0

arms, and, as it may be fairly presumed, of the genuine race, of the Courtenays of France. The right of wardship enabled a feudal lord to reward his vassal with the marriage and estate of a noble heiress; and Reginald of Courtenay acquired a fair establishment in Devonshire, where his posterity has been seated above six hundred years. From a Norman baron, Baldwin de Brioniis, who had been invested by the conqueror, Hawise, the wife of | Reginald, derived the honour of Okehampton, which was held by the service of ninety-three knights; and a female might claim the manly offices of hereditary viscount or sheriff, and of captain of the royal castle of Exeter. Their son Robert married the sister of the earl of Devon; at the end of a century, on the failure of the family of Rivers," his

The earls of
Devonshire,

by the minute diligence of heralds and genealogists. | camps and councils, a Reginald, of the name and It was not till the end of the sixteenth century, on the accession of a family almost as remote as their own, that the princely spirit of the Courtenays again revived; and the question of the nobility, provoked them to assert the royalty, of their blood. They appealed to the justice and compassion of Henry the fourth; obtained a favourable opinion from twenty lawyers of Italy and Germany, and modestly compared themselves to the descendant of king David, whose prerogatives were not impaired by the lapse of ages or the trade of a carpenter. But every ear was deaf, and every circumstance was adverse, to their lawful claims. The Bourbon kings were justified by the neglect of the Valois; the princes of the blood, more recent and lofty, disdained the alliance of this humble kindred: the parliament, without denying their proofs, eluded a dan-great-grandson, Hugh the second, succeeded to a gerous precedent by an arbitrary distinction, and title which was still considered as a territorial digestablished St. Louis as the first father of the royal nity and twelve earls of Devonline. A repetition of complaints and protests was shire, of the name of Courtenay, have repeatedly disregarded; and the hopeless pursuit flourished in a period of two hundred and twenty was terminated in the present century by the death years. They were ranked among the chief of the of the last male of the family. Their painful and barons of the realm; nor was it till after a strenuous anxious situation was alleviated by the pride of dispute, that they yielded to the fief of Arundel the conscious virtue: they sternly rejected the tempta- first place in the parliament of England: their allitions of fortune and favour; and a dying Courte- ances were contracted with the noblest families, the nay would have sacrificed his son, if the youth could Veres, Despensers, St. Johns, Talbots, Bohuns, and have renounced, for any temporal interest, the right even the Plantagenets themselves; and in a contest and title of a legitimate prince of the blood of with John of Lancaster, a Courtenay, bishop of France. London, and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, might be accused of profane confidence in the strength and number of his kindred. In peace, the earls of Devon resided in their numerous castles and manors of the west their ample revenue was appropriated to devotion and hospitality; and the epitaph of Edward, surnamed, from his misfortune, the blind, from his virtues, the good, earl, inculcates with much ingenuity a moral sentence, which may however be abused by thoughtless generosity. After a grateful commemoration of the fifty-five years of union and happiness, which he enjoyed with Mabel his wife, the good earl thus speaks from the tomb: What we gave, we have; What we spent, we had; What we left, we lost."

III. The Courte

m

III. According to the old register nays of England. of Ford Abbey, the Courtenays of Devonshire are descended from prince Florus, the second son of Peter, and the grandson of Louis the Fat. This fable of the grateful or venal monks was too respectfully entertained by our antiquaries, Camden and Dugdale:" but it is so clearly repugnant to truth and time, that the rational pride of the family now refuses to accept this imaginary founder. Their most faithful historians believe, that after giving his daughter to the king's son, Reginald of Courtenay abandoned his possessions in France, and obtained from the English monarch a second wife and a new inheritance. It is certain, at least, that Henry the second distinguished in his

g Of the various petitions, apologies, &c. published by the princes of Courtenay, I have seen the three following, all in octavo: 1. De Stirpe et Origine Domus de Courtenay: addita sunt Responsa celeberrimorum Europe Jurisconsultorum; Paris, 1607. 2. Representation du Procedé tenu a l'instance faicte devant le Roi, par Messieurs de Courtenay, pour la conservation de l'Honneur et Dignité de leur Maison, branche de la royalle Maison de France; à Paris, 1613. 3. Representation du subject qui a porté Messieurs de Salles et de Fra. ville, de la Maison de Courtenay, à se retirer hors du Royaume, 1614. It was an homicide, for which the Courtenays expected to be pardoned, or tried, as princes of the blood.

