of England.

journey from Germany to Spain, and from the Alps to the British Ocean; containing many flourishing cities, and among these Paris, the seat of the king, which surpasses the rest in riches and luxury. Many princes and lords alternately wait in his palace, and acknowledge him as their sovereign: the most powerful are the dukes of Bretagne and Burgundy; of whom the latter possesses the wealthy province of Flanders, whose harbours are frequented by the ships and merchants of our own, and the more remote, seas. The French are an ancient and opulent people; and their language and manners, though somewhat different, are not dissimilar from those of the Italians. Vain of the Imperial dignity of Charlemagne, of their victories over the Saracens, and of the exploits of their heroes, Oliver and Rowland 25, they esteem themselves the first of the western nations; but this foolish arrogance has been recently humbled by the unfortunate events of their wars against the English the inhabitants of the British island. III. BRITAIN, in the ocean, and opposite to the shores of Flanders, may be considered either as one, or as three islands; but the whole is united by a common interest, by the same manners, and by a similar government. The measure of its circumference is five thousand stadia: the land is overspread with towns and villages: though destitute of wine, and not abounding in fruit-trees, it is fertile in wheat and barley; in honey and wool; and much cloth is manufactured by the inhabitants. In populousness and power, in riches and luxury, London 26, the metropolis of the isle, may claim a pre-eminence over all the cities of the West. It is situate on the Thames, a broad and rapid river, which at the distance of thirty miles falls into the Gallic Sea; and the daily flow and ebb of the tide affords a safe entrance and departure to the vessels of commerce. The king is the head of a powerful and turbulent aristocracy: his principal vassals hold their estates by a free and unalterable tenure; and the laws define the limits of his authority and their obedience. The kingdom has been often afflicted by foreign conquest and domestic sedition; but the natives are bold and hardy, renowned in arms and victorious in war. The form of

25 Most of the old romances were translated in the xivth century into French prose, and soon became the favourite amusement of the knights and ladies in the court of Charles VI. If a Greek believed in the exploits of Rowland and Oliver, he may surely be excused, since the monks of St. Denys, the national historians, have inserted the fables of archbishop Turpin in their Chronicles of France.

26 Λονδίνη . . . . δέ τε πόλις δυνάμει τε προέχουσα τῶν ἐν τῇ νήσῳ ταύτῃ πασῶν πόλεων, ὄλβῳ τε καὶ τῇ ἄλλῃ εὐδαιμονίᾳ οὐδεμιᾶς τῶν πρὸς ἑσπέραν λειπομένη. Even since the time of Fitzstephen (the xiith century), Loudon appears to have maintained this preeminence of wealth and magnitude; and her gradual increase has, at least, kept pace with the general improvement of Europe.

their shields or targets is derived from the Italians, that of their swords from the Greeks; the use of the long bow is the peculiar and decisive advantage of the English. Their language bears no affinity to the idioms of the Continent: in the habits of domestic life, they are not easily distinguished from their neighbours of France: but the most singular circumstance of their manners is their disregard of conjugal honour and of female chastity. In their mutual visits, as the first act of hospitality, the guest is welcomed in the embraces of their wives and daughters: among friends they are lent and borrowed without shame; nor are the islanders offended at this strange commerce, and its inevitable consequences.27 Informed as we are of the customs of old England, and assured of the virtue of our mothers, we may smile at the credulity, or resent the injustice, of the Greek, who must have confounded a modest salute 25 with a criminal embrace. But his credulity and injustice may teach an important lesson; to distrust the accounts of foreign and remote nations, and to suspend our belief of every tale that deviates from the laws of nature and the character of man.29

28

ence of

towards

A. D.

After his return, and the victory of Timour, Manuel Indifferreigned many years in prosperity and peace. As long Manuel as the sons of Bajazet solicited his friendship and spared the Latins his dominions, he was satisfied with the national religion; 1402–1417. and his leisure was employed in composing twenty theological dialogues for its defence. The appearance of the Byzantine

ambassadors at the council of Constance 30, announces the restoration of the Turkish power, as well as of the Latin church: the conquest of the sultans, Mahomet and Amurath, reconciled

"If the double sense of the verb Ków (osculor, and in utero gero) be equivocal, the context and pious horror of Chalcondyles can leave no doubt of his meaning and mistake (p. 49.).'

Erasmus (Epist. Fausto Andrelino) has a pretty passage on the English fashion of kissing strangers on their arrival and departure, from whence, however, he draws no scandalous inferences.

