OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

81

331

or royal mosques; and the first of these was built, by Mahomet CHAP. himself, on the ruins of the church of the holy apostles and LXVIII. the tombs of the Greek emperors. On the third day after the conquest, the grave of Abou Ayub or Job, who had fallen in the first siege of the Arabs, was revealed in a vision; and it is before the sepulchre of the martyr, that the new sultans are girded with the sword of empire. Constantinople no longer appertains to the Roman historian; nor shall I enumerate the civil and religious edifices that were profaned or erected by its Turkish masters: the population was speedily renewed; and before the end of September, five thousand families of Anatolia and Romania had obeyed the royal mandate, which enjoined them under pain of death, to occupy their new habitations in the capital. The throne of Mahomet was guarded by the numbers and fidelity of his Moslem subjects: but his rational policy aspired to collect the remnant of the Greeks; and they returned in crowds as soon as they were assured of their lives, their liberties, and the free exercise of their religion. In the election and investiture of a patriarch, the ceremonial of the Byzantine court was revived and imitated. With a mixture of satisfaction and horror, they beheld the sultan on his throne; who delivered into the hands of Gennadius the crosier or pastoral staff, the symbol of his ecclesiastical office; who conducted the patriarch to the gate of the seraglio, presented him with a horse richly caparisoned, and directed the vizirs and bashaws to lead him to the palace which had been allotted for his residence. The churches of Constantinople were shared between the two religions: their limits were marked; and, till it was infringed by Selim the grandson of Mahomet, the Greeks enjoyed above sixty years the benefit of this equal partition. Encouraged by the ministers of the divan, who wished to elude the fanaticism of the sultan, the Christian advocates presumed to allege that this division had been an act, not of generosity, but of justice; not a concession, but a compact; and that if one-half of the city had been taken by storm, the other moiety had surrendered on the faith of a sacred capitulation. The original grant had indeed been consumed by fire: but the loss was supplied by the testimony of three aged Janizaries

21 The Turbe, or sepulchral monument of Abou Ayub, is described and engraved in the Tableau General de l'Empire Ottoman (Paris, 1787, in large folio,) a work of less use, perhaps, than magnificence (tom. i. p. 305, 306.)

82 Phranza (1. iii. e. 19,) relates the ceremony, which has possibly been adorned in the Greek reports to each other, and to the Latins. The fact is confirmed by Emanuel Malaxas, who wrote, in vulgar Greek, the History of the Patriarchs after the taking of Constantinople, inserted in the Turco-Græcia of Crusius (1. v. p. 106-184.) But the most patient reader will not believe that Mahomet adopted the Catholic form, “Sancta Trinitas quæ mihi donavit imperium te in patriarcham novæ Romæ deligit."

83 From the Turco-Græcia of Crusius, &c. Spondanus (A. D. 1453, No. 21. 1158, No. 16,) describes the slavery and domestic quarrels of the Greek church. The patriarch who succeeded Gennadius, threw himself in despair into a well

332

Extinction of the

families of

and Palæo

logus.

THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP. Who remembered the transaction; and their venal oaths LXVIII. are of more weight in the opinion of Cantemir, than the positive and unanimous consent of the history of the times.84 The remaining fragments of the Greek kingdom in Europe Imperial and Asia I shall abandon to the Turkish arms; but the final Comnenus extinction of the two last dynasties 5 which have reigned in - Constantinople, should terminate the decline and fall of the Roman empire in the East. The despots of the Morea, Demetrius and Thomas, 86 the two surviving brothers of the name of PALEOLOGUS, were astonished by the death of the emperor Constantine and the ruin of the monarchy. Hopeless of defence, they prepared, with the noble Greeks who adhered to their fortune, to seek a refuge in Italy, beyond the reach of the Ottoman thunder. Their first apprehensions were dispelled by the victorious sultan, who contented himself with a tribute of twelve thousand ducats; and while his ambition explored the continent and the islands in search of prey, he indulged the Morea in a respite of seven years. But this respite was a period of grief, discord, and misery. The hexamilion, the rampart of the isthmus, so often raised, and so often subverted, could not long be defended by three hundred Italian archers the keys of Corinth were seized by the Turks: they returned from their summer excursions with a train of captives and spoil; and the complaints of the injured Greeks were heard with indifference and disdain. The Albanians, a vagrant tribe of shepherds and robbers, filled the peninsula with rapine and murder: the two despots implored the dangerous and humiliating aid of a neighbouring bashaw; and when he had quelled the revolt, his lessons inculcated the rule of their future conduct. Neither the ties of blood, nor the oaths which they repeatedly pledged in the communion and before the altar, nor the stronger pressure of necessity, could reconcile or suspend their domestic quarrels. They ravaged each other's patrimony with fire and sword; the alms and succours of the West were consumed in civil hostility; and their power was only exerted in savage and arbitrary executions. The

