1324 APPENDIX. 503 Eucles IV., duke of Burgundy, under his brother's no. VI. will. Philip of Tarentum, as lord-paramount, in virtue of the forfeiture of Maud, and by purchase from Eudes IV., .... 1324 to 1332 Robert, titular emperor of Romania, . . 1332 — 1364 Mary de Bourbon, widow of Robert, . . 1364 — 1387 Louis, duke of Bourbon, her nephew, died in 1410. Suzerains or Lords-paramount of Achaia. The Latin emperors of Romania, until Baldwin II. ceded his rights to Charles of Anjou, king of Naples, in . . . . 1267 Charles of Anjou, .... 1267 — 1285 Charles II., king of Naples, . . . 1285 — 1294 Charles II. ceded his rights to his son Philip of Tarentum, who married Catherine of Valois, titular empress. Philip of Tarentum, .... 1294 — 1332 Catherine of Valois, by grant from her husband, 1332 — 1346 Robert, titular emperor and reigning prince of Achaia, ..... 1346 — 1364 Philip III., titular emperor, 1364 — 1373 James de Baux, .... 1373 — 1383 VI. Chronological List of Byzantine Despots in the Morea. From the time Misithra and the other fortresses were ceded to the emperor Michael VIII., until the year 1 349, the Byzantine possessions in the Morea were ruled by a Strategos, whose term of command was generally short, . 1262 to 1349 Manuel Cantacuzenos, . . . 1349 — 1380 Theodore Paleologos I.,son of the emperor John V., 1388 — 1407 Theodore Paleologos II., son of Manuel II., . 1407 — 1443 Constantine XL, the last emperor of Constan- tinople, . . . . . 1428 — 1450 Thomas, governor of Kalavryta in 1428, despot, 1430 — 1460 Demetrius, ..... 1450 — 1460 504 APPENDIX. VII. Chronological list of Dukes of the Archipelago and Naxos. Family of Sanudo. — Dukes of the Archipelago. 1. Mark L, 1207 to 1220 2. Angelo, ..... 1220 1244 3. Mark II., 1244 1263 4. William I., 1263 1285 5. Nicholas I., . 1285 1306 6. John I., brother of Nicholas, 1306 1307 7. John II. dalle Carceri, husband of Florence Sanudo, ..... 1307 1326 8. Nicholas II. Spezzabanda, second husband of Florence, .... 1326 1345 9. Nicholas III., son of John II. and Florence Sanudo, ..... 1345 1381 Family of Crispo. — Dukes of Naxos. 10. Francis I., sign or of Melos, . 1381 1414 11. James I., . . . - 1414 — 1438 12. John III., brother of James I., lO. o aillciS J--L., ..... 1451 1454 14. John James, .... 1454 1455 15. William II., son of Francis I., 1455 1458 16. Francis II., son of Nicholas, signor of San- torin, . 1458 1472 17. James III., ..... 1472 1482 18. John IV., brother of James III., 1482 1487 19. Francis III., .... 1487 1508 20. John V., ..... 1508 1546 21. James IV., ..... 1546 1566 VIII. Chronological list of the Emperors of Trebizond. 1. Alexios I., Grand-Komnenos, . . 1204 — 1222 2. Andronikos I., Ghidos, . . . • . 1222 — 1235 APPENDIX. 505 3. *Joannes I., Axouchos, 1 1 93^ 1 93ft \rn vttt 4. * Manuel I., the great captain, 1 93ft 1 9A3 5. Andronikos II., 1 9£3 1 9AA 1.400 6. Georgios, .... 1ZOO — 1 9ftO 7. * Joannes II., 1 980 1 9Q7 o. ^liieocioia, .... 1 98^ y. ^Aiexios 11., 1 907 1 330 1 oou 10. Andronikos III., 1 330 LooV — 1 339 ii. ivianuei n., . . 1 339 1 339 L&. ^.DasiilOS, .... xOOZt 1 310 13. Irene, .... i 3io 1 31.1 14. Anna Anachoutlou, i 3ii LO'i 1 1 3zL9 10. Joannes ill., 1 319 1 3zL/L lD'±4fc 1 6 Michael JL v/a j-l_Lll_ 111 IV, 1 » • • • • 1344 1349 17. *Alexios III., 1349 — 1390 18. *Manuel III., 1390 — 1417 19. *AlexiosIV., 1417 — 1446 20. * Joannes IV., Kalojoannes,2 1446 — 1458 21. *David, 3 .... 1458 — 1461 1 The asterisk marks the sovereigns of whom coins are known to exist. These coins are silver aspers and half aspers. The larger appear to be the miliaresion, of which twelve were equal to a gold byzant. They weigh less than two pennyweights. The gold coins of the emperors of Trebizond have not been distinguished from those of Constantinople. There are some con- cave copper pieces, with St Eugenios on the reverse, that seem to belong to Trebizond. Mons. de Sauley, Suites Monetaires Byzantines, 330, and Kohne, Beiirage zur Geschichte und Archeologie von Chersonesos in Taurien, 231, have persisted in attributing these coins to Cherson, though Baron Marchant had pointed out the reason for assigning them to Trebizond. The question no longer admits of doubt. Mr Borrel of Smyrna, who it is to be hoped will soon publish the result of his great experience and valuable researches in the unexplored regions of Byzantine numismatics, possesses a silver asper with Trebizond in the legend. The author also observed a painting of the emperor Manuel I. in the mosque of St Sophia, in which there is a medallion of St Eugenios on horseback, in the attitude in which he is represented on some of the coins on the emperor's breast. For the coins, see Essai sur les Aspres Com- nenats, ou blancs d' argent de Trebizond, par F. de Pfaffenhoffen. 2 Fallmerayer, Original- Frag mente, Erste Abtheilung, p. 68, in Abhand- lungen der Hist. Classe der K. Bayerischen ATcademie, iii. Band. iii. Abth., gives an inscription in the outer face of the great tower in the citadel, which indi- cates that the tower was finished in 1460 ; and he supposes the reign of John IV., who built it, ended in that year. Historians place his death earlier, and the inscription seems only to give the date of the completion of the work of John. 3 For the coin of David, see Revue Archceologique, 15 Mai, 1849. 506 APPENDIX. IX. Genealogical Table of the Family op Grand-Komnenos. no. ix. Andronicus L, emperor of Constantinople, who reigned from 1182 to 1186, was the progenitor of this family. He was the son of Isaac, third son of the emperor Alexius I., and cousin to the emperor Manuel I. An elder brother of Andronicus, named John, abjured the Christian religion, and was called by the Turks Tchelebi, or the young lord. The Greeks afterwards pretended that he was the progenitor of the Othoman sultan, but this is a mere fable. Manuel, the eldest son of the emperor Andronicus, was the father of two sons, Alexios and David. I. Alexios, first emperor of Trebizond, 1204-1222, assumed the name of Grand-Komnenos. He left three children, Joannes I., Manuel I., and a daughter. II. Andronicus I., Ghidos, married the daughter of Alexios I., and succeeded his father-in-law. He died in 1235 without issue. III. Joannes I., called Axouchos, 1235-1238. He left a son called Joanikios, who was excluded from the throne and became a monk. IV. Manuel I. the great captain, (6 o-TpaniyiKotTaTos,) 1238- 1263, second son of Alexios I., was married three times. I. To Roussadan, princess of Iberia, by whom he had a daughter, Theodora. 2. To Anna Xylaloe, by whom he had Andronikos II. 3. To Irene Syrikaina, by whom he had Georgios and Joannes II. V. Andronikos II., 1263-1266, died without issue. VI. Georgios, 1266-1280, son of Manuel I. and Irene, died without issue. VII. Joannes II., 1280-1297, second son of Manuel I. and Irene, married Eudocia, daughter of Michael VIII. Paleologos, emperor of Constantinople, in the year 1282. He had two sons, Alexios II., his successor, and Michael XVI., emperor of Trebizond. Eudocia died in 1302. VIII. Theodora, the daughter of Manuel I., by his first marriage with the Iberian princess Roussadan, was the eighth sovereign of Trebizond. She drove her brother, Joannes II. , from the throne in the year 1285, and governed the empire for a short time. IX. Alexios II., 1297-1330, was the ninth sovereign. He APPENDIX. 507 was born in the year 1283. He married a princess no. ix. of Iberia, and had six children. 1. Andronikos III. 2. Basilios, the twelfth sovereign. 3. Michael Asachout- lou. 4. George Achpouganes. 5. Anna Anachoutlou, the fourteenth sovereign of Trebizond. 6. Eudocia, despoina of Sinope, so called from having married the Turkish emir of that city. X. Andronikos III., 1330-1332, had a son, Manuel II. XI. Manuel II. reigned only a few months. He was put to death in 1333. XII. Basilios, 1332-1340, the second son of Alexios II. He married Irene Paleologina, natural daughter of An- dronicus III. of Constantinople. Basilios had no legi- timate issue, but he had four children by a lady of Tre- bizond named Irene. 1. Alexios, who died young. 2. John, who became the seventeenth sovereign of Tre- bizond, under the name of Alexios III., born 5th October 1337. 3. Maria, married in 1352 to Koutloubeg, chief- tain of the Turkomans of the horde of the White Sheep. 4. Theodora, married in 1358 to the emir of Chalybia, Hadji-Omer. XIII. Irene Paleologina, 1340-1341, widow of Basilios, be- came the thirteenth sovereign of Trebizond. XIV. Anna, called Anachoutlou, 1341-1341, daughter of Alexios II., was the fourteenth sovereign of Trebizond. XV. Joannes III., 1342-1344, son of Michael the sixteenth sovereign, grandson of Joannes II., was the fifteenth sovereign. He died at Sinope, leaving a son, in 1361. XVI. Michael, 1344-1349, second son of Joannes II., was placed on the throne when his son was dethroned. 1 1 The genealogy of the members of the family of Grand-Komnenos, and the order in which they occupied the throne, from the death of Joannes II. to the accession of Alexios III., is best represented in a tabular form. The number prefixed to each name indicates the order of his succession to the throne — VII. Joannes II. 1280-1297. IX. ALExros II. 1297-1330. XVI. Michael. 1344-1349. X. An DRONTKOS III. 1330-1332. XII. Basimos. 1332-1340. XIII. Irene. 1340-1341 XIV. Anna. 1341-1342. XV. Joannes III, 1342-1344. XI. Manuel II. 1332. 508 APPENDIX. no. ix. XVII. Alexios III., 1349-1390, second son of Basilios by Irene of Trebizond, married in the year 1352, Theodora, daugh- ter of Nicephorus Cantacuzenos, brother of John, emperor of Constantinople. They had seven children — 1. Basil, born in 1358 ; died before his father. 2. Manuel III., born 1364. 3. Anna, born 1356, married 1367 to Bagrat VI., king of Iberia. 4. Eudocia, married 1380 to Tadjeddin, emir of Limnia ; after his death to John V., emperor of Constantinople. 5. A daughter married to Tahartan, emir of Arsinga. 6. A daughter married to Suleiman bey, son of Hadji-Omer, emir of Chalybia. 7. A daughter married to Kara Youlouk, chieftain of the White Turkomans, (Ducas, p. 69.) Alexios III. had also a natural son named Andronicus, born 1355, died 1376. XVIII. Manuel ILL, 1390-1417, son of Alexios III., married first, Koulkan or Koulchanchat of Teflis, who took the name of Eudocia; and second, in 1396, Anna Philanthropena. He had one son, Alexios IV., christened Basilios, (Paneretos, § 50,) born 1382. XIX. Alexios IV., 1417-1446, married in 1396 Theodora Cantacuzena, and had six children — 1. Joannes IV., his successor. 2. Alexander, who received the title of em- peror, but died during his father's lifetime. Alexander married a daughter of Gattiluzi, prince of Lesbos, and had a son named Alexios. 3. David, the twenty-first and last emperor of Trebizond. 4. Maria, married to John VI., emperor of Constantinople. 5. A daughter married to George Brankovitz, despot of Servia. 6. A daughter married to Dijhan Shah, chieftain of the Black Horde of the Turkomans. XX. Joannes IV., 1446-1458, called Kalojoannes, married a daughter of Alexander, king of Iberia, and had three chil- dren — 1. Katherine, married in 1458 to Ouzoun Hassan, chieftain of the White Turkomans. 2. A daughter married to Nicholas Crispo, signor of Santorin. 3. Alexios. XXI. David, 1458-1461, married, first, Maria, daughter of Kyr Alexios of Gothia in the Crimea ; and second, Helena Cantacuzena, by whom he had seven sons and a daughter. All his sons were strangled with himself and Alexios, the son of Joannes IV., about the year 1470. The daughter of David, and Alexios the son of his brother Alexander, were compelled to embrace Islam. APPENDIX. 509 X. List of the Chiefs of the Turkoman horde of the White Sheep, Ak Koyounlou. 1 J. Thour Alibeg Al Turkmanni. II. Fakhreddin Koutloubeg, son of the preceding, married in no. x. 1352, Maria, sister of Alexios III., emperor of Trebizond. . III. Kara Youlouk Othman, son of Kontlonbeg, received his name of Kara Youlonk (the Black Leech) on account of his sanguinary disposition. He married a daughter of Alexios III. ; died HOG. IV. Hamzabeg, son of Kara Youlouk, died 1444. V. Gehanghir, son of Alibeg or Oulough, grandson of Kara Youlouk, succeeded his uncle Hamza. He was dethroned by his brother Ouzoun Hassan. VI. Ouzoun Hassan, married in 1458 the beautiful Katherine, daughter of Joannes IV. of Trebizond. 