LXIII. CHAP. who were placed in ambufh at her door. That ftranger was his brother, prince Manuel, who languifhed and died of his wound; and the emperor Michael, their common father, whofe health was in a declining ftate, expired on the eighth day, lamenting the lofs of both his children (7). However guiltless in his intention, the younger Andronicus might impute a brother's and a father's death to the confequence of his own vices; and deep was the sigh of thinking and feeling men, when they perceived, instead of forrow and repentance, his ill-diffembled joy on the removal of two odious competitors. By thefe, melancholy events, and the increase of his disorders, the mind of the elder emperor was gradually alienated; and, after many fruitlefs reproofs, he transferred on another grandfon (8) his hopes and affection. The change was announced by the new oath of allegiance to the reigning fovereign, and the perfon whom he fhould appoint for his fucceffor; and the acknowledged heir, after a repetition of infults and complaints, was expofed to the indignity of a public trial. Before the fentence, which would probably have condemned him to a dungeon or a cell, the emperor was informed that the palace courts were filled with the armed followers of his grandfon; the judgment was foftened to a treaty of reconciliation; and the triumphant escape of the prince encouraged the ardour of the younger faction. Three civil wars be tween the rors, Yet the capital, the clergy, and the fenate, adhered to the perfon, or at least to the government, of the old emperor; and it was only in the provinces, by flight, and two empe- revolt, and foreign fuccour, that the malecontents could A. D. 1321, hope to vindicate their cause and fubvert his throne. The April 20 foul of the enterprife was the great domeftic John Cantacuzene: the fally from Conftantinople is the first date of his actions and memorials; and if his own pen be most defcriptive of his patriotifm, an unfriendly hiftorian has not refused to celebrate the zeal and ability which he dif played in the fervice of the young emperor. That prince escaped A. D. 1328, May 24. (7) We are indebted to Nicephorus Gregoras (1. viii. c. 1.) for the knowledge of this tragic adventure; while Cantacuzene more difcreetly conceals the vices of Andronicus the Younger, of which he was the witnefs, and perhaps the affociate (1. i. c. 1, &c.). (8) His deftined heir was Michael Catharus, the bastard of Constantine his fecond fon. In this project of excluding his grandfon Andronicus, Nicephorus Gregoras (1. viii. c. 3.) agrees with Cantacuzene (1. i. c. 1, 2.), LXIH younger efcaped from the capital under the pretence of hunting; CHA P. erected his ftandard at Adrianople; and, in a few days, affembled fifty thousand horse and foot, whom neither honour nor duty could have armed against the Barbarians. Such a force might have faved or commanded the empire; but their counfels were difcordant, their motions were flow and doubtful, and their progrefs was checked by intrigue and negociation. The quarrel of the two Andronici was protracted, and fufpended, and renewed, during a ruinous period of seven years. In the first treaty, the relics of the Greek empire were divided: Conftantinople, Theffalonica, and the islands, were left to the elder, while the younger acquired the fovereignty of the greatest part of Thrace, from Philippi to the Byzantine limit. By the fecond trea- Coronation ty, he ftipulated the payment of his troops, his immediate of the coronation, and an adequate share of the and power reve- Androninue of the state. The third civil war was terminated by cus, the furprise of Conftantinople, the final retreat of the old A.D. 1325,February 2. emperor, and the fole reign of his victorious grandfon. The reafons of this delay may be found in the characters of the men and of the times. When the heir of the monarchy firft pleaded his wrongs and his apprehenfions, he was heard with pity and applause: and his adherents repeated on all fides the inconfiftent promife, that he would increase the pay of the foldiers and alleviate the burthens of the people. The grievances of forty years were mingled in his revolt; and the rifing generation was fatigued by the endless profpect of a reign whofe favourites and maxims were of other times. The youth of Andronicus had been without fpirit, his age was without reverence: his taxes produced an annual revenue of five hundred thousand pounds; yet the richeft of the fovereigns of Christendom was incapable of maintaining three thoufand horfe and. twenty gallies, to refift the deftructive progress of the Turks (9). "How different," faid the younger Andronicus," is my fituation from that of the fon of Philip! "Alexander might complain, that his father would leave "him R 2 (9) See Nicephorus Gregoras, 1. viii. c. 6. The younger Andronicus complained, that in four years and four months, a fum of 350,000 byzants of gold was due to him for the expences of his houfhold (Cantacuzen. 