rons of his peerage 28: the nobles of Champagne excelled in all the exercises of war 29; and, by his marriage with the heiress of Navarre, Thibaut could draw a band of hardy Gascons from either embraced side of the Pyrenæan mountains. His companion in by the ba arms was Louis, count of Blois and Chartres; like him- France. self of regal lineage, for both the princes were nephews, at the same time, of the kings of France and England. In a crowd of prelates and barons, who imitated their zeal, I distinguish the birth and merit of Matthew of Montmorency; the famous Simon of Montfort, the scourge of the Albigeois; and a valiant noble, Jeffrey of Villehardouin 30, marshal of Champagne31, who has condescended, in the rude idiom of his age and country 32, to write or dictate 33 an original narrative of the councils and actions in which he bore a memorable part. At the same time, Baldwin count of Flanders, who had married the sister of Thibaut, assumed the cross at Bruges, with his brother Henry and the principal knights and citizens of that rich and industrious province. 34 The vow which the chiefs had pronounced in churches, they ratified in tournaments: the operations of the war were debated in full and frequent assemblies; and it was resolved to seek the deliverance of Palestine in Egypt, a country, since Saladin's death, which was almost ruined by famine and civil war. But the fate of so many royal armies displayed the toils and perils of a land expedition; and if the Flemings dwelt along the ocean, the 29 This number of fiefs (of which 1800 owed liege homage) was enrolled in the church of St. Stephen at Troyes, and attested A. D. 1213, by the marshal and butler of Champagne (Ducange, Observ. p. 254.). 29 Campania militiæ privilegio singularius excellit in tyrociniis prolusione armorum, &c. Ducange, p. 249. from the old Chronicle of Jerusalem, A. D. 1177-1199. 39 The name of Villehardouin was taken from a village and castle in the diocese of Troyes, near the river Aube, between Bar and Arcis. The family was ancient and noble; the elder branch of our historian existed after the year 1400, the younger, which acquired the principality of Achaia, merged in the house of Savoy (Ducange, p. 235 -245.). This office was held by his father and his descendants; but Ducange has not hunted it with his usual sagacity. I find that, in the year 1356, it was in the family of Conflans; but these provincial have been long since eclipsed by the national marshals of France. This language, of which I shall produce some specimens, is explained by Vigenere and Ducange, in a version and glossary. The president Des Brosses (Méchanisme des Langues, tom. ii. p. 83.), gives it as the example of a language which has ceased to be French, and is understood only by grammarians. 33 His age, and his own expression, moi qui ceste œuvre dicta (No. 62, &c.), may justify the suspicion (more probable than Mr. Wood's on Homer), that he could neither read nor write. Yet Champagne may boast of the two first historians, the noble authors of French prose, Villehardouin and Joinville. The crusade and reigns of the counts of Flanders, Baldwin and his brother Henry, are the subject of a particular history by the Jesuit Doutremens (Constantinopolis Belgica; Turnaci, 1638, in 4to.), which I have only seen with the eyes of Ducange. French barons were destitute of ships and ignorant of navigation. They embraced the wise resolution of choosing six deputies or representatives, of whom Villehardouin was one, with a discretionary trust to direct the motions, and to pledge the faith, of the whole confederacy. The maritime states of Italy were alone possessed of the means of transporting the holy warriors with their arms and horses; and the six deputies proceeded to Venice to solicit, on motives of piety or interest, the aid of that powerful republic. State of the A.D. In the invasion of Italy by Attila, I have mentioned 35 Venetians, the flight of the Venetians from the fallen cities of the 697-1200. continent, and their obscure shelter in the chain of islands that line the extremity of the Adriatic Gulf. In the midst of the waters, free, indigent, laborious, and inaccessible, they gradually coalesced into a republic: the first foundations of Venice were laid in the island of Rialto; and the annual election of the twelve tribunes was superseded by the permanent office of a duke or doge. On the verge of the two empires, the Venetians exult in the belief of primitive and perpetual independence.36 Against the Latins, their antique freedom has been asserted by the sword, and may be justified by the pen. Charlemagne himself resigned all claims of sovereignty to the islands of the Adriatic Gulf: his son Pepin was repulsed in the attacks of the lagunas or canals, too deep for the cavalry, and too shallow for the vessels; and in every age, under the German Cæsars, the lands of the republic have been clearly distinguished from the kingdom of Italy. But the inhabitants of Venice were considered by themselves, by strangers, and by their sovereigns, as an inalienable portion of the Greek empire 37: in the ninth and tenth centuries, the proofs of their subjection are numerous and unquestionable; and the vain titles, the servile honours, of the Byzantine court, so ambitiously solicited by their dukes, would have degraded the magistrates of a free people. But the bands of this dependence, which was never absolute or rigid, were 35 History, &c. vol. iii. p. 275, 276. Pepin's invasion, are discussed The foundation and independence of Venice, and by Pagi (Critica, tom. iii. A. D. 810, No. 4, &c.) and Italiæ medii Ævi, in Muratori, Script. tom. x. p. 153.). bias, the Frenchman adverse, the Italian favourable, to the republic. 