84 Cantemir (p. 101-105,) insists on the unanimous consent of the Turkish historians, ancient as well as modern, and argues, that they would not have violated the truth to diminish their national glory, since it is esteemed more honourable to take a city by force than by composition. But, 1. I doubt this consent, since he quotes no particular historian, and the Turkish Annals of Leunclavius affirm, without exception, that Mahomet took Constantinople per vim (p. 329.) 2. The same argument may be turned in favour of the Greeks of the times, who would not have forgotten this honourable and salutary treaty. Voltaire, as usual, prefers the Turks to the Christians,

55 For the genealogy and fall of the Comneni of Trebizond, see Ducange Fam. Byzant. p. 195,) for the last Palæologi, the same accurate antiquarian (p. 244. 247, 248.) The Palæologi of Montferrat were not extinct till the next century; but they had forgotten their Greek origin and kindred.

86 In the worthless story of the disputes and misfortunes of the two brothers, Phranza (I. iii. c. 21-30,) is too partial on the side of Thomas; Ducas (c. 41, 15,) is too brief, and Chalcocondyles (1. viii. ix. x.) too diffuse and digressive.

Morea,

distress and revenge of the weaker rival invoked their su- CHAP. preme lord; and, in the season and maturity of revenge, Maho- LXVIII. met declared himself the friend of Demetrius, and marched into the Morea with an irresistible force. When he had taken Loss of the possession of Sparta, "You are too weak," said the sultan, A. D. 1460. "to control this turbulent province: I will take your daughter to my bed; and you shall pass the remainder of your life in security and honour." Demetrius sighed and obeyed; surrendered his daughter and his castles; followed to Adrianople his sovereign and son; and received for his own maintenance, and that of his followers, a city in Thrace, and the adjacent isles of Imbros, Lemnos, and Samothrace. He was joined the next year by a companion of misfortune, the last of the CoмNENIAN race, who, after the taking of Constantinople by the Latins, had founded a new empire on the coast of the Black Sea. In the progress of his Anatolian conquests, Mahomet invested with a fleet and army the capital of David, who presumed to style himself emperor of Trebizond;88 and the negotiation was comprised in a short and peremptory question, "Will you secure your life and treasures by resigning your kingdom? or had you rather forfeit your kingdom, your treasures, and your life?" The feeble Comnenus was subdued of Trebiby his own fears, and the example of a Mussulman neighbour, A. D. 1461. 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 faithfully performed; and the emperor, with his family, 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 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 Tho

89

87 See the loss or conquest of Trebizond in Chalcocondyles (1. ix. p. 263266,) Ducas (c. 45,) Phranza (1. iii. c. 27,) and Cantemir (p. 107.)

88 Though Tournefort (tom. iii. lettre xvii. p. 179,) speaks of Trebizond as mal peuplée, Peyssonel, the latest and most accurate observer, can find, 100,000 inhabitants (Commerce de la Mer Noire, tom. ii. p. 72, and for the province, p. 53-90.) Its prosperity and trade are perpetually disturbed by the factious quarrels of two odas of Janizaries, in one of which 30,000 Lazi are commonly enrolled (Memoires de Tott, tom. iii. p. 16, 17.)

Ismael Beg, prince of Sinope, or Sinople, was possessed (chiefly from his copper mines) of a revenue of 200,000 ducats (Chalcocond. 1. ix. p. 258, 259.) Peyssonel (Commerce de la Mer Noire, 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.

zond,

90

CHAP. mas, be the most inglorious. On the conquest of the Morea, LXVIII. 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 burthensome 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 his transient prosperity, Charles the Eighth was ambitious of joining the empire of the East with the kindom 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.92 Manuel Palæologus, the second son, was tempted to revisit his native country his return might be grateful, and could not be dangerous to the Porte; he was maintained at Constantinople in 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.

Grief and terror of

The importance of Constantinople was felt and magnified in its loss; the pontificate of Nicholas the Fifth, however peaceA. D. 1453. ful and prosperous, was dishonoured by the fall of the Eastern

Europe,

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,

93

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

91 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 Morca, 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.

92 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.

93 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. 182-183.) The peacock and the pheasant were distinguished as royal birds.

94

a gigantic Saracen entered the hall, leading a fictitious ele- CHAP. phant, with a castle on his back: a matron in a mourning LXVIII. robe, the symbol of religion, was seen to issue from the castle; she deplored her oppression, and accused the slowness of her champions: the principal herald of the golden fleece advanced, bearing on his fist a live pheasant, which, according to the rights 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,95 a statesman and orator, describes from his own experience the repugnant state and spirit of Christendom. "It is a body," says he, "without a head; a republic without laws or magistrates. The pope and the emperor may shine as lofty titles, as splen did images; but they are unable to command, and none are willing to obey every state has a separate prince, and every prince has a separate interest. What 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 enlisted in the holy war, they must be overthrown by the infidels; if many by their own weight and confusion." Yet the same Eneas,

94 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.

95 In the year 1454 Spondanus has given, from Eneas 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.