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2 – 7.3/
HISTORY
OF THE
REVOLUTIONS IN EUROPE,
FROM THE SUB VERSION
OF
THE ROMAN EMPIRE
IN THE WEST,
TILI,
THE ABDICATION OF BONAPARTE.
FROM THE FRENCH OF C. W. KOCH.
BY ANDREW CRICHTON.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
vol. I.
EDINBURGH :
PRINTED FOR CONSTABLE AND CO.
AND HURST, CHANCE AND CO, LONDON.
1828.

TO
THE VERY REVEREND
GEORGE HUSBAND BAIRD, D. D.
principal of the university or Edinburgh,
THE PROMOTER, OF EDUCATION AND RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION
IN THE HIGH LANDS AND ISLANDS of SCOTLAND,
AND THE FRIEND
of Evray other BENEvolent AND PATRIOTIC INSTITUTION ;
THE Following volumes ARE INSCRIBED,
- AS A SLIGHT,
But sINCERE TokEN or ESTEEM,
RY
THE TRANSLATOR.
CONTENTS OF WOL. I.
- PAGE
TRANslatok's PREF AcE . . . . . . v.
|LIFE of Koch . . . . . . . . . 11
Author's PREF Ace . . . . . . . 19
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . 25
CHAPTER II.-PERIOD I.
FRom. The INvAston of THE Roman EMPIRE IN THE
WEST BY THE BARBARIANs, To The TIME of CHAR-
LEMAGNE. A. n. 406–800 . . . . . . . . 65
CHAPTER III.-PERIOD II.
FRoM CHARLEMAGNE To OTHo THE GREAT. A. D.
800–962 * e e ſº © e e { * tº ge © tº & 103
CHAPTER IV.-PERIOD III.
From Orho THE GREAT To GREGoRY THE GREAT.
A. D. 962–1074 . . . . . . . . . • • 130
CHAPTER V.-PERIOD IV.
From Pope Gargory VII. to Boniface VIII. A. D. .
1074–1300 gº tº * ge * * : * © tº t gº sº ſº 167
CHAPTER VI.-PERIOD V.
From Pork Boniface VIII. To THE TAking of Cox-
STANTINorLE BY THE TURKs. A. D., 1300–1453 . 272

TRANSLATOR's PREFACE.
THE VIEw of THE REvolutions of EU-
RoPE by M. Koch, is here for the first time
presented to the English reader in his own
language. It has been long known and
highly esteemed on the Continent, as a work
of incontestable merit, and entitled to hold
the first rank among productions of its kind.
It occupied the labours and researches of
thirty years of the author's life; and had
the benefit of receiving, at different inter-
vals, several additions and improvements
from his own hand. As a concise, lumin-
ous, and accurate summary of general his-
tory, it stands unrivalled. The principal
events and vicissitudes of more than four-
teen hundred years, are here condensed
within an incredibly small space; bringing,
as it were, under one view the successive
changes and destinies of Europe, from the
vi TRANSLATOR’s PREFACE.
fall of the Roman Empire, in the fifth cen-
tury, to the restoration of the Bourbons in
France. The countries which the different
nations, from time to time have occupied,—
their laws and institutions—their progress
from barbarism to refinement—the revival of
arts and sciences—the origin of inventions
and discoveries—and the wonderful revolu-
tions, both moral and political, to which they
gave birth,-are here detailed at once with
brevity and perspicuity. The author has re-
stricted himself as it were to the pure elements
or essence of useful knowledge, discarding
from his narrative every thing that did not
minister to solid instruction. His book has
been compared to a sort of chart or genea-
logical tree of history, where only the grand
and prominent events have been recorded,
stript of all their secondary and subordinate
circumstances, which often distract the at-
tention, without adding in the least to the
interest or elucidation of the subject. His
researches have thrown a new light on some
of the difficulties and obscurities of the Mid-
dle Ages, particularly with regard to Chro-
nology and Geography. His veracity and
precision are unimpeachable; and though
TRANSLATOR’s PREFACE. vii
his style has been thought inelegant, his
andour, judgment and erudition, have ne-
er been called in question. Men of all
arties, and of opposite opinions, both in
olitics and religion, have united their suf-
ages in his praise. M. Fontanes, Grand
Master of the University of Paris—M. Le-
vesque, Vice-President of the Class of An-
cient History and Literature, and M. Da-
cier, Perpetual Secretary of the Third Class,
in the Institute—M. Fourcroy, Director-
General of Public Instruction at Paris—
M. Frederic Buchholz of Berlin, who trans-
lated the Tableau into German, and many
others, have spoken of this book in terms
of the highest commendation; and obtained
it a place in most of the Universities, Schools,
and Libraries on the Continent.
THE REvolutions, although an excellent
digest of the history and policy of Europe,
claims no higher merit than that of an ele-
mentary work. It was originally designed
for the young entering on their political
studies, and is an outline that must be filled
up by subsequent reading, and from colla-
teral sources. With regard to the present
English edition, the Translator has only to





viii TrANslATOR’s Prº FACE.
say, that he has endeavoured to give a faith
ful transcript of his author, and as litera
as the idiom of the two languages would ad
mit. He has been more studious of fidelity
to his original, than elegance of style, or
novelty of expression. He has prefixed a
short sketch of the author's life, abridged
from two of his biographers, MM. Schoell
and Weiss.
The first two volumes bring down the
History of Europe to the French Revo-
lution, which is all that our author under-
took, or rather lived to accomplish. The
period from that event to the restoration of
the Bourbons in 1815, which will compose
the Third Volume, has been continued by
M. Schoell, * the editor of Koch’s Works,
and author of the History of the Treaties of
Peace, &c. As the continuation, however,
differs a little in some points, from the views
of the original, and is not so full on others
as might be wished, the Translator has in-
troduced such additions and amendments
as seemed necessary to complete what was
deficient; according as nearly as possible
• M. Schoell has also interspersed a few explanatory
paragraphs, which in the present volumes the reader will
find included within brackets. [- - -]
TRANSLATOR’s PREFACE. ix
ith the spirit and design of the author
imself. These alterations, as well as the
uthorities on which they have been made,
ill be found carefully marked.
In conclusion it may be necessary to state,
hat, for the sake of uniformity, the whole of
he Notes have been appended to the third
olume. The Aphabetical Index has been
mitted as unnecessary. The Chronological
ables are in some degree superseded, by
he dates being regularly introduced into the
ext. The same may be said of the Maps
which accompany the original; their want
ill in a great measure be compensated by
he excellence of our common Atlasses, and
he improvements that have taken place in
his department of Geographical Science
ince Koch wrote his Revolutions of Eu-
ope.
EDINBURGH ; November, 1828.









LIFE OF KOCH.
CHRISTOPHER WILLIAM Koch, equally distin-
guished as a lawyer and a learned historian, was
born on the 9th of May 1737 at Bouxwiller, a
small town in the seigniory of Lichtenberg in Al-
sace, which then belonged to the Prince of Hesse-
Darmstadt. His father, who was a member of
the Chamber of Finance under that prince, sent
Phim to an excellent school in his native place,
here he received the rudiments of his education.
*t the age of thirteen, he went to the Protestant
niversity of Strasbourg, where he prosecuted his
studies under the celebrated Schoepflin. Law was
the profession to which he was destined; but he
showed an early predilection for the study of his-
tory, and the sciences connected with it, such as
iplomatics, or the art of deciphering and verify-
ing ancient writs and chartularies, Genealogy, Chro-
hology, &c. Schoepflin was not slow to appreciate
VOL. I. A - l











12 LIFE of KoçH.
the rising merit of his pupil, and wished to mak{
him the companion of his labours. He admitt
him to his friendship, and became the means of
establishing him as his successor in that famouſ
political academy, which his reputation had form:
ed at Strasbourg, by attracting to that city the
youth of the first families, and from all parts of
Europe. Koch devoted much of his time to th:
Canon Law, and soon gave a proof of the progresſ
he had made in that branch of study, by the Aca
demical Dissertation which he published in 176 l
under the title of Commentatio de Collatione dig
nitatum et beneficiorum ecclesiasticorum in imperi
Romano-Germanico. This treatise was a preludi
to his Commentary on the Pragmatic Sanction
which he published in 1789—a work which excit
ed an extraordinary sensation in Catholic Germany
and procured the author the favourable notice of
such prelates as were most eminent for learning
and piety.
After taking his academic degree, Koch repair
ed to Paris in 1762, where he staid a year; ho
moured with the society of the most distinguishe
literati in the capital, and frequenting the Roya
Library, wholly occupied in those researches which
prepared him for the learned labours in which h
afterwards engaged. On his return to Strasbourg
he wrote the continuation of the Historia Zaringo
Badensis, of which the first volume only waſ





















LIFE OF KOCH. H 3
rawn up by Schoepflin. All the others are en-
rely the work of Koch, though they bear the
ame of the master who had charged him with the
xecution of this task. Schoepflin bequeathed to
he city of Strasbourg, in 1766, his valuable library
nd his cabinet of antiques, on condition that Koch
hould be appointed keeper; which he was, in ef-
ct, on the death of the testator in 1771. He ob-
ained, at the same time, the title of Professor,
hich authorized him to deliver lectures; for the
hair of Schoepflin passed, according to the sta-
utes of the University, to another professor, a
an of merit, but incapable of supplying his place
s an instructor of youth in the study of the poli-
ical sciences. The pupils of Schoepflin were thus
ransferred to Koch, who became the head of that
iplomatic school, which, for sixty years, gave to the
ublic so great a number of ministers and statesmen.
In 1779 the Government of Hanover offered
im the chair of public German Law in the Uni-
ersity of Gottingen, which he declined. Next
ear the Emperor Joseph II., who knew well how
0 distinguish merit, complimented him with the
ignity of Knight of the Empire, an intermediate
itle between that of baron and the simple rank of
oblesse. About the same period he obtained the
hair of Public Law at Strasbourg, which he held
ntil that University was suppressed at the French
Revolution. Towards the end of 1789, the Pro-















14 LIFE OF KOCH,
testants of Alsace sent him as their envoy to Paris
to solicit from the King and the Constitutiona
Assembly, the maintenance of their civil and rel
ligious rights, according to the faith of formed
treaties. He succeeded in obtaining for them th:
decree of the 17th of August 1790, which sanction
ed these rights, and declared that the ecclesiastil
cal benefices of the Protestants were not included
among those which the decree of the 1st of No.
vember preceding, had placed at the disposal of
the nation. The former decree was moreover ex
tended and explained by an act, bearing date De
cember 1st 1790. Both of these were approved
and ratified by the King. -
Meantime, the terrors and turbulence of thi
Revolution had dispersed from Strasbourg thal
brilliant assemblage of youth, which the reputation
of the professors, and the natural beauties of the
place, had attracted from all quarters. These dis
astrous events interrupted the career of Koch, a
a time when he was capable of rendering the mos
important services to his country. From that mo
ment he devoted himself to public affairs. Being
appointed a Member of the first Legislative As
sembly, he opposed the faction which convulsed
the nation, and ultimately subverted the throne
When President of the Committee of that Assembly,
he exerted himself for the maintenance of peace
and, in a Report which he made in 1792, he fore

















LIFE OF KOCH. 15
told the calamities which would overwhelm France,
if war should be declared against Austria. The
republican faction, by their clamours, silenced the
remonstrances of Koch, when, on the 20th of April,
he spoke in opposition to a measure which proved
| so fatal to France. An official letter which he
addressed, 10th of August, to the constituted au-
thorities of the Lower Rhine, sufficiently expressed
the horror with which that day's proceedings had
inspired him. He procured, moreover, the con-
currence of his fellow-citizens in a resistance, which
he had then some reason to hope would be made
a common cause by the other provinces. This
letter drew down upon him the persecution of the
ruling party. He was immured in a prison, where
he languished for eleven months, and from which
he had no prospect of escape, except to mount
the scaffold. The revolution of the 9th Thermi-
dor restored him to liberty, when he was appoint-
ed, by the voice of his fellow-citizens, to the
Directory of their provincial department. He
endeavoured by all means in his power to de-
feat the measures that were taken to injure his
constituents; and had influence enough, it is said,
to prevent the sale of the funds belonging to ma-
nufactories and hospitals. He then resumed with
pleasure those functions which he had unwillingly
accepted; in 1795, he recommenced his profes-




< A 2
16 LIFE OF KOCH.
sorship of public law, and returned with new zea
to his literary labours, which had been too lond
interrupted. Six years he spent in these useful
occupations ; from which, however, he was onc
more detached by a decree of the Senate, whic
nominated him a member of the Tribunal. Thi
nomination Koch accepted, in the hope of bein
useful to his Protestant countrymen, and to the ci
ty of Strasbourg, in obtaining the re-establishmen
of the reformed religion, and its restoration in the
University. He did, in effect, exert himself much
in behalf of religion, according to the confession
of Augsburg, as well as of the Protestant Academy
at Strasbourg, which was suppressed at this period
The Tribunal having been suppressed, Koch de
clined all places of trust or honour which were of:
fered him; and only requested permission to
retire, that he might have a short interval for
himself between business and the grave. A pen-
sion of 3000 francs was granted him, without any
solicitation on his part. In 1808, he returned to
Strasbourg, where he continued to devote himself
to letters, and in administering to the public good.
About the end of 1810, the Grand-master of the
University of France conferred on him the title
of Honorary Rector of the Academy of Stras-
bourg. His health, which had been prolonged by
a life of great temperance and regularity and the
peace which results from a good conscience, be-








LIFE OF KOCH. 17
ame disordered in 1812, when he fell into a state
f languor, which terminated his life on the 25th
of October 1813. His colleagues, the professors
of Strasbourg, erected to his memory a monument
of white marble in the church of St Thomas, near
those of Schoepflin and Oberlin; which was exe-
cuted by M. Ohnmacht, an eminent sculptor in
Strasbourg. One of his biographers has pronoun-
ced the following eulogium on Koch :—“A noble
regard for justice and truth, a penetration beyond
common, a diligence unrivalled in historical re-
searches, a remarkable talent in arranging and il-
lustrating his subject, an incorruptible integrity of
principle, and unclouded serenity of mind, with a
zealous desire of rendering his researches, his in-
formation and activity, useful to his species—these
were the prominent features of the mind and cha-
racter of this amiable man.” In addition to this,
it has been remarked, that although Professor
Koch had not the art of a graceful or even a fluent
elocution, no man ever possessed in a higher de-
gree the talents and qualifications of a public in-
structor. Like Socrates, he had a manner pecu-
liar to himself. He was not so much a teacher of
Sciences, as of the means of acquiring them. He
could inspire his scholars with a taste for labour,
and knew how to call forth their several powers and
dispositions. Though a man of the most domestic
habits, and a lover of children, Koch never married.
18 LIFE OF KOCH. -º-º-º:
Two lives of this celebrated professor have been
written by foreigners. The one is by M. Schweig.
haeuser junior, a professor at Strasbourg; and th
other is prefixed to the new edition of the His:
toire des Traités de Paia, by M. Schoell, the ed #:
tor and continuator of several of our author
works. This latter biographer has accompanied:
his sketch with a descriptive catalogue of all Koch'ſ
works, the principal of which are the following
—(1.) Tables Genealogiques des Maisons Souveº
raines du Midi et de l'Ouest de l'Europe. (2.
Sanctio Pragmatica Germanorum illustrata. (3. º
Abrégé de l’Histoire des Traités de Paia entrº
les Puissances de l'Europe. A new edition of
this work appeared in 1818, enlarged and conti.
nued by M. Schoell down to the Congress of Vien
na and the Treaty of Paris, 1815. (4.) Tablº
des Traités entre la France et les Puissances Etranſ
geres, depuis la Paia de Westphalie, &c. (5.
Tableau des Revolutions de l'Europe, &c. (6.)
Tables Genealogiques des Maisons Souveraines dº
l'Est et du Nord de l'Europe. This work waſ
published, after the author's death, by M. Schoell
Besides these, Koch left various manuscripts, con
taining memoirs of his own life; and several valu:
able papers on the ancient ecclesiastical history
and literature of his native province.
A. C.













AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
THE work here presented to the public, is a sum-
mary of the Revolutions, both general and parti-
cular, which have happened in Europe since the
extinction of the Roman Empire in the fifth cen-
tury. As an elementary book, it will be found
useful to those who wish to have a concise and
general view of the successive revolutions that
have changed the aspect of states and kingdoms,
and given birth to the existing policy and esta-
blished order of society in modern times.
Without some preliminary acquaintance with
the annals of these revolutions, we can neither
study the history of our own country to advan-
tage, nor appreciate the influence which the dif-
ferent states, formed from the wreck of the ancient
20 AUTHoR's PREFACE.
Roman Empire, reciprocally exercised on each 0.
ther. Allied as it were by the geographical posi.
tion of their territories, by a conformity in their
religion, language, and manners, these states, in
course of time, contracted new attachments in thel
ties of mutual interests, which the progress of ci.
vilization, commerce, and industry, tended more
and more to cement and confirm. Many of them]
whom fortune had elevated to the summit of power
and prosperity, carried their laws, their arts and
institutions, both civil and military, far beyond the
limits of their own dominions. The extensive
sway which the Romish hierarchy held for nearly
a thousand years over the greater part of the Eu-
ropean kingdoms, is well known to every reader of
history.
This continuity of intercourse and relationship
among the powers of Europe, became the means
of forming them into a kind of republican system;
it gave birth to national law and conventional
rights, founded on the agreement of treaties, and
the usages of common practice. A laudable emu-
lation sprung up among contemporary states,
Their jealousies, and even their competitions and


AUTHOR's PREFACE. 21
livisions, contributed to the progress of civiliza-
lion, and the attainment of that high state of per-
tection to which all human sciences and institu-
lions have been carried by the nations of modern
Europe.
It is these political connexions, this reciprocal
influence of kingdoms and their revolutions, and
especially the varieties of system which Europe
has experienced in the lapse of so many ages, that
require to be developed in a general view, such as
that which professes to be the object of the pre-
sent Work.
The author has here remodelled his “View of
the Revolutions of the Middle Ages,” (published
in 1790), and extended or abridged the different
periods according to circumstances. In continuing
this work down to the present time, he has deem-
led it necessary to conclude at the French Revolu-
|tion; as the numerous results of that great event
are too much involved in uncertainty to be clearly
|or impartially exhibited by contemporary writers.”
| * In the edition of 1823, from which the present trans-
lation is made, the Tableau has been continued by the
Editor, M. Schoell, down to the 20th Of November 1815. T.





22 AUTHOR's PREF Ace. §§
The Work is divided into eight periods of time,
according with the principal revolutions which ha
changed, in succession, the political state of Europ
At the head of each period is placed either th
designation of its particular revolution, or that
the power or empire which held the ascendanc
at the time. In limiting his treatise solely to th
revolutions of Europe, the writer has not touche
upon those of Asia and the East, except in so fa
as they have had an immediate influence on th
destinies of Europe. Conscious also that the dis.
tinguishing characteristic of an historian is vera §
city, and that the testimony of a writer who has
not himself been an eyewitness of the events he |
records cannot be relied on with implicit confi.
dence, the author has imposed on himself the in. §§
variable rule of citing, with scrupulous care, the
principal authorities and vouchers of each period
and country that have guided him during his re-
searches, in selecting and examining his materials
by the torch of patient criticism. Without this
labour and precaution, the Work would have been of
no avail as an elementary help to those who were
* Nine in the last editions, including the continuation,








AUTHoR's PREFACE. 23
desirous of acquiring a more minute and solid
knowledge of history.
As a useful and subsidiary accompaniment,
an Introduction has been prefixed, in which
are given some general remarks on history and
geography, as also on genealogy and chrono-
logy, which may be regarded as auxiliary sciences.
These preliminary notices are followed by a short
outline of ancient history, down to the time
of the Barbarian invasion in the fifth century.
With this grand era the present Work properly
commences, when a new series of kingdoms and
governments sprung up in Europe. A genealogi-
cal list of the principal sovereign houses of Europe
has been appended, and chronological tables,
which mark the dates of all the most important
events. Seven maps have been inserted, which
serve to illustrate the geography, and exhibit the
principal changes that have happened in Europe
during the period commonly assigned to the history
of the Middle Ages. Finally, to render the study
of this Work more easy and instructive to youth,
the whole is summed up and closed with a correct
Alphabetical Index.
VOL. I. B
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION,
History has very properly been considered as that
particular branch of philosophy, which teaches, by
examples, how men ought to conduct themselves
in all situations of life, both public and private.
Such is the infirmity and incapacity of the human
mind, that abstract or general ideas make no last-
ing impression on it; and often appear to us doubt-
ful or obscure,_at least if they be not illustrated
and confirmed by experience and observation.
It is from history alone, which superadds to our
own experience that of other men and of other
times, that we learn to conquer the prejudices which
we have imbibed from education, and which our
own experience, often as contracted as our educa-
tion, tends in general rather to strengthen than to
subdue or destroy. “Not to know (says Cicero)
what happened before we were born, is to remain
always a child; for what were the life of man,
did we not combine present events with the recol-
lections of past ages?”
There are certain principles or rules of conduct
that hold true in all cases; because they accord and
consist with the invariable nature of things. To
collect and digest these, belongs to the student of
history, who may, in this way, easily form to him-

26 CHAPTER I.
self a system, both of morals and of politics, found:
ed on the combined judgment of all ages, and con
firmed by universal experience. Moreover, th
advantages that we reap from the study of histor
are preferable to those we acquire by our own ex
perience; for not only does the knowledge we de
rive from this kind of study embrace a greate
number of objects, but it is purchased at the ex
pense of others, while the attainments we make from
personal experience often cost us extremely dear.
“We may learn wisdom, (says Polybius) either
from our own misfortunes, or the misfortunes of
others. The knowledge (adds that celebrated
historian) which we acquire at our own expense,
is undoubtedly the most efficacious; but that
which we learn from the misfortunes of others is
the safest, in as much as we receive instruction
without pain, or danger to ourselves.” This know-
ledge has also the advantage of being in general
more accurate, and more complete than that which
we derive from individual experience. To history
alone it belongs to judge with impartiality of pub-
lic characters and political measures, which are
often either misunderstood or not properly appre-
ciated by their contemporaries; and while men
individually, and from their own observation, can
see great events as it were but in part, history
embraces the whole in all its various details. Thus,
for example, we can see but imperfectly all the
bearings of that mighty revolution which is now
(1793) passing before our eyes; and it will re.
main for posterity to perceive all its influence and
effects, and to judge of its different actors without
feelings of irritation or party spirit.
It is a fact universally admitted, that all ranks
f






INTRODUCTION, 27
ind professions of men, find in history appropriate
instruction, and rules of conduct suited to their re-
pective conditions. In occupying the mind a-
reeably with such a vast diversity of subjects, it
serves to form the judgment, to inspire us with
he ambition of glory, and the love of virtue.
Those especially who devote themselves to the
study of politics, or who are destined to the
management of public affairs, will discover in his-
tory the structure and constitution of governments,
heir faults, and their advantages, their strength
and their weakness; they will find there the ori-
gin and progress of empires, the principles that
ave raised them to greatness, and the causes
which have prepared their fall. The philosopher,
and the man of letters, will there trace the pro-
gress of the human mind, the errors and illusions
hat have led it astray; the connexion of causes
and effects; the origin of arts and sciences, their
changes, and their influence on society; as well
as the innumerable evils that have sprung from
ignorance, superstition and tyranny.
History, in short, avails more than all precepts
to cure us of those mistakes originating in self-
love, and national partiality. He who knows no
other country than his own, easily persuades him-
self that the government, manners, and opinions
of the little corner of the earth which he inhabits,
are the only ones consistent with reason and pro-
priety. Self-love, so natural to man, cherishes this
prejudice, and makes him disdain all other nations.
It is only by an extensive acquaintance with his-
tory, and by familiarizing ourselves with the insti-
tutions, customs, and habits of different ages, and