1 D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orient cde, art. Turkman, p. 893. INDEX Acciaiuoli company of Florentine bank- ers, 181 — Nicholas acquires lands in Achaia, ib. — Nerio, governor of Cor- inth, 184 — conquers Athens, 182 — created duke, 185 — taken prisoner and ransomed, ib. — his will, 186 — Antonio, ib. — Nerio II., 188 — Franco, 191. Achaia, principality of, William de Cham- plitte, 202 — capitulation of Greeks, 207 — feudal organisational — code, 21 2 — ■ baronies, ib., 216, note — acquisition by Geffrey Villehardoin, 217 — Latin clergy oppress Greeks, 220 — refuse service for fiefs, 222 — Achaia becomes a fief of crown of Naples, 239 — under Neapo- litan princes, 258 — depreciation of coinage, 264 — civil list of princes in fourteenth century, 265 — barons offer sovereignty to Greek emperor, 269 — state in time of despot Theodore II., 276 — Centurione, last prince, 288. Acropolita, Byzantine historian, ambas- sador to Trebizond, 400. Agriculture in Greece, 54 — -stationary condition in Europe, 58. Akova, barony, 213 and note, 216, note — seized by William, prince of Achaia, 242— Margaret, lady of Akova, 244 — taken by Turks, 274. Alaeddin, Seljouk sultan of Roum, treaties with Andronikos I., emperor of Trebizond, 384, 389— army defeated at Trebizond, 388 — defeats Gelaleddin, 389— poisoned, 392. Albanian colonies in Greece, 36 — lan- guage, 37 — present numbers, 38 — mercenaries in Morea, 271— immigra- tions into Morea, 275, 279 — increase, 301 — rebel to gain independence, 302 — reconquered by Turks, 303 — ra- vages, 308 — colony in Ios, 340 — colo- nies in Ios, Andros, Keos, and Ther- mia, 349. Albanians in Kolchis, 356. Alexius I., emperor of Constantinople — ■ disputes with Crusaders, 85 — fears Theodore Gabras, duke of Chaldia, 362 — conquers Gregorias, ib. Alexius III. abandons Constantinople, 97. Alexius IV. engages Crusaders to attack Constantinople, 95 — treaty with them, ib. — murdered, 99. Alexius V., Murtzuphlos, defends Con- stantinople, 99. Alexios I., emperor of Trebizond, 367 — conquers Trebizond, 368, 370 — con- quests in Asia Minor, 371 — defeated at Amisos, 373, 375— attacked by Seljouk Turks and Georgians, 379 — tributary to Azeddin, sultan of Roum, 380 — conquests atCherson, 381 — death, 382 — founds church of St Eugenios, 383. Alexios II. of Trebizond, 405— defeats Turkomans, 407 — dispute with Geno- ese, 411 — peace, 413 — fortifies western suburb, 415 — letter to him from Pope John XXIL, 416. Alexios III. crowned, 431 — marriage, 432 — rebuilds church of St Eugenios, ib. — minority, ib. — retires to Tripolis, 433 — feudal rather than administrative sovereign, 434 — re-establishes imperial authority, 435 — defeated at Cheriana, 436 — quarrel with Lercari, 441 — fa- vours clergy, 444 — new festival of St Eugenios, ib. — founds monastery of St Dionysius on Mount Athos, 445 — description of golden bull, ib. — alliances and person, 447. Alexios IV. suspected of hastening his father's death, 456 — tributary to Kara INDEX. 511 Yousouf, chief of Black Turkomans, 457 — filial ingratitude, 460 — his son's ingratitude, 461 — murdered by emis- saries of his son, Joannes IV., 462. Alexios, son of Joannes IV., 480 — death, 495 — Pera called Beyoglou from his residence, ib., note. Almerio, Pietro, Venetian governor of Nauplia, marries widow of Nerio II., duke of Athens, 190. Amisos, 373 — near Samsoun, 375 — go- verned by Sabbas, ib. — condition, 376. Amour or Morbassan, Seljouk emir and pirate, 263— ravages Archipelago, 336 —defeated off Mount Athos, 337. Amytzantarantes faction at Trebizond, 420. Anna Anachoutlou, empress of Trebi- zond, 423— strangled, 426. Anna Comnena mentions Albanians, 37 — campaigns of Kobert Guiscard and Bohemund, 64. Andronicus I., emperor of Constantin- ople, murdered, 365 — progenitor of family of Grand-Komnenos, ib., 506. Andronicus II., 405 — proceedings against Alexios II. of Trebizond, 406. Andronikos I. Ghidos, emperor of Trebi- zond, 384 — treaty with Alaeddin, ib. — defeats Seljouk army at Trebizond, 388— tributary to Gelaleddin, 389— to Alaeddin, 390— loses Iberia, 391. Andronikos II., 394. Andronikos III. murders his brothers, 416. Andronikos Ghidos defeats David Grand- Komnenos, 377, 384, note. Androvida, town in Morea, 206, 208— bishoprick, 216, note — cathedral, 232 — attacked by Byzantines, 238. Archipelago, duchy, 322 — dukes of family of Sanudo, 324— family of Dalle Car- ceri, 335 — family of Crispo, 339 — causes of the prolongation of Latin power, 345 — wealth of dukes, 346 — commercial monopoly of Venice, 347 — exactions, 348 — demoralisation of Latins, 349. Aristocracy attempt to form an aristocra- tical government at Trebizond, 428. Athens, conquered by Crusaders, 153, 158— fief of Otho de la Boche, 154— condition, ib. — attacked by Leo Sguros, 1 55 — Michael Akominatos, archbishop, 156, 157 — papal church, 1 59 — vassalage to principality of Achaia refuted, ib., 161, 233— Guy de la Boche created duke, 162— Guy II., last of family, 164 — defends prince of Vlakia, 165 — mar- ries Maud of Hainault, ib. — as good French spoken at Athens as at Paris, 167 — conquered by Catalans, 177 — ruled by Sicilian house of Aragon, ib. et seq.— conquered by Nerio Acciaiuoli, 182 — bequeathed to church of St Mary, 186 — improved by Antonio, 188 — tri- butary to Turks, 190— conquered by Mohammed II., 191 — condition of Greek population under the Franks, 194. Azeddin, Seljouk sultan of Bourn or Iconium, 379— Christian body-guard, ib. — renders Trebizond tributary, 380. Baldwin I., count of Flanders, emperor of Bomania, 108 — reign, 113 — defeat and death, 115. Baldwin II., reign, 132. Barbarossa plunders Naxos, 342. Barons of Achaia, list, 216, note— intrigues of, 259 — defend their privileges, 260. Basilian family consolidates despotism in Byzantine empire, 358, 360. Basilios, emperor of Trebizond, enormi- ties at his accession, 418 — divorces empress Irene, 419. Benjamin of Tudela concerning Great Vallachia or Vlakia, 35. Biandrate, count, bailly of kingdom of Saloniki, 123, 127. Black Sea, importance of trade, 410, note. Bocaccio, allusion to Athens, 201. Bohemund, 64, 65 — liegeman of emperor Alexius, 66. Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, king of Saloniki, 114, 123 — invades Greece, 135, 154, 159. Bos-tepe, or Mount Mithrios, at Trebi- zond, 382. Brienne, John de, king of Jerusalem, emperor of Bomania, 132. Brienne, Walter de, duke of Athens, an- cestors, 169 — invites Catalans, 170 — defeated and slain, 176 — his son killed at Poitiers, 177. Buildings of Franks in Greece, Athens, 188, note— Thebes, 199— Naxos, 326. Bulgarians conquer Moesia, adopt Scla- vonian language, 19 — settle near Nico- polis in Epirus, 33 — in mountains near Achrida, 34, note. Byzantine empire, durability, 43 — poli- tical condition, ib. et seq. — regular ad- ministration, 49, 86 — able sovereigns, 50 — decline of military force, ib. — finances, 51 — apparent prosperity of society, 57 — ruined by Crusaders, 99 — partition treaty of Crusaders and Vene- tians, 101 — legal though despotic go- vernment, 109 — reformed by Leo III., 356 — best existing government, 360 — declines from time of Isaac I. Com- nenus, 361. 512 INDEX. Byzantine province in Peloponnesus re- conquered from French, 234, 268— divided by emperor John VI. among his brothers, 284. Cantacuzenos, J ohn, emperor and histo- rian, character of Morcots, 271. Cantacuzenos, Manuel, despot in Morea, 270, 272. Carceri, John dalle, baron of Negrepont, husband of Florence Sanudo, duchess of Archipelago, 334. Carceri, Nicholas, duke of Archipelago, 338 — fortifies Skyros, ib. — murdered by Francis Crispo, 339. Catalan Grand Company, strange career, 170— defeat Walter de Brienne, 175— conquer Athens, 176 — elect Boger Deslau leader, 178 — acknowledge Sicilian house of Aragon dukes of Athens, 179— Catalan fleet captures Clarentza, 286. Centurione, last Frank prince in Achaia, 288 — daughter marries Thomas Paleo- logos, despot, ib. Chalcocondylas, father, envoy from widow of Antonio, duke of Athens, to Murad II., 189— from despot Constan- tine Dragases, 293, note. Chalcocondylas, Laonicus, Byzantine his- torian, notice of Athens, 188 — account of discipline in Turkish camps, 294. Chaldia province, Trebizond capital, 357, 359. Chalkokondylas, or Corcondillas, Greek of Great Arachova, insulted, 250 — surprises castle of St George, ib. Chalybia conquered by Turkomans, 404. Champlitte, William de, conquers Achaia, 202 — family, 204, note — names Hugh his bailly, 2 1 7 — children defrauded of their inheritance in Achaia, 218. Champlitte, Bobert, anecdote, 218. Charles of Anjou, alliance with William, prince of Achaia, 239. Chaucer, 201. Cherson subject to empire of Trebizond, 381 — tribute shipwrecked at Sinope, 385. Chitir Bey attacks Trebizond, 477. Chronological lists, emperors of Bo- mania, 499 — kings of Saloniki, 500 — despots of Epirus, emperors of Thes- salonica, princes of Thessalian Val- lachia, ib. — dukes of Athens, 501 — princes of Achaia, 502 — Byzantine despots in Morea, 503 — dukes of Archipelago, 504— emperors of Trebi- zond, ib. Civil war may be necessary, 420. Clarentza, Chloumoutzi or Castel Tor- nese, 223 — English title of duke of Clarence not derived from it, ib., note — town taken by the Catalans, 287. Clavijo, ambassador from Henry III. of Castille to Timor, 449, 460. Coins, circulation and purity of Byzantine gold, 52 — Byzantine coinage debased, 87 — coins of Trebizond, 383, note, 505, note. Colchis, called Lazia, 356 — inhabitants, ib — Alexios I. of Trebizond assembles army in, 368. Colonies of foreign race established in Greece, 3, 14, 31, 33, 36. Colons cultivate the soil of Greece, 54, 194— serfs, 195. Commerce of Italian republics before Crusades, 83, note — influence on Crusades, 84 — spirit of monopoly at Venice, 346 — Genoese commerce, 407 — Trebizond, ib. Comnenos, see Grand-Komnenos. Constantine VII. Porphyrogenitus, men- tions colonisation of Greece by the Sclavonians, 17, 19. Constantine XI. Dragases or Paleologos, last emperor of Constantinople, despot in Morea, 285 — character, ib. — mar- riage, ib. — takes Patras, 286 — intrigues against his brother Theodore, 289 — attacks Othomans, 291 — defeated at isthmus of Corinth, 295 — tributary to Turks, 296 ■ — erroneous estimate of Mohammed II., 476. Constantinople taken by Crusaders, 96, 99— fires in, 96, 93, 99— plundered, 104 — population, 105 — riches, 106 — repeopled by colonists from Morea, 20, 241, 305, 312— from Trebizond, 493. Corinth besieged by Crusaders, 204 — by prince of Achaia, 219 — taken, 227 — Walter de Leudkerke, governor, seizes Photes, 246. Corinth, isthmus of, fortified by Manuel II., emperor of Constantinople, 279 — forced by sultan Murad II., 295. Crete purchased by Venetians, 112 — valiant defence, 323 — invaded by Geno- ese, 327 — Mark Sanudo endeavours to make himself king of Candia, 328. Crispo, Francis, marries Florence, daugh- ter of Mark Sanudo, signor of Melos, 334. Crispo, Francis, assassinates Nicholas III., duke of Archipelago, 339 — dukes of Crispo family, ib. Crispo, John V., his letter to pope John XXII. concerning Barbarossa's ravages at Naxos, 342, note. Crispo, James, last duke of Naxos, 343. INDEX. 513 Crusades, 79 — viewed in the East, 80 — fail to make permanent colonies, 81 — caused by spirit of emigration, ib. — commerce, 83— first crusade, 85 — second, 87— third, 88— fourth, 94— cruelties of Crusaders at Constanti- nople, 104. Cyprus conquered by Richard Cceur- de- Lion, 88, et seq. — Greeks deprived of half their lands, 92 — feudal system introduced, ib. — sovereignty conferred on Guy de Lusignan, 93 — repeopled by Latin Christians, ib. Dandolo, Henry, doge of Venice, directs fourth crusade against Constantinople, 95, note— storms it, 96. Dante, allusions to Athens, 200. Daphnous, anchorage at Trebizond, 411, 429. David, brother of Alexios I., emperor of Trebizond, invades Paphlagonia, 372 — defeated by troops of Theodore I. Laskaris, 373, 377 — vassal of Latin empire, 377 — slain at Sinope, 378. David, last emperor of Trebizond, ex- cludes his nephew Alexios from throne, 480 — demands assistance against Othomans from Pope and duke of Burgundy, 482 — preparations for war, 489— cowardice, ib. — surren- ders Trebizond, 490 — put to death, 495. Demetrius, king of Saloniki, 123, 138. Demetrius, despot in Morea, 297 — civil war with Thomas, 298 — dethroned by Mohammed II., 311, 316. Depopulation, causes of, 7, 438 — laws of, 81— of Morea, 264. Deslau, Roger, elected chief of the Cata- lans, 178. Despotism a safeguard against anarchy and guarantee for an impartial admin- istration of justice, 358. Dodekanneson, Byzantine province in Archipelago, 322, note — twelve islands that formed the Frank duchy, 327. Ecclesiastical affairs of Latin church in Romania, 116, 119 — settled by con- vention, 119. Elizabeth of Adria or Morea, marries Fernand of Majorca, 255— dies on giving birth to Jayme II., king of Majorca, ib. Epirus, despotat founded, 142 — inhabi- tants, 143 — despots, 144, et seq. — con- quered by Stephen, king of Servia, 150 — subsequent history, 151. Ertebil,sheik of, invades empire of Trebi- zond, 472 — retires, 475. Eudocia Porphyrogenita, daughter of Michael VIII., wife of Joannes II. of 2 Trebizond, 402 — portrait 403, note — conduct on marriage of her son Alexios II., 407. Eugenios, see St Eugenios. Eustathius, Archbishop of Thessalonica, work on capture of Thessalonica by Normans, 71, note. Evagrius, passage relating to Avars and Sclavonians, 15. Evrenos invades Morea, 273, 275. Ezei-its, 24. Fallmerayer, works on Greece, 2, note — on Trebizond, 353, note. Fernand, infant of Major-ca, quits Grand Company, 171 — prisoner at Thebes, 200 — marriage, 255 — invades Achaia, slain, 256. Feudal system in Greece, 108, 110 — its effects in Achaia, 266. Florenz of Hainault, prince of Achaia, 244, 247 — recovers Kalamata, 249— besieges St George, 250 — death, 251. Franks, great babblers according to Anna Comnena, 87 — partition of Byzantine empire with Venetians, 111 — Frank chivalry at Athens, 197 — buildings at Athens and Thebes, 198 — conquest of Achaia contrasted with Norman conquest of England, 266. French language, its position in twelfth and thirteenth centuries, 77 — spoken with purity at Athens under dukes, 167, 197. Gabras, Theodore, duke of Chaldia, 362. Gabras, Gregorias or Taronites, 362. Gabras, Constantine, 363 Gardiki, massacre of inhabitants, 281 — massacre of six thousand souls by Mohammed II., 311. Gemistos Plethon, project for the rege- neration of Greece, 282. Genealogical list of family of Grand- Komnenos, emperors of Trebizond, 553. Genoese, trade in Black Sea, 407 — colonies at Galata and Caffa, 410 — attempt to gain monopoly, ib.