character a private league was concluded: a shadow of authority was restored to the senate, and the people was tempted by the name of freedom. By this powerful confederacy the great domestic was assaulted at first with clandestine, at length with open arms. His prerogatives were disputed, his opinions slighted, his friends persecuted, and his safety was threatened both in the camp and city. In his absence on the public service he was accused of treason, proscribed as an enemy of the church and state, and delivered, with all his adherents, to the sword of justice, the vengeance of the people, and the power of the devil; his fortunes were confiscated, his aged mother was cast into prison, all his past services were buried in oblivion, and he was driven by injustice to perpetrate the crime of which he was accused. From the review of his preceding conduct, Cantacuzene appears to have been guiltless of any treasonable designs; and the only suspicion of his innocence must arise from the vehemence of his protestations, and the sublime purity which he ascribes to his own virtue. While the empress and the patriarch still affected the appearances of harmony, he repeatedly solicited the permission of retiring to a private, and even a monastic life. After he had been declared a public enemy it was his fervent wish to throw himself at the feet of the young emperor, and to receive without a murmur the stroke of the executioner: it was not without reluctance that he listened to the voice of reason, which inculcated the sacred duty of saving his family and friends, and proved that he could only save them by drawing the sword and assuming the Imperial title.

Cantacuzene

purple,

A.D. 1341,
Oct. 26.

In the strong city of Demotica, his peculiar domain, the emperor John Cantacuzenus was invested with the purple buskins: assumes the his right leg was clothed by his noble kinsmen, the left by the Latin chiefs, on whom he conferred the order of knighthood. But even in this act of revolt he was still studious of loyalty; and the titles of John Palæologus and Anne of Savoy were proclaimed before his own name and that of his wife Irene. Such vain ceremony is a thin disguise of rebellion; nor are there perhaps any personal wrongs that can authorise a subject to take arms against his sovereign:

mitre of silk and gold; subscribed his epistles with hyacinth or green ink; and claimed for the new whatever Constantine had given to the ancient Rome (Cantacuzen. 1. iii. c. 26 [tom. ii. p. 162, ed. Bonn]; Nic. Gregoras, 1. xiv. c. 3).

Nic. Gregoras (1. xii. c. 5) confesses the innocence and virtues of Cantacuzenus, the guilt and flagitious vices of Apocaucus; nor does he dissemble the motive of his personal and religious enmity to the former ; νῦν δὲ διὰ κακίαν ἄλλων, αἴτιος ὁ πραότατος The TŴy öλwy idoğer sivas plogās b [tom. ii. p. 590, ed. Bonn].

but the want of preparation and success may confirm the assurance of the usurper that this decisive step was the effect of necessity rather than of choice. Constantinople adhered to the young emperor; the king of Bulgaria was invited to the relief of Adrianople; the principal cities of Thrace and Macedonia, after some hesitation, renounced their obedience to the great domestic; and the leaders of the troops and provinces were induced by their private interest to prefer the loose dominion of a woman and a priest." The army of Cantacuzene, in sixteen divisions, was stationed on the banks of the Melas to tempt or intimidate the capital: it was dispersed by treachery or fear, and the officers, more especially the mercenary Latins, accepted the bribes and embraced the service of the Byzantine court. After this loss, the rebel emperor (he fluctuated between the two characters) took the road of Thessalonica with a chosen remnant; but he failed in his enterprise on that important place; and he was closely pursued by the great duke, his enemy Apocaucus, at the head of a superior power by sea and land. Driven from the coast, in his march, or rather flight, into the mountains of Servia, Cantacuzene assembled his troops to scrutinize those who were worthy and willing to accompany his broken fortunes. A base majority bowed and retired; and his trusty band was diminished to two thousand, and at last to five hundred, volunteers. The cral,28 or despot of the Servians, received him with generous hospitality; but the ally was insensibly degraded to a suppliant, an hostage, a captive; and, in this miserable dependence, he waited at the door of the barbarian, who could dispose of the life and liberty of a Roman emperor. The most tempting offers could not persuade the cral to violate his trust; but he soon inclined to the stronger side, and his friend was dismissed without injury to a new vicissitude of hopes and perils. Near six years the flame of discord burnt with various success and unabated rage; the cities were distracted by the faction of the nobles and the plebeians-the Cantacuzeni and Palæologi: and the Bulgarians, the Servians, and the Turks were invoked on both sides as

The civil

war,

A.D.