B 2 -
28 CHAPTER I,
of different countries, that we learn to esteem wis-
dom and virtue, and to acknowledge talents where-
ever they exist. Besides, when we observe, that
though revolutions are continually changing the
face of kingdoms, nothing essentially new ever
happens in the world, we cease to be longer the
slaves of that extravagant admiration, and that cre-
dulous astonishment which is generally the charac-
teristic of ignorance, or the mark of a feeble mind.
The most important attribute of history is truth,
and in order to find this out, it is necessary to ex-
amine the materials which serve as the elements and
evidences of history, by the test of sound criti-
cism. These materials are of two kinds : I. Pub-
lic Acts and Records, such as medals, inscriptions,
treaties, charters, official papers; and in general,
all writings drawn up or published by the esta-
blished authorities. II. Private writers, viz. au-
thors of histories, of chronicles, memoirs, letters,
&c. These writers are either contemporary, or
such as live remote from the times of which they
write.
Public acts and official records, are the strong-
est evidences we can possibly have of 'historical
truth; but as, in different ages, there have been fa-
bricators of pretended acts and writings, it becomes
necessary, before making use of any public docu-
ment, to be assured that it is neither spurious nor
falsified. The art of judging of ancient charters
or diplomas, and discriminating the true from the
false, is called Diplomatics;" in the same way as
we give the name of Numismatics to the art of
distinguishing real medals from counterfeit. Both
of these sciences are necessary ingredients in the
criticism of history. -
INTRODUCTION. 29
It will not be out of place to subjoin here some
rules that may serve as guides in the proper selec-
tion of historical documents. (1.) The authority of
any chartulary or public act is preferable to that
of a private writer, even though he were contem-
porary. These public registers it is always neces-
sary to consult if possible, before having recourse
to the authority of private writers; and a history
that is not supported by such public vouchers must
in consequence be very imperfect. (2.) When pub-
lic acts are found to accord with the testimony of
contemporary authors, there results a complete and
decisive proof, the most satisfactory that can be desi-
red, for establishing the truth of historical facts. (3.)
The testimony of a contemporary author ought ge-
nerally to be preferred to that of an historian, who
has written long after the period in which the e-
vents have happened. (4.) Whenever contemporary
writers are defective, great caution must be used
with regard to the statements of more modern his-
torians, whose narratives are often very inaccurate,
or altogether fabulous. (5.) The unanimous silence
of contemporary authors on any memorable event,
is of itself a strong presumption for suspecting, or
even for entirely rejecting, the testimony of very
recent writers. (6.) Historians who narrate events
that have happened anterior to the times in which
they lived, do not, properly speaking, deserve cre-
dit, except in so far as they make us acquainted
with the sources whence they have drawn their
information. (7.) In order to judge of the respective
merits of historians, and the preference we ought
to give some beyond others, it is necessary to ex-
amine the spirit and character of each, as well as
the circumstances in which they are placed at the
zº,… . … …wº-3-ºxºº.” “ -- ~~~… . . . . . . . . . . .…....
30 CHAPTER I.
time of writing. Hence it follows:—That we
ought to distrust an historian who is deficient in
critical discernment, who is fond of fables, or who
scruples not, in order to please and amuse his
readers, to alter or disguise the truth: That as
impartiality is an essential quality in a historian,
we must always be on our guard against writers
who allow their minds to be warped aside by the
prejudices of their nation, their party, or their pro-
fession; for, in order to be impartial, the historian
must form his judgment on actions themselves,
without regard to the actors: That historians who
have had a personal concern in the transactions, or
been eyewitnesses of the events they describe, or
who, writing by the permission or authority of go-
vernment, have had free access to national ar-
chives and public libraries, ought always to be pre-
ferred to those who have not enjoyed the same ad-
vantages: That among modern historians, he who
has written last often deserves more confidence
than those who have handled the same subject be.
fore him; inasmuch as he has had it in his power
to obtain more exact information, to avoid all party
spirit, and rectify the errors of his predecessors.
There are several auxiliary sciences which may
be said to constitute the very foundation of his.
tory; and among these, geography, genealogy,
and chronology, hold the first rank. In truth, no
fact can be fully established, nor can any narrative
possess interest, unless the circumstances relating
to the times and places in which the events have
happened, as well as to the persons who have been
concerned in them, be previously made known, and
distinctly explained. It is obvious, therefore, thal
geography, genealogy, and chronology, are tº
INTROID UCTION. $1
faithful interpreters and inseparable companions of
history.
Geography may be divided into the mathemati-
cal, the physical, and the political ; according to
the different objects which it embraces. Mathe-
matical geography regards the earth, considered as
a measurable body. Physical geography has for its
object to examine the natural or physical structure
of the earth; while political geography illustrates
the different divisions of the earth which men have
invented, such as kingdoms, states, and provinces.
This science is also divided, relatively to the times
of which it treats, into ancient, middle-age, and
modern geography. Ancient geography is that
which explains the primitive state of the world,
and its political divisions prior to the subversion of
the Roman Empire in the west. By the geogra-
phy of the middle ages, is understood that which
acquaints us with the political state of the nations
who figured in history from the fifth century to
the end of the fifteenth, or the beginning of the
sixteenth. Modern geography represents to us
the state of the world and its political divisions,
from the sixteenth century to the present time.
Antiquity has handed down to us the works of
Several very eminent geographers, the most cele-
brated of whom are Strabo, Ptolemy, Pomponius
Mela, Pausanias, and Stephanus of Byzantium.
Among the moderns who have laboured in this
department of geography, those more particularly
deserving of notice, are Cuvier, Cellarius, Briet,
D'Anville, Gosselin, Mannert, and Ukert.
The geography of the middle ages is but little
nown; and remains yet a sort of desert which de-
mands cultivation. There does not exist a single
§:
32 CHAPTER I.
geographical work which gives a correct represen-
tation of that new order of things, which the Ger-
man nations introduced into Europe after the
downfal of the Roman Empire in the fifth cen-
tury. The literati of France and Germany have
thrown some rays of light on certain parts of these
dbscure regions; but no nation in Europe can yet
boast of having thoroughly explored them.
Of modern authors, too, the most conspicuous as
the restorer of geographical science, is Sebastian
Munster, a German, who published a voluminous
work on cosmography, towards the middle of the
sixteenth century. The Flemings and the Dutch
have been among the earliest cultivators of geo-
graphy since the revival of letters. Ortelius,
Gerard Mercator, Varenius, Janson, Bleau, and
Fischer, are well known by the maps and learned
works which they have produced.
Among the number of celebrated French geo-
graphers are to be reckoned Sanson, Delille,
Cassini, D'Anville; and more recently Zannoni,
Bauche, Mentelle, Barbié du Bocage, Malte-
Brun, &c. Delisle is the first who submitted
geography to the touchstone of astronomical ob.
servation. Busching, a German, wrote a work on
geography, which has been translated into several
languages, and has received various additions and
improvements, especially in the hands of the
French translators. M. Ritter, a professor at
Berlin, published a work in which he gives a new
and scientific form to geography.
It was during the latter half of the eighteenth
century, that the attention of the learned was
turned more particularly towards geography, when
a series of the most elegant maps appeared in all
INTRODUCTION. 33
the principal states of Europe. The wars that
sprung from the revolution encouraged several
engineers and geographers, both foreigners and
Frenchmen, to publish those masterpieces of their
art, the charts and plans of the countries that had
served as the theatre of hostilities.
Connected with geography is the seience of
Statistics, or the study of the constitution and po-
litical economy of states. Two Italians, Sansovino
and Botero, about the end of the sixteenth cen-
tury, were the first that attempted to treat this as
a particular science, separate and distinct from
geography. The Germans followed nearly in the
footsteps of the Italian writers; they introduced
statistics into their Universities as a branch of
study, and gave it also the name by which it is
still known.” It was chiefly, however, during the
course of the eighteenth century that the govern-
ments of Furope encouraged the study of this new
science, which borrows its illustrations from his-
tory, and constitutes at present an essential branch
of national polity.
GENEA LoGY, or the science which treats of the
origin and descent of illustrious families, is not
less important to the knowledge of history, than
geography. It teaches us to know and distinguish
the principal characters that have acted a conspi-
cuous part on the theatre of the world; and by
giving us clear and explicit ideas of the ties of re-
lationship that subsist among sovereigns, it enables
us to investigate the rights of succession, and the
"espective claims of rival princes.
The study of Genealogy is full of difficulties,
on account of the uncertainty and fabulous ob-
*curity in which the origin of almost every great
34 CHAPTER I.
family is enveloped. Vanity, aided by flattery,
has given birth to a thousand legendary wonders,
that fall to pieces at the touch of sound criticism,
It is by the light of this science that we learn to
distinguish certainties from probabilities, and pro-
babilities from fables and conjectures. Few fa-
milies who have occupied the thrones of former
dynasties, or who now hold preeminent rank in
Europe, can trace their genealogy beyond the
twelfth century. The House of Capet is the only
one that can boast of a pedigree that reaches back
to the middle of the ninth century. The origin
of the royal families of Savoy, Lorrain, Bruns.
wick, England, and Baden, belongs to the ele-
venth century; all the others are of a date pos.
terior to these.
A single fact in diplomatics has proved suffi.
cient to discredit a multitude of errors and fables,
that tradition had engrafted on the legends of the
dark ages. From the examinations that have
been made of ancient charters and records, there
is abundant evidence that, prior to the twelfth cen:
tury, among families even the most illustrious,
the distinction of surnames was unknown. The
greatest noblemen, and the presumption is much
stronger that common gentlemen, never used any
other signature than their baptismal name; to which
they sometimes annexed that of the dignity or or
der with which they were invested. There was
therefore little chance of distinguishing families
from each other, and still less of distinguishing in
dividuals of one and the same family. It was on:
ly towards the end of the eleventh century, and
during the era of the crusades, that the use ºf
family names was gradually introduced; and tha'
INTRODUCTION. 35
they began, in their public transactions, to super-
add to their baptismal and honorary names, that of
the country or territory they possessed, or the
castle where they had their residence; and it must
have required nearly two hundred years before
this practice became general in Europe.
The Germans were the first, after the Reforma-
tion, who combined the study of genealogy with
that of history. Among their most distinguished
genealogists may be mentioned Reinerus Rein-
eccius, Jerome Henninges, Elias Reusnerus, Ni-
colas Rittershusiers, James-William Imhof, and
the two Gebhards of Luneburg, father and son.
The work of Henninges is much sought after, on
account of its rarity; but the genealogical la-
bours of the two Gebhards are particulary remark-
able for the profound and accurate criticism they
display. The principal writers on this subject
among the French are, D'Hozier, Godefroy, An-
drew Duchesne, St Marthe, Father Anselme,
Chazot de Nantigny, and M. de St Allais.
CHRONo LoGY, or the science of computing
time, represents facts or events in the order in
which they have occurred. The historian ought
by no means to neglect to ascertain, as nearly as
possible, the exact and precise date of events;
since, without this knowledge, he will be perpe-
tually liable to commit anachronisms, to confound
things with persons, and often to mistake effects
for causes, or causes for effects. *.
This study is not without its difficulties, which
are as perplexing as they are singularly various,
both in kind and degree. These embarrassments
relate chiefly, (1.) To the age of the world; (2)
VoI. I. C -
36 CHAPTER I.
The different forms of the year; (3.) The num-
ber of years that elapsed from the creation to the
birth of Christ; (4.) The variety of epochs or
periods of reckoning time.
Many of the ancient philosophers maintained
that the world was eternal. Ocellus Lucanus, a
Greek philosopher of the Pythagorean sect, at-
tempted to prove this hypothesis, in a treatise en-
titled De Universo, which the Marquis D’Ar-
gens and the Abbé Batteux have translated into
French. Aristotle followed in the footsteps of
Ocellus. His opinion as to the eternity of the uni-
verse, is detailed at length in his commentaries on
Physics.
Some modern philosophers, as Buffon, Hamil-
ton, Dolomieu, Saussure, Faujas de St Fond, &c.
have assigned to our globe an existence long an-
terior to the ages when history commences. Their
reasoning they support by the conformation of the
globe itself, as well as the time that must have ne-
cessarily elapsed before the earth, in the progres-
sive operations of nature, could be rendered a
suitable habitation for man.
The most ancient account that we have of the
origin of the world, and of the human race, is de-
rived from Moses. This leader and lawgiver of
the Jewish nation, lived about 1500 years before
Christ; and nearly 1000 before Herodotus, the
most ancient profane author whose works have
been handed down to our times. According to
Moses and the Jewish annals, the history of the
human race does not yet comprehend a period of six
thousan l years. This account seems to be in op-
position to that of several ancient nations, such as
the Egyptians, Indians, Chaldeans, Thibetians, and
INTRODUCTION. 37
Chinese, who carry back their chronology to a
very remote date, and far beyond what Moses has
assigned to the human race. But it is sufficient
at present to remark, that this high antiquity,
which vanity has led these nations to adopt as a
reality, is either altogether imaginary, or purely
mythological, founded on a symbolical theology,
whose mysteries and allegories have been but lit-
tle understood. This primeval epoch is usually
filled with gods and demigods, who are alleged to
have reigned over these nations for so many my-
riads of years. t
Traditions so fabulous and chimerical will ne-
ver destroy the authenticity of Moses, who, inde-
pendently of his nativity, and the remote age in
which he lived, merits implicit credit from the
simplicity of his narrative, and from the circum-
stance, that there has never yet been discovered on
the surface, or in the internal structure of the
earth, any organic evidence or work of human art,
that can lead us to believe that the history of the
world, or more properly speaking, of the human
race, is antecedent to the age which the Jewish
legislator has assigned it.
With regard to the division of time, a conside-
rable period must, no doubt, have elapsed before
men began to reckon by years, calculated accord-
ing to astronomical observations. Two sorts or
forms of computation have been successively in
use among different nations. Some have employed
solar years, calculated by the annual course of the
Sun ; others have made use of lunar years, calcu-
lated by the periodical revolutions of the moon.
All Christian nations of the present day adopt the
38 CHA PTER I.
solar year; while the lunar calculation is that fol-
lowed by the Mahometans. The solar year con-
sists of 365 days, 5 hours, 48', 45", 30"; the lu-
nar year, of 354 days, 3 hours, 48, 38", 12".
The invention, or more properly speaking, the
calculation of the solar year, is due to the ancient
Egyptians, who, by the position of their country,
as well as by the periodical overflowings and eb-
bings of the Nile, had early and obvious induce-
ments for making astronomical observations. The
solar year has undergone, in process of time, va.
rious corrections and denominations. The most
remarkable of these are indicated by the distinc-
tions, still in use, of the Julian, the Gregorian,
and the Reformed year.
Julius Caesar introduced into the Roman em-
pire, the solar or Egyptian year, which took from
him the name of the Julian year. This he substi-
tuted instead of the lunar year, which the Romans
had used before his time. It was distinguished, on
account of a slight variation in the reckoning, into
the common and bissextile or leap year. The com-
mon Julian year consisted of 365 days; and the
bissextile, which returned every four years, of 366
days. This computation was faulty, inasmuch as
it allowed 365 days, and 6 entire hours, for the
annual revolution of the sun; being an excess
every year, of 11", 14", 30", beyond the true time.
This, in a long course of ages, had amounted to
several days; and began, at length, to derange the
order of the seasons.
Pope Gregory XIII., * wishing to correct this
error, employed an able mathematician, named
Louis Lilio, to reform the Julian year, according
INTRODUCTION. 39
to the true annual course of the sun. A new ca-
lendar was drawn up, which was called after the
name of that pontiff, the Gregorian calendar; and
as, in consequence of the incorrectness of the Julian
era, the civil year had gained ten days, the same
Pope ordered, by a bull published in 1581, that these
should be expunged from the calendar; so that, in-
stead of the 5th of October 1582, they should
reckon it the 15th.
The Catholic States adopted this new calendar
without the least difficulty; but the Protestants
in the Empire, and the rest of Europe, as also the
Russians and the Greeks, adhered to the Julian
year; and hence the distinction between the old
and new style, to which it is necessary to pay at-
tention in all public acts and writings since the
year 1582 of the Christian era. The difference
between the old and new style, which, until 1699,
was only ten days, and eleven from the com-
mencement of 1700, must be reckoned twelve
days during the present century of 1800; so that
the 1st of January of the old year, answers to
the 13th of the new.
. The Reformed year or Calendar, as it is called,
is distinct from the Gregorian, and applies to the
calculation of the year, which was made by a pro-
fessor at Jena, named Weigel. It differs from the
Gregorian year, as to the method of calculating
the time of Easter, and the other moveable feasts
of the Christian churches. The Protestants of Ger-
many, Holland, Denmark and Switzerland, adopt-
ed this new calendar in 1700. Their example was
followed in 1752, by Great Britain; and in 1753,
by Sweden; but since the year 1776, the Protes-
c 2
40 CHAPTER I.
tants of Germany, Switzerland and Holland, a.
bandoned the reformed calendar, and adopted the
Gregorian; and there is, properly speaking, no na-
tion in Europe at this day, except the Russians
and the Greeks, which makes use of the Julian
calendar, or old style. *
But it is not merely the variations that have pre-
vailed as to the form and computation of the year,
that have perplexed the science of chronology;
the different methods of commencing it, have
also been the source of much confusion. The
Romans, from the time of Julius Caesar, began the
year on the first of January. The ancient Greeks
at first reckoned from the winter solstice, and af.
terwards from midsummer; the Syro-Macedonians
or Seleucidae, commenced from the autumnal
equinox. The sacred year of the Jews, began
with the first new moon after the vernal equinox,
that is, in the month of March ; and their civil
year began with the new moon immediately fol-
lowing the autumnal equinox, that is, in the month
of September.
The same diversity of practice which we ob-
serve among the ancients, existed also in the mid-
dle ages. The Franks, under the Merovingian
kings, began the year with the month of March.
The Popes began it sometimes at Christmas, or
the 25th of December; sometimes on the 1st of
January ; and sometimes on the 25th of March,
called indiscriminately the day of the Annuncia-
tion or Incarnation. . Under the Carlovingian
princes, two methods of beginning the year were
generally prevalent in France,—the one fixed its
commencement at Christmas, or the 25th of De-
cember, and the other at Easter; that is, at the
INTRO DUCTION. 41
day on which that moveable feast happened to
fall. This latter custom prevailed also under the
Capetian kings, and it was not suppressed until
near the middle of the sixteenth century. Charles
IX., by an edict published in 1564, ordered, that
in France the year should henceforth commence
on the 1st of January. Previously to this edict,
it sometimes happened, from the variable date of
Easter, that the same month was found to occur
twice in one and the same year. For example,
the year 1358 having begun on the 1st of April,
on which Easter day happened to fall, did not ter.
minate until the 20th of April following, that is,
on the eve preceding Easter. There were conse-
quently in this year, nearly two complete months
of April. Since the reign of Charles IX., it has
continued the invariable practice in France to be-
gin the year on the 1st of January. -
In England, the year used to commence on the
25th of March, and the old style was there ob-
served until 1753; when, by virtue of an act of
Parliament, passed in 1752, the beginning of the
year was transferred to the 1st of January. It
Was decreed also, at the same time, that, in order
to accommodate the English chronology to the
new style, the 3d of September 1752, should be
reckoned the 14th of the same month.
It is easy to conceive the perplexity and con-
fusion that must have been introduced into chro-
nology, as much by the difference of styles as by
the different methods of commencing the year. No-
thing is more probable, than that we should here
find mistakes and contradictions which, in reality,
ave no existence; and the more so, as the writers
or recorders of public acts, who employ these dif-
42 CHAPTER I.
ferent styles, or date the beginning of the year
variously, never give us any intimation on the sub-
ject; and all reckon promiscuously from the year of
Christ's nativity, without informing us whether they
follow the old or the new style—whether they
commence the year in the month of January or
March, at Easter or at Christmas.
Modern chronologists have found much embar-
rassment in calculating the number of years that
elapsed between the creation and the birth of
Christ. Father Petau, one of the most learned
men in this science, admits, that this point of chro-
nology is to be established rather by probable con-
jectures than solid arguments. There have even
been reckoned, according to Fabricius, about a
hundred and forty different opinions respecting
the epoch of Christ's nativity. Some fix this era
in the year of the world 36.16, while others carry
it back to the year 6484. This great discordance
of opinions arises from the contradictions found to
exist between the three principal texts of the Old
Testament. The Hebrew text, for instance, to
which most chronologists give the preference, fixes
'the deluge in the year of the world 1656; while,
according to the Samaritan text, it happened in
1807; and, according to the Septuagint, in 2242.
The system at present most accredited, is that of
Archbishop Usher, an Irish prelate, who, founding
his calculation on the Hebrew text, fixes the date
of Christ's nativity in the year of the world 4000,
A variety of epochs prevailed at different times;
as most nations, both ancient and modern, who
had governments and laws of their own, adopted
chronological eras that were peculiar to themselves,
The ancient. Greeks had their Olympiads, and
INTRODUCTION. 43
the Syro-Macedonians the era of the Seleucidae.
The Romans calculated by consulships, which be-
came the era of their public acts; and besides
these, their historians used to reckon from the
foundation of the city, which goes back 752 years
before Christ, or 3249 after the creation. The
era of Dioclesian, introduced in honour of that
emperor, and sometimes also called the era of the
martyrs, began in the year 284 after Christ, and
was for a long time used in the West. But, with-
out stopping here to enumerate the different eras
of antiquity, we shall rather restrict ourselves at
present to the pointing out of those that belong
more properly to modern history, viz. 1. The era
of the modern Greeks. 2. Of the modern Jews.
3. Of the Spaniards. 4. The Hegira, or Maho-
metan era. 5. The Dionysian, or Christian era.
The era of the modern Greeks is known by the
name of the Mundane era of Constantinople. It
begins 5508 years before the birth of Christ. The
first year of the incarnation thus falls in the year
of the world 5509; and, consequently, the year
1823 of the Christian era answers to the year
7331 of the Mundane era of Constantinople. Un-
der this system, two kinds of years are in use, the
civil and the ecclesiastical. The former com-
mences with the month of September, the other
has begun sometimes on the 21st of March, and
sometimes on the 1st of April. This era is fol-
lowed, even at this day, by the Greek church.
The Russians, who adopted it from the Greeks,
along with the Christian religion, made use of it
even in their civil acts, until the reign of Peter
the Great. That emperor, in 1700, abolished the
Mundane era of Constantinople, and substituted
44 CHAPTER Is
in its place the Christian era, and the Julian ca.
lendar or old style.
The modern Jews have likewise a mundane era;
as they reckon from the creation of the world. It
commences on the 7th of October of the Julian
year, and reckons 3761 years before Christ. The
year 3762 of the world, is the first of the Chris-
tian era, according to the Jews; and the current
year (1823) answers to the year 5583 of their
mundame era.
In Spain, the era began with the year of Rome
714, 38 years before the birth of Christ; being
the time when the triumvirate was renewed be-
tween Caesar Octavianus, Mark Antony, and Le:
pidus. The Spaniards, wishing to give Octa.
vianus some testimony of their satisfaction on be:
ing comprehended within his province, began a
new era with this event, 5 which prevailed not
only in Spain and Portugal, but also in Africa,
and those parts of France which were subject
to the dominion of the Visigoths. It is of great
importance to know, that the Spaniards and Por.
tuguese constantly employed this era in their an:
inals and public acts, so late as the 14th and 15th
centuries, when they substituted the Christian era
in its place.
The era which the Mussulman nations follow is
that of Mahomet, called the Hegira, or the Flight
of the Prophet. It began on the 16th of July
622 A. C.; and is composed of lunar years. In
order to find out in what year of the vulgar era any
given year of the Hegira falls, it is necessary first
to reduce the lunar into solar years, and then add
the number 622. For example, the year 1238 of
the Hegira, answers to the year 1823 of the vul.
INTRODUCTION. 45.
gar, or Christian era. It began on the 18th of
September 1822, and ended on the 7th of the fol-
lowing September. -
Dionysius or Denys the Little, a Roman Abbé,
who lived in the time of the Emperor Justinian,
about the year of Christ 530, was the author of
the vulgar era, which afterwards received a more
perfect form from the hands of the venerable Bede,
an English monk, about the year 720. Before
that time, the Latins, or Christians of the West,
employed the era of the Consuls, or that of Dio-
clesian. Denys the Little, imagining it would be
more convenient for the Christians to reckon their
time from the birth of Christ, applied himself with
great industry to calculate the number of years
that had elapsed from the Incarnation to his own
times. Modern chronologists have remarked, that
both Denys and Bede were mistaken in their cal-
culations; but a difference of opinion prevails on
this subject, as may be seen in the learned work
of Fabricius. There are some of these chronolo-
gists who date the birth of Christ thirty-four years
earlier, while others find a difference of but one
year, or at most four, between the true epoch of
the nativity, and that adopted by Denys. This
disagreement of the modern chronologists has given
rise to the distinction between the true era of the
birth of Christ, and the Vulgar or Dionysian era,
which the general usage has now consecrated and
established.
In France, this era was not introduced until the
eighth century. We find it employed, for the first
time, in the acts of the Councils of Germany, Lip-
times, and Soissons, held in the years 742–3–4, under
Pepin, surnamed the Short. The Kings of France ne-
46 CHAPTER I.
ver used it in their public acts, until the end of the
ninth century; and the Popes only since the eleventh,
In order to compare the different eras, and to
facilitate the process of reducing the years of one
into those of another, a scheme has been proposed
called the Julian period. The invention of this is
due to Joseph Scaliger, a professor at Leyden,
and well known by his chronological works. He
gave it the name of Julian, because the Julian
year served as the basis of it. It is composed of
the several products of the cycles of the sun, the
moon, and the indictions multiplied by each other
The cycle of the sun is a period, or revolution
of twenty-eight solar years; at the end of which
the same order of years returns, by a kind of cir.
cle or cycle. Its use is to indicate the days on
which each year commences, and the Dominical
Tetters. These are the first seven letters of the
alphabet, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, which are employed
to indicate the seven days of the week, more par.
ticularly the Sabbath (dies Dominica). At the
end of twenty-eight years, of which this cycle is
composed, there returns a new order or series of
years, so similar to the preceding, that the domini.
cal letters again answer exactly to the same days.
The cycle of the moon comprises nineteen lunar
years, twelve of which are called common, and the re.
maining seven intercalary; these yield a product
of 6939 days 18 hours, according to the calculation
of the antients;" and are equal to nineteen Julian or
solar years. By means of this cycle always recur
ring, the new moons fall again on the same days
and the same hours on which they had happened
nineteen years before; so that, for all the new moons,
the cycle which is to come is entirely similar tº
INTRODUCTION. 47
the preceding. The cipher which indicates the
year of the cycle, is called the golden number, be-
cause they used to write it in characters of gold in
the ancient calendars, where it was employed to
mark the times of the new moons.
The cycle of indictions is a cycle which recurs
every fifteen years; and which, like those already
mentioned, was frequently employed in charters
and public records. The origin of these indictions
is generally referred to a contribution or cess ap-
pointed, for fifteen years, by the Romans, and after-
wards renewed for the same period. They began
in the reign of Constantine the Great, that is, about
the year of Christ 313, and are distinguished into
three kinds; (1.) that of Constantinople, which
was employed by the Greek Emperors, and be-
gan on the 1st of September; (2.) that which
Was termed the Imperial, or Caesarean indiction,
the use of which was limited to the West, and
which began on the 25th of September; and, (3.)
the Roman or Pontifical indiction, which the Popes
employed in their bulls. This last began on the
25th of December, or the 1st of January, accord-
ing as the one or the other of these days was reck-
oned by the Romans the first of the new year.
The cycle of the sun, comprising twenty-eight
years, and that of the moon nineteen, when multi-
plied together, give a product of 532, which is called
the Paschal cycle, because it serves to ascertain the
feast of Easter. The product of 532, multiplied by
15, the cycle of indictions, amounts to the number
7980, which constitutes the Julian period. With-
ºn the compass of this period may be placed, as it
Were, under one view, these different eras and
VOL. I. - D
48 CHAPTER I.
epochs, in order to compare and reconcile them
with each other; adopting, as their common term,
the nativity of Christ, fixed to the year 4714 of
the Julian period. -
History has been divided, according to the dif.
ferent subjects of which it treats, into Civil, Eccle.
siastical, Literary, and Philosophical History. Civil
and political history is occupied entirely with events
that relate to mankind, as distributed into societies,
and united together by governments, laws, and
manners. Ecclesiastical history is confined to those
'events that properly belong to religion. Literary
history treats more particularly of the origin, pro-
gress, and vicissitudes of the arts and sciences,
Lastly, philosophical history, which is but a branch
or subdivision of literary history, illustrates the
different systems of philosophy that have flourished
in the world, both in ancient and modern times.
Another division of history, according to its ex-
tent, is that of Universal, General, and Particular
History. Universal history gives a kind of outline
or summary of the events of all the nations that
have figured on the earth, from the remotest ages
to the present time. *.
By general history, is understood that which
treats of the revolutions that have happened in the
world, whether of great states or confederate pow-
ers, or of several nations combined together, by va.
rious and complicated interests. Thus, there may
be a general history of France, or of Great Britain
a general history of the United Provinces, a gene.
ral history of Europe, &c. Particular history em.
braces, in detail, the events of a particular people
or province, or city, or illustrious individual.
Finally, in regard to the time of which it treats.


INTRODUCTION. 49
history is distinguished into Ancient and Modern,
and that of the Middle Ages. Ancient history is
that of the nations who flourished from the time
of the creation to the fifth century; while the his-
tory of the middle ages has, for its object, the re-
volutions that took place from the fifth to the end
of the fifteenth century. What is now termed
modern history, is that which retraces the events
of the last three centuries.
This division, which applies more particularly
to the history of Europe, is founded on the great
revolutions which this part of the world experien-
ced in the fifth and fifteenth centuries. The revo-
lution of the fifth century ended in the subversion
of the Roman empire in the West, and gave birth
to the principal states in modern Europe; while
that of the fifteenth century, which dates its com-
mencement from the destruction of the Eastern em-
pire, brought along with it the revival of literature
and the fine arts, and the renovation of civil socie-
ty in Europe. .
Although ancient history does not enter into the
plan of the following work, nevertheless it appear-
ed necessary to give here a brief sketch of it to
the reader, with the view of connecting the order
of time, and the chain of the great events that
ave occurred from the remotest ages to the pre-
sent day. We have divided it into three periods,
the first of which embraces 3000, the second 1000,
and the third 500 years.
The first period, which comprises thirty centu-
ries, is almost wholly fabulous. The notices of it
that have been transmitted to us are very imperfect.
The order of time cannot be established on any
solid foundation. Even the authenticity of the