— de- feated by Alexios II. of Trebizond, 412 — take Kerasunt, and cede it for Leontokastron, 429, 430 — hostilities with Alexios III., 442 — peace, 443 — lose Amastris, 485. Georgia or Iberia, queen Thamar, 368, note — queen Roussadan conquered by Mongols, 390 — David, king in Imer- athia, ib. Georgios, emperor of Trebizond, taken prisoner by Turkomans, 393 — re- leased, 403. Ghianitza, Sclavonian town near Kala- mata, 148. K 514 INDEX. Gibbon, campaigns of Robert Guiscard and Bohernund, 64 — error concerning fire at Constantinople, 98, note — error concerning Dandolo, 103, note — mention of dukes of Athens, 200 — error concerning empire of Trebizond, 398, note — remarks on Mongols, 409 — error concerning Timor, 450, 454. Gothia in Crimea, subject to empire of Trebizond, 381. Grand -Komnenos, name assumed by Alexios I., emperor of Trebizond, 369, 370, note. Gravina, John, count of, forcible mar- riage with Maud of Hainault, princess of Achaia, 257 — cedes his claims to principality, 258. Greece, depopulation under Eomans, 7 — discordant elements in its population in twelfth century, 53 — colons, 54 — various nations inhabiting it in fif- teenth century, 41, 282. Greek church separated from Latin, 72 — grounds of separation, 74. Greeks, diminution in numbers, 1 — change of language, 5 — improved con- dition in eighth century, 23 — recover districts from Sclavonians, 24 — social state in twelfth century, 52- — abolition of municipal institutions by Leo VI., 53 — position in empire of Romania, 122 — rebel against Manuel Cantacuze- nos in Morea, 271, et seq., — character of Moreots by Cantacuzenos, 271 — condition in time of emperor Manuel II., 277— of John VI., 289 — sixty thousand enslaved by Murad II., 296 — condition under despots Thomas and Demetrius, 300 — superstition at Naxos, 330 — insurrection, 341 — in- trigues in favour of Turks, 345— ex- pulsion from part of Asia Minor after battle of Manzikert, 361 — rulers of the sea, 413 — decline in the social scale as a nation, 434, 471 — causes of decrease in population, 438 — rene- gades, 466 — despise foreigners, 475 — plagues ravage the population, 476. Gregorias Taronites, or Gabras, 362 — defeated by Alexius I., ib., — taken prisoner and ransomed, ib., note. Guy I., de la Roche, grand-sire of Athens, 1 59 — assists William, prince of Achaia, to conquer the whole Morea, 160,227 — required to do homage, 160, 233 — created duke by St Louis, 162. Guy II., duke of Athens, 164 — invades Epirus, 165. Harald Hardrada, gained his wealth at Constantinople, 61. Hassan, see Ouzoun Hassan. Hastings, Captain Frank Abney, his exploits at the Scala of Salona, 67, note. Hayton, reis of Sinope, seizes tribute of Cherson, 385 — surrenders his booty, ib.— killed at Trebizond, 388. Henry of Flanders, emperor of Romania, 115 — arranges ecclesiastical affairs, 117 — disputes with Lombards, 123 — holds parliament at Ravenika, 125 — death, 128. Iberia, province of empire of Trebizond, 370, note— lost, 391. Iberia, see Georgia. Iconoclast emperors, 46. Illyrians exterminated, 11 — country occupied by Sclavonians, 18. Innocent III., concerning Crusaders, 105 — his pretensions, 116 — compliances, 117. Irene, empress of Trebizond, 419 — civil war, 421 — dethroned, 423 — sent to Constantinople, 425. Isaac II., emperor of Constantinople, treaty for his restoration, 95. Isaac, emperor of Cyprus, dethroned by Richard Coeur-de-Lion, 89. Janissaries, their foundation and consti- tution, 505, Jerusalem, assise of, imitated in empire of Romania and in Achaia, 212, note. Joannes I., emperor of Trebizond, killed playing at tzoukanion, 391. Joannes II., rival of Michael VIII., of Constantinople, 398 — confounded with John, king of Bulgaria, 400, note — rejects alliance with Michael VIII., 400 — made prisoner in a revolution, 401 — marries Eudocia, daughter of Michael VIII., 402— reception at By- zantine court, ib. — driven from throne by Theodora, 404 — death, ib. Joannes III., 426 — dethroned, 427 — sent to reside at Adrianople, 428. Joannes IV. assassinates his mother's lover, 461 — escapes to Georgia, ib. — invades Trebizond, his father assassi- nated, 462 — defeated by sheik of Er- tebil, 471— saves Trebizond, 473 — foreign policy, 475 — tributary to sul- tan Mohammed II., 478 — alliance with Ouzoun Hassan, 479. John VI., emperor of Constantinople, visits Morea, 284 — maintains peace between his brothers, 290. John, emperor of Thessalonica, 146. John de Brienne, emperor of Romania, 132. John Dukas, prince of Thessalian Vlakia, 149. John de Heredia takes Patras, 261. INDEX. 515 Joinville mentions Manuel I., emperor of Trebizond, 393. Justice, its regular administration the characteristic of Byzantine society, 48. Justinian I., fortifications in Greece, 9. Kabasites, Leo, exacts toll from Clavijo and Mongol ambassador, 448. Kalamata, fief of Villehardoins, 206 — taken by Sclavonians, 249. Kara Yousouf, chief of Black Turko- mans, his career, 456 — death, 458 — his son, Djihanshah, marries daughter of Alexios III., 457. Karili, Acarnania called from Charles Tocco, 152, note. Karitena or Skorta barony, 213. Kastoria built to replace Diocletiano- polis, 10. Kerasunt taken by Genoese, 429 — seized by rebels, 433 — recovered, 434. Roman colonies in Thrace and Mace- donia, 32. Kordyle, Ak-Kala, monastery near Tre- bizond, 444, 472. Latins viewed by Greeks as strangers, after three hundred and fifty years' residence in Greece, 348 — demoralisa- tion in Archipelago, 349. Law benefits conferred by Eoman law on Byzantine government, 471. Lazia, name for Kolchis, 356. Leake, colonel, first noticed the great extent of the Sclavonian settlements in Greece, 9, note — on proportion between Greek and Sclavonian names in the Peloponnesus, 30 — corrects error concerning title of duke of Clar- ence, 223, note. Learning not extinct in the Morea at the time of Turkish conquest, 318. Leo III., the Isaurian, reformer of Ro- man, or founder of Byzantine empire, 356. Leo Sgui'os attacks Athens, 155 — defeat- ed by Franks at Thermopylae, 156. Leondari rose on decay of Veligosti, 274 — despot Thomas defeated there, 308. Leontokastron at Trebizond fortified by Alexios II., 412 note — ceded to Genoese, 430. Lercari, Genoese merchant, blockades Trebizond, 441 — his family, ib., note. Limnia, in empire of Trebizond, 422, 433 — conquered by Tadjeddin, 440. Lombards seize Thebes, and oppose Henry, emperor of Romania, 127. Louis IX., Saint, decision concerning homage due by duke of Athens, to prince of Achaia, 160, note, 233. Macedonia, Asiatic colonies in, 32. Maina, Greek inhabitants pagans, 26 — claim descent from the ancient La- conians, 41 — conquered by William, priuce of Achaia, 231. Maina, fortress built by William, prince of Achaia, 232, note. Makryplagi, army of Greeks defeated there, 269. Malta, count of, invades Crete, 327 — title conferred on Nicholas Acciaiuoli, 183, note. Manuel I., emperor of Constantinople, abandons silk manufacturers taken by Sicilians, 69— disputes with Crusaders, 87. Manuel II., of Constantinople, attempts to ameliorate the condition of the Morea, 277 — funeral oration for his brother Theodore, 279 — fortifies the isthmus of Corinth, ib. Manuel I., emperor of Trebizond, 392 — vassal of Mongols, 393 — founded church of St Sophia near Trebizond, 394 — portrait and inscription still ex- isting, ib., note. Manuel II., of Trebizond, dethroned and murdered, 418. Manuel III., of Trebizond, 447 — vassal of Timor, 452 — ordered to prepare a fleet against Turks, 453 — rebellion of his son Alexios IV., 460. Manuel Cantacuzenos, despot in the Morea, 270, 272. Manuel Komnenos, father of Alexios I., emperor of Trebizond, 367. Maud of Hainault, married Guy II., duke of Athens, 165 — Louis of Burgundy, 254— cedes her principality to her husband's heirs, 255 — married secretly to Hugh de la Palisse, 257 — forcibly to John, count of Gravina, and dies a prisoner at Naples, ib. Melings, a Sclavonian tribe in Pelopon- nesus, 24, 213. Melos rebels against Mark II., duke of Archipelago, 330. Michael VIIL, emperor of Constantin- ople, recovers a portion of the Pelo- ponnesus from William, prince of Achaia, 234 — difficulties with Latin church, 398 — sends embassies to Tre- bizond, 400. Michael, emperor of Trebizond, 424 — imprisoned, 425, 426— proclaimed em- peror, 427 — invested by people with absolute power, 428 — war with Genoese, 429— dethroned, 430— defeated, 435. Michael Angelos founds despotat of Epirus, 142 — assassinated, 144. Michael II., despot of Epirus, 147— de- feated at Pelagonia, 148. Michael Akominatos, archbishop of 516 INDEX. Athens, defends Acropolis, 156 — re- tires to Keos, 157. Misithra built by William, prince of Achaia,230 — ceded to emperor Michael VIII., 236 — Greeks of Lacedsemon or Sparta retire thither, 238. Mohammed II. visits Athens, 192 — invades Morea, 304 — cruelty at Akova, 305, note — conquers Morea, 310 — con- duct of Greeks at his accession, 475 — orders Chitir Bey to attack Trebizond, 476 — preparations against Trebizond, 484 — gets possession of Sinope, 487 — peace with Ouzoun Hassan, 488 — takes Trebizond, 490. Mongols defeat Seljouk Turks at Kousa- dac, 392— protect trade, 403. Monemvasia, a metropolitan see, 17 — in Sclavonian land, 19 — taken by William, prince of Achaia, 229 — ceded to Michael VIII., 234— resists Turks, 311 — surrenders to Venetians, 317 — taken by Suleiman, 318. Monopoly of Venice in duchy of Archi- pelago, 347. Morbassan, see Amour. Morea, name applied to part of the Peloponnesus, 28 — divided among three Byzantine despots, 284. Morosini, patriarch of Constantinople, excommunicates half his clergy, 120. Morrha, district in Thrace, 29. Municipal organisation in Byzantine empire, 48 — Roman system abolished by Leo VI., 53. Muntaner quits Catalans, 171 — his Chro- nicle, and notice of Athens, 199 — laments rashness of Fernand of Ma- jorca, 256, note. Murad II. invades Peloponnesus, 292 — cruelties, 296 — sends a fleet to attack Trebizond, 464. Nauplia besieged by Crusaders, 204 — taken by Franks, 227. Naxos conquered by Mark Sanudo, 325 — ravaged by pirates, 336. Nicetas, his account of the desecration of St Sophia's, 104. Nicholas III., the grammarian patriarch, letter concerning Avars or Sclavonians, 17, note. Nikli, city in Peloponnesus, 161, note. Normans, 60 — envy wealth of Byzantine empire, 61 — passion for pilgrimages, ib. — mercenaries in southern Italy, 62 — character, 63 — invade Byzantine empire, 64, et seq. — plunder Thebes and Corinth, 67— take Thessalonica, 70. Orkhan, his institutions found Othoman empire, 465, et seq. — civil administra- tion, 469. Otho de la Roche, founder of duchy of Athens, 153. Ouzoun Hassan, alliance with Joannes IV. of Trebizond, 479 — marries Ka- therine, ib., 482 — defeated by Moham- med II., 488. Paleologos Graitzas defends Salmeniko, 314. Panaretos, author of Chronicle of Trebi- zond, 353, note, 433, 437. Patras, metropolitan see in a.d. 807, 16 — besieged by Sclavonians, ib., 22. Patzinaks, colony in Macedonia, 32. Pay, military, in twelfth and thirteenth centuries, 133. Pelasgi, 3. Peloponnesus colonised by Sclavonians, 14 — named Morea, 28- — Sclavonian names in, 30 — Albanians in, 37, 274, 301 — invaded by Crusaders, 202 — con- quered by Turks, 310. Perateia, possessions of the empire of Trebizond in Crimea, at Cherson and Gothia, 370, note, 385. Persian colony in Macedonia, 32. Peter of Courtenay, emperor of Ro- mania, 129. Phanariots resemble Byzantine officials, 298. Philip of Savoy, prince of Achaia, 251 — causes rebellion of Sclavonians, 252. Photes seized by governor of Corinth, 246— kills baron of Vostitza, 248. Phrantzes taken prisoner at Patras, 286 —by Catalans, 287 — sent envoy to sultan Murad II., 290. Pilgrimages to Jerusalem, 81. Plagues among the Greeks in fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, 476. Plethon, Gemistos, project for the regene- ration of Greece, 282. Popes, increase of power in eleventh and twelfth centuries, 7 5. Popular institutions, aversion of Byzan- tine Greeks to, 359, 427, 497. Prinitza, Greeks defeated at, 269. Procopius, buildings of Justinian I., 9. Pyxites Deyirmenderisi, river at Tre- bizond, 429. Raven ika, parliament of empire of Ro- mania held there, 125. Renegades, 310, 466. Rich and poor in Byzantine society, 54, note. Richard Coeur-de-Lion conquers Cyprus, 88, et seq. Robert, emperor of Romania, 131 — his paramour mutilated, ib. Robert Guiscard invades Byzantine em- pire, 64. INDEX. 