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LXVIII.

A. D.

1461.

"and treasures by resigning your kingdom? or had CHAP. 66 you rather forfeit your kingdom, your treasures, " and your life?" The feeble Comnenus was subdued by his own fears, and the example of a Mussulmah neighbour, the Prince of Sinope*, who, on a similar summons, had yielded a fortified city with four hundred cannon, and ten or twelve thousand soldiers. The capitulation of Trebizond was of Trebifaithfully performed; and the Emperor, with his fa- zond, mily, was transported to a castle in Romania; but on a slight suspicion of corresponding with the Persian king, David, and the whole Comnenian race, were sacrificed to the jealousy or avarice of the conqueror. Nor could the name of father long protect the unfortunate Demetrius from exile and confiscation; his abject submission moved the pity and contempt of the Sultan; his followers were transplanted to Constantinople; and his poverty was alleviated by a pension of fifty thousand aspers, till a monastic habit and a tardy death released Palæologus from an earthly master. It is not easy to pronounce whether the servitude of Demetrius, or the exile of his brother Thomas t, be the most inglorious. On the conquest of the Morea,

*Ismael Beg, Prince of Sinope or Sinople, was possessed (chiefly from his copper mines) of a revenue of 200,000 ducats (Chalcond. 1. ix. p. 258. 259.). Peyssonel (Commerce de la Mer Noir, tom. ii. p. 100.) ascribes to the modern city 60,000 inhabitants. This account seems enormous; yet it is by trading with a people that we become acquainted with their wealth and numbers.

Spondanus (from Gobelin Comment. Pii II. 1. v.) relates the arrival and reception of the despot Thomas at Rone, (A. D. 1461, No. 3.).

LXVIII.

CHAP. Morea, the despot escaped to Corfu, and from thence to Italy, with some naked adherents; his name, his sufferings, and the head of the apostle St Andrew, entitled him to the hospitality of the Vatican; and his misery was prolonged by a pension of six thousand ducats from the Pope and cardinals. His two sons, Andrew and Manuel, were educated in Italy; but the eldest, contemptible to his enemies, and burdensome to his friends, was degraded by the baseness of his life and marriage. A title) was his sole inheritance; and that inheritance he successively sold to the Kings of France and Arragon *. During this transient prosperity, Charles the Eighth was ambitious of joining the empire of the East with the kingdom of Naples; in a public festival, he assumed the appellation and the purple of Augustus the Greeks rejoiced, and the Ottoman already trembled at the approach of the French chivalry †. Manuel Palæologus, the second son, was tempted to revisit his native country; his return might be grateful, and could not be dangerous to the

:

By an act dated A. D. 1494, Sept. 6. and lately transmitted from the archives of the Capitol to the royal library of Paris, the despot Andrew Palæologus, reserving the Morea, and stipulating some private advantages, conveys to Charles VIII. King of France, the empires of Constantinople and Trebizond, (Spondanus, A. D. 1495, No. 2.). M. de Foncemagne (Mem. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xvii. p. 539 -578.) has bestowed a dissertation on this national title, of which he had obtained a copy from Rome.

See Philippe de Comines, (1. vii. c. 14.), who reckons with pleasure the number of Greeks who were prepared to rise, 60 miles of an easy navigation, eighteen days journey from Valona to Constantinople, &c. On this occasion the Turkish empire was saved by the policy of Venice.

LXVII.

the Porte; he was maintained at Constantinople in CHAP. safety and ease; and an honourable train of Christians and Moslems attended him to the grave. If there be some animals of so generous a nature, that they refuse to propagate in a domestic state, the last of the Imperial race must be ascribed to an inferior kind; he accepted from the Sultan's liberality two beautiful females; and his surviving son was \ lost in the habit and religion of a Turkish slave.

Europe,

A. D.

1453

The importance of Constantinople was felt and Grief and magnified in its loss; the pontificate of Nicholas terror of the Fifth, however peaceful and prosperous, was dishonoured by the fall of the Eastern empire; and the grief and terror of the Latins revived, or seemed to revive, the old enthusiasm of the crusades. In one of the most distant countries of the West, Philip, Duke of Burgundy, entertained, at Lisle in Flanders, an assembly of his nobles; and the pompous pageants of the feast were skilfully adapted to their fancy and feelings *. In the midst of the banquet, a gigantic Saracen entered the hall, leading a fictitious elephant, with a castle on his back; a matron in a mourning robe, the symbol of religion, was seen to issue from the castle; she deplored her oppression, and accused the slowness of her champions; the prin cipal herald of the golden fleece advanced, bear

ing

See the original feast in Olivier de la Marche, (Memoires, p. i. c. 29. 30.), with the abstract and observations of M. de St Palaye, (Memoires sur la Chevalerie, tom. i. p. iii. p. 182-185.). The peacock and the pheasant were distingu shed as royal birds.

CHAP. ing on his fist a live pheasant, which, according to LXVIII. the rites of chivalry, he presented to the Duke.

At this extraordinary summons, Philip, a wise and aged prince, engaged his person and powers in the holy war against the Turks; his example was imitated by the barons and knights of the assembly; they swore to God, the Virgin, the ladies, and the pheasant; and their particular vows were not less extravagant than the general sanction of their oath. But the performance was made to depend on some future and foreign contingency; and, during twelve years, till the last hour of his life, the Duke of Burgundy might be scrupulously, and perhaps sincerely, on the eve of his departure. Had every breast glowed with the same ardour; had the union of the Christians corresponded with their bravery; had every country, from Sweden to Naples, supplied a just proportion of cavalry and infantry, of men and money, it is indeed probable that Constantinople would have been delivered, and that the Turks might have been chased beyond the Hellespont or the Euphrates. But the secretary of the Emperor, who composed every epistle, and attended every meeting, Eneas Sylvius †, a statesman and orator,

*It was found by an actual enumeration, that Sweden, Gothland, and Finland, contained 1,800,000 fighting men, and consequently were far more populous than at present.

In the year 1454, Spondanus has given, from Æneas Sylvius, a view of the state of Europe, enriched with his own observations. That valuable annalist, and the Italian Muratori, will continue the series of events from the year 1453 to 1481, the end of Mahomet's life, and of this chapter.

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LXVIII.

orator, describes from his own experience the re- CHAP. pugnant state and spirit of Christendom. "body," says he, " without an head; a republic " without laws or magistrates. The Pope and the Emperor may shine as lofty titles, as splendid images; but they are unable to command, and "none are willing to obey; every state has a sepa"rate prince, and every prince has a separate inWhat eloquence could unite so many "discordant and hostile powers under the same "standard? Could they be assembled in arms, "who would dare to assume the office of general ? "What order could be maintained ?—what military "discipline? Who would undertake to feed such "an enormous multitude? Who would understand "their various languages, or direct their stranger " and incompatible manners? What mortal could "reconcile the English with the French, Genoa "with Arragon, the Germans with the natives of "Hungary and Bohemia? If a small number en"listed in the holy war, they must be overthrown "by the infidels; if many, by their own weight "and confusion." Yet the same Æneas, when he was raised to the Papal throne, under the name of Pius the Second, devoted his life to the prosecution of the Turkish war. In the council of Mantua, he excited some sparks of a false or feeble enthusiasm; but when the Pontiff appeared at Ancona, to embark in person with the troops, engagements vanished in excuses; a precise day was adjourned to an indefinite term; and his effective

army

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