& #
50 CHAMPTER I.
famous Parian marbles, has been called in ques-
tion as spurious; and there is no other chronology
that can guide our steps through this dark labyrinth
of profane history. The only literary monuments
that are left us of these remote and obscure ages,
are the books of Moses and the Jews. Herodo-
tus, the earliest profane historian, wrote more than
a thousand years after Moses, and about 450 be-
fore Christ. He had been preceded several cen-
turies by Sanchoniathon the Phoenician; but the
work of this latter historian is lost, and there exist
only a few scattered fragments of it in Porphyry
and Eusebius. #
It appears, therefore, that of the 4500 years that
fall within the compass of ancient history, the first
thirty centuries may, without inconvenience, be re-
trenched. Amidst the darkness of those ages,
we discover nothing but the germs of societies,
governments, sciences and arts. The Egyptians,
the Israelites, the Phoenicians, the Assyrians, the
Babylonians, or Chaldeans, made then the most
conspicuous figure among the nations of Asia and
Africa. - -
The Egyptians and Chaldeans were the first who
cultivated astronomy. Egypt was long the nur-
sery of arts and sciences. The Phoenicians, with-
out any other guide than the stars, boldly travers.
ed unknown seas, and gave a vast extent of inter-
course to their commerce and navigation. They
founded many celebrated colonies, such as Car-
thage in Africa, and Malaga and Cadiz on the
shores of Spain.
The history of Europe, which is utterly un-
known during the first two thousand years, begins
to exhibit in the third millenary, a few slight no-
r.
INTRoDUCTION. 5.I.
tices of antient Greece. A multitude of petty
states had then taken root ; most of which, as Ar-
gos, Athens and Thebes, had been founded by co-
lonies from Egypt. The Greeks, in imitation of
the Phoenicians, applied themselves to arts, navi-
gation, and commerce. They established nume-
rous colonies, not only on the coasts of Asia Mi-
nor, but on those of Italy and Sicily. That in Low-
er Italy or Calabria, was known by the name of
Magna Graecia.
It was during the second period of ancient his-
tory, or in the fourth millenary, that great and
powerful monarchies arose ; which contributed to
the progress of arts and civilization, and the per-
fection of society. These are commonly reckoned
five, viz. the Egyptian, the Assyrian, the Persian,
the Macedonian, and the Roman; all of which suc-
cessively established themselves on the ruins of
each other.
The history of the first two monarchies is en-
veloped in mystery and doubt. Of the ancient
Egyptians, nothing now remains but their pyra-
mids, their temples, and obelisks,—monuments
which can only attest the power and grandeur of
the ancient sovereigns of Egypt. Y.
. As to the Assyrian antiquities, the contradic-
tions that we find between the narratives of Hero-
dotus and Ctesias, cannot fail to make us reject,
as fabulous, the details of the latter, respecting the
magnificence of Ninus, Semiramis, and Sardan-
*palus, the supposed monarchs of Assyria and Ba-
bylon. Nothing certain is known of this empire,
ºf the conquests of these kings, beyond what we
*nd recorded in the annals of the Jews. Shal-
D 2
52 CHAPTER I.
maneser, King of Assyria, subdued the kingdom
of Samaria or Israel, about the year of the world
3270; and Nebuchadnezzar, one of his successors,
conquered that of Judah and Jerusalem, about the
year 3403.
The Persian monarchy was founded by Cyrus,
who put an end to the dominion of the Assyrians
and Babylonians, by taking the city of Babylon,
about the year of the world 3463. The Persian
empire, when at its greatest height, under Darius
Hystaspes, comprehended all that part of Asia
which stretches from the Indus to the Caspian
Sea, and from the Euxine to the shores of the Me.
diterranean. Egypt in Africa, and Thrace in Eu:
rope, were subject to its laws. After a duration of
nearly two centuries, it was finally destroyed by
the Macedonians in the year 3672.
Greece, which was at first divided into several
petty kingdoms, changed its condition towards the
commencement of the fourth millenary; when its
principal cities, till then governed by kings, form:
ed themselves into detached republics. An en.
thusiasm for liberty spread over all Greece, and
inspired every bosom with the love of glory. Mi.
litary bravery, as well as arts, and talents of all
kinds, were fostered and encouraged by public
games, the principal of which were the Olympic
Two cities, Athens and Lacedemon, fixed upon
themselves for a time the eyes of all Greece. So:
lon was the legislator of the former, and Lycur
gus of the latter. To these two republics all the
rest succumbed, either as allies, or by right of
conquest. Athens has rendered herself immo
by the victories which she gained over the Per
INTRoDUCTION. 53
sians, at the famous battles of Marathon, Salamis,
and Plataea; fought A. M. 3512, 3522, and 3523.
The ascendancy which these victories procured
the Athenians over the rest of the Greek states,
excited the jealousy of the Lacedemonians, and
became the principal cause of the famous civil war
which arose in 3572, between these two republics,
and which is known by the name of the Pelopon-
nesian war. This was followed by various other ci-
vil wars; and these disasters contributed greatly
to exhaust the Greeks, and to break that union
which had been the true source of their prosperity
and their glory. Philip, King of Macedon, had the
address to turn these unhappy divisions to his own
advantage, and soon made himself master of all
Greece. The battle of Chaeronea, which he gained
over the Athenians about the year of the world
3664, completed the conquest of that country.
Alexander the Great, son of Philip, afterwards
attacked the Persian empire, which he utterly over-
threw, in consequence of the three victories which
he gained over Darius Codomannus, the last of the
Persian kings, at the passage of the Granicus in
3668, at Issus in 3669, and near Arbela in 3672.
The monarchy founded by Alexander fell to
pieces after his death. From its wreck were form-
ed, among others, by three of his generals, the
three kingdoms of Macedon, Syria and Egypt; all
of which were conquered in succession by the
Romans, A. M. 3835, 3936, and 3972. Greece
itself had been reduced to a Roman province, af-
ter the famous sack of Corinth, and the destruc-
tion of the Achaean league, A. M. 3856, or 144
years before Christ.
The empire of the Greeks was succeeded by
54 CHAPTER I,
that of the Romans, which is distinguished fron:
all its predecessors, not more by its extent and du-
ration, than by the wisdom with which it was ad-
ministered, and the fine monuments of all kinds
which it has transmitted to posterity. The great-
ness of this empire was not, however, the achieve-
ment of a single conqueror, but the work of ages,
Its prosperity must be chiefly ascribed to the pri-
mitive constitution of the Republic, which inspired
the Romans with the love of liberty, and the spirit
of patriotism—which animated them to glory and
perseverance, and taught them to despise dangers
and death. Their religion, likewise, served as a
powerful engine to restrain and direct the multi-
tude, according to the views and designs of the go-
vernment. - -
The earlier part of the Roman history may be
divided into three periods. The first of these re-
presents Rome under the government of kings:
from the time of its foundation, about the year of
the world 3249, to the expulsion of Tarquin the
Proud, and the establishment of the Republic, in
3493. The second extends from the establishment
of the Republic, in the year of Rome 245, to the
first Punic war, in the year of the City 490, and
of the world 3738. The third commences with
the first Punic war, and terminates at the battle of
Actium, which put an end to the Republican go-
vernment, and re-established monarchy under Au-
gustus, in the year of Rome 723.
During the first of these periods, the Romans
had to sustain incessant wars with their neighbours,
the petty states of Italy. They subdued the
whole of that peninsula in course of the second
period; and it was not till the third, that they
INTRODUCTION. 55
carried their arms beyond their own country, to
conquer the greater portion of the then known
world. The first two periods of the Roman his-
tory, are full of obscure and uncertain traditions.
In those remote ages, the Romans paid no atten-
tion to the study of letters. Immersed entirely in
the business of war, they had no other historical
records than the annals of their pontiffs, which pe-
rished in the sack of Rome, at the time of its in-
vasion by the Gauls, in the year of the City 365.
The most ancient of their historians was Fabius
Pictor, who wrote his Annals in the sixth century
after the foundation of Rome, or about the time
of the second Punic war. These Annals, in which
Fabius had consulted both tradition and foreign
authors, are lost; and we possess no information
on these two periods of Roman history, except
what has been left us by Dionysius of Halicar-
nassus, and Titus Livius, who both wrote in the
reign of Augustus, and whose narratives often re-
semble a romance rather than a true history.
The cultivation of letters and arts among the
Romans, did not, properly speaking, commence
until the third period; and after they had had in-
tercourse with civilized nations, as the Carthagi.
mans and Greeks. It was not until 484 years
after the building of the city, that they struck their
first silver coinage; and ten years afterwards, they
equipped their first fleet against the Carthaginians.
It is at this period, also, that truth begins to dawn
"Pon their history, and to occupy the place of
fable and tradition. Besides their native histo-
Tians, Titus Livius, Florus, and Welleius Patercu-
lus, several Greek authors, as Polybius, Plutarch,
Appian of Alexandria, Dion Cassius, &c. have
56 CHAPTER I.
furnished useful memorials on this period. The
history of Polybius, especially, is a work of the
highest merit. The statesman will there find les-
sons on politics and government, and the soldier
instructions in the art of war.
A long series of foreign wars put the Romans
in possession of the Isles of the Mediterranean,
Spain, Northern Africa, Egypt, Gaul, Illyria, Ma-
cedonia, Greece, Thrace, and all Asia, as far as
the Euphrates. The destruction of the powerful
republic of Carthage was the grand cast of the die
that decided the empire of the world in favour of
the Romans.
Carthage was a colony which the ancient Phe-
nicians had founded on the coast of Africa, near
the modern city of Tunis, in the year of the world
3119, and 130 before the founding of Rome. In
imitation of their mother country, the Carthagi.
nians rendered themselves famous by their mer.
chandise and their marine. The extent to which
they carried their commerce, and the force neces.
sary for its protection, rendered their arms every.
where victorious. They gradually extended their
conquests along the shores of Africa, in Spain, and
the islands of the Mediterranean.
The attempts which they had made to get pos.
session of Sicily, was the occasion of embroiling
them in a war with the Romans. For nearly two
hundred years, Rome and Carthage disputed be:
tween them the empire of the world; and it was
not until these two mighty rivals had, more than
once, made each other tremble for their independ-
ence, that the Carthaginians yielded to the yoke
of the conqueror. Their capital, after a siege
which lasted nearly three years, was completely
IN T R & DUCTION. 57
laid in ruins by the famous Scipio AEmilianus, the
scholar of Polybius. No monument of the Car-
thaginians now remains to point out the ancient
splendour of that republic. Their national ar-
chives, and all the literary treasures they contained,
perished with the city, or were destroyed by the
Romans. The destruction of Carthage happened
in the year of Rome 608, and of the world 3856,
the same year that witnessed the sack of Corinth.
The fall of Carthage, and more especially the
conquest of Greece, Egypt, and the Asiatic king-
doms, occasioned a wonderful revolution in the
manners and government of the Romans. The
riches of the East, the arts and institutions of the
vanquished nations, brought them acquainted with
luxuries they had never known, which soon prov-
ed the fatal harbingers of vice. Their patriotism
and love of liberty insensibly declined, and became
extinct : Powerful and ambitious citizens foment-
ed insurrections and civil wars, which ended in the
subversion of the republican government, and the
establishment of monarchy.
Two triumvirates appeared in succession. The
first consisted of Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus,
and was dissolved in consequence of the civil war
that arose among the triumvirs. Caesar, having
conquered Pompey at the battle of Pharsalia, in
the year of Rome 706, became master of the em-
Pire, under the title of perpetual dictator. This
new elevation of fortune he did not long enjoy;
e was assassinated in the senate by a band of con-
Spirators, at the head of whom was Brutus, in the
ë. of Rome 710, and 42 before the birth of
fiSt. w
A second triumvirate was formed between Mark
58 INTRODUCTION.
Antony, Caesar Octavianus, and Lepidus. Many
thousands of illustrious Romans, and among others
Cicero, were at this time proscribed, and put to
death by order of the triumvirs. Jealousy having
at length disunited these new tyrants, Octavianus
stript Lepidus of his power, and defeated Mark
Antony in the famous naval battle which took
place near the promontory of Actium, in the year
of Rome 723. Antony having been assassinated
in Egypt, immediately after his defeat, Caesar Ot.
tavianus became sole master of the empire, which
he afterwards ruled with sovereign authority under
the name of Augustus. .
At this time the Roman empire comprehended
the finest countries of Europe and Asia; with
Egypt and all the northern part of Africa. It
was bounded on the west by the Rhine and the
Danube, and on the east by the Euphrates. The
successors of Augustus added the greater part of
Britain to the empire. Trajan carried his victori.
ous arms beyond the Danube; he conquered the
Dacians, who inhabited those countries known at
present under the name of Hungary, Transylvania,
Moldavia, Walachia, and Bessarabia. In the East
this prince extended the limits of the empire be:
yond the Euphrates, having subdued Mesopotamia,
Assyria, Armenia, Colchis and Iberia, (or Ge.
orgia); but the conquests of Trajan were abandon:
ed by his successors, and the empire again shrunk
within the bounds prescribed by Augustus.
This empire, which extended from north tº
south nearly six hundred leagues, and more than
a thousand from east to west, viz. from the 24° tº
the 56° of latitude, comprised a total of 180,000
square leagues. The population, during its mos'
INTRODUCTION. 59
flourishing state, may be estimated at about
120,000,000,—a population which equals that of
modern Europe, with the exception of Great Bri-
tain, Denmark, Sweden, Russia and Turkey.
The government which had been introduced,
was an absolute monarchy, only clothed with the
forms of the ancient republic. Under the popular
titles of consul, tribune of the people, general,
grand pontiff, censor, &c. the prince united in him-
self all the various attributes of supreme power.
The senate indeed enjoyed extensive prerogatives;
the legislative power, which had been reserved at
first for the people, was afterwards transferred to
this body; but as the military were wholly sub-
ordinate to the prince, and as he had also at his
command a numerous guard, it is easy to perceive
that the authority of the senate was but precari-
ous, and by no means a counterpoise to that of the
prince.
A government so constructed could not insure
the welfare and happiness of the people, except
under princes as humane as Titus, as just and en-
lightened as Trajan and the Antonines; or so long
as the forms introduced by Augustus should be
respected. It could not fail to degenerate into ar-
bitrary power, under tyrants such as Tiberius, Ca-
ligula, Nero, and Domitian; and the senate must
then have been but a servile instrument in the
hands of the prince, employed by him to facilitate
the means of satiating his passions and his tyran-
my.
The maxims of absolute power soon became the
*hionable and favourite doctrine. Civilians be-
£an to teach publicly, that all the authority of the
WOL. I. E. -
60 CHAPTER I.
senate and the people was transferred to the
prince ; that he was superior to the laws; that his
power extended to the lives and fortunes of the ci.
tizens; and that he might dispose of the state as
his own patrimony. These encroachments of
despotism, joined to the instability of the imperial
throne, the decay of military discipline, the un-
bridled license of the troops, the employing whole
corps of barbarians in their wars, must all be reck.
oned among the number of causes that hastened
the downfal of the Roman empire.
Constantine the Great, was the first of the em.
perors that embraced Christianity, and made it
the established religion of the state in 324. He
quitted the city of Rome, the ancient resident
of the Caesars, and fixed his capital at Byzantium,
in 330, which took from him the name of Com:
stantinople. Anxious to provide for the security
of his new capital, he stationed the flower of his
legions in the East, dismantled the frontiers on the
Rhine and the Danube, and dispersed into the
provinces and towns, the troops who had hereto.
fore encamped on the borders of these great rivers
In this way he secured the peace and tranquillity
of the interior, and infused, for a time, a new vi
gour into the government; but he committed 4
great mistake in giving the first example of mak
ing a formal division of the state between his son,
without regard to the principle of unity and ind;
visibility which his predecessors had held sacred
It is true, this separation was not of long continº
ance; but it was renewed afterwards by Theodºr
sius the Great, who finally divided the empire he
tween his two sons in the year 395 ; Arcadiº
had the eastern, and Honorius the western part"
INTRODUCTION. 61
- *
the empire. This latter comprehended Italy,
Gaul, Britain, Spain, Northern Africa, Rhetia,
Windelicia, Noricum, Pannonia, and Illyria. It
was during the reign of Honorius, and under the
administration of his minister Stilico, that the
memorable invasion of the barbarians happened,
which was followed shortly after, by the destruc-
tion of the Western Empire.
It is with this great event, which gave birth to
a variety of new states and kingdoms, that the fol-
lowing History of the Revolutions of Europe com-
mences. It is divided into nine sections or pe-
riods of time, according to the successive changes
which the political system of Europe experienced
from the fifth to the nineteenth century.
In the first, which extends to the year 800, the
barbarians, who invaded the Western Empire,
formed new states in Spain, Gaul, and Italy; and
produced a complete revolution in the govern-
ments, laws, manners, letters, and arts of Europe.
It was during this period that the Franks gained
the ascendancy over the other European nations;
that the Popes laid the groundwork of their secu-
lar power; that Mahomet founded a new religion
in Asia, and an empire which extended through
Africa into Spain.
In the second period, which extends from 800
to 962, a vast empire was erected, and again dis-
embered, after enjoying a short-lived splendour.
From its wreck were formed new kingdoms, which
*We served as the basis for several states of mo-
"ern times. Others were established by the Nor-
*ans, Russians, and Hungarians. -
In the third period, which terminates with the
Year 1072, Germany became the preponderating
62. CHAPTER I.
power, and began to decline, through the abuse of
the feudal system. The House of Capet mount-
ed the throne of France; and the Normans achiev.
ed the conquest of England. The Northern nations,
converted to Christianity, began to make some fi:
gure in history: the monarchy of Russia became
great and powerful; while the Greek empire, and
that of the Romans, fell into decay.
During the fourth period, which ends with the
year 1300, the Roman Pontiffs acquired an im-
mense sway. This is also the epoch of the Cru.
sades, which had a powerful influence on the S0.
cial and political state of the European nations:
The darkness of the middle ages began gradually
to disappear; the establishment of communities,
and the enfranchisement of the serfs, gave birth
to new ideas of liberty. The Roman jurispru.
dence was restored from the neglect and oblivion
into which it had fallen, and taught in the univer.
sities: Italy was covered with a multitude of re.
publics, and the kingdom of the two Sicilies, and
of Portugal were founded: The inquisition was
established in France, and Magna Charta in Eng:
land: The Moguls in the east raised, by their
conquests, a powerful and extensive empire.
The fifth period, which ends at the taking ºf
Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, witnessed
the decline of the Pontifical jurisdiction: Learning
and science made some progress, and various in:
portant discoveries prepared the way for sti
greater improvements: Commerce began to floºr
rish, and extend its intercourse more widely; The
European states assumed their present form; while
the Turks, an Asiatic race, established their dº
minion in Europe.
INTRODUCTION, 63
The sixth period, from 1453 to 1648, is the
epoch of the revival of the belles lettres, and the fine
arts; and of the discovery of America: It is also
that of the Reformation of religion accomplished
in Germany; the influence of which has extended
over all the countries in the world. It was like-
wise during this period that Europe was desolated
by religious wars, which eventually must have
plunged it again into a state of barbarism. The
peace of Westphalia became the basis of the po-
litical system of Europe.
In the seventh period, from 1648 to 1713, this
federal system was turned against France, whose
power threatened to overturn the political balance
of Europe. The peace of Utrecht set bounds to
the ambition of its aspiring monarchs, while that of
Oliva adjusted the contending claims of the North.
The European states, delivered from the terror
of universal dominion, began to think the establish-
ment of it an impossibility; and losing conceit of the
system of political equipoise, they substituted in
its place maxims of injustice and violence.
The eighth period, which comes down to 1789,
is an epoch of weakness and corruption, during
which the doctrines of a libertine and impious phi-
losophy, led the way to the downfal of thrones
and the subversion of social order.
[The consequences of this new philosophy bring
us to the ninth period, during which, Europe was
almost entirely revolutionized. The present his-
tory terminates with the year 1815, which forms
a natural division in this revolutionary epoch; the
final results of which can be known only to pos-
terity.] -
E 2
VIEW
OF THE
REVOLUTIONS OF EUROPE.
CHAPTER II.
PERIOD I,
FROM THE INVASION OF THE Rom AN EMPIRE
IN THE WEST BY THE BARBARIANs, To THE
TIME OF CHARLEMAGNE. A. D. 406–800.
The Roman empire had, for many years, been
gradually tending towards its downfal. Its ener-
§les were exhausted ; and it required no great ef-
ºrts to lay prostrate that gigantic power which had
"ready lost its strength and activity. The vices
* the government, the relaxation of discipline, the
*imosities of faction, and the miseries of the peo-
Ple, all announced the approaching ruin of the em-
Pºe. Divided by mutual jealousies, enervated by
luxury, and oppressed by despotism, the Romans
"ere in no condition to withstand the numerous
66 CH A PTER II,
swarms of barbarians from the North, who, unac-
quainted with luxury, and despising danger and
death, had learned to conquer in the ranks of the
Imperial armies.
Several of the Emperors, guided by a short-
sighted policy, had received into their pay entire
battalions of foreigners ; and to recompense their
services, had assigned them settlements in the
frontier provinces of the empire. Thus the Franks
obtained, by way of compensation, territories in
Belgic Gaul; while similar grants were made in
Pannonia and in Thrace, to the Vandals, Alans,
Goths, and other barbarians. This liberality of
the Romans, which was a true mark of weakness,
together with the vast numbers of these troops
which they employed in their wars, at length ac-
customed the barbarians to regard the empire as
their prey. Towards the close of the year 406,
the Vandals, the Suevi, and the Alans, sounded
the tocsin of that famous invasion which accele.
rated the downfal of the Western empire. The
example of these nations was soon followed by the
Visigoths, the Burgundians, the Alemanns, the
Franks, the Huns, the Angles, the Saxons, the
Heruls, the Ostrogoths, and the Lombards. All
these nations, with the exception of the Hunº,
were of German origin. - -
THE VANDALs, it appears, were originally sek
tled in that part of northern Germany which lie
between the Elbe and the Vistula. They formed
a branch of the ancient Suevi, as did also the Bur
gundians and the Lombards. After the third cen"
tury, and under the reign of the Emperor Probus
we find them, with the Burgundians, engaged "
warring against the Romans on the Rhine. In tº
PERIoD I. A. D. 436–800. 67
time of Aurelian, (272) they established themselves
in the Western part of Dacia, that is, in Transyl-
vania, and a part of modern Hungary. Oppressed
in these districts by the Goths, they obtained from
Constantine the Great, settlements in Pannonia,
on condition of rendering military service to the
Romans. They remained in Pannonia, until the
commencement of the fifth century, when they set
out on their emigration towards Gaul. It was on
this occasion that they associated themselves with
the Alans, a people originally from Mount Cau-
casus, and ancient Scythia; a branch of which,
settled in Sarmatia near the source of the Borys-
thenes or Dnieper, had advanced as far as the Da-
hube, and there made a formidable stand against
the Romans. In their passage through Germany,
the Vandals and the Alans joined a body of the
Suevi, who also inhabited the banks of the Danube,
eastward of the powerful nation of the Alemanns.
United in this rude confederacy, they entered
Gaul, plundering and destroying wherever they
Went. Mayence, Worms, Spire, Strasbourg, and
many flourishing cities of Gaul, were pillaged by
these barbarians.
THE Goths, * the most powerful of these de-
structive nations, began to rise into notice in the .
third century, after the time of the Emperor Ca-
acalla. They then inhabited the country between
the Vistula, the Dniester, the Borysthenes, and
the Tanais or Don. It is not certain whether
they were originally from these regions, or whe-
ther, in more remote times, they inhabited Scan-
navia, from which, according to Jornandes, a
Gothic author, they emigrated at an early period.
* is however certain, that they were of German
68 CHAPTER Iſ.
extraction; and that, in the third and fourth cen-
turies, they made the Caesars tremble on their
thrones. The Emperor Aurelian was compelled
(274) to abandon the province of Dacia to their
dominion.
This nation, the first of the German tribes that
embraced the Christian religion, 3 was divided,
in their ancient settlements beyond the Danube,
into two principal branches. They who inhabited
the districts towards the east and the Euxine Sea,
between the Dniester, the Borysthenes and the
Tanais, were called Ostrogoths; the Visigoths
were the branch which extended westward, and
occupied ancient Dacia, and the regions situated
between the Dniester, the Danube and the Wis-
tula. Attacked in these vast countries by the Huns,
(375) some were subjugated, and others compel.
led to abandon their habitations. A part of the
Visigoths then fixed their abode in Thrace, in
Maesia, and the frontiers of Dacia, with consent
of the emperors; who granted also to the Ostro-
goths settlements in Pannonia. At length the
Visigoths, after having twice ravaged Italy, sacked
and plundered Rome, ended their conquests by
establishing themselves in Gaul and in Spain. One
branch of these Goths appear to have been the
Thuringians, whom we find in the fifth century
established in the heart of Germany, where they
erected a very powerful kingdom.
THE FRANks were probably a confederacy which
the German tribes, situated between the Rhine,
the Maine, the Weser, and the Elbe, had formed
among themselves, in order to maintain their liº
berty and independence against the Romans. Tº
citus, who wrote about the commencement of the
PERIoD I. A. D. 406–800. 69
second century, did not know them under this
new name, which occurs for the first time in the
historians of the third century. Among the Ger-
man tribes who composed this association, we find
the Chauci, the Sicambri, the Chamavi, the Che-
rusci, the Bructeri, the Catti, the Ampsivarii, the
Ripuarii, the Salii, &c. * These tribes, though
combined for the purposes of common defence,
under the general name of Franks, preserved,
nevertheless, each their laws and form of govern-
ment, as well as their particular chiefs, and the
names of their aboriginal tribes. In the fourth,
and towards the beginning of the fifth century, the
whole country lying within the Rhine, the Weser,
the Maine, and the Elbe, was called Francia.
Another confederation of the German tribes,
was that of the ALEMANNs ; unknown also to
Tacitus. It took its origin about the commence-
ment of the third century. Their territories ex-
tended between the Danube, the Rhine, the Nec-
ker, the Main, and the Lahn. On the east, in a
part of Franconia and modern Suabia, they had
for their neighbours and allies the SUEvi, who,
after having long formed a distinct nation, were at
length blended with the Alemanns, and gave their
Country the name of Suabia. The Alemanns ren-
dered themselves formidable to the Romans, by
their frequent inroads into Gaul and Italy, in the
third and fourth centuries.
THE SAxons, unknown also to Tacitus, began
to make a figure in history about the second cen-
tury, when we find them settled beyond the Elbe,
ºn modern Holstein, having for their neighbours
"he Angles, or English, inhabiting Sleswick Pro-
70 CHAPTER II.
per. These nations were early distinguished as
pirates and freebooters; and, while the Franks
and the Alemanns spread themselves over the inte-
rior of Gaul, the Saxons infested the coasts, and
even extended their incursions into Britain. The
Franks having penetrated into Gaul with their
main forces, the Saxons passed the Elbe, and in
course of time, occupied, or united in alliance
with them, the greater part of ancient France,
which took from them the name of Saxony. There
they subdivided themselves into three principal
branches; the Ostphalians to the east, the West.
phalians to the west, and the Angrians or Angri-
varians, whose territories lay between the other
two, along the Weser, and as far as the confines
of Hesse.
THE HUNs, the most fierce and sanguinary of
all the nations which overran the Roman Empire
in the fifth century, came from the remote districts
of northern Asia, which were altogether unknown
to the ancient Greeks and Romans. From the
descriptions which the historians of the fifth and
sixth centuries have given us of them, we are led
to believe, that they were Kalmucks or Mon-
guls originally. The fame of their arms had be:
gun to spread over Europe so early as the year
375 of the Christian era. Having subdued the
Alans, and crossed the Tanais, they subverted the
powerful monarchy of the Goths, and gave the
first impulse to the great revolution of the fifth
century, which changed the face of all Europe.
The Eastern empire first felt the fury of these bar.
barians, who carried fire and sword wherever they
went, rendered the Emperors their tributaries, and

PERIOD I. A. D. 406–800. 7I
then precipitated themselves on the West under
the conduct of the famous Attila. *
Several of the nations we have now enumerated,
divided among themselves the territories of Gaul.
This province, one of the richest and most import-
ant in the Western empire, was repeatedly over-
run and devastated by the barbarous hordes of the
fifth century. The Visigoths were the first that
formed settlements in it. On their arrival under
the command of King Atulf or Adolphus, (412),
they took possession of the whole country lying
within the Loire, the Rhine, the Durance, the Me-
diterranean, and the Alps. Toulouse became their
capital, and the residence of their kings.
THE BURGUNDIANs, a people, it would appear,
originally from the countries situated between
the Oder and the Vistula, followed nearly in the
track of the Visigoths; as we find them, about the
year 413, established on the Upper Rhine and in
Switzerland. After the dissolution of the empire,
they succeeded in establishing themselves in those
parts of Gaul, known by the names of the Sequa-
nois, Lyonnois, Viennois and Narbonnois, viz. in
those districts which formed, in course of time, the
two Burgundies, the provinces of Lyonnois, Dau-
Phiny and Provence on this side of the Durance,
Savoy, the Pays de Vaud, the Valais and Swit-
Žerland." These countries then assumed the
name of the Kingdom of the Burgundians.
... The ALEMANNI and the Suevi became flour-
*hing nations on the banks of the Upper Rhine
and the Danube. They invaded those countries
in Gaul, or the Germania Prima of the Romans,
own since under the names of Alsace, the Pa-
WOL, Is - F .
72 CHAPTER HI.
latinate, Mayence, &c.; and extended their con-
quests also over a considerable part of Rhetia and
Windelicia. .
At length the Franks, having been repulsed in
different rencounters by the Romans, again passed
the Rhine (430), under the conduct of Clodion their
chief; made themselves masters of the greater part of
Belgic Gaul, took possession of Tournay, Cambray
and Amiens; and thus laid the foundation of the
new kingdom of France in Gaul. The Romans,
however, still maintained their authority in the inte-
rior of that province, and the brave AEtius their ge.
neral made head against all those hordes of barba.
rians who disputed with him the dominion of Gaul,
It was at this crisis that the HUNs made their
appearance on the theatre of war. The fierce At.
tila, a man of great military talents, after having
overthrown various states, conquered Pannonia,
and different provinces of the Eastern empire on
the right bank of the Danube, undertook his fa.
mous expedition into Gaul. Marching along the
Danube from Pannonia, at the head of an innu.
merable army, 7 he passed the Rhine near the
Lake of Constance, pillaged and ravaged several
places, and spread the terror of his arms over all
Gaul. The Franks and the Visigoths united their
forces with those of the Roman General, to arrest
the progress of the barbarian. A bloody and or
stinate encounter took place (451), on the plain
of Chalons-sur-Marne, or Mery-sur-Seine, accord.
ing to others. Thierry, King of the Visigothº
and more than a hundred and sixty thousand me",
perished on the field of battle. Night separated tº
combatants; and Attila, who found his troops tº"
much exhausted to renew the combat, resolved "
PERIOD I. A. D. 406–800. 73
retreat. The following year he made a descent
on Italy, and committed great devastations. This
proved his last expedition; for he died suddenly on
his return, and the monarchy of the Huns expired
with him.
The defeat of the Huns did not reestablish the
shattered and ruinous affairs of the Romans in
Gaul. The Salian Franks, * under their kings,
Meroveus and Childeric I., the successors of Clo-
dion, extended their conquests more and more;
till at length Clovis, son of Childeric I., put an end
to the dominion of the Romans in that country,
by the victory which he gained in 486, at Sois-
Sons, over Syagrius, the last of the Roman gene-
rals, who died of a broken heart in consequence
of this defeat. The Alemanns afterwards having
disputed with him the empire of the Gauls, he
routed them completely (496), at the famous bat-
tle of Tolbiac or Zulpich; 9 seized their estates, and
Soon after embraced Christianity. Emboldened by
his new creed, and backed by the orthodox bishops,
he attacked the Visigoths, who were of the here-
tical sect of Arius, defeated and killed their king,
Alaric II., in the plains of Vouglé, near Poitiers,
(507), and stript them of all their possessions be-
tween the Loire and the Pyrenees.” Gaul be-
“ame thus, by degrees, the undisputed possession of
the Franks. The descendants of Clovis added to
heir conquests the kingdom of the Burgundians
(584), which they totally overthrew.
. These same princes increased their possessions
in the interior of Germany, by the destruction of
the powerful kingdom of the Thuringians (531),
$omprising those vast countries between the Werra,
* Aller, the Elbe, the Saal, the Mulda, and the
74 CHAPTER II.
Danube; and which are now known under the
names of Saxony, Thuringia, Franconia, the Upper
Palatinate, “’ &c. This kingdom they divided with
their allies the Saxons, who obtained the northern
part of it, situated between the Unstrut and the
Saal.
While the Visigoths, the Burgundians, the Franks
and the Alemanns, were disputing with each 0.
ther the conquest of Gaul, the Vandals, the Suevi,
and the Alans, turned their ambitious views to:
wards Spain. After having settled some years in
Gaul, these tribes passed the Pyrenees (409), to
establish themselves in the most fertile regions of
Spain. The Vandals seized Boetica, and a part of
Gallicia; the Suevi seized the rest of Gallicia;
while the Alans took possession of Lusitania, and
the province of Carthagena. The Alans after.
wards submitted to the sway of Gonderic, King of
the Vandals (420), while the Suevi preserved their
native princes, who reigned in Gallicia and Lusi,
tania; this latter province having been abandoned
by the Vandals, (427) when they passed into
Africa.
Meanwhile new conquerors began to make their
appearance in Spain. The Visigoths, pressed by
the Romans in Gaul, took the resolution of carry-
ing their arms beyond the Pyrenees. Under the
conduct of their King, Adolphus, they made them."
selves masters of the city of Barcelona (in 415)
Euric, one of the successors of this prince, took
from the Romans (472) all that yet remained ºf
their possessions in Spain; and Leovigild, another
of their kings, completed the conquest of all tha'
country (584), by reducing the kingdom of the
Suevi. The monarchy of the Visigoths, which "

