LXII. CHAP. reigned in Etolia, Epirus, and Theffaly, with the appellation of defpots: they had yielded to the fovereign of Conftantinople, but they rejected the chains of the Roman pontiff, and fupported their refusal by successful arms. Under their protection, the fugitive monks and bishops affembled in hoftile fynods; and retorted the name of heretic with the galling addition of apoftate the prince of Trebizon was tempted to affume the forfeit title of emperor; and even the Latins of Negropont, Thebes, Athens, and the Morea, forgot the merits of the convert, to join, with open or clandeftine, aid, the enemies of Palæologus. His favourite generals, of his own blood and family, fucceffively deferted, or betrayed, the facrilegious truft. His fifter Eulogia, a niece, and two female coufins, conspired against him; another niece, Mary queen of Bulgaria, negotiated his ruin with the fultan of Egypt; and in the public eye, their treafon was confecrated as the most sublime virtue 34. To the pope's nuncios, who urged the confummation of the work, Palæologus expofed a naked recital of all that he had done and fuffered for their fake. They were affured that the guilty fectaries, of both fexes and every rank, had been deprived of their honours, their fortunes, and their liberty; a 34 This frank and authentic confeffion of Michael's diftrefs, is exhibited in barbarous Latin by Ogerius, who figns himself Protonotarius Interpretum, and transcribed by Wading from the MSS. of the Vatican (A. D. 1278, No 3.). His Annals of the Franciscan order, the Fratres Minores, in xvii volumes in folio (Rome, 1741), I have now accidentally feen among the wafte paper of a bookfeller. spreading 35 LXII. fpreading lift of confifcation and punishment, CHAP, which involved many perfons, the dearest to the emperor, or the beft deferving of his favour. They were conducted to the prifon to behold four princes of the royal blood chained in the four corners, and fhaking their fetters in an agony of grief and rage. Two of these captives were afterwards released; the one by fubmiffion, the other by death: but the obstinacy of their two companions was chaftifed by the lofs of their eyes; and the Greeks, the least adverse to the union, deplore that cruel and inaufpicious tragedy ". Perfecutors must expect the hatred of those whom they opprefs; but they commonly find fome confolation in the teftimony of their confcience, the applaufe of their party, and, perhaps, the fuccefs of their undertaking. But the hypocrify of Michael, which was prompted only by political motives, must have forced him to hate himself, to defpife his followers, and to efteem and envy the rebel champions by whom he was detefted and defpifed. While his violence was abhorred at Constantinople, at Rome his flownefs was arraigned and his fincerity fufpected; till at length pope Martin the fourth excluded the Greek emperor from the pale of a church, into which he was ftriving to reduce a schismatic people. No fooner had the tyrant expired, than the union was diffolved, and abjured by unani- diffolved, mous confent; the churches were purified; the 35 See the vith book of Pachymer, particularly the chapters, 1. 11. 16. 18. 24-27. He is the more credible, as he speaks of this perfecution with lefs anger than forrow. The union A. D. 1283. CHAP. penitents were reconciled; and his fon Andro→ LXII. nicus, after weeping the fins and errors of his youth, moft pioufly denied his father the burial of a prince and a Chriftian 36. Charles of Anjou fubdues Naples A. D. 1266, Feb. 26. II. In the diftrefs of the Latins, the walls and towers of Conftantinople had fallen to decay: and Sicily, they were restored and fortified by the policy of Michael, who deposited a plenteous ftore of corn and falt provifions, to fuftain the fiege which he might hourly expect from the refentment of the Western powers. Of thefe, the fovereign of the two Sicilies was the moft formidable neighbour; but as long as they were poffeffed by Mainfroy, the bastard of Frederic the fecond, his monarchy was the bulwark rather than the annoyance of the Eastern empire. The ufurper, though a brave and active prince, was fufficiently employed in the defence of his throne: his profcription by fucceffive popes had feparated Mainfroy from the common cause of the Latins; and the forces that might have befieged Conftantinople, were detained in a crufade against the domeftic enemy of Rome. The prize of her avenger, the crown of the two Sicilies, was won and worn by the brother of St. Louis, by Charles count of Anjou and Provence, who led the chivalry of France on this holy expedition". The difaffection of his Chriftian 36 Pachymer, 1. vii. c. 1–11. 