1341-1347.

28 The princes of Servia (Ducange. Famil. Dalmaticæ, &c., c. 2, 3, 4, 9) were styled Despots in Greek, and Cral in their native idiom. (Ducange, Gloss. Græc. p. 751.) That title, the equivalent of king, appears to be of Sclavonic origin, from whence it has been borrowed by the Hungarians, the modern Greeks, and even by the Turks (Leunclavius, Pandect. Turc. p. 422), who reserve the name of Padishah for the emperor. To obtain the latter instead of the former is the ambition of the French at Constantinople (Avertissement à l'Histoire de Timur Bec, p. 39).

a Cantacuzene asserts that in all the cities the populace were on the side of the empress, the aristocracy on his. The pulace took the opportunity of rising and plundering the wealthy as Cantacuzenites,

po

1. iii. c. 29 [tom. ii. p. 180, ed. Bonn]. Ages of common oppression and ruin had not extinguished these republican factions.-M.

The

the instruments of private ambition and the common ruin. regent deplored the calamities of which he was the author and victim: and his own experience might dictate a just and lively remark on the different nature of foreign and civil war. "The former," said he, "is the external warmth of summer, always tolerable, and often bene"ficial; the latter is the deadly heat of a fever, which consumes with"out a remedy the vitals of the constitution." 29

Victory of

The introduction of barbarians and savages into the contests of civilized nations is a measure pregnant with shame and Cantacuzene. mischief, which the interest of the moment may compel, but which is reprobated by the best principles of humanity and reason. It is the practice of both sides to accuse their enemies of the guilt of the first alliances; and those who fail in their negociations are loudest in their censure of the example which they envy and would gladly imitate. The Turks of Asia were less barbarous perhaps than the shepherds of Bulgaria and Servia, but their religion rendered them the implacable foes of Rome and Christianity. To acquire the friendship of their emirs, the two factions vied with each other in baseness and profusion the dexterity of Cantacuzene obtained the preference: but the succour and victory were dearly purchased by the marriage of his daughter with an infidel, the captivity of many thousand Christians, and the passage of the Ottomans into Europe, the last and fatal stroke in the fall of the Roman empire. The inclining scale was decided in his favour by the death of Apocaucus, the just though singular retribution of his crimes. A crowd of nobles or plebeians whom he feared or hated had been seized by his orders in the capital and the provinces, and the old palace of Constantine was assigned for the place of their confinement. Some alterations in raising the walls and narrowing the cells had been ingeniously contrived to prevent their escape and aggravate their misery, and the work was incessantly pressed by the daily visits of the tyrant. His guards watched at the gate; and as he stood in the inner court to overlook the architects, without fear or suspicion, he was assaulted and laid breathless on the ground by twoa resolute prisoners of the Palæologian race,30 who were armed with sticks and animated by despair. On the rumour of revenge and liberty, the captive multitude broke their fetters, fortified their prison, and exposed from the battlements the tyrant's head, presuming on

29 Nic. Gregoras, 1. xii. c. 14 [tom. ii. p. 622, ed. Bonn]. It is surprising that Cantacuzene has not inserted this just and lively image in his own writings.

30 The two avengers were both Palæologi, who might resent, with royal indignation, the shame of their chains. The tragedy of Apocaucus may deserve a peculiar reference to Cantacuzene (1. iii. c. 88) and Nic. Gregoras (1. xiv. c. 10).

"Nicephorus says four, tom. ii. p. 733, ed. Bonn.— M.

