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HISTORY OF GREECE,

FIN LAY.

VOL. IV.

2lont)on
MACMILLAN AND CO.

PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF

OxforU.

HISTORY OF GREECE

FROM ITS

CONQUEST BY THE ROMANS TO THE PRESENT TIME

B.C. 146 TO A. D. 1864

GEORGE FINLAY, LL.D.

A NEW EDITION, REVISED THROUGHOUT, AND IN PART RE-WRITTEN,
WITH CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS, BY THE AUTHOR,

AND EDITED BY THE

REV. H. F. TOZER, M.A.

TUTOR AND LATE FELLOW OF EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD

IN SEVEN VOLUMES

VOL. IV

MEDIAEVAL GREECE AND THE EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND

A. D. I204 1461

<§*f0rb

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
M DCCC LXXVII

'< -:

757

isrr

v • V

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Changes of the Population in Greece after the Decline of the Homan

Empire.

Causes of the introduc

§ I. Observations on the early changes

2. Depopulation under the Roman government.

tion of Sclavonian settlers .....

3. Sclavonians in the Peloponnesus ....

4. Sclavonian names in the geographical nomenclature of Greece

5. Colonies of Asiatic race settled by the Byzantine emperors in Thrace

and Macedonia

6. Bulgarians and Vallachians in Greece

7. Albanians ....

8. Tzakones or Lacones .

9. Summary ....

6
1 1
23

26
27
30
32
35

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 . . 38

2. Social condition of the Greeks in the twelfth century ... 43

Stationary condition of the agricultural popula'tioh-throughout Europe

during the Middle Ages . . . . . .47

. Condition of the Normans when they conquered the Byzantine posses-
sions in Italy . . . . . . .48

. Normans invade the Byzantine empire. Their ravages in Greece . 51

. Separation of the Greek and Latin churches . . • • 59

. Great increase of the papal power during the eleventh and twelfth cen-
turies ........ 61

. Predominant position of the races speaking the French language in the

west of Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries . 63

VOL. IV. b

vi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER III.

Overthrow of the Byzantine Empire by the Crusaders. —
A.D. 1096-1204.

PAGE

§ i. The Crusades ........ 65

2. Conquest of Cyprus by Richard I. of England . . . . 70

3. Commercial relations of the Venetians with the Byzantine emperors . 75

4. Conquest of the Byzantine empire by the Venetians and Crusaders . 81

CHAPTER IV.

Empire of Romania.— A.D. 1204-1261.

§ 1. Election of the first Latin emperor of Constantinople by the Crusaders

and Venetians ....... 88

2. Establishment of the feudal system in Greece .... 94

3. Baldwin I. ........ 98

4. Henry of Flanders. Ecclesiastical arrangements. Parliament of

Ravenika ........ 100

5. Peter of Ccurtenay. Robert. John de Brienne. Baldwin II. Ex-

tinction of the empire of Romania . . . .112

6. Kingdom of Saloniki. a. r>. 1204-1- 2 116

CHAPTER V.
Despotat of Epirus. Empire of Thessalonica. — A.D. 1204-1469.

§ 1. Establishment of an independent Greek principality in Epirus . 121

2. Empire of Thessalonica ...... 124

3. Despotat of Epirus. Principality of Vallachian Thessaly. Family of

Tocco . . . . . -. . .126

CHAPTER VI.
Dukes of Athens.— 1205-1456.

§ 1. Athens becomes a fief of the empire of Romania . . .132

2. State of Athens under the house of de la Roche . . . 143

3. Walter of Brienne. Catalan Grand Com] 'any . . .146

4. Dukes of Athens and Neopatras of the Sicilian branch of the house

ofAragon . . . . . . 1-3

5. Dukes of the family of Acciaiuoli of Florence. Termination of the

Frank domination al Athens ..... 156

6. Condition of the Greek population under the Dukes of Athens . 166

CONTENTS. vii

CHAPTER VII.
Principality of Achaia or the Morea. — 1205-1387.

PAGE

§ I. Conquest of Achaia, by William de Champlitte. Feudal organization

of the Principality . . . . . 1 74

2. Acquisition of the Principality by Geffrey de Villehardouin. Geffrey I.

Geffrey II. . ....... 186

3. William Villehardouin completes the conquest of the Morea. Cedes

Monemvasia, Misithra, and Maina, to the Emperor Michael

VIII 194

4. Alliance and feudal connection of Achaia with the kingdom of

Naples ........ 205

5. Isabella de Villehardouin. Florenz of Hainault. Philip of Savoy . 209

6. Maud of Hainault and Louis of Burgundy . . . .217

7. Achaia under the Neapolitan princes. Ruin of the Principality . 220

CHAPTER VIII.

Byzantine Province in the Peloponnesus. — A.D. 1262-1460.

§ 1. Early state of the Byzantine province. Government of the despot

Theodore I. ...... . 229

2. The emperor Manuel II. attempts to ameliorate the Byzantine adminis-

tration in the Peloponnesus . . . . .236

3. Division of the Morea among the brothers of the emperor John VI.,

viz., Theodore II., Constantine, and Thomas. War of Constan-

tine and Thomas with the Othoman Turks in 1446 . . 242

4. Disorders in the Morea. Albanian revolution . . .252

5. First expedition of sidtan Mohammed II. into the Morea . . 257

6. Final conquest of the Morea by the Turks .... 262

CHAPTER IX.

Dukes of the Archipelago or of Naxos. — A.D. 1207-1566.

§ 1. Observations on the Venetian establishments in the empire of Ro-
mania . . • • • • . .270

2. Dukes of the Archipelago of the families of Sanudo and Dalle Carceri 276

3. Dukes of Naxos of the family of Crispo .... 290

4. Condition of the Archipelago during its subjection to Venetian families 295

b %

viii COXTEXTS.

EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND.— a.d. 1 204-1 461.

CHAPTER I.
Foundation of the Empire.— A.D. 1204-1222.

PAGE

§ i. Early history of Trebizond ...... 307

2. Origin of the family of Grand-Komnenos . . . 315

3. Reign of Alexios I. ...... . 319

CHAPTER H.

Trebizond tributary to the Seljouk Sultans and the Mongols. —
1222-1280.

§ 1. Reigns of Andronikos I. and Joannes I. .... 332

2. Reigns of Manuel I., Andronikos II., Georgios . . . 338

CHAPTER III.
Trebizond independent. Internal Factions. — 1280-1349.

§ 1. Reign of Joannes II. Alliance with the empire of Constantinople . 342

2. Reign of Alexios II. Commercial importance of Trebizond. Trade

of Genoa ........ 350

3. Anarchy and civil wars. Reigns of Andronikos III., Manuel II., Ba-

silios, Irene, Anna, Joannes III., Michael . . . 359

CHAPTER IV.

He-establishment of the Emperor's Supremacy. — 1349-1446.

§ 1. Reign of Alexios III. Progress of the Turkomans. Revenge of Ler-

cari. Magnificent ecclesiastical endowments . . . 372

2. Reign of Manuel III. Relations with the empire of Timor . . 386

3. Reign of Alexios IV. Kara Vousouf, chief of the horde of the Black

Turkomans. Family crimes in the house of Grand-Komnenos . 393

CHAPTER V.
Fall of the Empire.— 1446-1461.

§ 1 . Causes of the rapid rise and vital energy of the Othoman empire . 400

2. Kcign of Joannes IV. called Kalojoannes .... 405

3. Reign of David. Conquest of Trebizond by Mohammed II. . . 413

CONTENTS.

APPENDIX.

Chronological Lists.

I. Emperors of Romania .....

II. Kings of Saloniki ......

III. Despots of Epirus. Emperors of Thessalonica, Princes of

Vallachian Thessaly .....

IV. Dukes of Athens ......

V. Princes of Achaia ......

VI. Byzantine despots in the Morea ....
VII. Dukes of the Archipelago and Naxos
VIII. Emperors of Trebizond .....

IX. Genealogical list of the family of Grand-Komnenos
X. List of chiefs of the Turkoman horde of the White Sheep .

429
429

43o
43i
432
433
433
434
435
438

WILLIAM MARTIN LEAKE, E.R.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,

THE AUTHOR.

MEDIAEVAL GREECE.

CHAPTER I.

Changes of the Population after the Decline of
the Roman Empire.

Sect. I. — Observations on the Early Changes.

Two facts form the basis of Greek history at the commence-
ment of the Byzantine empire: the diminution in the numbers
of the Hellenic race, and the occupation of a considerable part
of Greece by Sclavonians who settled in the depopulated
country \ The Byzantine writers inform us, that for several
centuries the Sclavonians formed the bulk of the population
in ancient Hellas, but the precise extent to which this
Sclavonian colonization was carried has been the subject of
warm discussion. One party maintains that the present
inhabitants of Greece are Byzantinized Sclavonians ; 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

1 The Byzantine empire is a conventional term which historians have applied
to the Eastern Roman empire. In this work it is used as applicable to the period
commencing with the accession of the iconoclast Leo III. in 715, and ending with
the establishment of the Latin empire in 1204. See vol. ii. p. 3.

VOL. IV. B

2 CHAXGES OF THE POPULATIOX.

[Ch.I. §i.

pardoned for displaying an eager zeal to participate in the
fame of a past world, with which they alone can claim any
national connection. It is not, therefore, surprising that the
attempt, to prove the extermination of the Hellenic race in
Europe by the Sclavonians. deeply wounded both Greek
patriotism and Philhellenic enthusiasm \

Before reviewing the various immigrations into Greece
during the middle ages, it is necessary to notice two questions
connected with the population in earlier times which still
admit of doubt and discussion. Their importance in deter-
mining the extent to which the bulk of the population may
have been of mixed race during the classic ages is great.
The one relates to the numbers of the slave population
employed in agriculture when Greece was in its most flourish-
ing condition ; and the other, to the proportions in which the
free population and the slaves were diminished in the general
depopulation of the country that preceded the Sclavonian
immigration. A large proportion of the slaves employed
in agriculture were of foreign origin, as we know from the
enormous extent of the slave trade, and from the circumstance
that the Greeks looked on the rearing of slaves as unprofit-
able 2. We know also that under the domination of the
Romans, the higher classes of Greece either died out or

1 Professor Fallmerayer made this attempt with great ability. His principal
work is entitled Geschchte der halbimel Morea whhrend des MitteJalters. A subse-
quent tract lorms a necessary appendix. It is entitled Welchen Einfliiss hatte die
Besetzung Griechtnland* durch die Slaven auf das Schicksal der Siadt A then? oder die
Entslehung der heutigen Griechen. In both these works, which contain much
oiigin.il matter, there is too much latitude in the use of authorities. The ablest
oj pjnent of Fallmerayer is Zinkeisen, but his Geschichte Griechenlands is far from
a triumphant refutation. It has the meiit of exact references to the original
authoiities. Two Greeks at Athens have also attempted to reply to Fallmerayer,
viz. A ( i. Leukias, Refutatio illarum qui putaverunt, scripserunt, et typh divulgaverunt,
quod nen r, eorum qui nunc Graeciam incolanf a veleribus Graecis ariundus est; Gr. et
Lat. Athenis, 1S43; and K. Paparrhegopoulos, Tltpl ttjs tTroiK-qatws 2A.a/3i«wv
<pvKwv (is ttjv U(\onuuurjffov, tv 'AO-qvats. [843, [By far the most exhaustive dis-
cussion of this subject is to be found in Professor Carl Mopf's Geschichte Griechen-
in Brockhaus' Griecketdand, vol. vi. pp. too foil. (vol. Ixxxv. of Ersch and
Gil.ii's Eicyklopddie, published in iSf>7). Here Fallmerayer's authorities are
subjected to a searching examination, and the historical aspect o, the question
is fully discussed. This treatise may be fairly said to have set the matter at rest;
so that Fallmerayer's theses may be considered as disproved, except so far as
they imply that a large admixture of Slavonic blood flows in the veins of the
modern Greeks, which is admitted on all hands. An interesting sketch of the
Controversy is given in Hertzberg's Oesehiehte Griechenlands seit dem Absterben des
anliken I.ehens. i pp. 120-130. Ed.]

1 tristot. Pol. iv. * vii I o ; keitemcier, Gachichle und Zustand der Sklaverey und
LtibeigLW-chaJt in Griechenland, pp. 73 ~ij.

ELEMENTS OF THE POPULATION. 3

Ch.I.§ 1.]

lost their nationality by adopting the names and assuming
the manners of Roman citizens. Indeed it seems probable
that pure Hellenic blood began to be greatly adulterated
about the time the ancient Greek dialects fell into disuse.
Still there can be no doubt that the Greek population retired
before the Sclavonian immigration, and did not mingle with
the intruders, but on the other hand there is no evidence to
determine 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 the modern Greeks must be. Of
what value is the oldest genealogic tree, if a single generation
be omitted in the middle ?

The extent to which the purity of the Hellenic race was
corrupted by admixture with the slave population hardly
admits of a satisfactory answer. Liberated slaves certainly
engrafted themselves into the native blood of Greece, to
some extent, in Roman times ; but it is difficult to ascertain
what proportion of the freedmen that filled Greece were of
foreign origin. Slavery was for many ages the principal
agent of productive industry in Greece; the soil was cultivated
by slaves, and many manufactured articles were produced by
their labour. Throughout the whole country, they formed
at least one-half of the population \ Now, although the
freedmen and descendants of liberated foreign slaves never
formed as important an element in the higher classes of the
population 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
singular 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 numberless streams,
all flowing from a similar source? The Thracians and
Sclavonians were for centuries to the slave-trade of the

1 For the best information on the numbers of the slave population, see Clinton,
Fasti Helletuci, vol. ii. 381. In comparing the numbers of the slaves in Greece
with those in the slave states of North America, we must recollect that the pro-
portion of adults would be greater in Greece, as the importation was free, and
the Greeks did not rear slaves in any quantity.

B 2

4 CHAXGES OF THE POPULATIOX.

[Ch. I. §i.

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 America1.

Whatever may have been the operation of these causes in
adulterating the purity of the Hellenic race and the Greek
language. \vc know that a great revolution occurred about
the middle of the sixth century of our era. Until that time,
the population of Greece presented 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 inhabitants of the towns, and even the
ancient peculiarities of dialect were often preserved 2. Nor
did the condition of the mass of the population, greatly as
it was diminished, undergo any material change until after
the time of Justinian ; 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 Greek language indicates that a great change had
taken place in the Greek people before the extinction of
the Western Empire. The rhythmical beauty of the ancient
language had been destroyed by allowing accent to absorb
quantity long before foreign colonies invaded the Hellenic
soil. But it was not until the great Sclavonian invasion
had overspread the land that the native population was com-

1 [It rarely happens that the language of a highly developed people is influenced
in any considerable degree by those of other races in a lower st.Ue of civilization
and \ ossessing no literature. The change which has passed over the syntax of
the Greek language in the transition from its ancient fo its modern form' is suffi-
ciently accounted for by the tendency of all languages to lose inflexions and
become more analytic, and by the necessity of adapting expressions to the modes
of thought of conquering tribes. These are the same influences which have
operated in the formation of the Roman-.- languages. In the modern Greek
vocabulary the principal intrusive elements are derived from Latin, Italian, and
Turkish This of course does not apply to the Neo-hellenic idiom of the Athens
press, which has eliminated the intrusive words, but to the Romaic of the people,
which was used by all classes up to the War of Independence. At one time it
\\a- maintained that the language, had been considerably modified by the Slavonic
dialects; as, for instance, by lleilmaicr, in his otherwise excellent treatise Ueber
die Entttehung dtr romaiuhen Sprache unter dem Einflusse fremder Zungen (pp.
23-34~>: lul this view has been disproved by Miklosich, who has shown in his
essay entitled Die timuitehtn Elemente im Nengriichischen, how extremely slight
that influence has been. Ed.]

■ Philostmtus, 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 Heroda Atticus {Vil. Soph. ii. l.
p. 238), and the Life of Apollonius of Tyaiia, viii. 12.

CORRUPTION OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE. 5

Ch.I. §1.]

pletely transformed into that modern race of Greeks, which
inhabited the towns and had recovered possession of a con-
siderable part of the country at the time of the conquest of
Greece by the Crusaders and Venetians. Among an illiterate
people like the Greeks of the sixth, seventh, and eighth cen-
turies, each successive generation alters the language of oral
communication, by neglecting inflexions and disregarding
grammatical rules. A corrupted pronunciation confounds
orthography, and obscures the comprehension of the gram-
matical changes which words undergo. The process of
transforming the Hellenic language into the Romaic, or
modern Greek dialect, evidently arose from a long neglect
of the rules of grammar and orthography; and the pro-
nunciation, though corrupted by the confusion it makes of
vowels and diphthongs, proves by the very tenacity with
which it has preserved the Hellenic accentuation, that modern
Greek is a lineal descendant of the classic language ; for with
its inflexions correctly written, it 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
Thucydides1. There is hardly more difference between the
language of Homer and the New Testament, than 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 ; either 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, the ties of blood

1 Ducange traces the progress of corruption in the Latin language, in the
preface to his Glossar'mm mediae et infimae Latinitatis. Hallam {Introduction to
the Literature of Europe in Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. i. p. C9,
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. Compare
Turner s History of the Anglo-Saxons, iii. 396. See also the German translation
of Henrichsen's Tracts in Danish — Ueber die Neugriechische Aussprache der Hel-
lenischen Sprache, p. 38 ; and Ueber die sogenannten politischen Verse bei den Griechen,
27. [The standard work on the development of the modern Greek language is
Prof. Mullach's Grammatik der Griechischen Vulgarsprache in historischer Entwick-
lung : in English it is treated in the Introduction to Sophocles' Glossary of later
and Byzantine Greek; and in a lucid essay by Professor Blackie, On the philological
genius and character of the Neo-kellenic dialect of the Greek language, in his Horae
Hellenicae, pp. 111-166. Ed.]

6 CHANGES OF THE POPULATION.

[Ch. 1. § 2.

and race have been weaker than those of civilization and
religion, and literature and religion have created Arabs out
of Syrians and Egyptians, and Greeks out of Sclavonians and
Albanians.

The gospel and the laws of Justinian blended all classes of
citizens into one mass, and facilitated the acquisition of the
boon of freedom by every Christian slave. The pride of
the Hellenic race was stifled, and the Greeks became proud
of the name of Romans, and eager to be ranked with the
freedmen and manumitted slaves of the masters of the world.
But a Christian church which was neither Greek nor Roman,
arose and created to itself a separate power under the name
of Orthodox, and forming a partnership with the imperial
authority, acquired a power greater than any nationality
could have conferred. A social organization at variance with
all the prejudices of ancient, private, and political life was
framed, and the consequence was that this change created a
new people. Such seems to be the origin of the modern
Greeks, a people which displays homogeneity in character,
though dispersed over an immense extent of country, and
living in various insulated districts, from Corfu to Trebizond,
and from Philippopolis to Cyprus.

SECT. II. — Depopulation of Greece under the Roman Goveru-
nicnt. — Causes of the Introduction of Sclavouiau Settlers.

The depopulation of Greece under the Roman government
is the leading fact of Greek history for several centuries.
This depopulation was increased and perpetuated by the
accumulation of immense landed estates in the hands of
individual proprietors. The expense of maintaining good
roads and other adjuncts of civilization, necessary for bringing
agricultural produce to market, is greater in Greece than in
most other countries ; and it would be considered by pro-
prietors of whole provinces as an unprofitable sacrifice. Their
lect consequently produced the abandonment of the cul-
tivation of the soil in a great part of the country, and its
conversion into pasture land. From provinces in this con-
dition the government often derived very little revenue, for
the large pr >prietors found facilities of gaining exemption

DEPOPULATION OF GREECE. 7

Ch. I. § 2.]

from taxation, and the diminished numbers and impoverished
condition of the colons rendered the tribute insignificant.
The defence of a province so situated became a matter of
no interest to the central power at Rome or Constantinople,
and it was abandoned to the invaders without a struggle.
Greece was often left to defend itself against Gothic and
Sclavonian invaders, whose progress must have been faci-
litated by the numbers of the discontented colons and
agricultural slaves, for the Sclavonian lands were the great
slave marts of the age. Such was the internal state of
Greece when the Sclavonians attacked the Byzantine empire
as a warlike and conquering race.

The earliest steps by which the Sclavonians colonized the
Hellenic soil are unnoticed in history. Like the subsequent
increase in the number of the Greeks who expelled or absorbed
them, its very causes pass unrecorded, 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 either ancient or 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 different periods of the middle ages, is a
subject which has not yet been carefully investigated \

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 as far as the
isthmus of Corinth. This notice places the commencement
of the hostile incursions of the Sclavonians into Greece as

1 Colonel Leake, in his Researches in Greece, published in 18 14, first pointed
out proofs of the long residence of the Sclavonians in every part of Greece, and
cited the principal Byzantine authorities which certify the political importance
of their settlements (p. 3791). Professor Fallmerayer became the champion of
Sclavonian ism. 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 Sclavonian names of places
in Greece are often the same as those of places in the most distant parts of
Russia. By means of this discovery, Fallmerayer endeavours to exterminate the
ancient Greeks.

8 CHAXGES OF THE POPULATION.

[Ch. I. § 2.

early as the year 540 l. But the colonization of the Hellenic
soil by Sclavonians is not noticed until long after its occur-
rence, and its 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. The care, too, which the
emperor devoted to fortifying the 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
distant citadel of the Hellenic race'-. 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 immigrants3. Now,
it is precisely in these districts that we find the Sclavonians
first forming the mass of the inhabitants within limits once
occupied by the Hellenic race 4. In these cases of colo-
nization, as in many others afterwards, it seems 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. The Goths, and other Teutonic

1 Procopius, De Bello Persico, ii. c. 4. p. o,s\ edit. Paris. He mentions frequent
incursions of the Sclavonians into Illyria and Thrace; and in alluding to thi^ very
expedition in the Secret History, he connects the Huns. Sclavonians, and Antes,
i as allies (c. i8, p. 54). Several Byzantine historians speak of irruptions
of the Huns and Sclavonians, in a united body, into Thrace in 550. Malal.
rphani -. 107 ; Cedrenus, 386; Clinton, Fat/i Romani, i. Sio.
ipius, De Aedijicii^. iv. c. 2. p. 71.
■ Ibid. fib. iv. c. .^, 4. The Rhechios is supposed to be the river that flows from
the lal l rulf of Strymon,

• J afel, De ThesvUonica ejusque Agio. Proleg. lvii.

SCLAVONIAN COLONIZATION OF GREECE. g

Ch.I.§2.]

peoples 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 Sclavonians, on the contrary, had for ages formed
the bulk of the population in wide-extended territories 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 conquerors, a kindred race
seems to have cultivated the soil even under the Roman
government ; but at what period the Sclavonians began to
force themselves southward into the territories once occupied
by the Illyrians and the Thracians, is a question of much
obscurity.

The successive decline of the Roman, Gothic, and Hunnish
empires, in the provinces along the Danube, allowed the
hitherto subject Sclavonians to assume independence, 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 civilization ;
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 ap-
pearance 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 never-
theless repeopled by Sclavonian colonists, who, often fearing
to devote themselves to husbandry, lest they should invite
fresh incursions, 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. It was a
characteristic of the Sclavonian colonists, in the Byzantine
empire, for a long period, that they had an aversion to

10 CHANGES OF THE POPULATION.

[Ch. I. § 2.

agriculture, and followed it only on a small scale, deriving
their principal support from cattle1.

The progress of depopulation in the Roman empire is
attested by numerous laws, which prove that the rapid
diminution in the members of the municipalities forced the
government to adopt regulations for the purpose of retaining
every class of society in its own sphere and place2. The
steady diminution of the Greek race, from the time of Jus-
tinian I. to that of Leo III., is testified by the whole history
of the period ; and it is evident that this diminution was more
immediately dependent on political causes, connected with a
vicious 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 extermination of the
Illyrian and Thracian nations may have been completed by
the 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.
The same causes which operated in exterminating the Thra-
cian 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.
The citizens, in such cases, had always so many drains on
their resources, to which interest compelled them to attend,
that humanity only extended to the circle of their immediate

1 Institutions Militaires de TEmpereur Leon le Phildsophe, traduites par Joly de
Maizeroy, tome ii p. 117. Leonis Tactica, c. xviii. 5 99; Imp. Mauricii Ars Mili-
tarise p. 2f% edit. Scheffer). The spirit of the warlike Sclavonians. at the period
poured their conquering armies into the Eastern Empire, is described in
Menander Excerpta e Menandri Historia, p. 406. edit. Bonn, in the Corpus His/oriae
Ilyzautinae). The extent of tile Sclavonian colonization in Macedonia in the
seventh century is proved by the Emperor Justinian II. transporting at one time
inure than 1 50,0-50 soul- into Asia and settling them on the shores of the Helles-
pont. Theophanes, pp. 304. 305, 364. Thirty thousand troops were raised in this
colony shortly after its establishment

I. Justin, x. tit. 32; and tit. 31, laws 18. 19. 20, 21, 50. Even he who
quitted his civil | tax-payer to the fisc, to serve in the army, was ordered

to lie brought back to his estate law 171 — * Qui derelicta curia militaverit, revo-
cetur ad curiam.' No \\on!> could declare more strongly the decrease in the
numbers of the tax-pay ers, nor marli more clearly that the treasury, not the army,
gave its character and laws to the Eastern Roman empire. Modern nations,
having readied the same crisis in their government, might study Byzantine history

SCLAVONIANS IN NORTHERN GREECE. II

Ch.I.§3.]

neighbours. But when the Sclavonians colonized the wasted
lands, this new population proved better able to protect itself,
both from its previous rude habits of life, and from the artless
method in which it pursued its agricultural occupations. The
Sclavonians, therefore, soon became the sole possessors of the
greater part of the territories once inhabited by the Illyrians
and Thracians. For some centuries, they 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 circumstances were somewhat changed by the
greater number of towns they met with, and by the com-
paratively flourishing condition maintained by that large
portion of the Greek population engaged in commerce and
manufactures. Though they occupied extensive territories in
Greece without encountering serious opposition, their progress
was arrested at many points by a dense population, living
under the protection of walled towns. It is, however, im-
possible to trace the progress of the Sclavonians on the
Hellenic soil in any detail ; and we learn only from a casual
notice in the ecclesiastical historian Evagrius, that their first
great hostile irruptions into the Peloponnesus were made under
the shelter of the Avar power, towards the end of the sixth
century1. 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.

SECT. III. — The Sclavonians in the Peloponnesus.

It will assist our means of estimating the extent of the
Sclavonian colonization of Greece, and the influence it exercised
in the country, if we pass in review the principal historical
notices that have been preserved relating to these settlements,
particularly in the Peloponnesus, the citadel of the Hellenic
population. The ravages by which the barbarians opened
the way for the Sclavonians as early as the reign of Justinian
have been noticed. The contemporary Byzantine historian,
Menander, records that about the year 581 the Sclavonians
ravaged Thrace with an army of their own amounting to

1 See next section.

i: CHANGES OF THE POPULATION.

[Ch. I. § 3.

a hundred thousand men, and extended their devastations
into Greece1. About this time they were carrying on war
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-. A few years later another contemporary
historian, Evagrius, in a passage already alluded to, notices
an invasion of the Avars into Greece in the following words :
' The Avars penetrated twice as far as the long wall of
Thrace. Singidon, Anchialos, 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 Asia3.' These
words, unsupported by other evidence, would certainly not
lead us to infer that any part of Greece had been then settled
by either Avars or Sclavonians, even were we assured that
the Sclavonians composed the bulk of the Avar army. But
this careless mention of Greece, by Evagrius, in connection
with the plundering incursions of the Avars, receives some
historical value, when connected with the Sclavonian colonies
in the Peloponnesus by a passage in a synodal letter of the
Patriarch Xikolaos to the Emperor Alexius I. The Patriarch
mentions that the Emperor Nicephorus I., about the year
807, raised Patrae to the rank of a metropolitan see, on

1 Excerp'ae Menandri Hts/oria, pp. 327 and 404, edit. Bonn.

- Ibid. p. 334. The conquest of the A:.:ae. a numerous Sclavonian race, is
mentioned in p I Schafarik's SlawUche Alterth'umer. i. 68. The importance

of the Sclavonian colonies in Macedonia, and their wars with the Greeks and the
Byzantine government during the interval between a.n. 589 and 746, are noticed
by Tafel (De Thessalonica, proleg. pp. lviii. xci.) and the authorities he quotes.
Theoph. pp. 288, 304. 305. The Patriarch Nicephorus mentions the Sclavonians
a- united in great numbers with the Avar armies {Breviarium, pp. 13, 24). Ephrae-
niius. 69, edit Iionn.

1 H '. Kccle-. vi. 10. (This passage has been the subject of much

discission ; see Zinkeisen, Gesehiehte Gn< p. 697.) This took place

re the year 591, as the Emperor Maurice concluded peace with Persia in that
\iar. Those who witnessed the complete desolation of Greece after the war
of independence against the Turks, and the civil wars that followed the assassina-
tion -irias. can alone understand to what extent it is possible for bar-
barians 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
Tripolit/a. Corinth. Megara, Athens, Thel es, and Livadea, when hardly a single
house had escaped being levelled with the ground. No living soul was to be
h which the (alien walls of the houses rendered it diffi-
cult to penetrate, and no cattle could be found in the surrounding country.
1 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
! iti v exported to Trieste, to obtain food for a few days.
The consequence was, that two-thirds of the population perished.

SCLAVONIANS IN THE PELOPONNESUS. 13

Ch. I. § 3.]

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 country1.'
The Patriarch thus dates the establishment of the Avars in
the Peloponnesus from the year 589 ; and the exact con-
formity of his statement with the testimony of Evagrius,
indicates 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,
instead of Sclavonians, who, at the time he wrote, formed
a considerable portion of the population of Greece, points to
the inference that his facts were drawn from Byzantine official
documents, and not from any local records concerning the
Sclavonian settlements in the Peloponnesus. The Emperor
Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who is an earlier authority,
differs from the Patriarch Nikolaos, and places the Sclavonian

1 Nikolaos III., called the Grammarian, occupied the Patriarchal chair from
a.d. 1084 to 1 11 1. Leunclavius, Jits Graeco-Romamnn, torn. i. 278; Le Quien,
Oriens Chrcstianus, torn. ii. 179. A Greek MS. in the library of Turin, quoted
by Fallmerayer (Fragmente aus dem Orient, ii. 413), perhaps confirms the testimony
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 particular notice of the
ravages of the Avars in Attica and Euboea, which he must have derived from
another source, so that he may have seen the same original authority as the
Patriarch. [The Chronicle of Monemvasia, which is here referred to, is examined
by Hopf (op. cit. pp. 106-10S), and declared by him to be a confused compilation
of the sixteenth century, almost worthless as a historical authority. The vague-
ness of the passage in Evagrius, which tacks on 'all Hellas' to the names of
two places in Moesia and Thrace, deprives it of all weight. The quotation from
the Patriarch Nikolaos is of far greater importance. The statement, however,
that Byzantine officials could not enter the Peloponnese during that period of
218 years is historically untrue. Finlny himself has remarked (vol. i. p. 378) with
reference to the visit of Constans II. to Athens in a.d. 662, and his assembling
troops there, when on his way from Constantinople to Rome — ' The Sclavonian
colonies in Greece must, at this time, have owned perfect allegiance to the imperial
power, or Constans would certainly have employed his army in reducing them to
subjection.' This may suggest the doubt, whether the Patriarch has not put
a colouring of his own on a genuine record. There may have been a great inroad
of the Avars accompanied by Slavonians at the end of the sixth century, and
it is possible that some of them may have settled in a part of the Peloponnese
until reinforced by other settlers at a later period. But this is the utmost that
can be deduced from it. See Hertzberg, Geschichte Griechenlands teit dem Abster-
ben dei antiken Lebens, pp. 139, 140. Ed.]

i4 CHANGES OF THE POPULATION.

[Ch.l. §3.

colonization in the year 746 \ But whether these foreigners
colonized the Peloponnesus in the year 589 or in the year
746. it appears that they were sufficiently numerous to attempt
the conquest of Patrae, and to form the project of expelling
the Greeks from the peninsula in the year 807. Indeed, they
came so near success that it was deemed necessary for St.
Andrew to take the field in person in order to maintain the
Hellenic race in possession of a city dear to the apostle by
the memory of the martyrdom which he had suffered in it
at the hands of the Hellenes. The Sclavonians must un-
doubtedly have become dangerous enemies, both to the Greek
population and the Byzantine government, before it became
the general opinion that they could only be defeated by
miraculous interpositions -.

Other circumstances prove that a great change took place
in the state of the Peloponnesus about the end of the sixth
century. During the reign of the Emperor Maurice, A.D.

- 602, the bishopric of Monemvasia was separated from
the diocese of Corinth, and raised to the rank of a metro-
politan see. Now, as the metropolitan bishops were at this
period important agents of the central government, this change
indicates a necessity for furnishing the Greek population of
the south-western part of the Peloponnesus with a resident
chief of the highest administrative authority ; and this necessity
seems to have originated in the communication with Corinth
which was the capital of the province having been rendered
more difficult than in preceding times3.

In the period between the reigns of Justinian I. and
Heraclius, a considerable portion of Macedonia was entirely
colonized by Sclavonians, who aspired at rendering themselves
masters of the whole country, and repeatedly attacked the
city of Thcssalonica4. In the reign of Heraclius other warlike
tribes of Sclavonian race, from the Carpathian Mountains,
were invited by the Emperor to settle in the countries between
the Save and the Adriatic, on condition of defending these

1 Constant. Porphyr. Be Them. ii. p. 2;.

* Compare Falunerayer, Gtuhichte der halbinsel Morea, i. 13S, and Zinkeisen,
Geuhichie Griechenland>, 702.

j-arc Phiantzes, p. 39S, edit. Bonn, and Le Quien, Oriens Christianus,

1 that relates to the- Sclavonians in Macedonia in Tafel's work, De Thes-
ialonica ijtaque Agro, l'rulcy. civ.

SCLAVONIANS IN THE PELOPONNESUS. 15

Ch.I. §3.]

provinces against the Avars, and acknowledging the supre-
macy 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 1. This
emigration of the free and warlike Sclavonians, as allies of
the government, 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
of the Sclavonian colonists in the Byzantine empire.

The country between the Haemus and the Danube was
conquered by the Bulgarians, under their chief Asparuch,
about the year 678. The greater part of the territory sub-
dued by the Bulgarians had already been occupied by
Sclavonian emigrants, who exterminated the old Thracian
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 Sclavonian popu-
lation. 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 2. A few years after the loss of Moesia, the Emperor
Justinian II. established numerous colonies of subject Scla-
vonians in the valley of the Strymon, for the purpose of
defending the possessions of the Greeks against the incursions
of their independent countrymen 3.

In the early part of the eighth century the Peloponnesus
was regarded by European navigators as Sclavonian land. In
the account of St. Willibald's pilgrimage to Jerusalem 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 4. The name of Sclavinia at times obtained

1 Constant. Torphyr. Be Administ. Imp. cap. 30-32.

2 Theoph. 298; Schafarik's Slawische Alter thinner, ii. 170.

3 Constant. Porphyr. Di Thematibus, ii. p. 23.

4 Fallmerayer quotes this passage (Geschichte der hal insel 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." [Hopf
remarks (op. cit. p. 106) that the nun who composed the Life or Pilgrimage of
St. Willibald was so ignorant of geography that she places Tyre and Sidon on

\6 CHANGES OF THE POPULATIOX.

[Ch.I.§3.

a widely extended, and at times a very confined, geographical
application. We find it used in reference to particular dis-
tricts 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 that the Sclavonians had rendered them-
selves masters of great part of the Peloponnesus in numbers
at the very commencement of the eighth century. The com-
pletion of the colonization 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 746 \ The events, if really synchronous,
could not have been immediately 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, were prin-
cipal sufferers ; and, moreover, that Constantinople itself was
repeopled by 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 consumption of
human life caused by increased activity, forced celibacy,
luxury, and vice, in dense masses of mankind. 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 population in the rural districts which
it still occupied ; unless we 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 settle-
ments. The fact seems to be so stated by the imperial writer,
who declares that at this time 'all the country became Scla-

thc Adriatic Sea: and that therefore there is no sufficient ground for supposing
that by the Sclavonian land she meant the l'eloponnese as distinguished from
k peninsula at large. Ed.]

1 Constant, l'orphyr. De Thematibus, lib. U. p. 25; Theoph. 354; Cedrenus,
ii. .\(>i.

' Nicephorus Cpolitanus, p. 40; Theoph. pp. 354, 360.

SCLAVONIAN COLONIZATION COMPLETED. ij
Ch.I. §3.]

vonian, and was occupied by foreigners V And in confirma-
tion of the predominance of the Sclavonian population in
the Peloponnesus, he 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 asinine Sclavonian
visage 2.

The Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus dates the com-
pletion of the Sclavonian colonization of Greece in the reign
of Constantine V. (Copronymus) ; yet it is evident from
history that a mighty social revolution commenced in the
Byzantine empire 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, were re-
peatedly 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
power of the Sclavonian colonists who had rendered them-
selves independent in several provinces. But this was at last
effected. The Sclavonian emigrants who completed the occu-
pation of Greece and the Peloponnesus, after the great plague,
were not long allowed to enjoy tranquil possession of the
country. In the year 783, the Empress Irene, who was an
Athenian by birth, and consequently more deeply interested
in the condition of the Greek population than her immediate
predecessors, sent an army into Greece, to reduce all the
Sclavonians who had assumed independence to immediate
dependence on the imperial administration. This force

1 Constant. 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. TLdoa r/ 'EWis re kcu fj UiXonvvv-qaos vno
Tf/v rwv 'PwfMioov crayrjvrjv k-y(V(To, ware 5ov\ovs ovt e\ev6epcov ftvioOai. E<70A.a-
i9cu077 5« iraaa 7) X^P0- *a' fi~fOve ftapjiopos ore d XoipLiKos Odvaros iraaav l(3uOKtTO
ttjv olitovfXfVTjv, oirrjv'iKa KaivaravTivos 6 rf/s Konpias knuvvf-ws rd otcrjirTpa rrjs tuiv
'Pwpaiaiv Siuirev dpxTJs.

2 See above, vol. ii. p. 305.

VOL. IV. C

1 8 CHAXGES OF THE POPULATIOX.

[Ch.I. §3.

marched into the Peloponnesus, ravaged the lands of the
Sclavonians, carried off an immense booty and many prison-
ers, and compelled all the independent tribes to acknowledge
themselves tributary to the Byzantine empire1. In spite of
this check, the Sclavonians continued numerous and powerful ;
and fifteen years later, one of their princes in northern
Greece, who ruled a province called Veletzia, engaged in
a dangerous conspiracy against the imperial government,
which had for its object to raise the sons of Constantine V.
to the throne of Constantinople-.

The conviction that their affairs were beginning to decline
induced the Sclavonians of the Peloponnesus to make a
desperate effort to render themselves masters of the whole
peninsula. In the year 807, they made the attack on Patrae
which has been already alluded to. The siege of that city
was to be the first step towards political independence. They
counted on deriving some assistance in their undertaking from
a Saracen fleet, which was to co-operate in the attack on Patrae
by cutting off all connection between the peninsula and the
western coast of continental Greece. The military power of
the Sclavonians does not appear to have been very formid-
able, for the Greeks of Patrae were able to defeat the attack
on their city, before any aid reached them from the Byzantine
troops stationed at Corinth 3. The policy of the Byzantine
government, which viewed with great jealousy every indica-
tion of martial spirit among the native Greek population, and
carefully obliterated every trace of local institutions, willingly
attributed all the honour of the victory to St. Andrew, rather
than allow the people to perceive that they were able to de-
fend their own rights and liberties, by means of their own
courage and municipal authorities 4.

The condition of the Greek race began to change again
soon after this event. The privileged position of the citizen
in Hellenic society had disappeared; and now citizen, alien,
frecdman and serf were melting into the mass that composed

1 Theoph. 2 Ibid. 400.

3 The chronicle of Monemvasia. quoted by l-'allmerayer, says that, previously
to this period, the inhabitants of Patrae had emigrated' to Reggio in Calabria;
so that for a time only the citadel remained in the hands of the Greeks. [On the
value of this chronicle as evidence, see note on p. 13. Ed.]

1 tint Porphyr. De AdminUt. Imp. cap. 49. p. 131; Lcunclavius, Jus
Gruccrj-Iiomniiutn, p. 278.

CHANGE IN GREEK RACE AND SOCIETY. 19

Ch.I.§3-]

the Romaioi, or Greeks of the Byzantine empire, called con-
temptuously by the abbot confessor Theophanes, Helladikoi.
Society suffered a deterioration in purity of race and in intel-
lectual culture, but the mass of the population rose consider-
ably in the scale of humanity. The first great wave of that
irresistible river of democracy, which has ever since floated
society onward with its stream, then rolled over the Eastern
Empire, and it flowed majestically and slowly forward, un-
noticed by philosophers, unheeded by the people, and
undreaded by statesmen and sovereigns. Unfortunately on
this occasion, as on too many others, the waters were allowed
to wash away the productive soil of local institutions, and to
leave only a few rocks insufficient to afford any shelter in the
wide expanse of despotism. The barbarism of the Scla-
vonians placed them beyond the sphere of this social revolu-
tion, and they were ultimately swept from the Hellenic soil
by its progress. The Greek race having enlarged its social
sphere and included within itself that portion of the agricul-
tural population which had replaced the purchased slaves,
felt the invigorating influence of the change. As soon as the
Greek population began to increase sensibly under the new
impulse given to society, the necessity was felt of recovering
possession of the districts which had been occupied by the
Sclavonians for six generations. The progress of society
made the Greeks the encroaching party, and their encroach-
ments produced hostilities.

In the ninth century the Greek population began to make
rapid advances. During the reign of the Emperor Theophilus,
the Sclavonians of the Peloponnesus broke out in a general
rebellion, and remained masters of the open country for some
years, committing fearful devastation on the property of the
Greeks. But when his widow, Theodora, governed the em-
pire during the minority of her son, Michael III. (a.D. 842-
852), she sent an army to reduce them to obedience. This
Byzantine force, commanded by Theoktistos the Proto-
spatharios, does not appear to have encountered any very
obstinate resistance on the part of the rebels. Two tribes —
the Melings, who occupied the slopes of Taygetus, which had
already received its modern name Pentedaktylon, and the
Ezerits, who dwelt in the lower part of the valley of the
Eurotas, about Helos, which the Sclavonians translated Ezero

C 2

2C CHANGES OF THE POPULATION.

[Ch. I. § 3.

— had long enjoyed complete independence1. They were
rendered tributary by this expedition, and their chiefs were
selected by the Byzantine government. The Melings in the
mountain were ordered to pay an annual tribute of sixty gold
byzants, and the Ezerits in the rich plain three hundred.
The insignificancy of these sums must be considered as a
proof that they were imposed merely as a sign of vassalage,
and not as a tax. But under an administration so essentially
fiscal as that of the court of Constantinople, the Sclavonian
tribes must have been exposed to various modes of oppres-
sion. Rebellion was a natural consequence ; and accordingly,
in the reign of Romanos I., we find them again in arms (a.d.
920-944). Krinites Arotras, the Byzantine governor of the
Peloponnesus, received orders to exterminate the Melings and
Ezerits, who had distinguished themselves by their activity.
After a campaign of nine months, in which he laid waste their
territory, carried off their cattle, and enslaved their children,
he granted them peace on their engaging to pay an increased
tribute. The subjection of the mountaineers of Taygetus was
on this occasion so complete that they were compelled to pay
annually the sum of six hundred gold byzants, and the tribute
of the Ezerits, whose possessions in the plain were probably
laid waste, was fixed at the same amount. The successor of
Krinites embroiled the affairs of his province ; and a Sclavo-
nian tribe, called the Slavesians, invading the Peloponnesus,
threatened the whole peninsula with ruin. The Melings and
Ezerits, taking advantage of the troubles, sent a deputation
to the Emperor Romanos to petition for a reduction of
their tribute ; and the Byzantine government, fearing lest
they should join the new band of invaders, consented to
reduce the tribute to its first amount, and to concede to the
tributaries the right of electing their own chiefs2. From this
period the Melings and the Ezerits were governed by self-
elected chiefs, who administered the affairs of these Scla-
vonian tribes according to their native laws and usages. In
this condition they were found by the Crusaders, who invaded
the Peloponnesus at the commencement of the thirteenth
century ;.

1 Constaatine I'orphyrogenitus calls them MtKTjyyol kcli 'E^pirai; the Chronicle
of the Conquest of the Morea, Mtkiyyoi.

* Constant. Porphyr. De AJm. Imp. c. 50. p. 133.
'hronide oj the Conquest of the Morea, Greek text of Copenhagen MS. pub-

INDEPENDENT SCLAVONIAN TRIBES. 21

Ch. I. § 3.]

In the time of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the only part
of Mount Taygetus that remained in the possession of the
Greeks was the fortress of Maina and the rocky promontory
in its vicinity. In that corner of Laconia, a small remnant
of the Greek race survived, living in a state of isolation,
poverty, and barbarism. So completely had they been sepa-
rated from all connection with the rest of the nation, and
secluded from the influence of the Greek church, that the
rural population around the fortress remained pagans until
the reign of Basil I., the Macedonian, a.d. 867-886. In
Constantine's own reign these Mainates, who had been
converted in the time of his grandfather, paid to the imperial
treasury an annual tribute of four hundred gold byzants 1.

The epitomizer of Strabo, who lived not long before the
commencement of the eleventh century, speaks of the Scla-
vonians as forming almost the entire population of Macedonia,
Epirus, continental Greece, and the Peloponnesus. He mentions
the coast of Elis in particular, as a district where all memory
of the ancient Hellenic names, and consequently of the Greek
language, was then forgotten ; the population consisting
entirely of Sclavonians, or as he calls them Scythians2.

The Sclavonian tribes in Elis and Laconia were found by
the Franks in a state of partial independence, A.D. 1205.
They still preserved their own laws and language ; and
though they acknowledged the supremacy of the Byzantine
government, they collected their tribute and regulated their
local administration by their own national usages. The
Melings had become the dominant tribe in Laconia, and
were masters of all Mount Taygetus ; but the Greeks had
expelled the Sclavonians from the greater part of the plain
of Elis. and driven them back into the mountainous districts
of Elis and Arcadia. The country they occupied was called
Skorta, and extended from the ruins of Olympia to the

lished by Buchon, Paris, 1845, P- i". v. 166^. The Sclrvonians in the Morca
are described — 'AvOpainuvs aKa^ovacovs, k oil akfiovrai avOivTrjv.

1 Constant. Porphyr. De Adm. Imp. c. 50. p. 134. It is difficult to fix the posi-
tion of the Kastron of Maina mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, in
consequence of an error in the text. It is said to have been situated at Cape
Malea, on the sea-coast, beyond the territory of the Ezerits. Malea is here
evidently an inadvertency of the writer or an error of a copyist.

2 For the age of the epitomizer, see Dodwell, De Geograph. Aetale, Diss. vi.
The passage referred to will be found in Geograph. Vet. Script. Gr. Minores, edit
Hudson, torn. ii. 98; and in Coray's edition of Strabo, torn. iii. pp. 373, 386.

CHAXGES OF THE POPULATIOX.

[Ch.I.§3.

sources of the Ladon. and to the great Arcadian plain. The

importance of the Sclavonian population was still so great

that the Franks, in order to facilitate their conquest of the

Peloponnesus, induced the Melings and the Skortans to

separate their cause from that of the Greek nation, by granting

them separate terms of capitulation, and guaranteeing to

them the full enjoyment of every privilege they had possessed

under the Byzantine government K Though the numbers of

the Sclavonians diminished, after the reconquest of the eastern

part of the Frank principality by the Greek emperors, still

several districts of the Peloponnesus, and especially the tribes

of Mount Taygetus, are stated by Laonicus Chalcocondylas,

an Athenian personally acquainted with the state of the

country, to have preserved their manners and language until

the time of the Turkish conquest in 1460 2.

We have thus undoubted proof, from Greek writers, that

a considerable part of the Peloponnesus was inhabited by

Sclavonians, and that the Sclavonian language was spoken

in great part of Greece for a period of seven hundred

years 3.

1 Chronicle of the Conquest of the Morea — French text, pp. 39, 335 ; Greek text,
pp. 113, 170.

2 Chalcocondylas, pp. 10, 71. Mazans (in Boissonade, Anecdo.'a Gracca, iii.
1 74) also proves that Sclavonian was spoken in the Peloponnesus during the
fourteenth century.

3 [The present position of the question may be briefly summed up as follows.
The great peiiod of Slavonian immigration into Greece was shortly after the great
pestilence of a.d. 747, which greatly depopulated the country (see vol. ii. p. 68).
From this time till the middle of the ninth century the Slavonians formed a large
part, though by no means the whole, of the population. In the latter part of the
ninth century the Greeks began to recover a numerical superiority (vol. ii. p. 355 .
and from this period dates the process of the absorption and Hellenizing of the
Slavonians, so as to form the mixed race, of which the greater part of the popula-
tion of Greece is now composed. Hertzberg {op. cit. p. 338) rightly remarks
on the important part which the Greek church played in effecting this change.
The tendency of the Greek race rapidly to assimilate the Slavonic is illustrated
by the fact that that excellent explorer M. Albert Dumont (quoted by Rambaud,
V Empire Grec, p. 225) has only discovered two Slavonic inscriptions in a country
so overrun by Slavonians as Thrace. The affinity between the ancient and modern
Greeks has been traced by several lines of argument. It has been pointed out
how great is the resemblance of character between them, and that too in points
presenting the sharpest contrast to the character of the Slavonic races. The
survival of old beliefs and cla>>ical superstitions at the present day lias been carefully
traced, as, for instance, by X. G. Polites in his NfOfKKrjvtKj) MvdoKoyia, and by
Bernhard Schmii Vctkdeben dcr Neugriechen imd das hellenische Alter thunt.
The language is a lineal descendant of the ancient speech, and has been shown by
Miklosich to contain next to no Slavonic element (see above, p. 4). Finally, lest
it should be thought that this language had been imported into the provinces
from one or more great centres, and had not survived in the districts themselves,

proved that numerous classical words and forms, which have been lost to
the language at large, still survive in the local dialects (Bernhard Schmidt, pp.

SCLAVONIAN NAMES IN GREECE. 23

Ch.I. §4.]

Sect. IV. — Sclavonian names in the geographical nomenclature

of Greece.

The only durable monument of the Sclavonian colonization
of Greece, that has survived to the present time, is to be found
in the geographical names which they imposed, and which
were adopted by the Greeks when they recovered possession
of the country. It is natural that every year should diminish
the number of these names, were it only by the corruption
of Sclavonian into Greek words of similar sound or import ;
and it is at present a subject of fierce contention, to decide
what proportion of the modern geographical nomenclature of
Greece is of Sclavonian origin. There is no doubt that for
some centuries this proportion has been daily lessened ; for we
now find many Turkish and Albanian names in those districts
which were the peculiar seats of the Sclavonian population.
Many names, too, are triumphantly claimed by both parties,
one party asserting that a word is unquestionably Sclavonian,
and the other that it is undoubtedly Greek. None, however,
can contest that there was a period when Sclavonian influence
succeeded in changing the name of the peninsular citadel
of the Hellenic race from Peloponnesus to Morea, and in
effacing all memory of the ancient Hellenic names over the
greater part of the country. Indeed, ancient Hellenic names
are the exception, and have only been retained in a few
districts, in the immediate vicinity of the cities that preserved
a Greek population.

It may not be uninteresting to notice the historical facts
relating to the name Morea ; leaving the whole of the philo-
logical questions concerning the modern Greek geographical
nomenclature, and the surnames of many of the inhabitants,
to the sagacity of the learned, when party zeal and national
prejudice shall have cooled sufficiently to admit of the subject
being investigated with calmness and impartiality. It would
seem from the pilgrimage of St. Willibald, which has been

5-1 1). Thus, though the physical connection between the modem Greeks and
the ancient Hellenes, in certain districts at all events, may be slight, as seems
to be implied by the difference of physiognomy, yet in all that really constitute.
a people, their character, feelings, and ideas, they are their lineal descendants.
Mr. Finlay has expressed himself unhesitatingly to this effect in vol. iii. p. 225.
Ed.1

24 CHANGES OF THE POPULATION.

[Ch.I. §4.

already quoted, that in the eighth century the Morea was not
the name generally applied to the Peloponnesus, or the writer
would probably have used it, instead of calling it the country
of the Sclavonians. Among the Greeks certainly it could
never have come into use until the country fell under a
foreign domination, for the Peloponnesus continued to be
the official designation of the province down to the time of
the Turkish conquest. The name Morea was at first applied
only to the western coast of the Peloponnesus, or perhaps
more particularly to Elis, which the epitome of Strabo points
out as a district exclusively Sclavonian, and which, to this
day, preserves a number of Sclavonian names. When the
Crusaders first landed, the term Morea was the denomination
used to indicate the whole western coast ; for Villehardouin,
in his Chronicle, makes his nephew speak of coming to Nau-
plia from the Morea, when he came from Modon : and the
Chronicles of the French Conquest repeatedly give the name
a circumscribed sense, referring it to the plain of Elis, though
at other times applying it to the whole peninsula l. Originally
the word appears to be the same geographical denomination
which the Sclavonians of the north had given to a mountain
district of Thrace in the chain of Mount Rhodope. In the
fourteenth century the name of this province is written by
the Emperor Cantacuzenos, who must have been well ac-
quainted with it personally, Morrha 2. Even as late as the
fourteenth century, the Morea is mentioned in official docu-
ments relating to the Frank principality as a province of the
Peloponnesus, though the name was then commonly applied
to the whole peninsula 3.

1 Villehardouin, Conquete de V Empire de Constantinople par les Francs, p. 121, edit.
Buchon, in Recherche* et Materiaux, pt. 2, — ' Sire, je vieng (Tune terre ki moult est
riche que on apele la Mouree;' and at p. 122. ' et entrerent en la tcrre de la
Moune.' See the word Mon'-e in the index of the French text of the Chronicle
(.f the Conquest of the Morea, and the following passages in the Greek, p. 171,
: p. 207. v. 4 7, 7 7 : p. 243, v. 5394 : p. 291, v. 6729; and p. 296, v. 6861.
1 Cantacuzeni Hist. 588, where Hyperpyrakion, a town in this district, is men-
tioned; also pp. 592. 650. and S46. Ameilhon, in the continuation of Le Beau
re (in Bas-Empire, torn. xx. 135). make? Hyperpyrakion a considerable city
in the Peloponnesus, and (p. 137) he mentions Asan, the brother-in-law of Canta-
ta 1 gi rnor of the Morea instead of Morrha.
J The will oi Acciaiuoli, dated 1391, enumerates lands in the Morea,

rita, and Calainata ; and a letter of Robert, prince of Achaia, in 1 35S,
contains the expression — ' In dicta provincia Calamatae et provincia Amorreae.'
Buchon, Nouvelles Recherches sur la Principam< Frattfaise de Marie; Diplomcs,

[Of several derivations that have been given of the name Morea, three deserve

NAMES IX PEEOPOXXESUS. 2$

Ch.I. §4.]

With regard to the proportion between the Greek and
Sclavonian names scattered over the whole surface of the
Peloponnesus at the present day, the authority of Colonel
Leake may be quoted with some confidence, as one of the
most competent judges on account of his philological and
personal knowledge, and as by far the most impartial wit-
ness who has given an opinion on the subject. He thinks
there are now ten names of Greek origin in the Morea
for every one of Sclavonian *. Still, the fact that a mighty
revolution was effected in the population of Greece, during
the period between the seventh and the tenth centuries, is un-
questionable ; and that the revolution swept away almost
every trace of preceding ages from Greek society, and nearly
every memory of Hellenic names from the geography of the
country, is indubitable. The Jews of the present day hardly
differ more from the Jews of the time of Solomon, and the
Arabs of to-day certainly differ less from the contemporaries
of Mahomet, than the modern Greeks from the fellow-citizens
of Perikles. When the Greek race beean to increase in the

especial notice. The first of these would derive it from the Greek popta; 'the
mulberry-tree,' from the resemblance of the outline of the peninsula to the leaf of
that tree. This is wholly untenable. According to the second it comes from
the Slavonic more, ' sea,' so that it meant ' sea-land ' or ' coast-land.' If Finlay
is right in thinking that the name was originally applied to part of the west coast
of the Peloponnese (Hopf disputes this), it would seem, supposing this derivation
to be the right one, that the name was first used in contradistinction to the other
Slavonic districts, which lay inland. Kopitar, however, maintains that Morea
cannot be formed from this root according to the principles of derivation of
Slavonic words. Hopf, in his Geschichte Griechenlands (pp. 265-267), inclines
to the view that Morea arose by metathesis from Romea {'Pai/xaia, i.e. the country
of the 'PaifxaToi), and was first used by the Frankish occupants ; and that it was
sometimes used in a restricted sense of the north-western province, because that
was the Frankish headquarters. The arguments in favour of this last etymology
are — (1) that the name does not occur before the Frank period; (2) that in con-
temporary documents the words Morea and Romania are used interchangeably ;
(3) that an Italian writer of the fifteenth century calls the Rumanians ^Wallachs)
Morias, in which form the same metathesis appears. Ed.]

1 Leake's Peloponnesiaca, p. 326. Servia, which is the name of a town of
Macedonia founded by the Sclavonians, is mentioned in the Greek Chronicle
as a place in the plain of Elis, v. 3532, 3S77. The observations of Fallmerayer
on the Sclavonian names in Greece deserve perusal, though they contain much
that is fanciful. Geschichte der halbinsel Morea, i. 240; Entstehting der heutigen
Griechen, 64. Modern Greek names, indicative of Sclavonian and other foreign
influences, and proving the extinction of all Hellenic reminiscences, are not un-
common, like Sklavokhorion, Phrangokastron, Arnaoutli, and Turkovrysi. There
is an amusing though ridiculous reply to Fallmerayer, entitled Die Abstammung
der Griechen und die Irrthumer xind Ta'uschungen des Dr. Ph. Fallmerayer, von
J. Bar Ow. Mr. Ow tries to persuade his readers that Miliosi, Kalendgi, Suli,
Vrana, Varibobi, Hassani, and Spata are Greek names. In short, the only Scla-
vonian name he finds in Greece is Divri.

%6 CHAXGES OF THE POPULATIOX.

[Ch. I. § 5.

ninth century, and to recover possession of the country-
occupied by the Sclavonians, they gave Greek names to many
of the places they regained ; but these names were modern,
and not the old Hellenic denominations, for the people were
too ignorant to make any attempt to revive the ancient
geographical nomenclature of the country1. Where the
Albanians settled, a considerable number of Albanian names
are found — a circumstance which would hardly have been
the case had the Albanian colonists entered a country pos-
sessing fixed Greek names; for the Albanians certainly entered
Greece gradually, and in comparatively small numbers at a
time, and, moreover, their geographical nomenclature is so
circumscribed that the same names recur wherever they
settled. Even within the single province of Attica, we find
the same name repeated in the case of several villages2.
So complete was the dislocation of the ancient inhabitants
of the Peloponnesus that traces of the Sclavonian lansmaee
are found among the Tzakones, a race which is supposed
to have preserved more of the ancient Greek dialect spoken
in their country than the other inhabitants of the peninsula3.

SECT. V. — Colonics of Asiatic Race settled by the Byzantine
Emperors in Thrace and Macedonia.

The emperors of Constantinople attempted to remedy the
depopulation of their empire, which was forced on their
attention by the spectacle of desolate provinces and unin-
habited cities, by forming colonies on a scale that excites our

1 [The plague of 747 was the period from which dates the oblivion of ancient
Hellenic names. It would be of the utmost importance to know what the state
of things was, when the Greek element began to reassert itself against the Slavo-
nian settlers. Unfortunately, Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the tenth century,
who is our only authority on the subject, is ve'ry untrustworthy in his use of
\ fair number of ancient names of seaport towns have 1 cen preserved
in the present day, Mich as Corinth, Patrae, Epidaurus, Methone, and others,
either exactly in their old form or slightly changed in the course of ages. Even
in Arcadia, one of the district., most completely cKCupied by Slavonians, the name
of Pheneus 1- pres rved in Phonia, and that of Cleitor in Clituras. Some places
which have been long deserted, still have the classical name attached to them;
as the Huron of Aesculapius near Epidaurus, which is still called lliero. and the
1 ichrea which hear, the name of Cechries, and Leuctra that of Leftra.
I his point is well treated by Hertzberg, op. at. pp 329 338. Ed.]

an two village, of the names ol Liopesi, Spata, Liosia, and Buyati
Lc'a! ■' .326 Sei below, p. 34.]

ASIATIC COLONIES. 2J

Ch. I. § 6.]

wonder even in this age of colonization. The Emperor Jus-
tinian II. transported nearly two hundred thousand Sclavonians
to Asia on one occasion. His removal of the Mardaite popu-
lation of Mount Lebanon was on the same extensive scale.
Future emperors encouraged emigration to as great an extent.
A colony of Persians was established on the banks of the
Vardar (Axios) as early as the reign of Theophilus (a.d.
829-842), and it long continued to flourish and supply recruits
for a cohort of the imperial guard, which bore the name of the
Vardariots \ Various colonies of the different Asiatic nations
who penetrated into Europe from the north of the Black Sea
in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, were also estab-
lished in Macedonia and Thrace. In the year 1065 a colony of
Uzes was settled in Macedonia ; and this settlement acquired
so much importance that some of its chiefs rose to the rank of
senators, and filled high official situations at Constantinople 2.
Anna Comnena mentions colonies of Turks established in the
neighbourhood of Achrida before the reign of her father3
(a.d. 108 1 ). A colony of Patzinaks was settled in the western
part of Macedonia by John II. in the year 11234; and colonies
of Romans were also established both in Macedonia and
Thrace, after the empire had been depopulated by the Cru-
saders and Bulgarians, in the year 12435. All these different
nations were often included under the general name of
Turks ; and, indeed, most of them were descended from
Turkish tribes.

Sect. VI. — Bulgarians and Vallacliians in Greece.

The wars of the Byzantine emperors with the Bulgarian
kings, from the latter half of the seventh century to the
destruction of their kingdom by the Emperor Basil II. in the
early part of the eleventh, form an important and bloody
portion of the annals of the Byzantine empire. The wars
of the Bulgarians with the Carlovingian monarchs give them

1 Codinus, Be Officih Aulae Constantinopolitanae, 66, 7?, note; Tafel, Be TTies-
salonica, 70. [On these so-called Persians and their relation to the Turks in the
neighbourhood of Achrida, see the editor's note in vol. iii. p. 77- Ed]

2 Skylitzes, ad calcem Cedreni, 816; Zonaras, ii. 2 73; Anna Comn. 195.

3 Anna Comn. 109, 315.

1 Nicetas, 11. 5 Xiceph. Greg. 21.

28 CHANGES OF THE POPULATION.

[Ch. I. § 6.
also some degree of importance in Frank history. After they
had adopted the language of their Sclavonian subjects l, and
embraced Christianity, they extended their dominion south-
ward over the Sclavonian tribes settled in Mount Pindus, and
encroached far within the limits of the Byzantine empire. In
the year 933, the Bulgarians first formed permanent settle-
ments to the south of Macedonia, and intruded into the
territories occupied by those Sclavonians who had settled in
Greece. In that year they rendered themselves masters of
Xicopolis, and colonized the fertile plains on the Ambracian
Gulf. After this they more than once ravaged Greece, and
penetrated into the Peloponnesus 2. Their colonies, scattered
about in southern Epirus, continued to exist after the conquest
of the Bulgarian kingdom by Basil II., and the defeat of a
body of Byzantine troops sent against them in the year 1040
by Petros Deleanos, enabled them to assume a temporary
independence. They were soon reconquered by the Byzantine
armies ; but the Bulgarians long continued to form a distinct
class of the population of southern Epirus, though the simi-
larity of their language to that of the Sclavonians led
ultimately to their becoming confounded with the mass of
the Sclavonian colonists 3.

The second Bulgarian kingdom, formed by the rebellion of
the Bulgarians and Vallachians south of the Danube against
the Emperor Isaac II., in 11 16, took place after the complete
extinction of the old Bulgarian language, and this kingdom
seems to have been quite as much a Vallachian as a Bul-
garian state. The court language, at least, appears to have
been Vallachian, and the monarchs to have affected to regard
themselves as descendants of the Romans4.

[The fusion of the Bulgarians and Slavonians took place so insensibly that
it may be well to not.ee the traces of the process that have been collected by
M. Kambaud {L E,„/:re Grec au dixiime Steele, p. 320). In a.d. 81 , the Slavonic
chieftains are invited to a banquet of King Crumn, and join the Bulgarians in

king from the skull of the Nicephorus. In 8,,. a Bulgarian am

bassador is called Dargarnir, an evidentl) Slavonic name. Their rule, for a lonfl
period is called ,„ the Byzantine historians the prince of the Bulgarians and
Mavomans In the eighth century a distinction is drawn between the Bulgarian
•u.d Slavonian langn ige. .See the authorities there riven. Ed 1 k

rl litis. JO.'. J :: Tl ■ 1 _ „

p. No. 266, mm. i. p. 5,3, cdit. Baluze. Colonel 7Leake

mentions that the Bulgarian language-tha. is, the Sclavonian dialect now spoken

""V- Hages in the mountains to the souTh 3

ria. Travek m Northern Greece ,. .,,,. 347. [A1] the christians in Ochrida

itself, d m its neighbourhood, a, far west as Struga, where the Black

VALLACHIANS IN THESSALY. 29

Ch. I. § 6.]

Amidst the innumerable emigrations of different races,
which characterize the history of Eastern Europe from the
decline of the Roman empire to the conquest of Constan-
tinople by the Othoman Turks, the Vallachians formed to
themselves a national existence and a peculiar language,
in the seats they still occupy, by amalgamating the Dacian
and Thracian inhabitants with the Roman colonists into one
people. That they grew out of the Roman colonies, which
spread the language and civilization of Italy in these regions,
is generally admitted. They make their appearance in
Byzantine history as inhabiting an immense tract of country,
stretching in an irregular form from the banks of the Theiss,
in Hungary, to those of the Dneister, and from the Carpathian
Mountains to the southern counterforts of the chain of Pindus,
bordering the Thessalian plain 1. 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 2.

In the eleventh century, the Vallachian race occupied a
great part of the plains of Thessaly, and dwelt in several
towns 3. In the twelfth, the country had acquired the name
of Great Vallachia 4. The close affinity of their language
to Latin is observed by the Byzantine historian, John
Kinnamos5. Benjamin of Tudela, the famous Jew traveller,
who visited Greece about the year 1161, informs us that the
Vallachians of Thessaly had completely expelled the Greek
inhabitants within the limits of their dominions, of which he
places the southern boundary 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 ventures to make war upon

Drin issues from the lake of Ochrida, are Bulgarians and spesk Bulgarian. The
population of the city, which amounts to about 15,000 persons, is nearly equally
divided between Bulgarian Christians and Mahometan Albanians. See my High-
lands of Turkey, vol. i. pp. 186, 199. Ed.]

1 Chalcocondylas, 16, 40. Xicetas (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.

2 [On the origin of the Wallachians, see above, vol. iii. p. 228. En.]

3 Anna Comn. 138. 4 Nicetas, 410.
5 Cinnami Hist. 152 ; and Ducange's note, 483.

oo CHANGES OF THE POPULATION.

[Ch.I.§f.

them, nor can any king bring them to submission ; and they

do not profess the Christian faith. Their names are of Jewish

origin1, 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 V This account is evidently not to be

relied on as authentic information, for the Vallachians 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 bore the

sacred names of Moses, Samuel, and 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 3.

A Vallachian population still exists in the mountains of

southern Epirus and Thessaly, in the upper valley of the

Aspropotamos (Achelous) about Malakasa, Metzovo, and Za-

gora. 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 ^opoo souls 4.

SECT. VII. — Albanian Colonics in Greece.

The Albanian or Skipetar race, which at present occupies
more than one quarter of the surface of the recently con-
stituted kingdom of Greece, first makes its appearance in
Byzantine history, as forming part of the army of the rebel
Nicephorus Yasilakes, who assumed the imperial title in
The Albanians were then, as now, the inhabitants
of the mountains near Dyrrachium. The existence of the

1 The frequency of the names of Samuel, Simeon, Daniel, Gabriel, and Moses, in
Vallachian history, is marked on every page.

* The Itinerary of Benjamin of TuJela. translated by A. Asher, i. 48.
" Acropolita, 23, 33; Pachymeres, i. 49; Chronicle of the Conquest (French),
414.

1 Pouqueville in his Voyage de la Gn'ce (ii. 394) estimates their numbers at
II' affects exactitude in his exaggerations,
litzac Hilt, ad calcem Cedreni, 865.

ALBANIANS IN GREECE. 31

Ch.I.§7.]

Albanian name in these regions dates from a far earlier
period. Albanopolis, which is the principal town of the
northern district, bore that name in the time of Ptolemy,
and continued to retain it under the Byzantine government \
The Turks have corrupted the word into Elbassan. Reason-
able doubts may nevertheless be entertained, whether the
ancestors of the present Albanians were the inhabitants of
these mountains in ancient times. But the history of no
European race is more obscure. They have been supposed
by some learned men to represent the ancient Pelasgians, and
by others to belong to the original race of which the Epirots
and Macedonians were cognate branches. Modern philologists
have decided that the Albanian language is an offset of
Sanscrit which separated from the parent root at a period
quite as remote as the earliest dialect of Greek 2.

Anna Comnena mentions the Albanians more than once,
calling them Arvanitai, which is the name still in use among
the modern Greeks. She indicates that they had acquired
some political importance, though in her time they do not
appear to have occupied a very extensive territory 3. In the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, they are mentioned by more
than one Byzantine writer. Pachymeres and Nicephorus
Gregoras called them Illyrians, but Chalcocondylas objects to
that name, and thinks they were rather of Macedonian
descent4. In the fourteenth century, they had rendered
themselves masters of a considerable extent of territory in
Acarnania, Epirus, Thessaly, and Macedonia, in which they
appear never to have formed the majority of the inhabitants,
and from which they have long disappeared. They first made
their appearance in the Peloponnesus as mercenary troops

1 Ptolemaei Geog. lib. iii. cap. 13. § 23.

2 [On the origin and tribes of the Albanian race see below, History of the
Greek Revolution, book i. ch. 2, where the principal authorities on the subject
are mentioned. According to Bopp's view, which is referred to in the text,
Albanian is derived, not from Sanscrit, but from the original Aryan language.
Ed.]

3 Anna Comn. 122, 165, 390.

4 Pachymeres, i. 243, 347, edit. Rom. ; Niceph. Greg. 69, 334; Chalcocondylas,
283. There seems to be a question whether Cantacuzenos (289) in mentioning
the Malakassians, Bouians, and Mesarites as Albanian tribes, has not confounded
them with the Vallachians. A Vallachian population now occupies these dis-
tricts with the same names. But the names of Malakasa and Bouia are found
both in Attica and the Morea as favourite Albanian names of villages, and
they appear in other districts where the Vallachians are not known to have
penetrated.

CHANGES OF THE POPULATION.

[Ch. I. §8.
in the sen-ice of the Greek despots of Misithra, and shortly
after they were settled in great numbers as colonists on the
waste lands in the province \ During the half century imme-
diately preceding the conquest of the Morea by the Turks.
the Albanian population more than once assumed a promi-
nent 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 quarter2.
In continental Greece they occupy the whole of Attica and
Megaris, with the exception of the capitals, the greater part
of Boeotia, and a portion of Locris. In the islands they
possess the southern part of the island of Euboea, and about
one-third of Andros ; while the whole of the islands of
Salamis, Poros, Hydra, and Spetzas are exclusively peopled
by a pure Albanian race, as well as a part of Aegina and
the small island of Anghistri in its vicinity. In the Pelopon-
nesus, they compose the bulk of the population in Argolis,
Corinthia, and Sicyonia, and they occupy considerable dis-
tricts in Arcadia, Laconia, Messenia, and Elis. In all this
great extent of territory the prevailing language is Albanian ;
and in many parts Greek is only spoken by the men, and
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 struggle of Greece to
regain her independence, were of the purest Albanian race,
unaltered by any mixture of Hellenic blood.

Sect. VIII. — Tzakoncs or Lacones.

Of all the inhabitants who now dwell on the Hellenic soil,
the Tzakoncs,orLaconians— for the two words are identical-
scorn to possess the best title to connect their genealogy with
their geographical locality, though they must be regarded as
the descendants of serfs rather than of free Laconians. Part

1 Chalcocondylas, 112,127; Ducange, Histoire de Constantinople, 283 ; Phrantzes,

£ ii.- 1 w"""; ('hrf""c"H Breve,adcaUemDtaaemit.; Fallmerayer, Gtsckichte di-
et Morea, 11. 255.

cfEwl;?^* S'"W'H'he AUe'-'}^mer. \. ?>2 ; Lcjean, Ethnographie de la Turauie

THE TZAKONES. oo

Ch.I. §8.]

of the country conquered by the Spartans was always peopled
by a race that differed from the Dorian 1. When the Cru-
saders 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 duty2. Nicephorus Gregoras mentions
them as furnishing a body of mariners to the imperial fleets in
the time of the Emperor Michael VIII. Pachymeres 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 Con-
quest of the Morea by the Franks, which appears to have
been written towards the latter part of the fourteenth century,
repeatedly mentions Tzakonia and its inhabitants as distinct
from the rest of the Peloponnesus 4. 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 Pelopon-
nesians, or modern Greeks, appear only as third in his list 5.
Crusius informs us that in the year 1573 the Tzakones in-
habited fourteen villages between Monemvasia and Nauplia,
and spoke a dialect different from the other Greeks 6. They
now occupy only seven villages, and the whole population
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 pecu-
liarities ; 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

1 Grote (Hist, of Greece, ii. 601) observes that the readiness with which Karyae
and the Maleates revolted against Sparta after the battle of Leuktra, exhibits them
apparently as conquered foreign dependencies without any kindred of race. Karyae
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 De Caerem. Aul. Byz. torn. i. p. 402, edit. Lips. ; p. 696, edit. Bonn.

3 Niceph. Greg. 58 ; Pachymeres, i. 209, edit. Rom.

* See Chacoignie in the index to the Livre de la Cowjueste, and T(aK<uvia under the
head of the letter r in the Index Geographique of the Greek text, edit. 1845.

5 Boissonade, Anecdota Graeca, torn. iii. p. 174.

6 Turcograecia, 489.

VOL. IV. D

34 CHANGES OF THE POPULATION.

[Ch. I. § 8.

Oreatae — whose traditions, according to Pausanias, were
different from those of the other Greeks — seems to be a
question with the learned \ While the rest of the modern
Greeks, from Corfu to Trebizond, speak a language marked
by the same grammatical corruptions 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 2. It cannot, therefore, be doubted
that they have a strong claim to be regarded as the most
direct descendants of the ancient inhabitants of the Pelopon-
nesus 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 intercom-
munications have assimilated their dialects, and melted them
into one language 3.

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 modi-
fication 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 4.

1 H lus, viii. 73; Pausanias, Lacon. 24.

Kodrika, in his Observation* sur les Opinions de quelques Hellenhtes tovchant le
Gee modern*, reckons thirteen spoken dialects of modern Greek, including Tzako-
nian, which, however, can no more be considered a dialect of modem Greek than
Dutch can be considered a dialect of English.

I he most important works on the Tzakonian language are Leake's Researches

■me iaca, 304 : Thiersch, Ueber die Sprache der Zakonen, in the

J,n,j i:".val Academy of Munich. [The account given in Leake's

ica is professedly derived from Thiersch's essay. The chief peculiarities

of the Tzakonian dialect are noticed in Mullach, Grammatik der griechischen VvU

raehe, pp. 94 foil Bernhard Schmidt (p. 6) refers to the work of Th. M.

(,lk" fzakonian by birth, Tpa^cnW, r^s ToaKavutfjs SiaXtKrov, Athens,

I870, a id that of G. Deville, Etude du dialecte Tzaconien, Paris, 1S66. Ed.]

1 [There seems to be little doubt that the Tzakonian dialect and tribe are

VARIOUS RACES IN GREECE. 35

Ch. I. § 9.]

SECTION IX. — Summary.

At the time Greece was conquered by the Othoman Turks,
it was inhabited by six different nations as cultivators of
the soil. All these people, consequently, formed permanent
elements of the population, for the true test of national
colonization is the cultivation of the soil by the settlers. It
is the only way in which the nursery of a nation can be
created. These national races were — the Greeks, who had
then become the most numerous portion of the population
both in the Peloponnesus and the continent ; the Tzakones,
who, though 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 civilization 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 inhabitant 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 influence, and were always strangers on the Hellenic soil.
Nevertheless, we have seen that the traditions of ancient
Hellas were so completely forgotten by the modern popula-
tion, that the. ancient geographical nomenclature of the
country had disappeared. The mountain-peaks visible to

Hellenic, and have survived from an early period. Hopf (in Brockhaus' Griechen-
land, vol. vii. p. 184) maintains on historic grounds that they are purely Sclavonic,
because the Venetians spoke of them as such. Bernhard Schmidt however (p. 12)
replies with good reason that the philological evidence on the other side is stronger,
and shows clear traces of the early Doric, and in particular of the Laconian, dialect.
It appears that the Tzakonian race at one time occupied a more extensive area
than their present narrow boundaries ; and when, as is probable, they were dis-
placed by Slavonians, a confusion might easily arise between the earlier and later
occupants. There is no satisfactory explanation of the name. Though the
change from Lakonia to Zaconia involves only 'the modification in the sound of a
single letter,' yet everything depends on the question, whether this change is in
accordance with the laws of letter-change in the language ; and this is not the
case. Lord Strangford, in his Appendix to vol. i. of Spratt's Travels in Crete, ^On
Cretan and modern Greek ' (p. 356), would derive it from the name of the Kau-
kones, and speaks of the language as ' not a dialect of modern Greek at all, but the
representative of the ancient speech of the Kaukones, being a sub-dialect of the
ancient Doric come down to us in a state of extreme corruption, yet not without
traces of even pre-Hellenic antiquity.' Ed.]

D 2

36 CHANGES OF THE POPULATIOX,

[Ch. I. § 9.
cultivators from valleys that rarely communicated with one
another, and the rivers that fertilized distant plains, though
their names must have been in daily use by thousands of
tongues, lost their ancient names and received strange designa-
tions, which became as universally known as those which they
supplanted. 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 becomes
an argument for the complete extinction of the Hellenic race
in those districts where Hellenic names have been utterly
effaced. Numerous names are scattered over the surface of
the country, and many Greek names in use are derived from
circumstances that attest the establishment of foreign colonists
in the country1. It must, however, be observed, that this
change from Hellenic to modern Greek appears 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 Euboea, the change is almost as great
as in the Morrha of Elis. By what process, therefore, the
ancient Hellenic population was transformed into Byzantine
Greeks— or, as they long called themselves, Romans— must
be explained by the internal life of the people rather than by
the introduction of foreign blood.

The vicissitudes which the population of the earth has
undergone in past ages have hitherto received little attention
from historians, who have adorned their p^ges with the
records of kings and the exploits of heroes, or attached
their narrative to the fortunes of the dominant classes,
without noticing the fate of the people. History, however,
continually repeats the lesson that the power, the numbers,
and the highest civilization of an aristocracy, are insufficient
to insure national prosperity, and to guarantee the dominant
class from annihilation. On the other hand, it teaches us
that conquered tribes, destitute of all these advantages, may
perpetuate their existence for ages in misery and contempt.
It is that portion only of mankind which eats bread raised

Skkvokhorum, Phrangokastron, Arnaoutli, and Turkovrysi have been men-
tioned. Hebruokastron Jew being put as a term of contempt for stranger),
I hranKohm.on.-,. Phxangovrysi, Venetiko, Vlakhiko, Turkokborion, and many
Albanian and I urkish proper names, might be added.

DISAPPEARANCE OF RACES. 37

Ch. I. § 9.]

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 the Spartans illustrates these facts. Yet even
the cultivation of the soil cannot always insure a race from
destruction, ' for mutability is nature's bane.' The Thracian
race has disappeared. The great Celtic race has dwindled
away, and seems hastening to complete absorption in the
Anglo-Saxon. The Hellenic race, whose colonies extended
from Marseille 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 population,
as in Magna Graecia and Sicily. On the other hand, mixed
races have arisen, and, like the Albanians and Vallachians,
have intruded themselves into the ancient seats of the
Hellenes. But these revolutions and changes in the popula-
tion of the globe imply no degradation 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 revolu-
tion, 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 organization 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.
W lien 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
fervour of their religious enthusiasm, the administrative
organization of imperial Rome arrested the progress of their
armies under the walls of Constantinople, and under the

noclast Emperors, Leo III. and his son Constantine V

LONGEVITY OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. 39

arrested the progress of Saracen conquest, drove back the
armies of the caliphs, and rendered Mount Taurus the
frontier of the empire. The Byzantine Leo had defeated
the grand army of the Mohammedans before Charles Martel
overthrew a division of the caliph's forces. At a later period
the Bulgarian kingdom was destroyed, and in the eleventh
century the Danube 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 government still displayed the vigour of mature
age.

The warriors, the statesmen, and the legists of the Byzantine
empire deserve a higher place in the history of mankind than
they have received, for their merits have been 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 improvement. The antagonistic principles at
work in Byzantine society were for ages so exactly balanced
as to prevent any rapid change, and the slow changes which
occurred, though they tended to prolong the existence of
the government, did little to reinvigorate the people.

In judging the Byzantine government according to modern
ideas, it is often necessary to regard the change of emperors
and dynasties as something equivalent to a change of ministers
and parties. The imperial power was generally not more
endangered by the murder of an emperor, than the mon-
archical principle by a change of ministers. Revolutions at
Constantinople assumed the authority of supreme criminal
tribunals 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 that
the power to punish emperors on earth could not always
be left solely to heaven. The theory that the emperor

40 HOSTILITY OF GREEKS AXD LATIXS.

[Cb.II. § i.
concentrated 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
sovereignty, and not an arbitrary sway, for he presented
himself 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 annul1. Yet 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 submission
to the decrees of the general councils and the canons of
the Orthodox Church2. Thus the regular administration
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 oppression by established
usages, the restraint of military violence by systematic dis-
cipline, 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 rebellions 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 administra-
tion, of which the emperor was the absolute master. The
rights of the people were comprised in the duty of supporting
the state ; of political franchises, as members of the state
they were in theory utterly destitute. The power of rebellion
was the guarantee against oppression.

No state ever possessed such a long succession of able
rulers, competent to direct all branches of the administration
as the Byzantine empire. The talents of the emperors!
as well as the systematic order of the administration, held
together their extensive dominions long after the tendencies

a Codinus, De Officii, Const, c. xvii. De Conn. Imp.

BYZANTINE ARMY. 41

Ch.II. § 1.]

of mediaeval society urged the provinces to separate. It was
a constant object of the imperial attention to prevent too
great an accumulation of power in the hands of any single
official, and yet it was absolutely necessary to intrust the
provincial governors with great authority, for they were called
upon incessantly to resist foreign invaders and to quell
internal insurrections. Never did sovereigns perform their
complicated duties with such profound ability as the Byzan-
tine emperors. No mayors of the palace ever circumscribed
their power; nor, were they reduced to be the slaves of their
mercenaries, like the caliphs of Bagdad.

When the Byzantine empire first came in contact with the
western nations, its military forces were numerous and well
disciplined, and though its navy had been neglected for some
time, its artillery and mechanical engines of war were superior
to those of the Crusaders. But a great change took place
before the commencement of the thirteenth century. In the
interval between the first and fourth crusades, the navy of the
Italian republics grew to be more powerful than that of the
Byzantine emperors, and the whole energies of feudal Europe
were devoted to the study of the military art, as well as to. its
practice ; while, after the death of Manuel L, the resources of
the Byzantine empire were allowed to fall to decay, or were
wasted by the incapacity and infatuation of the two brothers
Isaac II. and Alexius III.

The Byzantine army was organized to prevent its being
able to dispose of the throne, as well as to make it efficient
in defending the empire. The troops raised from the native
provinces were formed into themes, or legions, of a thousand
men. These themes were placed in permanent garrisons
throughout the provinces, like the ancient legions. The most
celebrated of the European themes were the Thracian, Mace-
donian, and Illyrian, whose ranks were filled with Vallachians,
Sclavonians, and Albanians. But the most esteemed portion
of the Byzantine army consisted of foreign mercenaries and
federate soldiers. These last were recruited among the rude
population of some districts, whose poverty was so great that
they were unable to bear the burden of direct taxation ; but
they willingly supplied the emperor with a fixed contingent
of recruits annually. The mercenaries consisted of Russian,
Frank, Norwegian, Danish, and Anglo-Saxon volunteers.

42 HOSTILITY OF GREEKS AXD LATIXS.

[Ch.II. § i.

The Varangians, who about this time began to rank as the
leading corps of the imperial guards, consisted of Anglo-
Saxons and Danes l.

The financial administration was the most complex and
important branch of the public service. The emperors always
reserved to themselves the immediate direction of this depart-
ment. In civilized states, the finances are the life of the
government ; and the emperors, feeling this, acted generally as
their own first lords of the treasury, to borrow modern phrase-
ology. One fact may be cited, which will give a better idea
of the financial wisdom of the Byzantine emperors than any
detail of the administrative forms they employed. From the
extinction of the western Roman empire in 476, to the con-
quest of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204, the gold
coinage of the empire was maintained constantly of the same
weight and standard. The concave gold byzants of Isaac II.
are precisely of the same weight and value as the solidus of
Constantine the Great. Gold was the circulating medium of
the empire, and the purity of the Byzantine coinage rendered
it for many centuries the only gold currency that circulated
in Europe. The few emperors who ventured to adulterate
the coinage have been stigmatized by history, and their suc-
cessors immediately restored the ancient standard. But the
Byzantine financial system, though constructed with great
scientific skill, was so rapacious that it appropriated to
government almost the whole annual surplus of the people's
industry, and thus deprived the population of the power of
increasing their stock of wealth. It retained agriculture in
a stationary condition, and imposed such heavy burdens on
commerce, that the Greeks were unable to compete with the
citizens of the Italian republics who were subject to lighter
duties'2.

1 Penzd, De Barangis in aula Byz. militanlibus, 9.

2 Michael Akominatos, Archbishop of Athens, in his monody OB Eustathios,
Archbishop ( f 1 1m ssali inica, snvs, Yl'ivrajs <popo\uyois eKK(i<ropiai,ira.vTws SaapteKoyois
(ipaiQ-nooixai, ws trot/XT] /mi nyadr) Orfpa, kcu tois dvOpoiirotpayois tovtois O-qpalv ZkSotos.
Tafel, Thessalom ,. 387. Things must have been bad when an arch-
bishop spoke of the imperial tax gatherers as wild beasts with cannibal propen-
sities.

LOSS OF MUNICIPAL INSTITUTIONS. 43

Ch. II. § 2.]

SECT. II. — Social Condition of the Greeks in the TivelftJi
Cent i try.

The destruction of municipal institutions by the emperors
extinguished all patriotic feeling, and made selfishness the
prominent social result of family education and local pre-
judices 1. But the greatest injury inflicted on the Greeks by
the abolition of their municipalities was that the aqueducts,
public buildings, schools, sewers, and sanatory police were
neglected by the central government, in order to appropriate
the money to purposes more gratifying to the pride of the
emperor and the views of the ministers at the capital. The
people lost all control over the business which related to their
own immediate interests. The local magistrates, no longer
selected by the will of the people, lost their former import-
ance as conservators of the existing order of society, and
became, according to circumstances, the servile agents of
superior authority, or the tumultuous organs of a rebellious
populace.

In the twelfth century the population of Greece was com-
posed of many discordant elements, besides the difference
of races who peopled the country. The city population was
naturally liable to the ordinary vicissitudes of commercial and
manufacturing industry ; its prosperity and its numbers rose
and fell with the accidents of trade and the events of war.
But the agricultural population was always in a stationary
condition : generation followed generation, treading in the
same footsteps as their forefathers ; family replaced family,
cultivating the same fields, paying the same burdens, and
consuming the same proportion of the earth's fruits, without
adding to the annual amount of the earth's produce. The
distinction of rich and poor was the only recognized division
of the people, and this division made its way into the admi-
nistration as a legislative classification. The emperor was
compelled to pass laws to protect the poorer class of landed
proprietors from the encroachments of their wealthier neigh-
bours 2. The middle class had always a tendency to diminish,

1 Corpus Juris Civilis, Leonis Nov. Const. 46, 47.

2 The laws of the emperors after Basil I. frequently mention the rich, ol Svvarol,
and the poor, ol irivqTts. To prevent the complete absorption of the property of

44 HOSTILITY OF GREEKS AND LATINS.

[Ch. II. § 2.

from being more exposed than the others to fiscal oppression.