517 Roger, king of Sicily, sends expedition to Greece, 66. Romania, empire of, 101 — election of emperor, 108, 110 — difficulties of organising, 116 — ecclesiastical affairs, 118 — civil, 119 — parliament at Ravc- nika, 125 — extinction, 134 — assize of Romania, 212, note. Rubruquis, notice concerning Asia Minor in 1253, 393. Sabbas, governor of Amisos, resists Alexios I. of Trebizond, 375 — submits to Theodore I., emperor of Nica?a, 376. Saint-Omer, Nicholas, builds palace at Thebes, 198. Saloniki, kingdom of, 126, 135 — con- quered by Theodore, despot of Epirus, 137— titular kings, 138. Samsoun, formation of town, 374 — its commercial position, 376. Sanudo, Mark, duke of Archipelago, 126, 322 — conquers Naxos, 324 — islands of his duchy, 327 — his investi- ture, ib. — attempts to make himself king of Candia, ib. Sanudo, Mark II., 829 — destroys altar of St Pachys, 330. Sanudo, Nicholas I., serves with Vene- tians, 331— taken prisoner by Genoese, 332— present at conquest of Chios, 333. Sanudo, John, from hermit becomes duke, 333. Sanudo, Nicholas II. Spezzabanda, second husband of duchess Floi*ence, 340 — expeditions against Seljouk Turks, 336, et seq. Sanudo, Florence, duchess, marries John I. dalle Carceri, 324 — Nicholas II. Spezzabanda, 335. Sanudo, Mark, signor of Melos, 334. Sanudo, Florence, daughter of Mark, marries Francis Crispo, 334. Schism of Greek and Latin churches, com- mencement, 73 — consummation, 75. Scholarioi, militia of Trebizond, 418. Sclavinia, 19. Sclavonians colonise Greece, 2, 14, 20 — besiege Patras, 16— in Macedonia and Illyria, 18 — subdued, 21, 24 — men- tioned by epitomiser of Strabo, 26 — tribes in Peloponnesus, 24, 27— pro- portion of Sclavonian names in Greece, 27, 30 — state of Sclavonians of Skorta and Melingon at Frank invasion, 213 — Melings drive out Franks, 236 — surprise Kalamata, 248 — in Kinsterna, 251 — Skortans rebel, 252 — union with Greek population, 253 — Sclavonians of Mount Taygetus join Byzantine province, 268— last notice of Sclavo- nians in Morea, 274, note. Sculpture and painting in middle ages destroyed at Athens, 199 — valuable remains at Trebizond, 393 note, 403 note, 445 notes. Serfs, 51, 194, 195. Shakspeare, 201. Silk manufacturers of Thebes and Corinth carried to Sicily, 67 — silk of Thebes celebrated, 69. Sinope taken by Azeddin, 378 — attacked by Andronikos I., 385 — state, 393, 414, 486 — resources, 487 — surrenders to Mohammed II., 488. Skorta, 213 — barony, ib., 216, note — in- habitants of, 236, 252, 268. Slave population of ancient Greece, in- fluence on population, 4. Slavery, Byzantine emperors endeavour to abolish it, 55, 56 — did not cease in Greece during the thirteenth century, 194 — laws in the eleventh and twelth century, 195 — treaty of Greek em- perors allowing exportation of Chris- tian slaves, ib. — slavery in Greece, ib., 196. Social evils in middle ages, 59, 349. Soula or Salona, counts of, 161. Spany, Sclavonian chief of Kinsterna in Maina, 251. St Eugenios, protector of Trebizond, 383 — church, ib. — effigy on coins, ib. — legends, 389 — church burnt, 422— re- built by Alexios III., 431 — Alexios III. establishes a new festival, 444. St Sophia's at Constantinople, plundered by Crusaders, 104. St Sophia's at Trebizond, 393, note. St Willibald calls Peloponnesus Scla- vonian land, 19. Sumelas, monastery of, 436, note, 439, note — golden bull, 445. Thebes plundered by Sicilian Normans, 69 — visited by Benjamin of Tudela, ib. — fief of Otho de la Roche, 157 — seized by Lombards and restored, 158 — taken by Catalans, 177. Theodore I. Laskaris, emperor of Nicaja, 373, 377, 378— has Latin adventurers in his service, 380. Theodore, despot of Epirus, captures Peter of Courtenay, 129, 144 — crown- ed emperor at Thessalonica, 137, 145 — prisoner of king of Bulgaria, 145 — delivered to Byzantine emperor, 147. Theodore Paleologos I., despot in Morea, 274 — sells Misithra to knights of Rhodes, 276 — death, ib. Theodore Paleologos II. 276, 284— civil war with Constantine, 290 — quits Morea, ib. Theoskepastos, monastery at Trebizond, 518 INDEX. inscriptions and paintings recently destroyed, 445, note. Thessalonica besieged by Sclavonians, 18 — taken by Normans, 70— empire of, 144, et seq. Thomas Palcologos, despot, 284, 290, 306 — defeated at Leondari, 308— recon- ciliation with Demetrius, 309 — aban- dons Morea, 312, 316. Thrace, Asiatic colonies in, 32. Thracians exterminated by Sclavonians, 11. Timor, correction of Gibbon, 450 — pru- dence, 451 — prepares a fleet against Bayezid, 453 — his nomad prejudices, 454, 468 — discipline of his army, 454, note. Tocco, counts of Cephalonia and despots of Romania, 151. Treaties, Alexius I. and Bohemund, a.d. 1108, 65— Manuel I. and William I. of Sicily, a.d. 1159, 69— Richard I. of England, and Isaac, emperor of Cy- prus, a.d. 1191, 91 — Venetians and Crusaders at Zara, a.d. 1202, 95 — for conquest of Byzantine empire, 101 — act of partition, 103, note — Boniface, king of Saloniki,and Venetians, ceding Crete, 112, 325 — ecclesiastical conven- tion for empire of Romania, 1206, 119 —for Saloniki and Greece, a.d. 1209, 127 — William of Champlitte, and Greeks and Sclavonians in the Pelo- ponnesus, a.d. 1207, 207, 213— em- peror Henry and Michael L 3 despot of Epirus, 128, 220 — Andronikos I. of Trebizond, and sultan Alaeddin of Roum, 384, 389 — electing John de Brienne, emperor of Romania, 132 — William Villehardoin with Venetians and duke of Athens, a. d. 1246, 226, 227 — treaty of Viterbo, between Bald- win II. and Charles of Anjou, a.d. 1267, 240— Florenz of Hainault and Andronicus II, a.d. 1291, 245— Wal- ter de Brienne and Catalan Grand Company, a.d. 1308, 170 — treaties re- lating to Maud, princess of Achaia, and Latin claims on Romania and Saloniki, a.d. 1312, 146, note, 254 — Byzantine emperors, and sultan Orkhan, for ex- portation of Christian slaves, 195 — Alexios III. of Trebizond and Genoese, 443 — Antonio, duke of Athens, and re- public of Florence, a.d. 1422, 188 — duke of Naxos with Othoman empire, a.d. 1537, 342. Trebizond, foundation of empire, 353 —city, 354, 356, 357 — capital of em- pire, 368 — early title of emperors, 370 —title changed by Joannes II., 402 — tributary to Seljouk Turks, 380, 384, 390— to Mongol Tartars, 403, 452— to Turkomans, 457 — to Othoman Turks, 519 — condition in thirteenth century, 396 — ravaged by Iberians, 403 — by Genoese, 412 — by pirates of Sinope, 415 — by Scholarioi and Amytzantar- antes, 420— by Turks, 424, 464, 477— by sheik of Ertebil, 472 — western suburb fortified, 415 — condition of population, 413, 421, 434, 439, 471 — taken by Mohammed II., 490 — treat- ment of inhabitants, 493 — modern population, 496. Turakhan ravages Morea, 281, 296, 298 — advises Murad II. to invade it, 293 — suppresses Albanian revolt, 303. Turkish population increases in four- teenth century, 437 — progress aided by the financial rapacity of the govern- ments of Constantinople and Trebizond, 438. Turkomans take Georgios, emperor of Trebizond, prisoner, 403 — conquer Chalybia, 404— defeated, 407, 417, 419, 440 — ravage valley of Pyxites, 429 — defeat Alexios III., 436 — power under Kara Yousouf, chief of the Black Horde, 456 — under Ouzoun Hassan, chief of the White Horde, 479— list of chiefs of the White Horde, 509. Turks, colony at Achrida, 32. Turks, Seljouk, ravage Morea, 263, 271— Archipelago, 335— Naxos, 336— influ- ence in western Asia, 361 — render Trebizond tributary, 380 — besiege Trebizond, 387. Turks, Othoman, in Morea, 273, 275, 281, 292, 298 — discipline in their camps, 294 — first attack on Trebizond. 464 — rise of Othoman power, ib. — in- stitutions of Orkhan, 465, et seq. Tzakones, 39 — submit to Latins, 229 — throw off Latin yoke, 266, 268— emi- grate to Constantinople, 241. Tzakonia, towns of, dowry of Maria Melissenos, duchess of Athens, 188, note. Tzoukanion, Byzantine game, 391, note^ Uzes, colony in Macedonia, 32. Vallachia, Great, or Vlakia, part of Thessaly, 34, 149 — mention by Benja- min of Tudela, 35. Vallachian population in Greece, 36. Varangians, 51. Veligosti city, 161, note — barony, 214, 216, note. Venetians' share of Byzantine empire, 112 — observations on their establish- ments, 320 — grants to nobles, 322. Vervena, fair at, 250. INDEX. 519 ViUehardoin, Geffrey, marshal of Ro- mania, author of Chronicle of the Con- quest of Constantinople, 115, 203. ViUehardoin, Geffrey I., prince of Achaia, lands at Modon, 203— joins William de Champlitte, prince of Achaia, 205 — receives fief of Kalamata, 206, 212 — conquers Veligosti, Nikli, and Lacedse- mon, 219 — disputes with clergy, 220 —death, 221. ViUehardoin, Geffrey II., marries Agnes of Courtenay, 221 — disputes with clergy, 222 — aids emperor of Romania, 224 — bargain with Baldwin II. disal- lowed by St Louis, 225— death, 226. ViUehardoin, William, 226 — treaty with Venetians, 226 — with duke of Athens, 227 — successes, ib., et seq. — builds Misithra, Maina, and Leftro, 230, 231 — joins crusade of St Louis, 232 — summons Guy de la Roche to do homage, 161, 233 — taken prisoner by Greeks, 234 — cedes fortresses as ran- som, ib. — alliance with Charles of Anjou, 239 — conduct to Margaret of Neuilly, baroness of Akova, 241 — death, 243. ViUehardoin, Isabella, married to Philip of Anjou, 239 — to Florenz of Hain- nault, 245— to Philip of Savoy, 252. ViUehardoin, Margaret, lady of Akova, 243, 244— marries her daughter Eliza- beth to Fernand, infant of Majorca, 255 — imprisonment and death, ib. Vlakia, see Vallachia. Voltaire, Satanic observation, 100, note. Vostitza barony, 216, note — baron killed, 248. Walter de Brienne, see Brienne. William II. of Sicily invades Byzantine empire, 70. William, marquis of Montferrat, invades Thessaly, 137. Willibald, St, calls Peloponnesus Scla- vonian land, 19. Zante, count of Zante and Cophalonia, becomes a vassal of Achaia, 224. Zinkeisen, history of Greece, 2, note. THE END. rUf.VTlvD BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, HDINBUUC'H. COEEIGENDA The author's absence, while this work was printed, has caused the following errors, and a few others which it is not necessary to point out. The reader is requested to pardon and correct them. Page 21, note 1, for 'EcrSXa^coSr/, read ^EcrBXatSdr]. ... 21, note 2, for oyis, read o\jns. ... 22, line 9 from foot, read The siege of that city was to be the first step. ... 32, ... 7 from foot, for Romans, read Romans. ... 88, ... 7 from foot, for Poras, read Poros. ... 47, ... 25, read in Byzantine society. ... 77, ... 6 from foot, read spoke the French language were. ...116, ... 5, for Theodoric, read Theodore. ... 174, ... 6, for Scripon, read Scripou. ...190, ... 8, for Hanniades, read Hunniades. ... 233, ... 9, read there can hardly be a doubt. ... 235, note, read , and dcjuopKov. ... 283, line 5, for former, read farmer. ... 297, note, read 3d December. Peace was. ... 308, line 7, or ad Vostitza. ... 329, ... 11 from foot, for John VII., read John III. ... 334, last line, for Ranyskos, read Rarystos. ... 338, line 2, for Savoukhan, read Saroukhan. ... 363, first line of notes, read which taking the price of gold at. ... 389, lines 2 and 10 from foot, read Rhoaresmian. ... 391, line 1, for not, read now. ... 412, note 1, line 2, read but they had not been able. ... 488, line 11, read Royounlou. ...506, ... 7, for sultan read sultans. Note. — The Binder is requested to place this leaf at the end of the Volume. Lately published, by the same Author, GREECE UNDER THE ROMANS. A HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE CONDITION OF THE GKEEK NATION, FROM THE TIME OF ITS CONQUEST BY THE ROMANS UNTIL THE EXTINCTION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST— B. C. 146, TO A. D. 717. In Octavo, price 16s. "... His work is therefore learned and profound. It throws a flood of light upon an impor- tant though obscure portion of Grecian history. ... 