h The sense of the parliaments is thus expressed by Thuanus: Prin. cipis nomen nusquam ia Galliâ tributum, nisi iis qui per mares e regibus nostris originem repetunt; qui nunc tantum a Ludovico nono beatæ memoriæ numerantur; nam Cortinei et Drocenses, a Ludovico crasso genus ducentes; hodie inter eos minime recensentur. A dis. tinction of expediency rather than justice. The sanctity of Louis IX. could not invest him with any special prerogative, and all the descendants of Hugh Capet must be included in his original compact with the French nation.

i The last male of the Courtenays was Charles Roger, who died in the year 1730, without leaving any sons. The last female was Helene de Courtenay, who married Louis de Beaufremont. Her title of Prin cesse du Sang Royal de France, was suppressed (February 7th, 1737) by an arret of the parliament of Paris.

k The singular anecdote to which I allude, is related in the Recueil des Pieces interessantes et peu connues; (Maestricht, 1786, in 4 vols. 12mo;) and the unknown editor quotes his author, who had received it from Helene de Courtenay, marquese de Beaufremont.

1 Dugdale Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. i. p. 786. Yet this fable must have been invented before the reign of Edward III. The profuse devotion of the three first generations to Ford Abbey, was followed by oppression on one side and ingratitude on the other, and in the sixth generation, the monks ceased to register the births, actions, and deaths of their patrons.

In In his Britannia, in the list of the earls of Devonshire. His expression, e regio sanguine ortus credunt, betrays however some doubt or suspicion.

In his Baronage, p. i. p. 634. he refers to his own Monasticon. Should he not have corrected the register of Ford Abbey, and anni. hilated the phantom Florus, by the unquestionable evidence of the

French historians!

o Besides the third and most valuable book of Cleaveland's History, I have consulted Dugdale, the father of our genealogical science. (Baronage, p. i. p. 634-643.)

P This great family, de Ripuariis, de Redvers, de Rivers, ended in Edward the fifth's time, in Isabella de Fortibus, a famous and potent dowager, who long survived her brother and husband. (Dugdale, Baronage, p. i. p. 254–257.)

4 Cleaveland, p. 142. By some it is assigned to a Rivers, earl of

1

I

$1

But their losses, in this sense, were far superior to their gifts and expenses; and their heirs, not less than the poor, were the objects of their paternal care. The sums which they paid for livery and seisin, attest the greatness of their possessions; and several estates have remained in their family since the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In war, the Courtenays of England fulfilled the duties, and deserved the honours, of chivalry. They were often intrusted to levy and command the militia of Devonshire and Cornwall; they often attended their supreme lord to the borders of Scotland; and in foreign service, for a stipulated price, they sometimes maintained fourscore men at arms and as many archers. By sea and land they fought under the standard of the Edwards and Henrys: their names are conspicuous in battles, in tournaments, and in the original list of the order of the Garter; three brothers shared the Spanish victory of the Black Prince; and in the lapse of six generations, the English Courtenays had learned to despise the nation and country from which they derived their origin. In the quarrel of the two roses, the earls of Devon adhered to the house of Lancaster, and three brothers successively died, either in the field or on the scaffold. Their honours and estates were restored by Henry the seventh; a daughter of Edward the fourth was not disgraced by the nuptials of a Courtenay; their son, who was created marquis of Exeter, enjoyed the favour of his cousin Henry the eighth; and in the camp of Cloth of Gold, he broke a lance against the French monarch. But the favour of Henry was the prelude of disgrace; his disgrace was the signal of death; and of the victims of the jealous tyrant, the marquis of Exeter is one of the most noble and guiltless. His son Edward lived a prisoner in the Tower, and died an exile at Padua ; and the secret love of Queen Mary, whom he slighted, perhaps for the princess Elizabeth, has shed a romantic colour on the story of this beautiful youth. The relics of his patrimony were conveyed into strange families by the marriages of his four aunts; and his personal honours, as if they had been legally extinct, were revived by the patents of succeeding princes. But there still survived a lineal descendant of Hugh the first earl of Devon, a younger branch of the Courtenays, who have been seated at Powderham castle above four hundred years, from the reign of Edward the third to the present hour. Their estates have been increased by the grant and improvement of lands in Ireland, and they have been recently restored to the honours of the peerage. Yet the Courtenays still retain the plaintive motto, which asserts the innocence, and deplores the fall, of their ancient house."