Its members had not the influence necessary to make their

complaints heard, or to get their interests considered, by the

central authorities, while their property prevented all attempts

at emigration. The decay of roads, bridges, aqueducts, ports,

and quays caused a difficulty in the sale of agricultural

produce, and made labour lose its value too rapidly, in the

distant provinces, for any laws promulgated by the central

government to arrest the accumulation of landed property

in the hands of the rich. One of the social evils of

old Roman society again demoralized the civilized world :

' Verumque confitentibus latifundia perdidere Italiam ; jam

vero et provincias V

A considerable portion of the empire was cultivated by
colons, who formed the bulk of the agricultural population
on the extensive possessions of the rich. Like the serfs of
the west, these colons were attached to the estates on which
they were born ; they belonged to the land, not to the pro-
prietor, and only paid to him a fixed portion of the fruits
of the soil as rent. As long as this was regularly paid, they
enjoyed very nearly the same position as the poor freemen.
The colons formed a very important part of the population of
the Byzantine empire in the eyes of the treasury. The impe-
rial revenues were so largely drawn from agriculture that the
Byzantine legislation is filled with provisions for their protec-
tion against their landlords, and with restrictions for fixing
them irrevocably as tillers of the soil, in order to prevent any
diminution in the production of those articles from which the
state revenues were principally derived. They were protected
against the avarice of the proprietor, who might wish to render
them more profitable to himself, by employing their labour in
manufactures. But the colons were prevented from acquiring
the rights of freemen, lest they should abandon the cultivation
of the land, and seek refuge in the cities, where labour was
better paid.

A considerable number of free labourers existed in Greece,

the poor, Romanus I. created in their favour the preference of pre-emption, by
which the members of the same community could alone purchase their neighbour's
property; and the rich, as well as civil and ecclesiastical officials, were pro-
hibited from making such purchases. This right, called irporlfxrjais, is the subject
of many Byzantine laws. Mortreuil, Histoire du Droit Byzantin, ii. 321, 336, 354,
iii. 139.
1 Plinius, Hist. Nal. lib. xviii. 35.

SLAVERY IN BYZANTINE EMPIRE. 4$

Ch.II. §2.]

who were employed at a high rate of wages during short
periods of the year by the citizens, to cultivate the olive
grounds, vineyards, and orchards in the immediate vicinity
of the towns. As the number of towns throughout the con-
tinent and islands of Greece was still comparatively great, the
existence of this class of poor freemen had a considerable
influence on the social condition of the people, and must not
be overlooked when we compare the Byzantine empire with
Western Europe at the time of its conquest by the Crusaders.

There is one social feature in the Byzantine empire which
gives it a noble pre-eminence in European history, and con-
trasts it in a favourable light with the other governments in
the middle ages, not excepting that of the Popes. The
Emperors of Constantinople were the first sovereigns who
regarded slavery as a disgrace to mankind and a misfortune
to the state in which it existed. A knowledge of the writings
of the New Testament, and an acquaintance with the prin-
ciples of Christianity, were far more generally diffused among
the Greeks in what are called the dark ages than they have
been in many western nations in what are supposed to be
more civilized times. Justinian I., in the sixth century, pro-
claimed it to be the glory of the Emperor to accelerate the
emancipation of slaves ; and Alexius I., in the eleventh, gave
the most favourable interpretation to the claims of those who
sought to establish their personal liberty. The clergy were
ordered to celebrate the marriage of slaves, and if their mas-
ters attempted to deprive them of the nuptial benediction
and of the rights of Christianity, then the slaves were to be
proclaimed free. Alexius I. declares that human society and
laws have divided mankind into freemen and slaves ; but,
though the existing state of things must of necessity continue,
it ought to be remembered that in the eye of God all men are
equal, and that there is one Lord of all, and one faith in
baptism for the slave as for the master1.

The law had long prohibited freemen from selling them-
selves as slaves, and punished both the buyer and the seller.
Slaves were allowed to enter the army, and by so doing, if
they obtained the consent of their masters, they acquired
their freedom. They were allowed to become ecclesiastics

1 Compare Corpus Juris Chilis; Nov.Jintin. 22. c. 8, with Nov. Alex. i. 9;
Mortreuil, iii. 158 ; Bonefidius, 70.

46 HOSTILITY OF GREEKS AND LATINS.

[Ch.II. §2.

with the consent of their masters \ Agricultural slavery was
evidently verging towards extinction. The facilities afforded
to rural slaves for escaping into the Sclavonian and Bulgarian
settlements, rendered it impossible to compel the slave to
submit to as great privations as the colons, and his labour
consequently became too expensive to be advantageously
devoted to raising agricultural produce. Agricultural slavery
could only be perpetuated with profit on those small and
productive properties in the immediate vicinity of towns
where free labour was dear, and where there was a great
saving in the expense of transport.

Domestic slavery continued ; but as domestic slavery can
only be maintained under circumstances which would call for
the employment of an equal number of hired menials, its
general influence on the condition of the empire was not very
great. Indeed, when slaves are habitually purchased young,
they occupy a position superior to that of hired servants, for
they are bred up in some degree as members of the family
into which they enter.

The progress of society among the Greek population, in the
twelfth century, was thus evidently tending to enlarge the
sphere of civil liberty, and to embody the principles of
Christianity in the legislation of the empire. The progress
of mankind seemed to require that such a political govern-
ment should meet with a career of prosperity, the more so as
it was surrounded on all sides by rude barbarians. It was
not so. Political liberty is indispensable to man's progress.
Human civilization demanded that new ties, connecting social
and political life, should be developed : elements of liberty,
alien to the condition of the Greek race, were to become the
agents employed by Providence in the improvement of man's
condition ; and the people of western Europe were now to
take a prominent part in the world's history, to destroy the
Byzantine empire, to enslave the Greek race, and in return to
receive lessons of improvement from the Eastern nations.

1 Nov. Leonis, o, 10, n. Leo in these laws declares that fugitive slaves who
have become priests, monks, or even bishops, are to be delivered up to their mas-
without the benefit of prescription, on the ground that a slave cannot possess
the feelings suitable to the clerical functions.

SOCIETY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 47

Ch.II. §3-1

Sect. III. — Stationary Condition of Agricultural Industry
throughout Europe during the Middle Ages.

In the west the leading feature of civil society, from the
fall of the western Roman empire to the time of the Crusades,
is the abject condition of the agricultural classes. No Cin-
cinnatus appears as a hero in mediaeval history. The
labourers who became warriors returned no more to their
ploughs. Century after century, the ruling classes, kings,
priests, nobles, and soldiers, seized the whole surplus wealth
which the hand of nature annually bestows on agricultural
labour. The cultivator of the soil was only left in possession
of the scanty portion necessary to enable him to prolong his
existence of hopeless toil, and to rear a progeny of labourers,
to replace him in producing wealth with the smallest possible
consumption of the earth's fruits. Such was the condition of
the greater part of Europe, from the commencement of the
sixth to the end of the thirteenth century.

The general insecurity of property, and the decrease of
commercial intercourse, consequent on the neglect of the old
Roman roads, reduced the numbers of the middle classes of
society, who lived insulated in distant towns. They belonged
to the conquered race, and were deprived of all political
rights. They were despised by their conquerors as a dastard
people, and envied by the poor, because they were the pos-
sessors of more wealth than the rest of their countrymen.
This state of society produced a perpetual though covert con-
flict between the lower and higher classes. The ruling class,
whether nobles, gentlemen, or soldiers, viewed the mass of
the people with contempt and treated them with cruelty.
The people indulged in vague hopes of being able, by some
dispensation of heaven, to exterminate their tyrants and
reform society. There hardly exists any European history
that is not filled with rebellions and civil wars, which can
be traced to this source. But the people, where they have
not been trained to order by local institutions, can never form
any practical scheme of administration ; and, consequently,
their rebellions, when Unsuccessful, generally end in estab-
lishing anarchy as a remedy for oppression. Still we must
not forget, that the pictures we possess of popular struggles

48 HOSTILITY OF GREEKS AND LATINS.

[Ch. II. §4.

against governmental oppression have received their colouring

from the aristocratic class ; and, consequently, that we seek in

vain in such records for any notice of the wiser aspirations

and better feelings of the patient and thinking individuals

among the people.

SECT. IV. — Condition of the Normans when they coiiqnered
the Byzantine Possessions in Italy.

The vigour of the Scandinavian race is one of the marvels
in the history of European nations. The Normans rivalled
the exploits of the Goths. In Gaul, Britain, Italy, and
Russia they left permanent traces of their power. Driven
by the same desire to secure to themselves a better position
in the world by their own swords, which had impelled the
Goths to destroy the Roman empire, they became the
founders of new states and kingdoms. Unable to assemble
large armies, they found the sea more favourable to their
plundering excursions than the land. For nearly two cen-
turies, the Scandinavian nations carried on a series of piratical
attacks on the Franks in Gaul, and on the Saxons in Britain.
They wasted the open country, and circumscribed every trace
of civilization within the walls of fortified towns, or of
secluded monasteries in inaccessible situations. The records
of French and English history commence with details of
cruelties committed by these pirates, so frightful that the
poetry of their sagas cannot efface the conviction that plunder
was dearer to them than glory, and that their favourite ex-
ploits were the robbery of industrious villages, or the burning
of peaceful monasteries. The daring of these ruthless plun-
derers was rarely exposed to very severe trials, for the mass
of the agricultural population was prevented from bearing
arms, lest they should employ them against the ruling classes,
and begin their military career by attacking their permanent
oppressors. The descendants of Charlemagne preferred pay-
ing thousands of pounds' weight of silver to the Normans,
in order to purchase immunity from ravage for their own
domains, to employing the money in arming a subject popu-
lation whose feelings they knew to be hostile. This cause of

NORMANS IN ITALY. 49

Ch.II. §4.]

the facility the Normans found in effecting their conquests, is
hardly noticed by historians \

Tales of the inexhaustible wealth and unbounded luxury of
the Byzantine empire were current in Scandinavia. Many
warriors returned to their country enriched by the wealth
they had amassed in the Byzantine service. These men
repeated wondrous tales concerning the palaces and the gold
of Constantinople, and the luxury and helplessness of the
Greeks, to delighted crowds of listeners in their rude dwell-
ings. Harald Hardrada, the gigantic warrior who lost his life
at the battle of Stamford Bridge, acting as herald of the
Norman conquest, had gained at Constantinople the treasures
that enabled him to mount the throne of Norway. Tradi-
tions, constantly revived by the sight of gold byzants,
nourished a longing to reach the Byzantine empire in the
breast of every Norman. The wish to see Constantinople,
and obtain some small share of its immeasurable wealth,
mingled with religious ideas in urging them to perform the
pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

About the commencement of the eleventh century, the
Normans established in France began to appear frequently
in Italy as pilgrims and military adventurers ; and, before
the end of the century, they created a new political power
at the expense of the Byzantine emperors. In their career
from mercenary soldiers to independent chiefs, they advanced
much in the same way, and nearly by the same steps, as the
Goths and Lombards had done, when they founded kingdoms
in the western Roman empire. Though some distinguished
Normans visited Italy as pilgrims, the greater number wan-
dered thither, impelled by the desire to better their condition,
by entering into the military service of the Byzantine viceroys
of southern Italy and Sicily. The changes that had occurred
in northern Europe had put an end to piracy and degraded
the occupation of the brigand, so that adventurous young
men were now driven to seek their fortunes in distant lands.
The Normans, like the Goths of older times, considered no

1 Depping (Histoire des Expeditions Maritimes des Normands, p. 213, edit. Didier)
cites the following passage, to show the fear entertained by the Franks of any
assembly of the agricultural population : — ' Vulgus promiscuum inter Sequanam
et Ligerim adversos Danos fortiter resistit ; sed quia incaute suscepta est eorum
conjuratio, a potentioribus nostris facile interficitur.' Annates Berlin, ad ann.
859-

VOL. IV. E

50 HOSTILITY OF GREEKS AND LATINS.

[Ch. II. § 4.

undertaking too arduous for their ambition ; and they feared
to tread no path, however dangerous, that promised to conduct
them to wealth and fame.

The romantic narratives which connect the first appearance
of the Normans in Italy with the formation of the Norman
principalities, must not be received as true according to the
letter. The sudden arrival of a ship of Amalfi, with forty
Norman pilgrims, on their return from a pilgrimage to the
Holy Land, may certainly have saved Salerno from the
Saracens ; for these forty Normans, in complete panoply,
may have rallied round them an army of pilgrims and mer-
cenaries, on the great line of communication between the
West and East. The meeting of Mel, the Byzantine rebel
chief of Ban, with a few Norman gentlemen who were visiting
the shrine of St. Michael on Mount Gargano, may also have
led to these Normans collecting an army to attack the
imperial authorities. But the success of the Norman arms
arose from the circumstance that numerous bodies of Norman
mercenaries were already serving in the South of Italy \ We
may reasonably conclude that few men wandered from Nor-
mandy to Italy to gain their fortune by the sword, who were
not possessed of something more than ordinary daring and
skill in the use of arms. The Norman mercenaries must
therefore have possessed some superiority over ordinary
troops ; and the physical superiority of the individual soldier,
when the lance, the sword, and the mace determined the fate
of a battle, was of more importance than it is in our day,
when the fire of distant artillery and the evolutions of unseen
regiments often decide the victory. The personal supe-
riority of the Normans in moral character must also be taken
into consideration, in estimating the causes of their surprising
fortune in Italy and Sicily. In their own country they be-
longed to a higher class of society than that from which
mercenary soldiers were generally drawn, and their education
h id taught them to aspire even above their birth. This
nurture gave them a feeling of self-respect, and a high esti-
mation of their individual responsibilities — qualities which
form a firmer basis of national greatness than literary culture

pare Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. hi. vol. \ii. p. 103; Sismondi,
.'.'■ puMiques Italiennes, vol. i. p. 277; Gaily Knight, Normans in Sicily,
p. 3, and their authorities.

NORMAN MERCENARIES. 51

Ch.II. §5.]

or refinement of taste. To this moral education, and to the
manner in which it tempered their ambition, we must ascribe
the facility displayed by the Norman soldiers in assuming the
duties of captains and generals, and their prudence as leaders
and princes. Brave, skilful, disciplined, rapacious, wary, un-
feeling, and ambitious, they possessed every quality necessary
for becoming conquerors, and all the talents required to rivet
the bonds of their tyranny. Never, indeed, did any race of
men fulfil their mission as conquerors and tyrants with a
firmer hand or more energetic will, whether we regard them
in their earlier state, as the devastators of France, and the
colonists of Russia ; or in their more mature fortunes, as the
lords of Normandy, the conquerors of England, Naples, and
Sicily, and the plunderers of Greece1. Southern Italy, divided
between the Lombard principalities of Benevento, Capua, and
Salerno, and the Byzantine province, was saved from anarchy,
and delivered from the ravages of the Saracens, by the Nor-
man conquest.

SECT. V. — Normans invade Byzantine Empire — Their ravages

in Greece.

The wars of the Normans with the Byzantine emperors,
and the facility with which they conquered the Greeks in
Italy, induced them to aspire at the conquest of Greece itself.
Their successes, and the fame that attached to the Norman
name from the recent conquest of England, raised their mili-
tary reputation and their self-confidence to the highest eleva-
tion. No enterprise was regarded either by themselves or
others as too difficult for their arms ; and Robert Guiscard,
when he found himself master of dominions in Italy which
exceeded Normandy in wealth and population, aspired at
eclipsing the achievements of William the Conqueror by sub-
duing the Byzantine empire.

In the month of June 108 1 he sailed from the port of
Brindisi, with an army of thirty thousand men and with one
hundred and fifty ships. Corfu, which then yielded an annual

1 Galfredus Malaterra (i. c. 3) has an admirable sketch of the Norman character,
of which the original is more expressive than Gibbon's amplified version (vii. 106) ;
and the next chapter contains a correct portraiture of a Norman family. Carusius,
Bibliotheca Historica Regni Siciliae, torn. i. p. 161.

E 2

HOSTILITY OF GREEKS AXD LATIXS.
° [Ch. II. § A

revenue of fifteen hundred pounds of gold to the Byzantine

treasury, surrendered to his arms, and he landed in Epirus

without opposition. The glorious victories of the Normans,

the prudent perseverance of the Emperor Alexius L, the

valour of Bohemund, the failure of the expedition, and the

death of Robert Guiscard as he was about to renew his

attack, are recorded with such details in the pompous pages

of Anna Comnena, and with so much art in the gorgeous

descriptions of Gibbon, that they are familiar to every reader

of history 1.

Bohemund again invaded the Byzantine empire in the year
1107 with a powerful army. He was then Duke of Antioch,
and had recently married the daughter of the King of France.
The army of Bohemund, like that of William the Conqueror,
whose glory he expected to eclipse, was composed of warlike
adventurers from Normandy, France, and Germany. The
winter was consumed besieging Dyrrachium, whose ancient
Hellenic walls still existed, and were so broad that four
horsemen could ride abreast on their summit, while they were
flanked at proper intervals by towers raised eleven feet above
their battlements 2. The cities of Greece then preserved many
classic monuments of art, and Bohemund encamped to the
east of Dyrrachium, opposite a gate adorned with an equestrian
statue of bronze 3. The Emperor Alexius had acquired more
experience in the tactics of western warfare than he possessed
when he encountered Robert Guiscard in the earlier invasion.
Bohemund could neither take Dyrrachium nor force the
emperor to fight ; so that in order to escape utter ruin he
was compelled to sign a treaty, in September 1108, by which
he acknowledged himself the liegeman of the Byzantine
emperor. Such was the fate of an expedition under the
haughty Bohemund, no way inferior to that which conquered
England 4.

The third invasion of the Byzantine empire took place
in consequence of the Emperor Manuel rudely disavowing
the conduct of his envoy, who had concluded a treaty with
Roger, King of Sicily. But its real origin must be sought

1 Robert Guiscard died .it Ccphalonia in 1085.
- Anna Comn, .

' Ibid. ;,so. Other monuments of ancient sculpture also remained in Dyrra-
chium ; ibid. p. 99.
' Anna Comn. 406.

NORMANS INVADE GREECE. z?

Ch.II.§5.]

in the ambitious projects of the Sicilian king and the warlike
and haughty spirit of the young emperor. Roger, by the
union of the Norman possessions in Sicily and southern Italy,
was one of the wealthiest and most powerful princes of his
time. The large fleet and well-disciplined army at his dis-
posal authorized him to aspire at new conquests ; and he
hoped to accomplish what his uncle, Robert Guiscard, and
his cousin, Bohemund,had vainly attempted. But the Byzantine
power in the interval had improved as rapidly as the Norman
had increased. Manuel I., proud of the excellent army and
trusting to the well-filled treasury left by his father, John II.,
and expecting to recover all his predecessors had lost in
Italy, and even to reconquer Sicily, was as eager for war as
the Norman king. Indeed, had the emperor been able to
direct all his forces against the Normans, such might possibly
have been the result of a war ; but the attention of Manuel
was diverted by many enemies, and his forces were required
to defend extensive frontiers ; while Roger was enabled to
direct his whole force against the point where least preparation
had been made to encounter an enemy. The Normans in-
vaded Greece, and their expedition inflicted a mortal wound
on the prosperity of the country.

When the second crusade was on the eve of marching
through the Byzantine empire, Roger, who had collected
a powerful fleet at Brindisi, either for attacking Manuel's
dominions or for transporting the Crusaders to Palestine,
as might turn out most advantageous to his interests, was
put in possession of Corfu by an insurrection of the inha-
bitants. This occurred in the year 1146. From Corfu the
Sicilian admiral sailed round the Peloponnesus to Monemvasia,
at that time one of the principal commercial cities in the
Mediterranean ; but the population of this impregnable rock
boldly encountered the Sicilians, and repulsed their attacks.
The Norman fleet then proceeded to plunder the island of
Euboea, after which it suddenly returned to the western coast,
and laid waste the coasts of Acarnania and Aetolia.

The whole of Greece was thrown into such a state of
alarm, by these sudden and far distant attacks, that it was
impossible to concentrate the troops in the province at any
particular point. The Norman admiral now darted on his
prey, directing his whole force against Thebes, whose situation

54 HOSTILITY OF GREEKS AND LATINS.

[Ch.II.§5.

appeared to secure it from any sudden assault, but whose

wxalth, from this very circumstance, promised a larger amount

of plunder than any city on the coast. Thebes was then a

rich manufacturing town, without any walls capable of defence.

George Antiochenus, the Sicilian admiral, entered the Straits

of Lepanto without encountering any opposition, and debarked

his troops at the Scala of Salona. From thence the Norman

troops marched past Delphi and Livadea to Thebes.

Thebes was taken and plundered in the most barbarous
manner. The inhabitants carried on an immense trade in
cultivating, manufacturing, and dyeing silk, and their industry
had rendered them extremely rich. Everything they possessed
was carried away by their avaricious conquerors, who con-
veyed their gold, silver, jewels, bales of silk and household
furniture of value, to the ships which had anchored at the
port of Livadostro. The unfortunate Thebans were com-
pelled to take an oath on the Holy Scriptures, that they
had not concealed from their plunderers any portion of their
property; nor was the city evacuated by the Normans until
they had removed everything they considered worth trans-
porting to the fleet. They dragged the principal inhabitants
into captivity to profit by their ransom or sell them as
slaves, while the most skilful workmen in the silk manu-
factories were carried to Sicily to exercise their industry for
their new masters.

From Livadostro the fleet transported the troops to Corinth.
Nicephorus Kalouphes, the governor, retired with the chief
men of the city into the Acrocorinth. That fortress was
impregnable, but the cowardly governor basely surrendered
the place on the first summons. The Sicilian admiral, on
examining the magnificent fortress of which he had so un-
expectedly become master, could not refrain from exclaiming,
that the Normans certainly fought under the protection of
heaven, for, if Nicephorus Kalouphes had not been more
timid than a woman, all their attacks might have been
repulsed with case1. Corinth was sacked with the same

1 George Anliochcnus was high-admiral, and one of the nobles of the highest rank
in Sicily. The Greek deed by which Roger. King of Sicily, confers the title of proto-
nobilissimus on ( hristodoulos the father of George, is preserved in the archives of
the Royal Chapel at Palermo. Montfaucon has engraved it in his Palaeographia
Graeca (p. 40S). There is a stone bridge of five arches near Palermo, called I'onte

SILK MANUFACTURE AT THEBES. 55

Ch. II. § 5]

rapacious avidity as Thebes : all the men of rank, the most
beautiful women, and the most skilful artizans, with their
wives and families, were carried away, either to obtain a
ransom or to keep them as slaves. Even the shrines of
the saints were plundered, and the relics of St. Theodore
were torn from his church ; and it was only when the fleet
was fully laden with the spoils of Greece that it sailed for
Sicily.

The inhabitants of Greece attained the highest point of
material improvement, which they reached during the middle
ages, at this period ; and perhaps their decline may be more
directly attributed to the loss of the silk trade than to any
other single event connected with the Normans and Crusaders.
The establishment of the silk manufacturers of Thebes and
Corinth at Palermo transferred the highest skilled labour
from Greece to Sicily. Roger took the greatest care of the
captured artizans ; he collected together their wives and
children, furnished them with dwellings, and the means of
resuming their former industry under the most favourable
circumstances. He perceived that their skill was the most
valuable part of the plunder of the expedition, and he suc-
ceeded by his kindness in attaching them to their new home
and in naturalizing their industry in Sicily. On the other
hand the Byzantine emperors ruined the trade of Greece
by oppressive monopolies and ill-judged restrictions, and
thus prepared the way for the conquests of the Franks and
Venetians l. And even when the Emperor Manuel concluded
a treaty of peace with William I. of Sicily in 1159, he did
not endeavour to restore the workmen of Thebes and Corinth
to their homes, but abandoned them to their fate. Yet
Thebes continued for some time to retain some importance
by its silk manufactures. Benjamin of Tudela, who visited

del Ammiraglio, which was built by George, probably from the plunder of Greece.
The church at Palermo, called La Martorana, was also built by George, and
contains two curious mosaics with Greek inscriptions. Greek, indeed, seems
to have been the habitual language of the admiral, and of many Sicilian nobles
at the court of Roger. Gaily Knight, Normans in Sicily, 263, 301. [See above,
vol. iii. p. 162 note. Ed.]

1 Nicetas, 65. Roger seems to have paid more attention to improving the
condition of his subjects than any contemporary sovereign. In his reign the
cultivation of the sugar-cane was introduced into Sicily. For the Norman expe-
dition to Greece, see Ducange's note to Cinnamus, 446 ; Otho of Frisingen, De
Gestis Frederici I., i. c. 33. in Muratori. Script. Rer. Ital. vi. 668. The passage is
extracted in Carusius, Bibliotheca Hist. Regni Siciliae, torn. ii. 934.

$6 HOSTILl TV OF GREEKS AXD LATINS.

[Ch.II. §5.

it about the year 1161, speaks of it as a large city with two
thousand Jewish inhabitants, who were the most eminent
silk-merchants and dyers of purple in Greece1. The silks
of Thebes continued to be celebrated throughout the East
even at a later period. In 1195, Moieddin, Sultan of Iconium,
required from the Emperor Alexius III. forty pieces of the
Thcban silk that was woven expressly for the imperial family,
among other presents, as the price of his alliance -.

The last attempt of the Sicilian Normans to subdue the
Byzantine empire was made in the year 1185. William II.,
hoping that the cruelty of the Emperor Andronicus I. would
prove a powerful ally to the Sicilian arms, invaded the empire
under the pretext of aiding Alexius Comnenus, one of the
nephews of Manuel I., to dethrone the tyrant and of avenging
the losses sustained by the Latins during the troubles which
preceded the usurpation of Andronicus, when their establish-
ments were plundered, when thousands were massacred, and
thousands sold as slaves3. But whatever might be his
pretexts, his real object was to secure for himself some per-
manent possession in Greece. A powerful fleet under the
command of Tancred, the king's cousin and successor, was
sent to attack Dyrrachium. which was taken by assault after
a siege of thirteen days. The army then marched by the
Via Egnatia to Thessalonica, while the fleet with Tancred
sailed round the Morea. The rich and populous city of
Thessalonica fell into the hands of the Sicilians after a feeble
defence. In the fury of conquest, neither age nor sex had
been spared when Thessalonica was sacked, and the barbarity
of the conquerors is described in frightful detail by Nicetas.

1 Itinerary, vol. i. 47, Asher's edit.

•as, 297. It was not until the reign of John III. at Nicaea, 1222-1355,
when Thebes was in the hands of the Latins, that the Greeks of Asia Minor
were forced to import silk from Persia and Sicily. A law was then promulgated
to prohibit the use of foreign silk. Niceph. Greg. 25 ; Bonefidius, Jus Orientate,
124. Interesting proof of the great extent and long continuance of the manufac-
ture of purple dye at Athens was found in clearing out the earth and rubbish
which had accumulated in the Odeion of Herodes Atticus. The interior of the
building and the roof had been destroyed by fire probably as early as the fourth
century. Above the pulverized marble and the charcoal of the beams, layers
of earth were intermingled at different levels with fragments of shells several feet
thick, beside immense jars of earthenware in which a Diogenes could have resided,
ra of these shells were found at three different levels, indicating that the
dyeing manufactory had been abandoned for long periods and again resumed on
a wry large scale,

3 Nicetas, 162; Eustathius, Funeral oration on Manuel; Tafel, Comnenen und
Normannen, p. 117.

NORMANS CAPTURE THESSALONICA. 57

Ch.II. §5.] '

Neither rich nor poor were safe from the most barbarous
treatment. Similar horrors are the ordinary events of every
war in which religious bigotry excites the passions of rival
nations, and the Greeks and Latins now hated each other
as heretics, commercial rivals, and political enemies. The
cruelties which the Greeks had committed when they drove
the Latins from Constantinople three years before were fresh
in the memory of the Sicilian troops. On that occasion
women, children, and even the sick in the hospital of St.
John, had been mercilessly slain, churches filled with helpless
fugitives had been burned, and upwards of 4000 Latins had
been sold as slaves to the Mohammedans1. Many of the
wealthiest inhabitants of Thessalonica were driven from their
splendid palaces without clothes ; many were tortured, to
compel them to reveal the place where they had concealed
their treasures ; and some, who had nothing to reveal, were
hung up by the feet and suffocated with burning straw.
Insult was added to cruelty. The altars of the churches
were defiled, the religious ceremonies of the Greeks were
ridiculed ; while the priests were chanting divine service in
the nasal harmony admired by the Orientals, the Sicilian
soldiers howled in chorus in imitation of beaten hounds. The
celebrated Archbishop Eustathius, however, fortunately suc-
ceeded, by his prudence and dignified conduct, in conciliating
the Sicilian generals, and in persuading them to make some
exertions to bridle the license of their troops, which they
had tolerated too long. By his exhortations, Thessalonica
was saved from utter ruin 2.

The Sicilian army at last put itself in march towards
Constantinople. But the cruelty with which the inhabitants
of Thessalonica had been treated, roused the indignation of
the whole population of Macedonia and Thrace, and the
Sicilians encountered a determined resistance. In the mean-
time the tyrant Andronicus had been dethroned and
murdered, and Isaac II. reigned in his stead. The Sicilian

1 William of Tyre (Hist. xx. 12, in Bongars, Gesta Dei per Francos, i. p. 1024)
says that the Greeks beheaded the Sub-deacon of Rome, whom the Pope had sent
to the East, and tied his head to the tail of a mangy dog to mark their contempt
for the Latin church.

2 Nicetas, 192. Eustathius has left us a declamatory but valuable account
of the capture of Thessalonica, which was first published by Tafel, Eustathu Opus-
cula, Tubingen, 1832, 4to. p. 267. It is reprinted in the collection of the Byzan-
tine historians, published at Bonn, in the same volume with Leo Grammaticus.

58 HOSTILITY OF GREEKS AXD LATIXS.

[Ch. II. § 5.

fleet under Tancred entered the Propontis, and advanced
within sight of Constantinople, without being able to effect
anything. The army continued to advance in two divisions
in spite of all opposition ; one of these divisions reached
Mosynopolis, while the other was engaged plundering the
valley of the Strymon and the country round Serres.
Alexius Vranas, an experienced general, assumed the com-
mand of the Byzantine army. The new emperor, Isaac II..
secured the good-will of the troops by distributing among
them four thousand pounds of gold, in payment of their
arrears and to furnish a donative. The courage of the
imperial forces was revived, and their success was insured
by the carelessness and presumption of the Sicilian generals,
whose contempt for the Greek army prevented them from
concentrating their strength. Vranas, taking advantage of
this confidence, suddenly drove in the advanced guard and
defeated the division at Mosynopolis with considerable loss.
The Sicilians retreated to the site of Amphipolis, where
they had collected their scattered detachments, and fought
another battle at a place called Demerize, on the 7th
November 1185. In this they were utterly defeated, and
the victory of the Byzantine army decided the fate of the
expedition. Count Aldoin and Richard Acerra, the generals,
with about four thousand soldiers, were taken prisoners. The
fugitives who could gain Thessalonica immediately embarked
on board the vessels in the port, and put to sea. Tancred
abandoned his station in the Propontis, and, collecting the
shattered remnants of the army, returned to Sicily. Even
Dyrrachium was soon after abandoned, for William found
the expense of retaining the place far greater than its
political importance to Sicily warranted. The prisoners
sent by Vranas to the Emperor Isaac II. were treated with
great inhumanity. They were thrown into dungeons, and
neglected to such a degree by the government, that they
<>\ved the preservation of their lives to private charity l.

1 Nicetas, 231.

SCHISM OF THE GREEKS AXD LATIXS. 59

Ch.II. §6.]

SECT. VI. — Separation of the Greek and Latin Churches.

The Normans of Italy were the vassals of the Pope.
Robert Guiscard, the first Norman invader of Greece, adopted
the style of ' Duke by the grace of God and St. Peter ; ' and
the animosity and cruelty of the Sicilian troops against the
Greeks were increased by the ecclesiastical quarrels of the
Popes of Rome and the Patriarchs of Constantinople. The
influence of the Latin and Greek clergy rapidly disseminated
the hatred caused by these dissensions throughout the people.
The ambition of the Patriarch Photius laid the foundation of
the separation of the two churches in the ninth century.
He objected to the addition of the words 'and the Son,'
which the Latins had inserted in the original creed of the
Christian church, and to some variations in the discipline
and usages of the church which they had adopted ; and
he made these a pretext for attacking the supremacy and
orthodoxy of the Pope. The Christian world was astonished
by the disgraceful spectacle of the Bishops of Rome and
Constantinople mutually excommunicating one another, and
each pointing out his rival as one who merited the reprobation
of man and the wrath of God. These disputes were allayed
by the prudence of a Sclavonian groom, who mounted the
throne of the Byzantine empire as Basil I.; but Christian
charity never again took up her abode with the heads either
of the Papal or the Greek church.

The arrogance of the Patriarch, Michael Keroularios, induced
him to revive the dormant quarrel in 1053. His character
as a man condemns him as a Patriarch. When a layman, he
plotted against his sovereign ; when a priest, he rebelled
against his superior. Whatever may have been his religious
zeal, there is no doubt that the revival of the quarrel between
the Eastern and Western churches was an unnecessary and
impolitic act. A joint letter, in the name of the Patriarch
Michael and Leo Archbishop of Achrida, was addressed to
the Archbishop of Trani, then a Byzantine possession, in
which all the accusations formerly brought forward by Photius
against the Latins were repeated. The Emperor Constantine
IX. (Monomachos) attempted to appease the ardour of
Michael ; and, in the hope of averting a quarrel, prevailed

6o HOSTILITY OF GREEKS AXD LATIXS.

[Ch. II. § 6.
on Pope Leo IX. to send legates to Constantinople. Un-
fortunately the Papal legates were quite as arrogant as the
Patriarch himself; and thus the slumbering animosity of the
Greek clergy was roused by their imprudent conduct. The
legates, finding their exorbitant pretensions treated with
contempt, completed the separation of the two churches,
by excommunicating the Patriarch and all his adherents ;
and they inflicted a sensible wound on the feelings of the
Greeks by their success in depositing a copy of the act of
excommunication on the high altar of the church of St.
Sophia. The Patriarch immediately convoked a council of
the Eastern clergy, and replied by excommunicating the
Pope and all the Latins. The Papal act was ordered to
be taken from the altar and publicly burned. From the
time of these mutual anathemas, the separation of the Greek
and Latin churches has been attended with antichristian ani-
mosity ; and the members of the Eastern and Western
hierarchies have viewed one another as condemned heretics.
From this period, therefore, we must always bear in mind
that the conduct of the Byzantine government and the
actions of the Greeks are judged by the Western nations
under the influence of religious prejudices of great virulence,
as well as of political and commercial jealousy.

The crimes of which the Patriarch accused the Pope, and
on account of which the Greeks deemed the Latins worthy
of eternal damnation, were these : the addition of the words
' and the Son ' to the clause of the primitive creed of the
Christians, declaring the belief in the Holy Ghost, who
procecdeth from the Father; the use of unleavened bread
in the holy communion ; the use in the kitchens of the
Latins of things strangled, and of blood, in violation of the
apostles' express commands1; the indulgence granted to
monks to make use of lard in cooking, and to eat meat when
sick ; the use of rings by Latin bishops as a symbol of their
marriage with the church, while, as the Greeks sagaciously
observed, the marriage of bishops is altogether unlawful;
and, to complete the folly of this disastrous quarrel, the
Greek clergy even made it a crime that the Latin priests
shaved their beards and baptized by a single immersion.

1 Acts of the Apostles, xv. 20.

INCREASE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 6 1

Ch. II. § 7.]

Whatever may be the importance of these errors in a moral
or religious point of view, it is certain that the violence dis-
played by the clergy in stimulating the religious hatred
between the Greeks and Latins contributed to hasten the
ruin of the Greek nation.

Sect. VII. — Increase of the Papal Power during the
Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries.

Unfortunately for the Greeks, the period during which the
animosity of the orthodox and Catholic clergy was transfused
into the Eastern and Western nations witnessed a wide
extension both of the spiritual jurisdiction and the temporal
power of the Popes. Numerous conversions effected by the
zeal of the Catholic clergy augmented the authority of the
Papal throne, for though the Normans, Danes, Norwegians,
Hungarians, and Poles, embraced Christianity in the tenth
century, it was not until the eleventh that their conversion
added sensibly to the numbers and wealth of the Latin
clergy, and augmented the power and dignity of the Popes of
Rome.

The events which particularly influenced the political
relations of the Popes with the Byzantine empire were, the
conquest of Transylvania by the kings of Hungary, the
establishment of the Normans in Italy as vassals of the
papal see, and the expulsion of the Greeks and Saracens
from Sicily. The first of these conquests carried forward
the banner of the Popes into the east, and raised a strong
bulwark against the progress of the Greek church to the
westward, whether it attempted to advance from Constanti-
nople or Russia ; by the second, a number of rich benefices,
which had been previously held by Greek ecclesiastics, were
transferred to Latins ; and by the Norman conquest of Sicily
the clergy of that island, who, under the Saracens, had
remained dependent on the Patriarch of Constantinople,
became united to the Latin church. The commencement
of the schism was thus marked by three important victories
gained by the papal see. The Pope was also furnished with
a numerous body of clergy from southern Italy and Sicily,
who were familiar with the Greek language, then generally

6l HOSTILITY OF CREEKS AXD LATINS.

[Ch. II. § 7.

spoken in those countries. It was consequently in his
power to carry the ecclesiastical contest into the heart of
the Byzantine empire ; while the Greek Patriarch, deprived
bv the emperor of all political authority, dependent on a
synod, and subordinate to the civil power, offered but a faint
representation of what was in that age conceived to be the
true position of the head of the church.

The territorial acquisitions of the Western Church, great
as they really were, bore no comparison to the augmentation
of the power of the Pope within the church itself. The
authority of the Popes, in Western Europe, was based on
the firmest foundation on which power can rest : it was
supported by public opinion, for both the laity and the clergy
regarded them as the only impartial dispensers of justice
on earth, as the antagonists of feudal oppression, and the
champions of the people against royal tyranny1. It is true
that the general anarchy towards the end of the tenth cen-
tury, and the social disorganization incident to the early
consolidation of the feudal system, produced a great revolution
of discipline among the Latin clergy; and a series of disorders
prevailed in the Western Church to which there is no parallel,
until far later times, in the Eastern. But the exertions of the
well-disposed — who are generally the most numerous, though
the least active portion of society — effected a reformation. A
spirit of reform conferred on Gregory VII. the extensive
temporal power which he assumed for the good of society,
but which was too great for an imperfect mortal to possess
without abusing it. Thus, at the time when a variety of
events invested the Popes with the rank of temporal princes
of the highest order, numerous causes conspired to constitute
them supreme judges of right and wrong, both in the eyes of
kings and people ; while their real power was also increased
by a widespread belief that the end of the world was ap-
proaching, and that the possession of the keys of St. Peter
conferred a power to open the portals of heaven. Such was
the position of one of the enemies which the vanity and
bigotry of the Greek clergy arrayed in hostility against their
nation.

ory VII (the great Httdebrand), dying at Salerno, under the protection
of the Normans, in 1085, exclaimed, 'I have loved justice and hated iniquity, and
therefore I die an exile'

INFLUENCE OF FRENCH LANGUAGE. 63

Ch. II. § 8.]

SECT. VIII. — Predominant position of the French Language in
the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries.

The progress of events, rather than any fault on the part
of the Byzantine government, ranged many of the nations of
western Europe as enemies of the Greeks. All the nations
who spoke the French language were regarded by the Greeks
as one people, and all were treated as enemies in consequence
of the wars with the Normans of Italy and Sicily. The name
of Franks was given, in the Byzantine empire, to all who
spoke French ; and, consequently, under this hated designa-
tion the Greeks included not only Normans and French, but
also Flemings, English, and Scots \ The Norman conquests
on the shores of the Mediterranean, and their commercial
relations with the Italian republics, began to place their
interests in rivalry with those of the Byzantine Greeks. And
when the East was invaded by the Crusaders, the prevalence
of the French language, and the number of Normans in their
ranks, tended to make the Greeks view the intruders as Old
enemies.

It is singular that the most numerous body of those who
appeared in the East, making use of the French language,
were neither French by race nor political allegiance. Nor-
mandy, Flanders, southern Italy, Sicily, England, and we
may add Scotland, were then more French in language and
manners, in the higher and military classes, than the southern
provinces of what is now France. The foundation of the
Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, and the smaller principalities of
Syria, gave the French language and Norman manners a pre-
dominant influence in the East. Though the king of France
really exercised no direct authority over the greater part of
the states in which French was spoken, still the depend-
ence of several of the most powerful princes on the French
crown as feudatories, and the great influence which Louis IX.
deservedly possessed throughout the Christian world at

1 'At this period (a.d. 1290) Norman-French was, alike in England^and Scot-
land, the language in which state affairs were generally conducted.' Tytler's
History 0/ Scotland, i. 75 ; Hume's History of England, chap. xiii. note U.

64 HOSTILITY OF GREEKS AND LATINS.

a later period, rendered the king of France, in the eyes of
the Greeks, the real sovereign of all the French or Frank
nations1.

1 [The influence of the French mediaeval romances on the Greek literature
from the twelfth century onwards is carefully traced by M. Gidel in his Etudes
sur la litiirature grecque moderne ; imitations en Grec de nos romans de chevalerie.
See especially pp. 358 foil. Ed,]

CHAPTER III.

Overthrow of the Byzantine Empire by the
Crusaders.

Sect. I. — The Crusades.

In the West, the Crusades were productive of much good ;
but to the native Christian population in the East they were
the cause of unmixed evil. During the early period, while
the force of the Crusaders was greatest, and religious enthu-
siasm directed their conduct, they respected the Byzantine
empire as a Christian state, and treated the Greeks as a
Christian people. The earlier armies passed through the
empire like hurricanes, producing widespread but only tem-
porary desolation. At a later period, when ambition, fashion,
and the hope of gain made men Crusaders, avarice and in-
tolerance exerted more influence over their conduct than
religion and a sense of justice. The Crusades must, conse-
quently, be examined under two different aspects in order to
be correctly appreciated. In the East, they offer little beyond
the records of military incursions of undisciplined invaders,
seeking to conquer foreign lands by the sword, and to main-
tain possession of them by the combinations of the feudal
system. To the Christians of Greece and Syria, the Latins
appeared closely to resemble the Goths, Vandals, and Lom-
bards. Viewed, therefore, as the actions of the Crusaders
must have been by the Eastern nations, the results of their
expeditions were so inadequate to the forces brought into the
field, that the character of the Western nations suffered, and
the Franks were long regarded with contempt as well as
hatred both by Christians and Mussulmans.

With armies far exceeding in number those of the early
Saracens who subdued Asia, Africa, and Spain, and much

VOL. IV. F

66 OVERTHROW OF BYZAXTIXE EMPIRE.

[Ch. III. § t.

greater than those of the Seljouk Turks, who had recently
made themselves masters of great part of Asia, the conquests
of the Crusaders were comparatively insignificant. One
striking difference between the Asiatic and European warriors
deserves to be noticed, for it formed the main cause of the
inefficiency of the latter as conquerors. The Asiatics left
untouched the organization of society among the Christians
throughout their wide-extended empires. The changes effectec
by their conquests in the relations of rich and poor, master
and slave, resulted from altered habits gradually arising out
of new social exigencies, and were rarely interposed by the
direct agency of legislation. But the Crusaders immediately
destroyed all the existing order of society, and revolutionized
every institution connected with property and the cultivation
of the soil. Mankind was forced back into a state of bar-
barism, which made predial servitude an element of feudal
tenures. In the East, the progress of society had alread}
introduced the cultivation of the soil by free agricultural
labour before the arrival of the Crusaders in Palestine ; the
Franks brought back slavery and serfage in their train. The
Saracens had considered agricultural labour as honourable;
the Franks regarded every useful occupation as a degradation.
The Saracens became agriculturists in all their conquests, and
were, consequently, colonists who increased in number under
certain social conditions. The Franks, on the contrary, were
nothing but a feudal garrison in their Eastern possessions ; so
that, as soon as they had reduced the cultivators of the soil to
the condition of serfs, they were themselves subjected to the
operation of that law of population which, like an avenging
Nemesis, is perpetually exterminating every class that dares
to draw a line of separation between itself and the rest of
mankind. Thus the system of government introduced by the
Crusaders, in their Asiatic conquests, contained within itself
the causes of its own destruction.

The Crusades are the last example of the effects of that
mighty spirit of emigration and adventure that impelled the
Goths, Franks, Saxons, and Normans to seek new possessions
and conquer distant kingdoms. The old spirit of emigration
in its military form, engrafted on the passion for pilgrimages
in the Western church, was roused into religious enthusiasm
by many coincident circumstances. The passion for pilgrim-

SARACENS AND CRUSADERS. 67

Ch.III. §1.]

ages, though of ancient date, received great extension in the
eleventh century ; but as early as the fourth, the conduct of
the numerous pilgrims who, in the abundance of the ancient
world, went on their way to Palestine feasting and revelling,
had scandalized St. Gregory of Nyssa. The great increase of
pilgrimages in the eleventh century was connected with the
idea then prevalent, that the thousand years of the imprison-
ment of Satan mentioned in the Apocalypse had expired ;
and, as the tempter was supposed to be raging over the face
of the earth, no place was considered so safe from his intru-
sion as the holy city of Jerusalem.

The inhabitants of the Byzantine empire were from early
times familiarized with the passage of immense caravans of
pilgrims, and due arrangements were made for this inter-
course, which was a regular source of profit. Even the
Saracens had generally treated the pilgrims with considera-
tion, as men who were engaged in the performance of a
sacred duty. The chronicles of the time relate that a band
of pilgrims amounting to seven thousand, led by the arch-
bishop of Mentz and four bishops, passed through Con-
stantinople in the reign of Constantine X. (Ducas)1. Near
Jerusalem they were attacked by wandering tribes, but were
relieved by the Saracen emir of Ramla, who hastened to their
assistance. The conquests of the Seljouk Turks had already
thrown all Syria into a state of disorder, and the Bedouin
Arabs began to push their plundering excursions far into the
cultivated districts. This army of pilgrims was prevented
from visiting the Jordan and the Dead Sea by the robbers
of the desert, and it is reported that the caravan lost three
thousand of its number before returning home. The misfor-
tunes of so numerous a body of men resounded throughout
the Christian world ; and year after year bringing tidings of
new disasters, the fermentation of the public mind continually
increased. No distinct project was formed for delivering the
holy sepulchre, but a general desire was awakened to remedy
the insecurity attending the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The
conquest of Palestine by the Seljouk Turks, in 1076, increased
the disorders. These nomades neglected to guard the roads,
and augmented the exactions on the pilgrims. In the West,

1 a.d. 1064 or io65- Michaud, Histoire des Croisadc, i. 67, who refers to
Annalium Baronii epitome, p. 11, cap. 5, p. 432.

F 2,

68 OVERTHROW OF BYZAXTIXE EMPIRE.

[Ch.III. §i.

the passion for pilgrimages was increasing, while in the East,
the dangers to which the pilgrims were exposed were aug-
menting still more rapidly. A cry for vengeance was the
consequence. The Franks and Normans were men of action,
more prompt to war than to complaint. The mine was
already prepared, when Peter the Hermit applied the match
to the inflammable materials.

Commercial interests were not unconnected with the origin
of the Crusades, though the commercial enterprise of the age
was perhaps too confined for us to attribute to commerce a
prominent part in producing these great expeditions ; but if
all notice of the facts that connect them with the progress of
trade were to be overlooked, a very inaccurate idea would be
formed of the various causes of their origin. Commerce
exercised almost as much influence in producing the Crusades,
as the Crusades did in improving and extending the relations
of commerce \ The roads which the early Crusaders followed
in marching to Palestine were the routes used by the com-
mercial caravans which carried on the trade between Ger-
many, Constantinople, and Syria. This had been very
considerable in earlier times, and had enriched the Avars
and the Bulgarians2. From Constantinople to Antioch, the
great road had always been much frequented, until the com-
mercial communications in Asia Minor were deranged by the
incursions of the Seljouk Turks. In the year 1035, before
their arrival, Robert, Duke of Normandy, called Robert the
Devil, the father of William the Conqueror, when on the pil-
grimage to Jerusalem with a numerous suite, joined a caravan
of merchants travelling to Antioch, in order to traverse Asia
Minor under their guidance 3. The great losses of the

1 Thirty-five years before the Crusades, Ingulph, the Secretary of William the
Conqueror, mentions that in returning from the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he found
a fleet of Genoese merchantmen at Jaffa, in one of which he took his passage to
Europe. Vinccns, Histoire de la Republique de Guies, i. 40.

■ Capitularies of Charlemagne, ed. Baluze, i. 755. The Bulgarian trade is men-
tioned liy Suidas, v. BovKyapoi.

3 The pilgrimage of Robert the Devil was much talked of. and gives a good

of the pilgrimages then in fashion with prince- and nobles. ' He reached

Constantim a numerous and splendid suite of Norman gentlemen. The

emperor, Michael IV.. received him at a public audience ; but either from Personal

vanity, or the pride of Byzantine etiquette, the Paphlagonian moneychanger, whom

a turn of fortune had seated on the throne of Constantine, left 'the Duke

:.:,'. Robert made a sign to his companions to imitate his proceedings. All

ped their rich velvet cloaks and satedown on them. On quitting the audience

chamber the) lefl their cloaks on the ground. A chamberlain followed to remind

INFLUENCE OF COMMERCE. 6q

Ch.III. §i.]

Crusaders in their expeditions by land, are not therefore to
be attributed so much to absolute ignorance of the nature
of the country, as to utter inattention to the arrangements
required by their numbers, and to incapacity for exercising
habitual forethought and restraint. As early as the first
Crusade, the fleets of the Italian republics would have sufficed
to transport large armies direct to Palestine. The Venetians
and Byzantines are said by Anna Comnena to have lost
thirteen thousand men in a naval defeat they sustained from
Robert Guiscard, near Corfu, in 1084 ; and the Byzantine
princess can hardly be suspected of making the losses of her
father's subjects and allies exceed the numbers of those
actually serving on board their fleets1. Amalfi, Pisa, and
Genoa were all able to send large fleets to Palestine as soon
as they heard that the Crusaders had got possession of
Jerusalem-.

During the age immediately preceding the Crusades,
society had received a great development, and commerce
had both aided and profited by the movement. There is
no greater anachronism than to suppose that the commercial
greatness of the Italian republics arose out of these expedi-
tions. Their commerce was already so extensive, that the
commercial alarm caused by the conduct of the Seljouk
Turks was really one of the causes of the Crusades. The
caravans of pilgrims which repaired annually to the East,
supplied Europe with many necessary commodities, whose
augmented price was felt as a universal grievance. The fair
held at Jerusalem during Easter was at that time of great
commercial importance to all the nations of Europe, and this
market was in danger of being closed. The commerce of the
East, if it were allowed to exist at all by the Mohammedans,
seemed to be in danger of becoming a monopoly in the hands
of the Greeks.

them, but Robert replied, ' It is not the habit of Norman gentlemen to carry away
their chairs.' As he was travelling through Asia Minor, he was met by a Norman
pilgrim, who asked him if he had any message to send home. The Duke was in a
litter, carried by four negroes. ' Tell them in Normandy that you saw me carried
to heaven by four devils,' was all he had to say. He was poisoned at Nicaea, on
his return, by one of his attendants. Wace, Ro?tian de Ron, quoted by Ducange,
Gloss. Med. et Inf. Latinitatis, v. ' Bancus.'

1 Anna Comnena, 161. A ship at this time generally carried one hundred
and forty men. The Norman fleet consisted of one hundred and twenty ships.
Guilielmus Apuliensis, Res in Italia Normanicae.

2 Anna Comnena (336) mentions a Pisan fleet.

70 OVERTHROW OF BYZANTINE EMPIRE.

' [Ch.III. §2.

Thus we see that the Scandinavian spirit of adventure, the
ancient superstitions of the people, the interests of the Latin
church, the cruelties of the Mohammedans, and the com-
mercial necessities of the times, all conspired to awaken
enthusiastic aspirations after something greater than the
commonplace existence of ordinary life in the eleventh cen-
turv; and every class of society found its peculiar passions
gratified by the great cry for the deliverance of Christ's tomb
from the hands of the infidels. The historians of the Cru-
sades often endeavour to give a miraculous character to the
effects of the preaching of Peter the Hermit ; but we have
seen in our own day Father Mathew in morals, and Daniel
O'Connell in politics, produce almost as wonderful effects on
the people.

SECT. II. — Quarrels with the Byzantine Emperors during the
First and Second Crusades. Conquest of Cyprus by
Richard I., King of England.

The subjection of the Greeks to Latin domination was
commenced by one of those accidents which no human
foresight could have predicted. The third Crusade seemed
to threaten the Greeks with little danger after the prudence
of Frederic Barbarossa had prevented the folly of Isaac II.
from causing a war in Thrace. The kings of France and
England, in order to avoid visiting the Greek territory, trans-
ported their armies to Palestine by sea. But ' who can avoid
his fate?' On this occasion, as on so many others, fortune
amused herself by making the condition of nations depend on
the caprice of a worthless tyrant. Isaac Komnenos, who had
assumed the title of emperor of the Romans in the island of
Cyprus, wantonly engaged in hostilities with Richard Cceur-
de-Lion, and caused that king to conquer the island, and lay
the foundations of the most durable state which the Latins
established in the East. This accidental conquest of Cyprus
was the first serious blow that the Crusaders struck at the
independence of the Hellenic race.

The island of Cyprus was well cultivated ; its population
was numerous, and its trade flourishing. The extreme fer-
tility of the soil secured to the inhabitants abundant harvests

THIRD CRUSADE; STATE OF CYPRUS. 71

Ch. III. § 2.]

of corn, fruit, oil, and wine ; the solid buildings erected in
former ages afforded them extensive magazines for storing
their produce ; and the situation of their island supplied them
with ready and profitable markets in the Frank possessions in
Syria, in the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia, in Egypt, and on
the African coast. Neutrality in the wars of the Christians
and Mohammedans was the true basis of the wealth of Cyprus.
Its pecuniary interests suffered seriously by the policy of the
court of Constantinople, which was frequently engaged in
disputes with the best customers for the produce of Cyprus ;
and to this circumstance we must in some degree attribute
the ease with which Isaac Komnenos established himself in
the island as an independent sovereign. He had gained pos-
session of the island during the oppressive administration of
Andronicus I., and had already reigned seven years. His
marriage with the sister of William II. of Sicily was both a
popular and a politic alliance, because it secured to his sub-
jects a flourishing trade ; but his bad government, and the
commercial selfishness of his subjects, had destroyed every
sentiment of patriotism in the breasts of the Cypriots, and
prepared them to receive a foreign yoke.

In the year 1191, the English fleet, under Richard Cceur-
de-Lion, on its voyage from Messina to Acre (Ptolemai's), put
into Crete and Rhodes to renew its stock of provisions and
water. After leaving Rhodes it encountered a tempest in the
Gulf of Satalia, and two ships were wrecked near Limisso on
the coast of Cyprus. Isaac, who possessed all the feelings of
personal rancour against the Franks generally felt by the
Greeks, and who had recently formed an alliance with
Saladin, fancied that he might gratify his spleen against the
English with impunity. He was ignorant of the power and
energy of the English monarch, whom he considered only as
the chief of a barbarous island. The Cypriots were allowed
to plunder the shipwrecked vessels, though even the tyrant
Andronicus had made a law which punished severely such
acts of plunder, and the unfortunate crews escaping on shore
were thrown into prison. The ship that carried Berengaria
of Navarre, the betrothed of Richard, and Joanna, queen of
Sicily, his sister, sought shelter from the storm in the same
port. Isaac invited the queens to land, and though they
suspected treachery they would have been unable to avoid

72 OVERTHROW OF BYZANTINE EMPIRE.

[Ch. III. § 2.

accepting his invitation, had Richard not arrived during the
night l.

The emperor of Cyprus had sadly miscalculated his own
power, as well as the disposition of the English king.
Richard demanded the release of the prisoners, and indemni-
fication for the property plundered. Isaac refused to deliver
up the shipwrecked subjects of the crown of England without
ransom, and disclaimed all responsibility for the pillage of the
shipwrecked mariners. Richard immediately took measures
to deliver the prisoners by force and to levy an ample con-
tribution. The English army was landed, the city of Limisso
taken by assault, and the Greek troops defeated in battle.
The nobles, proprietors, and citizens submitted to the con-
queror, and took an oath of fidelity and allegiance to the
English king on the first summons. The emperor Isaac, who
fled to Nicosia, alarmed at this defection, sued for peace.
Guy of Lusignan, king of Jerusalem, Bohemund, prince of
Antioch, Raymond, count of Tripolis, and Leo, king of
Cilician Armenia, arrived at this time in Cyprus to welcome
Richard. His marriage with Berengaria of Navarre was cele-
brated on Sunday, May 12th, at Limisso, and by the media-
tion of the Knights Hospitallers a meeting took place
between the king of England and the emperor of Cyprus,
and a treaty of peace was concluded. By the terms of this
treaty Isaac received back the island of Cyprus as a fief to be
held of the crown of England ; and he engaged to deliver up
all the prisoners still in his power ; to pay twenty thousand
marks of gold as an indemnity for his injustice, and for the
expense of the expedition ; to receive English garrisons into
his fortresses ; and to join the Crusaders in person with five
hundred cavalry and five hundred infantry, serving as a vassal
of Richard. Isaac had expected to obtain more favourable
terms, and at the instigation of a knight of Palestine in his
service he fled during the following night to Famagusta.
Richard pursued him with his usual promptitude, and made
himself master of the whole island in a fortnight. The
English fleet was sent to cruise round the island in order

1 Richard's fleet left Rhodes on the i>t May 1191, and his ship reached Limisso
on the 6th. Itinerarium peregrinorum et gesta Regis Ricardi, auctore ut vidi
Ricarcio, Canonico Sanctae Trinitatis Londoniensis, p. is>; in vol. ii of the
Chronicltt and Memorials 0/ the Reign of Richard I. edit. Stubbs.

THE ENGLISH CONQUER CYPRUS. 73

Ch.III. §2.]

to occupy every point from which it seemed probable that
Isaac might endeavour to escape to the mainland. The king
proceeded first to Keronia (Cerines), which contained the
emperor's treasury, and where his young daughter resided.
The place made no resistance, and the princess threw herself
at Richard's feet and implored pardon for her father ; while
Isaac, seeing the insufficiency of any military force he could
assemble to carry on the war, surrendered himself a prisoner,
asking only that he might not be confined in irons. Richard,
who could not trust his promises, granted his request only so
far as to order him to be secured by silver fetters, and com-
mitted him to the custody of Guy of Lusignan \

The conquest of Cyprus detained Richard a month, and
on quitting the island he intrusted the government to Richard
Camville and Robert Turnham 2. The dethroned emperor
Isaac was transported to Tripolis, to be kept imprisoned in
the castle of Margat, under the wardship of the Knights
Hospitallers 3. The Greeks soon considered the domination
of foreign heretics a severer lot than the tyranny of an
orthodox usurper, and they took up arms to expel the English.
Richard, who wished to withdraw all his troops for the war
in Palestine, sold the island to the Templars ; but these
knights found the internal affairs of Cyprus in so disturbed
a state, that they surrendered back their purchase to Richard
in a short time. The king of England then transferred the
sovereignty to Guy of Lusignan, who had lost the kingdom

1 The account of the first battle, given by the author of the Itinerarium, is
curious. He describes the Greek army as making a gallant show on the beach,
and the emperor as riding to and fro splendidly equipped, and attended by a crowd
of courtiers in rich armour and many coloured scarfs, mounted on spirited horses or
beautiful mules. As soon as the English effected their landing, the whole Greek
army fled. Richard hastening to pursue the fugitives on foot, fell in with a pack-
horse, and with the aid of his lance mounted on the pack-saddle. Fixing his feet
in the ropes which served as stirrups he galloped after Isaac shouting, ' My lord
emperor, I challenge you to single combat.' But Isaac fled away swiftly as if he
was deaf. Chronicles and Memorials of the Reign 0/ Richard I. vol. i. p. 191.

1 He sailed to Palestine on June 5th, 11 91.

3 Isaac escaped from Margat, and attempted to invade the Byzantine empire,
but was poisoned by one of his own household, Nicetas, 298. His daughter was
placed under the protection of Berengaria, and Richard is said to have been a great
admirer of her beauty. When the queen quitted Palestine the Cypriot princess
accompanied her to Poitiers. One of the articles in the treaty for the ransom of
Richard, extorted by the German emperor, was, that Isaac and his daughter
should be set at liberty. The article is supposed to have been suggested by the
Duke of Austria, who was connected with the family of Komnenos by marriage.
The daughter of Isaac was married to a Flemish noble, who vainly claimed the crown
of Cyprus. Roger of Hoveden, 414, Saville's edit ; Ducange, Fain. Byz.Aug. 184.

74 OVERTHROW OF BYZANTINE EMPIRE.

[Ch. III. § 2.

of Jerusalem by the election of Henry Count of Champagne
as successor to Conrad of Montferrat.

Guy of Lusignan introduced the feudal system as it existed
in the kingdom of Jerusalem. He made the French language
that of the government, the Latin became that of the church,
and the Greek language was confined to the chapel and the
family. Territorial rank and military power were reserved
to the Catholics, but toleration was practised with more equity
than in most Christian states. The Greek clergy were allowed
to retain their ecclesiastical authority over the orthodox,
though they were deprived of the greater part of the church
property; and Armenians. Xestorians, and Copts were allowed
to build churches. Latin bishops and priests were endowed
with rich benefices, and Byzantine officials and wealthy Greeks
were driven from the island. Numbers of Greek families
emigrated, and their place was occupied by Latin families
from the kingdom of Jerusalem, who had lost their property
by the conquests of Saladin. Three hundred knights were
invested with landed estates by Guy of Lusignan, and many
Latin soldiers received dotations as sergeants at arms or as
burgesses in the fortresses.

From this period the history of Cyprus ceases to be con-
nected with the records of the Greek nation. After flourishing
for several centuries as a feudal kingdom it became at last
nothing more than a dependency of the republic of Venice.
In the year 15 71 it was conquered by the Turks, after having
been possessed by the Latins for 380 years. During that
period, and especially since its conquest by the Turks, the
Greek population has sunk from age to age, into an inferior
state of society, in consequence of the destruction of capital
and property ; and the island is probably at the present hour
incapable of maintaining in wretchedness one-tenth of the
population which it nourished in abundance at the time of
its conquest by Richard King of England l.

m 1 191 to 1 4 vr> Cyprus was a feudal kingdom under the sway of
sovereigns who often assumed a triple crown, and styled themselves kings of
Cyprus, Jerusalem, and Armenia. From i486 to 1571 it was a Venetian p<
sion, and since 1571 it has been a Turkish province. Loredano, Istoria de1 Re
Lungnani dalV anno 1 1S0 tin' al 1 475, and the French translation by Giblet, Paris,
I; Jauna. Histoirt Ginerale des Royautnes de Chypre, de Jerusalem, d'Arnu'nie,
el (TAegypte, Leyde, 1747, 2 vols. 4to. ; Reinhard's Geschichte ./<- K<"iigrcich$ Cypren

is a much better work, but the new work by Maslatrie, Hi
de Vile de Chypre tout lc r. %ne des princes de la maison de Lusignan. will be still more
complete. VoU. ii. and iii. contain a valuable collection of documents.

COMMERCE OF VENICE. 75

Ch. III. § 3]

SECT. III. — Commercial relations of the Venetians with the
Byzantine Empire.

The commercial greatness of Venice arose from its trade
with the Greeks of the Byzantine empire. The flourishing
trade in Christian slaves with the Mohammedans, which early-
roused the anger of the Popes, was a secondary though lucrative
branch of Venetian commerce \ During several ages the
Byzantine emperors considered Venice as a vassal munici-
pality, not as an independent city; and even under the
Iconoclast and Basilian dynasties the Venetians recognized
the suzerainty over the Mediterranean as an attribute of
the imperial crown. Indeed for nearly two centuries the
thalassocracy or dominion of the sea of the Byzantine empire
was only temporarily disturbed by a few isolated catastrophes,
whose terrible effects are prominently exhibited in history2.

After the extinction of the Basilian family, the emperors
of the East ceased to govern by the systematic agency of
a well-trained official aristocracy acting on ancient traditions
and by fixed rules of procedure, and the government assumed
the form of an administrative despotism conducted for the
aggrandizement of an oligarchy consisting of a few families.
The commercial and industrial corporations of the Greeks,
which had been allowed to replace or to survive their muni-
cipal rights under the Roman empire, were now destroyed
by the fiscal rapacity of the Comneni. Greek commerce
declined, and the dominion of the sea passed into the hands
of the free cities of Italy. Amalfi, Pisa, Venice, and Genoa
became sharers in that eastern commerce, which had been
long monopolized by the subjects of the Byzantine emperors.

Towards the latter part of the eleventh century the naval
power of Venice was so great, that when Robert Guiscard
invaded the Byzantine empire, Alexius I. purchased the assist-
ance of a Venetian fleet by granting important immunities
to Venetian commerce at Constantinople. The concessions
he made were confirmed in a charter dated in 1082, which
secures to the republic the exclusive possession of a street
or quarter as a factory, in which the merchants constructed

1 See above, vol. ii. History of the Byzantine Empire, p. 64 note.

2 Ibid. p. io, and the taking of Thessalonica, p. 270.

7<5 OVERTHROW OF BYZAXTIXE EMPIRE.

[Ch. III. § 3.

dwelling-houses, warehouses, churches, and monasteries, and in
which justice was administered by Venetian judges accord-
ing to the laws of Venice. A landing-place in the Golden
Horn was set apart for Venetians, and their goods, im-
ported in Venetian ships, were exempt from import duties.
There can be no doubt that a colony of Venetian traders
was established at Constantinople before this concession,
but the privileges it conferred soon rendered the Venetian
merchants a rich and powerful community. Their quarter
and landing were situated near the entrance of the great
port in the vicinity of the walls of the ancient Byzantium,
which now enclose the old palace of the sultans.

The privileges conceded by this charter of Alexius in 1082
were perpetuated in the Byzantine and Greek empires. When
foreigners were assured of legal protection against the fiscal
exactions of a rapacious government, strangers were enriched
and the Greeks were impoverished. The system of which
this charter was the progenitor, was a heritage which the
Othoman sultans received from the Greek emperors1.

A generation of Venetian colonists grew up at Constanti-
nople, neither under the control of Byzantine laws nor subject
to the wholesome restraint of native usages at home. Com-
plaints were made by the unprivileged Greeks of the license
of the privileged strangers. Frequent quarrels and tumults
arose in the streets of the capital, which were attributed to
the insolence of the Venetians. At last John II., called
Kalojoannes, and one of the best of the Byzantine emperors,
expelled the Venetian colony from Constantinople, as the
only mode of restoring order and doing justice to his own
subjects. This was regarded by the Venetian republic as
a violation of his father's treat}'. A loud outcry was raised
against the faithlessness of the Greeks, and prompt measures
were taken to revenge the injury.

In 1122 a body of Venetian crusaders on their way to
Palestine turned aside to attack Corfu and collect some wealth
by plundering Rhodes. The same body on its return in
1 1 24 seized the island of Chios, where it established its winter
quarters, and from whence it plundered Lesbos, Samos, and

1 This charter of Alexius I. i-< recited in a charter of Manuel I. published by
Tafel ami Thomas, Urkunden zur altern Handels- und Staatsgeschichte der Republik
Vrenedig mil baonderer Beziehung au/Byzanz und die Lcvanle, Theil i. pp. 43 and 1 13.

EXCROACHMENTS OF THE VENETIANS 77

Ch. III. § 3.]

j Andros. On its return to Venice it surprised the city of
Modon and plundered the coast of the Morea. In 1126
another body of Venetians conquered Cephalonia, and the
emperor John II. finding that he was unable to contest the

j dominion of the sea with the single city of Venice, or even
to defend his territories against the attacks of the bold
republicans, concluded a treaty of peace and re-established
the Venetian merchants in all their former privileges and
possessions at Constantinople \

In the year 1148 the emperor Manuel, in order to obtain
active assistance from Venice in his war with King Roger
of Sicily, confirmed the charters of his father and grandfather,
though the immunities of the Venetians were hourly becoming
a greater burden to the Greek traders in his empire2. The
insolence of the Italians on the one hand and the envy of
the Greeks on the other engendered a violent hatred between
the two nations, which occasioned several bloody quarrels
during the siege of Corfu in 1149. On one occasion the
young emperor was grossly caricatured by a party of Venetian
sailors, but unmoved by personal insults he appeased the
most dangerous tumults, and re-established order in the allied
force by his patience, courage, and prudence3. For many
years the value of the political alliance both to the Byzantine
empire and the Venetian republic was so great, that Manuel
bore the insolence of the colonists at Constantinople, and the
senate despised the occasional outbreaks of Greek hatred.
Manuel did not entirely neglect to form some counterpoise
to the overweening power of the Venetians. He granted
commercial privileges, and conceded quarters for the for-
mation of colonies, both to the Pisans and the Genoese.
By this means he diminished the exorbitant gains of the
Venetians without infringing the treaties he had concluded
with Venice, for while they were entirely exempt from import
duties, the Pisans were obliged to pay four per cent., and
the Genoese were subjected to the same duty as the native
Greek merchants and paid ten per cent.4 And the treaty
(a.D. i 1 55), which conferred on the Genoese the right of

1 Tafel and Thomas, Urkunden Venedigs, i. 95. 2 See above, vol. iii. p. 169.

3 Tafel and Thomas, i. 109, 113.

4 See an able memoir on the commercial colonies of the Italians in the Byzantine
empire by Heyd, published in the Tubingen Zeitichrift far die gesammte Staats-
wissenschaft, vol. xiv. p. 674.

7 8 OVERTHROW OF BYZANTINE EMPIRE.

[Ch. III. § 3.

establishing a colony at Constantinople, bound the colonists
to military service in defence of the empire1. The citizens
of Amalfi had been long established as traders in the Byzan-
tine empire, but at this time they were subjected to Venetian
control.

While looking round for allies, Manuel concluded a treaty
with the free city of Ancona 2. And to place some restraint
on the tumultuous behaviour of the Venetian seamen who
visited the port of Constantinople, he demanded an oath of
fealty from every Venetian who resided in his dominions as a
permanent settler 3. In virtue of this oath he proposed to
render them responsible for the good conduct of their fellow-
citizens who were only temporary sojourners in the ports of
the empire. These prudent measures awakened the jealousy
of the Venetian government, and when Manuel was involved
in war with William II. of Sicily (a.d. 1167), the republic
refused to afford him any aid. Bloody feuds between the
citizens of the different Italian states occurred frequently in
the streets of Constantinople. The colonists arrogated to
themselves the right of waging private war in the dominions
and even in the capital of the Byzantine emperor, and burned
down one another's shops in their respective quarters. It was
necessary for Manuel to adopt strong measures to maintain
order. Instead of establishing a strong police, he seized the
opportunity for avenging himself on Venice, and pretending
that the Venetians were more disorderly than the othe
Italians, he ordered all who could be seized in the Byzantine
empire to be imprisoned. At the same time he abrogatec
all their privileges and confiscated their goods. This act
imperial despotism4 was perpetrated in 11 71, and if
believe a contemporary writer. 10,000 Venetians were arrestee
in Constantinople alone 6. The Greeks, who hated the privi-
leged strangers, were pleased with the tyrannical proceedings

1 Sauli, Delia colonia dei Genovesi in Galata, ii. 181.

2 Cinnamus, 98. 3 Ibid. 164.

* Cinnamus, 165; Nicetas, m. The iniquity of seizing the goods of foreign
merchants without provocation was often practised by mediaeval sow

1 princes have found it more profitable to cheat their own subjects by bor-
rowing their gold and paying them in paper, while western republics have preferred
the dishonesty of repudiating their lawful debts.

i At the end of Manuel's reign (a.d. 1180") Eustathius the archbishop of Thessa-
lonica Bays there were 60,000 Latins in Constantinople; De Thessalonica urbe a
Latinis capta narratio, c. 28.

DISPUTES WITH THE GREEKS. 79

Ch. III. §3-3

of Manuel. Indeed the Venetians seem to have done every-
thing in their power to render themselves intolerable both
to the sovereign and the people. Byzantine writers complain
of the rudeness and insolence of the purse-proud mariners
and burghers of the colony, who treated even the titled
officials of the empire as if they were merely slaves. It is
certain, however, that the independent spirit of the free citi-
zens of Venice rendered their persons and their manners less
displeasing to the Byzantine ladies, for the colonists excited
the envy of the Greeks by marrying young, rich, and beau-
tiful orthodox damsels, and living like Byzantine nobles in
splendid houses beyond the precincts of the quarter assigned
to them for residence as well as trade \ The haughty repub-
licans also ridiculed the pretension of the sovereign of the
Greeks, who styled himself emperor of the Romans, and their
bitter irony drew tears from the eyes of a courtly Byzantine
historian 2.

The Venetians lost no time in wreaking their vengeance on
the Greeks in the islands and coasts of the empire for the
injuries they had received from Manuel. They attacked
Negrepont, and plundered its suburbs when they found they
were unable to take the city. They gained possession of
Chios, which, as before in the year n 24, they made their
winter-quarters. A contagious disease broke out among their
forces in that island, and they accused the Emperor Manuel of
having suborned emissaries to poison the wells and the wine-
casks of the Chiotes. The malady broke the strength of the
expedition, which returned to Venice without having effected
any lasting conquest.

In 1174 the Venetians and the troops of the emperor
Frederic Barbarossa besieged Ancona, which had admitted a
Greek garrison, and the republic having concluded an alliance
with the King of Sicily, Manuel found himself unable to
defend his dominions. Like his father, he was compelled
to patch up a peace by agreeing to all the demands of the
Venetians. A treaty was concluded, by which Manuel
engaged to release all his prisoners, and pay fifteen hundred

1 Cinnamus, 164. Nicetas (129) calls the Venetians disorderly, bloody-minded,
greedy mariners, breathing irreconcileable hatred of the Greek race. Will. 'lyr.
xxii. 12.

2 Cinnamus, 127.

8o OVERTHROW OF BYZAXTIXE EMPIRE.

pounds' weight of gold as an indemnity for the property he
had confiscated l.

After the death of Manuel, the Latins at Constantinople
became involved in the political contests and intrigues that
were terminated by the usurpation of Andronicus2. The
national and religious antipathies of the Greeks facilitated
that usurpation, and in the tumults which attended it, the
Latins were overpowered and ruthlessly massacred. Not

tbatants only, but also the peaceful colonists and traders
with their wives and children were murdered in cold blood, or
if their lives were saved, they were frequently sold as slaves to
the Mohammedans in Asia Minor. Venetian children were
exposed for sale in the slave markets of Nicaea and Iconium.
The cruelties committed at this time by both parties added
greatly to the violence of the hatred already existing between
the Greeks and Latins3.

The accession of Isaac Angelos re-established the com-
mercial relations of the Venetians with the Byzantine empire
on the old footing. The colonists were put in possession
oi their quarter and landing-place in the port (sca/a), and
the merchants were indemnified for their losses. Isaac also
concluded an offensive and defensive alliance with the republic
in the year 1187. by which the Venetians bound themselves to
assist in defending the empire when attacked by any foreign
power, even should it be their close ally the King of Sicily4.

Even this alliance with Venice was insufficient to prevent
continual outbreaks of the hatred which the Latins felt for
the Greeks. During the weak government of Isaac the popu-
lace of Constantinople attacked the Latin colonists, and Latin
cruisers plundered the ships of the Greeks. When ambassa-
dors passed between Isaac and Saladin. they were arrested on
the pretext that the Byzantine emperor was forming an
alliance with the infidels against the Crusaders 5. Piracy was
also carried on by the Italian merchant-nobles in the Aegean

. .mi a scale resembling the private wars of the great feudal
barons in the western states of Europe.

1 a. p. 1175. Nicetas, 11:; Tafel and Thomas, Urhmdtn Vtnedigs, i. 1;-
. vol. iii p. Is,',.

rol. iii. s Will. Tyr. xxii. 13.

4 This int< anient is published by Tafel and Thomas, Url

Marin. Storia </.-/ Commtrtm </»•' Vtiuziami, iii. 165.
zwa, Histoirt dv Ba . >i. 41b.

THE FOURTH CRUSADE. 8 1

Ch. III. § 4.]

Alexius III., though he regarded the Venetians with a less
friendly feeling than his brother whom he had dethroned,
nevertheless renewed all their privileges, and even extended
their exemption from import duties to sales of goods made in
the interior of the empire. In 11 99 he also concluded an
offensive and defensive alliance with the republic on the same
conditions as his brother Isaac in 1187. At this time the
Venetians were in possession of an extensive trade over the
whole empire, and numerous colonies of Venetian merchants
were settled in all the great maritime cities, excluding the
natives from the most lucrative branches of foreign com-
merce \

The ultimate result of the privileges granted to the Vene-
tians, Genoese, and Pisans was to deprive the Greeks of any
share in the eastern trade. That the native subjects of the
Byzantine emperors should be always eager to expel strangers
who were ruining their commerce was perfectly natural, and it
is probable that about this time the Venetians began to feel
the necessity of rendering their position more secure by
acquiring some possessions in the Archipelago. The fourth
crusade afforded them an opportunity, of which they availed
themselves without paying the slightest regard to their recent
treaty with the Emperor Alexius III. Honesty in politics
was then as little a characteristic of the Latins as of the
Greeks.

Sect. IV. — Conquest of the Byzantine Empire.

Religious enthusiasm had less to do with the fourth
Crusade than with the preceding expeditions. Many of the
leaders engaged in it to escape the punishment of their feudal
delinquencies to the crown of France, and many were needy
adventurers eager to better their condition abroad, as the
prospect of improving it at home became daily more clouded.
The chiefs of this Crusade concluded a treaty with the
republic of Venice, which engaged to transport all who took
the cross to Palestine by sea ; but when the expedition

1 Tafel published the treaty of 1 199 with a valuable geographical commentary
under the title Symbolarttm criticarum geographiam Byzantinatn spec/antium pars
prior; and it is reprinted in Tafel and Thomas, Urkunden Venedigs, i. 246.

VOL. IV. G

82 OVERTHROW OF BYZAXTIXE EMPIRE.

[Ch. III. § 4.

assembled, the Crusaders were so few that they were unable
to pay the stipulated price. Henry Dandolo, the blind old
hero who was then doge, took the cross and joined them ;
but he appears hardly to have contemplated visiting the holy
sepulchre, and only to have proposed guiding the Crusade in
such a manner as to render it subservient to his country's
interests. When the Crusaders declared their inability to pay
the whole sum agreed on, Dandolo proposed that the republic
should defer its claim for 34,000 marks of silver, and despatch
the fleet immediately, on condition that the Crusaders should
aid in reducing the rebellious city of Zara. The Crusaders
consented. In vain Pope Innocent III., the greatest prince
who ever sate on the papal throne, excommunicated both the
Crusaders and the republic of Venice, for turning the swords
they had consecrated to the service of Christianity against
Christians. They paid no attention to the excommunication,
and took Zara \

It must not be forgotten that the state of Venice did not
yet possess any territory in Italy beyond the Dogado. The
nobles were still merchants, not feudal chiefs. They went
forth to wage war or to collect plunder, as well as to trade in
their own galleys or as captains of the galleys of the republic.
Verona, Vicenza, Padua, and Treviso confined the Venetians,
and seemed to exclude them from any hope of forming a
state en the Italian continent. Even in Istria and Dalmatia
their authority was not yet firmly established. It was the
order and security of property which prevailed at Venice and
the energy of her citizens that made the republic powerful,
not the number of its inhabitants nor the extent of its
territory.

\\ hile the expedition remained in Dalmatia, ambassadors
from the emperor Philip of Germany solicited their assistance
in behalf of his nephew, Alexius Angelos, the son of the

Various accounts are given concerning the age and blindness of Dandolo.
The best authorities are : for his age, Marin Sanudo (Vite de Duchi di Venetia, 526),
who says he was 85 years when he was elected doge in 1192 ; and concerning his
blindness, Villehardouin, his companion in the crusade, who says that he had fine
but was stone blind, from a wound in the head. This notice by the marshal
refutes the tale of his having been blinded by Manuel I. when envoy at Constan-
tinople, as reported by Andrea Dandolo. The two friends would have been
ted to plead so good a reason for punishing the Greeks. See the text of
\ illehardouin bj Buchon (471: ' Ki viex hons estoit. Et si avoit bieaus iex en sa
.' ^oute, car perdue avoit la veue par une plaie qu'il avoit eue el

FRENCH AND VENETIANS. 83

Ch. III. § 4.]

dethroned emperor of Constantinople, Isaac II. In spite of
the opposition of many French nobles, who were more pious
and more amenable to papal censures than the Venetians
and Italians, it was decided to attack the Byzantine empire l.
A treaty was signed at Zara, by which the Crusaders engaged
to replace Isaac II. and his son Alexius on the throne of
Constantinople ; and Alexius, in return, promised to pay
them 200,000 marks of silver, and furnish them with provi-
sions for a year. He further engaged to place the Eastern
church under papal authority, to accompany the Cru-
saders in the holy war, or else to furnish them with a
contingent of 10,000 men paid for a year, and to maintain
constantly a corps of 500 cavalry for the defence of the
Christian possessions in Palestine. Thus, as Nicetas says,
the young Alexius quitted the ancient doctrines of the
orthodox church to follow the novelties of the Popes of
Rome2.

On the 23rd June 1203, the Venetian fleet, with the army
of the Crusaders on board, appeared in sight of Constanti-
nople. The Byzantine troops had been neglected both by
Isaac II. and Alexius III., and were now ill-disciplined and
ill-officered ; the citizens of Constantinople were void of
patriotism, and the Greek fleet had been for some time
utterly neglected. One of the heaviest of the Venetian
transports, armed with an immense pair of shears, in order
to bring the whole weight of the ship on the chain drawn
across the entrance of the port, was impelled with all sail set
against the middle of this chain, which was thus broken in
two, and the whole fleet entered the Golden Horn. The
Crusaders occupied Galata, and prepared to assault Constan-
tinople. The army was divided into six divisions, and
encamped on the hills above the modern suburb of Eyoub,
for their numbers did not admit of their extending them-
selves beyond the gate of Adrianople. An attack directed
against the portion of the wall opposite the centre of the
camp was perseveringly carried on ; and on the 17th July,

1 Villehardouin (53) says that only twelve French nobles could be persuaded to
swear to assist Alexius. The disgrace or the glory of conquering Constantinople
belongs, therefore, to the Belgians, Venetians, and Lombards.

2 Nicetas, 348. It is not easy to determine what share commercial schemes and
what influence projects of conquest exercised over the Venetians in determining
them to divert the crusade from Palestine and turn it against the Greeks.

G 2

84 OVERTHROW OF BY Z A XT IX E EMPIRE.

[Ch. III. §4.

a breach, caused by the fall of one of the towers, appeared
practicable. A furious assault was made by the Flemish
knights ; but, after a long and bloody combat, they were all
hewed down by the battle-axes of the English and Danes of
the Varangian guard 1. The Greeks were less successful in
defending their ramparts towards the port where they were
assailed by the Venetians. High towers had been con-
structed over the decks of the transport ships, and the tops
of the masts of the galleys were converted into little castles
filled with bowmen. A number of vessels directed their
attack against the same point. Showers of arrows, stones,
and darts swept the defenders from the wall ; the bridges
were lowered from the floating towers ; the Doge, in com-
plete armour, gave the signal for the grand assault, and,
ordering his own ship to press forward and secure its bridge
to the ramparts, he walked himself steadily across it, and was
among the first who trampled on the pride of the city of
Constantine. In an instant a dozen bridges rested on the
walls, and the banner of St. Mark waved on the loftiest
towers that overlooked the port. Twenty-five towers were
captured by the Venetians before they advanced to take
possession of the city. But when they began to push onward
through the narrow streets, the Greeks made a vigorous
defence, and inflicted severe loss on their assailants by attacks
on their flanks. The Venetians set fire to the houses before
them, and the fire soon extended from the hill of Blachern to
the monastery of Euergetes and to the Deuteron. But the
victory of the Byzantine forces over the Crusaders, on the
land side, enabled the Greek army to follow up their advan-
tage by attacking the Crusaders in their camp. Dandolo no
sooner heard of the danger to which his allies were exposed
than he nobly abandoned his own conquests, and repaired
with all his force to their assistance. Night terminated the
various battles of this eventful day, in which both parties had
suffered great loss, without securing any decided advantage.
The event was ultimately decided by the cowardice of the
emperor, Alexius III., who abandoned Constantinople during

1 Sixteen Crusaders mounted the breach ; two were seized, the rest were slain as
we learn from an eyewitness. ' Et li nmrs hit mout garnis d'Englois et de Danois.'
Villehardouin, 72. Nicetas (35) mentions also the Pisans as having done good

service.

CONFLAGRATION AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 85

Ch.HI. §4.]

the night. His brother Isaac was led from the prison in
which he had been confined and placed again on the throne,
and negotiations were opened with the Crusaders. The treaty
of Zara was ratified with fresh stipulations ; and on the 1st
of August, Alexius IV. made his public entry into the city,
riding between Count Baldwin of Flanders and the old Doge,
Henry Dandolo, and was crowned as his father's colleague.

Isaac and Alexius soon became sensible that they had
entered into engagements with the Crusaders which it was
impossible for them to perform. Quarrels commenced. The
disorderly conduct of the Frank soldiers, the rapacity of the
feudal chiefs and of the Venetians, who deemed the wealth of
the Greeks inexhaustible, and the strong feelings of religious
bigotry which inflamed both parties, quickly threatened a
renewal of hostilities. While things were in this state, a
second conflagration, more destructive than the first, was
caused by a wilful act of incendiarism committed by some
Flemings. A party of soldiers, after drinking with their
countrymen who were settled at Constantinople, proposed in a
drunken frolic to burn the Turkish mosque, and plunder the
warehouses of the Turkish merchants in the neighbouring
quarter. Their pillage was interrupted by the Greek police
officers of the capital, who assembled a force to preserve order
and compel the drunken Franks to respect the Byzantine
laws. The Flemings, beaten back, set fire to some houses in
their retreat in order to delay the pursuit ; and the fire, aided
by a strong wind, spread with frightful rapidity, and devas-
tated the city during two days and nights. This conflagration
traversed the whole breadth of Constantinople, from the port
to the Propontis, passing close to the church of St. Sophia,
and laying everything in ashes for the breadth of about a
mile and a half1. The wealthiest quarter of the city, in-
cluding the richest warehouses and the most splendid palaces
of the Byzantine nobility, filled with works of ancient art,

1 Gibbon (chap. lx. vol. vii. 308) says the conflagration lasted eight days
and nights ; and Daru {Histoire de Venise) and Michaud {Histoire des Croisades) both
repeat the error. The mistake seems to have originated in copying Cousin's
French translation of Xicetas. Buchon has given additional currency to the
blunder, by reprinting the inaccurate translation without correction in his notes to
Villehardouin. We possess two contemporary witnesses. Nicetas says the fire
continued the first day, all the night, the following day and the evening (p. 356).
Villehardouin says it lasted two days and nights, and extended half a league in
front (p. 82, Buchon's edit.). The text of Ducange has une lieue de terre.

86 OVERTHROW OF BYZAXTIXE EMPIRE.

[Ch.III. §4.

Oriental jewellery and classic manuscripts, were destroyed.
Constantinople never recovered from the loss inflicted on it
by this calamity. Much that was then lost could never be
replaced even by the most favourable change in the circum-
stances of the Greeks ; but the occasion was never again
afforded to the inhabitants of the city to attempt the restora-
tion of that small portion of the loss which wealth could have
replaced.

The fury of the people after this dreadful misfortune knew
no bounds, and all the Latins who had previously dwelt
within the walls of Constantinople were compelled to
emigrate, and seek safety with their wives and families at
Galata, where they enjoyed the protection of the crusading
army. Fifteen thousand souls are said to have quitted the
capital at this time.

The Emperor Isaac II. soon died. Alexius IV. was
dethroned and murdered by Alexius V., called Murtzuphlos.
The Crusaders and Venetians, glad of a pretext for conquer-
ing the Byzantine empire, laid siege to Constantinople, and
it was taken by storm on the 12th April 1204. But before
the Crusaders could make themselves masters of the immense
circuit of the city, whose ramparts they had conquered, they
thought it necessary to clear their way through the heart
of the dense buildings by a third conflagration, which, Ville-
hardouin informs us. lasted through the night and all the next
day. It destroyed the whole of the quarter extending from
the monastery of Euergetes to the Droungarion l. These
three fires which the Franks had lighted in Constantinople
destroyed more houses than were then contained in the three
largest cities in France.

