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 only traverse the 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 with his splendid army 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 himself, he drew up his army in order of battle; and then, placing himself at the head of the 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 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 newformed 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 1 A similar expedient was adopted by the Spartans, 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. Οι δια βρόχου γενηδέντος, οὐχ οἷον τοὺς ἵππους ἀλλ' οὐδ ̓ ἀὺ τοὺς πεζοὺς δυνατόν ἦν ἐμβαίνειν.-Polybius, lib. v., cap. xxii., § 6. A. D. 1311. CHAP. VII. man floundered about until both fell; and as none that among the first who perished. 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 The authorities for this account of the battle are Nicephorus Gregoras, 155, and Muntaner, ccxl., joined to a personal acquaintance with the ground. Two great battles had decided the fate of Greece on this plain in ancient times. The victory of Philip of Macedon at Chæronea, B.c. 338, and that of Sylla over the generals of Mithridates, B.c. 86. The chronology of the Catalan expedition, and the date of the battle at the Cephissus, admit of much discussion. The authorities followed in the text are based on the departure of the Grand Company from Gallipoli, and its wintering at Cassandra, in 1308. This is proved by Pachymeres, ii. 455, and Nicephorus Gregoras, 151; their wintering in Thessaly in 1309 by Nicephorus Gregoras, 153. The order of events is then traced by Niceph. Greg., 155, and Muntaner, ch. ccxl. The Chronicle of the Conquest of the Morea, Greck text, v. 5960, says the battle occurred on Monday, 15th March, in the year A.M. 6817, and the 8th indiction. But the year A.M. 6817 gives A.D. 1309, and the 8th indiction would place it in 1310. I prefer trusting to the day of the week and month. Now Monday was the 15th of March, only in the year 1311; and this agrees best with Nicephorus Gregoras, and even Muntaner, though his chronology varies in different pages. CONQUEST OF ATHENS BY CATALANS. 177 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.1 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 magnificent 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 Colonos and the Academy, was reduced to ashes either from carelessness or wantonness.2 A. D. 1311. SECT. IV.-DUKES OF ATHENS AND NEOPATRAS OF THE SICILIAN The Spaniards at last took measures for enjoying the fruits of the 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, and to bestow their widows and heiresses in marriage on the best officers, who 1 After the death of the constable Walter de Brienne, in 1356, Sohier d'Enghien, his nephew, assumed the title of duke of Athens, but it expired with his son Walter, who died childless in 1381. The family of d'Enghien ended in a female, who sold Argos and Nauplia to the Venetian republic. 2 Book of the Conquest, Greck text, v. 6749. Fallmerayer, Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea, ii. 182. M § 4. CHAP. VII. 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 soldiers, 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 washhand basin.1 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 incompetency of all their own generals to act as civilians, that they appointed Roger Deslau to act as duke of Athens until they could arrange their differences with the house of Aragon, to which the majority still looked as 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, or Salona, were annexed to the duchy; and their incursions into the territories of the despot of Epirus on 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 his holiness himself to determine where the legal claimants were to be found. The archbishops of Corinth, Patras, and Otranto were authorised to preach a crusade against the Catalans in their dioceses.2 Neopatras, from its strong position, important military situation, and delightful climate, divided with Athens the honour of being the capital of the Catalan principality, which was styled the duchy of Athens and Neopatras. After the death 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 to the house of Aragon. Manfred, William, and John, the younger sons of king Frederick II. of Sicily, held it in succession.1 Frederick, marquis of Randazzo, son of John, succeeded his father in the year 1348, and died childless in 1355, without having ever visited Athens. The duchy then reverted to Frederick III. of Sicily, whose daughter Maria inherited it in 1377. From Maria the title passed to Alphonso V., king of Aragon, and was retained by the kings of Spain after the union of the crowns of Aragon and Castille. 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 Eubœa, 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 numbers 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 1 Manfred died about the year 1330; William in 1338; and John, who was regent of Sicily, in 1348. A. D. 1326-1386. |