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" Miss Strickland has, we think, learned from Sir Walter Scott the charm by which he elevated romance to the dignity of history ; but she has reversed the process— she has given to history the interest of romance In the volume before us, Miss Strickland has not only been fortunate in the selection of her subject, but she has sustained to the full the high reputation for research which her previous writings have acquired. Her choice has indeed been evidently directed to that period when Scottish history assumes the highest interest, and connects itself most closely with the sympathies of the present day Every one must be curious to peruse Miss Strickland's life of Mary Stuart." — English Review. " Miss Strickland's talents as a writer, and turn of mind as an individual, in a peculiar manner fit her for painting a historical gallery of the most illustrious or dignified female characters in that land of chivalry and of song In her delineation of individual character, Miss Strickland evidently takes the greatest pains to be impartial ; and the multitude of new documents and facts which she has brought on both sides of the question, in regard to her heroines, is a sufficient proof that this most laudable principle is a ruling one in her mind." — Blackwood's Magazine. " The subject itself is so " redolent" of interesting matter, that it must at once succeed to all the attractions of its precursor. . . . The whole possesses the interest of history, romance, and human life combined ; and the curiosity of readers will find plenty of gratification in the easy and pleasant nar- rative." — Literary Gazette. " In every chapter of the present volume she has prepared the way most brilliantly and effectively for what will be the principal feature in this series of regal biographies— the memorial of Mary, the rival of Elizabeth. As a fascinating effusion of eloquence and erudition, we welcome the volume before us cor- dially—but more cordially still as the commencement of a work calculated largely to enrich our historic literature." — The Sun. " The first remark that occurs to us is the assiduity and research of the authoress, as evinced in her copious quotations, numerous notes and references, and also to her peculiar advantage in having had access to the family papers and repositories of many of the historical families of Scotland — an advantage of which she has made efficient use." — Glasgow Citizen. 2 Books Published by William Blackwood and Sons. lihrari] € iiitinti. ALISON'S HISTORY OF EUROPE. i. A LIBRARY EDITION, handsomely printed on super- fine paper, in Demy Octavo, to range with the Standard Editions of the English Historians, in 14 vols. ; including a Copious Index, and embellished with Portraits. Price £10, 10s. A limited number are printed on thick paper, In Royal Octavo, with Proof Impressions of the Portraits, price £21. "Jt would have been more than human if such an extensive work had been immaculate — if no slip of the memory or pen had occurred during its composition ; but every successive edition has been weeding them out ; and this present edition may challenge the closest scrutiny to detect even a trivial error. It is after the closest scrutiny and pains-taking comparison with earlier editions that we thus speak in its favour. New authorities, such as the ' Memoirs of Chateaubriand,' ' Lamartine's Girondins,' the con- cluding volumes of ' Thiers' History,' have been consulted ; fresh maps have been added to the magni- ficent Atlas which illustrates the work, and a gallery of beautiful and authentic portraits adorns its pages ; many of the battle scenes have been retouched, and additional light thrown on that most puzz- ling of great engagements — the battle of Waterloo. The Index continues in its former state of perfec- tion ; and a noble chapter of Concluding Reflections has been added, which closes the history with pro- found and original observations on the grand features of national politics, and the general progress of mankind." — Dublin University Magazine. ** With respect to the particular edition, the issue of which has suggested these passing remarks, it is sufficient to say that, in point of typography and illustration, no work of this age, fertile as it is in the artistic luxuries of publication, can claim superiority over it, and but few aspire to an equal place." — • Times. II. THE SEVENTH EDITION, in 20 Vok Crown 8vo, with a Copious Index, handsomely bound in cloth, price £6. ATLAS TO ALISON'S EUROPE. Comprising 109 Maps and Plans of Countries, Sieges, and Battles, illustrative of Alison's History of Europe, and of other Contemporary Histories ; constructed and engraved, under the superintendance of Mr AllSOU, by ALEXANDER KEITH JOHNSTON, F.R.S.E. F.R.G.S. F.G.S. GEOGRAPHER AT EDINBURGH TO HER MAJESTY. AUTHOR OF THE " PHYSICAL ATLAS" AND THE " NATIONAL ATLAS." In Grown Quarto, uniform with the Seventh Edition of the History, bound in cloth, £2 12 G In Demy Quarto, to range with the Library Edition and Early Editions in Demy Octavo, bound in cloth, . . . . . . . • 3 3 In Royal Quarto, to accompany the Royal Octavo Library Edition, . . 4 4 A knowledge of the Topographical peculiarities of a country which is the seat of war, is found to be of the utmost importance to a proper understanding of Military History. For this purpose, special Maps are indispensable, as such information will be sought for in vain in those of general Geography. This Atlas, intended to illustrate the most important period of modern history, consists of a series of Plans of Sieges and Battles, pointing out every circumstance of locality affecting the operations detailed, and Maps of extensive portions of country, exhibiting at one view the whole range of a cam- paign, with the relative positions and political boundaries of Empires and States. In its construction, the valuable materials employed in the composition of the History have been made use of, and, through the kindness of t! e late lamented Lieutenant-General Sir John Macdonald, access was freely obtained to the Surveys and Plans deposited in the Quarter- Master-General's department of the Horse Guards. For the manner of its execution, the Author has much plensure in referring to the following extract of a letter from Mr Alison : — "It is a source of great satisfaction to me that the Atlas to illustrate my History has been completed in so masterly a stjle. I have no hesitation in saying that your Maps and Military Plans are not only greatly superior to anything of the kind that have been published in Great Britain, but more perfect than any on a similar scale that have yet appeared on the Continent. I have repeatedly heard this opinion expressed by the very highest military authorities, on whose judgment I can place more reliance than on my own in such matters. I cannot conclude without congratulating you on the successful termination of your arduous labours, and myself on the acquisition to my histori- cal narrative of so very valuable a work, without the study of which the military operations cannot he properly understood." Books Published "by William Blackwood and Sons. 3 ALISON'S EUROPE. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. Edinburgh Review. "A valuable addition to European literature: it is evidently compiled with' the utmost care, and its narration, so far as we can judge, is not perverted by the slightest partiality." North American Review. " After a full examination, we do not hesitate to say, that this is the most complete and honest history of the French Revolution which has yet appeared, either in England or France. Certainly, no work by a British pen deserves to be compared with it ; and we think every reader will accord it the preference, in point of fulness and impartiality, over the early narratives of the French Royalists, Bertrand de Molleville, Lacretelle, and others, and the more recent and popular works of Mignet and Thiers." Blackwood's Magazine. " We congratulate the country on the possession of one of the noblest offerings which our age has laid upon the altar of historic literature." Dublin University Magazine. " The interests at issue in the narrative of Alison come home to every heart ; they are peculiarly those of present times — our fathers or ourselves took part in the contest he describes. Democracy, Scepticism, Machinery — these are the prominent characteristics of the present age ; and he shows us the era in which they all began. His work forms a magnificent portal to the Present ; it contains a key to the strange characters which the passions of men are now writing upon the earth — those hieroglyphics of which the writers themselves know not the meaning." Times. " An extraordinary work, which has earned for itself a lasting place in the literature of the country, and within a few years found innumerable readers in every part of the globe. There is no book extant that treats so well of the period to the illustration of which Mr Alison's labours have been devoted. It exhibits great knowledge, patient research, indefatigable industry, and vast power. Few men living- could have done greater justice to the subject, how much soever writers hereafter, profiting by Mr Alison's toil, may improve upon his plan. The History of Europe from the commencement of the French Revolution to the Battle of Waterloo is a valuable and indispensable addition to the histories of the world with which mankind has been favoured ; and the avidity with which every rapidly succeeding edition is bought up, testifies not only to its intrinsic worth, but, as we have already said, to the intel- lectual character of the great mass of the British people." Standard. " In common with all, we are deeply indebted to its learned, acute, and eloquent author for this monument of British wisdom, British honour, and British prowess ; but, as journalists, we are especi- ally bound to acknowledge that often Mr Alison has furnished us with facts and arguments, and the exposition of great principles, by which we have been enabled to combat the falsehoods and sophistries of the ignorant or malicious enemies of that system by which Great Britain obtained strength to restore peace and liberty to the world, and to become, in the most glorious sense, the queen and benefactress of nations. History has been described as 'philosophy teaching by example,' and never did any historical work fulfil the conditions of this description better than the work before us This task Mr Alison has accomplished in a work — simple, graceful, and forcible in its style, eminently clear in its arrangement, but, above all, characterised by a most chaste impartiality, and by the unquestion- able good faith which is ever sure to win the confidence and secure the attention of an honest and intelligent reader." From the Preface of the German Translation of D. Ludwig Meyer. " Alison's History of Europe and the States connected with it, is one of the most important works which literature has produced. Years have elapsed since any historical work has created such an eporh as that of Alison ; his sources of information and anthorities are of the richest and most comprehensive description. Though his opinions are on the Conservative side, he allows every party to speak for itself, and unfolds with a master's hand how few institutions make nations great, and mighty, and prosperous. In common with the whole civilised world, he does homage to the blessed Scriptures and an enlightened religion. Such a work and such a man belong to no party or country ; they are the patrimony of all the friends of mankind in every part of the world, for they contend only for the clearest interests of the human race." 4 Books Published by William Blackwood and Sons. Essays ; Political, Historical, and Miscel- LANEOUS. By Archibald Alison, LL.D., Author of the " History of Europe," &c. In Three Volumes, Demy Octavo, uniform with the Library Edition of Alison's " Europe." Besides their prescient sagacity, what is well worthy of remark in Mr Alison's Political Essays, is their eminently practical nature. Not a plan which he proposes, not a remedy which he suggests, but leaves the stamp of efficacy and simplicity. Well versed in the affairs of men, and in the functions of civil admi- nistration, no crude theory or speculative plan escapes him ; and he makes his views as intelligible to others as they are manifest to himself. His Essays are a splendid supplement to his History, andthe two combined exhibit his intellect in all its breadth