the favour of the people and the clemency of the empress. Anne of Savoy might rejoice in the fall of a haughty and ambitious minister; but while she delayed to resolve or to act, the populace, more especially the mariners, were excited by the widow of the great duke to a sedition, an assault, and a massacre. The prisoners (of whom the far greater part were guiltless or inglorious of the deed) escaped to a neighbouring church: they were slaughtered at the foot of the altar; and in his death the monster was not less bloody and venomous than in his life. Yet his talents alone upheld the cause of the young emperor; and his surviving associates, suspicious of each other, abandoned the conduct of the war, and rejected the fairest terms of accommodation. In the beginning of the dispute the empress felt and complained that she was deceived by the enemies of Cantacuzene : the patriarch was employed to preach against the forgiveness of injuries; and her promise of immortal hatred was sealed by an oath under the penalty of excommunication.31 But Anne soon learned to hate without a teacher: she beheld the misfortunes of the empire with the indifference of a stranger; her jealousy was exasperated by the competition of a rival empress; and on the first symptoms of a more yielding temper, she threatened the patriarch to convene a synod and degrade him from his office. Their incapacity and discord would have afforded the most decisive advantage; but the civil war was protracted by the weakness of both parties; and the moderation of Cantacuzene has not escaped the reproach of timidity and indolence. He successively recovered the provinces and cities; and the realm of his pupil was measured by the walls of Constantinople; but the metropolis alone counterbalanced the rest of the empire; nor could he attempt that important conquest till he had secured in his favour the public voice and a private correspondence. An Italian, of the name of Facciolati,32 had succeeded to the office of great Constanti duke the ships, the guards, and the golden gate were 1347, subject to his command; but his humble ambition was bribed to become the instrument of treachery; and the revolution was accomplished without danger or bloodshed. Destitute of the powers of resistance or the hope of relief, the inflexible Anne would have still defended the palace, and have smiled to behold the capital in flames rather than in the possession of a rival. She yielded to the prayers of her friends and enemies, and the treaty was dictated by the conqueror, who professed a loyal and zealous attachment to the

He re-enters

nople,

January 8.

21 Cantacuzene accuses the patriarch, and spares the empress, the mother of his sovereign (1. iii. 33, 34), against whom Nic. Gregoras expresses a particular animosity (1. xiv. 10, 11; xv. 5). It is true that they do not speak exactly of the same time. The traitor and treason are revealed by Nic. Gregoras (1. xv. c. 8); but the name is more discreetly suppressed by his great accomplice (Cantacuzen. 1. iii. c. 99). 2 D

VOL. VII.

Reign of John Cantacuzene, A.D. 1347, Jan. 8

33

son of his benefactor. The marriage of his daughter with John Palæologus was at length consummated; the hereditary right of the pupil was acknowledged, but the sole administration during ten years was vested in the guardian. Two emperors and three empresses were seated on the Byzantine throne; and a general amnesty quieted the apprehensions and confirmed the property of the most guilty subjects. The festival of the coronation and nuptials was celebrated with the appearances of concord and magnificence, and both were equally fallacious. During the late troubles the treasures of the state, and even the furniture of the palace, had been alienated or embezzled; the royal banquet was served in pewter or earthenware; and such was the proud poverty of the times, that the absence of gold and jewels was supplied by the paltry artifices of glass and gilt leather." I hasten to conclude the personal history of John Cantacuzene.34 He triumphed and reigned; but his reign and triumph were clouded by the discontent of his own and the adverse faction. His followers might style the general amnesty an act of pardon for his enemies, and of oblivion for his friends: 35 in his cause their estates had been forfeited or plundered; and as they wandered naked and hungry through the streets, they cursed the selfish generosity of a leader who, on the throne of the empire, might relinquish without merit his private inheritance. The adherents of the empress blushed to hold their lives and fortunes by the precarious favour of an usurper, and the thirst of revenge was concealed by a tender concern for the succession, and even the safety, of her son. They were justly alarmed by a petition of the friends of Cantacuzene, that they might be released from their oath of allegiance to the Palæologi, and intrusted with the defence of some cautionary towns: a measure supported with argument and eloquence, and which was rejected (says the Imperial historian) "by "my sublime and almost incredible virtue." His repose was disturbed by the sound of plots and seditions, and he trembled lest the lawful prince should be stolen away by some foreign or domestic enemy, who would inscribe his name and his wrongs in the banners

A.D. 1355, January.

33 Nic. Greg. 1. xv. 11 [tom. ii. p. 788, ed. Bonn]. There were, however, some true pearls, but very thinly sprinkled. The rest of the stones had only wavrodanI χροιὰν πρὸς τὸ διαυγές.

34 From his return to Constantinople, Cantacuzene continues his history and that of the empire one year beyond the abdication of his son Matthew, a.d. 1357 (1. iv. c. 1-50, p. 705-911). Nicephorus Gregoras ends with the synod of Constantinople, in the year 1351 (1. xxii. c. 3, p. 660; the rest, to the conclusion of the xxivth book, p. 717, is all controversy); and his fourteen last books are still MSS. in the king of France's library.

35 The emperor (Cantacuzen. 1. iv. c. 1) represents his own virtues, and Nic. Gregoras (1. xv. c. 11) the complaints of his friends, who suffered by its effects. I have lent them the words of our poor cavaliers after the Restoration.