PERIon I. A. D. 406–800. 75
its flourishing state comprised, besides the conti-
ment of Spain, Septimania or Languedoc in Gaul,
and Mauritania Tingitana in Africa, maintained
its existence until the commencement of the eighth
century; when, as we shall afterwards see, it was
finally overthrown by the Arabs.
Northern Africa, one of the finest possessions of
the Romans, was wrested from them by the Wan-
dals. Count Boniface, who had the government
of that country, having been falsely accused at the
court of the Emperor Valentinian III., and be-
lieving himself ruined in the esteem of that prince,
invited the Vandals over to Africa; proposing to
them the surrender of the provinces intrusted to
his command. Genseric was at that time king of
the Vandals. The preponderance which the Visi-
goths had acquired in Spain, induced that prince
to accept the offer of the Roman General; he em-
barked at the port of Andalusia, (427), and passed
with the Vandals and the Alans into Africa.
Meantime, Boniface having made up matters ami-
Cably with the Imperial court, wished to retract
the engagements which he had made with the
Vandals. Genseric nevertheless persisted in his
enterprise. He carried on a long and obstinate
War with the Romans ; the result of which turned
to the advantage of the barbarians. Genseric con-
quered in succession all that part of Africa per-
taining to the Western empire, from the Straits of
Cadiz as far as Cyrenaica, which was dependent
ºn the empire of the East. He subdued likewise
the Balearic Isles, with Sardinia, Corsica and a
Part of Sicily. - . . . . . .
The writers of that age who speak of this in-
F 2
76 CHAPTER II,
*
vasion, agree in painting, in the most lively colours,
the horrors with which it was accompanied. It
appears that Genseric, whose whole subjects, in-
cluding old men and slaves, did not exceed eighty
thousand persons, being resolved to maintain his
authority by terror, caused, for this purpose, a ge-
neral massacre to be made of the ancient inhabi-
tants of Africa. To these political severities were
added others on the score of religion; being devot-
ed with all his subjects to the Arian heresy, he as
well as his successors became the constant and im-
placable persecutors of the orthodox Christians.
This prince signalized himself by his maritime
exploits, and by the piracies which he committed
on the coasts of Italy and the whole Roman em.
pire. Encouraged, as is supposed, by the Em.
press Eudoxia, who wished to avenge the death of
her husband Valentinian III., he undertook an ex-
pedition into Italy (455), in which he made him.
self master of Rome. This city was pillaged dur-
ing fifteen days by the Vandals, spoiled of all its
riches and its finest monuments. Innumerable
statues, ornaments of temples, and the gilded cu.
pola of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, were re-
moved in order to be transported to Africa; to:
gether with many thousands of illustrious captives.
A vessel loaded with the most precious monu-
ments of Rome, perished in the passage.
The dominion of the Vandals in Africa lasted
about a hundred years. Their kingdom was de;
stroyed by the Emperor Justinian, who reunite
Africa to the empire of the East. Gilimer, the
last king of the Vandals, was conquered by Belº
sarius (534), and conducted by him in triumph"
Constantinople.
PERIoD I. A. D. 406–800. 77
BRITAIN, inaccessible by its situation to most of -
the invaders that overran the Western empire, was
infested, in the fifth century, by the northern inha-
bitants of that island,—the free Britons; known by
the name of Caledonians or Picts, and Scots. The
Romans having withdrawn their legions from the
island (446), to employ them in Gaul, the Bri-
tons, abandoned to their own strength, thought
proper to elect a king of their own nation, named
Vortigern ; but finding themselves still too weak
to resist the incursions of the Picts and Scots,
who, breaking over the wall of Severus, pillaged
and laid waste the Roman province, they took
the imprudent resolution of calling in to their suc-
cour the Angles, Saxons, and Jutlanders, who
were already distinguished for their maritime in-
Cursions. A body of these Anglo-Saxons arrived
in Britain (450) in the first year of the reign of
the Emperor Marcian, under the command of
Hengist and Horsa. From being friends and allies,
they soon became enemies of the Britons; and
ended by establishing their own dominion in the
island. The native islanders, after a protracted
struggle, were driven into the province of Wales,
where they succeeded in maintaining their inde-
pendence against their new conquerors. A num-
ber of these fugitive Britons, to escape from the
yoke of the invaders, took refuge in Gaul. There
they were received by the Franks into Armorica
and part of Lyonnois, to which they gave the
name of Brittany.
The Anglo-Saxons founded successively seven
Petty kingdoms in Britain, viz. Kent, Sussex,
essex, Essex, Northumberland, East Anglia,
and Mercia. Each of these kingdoms had seve-

78 CHAPTER II.'
rally their own kings; but they were all united in
a political association, known by the name of the
Heptarchy. One of the seven kings was the
common chief of the confederacy; and there was
a general convention of the whole, called wittend-
gemot, or the assembly of the wise men. Each
kingdom was likewise governed by its own laws,
and had its separate assemblies, whose power li-
mited the royal authority. This federal system
continued till the ninth century, when Egbert the
Great succeeded in abolishing the Heptarchy (827),
and raised himself to be King over all England.
In the midst of this general overthrow, there
were still to be seen in Italy the phantoms of the
Roman emperors, feebly supporting a dignity which
had long since lost its splendour. This fine coun-
try had been desolated by the Visigoths, the Huns,
and the Vandals, in succession, without becoming
the fixed residence of any one of these nations.
The conquest of that ancient seat of the first em.
pire in the world, was reserved for the Heruls and
the Rugians. For a long time, these German na-
tions, who are generally supposed to have emi-
grated from the coasts of the Baltic Sea, had been
approaching towards the Danube. They served
as auxiliaries to the Romans in Italy, after the
example of various other tribes of their country-
men. Being resolved to usurp the dominion of
that country, they chose for their king Odoacer,
under whose conduct they seized Ravenna and
Rome, dethroned Romulus Momyllus Augustu-
lus, the last of the Roman Emperors (476), and
put an entire end to the empire of the West.
The Heruls did not enjoy these-conquests more
than seventeen years, when they were deprived of
PERIOD I. A. D. 406–800. 79
them in their turn by the Ostrogoths. This na-
tion then occupied those extensive countries on
the right bank of the Danube, in Pannonia, Illy-
ria, and Thrace, within the limits of the Eastern
empire. They had rendered themselves formid-
able to the Romans in that quarter, by their fre-
quent incursions into the very heart of the em-
pire. The Emperor Zeno, in order to withdraw
these dangerous neighbours from his frontiers, en-
couraged their King Theodoric, as is alleged, to
undertake the conquest of Italy from the Heruls.
This prince immediately penetrated into the coun-
try: he defeated the Heruls in several actions;
and at length forced Odoacer to shut himself up
in the city of Ravenna (489), where, after a siege
of three years, he fell into the hands of the con-
queror, who deprived him at once of his throne
and his life.
Theodoric deserves not to be confounded with
the other barbarous kings of the fifth century.
Educated at the court of Constantinople, where
he passed the years of his youth, he had learned
to establish his authority by the equity of his laws,
and the wisdom of his administrations. He ruled
an empire which, besides Italy, embraced a great
part of Pannonia, Rhetia, Noricum, and Illyria.
This monarchy, formidable as it was, did not
exist beyond the space of sixty years: after a san-
guinary warfare of eighteen years, it was totally
subverted by the Greeks. The Emperor Justinian
*mployed his generals, Belisarius ** and Narses,
ºn recovering Italy and Sicily from the hands of
the Goths. This nation defended their posses-
*ons with determined obstinacy. Encouraged by
Totila, one of their last kings, they maintained a
80 CHAPTER II.
protracted struggle against the Greeks, and with
considerable success. It was during this war that
the city of Rome was pillaged afresh, and at length
(517), dismantled by the Goths. Totila sustain.
ed a complete defeat at the foot of the Apennines
in Umbria (552), and died of the wounds which
he had received in the action. His successor
Teias was by no means so fortunate in military af.
fairs. In a bloody battle which he fought with
Narses, in Campania (553), he was vanquished
and slain. His dominions passed into the hands
of the Greeks, with the exception of that part of
Rhetia and Noricum which the Alemanns occu-
pied, and which, during the war between the
Greeks and the Goths, had become the possession
of the Franks. * *
A new revolution happened in Italy, (568) by
the invasion of the Lombards. This people, who
originally inhabited the northern part of Germany
on the Elbe, and formed a branch of the great
nation of the Suevi, had at length fixed themselves
in Pannonia (527), after several times changing
their abode. They then joined with the Avars, an
Asiatic people, against the Gepidae, who possessed
a formidable dominion in ancient Dacia, on the left
bank of the Danube. This state was soon over-
turned by the combined forces of the two nations,
and the whole territories of the Gepidae passe
(565) under the dominion of the Avars. The
Lombards also abandoned to them their possessions
in Pannonia, and went in quest of new settlements
into Italy. It was in the spring of 568 that they
began their route, under the conduct of their King
Alboin, who, without coming to regular combat
with the Greeks, took from them, in succession,
PERIOD I. A. D. 406–800. 81
a great number of cities and provinces. Pavia,
which the Goths had fortified with care, was the
only town that opposed him with vigorous resis-
tance; and it did not surrender till after a siege of
three years, in 572. The Lombard kings made
this town the capital of their new dominions,
which, besides Upper Italy, known more especially
by the name of Lombardy, comprehended also a
considerable part of the middle and lower districts,
which the Lombards gradually wrested from the
Greeks.
The revolution, of which we have just now
given a summary view, changed the face of all
Europe; but it had a more particular influence on
the fate of ancient Germany. The Germanic
tribes, whose former boundaries were the Rhine
and the Danube, now extended their territories
beyond these rivers. The primitive names of those
nations, recorded by Tacitus, fell into oblivion,
and were replaced by those of five or six grand
confederations, viz. the Franks, Saxons, Frisians,
Alemanns, Suabians, and Bavarians, ** which em-
braced all the regions afterwards comprehended
under the name of Germany.
The Alemanns, and their neighbours the Sua-
bians, occupied, along with the Bavarians, the
greater part of what is called Upper Germany, on
both sides of the Danube as far as the Alps. The
Franks, masters of a powerful monarchy in Gaul,
Preserved, under their immediate dominion beyond
the Rhine, a part of ancient France, together with
the territories of which they had deprived the Ale-
manns ‘" and the Thuringians. In short, in all Low-
er Germany, no other names were to be found than
those of the Thuringians, Saxons, and Frisians; and
82 CHAPTER II.
as to the eastern part, situated beyond the Saal and
the Elbe, as it had been deserted of inhabitants by
the frequent emigrations of the German tribes, and
by the total destruction of the kingdom of the
Thuringians, it was seized in turn by the Slavi, or
Slavonians, a race distinguished from the Germans
by their language and their manners.
This nation, different colonies of which still oc-
cupy a great part of Europe, did not begin to fi-
gure in history until the fourth century of the
Christian era. Jornandes, a Gothic writer of the
sixth century, is the first author who mentions
them. He calls them Slavi, or Slavini; and dis-
tinguishes them into three principal branches, the
Venedi, the Slavi, and the Antes, whose numerous
tribes occupied the vast countries on the north of
the Euxine Sea, between the Vistula, the Niester,
the Nieper, &c. It was after the commencement
of the sixth century that these nations emigrated
from their ancient habitations, and spread them-
selves over the east and south of Europe. On the
one side, they extended their colonies as far as the
Elbe and the Saal; on the other, they crossed the Da-
nube, and penetrated into Noricum, Pannonia, and
Illyria; occupying all those countries known at this
day under the names of Hungary, Sclavonia, Ser-
via, Bosnia, Croatia, Dalmatia, Carniola, Carinthia,
Stiria, and the march of the Venedi. The history
of the sixth century, presents nothing more me"
morable than the bloody wars which the emperors
of the East had to maintain against the Slavians
of the Danube.
Those colonies of them who first distinguished
themselves on the Elbe, the Havel, the Oder,
and in the countries situated to the north of the
PERIoD I. A. D. 406–800. 83
Danube, were the Czechi, or Slavi of Bohemia;
the Sorabians inhabiting both sides of the Elbe, be-
tween the Saal and the Oder, in the countries now
known under the names of Misnia, Saxony, Anhalt
and Lower Lusace; the Wilzians, or Welatabes, and
the Abotrites, spread over Brandenburg, Pomerania,
and Mecklenburg proper; and, lastly, the Moravi,
or Moravians, settled in Moravia, and in a part of
modern Hungary. We find, in the seventh century,
achief named Samo, who ruled over many of these
nations. He fought successfully against the ar-
mies of King Dagobert. It is supposed that this
man was a Frank merchant, whom several of these
Slavian tribes had elected as their chief. .
There is one thing which, at this period, ough
above all to fix our attention, and that is the in-
fluence which the revolution of the fifth century
had on the governments, laws, manners, sciences,
and arts of Europe. The German tribes, in esta-
blishing themselves in the provinces of the Western
empire, introduced along with them the political
institutions by which they had been governed in
their native country. The governments of ancient
Germany were a kind of military democracies, un-
der generals or chiefs, with the prerogatives of
kings. All matters of importance were decided
in their general assemblies, composed of freemen,
awing the privilege of carrying arms, and going
to war.” The succession to the throne was not
hereditary; and though it became so in fact in
"most of the new German states, still, on the ag-
"ession of their princes, they were attentive to pre-
*rve the ancient forms, which evinced the primi-
VOL. I. G 3.

'84, chAPTER II.
ſtive right of election that the nation had reserved
to itself. - - ... •
The political division into cantons (gaw), long
used in ancient Germany, was introduced into
all the new conquests of the German tribes, to
facilitate the administration of justice. At the
head of every canton was a justiciary officer, called
Grav, in Latin Comes, who held his court in the
open air, assisted by a certain number of assessors
or sheriffs. This new division caused a total
change in the geography of Europe. The ancient
names of the countries were every where replaced
by new ones; and the alterations which the n0.
menclature of these divisions underwent in course
of time, created no small embarrassment in the
study of the history and geography of the middle
ages: : * * *
. Among the freemen who composed the armies
of the German nations, we find the grandees and
nobles, who were distinguished by the number ºf
men-at-arms, or freemen, whom they carried in
their train.” They all followed the king, or com:
mon chief, of the expedition, not as mercenaries of
regular soldiers, but as volunteers who had come,
of their own accord, to accompany him. The
booty and the conquests which they made in waſ
...they regarded as a common property, to whic
they had all an equal right. The kings, chiefs, an
grandees, in the division of their territories, receive
larger portions than the other military and free.
men, on account of the greater efforts they h
-made, and the greater number of warriors who ha
"followed them to the field. These lands wer.
given them as property in every respect free; aſ
although an obligation was implied of their cº".

*.
Period i, A. D. 400–800. 85
curring in defence of the common cause, yet it was.
rather a sort of consequence of the territorial.
grant, and not imposed upon them as a clause, or
essential condition of the tenure. - t
It is therefore wrong to regard this division of
lands as having given rise to fiefs. War was the
favourite occupation, the only honourable rank,
and the inalienable prerogative of a German. They:
were soldiers not of necessity or constraint, but of
their own free will, and because they despised eve-
ry other employment, and every other mode of
life. Despotism was, therefore, never to be ap-
prehended in a government like this, where the
great body of the nation were in arms, sat in their
general assemblies, and marched to the field of war:
Their kings, however, soon invented an expedient
calculated to shackle the national liberty, and to
augment their own influence in the public assem-
blies, by the number of retainers which they found
means to support. This expedient, founded on the
primitive manners of the Germans, was the institue
tion of fiefs. 3. - -
It was long a custom among the ancient Ger-
mans, that their chiefs should have, in peace as
well as in war, a numerous suite of the bravest
Youths attached to their person. Besides provi-
Alons, they supplied them with horses and armsy
and shared with them the spoil which they took
ºn war. This practice subsisted even after the
Germans had established themselves, in the pro-
"inces of the Western Empire. The kings, and,
after their example, the nobles, continued to enter-
*in a vast number of companions and followers ;
*"d the better to secure their allegiance, they grant-
* them, instead of horses and arms, the enjoy;
86 CHAPTER II.
ment of certain portions of land, which they dis.
membered from their own territories.
These grants, known at first by the name of le.
nefices, and afterwards of fiefs, subjected those who
received them to personal services, and allegiance
to the superiors of whom they held them. As
they were bestowed on the individual possessor,
and on the express condition of personal services,
it is obvious that originally fiefs or benefices were
not hereditary; and that they returned to the su.
perior, when the reason for which they had been
given no longer existed.
The laws and jurisprudence of the Romans weſt
in full practice through all the provinces of the
Western Empire, when the German nations ests.
blished themselves there. Far from superseding
or abolishing them, the invaders permitted the
ancient inhabitants, and such of their new subjects
as desired it, to live conformably to these law,
and to retain them in their courts of justice. Nº
vertheless, without adopting this system of jurie
prudence, which accorded neither with the rude:
ness of their manners, nor the imperfection of their
ideas, they took great care, after their settlemen
in the Roman provinces, to have their ancient cut
toms, to which they were so peculiarly attached
digested and reduced to writing. -
The Codes of the Salian and Ripuarian Frankº
those of the Visigoths, the Burgundians, the Bº
varians, the Anglo-Saxons, the Frisians, the All*
manns, and the Lombards, were collected into on"
body, and liberty given to every citizen to be gº
verned according to that code of laws which hº
himself might choose. All these laws wore th9
impress of the military spirit of the Germans, *

PER rob I. A. D. 486–800. 87
well as of their attachment to that personal liber-
ty and independence, which is the true character-
istic of human nature in its primitive state. Ac-
cording to these laws, every person was judged by
his peers; and the right of vengeance was reserved
to the individuals, or the whole family, of those
who had received injuries. Feuds, which thus be-
came hereditary, were not however irreconcilable.
Compromise was allowed for all private delinquen-
cies, which could be expiated, by paying to the injur-
ed party a specified sum, or a certain number of cat-
tle. Murder itself might be expiated in this manner;
and every part of the body had a tax or equiva-
*nt, which was more or less severe, according to
the different rank or condition of the offenders.
, Every freeman was exempt from corporal pu-
mishment; and in doubtful cases, the law obliged the
judges to refer the parties to single combat, enjoin-
ing them to decide their quarrel sword in hand.
Hence, we have the origin of the Judgments of
God, as well as of Challenges and Duels. i* These
"ustoms of the German nations, and their singular
*olution in persisting in them, could not but in-
ºrrupt the good order of society, encourage bar-
*rism, and stamp the same character of rudeness
* all their conquests. New wants sprung from
"ew enjoyments; while opulence, and the conta-
$ºn of example, taught them to contract vices of
"ich they had been ignorant, and which they did
* redeem by new virtues. Murders, oppres-
**, and robberies, multiplied every day; the
"ºrd was made the standard of honour, the rule
of Justice and injustice; cruelty and perfidy be:
. ... • G 2 " . . . . .
88 * CHAPTER II.
came every where the reigning character of the
court, the nobility and the people.
Literature, with the arts and sciences, felt above
all the baneful effects of this revolution. In less
than a century after the first invasion of the bar-
barians, there scarcely remained a single trace of
the literature and fine arts of the Romans. Learn-
ing, it is true, had for a long time been gradually
falling into decay, and a corrupt taste had begun
to appear among the Romans in works of genius
and imagination; but no comparison can be made
between the state of literature, such as it was in
the West anterior to the revolution of the fifth
century, and that which we find there after the
conquests of the German nations.
- These barbarians, addicted solely to war; and
the chase, despised the arts and sciences. Un-
der their destructive hands, the finest monumentº
of the Romans were levelled to the ground; their
libraries were reduced to ashes; their schools and
seminaries of instruction annihilated. The feeble
rays of learning that remained to the vanquished,
were unable to enlighten or civilize those enemies
to knowledge and mental cultivation. The scien"
ces, unpatronised and unprotected by those ferº"
cious conquerors, soon fell into total contempt.
It is to the Christian religion alone, which wº
embraced, in succession, by the barbarous destroye”
of the empire, that we owe the preservation of the
mutilated and venerable remains which we posse”
of Greek and Roman literature.” The clergy, bº
ing the authorized teachers of religion, and tº
only interpreters of the sacred writings, were *
liged by their office to have some tincture of lº
ters. They thus occame, over all the East, *