1. i. . 48.). Yet he would have remitted the debt, if he might have been allowed to fqueeze the farmers of the revenue. LXIII. CHAP. " him nothing to conquer: alas! my grandfire will leave "me nothing to lofe." But the Greeks were foon admonished, that the public diforders could not be healed by a civil war; and that their young favourite was not deftined to be the faviour of a falling empire. On the first repulfe, his party was broken by his own levity, their inteftine difcord, and the intrigues of the ancient court, which tempted each male-content to defert or betray the cause of rebellion. Andronicus the younger was touched with remorse, or fatigued with bufinefs, or deceived by negociation: pleasure rather than power was his aim; and the licence of maintaining a thoufand hounds, a thoufand hawks, and a thoufand huntsmen, was fufficient to fully his fame and disarm his ambition. The clder Andronicus abdicates mènt, Let us now furvey the catastrophe of this bufy plot, and the final fituation of the principal actors (10). The of age the govern- Andronicus was confumed in civil difcord; and, amidst the events of war and treaty, his power and reputation continually decayed, till the fatal night in which the gates of the city and palace were opened without refiftance to his grandfon. His principal commander fcorned the repeated warnings of danger; and retiring to refl in the vain fecurity of ignorance, abandoned the feeble monarch, with fome priests and pages, to the terrors of a fleepless night. Thefe terrors were quickly realized by the hostile fhouts, which proclaimed the titles and victory of Andronicus the younger; and the aged emperor, falling proftrate before an image of the Virgin, difpatched a fuppliant message to refign the fceptre, and to obtain his life at the hands of the conqueror. The answer of his grandson was decent and pious; at the prayer of his friends, the younger Andronicus affumed the fole adminiftration; but the elder still enjoyed the name and pre-eminence of the firft emperor, the ufe of the great palace, and a penfion of twenty-four thousand pieces of gold, one half of which was affigned on the royal treafure, and the other on the fishery of Conftantinople. But his impotence was foon exposed to contempt and oblivion; the vaft filence of the palace was dif turbed only by the cattle and poultry of the neighbourhood, which (10) I follow the chronology of Nicephorus Gregoras, who is remarkably exact. It is proved, that Cantacuzene has mistaken the dates of his own ace tions, or rather that his text has been corrupted by ignorant tranfcribers. ́* LXIII. which roved with impunity through the folitary courts; CHA P. and a reduced allowance of ten thousand pieces of gold (11) was all that he could ask, and more than he could hope. His calamities were embittered by the gradual extinction of fight; his confinement was rendered each day more rigorous; and during the abfence and ficknefs of his grandfon, his inhuman keepers, by the threats of inftant death, compelled him to exchange the purple for the monaftic habit and profeffion. The monk Antony had renounced the pomp of the world: yet he had occafion for a coarse fur in the winter feason, and as wine was forbidden by his confeffor, and water by his physician, the fherbet of Egypt was his common drink. It was not without difficulty that the late emperor could procure three or four pieces to fatisfy thefe fimple wants; and if he bestowed the gold to relieve the more painful diftrefs of a friend, the facrifice is of fome weight in the fcale of humanity and religion. Four years His death, after his abdication, Andronicus or Antony expired in a A. D. 1332. cell, in the feventy-fourth year of his age: and the laft Feb. 13. ftrain of adulation could only promife a more fplendid crown of glory in heaven, than he had enjoyed upon earth (12). Andronicus A. D. 134, June 15. Nor was the reign of the younger, more glorious or for- Reign of tunate than that of