Devon: but the English denotes the fifteenth, rather than the thir

teenth, century.

Ubi lapsus! Quid feci? a motto which was probably adopted by the Powderham brauch, after the loss of the earldom of Devonshire, &c. The primitive arms of the Courtenays were, or, three torteaux, gules, which seem to denote their affinity with Godfrey of Bouillon, and the ancient counts of Boulogne.

a For the reigns of the Nicene emperors, more especially of John Vataces and his son, their minister, George Acropolita, is the only

While they sigh for past greatness, they are doubtless sensible of present blessings in the long series of the Courtenay annals, the most splendid æra is likewise the most unfortunate; nor can an opulent peer of Britain be inclined to envy the emperors of Constantinople, who wandered over Europe to solicit alms for the support of their dignity and the defence of their capital.

CHAP. LXII.

The Greek emperors of Nice and Constantinople.---
Elevation and reign of Michael Palæologus.-His
false union with the pope and the Latin church.—
Hostile designs of Charles of Anjou.-Revolt of
Sicily.-War of the Catalans in Asia and Greece.
-Revolutions and present state of Athens.

Theodore Las.

caris, A. D. 1204-1222,

THE loss of Constantinople restored a Restoration of the momentary vigour to the Greeks. From Greek empire. their palaces, the princes and nobles were driven into the field; and the fragments of the falling monarchy were grasped by the hands of the most vigorous or the most skilful candidates. In the long and barren pages of the Byzantine annals," it would not be an easy task to equal the two characters of Theodore Lascaris and John Ducas Vataces, who replanted and upheld the Roman standard at Nice in Bithynia. The difference of their virtues was happily suited to the diversity of their situation. In his first efforts, the fugitive Lascaris commanded only three cities and two thousand soldiers: his reign was the season of generous and active despair: in every military operation he staked his life and crown; and his enemies, of the Hellespont and the Mæander, were surprised by his celerity and subdued by his boldness. A victorious reign of eighteen years expanded the principality of Nice to the magnitude of an empire. The John Ducas throne of his successor and son-in-law A. D. 1222-1255. Vataces was founded on a more solid basis, a larger scope, and more plentiful resources; and it was the temper, as well as the interest, of Vataces to calculate the risk, to expect the moment, and to insure the success, of his ambitious designs. In the decline of the Latins, I have briefly exposed the progress of the Greeks; the prudent and gradual advances of a conqueror, who, in a reign of thirtythree years, rescued the provinces from national and foreign usurpers, till he pressed on all sides the imperial city, a leafless and sapless trunk, which must fall at the first stroke of the axe. But his interior and peaceful administration is still more deserving

Vataces,

Oct. 30.

genuine contemporary: but George Pachymer returned to Constantinople with the Greeks at the age of nineteen. (Hanckius, de Script. Byzant. c. 33, 34. p. 564-578. Fabric. Bibliot. Græc, tom, vi. p. 448 -460.) Yet the history of Nicephorus Gregoras, though of the fourteenth century, is a valuable narrative from the taking of Constantinople by the Latins.