PERIOD I. A. D. 406–800. 89
sole depositaries of learning; and for a long series
of ages, there was nobody in any other rank or
profession of life, that occupied themselves with
science, or had the slightest acquaintance even
with the art of writing. These advantages which
the clergy enjoyed, contributed in no small degree
to augment their credit and their influence. Every
where they were intrusted with the management
of state affairs; and the offices of chancellor, minis-
ters, public notaries, and in general, all situations
where knowledge or the art of writing was indis-
pensable, were reserved for them ; and in this way
their very name (clericus) became as it were the
synonyme for, a man of letters, or any person ca-
pable of handling the pen. The bishops, more-
over, held the first rank in all political assemblies,
and in war marched to the field in person, at the
head of their vassals. -
Another circumstance that contributed to raise
the credit and the power of the clergy was, that
the Latin language continued to be employed in
the Roman provinces which had been subjected
to the dominion of the German nations. Every
thing was written exclusively in the Roman tongue,
which became the language of the church, and of
all public acts; and it was long before the Ger-
man dialects, which had become universally preva-
lent, could be reduced to writing. The corrupt
Pronunciation of the Latin, and its mixture with fo-
reign idioms and constructions, gave birth, in course
of time, to new languages, which still retain evi-
dence of their Roman origin, such as the Italian,
Španish, Portuguese, French and English languages.
In the fifth and following centuries, the Teutonic lan-
guage, or that spoken by the conquerors of Gaul, was
90 chapter If.
called lingua Francica; this was distinguished
from the lingua Romana, or the language spoken
by the people ; and which afterwards gave rise to
the modern French. It appears, therefore, from
what we have just stated, that the incursion of the
German tribes into the provinces of the West, was
the true source of all the barbarity, ignorance and
superstition, in which that part of Europe was so
long and so universally buried.
There would have been, therefore, every reason
to deplore a revolution, not less sanguinary in itself
than disastrous in its consequences, if, on the one
hand, it had not been the instrument of delivering
Europe from the terrible despotism of the Romans;
and, on the other, if we did not find, in the rude
institutions of the German conquerors, some germs
of liberty, which, sooner or later, were sure to
lead the nations of Europe to wiser laws, and bet".
ter organized governments.
Among the states which rose on the ruins of the
Roman empire, that of the Franks acquired the
preponderance; and, for several ages, it sustained
the character of being the most powerful kingdom
in Europe. This monarchy, founded by Clovis,
and extended still more by his successors, em:
braced the whole of Gaul except Languedoc,
which belonged to the Visigoths. ** The greater
part of Germany also was subject to it, with the
exception of Saxony, and the territories of the
Slavi. After it had fallen into decay, by the par-
titions and civil wars of the descendants of Clovis,
it rose again, solely however by the wisdom and
ability of the mayors of the palace, who restoredit
once more to its original splendour.
These mayors, from being originally merely grand:
PERIOD I. A. D. 406–800. 9]
masters of the court, rose by degrees to be prime
ministers, governors of the state, and ultimately to
be kings. The founder of their greatness, was
Pepin d'Heristal, a cadet of the dynasty of the
Carlovingians, which succeeded that of the Mer-
ovingians, towards the middle of the eighth century.
Under the Merovingian princes, the sovereignty was
divided between two principal kingdoms, viz. that
of Austrasia, which comprehended Eastern France,
being all that part of Gaul situated between the
Meuse, the Scheld, and the Rhine; as well as the
German provinces beyond the Rhine, which also
made a part of that monarchy. The whole of
Western Gaul, lying between the Scheld, the
Meuse and the Loire, was called Neustria. Bur-
gundy, Aquitain, and Provence, were considered
as dependencies of this latter kingdom. -
Dagobert II, King of Austrasia, having been
assassinated (in 678), the King of Neustria,
Thierry III., would in all probability have reunit-
ed the two monarchies; but the Austrasians, who
dreaded and detested Ebroin, Mayor of Neustria,
elected a mayor of their own, under the nominal
authority of Thierry. This gave rise to a sort of
civil war between the Austrasians and the Neu-
strians, headed by Pepin Heristal, Mayor of Aus-
trasia, and Bertaire, Mayor of Neustria, who suc-
ceeded Ebroin. The battle which Pepin gained
at Testry, near St Quentin (687), decided the fate
*f the empire; Bertaire was slain, and Thierry
III, fell under the power of the conqueror. Pe-
Pin afterwards confirmed to Thierry the honours
of royalty, and contented himself with the dignity
9f mayor, and the title of Duke and Prince of the
Franks, but regarding the throne as hisown by right
92 chapter II.
of conquest, he vested in himself the sovereign au-
thority, and granted to the Merovingian Prince,
nothing more than the mere externals of majesty,
and the simple title of king. Such was the revo-
lution that transferred the supreme authority of
the Franks to a new dynasty, viz. that of the Car-
lovingians, who with great moderation, still pre-
served, during a period of sixty-five years, the
royal dignity to the Merovingian princes, whom
they had stript of all their power. **
Pepin d'Heristal being dead (714), the partisans
of the ancient dynasty made a last effort to libe-
rate the Merovingian kings from that dependence
under which Pepin had held them so long. This
prince, in transferring the sovereign authority to his
grandson Theodwald, only six years of age, had
devolved on his widow, whose name was Plecº
trude, the regency and guardianship of the young
mayor.
A government so extraordinary emboldened thé
factious to attempt a revolution. The regent, as
well as her grandson, were divested of the sove-
reignty, and the Neustrian grandees chose a may-
or of their own party named Rainfroy ; but their
triumph was only of short duration. Charles Mar-
tel, natural son of Pepin as is supposed, having
escaped from the prison where he had been de-
tained by the regent, passed into Austrasia, and
then caused himself to be proclaimed duke, after
the example of his father. He engaged in a war
against Chilperic II. and his mayor Rainfroy;
three successive victories which he gained, viz. at
Stavelo, Vinci near Cambray, and Soissons, in
716–17–18, made him once more master of the
throne and the so rereign authority. The duke of
PERIoD I. A. D. 406—800. 93
Aquitain having delivered up King Chilperic to
him, he confirmed anew the title of royalty to that
prince; and shortly after raised his glory to its
highest pitch, by the brilliant victories which he
gained over the Arabs (732–737), in the plains of
Poitiers and Narbonne.
Pepin le Bref, (or the Short) son and successor
of Charles Martel, finding his authority establish-
ed both within and without his dominions, judged
this a favourable opportunity for reuniting the title
of royalty to the power of the sovereign. He
managed to have himself elected King in the Ge-
neral Assembly of the Franks, which was conven-
ed in the Champ-de-Mars, in the neighbourhood of
Soissons. Childeric III. the last of the Merovin-
gian kings, was there deposed (752), and shut up
in a convent. Pepin, with the intention of ren-
dering his person sacred and inviolable, had re-
course to the ceremony of coronation; and he was
the first King who caused himself to be solemnly
consecrated and crowned in the cathedral of Sois-
sons, by St Boniface, first archbishop of Mayence. **
The example of Pepin was followed soon after by
Several princes and sovereigns of Europe. The
last conquest he added to his dominion was the
province of Languedoc, which he took (759) from
the Arabs. - -
The origin of the secular power of the Roman
pontiffs commences with the reign of Pepin. This
event, which had so peculiar an influence on the
religion and government of the European nations,
requires to be detailed at some length. .
At the period of which we write, there existed
a violent controversy between the churches in the
£ast, and those in the West, respecting the wor-
'94, CHAPTER II.
ship of images. The Emperor Leo the Isaurian
had declared himself against this worship, and had
proscribed it by an imperial edict (726). He and
his successors persisted in destroying these objects
of idolatry, as well as in persecuting those who
avowed themselves devotees to this heresy. This
extravagant zeal, which the Roman pontiffs blamed
as excessive, excited the indignation of the people
against the Grecian Emperors. ** In Italy, there
were frequent rebellions against the imperial offi.
cers that were charged with the execution of their
orders. The Romans especially, took occasion,
from this, to expel the duke or governor, who re-
sided in their city on the part of the emperor;
and they formally erected themselves into a re.
public (730), under the pontificate of Gregory II,
by usurping all the rights of sovereignty, and, aſ
the same time, reviving the ancient names of the
senate and the Roman people. The Pope was
recognised as chief or head of this new republic,
and had the general direction of all affairs, both at
home and abroad. The territory of this republic,
formed of the dutchy of Rome, extended, from
north to south, from Viterbo as far as Terracina; and
from east to west, from Narni to the mouth of the
Tiber. Such was the weakness of the Eastern
empire, that all the efforts of the emperors to re-
duce the Romans to subjection proved unavailing
The Greek viceroy—the Duke of Naples, who had
marched to besiege Rome, was killed in battle
together with his son; and the exarch himse
was compelled to make peace with the republk
Cºnse
This state of distress to which the Grecian em"
-pire was reduced, afforded the Lombards an 0P,
PERIoD I. A. D. 406–800. 95
portunity of extending their possessions in Italy.
Aistolphus their king attacked the city of Ra-
venna (751), where the exarchs or governors-ge-
neral of the Greeks had fixed their residence; and
soon made himself master of it, as well as the
province of the exarchate, ** and the Pentapolis.
The exarch Eutychius was obliged to fly, and
took shelter in Naples.
This surrender of the capital of Grecian Italy,
emboldened the Lombard King to extend his
views still farther ; he demanded the submission of
the city and dutchy of Rome, which he considered
as a dependency of the exarchate. Pope Stephen
II, became alarmed, and began to solicit an alliance
with the Greek empire, whose distant power seem-
ed to him less formidable than that of the Lom-
lards, his neighbours; but being closely pressed
by Aistolphus, and finding that he had no succour
to expect from Constantinople, he determined to
apply for protection to the Franks and their King
epin. -
The Franks, at that time, held the first rank
among the nations of Europe; their exploits
*gainst the Arabians had gained them a high re-
Putation for valour over all the West. Stephen
*paired in person to France, and in an interview
which he had with Pepin, he found means to in-
*rest that prince in his cause. Pepin did not yet
*gard himself as securely established on a throne
which he had so recently usurped from the Mero-
Yingian princes; more especially as there still ex-
*ted a son of Childeric III., named Thierry, and
*formidable rivalry in the puissant dukes of Aqui-
*in, who were cadets of the same family. He
Vol. 1. . . H wº- . - *-
96 CHAPTER II.
had no other right to the crown than that of elec.
tion ; and this title, instead of descending to his
sons, might perhaps serve as a pretext for de.
priving them of the sovereignty. Anxious to ren.
der the crown hereditary, he induced the Pope to
renew the ceremony of his coronation in the
Church of St Denis ; and, at the same time, to
consecrate his two sons, Charles and Carloman
The Pope did more; he disengaged the King from
the oath which he had taken to Childeric, and
bound all the nobility of the Franks, that were
present on the occasion, in the name of Jesus'
Christ and St Peter, to preserve the royal dignity
in the right of Pepin and his descendants; and
lastly, that he might the more effectually secure
the attachment of Pepin and his sons, and procure
for himself the title of being their protector, he
publicly conferred on them the honour of being
patricians of Rome.
So great condescension on the part of the Pope
could not but excite the gratitude of Pepin. He
not only promised him succour against the Lon.
bards; he engaged to recover the exarchate from
their hands, and make a present of it to the Holy
See ; he even made him a grant of it by anticipa.
tion, which he signed at the Castle of Chiersi-sur-
l'Oise, and which he likewise caused to be signed by
the princes his sons.” It was in fulfilment of these
stipulations that Pepin undertook (755–56) twº
successive expeditions into Italy. He compelle
"Aistolphus to acknowledge himself his vassal, all
deliver up to him the exarchate with the Pentapolis
-of which he immediately put his Holiness in poºr
session. This donation of Pepin served to confirm
and to extend the secular power of the Popº
PERIoD I. A. D. 406–800. 97
which had already been augmented by various
grants of a similar kind. The original document
of this singular contract no longer exists; but the
names of the places are preserved which were
ceded to the pontifical hierarchy. * *
In the conclusion of this period, it may be pro-
per to take some notice of the Arabs, commonly
called Saracens, " " and of their irruption into Eu-
rope. Mahomet, an Arab of noble birth, and a
native of Mecca, had constituted himself a pro-
phet, a legislator, and a conqueror, about the be-
ginning of the seventh century of the Christian
era. He had been expelled from Mecca (622)
on account of his predictions, but afterwards re-
turned at the head of an army; and having made
himself master of the city, he succeeded by de-
grees, in subjecting to his yoke the numerous
tribes of Arabia. His successors, known by the
name of Caliphs, or vicars spiritual and temporal
of the prophet, followed the same triumphant
Career. They propagated their religion wherever
they extended their empire, and overran with their
Sonquests the vast regions both of Asia and Africa.
Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Barca, Tripoli, and the
whole northern coasts of Africa, were won from
the Greek empire by the Caliphs; who at the
*ame time (651) overthrew the powerful monarchy
of the Persians; conquered Charasm, Transoxiana,
and the Indies, and founded an empire more ex-
tensive than that of the Romans had been. The
“apital of the Caliphs, which had originally been
* Medina, and afterwards at Cufa, was transferred
(661) by the Caliph Moavia I. to Damascus in Syria;
and by the Caliph Almanzor, to Bagdad in Irak-
Arabia, (766) which was founded by that princes
98 chapTER 11.
It was under the Caliphate of Walid (711),
that the Arabs first invaded Europe, and attacked
the monarchy of the Visigoths in Spain. This
monarchy had already sunk under the feebleness
of its kings, and the despotic prerogatives which
the grandees, and especially the bishops, had arro-
gated to themselves. These latter disposed of the
throne at their pleasure, having declared it to be
elective. They decided with supreme authority
in the councils of the nation, and in all affairs of
state. Muza at that time commanded in north-
ern Africa, in name of the Caliph Walid. By the
authority of that sovereign, he sent into Spain one
of his generals, named Taric or Tarec-Abenzara,
who, having made a descent on the coasts of All-
dalusia, took his station on the hill which the an-
cients called Calpê, and which has since been
known by the name of Gibraltar (Gibel-Taric)
or the hill of Taric, in commemoration of the A-
rabian general.
It was in the neighbourhood of the city Xere
de la Frontera, in Andalusia, that Taric encoun-
tered the army of the Visigoths, commanded by
their King Roderic. The battle was decisive, a
the Visigoths sustained a total defeat. Roderic
perished in the flight : and Muza, the Arabian gº
vernor, having arrived to second the efforts of Tº
ric, the conquest of all Spain followed as a consº
quence of this victory. * * Septimania, or Langu”
doc, which then made a part of the Visigothic mº
narchy, passed at the same time under the dom"
nion of the Arabs.
These fierce invaders did not limit their co"
quests in Europe to Spain and Languedoc ; de
Balearic Isles, Sardinia, Corsica, part of Ap"
PERIoD I. A. D. 406–800. 99.
and Calabria, fell likewise under their dominion :
they infested the sea with their fleets, and more
than once carried terror and desolation to the very
gates of Rome. It is probable even that all Eu-
rope would have submitted to their yoke, if Charles
Martel had not arrested the career of their victo-
ries. He defeated their numerous and warlike ar-
mies in the bloody battles which were fought near.
Poitiers and Narbonne (732–737), and at length
compelled them to shut themselves up within the
province of Languedoc. - -
The unity of the empire and the religion of
Mahomet, did not long remain undivided. The
first dynasty of the Caliphs, that of the Ommiades,
was subverted ; and all the princes of that family
massacred by the Abassides (749), who seized the
caliphate.” A solitary descendant of the Ommiades,
named Abdalraham, grandson of the fifteenth Ca-
liph Huscham, was saved in Spain, and fixed his
residence at Cordova; and being acknowledged as
Caliph by the Mussulmans there, he detached that
province from the great empire of the Arabians,
(756). g
. This revolution, and the confusion with which
it was accompanied, gave fresh courage to the
small number of Visigoths, who, to escape the
Mahometan yoke, had retired to the mountains of
Asturias. Issuing from their retreats, they retali-
ated on the Infidels; and towards the middle of
the eighth century, they laid the foundation of a
new Christian state, called afterwards the kingdom
of Oviedo or Leon. Alphonso I., surnamed the
Catholic, must be regarded as the first founder of
this new monarchy. 30 -
H 2
I00 g CHAPTER II.
The Franks, likewise, took advantage of these
events, to expel the Arabs from Languedoc. Pe-
pin took possession of the cities of Nismes, Ma-
guelonne, Agde, and Beziers (752), which were
delivered up to him by a noble Goth, named Os-
mond. The reduction of Narbonne was by no
means so easy a task. For seven years he con-
tinued to blockade it; and it was not until 759
that he became master of the city, and the whole
of Languedoc.
The loss of Spain, on the part of the Abassides,
was soon after followed by that of Northern Africa,
Ibrahim-Ben-Aglab, having been sent thither as go-
vernor by the Caliph of Bagdad, Haroun Al-
rashid (800), he found means to constitute himself
sovereign prince over the countries, then properly
termed Africa; of which Tripoli, Cairoan, Tunis,
and Algiers, formed a part. He was the founder
of the dynasty of the Aglabites; * while another
usurper, named Edris, having conquered Numidia
and Mauritania, called by the Arabs Mogrel,
founded that of the Edrissites. These two dynas-
ties were overturned (about 908) by Aboul Cassein
Mohammed, son of Obeidallah, who claimed to be
descended from Ali, by Fatima, daughter of the
prophet; he subjected the whole of Northern Af.
rica to his yoke, and took the titles of Mahadi and
Caliph. From him were descended the Caliphs.
called Fatimites, who extended their conquests tº
Egypt, and laid there the foundation of Kaheral,
or Grand Cairo (968), where they established the
seat of their caliphate, which, in the twelfth cell-
tury, was destroyed by the Ayoubides.
The irruption of the Arabs into Spain, disas'
trous as it was, did not fail to produce effects bº
PERIOD I. A. D. 406–800. 10]
neficial to Europe, which owes its civilization
partly to this circumstance. The Abassidian Ca-
liphs, aspiring to be the protectors of letters and
arts, began to found schools, and to encourage
translations of the most eminent Greek authors
into the Arabic language. Their example was
followed by the Caliphs of Cordova, and even by
the Fatimites, who held the sovereignty of Egypt
and Northern Africa. In this manner a taste for
learning was communicated to all the Mahometan
states. From Bagdad it passed to Cairo; and
from the banks of the Euphrates and the Nile, it
spread itself as far as the Tagus. Mathematics,”
Astronomy, Chemistry, Medicine, Botany, and
Materia Medica, were the sciences which the
Arabians affected chiefly to cultivate. They ex-
celled also in poetry, and in the art of embodying
the fictions of imagination in the most agreeable
narratives. Rhazes, Averroes, Avicenna, are a-
mong the number of their celebrated philosophers
and physicians. Elmacin, Abulfeda, Abulphara-
gius, and Bohadin, as historians, have become fa-
mous to all posterity.
Thus Spain, under the Mahometans, by culti-
vating many sciences little known to the rest of
Europe, became the seminary of the Christians in
the West, who resorted thither in crowds, to pro-
secute in the schools of Cordova the study of
learning and the liberal arts.” The use of the
numerical characters, the manufacture of paper,
cotton, and gun-powder, were derived to us from
the Arabians, and especially from the Arabians of
Spain. Agriculture, manufactures, and naviga-
tion, are all equally indebted to the Arabians.
They gave a new impulse to the commerce of
102 CHAFTER II.
the Indies; from the Persian Gulf they extended
their trade along the shores of the Mediterranean,
and to the borders of the Black Sea. Their car-
pets, and embroideries in gold and silver, their
cloths of silk, and their manufactures in steel and
leather, maintained for years a celebrity and a
perfection unknown to the other nations of Eu-
rope.
REVOLUTIONS OF EUROPE.
CHAPTER III.
PERIOD II.
FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO OTHO THE GREAT.
A. D. 800–96 2.
The reign of Charles the Great forms a remark-
able epoch in the history of Europe. That prince,
who succeeded his father Pepin (768), eclipsed
all his predecessors, by the superiority of his ge-
nius, as well as by the wisdom and vigour of his
administration. Under him the monarchy of the
Franks was raised to the highest pinnacle of glory.
He would have been an accomplished prince, and
worthy of being commemorated as the benefactor
9f mankind, had he known how to restrain his
immoderate thirst for conquest.
He carried his victorious arms into the centre
of Germany; and subdued the warlike nation of
the Saxons, whose territories extended from the
ower Rhine, to the Elbe and the Baltic sea.
After a bloody war of thirty-three years, he com-
Pelled them to receive his yoke, and to embrace
H 04: CHAPTER III.
Christianity, by the peace which he concluded
with them (803) at Saltz on the Saal. The bishop-
rics of Munster, Osnaburg, Minden, Paderborn,
Verden, Bremen, Hildesheim, and Halberstadt, owe
their origin to this prince. Several of the Sla-
vonian nations, the Abotrites (789), the Wilzians
(805), the Sorabians (806), the Bohemians (811),
&c., acknowledged themselves his tributaries; and
by a treaty of peace which he concluded with
Hemming, King of Jutland, he fixed the river
Eyder, as the northern limit of his empire against
the Danes. Besides these, the powerful mo-
marchy of the Avars, 1 which comprehended all
the countries known in modern times by the names
of Austria, Hungary, Transylvania, Sclavonia, Dal-
matia, and Croatia, was completely subverted by
him (791); and he likewise despoiled the Arabians
of all that part of Spain which is situated between
the Pyrenees and the Ebro (796), as also of Cor-
sica, Sardinia, and the Balearic Isles. In Spain he
established military commanders, under the title
of Margraves.
Of these conquests, the one that deserves the
most particular attention is that of Italy, and the
kingdom of the Lombards. At the solicitation of
Pope Adrian I., Charles undertook an expedition
against the last of the Lombard kings. He be:
sieged that prince in his capital at Pavia; and
having made him prisoner, after a long siege, he,
shut him up in confinement for the rest of his
days, and incorporated his dominions with the
monarchy of the Franks. The Dukes of Bene-
vento, who, as vassals of the Lombard kings, then
occupied the greater part of Lower Italy, were at
the same time compelled to acknowledge the sove"
PERIoD II. A. D. 800–962. 105
reignty of the conquerors, who allowed them to
exercise their hereditary rights, on condition of
their paying an annual tribute. The only places
in this part of Italy that remained unsubdued, were
the maritime towns, of which the Greeks still found
means to maintain the possession.
In order to secure the conquest of this country,
as well as to protect it against the incursions of
the Arabians, Charles established several marches
and military stations, such as the marches of Friu-
li, Tarento, Turin, Liguria, Teti, &c. The down-
ſal of the Lombards, put an end to the republican
government of the Romans. During the blockade
of Pavia, Charles having gone to Rome to be pre-
sent at the feast of Easter (774), was received
there with all the honours due to an Exarch and a
Patrician; and there is incontestable proof that he
afterwards received, under that title, the rights of
$overeignty over Rome and the Ecclesiastical States.
The Patrician dignity, instituted by Constan-
tine the Great, ranked, in the Greek empire, next
after that of emperor. It was of such considera-
tion, that even barbarian kings, the destroyers of
the ancient Roman empire in the West, became
Sandidates for this honour at the Court of Con-
stantinople. The exarchs of Ravenna were gene-
tally invested with it, and exercised under this
title, rather than that of exarch or governor, the
authority which they enjoyed at Rome. Pope
Stephen II. had, twenty years before, conferred
*he patriciate on Pepin and his sons; although
these princes appear never to have exercised the
right, regarding it merely as an honorary title, so
ng at least as the kingdom of the Lombards se-
Parated them from Rome and the States of the
106 CHAPTER III,
Church. Charles no sooner saw himself master of
that kingdom, than he affected to add to his titles
of King of the Franks and Lombards that of Pa.
trician of the Romans; and began to exercise over
Rome and the Ecclesiastical States those rights of
supremacy which the Greek emperors and exarchs
had enjoyed before him.
This prince returned to Rome towards the end
of the year 800, in order to inquire into a con-
spiracy which some of the Roman nobility had
concerted against the life of Pope Leo III. The
whole affair having been discussed in his presence,
and the innocence of the Pope clearly established,
Charles went to assist at the solemn mass which
was celebrated in St Peter's Church on Christmas
day (800.) The Pope, anxious to show him some
public testimony of his gratitude, chose the mo:
ment when the prince was on his knees at the
foot of the grand altar, to put the imperial crown
on his head, and cause him to be proclaimed to
the people Emperor of the Romans.
From this affair must be dated the revival of the
Roman Empire in the West,-a title which had
been extinct for three hundred years. The em-
perors of the East who, during that interval, had
continued exclusively in the enjoyment of that
title, appeared to have some reason for opposing
an innovation which might eventually become pre-
judicial to them. The contest which arose on this
subject between the two emperors, was at length
(803) terminated by treaty. The Greek emperors
recognised the new dignity of Charles (812); and
on these conditions they were allowed to retain
those possessions, which they still held by a feeble
tenure in Italy. *s, -
PERIOD II. A. D. 800–962. 107
In thus maintaining the imperial dignity against
the Greek emperors, Charles added nothing to his
real power; he acquired from it no new right over
the dismembered provinces of the Western em-
pire, the state of which had, for a long time past,
been fixed by specific regulations. He did not
even augment his authority over Rome, where he
continued to exercise the same rights of superiori-
ty under the title of emperor, which he had for-
merly done under that of patrician.
This prince, whose genius soared beyond his
age, did not figure merely as a warrior and a con-
queror; he was also a legislator, and a zealous pa-
tron of letters. By the laws which he published
under the title of Capitularies, he reformed seve-
ral abuses, and introduced new ideas of order and
justice. Commissioners nominated by himself,
were charged to travel through the provinces, to
Superintend the execution of the laws, listen to the
complaints of the people, and render justice to
each without distinction and without partiality.
He conceived likewise the idea of establishing a
uniformity of weights and measures throughout
the empire. Some of the laws of that great man,
however, indicate a disposition tinctured with the
barbarism and superstition of his age. The Judg-
ments of God are expressly held by him to be le-
gal tests of right and wrong, and the greater part
of crimes expiable by money. By a general law,
which he passed in 779, introducing the payment
of ecclesiastical tithes, and which he extended to
the vanquished Saxons (791), he alienated the
affections of that people; and the code which he
dictated on this occasion, is remarkable for its a-
WOL. I. I -
108 CHAPTER III.
trocity; which their repeated revolts, and frequent
returns to paganism, cannot justify.
As to his patronage and love of letters, this is
attested by the numerous schools which he found-
ed, and the encouragements he held out to them;
as well as the attention he showed in inviting to
his court, the most celebrated learned men from
every country in Europe. He formed them into
a kind of academy, or literary society, of which he
was himself a member. When at an advanced
age, he received instruction in rhetoric, logic and
astronomy, from the famous Alcuin, an English-
man, to whom he was much attached. He endea-
voured also to improve his vernacular tongue, which
was the Teutonic, or lingua Francica, by draw-
ing up a grammar of that language, giving German
names to the months and the winds, which had
mot yet received them; and in making a collection
of the military songs of the ancient Germans. He
extended an equal protection to the arts, more es:
pecially architecture, a taste for which he had im-
bibed in Italy and Rome. Writers of those times
speak with admiration of the palaces and edifices
constructed by his orders, at Ingelhiem, near
Mentz, at Nimeguen, on the left bank of the
Waal, and at Aix-la-Chapelle. These buildings
were adorned with numerous paintings, as well as
marble and mosaic work, which he had brought
from Rome and Ravenna. -
The empire of Charlemagne, which may bear a
comparison as to its extent with the ancient em:
pire of the West, embraced the principal part of
Europe. . All Gaul, Germany, and Spain as far
as the Ebro, Italy to Benevento, several islands in
the Mediterranean, with a considerable part of Palº
PERIoD 11. A. D. 800–962. 109
hônia, composed this vast empire, which, from
west to east, extended from the Ebro to the Elbe
and the Raab ; and from south to north, from the
dutchy of Benevento and the Adriatic Sea to the
River Eyder, which formed the boundary between
Germany and Denmark. *
In defining the limits of the empire of Charle-
magne, care must be taken not to confound the
provinces and states incorporated with the empire
with those that were merely tributary. The for-
mer were governed by officers who might be re-
called at the will of the prince ; while the latter
were free states, whose only tenure on the empire
was by alliance, and the contributions they enga-
ged to pay. Such was the policy of this prince,
that, besides the marches or military stations which
he had established on the frontiers of Germany,
Spain, and Italy, he chose to retain on differeut
points of his dominions, nations who, under the
name of tributaries, enjoyed the protection of the
Franks, and might act as a guard or barrier against
the barbarous tribes of the east and north, who
had long been in the habit of making incursions
into the western and southern countries of Europe.
Thus the dukes of Benevento in Italy, who were
simply vassals and tributaries of the empire, sup-
plied as it were a rampart or bulwark against the
Greeks and Arabians; while the Sclavonian na-
tions of Germany, Pannonia, Dalmatia, and Cro-
atia, though feudatories or vassals of France, were
governed, nevertheless, by their own laws, and in
general did not even profess the Christian religion.
From this brief sketch of the reign of Charle-
magne, it is easy to perceive, that there was then
ho single power in Europe formidable enough to
110 CHAPTER III.
enter into competition with the empire of the
Franks. The monarchies of the north, Denmark,
Norway, and Sweden, and those of Poland and
Russia, were not then in existence; or had not
emerged from the thick darkness that still covered
those parts of continental Europe. England then
presented a heptarchy of seven confederate govern-
ments, the union of which was far from being well
consolidated. The kings of this confederacy were
incessantly engaged in war with each other; and
it was not until several years after Charlemagne,
that Egbert the Great, king of Wessex, prevailing
in the contest, constituted himself King of all Eng:
land, in 827.
The Mahometan part of Spain, after it was se.
parated from the great empire of the Caliph's, was
engaged in perpetual warfare with the East. The
Ommiades, sovereigns of Cordova, far from pro-
voking their western neighbours, whose valour they
had already experienced, showed themselves, on
the contrary, attentive to preserve peace and good
understanding with them. The Greek emperors,
who were continually quarrelling with the Arabs
and Bulgarians, and agitated by factions and in:
testine commotions, could no longer be an object of
suspicion or rivalry to the monarchy of the Franks.
Thus did the empire of Charlemagne enjoy the
glory of being the ascendant power in Europe;
but it did not long sustain its original splendor.
It would have required a man of extraordinary tº
lents, to manage the reins of a government so ex"
tensive and so complicated. Louis-le-Debonnaire,
or the Gentle, the son and successor of Charles
did not possess a single qualification proper."
govern the vast dominions which his father had
PERIOD IT. A. p. 860–962. IIf
bequeathed to him. As impolitic as he was weak
and superstitious, he had not the art of making
himself either loved or feared by his subjects. By
the imprudent partition of his dominions between
his sons, which he made even in his lifetime, he
planted with his own hand those seeds of discord
in his family, which accelerated the downfal of the
empire. The civil wars which had commenced in
his reign continued after his death. Louis, sur-
named the German, and Charles the Bald, com-
bined against their elder brother Lothaire, and de-
feated him at the famous battle of Fontenay in
Burgundy (841), where all the flower of the an-
cient nobility perished. Louis and Charles, vic-
torious in this engagement, obliged their brother
to take refuge in Italy. They next marched to
Strasbourg, where they renewed their alliance
(842), and confirmed it by oath at the head of
their troops.”
These princes were on the point of dividing the
whole monarchy between them, when, by the in-
terference of the nobility, they became reconciled
to their elder brother, and concluded a treaty with
him at Verdun (843), which finally completed the
division of the empire. By this formal distribu-
tion Lothaire retained the imperial dignity, with
the kingdom of Italy, and the provinces situated
between the Rhone, the Saone, the Meuse, the
Scheld, the Rhine, and the Alps. Louis had all
Germany beyond the Rhine, and on this side of
the river, the cantons of Mayence, Spire, and
orms; and, lastly, all that part of Gaul which
*xtends from the Scheld, the Meuse, the Saone,
*nd the Rhone, to the Pyrenees, fell to the lot of
I 2
II 2 CHAPTER III.
Charles, whose division also comprehended the
March of Spain, consisting of the province of Bar-
celona, and the territories which Charlemagne had
conquered, beyond the Pyrenees.
It is with this treaty, properly speaking, that
modern France commences, which is but a depart-
ment of the ancient empire of the Franks, or mo:
marchy of Charlemagne. For a long time it re-
tained the boundaries which the conference at
Verdun had assigned it; and whatever it now
possesses beyond these limits, was the acquisition
of conquests which it has made since the four-
teenth century. Charles the Bald was in fact
then the first King of France, and it is from him
that the series of her kings commences. It was
moreover under this prince that the government