and beauty." — Dublin University Magazine. " They cannot fail to enhance his. already brilliant reputation, and to stamp him as one of the most learned, able, and accomplished writers of the age His depth and originality of thought, his extensive scholarship, his almost universal grasp of mind, his profound sagacity, and his complete mas- tery of the English language, are all as faithfully evinced in these Essays as they are in the more bulky and elaborate works which have proceeded from his pen, and rendered his name illustrious." — Glasgow Constitutional. " To his Political Essays, however, it is impossible to deny the general praise of a rare and prescient sagacity; . . . In these volumes the reader is instructed in the tendencies of the present generation, by the most accurate, sound, and approved historian of that immediately preceding." — The Watchman. The Military Life of John Duke of Marlborough. By Archibald Alison, L.L.D. In 8vo 3 with Maps and Plans of Battles, price 18s. " Mr Alison has here a congenial subject, and he has written as one delighting in his task. The general reader need not look elsewhere for a popular history of Marlborough's campaigns The reader who desires a continuous narrative of the great military exploits of Marlborough and Eugene — one with all the interest of a romance, and all the authenticity of a series of State papers— one which may be read without pause, and consulted again and again with renewed advantage — would do well to place this volume on his shelves." — Atlas. The Principles of Population, and their CONNECTION" WITH HUMAN HAPPINESS. By Archibald Alison, LL.D. Two Vols. 8vo, price 30s. " In Mr Alison's most able and well-timed work on population, the whole subject is handled with distinguished ability." — Morning Herald. " This work contains the settled views of one whose indefatigable research, patient investigation, comprehensive views, original powers of thought, and elegance of expression, mark him as one of the most eminent men of our day." — Britannia. " Those who peruse his volumes will have their minds expanded by various and enlarged speculation, and instructed by the new light in which existing information is placed." — Spectator. Epitome of Alison's History of Europe. For the use of Schools and Young Persons. Third Edition, Post Octavo, price 7s. 6d. " This is a masterly epitome of the noblest contribution which has been made to the historic literature of the present day. The epitomist has been worthy of the history ; and the result is, the production of a book which is undoubtedly the very best and safest book on the subject — for the use of schools or young persons — which has been published." — Hull Packet. "The 1 Epitome of Alison's History of Europe' is a capital piece of work, which, though primarily designed for schools and young persons, will be found very useful to all as a coup-d'oeil of the History of Europe during one of its most important periods." — Spectator. " The condensation has been effected with skill and judgment, and no important historical fact has been omitted ; so that the reader who has neither means nor leisure to make himself acquainted with the larger edition, will obtain in this Epitome a very clear and complete view of those important events of the era comprised in the history. We recommend this book, especially to parents and teachers, as a most admirable school-book." — Dublin Evening Mail. Books Published by William Blackwood and Sons. 5 The Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiqui- TIES OF SCOTLAND. Illustrated by Robert William Billings and William Burn, Architects. Publishing in Monthly Parts. Each containing Four large Engravings on Steel, by J. H. Le Keux, and other Artists ; and one or more Woodcuts, with Descriptive Letterpress. Price, in Medium Quarto, 2s. 6d. each. The Work will be completed in Sixty Parts, of which forty-five are published, forming Three Volumes, each containing Sixty large Engrav- ings on Steel, with Letterpress Descriptions, and numerous Vignette Engravings on Wood, price — In Medium Quarto, cloth, £2. Imperial Quarto, £3 4s. India Proofs, £4 14s. " The 1 Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities' of Mr Billings is the first work which, either in point of extent or of style, has any claim to be regarded as a collection worthy of the remains yet spared to Scotland. " — Quarterly Review. " The book is altogether one which cannot fail to interest thousands. The architect will find in it examples of his art surpassed by few in the United Kingdom ; the lover of picturesque sufficient to gratify the most fastidious taste ; while the antiquarian and the literary traveller, who are in search of those places and objects which are associated with many of the most important events narrated in Scot- tish history, will find in these pages a certain guide to their identity." — Art-Union. "We certainly have never known an instance where these qualities, apparently incompatible — unde- viating accuracy and picturesque effect — have been so rarely united as they have been in Mr Billings. The accuracy and precision with which he introduces every detail, down to the minutest chipping of the chisel, are truly marvellous . . . We can only say that, as before he commenced his labours, our masonic antiquities had received less justice from pictorial art than those of any other civilised country, when his work has been finished, we shall be able to boast that no other nation possesses so complete, and, at the same time, effective and artistically pleasing a record of its notable antiquities." — Black- wood's Magazine. Memorials of the Castle of Edinburgh. By James Grant, Author of " Memoirs of Kirkaldy of Grange," &c. &c. With Twelve Illustrations, Engraved on Wood by Branston. In crown 8vo, price 7s. 6d. " Of the different books of this nature that have fallen in our way, we do not remember one that has equalled Mr Grant's ' Memorials of the Castle of Edinburgh.' " — Spectator. " Mr Grant's very interesting history of the Castle of Edinburgh — a work equally distinguished by research, accuracy, and pictorial interest." — Alison's Essays. " We have rarely met with a more agreeable or more interesting work than this. No one can ever have visited the ' Modern Athens ' without being struck with the position of its castle, and the pecu- liarity of its site Many books are thrown aside after an examination of the first few pages, but this will never be the fate of the Memorials of Edinburgh Castle." — Bell's Messenger. " We have been much amused with this little book, which abounds in pleasant and interesting episodes, and we recommend it as an excellent specimen of local history."— Athenaeum. Memoirs of Sir William Kirkaldy of GRANGE, Knight, Commander of French Horse, Lord of the Secret Council, and Governor of the Castle of Edinburgh for Mary Queen of Scots. Post 8vo, price 10s. 6d. *' It is seldom indeed that we find history so written, — in a style at once vigorous, perspicuous, and picturesque. The author's heart is thoroughly with his subject; and he exhibits, ever and anon, flashes of the old Scottish spirit, which we are glad to believe has not decayed from the land." — Black- wood's Magazine. " This book professes to give an account of one of the most accomplished knights and bravest soldiers of his Jige. It is written in a manner worthy of the subject, and we shall be much surprised if its suc- cess be not proportioned to its merits. We do not know where we have studied a biography so plea- santly and graphically written as the work before us. It is the very spirit of Sir Walter Scott transfused into history, and it is so because the author appears to have passed over every spot of ground referred to in his book — to have studied the position of all parties whose deeds are depicted by him, and thus to have lived again amongst the men of whom he gives an account." — Morning Herald. " One of the most remarkable and valuable contributions to Scottish history that the fertile press of our northern neighbours has ever given to the world, — a history which embraces within its range many of the most memorable incidents in the life of Mary Queen of Scots — which brings us often into the company of the veteran reformer John Knox — which records the violent deaths of no less than four successive representatives of royalty, and which pictures Edinburgh with her famous castle garrisoned and fortified, and the cannon on its battlements sweeping the city below them, — a history like this must take a prominent and permanent place in Scottish literature."— Dorchester Journal. 6 Books Published by "William Blackwood and Sons. Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, and Other Poems. By William E. AytOUll, Professor of Rhetoric in the University of Edinburgh. With an Appendix; containing an Exami- nation of the Statements in Mr Macaulay's M History of England," regarding John Grahame of Claverhouse, Viscount of Dundee. A New Edition. In small 8vo, elegantly bound in gilt cloth, price 9s. " Professor Aytoun's ' Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers' — a volume of verse which shows that Scotland has yet a poet. Full of the true fire, it now stirs and swells like a trumpet-note — now sinks in cadences sad and wild as the wail of a Highland dirge." — Quarterly Review. " Finer ballads than those, we are bold to say, are not to be found in the language The ballads of Professor Aytoun have the life-like reality of the old pictures, and much of the warmth and fulness of their colouring. They take up an inspiriting event, narrate it, and by the mere force of the narrative excite in you ennobling passion and a love of human greatness, together with deep sympathy in its sufferings. Such is the aim and scope of ballad poetry Such lines fix themselves in the memory as the first-loved melodies of childhood. We have read them with great enjoyment, and now heartily thank the author for his delightful volume, the prose notes and illustrations of which are as interesting as the verse is admirable." — Times. " Fervidly and intensely national, Mr Aytoun sings with all the enthusiasm and all the warlike spirit of a Border minstrel ; his soul is with the ancient kingdom of Scotland, and he delights to pour forth in spirit-stirring verse the story of her bravery and of her chivalry. They are racy of the people and of the age — graphic and truthful in the pictures which they conjure up before us, and ringing in every syllable with the clash of spear and morion." — Morning Chronicle. " Mr Aytoun's 'Lays' are truly beautiful, and are perfect poems of their class, pregnant with fire, with patriotic ardour, with loyal zeal, with exquisite pathos, with noble passion. Who can hear the opening lines, descriptive of Edinburgh after the great battle of Flodden, and not feel that the min- strel's soul has caught the genuine inspiration." — Morning Post. " There is the true stir and roll of the old ballad poetry in these lines." — Scotsman. The Course of Time. A Poem, in Ten Books. By Robert Pollok, M.A. Nineteenth Edition. In Small Octavo, price 7s. 6d., neatly bound in cloth. The Poems and Ballads of Schiller. Translated by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. ; with a brief Sketch of Schiller's Life. A New Edition, in the Press. Domestic Verses. By Delta. Pep. 8vo, price 5s., bound in cloth. •■' The poems refer chiefly to the deaths of three beloved children. . . The sad and solemn beauty of several of them, indeed, speaks with even painful force to the heart ; the very form of verse adapted in some, as for example in the case of the ' Ode to Casa Wappy,' is so mournfully attuned that the production cannot be read without tears. This little work, altogether, will be felt as a rich boon and treat to the feeling heart." — Scotsman. Legends, Lyrics, and other Poems. By B. Simmons. Fcap. 8vo, price 7s. 6d. cloth. M A most charming volume, written in the true spirit of poetry. It is full of beautiful gems of thought set in language which well becomes them. The subjects are varied, but in each and all is seen the hand of a consummate master of verse, having at his disposal the key which unlocks the deepest feelings of the human heart."— Bath Chronicle. Books Published by William Blackwood and Sons. 7 The Poems of Felicia Hemans — i. A New Edition, elegantly printed in Six Pocket Volumes, price 24s., in gilt cloth. Each Volume is complete in itself, and sold separately, price 3s. in paper cover, or 4s., elegantly bound in gilt cloth, gilt edges. RECORDS OF WOMAN, AND OTHER POEMS. THE FOREST SANCTUARY, AND OTHER POEMS. DRAMATIC WORKS. TALES AND HISTORIC SCENES. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS POEMS. SONGS OF THE AFFECTIONS. II. A New Edition, in one vol. royal octavo, with Illustrative Notes, a Selection of Contemporary Criticisms, and a Portrait of the Author, engraved by Findjsn. Price One Guinea. " Here is a volume in which high poetry and deep passion are united with feminine delicacy and unsullied moral purity. Here is a volume which a father may give to his daughter on her birth-day, or on some day of this gift-giving season, with a feeling not less confiding or holy than that with which he gives his child her night and morning blessing and kiss. The name of Felicia Hemans has become, and is doubtless destined to remain , one of the loved and cherished household words in connection with British poetical literature." — The Watchman. "The best, the most accurate, and the most splendid edition that has yet been published of our English Sappho." — Sun. " She is ever alive to the dignity of her calling and the purity of her sex. Aware of the difficulties of her art, she aspired towards excellence with untiring perseverance, and improved herself by the study of the best models, well knowing that few things easy of attainment can be worth much. Her taste thus directed her to appropriate and happy subjects; and hence it lias been, as with all things of ster- ling value, that her writings have not been deteriorated by time. Of no one modern writer can it be affirmed, with less hesitation, that she has become an English Classic, nor, until human nature becomes very different from what it now is, can we imagine the least probability that the music of her lays will cease to soothe the ear, or the beauty of her sentiment to charm the gentle heart." — Blackwood's Magazine. A Memoir of Mrs Hemans. By her Sister. With a Portrait, price 5s. Mrs Southey's Works — 1. chapters on churchyards. By Mrs Southey, (Caroline Bowies.) A New Edition. Fcp. 8vo, price 7s. 6d. 2. SOLITARY HOURS. Fcp. 8vo. A New Edition, price 5s. 3. THE BIRTHDAY, AND OTHER POEMS. Fcp. 8vo, price 7s. 4. ROBIN HOOD, AND OTHER POEMS. By R, S. and C. S. Fcap. 8vo, price 8s. " Those sweet poems in the little volume of Solitary Hours , which for truth and depth of feeling, and for tenderness and holiness of thought, are among the most beautiful that have been produced in this generation We do not remember any recent author whose poetry is so unmixedly native ; and this English complexion constitutes one of its characteristic charms. No purer models of our genuine home feeling and language could be placed in a young foreigner's hands than Mrs Southey's Works. Moreover her versification, especially in her two later volumes, is not only generally correct, but, in several instances, of very great beauty and perfection. In her last poem, The Birthday, she has attained to a still higher excellence of style." — Quarterly Review. Poems by the Lady Flora Hastings. With a Portrait. Fcp. 8vo, price 7 s. 6d. ** All lovers of that purer poetry which catches half its grace from heaven, will seek for records of its pious beauty upon the gentle pages of this graceful book. We have but glanced at the poems, and gathered only snatches of the beauties which we are prepared to meet on deeper and closer perusal, and of which our readers shall receive their share." — Morning Post. 8 Books Published by William Blackwood and Sons. The Angler's Companion to the Rivers AND LOCHS OF SCOTLAND. By Thomas Tod Stoddart. In post 8vo price 10s. 6d. With a Fishing Map of Scotland, and other Illustrations. " Indispensable in all time to come, as the very strength and grace of an Angler's Tackle and Equipment in Scotland, must and will be 'Stoddart's Angler's Companion.'" — Blackicood's Magazine. " Without a second's pause of hesitation, we pronounce the book the best extant as an angling guide to the salmon and trout waters of Scotland, and partieulnrly to the famous Tweed and its many tribu- taries Every angler who has an ambition to become an adept in the art of killing trout and salmon by means of rod and line, should peruse assiduously Mr Stoddart's work." — Bell's L ; fe. " Pleasant it is to wander by the loch and stream with such a guide and companion as Mr Stoddart." —A thenceum. " The author is a perfect enthusiast in ' the gentle craft,' and the matter seems chiefly drawn from his own experience. A peculiar feature of the book is its detailed account of the Scottish lochs and rivers, with their tributaries. This feature renders The Angler's Companion a necessary volume to any one contemplating a piscatorial excursion in Scotland, independently of its general use as a book of instructions. " — Spectator. Lays of the Deer-Forest. A Selection from the Original Poems of John Sobieski Stuart and Charles Edward Stuart. With an Essay on Deer-Stalking and Roe-Hunting, Notes of Remarkable Incidents in Forest Sports, Traditions of the Clans, and Notices of Natural History in the Deer-Forests. In Two Volumes, Post Octavo, price 21s. " This is, we have no hesitation in saying, the best work on deer-stalking which has yet been written ; and theamount of information which itcontains regarding the habits of the stag and roe, combined with the vivid pictures of which we have made such ample use, cannot fail to render it popular. In an anti- quarian point of view it is also highly interesting, for it embodies a large amount of traditionary lore, sketches of the clans, and fragments of Highland song, of much superior merit to those which have hitherto come into our hands. The disquisitions, too, upon the disappearance of some animals once indigenous to Scotland — such as the wolf, the elk, the wild bull, and the beaver — exhibit a great amount of research, and supply a gap which has long been wanted in the page of natural history." — Blackwood's Magazine. "Rich with a thousand excellencies, with traits of natural history in its most attractive department, and poetised by the ardent language of keen and hereditary sportsmen." — Morning Chronicle. Recreations of Christopher North. In Three Volumes, Post Octavo, price £1, 1 Is. 6d. " Welcome, right welcome, Christopher North ; we cordially greet thee in thy new dress, thou genial and hearty old man, whose ' Ambrosian nights ' have so often in imagination transported us from soli- tude to the social circle, and whose vivid pictures of flood and fell, of loch and glen, have carried us in thought from the smoke, din, and pent-up opulence of London, to the rushing stream, or tranquil tarn, or those mountain ranges," &c. — Times. ** Delightful volumes — full of fun and fervour, power and pathos — of deep feeling and light-hearted gaiety — of impassioned language, rolling along in the strength and majesty of genuine eloquence — and of familiar gossip, tripping it lightly over the merrier pages." — Scotsman. The New Statistical Account of Scotland. In Fifteen large "Volumes Octavo, pri«e £16, 16s. The Counties may be had separately, at the following prices : — Aberdeen, 25s. ; Argyle, 15s. ; Ayr, 18s. ; Banff, 9s. ; Berwick, 8s. 6d. ; Bute, 3s. ; Caithness, 4s. 6d. ; Clackmannan, 3s. 6d. ; Dumbarton, 6s. ; Dumfries, 12s. 6d. ; Edinburgh, 16s. 6d. ; Elgin, 6s. ; Fife, 21s. ; Forfar, 15s. ; Haddington, 8s. 6d.; Inverness, lis. 6d. ; Kinross, 2s. ; Kincardine, 8s.; Kirkcudbright, 8s. 6d.; Lanark, 21s. ; Linlithgow, 4s. 6d. ; Nairne, Is. 6d.; Orkney, 5s. 6d. ; Peebles, 4s. 6d.; Perth, 27s. ; Ross and Cromarty, 10s. 6d.; Renfrew, 12s. 6d.; Roxburgh, 10s. 6d.; Selkirk, 2s. 6d.; Shetland, 4s. 6d.; Stirling, 10s.; Sutherland, 5s. 6d.; Wigtown, 5s. 6d. " Forming by far the most valuable repertory of statistics at the command of any country in Europe." — Quarterly Review. " As a statistical book of reference, the work is valuable — more so, in our estimation, than many works which make a greater parade of scientific forms. ... To sum up more specifically, there are no fewer than 876 articles, each furnishing a complete monograph of a parish, or united group of parishes. The parishes of every county are classed together; to each a full index of matler is added, and to the whole work is appended a general index, compiled on the same principle. There is also an alphabetical index of parishes, giving their population as shown by the last census, and referring to the volume and page where each is described. Thus the New Statistical Account of Scotland unites, with the massive character and readableness of a systematic view of Scottish statistics and geography, the utility of a geo- graphical and statistical dictionary of Scotland."— Spectator. Books Published by William Blackwood and Sons. 9 Life in the " Far West." By the late George F. Rlixton, Esq., Author of " Travels in Mexico." A New Edition. Fcp. 8vo, price 4s. " One of the most fascinating productions in this class of literature The intensely graphic force with which the scenes and characters are delineated, and which is the natural result of the author's personal familiarity with the originals of the pictures drawn by his pen, and of his keen powers of observation, transports the reader's mind involuntarily into the Far West itself, among the Red hunters and warriors, and the American trappers and mountaineers. To read the volume is almost equal to a personal visit to those romantic regions, and their savage and half-savage inhabitants — so vivid is the impression which the perusal of Mr Ruxton's sketches leaves ou the imagination." — John Bull. " One of the most daring and resolute of modern travellers. ... A volume fuller of excitement is seldom submitted to the public." — Athenaeum. Hudson's Bay ; or, E very-day Life SCENES IN THE WILDS OF NORTH AMERICA. By Robert M. BaUantyne. Post 8vo, with Illustrations, 9s. "An able, graphic, and spirited description, not merely of interesting journeys and adventures, through- out these wild and uncultivated regions, but a full and well written account of the formation, object, and trade of the Company, of the Indian tribes, and much vakiable and useful information upon almost every matter connected with the country." — Perth Constitutional. Men and Manners in America. By the Author of " Cyril Thornton." A New Edition, with a Portrait of the Author, and Letters written by him during his Journey through the United States. Fcap. 8vo, price 7s. 6cl. " Though many excellent volumes have since been published, not one has superseded it as a standard and safe authority. Other travellers have confirmed its accuracy without adding much to its information. . . But this edition has another advantage. It is enriched with the private letters he wrote to his friends from America, in which his first impressions are recorded without concealment." — Britannia. Impressions and Experiences of the WEST INDIES and NORTH AMERICA in 1849. By Robert Baird, A.M. In Two Volumes, Post Octavo, price 21s. " The reader will find in the present work a most faithful and attractive description of the countries which the author has visited — the West Indies, Canada, and the United States— as regards both their natural features and scenery, and the character, the manners, and habits of the inhabitants, interspersed with many interesting traits and incidents, forming altogether a tourist's note-book and traveller's guide of the very best class." — John Bull. Leaves from the Journal of a Subal- TERN, DURING THE CAMPAIGN IN THE PUNJAUB, 1848-49. In crown 8vo, price 6s. " An extremely graphic, animated narrative of events, most readable from the first page to the last, does much more to convey to the reader's mind a just and vivid conception of the lights and shadows of life in an Indian camp — the suspense before the coming strife, the wild excitement of the fray, and the painful reaction of the inactivity which succeeds." — Atlas, July 1, 1849. " This volume presents, in a very pleasing form, an accurate account of some of the most striking features in the late campaign of this portion of British India. . . . A more lively, rattling descrip- tion of what a subaltern really experiences on service, including the horrible work he does, and the horrible sights he sees, was never written." — Economist, July 14, 1849. 10 Books Published by William Blackwood and Sons. CHEAP EDITIONS OF POPULAR WORKS. LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF SCOTTISH LIFE. Foolscap 8vo, 2s. 6d. THE TRIALS OF MARGARET LYNDSAY. By the Author of " Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life." 