b Nicephorus Gregoras (1. ii. c. 1.) distinguishes between the ofera opun of Lascaris, and the evsabela of Vataces. The two portraits are in a very good style.

from the people, or at least from the court, the
appellation of tyrant. A matron of the family of
the Palæologi had provoked his anger by refusing
to bestow her beauteous daughter on the vile ple-
beian who was recommended by his caprice. With
out regard to her birth or age, her body, as high as
the neck, was enclosed in a sack with several cats,
who were pricked with pins to irritate their fury
against their unfortunate fellow-captive. In his
last hours the emperor testified a wish to forgive
and be forgiven, a just anxiety for the fate of John
his son and successor, who, at the age of eight years,
was condemned to the dangers of a long minority.
Minority of John His last choice intrusted the office of

Lascaris,

A. D. 1259.
guardian to the sanctity of the pa-
August. triarch Arsenius, and to the courage of
George Muzalon, the great domestic, who was
equally distinguished by the royal favour and the
public hatred. Since their connexion with the
Latins, the names and privileges of hereditary
rank had insinuated themselves into the Greek
monarchy; and the noble families were provoked
by the elevation of a worthless favourite, to whose
influence they imputed the errors and calamities of
the late reign. In the first council, after the empe-
ror's death, Muzalon from a lofty throne pro-
nounced a laboured apology of his conduct and
intentions: his modesty was subdued by a unani-
mous assurance of esteem and fidelity; and his
most inveterate enemies were the loudest to salute
him as the guardian and saviour of the Romans.
Eight days were sufficient to prepare the execution
of the conspiracy. On the ninth, the obsequies of
the deceased monarch were solemnized in the cathe-
dral of Magnesia, an Asiatic city, where he expired,
on the banks of the Hermus, and at the foot of
mount Sipylus. The holy rites were interrupted by
a sedition of the guards; Muzalon, his brothers,
and his adherents, were massacred at the foot of the
altar; and the absent patriarch was associated
with a new colleague, with Michael Palæologus, the
most illustrious, in birth and merit, of the Greek
nobles.

Of those who are proud of their an-
Family and cha.
racter of Michael cestors, the far greater part must be
Palæologus.

content with local or domestic renown; and few there are who dare trust the memorials of their family to the public annals of their country. As early as the middle of the eleventh century, the noble race of the Palæologi1 stands high and conspicuous in the Byzantine history: it was the valiant George Palæologus who placed the father of the Comneni on the throne; and his kinsmen or de

b Pachymer (1. i. c. 21.) names and discriminates fifteen or twenty Greek families, και όσοι άλλοι, οις ἡ μεγαλογένης σειρά και χρυση Does he mean, by this decoration, a figurative or a real golden chain? Perhaps both.

συγκεκροτητο.

The old geographers, with Cellarius and D'Anville, and our travel. lers, particularly Pocock and Chandler, will teach us to distinguish the two Magnesias of Asia Minor, of the Mæander and of Sipylus. The latter, our present object, is still flourishing for a Turkish city, and lies eight hours, or leagues, to the north-east of Smyrna. (Tournefort, Voyage du Levant, tom. iii. lettre xxii. p. 365-370. Chandler's Travels into Asia Minor, p. 267.)

See Acropolita, (c. 75, 76, &c.) who lived too near the times; Pachymer, (1. i. c. 13-25.) Gregoras, (1. iii. c. 3, 4, 5.)