This conquest of Constantinople effected greater changes
in the condition of the Greek race than any event that had
occurred since the conquest of Greece by the Romans. It
put an end to the reign of Roman law and civil order in the
East ; and to it we must trace all the subsequent evils and
degradations of the Byzantine empire, the Orthodox Church,
and the Greek nation. Yet society only avenged its own
wrongs. The calamities of the Greeks were caused more by
the vices of the Byzantine government and by the corruption

1 Nicetas, 36G.

CAPTURE OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 87

Ch. III. § 4.]

of the Greek people, than by the superior valour and military-
skill of the Crusaders. The lesson is worthy of attentive
study by all wealthy and highly civilized nations, who neglect
moral education and military discipline as national institutions.
No state, even though its civil organization be excellent, its
administration of justice impartial, and its political system
popular, can escape the danger of a like fate, unless skill,
discipline, and experience in military and naval tactics watch
constantly over its wealth. Except men use the means which
God has placed in their hands with prudence for their own
defence, there can be no safety for any state, as long as kings
and emperors employ themselves incessantly in drilling troops,
and diverting men's minds from honest industry to ambitious
projects of war \

1 Universal peacemakers in the present state of society should inquire where
lies the savour of truth in the Satanic observation of Voltaire, that the God of
justice is always on the side of powerful armies. Divine Providence has ordained
that order and science, united with a feeling of moral responsibility, give men
additional force by increasing their powers of action and endurance. Military
organization has hitherto combined these qualities more completely than education
has been able to infuse them into civil society. The self-respect of the indivi-
dual soldier has prevented his falling so low, with reference to the military
masses, as the citizen falls in the mass of mankind. Discipline and tactics have
concentrated power in a higher degree than laws and education ; consequently,
until the political constitution of society educates the feeling of moral responsibility
in the citizen as perfectly as in the soldier, and renders him as amenable to moral
and political discipline as the soldier is to military, the destructive classes will look
down on the productive. But when the maximum of civil education and discipline
is obtained in the local communities of free governments, then the God of justice
will invariably be found on the side of the citizen armed in defence of political
order. (Written in 1850.)

CHAPTER IV.

Latin Empire of Romania.

SECT. I. — Election of the First Latin Emperor of
Constantinople ] .

BEFORE the Crusaders made their last successful attack
on Constantinople, they concluded a treaty partitioning the
Byzantine empire and dividing the plunder of the capital.
This singular treaty is interesting to the general history of
Europe, from the proof it affords of the facility with which the
people of all the feudally constituted nations amalgamated
into one political society, and formed a separate state ;
while it displays also in a strong point of view the marked
difference that prevailed between feudal society, and the
people subjected to the free institutions of the republic of
Venice 2.

This treaty was entered into by the Frank Crusaders on the
one part, and the citizens of the Venetian republic on the
other, for the purpose of preventing disputes and of preserving
unity in the expedition.

' [For a detailed account of the Frank occupation of the provinces of the

era Empire, the reader is referred to the part of Hopf's Grieckische Geschichte

which relates to this period, published in 1867, in Ersch and Gruber's Encyltlopddie,

vol. 85, pp. 200-465, and vol. $6, pp. 1-173. Professor Hopf, besides making

I the original documents illustrating the subject, which had been edited by

others, has aimseli explored the archives of the principal North Italian cities, as

well as those of Naples, Palermo, Malta, Corfu, Athens, and other places in

c. rhe resull us that his work, which is very exhaustive on this period,

ins a large amount of material which cannot be found elsewhere. Ed ]

I his treaty is given in the Gesta Innocentii III. torn. i. p. 55, edit. Baluze ; and

in MuratOHS notes to Andrea Dandolo's Chronicle, in Muratori, Script. Rer. ltd.

mi. 326. It is translated in Midland, Histoire des Croisades, Pieces Justific. ii. cg£

aid Buchons VUUhardouin, 90. A corrected text is published by Tafel "and

I nomas, Vrkundm Venedigs, i. 444.

PARTITION TREATY. 89

Both Crusaders and Venetians engaged to obey the chiefs
appointed by the council of the army, and to bring all the
booty captured to one common stock, to be divided in the
following manner. The Venetians were to receive three parts
and the Franks one, until the debt originally due to the
Venetian republic was discharged. After that, the surplus
was to be equally divided. The provisions captured in the
city of Constantinople were to form a common stock, and
to be deposited in magazines, from which rations were to be
issued according to the established practice as long as the
expedition continued.

The Venetians were to enjoy all the honours, rights, and
privileges, in the new conquests, which they possessed in their
own country, and were to be allowed to constitute a community
governed by the laws of Venice.

After the capture of Constantinople, twelve electors, six
being Crusaders and six Venetians, were to be chosen for the
purpose of electing the emperor of Romania ; and these
electors were to nominate the person whom they considered
best able to govern the conquered country for the glory of
God and of the holy Roman Church.

The emperor was to be put in possession of one quarter of
the Byzantine empire, and of the two palaces Bukoleon and
Blachern, as the imperial domain. The remaining three parts
of the empire were to be equally divided between the Crusaders
and the Venetians.

The Patriarch was to be elected from the different party
to the emperor, and the ecclesiastics were to have the same
share in the church patronage as their respective parties had
in the division of the empire.

All parties bound themselves to remain together for one
year from the last day of March 1 204 ; and all who estab-
lished themselves permanently in any conquest made in the
Byzantine empire were bound to take the oath of fealty, and to
do homage for their possessions, to the emperor of Romania.

Twelve commissioners were to be chosen by each party to
divide the conquered territory into fiefs, and to determine the
service due by each feudatory.

No person belonging to nations at war, either with the
Crusaders or the Venetians, was to be received in the empire
as long as the war lasted.

90 EMPIRE OF ROMANIA.

[Ch. IV. § i.

Both Crusaders and Venetians were to employ all their
influence with the Pope to procure his ratification of the
treaty, and to induce him to excommunicate any persons who
refused to fulfil its stipulations.

The emperor elected was to bind himself by oath to
execute these stipulations. In case it should be found
necessary to make any addition to, or put any restriction
on, any clause of the treaty, the Doge of Venice, and the
Marquis of Montferrat, as commander-in-chief of the Cru-
saders, each assisted by six councillors, were declared com-
petent to make the necessary change. The Doge, Henry
Dandolo, as a mark of personal honour and privilege, was
dispensed from taking the oath of fealty to the emperor to be
elected l.

An act of partition of the empire was also prepared, but in
the copies which have been preserved the names of many
places are greatly disfigured, and neither the Crusaders nor
the Venetians ever gained possession of many of the provinces
which they had partitioned 2.

The conduct of the conquerors, after the capture of Con-
stantinople, fixed an indelible stain on the name of the
Franks throughout the East. They sacked the city with
infamous barbarity; and the contrast afforded by the conduct
of the Christians, who now took Constantinople, and the
Mohammedans, who a few years before had conquered
Jerusalem, may be received as an explanation of the success
of the Mohammedan arms in the East at this period. When
Saladin entered Jerusalem, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
was respected, and the conquered Christians remained in
possession of their property; no confiscations were made of
the wealth of the non-combatants, nor were any driven into
exile ; the women were not insulted, and the poor were not

' This clause indicates that it was understood that Dandolo was not to he
elected emperor. He was afterwards invested with the rank and title of Despot.
Gibbon gives currency to the error that —

' Old Dandolo
Refused the diadem of all the Caesars,'
chap. lxi. vol. vii. 321. By the phrases the great historian makes use of, he allows
erceive that he had not fully appreciated the immense difference between
European feudalism and Italian commercial republicanism.

1 Tafel has published a corrected text of the act of partition in Latin and Greek,
with valuable geographical notes in his Symbnlae criticae geagraphiam Byzantinam
spec/antes; see also Tafel and Thomas, Urkunden Venedigs. i. 452, 489.

EXCESSES OF THE CRUSADERS. 91

A.D. I2O4.]

enslaved. But the Christians, who had taken the cross to
cany on war against the Infidel oppressors of their brethren
— who had taken oaths of abstinence and chastity, and sworn
to protect the innocent — plundered a Christian city without
remorse, and treated its inhabitants in such a way that exile
was the least evil its inhabitants had to suffer. The noblest
church in Christendom, the cathedral of St. Sophia, was
stripped of all its rich ornaments, and then desecrated by the
licentious orgies of the northern soldiers and their female
companions. Nicetas recounts, with grief and indignation,
that ' one of these priestesses of Satan ' seated herself on the
Patriarchal throne, sang ribald songs through her nose, in
imitation of Greek sacred music, and then danced before
the high altar. It is unnecessary to detail the sufferings of
the wretched Greeks. Villehardouin, the Marshal of Romania,
vouches for the extent of the disorder by saying that each
soldier lodged himself in the house that pleased him best ;
and that many who before that day had lived in penury
became suddenly wealthy, and passed the remainder of their
lives in luxury1. Pope Innocent III., as soon as he was
informed of the disgraceful proceedings of the Crusaders,
considered it his duty to express his abhorrence of their
conduct in the strongest terms, and he has left us a fearful
description of their wickedness2. A few of the Catholic
clergy endeavoured to moderate the fury which the bigoted
prejudices of the papal church had instilled into the minds
of the soldiery; but many priests eagerly joined in plundering
relics from the altar, and made as little scruple in desecrating
Greek churches and monasteries as the most licentious among
the troops 3.

1 Compare Nicetas, 371, and Villehardouin, 97, Buchon's edit.

2 Gesta Innoceutii III. i. 57, edit. Baluze. The Pope's words deserve to be
cited : — ' Illudque longe gravius reputatur quod quidam nee religioni nee aetati
nee sexui pepercerunt, sed fornicationes, adulteria, et incestus in oculis omnium
exercentes, non solum maritatas et viduas, sed et matronas et virgines Deoque
dicatas exposuerunt spurcitiis garcionum. Nee imperiales suffecit divitias ex-
haurire ac diripere spolia majorum pariter et minorum, nisi ad ecclesiarum
thesauros et, quod gravius est, ad ipsarum possessiones extenderetis manus vestras,
tabulas argenteas de altaribus rapientes, et violatis sacrariis, cruces, iconas et
reliquias exportantes, ut Graecorum ecclesia quantumcunque persecutionibus afrli-
gatur.'

3 Michaud, Histoire des Croisades, iii. 269. The Rev. C. W. King, in his work on
Antique Getns (p. 303 note), has the following passage: — 'The greatest part of
these gems (camei and intagli figured by Caylus) were small intagli on caraelian,
and set in a chasse containing a tooth of St. Peter, and the head of St. Philip,

92 EMPIRE OF ROMANIA.

[Ch.IV. 5 i.

After several days spent in the wildest license, the chiefs
of the Crusade at last published a severe proclamation, re-
calling the army to the salutary restraints of military dis-
cipline. But many soldiers were put to death ; and a French
knight was hung by order of the Count of St. Pol, with his
shield round his neck, before the authority of the leaders
could be fully restored. The offence, however, which was
punished with death, was not cruelty to the Greeks, and
abuse of the rights of conquest towards the defenceless ; it
was the crime of defrauding their comrades, by embezzling
part of the plunder, which excited the feelings of justice in a
Christian army. Thanks were at length solemnly rendered
to God for the conquest of a city containing hundreds of
thousands of Christian inhabitants, by an army of twenty
thousand soldiers of Christ ; and in the midst of their thanks-
givings, the cry ' God wills it ' was the sincere exclamation of
these pious brigands \ The treasures collected from the sack
of the city were deposited in three of the principal churches.
Sacred plate, golden images of saints, silver candelabra from
the altars, bronze statues of heathen idols and heroes, pre-
cious works of Hellenic art, crowns, coronets, and vessels
of gold, thrones, and dishes of gold and silver, ornaments of
diamonds, pearls, and precious stones from the imperial
treasury and the palaces of the nobles ; precious metals and
jewellery from the shops of the goldsmiths ; silks, velvets, and
brocaded tissues from the warehouses of the merchants, were
all heaped together with piles of coined money that had been
yielded up to the exactions of personal robbery.

The whole booty amounted to three hundred thousand
marks of silver, besides ten thousand horses and mules.
Baldwin, count of Flanders and emperor of Romania, de-
clares that the wealth thus placed at the disposal of the
victorious army was equal to the accumulated riches of all
western Europe; and no prince then living was more com-
petent to make a just estimate2. This sum was divided into

made by order cf Bishop Gamier, almoner to the Crusaders at the taking of Con-
stantinople, whence he >tole the skull of the Apostle.'

1 Villehardouin, 98.

2 The edition of Villehardouin by Ducange, which has been generally copied,

ur hundred thousand marks; but the text of Buchon is preferable. See
Baldwin's Letter to Tope Innocent III., and to the Cistercian Chapter: D'Outre-
inan, ConUaminopolis Belgica, 71?.

ELECTION OF EMPEROR. 93

A.D. I2O4.]

two equal parts. The Venetians then received fifty thousand
marks out of the share of the Crusaders, in payment of the
debt due to the republic ; and the one hundred thousand
marks which remained as the crusading portion was divided
in the following manner : — Each foot-soldier received five
marks of silver, each horseman and each priest ten, and each
knight twenty \ This small difference between the shares of
the knights and the private soldiers is a proof that the feudal
militia of the time consisted of men occupying a higher social
position than is generally attributed to this class. Noble or
gentle birth was almost an indispensable requisite in a soldier;
and when we reflect, moreover, that this required to be united
to great physical strength, and long practice in the use of
arms, in order to acquire the activity necessary to move
with perfect ease under the weight of heavy armour, it be-
comes evident that the power of recruiting armies was, at
this time, restricted within such narrow limits as to make the
difference between officers and privates rather one of rank
than of class 2.

Much difficulty was found in coming to a decision on the
election of the emperor. Three persons occupied so pro-
minent a position in the Crusade that only one of these three
could be appointed sovereign of the state the Crusaders were
about to found ; but as the new empire was to possess a
feudal organization, that very circumstance excluded Henry
Dandolo, the brave old Doge of Venice, and the ablest states-
man and most sagacious leader in the expedition, from the
throne. The choice, therefore, remained between Boniface,
marquis of Montferrat, who had hitherto acted as commander-
in-chief of the land forces, and Baldwin, count of Flanders,
who served with the most numerous and best appointed body
of knights and soldiers under his own private banner. The
military talents and experience of the marquis of Montferrat,
and the wealth, liberality, valour, and virtues of the count of
Flanders, made the choice between them difficult. As the
co-operation of the unsuccessful candidate was absolutely

1 MS. entitled Croisade de Constantinople, in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris,
published by Buchon in the appendix to the Livre de la Conqueste de la Prineie de
la Moree, 491. A mark of silver was eight ounces troy.

* In ancient times it was the same. Xenophon mentions that the officers
received only double the pay of the hoplites, and the commanders of battalions
only four times as much as the privates. Cyr. Ex. vii. 3. 19 ; vii. 6. I.

94 EMPIRE OF ROMANIA.

[Ch. IV. § 2.

necessary to ensure the conquest of the empire, ample terri-
tories and high honours were promised to him \ There can
be no doubt that Dandolo would have been the ablest
monarch, but Venice had no power to maintain him on the
throne without the support of the Crusaders ; and the con-
stitution of the Venetian republic rendered it impossible for
the Doge to become a feudal sovereign, even if the Crusaders
would have submitted to swear fealty to a merchant prince.
The nature of the expedition rendered it necessary that the
conquered territory should receive a feudal organization.
The Venetians were, from their way of life, not likely to be
able to render regular sendee for any fiefs they might acquire.
The republic might call on them to perform other duty as
citizens, or they might be trading to the Crimea or to Tre-
bizond when their services were required in Thrace or
Macedonia.

The election took place on the 9th of May, and Baldwin
of Flanders was declared emperor. The character of Baldwin,
his youth, power, chivalric accomplishments, and civil virtues,
made him the most popular prince among the Crusaders, and
pointed him out to the electors as the person most likely to
enjoy a long and prosperous reign. His piety and the purity
of his personal conduct commanded universal respect, both
among the laity and the clergy, and obtained for him the
admiration even of the Greeks. He was one of the few
Crusaders who paid strict attention to a part of their vows ;
and so rare was his virtue, and so necessary ihe influence of
his example, that after he mounted the imperial throne he
ordered it to be repeated twice every week, by a public
proclamation, that all those who had been guilty of incon-
tinericy were prohibited from sleeping within the walls of his
palace '-'.

Sect. II. — Establishment of the Feudal system in Greece.

The empire of Romania illustrates the history of feudal
conquests in countries too far advanced in their social or-

1 Villehardouin (Buchon's text in Recherche* et Materiaux, 101) says that the
unsuccessful candidate was to receive la lerre hi est dautre part le Tirach devers It
Turku et VUU de Gries:-e. that is. the Asiatic portion of the empire beyond the

tea, etc.), and the Peloponnesus.

2 Nicetas, 384.

GREEKS AND CRUSADERS CONTRASTED. 95

A.D. I 204.]

ganization to receive feudal ideas. The Greeks were far
superior to the Franks in material civilization ; and the
various ranks were united together more closely, and by-
more numerous ties, under the Byzantine laws than under
the feudal system. The Manual of Armenopoulos, which
presents us with a sketch of Byzantine jurisprudence in its
last state of degradation, offers a picture of society far in
advance of that which is depicted in the Assize of Romania,
where we are presented with the feudal code of the East in
its highest state of perfection. But though the Greeks were
considerably in advance of the Franks in their knowledge of
law, theology, literature, arts, and manufactures, they were
greatly inferior to them in military science and moral dis-
cipline. The Greeks were at this period destitute of a system
of education that had the power of creating and enforcing
self-respect in the individual, and attachment to the principles
of order in society; while the Franks, though born in political
anarchy and nurtured in warlike strife, were trained in a
family discipline that nourished profound respect for a few
fixed principles more valuable than learning and science, and
prepared them to advance in a career of improvement as soon
as circumstances modified their society into a fit scene of
action for progressive amelioration. Yet, in spite of this, we
find that the empire of Romania presents Frank society in a
state of rapid decline and demoralization ; while the Greek
empire, as soon as its capital was transferred to Asia, offers
the aspect of steady improvement. The causes of this de-
parture from the general progress of improvement among
the Franks, and of decline among the Greeks, were entirely
political, and they are more closely connected with the
administrative history of the two governments than with
the social condition of the rival nations. In order to trace
their effects in connection with the government of the em-
pire of Romania, it is necessary to review the peculiarities
of the feudal system as it was now introduced among the
Greeks.

The Byzantine empire was a despotism based on the ad-
ministration of the law, and exercised by an educated class of
trained officials. The sovereign was both the legislator and
the judge, and was responsible only to heaven, to his own
conscience, and to a rebellion of his subjects. His people had

o6 EMPIRE OF ROMANIA.

[Ch. IV. § 2.

no political rights in opposition to his authority, and their

only chance of redress -was in a revolution.

On the other hand, the empire of Romania was a free
government based on the feudal compact' of copartnery in
conquest. The sovereign gave lands and protection to the
vassal in return for feudal services, and both parties were
bound to a faithful execution of their mutual obligations1.
The sovereign was the superior of men who had rights which
they were entitled to defend even against the emperor him-
self; and they were equitable judges of his conduct, for they
themselves occupied a position similar to his with regard to
their own inferiors. The Greeks were governed by the bonds
of power ; the Franks by the ties of duty. But it was im-
possible to transplant the feudal system into Greece exactly
as it existed in western Europe, for it became immediately
separated from all the associations of ancestral dignity, family
influence, personal attachments, and traditional respect, which,
by interweaving moral feelings with its warlike propensities,
conferred upon it some peculiar merit. In the East, the
obligations of hereditary gratitude and affection, the local ties
that connected homage and protection with social relations
and all the best feelings of humanity and religion, were
weakened, if not dissolved. In its native seats the feudal
system was a system of moral and religious education, begun
by the mother and the priest, and completed by practical
discipline. In the Byzantine empire it became little more
than a tie of personal interest, and partook of that inherent
selfishness which has been the curse of Greece from the time
of its autonomous cities until the present day, and which is
the prominent feature of all Eastern social relations beyond
the immediate ties of family.

The nature of the army that conquered Constantinople
was not calculated to replace the relaxation of feudal bonds
by a closer union of its members, derived from personal
interests, military subordination, or the administration of

1 'Nam obligatio fcudalis est reciproca, praecipue in fidelitate.' Craig;, Jus
Feudale, ii. dicg II, p. 2S4. The Greek Chronicle of the Conquest of the Morea
shows how deeply this sense of mutual obligation was impressed on the minds
of the people :

nat ivt rb npnyfia dfupurtpov kniicoivov th roi/s b"vo,
ovTws xptaoTtl o TTpi-fKinas martv npos rov Ki^tov
iiaav & A<((os npus aiiTof. V. 6552.

FEUDAL SYSTEM IN THE EAST. 97

A.D. 1 2O4.]

justice. As Crusaders, as Flemings, Venetians, French, Ita-
lians, and Germans, their tendency was towards separation ;
and even the treaty by which they engaged to effect the
conquest of the Byzantine empire only bound them to remain
united until the end of March 1205. After that period, no
Crusader who had not received a grant of lands in Romania
owed any obedience to the emperor of Constantinople ; and
thus the Frank domination was left to subsist on such support
as it could draw from feudal principles, from the spirit of
adventure, from the large domain conceded to the emperor,
and from the religious zeal of the Popes and the Latin
church.

Immediately after the coronation of Baldwin measures
were taken to carry into execution the act of partition. But
ignorance of geography, and the resistance offered by the
Greeks in Asia Minor, and by the Vallachians and Albanians
in Europe, threw innumerable difficulties in the way of the
proposed distribution of fiefs.

The quarter of the empire that formed the portion of
Baldwin consisted of the city of Constantinople, with the
country in its immediate vicinity as far as Bizya and Tzurulos
in Europe, and Nicomedia in Asia. The Venetians were put
in possession of a quarter far more extensive than that which
had been conceded to them by the Byzantine emperors, and
within its gates they governed by their own magistrates and
laws, living apart as if in a separate city. Beyond the territory
around Constantinople, Baldwin possessed districts extending
as far as the Strymon in Europe, and the Sangarius in Asia ;
but his possessions were intermingled with those of the
Venetians and the vassals of the empire. Prokonnesos, Les-
bos, Chios, Lemnos, Tenos, Skyros, and several smaller islands,
also fell to his share.

Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, in the first instance
received a feudatory kingdom in the Asiatic provinces ; but,
in order to be nearer support from his hereditary principality
in Italy, his share was ultimately transferred to the province
of Macedonia, and he received Thessalonica as his capital,
with the title of King of Saloniki. But before his share of
the conquered empire was determined to his satisfaction, he
entered into a private treaty with the Venetians to cede to
them all his possessions acquired by the Crusade. Pretending

VOL. IV. H

o 8 EMPIRE OF ROMANIA.

[Ch.IV.Ja]

to have received a promise of the island of Crete from young
Alexius IV., and asserting that his father had received a grant
of the kingdom of Thessalonica from the Emperor Manuel, he
ceded both Crete, Thessalonica, and his other territories in the
empire to the Venetians, who bound themselves to pay him
the sum of one thousand marks of silver, and to put him in
possession of territory in the western part of the empire from
their share of the partition, which should yield him an annual
revenue of 10,000 gold hyperpers1.

The Venetian republic obtained three-eighths of the empire.
Adrianople, and many inland towns, formed part of the
territory assigned to the republic ; but the Venetian senate
never made any attempt to take possession of a considerable
portion of its share. Many of the Greek islands were con-
ceded by the senate to private citizens, as fiefs of the republic,
on condition that those to whom they were granted should
conquer them at their own expense.

The remainder of the empire was parcelled out among a
certain number of great vassals, many of whom never con-
quered the fiefs assigned to them ; while some new adven-
turers, who arrived after the partition was arranged, succeeded
in possessing themselves of larger shares of the spoil than
most of the original conquerors. The most important of the
Frank possessions in Greece was the principality of Achaia,
which, though conferred on William of Champlitte, soon
passed into the hands of the younger Geffrey Villehardouin,
who had not been present at the siege of Constantinople '-.

Sect. III. — Baldwin I.

The reign of Baldwin was short and troubled. Though no
braver knight, nor more loyal gentleman, ever occupied a
throne, he was deficient in the prudence necessary to com-

1 I his Refutatio is a curious document, and seems to prove that Boniface was
anxious to relieve himself from doing homage to Baldwin. It is dated in August
1204. and is printed in Flaminius Cornelius, Creta Sacra, vol. ii. p. 222; and in
Buchon, Recherches el Matiriaux, i. 10; and Tafel and Thomas, Urkunden Venedigs,
1 -:\i. Several of the stipulations were annulled by subsequent arrangements.

• In the lists annexed to the partition-treaty, great part of Macedonia, almost
all Ihessaly, eastern Greece, including Attica, Megaris and the Dodekanesos, are
•1 to the Crusaders. Tafel, Symbolae criiicae ad geogr. Byz. specialties, and
'laid and Thomas, Urkunden Venedigs, i. 485.

EMPEROR BALDWIN AND KING BONIFACE. 99

A.D. I 204-I 205.]

mand success, either as a statesman or a general, and he even
wanted the moderation required to secure tranquillity among
his great vassals. In his first expedition to extend his terri-
tory and establish his immediate vassals in their fiefs, he
involved himself in disputes with Boniface the king-marquis.
The emperor announced his intention of visiting Thessalonica,
in order to establish the imperial suzerainty, and confer the
investiture of the kingdom of Saloniki on Boniface, whose
oath of fealty he was naturally extremely anxious to receive
as soon as possible. The king-marquis opposed this arrange-
ment, as tending to exhaust the resources of his new dominions,
by burdening them with the maintenance of Baldwin's army ;
but his real objection was that he had all along hoped to
render his kingdom independent of the empire, and he wished
to evade taking the oath. The rivalry of the Flemings and
the Lombards led them to espouse the quarrel of their princes
with warmth. Baldwin marched with his army to Thessa-
lonica ; Boniface led his troops to Adrianople, and besieged
the governor placed there by the emperor Baldwin. A civil
war threatened to destroy the Frank empire of Romania
before the Crusaders had effected the conquest of Greece ;
but the doge of Venice and the count of Blois succeeded, by
their intervention, in re-establishing peace, and persuading
Baldwin to agree to a convention, by which all disputes were
arranged. Boniface did homage to the emperor for the king-
dom of Saloniki, consisting of all the country from the valley
of the Strymon to the southern frontier of Thessaly; and he
was appointed commander-in-chief of the army of the Cru-
saders destined to march against Greece, in order to take
possession of the fiefs appropriated to those who had been
assigned their shares of the conquest in that part of the
empire by the act of partition \

Next year (1205) one army, under the count of Blois and
Henry of Flanders, the emperor's brother, attacked the Greeks
in Asia ; while another, under the king of Saloniki, invaded
Greece. As soon as the Frank forces were thus dispersed,
and engaged in distant operations, the Greeks of Adrianople
rose in revolt, expelled the Frank garrison, and obtained
assistance from Joannes, king of Bulgaria and Vallachia, who

Villehardouin, 113, compared with Henri de Valenciennes, 187, edit. Buchon.

H %

IOO EMPIRE OF ROMANIA.

[Ch.IV. §4.

was deeply offended with the emperor Baldwin for having
rejected his offers of alliance. Joannes had recently received
the royal unction from a cardinal legate, deputed for the pur-
pose by Pope Innocent III. ; and he conceived that, in virtue
of this dignity as a Latin monarch, he was entitled to share
with the Franks in dividing the Greek empire.

The emperor Baldwin, the old doge of Venice, and the
count of Blois, no sooner heard of the revolt of Adrianople,
than they hastened with all the troops they could collect to
besiege the city. The king of Bulgaria soon arrived to relieve
it, at the head of a powerful army. Baldwin rashly risked a
battle with his small force, and the greater part of his army
was cut to pieces. The count of Blois and a host of knights
perished on the field ; the emperor was taken prisoner, and
murdered by his conqueror during the first year of his cap-
tivity, though in the west of Europe his death was long
doubted. The doge Dandolo, and the historian Villehar-
douin, marshal of the empire, were the only men of rank and
military experience who survived in the camp. They hastily
rallied the remains of the army, and by abandoning every-
thing but the arms in their hands, succeeded, with great
difficulty, in conducting the surviving soldiers safe to Rhe-
destos.

SECT. IV. — Henry of Flanders. — Ecclesiastical Affairs. —
Political Difficulties. — Parliament of Ravenika.

Henry of Flanders immediately took upon himself the
direction of the administration, acting as regent until he
was assured of his brother's death, when he assumed the title
of emperor. But though certain tidings arrived at Constan-
tinople of Baldwin's death, various romantic tales were long
current that seemed to throw a doubt over his ultimate fate.
On the 20th August, 1206, Henry was crowned; and, during
his whole reign, he devoted all his energy and talent to the
difficult task of giving a political as well as a military
organization to the heterogeneous elements of his empire.
The cruel ravages of the Bulgarian troops — who, after the
battle of Adrianople, were allowed by Joannes to plunder
the whole country, from Serres to Athyras — taught the

ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS. lOl

A.D. 12o6-I2l6.]

Greeks to regret the more regular and moderate exactions
of the Franks, and many voluntarily made their submission
to Henry, who treated all his subjects with mildness. He
possessed more military as well as civil capacity than his
unfortunate brother, and carried on war successfully against
the king of the Bulgarians, in Europe, and against Theodore
Lascaris, the Greek emperor of Nicaea, in Asia.

The internal organization of the Frank empire presented
a series of obstacles to the introduction of order and regular
government, that no genius could have removed. Henry
effected wonders in his short reign ; but all he did proved
nugatory, from the incapacity of his successors. His great
success was in part due to the popularity he acquired by
his mild and conciliatory conduct, perhaps quite as much as
to his political sagacity and brilliant courage. The situation
of his empire was every way anomalous. Its foundation
by Crusaders acting under papal authority, and serving
avowedly as a means of carrying on holy wars, conferred
on Innocent III. a just pretext for interfering in its internal
affairs. The emperor, and barons also, standing constantly
in need of new recruits in order to maintain and extend
their conquests, could not fail to feel the necessity of con-
ciliating the pontiff, without whose religious influence and
liberal grants of indulgences these recruits could not be easily
obtained. Though the conquest of the Byzantine empire
had been made in express violation of the commands of
Innocent III., that Pope showed a determination to profit by
the crime as soon as it was perpetrated, and displayed a
willingness to promote the views of the Crusaders, on con-
dition that the affairs of the church should be settled in a
manner satisfactory to the papal see K There were, neverthe-
less, so many discordant interests and rivalities at work in the
ecclesiastical condition of the new empire, that it required all
the talents of Innocent III., the greatest of the Popes, and all
the moderation and firmness of Henry of Flanders, the most
conciliatory of emperors, to avoid open quarrels between the
church and state. The Pope was determined to maintain the

1 See a translation of Innocent's letter to the marquis Boniface and the counts
of Flanders, Blois, and St. Pol, in Hurter's Histoire du Pape Innocent III. i. 607,
French translation. The original is in the portion of Innocent's letters published
in the rare collection of Brequigny, lib. vi. ep. 48, 103 ; see also Gesta Innoc, III.
cap. 89, in the edition of Baluze.

102 EMPIRE OF ROM A XI A.

[Ch. IV. § 4.

same control over the church in the East which he had laid
claim to in the West. Without this authority, the union
of the Greek and Latin churches had little significance at
the papal court, where the union could only be regarded as
consummated when the patriarch of Constantinople was re-
duced to the condition of a suffragan of the bishop of Rome.
The habits of thought of the Greeks, the nature of the civil
administration of the empire, and the power over ecclesiastical
affairs which the emperor of Romania had inherited from his
Byzantine predecessors, all opposed the papal pretensions.
Even the Latin clergy were not united in a disposition to
submit implicitly to the papal authority. The Venetian
republic was still less so, for it directly attacked some of the
prerogatives arrogated by the Popes, and alarmed by the terms
of its opposition even the fearless Innocent. It secured the
election of a Venetian as patriarch of Constantinople ; and
though the Pope annulled the election as illegal, still, in order
to avoid a direct collision with the Venetians, who would pro-
bably not have allowed a patriarch selected by Innocent to
put his foot in Constantinople, he appointed Thomas Morosini,
who had already been elected to the dignity, to be the lawful
patriarch by papal authority. The Venetians were indifferent
by what subterfuges Innocent thought fit to account for his
ratification of the election of the patriarch whom they had
chosen 1.

It is always dangerous for a sovereign whose power rests
directly on public opinion, to swerve from the cause of truth
and justice. The spirit of temporization displayed by
Innocent with regard to the Crusaders, from the time they
abandoned the real object for which they had assumed the
cross, weakened his moral influence and now diminished
his power. When he disapproved of the attack on Con-
stantinople, and reprobated the array of a Christian army,
with the cross shining on the breast of every soldier, against
the largest city of Christendom, it was expected by the
Crusaders that he would overlook their offence with the
same facility with which he had pardoned the storming of
Zara. Their anticipations were not false, for the Pope
readily accepted their success as a proof that the will of

1 The ratification is dated 21 January 1 205. Brequigny, ii. 621.

POLICY OF INNOCENT III. 1 03

/.D. I206-I2I6.]

Heaven had sanctified their act of injustice, and the Holy
Father recommended the conquerors to retain possession
of a country which God had delivered into their hands \
His legate had relieved the army from the papal excommuni-
cation by his orders, and he confirmed that act without
exacting any proofs of sincere repentance ; and he thus
gave a warrant even for churchmen to tamper with the
papal authority in political matters2. Innocent likewise
tolerated the legate's absolution of the Crusaders from their
vow to visit the Holy Land, on condition that they served
an additional year against the Greeks ; and he wrote to the
archbishops of France, to recommend them to recruit the
ranks, both of the clergy and the troops in the Latin empire,
by promises of riches and of absolution for their sins to the
emigrants 3. These concessions of justice to policy, and the
open deference shown by the head of the church to worldly
success, were not unobserved by the conquerors. The
Venetians viewed them as the time-serving policy of priestly
ambition, while the more superstitious Franks received them
as a guarantee that all their crimes were pardoned by Heaven,
on account of their zeal against the Greek heretics.

Under the guidance of such principles, the disorders in the
church soon became intolerable. The Venetians endeavoured
to bind the Patriarch to appoint only Venetian priests to the
vacant sees ; the Frank clergy refused to receive the Venetian
patriarch as their superior ; and Morosini, on his arrival at
Constantinople, commenced his functions by excommunicating
half the clergy of the empire 4. Many priests, after receiving
grants of fiefs, compelled the Greeks on these estates to
purchase the rent or service due from the land, and, when
they had collected the money, they abandoned the fief and
returned to their native country with these dishonest gains 5.
To these difficulties with the Pope, the Crusaders, the Vene-
tians, and the Frank clergy, were added the embarrassments
that arose in regulating the relations between the Latin
clergy and the priests of the Greek church, who had united

1 Gesta Innocentii III. c. 98, edit. Baluze.

2 Brequigny, lib. vii. ep. 206, 207, from Hurter, ii. 22.
* Ibid. lib. viii. ep. 69, 71 ; Hurter, ii. 40.

4 Gesta Innocentii III. c. 1 00.

6 Epist. Innocentii III. lib. xiii. ep. 24, torn. ii. 421, edit. Baluze.

104 EMPIRE OF ROMANIA.

[Ch. IV. § 4.

with the papal church, as well as the relations between the

papal church and those Greeks who still denied the Pope's

supremacy, and adhered to their national usages and to the

doctrines of the orthodox church.

At length, in order to settle the ecclesiastical affairs of the
empire, a convention was signed between the papal legate and
the Latin patriarch on the one hand, and the emperor Henry
and the barons, knights, and commons of the Crusaders on
the other — for the Venetians took no part in the act — in the
month of March 1206 l. By this arrangement, a fifteenth
of all the conquered lands and possessions was to be ceded
to the Latin church, excepting, however, the property within
the walls of Constantinople, and the town-dues of that city.
All the Greek monasteries were to be surrendered to the
papal power without being regarded as included in the
fifteenth. Tithes were to be paid by the Catholics on all
their revenues, whether derived from the fruits of the earth,
cattle, bees, or wool ; and if the Greeks could be induced
to pay tithes to the Latin clergy, the civil power was to
offer no resistance. The clergy, the religious orders, and
all monks and nuns, whether Latins or Greeks, the households
of ecclesiastics, the churches, church property, and monas-
teries, with all their tenants, and all persons who might seek
refuge in the sanctuaries, were to be exempted from the
civil jurisdiction, as in France ; reserving, however, in such
cases, the authority of the papal see, and of the patriarchate
of Constantinople, and the honour of the emperor and the
empire. Thus a nation of ecclesiastics, living under their
own peculiar laws and usages, and amenable neither to
the imperial legislation nor to feudal organization, was
established in the heart of the empire of Romania. The
Venetians, who were not included in this convention, obsti-
nately refused to pay tithes to the church ; nor did Innocent
venture to proceed with vigour either against them or against
the refractory Greeks, from the dread of causing a close
alliance between the two.

The civil affairs of the empire were in as great confusion
as the ecclesiastical, and presented even greater difficulties
in the way of their ultimate arrangement. The nature of

1 Gesta Innoc. c. ioi ; Brcquigny, lib. xi. ep. 143.

ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL DISCORD. 1 05

A.D. I2o6-I2l6.]

the conquest divided the inhabitants into two distinct classes
of Greeks and Latins, whose separation was rendered
permanent by the feudal system, as well as by national
divergences of manners and religious opinions. The Franks
formed a small dominant class of foreign warriors, many
of whom were constantly returning to the lands of their
birth, where they held ancestral estates and honours, while
many died without leaving posterity. Their numbers con-
sequently required to be perpetually recruited by new bodies
of immigrants. From the hour of the conquest, too, the
conquerors began to diminish in number, even from the
operation of that law of population which devotes all privileged
classes to a gradual decay. The Greeks on the other hand,
composed a numerous, wealthy, and organized society, dwell-
ing in their native seats, perpetuating their numbers by the
natural social amalgamation of classes, and increasing their
strength by being compelled to abandon their previous habits
of luxury and idleness, and turn their attention either to
profitable industry or to imitating the warlike virtues of their
new masters. Other causes of discord existed, equally
irremediable except by the slow progress of time, yet which
called for immediate palliatives. The Crusaders and the
Venetians had each their own political views and interests ;
while the Crusaders were incapable of complete union or
harmonious action, from the variety of nations that brought
their respective antipathies to the common stock. The
Flemish, Italian, French, and German nobility had all their
private grounds of alliance and offence. The position of
the Greek landed proprietors, who were willing to become
vassals of the empire, and to join the Latin church, and
of the Greek citizens, cultivators, artizans, and labourers
who adhered to their national church and usages, all required
to be regulated by positive laws. The relations between
the emperor of Romania, the king of Saloniki, the great
feudatories and the lesser barons, though sufficiently defined
by the feudal system, required to be strictly determined
by express enactment ; for the moral force of feudality,
which prevented the progress of anarchy in western Europe,
was wanting in the Eastern Empire. It was necessary,
therefore, to frame a list of all the fiefs in the empire, like
the Doomsday Book of England ; and a code of feudal

106 E Mr IRE OF ROM AX I A.

[Ch. IV. § 4.

usages, like the Assize that had been framed for the kingdom

of Jerusalem '.

The Venetians, who possessed a large share of the empire,
could not be subjected to the strict feudal regime nor to the
precise rules of the Byzantine civil law. Yet, though living
beyond the control of feudal usages, they arrogated to
themselves the privileges of the dominant classes even while
acting in professional rivality with the conquered. Other
trading communities from every country, both of the East
and the West, had companies of merchants established at
Constantinople ; and, whether they were Pisans, Catalans,
Genoese, Flemings, Germans, Syrians, or Armenians, they
all claimed to regulate the administration of justice
among themselves, according to their respective laws and
usages.

The subject Greeks had their own code, and their own
judicial establishments organized with a degree of complete-
ness that must have impressed the more enlightened members
of the Crusading army with astonishment and admiration.
The conquerors immediately felt the necessity of respecting
the superior civilization of the conquered.. The laws of
Justinian, as modified in the Greek compilation, called the
Basilika, remained in full force, and entailed on the Crusaders
the necessity of leaving the administration of justice and of
the municipal affairs, with a considerable portion of the
fiscal business of government, in the hands of the Greeks,
on nearly the same footing as they had been under the
last Byzantine emperors. The citizens preserved some
local privileges ; they elected magistrates to perform some
few duties, they took part in framing the regulations and
local bye-laws under which they lived, and to a certain extent
they controlled the administration of the municipal revenues
and communal property. In short, the Frank emperors of
Romania, as far as the majority of their Greek subjects were
concerned, occupied the position and exercised the authority
of the Byzantine emperors they had displaced a.

1 The history of the Assize of Jerusalem, and an examination of the period
of its introduction into the empire of Romania, will be found in the preface to
the magnificent edition of the Assises de Jerusalem, by count Beugnot ; but it
must be observed that he attributes a degree of historical importance to the
Chronicle of the Conquest of the Morea to which it has no claim.

* 1 he emperor Henry even admitted Greeks into his service, which Baldwin

LOMBARDS OF SALONIKI. 107

A.D. I 206-1 2l6.]

The marriage of the emperor Henry with the daughter of
Boniface, king of Saloniki, preserved union between these
two sovereigns. But after Boniface was unfortunately killed
in the war with the Bulgarians, discussions arose between
the emperor and the guardians of the kingdom. Demetrius,
the son of Boniface by his second marriage with the dowager-
empress Margaret, widow of Isaac II., succeeded to the crown
of Saloniki by his father's will \ The empress Margaret
acted as regent for her son, who was only two years old ;
but count Blandrate, a Lombard noble connected with the
family of Montferrat, was elected by the nobles and the army
as bailly and guardian, to carry on the feudal administration
and lead the vassals of the crown 2. The policy of the bailly
was directed to strengthening as far as possible the connection
of the kingdom of Saloniki with Italy, and with the
marquisate of Montferrat, and to dissolving the feudal ties
that bound it to the empire of Romania. He was accused by
the Flemings of endeavouring to transfer the crown of the
young Demetrius to the head of the marquis William, his
elder brother ; but it does not appear that his plan really
extended beyond effecting a close union between the power
and dominions of the two brothers, and garrisoning all
the fortresses of the kingdom of Saloniki with Lombard
troops, whom he was compelled to recruit in Italy in great
numbers.

The conduct of count Blandrate rendered it necessary for
the emperor Henry to subdue the spirit of independence
which manifested itself among the Lombards without loss
of time, or the empire of Romania would have been soon
dissolved. The count was accordingly summoned to do
homage at the imperial court for the young king, and to
deliver up the fortresses of the kingdom, to be guarded by
the Suzerain according to the obligations of the feudal law ;
and the emperor marched with a body of troops towards
Thessalonica, to hold a court for receiving the oath of fealty.

and Boniface had not allowed. Ephraemius, v. 733s and 7414- Branas, who
married Agnes of France, sister of Louis VII. and widow of the tyrant Andro-
nicus, seems to have been the only Greek who held any command during the
reign of Baldwin. Nicetas, 332.

1 The empress Margaret was the daughter of Bela III , king of Hungary.

2 Count Blandrate is called Blandras by the old French writers. For the
commune and counts of Blandrate see Troja, Delia condizione de' Romani vinti
da' Longobardi, p. cccc.

io8 EMPIRE OF ROMANIA.

[Ch. iv. § 4.

But Blandrate replied to the summons, that the kingdom of
Saloniki had been conquered by the arms of the Lombards ;
and he boldly refused to allow the emperor to enter Thes-
salonica, except on the condition of recognizing the claim
of the king of Saloniki to the immediate superiority over
the country actually conquered by the Crusaders, including
the great fiefs of Budonitza, Salona, Thebes, Athens, Negre-
pont, and Achaia, as well as all the unconquered territory
south of Thessalonica and Dyrrachium l.

Henry now found himself sorely embarrassed ; for, not
contemplating any serious opposition, he had quitted Con-
stantinople with few troops, and was encamped in the open
country of Chalkidike, where the winter suddenly set in with
intense severity. All his councillors advised him to consent
to any terms that might be offered, in order to save the
lives of his followers, by gaining immediate shelter within
the walls of Thessalonica. The clergy who attended the
expedition promised to absolve him from any sin he might
commit, by subsequently violating the engagements that
necessity compelled him to accept, if they should be contrary
to the feudal constitution of the empire. Under these cir-
cumstances, the emperor promised everything that the Lom-
bards demanded ; but he soon found a pretext for violating
his promises, after he had succeeded in establishing his troops
in Thessalonica.

In order to determine definitely the feudal relations of
his subjects, in the month of May, 12 10, Henry held a high
court of his vassals, or parliament, at the small town of
Ravcnika2. His principal object was to receive the homage
and oath of fealty from all the tenants-in-chief in the country
south of the kingdom of Saloniki, and to grant such investi-
tures of fiefs and offices as might be required to put an end
to all pretensions of superiority similar in nature to those

1 Henri de Valenciennes, 191, edit. Buchon ; Nicetas, 410; Buchon, Histoire
des conquetes et de Vitablisseinent des Francois dans les ctats de lancienne Greet,
i. 262.

1 Buchon (Histoire des Conqui'tes et de f Etablisseinent des Francais, p. I 24") places
Ravcnika between the Axius and the Strymon at the village called Reveniko
by Leake (Travels in Northern Greece, iii. 161), and Knvanikia by Fallmerayer
(Fragmente nus dem Orient, ii. 63). But the place must be the Rabenica of Ben-
jamin of Tudela (i 4s, Asher's edit.), which lay to the south of the Reveniko of
AnnaComnena near Larissa (Anna, 1 39. edit. Paris'). Henry of Valenciennes (p. 207)
indicates clearly that the Ravenika where the parliament was held lay I
Armyro and Budonitza. Tafel, Thessalonica, 488,

PARLIAMENT OF RAVEN IK A. loo

A.D. 1 206-1 2l6.]

advanced by count Blandrate. The claim of the bailly of
the kingdom of Saloniki rendered this step absolutely neces-
sary, for the Lombards had already made considerable en-
croachments on the possessions of the great feudatories who
had received their portion of the spoils of the empire in
Greece. Otho de la Roche, the signor of Athens, had been
deprived of Thebes. The parliament of Ravenika was con-
sequently viewed with favour by the barons of the south,
who were not Lombards, and who naturally preferred to
remain direct feudatories of the emperor of Romania, in his
distant capital at Constantinople, to being converted into
subordinate vassals of a neighbouring Italian king. But
though the barons of Boudonitza, Negrepont, Athens, and
Naxos, the bailly of Achaia, and other tenants-in-chief of
the empire in Greece, made their appearance at the court
of Henry and fulfilled their feudal obligations, the Lombards
attached to the Montferrat party still opposed the emperor's
authority, and compelled him to march southward and dis-
possess them of Thebes by force. That fortress was then
restored to Otho de la Roche, who received the investiture
both of it and Athens : Mark Sanudo was invested with
his conquest of Naxos, and other islands, under the title
of Duke of the Archipelago or the twelve islands x ; and
Geffrey Villehardouin the younger, bailly of Achaia, in the
absence of his prince, William de Champlitte, was appointed
seneschal of Romania, that he might become a great feudatory
in virtue of his office.

A determined effort was also made to restrain the eccle-
siastical power. This became necessary, from the facility
with which the' Crusaders, who were on the point of returning
home, lavished their possessions on the church. To such
an extent was this liberality carried, that there seemed to
be some danger of the ecclesiastics acquiring possession of
the greater part of the fiefs throughout the empire, in which
case the country would have been left without military de-
fenders. Henry and the great barons now ratified an edict
which had been already published, prohibiting all grants of
land to the church or to monasteries, either by donation
or testament ; leaving sinners to purchase their peace with

AcuSeicdvrjaos. This name is used by Theophanes, when speaking of the Byzan-
tine empire, as early as a.d. 810 j p. 412, edit. Paris.

no EMPIRE OF ROMANIA.

[Ch.IV. §4.

Heaven, through the agency of the priesthood, out of the
proceeds of their movable property alone. This regulation,
as might be expected, was violently opposed by a Pope so
ambitious as Innocent III., who immediately declared it null
and void. But necessity compelled the emperor and the
barons to adhere to their decision ; and they enforced the
edict, in spite of the Pope's dissatisfaction and threats1.
The ecclesiastical affairs of the kingdom of Saloniki, and
of the great fiefs in Greece, as far as the isthmus of Corinth,
and the relations which the possessions of the church were
to hold, with reference to those of the feudal lords, were
also regulated by a convention with the patriarch Morosini,
and the metropolitans of Larissa, Neopatras, and Athens.
By this convention the signors engaged to put the church
in possession of all its lands, and to acknowledge and support
the rights of the Latin clergy and their dependants. This
convention, being extremely favourable to the views of the
papal see, was ratified with much pleasure by Innocent III.2

Count Blandrate and the Lombard army continued never-
theless to resist the emperor and the parliament, and
determined to defend their possessions with the sword.
Henry, therefore, found himself compelled to take the field
against them, in order to establish the imperial power in
Greece on a proper feudal basis. He met with no resistance
until he arrived at Thebes, in which count Blandrate had
assembled the best portion of the Lombard troops. The
army of Henry was repulsed in an attempt to take the place
by assault ; and it was not without great difficulty, and more
by negotiation than force, that the imperial army at last
entered Thebes. The emperor immediately restored it to
Otho de la Roche, its rightful signor. Henry then visited the
city of Negrepont, where Ravanno dalle Carceri, one of
the three signors among whom the island had been parti-
tioned, induced Blandrate to make his peace with Henry;
and the Lombard count soon after retired to Italy, leaving

1 Ducange, Hhtoire de Constantinople, 56.

5 The original text nf this act is contained in the Bullamm Amplisdma Collectio,
Rome, 1740. torn. Hi. No xliL; and in Buchon, Nouvelles Reckerches; avant-
propos, 49. There is also a translation of it in Buchon, Histoire des Conquetes des
Frangau, 150; but this author, as is too frequently the case, omits to mention
that the text is to be found in one of his own prior publications. For the con-
firmation, see Efisl. Innocent. III. torn. li. p. 496, edit. Baluze.

DEA TH OF HENR Y. 1LI

A.D. I 206-1 2 1 6.]

the empress-queen Margaret regent for her son, under the
usual restrictions in favour of the suzerain's rights over the
fortresses of his vassal while a minor l.

A treaty was also concluded about this time between
Henry and Michael, the Greek sovereign of Epirus, Great
Vallachia, Acarnania, and Aetolia, who consented to do
homage for his possessions to avoid war. The Greek naturally
attached little importance to a ceremony which he regarded
only as a public acknowledgment of the superior power of
the Latin emperor2.

The remainder of Henry's reign was a scene of constant
activity. At one time, he was engaged in defending the
empire against foreign enemies; at another, he was forced
to protect his Greek subjects against the tyranny of Pelagius,
the papal legate, who made an attempt to compel all the
orthodox Greeks to join the Latin rite, and by his own
authority shut up the Greek churches and monasteries, and
imprisoned the most active among the Greek clergy. A
rebellion was on the point of breaking out, when the emperor
ordered all the priests to be released, and the churches and
monasteries to be reopened3. The emperor Henry died,
universally regretted, in the year 1216.

The island of Euboea was conquered by the Fleming James of Avesnes,
acting as general for Boniface the king-marquis in 1205, and divided into three
fiefs, which were conferred on Ravanno dalle Carceri, Peccoraro de' Peccorari
and Giberto of Verona. '

2 There exists a letter of Henry, giving an account of his victories over the
four enemies of the Latin empire— Theodore Lascaris. emperor of Nicaea ; Boris-
las, king of the Bulgarians ; Michael, despot of Epirus ; and Stratius, a near
relation of the terrible Joannes of Bulgaria, who after that king's death governed
an independent principality. The letter is dated Pergamus, 121 2. Martenne et
Durand, Thesaurus Novus Anecdotorum, torn. i. 821 ; and Buchon's Villehardouin,

211. '

3 Heyd, Die Colonien der romischen Kirche in den Kreuzfahrerstaaten p 318-
in the Zeitschri/ifur die historische Theologie for 1856. It would seem from some
accounts that Henry took no step to protect his subjects on this occasion until
a tumult arose at Constantinople, and twenty thousand Greeks assembled before
the gates of the imperial palace, crying out that the emperor ought to rule the
state, and defend his subjects against the frock. Hisloire Nouvelle des Anciens Dues
et autre* Souverains de VArchipel, 24. Dr. Hopf, however, by his accurate researches
lias proved that this curious book is of very little value as a historical guide ; yet
it contains many important facts.

II2 EMPIRE OF ROMANIA.

[Ch.IV.fJ

Sect. V. — Peter of Courtenay. — Robert. — Baldwin II. —
Extinction of the Empire of Romania.

The eastern empire of Romania, like the western or Ger-
manic Holy Roman empire, was considered elective ; but
feudal prejudices, and the feudal organization of the thirteenth
century, stamped its government with an hereditary form,
and the law of succession adopted in practice was that
established for the great fiefs in France. Yoland, sister of
the emperors Baldwin and Henry, had a prior claim to the
heritage ; but as her sex excluded her from the imperial
crown, her husband, Peter of Courtenay, was elected emperor
by the barons of Romania. Peter was detained in France for
some time, collecting a military force strong enough to enable
him to visit his new empire with becoming dignity. When
his army was assembled, he visited Rome, where he received
the imperial crown from the hands of Pope Honorius III.
He landed in Epirus, to the south of Dyrrachium, with the
intention of marching through the territories of Theodore,
despot of Epirus, who had succeeded Michael as sovereign of
that country; but he had entered into no arrangements with
Theodore, hoping to force his way through the mountains by
the Via Egnatia without difficulty. He was attacked on his
march by the troops of Theodore in the defiles near Albanon
(Elbassan l) ; his army was routed, and he perished in the
prisons of the despot of Epirus.

The empress Yoland reached Constantinop1e by sea ; and
as soon as she heard of her husband's captivity and death, she
undertook the regency in the absence of her eldest son, Philip
count of Namur, who was regarded as heir to the imperial
crown. Yoland died in 12 19; but before her death, she
secured the tranquillity of the empire by renewing the treaty
of peace with the Greek emperor at Nicaea, Theodore
Lascaris.

Philip of Namur refused to quit his Belgian county for the
dignity of emperor of Romania, and his younger brother,
Robert, was elected emperor in his stead. Conon of Bcthune,
who had been the principal councillor of the emperor Henry,
and had acted as regent in the period that elapsed between

1 iv rah tov 'Abfiavov 5vt7\wpiais. Acropolita, 14.

DECLINE OF LATIN EMPIRE. 1 13

A.D. I2l6-126l.]

the death of Yoland and the arrival of Robert, unfortunately
for the empire died shortly after the coronation of Robert.

The race of warriors who had founded the empire was now
nearly extinct, and most of their successors possessed neither
the military talents nor the warlike disposition of their
fathers. The Crusaders had been soldiers by choice, and
great barons by accident ; their successors were only soldiers
from necessity, and because their position compelled them
to appear in arms to defend their sovereign's throne and
their own fiefs. The training they received may have fitted
them for a tilt-yard, but it did not furnish them with the
military qualifications required for a campaign. There was
also another difference still more injurious to their position.
Their fathers had commanded enthusiastic and experienced
soldiers ; the sons were compelled to lead inexperienced vas-
sals or hired mercenaries. Many of the new barons, too, were
younger sons, who possessed no revenues except what they
drew from their Eastern fiefs, and no nursery existed in the
East for supplying them with the hardy followers who had
supported the power of their fathers. Unfortunately for the
Latin power, the young barons of Romania were generally
persons who thought more of enjoying their position than Of
improving it for the advantage of their posterity. The wealth,
both of the emperor Robert and his barons, was consumed in
idle pomp, and in what was called upholding the dignity of
the imperial court, instead of being devoted to the administra-
tive and military necessities of their respective positions.
The number of experienced soldiers daily decreased in the
Frank empire, while the Greeks, observing the change, pressed
forward with augmented energy. The Frank army was
defeated by the emperor John III. (Vatatzes) at the battle of
Poimanenos, in the year 1224, and shortly after Adrianople
was captured by Theodore, the despot of Epirus. From
these wounds the empire of Romania never recovered.

The emperor Robert possessed neither the valour required
to defend his dominions, nor the prudence necessary to regu-
late his own conduct A fearful tragedy, enacted in the
imperial palace, proclaimed his weakness, and called the
attention of the whole world to his vices. The daughter of
the knight of Neuville, one of the veteran Crusaders, recently
dead, was betrothed to a Burgundian knight, when the young

VOL. IV. I

114 EMPIRE OF ROMANIA.

[Ch. IV. § 5.

emperor fell in love with the fair face of the lady. His suit,
aided by the favour of the mother, won her heart, and he
persuaded mother and daughter to take up their residence
in the palace. The rejected Burgundian, as soon as he saw
his betrothed bride established as the emperor's mistress,
vowed to obtain a deep revenge. The unheard-of boldness
and daring of his project secured it the most complete success
in all its horrible details. He assembled his relatives, friends,
and followers ; and, with this small band of adherents in com-
plete armour, walked into the palace, where no suspicion of
any outrage was entertained. Guided by a friendly assistant,
he forced his way into the women's apartments, where the
young lady's mother was seized, carried off by his friends,
and drowned in the Bosphorus. The daughter was at the
same time mutilated by her rejected lover, who cut off her
nose and lips, and then left her in this frightful condition
filling the palace with her moans, to receive such consolation
as her imperial lover could bring. The spirit of the age
excused this inhuman vengeance of the Burgundian knight ;
but it would equally have excused Robert had he seized the
culprit immediately, and hung him in his armour before the
palace gates, with his shield round his neck. The emperor
was so weak and contemptible that he was unable to punish
this barbarous outrage and personal insult even by legal
forms. He felt the insult, however, which he could not
avenge, so deeply, that shame drove him from Constantinople
to seek military assistance from the Pope, by which he hoped
to make his power more feared. He died in the Morea on
his way back from Rome in 1228 \

Baldwin, the younger brother of Robert, was not ten years
old when the succession opened to him. The situation of the
empire required an experienced sovereign, and the barons
proceeded to elect John de Brienne, titular king of Jerusalem,
who at the time was acting as commander-in-chief of the
Papal army, emperor-regent for life2. The conditions on
which the imperial throne was conferred on John de Brienne

1 Ducange, Hist, de Con-tatitinopU, 86.

2 John de Brienne married Mary, daughter of Isabella, queen of Jerusalem, and
Conrad of Montferrat. His kingdom never extended far beyond the walls of
Acre and Tyre; but in 12 19, at the head of a band of Crusaders, he took Damii.Ua,
which he retained for two years. He quitted the Holy Land in 1223.

JOHN DE BRIENNE. 1 15

A.D. I2l6-I26l.]

afford an instructive illustration of the political views and
necessities of the period. Brienne was a warrior of great
renown, and his election was warmly promoted by Pope
Gregory IX. He was already eighty years of age, but he
had not retained the activity of mind and the vigour of body
which rendered the octogenarian doge. Henry Dandolo, the
hero of the fourth Crusade. By the terms of the convention
between John de Brienne and the barons of Romania, Brienne
was declared emperor, and invested with the imperial power
during his life. He was bound to furnish Baldwin with an
establishment suitable to his rank as heir-apparent to the
empire, until he attained the age of twenty, when the young
prince was to be invested with the government of the Asiatic
provinces. Baldwin was to marry Mary the daughter of John
de Brienne ; and the heirs of John de Brienne Avere to receive,
as a hereditary fief on the accession of Baldwin, either the
possessions of the imperial crown in Asia beyond Nicomedia,
or those in Europe beyond Adrianople. This act was con-
cluded in 1229 ; but the valour and experience of John de
Brienne were inadequate to restore the shattered fabric of the
Latin power1. The barons, knights, and soldiers seemed all
to be rapidly dying out, and no vigorous and warlike youth
arose to replace them. The enormous pay then required by
knights and men-at-arms rendered it impossible for the de-
clining revenues of the empire to purchase the services of any
considerable number of mercenaries. The position of soldiers
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was, in one respect,
like that of barristers in London at present. There were
great prizes to be won, as Robert Guiscard and John de
Brienne testify ; but, on the whole, the number of amateurs
was so great, that the whole pay received by the class was
insufficient to cover the annual expenditure of its members.
John de Brienne died in 1237, after living to witness his
empire confined to a narrow circuit round the walls of Con-
stantinople.

Baldwin II. prolonged the existence of the empire by
begging assistance from the Pope and the King of France ; and
he collected the money necessary for maintaining his house-
hold and enjoying his precarious position, by selling the holy

1 The act is printed by Buchon, Recherches et Matiriaux, 21.
I 2

Il6 EMPIRE OF ROMANIA.

[Ch. IV. § 6.

relics preserved by the Eastern Church. He was fortunate in

finding a liberal purchaser in St. Louis *. The fear of the

Mongols, who were then ravaging all Asia, and the rivalry

of the Greek empire and the Bulgarian kingdom, also tended

to prolong the existence of the empire of Romania after it

had lost all power and energy. But at length, in the year

1261, a division of the Greek army surprised Constantinople,

expelled Baldwin, and put an end to the Latin power, without

the change being an event of much importance beyond the

walls of the city. The feudal nobility appeared to be extinct,

and the Latin church suddenly to have melted away. The

clergy, indeed, had consumed the wealth of their benefices

quite as disgracefully as the nobles had wasted their fortunes ;

for we learn from the correspondence of Pope Innocent III.,

that they at times alienated their revenues and retired to their

native countries, carrying off even the communion plate and

the relics from the churches -. There is nothing surprising in

the pitiful end of a society so demoralized.

SECT. VI. — Kingdom of Saloniki.

Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, having held the office of
commander-in-chief of the Crusaders before the establishment
of the empire of Romania, affected to regard his kingdom as
an independent monarchy. His plan for rendering it inde-
pendent of the empire failed through the prompt energy of
Baldwin I., and he was compelled to do homage to the
imperial crown ; but when he obtained the command of the
division of the Crusaders which marched to establish itself in
Greece, he endeavoured to indemnify himself for his first
failure, by inducing the barons, who received lands to the
south of his own frontier in Thessaly, to accept investiture

1 As it would have been an act of impiety to buy these relics, St. Lours re-
deemed the crown of thorns which Baldwin had pawned, and received it as a gift.
The king also furnished the young emperor with large sums of money to be
wasted at the court of Constantinople, and received the following relics as a mark
of Baldwin's satisfaction :— A piece of the true cross ; the linen cloth in which
the body of Jesus was enveloped; the bonds, the sponge, and the cup of the
crucifixion : a piece of the skull of St. John the Baptist ; and the rod of Moses ! ! !
An engraving of the skull, or of one of the skuils, of St. John the Baptis
given by Ducange, Constantutopolis Christiana, 101.

2 Hurter, Innocent III. ii. 214.

KIXGDOM OF SALOXIKI. 117

A.D. 1204-1222.]

from and do homage for their possessions to him1. The
operations of Boniface against Greece were crowned with
success. Leo Sguros, the Byzantine governor of Nauplia
and Argos, after taking possession of Corinth, Athens, and
Thebes, had led a Greek army northward to the Spercheius,
for the purpose of defending Greece against the Franks. But
the Greek troops were unable to make a stand even at the
pass of Thermopylae, where they were disgracefully routed,
and fled, with Leo, to shelter themselves within the walls of
the Acrocorinth, abandoning all the country north of the
isthmus to the army of the Crusaders. Boniface established
all those who had been assigned shares of the conquered
district in their fiefs, and marched into the Peloponnesus,
where he laid siege to Corinth and Argos at the same time,
with the reduced army under his command. At this con-
juncture, he was suddenly recalled to the north by the news
of a rebellion in Thessalonica. This he soon repressed ; but
not very long after, as has already been mentioned, he was
slain in a skirmish with the Bulgarians (a.d. 1207). His death
was the commencement of a series of misfortunes, that soon
ruined the kingdom of Saloniki, which he had been so eager
to extend.

This feudatory kingdom bore within itself the seeds of its
own destruction. The Lombards, by whom it was founded,
were not so much under the influence of feudal organization
as the other Crusaders, nor so commercial and intelligent as
the Venetians. Their social position had been modified by
their intercourse with the republics and free cities of Italy.
Money was, therefore, necessary to a larger amount than in
the other conquests of the Crusaders, and yet the Lombards
were as incapable of creating wealth for their government as
any of the Franks. Though Saloniki was regarded rather
in the light of a colonial dependency than as a feudal king-
dom, still the Lombards thought only of profiting by the
acquisition as military men paid to govern and garrison the
fortresses and towns, and took no measures to occupy and
cultivate the land.

The personal friendship and family alliance of Boniface and
Henry preserved peace until the king's death. But we have

1 Nicetas, 410.

Il8 EMPIRE OE ROM AX LA.

[Ch. IV. § 6.

seen that Count Blandrate, impelled either by his own ambi-
tion or by the grasping spirit of the Lombards, adopted a
policy that involved the kingdom in hostilities with the em-
pire, which ended in the fortresses of the kingdom being
forced to receive Belgian garrisons, and, consequently, in
greatly diminishing the number of Lombard troops in the
kingdom. Yet an Italian colony at Thessalonica, though
surrounded by powerful enemies, might have maintained its
ground more easily than the Belgians at Constantinople, had
the government been able and prudent. The minority of
Demetrius, to whom Boniface had left his crown, completed
the ruin of the state. His mother, the queen-empress Mar-
garet, acted as regent ; and, after the retreat of Count
Blandrate. the military command of the fortresses was vested
in officers named by the emperor Henry. Under such a
partition of power, the resources of the country were natu-
rally consumed in the most unprofitable manner, and the
people became eager for any change, hoping that it could
not fail to better their condition. While the emperor Henry
lived he protected the kingdom effectually both against the
king of Bulgaria and the despot of Epirus, its two most
dangerous enemies. But after the defeat and death of Peter
of Courtenay, it was left exposed to the attacks of Theodore,
despot of Epirus, who invaded it with a powerful army.

In the year 1222, while the young king Demetrius, then
only seventeen years old, was still in Italy, completing his
military education at the court of his brother, the marquis
of Montferrat, the despot Theodore took Thessalonica, and
subdued the whole kingdom. In order to efface all memory
of the Lombard royalty by the creation of a new and higher
title, he was crowned emperor at Thessalonica by the arch-
bishop of Achrida, patriarch of Macedonian Bulgaria.

William, marquis of Montferrat, had been invested with
the guardianship of the kingdom of Saloniki by Peter of
Courtenay, while that emperor was at Rome, and the marquis
no sooner heard of the loss of his brother's dominions, than
he undertook an expedition for their recovery. The conquest
of Thessalonica by the Greeks had also excited lively indig-
nation on the part of Pope Honorius III., who felt that the
stability of the papal power throughout Greece was seriously
compromised by this reaction in favour of the Greek church.

FAMILY OF MONTFERRAT. 119

A.D. X 2O4-I 2 2 2.]

His holiness, therefore, willingly assisted the marquis of Mont-
ferrat with funds, to enable him to enrol a large body of
troops. The Pope even authorized a crusade against the
Greeks to re-establish Demetrius as Catholic king of Saloniki.
Great delays occurred before the marquis William was able
to assemble an army; but at length, in the year 1225, he
quitted Italy, accompanied by his brother Demetrius, at the
head of a well-organized force. Their expedition sailed from
Brindisi, and the army, landing at the ports of Epirus. marched
over the mountains into the plain of Thessaly, without sus-
taining any loss — so admirably had the young marquis com-
bined the movement of his squadrons, and taken measures
for securing them abundant supplies of provisions on the
road. But just as the army was commencing its operations
in the extensive plains, which offered ground best suited to
the movements of the heavy cavalry of which it was composed,
the marquis William was attacked by the autumnal fever of
the country, and died in the course of a few days. The
young Demetrius, finding himself unable to manage the vassals
of his brother's marquisate and the fierce mercenaries who
formed the most efficient portion of the army, was obliged
to abandon this attempt to recover his kingdom, and retire, to
Italy. He died two years after, while engaged in endeavours
to form a new expedition, A.D. 1227.

The death of Demetrius allowed several European princes
to assume the empty title of king of Saloniki, though none
ever regained possession of any portion of the kingdom they
pretended to claim. The family of Montferrat naturally
considered the crown as descending to the male heirs of
the last king, though Demetrius had appointed the emperor
Frederic II. his heir by testament. The emperor Frederic
II., however, formally renounced all his right to the succession
(a.D. 1239) in favour of Boniface III., marquis of Montferrat,
who had already assumed the title of king of Saloniki.
William dalle Carceri, baron of Negrepont, who married a
niece of Demetrius, appears to have assumed the title after
the death of marquis Boniface III. ; but it was also assumed
at the same time by William V., marquis of Montferrat, called
the Great or Long-sword, who ceded it, with all his claims
to the territory of Thessalonica, as the dowry of his daughter
Irene on her marriage with the Greek emperor, Andronicus II.,

120 EMPIRE OF ROMANIA.

in the year 12841. Thus the title of the descendants of the
founder of the kingdom became united with the sovereignty
of the Byzantine empire.

After Baldwin II. was driven from Constantinople, he
affected to consider the fief of the kingdom of Saloniki as
having been reunited to the empire on the death of Demetrius;
and in order to purchase the aid of the house of Burgundy
for recovering his throne, he ceded the title of King of
Saloniki, as a fief of his imaginary empire, to Hugh IV.,
duke of Burgundy, in the year 1266. Hugh transmitted
the empty title, for which he never rendered any service,
to his brother Robert, from whom it passed to his nephew
Hugh V. Hugh V., duke of Burgundy, became party to
a series of diplomatic arrangements connected with the
lost empire of Romania and the valuable principality of
Achaia, that took place at Paris in 1312 ; and he then ceded
his title to the imaginary kingdom to his younger brother
Louis, who became Prince of Achaia by his marriage with
Maud of Hainault, the possessor of that principality2. On
the death of Louis, the title returned to Eudes IV., duke
of Burgundy, his surviving brother, who sold all his claims
to the imaginary possessions of his family in the East, to
Philip of Tarentum, the titular emperor of Romania, in the
year 1320. After this we find no further mention of a
kingdom of Saloniki 3.

1 William V. married Isabella, daughter of Richard earl of Cornwall, brother
of our Henry III., on the 28th March 1257; but Irene was the child of his
second wife, Beatrice of Castille.

2 These arrangements were embodied in a series of treaties and marriage
contracts involving the following marriages : 1 . Jane, sister of Hugh V., Duke
of Burgundy, to Philip son of Charles of Valois, third son of Philip III. of France
(le Hardi). Philip succeeded to the throne of France in 1328, as Philip Y. (of
Valois). 2. Catherine of Valois, daughter of Catherine of Courtenay, titular
empress of Romania, who had been betrothed to Hugh V. of Burgundy, was
married to Philip of Tarentum. 3. Maud of Hainault, princess of Achaia, was
married to Louis, brother of Hugh V. Ducange, Histoire de Constantinople, Recueil
des Charles; Duchesne, Histoire generate des Dues de Bourgogne, preuves, 115;
Buchon, Recherches et Materiaux, 54, 238.

3 Ducange, Histoire de Constantinople, 246; Buchon, Recherches et Materiaux,
''„'. 69.

CHAPTER V.

Despotat of Epirus— Empire of Thessalonica.

Sect. I. — Establishment of an independent Greek principality

in Epirus.

That portion of the Byzantine empire situated to the
west of the range of Pindus was saved from feudal domi-
nation by Michael, a natural son of Constantine Angelos,
the uncle of the Emperors Isaac II. and Alexius III. After
the conquest of Constantinople, he escaped into Epirus, where
his marriage with a lady of the country gave him some
influence ; and assuming the direction of the administration
of the whole country from Dyrrachium to Naupactus, he
collected a considerable military force, and established the
seat of his authority generally at Ioannina or Arta1. The
civil government of his principality was a continuation of
the Byzantine forms ; and there was no interruption in the
territory over which he ruled of the ordinary dispensation
of justice by the existing tribunals, nor of the regular pay-
ment of the usual taxes. The despotat of Epirus was merely
a change in the name of the government, not a revolution
in the condition of the people. But the political necessity
in which Michael was placed, of preserving his power by the
maintenance of a large and permanent military force, gave
his administration a barbarous and rude character, more in
accordance with the nature of his army, and of the moun-
taineers he ruled, than with the constitution of his civil
government. The absence of all feudal organization, and the
employment of a large body of native militia, mingled with

1 Villehardouin, 1 14; Chronicon Alberli monachi Trium Fontium, in the collec-
tion of German historians by Leibnitz, torn. ii. 441 ; Acropolita, 8,

7 1 2 DESPO TA T OF EPIR US.

[Ch.V.ji.

hired mercenaries, gave the despotat of Epirus a Byzantine
type, and kept it perfectly distinct from the Frank princi-
palities by which it was almost entirely surrounded.

The population of the territory of which Michael assumed
the sovereignty, consisted of .different races in various grades
of civilization. The Greeks were generally confined to the
towns, and were in a flourishing condition ; many were wealthy
merchants and prosperous traders, as well as large proprietors
of land, particularly in the vicinity of Ioannina and Arta.
The Yallachian population inhabited the country called Great
Ylachia, which still acknowledged the authority of its own
princes ; but as it was pressed back on the great range of
mountains to the south and west of the Thessalian plains,
it readily united its force under the authority of a Byzantine
leader like Michael, from whose ambition it had evidently
less to fear than from the intrusion of the rapacious Franks l.
The Albanians, broken into tribes and engaged in local
quarrels or predatory warfare with their wealthier neighbours,
readily acknowledged the supremacy of a chief who offered
liberal pay to all the native warriors who joined his standard.
The despots of Epirus long ruled their dominions by em-
ploying the various resources of the different classes of their
subjects for the general good, and restraining their hostile
jealousies more mildly, yet more effectually, than it would
have been in the power of any one of the classes, if rendered
dominant, to have done. The wealth of the Greeks furnished
a considerable pecuniary revenue, which enabled the despots
to maintain a respectable army of mercenaries ; and round
this force they could assemble the Albanian mountaineers
without fear of seditious conduct on the part of that dangerous
militia. The government thus acquired the power, rarely
possessed by the masters of this wild country, of arresting
the predatory habits of the native mountain tribes. The fear
of the Franks rendered the Vallachians obedient subjects
whenever a force was required to resist foreign invasion.
The mountain brigands, who had wasted the country under
the later Byzantine emperors, were now paid to fight the
common enemies ; and military courage, instead of being
denied official employment by rapacious courtiers from Con-

1 Nic tas (410) mentions the independence of the Toparch of Great Vlachir. at
this period.

STATE OF EPIRUS. 1 23

A.D. 1 2O4-1 2 14.]

stantinople, became a means of securing wealth and honour.
The public taxes, no longer transmitted to a distant land
to be lavished in idle pomp, were expended in the country,
and the exigencies of the times insured their being employed
in such a way as to produce a greater degree of order, and
a more effectual protection for property, than the distant
government at Constantinople had been able to afford. These
circumstances explain how it happened that Michael suc-
ceeded in checking the progress of the warlike Franks, and
in creating an independent principality with the discordant
elements of the population of Epirus. It must not, moreover,
be overlooked, that the geographical configuration of the
country, and the rugged nature of the great mountain barriers
by which it is intersected in numerous successive ridges,
protected Michael from immediate attack, and allowed him
time to complete his preparations for defence, and unite his
subjects by a feeling of common interest, before the Crusaders
were prepared to encounter him.

History has unfortunately preserved very little information
concerning the organization and social condition of the dif-
ferent classes and races which inhabited the dominions of the
princes of Epirus. Almost the only facts that have been
preserved, relate to the wars and alliances of the despots
and their families with the Byzantine emperors and the Latin
princes. These facts must be noticed as they occur. In this
place it is only necessary to give a short chronological sketch
of the princes who ruled Epirus. They all assumed the name
of Angelos Komnenos Dukas ; and the title of despot, by
which they are generally distinguished, was a Byzantine
honorary distinction, never borne by the earlier members of
the family until it had been conferred on them by the Greek
emperor.

Michael I., the founder of the despotat, distinguished him-
self by his talents as a soldier and a negotiator. He extended
his authority over all Epirus, Acarnania, and Aetolia, and
a part of Macedonia and Thessaly. Though virtually inde-
pendent, he acknowledged Theodore I. (Lascaris) as the lawful
emperor of the East. Michael was assassinated by one of his
slaves in the year 12141.

1 Acropolita, p. 13.

124 EMPIRE OF THESSALONICA.

[Ch.V. §j.

SECT. II. — Empire of Thcssalonica.

Theodore Angelos Komnenos Dukas, the legitimate brother
of Michael I., escaped from Constantinople to Nicaea, and
resided at the court of Theodore I. (Lascaris), where he
received an invitation from his brother to visit Epirus, in
order to assist in directing the administration. The emperor
Theodore I., distrusting the restless and intriguing spirit of
his namesake, would not allow him to depart until he had
sworn fidelity to the throne of Nicaea, and to himself as the
lawful emperor of the East. After the murder of Michael,
Theodore was proclaimed his successor, and soon displayed
the greatest ability and activity in his government, joined to
an utter want of principle in the measures he adopted for
extending his dominions. The suspicions of the emperor
Theodore I. were fully warranted by his conduct, for he made
no distinction between Greek and Frank whenever he con-
ceived that his interest could be advanced by attacking or
assisting either the one or the other.

In the year 12 17, as we have already seen, he defeated and
captured the Latin emperor, Peter of Courtenay, in the defiles
near Albanon. After completing the conquest of Thessaly
and Macedonia, and driving the Lombards out of Thessa-
lonica, he assumed the title of emperor in direct violation of
his oath to Theodore I., and was crowned in the city of
Thessalonica, which he made his capital, by the archbishop
of Achrida, patriarch of Bulgaria. Theodore Angelos then
pushed his conquests northward with increased vigour, and in
the year 1224, having gained possession of Adiianople, his
dominions extended from the shores of the Adriatic to those
of the Black Sea. The empire of Thessalonica then promised
to become the heir of the Byzantine empire in Europe.
Theodore was already forming his plans for the attack of
Constantinople, when his restless ambition involved him in
an unnecessary war with John Asan, king of Bulgaria, by
whom he was defeated and taken prisoner in 1230. His
treacherous intrigues while in captivity alarmed the Bulgarian
monarch, who ordered his eyes to be put out.

Theodore had two brothers, Manuel and Constantine, both
holding high commands in his empire. Manuel was present

THEODORE DESPOT AXD EMPEROR. 125

A.D. 1 2 I4-I234.]

at his defeat, but escaped from the field of battle to Thessa-
lonica, where he assumed the direction of the government and
the imperial title \ His reign as emperor was short, for John
Asan, the king of Bulgaria, falling in love with the daughter
of his blind prisoner, married her and released his father-in-
law. Theodore returned to Thessalonica, where he kept
himself concealed for some time ; but his talents for intrigue
enabled him to form a powerful party of secret partizans, and
before his brother Manuel was aware of his designs, his friends
took up arms and drove the usurper into exile. But as it
was impossible for Theodore, on account of his blindness, to
reascend the throne, the imperial crown was placed on the
head of his son John. The father nevertheless continued to
direct the administration, with the title of Despot. In the
mean time Manuel, who had escaped to Asia, obtained mili-
tary aid from the emperor John III. (Vatatzes), and landing
at Demetrias (Volo), made himself master of Pharsala, Larissa,
and Platamona. Constantine, his younger brother, who
governed a part of Thessaly, joined the invaders, and the
country was threatened with a destructive civil war. But the
spirit of the politic Theodore averted this catastrophe. He
succeeded in inducing his two brothers to hold a conference,
in which, acting as prime-minister of his son's empire, he em-
ployed so many powerful arguments in favour of family union,
and agreed to such liberal concessions, that Manuel and Con-
stantine joined in a family compact for supporting the empire
of Thessalonica, and abandoned the cause of the emperor
John III. of Nicaea. The three brothers then concluded an
alliance with the Franks in Greece, for their mutual defence
against the emperor of Nicaea.

John, the young emperor of Thessalonica, was a virtuous
prince, by no means destitute of talent, though he submitted
with reverence to his father, who governed his empire. But
neither his own virtues nor his father's talents were able to
save Thessalonica from the attacks of the emperor of Nicaea,
who was determined that no Greek should share the honours
of the imperial title. The facility with which the rich plains

1 Acropolita, p. 23. Interesting coins of both Theodore and Manuel exist,
representing these emperors and St. Demetrius holding between them the city of
Thessalonica, above which are the words PO Al C ©6CCAAONIKH- They
are concave and of copper. For those of Theodore see Mionnet, Descript. de
Midailles Gr. et Rom.; Suppl. tome iii. p. 172.

l26 DESPOT AT OF EPIRUS.

[Ch.V.§3.

of Macedonia were transferred from one sovereign to another,
whether he was a Lombard king or a Belgian or a Greek
emperor, must in part be attributed to the want of union
among the agricultural population. In great part of Mace-
donia the Sclavonians were more numerous than the Greeks,
and in great part of Thessaly the Vallachians formed the
whole population. The war between the Greek emperors of
Nicaea and Thessalonica was a war of conquest carried on by
mercenary soldiers, in which the people had nothing to gain.
The emperor of Nicaea was victorious ; he took Thessalonica,
and compelled John to lay aside the imperial title, but allowed
him to retain the direction of the government on his accepting
the rank of despot and publicly proclaiming the emperor of
Nicaea as the lawful emperor of the East both in Europe and
Asia \ The short-lived empire of Thessalonica ceased to
exist in the year 1234.

SECT. III. — Despotat of Epirus. — Principality of Vallachian
Thessaly. — Family of Tocco.

John continued to govern Thessalonica as despot until his
death in 1244. He was succeeded by his brother Demetrius,
a weak prince, whose authority never extended far beyond the
walls of the city. By his misconduct he drove his politic
father from his councils, and involved himself in disputes with
the Greek emperor, John III., who removed him from the
government, and united Thessalonica directly to the Greek
empire in 1246.

In the mean time Michael II., a natural son of Michael I.,
had acquired great influence in Epirus, where he gradually
gained possession of the power and dominions occupied by
his father. The fall of Thessalonica, and the weakness of his
uncles in their Thcssalian principalities, enabled him to gain
possession of Pelagonia, Achrida, and Prilapos, while the blind
old Theodore maintained himself as an independent prince in
Vodcna, Ostrovos, and Staridola 2. The emperor John III.,

1 The official title of the emperors of Nicaea, as of Constantinople, was always
' the true emperor of the Romans.'

9 Acropolita, 46. There is no doubt that Staridola is the present Sarigbil li.
Leake's Travels in Northern Greece, i. 311 ; Cantacuzenos, p. 776.

MICHAEL II, DESPOT OF EPIRUS. i2J

A.D.I 234-I318.]

in order to secure the friendship of Michael II., and induce
him to acknowledge the supremacy of the throne of Nicaea,
conferred on him the title of despot, and proposed Maria, the
daughter of his son, the emperor Theodore II., as bride for
Michael's son Nicephorus. The restless and intriguing old
Theodore succeeded, however, in involving Michael II. in war
with the emperor. Michael was unsuccessful, and his reverses
compelled him to purchase peace by delivering up his blind
uncle Theodore as a prisoner, and by ceding Kastoria, Achrida,
Deabolis, Albanon, and Prilapos to the Greek empire. The
wars of Michael II., and his treaties with the Greek emperors
John III., Theodore II., and Michael VIII., belong to the
history of the empires of Nicaea and Constantinople rather
than to the history of Epirus. The loss of the battle of
Pelagonia compelled Michael to abandon his dominions for
some time; but the inhabitants of Epirus appear to have
found the Constantinopolitan administration more oppressive
than that of Michael, whom they regarded as their native
prince, and he was enabled to recover possession of the
southern part of his despotat. He died about the year 1267.

His son, Nicephorus, received the title of despot when he
celebrated his marriage with Maria the daughter of the
emperor Theodore II.1 He succeeded his father in the
sovereignty of Epirus, and extended his authority over Acar-
nania and part of Aetolia. About the year 1290 he was
attacked by a Byzantine army, sent by the emperor Androni-
cus II. to attempt the conquest of Joannina, while a Genoese
fleet assailed Arta. Both expeditions were repulsed with loss
by the despot, who received important succours from Florenz
of Hainault prince of Achaia, and Richard count of Cepha-
lonia, whom he had subsidized 2. Nicephorus died in the year
1293, leaving a son named Thomas, who succeeded to his
continental possessions. He left also two daughters, one
married to John, count of Cephalonia ; the other, named
Ithamar, was the first wife of Philip of Tarentum 3.

Thomas, the last Greek despot of Epirus of the family of

1 Nicephorus, on the death of Maria Lascaris, married Anna, niece of the
emperor Michael VIII., daughter of that emperor's sister Eulogia. Pachymeres,
i. 162.

3 Livre de la Conqueste, p. 302.

* The marriage of Philip of Tarentum, son of Charles II. of Naples, with
Ithamar, was celebrated 12th July 1294.

1 2 8 DESPO TA T OF EPIR US.

[Ch.V.§3.

Angelos, was murdered by his nephew, the count of Cepha-

lonia, in 1318, and his dominions were then divided, the

greater part falling to the share of the murderer. Thomas,

count of Cephalonia, was himself murdered by his own brother

John ; and John was again murdered by his wife Anne, the

daughter of Andronicus Palaeologos, Protovestiarios of the

Byzantine empire, who was the guardian of her son, Nice-

phorus II., a child of seven years of age at the time the

emperor Andronicus III. invaded the despotat in the year

1337- ^ie possessions of the young Nicephorus were then

conquered, and he himself subsequently received an appanage

in Thrace, and married a daughter of John Cantacuzenos, the

usurper of the throne of Constantinople. Nicephorus was

slain in a battle with the Albanians, on the banks of the

Achelous, as he was attempting to recover possession of the

despotat in the year 1358 1. As early, however, as the year

1350, the civil wars in the Byzantine empire, produced by the

unprincipled ambition of Cantacuzenos, had enabled Stephen

Dushan, king of Servia, to conquer all Epirus and the greater

part of Thessaly 2.

A principality distinct from that of Epirus was founded

by John Dukas, the natural son of the despot Michael II.,

who married the heiress of Taron, hereditary chieftain of

the Vallachians of Thessaly3. He received the title of

Sebastokrator from the emperor Michael VIII., as a reward

for deserting his father before the battle of Pelagonia, in

1 1*59. He acted an important part in the history of his

time, and displayed all the restless activity and daring spirit

of his family, occupying an independent possession in

Thessaly at the head of his Vallachians, and carrying on

war or forming alliances with the emperor of Constantinople,

the despot of Epirus, and the Frank princes of Greece,

according to the dictates of his own personal interest. He

was generally called by the Franks duke of Neopatras,

1 Cantacuzenos (304) makes Nicephorus only seven years old at the time of the
invasion of Epirus; but Nicephorus Gregoras (335) says he was fourteen in
1 339-134°. which must be an error, as Cantacuzenos certaiuly knew the real age
of his son-in-law; see Cant. 453.

1 MS. on the state of Epirus. published by Pouqueville, of which an abstract
is given in Leak in Northern Greece, iv. 553. The original is reprinted

in the Bonn edition of the Byzantine Historians ; Historia Poliiica et Patriarchka
Cow/aritinopoleos; Epirotica, p. 210.

3 l'achymerts, i. 49, edit. Rom.

EPIRUS UNDER THE SERVIANS. 129

A.D. I 259-I 308.]

(Hypata), from his having made that town his capital ; but
his principality was usually called Great Vlachia. He died
about the year 1290 1, leaving two sons.

The second prince of Vlachia, the son of John, reigned
about ten years. His sister was married to William de la
Roche, duke of Athens. The third prince was John Dukas
II., who was left by his father under the guardianship of
Guy II., duke of Athens, his cousin. The possessions of
the young prince were attacked by the troops of Epirus, but
the duke of Athens hastened to the assistance of his ward,
and quickly carried the war into the territory of the despotat,
forcing the government to conclude an advantageous peace 2.
John Dukas II. married Irene, a daughter of the emperor
Andronicus II., in the year 1305, and died three years after,
without leaving issue 3. The line of the princes of Vallachian
Thessaly then became extinct, and their territories were
divided among the frontier states. The Catalans conquered
the valley of the Spercheius, with the city of Neopatras ;
and they were so proud of this exploit that they styled
their Grecian dominions the duchy of Athens and Neopatras.
But the greater part of the rich plain of Thessaly was annexed
to the Byzantine empire, and was governed by officers sent
from Constantinople, who were often honoured with the title
of despot4. Cantacuzenos conferred the government of
Thessalian Vlachia, in the year 1343, on John Angelos for
life, by a golden bull 5.

