1 LXIII. rived fome revenue from his filver mines"; CHAP. and his family is celebrated by the Greeks 18 as the most ancient and noble of the Teutonic name After the death of this childless princess, Andronicus fought in marriage Jane, the fifter of the count of Savoy"; and his fuit was preferred to that of the French king 20. The count reIpected in his fifter the superior majesty of a Roman emprefs; her retinue was compofed of knights and ladies; fhe was regenerated and crowned in St. Sophia, under the more orthodox appellation of Anne; and, at the nuptial Mœurs, &c.). In the year 1306, in the woods of Luneburgh, fome wild people of the Vened race were allowed to bury alive their infirm and useless parents (Rimius, p. 136.). 17 The affertion of Tacitus, that Germany was deftitute of the precious metals, muft be taken, even in his own time, with fome limitation (Germania, c. 5. Annal. xi. 20.). According to Spener (Hift. Germaniæ Pragmatica, tom. i. p. 351.), Argentifodina in Hercyniis montibus, imperante Othone magnɔ (A. D. 968) primum apertæ, largam etiam opes augendi dederunt copiam but Rimius (p. 258, 259.) defers till the year 1016 the difcovery of the filver mines of Grubenhagen, or the Upper Hartz, which were productive in the beginning of the xivth century, and which still yield a confiderable revenue to the house of Brunswick. 18 Cantacuzene has given a moft honourable teftimony, v d'ex Γερμανων άυτη θυγατηρ δικος ντι μπρεζεικ (the modern Greeks employ the for the, and the jew for the B, and the whole will read in the Italian idiom di Brunzuic), το παρ' αυτοις επιφανεςατε, και λαμε προτήτι παντας τες ὁμοφυλος ὑπερβάλλοντος το γενες. The praife is juft in itself, and pleafing to an English ear. 19 Anne, or Jane, was one of the four daughters of Amedée the Great, by a second marriage, and half-fifter of his successor Edward count of Savoy (Anderson's Tables, p. 650.). See Cantacuzene (1. i. c. 40-42.). 20 That king, if the fact be true, must have been Charles the Fair, who in five years (1321—1326) was married to three wives (Anderfon, p. 628.). Anne of Savoy arrived at Conftantinople in February 1326. Bb 2 feaft, LXIII. CHAP. feaft, the Greeks and Italians vied with each other in the martial exercises of tilts and tournaments. Reign of læologus, A. D 1341' A.D. 13.91. Fortune of John Cantacuzenus. The empress Anne of Savoy furvived her hufband: their fon, John Palæologus, was left an orphan and an emperor, in the ninth year of his June15 age; and his weakness was protected by the first and most deserving of the Greeks. The long and cordial friendship of his father for John Cantacuzene is alike honourable to the prince and the fubject. It had been formed amidst the pleasures of their youth: their families were almost equally noble"; and the recent luftre of the purple was amply compenfated by the energy of a private education. We have feen that the young emperor was faved by Cantacuzene from the power of his grandfather; and, after fix years of civil war, the fame favourite brought him back in triumph to the palace of Conftantinople. Under the reign of Andronicus the younger, the great domestic ruled the emperor and the empire; and it was by his valour and conduct that the ifle of Lefbos and the principality of Ætolia were restored to their ancient allegiance. His enemies confefs, that, among the public robbers, Cantacuzene alone was moderate and abftemious; and the free and voluntary account which he produces of his own wealth" may fuftain the presumption that it was devolved by inheritance, and not accumulated by 21 The noble race of the Cantacuzeni (illuftrious from the xith century in the Byzantine annals) was drawn from the Paladins of France, the heroes of thofe romances which in the xiiith century were tranflated and read by the Greeks (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. P. 258.). 22 See Cantacuzene (l. iii. c. 24. 30. 36.). rapine, LXIII. rapine. He does not indeed specify the value of CHAP. his money, plate, and jewels; yet, after a voluntary gift of two hundred vafes of filver, after much had been fecreted by his friends and plundered by his foes, his forfeit treasures were fufficient for the equipment of a fleet of feventy gallies. He does not measure the fize and num ber of his eftates; but his granaries were heaped with an incredible store of wheat and barley; and the labour of a thousand yoke of oxen might cultivate, according to the practice of antiquity, about fixty-two thousand five hundred acres of arable land 23. His pastures were stocked with two thousand five hundred brood mares, two hundred camels, three hundred mules, five hundred affes, five thousand horned cattle, fifty thoufand hogs, and feventy thousand sheep: a precious record of rural opulence, in the laft period of the empire, and in a land, most probably in Thrace, fo repeatedly wafted by foreign and domestic hoftility. The favour of Cantacuzene was above his fortune. In the moments of familiarity, in the hour of sickness, the emperor was defirous 23 Saferna, in Gaul, and Columella, in Italy or Spain, allow two yoke of oxen, two drivers, and fix labourers, for two hundred jugera (125 English acres) of arable land, and three more men must be added if there be much underwood (Columella de Re Rusticâ, 1. ii. c. 13. p. 441. edit. Gefner). 24 In this enumeration (I. iii. c. 30.), the French tranflation of the prefident Coufin is blotted with three palpable and effential errorsa 1. He omits the 1000 yoke of working oxen. 2. He interprets the Tartanacial πpos dioxic, by the number of fifteen hundred. 3. He confounds myriads with chiliads, and gives Canta-cuzene no more than 5000 hogs. Put not your trust in trans»» lations! LXIII. regent of the em CHAP. to level the diftance between them, and preffed his friend to accept the diadem and purple. The He is left virtue of the great domeftic, which is attefted by his own pen, refifted the dangerous propofal; but the laft teftament of Andronicus the younger named him the guardian of his fon, and the regent of the empire. pire. His regen- by Apocaucus; Had the regent found a fuitable return of obedience and gratitude, perhaps he would have acted with pure and zealous fidelity in the fervice of his pupil. A guard of five hundred foldiers watched over his perfon and the palace; the funeral of the late emperor was decently performed; the capital was filent and fubmiffive; and five hundred letters, which Cantacuzene dispatched in the first month, informed the provinces of their lofs and their duty. The profpect of a tranquil minority was blafted by the great duke or admiraļ Apocaucus; and to exaggerate his perfidy, the Imperial hiftorian is pleased to magnify his own imprudence, in raising him to that office against the advice of his more fagacious fovereign. Bold and fubtle, rapacious and profufe, the avarice and ambition of Apocaucus were by turns fubfervient to each other; and his talents were applied to the ruin of his country. His arrogance was heightened by the command of a naval force and an impregnable caftle, and under the mask of oaths and flattery he fecretly confpired against his 25. See the regency and reign of John Cantacuzenus, and the whole progrefs of the civil war, in his own history (1. iii. c. 1-100. p. 348 700.), and in that of Nicephorus Gregoras (1. xii. c. 1-l.xv. C. 9. P. 353492.). 8 benefactor. CHAP. LXIII. of Savoy; benefactor. The female court of the emprefs was 26 He affumed the royal privilege of red fhoes or bufkins; placed on his head a mitre of filk and gold; subscribed his epiftles with hya cinth or green ink, and claimed for the new, whatever Conftantine had given to the ancient, Rome (Cantacuzen. 1. iii. c. 36. Nic. Gregoras, l.xiv. c. 3.). |