17. The fpeech of Andronicus the elder (lib. xii. c. 2.) is a curious record, which proves, that if the Greeks were the flaves of the emperor, the emperor was not lefs the flave of fuperftition and the clergy. 37 The best accounts, the nearest the time, the moft full and entertaining, of the conquest of Naples by Charles of Anjou, may be LXII. tian fubjects compelled Mainfroy to enlift a co- CHAP. lony of Saracens whom his father had planted in Apulia and this odious fuccour will explain the defiance of the Catholic hero, who rejected all terms of accommodation. "Bear this meffage," faid Charles, "to the fultan of Nocera, that God " and the sword are umpire between us; and that he fhall either fend me to paradife, or I will "fend him to the pit of hell." The armies met, and though I am ignorant of Mainfroy's doom in the other world, in this he loft his friends, his kingdom, and his life, in the bloody battle of Benevento. Naples and Sicily were immediately peopled with a warlike race of French nobles; and their afpiring leader embraced the future conqueft of Africa, Greece, and Palestine. The moft fpecious reasons might point his first arms against the Byzantine empire; and Palæologus, diffident of his own ftrength, repeatedly appealed from the ambition of Charles to the humanity of St. Louis, who ftill preferved a just ascendant over the mind of his ferocious brother. For a while the attention of that brother was confined at home by the invafion of Conradin, the last heir of the Imperial house of Swabia: but the hapless boy funk in the unequal conflict; and his execution on a public fcaffold taught the be found in the Florentine Chronicles of Ricordano Malespina (c. 175-193.) and Giovanni Villani (l. vii. c. 1—10. 25—30.), which are published by Muratori in the viiith and xiiith volumes of the hiftorians of Italy. In his Annals (tom. xi. p. 56-72.), he has abridged thefe great events, which are likewife defcribed in the Iftoria Civile of Giannone, tom. ii. l. xix, tom. iji. 1. xx. LXII. the Greek empire, A. D. 1270, &c. CHAP. rivals of Charles to tremble for their heads as well as their dominions. A fecond refpite was obtained by the last crufade of St. Louis to the African coast; and the double motive of intereft and duty urged the king of Naples to affift, with his powers and his prefence, the holy enterprise. The death of St. Louis releafed him from the importunity of a virtuous cenfor; the king of Tunis confeffed himself the tributary and vassal Threatens of the crown of Sicily; and the boldest of the French knights were free to enlift under his banner against the Greek empire. A treaty and a marriage united his intereft with the houfe of Courtenay; his daughter Beatrice was promifed to Philip, fon and heir of the emperor Baldwin; a penfion of fix hundred ounces of gold was allowed for his maintenance; and his generous father diftributed among his allies the kingdoms and provinces of the East, referving only Conftantinople, and one day's journey round the city, for the Imperial domain 39. In this perilous moment, Palæologus was the moft eager to fubfcribe the creed and implore the protection of the Roman pontiff, who affumed, with propriety and weight, the character of an angel of peace, the common father of the Chriftians. By his voice, the sword of Charles was chained in the scabbard; and the Greek ambaffadors beheld him, in the pope's antichamber, biting his ivory fceptre in a transport of fury, and deeply refenting the refusal 38 38 Ducange, Hift. de C. P. 1. v. c. 49–56. 1. vi. c. 1-13. See Pachymer, 1. iv. c. 29. l. v. c. 7-10. 25. l. vi. c. 30. 32, 33. and Nicephorus Gregoras, 1. iv. 5. 1. v. 1. 6. to |