The history of Epirus after its conquest by Stephen
Dushan, king of Servia, in 1350, becomes mixed up with
the wars of the Servians, Albanians, Franks, and Greeks in
the neighbouring provinces, until the whole country fell
under the domination of the Turks. Stephen committed
the government of Epirus, Thessaly, Acarnania, and Aetolia
to his brother Simeon, who was involved in constant wars
to defend those conquests against the Albanians, the Franks,
and the Greeks. In the year 1367 he recognized Thomas
Prelubos as prince of Joannina and Arta. Prelubos was
assassinated, on account of his horrid cruelties, in 1385 ; and

1 Pachymeres, ii. 137, edit. Rom.; Niceph. Greg. 65; Ducange, Histoire de
Constantinople, 214.

2 Livre de la Conqueste. 405. 3 Niceph. Greg. 153, 173.
4 Cantacuzenos (288) mentions Stephen Gabrielopulos in 1334.

6 Cant. 526.

VOL. IV. K

I?0 DESPOT AT OF EPIRUS.

° [Ch.v.§|.

his widow, who was the sister of Simeon, married Esau
Buondelmonte, a Florentine connected with the family of
Acciaiuoli. Esau was engaged in incessant wars with the
Albanians, by whom he was taken prisoner in .the year 1399,
and compelled to pay a large ransom \

In the mean time, Leonard Tocco of Beneventum had
been invested with the county-palatine of Cephalonia by
Robert of Tarentum, the titular emperor of Romania, when
that county had reverted to the imperial crown by the death
of the despot Nicephorus II., in 1357. Leonard Tocco also
received the title of duke of Leucadia, to give additional
dignity to his fief2. Charles Tocco, who was apparently
his grandson, invaded Epirus about the year 1390, and by
gradual encroachments rendered himself master of the whole
country south of Joannina, including Acarnania and part
of Aetolia, after which he assumed the title of despot of
Romania. His second wife was Francesca, daughter of Nerio
I. Acciaiuoli, duke of Athens ; and his niece Theodora was
the wife of Constantine, the last emperor of Constantinople,
to whom Clarentza. and all the possessions of the counts
of Cephalonia in the Morea, were ceded as her dowry.
Theodora died before Constantine ascended the throne of
Constantinople. Charles II. died in 1429 3. He was suc-
ceeded by his nephew, Charles III., from whom the Turks
took Joannina and Aetolia in 143 1. Charles III., in order
to obtain the protection of the republic of Venice for the
towns he still retained in Epirus and Acarnania. became a
citizen of the republic in the year 1433, duiing the reign
of the doge Francis Foscari \ It would seem, from the
letters of Cyriakos of Ancona, that he assumed the title of
king of Epirus, in addition to his previous titles of duke

1 Chalcocondylas, 112. The names of Albanian chieftains in the wars against
the despots, Thomas Prelubos and Esau Buondelmonte, are. Ghinos Vaia, who
held Angeloka^ln >n, Petro I.eosa, and afterwards John Spata, who held Aria
and Kogous, and Ghino Frati of Malakassi. Epirotica, pp. 21 e 322, &c, edit.
Bonn.

2 Remondini, Be Zacinthi Antiqvitatibus et Fortuna, Venet. 1756, p. 243.

3 Phrantzes, 120,, 154. edit. Bonn. The name of Karlili, or the country of
Charles, was applied by the Turks to Acarnania and a portion of Aetolia, as long
as they retained possession of the country.

4 The act of the doge, Francis Foscari, authorizing the insertion of the name
of Charles Tocco, despot of Arta. duke of Leucadia. and count palatine of Cepha-
topia, in tl, of the republic, is published by Buchon j Aouvelles Recherches;
Diploma, p.

FAMILY OF TOCCO. 131

A.D. I357-I479.]

of Leucadia and despot of Romania \ He was succeeded by
his son, Leonard II., in 1452, who was driven from Leucadia
and Cephalonia by the Turks in 1479.

Historians have related those facts concerning the wars,
marriages, murders, and successions of the rulers of Epirus
and Great Vallachia, which they considered interesting to
their contemporaries. But it would have been more instruc-
tive to modern readers had they recorded an equal number
of events relating to the condition of the Albanian and
Vallachian population. For about this time the Vallachian
population appears to have declined, while the Albanian race
was beginning to increase and send out agricultural colonies to
repeople the Peloponnesus.

1 Cyriaci Anconitani Epistolae, p. 71.

K 2

CHAPTER VI.

History of the Dukes of Athens— 1205-1456.

SECT. I. — Athens a Feudal Principality.

The portion of Greece lying to the south of the kingdom
of Saloniki was divided by the Crusaders among several
great feudatories of the empire of Romania. According to
the feudal code of the time, each of these great barons
possessed the right of constructing fortresses, coining money,
establishing supreme courts of justice, and waging war with
his neighbours ; consequently, their number could not be
great in so small an extent of country. The lords of Bou-
donitza, Salona, Negrepont, and Athens are alone mentioned
as existing to the north of the isthmus of Corinth, but the
history of the sovereigns of Athens can alone be traced in
any detail. The slightest record of a city which has acted
so important a part in the history of human civilization must
command some attention ; and fortunately her feudal annals,
though very imperfect, furnish matter for study and instruc-
tion. Athens and Thebes — for the fate of these ancient
enemies was linked together — were then cities of considerable
wealth, with a numerous and flourishing population.

Otho de la Roche, a Burgundian nobleman, who had
distinguished himself during the siege of Constantinople,
marched southward with the army of Boniface the king-
marquis, and gained possession of Athens in 1205, and re-
ceived the title of Grand-Sire1. Thebes and Athens had
probably fallen to his share in the partition of the empire,
but it is possible that the king of Saloniki may have found

■ y de Yillehardouin, Be la Conqueste de Constantinople; Note of Ducange
at p 325 of his edition.

ATHENS BEFORE THE CONQUEST. 133

means to increase his portion, in order to induce him to do
homage to the crown of Saloniki for this addition. At all
events, it appears that Otho de la Roche did homage to
Boniface as his immediate superior \

We possess some interesting information concerning the
events that occurred at Athens immediately previous to
its conquest by Otho de la Roche, though unfortunately this
information does not give us any minute insight into the
condition of the population. Still, it allows us to perceive
that the social as well as the political condition of the people
was peculiarly favourable to the enterprise of the Crusaders.
The people of Athens and Thebes were living in the enjoy-
ment of wealth and tranquillity when the news reached them
that Constantinople was besieged by the Franks and Vene-
tians. The greatest grievance then endured in the cities
where no regular garrisons were maintained arose out of fiscal
extortion and judicial corruption, both of which certainly
increased to an alarming degree under the emperors of the
house of Angelos. But these abuses were palliated, and
prevented from assuming a highly oppressive form, whenever
the bishop of the place exerted his influence to restrain in-
justice within the strict bounds of the established laws. The
direct judicial authority of the bishops, and their acknow-
ledged political influence as protectors of the people, gave
them virtually a superintending control over the agents of
the central administration in the distant provinces of the
empire. The authority of the central administration had
been greatly weakened by the usurpation and misgovernment
of Alexius III., and the power of the local governors and
great landed proprietors had been proportionally increased 2.

1 This title, Mtyas Kvpios, was derived by some from the title of Meyas Vlpiniii-
icfipios, which Constantine the Great was said to have conferred on the governor
of Thebes. The general belief, both of the Byzantines and Latins, was that either
this title or that of duke had been the ancient title of the governors of Athens.
Compare Kiceph. Greg. p. 146, and Livre de la Cowpieste, Greek text of Copen-
hagen, v. 2132.

' Tafel {De Tkessalonica ej usque Agro, 462) has published a memorial of the
archbishop Michael Akominatos to the emperor Alexius III., which gives a
curious picture of the abuses then prevailing in the Byzantine fiscal administra-
tion. It represents Athens as a city thinly inhabited, with a declining population,
impoverished and in danger of being reduced by the emigration of its inhabitants
to a Scythian waste. The good Archbishop here alludes to Aristophanes. Ackam.
703. It is always difficult to appreciate the precise value of such declamation.
Modern official correspondence concerning Athens shows us that any condition
of public affairs can be represented by diplomatic agents, even when they are

,H DUKES OF ATHENS.

° [Ch.VI. §i.

The support of many wealthy and influential individuals had
been purchased by Alexius at a ruinous price. Some had
been intrusted with civil and military commands ; and
others, particularly in Greece, had been allowed to assume
the authority of imperial officers without any legal warrant \

Leo Sguros, a Peloponnesian noble, who held the office of
imperial governor of Nauplia, took advantage of the general
disorder, and assumed the administration over the cities and
fortresses of Argos and Corinth. As soon as he heard of the
arrival of the Crusaders before Constantinople, he collected
a considerable army and fleet, and extended his authority
beyond the isthmus, apparently with the intention of forming
an independent principality in Greece. His first expedition
was directed against Athens, of which he hoped to render
himself master without difficulty, as it was defended by no
regular garrison. The Athenians,, however, were not disposed
to submit tamely to the usurpation of the Peloponnesian
chief. They perhaps flattered themselves with the hope that,
in existing circumstances, they might recover some municipal

poorer rhetoricians than Michael, under totally different aspects, merely because

a minister has been changed. Now as the Archbishop informs us that Athens

possessed ships, suffered in its commercial affairs from pirates, paid a ship tax,

and was considered by the imperial officials as a place from which more money

could be extorted than from the fertile regions of Thebes and Euboea, we must

conclude that the city possessed considerable wealth, trade, and population. This

memorial is printed with a German translation in Dr. Ellissen's Michael Ahomi-

natos von Chonae, Erzbischof von Athen, p. 118. That Athens had declined greatly

from its nourishing condition in the time of Basil II. is, however, evident from

the Panegyricon or Oratio in Isaacium II., for the city was then unable to make

the customary coronation offering. Tafel, TTiessalonica, 459: Ellissen, Michael

Akomiiiaios, 58. [Professor Hopf {Geschichte Griechenlands, in Brockhaus' Griechen-

land, vol. vi. pp. 176, 177) has brought together evidence to show that Athens

was a considerable literary centre at this period. Among other students who

resorted thither were several Englishmen, who, as Hopf suggests, may have been

attracted to those parts by relationship to members of the Varangian guard. One

of these, Master John of Basingstoke, afterwards Archdeacon of Leicester, who

died in 1252, is mentioned by Matthew Paris (Hisloria Major, edit. Wats, 1684,

pp. 710, 721) as having been instructed by a daughter of the Archbishop of

Athens; and this Archbishop is believed by Hopf to be Michael Akominatos,

who in this ca>c must have been married before he was consecrated bishop. The

passage in Matthew Paris is as follows: — ' Quaedam puella, filia Archiepiscopi

Atheniensis, nomine Constantina, nondum vicesimum agens annum, virtutibus

praedita, omnem trivii et quadrivii noverat difficultatem : unde alteram Catherinam,

vel Catherinam consuevit dictus magister Johannes jocose, propter suae scientiae

einincnliam, appellare. Ilaec magistra fuit magistri Johannis, et quicquid boni

scivit in scienlia. ut saepe asseruit, licet Parisiis diu studuisset et legisset, ah ea

mendicaverat. Ilaec puella pestilentias, tonitrua, eclipsin, et quod mirabiliufl

fuit, terrae motum praedicens, omnes suos auditores infallibiliter praemunivit'

Ed.]

1 Leo Chamaretos, ruler of Lacedaemon, appears to have belonged to this
cla>s.

EXPEDITION OF LEO SGUROS. 135

A.D. 1 205-1 308.]

privileges ; and they were fortunate enough to find a prudent,
disinterested, and energetic chief in their archbishop, Michael
Akominatos, the elder brother of the historian Nicetas.
When Sguros made his appearance in the plain of Athens,
descending from the monastery of Daphne by the remains of
the Sacred Way to Eleusis, the archbishop went out to dis-
suade him from an attempt which would infallibly lead to a
civil war, at a moment when Greece was menaced with a hostile
invasion. Sguros treated the solicitations of the archbishop
with contempt, and, persisting in his design, forced his way into
the city, which was not fortified in such a way as to enable it
to offer any opposition. But the archbishop animated his flock
to defend their independence. The inhabitants, on the first
report that Sguros meditated attacking them, had transported
all their most valuable effects into the Acropolis, where they
soon showed their enemy that they were both able and willing
to make a long defence. Sguros, seeing there was no imme-
diate prospect of taking the citadel, raised the siege and
marched northward. On retiring, he barbarously set fire to
the city in several places, plundered the surrounding country,
and. after collecting a large supply of cattle and provisions,
proceeded to invest Thebes, which surrendered without offer-
ing any resistance. All eastern Greece, as far as the frontier
of Thessaly, then submitted to his authority ; and he pre-
pared to meet the Crusaders at Thermopylae. His inex-
perienced soldiers were, however, ill qualified to encounter
the veteran warriors under the banners of Boniface. The
memory of Leonidas was insufficient to inspire the Greeks
with courage, and their army suffered a disgraceful defeat.
Leo Sguros fled to Corinth, where he shut himself up in the
Acrocorinth with the relics of his force.

Thebes, Chalcis, and Athens opened their gates, and re-
ceived the Franks as their deliverers from the tyranny of
Sguros and the Peloponnesians. There appears to be ,10
doubt that the Greeks generally obtained very favourable
capitulations from their conquerors : the inhabitants were
secured in the possession of their private property, local
institutions, established laws, and national religion. Under
the protection of the Franks, therefore, they hoped to enjoy
a degree of personal security to which the anarchical condi-
tion of the Byzantine empire, since the death of Manuel I. in

1<>6 DUKES OF ATHEXS.

[Ch. VI. § i.

1 1 80, had rendered them strangers1. The Athenians were
not disappointed in their expectations ; for, though the
Byzantine aristocracy and dignified clergy were severe suf-
ferers by the transference of the government into the hands
of the Franks, the middle classes long enjoyed peace and
security. The noble archbishop Michael, who for thirty years
had ruled the see of Athens as a spiritual father and political
protector, was compelled to seek refuge at Keos, where he
spent his declining years lamenting the forced apostacy of
many of his flock, and the desecration of the glorious temple
of the Panaghia in the Acropolis, by the rude priests of the
haughty Franks, who compelled the subject Greeks to cele-
brate divine service according to the rites of the orthodox in
the humbler churches of the city below -.

The conquest of Athens rendered Otho de la Roche master
of all Attica and Boeotia ; but immediately after the death of
Boniface, the Lombards of the kingdom of Saloniki, under
the orders of count Blandrate, deprived him of Thebes. This
city was again restored to its rightful master by the emperor
Henry, when the Lombard kingdom of Saloniki was reduced
to its lawful state of vassalage to the imperial crown of
Romania ; and Otho de la Roche did homage at the par-
liament of Ravenika, for both Athens and Thebes, as one of
the great feudatories of the empire. Otho, like the emperor
Henry and the principal vassals of the empire, forbade all
donations of land to the papal church, and appropriated to
his own use, or at least to temporal purposes, a greater share
of the spoils of the Greek church, than met with the appro-
bation of Innocent III. Even threats of excommunication
could not compel him to alter his policy, and the Pope was
induced to accept the explanations he offered for his pro-
ceedings, founded on the political exigencies of his position,

1 Nicetas (391) indicates that there was some danger of internal disorders at
Athens. He alludes to a young noble who opposed the archbishop, and whom
any other pastor would gladly have given up to Sguros to be put to death. The
Frank Chronicle of the Conquest 0/ the Morea affords repeated testimony that the
Crusaders systematically respected the established institutions of the Greeks, and
gave them written capitulations. For the life of the archbishop Michael, see
Ellissen's Michael Akominatos von Chonae.

2 The Parthenon had then hardly felt the finger of time, and had escapel
almost uninjured from the hand of man. The marble walls of the Cella were

' in the in' Byzantine church paintings, in which it is not im-

{■ that the emperor Basil II. appeared in his imperial robes, presi
rii j !, in the spoils of the Bulgarian war. Cedreaus, 717.

GREEKS SUBMIT TO CRUSADERS. 137

A.D.T 205-I308.]

and the deep contrition he expressed for having offended the
head of the church \ It seems that the wealth of the Greek
church, the monastery lands, and the imperial domains of the
Byzantine emperors in Attica and Boeotia, were sufficient to
satisfy Otho's wants and ambition, for his administration,
judging from the tranquillity of his Greek subjects and the
importance acquired by his principality, must have been less
rapacious than the previous government of the emperors
of Constantinople. Otho de la Roche nevertheless, in the
decline of life, preferred his modest fief in France to his
principality in Greece, and about the year 1225, he resigned
the government of Athens and Thebes to his nephew Guy,
son of his brother Pons de Ray2-

Athens has been supposed to have lost its position as a
direct fief of the empire of Romania by the homage which
Otho de la Roche paid to Boniface, king of Saloniki ; and it
was pretended that the king of Saloniki had transferred the
immediate superiority over all the country to the south of his
own frontier, in Thessaly, to William de Champlitte, prince
of Achaia. The pretended vassalage of Athens to Achaia
at this early period rests only on the authority of the Book of
the Conquest of the Morea, a Frank chronicle, of which a
metrical translation in Greek was known long before the
French text, which appears to be the original, was discovered 3.
The work contains an inaccurate and far from poetical narra-
tive of the prominent events relating to the affairs of the

1 Epist. Innocent. III. torn. ii. pp. 193, 213, 266, 418, 462, ep. 110. pp. 465, and
624; Raynaldi Annates Eccles. an. 1218, torn. i. 438. The Frank Chronicle says
the church possessed one-third of Greece. Greek text, v. 1305.

2 Genealogie de la Mahon de la Roche; Nouvelles Recherckes hhtoriques sur la
Principaute francaLe de Moree, par Buchon, i. p. 84. Guy de Ray, or de la
Roche, is always called Guillerme in the Frank Chronicle of the Conquest of the
Morea, one of the numerous inaccuracies which prove that it cannot be implicitly
relied on as a historical authority.

3 [The opinion here expressed as to the relation of the Livre de la Conquest e
and the UpoviKuv rov Uwpaiais to one another is shared by Hopf (Griechische
Geschichte, p. 202) and by Buchon. The last-named writer for some time held
that the Greek was the original, when he published the Greek text from the Paris
MS. in his Chroniques etrangeres relatives aux Expeditions franeaises pendant le
treizieme Steele; but he was led to change his opinion by his discovery of the
French text in a MS. at Brussels. This he published as vol. i. of his Recherches
hhtoriques sur la Principaute frangaite de Moree; while vol. ii. of that work con-
tained another version of the Greek text from the MS. at Copenhagen. On his
change of opinion, see vol. i. pref. pp. xv. foil., and vol. ii. pref. p. vi. Dr. Elhssen,
however, in his Analekten der mittel- und neugriechischen Li/era ur, vol. 11. pref.
p. xxi., opposes the idea that the Greek text was a translation of the French.
Professor Hopf also remarks on the frequent untrustworthmess of the work as
a historical authority. Ed.]

138 DUKES OF ATHEXS.

[Ch.VI. §1.

Peloponnesus, from the time of its conquest by the Franks
until the commencement of the fourteenth century. On all
occasions it exalts the importance of the house of Villehar-
douin. This Chronicle asserts that Boniface, on quitting the
army of the Crusaders in the Alorea, to return to Thessalonica,
placed all the great feudatories of the empire, including the
duke of the Archipelago or Naxos, under the immediate
superiority of William de Champlitte, prince of Achaia. The
earliest claim of the princes of Achaia to any superiority over
the princes of Athens appears to have arisen in the time of
Guy de la Roche, about the year 1246. The Grand-sire
of Athensand Thebes had assisted William Villehardouin to
conquer Corinth and Xauplia l as an ally, and not as a vassal,
and received as a reward for this assistance the free possession
of Argos and Nauplia, for which the prince of Achaia did
not even claim personal homage, as long as his wars with the
Greeks in Laconia rendered the alliance of the prince of
Athens a matter of importance. This, as far as can be
ascertained from authentic evidence, is the only feudal con-
nection that existed between Athens and Achaia previous
to the conquest of the empire of Romania by the Greeks, and
the transference of the feudal superiority over Achaia to the
house of Anjou of Naples -.

When William, prince of Achaia, had completed the con-
quest of the Peloponnesus, his ambition led him to form
projects for extending his power to the north of the isthmus
at the expense of the Latin allies, who had aided him against
the Greeks. In the year 1254 he called on Guy, Grand-sire
of Athens, to do personal homage for his possessions in the
Morea. To this demand the prince of Athens replied, that
he was ready to pay the feudal service that was due for his
fiefs of Argos and Nauplia, but he asserted that he owed no

1 [On the Author's mistake with regard to this point, see below, p. 194, note.
Ed.]

2 The Frank Chronicle makes Guy de la Roche admit that he owed homage
for Argos and Nauplia, but makes him assert that be was no va al of Achaia.
Livre de la Conquesie, p. 106. King Louis IX. of France, to whom the dispute
was referred, decided that Guy had never actually done homage to William ; and
as he could not therefore be considered a liege-man of the prince of Achaia.
he had committed no feudal delinquency in bearing arms against him; p. 114.
Muntaner, an earlier and much better authority than the Chronicles, whether

1 . k, who had visited the court of Guy II., duke of Athens, in 1308,
had never heard of any vassalage of Athens to Achaia. He declares that the
dukes of Athens and the princes <■! Achaia held their principalities equally free of
homage and service. Muntaner, chap, cexxxvii. and ccxliv.

QUESTION OF HOMAGE. 139

AJD. 1 205-1 308.]

personal homage to William. Both parties prepared to
decide the question by arms, for it seemed emphatically one
of those that authorized a private war according to the feudal
system. The Grand-sire of Athens was supported by the
count of Soula (Salona), the lords of Euboea, and even by
the baron of Karitena, a relation and vassal of the prince of
Achaia. But the army of the confederates was defeated by
Villehardouin at the pass of Karidi, on the road from Megara
to Thebes. The vanquished were besieged in Thebes, and
compelled to enter into a capitulation, by which Guy de la
Roche engaged to present himself at the court of William
Villehardouin, at Nikli, in order that the question concerning
the homage due to the prince of Achaia might be decided in
a parliament of the principality \ Guy made his appearance,
and William was unable to persuade his own vassals that the
Grand-sire of Athens was deserving of any punishment
according to the letter of the feudal law. The case was
referred to king Louis IX. of France, whose reputation as an
able and impartial judge was already so great in the whole
Christian world that all parties willingly consented to abide
by his decision. Guy de la Roche hastened to the court of
France, confident in the justice of his cause ; and Villehar-
douin was satisfied with the temporary absence of a powerful
opponent at a critical moment. The king of France con-
sidered the delinquency of the Grand-sire of Athens to be of
so trifling a nature, that it was more than adequately punished
by the trouble and expense of a journey to Paris ; and in
order to indemnify Guy in some measure for the inconve-
nience which he had suffered in presenting himself at the
court of France, Louis authorized him to adopt the title of
Duke of Athens, instead of that of Grand-sire, by which he
had been hitherto distinguished 2. From subsequent events
it seems that William Villehardouin really made a claim at
this time to the direct homage of the duke of Athens ; but
whether he based his claim on a pretended grant of the king

1 Nikli was the town that in Byzantine times occupied the site of Tegea.
Mouchli rose into importance when it declined ; and when Mouchli fell into
ruins, the modern town of Tripolitza was founded. A similar succession of
towns occurred also in the lower Arcadian plain. Veligosti arose not very far
from the ruins of Megalopolis, and Leondari near the remains of Veligosti.

2 Guy de la Roche appears to have made ample use of his power to coin money
as a great feudatory of the empire of Romania before visiting France, for his
coins with Dominus are more common than those with Dux.

HO DUKES OF ATHENS.

[Cb.VI. §i.
of Saloniki to Champlitte, or on some charter of the emperors
Robert, or Baldwin II., to his elder brother Geffrey II., prince
of Achaia, who had married the sister of these emperors,
cannot be determined. The claim, whether well or ill
founded, was made a pretext by the kings of Naples for
assuming that the cession of the suzerainty of Achaia, by the
emperor Baldwin II., at the treaty of Viterbo in 1267, con-
veyed also to the crown of Naples a paramount superiority
over the duchy of Athens \

\\ hen Guy de la Roche returned to Greece, he found the
emperor Baldwin II. a fugitive from Constantinople, and his
own conqueror, William, prince of Achaia, a prisoner in the
hands of the Greek emperor, Michael VIII., the conqueror of
Constantinople. In order to regain his freedom, the prince
of Achaia was compelled to cede to the Greek emperor the
fortresses of Monemvasia, Misithra, and Maina, as the price of
his deliverance. This cession was warmly opposed by the
duke of Athens, as highly injurious to the stability of the
Frank possessions in Greece ; but it was ratified by a parlia-
ment of the vassals of the principality, and carried into effect2.
Guy de la Roche died about the year 1264, and was succeeded
by his eldest son, John.

John de la Roche maintained with honour the high position
his duchy had acquired in the East. John Dukas, while
besieged in Neopatras, his capital, by a Byzantine army
under the brother of the emperor Michael, succeeded in
escaping through the hostile camp in the disguise of a groom3.
He hastened to Athens, and solicited aid from the duke to
save his capital. The duke of Athens immediately supplied
him with a body of Latin cavalry, with which the adventurous
prince surprised the imperial army, and compelled the em-
peror s brother to save the remnants of the besiegers on
board the Byzantine fleet4. About a year after this victory,
the duke of Athens, who had formed a close alliance with
the prince of Vallachian Thessaly, placed himself at the

1 This seems to result from two rescripts of Charles II. of Naples, published by
Buchon, Nouvelles Recherche,, ii. p. 3^6, Naples, xxx. and xxxi.

J Livre de la Cowjiteste, p. 1 53, Clicek text, v. 3082.

1 he Russian chronicle <>f Nestor gives an anecdote concerning the escape
of a young man from Kief when it was besieged by the l'atzinaks, which is verj
similar to the escape of Jolm Dukas from Neopatras. Chronique de Nestor, i. 91.

JOHX DE LA ROCHE DUKE. 141

A.D. I 2O5-I308.]

head of a body of troops, to defend the north of Euboea
against a Byzantine force under the command of Jaqueria,
or Zacharia, the Genoese signor of the island of Thasos. A
battle was fought in the plain of Oreos, in which the Franks
were completely defeated ; and the duke of Athens, who,
though suffering severely from the gout, had rushed into
the midst of the combat in order to rally his knights, was
dashed from his horse and made prisoner. The emperor
Michael VIII., whose position was at this time extremely
critical, gave the captive duke an honourable reception, and
did everything in his power to detach him from the interests
of Charles of Anjou, king of Naples, who then threatened
to invade the Greek empire. A treaty was concluded between
the emperor and the duke, which allowed John to return
to Athens without paying any ransom. John died unmarried
in the year 12751.

William, the second son of Guy I., succeeded his brother
John. He had married Helena, daughter of John Dukas,
prince of Vallachian Thessaly, shortly after the victory of
Neopatras, and obtained Zeituni and Gardhiki as his wife's
dowry-. When the people of Thebes heard that his brother
had been taken prisoner at Oreos, they proclaimed William
lord of Thebes, evidently more with the intention of defending
their own rights and privileges, and of securing the power of
the house of de la Roche against any encroachments of the
powerful and wealthy family of Saint-Omer, than from dis-
satisfaction with the government of duke John3. William was
a man highly esteemed both for his valour and prudence. He
was selected by Charles of Anjou to administer the govern-
ment of Achaia during the minority of Isabella Villehardouin;
and he held his charge from 1280 to the time of his death,
in 12904.

His son, Guy II., was only eighteen years of age when
he succeeded to the dukedom. The despot of Vlachia died
shortly after Guy attained his majority, and left him guardian
of an infant prince. The nobles of Vlachia ratified the pro-
visions of their sovereign's testament, and invited the duke
of Athens to assume the direct administration of his nephew's

1 Pachymeres, i. 280, edit. Rom. 2 Livre de la Conqueste, 408.

3 Pachymeres, i. 280.

* The Greek Chronicle calls him bailly and vicar-general, v. 6657.

1 42 DUKES OF ATHEXS.

[Ch.VI. §i.

dominions. The moment appeared favourable for the enemies
of Vallachian Thessaly to attack the country. An infant
prince and a young foreign regent did not seem likely to
offer any serious resistance to a well-combined attack. Anna,
the widow of Nicephorus, despot of Epirus, acted at the time
as regent for her son Thomas, the last Greek despot of
Epirus. She commenced hostilities by ordering the Epirot
troops to seize the castle of Phanari. Guy was at Thebes,
his favourite residence, when he heard that his nephew's
territories were invaded. Eager to prove himself worthy of
the high trust confided to his care, the young prince sum-
moned all his friends and vassals to join his banner, and
marched to avenge the injury offered to his helpless pupil.
Boniface of Verona, lord of Karystos, Francis della Carcere,
lord of Negrepont, the count of Soula, and Nicholas of
Saint-Omer, marshal of Achaia, and a feudatory of the duchy
of Athens for one half of the lordship of Thebes, all joined
the duke's camp, each at the head of more than one hundred
knights and esquires. The whole army, when drawn up in
the plain of Vlachia at Domokos, amounted to nine hundred
Latin knights and horsemen in complete armour, six thousand
Vallachian and Greek cavalry, and thirty thousand infantry,
if we can rely on the Chronicles. The chief command was
intrusted to Saint-Omer, and the army advanced to Trikala,
Stagous and Sirako, from which it could have reached Joan-
nina in three easy marches. But the rapidity of the young
duke's movements alarmed Anna and her counsellors, and
she was glad to purchase peace by delivering up the castle
of Phanari, and paying ten thousand perpers or gold byzants
for the expenses of the expedition \

In 1304, Guy II. married Maud of Hainault, daughter of
Isabella Villehardouin, princess of Achaia. Maud was then
only eleven years old2. Guy received Kalamata, the here-
ditary fief of the Villehardouins in the Morea, as his wife's
dowry ; but he soon advanced a claim to the government
of the whole principality, of which he pretended that Philip

1 The Litre de la Conqueste becomes a historical authority of value as it ap-
proaches the times of the author. Thalassinos, which it mentions as a village
one day's march from Domokos and two from Trikala. is erroneously confounded
by the editor with the town ofElassona, the ancient Oloosson : pp. 406-41S.

- Maud or Matilda, daughter of Isabella Villehardouin and Florenz of Hainault,
was born 30th November 1293. Livre de la Conqueste, 388, note.

STATE OF ATHENS. l4«

A.D. I 205-1 308.] """J

of Savoy, the third husband of Isabella, held possession
illegally1. In order to make good his claim by force of
arms, Guy enrolled in his service Fernand Ximenes and a
part of the Catalans who had quitted the Grand Company
at Cyzikos. The projects of Guy were frustrated by his
early death in 1308. As he left no children, the male line
of de la Roche became extinct, and his cousin, Walter de
Brienne, succeeded to the duchy of Athens and Thebes.

SECT. II.— State of Athens under the House of De la Roche.

Athens is usually represented as a miserable and decayed
town during the whole period of the middle ages, and Attica
is supposed to have then offered the same barren, treeless,
and unimprovable aspect which it now does as a European
kingdom. Such, however, was not the case. The social
civilization of the inhabitants, and their command of the
necessaries and luxuries of life, were in those days as much
superior to the condition of the citizens of Paris and London
as they are now inferior. When Walter de Brienne succeeded
to the duchy, it occupied a much higher position in the scale
of European states than is at present occupied by the kingdom
of Greece. The Spaniard Muntaner, who was well acquainted
with all the rich countries around the Mediterranean, then
the most flourishing portion of the globe, and who was familiar
with the most magnificent courts of Europe, says that the
dukes of Athens were among the greatest princes who did
not wear a kingly crown. He has left us a description
of the court of Athens, which gives us a high idea of its
splendour 2 ; and he declares that the nobles of the duchy
were so entirely French, that they spoke their language with
as much purity as the Parisians themselves 3. The city was
large and wealthy, the country thickly covered with villages,
of which the ruins may still be traced in spots affording
no indications of Hellenic sites. Aqueducts and cisterns
then gave fertility to land now unproductive ; olive, almond,

1 Isabella was thrice married — ist. When a child, to Louis-Philippe, second
son of Charles of Anjou ; 2d. To Florenz of Hainault ; 3d. To Philip of Savoy.

2 Muntaner, chap, ccxliv. p 481 of Buchon's translation, edit, of 1S40.

3 Ibid. chap, eclxi. p. 502.

i44 DUKES OF ATHEXS.

[Ch.VI. §2.

and fig-trees were intermingled with vineyards and orchards
covered ground now reduced, by the want of irrigation, to
yield only scanty winter pasturage to the flocks of nomade
shepherds. The valonia, the cotton, the silk, and the leather
of Attica then supplied native manufactories, and the surplus
commanded a high price in foreign markets. The trade of
Athens was considerable, and the luxury of the Athenian
ducal court was celebrated in all the regions of the West
where chivalry flourished. Genoese merchants carried on
a prosperous trade at Athens, and shared with the native
Greeks the profits of the silk manufacture of Thebes, where
the richest brocades were still woven \

Nor was the position of the Greek subjects of the dukes
at this period one of severe oppression. Civilization had
penetrated deeper into the social relations of men in Greece
than in the rest of Europe, and its effects were displayed
in the existence of a middle class, living in ease, and by the
decay of slavery and serfdom. Though the Greeks of Athens
were a conquered race, the terms of capitulation granted
by Otho de la Roche secured to them all the privileges, as
individual citizens, which they had enjoyed under the Byzan-
tine government, with much greater freedom from financial
oppression. The feudal conquerors of Greece soon perceived
that it was greatly for their interest to respect the terms of
the capitulations concluded with their Greek subjects, and
to gain their good-will. Each grand feudatory became aware
that the Greeks, from their wealth and numbers, might be
rendered useful allies in opposing the exorbitant pretensions
of their own immediate vassals and military followers, and
in restraining the avarice of the Latin clergy,' the ambition
of the Pope, or the pretensions of the emperor of Romania.
The peculiar condition of the Greek landed proprietors, who
were in some degree both capitalists and merchants, taught
their princes the necessity of alleviating the natural severity
of the feudal system, and modifying the contempt it inculcated
for the industrious and unwarlike classes of society. The

1 A charter of Guy de la Roche, dated in 1 240, attests that Genoese mercantile
colonies, possessing their own warehouses, exchanges, and resident consuls, were
already established both at Athens and Thebes. Heyd, Die italienischeti HandeU'
colonial in Griechenland zur Zeit de^ lateinischen Kaiserlhums, 76; Canale, Storia de'
Genovesi, ii. 773 ; Liber Jurium Reip. Genvensis, i. 992, forming part of the Historiae
l'atriae Monumenta, published at Turin by the government.

PROSPEROUS CONDITION OF ATHENS. 145

A.D. I 205-I 308.]

high value of some of the productions of Greece, before the
discovery of America and of the route to India by the Cape
of Good Hope, placed the landed proprietors on the coasts
of Greece in the receipt of considerable money-revenues.
They were thus enabled to pay to their dukes an amount
of taxation which many monarchs in Western Europe were
unable to extract from numerous cities and burghs, whose
trade depended on slow and expensive land-communications,
and from cultivators without capital, who raised little but
corn and hay. An alliance of interest was thus formed
between the Frank princes and their Greek subjects. The
taxes paid by the Greeks supplied their sovereign with the
means of hiring more obedient military followers than the
array of the vassals of the fief. It became consequently an
object of importance to the Frank barons in Greece to protect
the natives as allodial proprietors, or, at least, as holding
their lands directly from the prince, on payment of a money-
rent, corresponding to the amount of taxation they had
previously paid to the Byzantine empire, instead of distributing
the land among the invaders as military fiefs. The richest
portions of the conquered territory in the immediate vicinity
of the towns were therefore left in the hands of the Greeks,
while the Crusaders generally received the territorial domains,
for which they were bound to pay personal military service,
in the more distant districts — a fact which is still proved by
the existing divisions of property, and by the ruins of feudal
strongholds. Out of this state of things a constant struggle
arose between the dukes, who desired to extend their autho-
rity and increase their revenues — the Frank military vassals,
who demanded the complete division of the whole conquered
country, in order to increase the numbers and power of their
own class — and the Greeks, who laboured and intrigued to
defend their possessions and maintain the capitulations. To
the existence of this struggle for a long period, without any
party venturing openly to disregard the principles of justice
and the force of public opinion, we must in a great measure
attribute the prosperous state of Athens and Thebes, under
the government of the house of de la Roche and the long
duration of the Frank domination in Attica. The security
enjoyed by the Greeks attached them to their dukes. Many
obtained the privilege of bearing arms, and though they
VOL. iv. L

146 DUKES OF ATHEXS.

[Ch.VI.§3.

never became a match for the Frank chivalry in a pitched

battle, they often bore a prominent part, and performed good

service, in the wars of the period l.

Sect. III. — Walter de Brienne. — The Catalan Grand

Company.

Walter de Brienne was the son of Isabella de la Roche,
sister of the dukes John and William. She married Hugh
de Brienne, count of Lecce, in the kingdom of Naples. The
family of Brienne was pre-eminent for brilliant actions in
the brightest age of chivalry; but the fortunes of this
celebrated house were more splendid and glorious than
solid, and the character of its members bore a strong re-
semblance to the gorgeous edifice of their renown. The
life of Walter, duke of Athens, was like that of many other
members of his illustrious family in its bright career and
bloody end. His grandfather, Walter de Brienne, count of
Jaffa, was that gallant freebooter of the Syrian desert whom
the Saracens long regarded with intense fear and hatred,
but whom they at last captured, and hanged before the
walls of his own castle2. His great-grandfather was Walter
de Brienne, who assumed the title of king of Sicily, and
died in prison. John de Brienne, king of Jerusalem and
emperor of Romania, was his great-grand-uncle; and his
father, Hugh, had not degenerated from the valour of the
house, or allowed its glory to diminish in his person. He
was one of the band of three hundred French knights who
called themselves the Knights of Death, and who perished
at the battle of Gagliano, in Sicily. Hugh de Brienne, after
performing prodigies of valour, and keeping his banner flying
on the field of battle with his own hand, after every one of
his followers and companions had fallen, was himself slain,
refusing quarter ;.

The death of Guy II. had no sooner put Walter in posses-
sion of the duchy of Athens, than he found his dominions

1 George Acropolita (93) mentions the Greeks as forming part of the army
of William, prince of Achaia, at the battle of Pelagonia.

2 Joinville's Memoirs of Si. Louis, p. 490 (Bohn's translation).

3 Muntaner, exci.

CATALAN GRAND COMPANY. 1 47

A.D. 1 308-I3I I.]

threatened with invasion by his neighbours, the despot of
Epirus and the prince of Vlachia. His territories were
exposed to attack, for Guy II. had extended his authority
as far as Armyros on the gulf of Volo, so that their geo-
graphical configuration left them open to invasion at many
points \ In order to punish his enemies, and revenge himself
by conquering some portion of their dominions, Walter
concluded a treaty of alliance with the Catalan Grand
Company, which had established its winter quarters in
Thessaly during the year 1308 2.

The expedition of the Catalans in the East is a wonderful
instance of the success which sometimes attends a career of
rapacity and crime, in opposition to all the ordinary maxims
of human prudence. Had their military executions and
inhuman devastations been the only prominent features in
their history, we might regret that all the military virtues
can exist in union with most of the crimes that disgrace
human nature, but we should feel no astonishment at their
great success. But when we find that internal dissensions
and civil anarchy frequently reigned in their camp, their
victorious military career and their steady discipline under
arms becomes a strange historical phenomenon. The leaders
quarrelled among themselves, the chiefs assassinated one
another, the troops murdered or banished their generals,
and yet victory remained faithful to a standard under which
every crime was committed with impunity : while the most
terrific anarchy prevailed in the councils of the leaders, the
strictest discipline was observed whenever the ranks were
formed for service in the field. Their great leader, Roger
de Florez, was assassinated by the Greeks. D'Entenza, one
of their most distinguished chiefs, was murdered, with many
knights of rank and renown, by the troops themselves, on
the march from Gallipoli to Cassandra. Fernand Ximenes
only saved himself by a precipitate flight. The infant Don
Fernand of Majorca, and his friend Muntaner, the delightful
historian of their singular exploits, were compelled to quit
the expedition, seeing that all regular authority was treated
with contempt. The royal and aristocratic feelings of the
prince and the warrior were too deeply wounded to permit

1 Muntaner, cxci. p. 467, edit, of 1840. a Niceph. Greg. 151 ; Muntaner, 474.

l a

148 DUKES OF ATHENS.

[Ch.VI. §3.

them to live in a republican army. Rocafort, the oldest
general in the Grand Company, the chief demagogue of
the camp, and the man who incited them to commit many
of their previous acts of violence, was at last treacherously
seized by his own officers, and delivered up a prisoner to
a French admiral, who carried him to Naples, where he
perished in a prison, starved to death by the mean revenge
and inexorable cruelty of the house of Anjou. The soldiers
revenged their veteran leader by murdering the fourteen
chiefs of the army who had delivered him to the French.
Two knights, an Adalil, and a colonel of Almogavars, were
then elected by the troops to perform the duties of
commander-in-chief ; and a council of twelve officers was
added, in accordance with a usage already established in
the republican government of the Grand Company. After
this bloody revolution, the Catalans marched forward to new
conquests, and to the establishment of a permanent territorial
dominion in Greece.

On their march they encountered serious opposition from
the officers of the Byzantine emperor in the mountains of
Macedonia, and from the forces of the prince of Vallachian
Thessaly. The hardy mountaineers of these districts,
Sclavonians, Vallachians, and Greeks, were found to be a
very different class of men from the Greeks of the Thracian
cities whom the Catalans had so often vanquished. The
campaign in 1308 was consumed in these contests, and
the Grand Company took up its winter quarters in Thessaly.
It suffered many hardships before it could force its way
though the Vallachian district, which was then one of the
most redoubtable countries in the world1. In the year
1309 it effected its junction with the army of the duke of
Athens, and from the time of its entry into his dominions
Walter became bound to pay each horseman in complete
heavy armour four gold ounces a-month, each light-armed
horseman two, and each Almogavar or foot-soldier one
ounce 2. As the Grand Company then counted in its ranks
three thousand five hundred cavalry and three thousand

1 Muiitaner, 474.

1 Ibid. A letter of Pope Benedict XI. informs us that in 1304 the ounce of
gold was equal to five florins of Florence, that is, in weight of gold nearly two
sovereigns and a half. Raynaldi Ann. xiv. 597 ; Sismoudi, Hisloire des Ripubliques
Italiennes, ii. 341, note 2, edit. Unix. 1838.

WALTER DE BRIENNE. 1 49

A.D. 1308-I3H.]

infantry, while the army of the duke of Athens was still
more numerous, these facts afford some data for estimating
the wealth and population of the dominions of Walter de
Brienne at this time.

The duke of Athens was at first highly popular with the
Catalans, whose language he spoke with facility \ The
campaign of 1309 was very successful. Walter defeated
all his enemies, and compelled them to purchase peace by
ceding to him thirty castles, which he added to his dominions.
The war was now terminated. Walter felt strong- in the
numbers of the knights he had assembled under his banner,
and in the impregnable nature of the fortresses and castles
that commanded every road and valley in his territory.
Relying on these resources, he determined to get rid of his
Spanish allies, whose high pay exhausted his treasury, and
whose rapacity and licentious habits oppressed his subjects.
The Catalans, on the other hand, were too well satisfied with
their life in the Boeotian and Phocian plains, which had long
enjoyed immunity from the ravages of war, to be easily
induced to quit a land so alluring to their avarice. When the
duke proposed to dismiss them, however, they contented
themselves with demanding payment of the arrears due for
their services, and liberty to march forward into the Morea.
Both demands were refused ; and Walter de Brienne, who,
as an adherent of the house of Anjou, was inclined to quarrel
with them as soon as he no longer stood in need of their
services, replied to their propositions that he would give them
nothing but the gibbet if they ventured to advance.

In the month of March 13 10, the Grand Company marched
down into the plain of Boeotia and took up a position on the
banks of the Cephissus near Skripou, the ancient Orchomenos2.

1 Muntaner tells us that Walter de Brienne learned Catalan in the castle of
Augusta in Sicily, where he passed a long time when young, as hostage for
his father.

2 The ignorance which Nicephorus Gregoras shows of the geography of Greece,
in his account of this battle on the banks of the Boeotian Cephissus, is curious.
He says that the great river Cephissus, rising in Mount Parnassus, flows eastward
through Locris, Achaia, and Boeotia in an undivided stream, as far as Livadea
and Haliartos, where it separates into two branches, changing its name into
Asopos and Ismene. The branch Asopos divides Attica into two parts and flows
into the sea. The branch Ismene falls into the straits of Euboea near Aulis,
where the heroes of Greece stopped on their expedition to Troy. After this
specimen of the ignorance of a Byzantine historian concerning classic Greece,
whose authors he was always reading, and with allusions to whose history and
mythology he was always encumbering his own pages by a tasteless display of

I^O DUKES OF ATHEXS.

[Ch.VI.§3.

The level plain appeared to offer great advantages to the
party that possessed the most numerous cavalry, and the
duke of Athens, confident in numbers, felt assured of victory,
and hastened forward to attack them at the head of the
army he had assembled at Thebes. His forces consisted
of six thousand cavalry and eight thousand infantry, partly
raised in the Morea, but principally composed of the Frank
knights of his own duchy, their feudal retainers, and the
Greeks of his dominions l. Walter placed himself at the
head of a band of two hundred nobles in the richest armour ;
and seven hundred feudal chiefs, who had received the honour
of knighthood, fought under his standard. It required all
the experience of the Spanish veterans, and their firm
conviction of the superiority of military discipline over
numbers and individual valour, to preserve their confidence
of success in a contest with a force so superior to their own
on a level plain. But the Spaniards were the first people,
in modern times, who knew the full value of a well-disciplined
and steady corps of infantry.

In spring, all the rich plains of Greece are covered with
green corn. The Catalan leaders carefully, conducted the
waters of the Cephissus into the fields immediately in front
of the ground on which they had drawn up their army. The
soil was allowed to drink in the moisture until it became so
soft that a man in armour could only traverse a few narrow
dykes that intersected the fields of wheat and barley ; yet
the verdure effectually concealed every appearance of recent
irrigation-. The duke of Athens, who expected to drive the
Spaniards back into Thessaly without much trouble, advanced
with all the arrogance of a prince secure of victory. Reserving
the whole glory of the triumph which he contemplated to him-
self, he drew up his army in order of battle ; and then, placing
himself at the head of nine hundred knights and nobles who
attended his banner, he rushed forward to overwhelm the
ranks of the Grand Company with the irresistible charge of

learning, we need Jiot wonder at any fables and absurdities the Greeks adopted
concerning the inhabitants and countries of Western Europe: p. 154.

1 Niceph. Greg.

8 A similar expedient was adopted by the Spar'ans. who diverted the waters of
the Eurotas into the land near the city, in order to embarrass the retreat of
Philip V. of Macedon as he returned from ravaging the southern part of Laconia,
B.C. 218. Ov hiafipu\ov ytvi)0(i>Tos, ovx olov tou» inirovs d\\' ovb' av toi/s rre^ci*
IwaTvV fy (/xPaivtiv. I'olybius, lib. v. cap. xxii. § 6.

BATTLE OF THE CEPH1SSUS. 151

A.D. I30S-I3II.]

the Frank chivalry. Everything promised the duke victory as
he moved rapidly over the plain to the attack, and the shafts
of the archers were already beginning to recoil from the
strong panoply of the knights, when Walter de Brienne shouted
his war-cry, and charged with all his chivalry in full career.
Their course was soon arrested. The whole body plunged
simultaneously into the concealed and new-formed marsh,
where there was as little possibility of retreat as there was
thought of flight. Every knight, in the belief that he had
only some ditch to cross, spurred forward, expecting that
another step would place him on the firm ground, where he
saw the Catalan army drawn up almost within reach of his
lance. Every exertion was vain : no Frank knight ever
crossed the muddy fields : horse and man floundered about
until both fell ; and as none that fell could rise again, the
confusion soon became inextricable. The Catalan light troops
were at last ordered to rush in, and slay knights and nobles
without mercy. Never did the knife of Aragon do more
unsparing execution, for mercy would have been folly while
the Spanish army still remained exposed to the attack of a
superior force ranged before it in battle array, and which
could easily have effected its retreat in unbroken order to the
fortresses in its rear. It is reported that, of all the nobles
present with Walter de Brienne, two only escaped alive and
were kept as prisoners — Boniface of Verona, and Roger Deslau
of Roussillon. The duke of Athens was among the first who
perished. The Athenian forces had witnessed the total defeat
of their choicest band of cavalry; the news that the duke was
slain spread quickly through their ranks ; and, without waiting
for any orders, the whole army broke its order, and each man
endeavoured to save himself, leaving the camp and all the
baggage to the Grand Company1.

1 The authorities for this account of the battle are Nicephorus Gregoras, 155,
and Muntaner, ccxl. Two great battles had decided the fate of Greece on this
plain in ancient times ; the victory of Philip of Macedon at Chaeronea, b. c. 338,
and that of Sylla over the generals of Mithridates, b.c 86.

The chronology of the Catalan expedition admits of discussion, but several
events are fixed by official documents. Don Fernand and Muntaner were taken
prisoners, and Muntaner was plundered of property to the value of 25.000 ounces
of gold at Negrepont in July 1307. Hopf, Veneto-Byzantinische Analekten, 149.
Compare Niceph. Greg. 151, and Pachymeres, ii. 455. In the following winter
the Grand Company was in Thessaly. Niceph. Greg. 153- The order of events
is then traced by Nicephorus Gregoras (155) and Muntaner (ch. ccxl.). The
grand-daughter of Muntaner succeeded in obtaining an indemnity of 11,000 gold
florins from the heirs of the two Venetian nobles who had joined the French.

I K2 DUKES OF ATHEXS.

[Ch.VI. §3.

This victory put an end to the power of the French families
in northern Greece ; but the house of Brienne continued to
possess the fiefs of Nauplia and Argos in the principality
of Achaia. Walter de Brienne, son of the slain duke, assumed
his father's title, and was remarkable for more than his father's
pride. After an unsuccessful attempt to recover possession of
the duchy of Athens in 1331, in which he landed near Arta
with a force of eight hundred French cavalry and five hundred
Tuscan infantry, he became general of Florence, but was
expelled from that city for his tyrannical conduct. He was
subsequently appointed constable of France, and perished at
the battle of Poitiers \

The Catalans followed up their victory with vigour : Thebes,
Athens, and every fortified place within the duchy, quickly
submitted to their authority. But their conquest, in spite of
its facility, was stained with their usual violence. The magni-
ficent palace at Thebes, built by Nicholas Saint-Omer, which
was the admiration of the minstrels of that age, was burned to
the ground, lest it should serve as a stronghold for some of
the French barons. A portion of the olive grove in the
Athenian plain, in the classic environs of Golonos and the
Academy, was reduced to ashes either from carelessness or
wantonness 2.

Admiral Cepoy and plundered Muntaner's ship. The suit was compromised
at Venice in the year 1356. The Chronicle of the Conquest of the Morea (Greek
text, v. 5960) says the battle occurred on Monday, 15th March, in the year
a.m. 6S17. and the 8tfi indiction. But the year a.m. 6817 gives a.d. 1309, and
the 8th indiction would place it in 1310. Monday was the 15th of March, only
in the year 131 1.

1 After the death of the constable Walter de Brienne, in 1356, Sohier d'Enghicn,
hi> nephew, assumed the title of duke of Athens, but it expired with his son
Walter, who died childless in 138 1. The family of d'Enghien ended in a female,
who sold Argos and Nauplia to the Venetian republic.

2 Boole of the Conquest, Greek text, v. 6749. Eallmerayer, Geschichte der Hal-
binsel Morea, ii. 182. The paintings on the walls of the palace represented the
conquest of Palestine by the Crusaders — to ttws tKovyKeaTTjaaatv ol Qpa-yicoi ttjv
2i/; av. The emperor Manuel I. of Constantinople decorated his palace at
Blachern with hunting scenes representing his own exploits, and it became so
much the fashion of courtly sycophants to imitate these paintings, that Alexis
Axouchos was looked upon as a traitor for omitting similar scenes in the decora-
tion of his new palace. Cinnamus, 154; Benjamin of Tudela, i. 53. The repre-
sentation of the Last Judgment, which may be seen in the porch of many a Greek
church, probably gives some idea of the style of these mural paintings. A rather
ludicrous bul not inaccurate description of these church paintings will be found
in A Vhit to Monaiteries in the Levant, by the Hon. Robert Curzon, ch. xxiv.

CONQUEST OF ATHEXS BY CATALANS. 153

A.D. I3II-I386.]

SECT. IV. — Dukes of At/tens and Neopatras of the Sicilian
Branch of the House of A ragon.

The Spaniards resolved to settle in their new conquest, and
the Grand Company assumed the position of a sovereign
prince, though there never existed an army worse adapted
for administering the affairs of civil government. Its first act
was to share the fiefs of the nobles who had fallen in the
battle on the banks of the Boeotian Cephissus, and to bestow
their widows and heiresses in marriage on the best officers,
who thus became possessed not only of well-fortified
castles and rich estates, but also of suitable and splendid
household establishments. The descendants of the French
now felt all the miseries their forefathers had inflicted on the
Greeks. Muntaner, the former associate of the Spanish sol-
diers, observes that on this occasion many stout Catalan
warriors received as wives noble ladies, for whom, the day
before their victory, they would have counted it an honour to
be allowed to hold the wash-hand basin l.

No sooner did the Catalan warriors become lords and
barons, than they felt the necessity of living under civil as
well as military law ; and so satisfied were they of the incom-
petency of all their own generals to act as civilians, that they
appointed Roger Deslau to act as their leader, until they
could arrange their differences with the house of Aragon ;
for in spite of their rebellious conduct, the ties of the feudal
system still bound the minds of the majority in allegiance
to their lawful sovereign. Under Roger Deslau the Grand
Company pursued its career of conquest, and extended its
dominion both to the north and west. Neopatras and Soula
(Salona) were annexed to the duchy; and their incursions
into the territories of the despot of Epirus on the one side,
and of the prince of Achaia on the other, alarmed the French
barons of the Morea to such a degree that they solicited
assistance from the spiritual arms of the Pope, whom they
persuaded to threaten the Spaniards with excommunication,
unless they restored their conquests to the rightful owners ;
though probably, in most cases, it would have puzzled even

1 Muntaner, p. 477.

154 DUKES OF ATHENS.

[Ch.M. §4.

his holiness to determine where the rightful claimants were to
be found. The archbishops of Corinth, Patras, and Otranto
were authorized to preach a crusade against the Catalans in
their dioceses1. Neopatras, from its strong position, important
military situation, and delightful climate in summer, divided
with Athens the honour of being the capital of the Catalan
principality, which was styled the duchy of Athens and
Neopatras.

During the administration of Roger Deslau, in 1326, the
Catalans sent a deputation to Sicily, begging Frederick II. to
invest his second son, Manfred, with the dukedom of Athens,
and praying him to send a regent to govern the country
during his son's minority. From that time the duchy of
Athens and Neopatras became an appanage of the house
of Aragon 2.

During the period the duchy of Athens was possessed by
the Sicilian branch of the house of Aragon, the Catalans were
incessantly engaged in wars with all their neighbours. The
despots of Epirus, the Venetians in Euboea, and the French
in Achaia, were in turn attacked ; but it was only in the
earlier years of their power, while the veterans of the Grand
Company still retained their military habits and passion
for war, that their operations were attended with success. As
happens with all conquering armies, the number of those who
were fitted by their physical and mental qualities to make
good soldiers was considerably diminished in the second
generation. Some families became extinct, some fell into
opposition by attaching themselves to their maternal race,
while many of the best soldiers were constantly engaged in
watching and defending their own private possessions against
foreign invaders or internal brigandage. The lieutenants-
general of the dukes, who arrived from Sicily, were always
compelled to bring with them fresh supplies of mercenary
troops3. The lieutenants of the Sicilian dukes mentioned

1 This bull of Pope John XXII. is dated in 1330.

2 Manfred, William, and John, the younger sons of King Frederic II. of Sicily,
held the duchy in succession. Manfred died about the year 131 7, William in
1331, and John in 133S. Frederic, Marquis of Randazzo, son of John, succeeded
his father, and died childless in 1355 without visiting Athens. The duchy then
reverted to Frederic III. of Sicily, whose daughter Maria inherited it in 1377.
From Maria the title passed to Alphonso V. of Aragon, and after the union
of the crowns of Aragon and Ca^tille the kings of Spain retained the title of Dukes
of Athens and Xeopatras.

3 Buchon, Nouvelles Recherches, i. 99, note.

CATALANS DEFEATED BY ACCIAIUOLI. 1 $$

A.D. I3II-I386.]

in history are Beranger d'Estauol, and Alphonso, the natural
son of king Frederic II. Roger de Lauria, son of the re-
nowned admiral, represented Frederic of Randazzo. After-
wards, Francis George, marquis of Boudonitza, Philip of
Dalmas, and Roger and Antonio de Lauria, sons of the
preceding Roger, ruled the duchy 1. During the government
of Roger and Antonio de Lauria, Louis, count of Salona, son
of the regent Alphonso, died, leaving an only daughter as his
heiress 2. Louis was proprietor of a very large portion of the
duchy, and the disputes that arose concerning the marriage
of his daughter caused the ruin of the Catalan power, and
the conquest of Athens by Nerio Acciaiuoli, the governor of
Corinth.

The Catalans were the constant rivals of the Franks of
Achaia, and Nerio Acciaiuoli, as governor of Corinth, was the
guardian of the principality against their hostile projects.
The marriage of the young countess of Salona involved the
two parties in war. The mother of the bride was a Greek
lady : she betrothed her daughter to Simeon, son of the prince
of Vallachian Thessaly; and the Catalans, with the two
Laurias at their head, supported this arrangement. But the
barons of Achaia, headed by Nerio Acciaiuoli, pretended that
the Prince of Achaia as feudal suzerain of Athens was entitled
to dispose of the hand of the countess. Nerio was deter-
mined to bestow the young countess, with all her immense
possessions, on a relation of the Acciaiuoli family, named
Peter Sarrasin 3. The war concerning the countess of Salona
and her heritage appears to have commenced about the year
1386. The Catalans were defeated, and Nerio gained pos-
session of Athens, Thebes, and Livadea ; but a few of the
Spanish proprietors, and the remains of the military force
attached to the viceroys, continued for some years to offer
a determined resistance in other parts of the duchy, and

1 The count de Foix, endeavouring to persuade Roger de Lauria, the great
admiral, to consent to a truce, observed, ' France can arm three hundred galleys.'
'Let her do it,' exclaimed Lauria: ' I will sweep the sea with my hundred, and
no ship without leave from the king of Aragon shall pass : no, nor shall a fish
dare to raise its head above the water, unless I can see that it bears the arms of
Aragon on its tail.' Desclot, c. 166.

2 Moncada, Expedition de los Catalanes y Aragoneses, cap. lxx. The Chronicle
of the Conquest fixes the position of La Sola or Soula at the ancient Amphissa
with certitude. Troops marching from Vetrinitza to Gravia pass by La Sola.
Livre de la Conqneste, p. 413 ; Ducange, Histoire de Constantinople, 243, 299.

3 Ducange, Histoire de Constantinople, 299.

lj6 DUKES OF ATHEXS.

[Ch.VI. §5.

rallied round them a body of Navarrese troops in the service
of the last Spanish governors.

During the war, a quarrel broke out between the dowager
countess of Salona and the bishop of Phocis. The Athenian
historian Chalcocondylas narrates that the bishop accused the
lady, whose name was Helena Cantacuzena, of adultery witl
a priest, and that this conscientious bishop hastened to th<
court of the sultan Bayezid I. (Ilderim), who was then in
Thessaly, and begged him to remove the scandal from Greek
society by conquering the country. In order to attract the
sultan, who was passionately fond of the chase, the reverend
bishop vaunted the extent of the marshes of Boeotia filled
with herons and cranes, and the numerous advantages the
country offered for hunting and hawking. Bayezid made his
interference a pretext for occupying the northern part of the
duchy around Neopatras ; but, being soon after engaged with
other projects, the Turks do not appear to have retained
permanent possession of the district then seized. Chalco-
condylas affirms that the dowager countess delivered up her
daughter to Bayezid to be placed in his harem, which would
imply that her marriage with the prince of Vlachia had not
yet been celebrated l.

The Laurias, pressed by the Turks on the north, and by
Nerio Acciaiuoli and the Franks of Achaia on the south,
abandoned the duchy, in which only a few small bands of
troops continued to defend themselves almost in the capacity
of brigands.

SECT. V. — Dukes of the family of Acciaiuoli of Florence. —
Termination of the Frank domination in A thens.

The decline of mediaeval Athens commences with the
Catalan conquest. The ties of interest which had hitherto
connected the prosperity of the Greek landed proprietors
with the power of the sovereign were then broken, and every
Greek was exposed to the oppression and avarice of a
thousand mercenary soldiers suddenly converted into petty
princes, and to the exactions of the rapacious agents of
absent sovereigns. The feudal system was everywhere

1 Ducange, Histoire de Constantinople, 298 ; Chalcocondylas, p. 35, edit. Paris.

FAMILY OF ACCIAIUOLI. 157

a.d. 1386-1456.J

giving way ; the authority of the prince and the money of the
commons were rapidly gaining power, as the new elements of
political government. Several members of the family of
Acciaiuoli, which formed a distinguished commercial com-
pany at Florence in the thirteenth century, settled in the
Peloponnesus about the middle of the fourteenth, under the
protection of Robert, king of Naples. Nicholas Acciaiuoli
was invested, in the year 1334, with the administration of the
lands which the company had acquired in payment or in
security of the loans it had made to the royal house of Anjou ;
and he acquired additional possessions in the principality of
Achaia, both by purchase and by grant, from Catherine of
Valois, titular empress of Romania, and regent of Achaia for
her son prince Robert \ The encroachments of the mer-
cantile spirit on the feudal system are displayed in the
concessions obtained by Nicholas Acciaiuoli, in the grants
he received from Catherine of Valois. He was invested with
the power of mortgaging, exchanging, and selling his fiefs,
without any previous authorization from his suzerain 2.
Nicholas acted, as principal minister of Catherine, during a
residence of three years in the Morea ; and he made use of
his position, like a prudent banker, to obtain considerable
grants of territory. He returned to Italy in 1341, and never
again visited Greece ; but his estates in Achaia were adminis-
tered by his relations and other members of the banking house
at Florence, many of whom obtained considerable fiefs for
themselves through his influence.

Nicholas Acciaiuoli was appointed hereditary grand
seneschal of the kingdom of Naples by queen Jeanne, whom
he accompanied in her flight to Provence when she was driven
from her kingdom by Louis of Hungary. On her return, he
received the rich county of Amalfi, as a reward for his fidelity,
and subsequently Malta was added to his possessions 3. He
was an able statesman, and a keen political intriguer ; and he

1 The company of Acciaiuoli made a loan to John, count of Gravina. brother
of Robert, king of Naples, to enable him to prosecute his iniquitous scheme of
seizing the principality of Achaia, under the pretext that he was the husband
of the princess Maud of Hainault, who was already married.

2 Buchon, Nouvelles Recherches ; Diplomes, Florence, No. VII. torn. ii. p. 70.

3 Buchon {Nouvelles Recherches, i. 101) cites some documents, relating to the
possession of the county of Malta by the Acciaiuoli, not previously known. The
imposing ruins of a castle built by Nicholas at Lettore may still be seen, after
quitting the valley of Gragnano, near Castellamare.

158 PTA'ES OF ATHENS.

[Ch.VI.§5.

was almost the first example of the superior position the
purse of the moneyed citizen was destined to assume over the
sword of the feudal baron and the learning of the politic
churchman. Nicholas Acciaiuoli was the first of that banking
aristocracy, which has since held an important position in
European history. He was the type of a class destined at
times to decide the fate of kingdoms, and at times to arrest
the progress of armies. He certainly deserved to have his
life written by a man of genius ; but his superciliousness and
assumption of princely state, even in his intercourse with the
friends of his youth, disgusted Boccaccio, who alone of his
Florentine contemporaries could have left a vivid sketch of
the career which raised him from the partner of a banking-
house to the rank of a great feudal baron, and to live in the
companionship of kings. Boccaccio, offended by his inso-
lence, seems not to have appreciated his true importance, as
the type of a coming age and a new state of society ; and
the indignant and satirical record he has left us of the pride
and presumption of the mercantile noble is by no means
a correct portrait of the Neapolitan minister. Yet even
Boccaccio records, in his usual truthful manner, that Nicholas
had dispersed powerful armies, though he unjustly depreciates
the merit of the success, because the victory was gained by
combinations effected by gold, and not by the headlong
charge of a line of lances l.

Nicholas Acciaiuoli obtained a grant of the barony and
hereditary governorship of the fortress of Corinth in the year
1358. He was already in possession of the castles of Vulcano
(Messene), Piadha, near Epidauros, and large estates in other
parts of the Peloponnesus. He died in 1365 ; and his sons,
Angelo and Robert, succeeded in turn to the barony and
government of Corinth 2. Angelo mortgaged Corinth to his
relation, Nerio Acciaiuoli, who already possessed fiefs in
Achaia, and who took up his residence at Corinth, on account

1 l'occaccio, Opere Volgari, Florence, 1834, tom. xvii. p. 37, quoted at length
by Buchon, Nouvelles Recherches, i. 87. Nicholas was unfortunate in his inter-
course with the great literary characters of his age. Petrarch was displeased with
him for not keeping a promise, for which act he is sharply reproached by the
poet. Napier. Florentine History, ii. 163, note.

2 The tomb of Nicholas Acciaiuoli. in the monastery of St. Lawrence, near
J lorence. is said to be the workmanship of Andrea Orcagna, and is one of the
richest sepulchral monuments of the time. Buchon, Nouvelles Recherches, plate
xxxvii.

XERIO ACCIAIUOLI DUKE OF ATHEXS \Zq

aj>. 1386-1456.] Jy

of the political and military importance of the fortress as
well as to enable him to administer the revenues of the barony
in the most profitable manner.

Nerio Acciaiuoli, though he held the governorship of
Corinth only as the deputy of his relation, and the barony
only in security of a debt, was nevertheless, from his ability,
enterprising character, great wealth, and extensive connections,
one of the most influential barons of Achaia ; and, from the
disorderly state of the principality, he was enabled to act as
an independent prince. We have already seen under what
pretext he succeeded in gaining possession of the greater
part of the Catalan possessions in Attica and Boeotia. About
the commencement of the year 1394, Ladislas, king of Naples,

conferred on him by patent the title of duke of Athens

Athens forming, as the king pretended, part of the princi-
pality of Achaia \ But almost about the same time the new
duke had the misfortune to be taken prisoner by a band of
Navarrese troops, which still maintained itself in eastern
Greece, and with which he was holding a conference, trusting
to the safe conduct of a Catalan chief, who also continued to
preserve his independence. Nerio was compelled to purchase
his liberty by paying a large ransom, part of which he raised .by-
seizing the treasures and jewels in all the churches throughout
his territories, and selling all the ornaments of value, even to
the silver plates on the door, of the church of St. Mary at
Athens. He died shortly after. By his will he placed all his
possessions under the protection of the republic of Venice,
supplicating it to defend the rights of his daughter Francesca,
wife of Charles Tocco, count of Cephalonia and despot of
Arta, or Romania2. Nerio left the castle and district of
Livadea to his natural son Antonio, as well as the city of
Thebes, with the right to redeem it, on payment of the sum
for which it had been pledged on account of his ransom.

The first bequest in the will of Nerio Acciaiuoli is a very
singular one. It bequeaths the city of Athens to the church
of St. Mary. The bequest implied the acquisition of muni-
cipal liberty, under the protection of the clergy; and thus,

1 Buchon, Nouvelles Recherches; Diplomes, No. xli. torn. ii. p. 223. Ladislas had
really no title to the suzerainty over Achaia. This patent is incorrectly abridged
in Fanelli, Atene Attica, p. 290.

3 Chalcocondylas, 113. The testament of Nerio is published by Buchon,
Nouvelles Recherches, ii. 260.

160 DUKES OF ATHEXS.

[Ch.VI.§5.

after fourteen centuries of slavery, Athens regained for a
moment a halo of liberty, under the shadow of papal influ-
ence, through the superstition or piety of a Florentine
merchant prince \ The archbishop was the true defender of
the commons in the East, but, unfortunately, the archbishop
of Athens was of the Catholic Church, and the people were
orthodox ; so that, even if he could have succeeded in main-
taining his authority, he must have done so as a feudal prince.
But the bequest of Nerio was a delusion, by which the dying
sinner calmed the reproaches of a conscience troubled with
the memory of the plundered ornaments of many churches,
and, above all, of the silver plates of the doors of St. Mary,
with which he had paid his own ransom. The archbishop of
Athens and the administrators of church property belonging
to the papal church being hated by the majority of the
inhabitants of Athens, who were orthodox Greeks, it is
probable that a revolution would have soon followed the
assumption of power by the chapter of St. Mary, had the
Venetian republic not been called in to protect their govern-
ment, in virtue of the general superintendence over the
execution of the testament confided to Venice.

In the mean time, Antonio, who was master of Livadea
and Thebes, trusting to his popularity, and counting on the
active support of the Greeks, to whose nation his mother
belonged, advanced to attack Athens. He besieged the city
before the Venetians had placed a garrison in the Acropolis.
To create a diversion the Venetian governor of Negrepont
marched to attack Thebes at the head of six thousand troops.
Antonio hastened to meet them before they could intrench
themselves ; and, by a skilful disposition of a very inferior
numerical force, he completely routed this army, and cap-
tured many of the Latin feudal chiefs who had joined the
Venetians. On his return to his camp before Athens, he
was immediately admitted within the walls by his partizans.
The Acropolis soon surrendered, and Antonio assumed the
government of the duchy, adopting the title of Lord of the
duchy of Athens 2. As soon as his power was firmly estab-

1 The words of the bequest are — ' Lasciamo all' ecclesia di Santa Maria di
Atene la citu di Atene. COD tutte sue pertinentie et ragioni.'

- It is not easy to fix the time that Antonio assumed the title of duke of Athens,
if indeed he ever used it. The patent of the dukedom by king Ladislas granted
the title to the son of Donato Acciaiuoli, the brother of Nerio, on the death

ANTONIO DUKE OF ATHENS. 161

A.D. I386-I456.]

lished in all the country, from Livadea to Athens, he
visited the court of sultan Bayezid I., whose impetuous
character rendered him the terror of the Christian princes in
his neighbourhood. From this restless enemy of the Christian
name he succeeded in obtaining a recognition of his sove-
reignty over Attica and Boeotia x.

Under the government of Antonio Acciaiuoli, Athens en-
joyed uninterrupted tranquillity for forty years. Its wealth
and commercial importance, though in a state of decline,
were still considerable, for it required many generations of
misfortune and bad government to reduce Attica to the
miserable condition in which we see it at the present time —
languishing under what is called the protection of the great
powers of Europe 2. The republic of Florence deemed it an
object worthy of its especial attention to obtain a commercial
treaty with the duchy, for the purpose of securing to the
citizens of the republic all the privileges enjoyed by the
Venetians, Catalans, and Genoese. The conclusion of this
treaty is almost the only event recorded concerning the ex-
ternal relations of Athens during the long reign of Antonio 3.
The Athenians appear to have lived happily under his
government ; and he himself seems to have spent his time in
a joyous manner, inviting his Florentine relations to Greece,
and entertaining them with festivals and hunting parties.
Yet he was neither a spendthrift nor a tyrant ; for Chalco-
condylas, whose father lived at his court, records that while
he accumulated great wealth with prudent economy, he at
the same time adorned the city of Athens with many new
buildings 4. Phrantzes, who visited the court of Athens, at a
subsequent period, on a mission from Constantine, the last
emperor of Constantinople, then despot in the Morea, says
that Antonio married Maria Melissenos, and received several

of the first duke without heirs male. Antonio lived on friendly terms with the
members of his father's family ; and Nerio, the third son of Donato, resided often
at his court. The title Antonio assumes in the commercial charter he granted
to the citizens of Florence, in 1423, is, AvOivrrjs 'AOrjvwv Qrjfiuiv rravros Bov/ctdfiov
/cat twv k£rjs.

1 Chalcocondylas, 113, 114. 2 a.d. 1850.

3 The Greek charter is printed by Buchon, Nouvelles Reckerches ; Diplomes, lxvii.
torn. ii. p. 289. It is dated August 1422.

4 Chalcocondylas, 114. Colonel Leake thinks that the high _ tower in the
Acropolis may have been built by Antonio ; I own I feel inclined, from the
manner of its construction, to attribute it to an earlier period. Leake's Topo-
graphy of Athens, vol. i. p. 73.

VOL. IV. M

1 62 DUKES OF ATHENS.

[Ch.VI.§5.

towns in the district of Tzakonia as her dowry. Antonio died

of apoplexy in 1435 l.

Nerio II., the grandson of Donato Acciaiuoli, brother of the
first duke, was now the legal heir to the dukedom. He and
his brother Antonio had been invited to Athens, and treated
as heirs to the principality by the Duke Antonio ; but when
the Duke Antonio died without a will, his widow succeeded
in gaining possession of the Acropolis, through the favour of
the Greek population, who desired the expulsion of their
Latin rulers. Phrantzes was sent by the despot Constantine,
as envoy, to treat with her for the cession of Athens and
Thebes to the Greek empire, on condition of her receiving
an increase of her paternal heritage in the Peloponnesus ; but
her power proved of too short duration to enable the envoy
to conclude anything. Military assistance, not diplomatic
negotiation, was what the widow required, in order to enable
her to maintain the position she had occupied. As she could
not procure this from the Greeks, she endeavoured to obtain
it from the Turks. For this purpose she sent the father of
the historian Chalcocondylas as ambassador to sultan Murad
II., with rich presents, in order to purchase the ratification or
recognition of her authority at the Porte. The principal men
at Athens were then of the papal church, and they were con-
sequently averse to the government of a Greek lady, whose
administration could not fail to terminate by the sale of her
authority to the Greek despot of the Peloponnesus, or by her
a needing a portion of her power to the lower order of
citizens, who adhered to the Greek rite. The long prosperity
of Antonio's government had attached the majority, in some
degree, to the family of Acciaiuoli. The Latin aristocracy,
therefore, contrived to put an end to the power of his widow
by enticing her to quit the Acropolis, seizing on that fortress,
and expelling her most active partizans from the city. Chal-
cocondylas was driven into banishment, and Nerio II. was
established on the ducal throne, with the approbation of the
sultan, whose troops had advanced as far as Thebes.

The new duke was a man of weak character, and the

1 Phrantzes, p. 159, edit. Bonn. Chalcocondylas (114) and Fanelli (Atene
Allien, p. 294"! indicate that he was twice married. The towns that formed
the dowry of Maria bfelissenos were, Astros, Aghios Petros, Aghios Joannes,
Platamouas, Melingou, Proasteion, Leonidas, Kyparissia, Rheontas, and Sitanas.

INVASION OF THE TURKS. 163

A.D. 1 386-I456.]

direction of the administration fell into the hands of his
brother Antonio. Nerio visited Florence, in order to regulate
the affairs of his father's succession ; and it was generally-
reported in Greece, and perhaps not entirely without founda-
tion, that he had been compelled to surrender the government
of the duchy to his brother. Still there does not appear to
have been any feeling of personal animosity between the
brothers, for Nerio II. left his wife and son to the care of
Antonio during his absence1. On his return he found his
brother dead. Nothing more is recorded of Nerio, except
that he was compelled to pay tribute to Constantine, despot
of the Morea, in the year 1443, when the victorious campaign
of John Hunniades in Bulgaria enabled the Moreotes to make
a temporary incursion into northern Greece. But as soon as
Murad II. had restored the superiority of the Turkish arms
by his victory at Varna, Nerio abandoned the cause of the
Greeks, and hastened to join his forces to those of the Otho-
man general Turakhan, at Thebes, as he advanced to invade
the Peloponnesus. Nerio was allowed to retain possession of
Athens as a vassal and tributary of the Othoman empire ; but
he was obliged to remain a tame spectator while part of his
dominions was plundered by a detachment of the Turkish
army. His death happened about the time Constantinople
was taken by Mohammed II.

Nerio II. left an infant son, and his widow acted as regent
during the minority. She fell in love with Pietro Almerio,
the Venetian governor of Nauplia, and promised to marry
him if he could obtain a divorce from his wife. Almerio
thought that he could remove all obstacles to the marriage
most readily by murdering his wife, a crime which he doubt-
less expected to be able to conceal. He was so far successful
that he married the duchess, and obtained the direction of the
government of Athens. But his crime became known, and
the principal Athenians, both Latins and Greeks, fearing to
fall under the severe authority of the Venetian senate, and
indignant at the conduct of the duchess, complained to sultan
Mohammed II. of the crimes of her Venetian lover. The
principal men, or Archonts, of Athens, had acquired a re-
cognized right to interfere in the affairs of the administration

1 Compare Chalcocondylas, 170, with Buchon, Nouvelles Recherches, i. 185.

M 2

1 64 DUKES OF ATHENS.

[Ch.VI.§?.

from the moment the duchy became tributary to the Otho-
man Porte. Their complaints met with immediate attention,
for it did not suit the sultan's policy to permit Venice to
extend her influence in Greece, and the Othoman sultans
were the protectors of religious toleration and of the equality
of all Christian sects. Almerio was summoned to the Otho-
man court, to defend himself against the accusation of the
Athenians ; and in his position as guardian of a tributary
prince, he could not venture to dispute the order without
resigning the charge to obtain which he had committed his
crime. On his arrival, he found Franco Acciaiuoli, the son
of Antonio and cousin of the young duke, already in high
favour at the Porte. Sultan Mohammed II. no sooner heard
Almerio's reply to the accusations of the Athenians, than he
removed the Venetian from the government, and conferred
the duchy on Franco, who was received by the inhabitants
with great demonstrations of joy.

The first act of Franco Acciaiuoli proved that his residence
at the Turkish court had utterly corrupted his morals. He
sent his aunt to Megara, where, after keeping her a short
time in prison, he ordered her to be secretly put to death.
Almerio accused him of this murder at the Porte, and soli-
cited the government of Athens as the guardian of the young
duke, whose person, it was evident, could not be safe in the
custody of his mother's murderer. Mohammed II., finding
that the Athenians were now equally disgusted with both
pretenders, ordered Omar the son of Turakhan to take pos-
session of the Acropolis, and annexed Attica to the Othoman
empire. Franco held out the Acropolis against the Turkish
army for a short time, but surrendered it on receiving a pro-
mise that he should be allowed to remove his treasures to
Thebes, and be acknowledged as prince of that city. This
conquest put an end to the domination of the Latins, in the
year 14,56 l.

Two years after the conquest, sultan Mohammed II. visited
Athens in person, on his return from the Morea. The mag-
nificence of the ancient buildings in the city and Acropolis,
and the splendid aspect of the Piraeus, with its quays and

1 Chalcocondylas (241) places the final conquest of Athens during Mohammed's
expedition into the Peloponnesus in 1458; but 1'hrantzes (385, edit. Bonn) gives
the correct date.

ATHENS ANNEXED TO OTHOMAN EMPIRE. 165

A.D. I386-I456.]

moles recently adorned by the duke Antonio, struck the
sultan with admiration, who exclaimed with delight, ' Islam
is in truth deeply indebted to the son of Turakhan.' Mo-
hammed visited Athens a second time in the year 1460, after
he had put an end to the power of the Greek despots in the
Morea ; and on this occasion some of the Athenian archonts
were accused of having formed a plot to place Franco again
in possession of the city. In order to remove all chance of
disorder after his own departure, Mohammed carried away ten
of the principal inhabitants as hostages ; and Saganos, who
was left as pasha of the Morea, was ordered to put Franco to
death. Saganos cited Franco to appear before him, and as
the criminal had once been his intimate friend, he permitted
him to be privately strangled in his own tent \ The govern-
ment of the last sovereigns of Athens and the bigotry of the
papal church had become intolerable to the Greek population,
who hailed the establishment of the Othoman power with
delight. For some time the administration of the Turks
was considered mild and liberal : they invested Greek local
magistrates with a greater degree of authority than they had
previously possessed ; they allowed the orthodox clergy to
dispense justice to the Greek population, and the local
authorities to collect the tribute which the province was
compelled to remit to Constantinople. The arrival of the
Turks appeared like the dawn of liberty to those who could
forget that they were compelled to pay a tribute of children
to recruit the ranks of the Janissaries. Slavery, and the
religious quarrels of the Greeks and Latins, had so deadened
the moral feelings of the people to this calamity that, to
all outward appearance, they seemed long contented with
their lot, and by no means inclined to participate in the
schemes formed by the Christians of the West for their
deliverance from the Turkish yoke, which, even with the
burden of the tribute of Greek children, was considered pre-
ferable to that of the Catholics.

1 Chalcocondylas, 257. The Historia Patriarckica Constantinopoleos (p. 121,
edit. Cmsius) says that the wife of Franco was a daughter of Demetrius Asan
of Corinth.

i66 Dl'KES OF ATHEXS.

[Ch. VI. § 6.

SECT. VI. — Condition of the Greek Population under
the Dukes of Athens.

Chronicles and official documents replace in some degree
the want of a Thucydides or a Xenophon, and enable us
to reconstruct at least an outline of the political history of
mediaeval Athens. But the blank left by the want of
an Aristophanes is irreparable, and we are unfortunately
completely ignorant of the condition of those whom Shakspeare
calls —

'The rude mechanicals,
That worked for bread upon Athenian stalls.'

Still, in order to mark the peculiarities of the period that
witnessed the almost total extinction of rural slavery, it is
necessary to pass in review the few facts that are recorded
concerning the condition of the labouring classes during
the Frank domination in Attica. There is no doubt that
the conquest of the Byzantine empire by the Latins, and
the division of the territory among' several independent
princes, must have tended to ameliorate the. condition of
the cultivators of the soil who were still slaves or serfs. The
Sclavonian or Albanian slave found a protector against his
Greek master in the Frank feudal chief ; and whenever his
condition became insupportable, he could without much
difficulty escape into the territories of some neighbouring and
generally hostile prince.

It has been supposed, from the tendency of Justinian's
legislation, compared with subsequent laws of the Byzantine
emperors, that Christians were not retained in slavery by the
Greeks in the thirteenth century; and that rural slavery had
been long extinguished, and replaced by the labour of serfs
or colons, who made fixed payments in produce and labour
for the land to which they were attached. Two laws are
frequently quoted to prove the advances made by the
Byzantine government towards the abolition of slavery. One
of these laws displays an extremely favourable disposition
with regard to the slaves, while the other indicates a desire
to see slavery extinguished. The first, dated at the end
of the eleventh century, declares, that if any person be
claimed as a slave, and can produce two witnesses of character

SLAVERY IN GREECE. 167

A.D. I205-I456.J

to prove that he has been known as a freeman, the process
must be terminated by his own oath. The same law declares,
also, that even slaves shall be entitled to claim their liberty,
if their masters refuse to permit the religious celebration of
their marriages1. The second law, which belongs to the
middle of the twelfth century, gives freedom to all persons
who have been reduced to slavery by the sale of their
property, by the necessity of cultivating the lands of others
in a servile capacity, or by poverty which had compelled
them to sell themselves in order to obtain the necessaries of
life 2. The enactment of these laws must not be attributed
entirely to feelings of humanity or Christian charity, caused
by the advanced state of moral civilization in Byzantine
society, or to the powerful influence exercised on the religious
feelings of Eastern Christians by the Greek church. They
had their origin partly in political motives ; and when these
motives ceased to operate, we find, from subsequent history,
that they were forgotten or neglected. As late as the year
1344, imperial selfishness extinguished every sentiment of
humanity and religion in the Byzantine government and the
Greek people on the subject of slavery. During the civil
war between the empress Anne of Savoy, guardian of John
V., and the usurper Cantacuzenos, the empress concluded
a treaty with the Othoman sultan Orkhan, by which the
Mohammedan auxiliaries in the imperial armies were allowed
to export as slaves into Asia any Christians they might take
prisoners belonging to the adverse party ; and this treaty
even permitted the slave-merchants, who purchased these
slaves, to convey them from the markets held in the Turkish
camp through Constantinople and Scutari to their destination
in the Mussulman countries 3. The provisions of this treaty
were ratified by Cantacuzenos when he gained over the sultan
to his party by making him his son-in-law ; yet this un-
principled hypocrite, in his pompous history, gravely records
that it was forbidden by the Roman law to reduce prisoners
of war to the condition of slaves, unless they were barbarians

1 Mortreuil, Hitoire du droit Byzantin, torn. iii. p. 158; E. Bonefidius, Jus
Orienfale, p. 67.

2 Cinnami Hist. Byz. 161. This law has escaped the attention both of Boie-
fidius and' Mortreuil, but is noticed by Le Beau, HUtoire du Bas-Empire, torn. xvi.
p. 302.

3 Cantacuzeni Hist. p. 302.

168 DUKES OF ATHENS.

[Ch. VI. § 6.

who did not believe in the doctrines of Christianity. The
hypocrisy of princes sometimes succeeds in falsifying history,
even when they are not writing it themselves, like Canta-
cuzenos, in a monastery where they excite sympathy by
having exchanged the robes of an emperor for the garb of a
monk.

A few documents have been preserved which prove the
existence both of domestic and rural slavery in Athens,
down to the latest period of the ducal government. A letter
of Pope Innocent III. to the archbishop of Patras, in the
year 1209, shows that the soil was very generally cultivated
by serfs throughout Greece at the time of the Frank con-
quest \ A charter of the titular Latin emperor Robert,
in 1358, mentions the loss of slaves as one of the greatest
misfortunes to which landed proprietors could be exposed 2.
In the will of Nerio I., duke of Athens, there is a clause
conferring liberty on a slave named Maria Rendi, and de-
claring that all her property, whether movable or immovable,
must be given up to her. This clause affords conclusive
proof of the existence both of domestic and rural servitude,
for the idea of a domestic slave possessing immovable
property indicates that the legal position of rural serfs had
modified the condition of domestic slaves3. There is still
a more decisive proof of the generality of domestic slavery
in an act of donation of a female slave, by Francesca, countess
of Cephalonia, daughter of Nerio I., to her cousin Nerio,
by which she gives him one of her female slaves or serfs
from the despotat of Arta, in absolute property, with full
power to sell or emancipate her 4. The last official act
relating to slavery during the government of the Frank dukes
is dated in 1437. It mentions numerous personal services as
due by serfs in Attica, corresponding to those to which the
villeins were subjected in western Europe ; and it liberates
a slave of duke Antonio, named Gregorios Chamaches, and
his posterity, from the servitudes of transporting agricultural

1 Innocentii III. Epist. lib. xiii. ep. 159, torn. ii. p. 4S5, edit. Baluze.

2 Buchon, Nouvelles Recherches; Diplomes, torn. ii. p. 145.
8 Ibid. ii. 256.

* Ibid ii. 2S6. We know that slaves were publicly sold at Venice in the

fourteenth century. Still it appears that, in certain cases, the consent of the

-lave was necessary for a legal transference from one master to another. Gamba,

'egli scritti im/ressi in Dialetto Veneziano, Venezia 1*32, where, at p. 32, an

Imtrumeiito di vendila d'uno schiavo scrilto I' anno 1365 is given.

SLAVERY IN GREECE. 169

A.D. 1 205-1 456.]

produce to the city, of transporting new wine from the vats,
of collecting and making offerings of oil and olives, and from
all other obligations of rural servitude, making him as free as
a Frank \

But rural slavery did not become completely extinct
in Greece until the country was conquered by the Turks.
The fact is, that in no country where it prevailed has rural
slavery ceased until the price of the productions raised by
slave- labour has fallen so low as to leave no profit to the
slave-owner. When some change in the condition of the
population admits of land being let for a greater share of
the produce than can be reserved by the proprietor, when
he cultivates it himself with the labour of his slaves, then
it will be impossible to perpetuate slavery; but on the other
hand it will be very difficult to abolish slavery in any society
where the labour of the slave gives fertility to the soil and
wealth to the slave-owner, and where no free labourers can
be found to secure a corresponding profit to the landowner.
History affords its testimony that neither the doctrines of
Christianity, nor the sentiments of humanity, have ever yet
succeeded in persuading slave-owners that it was their duty
as men or as Christians to abolish slavery, where the soil
could be cultivated with profit by slave-labour. No Christian
community of slaveholders has yet voluntarily abolished
slavery. Philanthropy is the late production of an advanced
state of civilization, operating on a society free from external
danger, whose members are not under the necessity of
rendering personal military service, and where the majority
remain ignorant of the sufferings and passions of actual
warfare.

It may not be uninteresting to notice here some proofs of
the wealth and importance of Athens during the government
of the dukes. Muntaner, a valuable testimony, since he was
long engaged in war with the French along the whole shores
of the Mediterranean, declares that the Frank chivalry of

1 The original words are curious — 'A\\a not naWov earaj 001 cppayyos i\ev9epos
ml iraihia tuiv ircudiajv aov airb iracrrjs inrapoitcias re 5ov\oavvrjs dwo T€ eyyapias
KavtcrKiwv, p.ovaTo<popiuiv, i\aioimpovx<-<uv Kal krtpoiv dKXcav roiavrrjs vnapoiKias
■npovopnov. B\ichon,Nouvelles Recherches; Diplomes, ii. 297. The system of paroekia
or feudal servitudes that prevailed in the Venetian possessions in the East, and
particularly in Cyprus, was extremely odious and oppressive. It caused the flight
of many Greek families to the Turkish dominions.

j 70 DUKES OF ATHENS.