the elder, Andronicus (13). He ga- the youngthered the fruits of ambition; but the taste was tranfient er, and bitter in the fupreme ftation he loft the remains of A. D. 1328. his early popularity; and the defects of his character be- May 24-came ftill more confpicuous to the world. The public reproach urged him to march in perfon against the Turks; nor did his courage fail in the hour of trial; but a defeat and a wound were the only trophies of his expedition in Afia, which confirmed the establishment of the Ottoman monarchy. The abufes of the civil government attained their (11) I have endeavoured to reconcile the 24,000 pieces of Cantacuzene (1. ii. c. 1.) with 10,000 of Nicephorus Gregoras (Î. ix. c. 2.); the one of whom wished to soften, the other to magnify, the hardships of the old emperors. (12) See Nicephorus Gregoras (1. ix. 6, 7, 8. 10. 14. 1. x. c. 1.). The hiftorian had tafted of the prosperity, and shared the retreat, of his benefactor; and that friendship, which "waits or to the fcaffold or to the cell," fhould not lightly be accufed as a hireling, a prostitute to praife." (13) The icle reign of Andronicus the younger is described by Cantacu zene (1. ii. c. 1-40. p. 191-339.) and Nicephorus Gregoras (1. ix, 7-d i. c. 11. p. 262-361.). LXII. His two wives. CHAP. their full maturity and perfection: his neglect of forms, and the confufion of national dreffes, are deplored by the Greeks as the fatal fymptoms of the decay of the empire. Andronicus was old before his time: the intemperance of youth had accelerated the infirmities of age; and after be ing rescued from a dangerous malady by nature, or phyfic, or the Virgin, he was fnatched away before he had accomplifhed his forty-fifth year. He was twice married; and as the progrefs of the Latins in arms and arts had softened the prejudices of the Byzantine court, his two wives were chofen in the princely houfes of Germany and Italy. The firft, Agnes at home, Irene in Greece, was daughter of the duke of Brunswick. Her father (14) was a petty lord (15) in the poor and favage regions of the north of Germany (16): yet he derived fome revenue from his filver-mines (17); and his family is celebrated by the Greeks as the moft ancient and noble of the Teutonic name (14) Agnes, or Irene, was the daughter of duke Henry the Wonderful, the chief of the houfe of Brunswick, and the fourth in defcent from the famous Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony and Bavaria, and conqueror of the slavi on the Baltic coaft. Per brother Henry was furnamed the Greek, from his two journies into the Eaft: but thefe journies were fubfequent to his fifter's marriage; and I am ignorant how Agnes was difcovered in the heart of Germany, and recommended to the Byzantine court (Rimius, Memoirs of the House of Brunswick, p. 126-137.). (15) Henry the Wonderful was the founder of the branch of Grubenhagen, extinct in the year 1596 (Rimius, p. 287.). He refided in the castle of Wolfenbuttel, and poffeffed no more than a fixth part of the allodial eftates of Brunfwick and Luneburgh, which the Guelph family had faved from the confifcation of their fiefs. The frequent partitions among brothers, had almoft ruined the princely houfes of Germany, till that juft, but pernicious, law was flowly fuperfeded by the right of primogeniture. The principality of Grubenhagen, one of the last remains of the Hercynian forest, is a woody, mountainous, and barren tract (Bufching's Geography, vol. vi. p. 270-289. English tranflation). (16) The royal author of the Memoirs of Brandenburgh will teach us, how jufly, in a much later period, the north of Germany deferved the epithets of poor and barbarous (Effai fur les Mœurs, &c.). In the year 1306, in the woods of Luneburgh, fome wild people of the Vened race were allowed to bury alive their infirm and ufelefs parents (Rimius, p. 136.). (17) The affertion of Tacitus, that Germany was deftitute of the precious metals, must be taken, even in his own time, with fome limitation (Germania, c. 5. Annal. xi. 20.). According to Spener (Hift. Germaniæ Pragmatica, tom. 1. p. 351.), Argenti fodine in Hercyniis montibus, imperante Othone magno (A. D. 968.) primum aperta, largam etiam opes augendi dederunt copiam: but Rimius (p. 258, 259.) defers till the year 1016 the difcovery of the filver mines of Grubenhagen, or the Upper Hartz, which were productive in the beginning of the 14th century, and which fill yield a condfierable revenue to the house of Brunswick. |