merce of Greece and Egypt. Their riches increased with the increasing demand of Europe; their manufactures of silk and glass, perhaps the institution of their bank, are of high antiquity; and they enjoyed the fruits of their industry. in the magnificence of public and private life. To assert her flag, to avenge her injuries, to protect the freedom of naviga. tion, the republic could launch and man a fleet of a hundred galleys; and the Greeks, the Saracens, and the Normans, were encountered by her naval arms. The Franks of Syria were assisted by the Venetians in the reduction of the seacoast; but their zeal was neither blind nor disinterested; and in the conquest of Tyre, they shared the sovereignty of a city, the first seat of the commerce of the world. The policy of Venice was marked by the avarice of a trading, and the insolence of a maritime, power; yet her ambition was prudent: nor did she often forget that if armed galleys were the effect and safeguard, merchant vessels were the cause and supply, of her greatness. In her religion, she avoided the schism of the Greeks, without yielding a servile obedience to the Roman pontiff; and a free intercourse with the infidels of every clime appears to have allayed betimes the fever of superstition. Her primitive government was a loose mixture of democracy and monarchy; the doge was elected by the votes of the gen eral assembly; as long as he was popular and successful, he reigned with the pomp and authority of a prince; but in the frequent revolutions of the state, he was deposed, or banished, or slain, by the justice or injustice of the multitude. The twelfth century produced the first rudiments of the wise and jealous aristocracy, which has reduced the doge to a pageant, w isnigino od vd boribe60 ton e and the people to a cipher.39 When the six ambassadors of the French pilgrims arrived, and publishing their 39 The Venetians have been slow in history. Their most ancient monuments are, 1. The rude Chronicle (perhaps) of John Sagorninus, (Venezia, 1765, in octavo,) which represents the state and manners of Venice in the year 1008. 2. The larger history of the doge, (1342-1354,) Andrew Dandolo, published for the first time in the xiith tom. of Muratori, A. D. 1728. The History of Venice by the Abbé Laugier, (Paris, 1728,) is a work of some merit, which I have chiefly used for the constitutional part.* gid to serce eft buts mas off of an dind lt is scarcely necessary to mention the valuable work of Count Daru, "History de Venise," of which I hear that an Italian translation has been published, with notes defensive of the ancient repubuc. I have not yet seen this work. -- M. at Venice, they were hospitably entertained in the palace of St. Mark, by the reigning duke: his name was Henry Dandolo; 40 and he shone in the last period of human life as one of the most illustrious characters of the times. Under the weight of years, and after the loss of his eyes,41 Dandolo retained a sound understanding and a manly courage: the spirit of a hero, ambitious to signalize his reign by some memo rable exploits; and the wisdom of a patriot, anxious to build his fame on the glory and advantage of his country. He praised the bold enthusiasm and liberal confidence of the barons and their deputies: in such a cause, and with such associates, he should aspire, were he a private man, to terminate his life; but he was the servant of the republic, and some delay was requisite to consult, on this arduous business, the judgment of his colleagues. The proposal of the French was first debated by the six sages who had been recently appointed to control the administration of the doge it was next disclosed to the forty members of the council of state; and finally communicated to the legislative assembly of four hundred and fifty representatives, who were annually chosen in the six quarters of the city. In peace and war, the doge was still the chief of the republic; his legal authority was supported by the personal reputation of Dandolo : his arguments of pub lic interest were balanced and approved; and he was authorized to inform the ambassadors of the following conditions of Henry Dandolo was eighty-four at his election, (A. D. 1192,) and ninety-seven at his death, (A. D. 1205.) See the Observations of Ducange sur Villehardouin, No. 204. But this extraordinary longevity is not observed by the original writers, nor does there exist another example of a hero near a hundred years of age. Theophrastus might afford an instance of a writer of ninety-nine; but instead of ivrevizorta, (Prooem. ad Character.,) I am much inclined to read pdonyxorta, with his last editor Fischer, and the first thoughts of Casaubon. It is scarcely possible that the powers of the mind and body should support themselves till such a period of life. The modern Venetians (Laugier, tom. ii. p. 119) accuse the emperor Manuel; but the calumny is refuted by Villehardouin and the older writers, who suppose that Dandolo lost his eyes by a wound, (No. 34, and Ducange.)* „poiqua edua edi yď soino V do viok + Bob y Boldo orsd I doider • The accounts differ, both as to the extent and the cause of his blindBess. According to Villehardouin and others, the sight was totally lost; according to the Chronicle of Andrew Dandolo, (Murat. tom. xi. p. 322,1 he was visu debilis. See Wilken, vol. v. p. 143. — M.29tog * the treaty.42 It was proposed that the crusaders should assern ble at Venice, on the feast of St. John of the ensuing year; that flat-bottomed vessels should be prepared for four thou sand five hundred horses, and nine thousand squires, with a number of ships sufficient for the embarkation of four thou sand five hundred knights, and twenty thousand foot; that during a term of nine months they should be supplied with provisions, and transported to whatsoever coast the service of God and Christendom should require; and that the republic should join the armament with a squadron of fifty galleys. It was required, that the pilgrims should pay, before their departure, a sum of eighty-five thousand marks of silver; and that all conquests, by sea and land, should be equally divided between the confederates. The terms were hard; but the emergency was pressing, and the French barons were not less profuse of money than of blood. A general assembly was convened to ratify the treaty: the stately chapel and place of St. Mark were filled with ten thousand citizens; and the noble deputies were taught a new lesson of humbling them. selves before the majesty of the people. "Illustrious Vene