[Ch.Vl §6.

Greece was in nobility and deeds of arms second to none in
Europe ; that they spoke as good French as the nobles of
Paris ; that the title of prince of the Morea was, after that of
king, one of the highest and noblest in the world ; and that
the duke of Athens was one of the greatest princes of the
empire of Romania, and among the noblest of those sove-
reigns who did not bear the kingly title \

The palace of the dukes of Athens was built over the
columns of the Propylaea of the Acropolis, and the great
tower which still exists was the keep of that edifice. Though
perhaps it may disfigure the classic elegance of the spot, it is
a grand historical landmark, and testifies, by the solidity of its
construction, both the wealth of the dukes and their firm
confidence in the stability of their power, now that every other
trace of their palaces has disappeared -. The Turks only
whitewashed the fortresses which the Franks strengthened.
The palace erected by the Franks at Thebes was far more
celebrated in the days of its splendour than their buildings in
the Acropolis of Athens. A single ruined tower is now all that
remains of this renowned construction, and it still retains the
name of Santomeri, in memory of Nicholas . Saint-Omer, by
whom it was built. This magnificent baron possessed one
half of the barony of Thebes, in consequence of his grand-
father's marriage with the sister of Guy L, duke of Athens 3.
Nicholas married the princess of Antioch, who brought him an
immense dowry. His fortified palace at Thebes was built
with a strength and solidity of which the ruined tower affords
us some evidence ; and the jealousy of the Catalans who

1 Muntaner, chap, ccxliv., cclxi.. cclxii.

2 Some remains of the ducal palace were visible in the northern chamber of
the Propylaea, called the Pinacotheca. until they were removed with the battery
that encumbered the centre of the building. The period at which this tower wat
constructed is not certain, but it seems to be a monument of the dukes of the
family of De la Roche, and to belong to the same epoch as the ruined tower
of Mark Sanudo. in the citadel of Naxos, and that of Santomeri at Thebes. This
early age was the period in which towers were a universal system of defence.
For the strong towers in Palestine constructed by the French, see Michaud,
Hisfoire dt . Pieces Jusrif. ; Vie de Malek Mantour Kelaoun; and Bihlio-
thrjue des Crohades, iv. partie, p. 491. The lower built by Philip Augustus at
Bourges was a hundred and twenty feet high, and the walls twenty feet thick.
In Italy, many republics would not allow towers 10 be built more than eighty
feet high, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Vincens, Hisfoire de G.

i. 247. [It is greatly to be regretted that so valuable a mediaeval monument
as this Venetian tower has been removed within the last two years. Ed.]

3 The sister of Guy de la Roche, who married Nicholas Saint-Omer, was widow
of Demetrius, king of Saloniki.

WEALTH OF MEDIAEVAL ATHENS. 171

a.d.i 205-1456.]

destroyed it gives us additional testimony ; while of its mag-
nificence the Greek Chronicle of the Conquest of the Morea
speaks in terms of great admiration, celebrating its apartments
as worthy of royalty, and its walls as works of wonderful art,
adorned with paintings of the chivalric exploits of the Cru-
saders in the Holy Land \ A few lines in rude Greek verse,
and a ruined tower, are all that remains of the pride of Saint-
Omer. The Acropolis and city of Athens, even to the present
day, contain some rude but laborious sculptures executed
during the period of the Frank domination ; and their num-
ber was much greater before the recent reconstruction of the
town, and the destruction of numerous mediaeval churches,
which formed a valuable link in the records of Athens, and an
interesting feature in Athenian topography, while they illus-
trated the history of art by their curious and sometimes precious
paintings. But in the space of a few years, the greater and
most valuable part of the paintings has disappeared ; and hun-
dreds of sculptured monuments of Byzantine and Frank pride
and piety have been broken in pieces, and converted into
building materials or paving-stones2.

But though the marble monuments of the dukes and arch-
bishops, their charters and their archives, have disappeared,
the renown of the dukedom lives, and will live for ever, in
many imperishable works of European literature. The Catalan
chronicle of Ramon Muntaner, a work considerably older and
not less delightful than the brightest pages of Froissart, gives
us an account of the chivalric pomp and magnificent tourna-
ments of the ducal court 3. Muntaner bore a prominent part
in many of the scenes he so vividly describes. He had fought
in numerous bloody battles with the Turks and Greeks ; he
had visited the court of Guy IL, the last duke of the family of
De la Roche ; he had viewed the magnificent halls of the
castle of Santomeri at Thebes, where his friend and master,
the Infant Don Fernand, of Majorca, was detained a prisoner.
What can be more touching than the stout old warrior's tale

1 Greek text of Copenhagen, v. 6743. See above, p. 152. note 2.

2 The destruction of historical records contained in the remains of Byzantine
and Frank sculpture and painting, and Turkish inscriptions, which have been
annihilated by Bavarians and Greeks during the reign of king Otho, has deprived
Greece of records of mediaeval art and Turkish chronology, valuable even among
the classic remains of Hellas. Such conduct ratifies the proceedings of Lord
Elgin on the part of Germany and Greece.

3 Muntaner, chap, ccxliv.

1 72 DUKES OF ATHEXS.

[Ch. VI. § 6.
of how his heart swelled in his breast as he took leave of his
king's son in prison ; and how he gave his own rich habit to
the cook of the castle, and made him swear on the Holy
Scriptures that he would rather allow his own head to be cut
off, than permit anything hurtful to be put in the food of the
Infant of Majorca1?

Gibbon tells us that 'from the Latin princes of the four-
teenth century, Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Shakspeare have
borrowed their " Theseus, duke of Athens ; " ' and the great
historian adds, 'An ignorant age transfers its own language
and manners to the most distant times V The fact is, that
every age does the same thing. The name of Dante must be
added to those enumerated by Gibbon. Dante was a con-
temporary of Guy II. and Walter de Brienne, and in his day
the fame of the dukes of Athens was a familiar theme in the
mouths of the Italians of all the commercial republics, as well
as of the statesmen at Naples and the priests at Rome. It
was natural, therefore, that the 'great poet-sire of Italy'
should think that he gave his readers a not unapt idea of the
grandeur of Pisistratus, by calling him

'Sire della villa
Del cui nome ne' Dei fu tanta lite,
Ed onde ogni scienzia disfa villa V

Surely this is at least as correct as our established phrase,
which styles him tyrant of Athens. Dante also calls Theseus
duca d'Atene — and he did so, doubtless, because the title
appeared to him more appropriate than that of king, and he
was compelled to choose between them*.

Boccaccio, whose relations with Nicholas Acciaiuoli have
been already noticed, and who was familiar with the state of
Athens from many sources, has left us a charming picture of
the Athenian court "'.

Chaucer and his contemporary readers must have been
well acquainted with the fame of Walter de Brienne, titular
duke of Athens, who, as constable of France, perished on the
field of Poitiers ; and the history of his father, whom the
Catalans had deprived of life and duchy in the battle of the

1 Muntaner, chap, ccxxxviii.

3 Decline and Fall, chap, lxii, vol. vii. p. 385.

* Purgalorio, \\. st. 33.

* Inferno, xii. st. 6.

5 See the history of the princess Alathiel; Decameron, ii. 7.

SHAKSPEARE'S ATHENIAN DUCHY. jj?

a.d. 1 205-1456.]

Cephissus, must have been the theme of many a tale in every

country in Europe. Chaucer may therefore have considered

that he adorned the name of Theseus by lending it the title

of a great and wealthy prince, instead of associating it with

that of a paltry king \

Shakspeare, on the contrary, probably never bestowed a

thought either on the history of Theseus or the chronology of

the Athenian duchy. Little did he care for that literary

fastidiousness which allows the attention to be diverted from

a true picture of human nature by historical anachronisms.

To such critics it is possible that the Midsummer Nights

Dream would appear more perfect if Theseus had been

inventoried in the dramatis personae as a member of the

house of De la Roche, and Hippolyta as a princess of Achaia ;

but the defect is in the critics, who can allow their minds to

go wandering into history, and thinking of Doric temples or

feudal towers, when they ought to be following Shakspeare

into the fairy-land he creates.

1 The Knight's Tale.

CHAPTER VII.

Prinxipality of Achaia, or the Morea.

Sect. I. — Conquest of Achaia by William of ' Champlitte. —
Feudal Organization of the Principality.

THE conquest of the Peloponnesus by the French differs
considerably from the other military operations of the
Crusaders in the Byzantine empire, and bears a closer resem-
blance to the conquest of England by the Normans. The
conquering force was small — the conquest was quickly yet
gradually effected— the opposition did not become a national
struggle that interested the great mass of the population, and
the conquerors perpetuated their power and kept their race,
for some generations, distinct from the conquered people ; so
that the enterprise unites in some degree the character of a
military conquest with that of a colonial establishment. The
number of the Frank troops that invaded the Peloponnesus,
or at least that began its conquest after the retreat of the king
of Saloniki from Corinth, was numerically inadequate to the
undertaking; nor could any degree of military skill and
discipline have compensated for this inferiority, had the
Byzantine provincial government possessed the means of
organizing any efficient union among the local authorities,
or had the native Greek population felt a patriotic determina-
tion to defend their country, and avail themselves of the
many strong positions scattered over the surface of a land
filled with defiles and mountain-passes. But the high state
of material civilization— the wealth of a large portion of
the inhabitants, who generally lived collected together in
towns — their love of ease, and their indifference to the fate of
the Byzantine emperors, made the people both careless of any

STATE OF THE PELOPONNESUS. 175

change in their rulers, and unfit to offer any serious resistance
to a determined enemy. The inhabitants of Greece were
habitually viewed with jealousy by the Byzantine govern-
ment, which feared to see them in possession of arms, lest
they should avail themselves of the singular advantages their
country presents for asserting their independence. Several
Greek islands and the town of Modon in the Morea had been
occupied by the Venetians as early as the year 11 25, so that
the effects of foreign domination were not unknown, and were
not found to be intolerable 1. The Peloponnesians were little
exercised in the use of offensive weapons, unaccustomed to
bear the weight of defensive armour, and unacquainted
with military discipline ; they were, therefore, absolutely
ignorant of the simplest dispositions necessary to render their
numbers of any practical advantage in the occupation of posts
and the defence of towns. The Frank invaders found that
they had little else to do but to drive them together into
masses, in order to insure their defeat and submission.
Under such circumstances, it need not surprise us to learn
that the little army of Champlitte subdued the Greeks with
as much ease as the band of Cortes conquered the Mexicans ;
for the bravest men, not habituated to the use of arms, and
ignorant how to range themselves on the field of battle or
behind the leaguered rampart, can do little to avert the
catastrophe of their country's ruin. Like the virtuous priest
who, ignorant of theological lore, plunges boldly into public
controversy with a learned and eloquent heretic, they can
only injure the cause they are anxious to defend.

William de Champlitte and his brother Eudes are fre-
quently mentioned by Geffrey de Villehardouin, in his
Chronicle, as distinguished leaders of the Crusaders during
the siege of Constantinople. Eudes, the elder brother, died
before the conquest of the Byzantine empire, but William
received his portion of territory in the Peloponnesus, and
accompanied Boniface, king of Saloniki, in his expedition into
Greece2. The Crusaders, after defeating Leo Sguros at

1 See above, p. 77.

2 The family of Champlitte was often called of Champagne. The father of
the two Crusaders was Eudes, son of Hugh, eighth count of Champagne, and
his wife, Elizabeth of Burgundy. Hugh, believing himself impotent, refused to
acknowledge his son Eudes, and ceded the county of Champagne and all his
property to his nephew, Thibaut, count of Blois and Chaitres. It was this Hugh,
count of Champagne, who bestowed Clairvaux on St. Bernard. He died a

176 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch.VII. §r.

Thermopylae, and installing Otho de la Roche in his posses-
sion at Thebes and Athens, pursued the Greeks into the
Peloponnesus, and laid siege to Corinth and Nauplia. James
d'Avesnes commanded the force which held Sguros himself
blockaded in the Acrocorinth, while Boniface and William de
Champlitte advanced with the main body, and invested
Nauplia.

In the mean time, Geffrey Villehardouin the younger
arrived in the camp. He was nephew of the celebrated
marshal of Romania, whose inimitable history of the expedi-
tion to Constantinople is one of the most interesting literary
monuments of the middle ages; but instead of accompanying
his uncle and the members of the fourth Crusade who
attacked the Byzantine empire, he had sailed direct from
Marseilles to Syria. Like most of the Crusaders who visited
the Holy Land on this occasion, he performed no exploit
worthy of notice ; and as soon as he had completed the
year's service to which he was bound by his vow, he hastened
to return to France. On his voyage he was assailed by a
tempest, which drove his ships into the harbour of Modon,
where he found himself compelled to pass the winter. It
was already known in Greece that the Crusaders had taken
Constantinople, and that the central government of the
Byzantine empire was destroyed. One of the Greek nobles
of the Peloponnesus, who possessed extensive property and
influence in Messenia, deemed the moment favourable for
increasing his power. For this purpose he hired the military
services of Villehardouin and his followers, who were passing
the winter at Modon in idleness, and by their assistance
subdued all the neighbouring towns. The city of Modon
was conceded to Villehardouin as the reward of his alliance ;
but the Greek dying in a short time, hostilities commenced
between his successor and the Franks. At this conjuncture,
the French at Modon heard of the arrival of the army of
Boniface before Nauplia. Geffrey Villehardouin, who had
made up his mind to seek his fortune in Greece (the flourish-
ing condition of which contrasted in his imagination with the

Templar in Palestine. Kinks, who was called le Champenois, was bred up
at his mother's property <>1 Champlitte, which he inherited. Ducange, note to
Villehardouin. p. 26* ; L 'Art de verifier les Dates; Comtes de Champagne et Blois,
1 1 'in. iii. part ii. p. 125.

CHAMPLITTE JOINED BY VILLEHARDOUIN. 177

A.D. I205-I209.]

squalid poverty of France and the wretched disorder in
Palestine), boldly resolved to march through the centre of
the Peloponnesus and join the camp of the Crusaders. This
enterprise he accomplished in six days, without encountering
any opposition on his way. Geffrey was probably already
aware that William of Champlitte had received his share of the
spoils of the empire in the Peloponnesus ; at all events, he
offered to serve under his banner, and persuaded him that
it would be more advantageous to turn their arms against the
western coast of Greece, then called the Morea, than to
persist in besieging the impregnable fortresses of Acrocorinth,
Argos, and Nauplia. Champlitte quitted the main army
with one hundred knights and a considerable body of men-
at-arms, and, marching westward, entered the land of the
Morea, as the plain of Elis was then called, to unite his forces
with those left by Villehardouin at Modon l. The news of
an insurrection in Thessalonica compelled Boniface to hasten
back to his own dominions ; but before the Franks quitted
the Peloponnesus, the force besieging Corinth was roughly
handled by the Greeks in a sortie, and James d'Avesnes,
one of the bravest leaders of the Crusaders, was severely
wounded.

By the act of partition — which William de Champlitte
doubtless felt every disposition to carry into execution, as
one of those who profited in the highest degree by its pro-
visions— Modon was assigned to the Venetians. It seems
probable, from the words of the Chronicle of the marshal,
that the first operation of Champlitte was to effect a
junction of his forces with those of Villehardouin left to
guard the ships at Modon. This was done by marching
along the southern coast of the gulf of Corinth, and ordering
the ships of Villehardouin to join the expedition at Patras,
which was thus blockaded by land and sea. The city of
Patras, and the castle of Katakolo, which commands a small
port to the north-west of the mouth of the Alpheus, were
taken almost as soon as they were invested ; and the inhabi-
tants of the populous but open town of Andravida, in the

1 Villehardouin, Conquete de Constantinople, p. 122, edit. Buchon. It must le
remembered that the act of partition assigned a considerable portion of the
Peloponnesus to the Venetians, and Lacedaemon. Patras. Modon, and Corinth
were included in their share. Many modifications were made, but Modon from
its importance as a naval station remained always in the hands of the Venetians.

VOL. IV. N

178 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch.VII. § i.

plain of Elis, voluntarily submitted to Champlitte, who then
led his troops southward along the coast l. Coron and Kala-
mata were soon after attacked and captured, without serious
resistance. As Modon belonged of right to the Venetian
republic, Champlitte conferred on Geffrey Villehardouin the
fief of Kalamata, as a reward for his assistance, and it long
continued to be the family estate of the house of Ville-
hardouin. The Greeks at last collected an army to resist
the further progress of the French. It consisted of the few
Byzantine troops in the garrisons, the armed citizens of the
towns of Lacedaemon. Veligosti, and Nikli, and the Scla-
vonian mountaineers of the canton of Melingou, on Mount
Taygetus. the whole amounting to about four thousand men,
under the command of a Greek named Michael. The French
had not more than seven hundred cavalry to attack this
force ; but the battle was fought in the Lakkos, or north-
eastern portion of the Messenian plain, where the Franks
could turn their superior discipline and heavy armour to the
greatest advantage. The victory was not long doubtful.
The Greeks were utterly routed ; and this insignificant
engagement was the only battle fought by the Greeks to
defend their independence and orthodoxy. The city of
Arkadia, on the western coast, attempted to make some
resistance, but ended by submitting to the victorious army 2.

The arrangements of Champlitte for the government of the
Greek population were by no means unfavourable to the
inhabitants. They prove that the feudal barons of the West
already understood something of the art of government as well
as of war. The citizens of the towns were guaranteed in the
unmolested enjoyment of their private property, and of all the

1 The Book of the Conquest describes Andravida as a rich town without either
walls or a citadel, and as there were other populous towns without fortifications
in the Morea, we have a strong proof of the order and security which existed
in Greece under the Byzantine government. To judge it equitalily. we ought
to contrast the state of Greece with that of England under King John, and that of
Italy, where in the free cities every rich man was compelled to make his house
a castle.

2 In this account I have followed Nicetas (p. 393") and Villehardouin (p. 134)
who agree, and who appear to me to be much better authorities than the Chronicle
of the Conquest, in French and Greek, published by Buchon. I accept, however,
the traditional evidence of the Chronicle tor the fact that there was only one
battle fought between the Greeks and the French in the time of Champlitte.

avruv nuvov tov nuKtfiov tmjicav 01 'Vqjjjxuoi

(is Tut' Kaipuv dirfv (KtpSiaav ol 4>pnfK(n tov Tftwpaiav : v. 405.
The battle was fought near the olive-grove of Koiuidoura.

SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTRY. 179

A.D. 1 205-1 209.]

municipal privileges they had possessed under the Byzantine
government. The Sclavonian cantons of Skorta and Melingou
were allowed to retain all the privileges which had been con-
ceded to them by imperial charters. The idea of local admi-
nistrations and privileged corporations was familiar to all feudal
Europe by the glorious exploits of the Italian cities against
the German emperors, and by the charters which had already
been granted to several communes in France ; so that the
feudal prejudices of Champlitte and his followers were by
no means adverse to the concession of capitulations securing
a considerable degree of liberty to the Greek city population.
The principle adopted by the Crusaders, in all these political
arrangements, was extremely simple and well defined. The
Greeks were allowed to retain their personal property and
individual rights and privileges, and were allowed to preserve
the use of the Byzantine law ; while the victors entered
into possession of all the power and ■ authority of the Byzan-
tine emperors, of all the imperial domains, and of the private
estates of the nobles and clergy who had emigrated and
preferred sharing the fortunes of the Greek emperor and
Patriarch at Nicaea, or of the despot in Epirus. The powers
of government, and the property thus acquired, were divided
and administered according to the feudal system. Patras,
Andravida, Coron. Kalamata, and Arkadia, which surrendered
in succession to Champlitte, were all received to submission
on the same terms, guaranteed by the oath of their
conqueror x.

Champlitte employed persuasion as well as arms to assist
his progress ; and the picture which Villehardouin, his most
active agent, was enabled to present to the Greeks of their
own political condition must have made a deep impression
on their minds, and proved a powerful argument for their
immediate submission. The conquest of Constantinople, and
of all eastern Greece, had left them with little hope of forming
a national government. Leo Sguros, even if he had been
popular in the Peloponnesus, had been completely defeated
in the field, and could not dispute the sovereignty with the

1 Greek Chronicle, v. 765 : —

dnu tov vvv Kal efxnpoaOev $payKOS vd (tr) p.ds Piaffy

v a\kn£ofj.ev tt)v itiariv pas did tuiv QpayKow rty iriffTtv

l*r)T( and rd avvrjOetd pas, ruv vop-ov twv 'Fwpaiaiv.

N 2

180 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch.VII. §i.

Franks who remained in Attica, Boeotia, and Euboea, after
the retreat of the king of Saloniki. Anarchy and civil war
had commenced. Champlitte assured the inhabitants of the
Peloponnesus that he came among them as a prince deter-
mined to occupy the vacant sovereignty, and not as a passing
conqueror bent on pillage. He offered terms of peace that
put an end to all grounds of hostility ; while the 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 to a domination which did not appear likely to
become very burdensome. The French took possession of
estates in the rural districts, and established themselves in
all the strong castles scattered over the country; but they
left the local administration of the urban population very
much in the state they found it. The two nations quickly
perceived that their interests and habits of life would allow
them to live together in greater harmony than they supposed
possible at first sight, from the strong contrast produced by
their different states of civilization and the adverse prejudices
of their religious feelings.

William de Champlitte remained about three years in the
Peloponnesus, and during that time he completed the conquest
of more than one-half of the peninsula1. He organized the
invading army into a feudal society, completed a register of
the territory partitioned 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 different vassals were bound to perform. The arrange-
ments 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
mediaeval history.

The feudal organization of Achaia is now a dream of the
past, and a record of men who left no inheritors ; but every
dream or tradition that enters the domain of literature must

1 His departure took place early in 1209, for he was at Paris on the 8th May.
Livre de la Conqueste. p. 45, note I. He was obliged to appear in France to
receive investiture of the fief of Champlitte, vacant by the death of his brother.

FEUDAL ORGANIZATION. 181

A.D. 1 2O3-I 209.]

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 authorized deeds of rapine and murder by
recollections of Jewish history. The songs of the Scandi-
navians 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-
organized 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
informs us that the distribution of the fiefs was effected by
a commission consisting of Geffrey Villehardouin, 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 served as the model for the
legislation of the new empire of Romania 1. The Greek
archonts were admitted as members of the commission, to
secure the observance of the capitulations, and to guard
against encroachments on private property. The scheme
of partition, when completed, was formally adopted by
Champlitte and the army, with various general laws con-
cerning the internal government of the principality. In short,
what in modern language would be called the constitution
of Achaia was then promulgated. The slight sketch of the
institutions adopted at this time that has been transmitted
to us is unfortunately interpolated 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, it
appears to be a record of an earlier age.

1 Livre de la Conqueste, p. 46. [Hopf regards this story of the partition of the
Peloponnese, as related in the Livre de la Conqueste, as legendary (Griechische
Gesehichte, p. 236). Ed.]

1 82 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch. VII. § i.

A domain was marked out for the prince ; and Andravida,
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 these peers of Achaia were bound to serve with
two banners, furnishing a knight and two sergeants with
their attendants for each fief they possessed. The lesser
barons or baronets who possessed only four knights'-fees
were bound to serve in person with a knight and twelve
sergeants, while every knight who held a single fee performed
personal service with the usual following of his rank, and
every sergeant who held land performed the service due
for his sergeantry. The number of knights and sergeants
who served for pay in the crusading armies was at this
period very great, and the leaders in Greece, not being rich
enough to pay large bodies of troops, were compelled to
secure military service by grants of land. The archbishop
of Patras was recognized 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 readiness
to brace on his 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 this duty greatly increased the authority of the prince.
The prelates and the military orders were exempt from
garrison-duty, but in other respects 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

DIVISION OF THE BARONIES. 183

A.D. I 205-I 209.]

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 *.

The geographical division of the baronies of the principality
throws considerable light on the early history of the conquest.
The first vassal in rank and importance was unquestionably
Geffrey Villehardouin, on whom the fief of Kalamata had
been conferred immediately after its conquest, and who was
elected bailly by the vassals on the death of Hugh, whom
Champlitte had left in that capacity when he returned to
France -. But the list of the baronies as we now possess
it dates after Villehardouin had gained possession of the
principality, and in it the most important 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.
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, and had left
them in possession of their local independence, with all the
privileges they had enjoyed under the Byzantine emperors 3.

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 Doomes-
dav-book was formed either by Godfrey or his brother Baldwin. It was imitated
in the kingdom of Cyprus by Richard Cceur-de-Lion and Guy de Lusignan. The
Assises du Royaume de Jerusalem have been published by Count Beugnot, in the
splendid work entitled Historiens des Croisades, under the title Assises de Jerusalem,
on Recueil des Ouvrages de Jurisprudence, composes pendant le XIIIe. nicle, dam les
Royaumes de Jerusalem et de Chypre, 2 vols. fol. Paris, 1841-43. A Greek text
has been published in part by Zacharia, Historiae Juris Graeco-Romani Dehneatio,
p. 137. The Assises de Romania are inserted in the work of Canciani, Barbarormn
Leges An'iquae, torn. iii. Ven. 1781, 1792.

2 Villehardouin, 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
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
Villehardouins.

3 Livre de la Conquesfe, p. 39, where Skorta is called Escorta. The word appears
to be a corruption of Gortys.

184 PRIXCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch.VII. §1.

The Sclavonians of Skorta, or the Gortynian district, and

of Melingou, or the slopes of Mount Taygetus, 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

the Sclavonians of Skorta, was endowed with twenty-four

knights'-fees ; and the fortress which its barons constructed

as a bulwark of the French power was called Mategrifon, or

Stop-Greek \

The barony next in importance was that of Karitena 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 knights'-fees. The two
great baronies of Akova and Karitena formed the barrier of
the French possessions against the Sclavonians of Skorta, 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

1 Colonel Leake (Peloponnesiaca, p. 149) and Boblaye (Recherches giographiques
sur les Ruines de la Moree, p. 152) agree in thinking that the ruined castle named
Galata, near the site of 'leuthis, marks the position of Akova, or Mategrifon.
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. 370, edit. 1728). The western nations at this time generally
called the Greeks Grifons. Ducange, Glossanum mediae et infimae Latinitatis, s. v.
Grijfone . Compare Richard of Devizes ; Bolin's Chronicles of the Crusaders, pp.
19, (..

IMPORTANT MILITARY POSITIONS. 185

A.D. I205-I209.]

of only four knights'-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 Byzantine history — and to
defend the valley of the Pamisus against their incursions *.
Passava was an advanced post established at the eastern
threshold of Maina, to tame the Greek mountaineers of the
savage peaks that run out into the sea to the south of the
great summits of Taygetus, and to command the fertile region
which was afterwards called Bardunia. It was situated 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 2.
Passava was a frontier garrison which required to be occupied
by a permanent body of troops, to watch the Mainates, the
Sclavonians, and the Greek serfs who cultivated the rich plain
of Helos. The baron of Passava was consequently named
hereditary marshal of Achaia, as being the head of 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 knights'-fees. The selection of this
position for a French fortress, on the frontier of a district into
which cavalry could not penetrate, but in the vicinity of an
excellent port, proves that it was also selected to protect the
commerce of the Greek subjects of the principality from
the corsairs of Maina. 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 Geronthrae, and was destined to pro-
tect the country east of the Eurotas from the forays of the
mountaineers of Tzakonia and the incursions of the Byzan-
tine 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 Lacedaemonia and Messenia, and the northern of

1 Gritzena was in Lakkos, the name given to the upper part of the great
Messenian valley; but its exact position is not known. Book of the Conquest,
Greek text, p 73, v. 617.

2 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. 5, p. 364;
Boblaye, Recherckes, 87. Coronelli gives a plan of the fort (p. 38). In the list
of places at the end of the letters of Plethon Gemistus on the state of the Pelo-
ponnesus, Gythion is called Palaiopolis or Pasabas.

1 86 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch.VII. §2.

Corinthia and Argolis \ Only a portion of the territory-
allotted to several of the feudatories had been subdued in the
time of William de Champlitte.

Sect. II. — Acquisition of the Principality by Geffrey
ViUekardouin. — Geffrey I.; Geffrey II.

William dc Champlitte left his relation Hugh to act as
his bailly in the principality during his absence2 ; but, Hugh
dying soon after the prince's departure, Geffrey Villehardouin

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 follow-
ing is the list : —

1. Kalamata,

2. Akova,

3. Karitena or Skorta,

4. Patras,
Vostitza, .
Chalandritza,
Kalavryta,
Nikli, ' .
Veligosti, .
Gritzena, .
Geraki,
Passava, .

Geffrey de Villehardouin,

Walter de Rosieres,

Hugh de Brieres,

William de Alaman,

Hugh de Charpigny,

Robert de Tremouille,

Otho de Tournay, .

William „

Matthew de Mons, .

Luke „

Guy de Nivelet,

John de Neuilly, hereditary Marshal,
All those rated at only four knights'-fees must have had a city under their juris-
diction, or else been in possession of a baronial office. The list of the twelve
baions of Achaia having the right to build fortresses and exercise supreme juris-
diction, 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, y. 118.

The ecclesiastical barons were : —

5-
6.

7-
8.

10.
11.
12.

-'4

4
12
6
4
4
6

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, and

called Amyclae, ......

7 „ Lacedaemon, .......

The military orders: —

1. The knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem,
Temple,

3. „ 'I i utonic order, ...... 4

[The family nan. s and 10 in the first list are not known. The name of

No. 6 is in reality Audebert, and not Robert, de Tremouille. See llopf, Griechische
Geschichte, p. 237, note. Ed.]

a We learn this from a letter of rope Innocent III. addressed to Hugh de
Cham—, doubtL-So Champlitte. Tom. ii. 488, edit. Baluze.

GEFFREY V1LLEHARD0UIX I. 187

A.D. I 2O9-I 246.]

was elected by the feudatories to fill the vacant office, on
account of his high reputation for ability and warlike skill, his
influence over the Greek population, and his intimate connec-
tion with the family of Champlitte. The election was in
strict conformity with the feudal usages established in the
empire of Romania. Geffrey availed himself of his position
to increase his popularity in the principality, and to gain the
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 empire1. The manner in which
he possessed himself of the principality of Achaia affords a
curious example of the laws and customs of the Crusaders in
their eastern possessions. From the terms in which the
acquisition is stigmatized in the assize of Jerusalem, it is
implied that William of Champlitte died while Villehardouin
was acting as his bailly, and that the bailly basely availed
himself of the defenceless condition of his patron's infant
children in France, to rob the absent orphans of their
heritage2.

The Chronicle of the Conquest of the Morea gives a different
account of the method by which Geffrey Villehardouin gained
possession of the principality, but the character of the bailly
gains very little by the change. He is represented as having
retained possession of the principality by a dishonourable
fraud. 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 displeasing both to Villehardouin, 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 prevent the new bailly

1 D'Outremann {Constant'nwpolis Belgica, 669") gives a charter by Geffrey as
seneschal of Romania dated Sept. 1209, reprinted by Buchon, Eclairchsenunts, 89,
note 2, and again in Greek Chronicle, edit. 1845. Recueil de diplomes, 375.

2 AsUses de Jerusalem, MS. de Venise, c. 272, appendix to Count Beugnot's
edition. It is evident that the manner in which Villehardouin acquired Achaia
was viewed with general reprobation even from the expressions of the Livre de la
Conqnete, p. 5Q.

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.

188 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch. VII. § 3.

from taking possession of his office. Geffrey sent envoys to
Venice, who induced the doge to retard as much as possible
the arrival of Robert de Champlitte, and the Venetian ship
in which he had engaged a passage to the Morea treacherously
left him on shore at Corfu. But in spite of these delays
Robert arrived in the principality within the year accorded
by the feudal law, as the term beyond which a fief could not
remain vacant without incurring the penalty of forfeiture.
Geffrey avoided meeting him for some time, and led him into
the interior of the province, where a meeting at length took
place at Lacedaemon. An assembly of the barons, knights,
and clergy favourable to the projects of Villehardouin had
already assembled, and in this parliament Robert claimed to
be received as bailly of Achaia in virtue of his cousin's act of
investiture, which he produced. The assembly, however, had
already concerted with Villehardouin the manner in which the
claim was to be disallowed. It was pretended that William
de Champlitte had engaged to cede the principality to
Villehardouin 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-
douin 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 parliament of the
principality could alone be taken into consideration. Robert,
seeing that it was vain to resist, demanded a certificate of
the decision and returned to France, while Geffrey Villehar-
douin was acknowledged prince of Achaia. Such is the story
of the Chronicles, and its foundation rests on truth, though it
appears very like a fable invented to explain the transfer of
the principality to the family of Villehardouin in conformity
with the customs of Romania, when it was really acquired by
illegal conduct l.

Geffrey had conducted himself with great prudence during
the time he ruled as bailly. He had successively conquered

1 See the provisions of the Liher consuetudinum Imperii Romaniae in Canciani,
Barbarorum Lege* Antiquae, torn. iii. tit. 36, p. 5056.

CONQUESTS OF VILLEHARDOUIN. 189

A.D. 1 209-1 246.]

the cities of Veligosti, Nikli, and Lacedaemon, though the
two last were well fortified ; and he had granted favourable
terms of capitulation 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 \ 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 communi-
cations of Achaia with the great feudatories in northern
Greece were exposed to be constantly interrupted, and their
armies to be attacked on the flank and rear. Geffrey Ville-
hardouin and Otho de la Roche united their forces to attack
Corinth, but before they had taken the Acrocorinth a treaty
of peace was concluded between the emperor Henry and
Michael, despot of Epirus, which left the Greeks in possession
of that fortress, with Argos, Nauplia, Monemvasia, and the
whole of Argolis and Tzakonia 2.

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 rela-
tions 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 recognized the
papal supremacy. The Pope, satisfied with the acknowledg-
ment 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
emigrants and poor relations of the barons, who flocked to
the East to profit by the conquest3. The violent conduct
of these ecclesiastical fortune-hunters compelled Geffrey to
become the defender of the Greeks, and the enemy of clerical

1 Acropolita, p. 6. Compare the letter of Innocent III. lib. xv. ep. 77, torn. ii.
p. 628, edit. Baluze.

2 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. Innocent.
III. lib. xv. ep. 77. [The statement in the text, that Corinth, Argos, and Nauplia
were not conquered by the Franks at this time, is erroneous. See below, p. 194.
Ed.]

3 Epht. Innocent III. lib. x. ep. 51 ; lib. xi. ep. 179; torn. ii. pp. 23, 228.

IQO PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch. VII. § 2.

abuses. As the clergy of Achaia frequently sold 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 excommunica-
tion, 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 excom-
municated both 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 increased
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 Villehar-
douin 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.

1 Epht. Innocent III. torn. ii. pp. 421, 486; Raynaldi, Ann. Eccles. anno 1218,
torn. i. p. 438, edit. Lucca ; Buchon, Recherches et Mat>:riaux, 141.

2 Buchon, Recherches et Matiriaux, 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 (?) sent a fleet to
convey his daughter from Constantinople to Catalonia, as she was engaged 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 emp.ror and the
prince was arranged at a parliament held at Larissa, where the emperor Robert
conferred on his son inlaw the feudal superiority over the Archipelago, the title
of prince of Achaia, the office of grand seneschal, 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 emperor Baldwin, Robert's brother, had received

STRUGGLE WITH THE LATIN CLERGY. 191

A.D. 1209 -1246.]

Geffrey I. appears to have died about the year 1218.

The commencement of the reign of Geffrey II. was
troubled by a serious quarrel with the Church. The young
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 con-
quest 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 opposi-
tion his father had offered to the aggrandizement 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 princi-
pality, refused to send their contingents 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 to those clerical vassals who
had no other revenue than that derived from their fiefs, he
assigned a pension sufficient for their subsistence. This
statesmanlike conduct threw the Latin church in the East
into a state of frenzy, and Geffrey II. was immediately
excommunicated. But excommunication was 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. Yet in order
to prove to the world that his conduct was not influenced
by avarice, he proposed, in the parliament of the princi-
pality, that all profits resulting from the ecclesiastical
fiefs placed under sequestration should be employed in

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 persons are confounded, it must be evident that history
and chronology cannot by any process be extracted from such a mass of inac-
curacy. On the other hand, much may be learned concerning manners and
customs.

IQ2 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch.VII. §2.

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. This was adopted, and the walls of
the fortress then constructed still exist. The ruins are called
by the Greeks Chlomoutzi, but they are also known by their
Frank name of Castel Tornese. They are situated about
three miles from the remains of Clarentza1. 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 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 perform military service ; for
without this service, he declared that it would be impossible
to defend the country against the Greeks, whom the successes
of Theodore, despot of Epirus, and Theodore Lascaris,
emperor of Nicaea, had emboldened to such a degree that
they contemplated being able to expel the Franks from the
Peloponnesus. Honorius III., satisfied that, the pretensions
of Geffrey II. were just and reasonable, ordered his legate at
Constantinople, John Colonna, to absolve him from excom-
munication 2.

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 princi-

1 Chlomoutzi was frequently called Clarenza, as well as Castel Tornese, 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 Clairmont by
the French of the principality. Colonel Leake derives Chlomoutzi from x^c^tis.
X\t(jLus. or \t\p6*. Pelofonnssiaca, 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 fust 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.' Pelo-
ponnesiaca, p. 212. During the Greek revolution the ruined fortress of Chlomoutzi
was occupied by the Christians in 1826. It was taken by Ibrahim Pasha's
Egyptian troops in 1 S27.

2 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, Annales Eccles. an. 1222, torn. i. p. 501, edit.
Lucca.

CONCESSIONS OBTAINED FROM BALDWIN II. 193

A.D. 1 209-I 246.]

pality of Achaia, in order to secure the support and alliance
of Geffrey II.1

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 consider-
able sum of money, raised by a tax which he had been
authorized 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 galleys2. The Greeks attempted in vain to intercept
the Achaian squadron : their fleet was defeated, and Geffrey
entered the port of Constantinople in triumph3. He again
visited Constantinople in the year 1239, to attend the coro-
nation of his brother-in-law, the emperor Baldwin II., and do
homage for his principality and for his office of seneschal.
On this occasion he lent the young emperor a considerable
sum of money; and like 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
authorized 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, who
was a vassal and grand seneschal of the empire, 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 4. It
seems, however, not improbable that Geffrey received a com-
pensation in the East in lieu of the lordship of Courtenay,
for he continued to maintain a hundred knights and cross-
bowmen at Constantinople for the service of the empire —

1 Alberic (trium fontium), p. 558 ; Buchon, Histoire des Conquetes des Francis
dans les Eta's de Vancienne Grece, p. 215.

2 Raynaldi, Annate', Eccles., an. 1236, torn. ii. p. 159.

3 Alberic, 558 ; Philip Mouskes, in Ducange's edition of Villehardouin, pp.
224, 227.

4 Baldwin's reply to the letter of St. Louis is printed in Buchon's Recherches
et Materiaux, p. 153.

VOL. IV. O

194 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch.VII.§3.

a contingent which, though he might have been bound to
maintain it as a great feudatory, and in consequence 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 emperor1. It seems, there-
fore, 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.

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 VillcJiardouiii completes the Conquest of
the Morca. — Cedes Monemvasia, Misithra, and Mama to the
Emperor Michael VIII.

William Villehardouin was born in the castle of Kalamata,
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 attachment to France, where the rank and fortune of
their ancestors had generally been much inferior to that
which they themselves held in Greece. Many now laid aside
their family names, and adopted titles and designations
derived from their Eastern possessions.

The first act of William was to complete the conquest of
the Peloponnesus2. The Greek empire of Nicaea had

1 Raynaldi, Annales Ecclet. an. 1244, torn. ii. p. 304.

2 [Both in what follows, and in a previous passage (above, p. 189), the author
has been led into a mistake by following the authority of the Chronicle of the
Conquest. The cities of Corinth, Nauplia. and Arg< s were conquered by Geffrey I.
between the years 12 10-12 12, whereas Monemvasia was conquered in 1248 by
William Villehardouin, as here related. The Chronicle combines these events,
and places them all in the latter reign. See Hopf, Griechische Geschichte, pp. 240,
273. Ed.]

WILLIAM VILLEHARDOUIN. 195

A.D. I246-I267.]

already grown so powerful both by sea and land, that he
could not besiege the maritime cities of Nauplia and Monem-
vasia with any prospect of success, without the aid of such a
fleet as one of the Italian commercial republics could alone
supply. The Venetians who possessed Modon were his
natural allies, and he concluded a treaty with the republic,
by which they engaged to maintain the blockade of Nauplia
and Monemvasia with four war galleys, in consideration of
the 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 Acro-
corinth closely blockaded by the construction of two forts ;
one to the south, on a peaked rock which was called Montes-
quiou, now corrupted into Penteskouphia A ; the other to the
north-east. The citadel was thus cut off from all supplies,
but the impregnable fortress, well supplied with water and
provisions, might have defied 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 Pelopon-
nesus 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 Villehardouin consented, and took possession
of the Acrocorinth.

Nauplia was then invested, for Argos seems to have offered
no serious resistance. The siege of a strong maritime fortress
offered many difficulties to the Franks. On the land side

1 i. e. the five caps.
O 2

lo6 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

y [Ch. VII. § 3.

Nauplia was quite as impregnable as the Acrocorinth, while
the position of its citadel, Palamedi, afforded greater ad-
vantages for sorties, and its port facilitated the introduction
of supplies in spite of the vigilance of the Venetians in main-
taining the 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 exposed the
convoys of provisions and the foraging parties of the besiegers
to constant danger. These circumstances sustained the
courage of the besieged, so that very little progress had been
made towards reducing the place by military operations, when
Guy de la Roche succeeded in disposing the minds of the
Greeks to a capitulation, by his success in driving back the
mountaineers, and by contrasting the fiscal rapacity of the
Byzantine government with the more moderate pecuniary
demands of the French princes. The terms of capitulation
were such as to place the Greeks of Nauplia in much more
favourable circumstances than the rest of their countrymen,
for as a guarantee that their commercial and municipal
privileges should be inviolable, they were allowed to guard the
fortifications of the town, while the Franks only placed a
permanent garrison in the citadel on Palamedi l. The Greeks
considered it an additional security for the observance of the
treaty, that Guy de la Roche was invested with the fiefs 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 in-
security 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

1 It seems singular that Palamedi is not mentioned by name in the Chronicles ;
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 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.

SURRENDER OF MONEMVASIA. 197

A.D. I 246-I 267.]

of retreat at Epidaurus Limera, and Zarax, from whence they
could watch the sea around, effectually excluded all supplies ;
yet the place was defended until the third year. At last the
inhabitants, seeing no prospect of relief from the Greek em-
peror, John III., who was then occupied with the war in
Thrace, and having suffered all the miseries of famine, made
an offer to capitulate \ They were allowed to retain posses-
sion 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, who
engaged to pay them the same wages which they had hitherto
been in the habit of receiving from the Byzantine emperors.
The surrender of Monemvasia was followed by the complete
submission of the Tzakonian mountaineers, who then occupied
all the country from Argolis to Cape Malea.

William, having completed the conquest of the eastern
coast, turned his arms against the Sclavonians of Mount
Taygetus and the Greeks of Maina, whom he now resolved
to reduce to immediate dependence on his government. 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 fertile district, the prince of Achaia built a strong fortress
on a hill called Misithra, about three miles from the city of
Lacedaemon, and five from Skiavochorion, the chief town
of the Sclavonian population of the district. High on the
summit of this hill, perched on a precipitous rock, 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 2. The residence of the prince was established within

1 The three years of the Chronicles were 1246-8, lor there is a letter of
William, prince of Achaia, to Thibaut, king of Navarre, dated at Lacedaemon
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 therefore
necessary to suppose that the blockade commenced at the same time as the siege
of Corinth.

2 The name of Misithra, pronounced generally at present Mistra, was the name
applied to the locality before Villehardouin constructed his citadel. Greek Chro-
nicle, v. 1663. But whether the name was introduced by the Sclavonian colonists,

io8 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch. VII. § 3.

its walls, and the mediaeval 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 exist-
ing towns, succeeded in rendering Sparta a rival to Villehar-
douin's city1. The Sclavonians, overawed by the proceedings
of the prince, which they did not dare to interrupt, sent envoys
offering to submit to the Frank domination, to pay a fixed
tribute, and to furnish a contingent of armed men on the same
terms on which they had formerly acknowledged the supre-
macy 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 estab-
lished within their limits. About the same time William
likewise completed the conquest of the Mainates, 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 Taenarian promontory, and the other at
Leftro, on the west coast near Kisternes. The Mainates,
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 Mainates, were
carried on simultaneously, and they were thus prevented from
concentrating their forces and affording one another aid. The
whole of the Peloponnesus was thus reduced under the Frank
domination by William Villehardouin, before the end of the
year 12482.

or derived from ancient Greek, has been warmly disputed by two learned Germans
— viz. Zinkeisen, Geschichte Griechenlands, p. 885, and Fallmerayer, Entstehung der
heutigen Grieehen, p. 90. [Hopf considers the name undoubtedly Slavonic;
Griechi>che Ge>chichte, p. 267. Ed.]

1 The government of King Otho having transferred the residence of the official
authorities to the new town of Sparta, the inhabitants of Misithra have followed,
and the town of the Frank princes is sinking into a village. [Amidst the ruins
there are some very fine specimens of mediaeval Byzantine architecture; one of
the churches is figured in Fergusson's Handbook of Architecture, Lond. 1855, p.
961. Ed]

-' Pachymcres (i. p. 52, edit. Rom.') proves that Kistema, 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 l'lnt/a and Melaia. It is not

r.uly described by the Byzantine historian as a district abounding in good

PROSPERITY OF THE PRINCIPALITY. 199

A.D. I 246-I 267.]

The prosperity of the Franks of Achaia had now attained
its highest point of elevation. Their prince was the recognized
sovereign of the whole peninsula. His revenues were so
considerable, that he was enabled to build a cathedral at
Andravida, and several fortresses in 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 sung by
many minstrels.

While the principality was in this flourishing condition,
William took the cross and joined the crusade of St. Louis.
The prince of Achaia, and Hugh, duke of Burgundy, sailed
from the Morea in the spring of 1249. On their way to join
the king of France they stopped at Rhodes, to assist the
Genoese in defending that island against the Greek emperor,
John III. The Achaian and Burgundian forces 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 Villehardouin
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,

things, to Trepl ttjv Kivcrrepvav 9ip.a tto\v ye bv to /j.tjkos hcli ttoWois Qpvov rots
ayadois. Leftro is the ancient Leuktron ; but there is a difference of opinion
concerning the position of Maina. Colonel Leake thinks the castle erected by
Villehardouin 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 Kisternes, to the south of Porto
Quaglio. The geographical nomenclature of Greece is singularly poor, and the
same names are as often repeated as in English colonies. The only ruins of
a considerable mediaeval town, in this vicinity, are on the west coast of the cape,
at the site of the ancient Taenaros. about four miles from the extreme southern
point ; and this appears to be the town called Maina in the Byzantine period.
Constant. Porphyr. de Adm. Imp. c. 50, p. 134. There are also considerable re-
mains of a fortress to the north of Cape Grosso, on the peninsula called Tegani
— from its resemblance to a frying-pan. This place is also called Kisternes,
and is supposed by Boblaye to be the Maina of Villehardouin. Recherches
Geographiques, p. 92. But the towns at Taenaros and Tegani appear both to
have existed before Villehardouin's time. Here, however, we have three Mainas
and three Kisternas to exercise the sagacity of antiquaries and the subtilty of
the Greeks, when they begin to devote some attention to the study of their
own history.

200 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch. VII. § 3.

and he began to regret the liberality with which he had
rewarded the services of his ally, Guy de la Roche. He
quarrelled with his former friend, and called 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 pre-
tended 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 hardly be a doubt that it was never based by William
Villehardouin on a grant to Champlitte by the king of
Saloniki. It could only have arisen out of a grant from the
Latin emperor of Constantinople, if it rested on any plausible
grounds. Guy de la Roche was now an old man ; he had
arrived in Greece in the year 1208. Whatever claim Ville-
hardouin really made, it excited the indignation of de la
Roche, as an insulting and unjust demand. He replied, that
he was willing to acquit himself 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 personal service, or to swear fealty, for he declared
the fiefs were conferred free of personal homage. War fol-
lowed. The Athenian army was defeated at Karidi, 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 Villehar-
douins seem to have been rather too rapacious, and addicted
to seek sordid 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
been, was one that justified private war between two great
feudatories1.

William Villehardouin married a daughter of Michael II.,
despot of Epirus. This alliance, joined to his own enter-
prising and warlike disposition, induced him to join his
father-in-law in a war against the Greek empire. The dis-
turbed state of the court of Nicaea, after the death of the

1 Livre de la Conqueste, p. 114.

WAR WITH MICHAEL VIII. 201

A.D. I 246-I 267.]

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 consequence of the skilful military combinations
of John Palaeologos, 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 concealed
under a heap of straw. His front teeth, which projected in a
remarkable manner, enabled them to identify their prize \
He was sent prisoner to the emperor Michael VIII., who
retained him in captivity for three years.

The conditions on which William regained his liberty in-
flicted an irremediable injury on the principality of Achaia.
He ceded to the Greek emperor, as the price of his deliver-
ance, the fortresses of Monemvasia, Misithra, and Maina, the
very cities which were especially connected with his own
glory; and he engaged, besides, with solemn oaths and the
direst imprecations, never to make war on the Greek em-
peror— 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, trusting 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

1 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.

202 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch.VII.§3.

church1. But the emperor Michael VIII. respected his own
promises too little, to place any confidence in the good faith
of the prince of Achaia, with whatever oaths it might 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 popu-
lation aspired at expelling their heterodox masters, and a
long series of national wars was the consequence. 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 laid waste by
rival rulers, the people pillaged by foreign soldiers, and the
numerous unfortified towns and villages scattered over the
face of the peninsula at this time began to be ruined. The
garrisons in the fortresses of Monemvasia, Misithra, and Maina
gave the Greek emperor the command over the whole coast
of Laconia. The mountaineers of Tzakonia, Vatika, and
Taygetus hastened to throw off the yoke of the Franks,
who were soon compelled to abandon the fortresses of Passava
and Leftro, in consequence of the rebellion of the inhabitants
of Kisterna or Exo-Mani 2. The Sclavonians of Skorta, roused
by the success of their countrymen, the Melings of Taygetus,
who had established themselves in virtual independence between
the two contending parties, made a desperate effort to expel
the Franks ; and though they were assailed on all sides by
the barons of Akova and Karitena, and by the whole army
of Achaia, they were not reduced to obedience until a body
of Turkish troops, who had deserted from the Greeks, joined
the Franks. The savage cruelty and fearful devastations of

1 The Greek Chronicle lays down the church principles of the time in very plain
language : —

ol opitoi (Kftvoi onov eiTTjKt 's rtjv <pv\aKJ)v onov ?jTOv
Ti-noTt ovdiv Tuv t/lkallav vci tuv Kparovv Sid a<piupKOV,
Kadas to upi((i -q inKk-qaioi kcu ol ippuvtpioi rb kiyovv.

v. 3031.

2 Pachymeres, i. 52, edit. Rom. confirmed by the Greek Chronicle: —

T<i BariKa ivpodKwqaav, 6/xoiais Hal -q l^aKcuvla,

<5 Spuyyos yap tuv MeKiyov, to p.ipos rrjs Tiartpvas,

tKtlvoi ipofSuXtvoav /xtrd. tvv BaaiKia.

v. 3165.
Compare Leake's Travels in the Morea, i. 261, for the extent of Exo-Mani.

LACONIA LOST TO THE FRANKS. 203

A.D. 1 246-I 267.]

these mercenaries overpowered the resistance of the Scla-
vonians, and ruined their country \

There may be some difficulty in pronouncing whether the
prince of Achaia, the Pope, or the Greek emperor was most
to blame for commencing the war in the Morea. The Pope
authorized the commencement of hostilities by relieving prince
William from the obligations of his oath. His Holiness was
alarmed at the blow the papal church had received in the
East by the loss of Constantinople, and the prospect of seeing
the Frank clergy excluded from a considerable part of the
Peloponnesus. In order to recover the ground lost, he sanc-
tioned the preaching of a crusade for the deliverance of the
Morea from the Greek emperor2. The Venetians joined their
solicitations to the papal exhortations ; and the rebellion of
the mountaineers, who voluntarily placed themselves under
the Byzantine protection, gave the prince of Achaia a legiti-
mate pretext for assembling an army to watch the Greek
forces in Misithra. Michael VIII. was as much determined
to avail himself of the territory he had acquired, to extend
his dominions at the expense of the Franks, as William was
resolved to make every exertion for its recovery. For many
years a war of mutual invasions was carried on, which de-
generated into a system of rapine. The whole Peloponnesus,
from Monemvasia to Andravida, was wasted by the hostile
armies, the resources of the land were ruined, its population
diminished, and its civilization deteriorated.

The Franks laboured under many disadvantages in the
prosecution of this war. Their best troops had been anni-
hilated at the battle of Pelagonia, which had thrown many
fiefs into the hands of females 3 ; nor was it easy to recruit
their armies from western Europe, since the fortune of war had
changed, and there was no hope of acquiring fiefs as a reward
of valour. The Greeks, who formed the majority of the
population even in the districts still under the Frank domi-
nation, were secretly attached to the cause of the emperor ;

1 The instructions to the Turks were — ' Que il gastent et essillent celle mal-
veise gent et qu'il leur faichent le pys que il porront.' Livre de la Conquesle,
p. 191.

2 Urban. IV. Episi. lib. ii. ep. 94; lib. iii. ep. 137, 138, referred to by Ducange,
His/oire de Constantinople, p. 167.

3 Sanudo (Li^er Secretorum Fidelium Cruris) mentions the inconvenience that
resulted in the Morea from women being allowed to hold fiefs. Beugnot, Assizes
de Jerusalem, i. p. 427.

204 PRIXCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch.VII. §3.

and most of the higher orders emigrated into the Byzantine
fortresses. When the prince of Achaia visited the city of
Lacedaemon, of which he retained possession after the cession
of Misithra, and which he was anxious to hold as a bulwark
against the Byzantine troops, he found it deserted by all
its Greek inhabitants, who had abandoned their houses and
taken up their residence within the fortifications of Misithra1.
The weakness of the two contending parties, and the rude
nature of the military operations of the age, are depicted
by the fact that the prince of Achaia continued to retain
possession of Lacedaemon for several years after the war
had broken out, though it was only three miles distant from
Misithra, which served as the head-quarters of the Byzantine
army. Under every disadvantage, the Franks displayed their
usual warlike spirit and indomitable courage, and the Greeks
were no match for them on the field of battle. The first
tide of success, however, ran strongly in favour of the Byzan-
tine forces, and the insurrection of the native population
drove the Frank army back into the plain of Elis. Andravida
the capital of the principality was attacked, and William
Villehardouin was compelled to construct intrenchments, in
order to place his forces in a condition to defend the open
town. Had Andravida fallen, it is probable the Franks would
have been expelled from the Morea ; but the imperial forces
were repulsed, and subsequently defeated in two battles.
Their first defeat was at Prinitza, in the lower valley of the
Alpheus ; the other at the defile of Makryplagia, between
the plains of Veligosti and Lakkos2. In this last engage-
ment the imperial generals, Philes and Makrinos, were taken
prisoners, and the open country, as far as Helos and Monem-
vasia, was ravaged by the victorious army. But the valour
of the Franks would have been insufficient to defend every
corner of their territory from the incessant attacks of the
large bodies of light troops which the Byzantine emperor
was able to direct against every exposed point, had the prince

1 Greek Chronicle, v. 4276.

2 The ruin called Palati, on the left bank of the Alpheus, nearly opposite to
its junction with the Erymanthos. is supposed to be the site of the mona>teiy
of Isova, burned by the Greeks before the battle of Prinitza. The Franks con-
sidered their victory as the vengeance of the Madonna for her desecrated shrine.
Prinitza must have been near Agoulonitza. In the part of the Greek Chronicle
which treats of this war, there are several passages that prove the term Morea

vea then often restricted to the western coast of the peninsula.

ALLIANCE OF ACHAIA WITH NAPLES. 205

A.D. I267-I277.]

of Achaia not found a new and powerful ally in Charles of
Anjou, the conqueror of the kingdom of Naples.

SECT. IV. — Alliance and feudal Connection between the
Principality of Achaia and the Kingdom of Naples.

In the year 1266, Charles of Anjou, the brother of St. Louis,
rendered himself master of the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily
by the defeat and death of king Manfred ; and in the following
year, though William Villehardouin had been the brother-in-
law of Manfred, he purchased the alliance of the new king
by betrothing his infant daughter Isabella, the heiress of his
principality, to Philip, the second son of Charles of Anjou.
This alliance exerted a powerful influence on the condition
of the Frank establishments in Greece, and infused new
vigour into the French chivalry in Achaia. It also gave
a new direction to the political projects of the Latins through-
out the East, by involving them in the mortal quarrel between
the houses of Anjou and Aragon. The general advance of
society in western Europe was daily diminishing the proportion
of the population that lived constantly with arms in their
hands, and the inadequacy of feudal institutions to meet the
new exigencies of social life was becoming gradually more
apparent. In this state of things the Franks of Achaia, if
they had not been supported by a powerful prince, and a
numerous military population in their immediate neighbour-
hood, to whom they could apply in every sudden and pressing
emergency, would have been unable to resist the vigorous
assaults of the Byzantine Greeks on the one hand, and the
encroachments of the republics of Venice and Genoa on the
other.

The dethroned emperor, Baldwin IL, had concluded a treaty
with Charles of Anjou at Viterbo, the professed object of
which was to purchase the assistance of the king of Naples
for recovering the empire of Romania, and re-establishing
his throne at Constantinople. Among other stipulations in
this treaty, Baldwin ceded to Charles the suzerainty of the
principality of Achaia and the Morea, which he separated
entirely from the empire of Romania, and vested in the
crown of Sicily and Naples. The betrothal of Philip, the

206 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch.VII. §4.

second son of Charles, to Isabella Villehardouin took place
at the same time, and the king of Naples invested his son,
who was still a child, with the suzerainty over his wife's
future heritage1. This alliance rendered William the liege-
man of his son-in-law ; but it also enabled him to claim
succours from the king of Naples in his wars with the emperor
Michael VIII. William repaid the assistance he received at
a very critical moment. He joined the French army with
a chosen band of knights, long exercised in the wars of the
East, on the eve of the contest with Conradin ; and their
brilliant valour contributed materially to the success of Charles
of Anjou at the decisive battle of Tagliacozzo. After the
death of Conradin, William received from the king of Naples
a strong auxiliary force, which enabled him to conclude peace
with the Greek emperor on favourable terms, and for several
years the Peloponnesus enjoyed tranquillity.

The condition of the Greek population in the peninsula
underwent a considerable alteration at this period, though it
is impossible to trace in detail all the causes of the great
change which was soon produced. The commerce of the
East passed out of the hands of the Greeks, and was trans-
ferred to 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 constant 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 Con-
stantinople, 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

1 The treaty of Viterbo, dated 27th May 12(17, is printed by Ducange, Histoire
de Constantinople; Recueil des Charles, p. 7; and by Buchon. Recherche* et Mate-
riaux, p. 30. The second son of Charles of Anjou is called Philip by the French
historian, and Louis by the Chronicles 0/ the Conquest.

CONFISCATION OF BARONY OF AKOVA. 3o7

A.D.I 267-I 277.] '

that yielded any considerable profit in their country. Many
entire families, however, quitted their native mountains and
settled at Constantinople 1.

The eventful reign of William Villehardouin at last drew to
a close. The only act recorded of his latter years proves that
rapacity was the characteristic feature of his government.
Under the pretext of executing the strict letter of the feudal
laws of Romania, which he had shown himself so ready to
infringe in the case of the duchy of Athens, he perpetrated a
disgraceful violation of every principle of equity. Ambition
might be urged as a plea in excuse for his attack on the
independence of Guy de la Roche, but avarice and ingratitude
darkened the infamous rapacity 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 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 allowed to reside at
the court of Constantinople ; for at that time there was no
better school for female education in Europe than the house-
hold 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 Constanti-
nople. She then returned to Greece to find her father, the
marshal, 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 knights'-fees,
who had died a short time before her father. When Mar-
garet de Neuilly presented herself at the court of the princi-
pality 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 Villehardouin. The
worthless investiture of the barony of Passava, and the empty

1 Niceph. Greg. 58; Pachymeres, i. 209, edit. Rom.; Leake, Pelopotmesiaca, 35.

208 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch. VII. § 4.

honour of the hereditary title of marshal, were readily con-
ferred 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 conse-
quence of her not having demanded the investiture in person
within a year and day after his decease, the fief was forfeited
according to the provisions of the feudal code1. To her
allegation, 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, there-
fore, declared to have reverted to the prince of Achaia as its
immediate lord-paramount. By this mean subterfuge William
Villehardouin obtained possession of the most extensive
barony in his principality, and defrauded the orphan daughter
of his friend of her inheritance. Margaret de Neuilly married
John 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, however, proved fruitless. The influence of the prince
secured a confirmation of the previous decision. 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 knights'-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 the sins of her father were visited on
her head.

William Villehardouin died at Kalamata, the place of his
birth, in the year 1277. He left two daughters, Isabella
and Margaret. Misfortune soon extinguished his race. Ma-
tilda of Hainault, the daughter of Isabella, was deprived of the
principality of Achaia, and died childless, a prisoner in the
Castel del Uovo at Naples ; Margaret, the lady of Akova,

1 William's authority for his unjust seizure of the barony of Akova is found
in chap. clxxii.tls of the Anises de Jerusalem, torn. i. p. 267, edit. Beugnot.

FLORENZ OF HAINAVLT. 209

A.D. I277-I3II.]

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 x.

Sect. V. — Isabella de Villehardouin. — Florenz of Hainaidt. —
PJiilip of Savoy.

Isabella de Villehardouin 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 Pelopon-
nesus 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 political
and military adventurers, who made the war a pretext . for
collecting contributions in the principality. William de la
Roche, duke of Athens, governed the principality for ten
years, and his administration seems to have been temperate
and not unpopular : but after his death, the state of things
became intolerable ; and at last the barons became so impa-
tient 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 cadet of one of the noblest
houses of Belgium, who had visited Naples to seek his fortune
in the military service 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

1 Muntaner, chap, cclxv. ; Buchon's Genealogy of the House of Villehardouin
in Reckerches et Materiaux.

VOL. IV. P

2IO PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch.VII. §5.

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 l.

The reign of Isabella and Florenz lasted about five years.
It was afterwards looked back to by the population 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 endeavoured to
reform the internal government. But though his administra-
tion was subsequently regretted, because succeeding times
were worse, still his government was marked by many scenes
of violence, which prove that the general state of society in
the Morea was not far removed from universal intestine war.
Men who had it not in their power to revenge the injuries
they sustained, 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, afford a more correct delineation of the govern-
ment, 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 gal-
lant establishment ; but the revenues of his barony being
insufficient to support his magnificent style of housekeeping,
he supplied the deficiency in his treasury 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

1 Livre de la Conqtteste, pp. 291, 293, notes; Ducange. Histoire de Constantinople,
edit. Buchon, ii. 375, Extraii d'wi Mimoire touchant les Droits du Roi de Majorque;
Muntaner, p. 521, edit. Buchon.

STORY OF PHOTIOS. 211

A.D. I277-I3II.]

and ransoming 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 Photios, visited some property he
possessed within the limits of the province of Corinth. The
governor, hearing of his presence, sent a party of his men-at-
arms to seize Photios, 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 Photios, to the
amount of ten thousand perpers ] ; and Walter insisted that
this sum should be paid to him by his prisoner. Photios, who
knew the accusation was got up as a pretext to extort money,
treated the demand with contempt. Though he was im-
prisoned and treated with great severity, he 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 Photios to agree to his demands, he ordered
two of the Greek's teeth to be extracted. As it was now
clear that Walter was ready to proceed to extremities,
Photios consented to purchase his liberty, by paying one
thousand perpers2.

Photios, as soon as he was released from confinement,
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, affected
to believe that the accusation brought by the peasants was
well founded, and rejected the claim for satisfaction. The
Byzantine authorities did not consider the moment favourable
for renewing hostilities ; so that Photios, disgusted with his
ineffectual attempt to obtain justice, resolved to seek revenge.
Hearing that his enemy was returning to Corinth from Patras,

1 These perpers must have been silver coins of ten to a gold florin ; see below,
p. 213, note. Joinville says the gold besant was worth dix sols d 'argent. Such
byzants were not of the value of the old Byzantine gold pieces from the fall of the
Western empire to the reign of Isaac II. Angelos.

a This would be one hundred gold florins.

P 2

2 1 2 PRIXCIPALIT Y OF A CHAIA .

[Ch.VIT. §5.

he assembled some armed men, and placed himself in ambush
on the southern shore of the Corinthian gulf. While he was
thus on the watch, a galley was perceived coming 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 Greeks cautiously crept up to the spot ; and Photios,
seeing a man whom he supposed to be Walter de Luidekerke
seated on a carpet, while 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 recognized
the assailant, and shouted ' Photy, Photy ! what are you
doing? It is the lord of Vostitza, not lord Walter.' But
the information came too late : the fair 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 Photios, but he met with the same
denial of justice he had formerly used. The Byzantine
authorities declared that the crime committed was accidental,
and originated in a mistake while Photios 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 Byzantine
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 execu-
tion by scaling a tower that commanded the internal defences
of the citadel, during a storm)' night, with a band of fifty
followers. At daybreak, the assailants were joined by 6oo of

SURPRISAL OF K A LAM AT A. 213

AD. I277-I3II.]

their countrymen, in good hauberks, who drove the Franks
out of the citadel and garrisoned Kalamata. The moment
prince Florenz heard of this disaster, he hastened to Kala-
mata, 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 Sclavonians to surrender
the place they had so treacherously seized ; but the governor
replied that the Sclavonians were a people who lived accord-
ing 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 accumula-
tion of capital on landed property which forms the surest
mark of a long period of civilization, and which it often takes
ages of barbarism and bad government to annihilate. Roads,
wells, cisterns, aqueducts, and plantations, 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

1 Livre de la Co?iqueste, 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 Gasmul— half Greek, half Frank.

214 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch. VII. § 5.

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 Chalko-
kondylas *, 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 suc-
ceeded 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 store
of provisions. Its situation, however, rendered it almost
impregnable, so that a very small force sufficed 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 commanding the roads leading to Nikli and
Veligosti, Florenz constructed 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, accustomed to mountain warfare, and habituated to
besiege their neighbours in the rock forts of their native

1 Called in the French chronicle Corcondille, p. 378.

SUZERAINTY OF ACHAIA. 215

A.D. I277-I3II.]

province l. 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 Naupaktos, 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 Graeco-Latin kingdom. The
death of Ithamar, and the subsequent marriage of Philip 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 II. 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 suzerain2.
Philip of Savoy, on arriving in the Morea, was compelled
by the feudatories of the principality to take an oath to

1 The district of Kisterna, above Kardamyle and Leuktron, appears from exist-
ing remains to have been then, as now, filled with defensible towers. Spany was
the master of several castles in the district. Livre de la Conqueste, 384.

8 For the act of investiture, dated at Rome, 23rd Feb. 1301, see Guichenon,
Preuves de VHistoire de la Maison de Savoie, p. 103; Buchon's edition of Mimtaner,

E. 505. But Buchon, in his Nouvelles Recherches (vol. i. p. 236, and vol. ii. p. 339),
as published an act, dated at Calvi, 6th February, 1301, in which Charles II. of
Naples declares that Isabella had 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 mention this discrepancy in his last work. [Isabella had
visited Rome in 1 300, on the occasion of the Jubilee, and had an interview with
the Pope. Hopf, who has compared the unpublished documents relating to
the subject, shows that Finlay was right in supposing that the Pope's influence
with the Angevin princes caused them to consent to the arrangement (Griechische
Geschichte, p. 351). Ed.]

216 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch.VII.§5.

respect the usages and privileges 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 Sclavonians 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, in capturing the two castles of
St. Helena and Crevecceur, in the passes between Karitena
and the 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 insurrection, 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 Sclavonians for a common object, we must
attribute the complete 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,

MA UD OF HA IX A ULT. 21 7

M>. 1311-1317.]

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 dis-
putes 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 Savoy1. Isabella died at her husband's Italian
possessions in the year 131 1, and Philip of Savoy then be-
came merely titular prince of Achaia, without having subse-
quently any direct connection with the political affairs in the
principality2.

Sect. VI. — Maud of Hainault and Louis of Burgundy.

Maud or Matilda, the daughter of Isabella Villehardouin
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 Athens3. In the year 13 13, two
years after her accession, she was married to Louis of Bur-
gundy, a treaty having been concluded between the king of
France, the duke of Burgundy, and Philip of Tarentum, in
which her rights were most shamefully trafficked to serve the
private interests of these princes. Hugh, duke of Burgundy,
had been already engaged to Catherine of Valois, the titular em-
press 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 Bur-
gundy to consent, Maud of Hainault was forced to cede her
principality 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

1 Ducange, Histoire de Constantinople, 213.

2 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, Recherckes et Materiaux, pp. 260, 2?o; Datta,
Storia dei Principi di Snvoia del Ratno d'Acr.ia, 2 vols., Turin, 1832.

3 Maud, Mahaut, Matilda, Maiatis, and Madr, are all variations of her name
found in documents and chronicles, and on coins.

2i8 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch. VII. § 6.

of Burgundy, all conspired to advance their political schemes
by defrauding a young girl of nineteen of her inheritance1.

About the end of the year 13 15, Maud and Louis set out
from Venice with a small army, to take possession of their
principality, which was governed by the Count of Cephalonia
as bailly for Maud. In the mean time, Fernand, son of Don
Jayme L, king of Majorca, had married Elizabeth, only
daughter of Margaret de Villehardouin, the lady of Akova, or
Mategrifon2, and he advanced a claim to the principality on
the pretext that William Villehardouin had by will declared
that the survivor of his daughters was to inherit his domin-
ions. The French barons of Achaia, however, were not in-
clined 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
Athens. As a precautionary measure they imprisoned the
lady of Akova on her return from Messina, where the marri-
age of her daughter was celebrated, and sequestrated her
estates while waiting anxiously for the arrival of 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 title3.
Fernand was a widower before he quitted Sicily to invade
Achaia, and he counted far more on the valour of his Almo-
gavars, than on the validity of his son's title. Taking ad-
vantage 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 a corps of five
hundred cavalry, and a strong body of the redoubtable in-
fantry of Spain, in 13 15. Clarentza and Pondikokastron

1 On the subject of these arrangements, see p. 120, note, and Duchesne, Histoire
generate des Dues de Dourgogne de la mahon de France; preuves, p. 115. Buchon
{Recherches et Materiaux, 238) has printed that part of the treaty which relates to
the principality of Achaia.

2 Elizabeth is sometimes called Isabella d'Adria. The stipulations relating to
her marriage with Don Fernand of Majorca are given in d'Achery, Spicilegium,
torn. iii. p. 704. and Buchon's translation of Muntaner, p. 508, edit. 1S40.

3 Jayme II., the last king of Majorca, was driven from his dominions by the
king of" Aragon, Don Pedro IV. (the Ceremonious), 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 giving the horse of the ceremonious king a cut with his whip
in a contemptuous manner as that monarch was making his public entry into
Avignon. This unceremonious conduct of the man was avenged on the master.

LOUIS OF BURGUNDY. 219

A.D. I3II-I317.]

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 with a
little prudence it seemed probable that he might have com-
pleted the conquest of Achaia, and expelled the French from
the Peloponnesus as completely as his countrymen had driven
them out of Athens1.

Early in the year 13 16, 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 business to be pre-
sent. After his death, his Spanish followers abandoned all
idea of conquering the principality. Their force was inade-
quate to the undertaking ; and what was worse, they had no
expectation of finding another leader who could procure the
supplies of men and money required to prosecute the war.
Yet the Spaniards were generally accused of treachery
for yielding up the fortified places in their possession to the
French, who were considerably their inferiors in warlike spirit
and military discipline2. Louis of Burgundy survived his rival
only about two months. It was said that he was poisoned by
the Count of Cephalonia, who 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 hereditary dominions, since, by her contract of
marriage and the will of her deceased husband, it now de-
scended in fee after her death to Eudes IV., duke of Bur-
gundy ; 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.

1 Muntaner, who seems to have loved Femand as if he had been his son, com-
plains in amusing terms of his wilfulness when they quitted the Grand Company
together in 1307, 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 ako, 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, Hisloire de Constantinople, torn. ii.
p. 175, Buchon's edit.; and in a note to Buchon's translation of Muntaner, p. 518,
edit. 1840.

2 20 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch. VII. § 7.

The Neapolitan house of Anjou was as famous for relent-
less cruelty as for unprincipled ambition and boundless 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 frustrating the claims of the duke of
Burgundy, by marrying the princess Maud to their brother
John, count of Gravina ; but to this marriage the young widow
refused to consent. In vain entreaties and threats were em-
ployed 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 deter-
mined opposition of the young princess. Immediately after
this infamous ceremony, 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 Villehardouin
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,
every member of which suffered the severest private calamities
as well as public misfortunes l.

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

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 Esclannonde, was the mother of Otho, John, and Theodore, who
became in succession Marquis of Montferrat. Art de verifier les Dales ; compare
A'o/i de Majorque and Marquis de Montferrat,

INTRIGUES OF THE BARONS. 221

A.P. 131 7-I4OO.]

the eventual right to the sovereignty was vested in the duke
of Burgundy. Eudes IV. sold his claim to Philip of Taren-
tum, 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 renunciation of all
his claims on Achaia.

During this period of confusion in the claims to the prin-
cipality, the barons of the Morea endeavoured to extend their
privileges, and to acquire virtual independence, by forming
amongst themselves associations to support that claimant
whose interest seemed most likely to coincide with their own ;
while in some cases new claimants were invited to enter the
field, merely to embarrass the proceedings of those who might
otherwise become too powerful. All patriotism was lost by
the French of Achaia ; and in the year 1341, after the death
of the Greek emperor Andronicus III., a 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 obtain-
ing any effectual aid from this quarter1. The same party
then turned their attention to Don Jayme II., king of Majorca,
as the representative of the family of Villehardouin, 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 principality2.

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-para-
mount of the duchies of Athens and of the Archipelago, as

1 Cantacuzeni Hist., p. 384.

2 Ducange. HUtoire de Constantinople, torn. ii. p. 375, Buchon's edit.; and the
notes to Buchon's edition of Muntaner, p. 521, edit. 1S40, where the memorial sent
by the barons of the Morea to Don Jayme II. of Majorca is printed.

222 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch.VII. §7.

well as of all the other fiefs of the empire still in the posses-
sion of the Franks. It is needless to say that the Catalans,
the Venetians, and the Genoese attached very little im-
portance 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 Bourbon established her-
self in Greece, but her authority 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 in-
creasing 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
difficulty. 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 recognized 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 com-
munication 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 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, Tritaea, and Methydrium, in ancient
Greece, and now enabled the barons of Chalandritza, Akova,
and Karitena to share the political sovereignty of the Pelopon-

JOHN DE HEREDIA. 223

A.D. 131 7-I4OO.]

nesus 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, the Moreote
barons united to resist his measures ; but after the death of
Robert of Tarentum left the succession divided between
his wife and brother, the barons began separately to form
projects for their individual aggrandizement, by appropriating
the rights which belonged to their sovereigns. Various con-
federacies were constituted for organizing a new constitution.
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 away1. Subsequently, in the year 139 1,
Amadeus of Savoy, titular prince of Achaia, was invited by
another confederacy to assume the government of the princi-
pality; 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 Superano, bailly of the titular emperor
of Romania, Jacques de Baux (Balza) ; by Asan Zacharias
Centurione, baron of Chalandritza and Arcadia ; and by Nerio
Acciaiuoli, governor 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, and has little
connection with the progress of events in Greece, or with the
fate of the Greek population.

It would be an unprofitable task to trace the intrigues and
negotiations of the barons, their civil broils and petty wars
with the Catalans, Greeks, and Turkish pirates. 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

1 Vertot, Histoire des Chevaliers Hospitaliers de St. Jean de Jerusalem, torn. ii.
p. 94.

3 Datta, Sloria 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.

12A PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch.VII. §7.

source of much trouble and confusion to the historian, who
must toil through wearisome pages of tumid phrases before he
can form any classification of the records of the time, or
understand the spirit of an age in a society which often
avoided expressing its real feelings. 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 signers, whatever might be the evils
caused by their warlike propensities, were compelled to culti-
vate 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 was a necessity of
existence ; and, as far as personal position was concerned, it
must not be forgotten that what the historian feels himself
compelled to call anarchy, contemporaries usually dignified
with the name of liberty.

While the possession of the principality was disputed by
rival princes, and the country governed by the baillies 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, inca-
pable of perpetuating their numbers without fresh immigrations,
for they were cut off by national and religious barriers from
recruiting their ranks from the native Greek population. 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 such
a state of insecurity, it is natural that the wealth of the
country should decline. But the slow decay wrought by

SELJOUK PIRATES RAVAGE GREECE. 225

A.D. I317-I4.OO.]

these causes was suddenly converted into a general destruction
of property, 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. Omar,
son of Aidin, the friend of the usurper Cantacuzenos, was
the bloodiest pirate of the Eastern seas ; under the name
of Morbassan, he has obtained celebrity in the pages of
European writers. His power was great, and his insolence
even greater. He depopulated the shores of Greece by his
piracies, assumed the title of Sovereign master of Achaia,
and gloried in the appellation of the Scourge of the Christians1.
Large bodies of the Seljouk pirates who had acquired an
accurate knowledge of the topography of the peninsula by
serving as mercenaries in the armies of the Greek despots
of the Morea, ravaged the principality. These plunderers
destroyed everything that was spared in Christian warfare.
Other enemies only carried off movable wealth, leaving the
peasant and his family to renew their toil, and be plundered
on a future occasion. The Turks, on the contrary, after
burning down the wretched habitations of the labourer, de-
stroyed the olive and fruit trees, in order to depopulate the
country and render it a fit residence for their own nomadic
tribes. And they also carried off the young women and
children, as the article of commerce 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 neighbourhood, but by foreign slaves, obtained by
their warlike expeditions by land and sea. This accumu-
lation 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
power of the Frank lords of the soil was undermined, and
the principality was ready to yield to the first vigorous
assailant.

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 affiictiones quibus ab infidelibus Turchis affligimur omni die.*
Buchon, Nouvelles Recherche*, Diplomes, torn. ii. p. 145.

VOL. IV. Q

226 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

[Ch. VII. § 7.

Other causes of decay were also at work. The princes
of Achaia possessed the right of coining money, and, like
all avaricious and needy sovereigns who possess the power
of cheating their subjects by issuing a debased coinage, they
availed themselves of the privilege to an infamous extent.
They were also masters of several commercial ports of some
importance, 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 principality
was gradually transferred to the ports of the Peninsula in
possession of the Venetians. As a consequence of the change,
much of the internal trade of the country was annihilated.
The value of produce in the interior was depreciated, on
account of the increased cost of its transport to the point
of exportation ; roads, bridges, and buildings fell to ruin ;
property ceased to yield any rent to the signors ; many castles
were abandoned, and a few foot-soldiers guarded the walls
of fortresses from which, in former days, bands of horsemen
in complete panoply had sallied forth at the slightest alarm.
The extent of the change which a single century had pro-
duced 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 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
later days, contributed to the treasury of its princes, after
deducting the sums required for payment of the permanent
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

RUIN OF THE PELOPONNESUS. 227

A.D. I3X7-I4OO.]

Malian gulfs, though, with reference to the revenues of the
country he governs, king Otho has the largest civil list of
any European monarch1.

The Franks had now ruled the greater part of the Pelopon-
nesus for two centuries ; and the feudal system had been
maintained in full vigour for sufficient time to admit of its
effects on civilized communities living under the simpler
system of personal rights, traced out in the Roman law,
being fully developed. The result was that the Franks were
demoralized, the Greeks impoverished, and Greece ruined.

The study of the feudal government in Greece offers much
that is peculiarly worthy of an Englishman's attention, 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 England and Greece
proved very different. It is true that the difference of religion
placed the conquered Greeks in a much worse condition than
that of the conquered Saxons, but the discordant results of
the two conquests are in no inconsiderable degree 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
was rarely 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 demoralized
all classes of society, and involved the rulers and their subjects
in common destruction.

Both in England and Greece, the conquest was effected as

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 de
Constantinople, ii. 375, edit. Buchon ; Muntaner, 522, note to Buchon's translation
of 1840. The domains of the prince were immense at a later period. In 1391 the
barons possessed fiefs with 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,
Recherches et Materiaux, 296.

Q 3

228 PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAIA.

much by the apathy of the natives as by the military supe-
riority 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 anything 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 civilization which existed at its commencement,
and to root out all the principles of Roman law and Roman
administration on which that civilization rested. The higher
and educated classes of Greek society vanished, as might be
expected, where their masters made use of the French lan-
guage 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 from anarchy and civil broils under the shade of
Turkish despotism. The Norman Conquest proved the fore-
runner 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 VIII.

Byzantine Province in the Peloponnesus recon-
quered from the French.

Sect. I. — Early State of the Byzantine Province. — Government
of the Despot Theodore I.

The emperor Michael VIII. no sooner took possession of
Misithra, Monemvasia, and Maina, which had been sur-
rendered to him as the ransom for William Villehardouin,
than he sent able officers into the Peloponnesus with instruc-
tions to spare neither exertions nor intrigues for recovering
possession of the whole peninsula. He believed that there
would be little difficulty in raising such a rebellion of the
Greeks as would expel the French from the territory they
retained. The Sclavonians of Mount Taygetus, encouraged
by the vicinity of the Byzantine garrison of Misithra, which
was the residence of the principal officers from Constanti-
nople ; the Tzakones, relying on support from the fortress
of Monemvasia ; and the Mainates, incited by imperial
money, — all flew to arms, and drove the French from their
territories. The Sclavonians of Skorta were less fortunate,
for they were surrounded on every side by French barons, all
the avenues into their mountains were guarded by strong
castles, and Akova and Karitena, two impregnable holds,
commanded the very heart of their country. Even though
they received aid from a Byzantine army, their rebellion was
soon suppressed. 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. Two victories re-established
the authority of the Franks. The first was at Prinitza, where

2 30 BYZANTINE PROVINCE.

0 [Ch.VIII. §i.

a small body of French knights and men-at-arms, under John
de Katavas, defeated the Byzantine army with great loss ; but
this defeat did not prevent the advance of the Greeks into the
plain of Elis. The second battle 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. Makrinos, the
second in command, obtained his liberty by paying a high
ransom, but on his return to Constantinople he was deprived
of sight by his jealous master, who suspected him of secret
dealings with the prince of Achaia1. For five years (1264 to
1268) the war was prosecuted with varied success; but at
length the exhaustion of both parties induced them to con-
clude a truce, which was subsequently converted into a per-
manent treaty of peace. These events have been already
noticed in reviewing the history of the reign of William
Villehardouin, 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 emperor3. The Byzantine throne was
at that time occupied by John V. (Palaeologos), and the
regency was in the hands of his mother, Anne of Savoy :
but John Cantacuzenos, the usurper, then acted as prime-
minister. The dissensions of the French nobles would pro-
bably have caused the speedy subjection of the whole
principality to the Greek empire, had the rebellion of
Cantacuzenos not compelled the Byzantine government to
neglect the affairs of Greece. The strategos at Misithra, who
governed the Byzantine province, was watched with as much
jealousy by the primates and archonts, as the Frank princes
and baillies at Andravida were by the barons and knights of
the principality of Achaia. At last the success of the rebel-
lion 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 suffer-

1 Pachymeres (i. 138, edit. Rom.) confirms the general account of the events
given in the Chronicles of the Conquest.

2 See above, p. 203.

s Cantacuzenos, 384; above, p. 221.

MANUEL CANTACUZENOS. 23 1

A.D. 1 264-1407.]

ing severely from the incessant forays of the Franks of Achaia,
the Catalans of Attica, and the Seljouk pirates. Each district
was forced to rely solely on its own means of defence. Each
archont 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, arriving in the peninsula with a
strong body of troops, succeeded in concluding a peace with
the principality of Achaia, in repulsing the attacks of the
Turkish pirates, and in terminating for a while the civil dis-
sensions of the Greek archonts ; 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 Byzantine Greeks. The position of
his family at Constantinople was so insecure, that he resolved
to take measures for maintaining his own authority in the
Peloponnesus, no matter what might happen elsewhere.
Under the pretext that it was necessary to keep a fleet in
order to defend the country from the ravages of the Seljouk
pirates, he imposed a tax on the province. The collection of
this tax was intrusted to a Moreot archont, named Lampou-
dios, who had been exiled on account of his previous intrigues,
but whose talents now induced Manuel to recall and employ
him. The arbitrary imposition of a tax by the despot was
considered an illegal act of power, and the Greeks every-
where flew to arms. Lampoudios, thinking that he was most
likely to advance his private fortunes by joining the popular
cause, deserted his patron, and took up arms with his in-
surgent countrymen. For a moment all the intestine broils
and local quarrels, which even time rarely assuaged in the
rancorous hearts of the Peloponnesian 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 K
The Moreots, if we may believe the perfidious Cantacuzenos,

1 These strong expressions, which depict the present state of Maina, are copied
from Cantacuzenos, Hist, p 751.

232 BYZANTINE PROVINCE.

[Ch.VIII. §i.

in this record of his son's fortunes, were on this single occa-
sion 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 Albanian 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 insurgents1. The patriotic con-
federacy was dissolved by the 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 as soon as the chiefs saw their
property ravaged by the Byzantine mercenaries, they hastened
to make their peace with the despot.

The fall of the emperor Cantacuzenos induced the Greeks
of the Peloponnesus to take up arms a second time against
Manuel ; and they welcomed Asan, the governor deputed
by the emperor John V. to supersede him, with every de-
monstration 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 advan-
tageous to their interests to be ruled by a governor who was
viewed with little favour by the emperor, than to be exposed
to the commands of one who was sure of energetic support
from the central authority at Constantinople. The result of
their intrigues was, that Manuel Cantacuzenos was invited
back to Misithra, where he soon succeeded in regaining all
his former power, and more, perhaps, than his former
influence. He contrived, also, to obtain the recognition of

1 These Albanians were from the despotat of Acamania, a name then given not
only to the ancient Acarnania and the west of Aetolia, but also to the southern
part of Epirus.

OTHOMAN TURKS IN THE MO RE A. 233

A.D. I264-I407.]

his title from the feeble court at Constantinople, and he con-
tinued to rule the Byzantine possessions in the Peloponnesus
until the time of his death, in 1380. His administration
was only troubled by partial hostilities on the part of the
Franks of Achaia, with whom he usually maintained 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 expedition 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 Palaeologos, the son of the
emperor John V., arrived at Misithra, as governor of the
Byzantine province ; and from that time, until the final con-
quest of the country by the Othoman Turks, it was always
governed by members of the imperial family of Palaeologos,
with the title of Despot. In later 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,, how-
ever, 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 hired a corps of
Turkish auxiliaries to support his despotic authority, under
the command of Evrenos, whose name became subsequently
celebrated in Othoman history as one of the ablest generals of
sultan Murad I.1 This was the first introduction of the Otho-
man Turks into the Peloponnesus. But the 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 Evrenos, who had
quitted the Morea, was invited to return. The Othomans
displayed their usual military energy and talent. In the first
campaign they captured the celebrated fortress of Akova, or

1 Evrenos was a native of Yanitza in Macedonia. His tomb is stilL shown, and
he is regarded as a saint. His countrymen call him Ghazi Gavrinos, and his
descendants hold considerable estates, and possessed until lately considerable
feudal rights.

234 BYZANTIXE PROVINCE.

[Ch.VIII. §i.

Mategrifon1. About the same time, a corps of Albanian and
Byzantine troops, issuing from Leondari, which had now risen
up as a Greek town on the decline of the Frank city of Veli-
gosti, defeated the Franks, and took the prince who com-
manded them prisoner. This prince, however, redeemed
himself before the end of the year, by paying a ransom2.

Incessant hostilities had now destroyed all the farm-houses
of the better class, and the peasants were either crowded into
the walled towns and fortified castles, or lodged in wretched
huts, that the destruction of these temporary habitations
might be a matter of little importance. The great plains were
almost depopulated ; the Greeks had almost entirely aban-
doned the occupation of agriculture, restricting themselves to
the cultivation of their olive-groves, orchards, mulberry-trees,
and vineyards. A new race of labourers was required to till
the soil, 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
scantier clothing than satisfied either the Greeks or the Scla-
vonians who previously pursued the occupation of agricul-
turists. This class was found among the rude peasantry of
Albania, who began about this time to emigrate into the
Peloponnesus as colonists and labourers, 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 Sclavo-
nians rapidly diminished, or became confounded In the greater
numbers of the Greeks3.