of the Neustrians or Western Franks assumed a
new aspect. Before his time it was entirely of a
Frankish or German constitution; the manners
and customs of the conquerors of Gaul every
where predominated; their language (the lingua
Franca) was that of the court and the government.
But after the dismemberment of which we have
spoken, the Gauls imported it into Neustria or
Western France; the customs and popular lan.
guage were adopted by the court, and had no small
influence on the government. This language,
which was then known by the name of the Ro:
man or Romance, polished by the refinements of
the court, assumed by degrees a new and pure
form, and in course of time became the parent of
the modern French. It was therefore at this per
riod, viz. the reign of Charles the Bald, that the
Western Franks began, properly speaking, to be *
distinct nation, and exchanged their more ancien"
PERIOD II. A. b. 800–962. 113
appellation for that of French; the name by which
they are still known.
At this same period Germany was, for the first
time, embodied into a monarchy, having its own
particular kings. Louis the German, was the first
monarch of Germany, as Charles the Bald was of
France. The kingdom of Louis for a long time
was called Eastern France, to distinguish it from
the Western kingdom of that name, which hence-
forth exclusively retained the name of France.
The empire of Charlemagne, which the treaty
of Verdun had divided, was for a short space re-
united (884) under Charles, surnamed the Fat,
younger son of Louis the German, and King of
Germany; but that prince, too feeble to support
80 great a weight, was deposed by his German
subjects (887), and their example was speedily fol-
lowed by the French and the Italians. The vast
empire of the Franks was thus dismembered for
*Yer (888), and besides the kingdoms of France,
§ermany, and Italy, it gave birth to three new
§ates—the kingdoms of Lorraine, Burgundy, and
Navarre.
The kingdom of Lorraine took its name from
othaire II., younger son of the Emperor Lo-
haire I, who, in the division which he made of
"estates among his sons (855), gave to this Lo-
*ire the provinces situated between the Rhine,
the Meuse, and the Scheld, known since under
the name of Lorraine, Alsace, Treves, Cologne,
Juliers, Liege, and the Low Countries. At the
"eath of Lothaire II, who left no male or legiti-
**te heirs, his kingdom was divided by the treaty
of Procaspis (870), into two equal portions, one
which was assigned to Louis the German, and
f14 CHAPTER III.
the other to Charles the Bald. 3 By a subsequent
treaty, concluded (879) between the sons of Louis,
surnamed the Stammerer, King of France, and
Louis the Young, King of Germany, the French divi.
sion of Lorraine was ceded to this latter prince, who
thus reunited the whole of that kingdom. It re-
mained incorporated with Germany, at the time
when the last dismemberment of that monarchy
took place, (895), on the deposition of Charles the
Fat. Arnulph, King of Germany, and successor
of Charles, bestowed the kingdom of Lorraine on
Swentibald his natural son, who after a reign of
five years, was deposed by Louis, surnamed the
Infant, son and successor of Arnulph. Louis dying
without issue, (912), Charles the Simple, King of
France, took advantage of the commotions in
Germany, to put himself in possession of that
kingdom, which was at length finally reunited to
the Germanic crown by Henry, surnamed the
Fowler. -
Two new kingdoms appeared under the name
of Burgundy, viz. Provence or Cisjurane Bur-
gundy, and Transjurane Burgundy. The founder
of the former was a nobleman named Boson, whose
sister Charles the Bald had espoused. Elevated
by the king, his brother-in-law, to the highest
dignities in the state, he was created, in succession,
Count of Vienna, Duke of Provence, Duke of
Italy, and Prime Minister, and even obtained in
marriage the Princess Irmengarde, daughter of
Louis Iſ., Emperor and King of Italy. Instigated
by this princess, he did not scruple to raise his
ambitious views to the throne. The death of
Louis the Stammerer, and the troubles that en-
sued, afforded him an opportunity of attaching to
period 11. a. p. 800–962. 115
his interest most of the bishops in those countries,
intrusted to his government. In an assembly
which he held at Mantaille in Dauphiné, (879), he
engaged them by oath to confer on him the royal
dignity. The schedule of this election, with the
signatures of the bishops effixed, informs us dis-
tinctly of the extent of this new kingdom, which
comprehended Franche-Comté, Maçon, Chalons-
sur-Saone, Lyons, Vienne and its dependencies,
Agde, Viviers, Usez, with their dependencies in
Languedoc, Provence, and a part of Savoy. Bo-
son caused himself to be anointed king at Lyons,
by the archbishop of that city. He maintained
possession of his usurped dominions, in spite of the
combined efforts which were made by the kings of
France and Germany to reduce him to subjection.
The example of Boson was followed soon after
by Rodolph, governor of Transjurane Burgundy,
and related by the female side to the Carlovin-
gians. He was proclaimed king, and crowned at
St Maurice in the Valais; and his new kingdom,
Situated between Mount Jura and the Penine Alps,
contained Switzerland, as far as the River Reuss,
the Valais, and a part of Savoy. The death of
Boson, happening about this time, furnished Ro-
dºlph with a favourable opportunity of extending
his frontiers, and seizing a part of the country of
Burgundy.
. These two kingdoms were afterwards (930) un-
ited into one. Hugo, king of Italy, exercised at
that time the guardianship of the young Constan-
ºne, his relation, the son of Louis, and grandson
of Boson. The Italians, discontented under the
government of Hugo, and having devolved their
“town on Rodolph II, king of Transjurane Bur-
116 CHAPTER III.
gundy, Hugo, in order to maintain himself on the
throne of Italy, and exclude Rodolph, ceded to
him the district of Provence, and the kingdom of
his royal ward. Thus united in the person of R0.
dolph, these two kingdoms passed to his descend-
ants, viz. Conrad, his son, and Rodolph III, his
grandson. These princes are styled, in their titles,
sometimes Kings of Burgundy; sometimes Kings
of Vienne or Arles; sometimes Kings of Provence
and Allemania. They lost, in course of time,
their possessions beyond the Rhone and the Saone;
and in the time of Rodolph III., this kingdom had
for its boundaries the Rhine, the Rhone, the Saone,
the Reuss, and the Alps.
Navarre, the kingdom next to be mentioned,
known among the ancients under the name of Was-
conia, was one of the provinces beyond the Py-
renees, which Charlemagne had conquered from
the Arabs. Among the counts or wardens of the
Marches (called by the Germans Margraves),
which he established, the most remarkable were those
of Barcelona in Catalonia, Jacca in Arragon, and
Pampeluna in Navarre. All these Spanish March:
es were comprised within Western France, and
within the division which fell to the share of
Charles the Bald, on the dismemberment of that
monarchy among the sons of Louis the Gentle.
The extreme imbecility of that prince, and the ca-
lamities of his reign, were the causes why the Na-
varrese revolted from France, and erected them."
selves into a free and independent state. It ap"
pears also, that they were implicated in the defecº
tion of Aquitain (853), when it threw off the yoke
of Charles the Bald. Don Garcias, son of the
Count Don Garcias, and grandson of Don Sanch9,
PERIOD II. A. D. 800–962. 117
is generally reckoned the first of their monarchs,
that usurped the title of King of Pampeluna, (858.)
He and his successors in the kingdom of Na-
varre, possessed, at the same time, the province
of Jacca in Arragon. The Counts of Barcelona
were the only Spanish dependencies that, for ma-
my centuries, continued to acknowledge the sover
reignty of the Kings of France.
On this part of our subject, it only remains for
us to point out the causes that conspired to acce-
lerate the downfal of the empire of the Franks.
Among these we may reckon the inconveniences
of the feudal system,-a system as unfitted for
the purposes of internal administration, as it was
incompatible with the maxims that ought to rule
a great empire. The abuse of fiefs was carried
So far by the Franks, that almost all property had
become feudal; and not only grants of land, and
portions of large estates, but governments, duke-
doms, and counties, were conferred and held un-
der the title of fiefs. The consequence of this
was, that the great, by the allurement of fiefs or
benefices, became devoted followers of the kings,
while the body of the nation sold themselves as re-
tainers of the great. Whoever refused this vassalage
Was despised, and had neither favour nor honour to
expect. * By this practice, the liberty of the subject
was abridged without augmenting the royal authori-
ty. The nobles soon became so powerful, by the li-
erality of their kings, and the number of their vas-
*als they found means to procure, that they had at
length the presumption to dictate laws to the so-
Vereign himself. By degrees, the obligations which
they owed to the state were forgotten, and those
"ily recognised which the feudal contract impos-
1 18 CHAPTER III,
ed. This new bond of alliance was not long in
opening a door to licentiousness, as by a natural
consequence, it was imagined, that the feudal supe-
rior might be changed, whenever there was a pos-
sibility of charging him with a violation of his en-
gagements, or of that reciprocal fidelity which he
owed to his vassals.
A system like this, not only overturned public
order, by planting the germs of corruption in every
part of the internal administration; it was still
more defective with regard to the external opera-
tions of government, and directly at variance with
all plans of aggrandisement or of conquest. As
war was carried on by means of slaves or vassals
only, it is easy to perceive that such armies not
being kept constantly on foot, were with difficulty
put in motion; that they could neither prevent in-
testine rebellion, nor be a protection against hos-
tile invasion; and that conquests made by means
of such troops, must be lost with the same facility
that they are won. A permanent military, fort-
resses and garrisons, such as we find in modern
tactics, were altogether unknown among the
Franks. These politic institutions, indispensable
in great empires, were totally repugnant to the
genius of the German nations. They did not even
know what is meant by finances, or regular sys’
tems of taxation. Their kings had no other per
euniary resource than the simple revenues of their
demesnes, which served for the maintainance 0
their court. Gratuitous donations, the perquisites
of bed and lodging, fines, the tierce of which be:
longed to the king, rights of custom and toll, added
but little to their wealth, and could not be reckon-
ed among the number of state resources. Nonº
PERIOD II. A. D. 800–962. 119
but tributaries, or conquered nations, were subject-
ed to the payment of certain imposts or assess-
ments; from these the Franks were exempted;
they would have even regarded it as an insult and
a blow struck at their national liberty, had they
been burdened with a single imposition.
It is obvious, that a government like this, so
disjointed and incoherent in all its parts, in spite
of the advantages which accrued to it from nour-
ishing a spirit of liberty, and opposing a sort of
barrier against despotism, was nevertheless far
from being suitable to an empire of such prodi-
gious extent as that of the Franks. Charlemagne
had tried to infuse a new vigour into the state
by the wise laws which he published, and the mi-
litary stations which be planted on the frontiers of
his empire. Raised, by the innate force of his
genius above the prejudices of the age in which he
lived, that prince had formed a system capable of
giving unity and consistency to the state, had it
been of longer duration. But this system fell to
pieces and vanished, when no longer animated and
Put in execution by its author. Disorder and
anarchy speedily paralyzed every branch of the go-
Vernment, and ultimately brought on the dismem-
berment of the empire.
Another cause which accelerated the fall of this
Yast empire, was the territorial divisions, practised
by the kings, both of the Merovingian, and the
arlovingian race. Charlemagne and Louis the
Gentle, when they ordered the empire to be divid-
*d among their sons, never imagined this partition
Would terminate in a formal dismemberment of the
*onarchy. Their intention was rather to preserve
Vol. 1. . K 4.
120 CHAPTER III.
union and amity, by means of certain rights of su.
periority, which they granted to their eldest sons,
whom they had invested with the Imperial dignity.
But this subordination of the younger to their
elder brothers was not of long continuance; and
these divisions, besides naturally weakening the
state, became a source of perpetual discord; and
reduced the Carlovingian princes to the necessity of
courting the grandees, on every emergency; and
gaining their interest by new gifts, or by conces.
sions which went to sap the foundation of the
throne. - .. -
This exorbitant power of the nobles, must also
be reckoned among the number of causes that
hastened the decline of the empire. Dukes and
Counts, besides being intrusted with the justice
and police of their respective governments, exer.
cised, at the same time, a military power, and co-
lected the revenues of the Exchequer. So many
and so different jurisdictions, united in one and
the same power, could not but become dangerous
to the royal authority; while it facilitated to the
nobles the means of fortifying themselves in their
governments, and breaking, by degrees, the unity
of the state. Charlemagne had felt this inconve-
nience; and he thought to remedy the evil, by suc-
cessively abolishing the great duchies, and dividing
them into several counties. Unfortunately this
policy was not followed out by his successors, whº
returned to the ancient practice of creating dukes;
and besides, being educated and nurtured in super"
stition by the priests, they put themselves wholly
under dependence to bishops and ecclesiastics, whº
thus disposed of the state at their pleasure. Th"
consequence was, that governments, at first altº
period II. A. D. 800–962. 121
able only by the will of the King, passed eventual-
ly to the children, or heirs, of those who were
merely administrators, or superintendants, of them.
Charles the Bald, first King of France, had the
weakness to constitute this dangerous principle in-
to a standing law, in the parliament which he held
at Chiersi (877), towards the close of his reign.
He even extended this principle generally to all
fiefs; to those that held immediately of the crown,
as well as to those which held of laic, or ecclesi-
astical superiors.
This new and exorbitant power of the nobles,
joined to the injudicious partitions already men-
tioned, tended to sow fresh discord among the dif-
ferent members of the state, by exciting a multi-
tude of civil wars and domestic feuds, which, by
a necessary consequence, brought the whole body-
politic into a state of decay and dissolution. The
history of the successors of Charlemagne presents
a sad picture, humiliating and distressing to huma-
nity. Every page of it is filled with insurrections,
devastations, and carnage: princes, sprung from
the same blood, armed against each other, breath-
ing unnatural vengeance, and bent on mutual de-
Struction: the royal authority insulted and despis-
ed by the nobles, who were perpetually at war
With each other, either to decide their private
quarrels, or aggrandize themselves at the expense
ºf their neighbours; and, finally, the citizens ex-
Posed to all kinds of oppression, reduced to mi-
sery and servitude, without the hope or possibility
of redress from the government. Such was the
melancholy situation of the States that composed
the Empire of Charlemagne, when the irruption
of new barbarians, the Normans from the extremi-
122 CHAPTER III.
ties of the North, and the Hungarians from the
back settlements of Asia, exposed it afresh to the
terrible scourge of foreign invasion.
The Normans, of German origin, and inhabit.
ing ancient Scandinavia, that is to say, Sweden,
Denmark, and modern Norway, began, towards
the end of the eighth century, to cover the sea
with their ships, and to infest successively all the
maritime coasts of Europe. * During the space
of two hundred years, they continued their incur.
sions and devastations, with a fierceness and per-
severance that surpasses all imagination. This
phenomenon, however, is easily explained, if we at:
tend to the state of barbarism in which the inha.
bitants of Scandinavia, in general, were at that
time plunged. Despising agriculture and the arts,
they found themselves unable to draw from fishing
and the chase, the necessary means even for their
scanty subsistence. The comfortable circumstances
of their neighbours who cultivated their lands, ex-
cited their cupidity, and invited them to acquire
by force, piracy, or plunder, what they had not
sufficient skill to procure by their own industry.
They were, moreover, animated by a sort of reli
gious fanaticism, which inspired them with courage
for the most perilous enterprise. This reckless
superstition they drew from the doctrines of Odin,
who was the god of their armies, the rewarder of
valour and intrepidity in war, receiving into his
paradise of Valhalla, the brave who fell beneath
the swords of the enemy; while, on the other
hand, the abode of the wretched, called by them
Helvete, was prepared for those who, abandoned
to ease and effeminacy, preferred a life of tranquil.
PERIOD II. A. D. 800–962. 123
lity to the glory of arms, and the perils of warlike
adventure.
This doctrine, generally diffused over all the
north, inspired the Scandinavian youth with an
intrepid and ferocious courage, which made them
brave all dangers, and consider the sanguinary
death of warriors as the surest path to immortali-
ty. Often did it happen that the sons of kings,
even those who were already destined as succes-
sors to their father's throne, volunteered as chiefs
of pirates and brigands, under the name of Sea
Kings, solely for the purpose of obtaining a name,
and signalizing themselves by their maritime ex-
ploits.
These piracies of the Normans, which at first
Were limited to the seas and countries bordering
on Scandinavia, soon extended over all the western
and southern coasts of Europe. Germany, the
kingdoms of Lorraine, France, England, Scotland,
Ireland, Spain, the Balearic Isles, Italy, Greece,
and even the shores of Africa, were exposed in
their turn to the insults and the ravages of these
barbarians.6
France more especially suffered from their in-
Cursions, under the feeble reigns of Charles the
Bald, and Charles the Fat. Not content with the
avoc which they made on the coasts, they ascend-
“d the Seine, the Loire, the Garonne, and the
hone, carrying fire and sword to the very centre
ºf the kingdom. Nantes, Angers, Tours, Blois,
tleans, Mons, Poitiers, Bourdeaux, Rouen, Paris,
Sens, Laon, Soissons, and various other cities, ex-
Perienced the fury of these invaders. Paris was
*ree times sacked and pillaged by them. Robert
K 2
124 CHAPTER III,
the Strong, a scion of the royal House of Capet,
whom Charles the Bald had created (861) Duke
or Governor of Neustria, was killed in battle
(866) while combating with success against the
Normans. At length, the terror which they had
spread everywhere was such, that the French, who
trembled at the very name of the Normans, had
no longer courage to encounter them in arms;
and in order to rid themselves of such formidable
enemies, they consented to purchase their retreal
by a sum of money; a wretched and feeble re.
medy, which only aggravated the evil, by inciting
the invaders, by the hope of gain, to return to the
charge.
It is not however at all astonishing, that Francº
should have been exposed so long to these incur
sions, since, besides the inefficient state of the
monarchy, she had no vessels of her own to prº
tect her coasts. The nobles, occupied solely wit
the care of augmenting or confirming their grow"
ing power, offered but a feeble opposition to the
Normans, whose presence in the kingdom cause
a diversion favourable to their views. Some of them
even had no hesitation in joining the barbarians
when they happened to be in disgrace, or when
they thought they had reason to complain of the
government.
It was in consequence of these numerous expº
ditions over all the seas of Europe, that the mº
narchies of the North were formed, and that tº
Normans succeeded also in founding several oth"
states. It is to them that the powerful monarch;
of the Russians owes its origin; Ruric the Nº.
man is allowed to have been its founder, towar"
the middle of the ninth century.” He and tº
PERIolo II. A. D. 800–962. 125
grand dukes his successors, extended their con-
quests from the Baltic and the White Sea, to the
Euxine; and during the tenth century they made
the emperors of the East to tremble on their
thrones. In their native style of piratical warfare,
they embarked on the Dnieper or Borysthenes,
infested with their fleets the coasts of the Black
Sea, carried.terror and dismay to the gates of Con-
stantinople, and obliged the Greek emperors to
pay them large sums to redeem their capital from
pillage.
Ireland was more than once on the point of
being subdued by the Normans, during these pira-
tical excursions. Their first invasion of this island
is stated to have been in the year 795. Great
ravages were committed by the barbarians, who
Conquered or founded the cities of Waterford,
Dublin, and Limerick, which they formed into se-
parate petty kingdoms. Christianity was introduc-
ed among them towards the middle of the tenth
Century; and it was not till the twelfth, the time
ºf its invasion by the English, that they succeeded
* expelling them from the island, when they were
dispossessed of the cities of Waterford and Dub-
lin (1170) by Henry II. of England.
Orkney, the Hebrides, the Shetland and Faroe
slands, and the Isle of Man, were also discovered
*nd peopled by the Normans. * Another colony
of these Normans peopled Iceland, where they
founded a republic (874), which preserved its in-
dependence till nearly the middle of the thirteenth
$ºntury, when that island was conquered by the
ings of Norway. 9 Normandy, in France, also
ceived its name from this people. Charles the
imple, wishing to put a check on their continual
126 CHAPTER III.
incursions, concluded, at St Clair-sur-Epte (892),
a treaty with Rollo or Rolf, chief of the Normans,
by which he abandoned to them all that part of
Neustria which reaches from the rivers Andelle
and Aure to the ocean. To this he added a part
of Vexin, situated between the rivers Andelle and
Epte; as also the territory of Bretagne. Rollo
embraced Christianity, and received the baptismal
name of Robert. He submitted to become a vas.
sal of the crown of France, under the title of Duke
of Normandy; and obtained in marriage the prin.
cess Gisele, daughter of Charles the Simple. In
the following century, we shall meet with thest
Normans of France as the conquerors of England,
and the founders of the kingdom of the two Si.
cilies.
The Hungarians, a people of Turkish or Fin.
nish origin, emigrated, as is generally supposed
from Baschiria, a country lying to the north of
the Caspian Sea, between the Wolga, the Kama,
and Mount Ural, near the source of the Tobol and
the Jaik, or modern Ural. The Orientals desig.
nate them by the generic name of Turks, while
they denominate themselves Magiars, from the
name of one of their tribes. After having been
long dependent on the Chazars," a Turkish tribe
to the north of the Palus Maeotis, they retired
towards the Danube, to avoid the oppressions of
the Patzinacites ; ** and established themselves
(887) in ancient Dacia, under the auspices of a
chief named Arpad, from whom the ancient sove"
reigns of Hungary derive their origin. Arnulph
King of Germany, employed these Hungarians
(892) against the Slavo-Moravians, who possess'
ed a flourishing state on the banks of the Danube,
PERIOD II. A. D. 800–962. 127
the Morau, and the Elbe. ** While engaged in
this expedition, they were attacked again in their
Dacian possessions by the Patzinacites, who suc-
ceeded at length in expelling them from these ter-
ritories. ** Taking advantage afterwards of the
death of Swiatopolk, king of the Moravians, and
the troubles consequent on that event, they dis-
severed from Moravia all the country which ex-
tends from the frontiers of Moldavia, Wallachia
and Transylvania, to the Danube and the Morau.
They conquered, about the same time, Pannonia,
with a part of Noricum, which they had wrested
from the Germans; and thus laid the foundation of
a new state, known since by the name of Hun-
gary. - •
No sooner had the Hungarians established them-
selves in Pannonia, than they commenced their in-
cursions into the principal states of Europe. Ger-
many, Italy and Gaul, agitated by faction and anar-
chy, and even the Grecian empire in the East,
became, all in their turn, the bloody scene of their
ſavages and devastations. Germany, in particu-
lar, for a long time felt the effects of their fury.
All its provinces in succession were laid waste by
these barbarians, and compelled to pay them tri-
bute. Henry I., King of Germany, and his son
9tho the Great, at length succeeded in arresting
their destructive career, and delivered Europe
from this new yoke which threatened its independ-
€Ilce.
It was in consequence of these incursions of
the Hungarians and Normans, to which may be
added those of the Arabs and Slavonians, that the
ingdoms which sprang from the empire of the
*anks lost once more the advantages which the
128 CHA PTER III.
political institutions of Charlemagne had procured
them. Learning, which that prince had encou-
raged, fell into a state of absolute languor; an end
was put both to civil and literary improvement, by
the destruction of convents, schools, and libraries;
the polity and internal security of the states were
destroyed, and commerce reduced to nothing,
England was the only exception, which then en-
joyed a transient glory under the memorable reign
of Alfred the Great. That prince, grandson of
Egbert, who was the first king of all England,
succeeded in expelling the Normans from the
island (887), and restored peace and tranquil.
lity to his kingdom. After the example of Char.
lemagne, he cultivated and protected learning and
the arts, by restoring the convents and school
which the barbarians had destroyed; inviting phi.
losophers and artists to his court, and civilizing
his subjects by literary institutions and wise regu,
lations.” It is to be regretted, that a reign st
glorious was so soon followed by new misfortunes.
After the Normans, the Danes reappeared in Eng:
land, and overspread it once more with turbulence
and desolation.
During these unenlightened and calamitous
times, we find the art of navigation making con-
siderable progress. The Normans, traversing the
seas perpetually with their fleets, learned to con-
struct their vessels with greater perfection, to be:
come better skilled in wind and weather, and to
use their oars and sails with more address. It
was, moreover, in consequence of these invasions,
that more correct information was obtained re-
garding Scandinavia, and the remote regions of the
North. Two Normans, Wolfstane and Other, the
PERIOD II. A. D. 800–962. 129
one from Jutland, and the other from Norway,
undertook separate voyages, in course of the ninth
century, principally with the view of making ma-
ritime discoveries. Wolfstane proceeded to visit
that part of Prussia, or the Estonia of the an-
cients, which was renowned for its produce of
yellow amber. Other did not confine his adven-
tures to the coasts of the Baltic ; setting out from
the port of Heligoland, his native country, he
doubled Cape North, and advanced as far as Biar-
mia, at the mouth of the Dwina, in the province
of Archangel. Both he and Wolfstane communi-
cated the details of their voyages to Alfred the
Great, who made use of them in his Anglo-Saxon
translation of Orosius.
Besides Iceland and the Northern Isles, of which
we have already spoken, we find, in the tenth
Century, some of the fugitive Normans peopling
Greenland; and others forming settlements in Fin-
land, which some suppose to be the island of New-
foundland, in North America. *
REVOLUTIONS OF EUROPE.
CHAPTER IV.
TERIOD III,
FROM OTHO THE GREAT TO GREGORY THE GREAT
A. D. 962–1074.
WHILE most of the states that sprang from th
dismembered empire of the Franks, continued tº
be the prey of disorder and anarchy, the kingdom
of Germany assumed a new form, and for sever:
ages maintained the character of being the rulin;
power in Europe. It was erected into a montº
chy at the peace of Verdun (843), and had for tº
first king Louis the German, second son of Lou"
the Gentle. At that time it comprised, besides
the three cantons of Spire, Worms, and Mayentº
on this side the Rhine, all the countries and prº
vinces beyond that river, which had belonged toº
empire of the Franks, from the Eyder and the Baltiº.
to the Alps and the confines of Pannonia. Seve
of the Slavian tribes, also, were its tributaries.
PERIOD III. A. D. 962–1074. 131
From the first formation of this kingdom, the
royal authority was limited; and Louis the Ger-
man, in an assembly held at Marsne (851), had
formally engaged to maintain the states in their
rights and privileges; to follow their counsel and
advice; and to consider them as his true colleagues
and coadjutors in all the affairs of government.
The states, however, soon found means to vest in
themselves the right of choosing their kings. The
first Carlovingian monarchs of Germany were he-
reditary. Louis the German even divided his
kingdom among his three sons, viz. Carloman,
Louis the Young, and Charles the Fat ; but
Charles having been deposed in an assembly held
at Frankfort (887), the states of Germany elected
in his place Arnulph, a natural son of Carloman.
This prince added to his crown both Italy and the
Imperial dignity.
The custom of election has continued in Ger-
imany down to modern times. Louis l'Enfant, or
the Infant, son of Arnulph, succeeded to the throne
by election; and that prince having died very
Young (911), the states bestowed the crown on a
French nobleman, named Conrad, who was duke
9 governor of France on the Rhine, and related
y the female side to the Carlovingian line. Con-
*d mounted the throne, to the exclusion of Charles
the Simple, King of France, the only male and
*šitimate heir of the Carlovingian line. This lat-
ter prince, however, found means to seize the
"gdom of Lorrain, which Louis the Young had
*xed to the crown of Germany. On the death
ºf Conrad I. (919), the choice of the states fell on
*y I., surnamed the Fowler, a scion of the Saxon
WOL, I. L.
132 CHAPTER IV.
dynasty of the kings and emperors of Germany
It was to the valour and the wisdom of Henry
I., and to his institutions, civil and military, that
Germany was indebted for its renewed grandeur,
That monarch, taking advantage of the intestine
troubles which had arisen in France under Charles
the Simple, recovered possession of the kingdom
of Lorrain, the nobility of which made their sub.
mission to him in the years 923 and 925. By
this union he extended the limits of Germany to:
wards the west, as far as the Meuse and the Scheld
The kings of Germany afterwards divided the ter.
ritory of Lorrain into two governments or duchies,
called Upper and Lower Lorrain. The former,
situated on the Moselle, was called the duchy of
the Moselle; the other, bounded by the Rhine,
the Meuse, and the Scheld, was known by the
name of Lothiers or Brabant. These two duchits
comprised all the provinces of the kingdom of Lor.
rain, except those which the emperors judged pro-
per to exempt from the authority and jurisdiction
of the dukes. The duchy of the Moselle, alone.
finally retained the name of Lorrain; and passed
(1048) to Gerard of Alsace, descended from the
dukes of that name, who, in the eighteenth cen:
tury, succeeded to the Imperial throne. As to
the duchy of Lower Lorrain, the Emperor Henry
V. conferred it on Godfrey, Count of Louvain
(1106), whose male descendants kept possession
of it, under the title of Dukes of Brabant, till
1355, when it passed by female succession to the
Dukes of Burgundy, who found means also to ac"
quire, by degrees, the greater part of Lower Lor
rain, commonly called the Low Countries. .
Henry I., a prince of extraordinary genius,
period III. A. D. 962–1074. 133
proved himself the true restorer of the German
kingdom. The Slavonian tribes who inhabited
the banks of the Saal, and the country between
the Elbe and the Baltic, committed incessant ra-
vages on the frontier provinces of the kingdom.
With these he waged a successful war, and re-
duced them once more to the condition of tributa-
ries. But his policy was turned chiefly against
the Hungarians, who, since the reign of Louis II.;
had repeatedly renewed their incursions, and
threatened to subject all Germany to their yoke.
Desirous to repress effectually that ferocious na-
tion, he took the opportunity of a nine years
truce, which he had obtained with them, to con-
struct new towns, and fortify places of strength.
He instructed his troops in a new kind of tactics,
accustomed them to military evolutions, and above
all, he formed and equipped a cavalry sufficient to
Cope with those of the Hungarians, who particu-
larly excelled in the art of managing horses. These
depredators having returned with fresh forces at
the expiry of the truce, he completely defeated
them in two bloody battles, which he fought with
them (933) near Sondershausen and Merseburg;
and thus exonerated Germany from the tribute
which it had formerly paid them. *
This victorious prince extended his conquests
beyond the Eyder, the ancient frontier of Den-
*ark. After a prosperous war with the Danes
(31), he founded the margravate of Sleswick,
which the Emperor Conrad II. afterwards ceded
back (1033) to Čanute the Great, King of Denmark.
Otho the Great, son and successor of Henry I.,
*!ded the kingdom of Italy to the conquests of
"is father, and procured also the Imperial dignity
134, CHAPTER IV.
for himself, and his successors in Germany. Italy
had become a distinct kingdom since the revolu-
tion, which happened (888) at the death of the
Emperor Charles the Fat. Ten princes in suc-
cession occupied the throne during the space of
seventy-three years. Several of these princes,
such as Guy, Lambert, Arnulf, Louis of Bur-
gundy, and Berenger I., were invested, at the same
time, with the Imperial dignity. Berenger I. hav-
ing been assassinated (924), this latter dignity
ceased entirely, and the city of Rome was even
dismembered from the kingdom of Italy.
The sovereignty of that city was seized by the
famous Marozia, widow of a nobleman named
Alberic. She raised her son to the pontificate by
the title of John XI. ; and the better to establish
her dominion, she espoused Hugo King of Italy
(932), who became, in consequence of this mar"
riage, master of Rome. But Alberic, another son
of Marozia, soon stirred up the people against this
aspiring princess and her husband Hugo. Having
driven Hugo from the throne, and shut up his mo-
ther in prison, he assumed to himself the sovereign
authority, under the title of Patrician of the Ro-
mans. At his death (954), he transmitted the
sovereignty to his son Octavian, who, though only
nineteen years of age, caused himself to be elected
pope, by the title of John XII.
This epoch was one most disastrous for Italy.
The weakness of the government excited factions
among the nobility, gave birth to anarchy, an
fresh opportunity for the depredations of the Hun"
garians and Arabs, who, at this period, were the
scourge of Italy, which they ravaged with impu"
nity. Pavia, the capital of the kingdom, was tº
PERIoD III. A. D. 962–1074. 135
ken and burnt by the Hungarians. These trou-
bles increased on the accession of Berenger II.
(950), grandson of Berenger I. That prince as-
sociated his son Adelbert with him in the royal
dignity; and the public voice accused them of
having caused the death of King Lothaire, son and
successor of Hugo. -
Lothaire left a young widow, named Adelaide,
daughter of Rodolph II., King of Burgundy and
Italy. To avoid the importunities of Berenger II.,
who wished to compel her to marry his son Adel-
bert, this princess called in the King of Germany
to her aid. Otho complied with the solicitations
of the distressed queen; and, on this occasion, un-
dertook his first expedition into Italy (951). The
city of Pavia, and several other places, having fal-
len into his hands, he made himself be proclaimed
King of Italy, and married the young queen, his
protegée. Berenger and his son, being driven for
shelter to their strongholds, had recourse to nego-
cation. They succeeded in obtaining for them-
selves a confirmation of the royal title of Italy, on
condition of doing homage for it to the King of
Germany; and for this purpose, they repaired in