tians," said the marshal of Champagne, 66 we are sent by the greatest and most powerful barons of France to implore the aid of the masters of the sea for the deliverance of Jerusalem. They have enjoined us to fall prostrate at your feet; nor will we rise from the ground till you have promised to avenge with us the injuries of Christ." The eloquence of their words and tears,43 their martial aspect, and suppliant attitude, were applauded by a universal shout; as it were, say's Jeffrey, by the sound of an earthquake. The venerable doge ascended the pulpit to urge their request by those motives of honor and virtue, which alone can be offered to a popular assembly: the treaty was transcribed on parchment, attested with oaths and seals, mutually accepted by the weeping and joyful representatives of France and Venice; and despatched to Rome for the approbation of Pope Innocent the 42 See the original treaty in the Chronicle of Andrew Dandolo, p. 323--326. TOVO (RTI 4 A reader of Villehardouin must observe the frequent tears of the marshal and his brother knights. Sachiez que la ot mainte lerme plorée de pitié, (No. 17;) mult plorant, (ibid.;) mainte lerme plorée, No. 34;) si orent mult pitié et plorerent mult durement, (N n. 60 ;) i nt mainte lerme ploreé de pitié, (No. 202.) They werp on every <0> casion of grief, joy, or devotion. Of the six Third. Two thousand marks were borrowed of the iner chants for the first expenses of the armament. deputies, two repassed the Alps to announce their success, while their four companions made a fruitless trial of the zea and emulation of the republics of Genoa and Pisa. SA The execution of the treaty was still opposed by unfore seen difficulties and delays. The marshal, on his return to Troyes, was embraced and approved by Thibaut count of Champagne, who had been unanimously chosen general of the confederates. But the health of that valiant youth already declined, and soon became hopeless; and he deplored the untimely fate, which condemned him to expire, not in a fiela of battle, but on a bed of sickness. To his brave and numerous vassals, the dying prince distributed his treasures: they swore in his presence to accomplish his vow and their own; but some there were, says the marshal, who accepted his gifts and forfeited their word. The more resolute cham pions of the cross held a parliament at Soissons for the elec tion of a new general; but such was the incapacity, or jeal ousy, or reluctance, of the princes of France, that none could be found both able and willing to assume the conduct of the enterprise. They acquiesced in the choice of a stranger, of Boniface marquis of Montferrat, descended of a race of heroes, and himself of conspicuous fame in the wars and nego tiations of the times; 44 nor could the piety or ambition of the Italian chief decline this honorable invitation. After visiting the French court, where he was received as a friend and kinsman, the marquis, in the church of Soissons, was invested with the cross of a pilgrim and the staff of a general; and immediately repassed the Alps, to prepare for the distant ex, pedition of the East. About the festival of the Pentecost he displayed his banner, and marched towards Venice at the head of the Italians: he was preceded or followed by the counts of Flanders and Blois, and the most respectable barons of France; and their numbers were swelled by the pilgrims of Germany,45 whose object and motives were similar to their 44 By a victory (A. D. 1191) over the citizens of Asti, by a crusade to Palestine, and by an embassy from the pope to the German princes, (Muratori, Annali d' Italia, tom. x. p. 163, 202.) 45 See the crusade of the Germans in the Historia C. P. of Gunther, Canisi Antiq. Lect. tom. iv. p. v. viii.,) who celebrates the pilgrimage of his abbot Martin, one of the preaching rivals of Fulk of Neuilly. His monastery, of the Cistercian order, was situate in the diocese of own. The Venetians had fulfilled, and even surpassed, their engagements: stables were constructed for the horses, and barracks for the troops: the magazines were abundantly re plenished with forage and provisions; and the fleet of trans ports, ships, and galleys, was ready to hoist sail, as soon as the republic had received the price of the freight and arma ment. But that price far exceeded the wealth of the crusa ders who were assembled at Venice. The Flemings, whose obedience to their count was voluntary and precarious, had embarked in their vessels for the long navigation of the ocean and Mediterranean; and many of the French and Italians had preferred a cheaper and more convenient passage from Marseilles and Apulia to the Holy Land. Each pilgrim might complain, that after he had furnished his own contribution, he was made responsible for the deficiency of his absent brethren the gold and silver plate of the chiefs, which they freely delivered to the treasury of St. Mark, was a generous but inadequate sacrifice; and after all their efforts, thirty-four thousand marks were still wanting to complete the stipulated sum. The obstacle was removed by the policy and patriotism of the doge, who proposed to the barons, that if they would join their arms in reducing some revolted cities of Dalmatia, he would expose his person in the holy war, and obtain from the republic a long indulgence, till some wealthy conquest should afford the means of satisfying the debt. After much scruple and hesitation, they chose rather to accept the offer than to relinquish the enterprise; and the first hostilities of the fleet and army were directed against Zara, a strong city of the Sclavonian coast, which had renounced its allegiance to Venice, and implored the protection of the king of Hungary.47 The crusaders burst the chain or boom of the 46 46 Jadera, now Zara, was a Roman colony, which acknowledged Augustus for its parent. It is now only two miles round, and contains five or six thousand inhabitants; but the fortifications are strong, and it is joined to the main land by a bridge. See the travels of the two companions, Spon and Wheeler, (Voyage de Dalmatie, de Grèce, &c., tom. i. p. 64-70. Journey into Greece, p. 8-14;) the last of whom, by mistaking Sestertia for Sestertii, values an arch with statues and columns at twelve pounds. If, in his time, there were no trees near Zara, the cherry-trees were not yet planted which produce our incomparable marasquin. V 47 Katona (Hist. Critica Reg. Hungariæ, Stirpis Arpad. tom. iv. p 536-558) collects all the facts and testimonies most adverse to the conquerors of Zara. |