LXI. CHAP. three brothers fucceffively died, either in the field or on the fcaffold. Their honours and estates were reftored by Henry the feventh; a daughter of Edward the fourth was not difgraced by the nuptials of a Courtenay; their fon, 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 difgrace; his difgrace was the fignal of death; and of the victims of the jealous tyrant, the marquis of Exeter is one of the most noble and guiltless. His fon Edward lived a prifoner in the Tower, and died an exile at Padua ; and the fecret love of queen Mary, whom he flighted, perhaps for the princess Elizabeth, has fhed a romanticcolour on the ftory of this beautiful youth. The relics of his patrimony were conveyed into ftrange families by the marriages of his four aunts; and his perfonal honours, as if they had been legally extinct, were revived by the patents of fucceeding princes. But there ftill furvived a lineal defcendant of Hugh the first earl of Devon, a younger branch of the Courtenays, who have been feated at Powderham caftle above four hundred years from the reign of Edward the third to the present hour. Their eftates have been encreased by the grant and improvement of lands in Ireland, and they have been recently reftored to the honours of the peerage. Yet the Courtenays ftill retain the plaintive motto, which afferts the innocence, and deplores the fall, of 86 LXI their ancient houfe ". While they figh for paft CHAP. greatness, they are doubtless fenfible of present bleffings in the long feries of the Courtenay annals, the moft fplendid æra is likewise the most unfortunate; nor can an opulent peer of Britain be inclined to envy the emperors of Conftantinople, who wandered over Europe to folicit alms for the fupport of their dignity and the defence of their capital. 86 Ubi lapfus! Quid feci ? a motto which was probably adopted by the Powderham branch, after the lofs of the earldom of Devonshire, &c. The primitive armis of the Courtenays were, or, three torteaux, gules, which feem to denote their affinity with Godfrey of Bouillon, and the ancient counts of Boulogne, X 2 LXII. Reftora tion of empire. CHA P. LXII. The Greek Emperors of Nice and Conftantinople.- Athens. THE CHAP. HE lofs of Conftantinople restored a momentary vigour to the Greeks. From their palaces, the princes and nobles were the Greek 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 eafy tafk to equal the two characters of Theodore Lafcaris and John Ducas Vataces, who replanted and upheld the Roman ftandard at Nice in Bithynia. The difference of their virtues was happily suited to the Theodore Lafcaris, A. D. 1204F222. For the reigns of the Nicene emperors, more efpecially of John Vataces and his fon, their minifter, George Acropolita, is the only genuine contemporary: but George Pachymer returned to Conftantinople 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 hiftory of Nicephorus Gregoras, though of the xivth century, is a valuable narrative from the taking of Conftantinople by the Latins. 2 Nicephorus Gregoras (1. ii. c. 1.) diftinguishes between the a op of Lafcaris, and the value of Vataces. The two portraits are in a very good style. diverfity LXII. John Ducas Va taces, A. D. 1222 1255, diverfity of their fituation. In his first efforts, CHAP. the fugitive Lafcaris commanded only three cities and two thoufand foldiers: 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 Hellefpont and the Mæander, were furprised by his celerity and fubdued by his boldness. A victorious reign of eighteen years expanded the principality of Nice to the magnitude of an empire. The throne of his fucceffor and fon-in-law Vataces was founded on a more folid basis, a larger fcope, and more plenti, ful refources; and it was the temper, as well as the intereft, of Vataces to calculate the risk, to Oct. 30. expect the moment, and to enfure the fuccefs, of his ambitious defigns. In the decline of the Latins, I have briefly exposed the progrefs of the Greeks; the prudent and gradual advances of a conqueror, who, in a reign of thirty-three years, rescued the provinces from national and foreign ufurpers, till he preffed on all fides the Imperial city, a leafless and faplefs trunk which must fall at the firft ftroke of the axe. But his interior and peaceful administration is ftill more deferving of notice and praise3. The calamities of the times had wafted the numbers and the fubftance of the Greeks: the motives and the means of agriculture were extirpated; and the most fertile lands were left without cultivation or inhabitants. A portion of this vacant property was occupied 3 Pachymer, 1. i. c. 23, 24. Nic. Greg. 1. ii. c. 6. The reader of the Byzantines muft obferve how rarely we are indulged with fuch precious details. LXII. CHAP. and improved by the command, and for the benefit, of the emperor: a powerful hand and a vigilant eye supplied and furpaffed, by a skilful management, the minute diligence of a private. farmer: the royal domain became the garden and granary of Afia; and without impoverishing the people, the fovereign acquired a fund of innocent and productive wealth. According to the mature of the foil, his lands were fown with corn or planted with vines: the pastures were filled with horses and oxen, with fheep and hogs; and when Vataces prefented to the emprefs a crown of diamonds and pearls, he informed her with a fimile that this precious ornament arofe from the fale of the eggs of his innumerable poultry. The produce of his domain was applied to the maintenance of his palace and hofpitals, the calls of dignity and benevolence: the leffon was ftill more useful than the revenue: the plough was restored to its ancient fecurity and honour; and the nobles were taught to feek a fure and independent revenue from their eftates, inftead of adorning their fplendid beggary by the oppreffion of the people, or (what is almost the fame) by the favours of the court. The fuperfluous stock of corn and cattle was eagerly purchased by the Turks, with whom Vataces preserved a strict and fincere alliance; but he difcouraged the importation of foreign manufactures, the costly filks of the Eaft, and the curious labours of the Italian looms. "The demands of nature and neceffity," was he accustomed to fay, " are indifpenfable; "are "but the influence of fashion may rife and fink "at |