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.

■ 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 princi-
pality. In the year 1391, the principality of Achaia was governed by l'eter of
San Superano, as vicar-general, in virtue of an appointment from the titular
emperor James de Baux, the lord-paramount.

3 The Sclavonians are mentioned for the last time as forming part of the popu-
lation of the Peloponnesus in an enumeration of the various races inhabiting the
country, by Mazaris, a Byzantine writer of the first quarter of the fifteenth century.
He enumerates Lacedaemonians (Tzakones), Italians (Franks), Peloponncsians
(Greeks), Sclavonians, Ulyrians (Albanians), Egyptians (Gipsies), and Jews.
Boissonade, Anecdota Graeca, torn. iii. p. 174. See above, p. 33.

TURKISH INVASION. 235

A.D. 1 264-I407.]

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 Sigis-
mund, 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 then belonged
to the Venetian republic, which had purchased it from Mary
d'Enghien, the last heir of the fief granted by William Ville-
hardouin to Guy de la Roche1. 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 em-
ploy and enrich his troops, not to take permanent possession
of the country. His army therefore retired in autumn, carry-
ing with it an immense booty and about thirty thousand
slaves. The destruction of the crops and cattle, and the
depopulation and desolate condition of the country, produced
a severe famine.

The despot Theodore, seeing the deplorable state to which
his territory was reduced, endeavoured to procure ready
money by selling 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. The Greek inhabitants resisted
this transfer of their allegiance to a society of Latin military
monks, so that it was impossible to complete the transaction,
and by the advice and at the intercession of the archbishop of
Lacedaemon, the Greek archonts consented to receive the
despot Theodore again as their prince, on his promising with
a solemn oath not to take any important step in the govern-
ment 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 government, or any patriotism, they might
from this time have conducted the public administration ; but
their mutual jealousies and family feuds soon enabled the

1 Crusius, Turcograecia, 92. Compare Chalcocondylas, 51 ; Phrantzes, 62,
p. 83, edit. Bonn., where correct the year; the indiction, however, is right; see
the Chronicon Breve at the end of Ducas, anno 1 389-1 394.

236 BYZANTINE PROVINCE.

[ch.vm. §2.

despot to regain the authority he had lost- Theodore died in
the year 1407, and was succeeded by his nephew, Theodore
Palaeologos II., son of his brother the emperor Manuel II.1
At the time of his death, the Byzantine possessions had in-
creased so much 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 with the family of
Centurione, who held Chalandritza, the city of Arcadia, and a
part of Messenia. The Pope was the possessor of Patras,
which was governed by its Latin archbishop ; and the Vene-
tian republic possessed Modon, Coron, Nauplia, Argos, and
Thermisi -.

Sect. II. — The Emperor Manuel II. attempts to ameliorate
the Byzantine Government in the Peloponnesus.

In the year 14 15 the emperor Manuel II. visited the
Peloponnesus, in order to strengthen the position of his
son Theodore II. by reorganizing the province, which, in
consequence of the rapid conquests of the Othoman Turks,
had become the most valuable possession of the Byzantine
empire beyond the Hellespont, and excited a degree of
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 Pelopon-
nesus, therefore, the imperial government directed its care,
in the hope that this most important part of ancient Greece
might furnish the means of prolonging the resistance of the

1 Chalcocondylas, 114.

2 Thermisi is a castle of the middle ages, on the coast of Argolis, nearly oppo-
site 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 modem name is evidently connected with the temple of Ceres Thermesia.
I'ausanias, ii. 34, § 11.

THE EMPEROR MANUEL II. 237

A.D. I4I5-I423.]

eastern empire to the progress of the Othomans. 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 moderation ; and he introduced so
many administrative reforms that he put an end to the
tyranny of the archonts, and restored power to the administra-
tion 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 circumstances in which they were individually placed,
even more than by the defects of their political institutions.
This insuperable barrier to their improvement could not be
removed by financial and administrative 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 demoralized, rapacious, and
intriguing aristocrats of the Morea been all suddenly de-
stroyed, 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 circum-
stances, time was necessary to enable a better administration
and 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 apparent from
the remains that were everywhere visible of recently aban-
doned habitations. But still no one was able to point out
the precise method by which the evil could be remedied.
All perceived that the weakness of the country invited the
ravages of the Franks, Catalans, and Turks, but how to
infuse new strength into society was a problem none could
solve. The emperor Manuel, in a funeral oration he delivered
at Misithra, in memory of his deceased brother Theodore,
praised the despot for the great care he had devoted to
establishing Albanian colonies on the waste lands in the

2:? 8 BYZAXTIXE PROVIXCE.

[Ch. VIII. § 2.

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 immigrate 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 unin-
habited 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, where 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 was unwilling to pay for labour,
or it knew that money alone, in the condition to which the
Morea was then reduced, would not procure a competent
supply. Forced labour was therefore necessarily employed
to construct the wall across the isthmus. The archonts and
landed proprietors, the local magistrates and government
officials collected labourers in their respective districts, and
the fortifications from the Saronic Gulf to the Gulf of Corinth
were divided into suitable portions, according to the numerical
strength or masonic skill of the different contingents, each
being employed in the construction of a fixed portion of the
wall or of the ditch l. The emperor directed the progress
of the works, which were carried across the isthmus, on the
remains of the fortifications constructed by Justinian on older
foundations, just behind the Diolkos, or tram-road, by which
vessels were dragged over the isthmus from sea to sea. The
distance was about seven thousand six hundred yards, or
forty-two stades. The wall was strengthened by one hundred
and fifty-three towers 2. Remains of the work are still

1 Edward III. built the palace at Windsor in the same way. Each county was
required to send a certain number of masons, tilers, and carpenters. Hume,
History of England, chap xvi.

1 Phrantzes (p. 96, edit. Bonn.) gives three thousand eight hundred orgyiai as
the breadth of the isthmus; Chalcocond)las (p. 98, edit. Paris) 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

INVASION OF TURAKHAN. 2<?Q

A.D. I415-I423.] ^

visible, but it proved utterly useless for the defence of the
Peloponnesus.

When the emperor Manuel had completed his plans for
the reorganization 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 circum-
stances; but the attempt of the emperor to infuse vigour
into the Byzantine administration proved unsuccessful. His
plans 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 maintaining a princely retinue and assuming the authority
of an independent sovereign. Yet some good effects resulted
from the emperor's labours : the Byzantine government
gradually 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
Byzantine authorities. Manuel also succeeded in giving to
the Peloponnesus a greater degree of security from foreign
attacks than it had experienced for many years. But towards
the end of his reign, he was unfortunately involved in hostili-
ties with the Othoman Turks, and the Peloponnesus suffered
severely in the quarrel. In 1423, sultan Murad II., having
been compelled to raise the siege of Constantinople, revenged
himself by plundering 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 Christians. Pyramids of human heads were
erected by the Turks, in commemoration of this victory

reign of Basil I., a. d. 8S3, 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 con-
tained in Leake's Travels in the Morea, iii. 2S6.

240 BYZANTINE PROVINCE.

[Ch. VIIT. § 2.

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 \ The despot Theodore was a weak
man, utterly incapable of directing the government : he took
no measures either to circumscribe the ravages of the Turkish
troops, or to alleviate the evils they had produced, after their
retreat.

Every thinking man began to feel that nothing but a
radical change in the government and in the social condition
of the inhabitants could save the country from ruin. Mazaris,
a Byzantine satirist, describes the inhabitants of the Pelopon-
nesus as a barbarous and demoralized rabble, consisting of a
mixture of Tzakones, Franks, Greeks, Sclavonians, Albanians,
Gipsies, and Jews, of whose improvement there was no hope.
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 socialist2.
Plethon's project was to divide the population into three dis-
tinct classes, — cultivators of the soil, landlords and capitalists
who live on rent or profits, and officials who guard order
whether soldiers, administrators, lawyers, or princes. It is
not necessary to review the details of his scheme, for, though
he frequently displays much acuteness his project was im-
practicable. The evils that 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 by a multiplicity of
imposts ; the imperfect administration of justice, and the

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 Lcondari, mark the site of this tragedy. Tavia or Davia still exists as a
village in the valley of the Helisson, west of Tripolitza.

* 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 council 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
Stobaeus, Antwerp, 1575. Fallmerayer, in his Geschichie der Halbinsel Morea,
first drew the public attention of modem scholars to these works. Dr. Ellissen
of Gottingen has reprinted these works of Mazaris and Plethon with German
translations in Part iv. of Analeklen der miitel- und neugriechischen Literatur, Leipzig,
i860.

REFORMS OF GEMISTOS PLETHON. 241

A.D.1415-1423.]

debased state of the metallic currency, which filled the
country with foreign 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 farmer received
one third of its produce, the landlord and capitalist an-
other 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 were to be abolished ; and the revenue necessary for
the prince and higher officials was to be raised by exporting
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 impracticability of his scheme is
very simple, and very generally applicable to many other
schemes, which have a good 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 in existence from
opposing the gradual introduction of measures which, from
their very nature, required a certain lapse of time before they
could be brought into operation. Now it is evident that no
gradual reform can ever be carried through, unless the first
step in the change creates a strong feeling in favour of the
ulterior scheme, as well as a powerful body of partizans
interested in its success ; for unless the opposition of those
who have an interest in opposing a change be instantaneously
paralyzed, a long struggle may ensue, which is most likely to
end by producing some arrangement totally different from
that contemplated by the reformer. The difficulty of de-
scribing 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 at
the moment when his place in their new order of society
is prepared to receive him, they could improve the condition
of mankind. But statesmen know well that complicated
schemes of reform can only be completed by society itself.
They only seek to guide the movement, so that, while each
VOL. IV. R

242 BYZAXTIXE PROVINCE.

[Ch.VUI.S3.

individual is hurrying on in pursuit of his own objects, a
general improvement may be produced without any appear-
ance of sudden change. It is only possible to point out with
certainty the first step in the path of improvement. That
step can be taken without delay ; but, when taken, it may
reveal unseen impediments, and open new paths, which
require fresh measures and additional resources before further
progress is attempted. The statesman concentrates all his
powers on the first step ; the theoretical political philosopher
undertakes to arrange all society, with the exception of this
first step.

SECT. III. — Division of ilie Morea among the Brothers of the
Emperor John VI. — War of the Despots Constantino 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 T427 he visited the
Peloponnesus, to create for his brothers Constantine and
Thomas suitable establishments in the province. The despot
Theodore had announced his intention of retiring into a
monastery, and the emperor proposed conferring the most
important part of the province, 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
melancholy and discontented Theodore had changed his
mind. For some years, therefore, the three brothers governed
different portions of the Byzantine province simultaneously,
almost with the power of independent princes. Theodore, as
has been already noticed, was inconstant and weak ; Con-
stantine, the last unfortunate emperor of Constantinople,
was brave but imprudent ; while Thomas wras a cruel and
unprincipled tyrant.

The fortunes of the despot Constantine acquire a promi-
nent interest, from his fate being linked with the conquest of
Constantinople and the ruin of the Greek race. His bold
and restless character connects the fate of the Morea with his
personal history. When the emperor John VI. found that
Theodore refused to resign his authority, he procured for

THE DESPOT CONSTANTINE. 243

A.D. I427-I446.] ^

Constantine a territorial establishment 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 impoverished condition, enabled it to
bring into the field an overwhelming mercenary force, he was
glad to purchase peace by marrying his niece Theodora to
the despot Constantine, and ceding the city of Clarentza,
with all his possessions in the Peloponnesus, as her dowry.
After the celebration of this marriage, the emperor, before
returning to Constantinople, conferred the government of
Vostitza and Messenia on Constantine, and that of Kalavryta
on Thomas.

Constantine resided at Clarentza, where he possessed the
feudal jurisdiction of a Frank prince over the Latin inhabit-
ants, whom he endeavoured to conciliate ; 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 Constantine, to whom he was attached as chamber-
lain \ The despot, undismayed by his failure to surprise the
city, soon returned with a sufficient force to form the siege ;
and though he received an order from sultan Murad II.,
who had constituted himself the arbiter of all the Christian
princes in Greece, to suspend hostilities, he prosecuted his
undertaking, and succeeded in persuading the inhabitants of
the town of Patras to submit to his authority. The Latin
archbishop arrived at Naupaktos with succours a few days
after the Byzantine troops had entered the town ; but it was
found impossible to introduce any supplies into the citadel,
which still held out, and whose garrison continued to defend
it for a year. Phrantzes, who had been released by (he
Latins after forty days' imprisonment, was the envoy cm-
ployed by Constantine to persuade sultan Murad II. to
consent to the conquest of Patras. In the mean time a
papal fleet, consisting of ten Catalan galleys, finding it

1 Phrantzes, 138, edit. Bonn.
R %

244 BYZANTINE PROVINCE.

[Ch.VIII. §3.

impossible to open any communication with the besieged
garrison in the citadel of Patras, left their anchorage, and,
sailing to Clarentza, suddenly stormed that city during the
absence of Constantine. The Catalans threatened to 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 posses-
sion 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 Chlomoutzi, or Castel Tornese,
which is only 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 persecuted
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 l. War was at that time an honourable mode of

1 It would be more interesting to follow the private fortunes of the historian
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 Byzantine writers. He tells
us in the most entertaining manner of the ptesents he received from the despot
Constantine on his release from the prison of Tatras ; 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 must really have felt a 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 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 confession, very nearly so. Thus we see that the
irresponsible nature of diplomacy 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

PELOPONXESUS AGAIN BYZANTINE. 245

A.D. I427-I446.]

collecting plunder ; it had not yet assumed the pretext of
being a means of obtaining justice.

The only Frank prince who now retained a feudal sovereignty
in the Peloponnesus was Azan Zacharias Centurione, baron
of Chalandritza and Arkadia, who had assumed the title of
Prince of Achaia. During the siege of Patras, Thomas
Palaeologos invested Chalandritza ; and after its capture,
Centurione, unable to receive succour either from Italy, or
from the Catalan fleet, was compelled to make the best terms
he was able with the Greeks. Thomas married his daughter
Katherine, who was declared heir of all his territorial pos-
sessions, though her father was allowed to enjoy a liferent
of them. This act extinguished the last trace of the princi-
pality of Achaia, after it had existed two hundred and
twenty-five years, and as a reward for his exploits Thomas
received from his brother the emperor 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 govern-
ment 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 soon involved
in disputes. The state of society, the configuration of the
country, and the corruption of the Byzantine financial ad-
ministration, invested the archonts and chieftains with con-
siderable local power, while it debarred them from all
participation in the legislation of their country, and all power
to correct the abuses that prevailed in the general government.
They were excluded from direct authority, except as financial
or administrative agents of the central power. The conse-
quence 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 who
were supposed to influence the decisions of the despots and
the distribution of offices. The fraternal discord which disgraces
the last period of the Byzantine domination was produced

of Misithra and its environs, consisting of the citadel, the Jews' quarter, Tzera-
mios, Pankotes, Sklavochorion, and some other villages.

246 BYZANTINE PROVINCE.

[Ch.VIII. §3.

as much by Moreot intrigue as by Constantinopolitan am-
bition ; for, though the house of Palaeologos 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 wickedness 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 Constantine
visited Constantinople, and John VI. showed a disposition
to select Constantine, though the younger of the two, to
be his heir. 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-
larity of Constantine alone held out any hope of success.
Prudence, however, was no part of Constantine's character;
and, in order to make sure of the imperial succession, he
resolved to eject his brother Theodore from the government
of Misithra, hoping that the blow would induce the melan-
choly despot to retire into a monastery, to which he often
expressed an inclination. Leaving Constantinople secretly,
he hastened to Clarentza, where he assembled a band of
soldiers, composed in great part of the Frank military ad-
venturers who still lingered in the western part of the
Peloponnesus. He persuaded his brother Thomas to join
in his plans, and they invaded the territories of Theodore,
where they expected to meet with little opposition ; but
Constantine's project had transpired in timetoaMow Theodore
to reach Misithra before it was besieged. Civil war soon
spread over the whole country, and a pretext was afforded
to the Moreot chiefs to gratify private revenge, under colour
of serving the hostile despots. While the quarrel of the
brothers was languidly prosecuted, the personal vengeance
of individuals deluged the country with blood. Constantine
on this occasion displayed an utter want of patriotism. In
order to reign, he was ready to become a vassal of the Turks.
Phrantzes was sent as envoy to solicit the support of sultan
Murad II. ; and it was with difficulty that the emperor
John VI. prevailed on his infatuated brothers to conclude
a peace, without making the sultan the arbiter of their
differences. Constantine at last consented to return to Con-

CONSTANTINE DEFEATED BY OMAR. 247

A.D. I42 7-I446.]

stantinople, and cede his government in the Peloponnesus
to the despot Thomas, who continued to live in discord
with Theodore until the year 1443. In tnat year Theodore
finally quitted the Morea, and received in exchange the
city of Selymbria as an appanage. He soon resigned his
power, and retired into a 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 whole of Elis and Messenia, with part
of the ancient Arcadia, and of Achaia l.

About this time the Othoman power was threatened with
serious embarrassments ; and the despot Constantine imme-
diately forgot the friendship he had professed for sultan
Murad II., when he was soliciting Turkish assistance to drive
his 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 princi-
pality in Albania, induced Constantine to strengthen the wall
at the isthmus of Corinth, and repair the breaches made in
it by Turakhan in 1423. As many troops as it was possible
to collect were assembled at Corinth ; and Constantine ad-
vanced 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 to commence hostilities with the
Mohammedans. The military operations of Constantine were
soon brought to a conclusion by an Othoman army, under
Omar, the son of Turakhan, who without difficulty dispersed
the Greek troops, and, advancing to Thebes, gave the duke
of Athens an opportunity of separating from the Greek
alliance, which he had embraced to avert an attack on his
own dominions. Constantine unable to face the well-disci-
plined army of Omar, abandoned all the conquests he had
made beyond the isthmus, and thought only of defending

1 In order to avoid confounding the name of the modern city of Arkadia (the
ancient Cyparissiae, the fief of the Centurione') with the ancient state of Arcadia,
it is convenient to make a difference in the spelling.

248 BYZAXTIXE FROVIXCE.

[Ch.VIII. § 3.

himselfin the Peloponnesus. Circumstances 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 necessary for Murad to quit his Asiatic
retreat a second time. The victory at Varna had put to
flight the dreams of independence and national regenera-
tion 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 constant employment
could insure obedience in the Othoman armies. Murad's first
enterprise was to punish Constantine for what he considered
his ungrateful and rebellious 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 bronze, to cast cannon 1. The army
halted for a few days at Minzies, and while his officers were
preparing the artillery for an attack on the fortifications of
the isthmus of Corinth, 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 Con-
stantine and Thomas, astonished Murad by a military display
he had not expected to behold, and he reproached Turakhan
for having persuaded him to attack these impregnable 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 declared that the

1 Dam, Histoire de Venise, vii. 195.

DEFENCE OF THE ISTHMUS. 249

a,t>. 1 42 7-1 446.]

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 assured 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 de-
puted Chalcocondylas, an Athenian in his service, to propose
terms of peace \ The Greek leaders must have been singularly
confident of their diplomatic success, for they could not place
much reliance on the courage of their troops. Chalcocondylas
was instructed to demand that the sultan should acknowledge
Constantine as independent sovereign of the Peloponnesus,
and of all the territory beyond the isthmus which recognized
the Byzantine government. On this condition, he offered
to abstain from all future hostilities against the Othoman
dominions. The proposition appeared to Murad a greater
insult than the invasion of Thessaly. Chalcocondylas was
thrown into prison, and military operations were prosecuted
with vigour. The Othoman camp was established before the
middle of the wall, on the last slopes of Mount Geranea,
overlooking the whole isthmus and the two seas, with the
Acrocorinth and the rugged mountains of the Morea in the

1 This Chalcocondylas must have been the father of the historian, whom his son
mentions as having been sent on an embassy to Murad by the widow of Antonio
Acciaiuoli, duke of Athens, in 1435, though Hammer draws a contrary inference,
and considers that the historian is speaking of himself. Histoire de V Empire Otho-
man, torn. ii. p. 500, note 10, trad, par Hellert. Vossius mentions that the his-
torian was alive in 1490, so it seems not very probable that he could have been
intrusted with this important embassy forty-four years before ; but it is 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, De Hktorich Graecis, ii. 30. Compare Chalcocondylas,
169, 181. Demetrius Chalcocondylas, one of the restorers of learning 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.

250 BYZANTINE PROVINCE.

[Ch. VIII. § i.

background. 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
have often himself witnessed 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 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 commissariat
explains the cause of the long continued success that attended
the Turkish arms, better than any account of the tactics
of the generals, or of the exercises of the soldiers. The
valour of the janissaries was a consequence of their discipline ;
the talents of the Othoman generals a result of their superior
moral as well as military training 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 overlooked the storming party; and under his eye a
young Servian janissary first gained the summit of the ram-
part, and planted the crescent firmly in the sight of the two
armies. 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 the breach
was stormed. Constantine and Thomas, unable to rally a
single battalion, fled with precipitation to Misithra. Their
imprudence had been so great that the Acrocorinth afforded
no cover for the defeated army. It had been left without
provisions, and surrendered to the first party of Turks that
approached it. Three hundred Greeks attempted to resist
the enemy. Entrenching themselves in Mount Oxi, above

1 Chalcocondylas, p. 182.

TURKS RETIRE FROM THE MO RE A. 25 1

A.D. 1427-1446.]

Kenchries, they were besieged by the Turks ; but when they
found they were cut off from all aid their courage failed and
they surrendered at discretion. They were fettered with six
hundred prisoners the sultan had purchased from his janissa-
ries, and the whole nine hundred were beheaded without
mercy; yet historians tell us that Murad II. 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 dis-
grace. The main body of the Turks advanced along the
coast of Achaia to Patras ; while Turakhan, at the head of
a light division, was sent into the interior of the Peninsula,
merely to lay waste the country and collect booty. The
greater part of the inhabitants of Patras escaped over the gulf
into the Venetian territory in Aetolia ; but about four thou-
sand 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 even after the Turks suc-
ceeded in making a breach in the walls, they were repulsed.
In the mean time Turakhan joined the sultan ; and Murad,
who was not inclined to waste any more time in Greece, led
his army back to Thebes. He is said to have carried away
about sixty thousand Greeks, who were distributed through-
out the slave-markets in the Othoman dominions. Constan-
tine had 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 conduct
of Constantine, gives us the standard of veracity in most Byzantine writers.
From the conquest of Italy by the Lombards, to the desolation of the Pelopon-
nesus by sultan Murad II., the Greek historians frequently leave the most im-
portant events connected with the history of the Greek nation unrecorded.
Phrantzes says the isthmus was forced on the 10th December, 1446, but the
Breve Chronicon says on Saturday 3rd 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, Hhtoire de Venise, vii. 196.

252 BYZANTINE PROVINCE.

[Ch. VIII. § 4.

SECT. IV. — Disorders in the Morea 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 Constantinople,
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 adminis-
tration 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 they set foot in the
Peloponnesus. Thomas was a cruel tyrant, who assassinated
his enemies and put out the eyes of his captives. Demetrius
was an idle, luxurious, and worthless prince,, who neglected
the business of his station. Both had more than an ordinary
share of Byzantine avidity for money, and a princely con-
tempt for the feelings of their subjects. Strictly speaking,
the despots who ruled in Morea were nothing more than vice-
roys of the emperor of Constantinople ; but the circumstances
in which the empire was placed had, for a long time, rendered
them in point of fact absolute and independent sovereigns.
The administration both of Thomas and Demetrius, never-
theless, 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, has produced the ruin and demoralization of Vallachia
and Moldavia. It is a system which, wherever it has existed,
has created the deepest execration in the hearts of those
subjected to its tyranny. In modern times, the Byzantine
officials, who have been the agents of this system, are called
Phanariotes, from the name of the quarter of Constantinople
in which they usually resided ; and their conduct has been
one cause of the general detestation with which the Greeks
are regarded by other races in the East. Before the conquest

TURKS ROUTED IN ARGOLIS. 253

a.d. 1446-1454.]

of the Byzantine empire by the Turks, the officials at Con-
stantinople were a powerful class1. 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 pan-
dered to by these adventurers. Nothing but the fear of the
Turks prevented the more energetic Thomas from attacking
his brother Demetrius 2.

When Mohammed II. prepared to attack Constantinople,
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 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 unattacked, Turakhan divided his army, and ex-
tended his ravages over the whole of the great Arcadian
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 abandon 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
Achmet was retiring by the narrow pass on the road from,
Argos to Corinth, called by the ancients Tretos, and cele-
brated 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 possessed 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

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.

254 BYZAXTIXE PROVINCE.

[Ch. VIII. § 4.

that pasha during his quarrels with his brother Thomas1.
The fall of Constantinople, and the conviction that the in-
habitants of the Peloponnesus feared Turkish cruelty less
than Byzantine rapacity, induced the despots to solicit peace
on such terms as Mohammed 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
ducats ; yet these miserable princes were so blinded by
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 2.

At this unfortunate epoch in the history of the Greeks the
people, oppressed by rulers who were aliens in feeling, lost all
wish to defend their national independence ; while the Alba-
nian colonists in the Morea aspired at 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 spreading 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 them with a desire
for independence, and with the hope of rendering themselves
absolute masters of the soil they occupied. The Albanians,
habituated to hardship, increased in numbers amidst the
general desolation of the Morea. The Greeks, on the other
hand, nurtured among too many artificial wants, were unable
to perpetuate their numbers in the state of privation to which
they were reduced. The peasantry, crowded into the towns,
were daily perishing from want ; the artizans 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 additional
rent for the land they occupied. The exaction was resisted,
and the moment appearing favourable for a general insurrec-
tion, the chiefs of the Albanians boldly proclaimed their

1 Chalcocondylas, 202 ; Phrantzes, 235, edit. Bonn ; Fallmerayer, ii. 352. Chal-
cocondylas fixes the place, which Phrantzes might lead his readers to suppose
was near Leondari.

3 Ducas, 177. 191 ; Chalcocondylas, 215, 219.

ALBANIANS BESIEGE THE DESPOTS 2KZ

a.d. 1 446-1454.] *00

project of expelling the Greek population from the Morea.
Turkish interference perhaps alone saved the peninsula from
becoming an Albanian land. Many discontented political
adventurers deserted their Greek countrymen, and became
the most active leaders in this revolution, which was, on the
whole, as much a movement of Albanian cupidity and Greek
intrigue, as a contest of national ambition and patriotic feel-
ing. Manuel Cantacuzenos, a Byzantine noble who had
acquired great influence among the semi-independent moun-
taineers of Taygetus and Maina, placed himself at the head of
the principal body of the insurgents. By assuming an Alba-
nian name, he expected that the rebels would be persuaded to
elect him Prince of the Morea. Instead of Manuel, he
adopted the Albanian appellation Ghin ; and his wife, instead
of Maria, called herself Cuchia1. The 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
influence 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 com-
munion with the papal church, and advanced to besiege
Patras with a considerable body of armed men. Loukanos
affected the character of an Albanian patriot, and, assembling
the discontented of every class and nation in the west of the
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 insurgents 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, Matthew Asan, who commanded the Greek gar-
rison in Corinth, assured the sultan that any party would

1 Theodori Spandugini Diss, de Orig. Imp. Turcicorum, in Sansovino's Collec-
tion, Venet. 1600, p. 166; Fallmeiayer, ii. 357.

2^6 BYZANTINE PROVINCE.

[Ch. VIII. § 4.

readily pay the tribute ; and he solicited assistance from the
Turk to subdue the Albanian rebels, whose projects, he per-
suaded Mohammed, were partly directed to independence
and partly to plunder. The sultan could not view any move-
ment of the countrymen of Scanderbeg with favour. It
suited his policy for the moment to maintain the two rival
races in joint possession of the country, but it seemed that,
unless he immediately interfered, the Greeks might be com-
pletely 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
was exhausted before the Othoman army entered the penin-
sula. As soon as the Greek adventurers succeeded in intruding
themselves into the principal commands over the insurgent
army, the Albanian population perceived that the war was no
longer a revolution for their own objects alone.

Turakhan crossed the isthmus in October 1454, and has-
tened 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 com-
pelled the Albanians to raise the siege of Misithra. The
despot Demetrius immediately joined the Turkish army;
which, aided by the topographical knowledge of the Greeks,
penetrated into the enemy's stronghold and captured ten
thousand women and children, as well as the greater part
of the riches that had been accumulated 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 partizans
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 pro-
visions 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

1 Phrantzes, 3S5, edit. Bonn; Chalcocondylas, 218, edit. Paris Zinkeisen
(Geschichte des Osmamsehen Reichs. in Europn, ii. 184s) calls the district Bordonia,
which indicates that Bardunia was inhabited by Christian Albanians before the
Turkish conquest, though their apostasy must have taken place at an early
period.

CAMPAIGN OF MOHAMMED II 2^7

a.d. 1458-1459.] «■>'

politic a statesman to allow the Greeks to gain any very
decided superiority over their enemies. The terms of the
pacification he forced on the despots are a sad testimony of
the utter ruin that had overwhelmed the Greek agricultural
population. The Albanians were allowed to retain possession
of all the cattle they had plundered. They were also per-
mitted to colonize all the waste lands they had occupied, on
paying a fixed rent to the proprietors. After Turakhan had
settled the affairs of the country, he gave the two despots
some good advice, which, if it be correctly reported by
Chalcocondylas, does honour both to the head and the heart
of this experienced warrior, who had grown grey in the
Grecian wars. He advised them to live in peace and cherish
brotherly love, for he warned them that their dissensions
could not fail to produce rebellions of their subjects, and
he recommended them to keep a strict watch over every
movement of the unruly Moreots. The Albanian insurrection
was marked by many atrocities ; it reduced whole districts to
a state of desolation, and converted many Greek towns into
mere sheepfolds, or mandrai1.

Sect V. — First Expedition of Sultan Mohammed II. into the

Morea.

The suppression of the Albanian revolt did not tranquillize
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 prompti-
tude, 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

1 Chalcocondylas, 215; Phrantzes, 383, edit. Bonn; Spandugnino, op. cit. p. 166.
VOL. IV. S

2-;8 BYZAXTIXE PROVIXCE.

[Ch.VIII.§5.

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 at Nemea, and, passing by the lake Stymphalos, crossed a
mountain road to Tarsos in the valley of the river of Phonia.
Tarsos was inhabited by Albanians, who purchased 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 ex-
tremity 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 ineffectually 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 endea-
vouring to repeople with contingents 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 by again bearing arms against the Mussulmans1.
The sultan now turned back, and entered the great Arcadian
plain near the ruins of Mantinea. The Albanians of Pente-
choria, 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 Otho-
man 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

1 The sultan ordered the ankles and wrists of these Albanians to be broken
with clubs, and in this state they were left to die. With that fiendish exultation
in cruelty which characterizes Othoman history, the place was called Tokrnak
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.

CAMPAIGN OF MOHAMMED II. 2KQ

a.d. 1458-1459.] 3?

neighbourhood to contain the remains of three hundred and
sixty-five churches. Though nothing 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, while they look with indifference on the
Hellenic walls of Mantinea, as the work of heathen giants.
Mouchli soon surrendered from want of water, the besiegers
cutting off the supply by the aqueduct, and the cisterns being
insufficient for the inhabitants. From Mouchli, Mohammed
returned to Corinth, where he bombarded the Acrocorinth
with such effect that the bakehouse and magazines were
reduced to ashes1. The treachery of the archbishop caused
the surrender of the place. He secretly informed the sultan
of the condition to which the garrison would soon be reduced
from want of provisions ; and when Asan saw there was no
hope of the siege being raised, or of receiving any further
supplies, he surrendered the fortress. Mohammed had the
generosity to treat this brave enemy with honour. He de-
puted 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.

When the despot Thomas believed that the attention of
the Othoman government was exclusively occupied with the
affairs of Servia and the troubled state of Asia Minor, he

CPlAf ?rd!ng to Chalcocondylas(24o))the balls of Mohammed's artillery weighed
wnt fi ' j° ' -lf th\ta fnt be estimated. with Suidas, at one hundred and
ThPc?ifTf P°U ' glVf,S ,a baU °f dght hundred and seventy-five pounds' weight,
a half. WerC Pr°pelled to the distance of fourteen stades, or about a mile !nd

» Chalcocondylas, 240; Phrantzes, 387, edit. Bonn; Chronicon Breve, a.m. 6q66,

tZi t4' ♦• am ?0t aware how we are t0 fo the value of what Chalcocondylas,
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 Byzantuie officials at an earlier period. Until the time of the conquest of Con-
stantinople by the Crusaders, the centner was one hundred pounds' weight of gold,
and the pound contained seventy-two nomismata or byzants. The gold coinage of
Constantinople lost its ancient purity in the empire of Nicaea and the restored
J) zantine empire. Reiskn Commentarii ad Conskmtinum Porphyrogenitum de Caere-
momu Aulae Byzantinae, edit. Lips. vol. ii. p. 44; edit. Bonn, vol ii. p. 139.

S 2

26o BYZANTINE PROVINCE.

[Ch. VIIL § 5.

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 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 contemporaries. In the month of January 1459,
Thomas formed a considerable army by assembling all the
troops he could engage in his service. Karitena, St. George,
Bordonia, and Kastritza were induced to drive out the officers
of Demetrius and join the war party. A proclamation was
issued, promising that the archonts and municipal authorities
would be allowed to manage their local affairs. The national
hatred of the Turks, the contempt felt for Demetrius, and the
love of local independence among the Greeks, were the senti-
ments on which Thomas counted for securing the support of
the whole Christian population of the Peloponnesus1. 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, converted into a
scene of anarchy, pillage, and bloodshed. The Albanians, to
revenge themselves for their former defeat, plundered all the
Greeks alike, whether they were the parti zans of one brother
or the other ; and availed themselves of the general anarchy
to lay waste the villages whose farms they were eager to con-
vert into pasture-lands. The Turkish garrisons of Mouchli,
Vostitza, and Corinth found opportunities of making continual
sorties, burning down the villages, carrying off the cattle in
the surrounding country, and preventing the despot from
concentrating a sufficient force to besiege them.

To repress these disorders, Mohammed II. sent the pasha
of Thcssaly 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 Makry-

1 Phrantzes, 389 : tv' avQis (\ojciv oivtcL ov\ ws irpwrju tKV0tpvow, dAA* ws aWivrai

DEFEAT OF DESPOT THOMAS. 261

A.D. I458-I459.]

plagia into the valley of Leondari. Here Thomas had drawn
out a numerous army to await their attack, under the walls of
the town. The Duke of Wellington 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 confusion 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. Younisbeg, the commander of the Othoman sipahis,
after reconnoitring 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 helpless. The rapid
flight of the Greeks, however, showed the Turkish general
that fear can often accomplish 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 inevitable ; but just at this critical moment a violent
contagious disease broke out in the Turkish army, and com-
pelled it to retire \ The Greeks again advanced ; Patras was
once more besieged, and patriotism revived ; but 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 sultan, whose attention was occu-
pied 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 ratify the conditions of the
peace at Corinth within twenty days in person before the
Othoman plenipotentiary.

Fear of treachery, 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
1 Chalcocondylas, 243.

262 BYZANTINE PROVINCE.

[Ch. VIII. § 6.

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 meeting was singularly solemn : the bishop
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 Byzantine lords their plighted word
was a jest ; the ceremonies of their church mere mummery,
to deceive the people ; and their religion a device, 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. The year 1459 had not ended before they were both
in arms, ravaging one another's possessions, and exterminating
the scanty remains of the Greek population in the Pelopon-
nesus. The Albanian shepherds 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 creation, than the
faith of Mahomet l.

SECT. VI. — Final Conquest of the More a 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 arrival of the
Turks. The patience of Mohammed was now exhausted,
and he 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 every trace of

1 It would be very easy to make a long list of distinguished men in the service
of the sultans Murad II. and Mohammed II. who were renegades.

CRUELTIES OF MOHAMMED II. 263

A.D. I460-I54O.]

Greek independence. He passed the Isthmus of Corinth
in the month of May 1460, and marched direct to Misithra,
where the despot Demetrius received him with profound
submission ; but the sultan immediately informed him that
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 commanding every city and fort
in his territory to receive a Turkish garrison. The in-
habitants of Monemvasia, whose situation had enabled them
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 surrender — 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. In this rocky
retreat the refugees hoped 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 who possessed
the means of resisting his authority at a future period. H e
led his troops into the defiles of Mount Hellenitza, and
stormed Gardiki. The citadel, in spite of its rocky and
almost 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 families of Leondari, perished on this
occasion to expiate the vices and folly of their Byzantine
princes1. The inhabitants of Old Navarin and Arkadia

1 Chalcocondylas, 252; Phrantzes, 406. Gardiki was the scene of the first
great massacre perpetrated by the Turks in the Morea, in 1423 (see above, p. 239).
The cruelty of Turakhan excited the emulation of Mohammed.

264 BYZAXT1XE PROVINCE.

[Ch. VIII. § 6.

surrendered, and from "their environs ten thousand persons
were transported to repeople Constantinople. Amidst these
scenes of desolation, the despot Thomas conducted himself
with the basest cowardice. As soon as he heard that Moham-
med 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 Byzantine government in Greece was now at an end.
Most of the political adventurers from Constantinople, who
had been one of the chief causes of its ruin, 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 pre-
ferred 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 washed out 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. Central governments
are easily destroyed by a victorious enemy ; local inde-
pendence engenders permanent feelings that almost insure
success, in a national struggle, against the most powerful
conqueror.

Mohammed II. led the main body of the Turkish army
into the centre of the Morea. Wherever he encountered
opposition he treated his enemies with his usual inhuman
cruelty. At Kalavryta he ordered an Albanian chief, who
had repeatedly deserted from the Turks, to be sawn in
two, though he had given up the citadel to the sultan's
troops. Part of the garrison of Kalavryta were sold as slaves,
and the rest were beheaded. Zagan Pasha was detached

PROGRESS OF THE TURKS. %6K

A.D. I460-I54O.]

to complete the conquest of the north-western part of the
peninsula. He behaved with such monstrous inhumanity
that he displeased even Mohammed. Grevenos repulsed his
attacks; but Santimeri, in which all the wealth of the
surrounding country had been laid up, opened its gates on
receiving a promise that he would protect the lives and
property of the inhabitants1. 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 their inhabitants
were uniformly treated with humanity. 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. The garrison
of Salmeniko commanded by Palaeologos Graitzas made a
desperate defence. For seven days the sultan's troops re-
iterated 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 com-
mandant 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,

1 Santimeri was founded by Nicholas de Saint-Omer about the year 1273.

266 BYZANTINE PROVINCE.

[Ch.VIII. §6.

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 successful. Hamza Pasha,
the successor of Zagan, who had been charged by Mo-
hammed to receive the surrender of the fortress, allowed
his troops to waylay this detachment and plunder the baggage.
The commandant of Salmeniko, 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 deter-
mined to defend the citadel to the last extremity. Mohammed
disgraced Hamza, perhaps as much for his awkwardness as
his treachery, and restored Zagan to his former post. He
then continued his march, leaving troops to blockade the
citadel of Salmeniko, which continued to hold out for a year.
The garrison then obtained a capitulation, with proper gua-
rantees for its faithful execution, and retired in safety into
the Venetian territory l.

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. Mohammed's policy evidently was to ruin
the resources of the country, as a preventive against insur-
rection, 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

1 The family name of the gallant leader of this heroic band was Graitzas, not
Palaeologos. Phrantzes proves that he was not of the imperial family with
which Phrantzes was himself connected, by calling him, with Byzantine super-
ciliousness, a certain Palaeologos, whose surname was Graitzas. Phrantzes. 409 ;
Chalcocondylas, 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 Palaeologos 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.'

COMPLETE SUBJECTION OF GREECE. 267

A.D. I460-I54O.]

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
concerning the fortunes of the most worthless princes. Deme-
trius was sent by the sultan to reside at Enos, where he
received from Mohammed's bounty an annual pension of
six hundred thousand aspers \ He died a monk at Adria-
nople in 147 1. It is said that the sultan never married the
daughter whom he had been compelled to send into the
imperial harem. Thomas, whose life is one long act of
infamy, attempted to purchase an appanage from the
sultan, by offering to cede Monemvasia to the infidels, but
Mohammed despised his offer, and he 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 continued 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 prevented him from behaving as disreputably as his
brother by supplying him with the means of maintaining a
decent harem. Manuel left a son named Andrew, who
became a Mussulman, and received the name of Mohammed.
Thus ended the contemptible house of Palaeologos 2.

1 'E£t)kovto. fivpiaSas dpyvplov. Chalcocondylas, 257. If we suppose the pro-
portion to have continued the same between the common silver coin and the
common gold coin in circulation at this period, as it was 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 Histoire de
TEmpire Othoman, ii. 474. As it is not probable 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. el inf. Latinitatis, s.v. Asperi.
Both sizes are found in the coinage of Trebizond.

3 Ducange, Familiae Augnstae Byzantinae, 248. Andrew made an attempt in

268 BYZANTINE PROVINCE.

[Ch. VIII. § 6.

The city of Monemvasia defended its independence for
four years; but in 1464, when the inhabitants heard that
the despot Thomas had offered to surrender their city to
the Turks, they submitted to the Venetian republic and
received an Italian garrison. The Venetians continued to
hold possession of Nauplia, Argos, Thermisi, Coron, Modon,
and Navarin, as well as Acarnania, Arta, Mesolonghi, Nau-
paktos, and Euboea. In the year 1463, the Turks endeavoured
to complete the conquest of the Morea by attacking the
Venetian possessions. Argos was betrayed into their hands
by a Greek priest, and the greater part of its Greek
inhabitants were transported to Constantinople. The terri-
tory 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 bulwark 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 condottieri 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-organized 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 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 em-
ployed to work by relays, night and day, in order to repair
the wall, which experience had so frequently proved to be
useless. For a fortnight the work was pursued with ardour ;
but, in the mean time, the Venetian army was repulsed in all

1494 to cede his rights to the empire of Constantinople, as heir to his uncle
Constantine the last emperor, to Charles VIII. of Fiance, for an annual pension
of 4300 gold ducats and other advantages ; but the failure of the king's expedition
to Italy prevented the transaction from being completed. Mcmoire* de VAcadt'uiie
des Inscriptions, torn. xvii. p. 561. The notarial act is printed at the end of the
Memoir. Sophia, the second daughter of the despot Thomas, married Ivan III.
of Russia. The pretended descent of a Palaeologos, 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. Vyvyan Jago, F.S.A., rector of
Landulph, in the eighteenth volume of the Archaeologia. The name Palaeologos
became, and continues to be, a common one, and all who bear it are, of course,
prepared to substantiate their pretensions to descent from the imperial family.

VENETIAN POSSESSIONS. 269

A.D. I460-I54O.]

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 sub-
sequently, on his debarking his troops near Patras, they
sustained a disastrous defeat. When peace was concluded
between Venice and the Porte in 1479, tne 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 possessions
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 to
acquiring some 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 educa-
tion 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 Tzakonia and the city of
Misithra, one of which contains the history of Herodotus, and
another treats of the miraculous light on Mount Tabor. The
selection indicates the nature of the Hellenic mind at this
epoch. The classes that floated on the surface of society
were in 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 l.

1 See notice of these MSS. in Montfaucon's Palaeographia Graeca, p. 72. The
discourses on the miraculous light were transcribed at Misithra in 1370. Herodo-
tus was copied at Astros in 1372. Montfaucon, at p. 71, a.d. 1362, mentions
another MS. by the same scribe of Misithra; and at p. 70 he notices^ several
medical works by an Athenian scribe, a.d. 1339. There is also a MS. of the
Elymologicum Magnum from Chalcis in Euboea, 1386, and one of five books of
Polybius, by an Athenian, a.d. 141 7 and 1435. See pp. 76, 79.

CHAPTER IX.

Duchy of the Archipelago or Naxos1.

Sect. I. — Observations on the Venetian Possessions in the
Empire of Romania.

As soon as any part of the Byzantine empire was con-
quered by the Crusaders, the Venetians were reinstated in all
the commercial privileges conceded to them by the Byzantine
emperors2. In addition to these privileges, the partition
treaty extended the limits of their settlement in Constanti-
nople over three-eighths of the city, for the capital was
partitioned in the same manner as the whole empire. The
Venetian town created by this arrangement formed a separate
enclosure within the walls of Constantinople, and was governed
by a podesta sent from Venice, who, though he was inferior to
the Latin emperor in dignity, soon became his equal in power
and his superior in real authority. The Venetian colony in
this settlement was very prosperous ; and, a few years later, it
is said that the Senate of Venice debated whether the seat of
government might not be advantageously transferred from the
then humble city in the lagunes to the comparatively magni-
ficent quarter of Constantinople which belonged to the re-

1 Since the first edition was published, Dr. Hopf, by his researches in various
archives, has proved that the Hisioire nouvelle des anciens Dues et autres Souverains
de VArchipel ought not to be trusted unless when it is confirmed by other
authorities. The work was written by Robert Saugcr, a Jesuit missionary in
the Levant, and was supposed to have been compiled from documents since lost.
As the author was often misled by following its guidance, considerable changes
have been made in this edition. The Histoire nouvelle is a rare book. Two editions
exist, both in i2mo, Paris 1698 and 1699. ^he latter of these is cited here.
See Tournefort, Voyage du Levant, lettre v. vol. i. p. 254, 8vo. Lyon; Curtius,
Naxos, p. 39.

2 See above, p. 81, and compare Tafel and Thomas, Urlunden Venedigs, i. 446,
45°.

VENETIAN POSSESSIONS. 2Jl

public. A few ambitious nobles and enterprising merchants
may probably have formed such a project, but patriotism and
prejudice would alike prevent its execution, and there seems
to be a doubt whether it was ever publicly discussed \

The establishment of the Latin empire in the East encoun-
tered many insurmountable obstacles. The feudal barons
possessed little influence over their Greek vassals and little
attachment to their own sovereign. The emperors had neither
the power to restrain their great feudatories, nor the wealth to
purchase the service of mercenary troops. The close contact
of unfriendly nations and the unappeasable hostility of con-
tentious churches caused incessant troubles. But from many
of the evils of the Latin empire the republic of Venice escaped
by rendering its principal territorial possessions in the East
direct dependencies of the state, and sending Venetian co-
lonists to occupy the fortified cities, Venetian governors to
maintain order, and Venetian judges to administer justice
according to the laws and usages of Venice. Only maritime
possessions could be so treated, and even their obedience
could not be permanently secured without frequent visits of
the fleets of the republic.

At the commencement of the thirteenth century the influence
of the Venetian republic was very great in the Levant, both
among Christian and Mussulman nations ; yet the Venetian
state consisted only of the city and the islands of the lagunes.
Its possessions in Istria and Dalmatia were held by garrisons,
not peopled by citizens. The population of the republic was
small, the duties of its citizens were great and various. Every
Venetian toiled in order to win wealth for himself, and stood
ready with his sword to defend the wealth he had won and
the riches, power, and honour of his native city. Nobles and
burghers, merchants and seamen, fought as fearlessly as barons
and knights, but their numbers were insufficient, and Venice
was compelled to hire the services of mercenary soldiers in
her foreign dependencies. It was impossible therefore for the
Venetian state to attempt conquering many of the provinces
assigned to the republic by the partition treaty.

Crete was the most valuable possession which Venice ac-
quired by the fourth crusade, both on account of its com-

1 The project was attributed to the doge Fietro Ziani in 1225. Daru, Histoire
de Venise, book v. § 11 (vol. i. p. 382, edit. 1S21).

272 DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO.

[Ch.IX. §i.

mercial importance and its position as a naval station. It was
the refuge and the resting-place for the fleets that traded with
Egypt, Palestine, Cyprus, Asia Minor, Constantinople, and the
Black Sea as far as Trebizond and Tana. The republic, as
has been already mentioned \ purchased the island from the
Marquis of Montferrat, but its conquest was not completed
without a severe struggle.

During the confusion that prevailed in the Byzantine em-
pire after its invasion, a military adventurer of the time,
Henry Count of Malta, gained possession of great part of
Crete, and entertained hopes of being able to found an inde-
pendent principality with the assistance of the republic of
Genoa2. The Venetians succeeded with great exertions in
expelling the count and his Genoese allies from Crete, which
they governed by a duke sent from Venice. In order to
retain a firm hold on the island, considerable bodies of
colonists were settled in it at different periods 3. The valour
with which the Greeks of Crete defended their local inde-
pendence, and their repeated insurrections against the Vene-
tian government, offer a marked contrast to the submissive
conduct of the majority of their countrymen on the Con-
tinent 4. But the history of Crete, with its Greek inhabitants
and Venetian colonists, its orthodox and its catholic clergy,
its native and Italian municipalities, and its repeated civil
wars, though it well deserves a place in the history of Greece
under foreign domination, would require a whole volume to
do justice to the subject5.

The islands of Corfu, Santa Maura, Cephalonia, and Zante,
as well as great part of Albania, Acarnania, and Aetolia, and
several towns in the Peloponnesus, were assigned to Venice
by the partition treaty. But Michael Angelos, who founded
the despotat of Epirus, prevented the republic from making

1 Above, p. 98.

4 Nicetas (411, edit. Paris) says that Crete was conquered by some Genoese
pirates, offscourings of men and abortions of society (ntipaTai rivts Ttvovtrai, irtpi-
if^fiaTa uvbpwv ml dp-^Xuifxara), with five round ships and twenty-four galleys,
which was surely a goodly fleet for such fellows to assemble. See Pagano, Delle
imprese e del dominio dei Genovesi nella Grecia, 12, 15.

8 Tafel and Thomas, Vrkunden Venedigs, ii. 129, 136, 143, 234.

4 Dam (Hiitoire de Venise, i. 321) mentions fourteen insurrections of the
Cretans between 1207 and 1365. See extracts from Laurentius de Monads
in Tafel and Thomas, Vrkunden Venedigs, ii. 129, 167; Cornelius, Creta Sacra,
ii. 224.

* [It is related in great detail in Hopf's Geschichte Gricchenlands . Ed.]

VENETIAN POSSESSIONS. 273

A.D. 1 204-1 207.]

any conquests on the continent, and his successor, the despot
Theodore, conquered Corfu (1216) after it had been occupied
by Venetian colonists 1. Cephalonia and Zante fell into the
hands of Count Maio, who was probably an Italian Crusader.
At a later period the counts of Cephalonia, like some other
vassals of the empire, became vassals of the princes of Achaia,
with whom their interests connected them more closely than
with the republic of Venice2. The maritime cities in the
Peloponnesus which belonged to Venice were, like Crete,
governed by officers sent directly from Venice3. It would
be impossible to give a lucid account of the condition of the
direct dependencies of Venice in Greece without entering into
more minute details concerning the administration of the
republic than fall within the limits of this work, which must
proceed onward with the main stream of Grecian history 4.

The northern and southern parts of Euboea and the
Cyclades were also assigned to Venice. But some of the
islands in the Aegean Sea were reserved to the emperor,
and unless there be an error in the existing copies of the act
of partition, the Dodecanesos or province of the twelve islands
was assigned to the Crusaders 5. But whatever was the
original distribution of the islands, the greater part fell into
the hands of Venetian families, some of which retained their
possessions until the sixteenth century6.

1 Tafel and Thomas, ii. 54, 120.

2 Epist. Innocent. III. vol. ii. pp. 16, 73, edit. Baluze ; Buchon, Recherches his-
toriques ; Premiere Epoque, vol. ii. p. 478.

3 Modon and Coron, to the possession of which the Venetians attached much
importance, were occupied by colonists and governed by castellani. Tafel and
Thomas, ii. 96, iii. 51.

* For the history of the Ionian islands, see Count Lunzi, -rrfpl ttJs ttoXitiktjs
KaTaaTaaeas irjs 'EnTavrjaov (wl 'EvtTwv, Athens, 1 856, of which there is an Italian
translation with additions, published at Venice in i860.

5 The islands of Nisia (Naxos), Andros, and the Cyclades are enumerated as"
assigned to Venice; Samothrace, Mitylene, Lemnos, Skyros, Tenos, Chios, and
Samos to the emperor ; and the Dodecanesos, unless the word be corrupt, to the
Crusaders. The Dodecanesos is mentioned as an administrative division of the
Byzantine empire in the eighth century by Theophanes (383) and Cedrenus.(ii.
479), but it is impossible to determine of what islands it was composed, and
it does not appear that it was identical with the theme of the Aegean Sea or the
Cyclades mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenitus (De Them. i. 17). An earlier
distribution of the Greek islands will be found in the Synecdemus of Hierocles.
Compare Tafel, Symbolarum criticarum geographiam Byzanlinam spectanHttm paries
duae, i. 62.

6 Dr. Hopf, who has resuscitated the history of the Greek islands under their
Venetian signors from unpublished documents, gives a list of the possessors of all
the islands after the conquest of Constantinople in 1204. Urkunden und Zusdlze
zur Geschichte der Insel Andros, 7.

The Latin emperor gained possession of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Cos, and some

VOL. IV. T

2"4 DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO.

[Ch.IX. §i.

In great part of Greece, the Venetian domination forms the
connecting link between Byzantine oppression and Othoman
tyranny. Its records are therefore inseparably interwoven
with the national history. To understand them thoroughly,
it is necessary to observe attentively the great political and
social contrast offered by the Greeks and the Italians of the
free republics at the commencement of the thirteenth century,
when they were brought into the closest contact. The
Venetians were not then the stationary and conservative
people they became at a later period. No people was more
enterprising and self-dependent. Their individual energy
constituted the chief element of the power of the republic.
The Greeks were passive and unaspiring, seeking only to
preserve the material advantages they enjoyed. They had
been united to the Byzantine government by no political
sympathy, but had obeyed it very much as slaves obey their
master. They were consequently prepared to transfer their
services passively to any other master. A conservative and
despotic government and a jealous and absolute church had
confined the movements of Greek society, and the thoughts of
individuals within fixed and narrow limits for many genera-
tions. The spheres both of action and of thought were so
circumscribed that no individual energy sufficed to break the
shackles rivetted by education. The landed proprietor, the
colon who cultivated the land, the merchant and the artizan,
were all trained to walk through life along a beaten road.
Their ordinary habits were determined with as much minute-
ness as the ceremonial of the imperial court. New social
ideas were as rare as new forms of etiquette. For many
centuries the great lesson inculcated on the Greeks was to
abstain from thinking or acting for themselves, and to look for
guidance in all civil and religious matters to the imperial
government and the eastern church. The Greeks were by

simller islands, which he held until they were reconquered by the Greek emperor
<-if \icaea. John Vatat/es, in 1247 (Xiceph. Greg. p. 16) ; and he also possessed
Imbros and Saraothrace. Lemnos was held as an immediate fief of the empire,
with the title of Mcgaduca and the command of the imperial fleet.

Dr. Hopf has published Urkundliche Mittheilungen uber die Geschichte von Karystos
in Euhcj-a, 1 ^.= 7,. (Of this work there is an Italian translation with additions by
G. B. de Sardagna) ; Gefckichte der Ins- el Andros und ihrer Rehcrrscher mit Urhunden
und Zmiitzen, 1855; Veneto-Byzantinische Analekten, 1859. These were printed
in the Transactions of the Academy of Vienna : al>o the articles Ghisi and Giui-
tiniani in Ersch und Gruber, AUgemeine Encyhlopiidie.

GREEKS AND VENETIANS. 271;

A.D. 1 2O4-I 207.] '"-'

this system of education rendered utterly helpless in every
social emergency or political catastrophe. Even when some
irrepressible impulse of human feeling or some insupportable
calamity goaded them to rebellion, they were incapable of
conceiving any plan for improving their condition.

The citizens of Venice were almost in everything as unlike
the Greeks as it was possible to be. Nobles, burghers, mer-
chants, and seamen were all men in whom individual character
was strongly marked, and in whom personal enterprise was
the essence of existence. This character of the citizens was
impressed on the government of Venice during the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, and impelled the republic onward in
a career of restless activity.

When the Greeks and Venetians were brought into hostile
collision, a phenomenon was repeated which history is con-
stantly obtruding on the attention of mankind. The energy
inspired by individual liberty in the breasts of a few thousand
free citizens enabled them to conquer and retain in subjection
millions of subjects as wealthy and perhaps as intelligent
as their conquerors, because the Greeks, having been treated
as children for ages, had been rendered incapable of indepen-
dent thought or united action.

The Venetian republic acquired by the partition treaty
a right to so many territories, that the government soon felt
the impossibility of attempting their conquest. The high pay
then demanded by knights and men-at-arms rendered it im-
prudent to employ mercenary troops in the conquest of
distant and scattered possessions. The military leaders of
the age were generally daring and adventurous nobles, who, if
they were intrusted with the command of garrisons, might
avail themselves of any favourable opportunity to render
themselves independent, or to transfer the sovereignty of the
cities where they commanded to some wealthy and powerful
prince or rival state.

A passion for territorial acquisitions had also at this time
taken possession of the minds of the wealthy citizens of
Venice, in consequence of the sudden power which many
of the crusading nobles from the north of Italy had obtained
by the partition of the Byzantine empire. The ablest of the
Venetian nobles were not disposed to toil in the service of
the state merely to command garrisons in maritime cities.

T 2

27<5 DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO.

[Ch. IX. § 2.

By pursuing their own private enterprises in the East, they
expected to obtain greater profits and higher honours, and
they were sure of enjoying greater personal independence.

The knowledge of this disposition induced the Venetian
government to pass a law authorizing wealthy citizens to
conquer any of the territories assigned to the republic of
which the state had not taken possession, and especially the
islands of the Archipelago, by expeditions fitted out at their
own expense. But their conquests, though they became
family possessions, were to be held as fiefs of the republic,
and were to be subject to the civil laws and commercial
regulations of Venice. This concession induced many Vene-
tian nobles who had taken part in the Crusade to combine
together and form a great expedition, which by mutual
assistance and simultaneous attacks effected the conquest of
almost all the islands of the Archipelago during the year
1207 l.

SECT. II. — Dukes of the Families of 'Sanudo and Dalle Carceri.

Marco Sanudo, who founded the duchy of the Archipelago,
was one of the ablest and most enterprising of the Venetian
Crusaders, but, like old Dandolo, he seems never to have
bestowed a thought on visiting the Holy Land, or on warring
with the infidels. Sagacious in diplomacy, bold in war, and
unscrupulous in his undertakings, he mingled in his character
many of the virtues of the greatest Venetian citizens with
some of the vices of the military adventurers of his time, who
often held the rank of princes and conducted themselves like
brigands and pirates. His knowledge placed him in many
respects on a level with the western clergy; his valour ren-
dered him the equal of the most distinguished knights, and
his experience as a statesman made him the companion of
princes. He had acquired so much influence in the camp
of the Crusaders that he was selected by the republic to act
with Ravano dalle Carceri, as Venetian commissioner, to
conclude the treaty with Boniface, marquis of Montfcrrat
and king of Saloniki, for the purchase of the island of Crete.
In dividing the fiefs of the empire, the duchy of the Archi-

1 Ramnusius, Be hello Constanlinopolitano, lib. vi. p. 272, edit. 1634.

SAXUDO COXQUERS NAXOS. 2T7

a,d. 1 207-1383.] "

pelago was conferred on Marco Sanudo, and the island of
Lemnos with the office of imperial admiral and the title of
Megaduca or grand-duke on Filocalo Navigajosi \ In the
year 1207 the conquest of the Greek islands was completed;
but Sanudo associated himself with other Venetians, some of
whom agreed to hold islands comprised in his duchy as sub-
fiefs, while others conquered islands assigned to the republic,
which they held as fiefs of Venice 2. At the parliament of
Ravenika in 1210 both Sanudo and Navigajosi received their
investitures as great feudatories of the empire of Romania,
and did homage to the emperor Henry.

_ The conquest of Naxos, which was the principal island of
his duchy and the usual residence of the dukes of the Archi-
pelago, gave Sanudo very little trouble. He landed with his
troops at the port of Potamides, and immediately laid siege
to Apaliri, the strongest fortress in the island, situated on a
rugged rock and surrounded 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
resistance. 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 continent,
obtained very favourable terms from their conqueror. 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 confirmed the Greek archbishop, the
priests, and the monks in the possession of their property.

1 Megaduka was the title of the grand-admiral of the fleet in the Byzantine
empire ; see Ducange, s. v. Aov£.

- Marco Sanudo retained possession of Xaxos, Paros, Antiparos, Syra, Kythnos
or Thermia, Siphnos or Sifanto. Ios or Nio, Milos, Kimolos, Pholegandros or
Policandro, and Sikinos. The islands held as sub-fiefs of the duchy of the Archi-
pelago were, — Andros by Marino Dandolo from 1207 to 1233; Amorgos by
Andrea and Geremia Ghisi from 1207 to 1269; Keos or Zia and Seriphos held
in shares by the Ghisi, Giustiniani, and Michieli from 1207 to 132S; Thera or
Santorini and Therasia by the Barozzi from 1207 to 1350; and Anaphe or Namfio
by Foscoli from 1207 to 1269.

The islands held as fiefs of Venice were Tinos, Mykone, Skyros, Skiathos, and
Skopelos by the Ghisi; Astypalaea or Stampalea by the Quirini, to whom at
a later period it gave the title of Count ; and Scarpanto by the Cornari. Hopf,
Andros, Urkunden und Zusatze, p. 7; Articles in the Allgemeine Encyklopddie of
Er5ch and Gruber on Ghisi and Giustiniani; Veneto-Byzantinhche Analekten. [At
the time when the above was written Hopf's Geschichte Grieckenlands had not yet
appeared. Ed.]

278 DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO.

[Ch. IX. § 2.

The imperial domains, the estates of the Greek proprietors
who had attached themselves to the fortunes of the emperors
of Nicaea or Trebizond 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 cc mmand, Sanudo was able to reward his followers, and
yet to retain in his own possession an extensive domain.
The power of Marco Sanudo depended on his wealth, which
enabled him to maintain a squadron of well-armed galleys
and a band of well-trained mercenary soldiers, for a con-
siderable force was necessary to protect his duchy against
the enemies of the Latin empire, and to defend it from the
attacks of the corsairs who swarmed in the Grecian seas in
this warlike and piratical age. Sanudo knew well how to
watch the signs of the times, and the 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 con-
structing a new mole, formed an arsenal for his own galleys,
and fortified the citadel which commanded the town. 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
Thebes1. 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 superiority 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-will of the
papal power and clergy, built a cathedral in his new capital,
and liberally endowed its chapter 2.

1 Bisftwrv nouvelle des anciens Dues et autres Souverains de I'Archipel, io.

2 [The present inhabitants of Sanudo's city, now the upper town of Naxos, though

SANUDO ATTACKS CRETE. 279

A.D. I 207-I383.]

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 taken the fortresses of Mirabello and Setia when 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
which enabled the Venetians to suppress the rebellion. But
Marco Sanudo, moved either by unprincipled ambition, or by
a desire to avenge himself on Tiepolo for some imaginary
affront, entered into a plot to expel his countrymen from the
island, and render himself sovereign of Candia. A Greek
named Sevastos Scordili was labouring at the same time to
organize a plan for the deliverance of his country from a
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. The plan of the
conspirators was to overpower the garrison and surprise
Tiepolo. But though the conspiracy broke out unexpectedly,
Tiepolo was fortunate enough to escape from Candia in
woman's clothes, and reach the castle of Temenos in safety,
where he soon collected a number of Venetians in arms.
Sanudo having taken measures to secure the possession of
Candia, marched out at the head of a strong body of Latin
mercenaries and Greek insurgents to complete the conquest of
the island. But his career was arrested by the arrival of
reinforcements to the Venetians, which came from Venice
under the command of Quirini. Tiepolo availed himself
skilfully of these succours, which landed at the port of Kali-
limenes2. As soon as they had joined him at Temenos, he
marched secretly to Candia, which he entered by surprise
during the night, and made prisoners the garrison established

they speak Greek and consider themselves Greeks, are descendants of the original
Italian occupants, and belong to the Latin church. One family is that of Som-
maripa, whose ancestors for a long time were the rulers of Paros. There is
a Lazarist and a Capuchin church, and the archbishop is not a native, but sent
from Rome. En.]

1 Tafel and Thomas, Urhmden VeneJigs, ii. 159.

2 The ' fair havens ' of Acts xxvii. 8.

280 DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO.

[Ch.IX. §2.

in the place by Sanudo, with several influential Greeks who had
taken part in the insurrection. The rebels still remained in
possession of a fertile region to the west of the capital, ex-
tending from Milopotamo to Cape Spada, and of the strong
castle of Belvedere to the south, so that it was still in their
power to carry on a long war. To prevent these districts
from being laid waste and depopulated, Tiepolo prudently
pardoned the treachery of Sanudo, and concluded with him a
treaty, by which the duke of the Archipelago and his allies
were permitted to depart from the island, and a sum of
money was paid them on their delivering up the fortresses
still in their possession l. On his return to his own duchy, he
sent envoys to Venice to deprecate the vengeance of the
republic, and urge such excuses for his proceedings as he was
able to frame. These explanations 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 assisted John de Brienne
when he was besieged in Constantinople by the Greek em-
peror John III. (Vatatzes), and sent succours to the duke of
Candia, when the Cretans revolted at the instigation of that
indefatigable enemy of the Latins. But he was compelled to
withdraw his troops from Crete in order to secure the tran-
quillity of his own islands, which were threatened by the fleet
of the Greek emperor -. He also furnished a squadron of
three galleys to assist the emperor Baldwin II. in his last war
with Michael VIII. ; and when Constantinople 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 misfortunes, and furnished him with money
to continue his voyage to Italy. The death of Angelo hap-
pened about 1262 ; he was succeeded by his son Marco II.

1 Tafel and Thomas, ii. 159, and Laurentius de Monads, quoted at p. 167;
Cornelius, Creta Sacra, ii. 241.

1 Ducange (Histoire de Constantinople, 134) places this in the year 1247, an 1 >ays
that the duke of the Archipelago, whom he calls Marco, ' abandonna la Candie
avec tant de lachete que plusieurs estiment que Yatace le corrompit a force
d'argcnt.' He mentions, nevertheless, that the Greek emperor had already con-
quered several of the islands of the Archipelago, and Amorgos was one.

INTOLERANCE OF MARCO II. 28 1

a.d. 1207-1383.]

The decline of the Latin power augmented the authority of
the Catholic clergy; and Mark II. was so much 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 was far more intolerant of their superstitions than his
father and grandfather. Induced by religious zeal, or by a
mistaken policy, he 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 then regarded by the Greeks as requisite
for beauty in women and respectability in men. The devo-
tion paid to this sanctification 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 hands 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 pos-
session 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 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

1 Histoire noitvelle des anciens Dues, etc., 65.

282 DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO.

[Ch. IX. § 2.

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 insurrection was thrown into the
port, with his hands and feet tied together. The rest of the
inhabitants were pardoned. Duke Marco II. was not so
fortunate in an expedition he conducted against the Byzan-
tine admiral Licario, who defeated his galleys and plundered
Naxos in his presence \

After the taking of Constantinople by the Greeks in 1261,
the emperor Baldwin II. transferred the suzerainty of the
duchy of the Archipelago to the principality of Achaia2.
The fall of the Latin empire, the death of William prince of
Achaia without male issue, and the fear generally entertained
of the ambition of Charles of Anjou, induced the Venetian
government to attempt acquiring a direct authority over the
duke of the Archipelago as a Venetian noble. Andros was a
fief of the duchy, and Marco II. united the whole island to his
immediate possessions on the death of Jelisa the widow of
Marino Dandolo the first conqueror, who possessed one-half
of the island as her dowry (a.d. 1262). Nicolo Ouirini, the son
of Jelisa by her second marriage, claimed his mother's half of
Andros as her heir, but he did not arrive at Xaxos to demand
investiture and do homage until the term accorded by the
usages of Romania had expired 3. He was then returning
from Acre, where he had exercised the office of bailly of the
republic of Venice. His demand was refused by the duke,
and he appealed to the Venetian senate for redress. But
the time was not favourable for any attempt to extend
the authority of the republic in the East. The fleet of

1 Histoire nouvelle des anciens Dues, etc, 79. The Byzantine fleet also laid waste
Xaxos, I'aros, and Keos. l'achymeres, i. p. 136, edit. Rom. Licario, like most
of the Greek admirals at this time, was an Italian.

- Baldwin II. ceded the suzerainty of Achaia in 1267 to Charles of Anjou, king
of Naples, who thus became lord-paramount of the duchy of the Archipelago.
"William II., prince of Achaia. died in 1277, leaving a daughter, Isabella, married
to Philip, son of Charles of Anjou.

3 If the heir did not appear to claim investiture of the vacant fief within forty
days, the lord was entitled to a year's rent. If the heir was in Romania, he was
bound to demand investiture and do homage within a year and a day, and if absent
from Romania within two years and two days, or the fief was forfeited. Liber
Coribueludinum Imperii Romaniae, i. tit. 36; Hopf, Andros, 23.

MARCO II. AND VENICE, 283

a.d.i 207-1383.]

the Greek emperor, Michael VIII. (Palaeologos), under the
command of Licario, who had been grand-duke, began
about this time a career of success which threatened the
Venetian signors with the loss of all their possessions in
the Greek islands. Many of these islands were conquered,
and many more were plundered1. The duke Marco II. was
defeated by the Byzantine fleet, and Naxos and Andros were
laid waste without his being able to defend them. The
Venetian possessions in Euboea were ravaged, and Venetian
merchantmen were captured in every part of the Aegean Sea
by Greek and Genoese corsairs. For several years the
Byzantine fleet with its Genoese grand-admiral might be
regarded as master of the Aegean Sea. Quirini, who was
at this time bailly of Venice at Negrepont, could not in such
circumstances think of quarrelling with duke Marco about
half of Andros, when there seemed to be imminent danger of
the Greeks taking the whole; A.D. 1269-1278.

In the year 1282, Venice having recovered her ascendency
in the Grecian seas, the doge Giovanni Dandolo summoned
duke Marco to answer the suit of Nicolo Quirini before the
senate. To this summons the duke of the Archipelago, or,
as he was generally called, the duke of Naxos and Andros,
answered that his grandfather Marco Sanudo had conquered
the islands and received investiture of the duchy as a baron of
Romania from the emperor Henry, and that Marino Dandolo
had done homage to him for Andros as a fief of the duchy of
the Archipelago ; that when the emperor Baldwin II. had
transferred the suzerainty of the Archipelago from the empire
of Romania to the principality of Achaia, his father duke
Angelo had done homage to William II. prince of Achaia ;
and consequently, that any question relating to the fief of
Andros must be decided according to the usages and laws
of Romania, and the only competent court in the present
suit was the ducal court of Naxos, before which it was the
duty of Nicolo Quirini to plead, and where the duke assured

1 Lemnos, Skiathos. Skyros, Siphnos, Ios, Anaphe, and Astypalaea were con-
quered by the grand-duke Licario in 1269; but all except Lemnos were subse-
quently reconquered by Venetian families. The family of Licario was originally
from Vicenza, but settled at Karystos. He married the widow of Narzotto dalle
Carceri, but being driven into exile, found protection at the court of Constan-
tinople. Pachymeres (i. 280, edit. Rom.) calls him Icarios. Dissertazione docu-
mentata sulla Storia di Karystos, dal Dw- Hopf, versione con aggiunte dell' autore
da G. B. da Sardagna, 31 ; Hopf, Venelo-Byzantinische Analekten, 24.

284 DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO.

[Ch.IX. §2.

the doge the case would be carefully examined and equitably-
judged. The duke's answer was considered to be satisfactory
by the senate l.

Not long after, a war occurred in the Archipelago, which
affords us a better insight into the state of society and the
insecurity of property among the inhabitants, whether Latins
or Greeks, than the solemn proceedings of the Venetian senate
or the state papers of the ducal chancellery. The origin of the
hostilities was so trifling, that it might be treated as a satirical
invention to ridicule the conduct of the Venetian nobles in
Greece, were it not that the facts are recorded by Marino
Sanudo Torsello, a relative of the ducal family, who had
heard the events narrated by the duke himself and by many
of the inhabitants of Andros2.

In the year 1286 a valuable ass, marked with the cypher of
Bartolommeo Ghisi signor of Tinos and Mycone, was carried
off by corsairs and purchased by Guglielmo Sanudo son of
duke Marco II. who resided at Syra, though there could be
no doubt concerning the lawful proprietor of the ass nor how
it had been obtained. Ghisi considered himself insulted by
this mode of profiting by the pillage of his lands, and to
revenge the injury and recover his ass he invaded Syra,
ravaged the island, and besieged Sanudo in the castle. But
when the place was reduced to extremities, a new combatant
made his appearance and took part in the contest. Narjaud
de Toucy, the admiral of Charles of Anjou king of Naples,
having put into the port of Milos, was informed of the dan-
gerous position in which the ass had placed the son of his
master's ally, duke Marco II. He hastened to Andros where
the duke was at the time, and having concerted measures for
the relief of Guglielmo he sailed to Syra and raised the siege.
But the contest still remaining unsettled, Ghisi and Sanudo
agreed to submit their difference to the arbitration of the
republic of Venice. The senate re-established peace in the
Grecian seas, and we may conclude that if the ass had sur-
vived the want of provender during the siege of the castle of

1 I [opt Andros, 26.

2 Marino Sanudo Torsello, the author of Secrela Fidelium Crucis, in the second
volume of Bongars' Gesta Dei per Francos, wrote a history of Romania entitled
htoria del Regno di Rotnanin sive Regno di Morea in 132S. Dr. Hopf discovered
the value of a neglected MS. of this work in the Marcian Library at Venice.
Hopf, Andros, 14.

DUKE GUGLIELMO AND BAROZZI. 28 K

a.d.i 207-1 3S3.]

Syra, it was restored to its lawful owner. Besides the damage
which the purchase of the stolen ass had caused to the Greek
peasants in Syra, the war is said to have cost the belligerents
the sum of 30,000 heavy soldi \

Marco II. was living in the year 1292 ; but before the year
1303 Guglielmo Sanudo had succeeded to the duchy. In
that year corsairs employed by duke Guglielmo captured
Jacopo Barozzi, signor of Santorin and Therasia, on his way
to Negrepont, after he had filled the office of duke of Candia
for the republic of Venice during two years.

The quarrel between duke Guglielmo and Barozzi arose
out of a claim of homage. The islands of Santorin and
Therasia had been originally held by the Barozzi as fiefs
of the duchy of the Archipelago. But that family, like many
other noble families of Venice, had been expelled from the
Greek islands by the Byzantine fleet in 1269. The increasing
power of the Venetian republic had however in the year 1296
enabled the families of Barozzi, Ghisi, Michieli, and Giustiniani
to reconquer the islands they had formerly possessed. Venice
claimed the sovereignty over these conquests, and this was
willingly conceded by Venetian citizens, who felt that the
protection of the republic was necessary to enable them to
defend the possessions they had recovered.

On the other hand the duke of the Archipelago insisted,
that his claim to suzerainty over all the islands which had
originally formed part of the duchy was restored by their
reconquest. Jacopo Barozzi denied this claim, and duke
Guglielmo, who did not venture to attack his islands, was
bold enough to arrest him on the high seas as a rebellious
vassal. He was carried to Naxos as a prisoner and kept there
closely confined. But Barozzi was an officer high in the
service of Venice, and the republic was at this time far more
powerful than in the days when duke Marco I. waged war
against her troops in Candia with impunity. The senate
adopted vigorous measures to deliver Barozzi. Duke Gug-
lielmo was summoned not only to release him, but also to
send him under safe escort to Negrepont within eight days,
under pain of being proclaimed a pirate and treated as an
enemy. This threat procured the immediate release of the
Signor of Santorin2.

1 Hopf, Andros, 28. 2 Hopf, Veneto-Byzantinische Analeltten, 26.

286 DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO.

[Ch.IX. §a.

Duke Guglielmo died in the year 1323, and was succeeded
by his son Nicolo who reigned until 1341. If we could trust
the history of the dukes by Sauger, duke Xicolo was a brave
warrior, a devoted son of the Latin church, and a great
enemy of the schismatic Greeks. He spent much of his
time in warring against the Turks, who began to ravage the
islands and coasts of Greece, and the Jesuit says that no more
valiant or active prince ever sat on the throne of Naxos.
But unfortunately we know that too many of the details
which are carefully narrated by the Jesuit missionary are
destitute of all historical authority. Duke Nicolo died with-
out children, and was succeeded by his brother Giovanni I.

Giovanni Sanudo occupied the ducal throne for twenty-one
years (1341-1362). When called upon to preside over the
government he was residing at a hermitage in the valley
of Engarais in Naxos, to which he had retired on the death
of his wife, and where he manifested an intention of entering
the priesthood l. One of his first acts was to invest his
younger brother Marco with the signory of the island of
Milos as a fief of the duchy.

Duke Giovanni died in 1362, leaving an only daughter
Fiorenza, who was already a widow with an only son. She
had married Giovanni dalle Carceri, signor of two-thirds of
the island of Euboea, and one of the greatest of the Frank
princes in Greece, who died in 1359. The Salic law not being
in force according to the usages of the empire of Romania,
Fiorenza became duchess of the Archipelago at her father's
death. She was apparently then about twenty-two years of
age, and both her beauty and her wealth rendered her hand a
prize to which the proudest nobles aspired, and of which the
republic of Venice and the titular emperor of Romania sought
to dispose as means of extending their influence in Greece2.
Proposals of marriage had been made to the young widow
during her father's life-time on the part of Pietro Recanelli,
a Genoese noble, governor of Smyrna, which had been recently
taken from the emir of Aidin by a party of Crusaders or, as
they might be more correctly termed, of Christian corsairs 3.

1 Ili^toire nouvelle des anciens Dues, etc., II 8.

2 Fiorenza was probably born in 1340, for her father is said to have retired to
the hermitage of Engarais on her mother's death.

■ The Latins kept possession of Smyrna for more than half a century, a.d. 1344
to 1402.

FIORENZA DUCHESS. 28y

a.d. 1 207-1383.]

Recanelli was one of the associates or maoncsi who had con-
quered Chios, and as such became a member of the great
Genoese house or clan of Giustiniani \ His alliance would
have been very valuable to the duchy of the Archipelago, if it
could have been secured without offending Venice. But the
Venetian senate was too jealous of any addition to the power
of Genoa in the Greek islands to remain passive, and duke
Giovanni was warned not to give his daughter to the citizen of
a hostile state. The senate also wrote to the bailo of Negre-
pont and the duke of Candia, ordering them to place every
obstacle in their power in the way of the young duchess
marrying any husband who had not previously obtained the
consent of the Venetian government.

After her father's death Fiorenza wished to bestow her
hand on Nerio Acciaiuoli, who afterwards won the duchy of
Athens, but it was intimated to her that Venice disapproved
of her marriage with that enterprising Florentine. The
senate then selected its own candidate for the prize, and a
diplomatic contest ensued between Venice and Naples, similar
to that which Europe lately witnessed between England and
France on the subject of the Spanish marriages. Guglielmo
Sanudo, a grandson of duke Marco II., who possessed estates
in Negrepont, was sent to Naxos to persuade the duchess to
marry his son Nicolo, called Spezzabanda or the Disperser, on
account of the headlong valour he displayed as a soldier.

The cause of Nerio Acciaiuoli was warmly supported by his
uncle the grand-seneschal Nicholas, whose influence in the
kingdom of Naples secured the active interference of Robert,
titular emperor of Romania and reigning prince of Achaia,
the suzerain of the duchy of the Archipelago, and of Johanna
I. queen of Naples 2. The hand of Fiorenza was claimed be-
cause she was a vassal of the principality of Achaia, and
negotiations were opened with Venice. But the senate re-
plied that the duchess was a child of the republic by her
descent from a family of Venetian nobles who had always

1 Chios was conquered in 1345 by Genoese adventurers under Simone Vignosi.
The government of Genoa, not being able to repay the expenses they had incurred,
authorized their forming a joint-stock company {maona) in 1347, and the share-
holders (maonesi) became the real sovereigns of Chios, with some slight restric-
tions, under the suzerainty of Genoa. In 1362 the members of the manna laid
aside their family names and adopted the name of Giustiniani. as it is said, from
the circumstance of the company having acquired the Giustiniani palace.

2 For some notice of the grand-seneschal Nicholas, see above, p. 157.

288 DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO.

[Ch. IX. § 2.

preserved their citizenship, and that the republic had often

defended her duchy, which she could only preserve from

attack by a close alliance with Venice. At the same time,

the senate determined not to trust entirely to diplomatic

negotiations and the prudence of the young duchess. Orders

were sent to Michieli, the captain of the gulf fleet, to prevent

some Genoese galleys which lay at Clarenza from conveying

Nerio Acciaiuoli, or any envoy he might wish to send, from

thence to Naxos, even should it be necessary to employ force

for that purpose. Secret orders were also transmitted, which

Michieli and Gradenigo the bailo of Negrepont interpreted as

an authority for carrying off the duchess from her castle at

Naxos. She was taken on board the Venetian fleet and

transported to Candia, where she was received by Francesco

Morasini, who was then duke, with due honour. She was

there informed that if she wished to return to her duchy she

must consent to marry her cousin Nicolo Spezzabanda.

It seems that the young widow had never seen her Floren-
tine suitor, so that when her cousin arrived from Venice with
his marriage contract in his pocket, with the recommendation
of the senate and with his military fame, it is probable that
his personal attentions effaced the imaginary portrait Fiorenza
may have drawn of Xerio Acciaiuoli from her mind 1. The
marriage was celebrated at Candia on the 12th March 1364,
and as Fiorenza and Spezzabanda stood in the third degree
of consanguinity, a papal dispensation ought to have preceded
the marriage ; but Venice was impatient to terminate her
negotiations with Naples, and the young duchess was equally
impatient to return to her palace at Naxos, so the dispensa-
tion followed the marriage2.

Nicolo Spezzabanda administered the affairs of his wife's
duchy. There was not a braver man, but his very name
indicates that his most prominent qualities were those be-
longing rather to a popular captain than to a prudent prince.
He attended honourably to the interests of his step-son, and
one of his military expeditions was to defend the possessions
of the Dalle Carceri in Euboea against the attacks of the
Catalans of Attica. He carried on war also against them in

1 The marriage contract was drawn up before a Venetian notary, and dated
Aug. 19, 1363.

1 Hopf, Andros, 35-40.

NICOLO DALLE CARCERI. 289

a.d.i 207-1383.]

Thessaly, where, at the head of a body of Albanian mer-
cenaries, in conjunction with the Vallachians and Greeks of
the country, he succeeded in expelling them from all their
conquests north of the valley of the Spercheus.

The duchess Fiorenza had two daughters by her second
marriage. She died in 1371, and her son Nicolo dalle Carceri,
who had inherited his father's extensive possessions in Negre-
pont, became duke of the Archipelago.

Duke Nicolo II., though he always lived on good terms
with his step-father and treated his relatives with favour, was
of a violent and tyrannical disposition to his subjects. Imme-
diately after his accession he separated the valuable island of
Andros from his possessions, by conferring it on his step-sister
Maria to be held by her and her heirs as a fief of the duchy of
the Archipelago, to which it was never again reunited. He
subsequently granted the small island of Antiparos, which
must then have been of much greater value than it is at
present, and an estate at Lithada in the north of Euboea, to
his step-sister Elizabeth. The Venetian senate had almost as
much trouble with the marriage of Maria Sanudo as with that
of her mother. Bartolemmeo Quirini, while bailo of Negre-
pont, made an attempt to obtain her hand for his son by
force ; but though he ventured to make use of the Venetian
galley in station at Negrepont to enforce his enterprise, he
was unsuccessful. Maria Sanudo married Gasparo de Som-
maripa, and carried the signoria of Andros into that family \

Duke Nicolo II. formed a league with the Navarrese Grand
Company, which had acquired great power in the principality
of Achaia, and made an attempt to conquer the whole island
of Euboea, which involved him in war with Venice. Baffled
in this undertaking, he retired to Naxos, where his exactions
caused great discontent, and at last drove the inhabitants into

1 Hopf, Geschichte der Insel Andros und Mirer Beherrscher in dem Zeitraume von
1207 zu 1566, 47-82.

Maria Sanudo was expelled from Andros after the murder of her step-brother
by duke Francesco I., but invested with the signoria of Paros before her marriage
with Gasparo de Sommaripa. Pietro Zeno, who married Petronilla, the daughter
of duke Francesco I., obtained Andros from his father-in-law, which he held for
upwards of forty years (a.d. 1384-1427). He was one of the ablest diplomatists
of Venice, and was employed in all the most important affairs of the republic in
the Levant, and as ambassador at the courts of the despot of the Morea, the
emperor of Constantinople, and the Othoman sultan. He received the title of
duke of Andros. The son of Maria, Crusino de Sommaripa, recovered possession
of Andros after a long law-suit at Venice in the year 1440.

VOL. IV. U

2QO DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO.

[Ch.IX.l3.

rebellion. He was assassinated at a hunting party in the
year 1383, and Francesco Crispo, the husband of his mother's
cousin, who was on a visit at his court, was generally sup-
posed to have been the real murderer, as he was the person
who profited by the crime.

SECT. III. — Dukes of the Family of Crispo.

Francesco Crispo had rendered himself popular both with
the Franks and Greeks of Naxos, who elected him duke of
the Archipelago after the murder of Duke Nicolo II., ex-
cluding from the throne the two daughters of the duchess
Fiorenza, who were the legal heirs. He was a Lombard by
birth who had settled in Negrepont. In the year 1376 he
was selected by Marco Sanudo, the signor of Milos, to be the
husband of his only daughter, named, like her cousin the
duchess, Fiorenza ; and after the marriage was celebrated
Marco Sanudo abdicated the signoria of Milos in his favour.

Marco, who received Milos from his brother the duke
Giovanni, governed the island with prudence. He increased
the trade by the facilities he granted to foreign shipping, and
rendered the port the usual resort of all merchantmen on
entering the Archipelago in order to ascertain whether the sea
was free from pirates, to learn the state of the markets in the
Levant, and to take on board skilful pilots. Under his rule
Milos prospered greatly, and Francesco Crispo, though he
was tainted with the want of principle which distinguished the
Italians of that age, appears to have had the prudent conduct
of his father-in-law from policy.

His usurpation of the duchy of Naxos was recognized by
the Venetian government. It was a principle of state policy
with the senate to extend its influence by marriages; and
Francesco secured its favour by betrothing one of his sons to
the daughter of the doge Antonio Veniero, the marriage being
declared to be for the honour and advantage of the republic.
His own prudence, and the influence of his son-in-law Pietro
Zeno the ablest Venetian diplomatist of the time, also assisted
in enabling him to keep possession of the duchy, in spite of
numerous law-suits in which he was involved with the mem-
bers of the families of Sanudo and Dalle Carceri, whose

FAMILY OF CRISPO. 2Q I

A.D.1383-1566.] y

inheritance he had usurped, and who compelled him to answer
their complaints before the Venetian senate.

Duke Francesco lived in greater dependence on the republic
than any of the preceding dukes, for the power of his feudal
suzerains, the princes of Achaia and the titular emperors of
Romania, having ceased, the power of the Turkish corsairs in
the Grecian seas rendered the protection of Venice absolutely
necessary to prevent the utter devastation of the islands of the
Archipelago.

Duke Francesco I. died in the year 1397, and was suc-
ceeded by his eldest son Jacopo the Pacific. To his second
son Giovanni he left the islands of Milos and Kimolos, to his
third Nicolo he left Syra (Suda), to his fourth Guglielmo
Anaphe (Namfio), and to his fifth Marco the island of Ios
(Nio)1.

Duke Jacopo I. the Pacific was, like his father, involved in
numerous law-suits, and his dominions were often ravaged by
Turkish corsairs. He died at Ferrara in 14182. At his death
the Venetian senate ordered that his duchy should be seques-
tered in order to satisfy the claims of those who demanded
justice against the usurpations of duke Francesco I., but the
execution of this order was prevented by the nobles of Naxos,
who elected Giovanni, signor of Milos and Kimolos, to be
their duke immediately on the death of his brother. Gio-
vanni II. secured the support of powerful friends at Venice by
marrying a daughter of Vettore Morosini. He died in 1437.
His son Jacopo II. reigned ten years, and at his death his
brother Nicolo, signor of Syra and Santorin, became regent of
the duchy for his posthumous child Giovanjacopo, who died in
1453 when only five years old. Francesco, the son of Nicolo,
who was the lawful heir at the death of the child Giovanjacopo,
yielded the duchy to his uncle Guglielmo II., signor of
Anaphe, and did not become duke of Naxos until his uncle's
death in 1463 3.