37 When the son of Charlemagne, asserted his right of sovereignty, he was answered by the loyal Venetians, ὅτι ἡμεῖς δουλοὶ θέλομεν εἶναι τοῦ Ῥωμαίων βασιλέως (Constantin. Porphyrogenit. de Administrat. Imperii, pars ii. c. 28. p. 85.); and the report of the ixth, establishes the fact of the xth century, which is confirmed by the embassy of Liutprand of Cremona. The annual tribute, which the emperor allows them to pay to the king of Italy, alleviates, by doubling, their servitude; but the hateful word dovλol must be translated, as in the charter of 827 (Laugier, Hist. de Venice, tom. i. p. 67, &c.), by the softer appellation of subditi, or fideles. imperceptibly relaxed by the ambition of Venice and the weakness of Constantinople. Obedience was softened into respect, privilege ripened into prerogative, and the freedom of domestic government was fortified by the independence of foreign dominion. The maritime cities of Istria and Dalmatia bowed to the sovereigns of the Adriatic; and when they armed against the Normans in the cause of Alexius, the emperor applied, not to the duty of his subjects, but to the gratitude and generosity of his faithful allies. The sea was their patrimony 38: the western parts of the Mediterranean, from Tuscany to Gibraltar, were indeed abandoned to their rivals of Pisa and Genoa; but the Venetians acquired an early and lucrative share of the commerce of Greece and Egypt. Their riches increased with the increasing demand of Europe: their manufactures of silk and glass, perhaps the institution of their bank, are of high antiquity; and they enjoyed the fruits of their industry in the magnificence of public and private life. To assert her flag, to avenge her injuries, to protect the freedom of navigation, the republic could launch and man a fleet of an hundred galleys; and the Greeks, the Saracens, and the Normans, were encountered by her naval arms. The Franks of Syria were assisted by the Venetians in the reduction of the sea-coast; but their zeal was neither blind nor disinterested; and in the conquest of Tyre, they shared the sovereignty of a city, the first seat of the commerce of the world. The policy of Venice was marked by the avarice of a trading, and the insolence of a maritime, power; yet her ambition was prudent: nor did she often forget that if armed galleys were the effect and safeguard, merchant vessels were the cause and supply, of her greatness. In her religion, she avoided the schism of the Greeks, without yielding a servile obedience to the Roman pontiff; and a free intercourse with the infidels of every clime appears to have allayed betimes the fever of superstition. Her primitive government was a loose mixture of democracy and monarchy: the doge was elected by the votes of the general assembly; as long as he was popular aud successful, he reigned with the pomp and authority of a prince; but in the frequent revolutions of the state, he was deposed, or banished, or slain, by the justice or injustice of the multitude. The twelfth century produced the first rudiments * See the xxvth and xxxth dissertations of the Antiquitates medii Ævi of Muratori. From Anderson's History of Commerce, I understand that the Venetians did not trade to England before the year 1323. The most flourishing state of their wealth and commerce in the beginning of the xvth century, is agreeably described by the Abbé Dubos (Hist. de la Ligue de Cambray, tom. ii. p. 443-480.). of the wise and jealous aristocracy, which has reduced the doge to a pageant, and the people to a cipher. 39 Alliance of the French tians, When the six ambassadors of the French pilgrims and Vene arrived at Venice, they were hospitably entertained in A. D. 1201. the palace of St. Mark, by the reigning duke: his name was Henry Dandolo 1o; and he shone in the last period of human life as one of the most illustrious characters of the times. Under the weight of years, and after the loss of his eyes11, Dandolo retained a sound understanding and a manly courage the spirit of an hero, ambitious to signalise his reign by some memorable exploits; and the wisdom of a patriot, anxious to build his fame on the glory and advantage of his country. He praised the bold enthusiasm and liberal confidence of the barons and their deputies in such a cause, and with such associates, he should aspire, were he a private man, to terminate his life; but he was the servant of the republic, and some delay was requisite to consult, on this arduous business, the judgment of his colleagues. The proposal of the French was first debated by the six sages who had been recently appointed to control the administration of the doge : it was next disclosed to the forty members of the council of state; and finally communicated to the legislative assembly of four hundred and fifty representatives, who were annually chosen in the six quarters of the city. In peace and war, the doge was still the chief of the republic; his legal authority was supported by 39 The Venetians have been slow in writing and publishing their history. Their most ancient monuments are, 1. The rude Chronicle (perhaps) of John Sagorninus (Venezia, 1765, in octavo), which represents the state and manners of Venice in the year 1008. 