Perhaps we may apply this remark to the community of wives among the old Britons, as it is supposed by Cæsar and Dion (Dion Cassius, 1. lxii. tom. ii. p. 1007.), with Reimar's judicious annotation. The Arreoy of Otaheite, so certain at first, is become less visible and scandalous, in proportion as we have studied the manners of that gentle and amorous people.

"See Lenfant, Hist. du Concile de Constance, tom. ii. p. 576.; and for the ecclesiastical history of the times, the Annals of Spondanus, the Bibliothèque of Dupin, tom. xii. and xxist and xxiid volumes of the History, or rather the Continuation, of Fleury.

I can discover no "pious horror" in the plain manner in which Chalcondyles relates this strange usage:—he says, ovde αἰσχύνην τοῦτο φέρει ἑαυτοῖς κυέσθαι τὰς τὲ γυναῖκας αὐτῶν καὶ τὰς θυγατέρας ; yet these are expressions beyond what would be used, if the ambiguous word kvéσbai were taken

VOL. VI.

Q

in its more innocent sense. Nor can the phrase παρέχονται τὰς ἑαυτῶν γυναῖκας ἐν Toîs èxitndeîois, well bear a less coarse interpretation. Gibbon is probably right as to the origin of this extraordinary mistake. M.

His negotiations,

A. D.

the emperor to the Vatican; and the siege of Constantinople almost tempted him to acquiesce in the double procession of the Holy Ghost. When Martin the Fifth ascended without a rival the chair of St. Peter, a friendly intercourse of letters and embassies was revived between the East and West. Ambition on one side, and distress on the other, dictated 1417-1425. the same decent language of charity and peace: the artful Greek expressed a desire of marrying his six sons to Italian princesses; and the Roman, not less artful, despatched the daughter of the marquis of Montferrat, with a company of noble virgins, to soften, by their charms, the obstinacy of the schismatics. Yet under this mask of zeal, a discerning eye will perceive that all was hollow and insincere in the court and church of Constantinople. According to the vicissitudes of danger and repose, the emperor advanced or retreated; alternately instructed and disavowed his ministers; and escaped from an importunate pressure by urging the duty of inquiry, the obligation of collecting the sense of his patriarchs and bishops, and the impossibility of convening them at a time when the Turkish arms were at the gates of his capital. From a review of the public transactions it will appear that the Greeks insisted on three successive measures, a succour, a council, and a final re-union, while the Latins eluded the second, and only promised the first, as a consequential and voluntary reward of the third. But we have an opportunity of unfolding the motives. most secret intentions of Manuel, as he explained them in a private conversation without artifice or disguise. In his declining age, the emperor had associated John Palæologus, the second of the name, and the eldest of his sons, on whom he devolved the greatest part of the authority and weight of governOne day, in the presence only of the historian Phranza 31 his favourite chamberlain, he opened to his colleague and successor the true principle of his negotiations with the pope.32 "Our last

His private

ment.

31 From his early youth, George Phranza, or Phranzes, was employed in the service of the state and palace; and Hanckius (de Script. Byzant. P. i. c. 40.) has collected his life from his own writings. He was no more than four-and-twenty years of age at the death of Manuel, who recommended him in the strongest terms to his successor : Imprimis vero hunc Phranzen tibi commendo, qui ministravit mihi fideliter et diligenter (Phranzes, 1. ii. c. i.). Yet the emperor John was cold, and he preferred the service of the despots of Peloponnesus.

32 See Phranzes, 1. ii. c. 13. While so many manuscripts of the Greek original are extant in the libraries of Rome, Milan, the Escurial, &c., it is a matter of shame and reproach, that we should be reduced to the Latin version, or abstract, of James Pontanus (ad calcem Theophylact, Simocattæ: Ingolstadt, 1604), so deficient in accuracy and elegance (Fabric. Bibliot. Græc. tom. vi. p. 615-620.). *

*The Greek text of Phranzes was edited by F. C. Alter, Vindobonæ, 1796. It has been re-edited by Bekker for the

new edition of the Byzantines. Bonn, 1838.-M.