1 Hopf, Veneto-Byzantinische Atialeklen, 36.

2 Duke Jacopo I. was in England at the court of Henry IV. in 1404. and in
1418 Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester and uncle of Henry V., returned from
Palestine to Venice in a galley belonging to Pietro Zeno, duke of Andros, the
brother-in-law of duke Jacopo I. Hopf, Andros, 59, 64.

3 Nicolo Crispo, signor of Syra and Santorin, married Valenza Komnena, a
princess of Trebizond, daughter of the emperor John IV. In the year 1457, while
his son Francesco was signor of Santorin, a great eruption of the submarine
volcano threw up a new island in the port, which connected itself with the existing

U 2

292 DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. ^ ^

The history of the duchy of the Archipelago is at this time
little more than a record of family law-suits and Turkish
depredations. Duke Francesco II. died almost immediately
after he succeeded to the duchy. His eldest son Jacopo III.
(146 3-1480) saw his possessions terribly wasted by the Turks.
In the year 1470 it is said that there were only 300 inhabit-
ants left on the island of Santorin l.

Giovanni III. took possession of the duchy at the death of
his brother Jacopo III., whose daughters he excluded from
their inheritance. He possessed Naxos, Milos, and Santorin.
His exactions drove his subjects into rebellion, and he was
murdered in 1494, leaving a natural son Francesco. The
Venetian government sequestered the duchy, in order to
render justice to the numerous suitors who had brought just
claims against the dukes of the family of Crispo. But in
the year 1500 Francesco III. was invested with the duchy2.
He died in the year 15 19, leaving the duchy to his son
Giovanni IV.

When war broke out between the sultan Suleiman the
Magnificent and the republic of Venice in 1537, the celebrated
Turkish admiral Barbarossa (Haireddin pasha), after laying
waste the island of Aegina and murdering a great part of
the inhabitants, carried away 6000 as slaves3. He then
subjected most of the islands of the Archipelago in the
possession of Venetian nobles to the sultan's authority,
and put an end to the independence of the duchy of the
Archipelago, or, to speak more correctly, forced duke
Giovanni IV. to transfer his allegiance from the Venetian
republic to the Othoman empire i. He appeared before
Naxos with a fleet of seventy galleys, from which he landed

inland of old Kaumeni. Pigues, Histoire et phenomenes du volcan et des ties volcan-
iquet de Santorin, 137.

1 Hopf, Veneto-Byzantinhche Analek/en, 40. In the year 1S50 the population of
Smtorin was 13,000 according to the statistical work of Dr. De Cigalla (Tumi)
"S.TaTtaTiK^i rf)% Ni7<rov Qrjpas, iin6 I. At KiyaWa).

2 Francesco 111. was born in 1483. and married to a daughter of Matteo
Loredano in 1496, according to Hopf, Veneto-Byzantinische Analekten, 52; Zin-
keisen, Geschichte des Ostnanischen Retches in Eurofa, ii. 525.

3 See a notice of the ravages of Barbarossa in Negotiations de la France dans It
Levant (Documents im'dits sur Vhistoire de France), i 371.

4 Ceosand Kythnos were then taken from the Gozzadini and Premarini, Scriphos
from the Michieli, los, Anaphe. and Antiparos from the Pisani. Paros from the
Sangredi, Astypalaea and Amorgos from the Quirini and Grimani, Skyros, Skiathos,
and Chelidromi. and in 1538 Skopelos, from the Venetians. Hopf, Andros,
Urkunden und Zusatze, 7.

INTRIGUES OF GREEKS. 293

a.d. 1 383-1 566.]

a body of troops, and took possession 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 IV. saw his capital plundered by the
Turkish troops, and all his own wealth, and even the
furniture of his palace, transported into the cabin of Bar-
barossa. He was at length allowed to return on shore
and resume his rank of duke, after signing a treaty acknow-
ledging himself a vassal of the Sublime Porte, and engaging
to pay an annual tribute of five thousand sequins \

From this period the Latin power in the island of Naxos
was virtually extinguished. The Greek inhabitants, 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 them-
selves 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.

Giovanni IV., 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

1 The plunder the Turks carried off from Naxos was estimated at twenty thou-
sand sequins. Paruta, lib. viii. p. 617; Sagredo, lib. v. p. 245. The curious letter
of Duke John IV., giving a circumstantial account of the taking of Naxos, is dated
1st Dec. 1537. It is printed in the Chronicorum Tnrcicorum, in quibus Turcorum
origo, principes, imperatores, bella, praelia, caedes, victoriae, reique militaris ratio expo-
mmtur, omnia collecta a Philippo Lonicero, Francofurti, 1584, 2 vols. 8vo., torn. ii.
pp. 153- 161 ; and in Buchon's Recherches et Materiaux, p. 360.

iQj. DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO.

"V4 [Ch.IX. §3.

peace unmolested by the Turks, against whom his lamenta-
tions had vainly incited the Christians. He was succeeded
by his son, Jacopo IV., in the year 1564. The impoverished
treasury and enfeebled authority of the ducal government
required the greatest prudence on the part of the new sove-
reign to preserve his position. Jacopo IV., to console himself
for his political weakness, resolved to enjoy all the pleasures
within his reach. 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 debauched, and lived
openly with their avowed concubines \ The Greeks laboured
to put an end to the scandal of such a court and government
which was both oppressive and disgraceful ; but the Turks
remained indifferent, as the annual tribute was regularly
remitted to the Porte. At last the whole Greek inhabitants
of Naxos sent deputies to the sultan, to complain of some
extraordinary exactions, to demand the extinction of the
duke's authority, and to petition the sultan to name a new
governor. The Patriarch and the Greek clergy supported the
petition of the primates, and the Porte prepared to give it
a favourable reception. The duke was made sensible of his
danger. Collecting a sum of twelve thousand crowns, he
hastened to Constantinople to purchase some powerful pro-
tector at the Porte ; but he arrived too late — his destiny was
already decided. He was thrown into prison, and his pro-
perty 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.
After the loss of his dominions, Jacopo IV. 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 change of masters, for the
sultan, Sclim II., conferred the government of Naxos on a

1 Histoire nouvelle Jes anciens Dues, p. 300.

CONDITION OF ARCHIPELAGO. 295

A.D. I207-I566.]

Jew named Joa Miquez, who never visited the island in person,
using it merely as a place from which to extract as much
money as possible. The island was governed by Francis
Coronello, a Spaniard, who, acting as his deputy, collected
the tribute and overlooked the public administration l.

SECT. IV. — Condition of the Archipelago during its subjection
to Venetian Families.

The peculiar circumstances which enabled a long line of
foreign princes to maintain themselves in a state of inde-
pendence as sovereigns of the Archipelago require some
explanation. The popes, who were powerful 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 protected the dukes of the
Archipelago ; but it was unquestionably 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

1 Don Joa Miquez or Don Joseph Nasi belonged to a family of wealthy bankers
which emigrated from Spain to escape the persecutions of Ferdinand and Isabella.
The members of the family who obtained protection in Portugal and Flanders
were compelled to embrace Christianity. The banking house of Nasi carried on
extensive business in Flanders, France, and Italy, and lent money to kings and
princes. Donna Garcia inherited the greater part of the wealth of the house,
returned to the Jewish faith, and escaped from Venice to Constantinople. Don
Joa Miquez, who had superintended the banking house at Antwerp, managed her
affairs after her departure, but when he had realized the greater part of her fortune,
he also quitted Christendom, returned to the faith of his fathers, and married her
daughter. He became farmer of the revenues of the Greek islands, and is said to
have collected 14,000 sequins from Naxos.

The conduct of the Othoman sultans to the Jews in the sixteenth century
deserves to be contrasted with the conduct of Christian sovereigns. The departure
of the Jews impoverished Christendom, and their arrival enriched Turkey as
much by their industry and scientific knowledge as by the wealth they brought
with them. They became the physicians of the sultans and the diplomatists
of the Porte, and they were hated by the Christians for the zeal with which they
served their benefactors, and envied by the Italian merchants for the influence
they acquired by means of their capital in all the mercantile affairs of the Levant.
See a memoir entitled Don Joseph Nasi, Herzog von Naxos, by Dr. Levy, Breslau,
1859.

296 DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO.

[Ch. IX. § 4.

the Venetians, who suggested the conquest, were induced to
support the undertaking by their eagerness to obtain a mono-
poly 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 object of all
commercial policy in the thirteenth century. After the loss
of Constantinople in 1261, 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.
To exclude her rivals from the ports of the duchy, Venice
formed a close alliance with the dukes, and persuaded them
to include their dominions within the system of commercial
privileges and monopolies which was applied to all the foreign
settlements of Venice, and to hold no commercial communica-
tions with the western nations of Europe except through the
port of Venice. The military character of several of the
dukes of the family of Sanudo contributed to give the duchy
more importance in the eyes of the Venetian government than
it might otherwise have held.

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 a consequence of the right which
the Venetians arrogated to themselves of the exclusive navi-
gation of the Adriatic ; so that the Greeks in the islands were
compelled to sell to the Venetians alone that portion of their
produce which was destined for the consumption of England
and the continental ports on the ocean, from Cadiz to Ham-
burg. This commerce could only be carried on beyond the
Straits of Gibraltar by the fleet periodically despatched from
Venice, under the title of the Fleet of Flanders *. The com-
mercial 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 Vene-

1 Marin, Storia Civile e Politico del Commercio de' Veneziani, torn. v. lib. 3.

DECLINE OF SOCIETY. 297

A.D. I207-I566.]

tians, who left to the duke's subjects, who were not citizens of
Venice, only the trifling coasting trade necessary to collect
large cargoes at the ports visited by Venetian ships. The
landed proprietors soon sank into idle gentlemen or rustic
agriculturists ; capital ceased to be accumulated on the land,
for its accumulation promised no profit ; the intercommunica-
tion between the different islands gradually diminished ; time
became of little value ; population declined ; and, in this
debilitated condition of society, the dukes found a consola-
tion 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 maintain 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 conquering 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, however,
who lived in communion with the papal church, were always
regarded by the mass of the inhabitants as strangers, just as
much as if they had been of Frank or Venetian extraction.
Orthodoxy was the only test of nationality among the Byzan-
tine Greeks.

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 ex-
ceeded the limits which admit of wealth being reproduced
with greater rapidity than it is devoured by taxation. A
stationary state of things was first produced ; then capital
itself was consumed, and the ducal territories became incapa-
ble 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. Central governments are
incessantly devouring what nations are labouring to produce.

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

298 DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO.

[Ch. IX. § 4.

board the Venetian fleet. 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.

Younger sons sought a career in the Venetian service or in

the church, the daughters retired into a monastery. The

consequence of these social arrangements was a degree of

demoralization 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 respectability, before they were

conquered by the Turks.

The overthrow of the Byzantine empire produced as great
a change in the social as in the political condition of the
Greek race. In religion alone it remained unaltered ; and
henceforth religion became a more prominent characteristic
than nationality, so that Greeks manifested a stronger attach-
ment to their church than to their country. For more than
350 years Venetian nobles ruled in many of the Greek islands,
and for 250 years Latin princes were masters of a consider-
able part of the continent of Greece. During this long period
of subjection the natives of western Europe were constantly
advancing in well-being and civilization. Society was quitting
its feudal and aristocratic constitution in its progress towards
the popular organization, which has rendered justice one of
the elements of political power and given public opinion some
control over the exercise of authority even by the most
despotic sovereigns. But at the time the Latin nations
began to hasten their pace on the way of improvement, the
Greeks began to decline in civilization, and to diminish in
numbers and national importance.

In the twelfth century the Greeks were the richest merchants,
the greatest manufacturers, the most expert mechanicians,
and the ablest artists in Europe. In the sixteenth century
they had lost their superiority both in arts and manufactures;
their country was impoverished and depopulated, the people
was without industry, and the nation was disorganized. It is
easy to trace the progress of this decline in the islands of the
Archipelago. During the early period of the Venetian rule,
the Greeks suffered only the usual evils of conquered and

STRUGGLES OF GREEKS AND VENETIANS. 299

A.D. I207-I566.]

heterodox races, which however were not inconsiderable in
that age of crusading. But after Michael VIII. (Palaeologos)
had expelled the Latins from Constantinople, the Archipelago
became the scene of a long and bloody struggle for the
mastery between the Greeks, aided by the Genoese, and the
Venetians. In this contest every island was attacked in turn ;
the wealth of the proprietors was plundered, and the peasants,
whether slaves, serfs, or freemen, were kidnapped to serve as
rowers in the hostile galleys. From this period a rapid
diminution of the Greek race becomes apparent. If any con-
temporary chronicle had transmitted to us the events of a
single successful assault on some flourishing and peaceful
island, or preserved a detailed account of the calamities of
a single captive family after its home had been pillaged by
Greek or Venetian corsairs, we should have possessed mate-
rials for exciting pity in the most callous heart, and for
making the most complacent philosopher feel somewhat
ashamed of human nature.

It has been already mentioned that the Greek fleet pur-
sued a long career of conquest in the Grecian seas during the
reign of the emperor Michael VIII.1 In 1269 the grand
admiral Licario expelled the Venetians from many islands,
and for several years Greek corsairs captured almost every
merchant ship that ventured to quit a port without convoy2.
Santorin and Zia became two stations of the Greek cruisers
who avenged the sufferings of their peaceable countrymen.
There was a primate of Monemvasia who was terrible to the
Latins as a corsair under the name of Demoiannes 3.

The Spaniards soon arrived in the Levant to share in the
plunder of Greece. The celebrated admiral Roger de Loria
plundered the islands of Andros, Tinos, Mycone, and Thermia
in the year 1292 ; and we know from the chronicle of Ramon
Muntaner that the Spaniards ravaged the East with the
unsparing ferocity and insatiable rapacity which they after-
wards displayed under Cortes and Pizarro in Mexico and
Peru 4. At the commencement of the fourteenth century the

1 See above, p. 283.

2 Tafel and Thomas, Urhmden Venedigs, iii. 159-281, 'Judicum Venetorum in
causis piraticis contra Graecos decisiones;' Hopf, Andros, and Veneto-Byzatiti/iisckt
Analehten.

3 Demo (a contraction for Demetrius), the son of John.

4 Muntaner, ch. cxvii.

qoo DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO.

° [Ch. IX. § 4.

Catalan Grand Company under Roger de Flor and the
Seljouk emirs of Ai'din and Mentesche ravaged the islands,
and their expeditions were doubly destructive, for they depo-
pulated the places they plundered by carrying off the youth
of both sexes to sell as slaves, and the able-bodied men to
serve as soldiers or sailors, leaving the old and the helpless
children to die of starvation \

The possessions of the Venetians in the Greek islands were
at this time so insecure that even in Candia no proprietor who
owed military service was allowed to quit the island. In the
year 1313 Andrea Cornaro, signor of Scarpanto, who possessed
large estates in Candia, became by his marriage with the
widow of Alberto Pallavicino, margrave of Boudonitza, signor
of one-sixth of the island of Negrepont, but before he could
visit the fiefs he had acquired in the empire of Romania, he
was obliged to obtain permission of the senate of Venice.
Leave of absence was granted him for five years, on condition
that his heir remained to do service and keep guard in his
castles during his absence2.

The history of Andros presents an epitome of the history of
the other islands under a favourable aspect. From it there-
fore we may estimate the decline and depopulation of the
whole Archipelago without any danger of exaggeration.
Andros was long one of the most flourishing, as it must
always from its abundant springs be one of the most agree-
able, of the Greek islands. In the ninth century Leo, the
greatest mathematician of his age, studied at a college in
Andros. His scientific reputation obtained for him an in-
vitation to the court of the Caliph Almamun 3. In the twelfth

1 Pachymeres, ii. 344, edit. Rom. ; Nicephorus Gregoras, i. 285, 523, 525, edit.
Paris. Again, in 131 7, Don Alfonso Fadrique of Aragon with the Catalans of the
duchy of Athens carried off 700 slaves from Milos. [Some of the Catalans appear
to have settled in the Greek islands. Two of the principal Greek families now
inhabiting Santorin, those of De Cigallas and Delenda, are descended from them,
as their names testify ; traditions of Spanish occupation are also to be found in
several places on the mainland of Greece, and in Crete Pashley mentions a village
still called Spaniako for this reason. Ed ]

2 Ilopf, Veneto-Byzantinische Analekten. 121.

3 See above, vol. ii. p. 224. Some years ago, Theophilus Kaires, a Greek
monk who had studied metaphysics and physical science in western Europe,
and who was a man of vast attainments and great originality, founded a college
at Andros, which acquired great celebrity in Greece. He was adored by his
pupils, but his heretical doctrines caused the Greek government to dissolve his
college, and his ecclesiastical superiors confined him in a monastery. He attempted
to modify Christianity into what he called Otool&tia. The building he erected
remains, and its arrangements were singularly judicious. [The story of Kaires bas

ALBANIANS IN ANDROS. 301

A.D. I 207-I566.]

century the island was renowned for its manufacture of velvet
and silk \ Its iron-bound coast and rugged mountains
afforded its inhabitants a sure defence against the Saracen
pirates who plundered the coasts and islands of Greece in the
tenth and eleventh centuries.

When the Venetians conquered Andros, the island exported
wheat, which it produces of a very fine quality, and barley,
which was abundant. But about the middle of the fourteenth
century, the ravages of Greek, Genoese, Catalan, and Seljouk
corsairs had ruined agriculture, and grain was imported from
Euboea 2. A century later, Andros had been so depopulated
by the devastations of Turkish pirates that it contained only
2,000 inhabitants 3. This depopulation was followed by the
immigration of Albanian colonists, who now occupy more
than one-third of the island 4.

Most of the other islands suffered more severely than
Andros. In the middle of the thirteenth century Amorgos
was abandoned by the cultivators of the soil, who fled to
Naxos to escape from Greek corsairs, and in the middle of
the fourteenth century the inhabitants of the island emigrated
to Candia to escape from the Catalans and Seljouk Turks.
The islands belonging to several Venetian nobles were depo-
pulated, and they were obliged to colonize their deserted
possessions by bringing peasants from Crete and the Morea.

been made the subject of a short poem by the Rev. H. N. Oxenham, who, in 1854,
published a volume entitled The Sentence of K aires and other Poems. The circum-
stances are related, from a point of view unfavourable to Kaires, in the Christian
Remembrancer for 1845, v°l- xv"i- PP- I26-8. At the end of the eighth century
a writer named Michael Psellus, a namesake of the more famous author of the
eleventh century, studied in Andros. See above, vol. iii. p. 38, note 1. Ed.]

1 Bohn's Early Travels in Palestine. Saevvulf, p. 34.

2 Hopf, A ndros, 34; Veneto-Byzantinische Analekten, 21. In 1364 Marco Dandolo
was allowed to export 100 measures of wheat annually from Negrepont to Andros.

8 Hopf, Andros, 92.

4 At present (1861) the population is nearly 19,000, of whom about 7000 are
Albanians, who have preserved their manners and language. I may here mention
a circumstance which I think travellers have omitted to notice. The form of the
Homeric palace is preserved in some of the houses of the Greeks of Andros.
There is a large hall, so high that the chambers of the upper storey of the remain-
ing part of the house have windows which look down into it. From such a
window Penelope looked down on the suitors in the palace of Ithaca. I have not
seen a similar tradition of Homeric architecture in any other part of Greece. [It
is a little difficult to discover from the author's description the arrangement of the
houses he saw in Andros. But there is nothing in the Odyssey to lead us to
suppose that there was a window in Penelope's chamber looking down into the
hall in the palace of Ithaca. That chamber was on the upper storey, and was
reached by a ladder, but Penelope is described as hearing the singing in the hall
from thence, not as seeing the suitors: Od. i. 328-330. Ed.]

ooz DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO.

° [Ch. IX. § 4.

Marco Crispo, the fifth son of Duke Francesco I. of Naxos,
when he became signor of Ios at his father's death in
1397, found that island almost deserted by the agricultural
population. He fortified the port and other points accessible
to corsairs to ensure protection to the peasantry, and then
brought over a number of families from the Morea to cul-
tivate the soil. These colonists are said to have been of the
Albanian race x. The population of Paros fell at one time
to 3,000 souls, and many of the smaller islands were at times
almost entirely deserted. The islands of Naxos and Santorin
had once exported cotton to Venice, but Santorin was so
devastated that it contained only 300 inhabitants2. Mules
were also exported from Naxos and Andros in the period
that preceded the ravages of the corsairs, and a breed of
ponies of great strength and activity from Tinos, Skiathos,
and Karystos, where a few are still reared 3.

The insecurity of commerce in the Grecian seas has pro-
duced a repetition of similar measures for its protection in
distant ages. In the fourteenth century the desert rock of
Gaidaronisi was fortified by the Venetians and became a
flourishing Italian town. In the eighteenth century the arid
island of Hydra was colonized by a numerous population
of Albanian shipowners and sailors. The settlement of
Gaidaronisi is interesting, not only from its commercial im-
portance, but also on account of the man by whom it was
founded. In the year 1330 Andrea Dandolo, the earliest
historian of Venice, who became doge in 1343, was invested
with the island of Gaidaronisi, which served as a harbour
of refuge for vessels in the Levant, on the condition that
he should fortify it in such a manner as to give effectual
protection against the corsairs that then swarmed in the
Archipelago. He fulfilled this obligation so well that
Gaidaronisi became for more than a century an important
commercial station 4.

In the fifteenth century the protection of the Venetian

1 Histoire nouvelle des anciens Dues de I'Archipel. 215. There are now no remains
of an Albanian population in Ios, and there is no tradition of its existence.

■ Naxos and Santorin now contain each upwards of 13,000 inhabitants. A
perennial sp cies of cotton is still cultivated in Santorin, the produce of which is
consumed there and in the adjacent islands.

if, Veneio-Byzantinische Analekten, 40, 82 ; Andros, 47, 59, 64, 67.

' Eiopf, Andros, 34.

DESTRUCTIVENESS OF LATIXS. o0*

A.D. 1 207-I566.] 3 3

republic prevented the Turks from conquering the Archi-
pelago, but it was not always sufficient to prevent the
possessions of the Venetian signors from being plundered by
Othoman corsairs, even when the dukes of Naxos and the
signors of the other islands were included in the treaties of
peace between the sultans and the republic. The continual
ravages of Turkish corsairs in time of peace with Venice
induced the senate to allow the signors of the islands to con-
clude separate treaties for their own security \

It is generally believed, and the opinion seems to be well
founded, that the Latin domination in Greece was extremely
destructive to the remains of ancient art and architecture. It
is true that the Byzantine Greeks appear to have loathed
Hellenic art, while several Latin signors felt a sincere admira-
tion for the monuments, and particularly for the sculpture,
of the ancient Greeks. But Hellenic buildings were not often
destroyed for their materials under the Byzantine emperors,
because materials were more abundant and society more sta-
tionary than after the conquests of the Crusaders. Under the
Venetian and Latin signors society became more active, and
that activity, though it may have added little to the prosperity
of the country, made great changes in its appearance. Towns
were built and castles were erected in new situations. Ports
which had long remained deserted were frequented and for-
tified. The materials of the Hellenic buildings which the
Byzantine Greeks had spared were required for these con-
structions. Every petty signor required a palace, and blocks
of well-worked stone, pieces of broken cornices, and fragments
of sculptured marble inserted into many a wall attest that
many magnificent Hellenic buildings served as quarries in
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries2. When a taste for
Greek literature and art arose in Italy, many Italians collected
manuscripts, coins, and statues in Greece, but the collectors
were few and the destroyers were many. The conception

1 Hopf, Veneto-Byzantinische Anahhten, 35. In the treaties of 1419, 1430, and
most of the subsequent treaties, the dukes of Naxos and other signors are included
by name.

2 [This is especially noticeable at Paroekia, the modern capital of Paros. where,
owing to the ancient quarries in the neighbourhood, white marble blocks are very
abundant. On one side of the low hill which formed the ancient Acropolis the
wall of the Venetian fortress is composed of drums of columns laid on their sides
and slabs unequally fitted together. In the town pieces of cornices serve for door-
steps, and triglyphs and other ornaments are built into the house-walls. Ed.]

3°4

DUCHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO.

of art and the sentiment of beauty found no place in the
breasts of modern Greeks or Latin colonists. The revival
of classic taste in the West awakened no echo in Greece,
until political revolutions in recent times roused in the minds
of Eastern Christians a desire for civil liberty.

HISTORY

EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND.

VOL. IV. X

EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND.

CHAPTER I.

Foundation of the Empire.

SECT. I. — Early History of Trebizond.

The empire of Trebizond was the creation of accident1.
No necessity in the condition of the people called it into
existence. The popular resources had undergone no develop-
ment that demanded change; no increase had taken place in
the wealth or knowledge of the inhabitants ; nor did any-
sudden augmentation of national power impel them to assume

x The history of Trebizond was almost unknown, until Professor Fallmerayer
discovered the Chronicle of Michael Panaretos among the books of Cardinal
Bessarion, preserved at Venice. From this chronicle, with the aid of some unpub-
lished 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 Kaiserthums von Trapezunt, Miinchen, 1S27, 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 Class 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 by his
researches shed much light on several dark periods of Byzantine history; Eustathii
Metropolitae Thessalonicensis Opuscula, accedunt Trapezuntinae Historiae Scriptores
Panaretus et Eugenicus, Francofurti ad M., 4to.

_ The little that can be learned concerning the history of Trebizond in English
literature will be found in Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vii. 327,
edit. Smith. Walter Scott implies that Trebizond had been conquered by the
Turks in the time of Richard Cceur-de-Lion, for in Ivanhoe the Templar says to
Rebecca, ' Mount thee behind me on my gallant steed — on Zamor the gallant
horse that never failed his rider. I won him in single fight from the Soldan of
Trebizond.' Sir Walter overlooked Gibbon's observation (vii. 169), 'Trebizond
alone, defended on either side by the sea and mountains, preserved at the extremity
of the Euxine the ancient character of a Greek colony and the future destLiy of a
Christian empire.'

X 2

oo8 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND.

5 [Ch.I. §i.

an independent position and claim for their capital the rank
of an imperial city. 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 conjuncture was
seized by a young man who bore the name of Alexios Kom-
nenos, and was descended from the worst tyrant in the
Byzantine annals1. This youth grasped the vacant sove-
reignty, 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 advantage for maintaining
a numerous population, and the physical configuration of the
country supplies its inhabitants 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 vegetation, 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, primaeval forests, and rapid
streams. In this fertile and majestic region, Trebizond has
been, now for more than six centuries, the noblest and the
fairest city.

At an early period its trapezoid citadel was occupied by a
Greek colony, and received its name from the tabular appear-
ance of the rock on which the first settlers dwelt. In those
vdays, 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

1 Androuicus I. See above, vol. iii. p. 201.

EARLY HISTORY OF TREBIZOND. o0Q

Ch.I. §i.] 3 ?

social organization 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
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 Kerasunt were colonies of Sinope2.
But it is in vain to suppose that we can see any historical
forms distinctly in the twilight of such antiquity.

Trebizond rose to a high degree of commercial importance
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 administra-
tion than those of Roman origin, insured an excellent local
government to all the wealthy Greek cities which were al-
lowed to retain their own communal organization ; and we
know from Pliny that Trebizond was a free city3. 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 connected it 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 4.

The country from Trebizond eastward to the summits of

1 Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, i. 156. 2 Anabasis, iv. 8, 22; v. 3. 2.

s Hist. Nat. vi. 11. * See the Tabula Peutingeriana.

?io EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.I. §i.

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 Chaldians, the Albanians, the Iberians, the Thianni,
Sanni, or Tzans, the Khazirs, and the Huns, appear as sepa-
rate nations round the Caucasian mountains in former days,
just as the Georgians and Mingrelians, the Circassians, the
Abazecs, the Ossetes, 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, under the reigns of the successors
of Justinian, was healed. 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 con-
ducted with the Christian princes of Armenia and Iberia 1.
The direction of the complicated business that resulted from
the incessant warfare between the Christians and Saracens, on
the frontiers of Armenia, was necessarily intrusted to the
dukes of Chaldia, who made Trebizond their habitual resi-
dence. The freedom of action accorded to these viceroys
afforded them frequent opportunities of forming personal
alliances with the neighbouring princes and people, and when
the central government at Constantinople displayed any

1 The people who inhabited this country before the arrival of the Romans were
called Chaldaei and Sanni. Strabo, lib. xii. p. 54S. The Byzantine theme of
( hal lia dates from the commencement of the tenth century. Constant. Porphvr.
// Thematibvs, lib i. p. 12. edit. I'ari>. The trade of Trebizond with Iberia is
mentioned by Constantine l'orphyrogenitus, De Adm. Imp. c. 46.

TREBIZOXD CAPITAL OF CHALDIA qn

Ch.I. §i.] J

weakness, the power of the dukes of Chaldia enabled them
to act as if they were 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
neighbouring provinces, all tended in the same direction.

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. Still, though
the wealth of Trebizond preserved the people in the enjoy-
ment 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 in-
habitants, perhaps awakened some aspirations after political
independence. 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 con-
verted 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 pompous ceremonies
of an idle court, or in pampering the mob of the capital with
extravagant shows in the hippodrome.

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 ortho-
doxy, political order, and security of private property. The
spell was broken that for centuries had bound together the
various provinces and nations of the Eastern empire into one
state. The growing incapacity of the Byzantine government
to execute the duties imposed on them 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.

^12 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.I. §i.

Society was in a state of revolution at the conclusion of the
eleventh century. Public opinion had done more to uphold
the fabric of the Byzantine 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 Con-
stantinople as the autocrat of the Black Sea and the Medi-
terranean. 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 Saracens,
the Bulgarians, and the Sclavonians, and from rebellion and
dismemberment.

From the period when the Asiatic aristocracy mastered
the Byzantine administration, and placed Isaac 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 dissol-
ving 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 acces-
saries of civilization, and destroyed vast 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

TREBIZOND UNDER THE BYZANTINES. 313

Ch.I. §1.]

few families. A few herdsmen could barely find subsistence
by wandering over territories that had previously maintained
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 position, defended by a
great mountain barrier to the south, and to the spirit of its
inhabitants, than to its Byzantine garrison, or to the pro-
tection of the emperors of Constantinople.

The Turks were ultimately expelled from the Trebizontine
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 differences of Theodore
Gabras with Alexius I., in the year 109 1, 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 support1. In the year n 04, the office of
duke of Trebizond was filled by Gregorios Taronites, who was
allied to the imperial family. Taronites went a step beyond
Gabras, and, not satisfied with being virtually independent,
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 in prison for some time at Constantinople, he was
subsequently, for reasons of which we are not informed,
released and reinstated in the government of Trebizond. He
ruled the province until the year 11 19. 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 com-
pelled him to purchase his freedom by paying a ransom of
thirty thousand gold byzants — a sum then regarded in the
1 Anna Comnena, 340.

Si 4 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.I. §i.

East as the usual ransom of officers of the highest rank in the

Byzantine empire l.

Constantine Gabras obtained the government of Trebizond
after the misfortune of Taronites. Nicetas mentions him, in
the year 1 139, as having long governed the province as an
independent 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 Tre-
bizond, 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 Paphlagonia 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 Neocaesareia. 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 -. During
the reign of his son, Manuel I., however, we find the imperial
authority completely re-established in Trebizond ; and the
city continued to remain in immediate subjection to the
central administration at Constantinople, until the over-
throw of the Byzantine empire by the Crusaders, in 12043.

History has preserved no documents for estimating the
proportions in which the different races of Lazes and Greeks
inhabited the city of Trebizond and the surrounding country,
nor can we arrive at any precise idea of the relative influence
which each exercised on the various political changes that

1 The ransom of Richard Coeur-de-Lion, who was regarded as the richest king
of his time in the west of Europe, was fixed at 150,000 mirks of pure silver, in the
year 1193. The mark was eight ounces troy weight, which, taking the price of
gold 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.

J'allmerayer (Kaiserthum von Trapezunt, p. 19} calls Gregorios Taronites the son
of Theodore Gabras ; but Byzantine history, I believe, does not certify this affilia-
tion. It is true Anna Comnena (pp. 241 and 364) tells us that Gabras had a son
named Gregorios. The capture of Taronites is mentioned by Abulpharagius, who
alone connects him with the family of Gabras (p. 300). Compare Ducange,
Famtline Ar/tr. Byznntinae, pp. 172 and 1 77. 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.

* Nicetas, 23. A Constantine Gabras was sent by the emperor Manuel I. as
ambassador to sultan Kilidji-Arslan of Iconium. Nicetas, 79.

:i Cinnannis, 171. A Michael Gabras is noticed as charged with the care of
assembling the troops of Pontus and Trebizond, and he is mentioned as having
commanded the Byzantine army on the Danube (150). Nicetas (87) recounts an
anecdote not much to his credit as a soldier.

FAMILY OF GRAND-KOMXENOS. 31*

Ch.I. §2.] D

occurred under the Byzantine government. There was
always a numerous Greek population 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 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
overhane the coast.

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 and the freedmen
of distinguished Romans, for us to draw any inference con-
cerning the descent of an Asiatic family, merely because it
bore a name once used in Italy. All Gaul was filled with
families of the name of Julius, few of whom had the slightest
claim to any 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 praefect in Asia. Manuel, at his death, left his
children under the guardianship of the emperor Basil II.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

1 Niceph. Bryenn. 16; Ducange, Familiae Aug. Byzantinae, 169.

316 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. I. § 2.

heritage to his family. The domains of the house of Kom-
nenos, their hereditary castle and the seat of their territorial
power, was at Kastamona, in Paphlagonia, before that pro-
vince was depopulated by the ravages of the Seljouk Turks l.
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 heading a successful rebellion. Andro-
nicus I. dethroned and murdered Alexius II., then about
-ixteen years of age. who was the great-grandson of Alexius I.,
of whom Andronicus was the grandson.

In the year 1185, the savage cruelty of Andronicus pro-
duced a terrible revolution at Constantinople. Andronicus
was dethroned and murdered by a popular insurrection. A
city mob overthrew the imperial government, executed the
emperor as a criminal, and remained masters of Constanti-
nople 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 legislative, 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 Constanti-
nople 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. 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 instru-
ments of their personal aggrandizement, 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 their
name was a spell on the minds of the people, wherever the

1 Cedrenus, 798.

MANUEL KOMNENOS. 217

Ch.I. §2.]

Greek language was spoken ; and when the empire broke up
into fragments, the sovereigns of every province used the
mighty name as a passport to power.

Manuel Komnenos, the eldest son of the tyrant Andro-
nicus, had acquired some popularity by opposing the cruelties
of his father, and by declaring that his respect 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 cere-
mony of betrothal, according to the ecclesiastical 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 conduct 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 Kom-
nenos was for a while hateful, and every one who bore it was
proscribed. 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 bar-
barity 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 un-
molested at Constantinople, where they received their
education, neglected and forgotten by the imperial court.
Their title to the throne could give little disquietude to the
reigning sovereign in a government which, like that of the
Byzantine empire, was recognized to be elective, and in which
their father had been excluded from the throne by the
exercise of an acknowledged constitutional prerogative. In

31 8 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.I. §2.

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 tyran-
nical grandfather, who had been popular in the east of Asia
Minor, they were enabled to collect an army of Iberian mer-
cenaries. 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 l. To mark
that he was the legitimate representative of the imperial
family of Komnenos, and to prevent his being confounded
with the numerous descendants of females, or with the family
of the emperor Alexius III., who had arrogated to themselves
his name, he assumed the designation of Grand-Komnenos 2.

1 Fallmerayer, in his Kaiser/hum 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 pre-
tender to the throne, this could only have been done under the protection of some
powerful independent sovereign like Queen Thamar of Georgia, or Sultan Kilidji-
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 ancestors Isaac I. and Alexius I. Panaretos, in hi~ 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 in April, 1 204. 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 Colchian
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 extending her dominions
as far westward as the shores of the Black Sea for a short time. She died in 1201.
Saint-Martin, Mcmoires de I'Anmnie, ii. pp. 249, 255 ; Le Beau, Hisloire du Bas-
Empire, xvii. p. 256, Brosset's note. It seems probable that the emperor Andro-
nicus I. had married an Iberian princess, who introduced 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.

3 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.

ALEX 10 S /., GRAND-KOMNENOS. 3Ig

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 revolution which had
overthrown the political and commercial position of their
race. The duke who then governed the province of Trebi-
zond possessed neither the talents nor the power necessary
to convert his government into an independent princi-
pality; nor had he the energy or the influence required to
oppose the progress of the young Alexios, who had a con-
siderable share of the active vigour and decision of character
for which so many of his ancestors 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
advantage 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-Komnenos'
and if he succeeded in expelling the Franks from Constanti-
nople, and restoring the Byzantine empire to the wealth and
power it had formerly possessed under the emperors of his
family, there could be no doubt that his early partizans would
reap a rich harvest of reward.

Sect. III.— Reign of Alexios I., Grand-Komnenos.

Alexios Grand-Komnenos was twenty-two years of age
when he was crowned emperor in Trebizond l. The title to

1 It was the fashion of this age to magnify titles. There was a Grand Chan
of Tartan^ 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 BaoiKtvs. 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 : JJiards Baai\ev$ teal AvTOKparup iraarjs 'AvaroMjs,
\&r)pwv, ml TlepaTtias, 6 Mtyas Kofivqvos. 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. Palaeologos, emperor of Constantinople. The earlier emperors of Tre-
bizond, however, appear to have attached less importance to the title of Grand
than the later, for Manuel I. is called simply Komnenos, emperor and autocrat

o2o EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

5 [Ch.I.§3.

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 occu-
pied by his ancestors. The title of the emperors of Trebizond
subsequently underwent some modification, particularly when
it became necessary to conciliate the house of Palaeologos,
after Michael VIII. had reconquered Constantinople ; and the
title of Emperor 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 in-
capacity of the Byzantine provincial authorities, however,
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, knowing 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, submitted to the new emperor as
their lawful sovereign. The Byzantine troops flocked to his
standard with enthusiasm, for under his command a new
career of activity was suddenly opened to the ambitious,
while long dormant hopes of plunder, glory, and power were
awakened in many breasts. Another cause affecting the
minds of all the Greek Christians in the East favoured his
enterprise. The fear of the Mussulman yoke was becoming
daily greater. The family of Angelos had neglected the
defence of the eastern Asiatic provinces, while the Seljouk

of the Romans, in the inscription which exists in the church or mosque of St.
Sophia, and which appears contemporaneous. [The expression mar us 0aot\*vt
at the commencement of the title here given is apt to create an erroneous im-
pression. It should rather be 'Ev Xpiaru maris ^aaiKtvs, as it is in the miniature
of the emperor Basil, the Slayer of the Bulgarians, referred to below (p. 341^, or
'i v XpiffTw tS Qtw maris 0aai\cv; as it is in the inscription of Manuel 1. ot
Trebizond which i's there given, and in that of Alexius 111. on the fresco m the
monastery of the Panaghia Theotocos near Trebizond. The latter runs thus—
'n\i£ios iv Xpiarw rw 8c£ marcs paaiKtiis kcu avroxpara-p vaaVs AvaroXTjs u fifyai
Ko^vrjvis. See Texier and Pullan's Byzantine Architecture, p. 201. Ed.J

PROGRESS OF ALEXIOS. o%\

A.D. 1204-1222.

Turks had taken advantage of this indifference, and threat-
ened to overwhelm the orthodox from the south. The
invasion of the Latin Christians had cut off all retreat to the
westward. The Eastern nations had long believed 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 out the Saracens.

Alexios Grand-Komnenos presented himself at the appro-
priate moment to profit by this state of public opinion. In
the course of a few months he rendered himself master of the
fortresses of Tripolis, Kerasunt, Mesochaldaion, Jasonis, and
Oinaion, and without fighting a single battle he conquered the
whole country from the Phasis to the Thermodon. In the
mean time his brother David 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 Nicaea favoured the project.
Theodore Lascaris then ruled in Bithynia, but he still con-
tented himself with the title of despot, and acted in the
disadvantageous position of viceroy for his worthless father-in-
law Alexius III., whose tyrannical government and cowardly
flight from Constantinople, after the first assault of the Cru-
saders, rendered him universally detested. David, confident
in the popularity of his family, and trusting to the valour of
his Iberian cuirassiers, expected to enter Nicomedia without
resistance. But Theodore Lascaris was a better soldier and
abler statesman than either David or Alexios. He made
every preparation in his power for stopping the tide of con-
quest 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

VOL. IV. Y

322 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

5 [Ch.I.§3.

a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, with Gaiaseddin
Kaikhosrou, sultan of Iconium or Roum \ who was alarmed
alike at the progress of the Crusaders and at that of the new
emperor of Trebizond. While Theodore prepared to en-
counter the army of David in Bithynia, the sultan marched
against Alexios, who had laid siege to Amisos. Both brothers
were defeated. Neither of them had been trained as soldiers,
and nature had not endowed them with that rare genius
which sometimes enables an individual in early youth to
divine the strategic knowledge and military experience that
are usually only to be acquired as the result of long service in
the field.

David had intrusted the command of his army to Syna-
denos, a young and inexperienced general, who was ordered
to occupy Nicomedia, as if the operation could be effected by
a simple march. Theodore Lascaris cautiously watched the
movements of his enemies, and assembled a considerable force
on their flank before they entertained any suspicion that a
hostile army was observing them in their immediate vicinity.
The troops of Trebizond advanced in careless confidence until
they were surprised by a sudden attack. The Iberian mer-
cenaries, on whom David had principally relied for extending
his conquests westward, fought bravely, and were cut to
pieces. The general Synadenos was taken prisoner, and
carried to Nicaea. This defeat arrested the progress of
David, but he was still at the head of so large a force that
he was able to retain possession of all his previous con-
quests 2. For a moment the empire of his brother extended
from the chain of Caucasus to the shores of the Bosphorus,
with the exception of the two contiguous cities of Amisos and
Samsoun.

Alexios was defeated by the Turks shortly after the loss of
his brother's army. Amisos was the only Greek city on the
coast that refused to acknowledge his authority. The Turks
had built a town at Samsoun about a mile from the gates of
Amisos. This Turkish possession, though forming a fortified
town, was really only a commercial factory, resembling in its

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 themselves em-
perors of the Romans.

3 Nicttas, 403.

AMIS OS AND SAMSOUN. 323

A.D. 1204-1222.

object what the Genoese town of Galata, in the port of
Constantinople, became at a subsequent period. Commercial
interests united the Greeks of Amisos and the Turks of
Samsoun in close alliance. This point of the coast offers the
easiest line of communication with that part of the interior of
Asia Minor which extends from the Halys to the Euphrates,
as far southward as Syria. The walls of Samsoun, conse-
quently, protected warehouses filled with merchandise of
immense value, which was first collected in the cities of the
interior, from whence it was transmitted to the coast, for the
Turks had from early ages been a commercial people \ It is
only the Othoman race that has always been a tribe of
warriors. The produce accumulated at Samsoun was pur-
chased by the Greeks of Amisos, who furnished the capital
and the ships necessary for its distribution through Russia and
western Europe. The capitalists and the mariners of Amisos
dispersed the manufactures of the nomades, their cloth of hair
and wool, and their variegated carpets, the copper of Tokat,
and the brilliant dye-stuffs of Caesarea, among the populous
cities of the Byzantine empire and the Italian commercial
republics. They conveyed them to Alexandria, Tripoli, and
Tunis, from whence they reached Morocco and Spain ; and to
Bulgaria and the Tauric Chersonesos, from whence they were
transported by various routes over the north of Europe and
Asia. The present aspect of the small fortified city of Sam-
soun probably gives a tolerably exact idea of the aspect it
presented at the commencement of the thirteenth century, by
supposing everything that now appears old and dilapidated as
then new and substantial. Amisos, however, which was then
a larger, wealthier, and stronger city, has now disappeared ;
and the traveller who visits its site can only trace a few
ruined walls on the hill which rises to the north-westward of
Samsoun2.

At the time Constantinople fell into the hands of the
Latins, Amisos was governed by a Byzantine officer named
Sabbas. Like several provincial governors in Europe and
western Asia, he assumed the position of an independent
prince. His government had been so prudent that the citizens
of Amisos acknowledged his authority with readiness ; and

1 Menander, 398, edit. Bonn.

2 Hamilton's Reiearches in Asia Minor, i. 290.

Y %

224 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.I.§3.

both the Greeks of the surrounding country and the Turks
of Samsoun considered their interests so closely identified
with the continuation of the order he had preserved, during
his administration, that they joined in defending him against
the attacks of the emperor of Trebizond, and assisted him
in preserving his independence after Alexios was defeated
by the sultan of Iconium. Alexios, on his way westward
to complete the conquest of the Greek empire, encamped
with his army before the walls of Amisos, and summoned
Sabbas to surrender the city. His demand was rejected,
and he laid siege to the place. The Turks of Samsoun,
persuaded that the conquest of Amisos would be followed
by an attack on their town, and would cause their exclusion
from any direct communication with the Black Sea, made
common cause with the Greeks of Amisos. Messengers were
despatched to Iconium, to urge the Seljouk sultan to expedite
his movements. The defence of the place was so vigorous
that Alexios had made little progress with the siege when
Ga'faseddin Kaikhosrou arrived with the Turkish army. A
battle was fought under the walls of the city, in which the
troops of Trebizond were completely defeated, and the emperor
escaped with only a remnant of his forces.

The position of the city of Amisos at this period affords
us a glimpse into the anomalous state of society and political
power that was not uncommon in Asia Minor during the
later days of the Byzantine empire, and to which many
parallels may be found even in European histoiy. Sabbas
occupied an intermediate position between that of an inde-
pendent prince and a popular chief. The citizens of Amisos
were enabled to defend their liberty in the midst of powerful
and hostile states, rather by a favourable combination of
circumstances, of which they availed themselves with prudence
and moderation, than by any power they derived from their
own wealth, or the strength of their position. They were
contented to submit to a foreign leader, because they found
him a wise and judicious administrator. Sabbas, on the other
hand, accidentally raised from the rank of a provincial gover-
nor to that of an independent sovereign, unable to count on
the support of a large military force, and possessing only a
limited power over the revenues of a single city with no very
extensive territory, was dependent for the continuance of his

ATTACK ON GREEK EMPEROR. 325

A.D. 1204-1222.

high position on his popularity and good behaviour. He
showed himself everyway well adapted for his situation. He
repulsed the attacks of the Christian emperor of Trebizond,
and conciliated the good-will and active assistance of the
Turks of Samsoun, without admitting the army of the sultan
of Iconium within the walls of Amisos. Satisfied, however,
that it would be an act of rashness to attempt defending his
independence, unless he could secure the support of some
powerful ally against both Alexios and Gai'aseddin, he became
a voluntary vassal of the Greek empire of Nicaea as soon
as Theodore Lascaris assumed the title of emperor. Theodore
was too distant to interfere with the local administration of
the city, but he was able from his position to afford an effec-
tive protection to Amisos, should it be attacked either by
the troops of David Grand-Komnenos or of the sultan of
Iconium K

David found himself so much weakened by the loss of his
Iberian troops, and the impossibility of drawing further
succours from Trebizond after his brother's defeat, that he
sought a new alliance to maintain his ground against Theo-
dore and Gai'aseddin. The emperor of Nicaea had leagued
with the Turks ; David formed a treaty with the Latins in
Constantinople. Without their assistance he feared that he
should be unable to preserve his conquests in Paphlagonia ;
and to purchase their aid, he became a vassal of the Latin
empire of Romania, and consented to hold Heracleia and
the neighbouring country as a fief from the emperor Henry;
thus virtually separating himself from his brother's empire.
The emperor Henry had already gained possession of Nico-
media, and was eager to press the war against Theodore
Lascaris, whose dominions he had compressed into a narrow
space, by the conquest of all the southern shore of the
Propontis, from the Hellespont to the Rhyndacus. David
received the assistance of a body of crusading knights, with
their followers and men-at-arms. These vain-glorious auxi-
liaries, despising both their Greek enemies and their Greek
allies, advanced boldly forward to attack the troops of the
emperor of Nicaea, without condescending to combine their
movements with the other corps that composed the army

1 Acropolita, 6.

7.26 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. I. § 3.

of David. Andronikos Ghidos, who commanded the army

of Nicaea, availing himself of the rashness of the Latins,

surrounded their cavalry in the great forest that extends over

the highlands between Nicomedia and Heracleia, called by

the Turks, with poetic feeling and descriptive observation,

the ' ocean of trees.' The crusading knights were completely

routed. Those who escaped death on the field of battle were

carried as prisoners to Nicaea, and the trust David had

placed in foreign aid was annihilated *.

About the year 12 14, Theodore concluded a treaty of
peace with Henry, in which David was not included. The
Greek emperor immediately endeavoured to unite the ter-
ritory still held by David to the empire of Nicaea. He
successively conquered Heracleia, Amastris, and Tios, making
himself master of the whole country as far as Cape Carambis2.
His progress was facilitated by the sultan Azeddin, who
laid siege to Sinope about the same time, and whose invasion
induced the Greeks to submit to their countrymen rather
than run the risk of falling under the sway of the Turks.
Sinope was the richest city in David's dominions, and he
hastened to defend it with all the troops he could assemble.
A battle ensued, in which he terminated his active career
on a bloody and disastrous field. Sinope surrendered to the
victor, and Azeddin subdued the whole country from Cape
Carambis eastward to the territory of Amisos 3.

The affairs of Aiexios at Trebizond now assumed a threat-
ening aspect. From the time of his defeat at Amisos he
had been cut off from all regular communication by land with
his brother, to whose activity he had been so much indebted
at the commencement of his career. Enemies who were
alarmed at the sudden formation of a new empire in their
vicinity attacked his dominions on every side. The Turks
of Cappadocia assailed Pontus, while the Georgians ravaged

1 Nicetas, 412. a Acropolita, 9.

3 This is the result of the notices in Abulpharagius and Abulfeda, as they
have been well explained by Fallmerayer, Gesckichte, 94. Abulpharagius mentions
that Sinope was taken, and its rnler Kyr Alexis slain. Abulfeda states that this
year (i.e. 1214) the Turkomans (Seljouks) took prisoner the emperor Lascaris.
Fallmerayer points out how these errors arose ; and, indeed, it is not surprising
that David, who was the real sovereign of Sinope, should be confounded with
Aiexios, who was the emperor; nor that the Greek emperor of Trebizond, called
by the orientals Kyralexis, should have his name confounded with that of Lascaris,
the better known Greek emperor of Nicaea.

AZEDD1N SULTAN OF ROUM. 327

A.D. 1204-1222.

Colchis. The Georgians, or Iberians, were the bravest war-
riors in all Asia ; and it was fortunate for the young emperor
of Trebizond that, at this crisis, their hostilities were prin-
cipally directed against the Mussulmans in Armenia, for,
had they turned all their energy to effect the overthrow
of the empire of Trebizond, they might have stifled the
existence of the imperial house of Grand-Komnenos in the
cradle \

It was not until after the fall of Sinope, and the conquest
of the country eastward to the Thermodon, that the sultan of
Iconium and the emperor of Trebizond were brought into
direct collision for the second time. Azeddin proved a more
active and dangerous enemy than his father Gai'aseddin.
He was a man of great ambition and few prejudices ; indeed,
the contemporary Europeans reported that he was extremely
favourable to the Christians, and almost, if not really in secret,
a Christian. The report was propagated in the West as a
ground of praise ; in the East, his enemies gave it currency as
proving him a traitor to his faith and nation. He may, like
some other members of his family, have been an infidel, as far
as the divine commission of Mahomet was concerned ; but
the accusation of his preferring Christianity was spread among
the Turks by those who feared his political ambition. Like
the caliphs of Bagdad and Cairo, he had more confidence in
veteran mercenaries than in patriotic native troops. He
feared the turbulent and independent spirit of his Seljouk
subjects. Neither the nomade hordes nor the territorial
nobles were the instruments which he could employ at will,
to extend his dominions and augment his personal power.
In order to possess a body of troops on whose service he
could constantly reckon, he formed a guard of mercenaries ;
and circumstances rendered it easier for him to hire Christian
warriors than to purchase slaves, like the Mamlouk sultans
of Egypt, or collect neophytes and renegades, like later
Moslem princes. His infidel guards, hated by all around,
and looking only to the sultan for wealth and honour, were
ready to execute all his orders without distinction of rank or
respect for law or religion. At this time the East swarmed
with European adventurers, who, having secured indulgences

1 Abulpharagius, 449 ; Fallmerayer, Geschichle, 90.

3 28 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.I.§3.

to an unlimited amount by their services as Crusaders, were

eager to enjoy the interest of the treasures they had laid up

in heaven by committing a few additional sins on earth.

Their visit to the tomb of Christ, and their wars against

the infidels, had brought them neither wealth nor lands

as a reward for their pious exertions. They had, however,

obtained indulgences, which in their opinion authorized them

to seek riches by hiring their swords to Greek heretics or

Turkish infidels without shame or sin. Theodore I. (Lascaris),

the Greek emperor of Nicaea, had at one time eight

hundred of these soldiers of fortune in his service 1. Azeddin

assembled round his person a powerful corps of similar

mercenaries.

Alexios of Trebizond was unable to resist a powerful,

wealthy, and warlike sovereign like Azeddin. Cut off from

all direct collision with the Greek empire of Nicaea, and

the Latin empire of Romania, he was almost forgotten in

the West. Involved in a political and international circle

of alliances and hostilities, that disconnected his interests

from those of the Greeks on the Asiatic and European shores

of the Aegean, his wars and treaties placed him in close

relations with the Christian princes of Georgia and Iberia,

with the Turkoman chieftains of Cappadocia, and the emirs

of Armenia. In this state of comparative isolation, he was

unable to offer any effectual resistance to the arms of the

•rrand-sultan of Roum, and he was glad to purchase

tranquillity, and save his dominions from devastation, by

acknowledging himself a vassal of the Seljouk empire, by

paying an annual tribute to the treasury of Azeddin, and

sending a contingent of troops to serve in the Turkish

armies2. Of the particular circumstances or misfortunes

that reduced him to this extremity, nothing is known :

the fact alone is recorded. It is probable, however, that

the commercial relations of the Greeks of Trebizond with

the rest of Asia both assisted the emperor in concluding

this treaty of peace with the sultan, and rendered it, in spite

1 Niceph. Greg. io.

- MS. of Lazaros the Skeuophylax (intendant of the plate), discovered by Fall-
mcrayer at the monastery of St. Diony>i<>-. on Mount Athos, founded by the
emperor Alexios III. of Trebizond. Original-FragmeMe, PL i. p. 85, in the
Transactions of the Academy of Munich for 1843.

PROSPERITY OF TREBIZOND. 329

A.D. I204-I222.

of its humiliating conditions, not unpopular among his own
subjects.

Of the internal history of Trebizond during the reign of
Alexios I. nothing has been preserved. We know, however,
that the emperor or his ministers did not neglect to profit
by the advantages of his position, and of the extensive
commercial relations of his subjects in the Black Sea.
Cherson, Gothia, and all the Byzantine possessions in the
Tauric Chersonesos, were united to his empire ; and so close
was the alliance of interest, that these districts remained
dependent on the government of Trebizond until the period
of its fall x. It is not very probable that this conquest could
have been effected by an imprudent or unpopular sovereign.
We know, too, that Trebizond rose rapidly in power and
wealth immediately after the establishment of its independ-
ence. This was a natural consequence of increased security
and the great addition to the size of its territory, which from
a province grew suddenly into an empire.

Alexios I. died at Trebizond in the year 1222. Of his
character, feelings, passions, and talents so little is known,
that any attempt to embody his personality would be an
encroachment on the domain of poetry or romance. He
appears in the history of Trebizond as the shadow of a
mythic hero, the founder of an empire, whose origin we may
perhaps, without sufficient warrant, feel inclined to trace to
his individual actions, when he himself may have been
nothing more than an ordinary man accidentally selected
by fortune to act a prominent part. That he possessed the
noble figure, handsome face, and active frame that were
hereditary in the house of Grand-Komnenos, and which
they probably derived from their Georgian ancestors, may
be admitted, though the epithet of great was not applied to
his stature 2.

A Greek empire, in the thirteenth century, required a
new saint just as necessarily as a Greek colony, in the heroic
ages, required its demi-god or eponymous hero. This new

1 This is another of the facts with which Fallmerayer's researches have enriched
history. MS. of Lazaros, Originat-Fragmente, Pt. i. p. 1 10. The territory of the
city of Cherson, and the province of Gothia, embraced the southern and south-
eastern parts of the Crimea.

2 Gibbon, vii. 327: 'The epithet of great was applied perhaps to his stature
rather than to his exploits.'

330 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. I. § 3.

saint was indispensable, for it was his duty to appear in the

celestial tribunals unencumbered with the business of older

clients. St. Eugenios was chosen by the emperor and people

of Trebizond to act as their advocate in heaven and their

protector on earth \ His name and worship served to

separate the citizens of the empire of Trebizond from the

Greeks of the Byzantine empire. The votaries of St.

Eugenios formed a nation apart, united together by their

own ecclesiastical ideas and religious prejudices, then the

most powerful feelings and motives of action with the

Christian population in the East. St. Eugenios was a native

martyr, who had been condemned to death during the

persecution of Diocletian for boldly destroying a statue of

Mithras, which had long been an object of adoration to the

people of Trebizond, on the romantic Mount of Mithrios,

now Bouz-tepe, that overlooks the city with its wall of rock.

The martyrdom of St. Eugenios took place at an isolated

point between two ravines that separate the upper citadel and

the great eastern suburb, and on this spot Alexios erected

a splendid church and monastery to the patron of the city

and empire. The buildings dedicated to St. Eugenios were

more than once destroyed amidst the revolutions of Trebizond ;

but a Christian church, now converted into a mosque by the

Osmanlis, and called Yeni Djuma djami, still exists. The

effigy of St. Eugenios was also impressed on all the silver

coins of Trebizond 2. The festivals of St. Eugenios became

the bond of social communication between the emperor and

his subjects : the biography of the saint was the text-book

of Trapezuntine literature ; his praise the subject of every

oratorical display; his name the appellation of one member

in every family, the object of universal veneration, and the

centre of patriotic enthusiasm 3. The religion, the literature,

1 [St. Eugenios was not altogether a 'new saint ' with the people of Trebizond,
for Procopius informs us that the aqueduct which Justinian built there was named
by the inhabitants after that saint. De Aedif. lib. iii. c. 7. Ed.]

2 No coins of Alexios I. and Andronikos I. have been identified, but all the
known silver coins of Trebizond bear the effigy of St. Eugenios on their reverse.
The earlier, while the emperor and people had some warlike habits, represent the
saint on foot, as the spiritual guide and shepherd of his flock ; the later, when
the emperor and people were effeminate and luxurious in their way of life, display
him on horseback with a cross in his hand, as a macc-at-arms, ready to protect
the city, which the sovereign and the people felt themselves too weak to defend
without miraculous aid.

;: In a lawsuit of which Fallmerayer discovered the records in the monastery of

ST. EUGENIOS PATRON SAINT. 331

A.D. I 204-1 222.

and the politics of the inhabitants of Trebizond, during the
whole existence of the empire, identified themselves with the
worship and the legends of St. Eugenios.

St. Dionysios, on Mount Athos, three citizens of Trebizond appear as witnesses,
all named Eugenios.

CHAPTER II.

Trebizond Tributary to the Seljouk Sultans and
Grand-Khans of the Mongols.

Sect. I. — Reigns of Andronikos 1. {Ghidos), and Joannes I.
(Axone/ios), 1222-1238.

The succession to the imperial title was never considered
to be hereditary among the Byzantine Greeks ; but the new
Greek empire at Trebizond forgot many of the old Roman
traditions, and soon assumed a hereditary form. At the
death of Alexios I., however, the hereditary principle had not
prevailed over the elective constitution imprinted by imperial
Rome on all its offshoots, and the vacant throne was occupied
by Andronikos Ghidos, the son-in-law of Alexios, to the ex-
clusion of Joannes, the eldest son of the deceased emperor1.

Though Andronikos continued to be tributary to the Sel-
jouk empire, he availed himself so skilfully of the embarrass-
ments which arose on the decease of the emperor at Iconium,
as to succeed in concluding a treaty with Alaeddin, who had
succeeded his brother Azeddin (a.d. 12 14). This treaty made
no change in the relations of vassalage already established
between the two empires, but it provided that the two sove-
reigns were to live in perpetual amity, and that the subjects
and frontier garrisons of the one were never to molest those of
the other. Such a treaty of a suzerain with his tributary,
being a direct acknowledgment of complete political inde-
pendence, was not likely to be long respected ; and the
manner in which it was broken indicates that Alaeddin soon
repented of his concession.

1 Panareti Chronicon Trapezuntinum, 362. The emperor Andronikos I. was
perhaps the same Andronikfs Ghidos who commanded the army of Theodore
Lascaris, when the Latin auxiliaries of David Grand-Komnenos were destroyed.

HAYTON OF SINOPE. 333

A ship bearing the imperial flag of Trebizond was driven
on shore near Sinope. It carried the receiver-general of
Cherson and several archonts of Perateia, with a large sum
of money destined for the public treasury of the empire.
The ship was seized by Hayton, the reis or governor of Sinope,
who took possession of the treasure destined for Andronikos,
and detained the archonts in order to enrich himself by their
ransom. The emperor no sooner heard of this act of piracy
than he sent a fleet to punish Hayton. The Trapezuntine
expedition proceeded to Karousa, where troops were landed,
and the whole country, up to the very walls of Sinope, was
wasted and plundered. The fleet attacked the ships in the
port with equal success ; and Hayton, distracted by the ruin
of his dominions, the captivity of his people, and the signs
of discontent within his city, purchased peace by giving up
the captured ship with the treasure seized, and releasing all
his prisoners without ransom. At the same time all the
prisoners on board the fleet were released, but the troops and
sailors carried off all the plunder they had collected.

Hayton was a vassal of the Seljouk empire, and the ter-
mination of the affair was extremely displeasing to the sultan
Alaeddin, who considered that the emperor of Trebizond, as
a tributary of his throne, was bound to appeal to his suzerain
at Iconium, before attacking Sinope and ravaging the Turkish
territory. He resolved to avail himself of the occasion, to set
aside the treaty by which he had placed Andronikos on the
footing of an equal, and to conquer Trebizond. The Greek
emperor could bring no force into the field capable of contending
with the Seljouks. Alaeddin ordered an army to be assem-
bled at Erzeroum, which he strengthened with a body of
veteran troops from Melitene. The command of the expedi-
tion was intrusted to his son Melik, who was ordered to lay
siege to Trebizond1. The young Melik pressed rapidly
forward through the passes to Baibert, where he encamped
for a couple of days to make the necessary dispositions for
descending with his army to the coast, by the defiles of the
wooded mountains that surround Trebizond. Andronikos

1 Lazaros says distinctly that Melik, the commander-in-chief of the Turkish
army, was the son of the grand sultan Alaeddin, the son of Sa Apatines, the
Iathatines of Acropolita— Gaiaseddin Kaikhosrou. Fallmerayer, Original-Frag-
mente, Chronihen, Inschriften, und anderes Materiale zur Geschichte des Kaiserlhums
Trapezunt, 18.

•?u EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

OJ [Ch.II. §i.

had done everything in his power to meet the threatened
danger. The fortress of Trebizond was put in the best state of
defence, the wealth of the suburbs was secured within its
walls, and arrangements were made for lodging the immense
population crowded within its narrow circuit. All the chosen
warriors of the empire, from Sotiropolis, under the Mingrelian
mountains, to Oinaion. in the land of the Chalybes, were sum-
moned to the imperial standard ; and the emperor, hoping to
delay the march of the Seljouk troops, advanced to the summit
of the mountain range with his army. But his followers were
sadly inferior to the Turks both in courage and discipline, and
as soon as they perceived the numerous array of their enemies,
the greater part dispersed. Some sought the recesses of the
forests, from which they subsequently issued to interrupt the
communications of the Turkish army during the siege. Others
fled back on Trebizond, to seek shelter at the shrines of the
Panaghia Chrysokephalos and St. Eugenios, where they quar-
tered themselves in the monasteries around those churches.
Andronikos covered the retreat with a small guard of five
hundred chosen cavalry armed with shield and lance, who
distinguished themselves by a valiant attack on the advanced
guard of the Turkish army, at a bridge over the Pyxites.
Melik, however, moved steadily forward with the main body;
while Andronikos, unable to defend even the extensive suburb
of Trebizond to the east of the citadel, shut himself up within
its walls. The Seljouk army encamped along the whole space
from St. Eugenios to St. Constantine, down to the sea. The
besieging army was only separated from the fortress by the
deep ravine that bounds it on the eastern side.

At this period the fortress of Trebizond occupied only the
table-rock between the two great ravines of Gouzgoun-dere
and Isse-lepol, including what now forms the central and
upper citadels. The northern wall ran parallel to the shore
at some distance from the sea, and the intervening space was
not yet fortified by the wall which now protects it, and
includes part of the suburb beyond the western ravine. The
first attack of the Seljouk army was directed against this
northern wall. In this spot alone the ground offered facilities
f< r approaching the fortifications, and admitted of an attempt
to carry the place by storm. But though the ramparts at
this point did not tower so high above the assailants as at

TREBIZOND BESIEGED. 335

A.D. 1222-1238.

every other, the narrowness of the space between the wall and
the sea deprived the Turks of the advantages to be derived
from their superior numbers ; and, by crowding them closely
together, exposed those engaged in the assault to every
missile discharged by the besieged. The consequence was
that this attack was repulsed with considerable loss ; and
Andronikos, by a well-directed sally of his horsemen, pur-
sued the assailants into the Turkish encampment, where the
fugitives threw a portion of the army into the greatest con-
fusion. The Seljouk generals soon re-established order, and
a superior force was drawn out against the Greeks, who then
retreated within their walls. The leaders of both parties in
this engagement displayed great personal valour, several men
of rank fell on both sides, and Gai'aseddin, a cousin of Melik,
and Hayton, the reis of Sinope, were among the slain.

The next attempt to storm Trebizond was made from the
south. Melik occupied the narrow platform between the two
great ravines before the wall of the upper citadel with a
division of his army. His own head-quarters were in the
monastery of St. Eugenios, the church itself serving as the
residence of his harem. It was resolved to surprise the upper
citadel by a night attack ; but the darkness which was to aid
the success of the operation proved the ruin of the Turkish
army. The three divisions of the besiegers, occupying the
eastern suburb, the hill of St. Eugenios, and the platform
above the citadel, were separated from one another by deep
ravines, yet they were destined to act in concert. As the
troops were moving forward to support the storming party,
a dreadful tempest, accompanied by a hail-storm and a deluge
of rain, suddenly swelled the torrents in the ravines. The
troops from St. Eugenios and the eastern suburb were unable
to mount the rocky ascent to the platform, and some were
carried away by the flood as they were crossing the ravine.
The feint attack from the north was repulsed, and the whole
assault failed. The defeated troops were everywhere driven
back on those destined to support them. The cavalry, horse
and man, was forced over the precipices ; the infantry was
driven back into the torrents which poured down from the
mountains, and the confusion was soon inextricable. When
the fury of the storm abated, and it became possible to render
the local knowledge of the garrison of some avail, a sortie was

336 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.II. §1.

directed against the head-quarters of Melik from the northern

gates. The whole Seljouk army then fled in confusion,

abandoning its camp and leaving everything to the enemy.

Melik himself joined the fugitives, and was made prisoner at

Kouration by a party of mountaineers from Matzouka. The

glory of the victory was attributed to St. Eugenios, whose

history it enriched with many a legend.

Andronikos used his victory with prudence. He treated
Melik with great attention, dismissed him without a ransom,
and sent him with a becoming escort to Iconium. Negotia-
tions were opened with the sultan Alaeddin, and a new treaty
of peace was concluded, by which the empire of Trebizond
was declared free from all tribute, from the obligation of
furnishing a military contingent, and from the homage which
Alexios and Andronikos had been hitherto bound to pay to
the grand sultan of Roum a.

The independence of the empire of Trebizond was not of
long duration. The sovereignty of western Asia was disputed
by the great Khoarasmian shah Gelaleddin and the grand
sultan Alaeddin. Andronikos saw that, in such a conflict, it
would be impossible for him to retain his dominions unless he
secured the alliance of one of these powerful princes. The
ambitious shah was the more dangerous neighbour ; and to
purchase his friendship the emperor of Trebizond acknow-
ledged himself Gelaleddin's vassal, and furnished a contingent
to the Khoarasmian army. The army of Gelaleddin was
completely defeated by Alaeddin at the bloody battle of
Akhlat2. One division of the Persian cavalry was driven
over a range of precipices, and perished almost to a man
in a vain attempt to escape ; but another, by a rapid retreat,
gained the passes of Armenia, and reached Trebizond in
safety, where they served to strengthen the imperial army.
Another defeat of Gelaleddin by the Mongols, in the year
after the battle of Akhlat, placed Octai the grand khan of
Tartary in direct rivality with the sultan of Roum. Andro-
nikos was again called upon to secure his political existence,
and the duration of the empire of Trebizond, by the sacrifice

1 Fallmeraycr, Original-Fragmente, Pt. i. 85.

2 Hammer {Histoire de V Empire Othoman, i. 39) places the battle of Akhlat in
the year 1229. But Fallmerayer (Geschichte, 107), on the authority of Abul-
pharagius, places it in 1230, and d'Herbelot (Bibliothdque Orientale, s.v. Gelaleddin)
agrees with this chronology.

LOSS OF IBERIA. 33J

A.D. I222-I23S.]

of his imperial pride. The activity of Alaeddin allowed him
little time to choose ; and as soon as the Seljouk sultan had
completed the conquest of lesser Armenia, Andronikos hast-
ened to renew his relations of vassalage with his old suzerain,
and engaged to maintain a subsidiary force of two hundred
lances constantly in the service of the sultan. This force may
be considered as forming a body of one thousand men l.

The sultan Alaeddin, with all his ambition and personal
daring, was a politic and able prince, who did not overlook
the commercial interests of his subjects. He perceived that
the idle satisfaction of conquering a weak state like that of
Trebizond, which only desired by its alliances to secure to
itself a neutral position, would be ill compensated by the
injury he would inflict on trade. He had discernment enough
to understand that commerce was considered by the great
majority of the merchants, whether Christians or Mussulmans
— both in his own dominions and in the other states of
western Asia — more secure while Trebizond and its territory
remained an independent and neutral empire, than it would
be were that city governed by one of his own turbulent emirs.
The Seljouk empire was now at the height of its power, and
had Alaeddin not thought and acted as a wise statesman,
the Greek empire of Trebizond might have been destroyed at
this early period of its existence, and its very name lost to
European history. Though Trebizond survived this crisis, its
extent suffered some contraction. Iberia, which had hitherto
formed one of its most valuable provinces, and the possession
of which was long recorded in the imperial title, seized the
opportunity afforded by the weakness of Andronikos I. to
assume complete independence. After the Mongols had
driven the Georgian queen Roussadan from Tiflis, her son
David was elected king by the Iberian and Lazian tribes, who
had hitherto remained independent ; and the Trapezuntine
province threw off its allegiance, and united itself with the
new Iberian kingdom. David was for some time the only
Christian prince in these regions who lived in a state of

1 Vincent de Beauvais, quoted by Fallmerayer, Geschickle, 70. A lance at this
time, in the East, consisted of the leader in complete panoply with four armed
followers— two on horseback and two on foot. Ducange, Glossarium Med. el Inf.
Lot. s.v. Lancea: 'Centum lanceas more antiquo, quarum unaquaeque dicitur
habere quinque milites vel homines.'

VOL. IV. Z

338 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. II. § 2.

complete independence, owning no vassalage to the surround-
ing infidels. His capital was at Kutasion in Imerathia.

Andronikos reigned thirteen years. He was succeeded by
his brother-in-law Joannes I., surnamed Axouchos, who occu-
pied the throne only three years. The death of Joannes was
caused by a fall from horseback while playing at the dan-
gerous game called tzukanion — an amusement extremely
fashionable among the Byzantine nobles \ John I. left a son,
named Joannikios, who was compelled to enter a monastery;
and the crown was assumed by Manuel I., the second son of
Alexios I.

SECT. II. — Manuel I, the Great Captain. — Andronikos II. —
George. — A.D. 123 8- 12 80.

Manuel I. was distinguished by the title of the Great
Captain, but of the military exploits that gained him this
name we know nothing. They were not, however, sufficiently
brilliant to deliver Trebizond from its state of vassalage, for it
is certain that he was compelled in the earlier part of his reign

1 The emperor Manuel I. of Constantinople was nearly killed by the fall of his
horse at this game. It was played with a leather ball, like a cricket ball, about
as 1 ig as an apple or pomegranate. Two rival parties, mounted on horseback,
with ^icks having a conical bowl at the end, endeavoured to impel this ball
beyond a certain barrier, or to prevent their adversaries from accomplishing the
same feat before themselves, according to certain fixed rules of the game. Only
the nobility appear to have engaged in the game, but it drew crowds of spectators
an 1 shared with the hippodrome in exciting Byzantine enthusiasm and passion.
Every city of importance had its tzukanisterion, or place appropriated to this
amusement. Cinnamus, 154; Ducange, Histoire de St. Louis par Joinville, diss. 8;
de V Exercise de la Chicane et du Jeu de Pautne a Chevnl. Quatremere, His/oire des
Sultans Mamlouks de I'Egypte, i. 121, note; Ducange, Glossarium Med. et Inf. Graeci-
tatis, s.v. l^vKaviarripi v.

In the modern Trebizond the Meidan is usually supposed to represent the
ancient hippodrome, but it is perhaps too far beyond the line of the ancient
fortificatio.is. It is called by its present name Meidan in the Chronicle of
Panaretos. See Kallmerayer. Original-Fraprvien'e, Pt. ii. p. 89. The great open
space on the road to St. Sophia*s called Kapak-Meidan, i.e. 'Pumpkin Square,'
seems to have a better claim to be the site of the hippodrome, and perhaps of the
tzukanisterion. Kallmerayer (Original-FragmenU, Pt ii. p. -4) thinks that the
site of the tzukanisterion may be traced in the remains of a large enclosure on
the space between the two ravines outside the walls of the upper citadel. On
visiting it with Mr. Powers, the American missionary at Trebizond. a Turk of the
neighbourhood informed us that the place was called Domouz Serai, and had
served as a palace for the pigs of a giaour king of Trebizond. The enclosure may
have contained an amphitheatre, but there hardly appears to be a level space large
enough for a good game at tzukanion, and the name Kapak seems to refer to the
ball, though a pumpkin is rather larger lhan an apple. See also Eugenici Laus
Trapezuntis, c. 6, in Tafel's edition of Eustathii Opusada.

REIGN OF MANUEL I. 339

A.D. I 238-I 280.]

to pay homage to the Seljouks, and in the latter to the Mon-
gols. We can only conjecture that his personal character was
remarkable for daring, and that his military skill enabled him
to command a degree of political influence incommensurate
with the extent of his empire.

After the death of Alaeddin, in 1237, the Seljouk empire
lost much of its power. His son Gai'aseddin Kaikhosrou II.,
who was said to have poisoned his noble father, was a weak
and luxurious prince. During his reign the Mongols renewed
their incursions into western Asia; and in the year 1244 he
was entirely defeated in a great battle at Kousadac, near
Arsinga, by the army of the grand khan Octai. The Seljouk
force, composed of Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Georgians, Arme-
nians, and Franks, though far superior in numbers to that of
the Mongols, fled before them without offering any serious
resistance. Manuel's contingent had fought in the routed
army. Policy urged him to lose no time in conciliating the
victor, and he was fortunate enough to be admitted to become
a vassal of the Tartar empire, on nearly the same terms as
had previously bound him to the Seljouk sultan. Trebizond
was viewed by the Mongol court, as it had been by that of
Iconium, rather as a mercantile station than as the capital of
an empire ; and the great captain escaped appearing as a sup-
pliant sovereign before the grand Mongol at the court of
Karakorum, because he was regarded as the chief of a trading
factory, not as the emperor of a powerful state. His position
and his power awakened neither the ambition nor the jealousy
of the grand khan.

The political condition of Asia Minor during the reign
of the emperor Manuel I. is described by the friar Rubruquis,
who visited it in the year 1253, on his embassy from St.
Louis to the court of Karakorum. He mentions that the
Circassians, the Soanes, and the Iberians then lived in a
state of independence ; but Trebizond was governed by its
own prince, named Komnenos, of the family of the emperors
of Constantinople, who was in a state of vassalage to the
Tartars. Sinope belonged to the sultan of the Turks, but
at that time it was also reduced to a state of vassalage by the
Tartars. The Greek empire of Nicaea, called by Rubruquis
the land of Vatatzes, was ruled by Theodore II., called
Lascaris, from his maternal grandfather ; and this country

z 2

3AO EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. II. § 2.

was independent, and owed no vassalage to the Tartar

empire1.

The only notice of Manuel that is found in any western
contemporary writer is contained in the life of St. Louis by
Joinvillc. The stout seneschal mentions that, in the year
1 253, while St. Louis was engaged fortifying Sidon, ambassa-
dors visited the king from the signor of Trebizond, who
called himself Grand-Komnenos. They brought with them
rich presents, and asked the hand of a princess of France for
their sovereign. No princess having accompanied the king
on his pilgrimage, he recommended Manuel to form a matri-
monial alliance with the family of Baldwin II., emperor of
Constantinople, since the house of Courtenay was related to
the royal family of France. This advice was doubtless not
much relished by Manuel, who cared very little about the
blood of Capet, and only sought an alliance with the French
king on account of the great personal fame and influence of
St. Louis ; and because he hoped that a marriage with a
princess of France might enable him to attract the expedi-
tions of the crusading chivalry of the West to Trebizond.

Manuel died in the year 1263, after a long and prosperous
reign of twenty-five years. He was the founder of the
magnificent church and monastery of St. Sophia, situated in
a delightful position on the sea-shore, about a mile and a half
to the westward of the fortress of Trebizond, where the
inhabitants of the city still crowd to enjoy every festival.
His half-defaced portrait still exists on its walls2.

1 Voyage de Rubruqvis, in the Recueil de Voyages et de Mi moires, public par la
Societe de Geographic. Paris, 1839, tom- *v-

'-' The monastery has disappeared ; but the church, with its external ornaments,
its inlaid marble pavement, its mural decorations, and contiguous belfry and
chapel, forms one of the most interesting monuments of Byzantine architecture,
sculpture, and painting, that time has spared. The paintings are suffering hourly
dilapidation, and in a very few years will probably be utterly destroyed. I was
fortunate enough to find a full-length figure of the emperor Manuel, of which
I had heard no previous mention, tolerably well preserved, to the right of the
door used as the entry to the mosque. The emperor is without a crown, wearing
only a band on his head ornamented with a double row of pearls : his robes are
adorned on both sides, down the front, with two rows of single-headed eagles
on circular medallions, about three inches in diameter. On his breast is a large
medallion, about seven inches in diameter, bearing the figure of St. Eugenios on
horseback, as he is represented on the later coins of Trebizond. The figure of
the saint is painted on a blue ground. This painting would seem to be con-
temporary with Manuel, from the inscription, which style-; him Emperor of the
Romans. The single-headed eagle was a common type of the Byzantine empire,
and by no means peculiar to the empire of Trebizond, before the conquest of
tantinople by the Crusaders. It may be seen on the inlaid floor, as it is

GEORGIOS AXD THE XOBLES. 041

A.D.1238-1280.] °

Andronikos II., the eldest son of Manuel, occupied the
throne for three years, and died without issue.

The reign of Georgios, who succeeded his brother Andro-
nikos, lasted fourteen years ; and as the power both of the
Seljouks and the Mongols was now declining in Asia Minor,
he gradually acquired a position of complete independence,
and ventured to make war on the Turkoman tribes on the
frontiers of his dominions. His endeavours to increase his
own power rendered him unpopular among the nobles and
military chiefs of Trebizond, whose assumption of individual
authority, and whose attempts to arrogate to themselves the
complete control over the financial and judicial affairs within
their possessions, he determined to repress. In one of his
military expeditions he was deserted by the nobles who
accompanied him. Their object in deserting their sovereign
was to turn the defeat of the imperial army to their own
advantage, by weakening the central power ; for they feared
the increased authority of the emperor's administration, in
matters of finance and justice, far more than they desired
the extension of the limits of the empire. Their treacherous
retreat left Georgios a prisoner in the hands of the Turko-
mans at the moment he expected to drive them from the
range of Mount Tauresion, where they had begun to settle.

often represented, picking out the eyes of a hare. The inscription at the side
of the picture is as follows : —

'en xn m en nisToc baciaetc kai attokpathp p^imaion kththp

THCAMfiN ::: TATTH MANOTHA OKOMNHNOC .'

It must be observed that the title used by Manuel is precisely that of the Byzan-
tine emperors, as may be seen in the drawing of the emperor Basil II., from an
old MS. of the ninth century, in Seroux d 'Agin court, History of Art ; Painting,
plate xlvii. 5, English edit. ; so that, if the inscription had been discovered at
Nicaea or Nicomedia, it would be attributed without hesitation to the Byzantine
emperor, Manuel I. Comnenus. [I suppose the beginning of the latter part of the
inscription should run — ht'iotx? ttjs /x6vt]S tclvttjs. Ed.]

CHAPTER III.

Trebizond Independent. — Internal Factions.

SECT. I. — Reign of Joannes II. — Alliance with the Empire of
Constantinople. — A.D. 1280-1297.

JOANNES II., the third son of Manuel, ascended the throne
in the year 1280, as soon as the news of the captivity of
his brother Georgios reached the capital. The empire of
Trebizond was now completely relieved from its vassalage
to the Mongols, and its history assumes a new character.
Hitherto, we have known little of its internal condition ;
henceforward the memorials of its intestine factions, the
intrigues of the palace, and the vices of the emperors, form
the prominent features in the records of the empire : but we
hardly obtain a glimpse of the nature of the commerce or
the social organization of the people, that furnished the
wealth of the ruling classes, and enabled the nobles, the
courtiers, and the sovereigns to amuse themselves with
alternate feats of war and sensuality.

Joannes was a weak young man, and the state of society in
the thirteenth century, not only at Trebizond, but over all
the world, required that the sovereign should be a man of
energy in order to preserve his authority. It was an age in
which law and legislation exerted little control on the actions
of men, and in which religion ceased to uphold the temporal
power of princes. The talents and the will of a vigorous
ruler could alone repress the tyrannical conduct of his own
officers, the insolence of the aristocracy, and the anarchical
propensities of the populace. Want of roads insulated each
little district ; experience was as difficult to acquire as a
lettered education ; wealth was concentrated in the hands of

CONDITION OF THE POPULATION.

343

a few landlords ; public opinion had no existence ; legal
tribunals were powerless, and justice slept. The supreme
authority in the state was consequently irresponsible ; and
for power of such a nature, emperors, nobles, and ministers of
state fought and intrigued with an energy and at a risk which
excites our surprise, when we couple this boldness with the
worthless characters of the individual actors. Able and
energetic sovereigns are, from the nature of man, not of
frequent occurrence on despotic thrones, after power has been
transmitted in the same family for some generations. The
palace is rarely a good school for education. The family of
Grand-Komnenos displayed at least an average deficiency in
all great and good qualities, from the reign of Joannes II. to
the extinction of the empire. Part of the difficulties, how-
ever, in which this emperor and his successors were placed
arose as much from the state of society, as from their own
incapacity and maladministration. Mankind was beginning
to feel the operation of those social causes which replaced
mediaeval life by modern habits. Masses of the population
were growing up beyond the ordinary movement of the old
social routine. Slavery was disappearing, without creating
any immediate opening for the employment of free labour.
Popular anarchy, aristocratic oppression, royal rapacity,
and military cruelty, were often the throes of a society in
which men were driven to despair in their endeavour to
obtain a subsistence or defend a hereditary right. The
convulsions which destroyed the old system threatened for
several generations to depopulate all western Asia and great
part of Europe ; nor has a large portion of the East yet
attained a political organization suitable to social improve-
ment. The history of the empire of Trebizond offers us a
miniature sketch of this great social struggle, drawn in faint
colours and with an indistinct outline.

The records of the reign of Joannes II. are extremely
confused. Ducange and Gibbon supposed that he was the
first sovereign of Trebizond who assumed the imperial title ;
but the discovery of the Chronicle of Panaretos enabled
Fallmerayer to restore the title of emperor to the earlier
princes1. The critical sagacity of Ducange had almost

1 Ducange (Familiae Augtistae Byzantinae, p. 192) quotes at length the autho-
rities from which he drew his inferences. Gibbon (chap. lxi. vol. vii. 327) follows

o44 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.III. §i.

divined the true position of Joannes, even from the scanty
materials at his disposal. There can be no doubt that the
form of the coronation ceremony, and the title of the emperors
of Trebizond, had remained, up to this period, precisely the
same as that of Constantinople when it fell into the hands of
the Crusaders. Joannes II. was crowned emperor of the
Romans ; and no especial political significance would pro-
bably have been given to the title, as constituting him a
rival to the throne of the Byzantine emperor, Michael VIII.,
had it not been for the religious disputes that distracted the
empire of Constantinople. Michael had rendered himself
unpopular among the orthodox by forming a union with the
papal church. The fealty of the Greeks was not considered
to be due to an emperor of doubtful orthodoxy. Michael
had been 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 condemned
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 Vallakia, 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

Ducange even in the error of mistaking the name of Miyas Kofwrjvos, or Grand-
Komncnos, 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 liy;ht
thrown on this period by the Chronicle of Panaretos. Fallmerayer. however,
tliinks that Joannes II. made a great change in the title of the emperors of Tre-
bizond by receiving the crown as emperor of the Romans; but the date of the
embassy of ( ►gerius, and the words of Pachymeres v>- 353)i who says that .Michael
.. i.tl embassies to Trebizond on the subject of the imperial title, indicate
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
Le familiar to his subjects by long usage,

JOANNES II. AND MICHAEL VIII. 345

A.D. I280-I29;.]

regarded as a usurper, from the fact of his having ceased
to be orthodox, and Joannes was considered as the lawful
sovereign, because he had been already crowned the faithful
emperor of an orthodox people.

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 indicated a
nervous sensibility, there can be no doubt that he had good
reason to apprehend a general rebellion in support of any
rival claim to the imperial title at this momentous crisis.
About the 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
the champion of the rights of Philip of Courtenay, the 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 factious views of the nobility of Trebizond,
he sought to neutralize all opposition from that quarter by a
combination of cajolery, bribery, and intimidation, that would
induce the government of Trebizond to dread an open rupture
with the Byzantine empire.

The first embassy sent by Michael to sound the disposition
of the young emperor of Trebizond was intrusted to the
experience of the veteran statesman and valuable historian
George Acropolita, in the year 1281 \ But the ambassador

1 Smith's valuable Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
(s.v. Acropolita), and the improved German translation of SchoelPs 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 llankius, De T.yzantinarum Rerum Scriptoribus Graecis,
without referring to his authorities. The learned work of llankius 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 Tachymeres as his authority, which states distinctly that Acropolita
was sent to the prince of the Lazes, as the vain Conslantinopolitan writers called
the emperor of Trebizond. The date given by Hankius also seems to require

346 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.III. §i.

could neither persuade John to lay aside 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 Palaeologos. 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 discovered 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 even
be dangerous to neglect forming a close alliance with the
emperor. Acropolita had hardly quitted Trebizond 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 and recovered his power, and that it is not
possible to prove the complicity of the Byzantine agents in
this business ; but there cannot be a doubt that it caused
a great change in the views of the emperor of Trebizond, and
induced him to form a close alliance with the emperor of
Constantinople, on the basis of a league 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 Joannes
expressed a wish to form a close political and family alliance
with Michael ; but while he expressed his eagerness to
espouse Eudocia, the emperor's youngest daughter, he de-
clared 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 per-

correction, since the unsuccessful embassy of Acropolita must have happened
in the year preceding the marriage. Hankius, 562; Pachymeres, lib. vi. c. 34,
torn. i. p. 354, edit. Rom.

NEGOTIATIONS WITH MICHAEL. 347

A.D. 1 280-1 297.]

sonal honour of Joannes, nor his political position, nor the
feelings of his people allowed him to think for a moment of
abandoning the pageantry of an imperial court. Michael
himself soon saw clearly that the change was impossible ;
and this very 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 John Lascaris. 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 \

The reception of the emperor of Trebizond at the Byzantine
court displays all the vanity and meanness of the Constanti-
nopolitan 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 was employed to induce the young emperor
to lay aside his purple boots and imperial robes. Seeing
himself surrounded by the unprincipled instruments of By-
zantine tyranny, and retaining always a lively recollection
of the fate of the blind Lascaris, 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 the emperor of
Trebizond then first adopted the style of Emperor of the
East, instead of his earlier designation of Emperor of the
Romans ; and probably his 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

1 Ducange {Fam. Aug. Byz. 234) makes Eudocia the second daughter of
Michael VIII. instead of Anna. But Pachymeres (i. 354) says distinctly she was

the third

348 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND.