person to the diet assembled at Augsburg (952),
where they took the oath of vassalage under the
hands of Ótho, who solemnly invested them with
the royalty of Italy; reserving to himself the towns
and marches of Aquileia and Verona, the com-
mand of which he bestowed on his brother the
Duke of Bavaria.
In examining more nearly all that passed in this
affair, it appears that it was not without the re-
8tet, and even contrary to the wish of Adelaide,
- - L 2
136 CHAPTER IV,
that Otho agreed to enter into terms of accommo-
dation with Berenger, and to ratify the compact
which Conrad, Duke of Lorrain, and son-in-law of
the Emperor, had made with that prince. After-
wards, however, he lent a favourable ear to the
complaints which Pope John XII., and some Ita-
lian noblemen had addressed to him against Be-
renger and his son ; and took occasion, on their
account, to conduct a new army into Italy (961).
Berenger, too feeble to oppose him, retired a se-
cond time within his fortifications. Otho marched
from Pavia to Milan, and there made himself be
crowned King of Italy; from thence he passed to
Rome, about the commencement of the following
year. Pope John XII., who had himself invited
him, and again implored his protection against Be-
renger, gave him, at first, a very brilliant reception;
and revived the Imperial dignity in his favour,
which had been dormant for thirty-eight years.
It was on the 2d of February 962, that the
Pope consecrated and crowned him Emperor; but
he had soon cause to repent of this proceeding.
Otho, immediately after his coronation at Rome,
undertook the siege of St Leon, a fortress in Um-
bria, where Berenger and his Queen had taken re.
fuge. While engaged in the siege, he received
frequent intimations from Rome of the misconduct
and immoralities of the Pope. The remonstrances
which he thought it his duty to make on this sub-
ject, offended the young Pontiff, who resolved, in
consequence, to break off union with the Empe-
ror. Hurried on by the impetuosity of his cha’
racter, he entered into a negociation with Adel:
bert; and even persuaded him to come to Rome,
in order to concert with him measures of defence.
PRRIOD III. A. D. 962–1074. 137
On the first news of this event, Otho put himself
at the head of a large detachment, with which he
marched directly to Rome. The Pope, however,
did not think it advisable to wait his approach,
but fled with the King, his new ally. Otho, on
arriving at the capital, exacted a solemn oath from
the clergy and the people, that henceforth they
would elect no pope without his counsel, and that
of the Emperor and his successors. * Having then
assembled a council, he caused Pope John XII. to
be deposed; and Leo VIII. was elected in his
place. This latter Pontiff was maintained in the
papacy, in spite of all the efforts which his adver-
sary made to regain it. Berenger II., after having
Sustained a long siege at St Leon, fell at length
(964) into the hands of the conqueror, who sent
him into exile at Bamberg, and compelled his son,
Adelbert, to take refuge in the court of Constan-
tinople.
All Italy, to the extent of the ancient kingdom
of the Lombards, fell under the dominion of the
Germans; only a few maritime towns in Lower
Italy, with the greater part of Apulia and Calabria,
still remained in the power of the Greeks. This
kingdom, together with the Imperial dignity, Otho
transmitted to his successors on the throne of Ger-
thany. From this time the Germans held it to be
ºn inviolable principle, that as the Imperial dignity
was strictly united with the royalty of Italy, kings
*lected by the German nation should, at the same
time, in virtue of that election, become kings of
Italy and Emperors. The practice of this triple
*oronation, viz. of Germany, Italy, and Rome, con-
tinued for many centuries; and from Otho the
"real, till Maximilian I. (1508), no king of Ger-
138 CHATTER IV.
many took the title of Emperor, until after he had
been formally crowned by the Pope.
The kings and emperors of the house of Saxo-
ny, did not terminate their conquests with the do-
minions of Lorrain and Italy. Towards the east
and the north, they extended them beyond the
Saal and the Elbe. All the Slavonian tribes be-
tween the Havel and the Oder; the Abotrites, the
Rhedarians, the Wilzians, the Slavonians on the
Havel, the Sorabians, the Dalemincians, the Lusi-
tzians, the Milzians, and various others ; the dukes
also of Bohemia and Poland, although they often
took up arms in defence of their liberty and inde-
pendence, were all reduced to subjection, and again
compelled to pay tribute. In order to secure their
submission, the Saxon kings introduced German
colonies into the conquered countries; and founded
there several margravates, such as that of the North,
on this side of the Elbe, afterwards called Bran-
denburg; and in the East, those of Misnia and
Lusatia. Otho the Great adopted measures for
promulgating Christianity among them. The bi-
shopric of Oldenburg in Wagria, of Havelberg,
Brandenburg, Meissen, Merseburg, Zeitz; those
of Posnania or Posen, in Poland, of Prague in Bo-
hemia; and lastly, the metropolis of Magdeburg,
all owe their origin to this monarch. His grand:
son, the Emperor Otho III., founded (in 1000)
the Archbishopric of Gnesma, in Poland, to which
he subjected the bishoprics of Colberg, Cracow,
and Breslau, reserving Posen to the metropolitan
See of Magdeburg. g
The Saxon dynasty became extinct (1024) with
the Emperor Henry II. It was succeeded by thº'
of Franconia, commonly called the Salic, Conſ”
PERIOD III. A. D. 962–1074. 139
II, the first emperor of this house, united to the
German crown, the kingdom of Burgundy; or, as
it is sometimes called, the kingdom of Arles.
This monarchy, situate between the Rhine the
Reuss, Mount Jura, the Soane, the Rhone, and
the Alps, had been divided among a certain num-
ber of counts, or governors of provinces, who, in
consequence of the weakness of their last kings,
Conrad and Rodolph III., had converted their
temporary jurisdictions into hereditary and patri-
monial offices, after the example of the French
nobility, who had already usurped the same power.
The principal and most puissant of these Burgun-
dian nobles, were the Counts of Provence, Vienne,
(afterwards called Dauphins of Vienne), Savoy,
Burgundy, and Montbelliard; the Archbishop of
Lyons, Besançon, and Arles, and the Bishop of
Basle, &c. The contempt in which these power-
ful vassals held the royal authority, induced Ro-
dolph to apply for protection to his kinsmen the
Emperors Henry II. and Conrad II., and to ac-
knowledge them, by several treaties, his heirs and
| Successors to the crown. It was in virtue of these
treaties, that Conrad II. took possession of the
kingdom of Burgundy (1032) on the death of
Rodolph III. He maintained his rights by force
of arms against Eudes, Count of Champagne,
who claimed to be the legitimate successor, as be-
ing nephew to the last king. -
This reunion was but a feeble addition to the
Power of the German emperors. The bishops,
°ounts, and great vassals of the kingdom they had
newly acquired, still retained the authority which
they had usurped in their several departments; and
"othing was left to the emperors, but the exercise of
140 - ÜHAPTER IV,
their feudal and proprietory rights, together with
the slender remains of the demesne lands belong-
ing to the last kings. It is even probable, that
the high rank which the Burgundian nobles en-
joyed, excited the ambition of those in Germany,
and emboldened them to usurp the same preroga-
tlveS. ~.
The Emperors Conrad II. (1033) and Henry
III. (1038), were both crowned Kings of Bur-
gundy. The Emperor Lothaire conferred the
viceroyalty or regency on Conrad Duke of Zah-
ringen, who then took the title of Governor or
Regent of Burgundy. Berthold IV., son of Conrad,
resigned (1156), in favour of the Emperor Frederic
I., his rights of viceroyalty over that part of the
kingdom situate beyond Mount Jura. Switzer.
land, at that time, was subject to the Dukes of
Zahringen, who, in order to retain it in vassal.
age to their government, fortified Morges, Mou-
den, Yverdun, and Berthoud; and built the cities
of Fribourg and Berne. On the extinction of the
Zahringian dukes, (1191), Switzerland became
an immediate province of the empire. It was af.
terwards (1218) formed into a republic; and the
other parts of the kingdom of Burgundy or Arles
were gradually united to France, as we shall see
in course of our narrative.
The Hungarians, since their first invasion under
Louis l'Enfant, had wrested from the Germall
crown all its possessions in Pannonia, with a part
of ancient Noricum ; and the boundaries of Geº
many had been contracted within the river Ens in
Bavaria. Their growing preponderance afte"
wards enabled the Germans to recover from the
Hungarians a part of their conquests. They su"
per IoD III. A. D. 962–1074. |4}
ceeded in expelling them, not only from Noricum,
but even from that part of Upper Pannonia which
lies between Mount Cetius, or Kahlenberg as it is
called, and the river Leita. Henry III. secured
the possession of these territories by the treaty of
peace which he concluded (1043) with Samuel,
surnamed Aba, King of Hungary. This part of
Hungary was annexed to the Eastern Margravate,
or Austria, which then began to assume nearly its
present form.
Such then was the progressive aggrandisement
of the German empire, from the reign of Henry I.
to the year 1043. Under its most flourishing
state, that is, under the Emperor Henry III., it
embraced nearly two-thirds of the monarchy of
Charlemagne. All Germany between the Rhine,
the Eyder, the Oder, the Leita, and the Alps; all
Haly, as far as the confines of the Greeks in Apu-
lia and Calabria; Gaul, from the Rhine to the
Scheldt, the Meuse, and the Rhone, acknowledged
the supremacy of the emperors. The Dukes of
Bohemia and Poland, were their tributaries; a de-
Pendence which continued until the commotions
which agitated Germany put an end to it in the
irteenth century.
Germany, at this period, ranked as the ruling
Power in Europe; and this preponderance was
lot owing so much to the extent of her posses-
*ons, as to the vigour of her government, which still
*aintained a kind of system of political unity.
he emperors may be regarded as true monarchs,
*pensing, at their pleasure, all dignities, civil
*d ecclesiastical—possessing very large domains.
* all parts of the empire—and exercising, indi-
"ually, various branches of the sovereign power;
142 CHAPTER IV.
—only, in affairs of great importance, asking the
advice or consent of the grandees. This great-
ness of the German emperors gave rise to a sys-
tem of polity which the Popes took great care to
support with all their credit and authority. Ac.
cording to this system, the whole of Christendom
composed, as it were, a single and individual re-
public, of which the Pope was the spiritual head,
and the Emperor the secular. The duty of the
latter, as head and patron of the Church, was to
take cognizance that nothing should be done con-
trary to the general welfare of Christianity. It
was his part to protect the Catholic Church, to be
the guardian of its preservation, to convocate its
general councils, and exercise such rights as the
nature of his office and the interests of Christia.
nity seemed to demand.
It was in virtue of this ideal system that the
emperors enjoyed a precedency over other mo:
narchs, with the exclusive right of electing kings;
and that they had bestowed on them the title of
masters of the world, and sovereign of sovereigns.
A more important prerogative was that which they
possessed in the election of the Popes. From
Otho the Great to Henry IV., all the Roman
pontiffs were chosen, or at least confirmed, by the
emperors. Henry III. deposed three schismatical
popes (1046), and substituted in their place 4
German, who took the name of Clement II. The
same emperor afterwards nominated various other
popes of his own nation. :
However vast and formidable the power of these
monarchs seemed to be, it was nevertheless far
from being a solid and durable fabric; and it wº
easy to foresee that, in a short time, it woul
PERIOD III. A. D. 962–1074. 143
crumble and disappear. Various causes conspired
to accelerate its downfal; the first and principal of
which necessarily sprang from the constitution of
the empire, which was faulty in itself, and incom-
patible with any scheme of aggrandisement or
conquest. A great empire, to prolong its dura-
bility, requires a perfect unity of power, which
can act with despatch, and communicate with fa-
cility from one extremity to the other; an armed
force constantly on foot, and capable of maintain-
ing the public tranquillity; frontiers well defended
against hostile invasion; and revenues proportion-
ed to the exigencies of the state. All these cha-
racteristics of political greatness were awanting in
the German empire.
That empire was elective; the states cooperat-
edjointly with the emperors in the exercise of the
legislative power. There were neither permanent
armies, nor fortresses, nor taxation, nor any regu-
lar system of finance. The government was with-
out vigour, incapable of protecting or punishing,
or even keeping in subjection, its remote provinces,
consisting of nations who differed in language,
manners, and legislation. One insurrection, though
Tuelled, was only the forerunner of others; and
the conquered nations shook off the yoke with the
*ame facility as they received it. The perpetual
Wars of the emperors in Italy, from the first con-
quest of that country by Otho the Great, prove,
* a manner most evident, the strange imbecility of
* government. At every change of reign, and
"ery little revolution which happened in Ger-
*ny, the Italians rose in arms, and put the em-
º again to the necessity of reconquering that
VOL. I. Y- MI -
144 CHAPTER Iv.
kingdom ; which undoubtedly it was their interest
to have abandoned entirely, rather than to lavish
for so many centuries their treasures and the blood
of their people to no purpose. The climate of
Italy was also disastrous to the Imperial armies;
and many successions of noble German families
found there a foreign grave.
An inevitable consequence of this vitiated con:
stitution, was the decline of the royal authority,
and the gradual increase of the power of the n0.
bility. It is important, however, to remark, that
in Germany the progress of the feudal system had
been much less rapid than in France. The dukes,
counts, and margraves, that is, the governors of
provinces, and wardens of the marches, continued
for long to be regarded merely as imperial officers,
without any pretensions to consider their goveril.
ments as hereditary, or exercise the rights of so:
vereignty. Even fiefs remained for many ages in
their primitive state, without being perpetuated in
the families of those to whom they had been ori.
ginally granted.
A total change, however, took place towards
the end of the eleventh century. The dukes and
counts, become formidable by the extent of their
power and their vast possessions, by degrees, coil.
stituted themselves hereditary officers; and no
content with the appropriation of their duchies and
counties, they took advantage of the weakness ºf
the emperors, and their quarrels with the popes,
to extort from them new privileges, or usurp tº
prerogatives of royalty, formerly reserved for the
emperors alone. The aristocracy, or landed prº.
prietors, followed the example of the dukes an
counts, and after the eleventh century, they al
period III. A. D. 962–1074. 145
began to play the part of sovereigns, styling them-
selves, in their public acts, By the Grace of God,
At length fiefs became also hereditary. Conrad
II, was the first emperor that permitted the trans-
mission of fiefs to sons and grandsons; the suc-
cession of collateral branches was subsequently in-
troduced. The system of hereditary feudalism
became thus firmly established in Germany, and
by a natural consequence, it brought on the de-
struction of the imperial authority, and the ruin of
the empire.
Nothing, however, was more injurious to this
authority than the extravagant power of the clergy,
whom the emperors of the Saxon line had loaded
with honours and benefactions, either from a zeal
for religion, or with the intention of using them as
a counterpoise to the ambition of the dukes and
secular nobility. It was chiefly to Otho the Great
that the bishops of Germany were indebted for
their temporal power. That prince bestowed on
them large grants of land from the imperial do-
mains; he gave them towns, counties, and entire
dukedoms, with the prerogatives of royalty, such
*justiciary powers, the right of coining money,
of levying tolls and other public revenues, &c.
hese rights and privileges he granted them un-
der the feudal law, and on condition of rendering
him military servitude. Nevertheless, as the dis-
Pºsal of ecclesiastical dignities belonged then to
!he crown, and fiefs had not, in general, become
hereditary, the Emperor still retained possession of
those which he conferred on the clergy; these he
“Stowed on whomsoever he judged proper; using
them, however, always in conformity with his own
"ews and interests. -
146 CHAPTER IV,
The same policy that induced Otho to transfer
to the bishops a large portion of his domains,
led him also to intrust them with the government
of cities. At that time, there was a distinction
of towns into royal and prefectorial. The latter
were dependent on the dukes, while the former,
subject immediately to the king, gave rise to what
has since been called imperial cities. It was in
these royal cities that the German kings were in
the practice of establishing counts and burgomas.
ters or magistrates, to exercise in their name the
rights of justice, civil and criminal, the levying
of money, customs, &c. as well as other pre:
rogatives usually reserved to the King. Othº
conferred the counties, or governorships of cities
where a bishop resided, on the bishops themselves,
who, in process of time, made use of this new
power to subject these cities to their own authori.
ty, and render them mediate and episcopal, instead
of being immediate and royal as they were origi.
nally.
The successors of Otho, as impolitic as himself
imitated his example. In consequence of this, the
possessions of the erown were, by degrees, reduc.
ed to nothing, and the authority of the emperor
declined with the diminution of their wealth. The
bishops, at first devoted to the emperors, both
from necessity and gratitude, no sooner perceive
their own strength, than they were tempted tº
make use of it, and to join the secular princes, in
order to sap the imperial authority, as well as tº
consolidate their own power. To these several
causes of the downfal of the empire must be add:
ed the new power of the Roman pontiffs, the 0.
gin of which is ascribed to Pope Gregory VII
PERIOD II f. A. D. 962–1074. 147
in the following Period, this matter will be treat-
ed more in detail; meantime, we shall proceed to
give a succinct view of the other states that figur-
ed during this epoch on the theatre of Europe.
The dynasty of the Ommiades in Spain, found-
ed about the middle of the eighth century, was
Overturned in the eleventh. An insurrection hav-
ing happened at Cordova against the Caliph Hes-
cham, that prince was dethroned (1030), and the
caliphate ended with him. The governors of cities
and provinces, and the principal nobility of the
Arabs, formed themselves into independent sove-
Teigns, under the title of kings; and as many petty
Mahometan States rose in Spain as there had been
Principal cities. The most considerable of these,
Were the kingdoms of Cordova, Seville, Toledo,
Lisbon, Saragossa, Tortosa, Valencia, Murcia, &c.
This partition of the caliphate of Cordova, en-
abled the princes of Christendom to aggrandize
their own power at the expense of the Mahometans.
Besides the kingdoms of Leon and Navarre, there
“xisted in Spain at the commencement of the
eleventh century, the county of Castille, which
had been dismembered from the kingdom of Leon,
*nd the county of Barcelona, which acknowledged
the sovereignty of the Kings of France.
Sancho the Great, King of Navarre, had the for-
*me to unite in his own family all these different
*Vereignties, with the exception of Barcelona;
*d as this occurred nearly at the same time with
the destruction of the caliphate of Cordova, it
Wºuld have been easy for the Christians to ob-
** a complete ascendancy over the Mahometans,
* they had kept their forces united. But the King
M 2
148 CHAPTER IV.
of Navarre fell into the same mistake that had
been so fatal to the Mahometans; he divided his
dominions among his sons (1035). Don Garcias,
the eldest, had Navarre, and was the ancestor of a
long line of Navarrese kings; the last of whom,
John d'Albret was deposed (1512) by Ferdinand
the Catholic. From Ferdinand, the younger son,
King of Leon and Castille, were descended all
the sovereigns of Castille and Leon down to Queen
Isabella, who transferred these kingdoms (1474),
by marriage, to Ferdinand the Catholic. Lastly,
Don Ramira, natural son of Sancho, was the stem
from whom sprung all the kings of Arragon, downto
Ferdinand, who by his marriage with Isabella,
happened to unite all the different Christian States
in Spain; and put an end also to the dominion of
the Arabs and Moors in that peninsula.
In France the royal authority declined more
and more, from the rapid progress which the feu-
dal system made in that kingdom, after the feeble
reign of Charles the Bald. The Dukes and the
Counts, usurping the rights of royalty, made war
on each other, and raised on every occasion the
standard of revolt. The kings, in order to gain
over some, and maintain others in their allegiance,
were obliged to give up to them in succession
every branch of the royal revenue; so that the last
Carlovingian princes were reduced to such a state
of distress, that, far from being able to counter-
balance the power of the nobility, they had hardly
left wherewithal to furnish a scanty subsistence
for their court. A change of dynasty became
then indispensable; and the throne, it was evident,
must fall to the share of the most powerful and
daring of its vassals. This event, which had long
k
PERIOD III. A. D. 962–1074. 149
been foreseen, happened on the death of Louis
W., surnamed the Slothful (987), the last of the
Carlovingians, who died childless at the age of
twenty.
Hugh Capet, great-grandson of Robert the
Strong, possessed at that time the central parts of
the kingdom. He was Count of Paris, Duke of
France and Neustria; and his brother Henry was
master of the duchy of Burgundy. It was not
difficult for Hugh to form a party; and under their
auspices he got himself proclaimed king at Noyon,
and crowned at Rheims. Charles Duke of Lor-
rain, paternal uncle of the last king, and sole legi-
timate heir to the Carlovingian line, 3 advanced
his claims to the crown; he seized, by force of
arms, on Laon and Rheims; but being betrayed by
the Bishop of Laon, and delivered up to his rival,
he was confined in a prison at Orleans, where he
ended his days (991).
Hugh, on mounting the throne, restored to the
Possession of the crown, the lands and dominions
which had belonged to it between the Loire, the
eine, and the Meuse. His power gave a new
lustre to the royal dignity, which he found means
to render hereditary in his family; while at the
*me time he permitted the grandees to transmit
to their descendants, male and female, the duchies
*nd counties which they held of the crown, re-
Serving to it merely the feudal superiority. Thus
the feudal government was firmly established in
"ance, by the hereditary tenure of the great fiefs;
*nd that kingdom was in consequence dividedia-
*ong a certain number of powerful vassals, who
ºndered fealty and homage to their kings, and
*ched at their commandon military expeditions;
150 CHAPTER IV.
but who nevertheless were nearly absolute masters
in their own dominions, and often dictated the law
to the sovereign himself. Hugh was the pro-
genitor of the Capetian dynasty of French kings,
so called from his own surname of Capet.
England, during the feeble reigns of the Anglo-
Saxon princes, successors to Alfred the Great, had
sunk under the dominion of priests and monks,
The consequence was, the utter ruin of its finances,
and its naval and military power. This exposed
the kingdom afresh to the attacks of the Danes
(991), who imposed on the English a tribute or
tax, known by the name of Danegelt. Under the
command of their kings Sueno or Sweyn I., and
Canute the Great, they at length drove the An-
glo-Saxon kings from their thrones, and made
themselves masters of all England (1017). Bu
the dominion of the Danes was only of short con-
tinuance. The English shook off their yoke, and
conferred their crown on Edward the Confessor
(1042) a prince of the royal blood of their ancient
kings. On the death of Edward, Harold, Earl of
Kent, was acknowledged King of England (1066);
but he met with a formidable competitor in the
person of William Duke of Normandy.
This prince had no other right to the crown,
than that founded on a verbal promise of Edward
the Confessor, and confirmed by an oath which
Harold had given him while Earl of Kent. Wik
liam landed in England (October 14th 1066), a
the head of a considerable army, and having offer
ed battle to Harold, near Hastings in Sussex, hº
gained a complete victory. Harold was killed in
the action, and the conquest of all England wº
the reward of the victor. To secure himself in
per IoD III. A. D. 962–1074. 151
his new dominions, William constructed a vast
number of castles and fortresses throughout all
parts of the kingdom, which he took care to fill
with Norman garrisons. The lands and places
of trust of which he had deprived the English,
were distributed among the Normans, and other
foreigners who were attached to his fortunes. He
introduced the feudal law, and rendered fiefs he-
reditary; he ordered the English to be disarmed,
and forbade them to have light in their houses af-
ter eight o'clock in the evening. He even at-
tempted to abolish the language of the country,
by establishing numerous schools for teaching the
Norman-French; by publishing the laws, and or-
dering the pleadings in the courts of justice to be
made in that language; hence it happened that
the ancient British, combined with the Norman,
formed a new sort of language, which still exists in
the modern English. William thus became the
common ancestor of the kings of England, whose
right to the crown is derived from him, and found-
ed on the Conquest.
About the time that William conquered Eng-
land, another colony of the same Normans founded
the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The several
Provinces of which this kingdom was composed,
Were, about the beginning of the eleventh century,
vided among the Germans, Greeks, and Ara-
lans, * who were incessantly waging war with
each other. A band of nearly a hundred Nor-
*ans, equally covetous of war and glory, landed
in that country (1016), and tendered their ser-
Vices to the Lombard princes, vassals of the Ger-
*an empire. The bravery which they displayed
* Various occasions, made these princes desirous
152 CHAPTER IV.
of retaining them in their pay, to serve as guar.
dians of their frontiers against the Greeks and
Arabians. The Greek princes very soon were
no less eager to gain their services; and the Duke
of Naples, with the view of attaching them to his
interest, ceded to them a large territory, where
they built the city of Aversa, three leagues from
Capua. The Emperor Conrad II. erected it into a
county (1088), the investiture of which he granted
to Rainulph, one of their chiefs.
At this same period the sons of Tancred con-
ducted a new colony from Normandy into Lower
Italy. Their arrival is generally referred to the
year 1033; and tradition has assigned to Tancred
a descent from Rollo or Robert I. Duke of Nor.
mandy. These new adventurers undertook the
conquest of Apulia (1041), which they formed
into a county, the investiture of which they ob.
tained from Henry III. Robert Guiscard, one
of the sons of Tancred, afterwards (1047) com:
pleted the conquest of that province; he added to it
that of Calabria, of which he had also deprived the
Greeks (1059), and assumed the title of Duke
of Apulia and Calabria.
To secure himself in his new conquests, as well
as in those which he yet meditated from the two
empires, Robert concluded a treaty the same year
with Pope Nicholas II., by which that Pontiff con:
firmed him in the possession of the duchies of
Apulia and Calabria; granting him not only the
investiture of these, but promising him also that
of Sicily, whenever he should expel the Greeks
and Arabians from it. Robert, in his turn, at
knowledged himself a vassal of the Pope, and en-
gaged to pay him an annual tribute of twelve
period III. A. D. 962–1074. 153
pence, money of Pavia, for every pair of oxen in
the two duchies. " Immediately after this treaty,
Robert called in the assistance of his brother
Roger, to rescue Sicily from the hands of the
Greeks and Arabs. * No sooner had he ac-
complished this object, than he conquered in suc-
cession the principalities of Bari, Salerno, Amalfi,
Sorrento, and Benevento; this latter city he sur-
rendered to the Pope.
Such is the origin of the duchies of Apulia
and Calabria; which, after a lapse of some years,
were formed into a kingdom under the name of
the Two Sicilies.
As to the kingdoms of the North, the light
of history scarcely began to dawn there until
the introduction of Christianity, which happened
about the end of the tenth or beginning of the
eleventh century. 7 The promulgation of the
Gospel opened a way into the North for the
diffusion of arts and letters. The Scandinavian
States, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, which
before that time were parcelled out among inde-
Pendent chiefs, began then to form plans of ci-
vil government, and to combine into settled mo-
Marchies. Their new religion, however, did not
"spire these nations with its meek and peaceable
Virtues, nor overcome their invincible propensity
* Wars and rapine. Their heroism was a wild
*nd savage bravery, which emboldened them to
face all dangers, to undertake desperate adventures,
* to achieve sudden conquests, which were lost
*! won with the same rapidity.
arold, surnamed Blaatand, or Blue teeth, was
* first solemonarch of the Danes, who with his
* Sweyn received baptism, after being vanquish-
154 CHAPTER IV.
ed by Otho the Great (965). Sweyn relapsed to
paganism; but his son Canute the Great, on his
accession to the throne (1014), made Christianity
the established religion of his kingdom. He sent
for monks from other countries, founded churches,
and divided the kingdom into diocesses. Ambi-
tious to distinguish himself as a conqueror, he af.
terwards subdued England and Norway (1028).
To these he added a part of Scotland and Sweden;
and conferred in his own lifetime on one of his
sons, named Sweyn, the kingdom of Norway, and
on the other, named Hardicanute, that of Denmark,
These acquisitions, however, were merely tempor-
ary. Sweyn was driven from Norway (1035);
while England and Scotland also shook off the Da-
mish yoke (1042), on the death of Hardicanute; and
Magnus King of Norway, even made himself
master of Denmark, which did not recover its entire
independence until the death of that prince (1047).
The ancient dynasty of Kings who occupied the
throne of Denmark from the most remote ages, is
known by the name of Skioldungs, because, ac-
cording to a fabulous tradition, they were descend.
ed from Skiold, a pretended son of the famous
Odin who, from being the conqueror, was exalted
into the deity of the North. The kings who reign-
ed after Sweyn II. were called Estrithides, from
that monarch, who was the son of Ulf a Danish
nobleman, and Estrith, sister to Canute the Great.
It was this Sweyn that raised the standard of re.
volt against Magnus King of Norway (1044), and
kept possession of the throne until his death.
In Sweden, the kings of the reigning family, de;
scended, as is alleged, from Regner Lodbrok, took
the title of Kings of Upsal, the place of their res"
PERio D 111. A. D. 962–1074. 155
dence. Olaus Skotkonung changed this title into
that of King of Sweden. He was the first mo-
narch of his nation that embraced Christianity,
and exerted himself to propagate it in his king-
dom. Sigefroy, Archbishop of York, who was
sent into Sweden by Ethelred King of England,
baptized Olaus and his whole family (1001). The
conversion of the Swedes would have been more
expeditious, had not the zeal of Olaus been re-
strained by the Swedish Diet who decided for full
liberty of conscience. Hence the strange mixture,
both of doctrine and worship, that long prevailed
in Sweden, where Jesus Christ was profanely as-
Sociated with Odin, and the Pagan goddess Freya
confounded with the Virgin. Anund Jacques,
Son of Olaus, contributed much to the progress of
Christianity; and his zeal procured him the title
of Most Christian King.
In Norway, Olaus I., surnamed Tryggueson, to-
Wards the end of the tenth century, constituted.
himself the apostle and missionary of his people,
and undertook to convert them to Christianity by
torture and punishment. Iceland and Greenland *
were likewise converted by his efforts, and after-
Wards became his tributaries (1029). One of his
ºcessors, Olaus II, called the Fat, and also the
§ºint, succeeded in extirpating paganism from
Norway (1020); but he used the cloak of religion
"establish his own authority, by destroying seve-
ral petty kings, who before this time possessed
*ch their own dominions.
Christianity was likewise instrumental in throw-
"g some rays of light on the history of the Scla-
"nian nations, by imparting to them the know-
VOL. I. N º
156 CHAPTER 1 v.
ledge of letters, and raising them in the scale of
importance among the civilized nations of Europe,
The Sclavonians who were settled north of the
Elbe, had been subdued by the Germans, and com:
pelled to embrace Christianity. The haughtiness
and rigour of Thierry, Margrave of the North, in:
duced them to shake off the yoke, and to concert
a general insurrection, which broke out in the reign
of Otho II. (982). The episcopal palaces, churches
and convents, were destroyed; and the people re.
turned once more to the superstitions of paganism,
Those tribes that inhabited Brandenburg, part of
Pomerania and Mecklenburg, known formerly un-
der the name of Wilzians and Welatabes, formed
themselves into a republican or federal body, and
took the name of Luitizians. The Abotrites, 0.
the contrary, the Polabes, and the Wagrians,’
were decidedly for a monarchical government, the
capital of which was fixed at Mecklenburg. Some
of the princes or sovereigns of these latter people
were styled Kings of the Venedi. The result of
this general revolt was a series of long and bloody
wars between the Germans and Sclavonians. The
latter defended their civil and religious liberties
with a remarkable courage and perseverance; and
it was not till after the twelfth century, that they
were subdued and reduced to Christianity by the
continued efforts of the Dukes of Saxony, and the
Margraves of the North, and by means of the
crusades and colonies which the Germans de-
spatched into their country. 19
The first duke of Bohemia that received bap"
tism from the hands, as is supposed, of Methºr
dius, bishop of Moravia (894), was Borzivoy. His
successors, however, returned to idolatry; and "
Period III. A. B. 962–1074. 157
was not till near the end of the tenth century, pro-
perly speaking, and in the reign of Boleslaus II.,
surnamed the Pious, that Christianity became the
established religion of Bohemia (999). These
dukes were vassals and tributaries of the German
empire; and their tribute consisted of 500 silver
marks, and 120 oxen. They exercised, however,
all the rights of sovereignty over the people; their
reign was a system of terror, and they seldom
took the opinion or advice of their nobles and
grandees. The succession was hereditary in the
reigning dynasty; and the system of partition was
in use, otherwise the order of succession would
have been fixed and permanent. Over a number
of these partitionary princes, one was vested with
certain rights of superiority, under the title of
Grand Prince, according to a custom found very
prevalent among the half civilized nations of the
north and east of Europe. ** The greater pro-
portion of the inhabitants, the labouring classes,
artisans, and domestics, were serfs, and oppressed
by the tyrannical yoke of their masters. The pub-
lic sale of men was even practised in Bohemia; the
tithe, or tenth part of which, belonged to the so-
Vereign. The descendants of Borzivoy possessed
the throne of Bohemia until 1306, when the male
the became extinct.
The Poles were a nation whose name does not
occur in history before the middle of the tenth
"entury; and we owe to Christianity the first in-
timations that we have regarding this people.
ieczislaus I., the first duke or prince of the
oles of whom we possess any authentic accounts,
*mbraced Christianity (966), at the solicitation of
18 spouse Dambrowka, sister of Boleslaus II.,