scendants continue, in each generation, to lead the armies and councils of the state. The purple was not dishonoured by their alliance; and had the law of succession, and female succession, been strictly observed, the wife of Theodore Lascaris must have yielded to her elder sister, the mother of Michael Palæologus, who afterwards raised his family to the throne. In his person, the splendour of birth was dignified by the merit of the soldier and statesman: in his early youth he was promoted to the office of constable or commander of the French mercenaries; the private expense of a day never exceeded three pieces of gold; but his ambition was rapacious and profuse; and his gifts were doubled by the graces of his conversation and manners. The love of the soldiers and people excited the jealousy of the court; and Michael thrice escaped from the dangers in which he was involved by his own imprudence or that of his friends. I. Under the reign of Justice and Vataces, a dispute arose between two officers, one of whom accused the other of maintaining the hereditary right of the Palæologi. The cause was decided, according to the new jurisprudence of the Latins, by single combat: the defendant was overthrown; but he persisted in declaring that himself alone was guilty ; and that he had uttered these rash or treasonable speeches without the approbation or knowledge of his patron. Yet a cloud of suspicion hung over the innocence of the constable: he was still pursued by the whispers of malevolence; and a subtle courtier, the archbishop of Philadelphia, urged him to accept the judgment of God in the fiery proof of the ordeal." Three days before the trial, the patient's arm was enclosed in a bag, and secured by the royal signet; and it was incumbent on him to bear a red-hot ball of iron three times from the altar to the rails of the sanctuary, without artifice and without injury. Palæologus eluded the dangerous experiment with sense and pleasantry. "I am a soldier," said he, " and will boldly enter the lists with my accusers: but a layman, a sinner like myself, is not endowed with the gift of miracles. Your piety, most holy prelate, may deserve the interposition of heaven, and from your hands I will receive the fiery globe, the pledge of my innocence." The archbishop started; the emperor smiled; and the absolution or pardon of Michael was approved by new rewards and new services. II. In the succeeding reign, as he held the government of Nice, he was secretly informed, that the mind of the absent prince was poisoned with jealousy ; and that death, or blindness, would be his final reward. In

1 The pedigree of Palæologus is explained by Ducange: (Famil. Byzant. p. 230, &c.) the events of his private life are related by Pachymer (1. i. c. 7-12.) and Gregoras, (1. ii. 8. I. iii. 2. 4. 1. iv. 1.) with visible favour to the father of the reigning dynasty.

m Acropolita (c. 50.) relates the circumstances of this curious adven. ture, which seem to have escaped the more recent writers.

n Pachymer, (I. i. c. 12.) who speaks with proper contempt of this barbarous trial, affirms, that he had seen in his youth many persons who had sustained, without injury, the fiery ordeal. As a Greek, he is credulous: but the ingenuity of the Greeks might furnish some remedies of art or fraud against their own superstition, or that of their tyrant.

His elevation to

stead of awaiting the return and sentence of Theo- | by the ordeal and judicial combat. These barbaric dore, the constable with some followers escaped institutions were already abolished or undermined from the city and the empire; and though he was in France and England; and the appeal to the plundered by the Turkmans of the desert, he found sword offended the sense of a civilized,' and the a hospitable refuge in the court of the sultan. In temper of an unwarlike, people. For the future the ambiguous state of an exile, Michael reconciled maintenance of their wives and children, the vetethe duties of gratitude and loyalty drawing his rans were grateful: the priest and the philosopher sword against the Tartars; admonishing the gar- applauded his ardent zeal for the advancement of risons of the Roman limit; and promoting, by his religion and learning; and his vague promise of influence, the restoration of peace, in which his rewarding merit was applied by every candidate to pardon and recall were honourably included. III. his own hopes. Conscious of the influence of the While he guarded the west against the despot of clergy, Michael successfully laboured to secure the Epirus, Michael was again suspected and con- suffrage of that powerful order. Their expensive demned in the palace; and such was his loyalty journey from Nice to Magnesia, afforded a decent or weakness, that he submitted to be led in chains and ample pretence the leading prelates were above six hundred miles from Durazzo to Nice. tempted by the liberality of his nocturnal visits; The civility of the messenger alleviated his disgrace; and the incorruptible patriarch was flattered by the the emperor's sickness dispelled his danger; and homage of his new colleague, who led his mule by the last breath of Theodore, which recommended the bridle into the town, and removed to a rehis infant son, at once acknowledged the innocence spectful distance the importunity of the crowd. and the power of Palæologus. Without renouncing his title by royal descent, Palæologus encouraged a free discussion into the advantages of elective monarchy; and his adherents asked, with the insolence of triumph, what patient would trust his wealth, or what merchant abandon his vessel, to the hereditary skill of a physician or pilot? The youth of the emperor, and the impending dangers of a minority, required the support of a mature and experienced guardian; of an associate raised above the envy of his equals, and invested with the name and prerogatives of royalty. For the interest of the prince and people, without any selfish views for himself or his family, the great duke consented to guard and instruct the son of Theodore; but he sighed for the happy moment when he might restore to his firmer hands the administration of his patrimony, and enjoy the blessings of a private station. He was first invested with the title and prerogatives of despot, which bestowed the purple ornaments, and the second place in the Roman monarchy. It was afterwards agreed that John and Michael should be proclaimed as joint emperors, and raised on the buckler, but that the pre-eminence should be reserved for the birth-right of the former. A mutual league of amity was pledged between the royal partners; and in case of a rupture, the subjects were bound by their oath of allegiance to declare themselves against the aggressor; an ambiguous name, the seed of discord and civil war. Palæologus was content; but on the day of the coronation, and in the cathedral of Nice, his zealous adherents most vehemently urged the just priority of his age and merit. The unseasonable dispute was eluded by postponing to a more convenient