2. The larger history of the doge (1342-1354), Andrew Dandolo, published for the first time in the xiith tom. of Muratori, A. D. 1728. The History of Venice by the Abbé Laugier (Paris, 1728,) is a work of some merit, which I have chiefly used for the constitutional part. 204. 40 Henry Dandolo was eighty-four at his election (A. D. 1192), and ninety-seven at his death (A. D. 1205). See the Observations of Ducange sur Villehardouin, No. But this extraordinary longevity is not observed by the original writers, nor does there exist another example of an hero near an hundred years of age. Theophrastus might afford an instance of a writer of ninety-nine; but instead of évvevýkovτa (Proœm. ad Character.), I am much inclined to read 6dоμńкovтa, with his last editor Fischer, and the first thoughts of Casaubon. It is scarcely possible that the powers of the mind and body should support themselves till such a period of life. 41 The modern Venetians (Laugier, tom, ii. p. 119.) accuse the emperor Manuel; but the calumny is refuted by Villebardouin and the older writers, who suppose that Dandolo lost his eyes by a wound (No. 34. and Ducange). † It is scarcely necessary to mention the valuable work of Count Daru, "Histoire de Venise," of which I hear that an Italian translation has been published, with notes defensive of the ancient republic. I have not yet seen this work. . M. The accounts differ, both as to the extent and the cause of his blindness. According to Villehardouin and others, the sight was totally lost; according to the Chronicle of Andrew Dandolo (Murat. tom. xii. p. 322.), he was visu debilis. See Wilken, vol. v. p. 143.-M. 42 the personal reputation of Dandolo: his arguments of public interest were balanced and approved; and he was authorised to inform the ambassadors of the following conditions of the treaty. It was proposed that the crusaders should assemble at Venice, on the feast of St. John of the ensuing year; that flat-bottomed vessels should be prepared for four thousand five hundred horses, and nine thousand squires, with a number of ships sufficient for the embarkation of four thousand five hundred knights, and twenty thousand foot: that during a term of nine months they should be supplied with provisions, and transported to whatsoever coast the service of God and Christendom should require; and that the republic should join the armament with a squadron of fifty galleys. It was required, that the pilgrims should pay, before their departure, a sum of eighty-five thousand marks of silver; and that all conquests, by sea and land, should be equally divided between the confederates. The terms were hard; but the emergency was pressing, and the French barons were not less profuse of money than of blood. A general assembly was convened to ratify the treaty the stately chapel and place of St. Mark were filled with ten thousand citizens; and the noble deputies were taught a new lesson of humbling themselves before the majesty of the people. "Illustrious Venetians," said the marshal of Champagne, "we are "sent by the greatest and most powerful barons of France, to "implore the aid of the masters of the sea for the deliverance of "Jerusalem. They have enjoined us to fall prostrate at your feet; "nor will we rise from the ground, till you have promised to "avenge with us the injuries of Christ." The eloquence of their words and tears 43, their martial aspect, and suppliant attitude, were applauded by an universal shout; as it were, says Jeffrey, by the sound of an earthquake. The venerable doge ascended the pulpit to urge their request by those motives of honour and virtue, which alone can be offered to a popular assembly: the treaty was transcribed on parchment, attested with oaths and seals, mutually accepted by the weeping and joyful representatives of France and Venice; and despatched to Rome for the approbation of Pope Innocent the Third. Two thousand marks were borrowed of the merchants for the first expenses of the armament. Of the six deputies, two repassed the Alps to announce their success, 49 See the original treaty in the Chronicle of Andrew Dandolo, p. 323-326. "A reader of Villehardouin must observe the frequent tears of the marshal and his brother knights. Sachiez que la ot mainte lerme plorée de pitié (No. 17.); mult plorant (ibid.); mainte lerme plorée (No. 34.); si orent mult pitié et plorerent mult durement (No. 60.); i ot mainte lerme plorée de pitié (No. 202.). They weep on every occasion of grief, joy, or devotion. |