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ANNALS OF THE PARISH, AND AYRSHIRE LEGATEES. By John Galt. Foolscap Svo, 3s. 6d. SIR ANDREW WYLIE. By John Galt. Foolscap 8vo, 3s. 6d. THE PROVOST AND OTHER TALES. By John Galt. Foolscap 8vo, 3s. 6d. THE ENTAIL. By John Galt. Foolscap 8vo, 3s. 6d. LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. By G. F. Ruxton. A New Edition. Foolscap, 4s. cloth. Books Published by William Blackwood and Sons. 11 The Caxtons : A Family Picture. By Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. In Three Vols, post 8vo, price 31s. 6d. " The most brilliant and the most beautiful of all the effusions of Sir Bulwer Lytton's pen of fascina- tion." — The Sun. " One of those graceful family groups in which all the component parts are in perfect harmony, and all the accessories are wrought out with a skill at once the most marvellous, and apparently the most unpremeditated." — Morning Herald. " There are portions of the work equal to anything in the whole range of British fiction It is a book that it does one good to read An invigorating, a bracing book." — Atlas. " And a beautiful picture it is, too; the portraits striking, yet characteristic; the colouring exqui- sitely tasteful, yet true to nature." — New Monthly Magazine. " In the book before us, Sir E. Lytton presents himself in his most becoming attitude. . . . Thus, we repeat, we prefer ' The Caxtons ' to most of Sir Bulwer Lytton's recent novels." — Athenceum. Ten Thousand a- Year. A New Edition. By Samuel Warren, Esq., F.E.S. Three Volumes fcap. 8vo, price 18s. " Ten Thousand a-Year is perhaps destined, in British literature, to some such rank as Don Quixote holds in that of Spain." — American Journal. " We consider Gammon the real hero in this mixed drama, which at once resembles Othello and les Plaideurs the Satan of the Epopceia, which brings to one's memory Paradise Lost and the Lutrin. Consummate skill ; perfect hypocrisy ; indomitable energy ; unbounded ambition — there is Gammon ! " — Revue des deux Mondes. The Diary of a Late Physician. By Samuel Warren, Esq., F.R.S. A New Edition. Complete in Two Volumes, price 12s. " We know of no book in the English language so calculated to rivet the attention, and awaken the purest and deepest sympathies of the heart, as the Diary of a Late Physician. The man who has not read these tales has yet to learn a lesson in the mysteries of human nature ; and though Ten Thousand a- Year may, as a literary composition, claim precedence, we think it lacks something — a very little — of that truthful simplicity, that trusting and religious fervour, that refines every sentiment and hallows every aspiration inspired by the elder work." — Oxford and Cambridge Review. Now and Then. By Samuel Warren, Esq., F.R.S. A New Edition, with the Author's last Corrections and a Preface. In One volume royal post 8vo, price 10s. 6d. " Such is the outline of Mr Warren's present work — a vindication, in beautiful prose, of the ' ways of God to man.' A grander moral is not to be found than that which dwells upon the reader's mind when the book is closed ; conveyed, too, as it is, in language as masculine and eloquent as any the English tongue can furnish." — Times. " It is sculpture, not painting, that we have here to deal with. The characters are few, the events simple ; and both characters and events stand broadly and boldly out, chiselled into big, massive, rigid proportions. It is a book displaying peculiar and remarkable talents. In parts the narration is of breathless interest. There is an utter and blessed absence of conventionalism about the tale ; and it is invested with a species of severe epic grandeur, which, as it were, overshadows the mind." — Morning Chronicle. The Moral, Social, and Professional DUTIES OF ATTORNEYS AND SOLICITORS. By Samuel Warren, Esq., F.R.S., of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law. Second Edition. In one thick Volume, fcp. 8vo, price 9s. " Amongst the brilliant passages with which the Lectures abound, we find the soundest and most useful advice, as well to the practitioner as to the student. The hidden rocks and quicksands of which the young practitioner may be unaware are here pointed out, and lights are raised to warn him of the dangers by which he is surrounded. The Lectures abound with happy illustrations of the doctrines propounded, and striking examples are happily introduced, which cannot fail to impress on the memory the importance of the Lecturer's admonitions." — Legal Observer. 12 Books Published by William Blackwood and Sons. A Memoir of John Philpot Curran. With Sketches of his Contemporaries. By Charles P hilli ps, Esq., A.B., one of her Majesty's Commissioners of the Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors. Octavo, with a Portrait. Price 12s. 6d. The present work, while embracing the more valuable portion of the Recollections of Curran formerly published by Mr Phillips, mainly consists of hitherto unpublished matter, in the drawing up of which the author lias been for some time engaged. It comprises Sketches and Anecdotes of Flood and Grattan, Clare, Tone, Norbury and his Court, Bushe, Plunket, Dean Kirwan, Hamilton Rowan, Clonmell, O'Connell, Emmett, &c. ; with specimens of their eloquence, and very copious extracts from the speeches of Curran. " It may seem an omission, in a work professing to give the Orators as well as the Statesmen of the last age, that Curran should not appear among them — the greatest orator, after Grattan and Plunket, that Ireland has produced, and in every respect worthy of being placed on a line with those great masters of speech. But there is really an insuperable difficulty in attempting a task which has been so inimitably performed already, and within only a few years. Mr C. Phillips's sketch of his friend is certainly one of the most extraordinary pieces of biography every produced. Nothing can be more lively and picturesque than its representation of the famous original. The reader of it can hardly be said not to have known Curran and Curran 's contemporaries. It has been justly said of this admirable work, that it is Boswell minus Bozzy. No library should be without such a piece." — Lord Brougham's Historical Sketches of Statesmen. The Political Life of the Eight Hon. EDMUND BURKE. A Memoir. By the Rev. George Croly, L.L.D., Rector of St Stephen's, Walbrook, London. In Two Volumes, post 8vo, price 18 s. " We have quoted enough, and more than enough, to convince the most sceptical of the originality, eloquence, and power of these remarkable volumes. 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Cloth. ** Of the chief writers, (on this subject,) Captain Hamilton's work comes nearest to historical calmness and impartiality. . . . Sometimes the coldness and matter-of-factness with which the most astound- ing incidents and atrocities are chronicled, serves more effectually to impress the thinking reader with the horrors of the contest, than when his sympathies are directly demanded by the fine writing of the historian. The value of Captain Hamilton's work is very greatly increased, in the present edition , by the labours of Mr Hardman." — Scotsman. Books Published by William Blackwood and Sons. 13 Letters on the Truths contained in POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS: with an Account of MESMERISM. By Herbert Mayo, M.D., formerly Senior Surgeon of Middlesex Hospital ; Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in King's College; Professor of Comparative Anatomy in the Royal College of Surgeons, London, F.R.S., F.G.S., &c. Second Edition, post 8vo, price 6s. " The explanations are often ingenious, and always suggestive and interesting. . . . We recom- mend the reader who takes an interest in the matter to improve his acquaintance with the Letters themselves. "— -A thenceum. Insect Life. By David Badham, M.D. In foolscap 8vo, price 4s. 6d. " This is a very interesting little work — it is full of ingenious argument and sophistry ; yet it drives such hard knocks at all our early impressions, that whether we have, in this age of credulity, a stock sufficient to comfort us when we see a little urchin tearing an insect to pieces, on the strength of Dr Badham's plea that it cannot feel, or that some obstinacy adheres, and pleads that unless a man becomes a fly, a bee, or a beetle, and reveals how he is after his head is off, that there is no way of proving the author's conclusions to be correct on the premises he sets forth, must remain a nicely balanced question." — Dublin Evening Mail. Greece under the Bomans. An Historical View of the Condition of the Greek Nation, from the Time of its Con- quest by the Romans, until the Extinction of the Roman Empire in the East, B.C. 146 — a.d. 717. By George Filllay, K.R.G-. Octavo, price 16s. " . . . His work is therefore learned and profound. It throws a flood of light upon an impor- tant though obscure portion of Grecian history. ... In the essential requisites of fidelity, accuracy, and learning, Mr Finlay bears a favourable comparison with any historical writer of our day." — North American Review. " The History of Greece under the Romans has been ably written by Mr Finlay." — Quarterly Review. Journal of a Tour in Greece and the IONIAN ISLANDS, in the Spring of 1838; with Remarks on the Recent History, Present State, and Classical Antiquities of those Countries. By W. Mure, Esq. of Caldwell. In Two Vols, post 8vo, price 24s., illustrated by Original Drawings. " Mr Mure's Journal is not only the work of a shrewd and intelligent observer, and of a sound, though modest scholar, but withal a very pleasant work." — Quarterly Review. Ancient and Modern Art, Historical and Critical. By George Cleghom, Esq., of Weens. Second Edition, Two Volumes, Foolscap Octavo. Price 12s. " A brief yet comprehensive sketch, historical and critical, of ancient and modern art, from the ear- liest up to the present time. . . . We have seldom perused a work of a more popular character, from which we have derived more genuine delight, or by which our limited and untutored perceptions of the beauties of art have been more assisted and enlightened, than the one we have now the additional pleasure of recommending to a place in every public library, and on the table of every man who values art, refinement, elegance, and taste." — Morning Post. 14 Books Published by William Blackwood and Sons. Lectures in Divinity. By the late George Hill, D.D., Principal of St Mary's College, St Andrews. A New Edition. One Vol. 8vo, 14s. " I am not sure if I can recommend a more complete manual of divinity than the one I have now adverted to. . . . I know of no treatise which professes to exhibit the whole range of theological doctrine, and does it in more of a lucidus ordo than the one that we have fixed upon." — Dr Chalmers. Lectures on the History of Literature, Ancient and Modern. From the German of Frederick Schlegel. In One Vol. foolscap 8vo. price 5s. " Form the most luminous, comprehensive, and philosophical survey of the history of literature which our own age has produced." — Britannia. "A wonderful performance, — better than anything we as yet have on the subject in our own language." — Quarterly Review. " Though concise, Schlegel's work is so comprehensive in its range, that it is alone almost sufficient to make the reader a literary person." — Literary Gazette. The National Atlas of Historical, COMMERCIAL, and POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY, from the most Recent and Authentic Sources. By Alexander Keith Johnston, F.R.S.E., F.H.G.S., F.G.S. Geographer at Edinburgh in Ordinary to her Majesty. A New Edition, with an Index of upwards of 14,000 Names of Places, compiled from the Maps. In Imperial Folio, half-bound russia, price £8, 8s. The National Atlas is respectfully recommended to public attention — I. As being the only Atlas, on a large scale, which has been projected in Britain for several years past. II. As embodying infor- mation connected with General Geography,- Commerce, Statistics, History, and Navigation. HI. As being a work which has received the cordial approval of the most Eminent Men of Science in the country, as well as of the more influential Critical Journals. IV. 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Atlas of Scotland, in 60 Sheets Impe- rial Folio, comprising Maps of each County, on a scale so large as to exhibit the features of the country, and places of importance ; the boundaries of the Shires and Parishes ; and the lines of Eoad, Railway, and Canal, laid down from actual survey ; accompanied by an Index Map, a Plate of the Comparative Heights of Mountains, and another of the lengths of Rivers, and a copious Index. Imperial Folio, half-bound morocco, £6, 6s. Atlas of Scotland, consisting of 31 MAPS, including the Orkney, Shetland, and Western Islands, with the Parochial Boundaries carefully coloured, Railways, and a General Map of Scotland. Demy 4to, price 21s. cloth, or neatly bound in a leather case for the pocket, 16s. The Maps are sold separately, price Is. Books Published "by "William Blackwood and Sons. 15 WORKS BY D. R. HA Y, F. R. S. E. 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