[Ch. III. §i.

mark her rank as an imperial princess of the East and the
West, born in the purple chamber1. Both Joannes 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 Peratcia 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 conquest of the
capital. The Iberian army ravaged the 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 aid him in his endeavours to recover the throne. His
attempts were unsuccessful. His followers were defeated;
and the dethroned emperor, after wandering in the mountains
in a condition between a knight-errant and a brigand, was
at last taken prisoner and brought to 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.

1 I observed full length portraits of the emperor Joannes II, and of the empress
Eudocia, in their imperial robes, though sadly defaced, on the walls of the porch
of the church of St. Gregory of Nyssa, which was used as the metropolitan church
of Trebizond. The robes of the emperor were adorned with single-headed eagles,
those of the empress with double-headed. There were three figures on each side
of the porch; that of the empress Eudocia was the one nearest the door of the
church on the right hand. The crowns and robes of all the figures were curious,
but the inscriptions were illegible. This church has been destroyed. Bulletin
mensuel de VAcadimie lies Inscriptions : Revue Archeologique, Aoul, 1S63. p. 264.

-' The title of Emperor of the East, [beria and Perateia, ought really only to
have bun used by Alexios I. and Andronikos I., since the province of Iberia

ign of the latter. But sovereigns are in the habit of assuming and
retaining titles to which they have no right. See the golden bulls of the emp
Alexios ill. Fallmerayer, brig. -Frag. Ft. i. pp 87, 92.

REIGN OF JOANXES II. 349

A.D. I 280-1 297.]

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 stability, and that she was fully and
permanently recognized as sovereign of the empire1. No
clue affords us the means of explaining how Theodora
obtained the empire with such facility, or how she as suddenly
lost it, but Joannes very soon 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 Chrysokephalos. 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 consequences, 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 industry2. The Turkomans,
availing themselves of the disorders at the capital, laid waste
the province, and drove out the greater part of the ancient
population, 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 acknow-
ledged 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

1 Pfaffenhoffen, Essai sur les Aspres Comnamis. p. 88. 1 D 1

2 See an interesting account of the modern Chalybes in Hamilton s Researches
in Asia Minor, Pontus, and Armenia, vol. i. p. 2 74*

oKo EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. III. § 2.

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 l.

SECT. II. — Reign of Alcxios II. — Increased commercial import-
ance 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 Byzantine emperor
Andronicus II. ; but the courtiers and nobles of Trebizond
easily persuaded the young sovereign to 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 minister2.
The idea of this marriage was offensive both to Alexios and

1 Wadding, Annales Ordinis Minorum, torn. v. p. 254, ad ann. 1291 ; Fallmerayer,
Geschich/e, 157.

- Nikephorus Choumnos was praefect 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. lie was the author of several works that stdl exist
in MS. in the libraries of Europe. Some of his writings have been published
by Boissonade in the Anecdota Graeca, 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
1304, 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,
nddrcssed to his father the emperor Andronicus II.

ALEXIOS II. AND ANDRONICUS II. oKi

A.D. I 297-I33O.] ^O

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 exaggerating his claims to
authority from his intense orthodoxy, conceived that he
could always make the Greek church a subservient instrument
of his political enterprises. In order to carry into execution
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 Constantinople, 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 orthodox emperor. The patri-
arch and clergy, alarmed at the ridiculous position in which
they were likely to be placed, took advantage of the interest-
ing condition of the bride, to refuse gratifying the spleen of
Andronicus. At this time Eudocia, the mother of Alexios,
was at Constantinople. She had rejected her brother's pro-
posal to form a second marriage with the kral of Servia, and
was anxious to return to her son's dominions. By per-
suading Andronicus 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 obtained 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 pretensions of his
uncle1. Eudocia showed herself as much superior to her
brother Andronicus in character, judgment, and virtue, as
most of the women of the house of Palaeologos were to the
men. The difference between the males and females of this
imperial family is so marked, that it would form a curious

1 Pachymeres, torn. ii. 184, 198, edit. Rom.

352 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. III. §2.

subject of inquiry to ascertain how the system of education

in the Greek empire, at this period, produced an effect so

singular and uniform. The ecclesiastical culture of the Greek

clergy may possibly have tended to strengthen the female

mind, while it weakened and dogmatized 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, in their endeavours to
secure a monopoly of the commerce of the Black Sea, was as
great as that which threatened it from the Turkomans and
Mongols. This bold and enterprising people had already
gained possession of the most important 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 Con-
stantinople ; 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 commodities, 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, Mangou and Kublai,
cherished the useful arts ; and during their reigns the vigorous
administration of Houlakou in Persia, Armenia, and Asia
Minor, allowed merchants to wander in safety with their

COMMERCE OF TREBIZOXD. 353

a.d.i 297-1330.]

bales from Caffa, Tana, and Trebizond, to Samarcand, Bok-
hara, and other entrepots of Indian and Chinese productions.
The importance which this trade acquired, and the amount of
wealth it kept in circulation, may be estimated from the
effects of the Mongol invasions on the commerce of lands
that might be supposed to have lain far beyond the sphere of
their direct influence. Gibbon mentions, that the fear of the
Tartars prevented the inhabitants of Sweden and Fries-
land from sending their ships to the fisheries on the British
coast, and thus lowered the price of one article of food in
England K

Akaba, the son and successor of Houlakou, on the vassal
throne of the Mongols at Tauris, was a friend of the Chris-
tians, and an ally of both the Greek emperors, Michael VIII.
of Constantinople, and Joannes II. of Trebizond. On as-
cending 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
induced them to become the protectors of the commercial
intercourse between the Christians of Europe and the idola-
ters 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. vol. viii. 15, note 2S : 'It is whimsical enough
that the orders of .1 Mogul Khan who reigned on the borders of China should
have lowered the price of herrings in the English market.'

2 Pachymeres torn. i. 116, edit. Rom.

3 Recneil de Voyages et de Memoires, publie par la Societe de Geographic Paris,
1839, 4to. ably edited by M. d'Avezac.

4 The importance of the commercial relations of the Romans by this route is

VOL. IV. A a

354 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. III. § 2.

The treaty of alliance which the Genoese concluded with
the emperor Michael VIII., before the recovery of Constanti-
nople from the Latins, conceded to them great commercial
privileges. Subsequent 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 Bukoleon. 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 establish-
ments enabled them to extend their commerce, until it far
exceeded that of any other power1. Their long chain of
factories, from Chios 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 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 which they enjoyed in the empire of Constanti-
nople. They had already formed an establishment at Daph-
nus, the anchorage of Trebizond, where the eastern suburb
overhangs the beach ; and they were desirous of fortifying
this position, as its possession would have made them as
completely independent of the government at Trebizond,
as their fortress of Galata made them of the government

attested by several passages of Strabo, lib. xi. c. 2 and 3. For later times, com-
pare Menander, 39S, edit. Bonn ; Jornandes, Be Rebus Ge/icis, c. ii.

1 I'achymeres, ii. 310. 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 Llack 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, 05$

a.d. 1 297-1330.]

at Constantinople. In the year 1306 the emperor Alexios
II. concluded a treaty with the republic of Venice, by which
he conceded to Venetian merchants all the privileges hitherto
enjoyed by the Genoese alone. He put the Venetians in
possession of a quarter near the anchorage ; and a Venetian
bailo was established at Trebizond, with an interpreter and
a colonial court of justice framed on the model of that at
Constantinople1. This concession excited the greatest dis-
satisfaction among the Genoese, who displayed their ill
humour with their usual arrogance. They disputed with the
imperial officers, and resisted their just demands. They
denied the right of the revenue officers to open their mer-
chandise in order to levy the transit-duties, they made the
amount of these duties a constant subject of contestation, and
they expected in this way to force the emperor to commute
the transit-duties into a fixed tribute, which they regarded
as the first step to the formation of an independent colony.
These disputes lasted several years.

A formal embassy wras 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
admission 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 nature and extent, would have soon
formed a fortified quarter. The Genoese would then have
repaired the ruins of Leontokastron, which would have given
them the command of the port2.

1 Passini Codices MSS. Graeci Biblioth. Taurinensis, p. 222 ; J. Muller, Ueber
einige byzantinhche Urhinden ; in the Sitzungsberichte der philosoph.-historischen
Clause der K. Aiademie von Wien. 1851, vol. vii. p. 335.

2 The site of Leontokastron is now occupied by the lazzaretto, which was
constructed on the ruins of the palace of a pasha, built out of the remains of

A a 2

$j6 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXn.

[Ch.III. §2.

The proposals of the Genoese were peremptorily rejected
by Alexios ; and, in refusing their demands, he added that
they were 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 with-
drew from Trebizond, their place would be immediately oc-
cupied by the Venetians, Pisans, or Catalans. The Genoese,
enraged at the prompt rejection of their terms, acted with
violence and precipitation. They were always the most reck-
less and quarrelsome of merchants, and ever ready to balance
their books with the sword. They collected twelve ships in
the port, and 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 Meidan, expecting to
distract the attention 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 back in their faces, and, descending the hill to the
port, it destroyed the greater part of the merchandise about
which the battle had arisen, and laid their warehouses in
ashes. This unfortunate result of their passion brought the
traders to their senses. They felt that they had suffered a
far greater loss than it was in their power, under any circum-
stances, to inflict on their enemy. The destruction of their
goods served as a premium to other merchants, and quickened
the eagerness of rival traders 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 a monopoly of its advantages. In this critical con-
juncture they forgot their passion and their pride, and hast-

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 occupied the site before the establishment of the Genoese at
Trebizond, and that it had fallen to ruin. The Genoese acquired a title to the
possession of at least some part of this site, which they resigned to the emperor
when they concluded their treaty of peace, and Leontokastron was repaired and
strengthened by Alexios, in consequence of these disputes with the republic ; but
in the year 1349 it was surrendered to the G<_noc^e by the emperor Michael,
shortly before he was dethroned, and remained in their hands until the fall of the
empire. Fallmerayer, Original-Fragmente, Pt. ii. 84.

POPULATION OF TREBIZOXD. otf

a.d. 1297-1330.]

ened 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 com-
pelled 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,
industrious only in intrigue, 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 Leontokastron, as
a check on the naval power of the republicans \

The Greeks in general had 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-.
The people of Trebizond had participated in the national
decay. The city was filled with that inert population which
congregates round an idle and luxurious court, when the
sovereign expends immense revenues, extracted from the
industry of an extensive realm, within the walls of 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. The merchant
is generally despised as a sordid inferior, and exposed to
insult, peculation, and injustice. Merit cannot make its way
without favour, either in the military or naval service. A
large body of the populace lives 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

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 (Original-Fragmente, Ft. ii. 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 131 5, and ratified by the republic
of Genoa the 16th March 13 16.

2 Constant. Porphyr. De Them. p. 58, edit. Bonn.

358 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. III. § 2.

in the provinces, supply a number of favoured individuals
with the means of pursuing a life of worthlessness. 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 surest
road to riches and distinction. But as the continent 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
Mussulmans of Sinope. The merchant-ships of this age were
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
Mohammedans1. The difference was, that on the part of the
Christians it was a deviation from their ordinary pursuits,
while it was the chief occupation of the ships of the Mussul-
man princes. The corsairs of Sinope were thus sure of meet-
ing 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 i 314 a band of these pirates landed in the

1 Pegolotti <Pmc/ica della Ahrcatura), who was engaged in commercial affairs
in the East al out this time, tells us that the freight paid for mcichandise embarked
in vessels not armed was only the half of what was paid for its embarkation in
armed galleys.

NEW FORTIFICATIONS. 359

a.d.i 297-1330.]

vicinity of Trebizond, and, after ravaging the surrounding
country, plundered the suburbs of the city, and set fire to the
buildings without the gates. The conflagration 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 protected the bridge
over the western ravine, in a line running down to the shore.
The style of the new fortification was modelled on the land
wall of Constantinople ; and it still exists in tolerable pre-
servation, particularly where it covers the bridge over the
romantic ravine that forms the noble moat to the citadel1.

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 offices2. 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 daugh-
ters— one of whom, Anna, occupied the throne of Trebizond
for a short period.

SECT. III. — Period of Anarchy and Civil Wars. — Reigns of
Andronikos 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
Georee. If the crime was committed from motives of poli-
tical suspicion, we may conclude that his second brother
Basilios, and his uncle Michael, only avoided the same fate

1 An inscription on this wall, though much defaced, proves that it was terminated
in 1324. Fallmerayer, Orig.-Frag. Pt. i. 133. There is another inscription of the
reign of Alexios III. in the tower to the left of the gate. Ibid. Pt. ii. 103.

2 Wadding, Annul. Minor, ann. 1329, n. 11 ; Raynaldi, Annal. Eccles. ann. 1329,
n. 95 ; Fallmerayer, Geschichte, 165.

160 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND.

[Ch. III. § 3.

by being absent, or by effecting their escape to Constan-
tinople.

Manuel II. was only eight years old when his father Andro-
nikos III. died. The crimes of his parent had utterly
depraved a society already deeply stained with vice. No
measures were now too violent for those who hoped to
obtain wealth 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 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 found peculiarly ready to encounter a foreign
enemy, on account of the very preparations which have
been made to perpetrate political crimes. All parties become
eager to gain popularity, by evincing extraordinary patriotism
in defence of their native land. Each leader sees that the
best way to strengthen his party is to perform good service
against the foreign enemy. This was experienced 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
retreat with such precipitation that they abandoned the
greater part of their horses and baggage to save their lives.
The disorder within the walls of the capital was however
very little diminished by this victory, and the whole popula-
tion 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.

Basilios arrived at Trebizond in the month of September
1332, and was immediately proclaimed emperor. Manuel II.
was deposed, after his name had been used for eight months

authorize every kind of violence and disorder. The young

REIGN OF BASILIOS. 361

A.D. I33O I349.]

prince was kept in a state of seclusion, with the view, doubt-
less, of compelling him, when he grew older, to become a
monk ; but in the course of a few months the intrigues of a
eunuch, who held the office of grand-duke, caused an insur-
rection during which Manuel was stabbed. Basilios, on
mounting the throne, had allowed his partizans 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 *. 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 nobles of the
provinces 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, unable to trust
the Scholarioi, found it necessary to surround his person with
a body of Frank, Iberian, and Byzantine guards, to guard the
citadel and the palace ; and the insolence and rapacity of
these foreign mercenaries increased the unpopularity of his
government.

The personal conduct of Basilios was ill suited to extend
his influence. He married Irene, the natural daughter of the
Byzantine emperor, Andronicus III.; and, had he availed
himself with prudence of this alliance, he might have ren-
dered 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 repro-
bation, he was pursued with insults, and driven with stones
to seek refuge in the citadel. The empress Irene had no
children. Basilios, not contented with living in open adultery

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.

3 See what Agathias (159) says of the Scholarioi. He considered them only
a burden to the state.

762 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. III. §3.

with a lacly 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

this 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 he persuaded or forced the

clergy of Trebizond to celebrate his second marriage in the

month of July 1339. He died in the following year1.

Irene Palaeologina, who was universally considered as the
lawful wife of Basilios, was suspected <of having had some
share in causing his death. She was found prepared for the
event, and had already organized the movements of a party
which placed her on the throne. This promptitude in profit-
ing by her husband's death certainly looked suspicious ; while
the readiness of mankind to repeat calumnious reports con-
cerning 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 unfavourable
rumours. The moderation with which the empress treated
her rival raises a doubt concerning the probability of her
having plotted the assassination of her husband. Instead of
putting Irene of Trebizond to death or immuring her in a
monastery, she only sent her with her two sons to Con-
stantinople, to be detained as hostages for the tranquillity
of Trebizond. A powerful party among the nobility, how-
ever, was both alarmed and offended by the success of her
schemes, which deranged all the plans they had formed for
acquiring wealth and power during the minority of the chil-
dren of Basilios, through the favour of Irene of Trebizond,
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 Scholarians 2. Civil

1 Compare Panaretos, 363, with Niceph. Greg. 424. Fallmerayer (Geschichte,
[76) has pointed out the errors of Ducange (Fam. Aug. Byz. 193I concerning
Basilios and Irene, in his usual lucid manner. The consecration of bigamy by
the clergy of Trebizond was sternly reproved by the patriarch of Constantinople,
but he did not venture to command the metropolitan of Trebizond to excom-
municate his sovereign even for bigamy. Fallmerayer, Original-Fragmente, Pt. ii.
77 ; Muller, Ueber einige byzantinhche Urhnnhn. 331,

1 Fragment of Lazaros the Skeuophylax, in Fallmcravcr's Original-Fragmctfe,
Pt. i. p. 85.

CIVIL WAR. $6$

A.D. I33O-I349.]

war in itself, though more to be deprecated than any foreign
hostilities, may nevertheless be as necessary 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 stigmatized as rebels at its com-
mencement may be an indispensable 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 demoralized as to serve
as a sure herald of national degradation. In the fourteenth
century, neither the governments of Trebizond nor Constan-
tinople, 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
violence of individuals represent the demoralized condition
of Greek society more vividly than in the city of Trebizond.

The empress Irene was no sooner established on the throne
than civil war broke out. Assisted by the Amytzantarants,
by a powerful party among the nobles, and by the Italian
and Byzantine mercenaries, she held possession 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, and supported by the great families of the
Doranites and Kabasites, and of 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 is 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

364 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. III. § 3.

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 little more than twenty miles

to the westward of Trebizond l. For two months the parties

of the empress Irene and of the Scholarioi 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 being an eunuch, and

holding Limnia as if it was his private estate, indicates that

the power of many of the factious leaders was official and

administrative as well as territorial and hereditary. The

oligarchs of Trebizond were representatives of a Roman, not

a feudal aristocracy, and partook more of the ancient and

Asiatic type than of the mediaeval 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 communications of the citadel with the

country to the westward had always remained open, as they

were completely protected 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 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 '-'.

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,

1 Niceph. Greg, p 425.

'-' 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. Both the
quarter of St. Eugenios and the palace at Leontokastron served as defensive
positions during the civil broils between the Turkish aitillerymen of the upper
citadel and the Janissaries of the lower fortress, which occurred in the h-t
century. Peyssonel, Traili sur le Commerce de la Mer Noire, ii. 73, ^8.

IRENE AND ANNA. $6$

AD. I330-I349]

when the throne of Irene was threatened by Anna Anachout-
lou, her deceased husband's sister.

Irene was of a gay, thoughtless, and daring disposition,
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 husband, chosen from
among the Byzantine nobles, who could direct the adminis-
tration, command the armies of the empire, and aid her
in repressing the factions that were constantly plotting
against her authority. Her ambassadors found Andronicus
occupied in preparing for his campaign against the despotat
of Epirus, and he died before he 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-domes-
tikos 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 opposi-
tion 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-Komnenos to the domination
of a Byzantine scion of Palaeologos, 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 encounter-
ing any opposition. The government of Irene was unpopular,
both on account of her personal conduct and the losses which
a recent Turkish expedition had inflicted on all classes of her
subjects. Her Constantinopolitan mercenaries fled without

366 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND.

[Ch.III.§3.

giving battle to the infidels, who 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 Trebi-
zond. She was immediately admitted within the citadel, and
universally recognized 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
arrival1. 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 with-
out 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 mer-
cenaries and supported by the faction of the Scholarioi,
irritated without intimidating the native nobility, who had
driven Irene from the throne, and who were not willing to
lose the fruits of a successful revolution without a contest.
But as they were doubtful of the support of the people, and
not prepared for open resistance, they resolved to gain their
ends by treachery. Michael was received by the archbishop
Akakios with due ceremony. He received the oath of alle-
giance from 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 invasion
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

1 Niceph. Greg. 424.

REIGN OF ANNA. 367

a.d.i 330-1 349.]

the palace and sent prisoner to Oinaion (Unieh T). The
Lazes, after a severe engagement, captured the three Byzan-
tine 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 an association of powerful chiefs governed the
empire in the name of the empress Anna2.

The Greek people were too deeply imbued with an adminis-
trative organization, 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 Byzan-
tine 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 persuade the young man to embark in the project. The
expedition was undertaken without any open support from
the Byzantine government. Three Genoese galleys were
hired, in addition to two fitted out by the chiefs of Tre-
bizond ; 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 at the port. The Scholarioi, the Midzo-
mates, 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 imme-
diately strangled. She had occupied the throne rather more
than a year 3. Many nobles of the Lazic party, particularly
the Amytzantarants, were murdered ; and a lady of rank was
strangled, as well as the empress Anna, during the tumults
that accompanied this revolution.

1 He was afterwaids removed to Limnia ; Panaretos, c. 11.
2 Niceph. Greg. 425. 3 Panaretos, c. 12.

368 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. III. § 3.

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 good-will and recover power, flattered his follies and his
vices, alienated the attachment of those statesmen and soldiers
who had placed him on the throne. The captain-general
Niketas, who had taken the lead in so many revolutions,
again commenced his factious movements. 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 l.

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 administra-
tion, 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 condemned to death the most eminent of the
nobles of the Lazian party — a measure in which he was sup-
ported by the Greek party, to whom a distribution was made

1 There are some slight remains of this monastery before a cavern in the
rocky face of Bous-tepe, which overlooks the harbour. Fanaretos, c. 13; Niceph.
'irey 426.

MICHAEL AND THE SCH0LAR1ANS. 369

a.d. 1330-1349.]

of all the great offices of state. Niketas was made grand-
duke1.

All parties now felt the evils to which they were exposed
by the continual vicissitudes 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 an organic law for
regulating the administration of the empire. In short, the
confederacy of Scholarioi attempted to give Trebizond an
oligarchical constitution. The emperor Michael was com-
pelled to sign an act, ratified by a solemn oath, promising
to leave the whole of the legislative power, and the direction
of the public administration, 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 palace2. 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 determined 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 a mere shadow of the laws of Rome enabled
Michael to resume absolute power, and declare the con-
cessions 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

1 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 Meizo-
mates, chamberlain ; Michael Meizomates, amirtzaoutzes — that is, eir.ir tchaous,
or marshal of the empire ; and Stephanos Tzanichites, grand-constable. Panaretos,
c. 13.

2 Niceph. Greg. 426.

VOL. IV. B b

370 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND.

[Ch.III. 13.

Adrianople, where he could find few opportunities of com-
municating with the factious at Trebizond \

The absolute sway of the emperor Michael brought no
more prosperity to the city and empire than had been ob-
tained by the government of the nobles. 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 dis-
order, by dissolving all family ties 2. The Turkomans, 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 capital3.

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 Kera-
sunt, after burning great part of the buildings. Two expedi-
tions 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 Trapezuntine squadron, consisting of one large ship, a
galley, and several smaller vessels, left the harbour of Daph-
nous 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 plun-
dered, and those were imprisoned who- escaped death from
the popular fury. The Genoese returned from Kaffa in a
few weeks with a stronger force, determined to exact signal
satisfaction for the treatment of the Europeans. Affairs at
Trebizond were in a state of anarchy. Michael was stretched

1 In the year 1362. during the reign of Alexios III., the dethroned Joannes III.
escaped from Adrianople, but he was arrested at Sinope by the Turks, and died
there. He left a son, who escaped to Kaffa and Galata. lanaretos, c. 14, 31.

- I his was the great plague known in Europe by the name of the Black Death,
of which Boccaccio has left us the well-known description. Panaretos, c. 14;
Fallmerayer, Kai erthum von Trapczunt, 1

s The modern name of the Pyxites is Deyirmcnderisi, or mill-stream.

MICHAEL DETHRONED. 371

a.d. 1330-1349.]

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 Trapezuntine govern-
ment. 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 partizans 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 1.

1 Panaretos, c. 15.

li b I

CHAPTER IV.

Re-establishment of the Imperial Supremacy in
the Illegitimate Branxh of the House of Grand-
komnenos.

SECT. I. — Reign of Alexios III. — Progress of the Turkomans. —
Revenge of Lercari. — Magnificent Ecclesiastical Endowments.
— A.D. 1349-1390.

ALEXIOS III., son of Basilios by Irene of Trebizond, had
been brought from Constantinople by the party of the
Scholarioi to occupy the throne. He was 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 administration, 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 legitimate
branch of the family of Grand-Komnenos, represented by
the emperors Michael and Joannes III., on account of its
alliance with the house of Palaeologos, the lawful emperors

ALEXIOS III.

373

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 Cantacuzenos l.
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 saint's previous duties as guardian of the
empire of Trebizond. The church and monastery, which
had been ruined by the conflagration during the reign of
Irene Palaeologina (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 restoration 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 advantage, before
the system of partitioning the resources of the state should be
brought to a conclusion. 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 sacri-
ficed to the rapacity of the aristocracy, or stand idle spectators
while the officers of state squandered the heavy taxes, that
were employed to maintain armed followers, who did little
else than plunder the country they ought to have been
guarding against the inroads of the Turkomans. On one

1 Panaretos (16) says that Nicephorus was the cousin of the emperor. Canta-
cuzenos mentions that he had a brother, to whom he intrusted the government
of Adrianople, named Nicephorus. Cant. Hist. pp. 841, 879.

2 The church is converted into a mosque, called Yeni Djuma 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 dis-
appeared. 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.

5 74 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.IV. §i.

occasion the family of Doranites, mastering the whole ad-
ministration, of which they had for some time held the
principal offices, forced the young emperor to retire to
Tripolis ; but they were soon after overpowered 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 Ken-
chrina 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 enumeration 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
NiketaSj 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 recovered possession of the fortresses of Limnia,
Tzanicha, and Kenchrina, and displaying both the power
and the will to take upon himself the direction of the
administration, the grand-duke and his partizans 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 full
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

IMPERIAL AUTHORITY STRENGTHENED. 375

A.D. I349-I390.]

of Trebizond, henceforth, rather the characteristics of feudal
suzerainty blended with Oriental despotism, than of the old
Byzantine ascendency 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 both in western Europe and
among the Mohammedan nations; and as the social organiza-
tion of the Greek people was now essentially unwarlike, their
appeal to force, from their want of discipline and courage
only rendered them despicable.

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 capitu-
lated. The grand-duke assembled his troops at Kenchrina,
of which he had gained possession, and the emperor marched
to besiege him ; but the place was so strong that Alexios
was compelled for a time to rest satisfied with a simple
acknowledgment of his authority, and the apparent submission
of the rebels who retained possession of the fortress. In spite
of this check, the emperor gradually consolidated the central
authority. During his expedition against Kenchrina John
Kabasites, the duke of Chaldia, recovered the forts of
Cheriana and Sorogaina from the Turkomans, and restored
the imperial power in those districts. The dethroned emperor
Michael was also defeated in an attempt to profit by the
rebellion of his old ally, Niketas the grand-duke. The
partizans of the Byzantine emperor John V. (Palaeologos)
favoured his escape from Constantinople, and assisted him
in his enterprise, in order to weaken the party of Cantacuzenos
by the fall of 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 it
in his power even to create a revolt. Before the end of
the year, the grand-domestikos, Meizomates, and the grand-
general, Michael Sampson, took Kenchrina and put an end
to the civil war. The grand-duke Niketas, whose administra-
tive 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

on 6 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND.

[Ch.IV. §i.

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, were exposed to constant
attacks on the part of the neighbouring Mohammedans.
Many of the great landed proprietors continued to be almost
independent and their conduct kept several districts in a
state bordering on anarchy. Domestic raids and foreign
inroads of plundering tribes were events of frequent occur-
rence during the whole reign of Alexios *. On one occasion
the emperor himself had very nearly fallen into the hands
of a party of his subjects, who attempted 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 belonging to the party of the Kabasites 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

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 TTJpoiKoi. The emperor says, EioijXOov iiioittp rivis 6i)pts dypioi. Fallmerayer,
Original-Fragmenie, l't. i. p. 97.

PROGRESS OF TURKOMANS. 377

A.D.I 349-I 390.]

the forts of Cheriana and Sorogaina, perished. Not only
was all the plunder lost, but the whole of the baggage of
the troops, the military chest of the army, and the personal
equipage and tents of the emperor, fell into the hands of
the Turkomans. Alexios fled among the foremost, and
Panaretos followed close after his master. The historian
declares, that if the Lord had not been with him, and
strengthened his horse, so that he galloped for three days,
posterity would have lost the imperial notary, and the
history of Trebizond would have been at this hour a blank *.
The fugitives never stopped a moment to rally the troops,
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 their disgraceful overthrow.

The Turkish hordes which attacked the long slip of terri-
tory that composed the empire of Trebizond belonged to
different independent tribes. They were united by no poli-
tical tie, and generally acted without concert. Indeed, they
were frequently so hostile as to be more inclined to contract
alliances with the Christians than with one another. The
great impulse that carried them onward in their career of
conquest and colonization was the necessity of securing new
lands for their augmenting population and their increasing
flocks and herds. Why the nomadic population should have
increased in an augmented ratio at this period of history,
is one of the social problems that lies beyond the sphere of
Greek history; or, at least, it would involve a deeper investi-
gation into the state of society among the Oriental nations,
during the middle ages, than could be satisfactorily treated
without indulging in conjectures which place the subject
beyond the bounds of history. 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 to exterminate
other nomades, or to push before them the civilized cultivators
of the soil, just as the civilized cultivators 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.

1 Panaretos, c. 20.

3/«S EMPIRE OF TREDIZOXD.

[Ch.IV. §i.

The Turkomans on the frontiers of the empire of Trebi-
zond, 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 successful
foray in autumn enabled them to burn the standing grain,
even when they were not strong enough to carry away
plunder. The farm-houses, the cattle, and the fruit-trees
were thus gradually destroyed ; until at last the population
was so reduced in numbers, and so impoverished, as either to
emigrate or to become incapable of 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 administra-
tive agency, fomented a spirit of local dissension and selfish-
ness that took away from the people all power of acting in
common, paralyzed their courage, and reduced them to a
state of social degradation in which they hailed slaver)'- 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 aqueducts, the
roads, and the bridges, which could alone secure to the
cultivator the power of converting his surplus 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 Othoman empire must have frequently
observed traces of the practical results of similar causes.

PROGRESS OF TURKOMANS. 379

a.d. 1349-139°-]

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 fortresses are neglected, when
the immediate district they cover cannot pay the expense of
their maintenance. Princes often prefer dismantling fort-
resses to reducing the number of their chamberlains or of
their court pageants. Of this spirit of economy the Turko-
mans frequently reaped the fruits. Every successive genera-
tion saw them gain possession of some frontier fortress, or
encroach far into some province, that the emperors regarded
as hardly worth defending x. It must not, however, be sup-
posed that they were always allowed to advance in an
uninterrupted career of conquest. The army of Trebizond
inherited some portion of the military discipline and science
which enabled the Byzantine sovereigns not only to repulse
the Saracens from the walls of Constantinople, but to drive
them back beyond Mount Taurus. On the field of battle,
if properly commanded, it was still superior to the nomade
cavalry of the Turkomans. Even the reign of a sovereign so
destitute 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 Tadjeddin, 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
conquest2. Alexios made a second attempt to reconquer
Cheriana ; but his military incapacity and the severity of the

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 Mussul-
mans ; yet, to guard this important pass into the valley of the Pyjutes he only
recommends the abbots to select their most trustworthy serfs {napoiic 11 1, that good
watch may be kept in the little fort near the monastery. Fallmerayer, Original-
Fragmente, Pt. i p. QQ. , , . ,

2 The Limnia ceded to Tadjeddin can hardly have been the fortress mentioned
by Nicephoras Gregoras as onlv two hundred stades distant from I rcbizond. U
appears to have been the name of a district between Kerasunt and Omaiou.

380 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.IV. §1.

weather destroyed his army, which suffered greater loss from
hunger and cold than from the sword of the enemy. For-
tunately for the empire, the chiefs of the Turkomans directed
their forces against one another, instead of uniting to con-
quer the Christians. Tadjeddin, the emir of Limnia, attacked
Sulcimanbeg, 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 in-
volved with a Genoese merchant, than by all the defeats he
suffered from the Turkomans. The disgraceful circumstances
connected with this affair rendered the empire of Trebizond
a byword of contempt throughout all the commercial cities
of the East. A Genoese merchant noble, named Megollo
Lercari, was settled at the colony of Caffa2. 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

1 Hadji-Omer was married to a sister of the emperor.
A <:oge 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. I565. The doge whom Louis XIV . in the height of his insolence, compelled
to visit Versailles in 1685, after the unjust bombardment of Genoa, was
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 Last at this period is testified by the chronicler Panaretos, who recounts
that, when he was sent with several great officers of Trebizond on an cm!
to Constantinople in 1 363, they paid visits of ceremony not only to the emperor
John V.. and his father-in law, the monk Toasaph. as the dethroned Cantacuzenos
was called, but also to the podesta of the Genoese, whose name he disfigures.
Leonardo de Montaldo, a distinguished lawyer m morable for his intrigues, was
then captain-general <>f the 1 <>ssessions in the Levant — an office to which

he had been named by the doge Boccanegra, in order to remove him from Genua.
Leonardo de Montaldo was raised to the rank of doge by his talents and his
intrigues, in 1383,

REVENGE OF LERCARI. q8l

! aj). 1 349-1 390.] J

I 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 complaint.

Lercari was so indignant that he quitted Trebizond, de-
claring that he would hold the emperor accountable for his
favourite's insolence. In order to prepare the means of
gratifying his revenge 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 republi-
cans 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 muti-
lated 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

382 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND.

[Ch. IV. § 1.

were charged to deliver to the emperor a barrel full of the

salted ears and noses of his subjects, and a letter declaring

that the 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 to the fury

of the Genoese, submitted. The insolent page was delivered

over to the vengeance of Lercari.

As soon as the young Greek beheld Lercari, 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 saw 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 expedition 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 Trebizond
in possession of an edifice to serve as a warehouse. This
must have been one of those great buildings like the caravan-
series of the East — storehouses for goods, lodgings for mer-
chants, 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 Constantinople. 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
strongly coloured by the pride and passion of the Genoese
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

ECCLESIASTICAL ENDOWMENTS. 383

A.D. 1349-1390.]

merited notice as a correct portraiture both of the people
and the age \

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 adminis-
tration. In completing this great work, he did everything
in his power to secure the aid of the clergy. Policy required
him to gain their good-will, 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 Amytzan-
tarants and Scholarians. He may also have felt that some-
thing 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 birthday, 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 Theoske-
pastos, which occupies a fine position before a cavern in the
rocky face of Mount Mithrios, with a romantic view over
the city of Trebizond, was enlarged, decorated, and enriched
by his care and liberality2. He built a church and founded

1 This episode is recounted by most of the historians of Genoa ; Agostino Gius-
tiniano, Ann. de Genova, lib. iv. ; Petri Bizari Senatus Populique Genuensh rerutn
gestarum Hist. p. 145, edit. Anv. ; U. Foliettae Hist. Genuensium, lib. viii. p. 483;
Paolo Interiano, Ristretlo delle Historie Genovesi, lib. iv. The insolence of the
Genoese was 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 the native citizens
were excluded by an exclusive privilege conceded to the Genoese by the counts
of Toulouse. 'Vincens, Histoire de la Ripublique de Genes, vol. i. p. 391.

2 Inscriptions commemorating the generosity of Alexios and various members
of the imperial family to this monastery are given by Tournefort, Relation dun
Voyage du Levant, torn. iii. p. 81, 8vo edit.; by Fallmerayer, Original-Fragmente,
Pt. i. 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. [The original figures are given in Texier's

384 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND.

[Ch. IV. § 1.

a monastery of St. Phokas at Kordyle \ The great monas-
tery of Sumelas, covering the front of an immense cavern
amidst the sublime rocks and magnificent forests which over-
hang the roaring torrents of the Melas, was enriched by his
imperial bounty, and still possesses the golden bull he signed
as the charter of its privileges 2.

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 Mount Athos or the Holy Mountain. It was the last
constructed of the two-and-twenty great monasteries which
consecrate the mountain in the eyes of the Eastern church 3.
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 consists
of a roll of paper, a foot and a half broad and fifteen feet
long, surrounded by a rich border of arabesques. The im-
perial titles are set forth in capitals about three inches
high, emblazoned 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 containing 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, the»r rich robes
and splendid jewels, are represented in colour, with all

Asie Mineure, plate 64, and in Texier and Pullan's splendid work on Byzantine
Architecture, plate 66. The faces are evidently portraits, having nothing of the
conventionality of the ordinary Byzantine type. The monastery is generally
known as that of the Panaghia Theotocos. Ed.]

1 The site of Kordyle is now occupied by the Turkish fort of Ak-kala.

2 The romantic district in which the monastery of Sumelas is situated, amidst
primaeval 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.

3 [The number of monasteries on Athos is twenty. St. Dionysius, though one
of the later ones, having been founded along with Simopetra, Constamonitu,
Russico, and St. Paul's in the latter half of the fouiteenth century, was not the
last, for Stavroniceta was established in 1545. Ed.]

ALLIANCES OF ALEXIOS III. 385

a.d. 1349-1390.]

the care and minuteness of the ablest Byzantine artists.
Immediately under the imperial titles, below the portraits,
are the two golden bullae 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 \

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 tranquillity, 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 transit trade which was
carried on through 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 their subjects
profited by the trade carried on in the city of Trebizond.
Alexios availed himself of this disposition to form matrimonial
alliances between the princesses of his family and several
neighbouring sovereigns, both Mohammedan and Christian.
His sister Maria was married to Koutloubeg, the chief of the
great Turkoman horde of the White Sheep ; his sister Theo-
dora to the emir of Chalybia, Hadji-Omer. His daughter
Eudocia was first married to the emir Tadjeddin2, 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 II. (Palaeologos) ; but when
she arrived at Constantinople, her beauty made such an
impression on the decrepit old debauchee that he married
the young widow himself. Anna, another daughter of Alexios,
was married to Bagrat VI., king of Georgia3; and a third

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 Sumelas in the Tran actions
of the Academy 0/ Munich, 1843; Original-Fragmente. Pt. i. Montfaucon's Palaeo-
graphia Graeca (p. 476) notices this monastery in the description of Mount Athos
by John Comnenus.

2 Tadjeddin is called Dschiatines, Zetines, and Tatziatin. He occupied the
coast of Pontus between the cities of Kerasunt and Oinaion.

3 Bagrat VI. reigned at Teflis from 1360 to 1396.

VOL. IV. C C

386 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. IV. § 2.
daughter was bestowed on Taharten, emir of Arsinga or
Erdzendjan1.

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, fair, 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. — 1 390-141 7.

Manuel III. received the title of emperor from his father
in 1376, when only twelve years of age. As a sovereign, he
was more prudent than his father, and possessed all his
diplomatic talent. He lived in critical times, and was favoured
by fortune in circumstances when his own resources could
have availed him very little. The great Tartar irruption
under Timor, that desolated Asia Minor during his reign, left
his little empire unscathed. Though he was compelled to
acknowledge himself a vassal of that mighty conqueror, and
pay tribute to the Mongol empire for a few years, still his
government was disturbed by no internal vicissitudes of
importance. The only interest we feel in his reign of twenty-
seven years' duration, is derived from its transitory connec-
tion 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 pos-
sessions of Arsamir, the son of Tadjeddin, emir of Limnia.
Its breadth rarely exceeded forty miles, its frontier running
along the high range of mountains that overlook the sea.
Within these limits several Christian nobles owned a doubtful

1 Clavijo, p. 92 ; cited by Fallmerayer, 209.

LEO KABASITES AND CLAVIJO. 387

A.D. I39O-I4I 7.]

allegiance to the imperial authority. The city of Oinaion,
with its territory, extending westward to the Thermodon,
was governed by a Greek named Melissenos. As his pos-
sessions were separated from the imperial garrison at Kera-
sunt by the possessions of the emir of Limnia, he was almost
virtually independent. Arsamir, the emir of Limnia, was,
however, fortunately closely allied with Manuel, both by
relationship 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 the caravan route
leading southward from the capital l. The possession of these
castles, which after the Othoman conquests became the
residence of Dere-Begs. enabled him to levy tribute on all
travellers who passed 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,
as duke of Chaldia, and of the manner in which he exercised
it on those who came within his jurisdiction2. The picture
he gives of the insubordination and rapacity of the great
nobles in the empire of Trebizond 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
territory, and required to pay toll or make a present. In

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 Trebi-
zond inhabited by the Lazes, who still resisted the advances of the Turkoman
power.

2 The Itinerary of Clavijo and the Hhtoria del Gran Tamerlan were published
by Gongalo Argote de Molino fol. Sevilla, 1582. Also in vol. iii. of the Cronicas
de los Reyes de Castillo, 4to. Madrid, 1782.

C C 2

388 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. IV. § 2.

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, that his

duty was to keep the road open, which was done 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 compelled 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

territories, 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 l.

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 disastrous defeat

1 Clavijo, quoted by Fallmcrayer, Geschichle, 240.

EMPIRE OF TIMOR. 089

ajd. 1390-1417.]

of Angora, the historian observes, ' In his rapid career,
Timor appears to have overlooked this obscure and con-
tumacious angle of Anatolia1.' But it was not so. Timor
neither overlooked Trebizond nor forgot Mohammed ; but
neither the Greek empire nor the Othoman prince possessed
a degree of importance that called for his personal presence.
It reflects no discredit on the measures of Timor, either as
a general or a statesman, that the empire of Trebizond out-
lived the Tartar power in Asia Minor, or that Mohammed I.
became the second founder of the Othoman empire. Timor
did not advance to the decisive battle with Bayezid until he
had secured his right flank from every danger, and taken
due precautions that no serious attempt could be made
to interrupt his communications 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 maga-
zines 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 pos-
sessions over which he had wandered with his nomad army,
and was a fugitive under the protection of the Othoman
court.

Bayezid had pushed forward the frontiers of the Othoman
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

1 Decline and Fall, chap. lxv. vol. viii. 68, edit. Smith.

2 Sale's Koran, chap. 21— '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 Heraclius, as mere naked warriors.

3Q0 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND.

[Ch. IV. § 2.

Trebizond by sea. In this state of things it became im-
possible 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 mountaineers
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 arresting 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 marched against
Bayezid, Timor ordered the emperor of Trebizond to appear
in person at the head of his contingent. By some means or
other, and most probably for the purpose of hastening the
preparation of the naval force which Timor had ordered
to be prepared to cover his flank, Manuel obtained the
relaxation of this order, for there is no doubt that he was
not present at the battle of Angora. His dignity and 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 contemporary Christians
and Mohammedans, to leave any doubt on the subject. At
the same time, the close political alliance that existed
between Tahartcn, the emir of Arsinga, who was highly
distinguished at the court of Timor, and his brother-in-law

RELATIONS WITH TIMOR. 39 1

A.D.1390-1417.]

Manuel, would alone be sufficient to establish the impossi-
bility of the wary Mongol having overlooked the importance
of the empire of Trebizond. 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 Bayezid, 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 assembled
at Trebizond ; and there exists proof of this in a letter of
Timor, addressed to John Palaeologos, the nephew of
Manuel II., emperor of Constantinople, who governed the
Byzantine empire while his uncle was begging assistance
against the Turks in western Europe. This communication
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 Palaeo-
logos 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 J.
It is true that no use was made of these fleets, and that
Timor did not 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 Otho-
man forces at Angora, and to the disappearance of every
trace of further resistance in 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 galley2.' The reason was different.

1 This letter is given by Fallmerayer with his usual judicious observations;
Geschichte, 224. See also Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores. torn. xxii. p. 806;
Marini Sanuti, Vile de' Duchi 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 (Memnires del' Acad, des
Inscriptions, torn. vi. 410) has published the correspondence 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.

2 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 countries 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 arm es
in which the various bodies of men were distinguished by the colours of th ir

392 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND.

[Ch. IV. § 2.

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 surpassing
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 cuirassiers. In his eyes,
wisdom and virtue existed only in tents ; vice and folly
were the constant denizens of walled cities and fixed dwell-
ings. 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 sultan, and the total dissolution of the Turkish
army, he overlooked the vitality of the administrative in-
stitutions on which the Othoman power reposed ; and, in
consequence of the contempt 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 of which they had been
deprived by Bayezid. Many tribes of Turks and Turkomans
were now only vassals of the Mongol empire, and among
them the Othomans appeared by no means the most
powerful.

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 l. 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 preserve the caravan routes

uniforms. Hammer says that Timor had the first regiment of cuirassiers men-
tions, in the annals of warfare. Histoire de VEmpire Oihoman, ii. 83.

1 Scl.iltberger's Reisen, edit. Penzel, Miinchen, 1813, p. 89, quoted by Fall-
meraycr, Geschichte, 231.

RELATIONS WITH TIMOR. 393

A.D. I4I 7-I446.]

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
Trebizond, Georgia, and Armenia, as well as over the chief-
tains of the Turkoman hordes1. The troubles that ensued
in the Mongol empire after Timor's death, and the departure
of Mirza Halil to occupy the throne of Samarcand, enabled
Manuel to throw off all dependence 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 Phil-
anthropena of Constantinople, by whom he left no children.
Alexios was suspected of having hastened his father's death.

SECT. III. — Reign of Alexios IV. — Relations with the Turko-
man hordes. — Family crimes in the house of Grand-Kom-
netios. — 141 7-1446.

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 vast provinces
that extend from the suburbs of Sinope to the walls of
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

1 Hhtoire de Timur-Bec, ecrite en Persan par Cherefeddin Ali, traduite par Petis
de la Croix, torn. iv. p. 120.

394 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. IV. § 3.
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 he was himself so hotly pursued, that, unable to conceal
his movements either in the mountains of Assyria or 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 Othoman 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 back to the banks of the Euphrates and once more
collected the Turkomans round his standard. The genius
of Timor no longer directed the movements 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 Taharten. He also defeated Oulough, who
commanded the troops of the White Horde of the Turko-
mans for his brother Hamsa, their chieftain.

Alexios IV. was a helpless spectator of these sudden revo-
lutions in his vicinity. He 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 \ 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

1 Kara Youlouk, or the Black Leech, the father of Hamsa and Odour*, or
Alibeg, was the son-in law of Alexios III. Ducas, p. 69.

THE BLACK TURKOMANS. 395

A.D. I4I 7-I446.]

Turkomans that his father, Manuel III., had paid to the
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 standard 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 connected his personal authority
with a systematic administration extending over all his
dominions. The effect of his neglect or ignorance of political
organization 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 annihilation 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 been
concentrated in the dead prince, who had ridden proudly
through their ranks the day before, promising 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 his
future fortune depended on himself, and 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

1 Chalcocondylas, p. 245.

396 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND.

[Ch. IV. § 3.
rushed in silence within the royal enclosure, hitherto held
sacred from intrusion, and guarded by the black eunuchs.
They plundered 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 canvas, surrounded by weeping women, howling
eunuchs, and helpless mutes. The Tartars were more com-
passionate 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 to mark his reverence for his deceased
master, had taken this strange way of perpetrating and con-
cealing a robbery, which put him in possession of an immense
treasure and prevented any one from sharing the plunder.

After the death of Kara Yousouf, the White Horde re-
covered its independence; and the emperor of Trebizond,
protected by its power, ceased to pay tribute to the Black
Turkomans.

We must now record the existence of a state of moral
corruption in the house of Komnenos, calculated to insure
the ruin of a 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 Greek writers to confirm the picture
they give of the crimes habitually perpetrated in the palace
of the later emperors.

Manuel III. associated his son Alexios IV. with him in
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

CRIMES IN THE IMPERIAL FAMILY. 397

A.D. I4I 7-I446.]

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 page 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 page about his own person1. 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
Manuel III., and an avenger of his own filial ingratitude
stepped forward in the person of an undutiful son. Accord-
ing to the usage of the empires of Trebizond and Constanti-
nople, Alexios conferred on his eldest son Joannes the title
of emperor. Alexios IV., like his grandfather, Alexios III.,
married a lady of the family of Cantacuzenos, who likewise
bore the name of Theodora2. The empress Theodora was
impatient of her husband's conduct, and consoled herself
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 perpetra-
tion 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, fearing that he was about to murder both his
parents, 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 personal
beauty, not from his mental accomplishments, fled to the
court of Georgia, where he married a daughter of the king.

1 See the interpretation of Fallmerayer from Clavijo; Gesckichte, p. 216.

2 Chalcocondylas, p. 246 ; but his text is confused. Panaretos (§ 55) mentions
that the name of this empress was also Theodora.

398 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. IV. § 3.

Alexios IV. raised his second son, Alexander, to be his

colleague in the imperial dignity, conferring on him all the

rights of heir-apparent l.

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 bloody grave 2. The death of Alexander seems to have

prompted Kalojoannes to make a vigorous attempt to

dethrone his father, as the only means of securing the

succession to the empire. He opened communications with

the powerful family of Kabasites, who stood in constant

opposition to Alexios. Kalojoannes then repaired to the

Genoese colony of 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, and waited until some

movement of his partizans should enable him to enter the

capital. But Alexios felt so secure of the loyalty of the

people, that he marched out to meet his son, and pitched

his camp at Achantos. It seems however that a party of

the emperor's attendants had been gained over to betray

him, for two emissaries of Kalojoannes were allowed to

penetrate into his tent at midnight. In the morning, Alexios

IV '. was found murdered in his bed. The parricide entered

Trebizond without opposition. But it was necessary, even

in the vicious state to which Greek society had then fallen,

for the new emperor 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 murderers were then arraigned, for

Kalojoannes declared that, though he had sent them to

secure his father's person, he had charged them to pay the

1 Chalcocondylas, p. 246. It appears that the Turkish language had already
begun to corrupt the Greek dialect of Trebizond, for Chalcocondylas calls
Alexander Skantarios.

- Theodora, the mother of Kalojoannes, died in 1426 according to the Chro-
nicle. Panaretos, § 56. Her death, perhaps, followed close after the first rebellion
of her son.

CRIMES IN THE IMPERIAL FAMILY. *qq

A.D. I4I 7-1446.] J??

strictest attention to his safety. Probably there was not a
single individual in his empire who believed that he had
ever supposed it possible to arrest the emperor in the midst
of his army. The assassins were condemned but their lives
were spared. One was punished with the loss of his hand ;
the other with that of his eyes \

The murder of Alexios IV. occurred about the year 1446,
for he was alive in the year 1445 ; and in the year 1449
Joannes IV. was sole emperor, and had been for some time in
the enjoyment of sovereign power2.

1 Chalcocondylas, 246.

2 Compare a letter of Gregorios in Leo Allatius, Be Consensu Utriusque Ecclesiae,
p. 954. with Phrantzes, p. 206, edit. Bonn. In the text of Phrantzes, 69^5 is
erroneously given as the year. It ought to be 6958, as Phrantzes learned the
death ol Murad II., who died in February 6959 (1451), while he was still at
Trebizond.

CHAPTER V.

End of the Empire of Trebizoxd.

Sect. l.—>-Causes of the Rapid Rise and Vital Energy
of the Othoman Empire.

The Othoman Turks first attacked the empire of Trebizond
in the year 1442, during the reign of Alexios IV. 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 Adrian-
ople. After ravaging the territories of the emperor of
Trebizond, the fleet crossed the sea, and laid waste the
Genoese possessions round Cafta. Before quitting the Black
Sea, however, as the Othomans were returning to the Gulf
of Moudania, which was then their naval station, this fleet
was assailed by a furious tempest. Many of the largest ships
were wrecked on the Asiatic coast near Heracleia and 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 maritime
expedition '.

1 Chalcocondylas, 138.

RISE OF OTHOMAN EMPIRE. 40 1

The Othoman empire is one of the most singular creations
of human genius- It owed its rapid growth to institutions
more than arms ; and the institutions on which its greatness
was 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. The name of Orkhan, or of his brother
and vizier Alaeddin by whom he was guided, has not been
ranked among the great legislators of mankind ; yet he
crushed all the feelings of humanity as sternly as Lycurgus,
formed a well-disciplined army of religious enthusiasts, and
called into existence a new nation \ His contemporaries
were unable to appreciate 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. Othman, his father, became the
territorial chief of a small province, which he succeeded in
appropriating to himself as an independent principality, at
the dissolution of the Seljouk empire of Roum. His power
increased ; and his own little tribe of followers, whose original
name is lost to history, became confounded in the various
nomad hordes that recognized his authority and adopted his
name. At length Orkhan conquered Nicaea, which had been
for a time the capital of the Greek empire; he then gave
systematic institutions to the people he ruled, and laid 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 and
moral duties, gave the Othomans a high rank among 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 contemporaries, than by the de-
clamations of historians against the vices of the seraglio.

1 Hammer, Hisloire de r Empire Othoman, i. 1 1 6.
VOL. IV. D d

402 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.V.§i.

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 sub-
jects, 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 searching 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
Byzantine 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 organized 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
the devastations of the Turkish armies would have left to
perish, had Orkhan not converted them into instruments 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.

JANISSARIES. 403

Ch.V.§i.]

An army formed of purchased slaves had been created in
the Byzantine empire by Tiberius II., towards the end of the
sixth century1. 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 pur-
poses, have been so successful as this accursed college of
infant proselytes of war, by means of which the Othoman
sultans conquered Christianity 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 their ranks with insufficient aristocratic or titled
officers ; nor could wealth or favour introduce military in-
capacity to a permanent command over such a band of
well-disciplined enthusiasts. The institutions of the Janis-
saries 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 organization, which rendered them the centre of a civil
and financial administration. But enough has been said to
indicate how the Othoman empire absorbed the better and
more energetic portions of the Greek race, and converted the
aspiring and ambitious among the Christian population of the
East into agents of its power. That the steady progress of the
Othoman conquests was not solely the result of brutal force
or of individual talent, is sufficiently evident. No com-
binations, 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 circum-
stances of those around them, and of surviving the greatest

1 See vol. i., Greece under the Romans, 301.
D d 2

404 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.V. §i.

misfortunes. 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 only
one faithful vizier, from the bloody field which seemed to have
destroyed the power of his race, he reunited under his sway
nearly the whole of the dominions of his father Bayezid. The
Seljouk principalities of Ai'din, Saroukhan, Mentshe, Kermian,
and Karamania were restored by Timor to their ancient ex-
tent ; so that each of these Turkish states had a better chance
of subduing its neighbours than the Othoman sultan. The saga-
cious Tartar overlooked the power of Orkhan's institutions ; 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 Christian population
of the European provinces, which the Tartars never entered
and wasted, furnished new sinews to the Othoman empire.

The civil administration of the Othoman government was
as intimately connected with the tribute children as the mili-
tary 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 Janissaries ; while any happy combination
of physical and mental advantages insured their possessors
the rank of generals, pashas, and viziers. The Jesuits con-
ducted 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 dis-
cipline existed, at that time, only in the papal church and the
Othoman government ; 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.

REIGN OF JOANNES IV. 405

A.D. 1 446 -1 45 8.]

Sect. II. — Reign of Joannes IV. called Kalojoannes. —
a.d. 1446-1458.

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 inter-
ruption. 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 plun-
derers of the frontiers increased the aversion. While profound
hatred rankled in the hearts of the Colchian mountaineers,
many bitter observations on the imperial diplomacy must have
been frequently wrung from the native clergy. The state of
moral degradation into which 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 of things
in his dominions, and the foreign attacks on his government
were repulsed without creating any domestic disturbances.
The decline of the empire of Trebizond was, however, so
apparent to strangers, that one of the small independent
Mussulman princes in the Armenian mountains made a bold
attempt to render himself master of the city of Trebizond, a
few years after the accession of Joannes. This assailant was
Djouneid, the sheik of Ertebil, grandfather of Ismael the
founder of the Persian dynasty of Softs-. His army was
collected from the neighbouring tribes, and particularly from
the population of the district of Samion 3. With this force the

1 Chalcocondylas, 245. ...

2 Chalcocondylas, 247 ; Hammer, Histoire de V Empire Othoman, ill. 78, IV. 89 ;
Hisloria politico Constantinopoleos ; Crusius, Turcograecia, 41.

3 The Samion of Chalcocondylas appears to be the Samtskche of the Armenians

406 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.V. §2.

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 assassinated. The
duke of Mesochaldion, chief of the house of Kabasites, then
held the rank of Pansebastos, and commanded 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 Kapa-
nion, while the fleet was ordered to harass the flank and rear
of the enemy. But 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 ad-
vantage from their position, routed the Christians without
much difficulty. The pansebastos, his son, and thirty chosen
men, who were leading the attack, were killed. On beholding
the defeat of the advanced guard, terror seized the rest of the
army at St. Phokas ; and the troops, probably considering it a
Divine judgment on an act of parricide, fled to the capital in
confusion. The emperor escaped on board the 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 succeeded 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 fled into the city.
Unfortunately she left some charcoal burning in her aban-
doned dwelling, and in the middle of the night flames burst
from her house and quickly spread to the adjoining buildings.
Frightful confusion ensued. The people believed that the

— one of the provinces of Iberia or Georgia. Saint-Martin, Mcmoires Hist, el
Geog. nor I'Armenie, ii. 357, 427.

MUSSULMAN INVASION. 407

A.D. I446-I458.]

Mussulmans had stormed the outer fortifications, and the
greatest terror prevailed lest, by seizing the western bridge,
they should be able to enter 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 animosity which each section of the motley population of
Trebizond entertained against the citizens of a different race,
and prevented every man from placing confidence in 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 various fortifications to be
immediately closed, and allowed no communications between
the different parts of the capital, except to the troops acting
under his 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 alarm of the people was diminished 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 pre-
vail. 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 them-
selves 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, extending his lines
to the ground now occupied by that picturesque mosque and
the tomb of the mother of sultan Selim I.1 The towers of the

1 The mosque of Imaret buried in trees, the tomb of the sultana, the medress
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 Osmanh virtue as ferocious valour.
They are all now crumbling into ruins, partly from the effects of time, but more
from neglect.

408 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.V. §2.

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
preceding night, he still hoped to profit by the general alarm.
His army was too small to attempt forming the regular siege
of a place so large as Trebizond, with its extensive suburbs ;
and the central citadel, protected by its two 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 dis-
tinguished 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 in-
stead 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
encountered an additional repulse when he attacked the fort of
Mesochaldion, in the hope that its capture would palliate his
loss before the capital. But he revenged himself for his
failures by carrying off an immense booty and a crowd of
slaves from the open country \

The empire of Trebizond was on the brink of ruin ; yet
self-conceit blinded the emperor and his Greek subjects to the
dangers that surrounded them. On no subject did their
scholastic presumption so completely 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. Under the influence of this habitual defect,
the emperor Joannes rejoiced when he heard of the death of
the politic Murad II., and immediately began to form projects
for converting the young sultan, Mohammed II., into a ser-
viceable ally, believing that an experienced Greek like himself
would easily overreach an inexperienced 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 imrne-

1 Chalcocondylas, 247.

NEGOTIATIONS AGAINST MOHAMMED II. 409

A.D. I446-I458.]

morial presumption of the Byzantine court, to find that all
the Greek princes in this age shared the 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 him-
self to be so far deluded by this national self-conceit, as, in
his diplomatic communications 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 as
he had taken Constantinople, determined to give the emperor
of Trebizond some foretaste 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, were
visited by fearful pestilential maladies in such rapid succes-
sion, that plague alone seemed to threaten the nation with
extinction K This calamity was caused by the neglect of the
people as much as by the indifference of the government.
No attention was paid to the most necessary police and
sanatory regulations, either by emperors, archonts, or muni-
cipal authorities. Each man in power was occupied in ren-
dering his situation as profitable as possible to himself,

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.

4*0 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.V. §2.
his relations, and clients. Those measures which are abso-
lutely requisite for the maintenance of health in crowded
cities were disregarded, and the moral degradation of the
Greeks was fitly represented by the filthy condition of the
densely populated localities where they dwelt. No human
prudence, it is true, can guarantee mankind from every
visitation of pestilence, but the neglect of cleanliness in-
variably produces an augmentation of physical sufferings.

At the time Chitir Bey invaded the empire of Trebizond,
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 Boustepe, 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 population,
offered to 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 sent an
embassy to Constantinople, to receive the sultan's orders con-
cerning 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 at the paltry sum of three
thousand pieces of gold1. But he seems to have had no
intention of abstaining from hostilities longer than suited his
interests. This treaty put an end to the political independ-
ence of the Greeks, if, indeed, we are authorized to consider
the mongrel and semi-Asiatic inhabitants of Trebizond and its

1 Chalcocond) las, 221, 248, edit. Paris.

OUZOUX H ASS AX. 41 1

A.D. I446-I458.]

territory as at this time possessing a claim to be regarded as
Greeks.

The emperor Joannes knew that his tenure of power would
be of short duration, unless he could break the chain that
bound him to the Sublime Porte, and 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 sub-
jects, nor on the good-will of 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 power-
ful ally. The daring courage and prosperous fortunes of
Ouzoun Hassan, the chieftain of the Turkomans of the White
Horde, who was then advancing in a rapid career of conquest,
made him a rival of Mohammed II. in the general estimation1.
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 Cappadocia as her
dowry; for it seems the Christians of that province, who were
still numerous, attached some importance to the vain conces-
sion. Joannes IV. was delighted to purchase his alliance on
such easy terms. Yet, in order to save the honour of a Chris-
tian 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 engagements, after the empire of
Trebizond and the house of Grand-Komnenos had ceased
to exist 2.

1 Hassan, called Ouzoun Hassan, on account of his tall stature, was the grand-
son 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, Belle Navigat.
et Viaggi, torn. ii. 84; Fallmerayer, Geschichte, 261. The beauty of the princesses

412 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.V. §2.

Joannes also concluded alliances, offensive and defensive,
with other princes, particularly with the Turkish emir of
Sinope. who still maintained his independence, with the Sel-
jouk sultan of Karamania, and with the Christian princes of
Georgia and Cilician Armenia. All these allies engaged to
make preparations for a vigorous 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 neighbour would prove more active and
energetic than himself.

At this critical conjuncture Joannes IV. died before wit-
nessing the effects of the storm he had laboured to raise.
He left a son named Alexios, only four years 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 ascending a throne pre-
sented itself. The ambition of wearing a crown annihilated
every private virtue. From the days of the tyrants of Hel-
lenic 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-organized 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 Meso-
chaldion ; and this alliance, joined to the indifference of the
people, fortified him against all opposition 1. He could like-

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.
1 Chalcocondylas, 262.

REIGN OF DAVID. 413

A.D. I458-I461.]

wise pretend that the rule of succession to the empire was not
so clearly laid down as to exclude an uncle of full age, in
preference to his nephew when a minor.

SECT. III. — Reign of David. — Conquest of Trebizond by
Sultan Mohammed II. — 1458-146 1.

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 before 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 organization of the sultan's armies, though he had
seen them in full activity as he stood a suppliant at the Sub-
lime Porte 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 contingency 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 new system of attack with
heavy artillery, of which the fall of Constantinople was
a recent and terrific example. The tower, crowning the
highest point of the citadel, recently added to the fortifi-
cations by Joannes IV., could hardly, even in the opinion
of David, have been considered capable of serving as a
palladium against the Othoman power, any more than the
bones of St. Eugenios. Yet the emperor acted as if such
was his firm conviction.

4IA EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.V.§3.

The first step of David, as emperor, was to complete the
matrimonial alliance of his family with Ouzoun Hassan ; for
Joannes IV. died before the marriage of the beautiful Kathe-
rine had been celebrated. The princess was now sent to her
bridegroom with suitable pomp. She soon acquired great
influence over his mind, and in her conduct generally dis-
played 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, Imerethia,
Mingrelia, and Cilician Armenia.

David even made an attempt to revive the expiring spirit
of crusading among the nations of western Europe ; but in his
propositions for rendering the passions of the warlike Franks
subservient to the 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. (Aeneas 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 humanity ; but his inter-
cession was probably of little service to the captives, for his
Holiness availed himself of the opportunity to preach a
sermon to the sultan on the advantages of embracing the
Christian faith l. Philip of Burgundy was as little pleased
with the letter of the emperor as the Pope. David offered
to reward his services by promising to acknowledge the duke
as king of Jerusalem. This was treating Philip as a child ;
for if the duke of Burgundy could conquer this distant king-
dom, he certainly stood in no need of the acknowledgment
of a suppliant 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

1 The letter of Pius II. is printed in the collection of Reusner, Epistolae Turcicae,
P- 239-

COMMUNICATIONS WITH POPE PIUS II. 415

A.D. I458-I461.]

of Jerusalem, 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 Otho-
man 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 ambassadors from Ouzoun Hassan to the duke
of Burgundy l. 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
power was to point out to Mohammed II. the enemies
against whom it was necessary to turn his arms and make
use of his diplomatic arts. The only member of the alliance
whose power and talents rendered him dangerous to the
Othoman empire was Ouzoun Hassan, and, at first, the
Turkoman chief showed no eagerness to engage 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 wife at last determined
him to embark in the war. In 1459 ne sent an embassy to
the Porte, to ask Mohammed to release David from the
annual tribute of three thousand pieces of gold, and at the
same time he reminded the sultan of a debt due by the
Othoman Porte 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 equipments for a
thousand horsemen ; but this tribute had remained unpaid
for nearly sixty years. The demand was justly considered

1 Wadding, Annal. 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 (Aeneas Sylvius). Opera Geographica et Historica, 4to. Hclm-
stadii, 1699; Reusner, Epist. Turcicae, pp. 189, 191.

41 6 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. V. § 3.

by the sultan as an insulting bravado. His reply was worthy
of the haughty race of Othman. After hearing the Turko-
man envoy patiently to the end, he replied calmly, ' Depart
in peace ; I will soon come to Mesopotamia, and discharge all
my debts1.'

As soon as Mohammed II. had completed the subjugation
of the Greeks in the Morea, he resolved to conquer those in
Asia. In order to secure his European dominions 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 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. 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 found 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 3.

The preparations of Mohammed had been immense, and
their precise object was never communicated even to his own
ministers. The inhabitants of Sinope, of Trebizond, and of
Caffa were all equally filled with consternation ; but their
rulers felt so confident that the whole force of the storm
would be directed against the Turkomans, that they neg-
lected to take the necessary precautions 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

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 (2.^8) says that the campaign against Sinope commenced in the
year after the conquest of the Morea, as soon as it was spring. But Mohammed
did not leave his capital before the end of June, as his letter, accepting the peace
with Scanderbeg, is dated at Constantinople, 2 2d June 1461 (Barletius, 193;
Lavardin, Hhtoire de Georges Castrin/e, surnomnU Scanderbeg, 323) ; consequently
the conquest of Trebizond must have taken place late in the year 1461.

8 Chalcocondylas (245) mentions the conquest of Amastris at an earlier period;
but as he says that the sultan was present in person, which is confirmed by the
Turkish historians, it seems that it must have taken place in 1461, before the
conquest of Sinope.

MOHAMMED AXD SIXOPE. 417

A.D. I458-I461.]

sharply to the inquisitive 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, the valour and
discipline of the Othoman armies unrivalled, and their
sovereign's confidence in his own military talents boundless.
Yet he did not disdain to employ deception and falsehood
for the furtherance of his ends. The Greeks had already
persuaded their Turkish lords that these were the most
effective weapons of political experience. Mohammed's
eagerness to increase his territorial possessions, led him to
confound 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 enemies of the house of Othman.

The sultan's first object was to detach Ismael, the emir
of Sinope, from his alliance with the emperor of Trebizond.
The fortress of Sinope was strong, and in a condition to make
a long defence. Its port is the best on the southern shore of
the Black Sea ; so that its possession was necessary for the
security of the left flank of the Othoman army. If it were
besieged, the whole summer might be wasted, and the Turko-
mans, 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 expedition of the
Othoman army was destined to bestow the inestimable gift
of the true faith on the infidels of Trebizond, 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.

After Mohammed had made himself master of Amastris,
and concluded his treaty with Scanderbeg, he hastened to
the head-quarters of his army, which had advanced to Angora.
The son of Ismael presented himself in the camp, bearing
rich presents from his father. The position of the Othoman
VOL. IV. E e

41 8 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. V. § 3.

army now cut off all hope from the emir of Slnope of receiv-
ing 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 and destitute of energy, felt so alarmed at this sudden
display of hostile feeling on the part of his powerful neigh-
bour, that he was glad to secure what we may call a large
civil list : he resigned his dominions, and received the govern-
ment of Philippopolis as an indemnity for the hereditary
principality 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 little tergiversation.
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 ducats. The rich copper mines in
his territory alone yielded about fifty thousand ducats 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 ready for sea in the ports ; and one of these
was of the burden of nine hundred pithoi, which we may per-
haps call tons, as it was 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 Sinope still presents an interesting but rude miniature of Strabo's description.
The land wall across the isthmus is in a neglected state, and several tower> incline
considerably from the perpendicular, so that it offers no traces of that strength
which could have resisted the attacks of Mohammed. It contains hardly live
thousand inhabitants ; yet the natural advantages of its situation, and its valuable

MOHAMMED ATTACKS TREBIZOND. 419

A.D. I458-I461.]

The sultan hastened eastward by the road of Amasia and
Sivas. An army of Turkomans attempted to arrest his pro-
gress ; but it was swept from his path by the charge of the
Janissaries, and Arsinga and Koyounlou Hissar were occupied.
Ouzoun Hassan, who had taken up a position in the passes
leading to Kamakh, perceived that he had nothing to hope in
a pitched battle with the Othoman army, which exceeded 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 retire into winter-
quarters. Under these circumstances, Mohammed listened
with pleasure to the supplications of Hassan's mother, and a
treaty of peace was concluded. Its principal condition was,
that the Christians 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 aggrandizement 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 mari-
ners. 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.

port enlivened by the Greek quarter rising on the peninsula that overlooks it, with
the houses shaded by trees, impress the mind of the traveller with wonder, that
human institutions can so completely neutralize every advantage of nature as they
now do in this celebrated spot.

E e 2

420 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.V. §3.

When the sultan led his army against the Turkomans, his
fleet quitted Sinope, and began to blockade Trebizond, 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 for-
ward 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 of the last emperor of the degraded race of Grand-
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 \ 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 Trebizond,
and offered, in exchange, to assign the emperor an appanage
equal in value to that which he had conferred on Demetrius
Palaeologos, 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 transferred them to the sultan
without even one single request in their favour. He would

1 Skylolimne, or dog-lake, is called by the Turks Gultchair, or rose-meadow. It
is a small marsh about three miles from Trebizond.

SURRENDER OF TREBIZOND. 42 1

A.D. 1 45 8- 1 46 1.]

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.

Kerasunt, which was occupied by a garrison of imperial
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 rapacious than that of the Greek
emperors ; and the tyranny of the nobles prevented the rural
population from feeling any attachment to the semi-inde-
pendent 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, Moham-
med 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 necessary tents and baggage
for an autumnal encampment. No siege artillery had arrived

422 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.V. §3.

with the fleet, nor had preparations been commenced for
casting battering-guns. In all probability, therefore, if the
emperor of Trebizond had boldly refused to listen to any
terms of surrender, and contented himself with offerino- 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, and withdraw his army without loss of
time.

The force of these observations, and the natural propensity
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 com-
mander of the first division of the Othoman army ; he was,
therefore, selected as the envoy sent to negotiate the sur-
render. 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 Giustiniani, yet they ought
to have felt that if a few hundred Greeks had fought by the
side of Constantino until the last day of the siege as bravely
as Giustiniani, Mohammed II. might have been toiled in his
attack. George, the protovestiarios, was perhaps accused
with as much injustice as Giustiniani. After all, little per-
suasion must have sufficed to induce the timid David to
surrender a fortress he had made no proper preparations to
defend l.

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 for rebel-

1 Dorotheos, metrop. of Moncmvasia, Greek History, p. 553, edit. 1631 ■ Crusius
Turco-Graecia, 21. '

SUFFERINGS OF TREBIZOXD. 423

A.D. I458-I461.]

lion. No infliction of human suffering arrested the policy of
Mohammed, so that the measures he adopted were of frightful
efficacy. Only one-third of the Christian population, com-
posed exclusively 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 aristocracy, 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 renegade ; in that case, he was usually put in pos-
session of the family property. The remainder of the popu-
lation, 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.

The whole Christian population having been expelled from
the ancient city, the houses were distributed among a Mussul-
man 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 moats to the table-rock of Trapezous. The citadel
was garrisoned bv 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 city where Christian emperors had ruled for more than
two centuries and a half.

The dethroned emperor David was not long permitted to
enioy 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 exchange for his empire.
At length he was suddenly arrested by order of the sultan
and sent with his whole family to Constantinople. Mohammed
suspected him of carrying on secret communications with
Ouzoun Hassan, and plotting to recover possession of Trebi-
zond The great Turkoman chieftain had prospered after

4-4 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch. V. § 3.
his defeat. He had completed 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 emissaries.
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 Ouzoun Hassan, to recover
possession of Trebizond and re-establish the empire.

Mohammed's suspicion was a sentence of death to the
whole race of Grand-Komnenos. When David arrived at
Constantinople he was ordered to embrace the Moslem faith,
under pain of death. Adversity had improved the unfortunate
prince. Though he had been formerly a contemptible em-
peror, he was now a good Christian. He rejected the condition
proposed with firmness, and prepared 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 excluded from the throne, and his own seven
sons, perished with him *. 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 un-
buried 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 repaired 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 compassion, 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

Alexios, the son of Joannes IV.. had been assigned a resilience in Pera The
name Beyoglou, by which this suburb is known to the Turks, is said to have been
given it when it became Ins residence. Constantiniade, ou Description de Constan-
tino le Anctenne el Moderne, p. i6j.

IMPERIAL FAMILY DESTROYED. 425

A.D. I458-I461.]

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 l.

The Greek population of Trebizond never recovered from
the blow inflicted on if 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 2. The only undoubted remains of the ancient
race of inhabitants are to be found in a class of the popu-
lation 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 attachment to the religion of their ancestors. Their
conversion, which for many generations was simulated, became
at last almost complete. They always, however, openly boasted
of their descent from Christian ancestors, and they owed the
toleration they obtained from the Osmanlis more to a convic-
tion of the strength of their sinews than to any confidence in
the purity of their faith 3.

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 tumultuous agitation of the
stream did not purify a single drop of the waters of life. Yet

» Chalcocondylas (265), Phrantzes (414, edit. Bonn) , Crusius ( Turco-Graecia
21), and Spandugnino, recount the facts relating to the fall of Trebizond. lne
execution of David took place in the interval between 1466 and 1472. Moham-
med II. marched against Ishak, sultan of Karamania, in 1466, shortly afterU« d
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.

2 Fallmerayer, Fragmente aus dem Orient, vol. i. p. 67.

« The Greeks call them Krumlidhes, a name wh.ch seems connec ted ^ with,
or derived from, the same source as that of a distinguished family of Musulman-
Christians b Crete, of whom a good account will be found in Pashley s Travels in
Crete, i. 105.

426 EMPIRE OF TREBIZOXD.

[Ch.V.§3.
the population enjoyed 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 dwelt in the maritime cities until they
were children of the soil, have always ranked high in intel-
lectual 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, and the priests
boasted of the purity of their 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 corrupt court. The splendid lan-
guage and rich literature which were their best inheritance
were neglected. The scientific fabric of Roman administra-
tion and law was converted into an instrument of oppression.
The population was degraded, and despised alike by Italian
merchants and Turkish warriors. Christianity itself was per-
verted into an ecclesiastical institution. The church, subject
to that of Constantinople, had not even the merit of bein«-
national. Its mummery alone was popular. St. Eugenios,
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 educa-
tion 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 bene-
volence, as well as of interest. No practical acquaintance
with the duties of the individual citizen, in his every-day
relations to the public, can ever be gained, unless he be trained
to practise them by constant discipline. 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 'pro-
duce the feeling of self-respect ; and where the sense of shame
is wanting, the very best laws are useless. The education
that produces susceptibility of conscience is more valuable

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 427

A.D. I458-I461.]

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 common-
wealth. 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 firmest basis of liberty and social prosperity. Despotism
was considered the only protection against anarchy, and
perhaps in the existing state of society it alone afforded the
means of securing some degree of impartiality in the admini-
stration of justice. But despotism has ever been the great
devourer of the wealth of the people. The despotism of the
Athenian democrats devoured the wealth of the free Greek
cities and islands of the Aegean. The despots of the Roman
empire annihilated the accumulated riches of all the countries
from the Euphrates to the ocean. The empires of Byzantium
and of Trebizond were mild modifications of Roman tyranny,
on which weakness had imposed a respect for order and law
that contended with the original instincts of the imperial
government. But in the empire of Trebizond, from the
earliest period of its existence, the power of the Roman
administration and the Roman law was weak, and it became
constantly weaker, until at last both the government and the
people were in danger of falling into a state of anarchy.

APPENDIX.

Chronological List of the Emperors of Romania,

Baldwin L, count of Flanders and Hainault

Henry

Peter of Courtenay

Robert

Baldwin II.

John de Brienne
Baldwin II.

1204 to 1205
1206 — 1216
1216 — 1219
1220 — 1228
1228

1231 — 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 — 1346

Philip II. of Tarentum . . . . 13 13 — 1332

Robert of Tarentum, prince of Achaia . . 1346 — 1364

Philip III. of Tarentum .... 1364 — 1373

James de Baux or Balza . . . . 1373 — *383

The descendants of Baldwin II. became then extinct.

Chronological List of the Kings of Saloniki.

Boniface, marquis of Montferrat
Demetrius

1204 to 1207
1207 — 1222

43°

APPENDIX.

1222 1227

1227 — 1254
I254 1284

Titular Kings.

Demetrius .....

Boniface III., marquis of Montferrat (the Giant) .
William, marquis of Montferrat (the Great)

William ceded the title to the Byzantine
emperor, Andronicus II., 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 *•

The house of Burgundy received a grant of the kingdom of
Saloniki from Baldwin II. in 1266, when he was only titular emperor
of Romania.

Hugh IV. of Burgundy

Robert .....

HughV. .....

Louis, prince of Achaia

Eudes IV., duke of Burgundy, sold his royal title
to Philip of Tarentum, by which it became
reunited with the empire of Romania

1266 to 1272
1272 — 1305
1305 — 1313
J3i3 — 1315

I3I5 — 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
Theodore, became emperor of Thessalonica

Emperors of Thessalonica.

Theodore

Manuel

John, son of Theodore

John governed Thessalonica as despot

Demetrius, his brother .

1 -'04 to 1 2 14
1214

1222 to 1230
1230 — 1232
1232 — 1234
1234 — 1244

1244 — 1246

1 Raioaldi, Annates Eccles., ann. 1243, torn, xxi. p. 298

APPENDIX.

43 1

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 Vlakia.

John Dukas, natural son of Michael II.

Son of John Dukas
John Dukas II.
John Angelos .....

Despot of Epirus of Servian origin.

Thomas Prelubos ....

Esau Buondelmonte married the widow of Prelubos

Despots of Epirus of the Family of Tocco.

Charles I., count palatine of Cephalonia, duke of

Leucadia
Charles II. .....

Leonard ......

1230 —

1267 —
I293 —

1267
1293
1318

1337

1358

• 1290

• 1300
■ 1308

1258 —
1290 —
1300 —

1367
1386

1400

1429
1452

1335

T399

1429
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

1205 to 1225
1225 — 1264
1264 — 1275
1275 — 1290
1290 — 1308

House of Brienne.
Walter de Brienne, cousin of Guy II.

Catalan Grand Company.
Roger Deslau

1308 — 1311

1311 to 1326

43 2

APPENDIX.

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 Martin,
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 to 1330
1330 — 1338
1338 — 1348
1348 — 1355?
1355 — 1377

x377 — 1386

1386 — 1394

J394 — M35
M35 — 1453
M53 — M55
M55 — 1456

Chronological List of the Princes of Achaia and Morea.

William de Champlitte
Geffrey I. Villehardouin .
Geffrey II.

William ....
Isabella, married thrice —

1. Philip, son of Charles of Anjou,

king of Naples . 1267 — 1278

2. Florenz of Hainault . 1291 — 1297

3. Philip of Savoy . . 1301 — 131 1
Maud of Hainault, married thrice —

1. Guy II., duke of Athens, who

died . . . 1308

2. Louis of Burgundy . 131310 1315

3. Hugh de la Palisse . 13 16

Claima?ils of the Principality.

John, count of Gravina, pretended husband of Maud
of Hainault ....

Eudes IV., duke of Burgundy, under his brother's
will.

Philip of Tarentum, as lord-paramount, in virtue of
the forfeiture of Maud, and by purchase from
Eudes IV

1205 to 1210
1210 — 1218
1218 — 1246
1246 — 1277
I277 — 1311

13" — 1317

J3i7 — i324

1324 to 1332

APPENDIX. 433

Robert, titular emperor of Romania . . 1332 — 1364

Mary de Bourbon, widow of Robert . . 1364 — 1387

Louis, duke of Bourbon, her nephew, died in 14 10.

Suzerains or Lords-paramotml 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 1349, the Byzantine
possessions in the Morea were ruled by a Strategos, whose
term of command was generally short . 1262 to 1349

Despots.

Manuel Cantacuzenos .... 1349 to 1380

Theodore Palaeologos I., son of the emperor John V. 1388 — 1407

Theodore Palaeologos II., son of Manuel II. . 1407 — 1443

Constantine XL, the last emperor of Constantinople 1428 — 1450

Thomas, governor of Kalavryta in 1428, despot . 1430 — 1460

Demetrius ..... i45° — x460

VII.
Chronological List of Dukes of the Archipelago and Naxos.

Family of Sanudo. — Dukes of the Archipelago.

1. Mark I. ..... 1207101220

2. Angelo ..... 1220 — 1262
VOL. IV. F f

434

APPENDIX.

3. Mark II. ....

4. William I.

5. Nicholas I., son of William I. .

6. John I., brother of Nicholas .

7. Florence Sanudo, married to John dalle Carceri,

1359 ; to Nicholas Spezzabanda, 1363

8. Nicholas III., son of Florence Sanudo and John

dalle Carceri

Family of Crispo. — Dukes of Naxos

9. Francis I., signor of Melos

10. James I.

11. John II., brother of James I. .

12. James II., son of John II.

13. John James, son of James II.

14. William II., son of Francis I.

15. Francis II., son of Nicholas, signor of Santorin

16. James III.

17. John III., brother of James III.1

18. Francis III.

19. John V.

20. James IV.

1262
1293
U23
I34i

1362
i37i

1381

1397
1418

M37

1447

1453

1463

1480

1500

1519-

1564-

1293

!323

1341

1362

1371
1381

J397
-1418

M37
1447
1453
1463
1463
1480
1494

1564
1566

VIII.

Chronological List of the Emperors of Trebizoxd.

1. Alexios I., Grand-Komnenos

2. Andronikos I., Ghidos

3. *Joannes I., Axouchos 2

T204 tO 1222

1222 I235

I235 — 1238

1 The republic of Venice held the duchy in sequestration from 1394 to 1500.

2 The asterisk marks the sovereigns of whom coins arc 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 penny-
weights. There are some concave copper pieces, with St Eugenios on the reverse,
that seem to belong to Trebizond. Saulcy {Suites Monitaires Byzamine?, 330) and

ie (Bei'nige zur Geschichle und Archaologie von Chersonesos in Tmtrien, 231)
have persisted in attributing these coins to Cherson. though Baron Merchant had
pointed out the reason for assigning them to Trebizond. The question no longer
admits of doubt. Mr. Borrel of Smyrna possesses a silver asper of Manuel III.;
reverse, a full length figure of St. Eugenios. with the legend ® GYTCN OTP A-
TTICTIO- The author observed a painting of the emperor Manuel I. in the
mosque of St. Sophia, with 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, sec Pfaffenhoffen, Eisai sur les Aspres Comnenats, on Wanes a" argent de
Trebizonde.

APPENDIX.

435

4. *Manuel I., the great c

5. Andronikos II.

6. Georgios

7. *Joannes II. .

8. *Theodora

aptain .

1238 to 1263
1263 — 1266
1266 — 1280
1280 — 1297
1285

9. *Alexios II.
10. Andronikos III.

1297 — 1330
I33° — x332

1 1. Manuel II.

1332 — 1332

12. *Basilios

1332 — 1340

13. Irene

14. Anna Anachoutlou .

15. *Joannes III. .

16. *Michael

1340 — !34i
i34i — 1342
1342 — 1344
1344 — 1349

17. * Alexios III. .

18. *Manuel III. .

19. * Alexios IV. .

20. * Joannes IV., Kalojoa

21. *David2

nines1

1349 — 139°
1390 — 1417
1417 — 1446
1446 — 1458
1458 — 1461

IX.

Genealogical Table of the Family of Grand-Komnenos.

Andronicus I., emperor of Constantinople, who reigned from 1182 to
1 186, 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 sultans, 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, 1204-12 2 2, assumed
the name of Grand-Komnenos. He left three children,
Joannes L, Manuel I., and a daughter.

1 Fallmerayer (Ori^inal-Fragmente, Pt. i. p. 68) gives an inscription in the outer
face of the great tower in the citadel, which indicates that the tower was finished

n '460; and he supposes the reign of John IV, who built it, ended m that year
Historians place his death earlier, and the inscription seems only to glve the date
of the completion of the work of John.

2 For the coin of David, see Revue Arckaeologique, 15 Mai, 1849.

F f 2

436 APPENDIX.

II. Andronikos I., Ghidos, married the daughter of Alexios I.,
and succeeded his father-in-law. He died in 1235 with-
out issue.

III. Joannes I., called Axouchos, 1 235-1 238. He left a son

called Joannikios, who was excluded from the throne and
became a monk.

IV. Manuel I., the great captain (6 o-TpaTrjyiKUTaros), 1 238-1 263,

second son of Alexios L, was married three times. 1. 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. Axdroxikos II., 1 263-1 266, died without issue.
VI. Georgios, 1 266-1 280, son of Manuel I. and Irene, died
without issue.

VII. Joannes II., 12 80-1 2 9 7, second son of Manuel I. and Irene,
married Eudocia, daughter of Michael VIII., Palaeologosi
emperor of Constantinople, in the year 1282. He had
two sons, Alexios II., his successor, and Michael, the
sixteenth 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 was
born in the year 1283. He married a princess of Iberia,
and had six children. 1. Andronikos III. 2. Easiliosi
the twelfth sovereign. 3. Michael Asachoutlou. 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., 1330-133 2, had a son, Manuel II.

XL Manuel II. reigned only a few months. He was put to
death in 1333.

XII. Hasilios, 1332-1340, the second son of Alexios II. He
married Irene Palaeologina, natural daughter of Andro-
nicus III. of Constantinople. Basilios had no legitimate
issue, hut he had four children by a lady of Trebizond
named Irene. 1. Alexios, who died young. 2. John,

APPENDIX.

437

who became the seventeenth sovereign of Trebizond,
under the name of Alexios III., born 5th October, 1337.
3. Maria, married in 1352 to Koutloubeg, chieftain of the
Turkomans of the horde of the White Sheep. 4. Theo-
dora, married in 1358 to the emir of Chalybia, Hadji-
Omer.

XIII. Irene Palaeologixa, 1340-1341, widow of Basilios, became

the thirteenth sovereign of Trebizond.

XIV. Anna, called Anachoutlou, 1341-1342, daughter of Alexios

II., was the fourteenth sovereign of Trebizond.

XV. Joannes III, 1 342-1 344, 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 l.

XVII. Alexios III., 1 349-1390, second son of Basilios by Irene
of Trebizond, married in the year 1352, Theodora,
daughter 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.

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.

X. Andronikos III.

XI. Manuel II.
1332-

IX. Alexios II.
1 297-1 330.

XII. Basilios.

1 332-1 34°-

XIII. Irene.

1340-1341.

XIV. Anna.
1341-1342.

XVI. Michael.

I344-1349-

XV. Joannes III.

i342-!344-

438 APPENDIX.

XVIII. Mantel III., 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 (Pana-
retos, § 50), born 1382.

XIX. Alexios IV., 1417-1446, married in 1396 Theodora Can-
tacuzena, and had six children — 1. Joannes IV., his suc-
cessor. 2. Alexander, who received the title of emperor,
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 em-
peror 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. Joaxxes IV., 1446-1458, called Kalojoannes, married a
daughter of Alexander, king of Iberia, and had three
children — 1. Katherine, married in 1458 to Ouzoun
Hassan, chieftain of the White Turkomans. 2. A
daughter married to Nicholas Crispo, signor of San-
torin. 3. Alexios.

XXI. David, 1 458-1 461, 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.

List of the Chiefs of the Turkoman Horde of the
White Sheep, Ak Koyounlou '.

I. Thour Alibeg Al Turkmanni.

II. Fakhreddin Koutloubeg, son of the preceding, married, in 13,-, 2,
Maria, sister of Alexios III., emperor of Trebizond.

1 D'Herbclot, Bibliothique Orientale, art. Turkman, p. 893.

APPENDIX. 439

III. Kara Youlouk Othman, son of Koutloubeg, received his name

of Kara Youlouk (the Black Leech) on account of his san-
guinary disposition. He married a daughter of Alexios III. ;
died 1406.

IV. Hamzabeg, son of Kara Youlouk, died 1444.

V. Gehanghir, son of Alibeg or Oulough, grandson of Kara You-
louk, 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.

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UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY

DF Finlay, George

757 A history of Greece

1877

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Full text of "A history of Greece, from its conquest by the Romans to the present time, B.C. 146 to A.D. 1864"

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