But his innocence had been too unthe throne. worthily treated, and his power was too strongly felt, to curb an aspiring subject in the fair field that was opened to his ambition. In the council after the death of Theodore, he was the first to pronounce, and the last to violate, the oath of allegiance to Muzalon; and so dexterous was his conduct, that he reaped the benefit, without incurring the guilt, or at least the reproach, of the subsequent massacre. In the choice of a regent, he balanced the interests and passions of the candidates; turned their envy and hatred from himself against each other, and forced every competitor to own, that, after his own claims, those of Palæologus were best entitled to the preference. Under the title of great duke, he accepted or assumed, during a long minority, the active powers of government; the patriarch was a venerable name; and the factious nobles were seduced, or oppressed, by the ascendant of his genius. The fruits of the economy of Vataces were deposited in a strong castle on the banks of the Hermus, in the custody of the faithful Varangians: the constable retained his command or influence over the foreign troops; he employed the guards to possess the treasure, and the treasure to corrupt the guards; and whatsoever might be the abuse of the public money, his character was above the suspicion of private avarice. By himself, or by his emissaries, he strove to persuade every rank of subjects, that their own prosperity would rise in just proportion to the establishment of his authority. The weight of taxes was suspended, the perpetual theme of popular complaint; and he prohibited the trials

• Without comparing Pachymer to Thucydides or Tacitus, I will praise his narrative, (1. i. c. 13–32. l. ii. c. 1–9.) which pursues the ascent of Palæologus with eloquence, perspicuity, and tolerable freedom, Acropolita is more cautious, and Gregoras more concise.

P The judicial combat was abolished by St. Louis in his own territories; and his example and authority were at length prevalent in France. (Esprit des Loix, 1. xxviii. c. 29.)

In civil cases Henry II. gave an option to the defendant; Glanville prefers the proof by evidence, and that by judicial combat is repro. bated in the Fleta. Yet the trial by battle has never been abrogated in the English law, and it was ordered by the judges as late as the begin. ning of the last century.

r Yet an ingenious friend has urged to me in mitigation of this practice, 1. That in nations emerging from barbarism, it moderates the licence of private war and arbitrary revenge. 2. That it is less absurd than the trials by the ordeal, or boiling water, or the cross, which it has contributed to abolish. 3. That it served at least as a test of per sonal courage; a quality so seldom united with a base disposition, that the danger of a trial might be some check to a malicious prosecutor, and a useful barrier against injustice supported by power. The gallant and unfortunate earl of Surrey might probably have escaped his un merited fate, had not his demand of the combat against his accuser been overruled.