66

66

"resource," said Manuel, against the Turks is their fear of our "union with the Latins, of the warlike nations of the West, who 66 may arm for our relief and for their destruction. As often as you are threatened by the miscreants, present this danger before "their eyes. Propose a council; consult on the means; but ever delay and avoid the convocation of an assembly, which cannot "tend either to our spiritual or temporal emolument. The Latins "are proud; the Greeks are obstinate; neither party will recede "or retract; and the attempt of a perfect union will confirm the "schism, alienate the churches, and leave us, without hope or "defence, at the mercy of the Barbarians." Impatient of this salutary lesson, the royal youth arose from his seat, and departed in silence; and the wise monarch (continued Phranza) casting his eyes on me, thus resumed his discourse: "My son deems himself "a great and heroic prince; but, alas! our miserable age does not "afford scope for heroism or greatness. His daring spirit might "have suited the happier times of our ancestors; but the present "state requires not an emperor, but a cautious steward of the last "relics of our fortunes. Well do I remember the lofty expec"tations which he built on our alliance with Mustapha; and much "do I fear, that his rash courage will urge the ruin of our house, "and that even religion may precipitate our downfal." Yet the experience and authority of Manuel preserved the peace, and eluded the council; till, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, and in the habit of a monk, he terminated his career, dividing his precious moveables among his children and the poor, his physicians and his favourite servants. Of his six sons Andronicus the Second was invested with the principality of Thessalonica, and died of a leprosy soon after the sale of that city to the Venetians and its final conquest by the Turks. Some fortunate incidents had restored Peloponnesus, or the Morea, to the empire; and in his more prosperous days, Manuel had fortified the narrow isthmus of six miles 34 with a stone wall and one hundred and fifty-three towers. The wall was overthrown by the first blast of the Ottomans; the fertile peninsula might have been sufficient for the four younger brothers, Theodore and Constantine, Demetrius and Thomas; but they wasted in domestic contests the

See Ducange, Fam, Byzant. p. 243–248.

His death.

33

The exact measure of the Hexamilion, from sea to sea, was 3800 orgyiæ, or toises, of six Greek feet (Phranzes, 1. i. c. 38.), which would produce a Greek mile, still smaller than that of 660 French toises, which is assigned by D'Anville, as still in use in Turkey. Five miles are commonly reckoned for the breadth of the isthmus. See the Travels of Spon, Wheeler, and Chandler.

Q 2

,

impeded by a most ignominious obstacle. On his arrival at Venice, he had borrowed large sums at exorbitant usury; but his coffers were empty, his creditors were impatient, and his person was detained as the best security for the payment. His eldest son Andronicus, the regent of Constantinople, was repeatedly urged to exhaust every resource; and even by stripping the churches, to extricate his father from captivity and disgrace. But the unnatural youth was insensible of the disgrace, and secretly pleased with the captivity of the emperor: the state was poor, the clergy were obstinate; ner could some religious scruple be wanting to excuse the guilt of his indifference and delay. Such undutiful neglect was severely reproved by the piety of his brother Manuel, who instantly sold or mortgaged all that he possessed, embarked for Venice, relieved his father, and pledged his own freedom to be responsible for the debt. On his return to Constantinople, the His return parent and king distinguished his two sons with suitable to Constan- rewards; but the faith and manners of the slothful PalæoA. D. 1370. logus had not been improved by his Roman pilgrimage; and his apostasy or conversion, devoid of any spiritual or temporal effects, was speedily forgotten by the Greeks and Latins.14

tinople,

emperor

Visit of the Thirty years after the return of Palæologus, his son Manuel and successor, Manuel, from a similar motive, but on a larger scale, again visited the countries of the West. In a preceding chapter I have related his treaty with Bajazet, the violation of that treaty, the siege or blockade of Constantinople, and the French succour under the command of the gallant Boucicault. 15 By his ambassadors, Manuel had solicited the Latin powers; but it was thought that the presence of a distressed monarch would draw tears and supplies from the hardest barbarians16; and the marshal who advised the journey prepared the reception of the Byzantine prince. The land was occupied by the Turks; but the navigation of Venice was safe and open: Italy received him as the first, or, at least, as the second of the Christian princes; Manuel was pitied as the champion and confessor of the faith; and the dignity of his behaviour prevented that pity from sinking into contempt. From Venice he proceeded to Padua and Pavia; and even the Duke of Milan, a secret ally

I much more inclined to believe, that Palæologus departed from Italy, valde bene consolatus et contentus (Vit. Urban V. p. 623.).

14 His return in 1970, and the coronation of Manuel, Sept. 25. 1373 (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 241.), leaves some intermediate æra for the conspiracy and punishment of Andronicus.

15 Mémoires de Boucicault, P. i. c. 35, 36.

16 His journey into the west of Europe is slightly, and I believe reluctantly, noticed by Chalcondyles (1. ii. c. 44—50.) and Ducas (c. 14.).