158 C HAPTER IV,
duke of Bohemia. Shortly after, the first bishopric
in Poland, that of Posen, was founded by Otho
the Great. Christianity did not, however, tame
the ferocious habits of the Poles, who remained
for a long time without the least progress in men.
tal cultivation. ** Their government, as wretch.
ed as that of Bohemia, subjected the great body of
the nation to the most debasing servitude. The
ancient sovereigns of Poland were hereditary.
They ruled most despotically, and with a rod of
iron; and, although they acknowledged themselves
vassals and tributaries of the German emperors,
they repeatedly broke out into open rebellion, as:
serted their absolute independence, and waged a
successful war against their masters. Boleslaus,
son of Mieczislaus I., took advantage of the trou.
bles which rose in Germany on the death of Othº
III., to possess himself of the Marches of Lusatia
and Budissin, or Bautzen, which the emperor Hen-
ry II. afterwards granted him as fiefs. This same
prince, in despite of the Germans, on the death
of Henry II. (1025), assumed the royal dignity.
Mieczislaus II, son of Boleslaus, after having
cruelly ravaged the country situate between the
Oder, the Elbe, and the Saal, was compelled to
abdicate the throne, and also to restore those pro-
vinces which his father had wrested from the Em’
pire. The male descendants of Mieczislaus I.
reigned in Poland until the death of Casimir the
Great (1370). This dynasty of kings is known
by the name of the Piasts, or Piasses, so called
from one Piast, alleged to have been its founder.
Silesia, which was then a province of Poland,
received the light of the Gospel when it first visit.
ed that kingdom; and had for its apostle, as is sup’
PERIOD III. A. D. 962–1074. 1.59
posed, a Romish priest named Geoffry, who is
reckoned the first bishop of Smogra (966).
In Russia, Vladimir the Great, great-grandson
of Ruric, was the first grand duke that embraced
Christianity, (988). He was baptized at Cherson
in Taurida, on the occasion of his marriage with
Anne Romanowna, sister of Basil II. and Constan-
tine VIII., Emperors of Constantinople. It was
this prince that introduced the Greek ritual into
Russia, and founded several schools and convents.
The alphabet of the Greeks was imported into
Russia along with their religion; and from the
reign of Vladimir, that nation, more powerful and
united than most of the other European states,
carried on a lucrative commerce with the Greek
empire, of which it became at length a formidable
rival.
At the death of that prince (1015), Russia
comprehended those vast regions which, from east
to west, extend from the Icy Sea and the mouth
of the Dwina, to the Niemen, the Dniester, and
the Bug ; and southward of this last river, to the
Carpathian Mountains, and the confines of Hun-
§ary and Moldavia. The city of Kiow on the
nieper, was the capital of the empire, and the
residence of the Grand Dukes. This period also
8ave rise to those unfortunate territorial partitions
which, by dividing the Russian monarchy, exposed
* to the insults and ravages of the neighbouring
*ations. Jaroslaus, one of the sons of Vladimir,
*ade himself famous as a legislator, and supplied
* Novogorodians with laws to regulate their
Ҽurts of justice. No less the friend and protector
* letters, he employed himself in translating
N 2 -
160 CHAPTER IV.
Greek books into the Sclavonian language. He
founded a public school at Novogorod, in which
three hundred children were educated at his sole
expense. His daughter Anne married Henry I.,
King of France; and this princess was the com-
mon mother of all the kings and princes of the
Capetian dynasty.
Hungary was divided, in the tenth century, a-
mong several petty princes, who acknowledged a
common chief, styled the Grand Prince, whose
limited authority was reduced to a simple preemi-
nence in rank and dignity. Each of these princes
assembled armies, and made predatory excursions,
plundering and ravaging the neighbouring countries
at their pleasure. The East and the West suffered
long under the scourge of these atrocious pilla.
gers. Christianity, which was introduced among
them about the end of the tenth century, was
alone capable of softening the manners, and tem-
pering the ferocity of this nation. Peregrine, bi
shop of Passau, encouraged by Otho the Great,
and patronized by the Grand Prince Geisa, sent
the first missionaries into Hungary (973). St
Adelbert, bishop of Prague, had the honour to
baptize the son of Geisa, called Waic (994), but
who received then the baptismal name of Stephen.
This latter prince, having succeeded his father
(997), changed entirely the aspect of Hungary,
He assumed the royal dignity, with the consent of
Pope Sylvester II., who sent him on this occasion
the Angelic Crown, as it is called; the same,
according to tradition, which the Hungarians use
to this day in the coronation of their kings.
once the apostle and the lawgiver of his country,
Stephen I, combined politics with justice, and
PERIOD III. A. D. 962–1074. 161
employed both severity and clemency in reforming
his subjects. He founded several bishoprics, ex-
tirpated idolatry, banished anarchy, and gave to
the authority of the sovereign, a vigour and effi-
ciency which it never before possessed. To him
likewise is generally ascribed the political division
of Hungary into counties, as also the institution
of palatines, and great officers of the crown. He
conquered Transylvania, about 1002–3, according
to the opinion of most modern Hungarian authors,
and formed it into a distinct government, the chiefs
of which, called Vaivodes, held immediately of his
Cl'OWn.
The history of the Greek empire presents, at
this time, nothing but a tissue of corruption, fa.
naticism and perfidy. The throne, as insecure as
that of the Western empire had been, was filled
alternately by a succession of usurpers; most of
whom rose from the lowest conditions of life, and
owed their elevation solely to the perpetration of
crime and parricide. A superstition gross in its
nature, bound as with a spell the minds of the
Greeks, and paralysed their courage. It was
carefully cherished by the monks, who had found
means to possess themselves of the government,
by procuring the exclusion of the secular clergy
from the episcopate; and directing the attention of
princes to those theological controversies, often ex-
ceedingly frivolous, which were produced and re-
Produced almost without intermission. ** Hence
originated those internal commotions and distrac-
tions, those schisms and sects, which more than
. divided the empire, and shook the throne it-
Self.
These theological disputes, the rivalry between
162 CHAPTER 1 v.
the two patriarchs of Rome and Constantinople, ''
and the contests respecting the Bulgarian converts,
led to an irreparable schism between the churches
of the East and the West. This controversy was
most keenly agitated under the pontificate of John
VIII., and when the celebrated Photius was pa-
triarch of Constantinople ; and in spite of the ef.
forts which several of the Greek emperors and pa-
triarchs afterwards made to effect a union with
the Romish See, the animosity of both only grew
more implacable, and ended at last in a final rup.
ture between the two churches. A government
so weak and so capricious as that of Constantino-
ple, could not but be perpetually exposed to the
inroads of foreign enemies. The Huns, Ostrogoths,
Avars, Bulgarians, Russians, Hungarians, Chazars,
and Patzinacites, harassed the empire on the side of
the Danube ; while the Persians | * were inces.
santly exhausting its strength in the East, and on
the side of the Euphrates. All these nations,
however, were content with merely desolating the
frontiers of the empire, and imposing frequent con-
tributions on the Greeks. It was a task reserved
for the Lombards, the Arabs, the Normans, and
the Turks, to detach from it whole provinces, and
by degrees to hasten its downfal.
The Lombards were the first that conquered
from the Greeks the greater part of Italy. Pales-
tine, Syria, and the whole possessions of the Em-
pire in Greater Asia, as well as Egypt, Northern
Africa, and thé Isle of Cyprus, were seized in the
seventh century by the Arabs, who made them-
selves masters of Sicily, and three times laid siege
to Constantinople (669, 717, 719). They would
have even succeeded in taking this Eastern capital,
PERIOD III. A. D. 962–1074. 163
and annihilating the Greek empire, had not the
courage of Leo the Isaurian, and the surprising
effects of the Gregeois, or Greek Fire,” rendered
their efforts useless. At length, in the eleventh
century, the Normans conquered all that remained
to the Greeks in Italy; while the Seljuk Turks,
who must not be confounded with the Ottoman
Turks, deprived them of the greater part of Asia
Minor.
Turk is the generic appellation for all the Tar-
tar nations, * mentioned by the ancients under the
name of Scythians. Their original country was
in those vast regions situate to the north of Mount
Caucasus, and eastward of the Caspian Sea, be-
yond the Jihon, or Oxus of the ancients, especially
in Charasm, Transoxiana, Turkestan, &c. About
the eighth century, the Arabs had passed the Oxus,
and rendered the Turks of Charasm and Transoxi-
ana their tributaries. They instructed them in the
religion and laws of Mahomet; but, by a transi-
tion rather extraordinary, it afterwards happened,
that the vanquished imposed the yoke on their
heW masters.
The empire of the Arabs, already enfeebled by
the territorial losses which have been mentioned,
declined more and more, from about the middle
ºf the ninth century. The Caliphs of Bagdad had
°ommitted the mistake of trusting their persons to
* military guard of foreigners, * * viz. the Turks,
who, taking advantage of the effeminacy of these
Princes, soon arrogated to themselves the whole
authority, and abused it so far, as to leave the Ca-
liphs entirely dependent on their will, and to
*t in themselves the hereditary succession of
the government. Thus, in the very centre of the
164 CHAPTER IV.
caliphate of Bagdad, there rose a multitude of
new sovereignties or dynasties, the heads of which,
under the title of Emir or Commander, exercised
the supreme power; leaving nothing more to the
Caliph than a preeminence of dignity, and that ra.
ther of a spiritual than a temporal nature. Be.
sides the external marks of homage and respect
which were paid him, his name continued to be
proclaimed in the mosques, and inscribed on the
coined money. By him were granted all letters.
patent of investiture, robes, swords, and standards,
accompanied with high-sounding titles; which did
not, however, prevent these usurpers from mal.
treating their ancient masters, insulting their per-
son, or even attempting their lives, whenever it
might serve to promote their interest.
A general revolution broke out under the ca.
liph Rahdi. That prince, wishing to arrest the
progress of usurpation, thought of creating a new
minister, whom he invested with the title of Emir.
al-Omra, or Commander of Commanders; and
conferred on him powers much more ample than
those of his vizier. This minister, whom he se.
lected from the Emirs, officiated even in the grand
mosque of Bagdad, instead of the caliph; and his
name was pronounced with equal honours in the
divine service throughout the empire. This de-
vice, which the caliph employed to reestablish his
authority, only tended to accelerate its destruc-
tion. The Bowides, the most powerful dynasty
among the Emirs, arrogated to themselves the dig-
nity of Chief Commander (945), and seized both the
city and the sovereignty of Bagdad. The Caliph,
stript of all temporal power, was then only grand
Iman, or sovereign-pontiff of the Mussulman reli-
PERIoD III. A. D. 962–1074. 165
gion, under the protection of the Bowidian prince,
who kept him as his prisoner at Bagdad.
Such was the sad situation of the Arabian em-
pire, fallen from its ancient glory, when a nume-
rous Turkish tribe, from the centre of Turkestan,
appeared on the stage, overthrew the dominions of
the Bowides; and, after imposing new fetters on the
caliphs, laid the foundation of a powerful empire,
known by the name of the Seljukides. This roving
tribe, which took its name from Seljuk a Mussulman
Turk, after having wandered for sometime with their
flocks in Transoxiana, passed the Jihon to seek pas-
turage in the province of Chorasan. Reinforced by
new Turkish colonies from Transoxiana, this coalition
became in a little time so powerful, that Togrul
Beg, grandson of Seljuk, had the boldness to make
himself be proclaimed Sultan in the city of Nies-
abur, 49 the capital of Chorasan, and formally an-
nounced himself as a conqueror (1038). This
prince, and the sultans his successors, subdued
by degrees most of the provinces in Asia, which
formed the caliphate of Bagdad.” They anni-
hilated the power of the Bowides, reduced the
Caliphs to the condition of dependents, and at length
attacked also the possessions of the Greek empire.
Alp-Arslan, the nephew and immediate suc-
cessor of Togrul Beg, gained a signal victory in
rmenia, over the Emperor Romanus Diogenes
(1071) who was there taken prisoner. The con-
fusion which this event caused in the Greek em-
Pire, was favourable to the Turks, who seized not
only what remained to the Greeks in Syria, but
lso several provinces in Asia Minor, such as Ci-
ºia, Isauria, Pamphylia, Lycia, Pisidia, Lycaonia,
Cappadocia, Galatia, Pontus, and Bythinia.
166 - CHA PTER IV.
The empire of the Seljukides was in its most
flourishing state under the sultan Malek Shah,
the son and successor of Alp-Arslam. The caliph
Cayem, in confirming to this prince the title of
Sultan and Chief Commander, added also that of
Commander of the Faithful, which before that time
had never been conferred but on the caliphs alone,
On the death of Malek (1092), the disputes that
rose among his sons occasioned a civil war, and
the partition of the empire. These vast territories
were divided among three principal dynasties de.
scended from Seljuk, those of Iran, Kerman, and
Roum or Rome. This latter branch, which ascribes
its origin to Soliman, great-grandson of Seljuk,
obtained the provinces of Asia Minor, which the
Seljukides had conquered from the Greeks. The
princes of this dynasty are known in the history
of the Crusades by the name of Sultans of Iconium
or Cogni, a city of Lycaonia, where the sultans
established their residence after being deprived by
the crusaders of the city of Nice in Bythinia,
The most powerful of the three dynasties was that
of the Seljukides of Iran, whose sway extended
over the greater part of Upper Asia. It soon,
however, fell from its grandeur, and its states
were divided into a number of petty sovereignties,
over which the Emirs or governors of cities and
provinces usurped the supreme power. ** These
divisions prepared the way for the conquests of
the crusaders in Syria and Palestine; and fur-
nished also to the Caliphs of Bagdad the means
of shaking off the yoke of the Seljukides (1152)
and recovering the sovereignty of Irak-Arabia, or
Bagdad.
REVOLUTIONS OF EUROPE.
CHAPTER V.
PERIOD IV,
FROM POPE GREGORY VII. To BONIFACE VIII.
A. D. 1074–1800.
A New and powerful monarchy rose on the ruins
of the German empire, that of the Roman Pon-
tiffs; which monopolized both spiritual and tem-
Poral dominion, and extended its influence over all
the kingdoms of Christendom. This supremacy,
whose artful and complicated mechanism is still
ºn object of astonishment to the most subtle poli-
ticians, was the work of Pope Gregory VII., a
*an born for great undertakings, as remarkable
ºr his genius, which raised him above his times,
* for the austerity of his manners and the bound-
*s reach of his ambition. Indignant at the de-
Pravity of the age, which was immersed in igno-
*nce and vice, and at the gross immorality which
Pervaded all classes of society, both laymen and
ºcclesiastics, Gregory resolved to become the re-
VOL. I. O
168 CHAYPTER V.
former of morals, and the restorer of religion. To
succeed in this project, it was necessary to replace
the government of kings, which had totally lost its
power and efficiency, by a new authority, whose sa-
lutary restraints, imposed alike on the high and the
low, might restore vigour to the laws, put a stop
to licentiousness, and impose a reverence on all by
the sanctity of its origin. This authority was the
spiritual supremacy of the Pope, of which Grego.
ry was at once the creator and inventor.
This extraordinary person, who was the son of
a carpenter at Saona in Tuscany, named Boni.
zone, or according to others, descended of a Ro:
man family, had paved the way to his future great.
ness under the preceding pontiffs, whose counsels
he had directed under the title of Cardinal Hilde.
brand. While Cardinal, he engaged Pope Nicolas
II. to enter into a treaty with Robert Guiscard
(1059), for procuring that brave Norman as an ally
and a vassal of the Holy See. Taking advantage,
likewise, of the minority of Henry IV, he caused,
this same year, in a council held at Rome, the fa.
mous decree to be passed, which, by reserving the
election of the pontiffs principally to the cardinals,
converted the elective privileges which the empe-
rors formerly enjoyed in virtue of their crown
rights, into a personal favour granted by the Pope,
and emanating from the court of Rome.
On the death of Pope Nicolas II., Cardinal Hil.
debrand procured the election of Alexander II,
without waiting for the order or concurrence 0
the Imperial court; and he succeeded in maintain"
ing him in the apostolical chair against Pope Hº"
norius II, whom the reigning empress had desti"
ned for that honour. At length, being raised him."
PERIOD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 169
self to the pontifical throne, scarcely had he ob-
tained the Imperial confirmation, when he put in
execution the project which he had so long been
concerting and preparing, viz. the erecting of a
spiritual despotism, extending to priests as well
as kings; making the supreme pontiff the arbiter
in all affairs, both civil and ecclesiastical—the be-
stower of favours, and the dispenser of crowns. The
basis of this dominion was, that the Vicar of Je-
sus Christ ought to be superior to all human power.
The better to attain his object, he began by with-
drawing himself and his clergy from the authority
of the secular princes.
At that time the city of Rome, and the whole
ecclesiastical states, as well as the greater part of
Italy, were subject to the kings of Germany, who,
in virtue of their being kings of Italy and Roman
emperors, nominated or confirmed the popes,
and installed the prefects of Rome, who there
received the power of the sword in their name.
They sent also every year commissioners to Rome,
to levy the money due to the royal treasury. The
Popes used to date their acts from the years of
the emperor's reign, and to stamp their coin with
his name; and all the higher clergy were virtually
bound and subject to the secular power, by the
solemn investiture of the ring and the crosier.
This investiture gave to the emperors and the other
ºvereigns the right of nominating and confirming
bishops, and even of deposing them if they saw
*ause. It gave them, moreover, the right of con-
ferring, at their pleasure, those fiefs and royal pre-
*gatives which the munificence of princes had
Yºsted in the Church. The emperors, in putting
*hops and prelates in possession of these fiefs,
170 CHAPTER V.
used the symbols of the ring and the crosier,
which were badges of honour belonging to bishops
and abbots. They made them, at the same time,
take the oath of fidelity and allegiance; and this
was the origin of their dependence, and their obli.
gation to furnish their princes with troops, and to
perform military service.
Gregory VII. prohibited, under pain of excom.
munication, all sovereigns to exercise the rights of
investiture, by a formal decree which he published
in a council asssmbled at Rome in 1074. There
was more than the simple ceremony of the ring
and the crosier implied in this interdict. He aim.
ed at depriving princes of the right of nominating,
confirming, or deposing prelates, as well as of
receiving their fealty and homage, and exacting
military service. He thus broke all those ties by
which the bishops were held in allegiance and sub-
ordination to princes; making them, in this re-
spect, entirely independent. In suppressing in.
vestitures, the pontiff had yet a more important
object in view. It was his policy to withdraw
both himself and his successors, as well as the
whole ecclesiastical state, from the power of the
German kings; especially by abolishing the right
which these princes had so long exercised of no-
minating and confirming the Popes. He saw, in
fact, that if he could succeed in rendering the
clergy independent of the secular power, it would
follow, by a natural consequence, that the Pope,
as being supreme head of the clergy, would no
longer be dependent on the emperors; while the
emperor, excluded from the nomination and in-
vestiture of bishops, would have still less right to
interfere in the election of pontiffs.
PERIod Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 17|
This affair, equally interesting to all sovereigns,
was of the utmost importance to the kings of
Germany, who had committed the unfortunate
error of putting the greater part of their domains
into the hands of ecclesiastics; so that to divest
those princes of the right to dispose of ecclesias-
tical fiefs, was in fact to deprive them of nearly
the half of their empire. The bishops, vainly
flattering themselves with the prospect of an ima-
ginary liberty, forgot the valuable gifts with which
the emperors had loaded them, and enlisted under
the banners of the Pope. They turned against
the secular princes those arms which the latter had
imprudently trusted in their hands.
There yet subsisted another bond of union
which connected the clergy with the civil and
political orders of society, and gave them an inte-
rest in the protection of the secular authority, and
that was, the marriages of the priests; a custom
in use at that time over a great part of the West, as
it still is in the Greek and Eastern Churches. It
is true, that the law of celibacy, already recom-
mended strongly by St Augustine, had been ad-
opted by the Romish Church, which neglected no
means of introducing it by degrees into all the
churches of the Catholic communion. It had met
with better success in Italy and the south of Eu-
rope than in the northern countries; and the priests
Continued to marry, not only in Germany, Eng-
land, and the kingdoms of the North, but even
in France, Spain, and Italy, notwithstanding the
law of celibacy, which had been sanctioned in
Wain by a multitude of councils.
Gregory VII, perceiving that, to render the
*::::::::::::::::::::::3xºgº.
- O 2
172 CHAPTER V.
clergy completely dependent on the Pope, it would
be necessary to break this powerful connexion,
renewed the law of celibacy, in a council held at
Rome (1074); enjoining the married priests either
to quit their wives, or renounce the sacerdotal
order. The whole clergy murmured against the
unfeeling rigour of this decree, which even excit-
ed tumult and insurrection in several countries of
Germany; and it required all the firmness of Gre-
gory and his successors to abolish clerical mar-
riages, and establish the law of celibacy through-
out the Western churches. * In thus dissolving
the secular ties of the clergy, it was far from the
intention of Gregory VII. to render them inde-
pendent. His designs were more politic, and
more suitable to his ambition. He wished to
make the clergy entirely subservient to his own
elevation, and even to employ them as an instru-
ment to humble and subdue the power of the
princes.
The path had already been opened up to him
by the False Decretals, as they were called, forg-
ed about the beginning of the ninth century, by
the famous impostor Isidore, who, with the view
of diminishing the authority of the metropolitans,
advanced in these letters, which he attributed to
the early bishops of Rome, a principle whose
main object was to extend the rights of the Romish
See, and to vest in the popes a jurisdiction till
then unknown in the church. Several Popes be:
fore Gregory VII. had already availed themselves
of these False Decretals; 3 and they had even
been admitted as true into different collections of
canons. Gregory did not content himself with
rigidly enforcing the principles of the impostor Isi.
PERIod Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 173
dore. He went even farther; he pretended to
unite, in himself, the plenary exercise both of the
ecclesiastical and episcopal power; leaving nothing
to the archbishops and bishops but the simple title
of his lieutenants or vicars. He completely un-
dermined the jurisdiction of the metropolitans and
bishops, by authorizing in all cases an appeal to
the Court of Rome; reserving to himself exclu-
sively the cognizance of all causes termed major—
including more especially the privilege of judging
and deposing of bishops. This latter privilege
had always been vested in the provincial councils,
who exercised it under the authority, and with
the consent of the secular powers. Gregory abo-
lished this usage; and claimed for himself the power
of judging the bishops, either in person or by his le-
gates, to the exclusion of the Synodal Assemblies.
He made himself master of these assemblies, and
even arrogated the exclusive right of convocating
General Councils.
... This pontiff, in a council which he held at Rome
(1079), at length prescribed a new oath, which
the bishops were obliged to take ; the main ob-
Ject of which was not merely canonical obedience,
but even fealty and homage, such as the prelates,
as lieges, vowed to their sovereigns; and which the
Pontiff claimed for himself alone, bearing that
they should aid and defend, against the whole
World, his new supremacy, and what he called the
*oyal rights of St Peter. Although various so-
Vereigns maintained possession of the homage they
Teceived from their bishops, the oath imposed by
Gregory nevertheless retained its full force; it was
even augmented by his successors, and extended
* all bishops without distinction, in spite of its
174 cHAPTER v.
inconsistency with that which the bishops swore
to their princes. -
Another very effectual means which Gregory
VII. made use of to confirm his new authority,
was to send, more frequently than his predecessors
had done, legates into the different states and
kingdoms of Christendom. He made them a kind
of governors of provinces, and invested them
with the most ample powers. These legates
soon obtained a knowledge of all the affairs of
the provinces delegated to their care; which great.
ly impaired the authority of the metropolitans and
provincial councils, as well as the jurisdiction of
the bishops. A clause was also inserted, in the
form of the oath imposed on the bishops, which
obliged them to furnish maintenance and support
for these legates; a practice which subsequently
gave place to frequent exactions and impositions
on their part. -
While occupied with the means of extending
his power over the clergy, Gregory did not le:
slip any opportunity of making encroachments on
the authority of princes and sovereigns, which he
represented as subordinate to that of the Church
and the Pope. As supreme head of the Church,
he claimed a right of inspection over all kings and
their governments. He deemed himself authorizº
ed to address admonitions to them, as to the me:
thod of ruling their kingdoms; and to demand of
them an account of their conduct. By and by
he presumed to listen to the complaints of subjects
against their princes, and claimed the right of be:
ing a judge or arbiter between them. In this ca"
pacity he acted towards Henry IV., emperor of
Germany, who enjoyed the rights of sovereignty
*
PERIod iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 175
over Rome and the Pope. He summoned him to
Rome (1076), for the purpose of answering be-
fore the synod to the principal accusations which
the nobles of Saxony, engaged in disputes with
that prince, had referred to the Pope. The em-
peror, burning with indignation, and hurried on by
the impetuosity of youth, instantly convoked an
assembly of bishops at Worms, and there caused
the pontiff to be deposed. No sooner was this sen-
tence conveyed to Rome, and read in presence of
the Pope in a council which he had assembled, than
Gregory ventured on a step till then quite unheard
of. He immediately thundered a sentence of ex-
Communication and deposition against the Emperor,
which was addressed to St Peter, and couched in
the following terms:–
. “In the name of Almighty God, I suspend and
interdict from governing the kingdom of Germany
and Italy, Henry, son of the emperor Henry, who,
with a haughtiness unexampled, has dared to rebel
against thy church. I absolve all Christians what-
$ver from the oath which they have taken, or shall
hereafter take, to him; and henceforth none shall
be permitted to do him homage or service as king;
fºr he who would disobey the authority of thy
Church, deserves to lose the dignity with which
he is invested. And seeing this prince has refused
tº submit as a Christian, and has not returned to
the Lord whom he hath forsaken, holding com-
*union with the excommunicated, and despising
the advice which I tendered him for the safety of
* Soul, I load him with curses in thy name, to
the end that people may know, even by experi-
*nce, that thou art Peter, and that on this rock
* Son of the living God has built his church;
176 CHAPTER V.
and that the gates of hell shall never prevail a-
gainst it.”
This measure, which seemed at first to have
been merely the effect of the pontiff's impetuosity,
soon discovered of what importance it was for
him to persevere, and what advantage he might
derive from it. In humbling the emperor, the
most powerful monarch in Europe, he might hope
that all the other sovereigns would bend before
him. He omitted nothing, therefore, that might
serve to justify his conduct, and endeavoured to
prove, by sophistries, that if he had authority to
excommunicate the emperor, he might likewise
deprive him of his dignity; and that the right to
release subjects from their oath of allegiance was
an emanation and a natural consequence of the
power of the Keys. The same equivocal inter-
pretation he afterwards made use of in a sentence
which he published against the same prince (1080),
and which he addressed to the Apostles St Peter
and St Paul, in these terms: “You, fathers and
princes of the apostles, hereby make known to the
whole world, that if you can bind and unbind in
heaven, you can much more, on earth, take from
all men empires, kingdoms, principalities, duchies,
marquisates, counties, and possessions, of whatso-
ever nature they may be. You have often depriv-
ed the unworthy of patriarchates, primacies, arch-
bishoprics, and bishoprics, to give them to persons
truly religious. Hence, if you preside over spiri-
tual affairs, does not your jurisdiction extend a for.
tiori to temporal and secular dignities 2 and if
you judge the angels who rule over princes and
potentates, even the haughtiest, will you not also
judge their slaves P Let then the kings and princes
PERIon Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 177
of the earth learn how great and irresistible is your
power | Let them tremble to contemn the com-
mands of your church 1 And do you, blessed
Peter, and blessed Paul, exercise, from this time
forward, your judgment on Henry, that the whole
earth may know that he has been humbled, not by
any human contingencies, but solely by your power.”
Until that time, the emperors had exercised the
right of confirming the Popes, and even of depos-
ing them, should there be occasion; but, by a
strange reverse of prerogatives, the popes now ar-
rogated to themselves the confirmation of the em-
perors, and even usurped the right of dethroning
them.
However irregular this step of the pontiff might
be, it did not fail to produce the intended effect.
In an assembly of the Imperial States, held at Tri-
bur (1076), the emperor could only obtain their
Consent to postpone their proceeding to a new
election, and that on the express condition of his
submitting himself to the judgment of the Pope,
and being absolved immediately from the excom-
munication he had incurred. In consequence of
this decision of the States, Henry crossed the
Alps in the middle of winter, to obtain reconcilia-
tion with the Pope, who then resided with the fa-
mous Countess Matilda, at her Castle of Canossa,
in the Modenese territory. Absolution was not
granted him, however, except under conditions the
most humiliating. He was compelled to do pe-
nance in an outer court of the castle, in a woollen
shirt and barefooted, for three successive days, and
afterwards to sign whatever terms the pontiff chose
to prescribe. This extraordinary spectacle must
ave spread consternation among the sovereigns
178 CHAPTER v.
of Europe, and made them tremble at the censures
of the Church.
After this, Gregory VII. exerted his utmost in-
fluence to engage all sovereigns, without distinc-
tion, to acknowledge themselves his vassals and
tributaries. “Let not the emperor imagine,”
says he, in a letter which he wrote to the German
nation, “that the church is subject to him as a
slave, but let him know that she is set over him as
a sovereign. ” From that time the pontiff regard-
ed the empire as a fief of his church; and after-
wards when setting up a rival emperor to Henry
IV., in the person of Hermann of Luxemburg, he
exacted from him a formal oath of vassalage.
Gregory pursued the same conduct in regard to
the other sovereigns of Europe. Boleslaus II.,
King of Poland, having killed Stanislaus Bishop
of Cracow, who had ventured to excommunicate
him, the pontiff took occasion from this to depose
that prince ; releasing all his subjects from their
oath of fidelity, and even prohibiting the Polish
bishops henceforth to crown any king without the
express consent of the Pope.
This aspiring pontiff stuck at nothing; he re-
garded nothing, provided he could obtain his ob-
ject. However contrary the customs of former
times were to his pretensions, he quoted them as
examples of authority, and with a boldness capa-
ble of imposing any thing on weak and ignorant
minds. It was thus that, in order to oblige the
French nation to pay him the tax of one penny
each house, he alleged the example of Charle-
magne, and pretended that that prince had not
merely paid this tribute, but even granted Saxony
as a fief to St Peter ; as he had conquered it with
PERIOD I v. A. D. 1074–1300. H79
the assistance of that apostle. In writing to
Philip I. of France, he expressed himself in these
terms: “Strive to please St Peter, who has thy
kingdom as well as thy soul in his power; and who
can bind thee, and absolve in heaven as well as on
earth.” And in a letter which he addressed to
the Princes of Spain, he attempted to persuade
them, that the kingdom of Spain, being originally
the property of the Holy See, they could not ex-
onerate themselves from paying him a tax on all
the lands they had conquered from the Infidels.
He affirmed to Solomon, King of Hungary,
that Stephen I., on receiving his crown at the
hands of Pope Silvester II., had surrendered his
kingdom as free property to the Holy See; and
that, in virtue of this donation, his kingdom was to
be considered as a part of the domain of the
church. He wrote in exactly the same style to
Geysa his immediate successor. In one of his
letters to Sueno, King of Denmark, he enjoins him
to deliver up his kingdom to the power of the Ro-
mish See. He refused (1076), to grant the royal
dignity to Demetrius Swinimir, Duke of Croatia
*nd Dalmatia, except on the express condition,
that he should do him homage for his kingdom,
and engage to pay the Pope an annual tribute of
two hundred golden pieces of Byzantium. This
Pontiff had the art of disguising his ambition so
"exterously, under the mask of justice and piety,
that he prevailed with various other sovereigns to
*knowledge themselves his vassals. Bertrand,
Count of Provence, transferred to him his fealty
*nd homage, to the prejudice of those feudal obli-
8ations he owed to the Empire. Several princes
VOL. I. P
180 chapter v.
of Italy and Germany, influenced by artifice or in.
timidation, abandoned the emperor, and put them.
selves under submission to the Pope. His efforts
were not equally successful with William the Con.
queror, King of England, whom he had politely
invited by letter, to do him homage for his king.
dom, after the manner of his royal predecessors,
That prince, too wise to be duped by papal impo.
sition, replied, that he was not in a humour to per-
form homage which he had never promised, and
which he was not aware had ever been performed
by any of his predecessors.
The successors of Gregory VII., followed in the
path he had opened up ; giving their utmost sup:
port to all his maxims and pretensions. In conse.
quence, a very great number of the princes of
Christendom, some intimidated by the thunders of
ecclesiastical anethemas, others with a view to se.
cure for themselves the protection of the Holy
See, acknowledged these usurped powers of the
Popes. The Kings of Portugal, Arragon, England,
Scotland, Sardinia, the two Sicilies, and several
others, became, in course of time, vassals and tri.
butaries to the Papal See; and there is not a
doubt, that the universal monarchy, the scheme of
which Gregory VII. had conceived, would have
been completely established, if some of his suc-
cessors had been endowed with his vast ambition,
and his superior genius.
In every other respect, circumstances were such
as to hasten and facilitate the progress of this
new pontifical supremacy. It had commenced in
a barbarous age, when the whole of the Western
world was covered with the darkness of ignorance;
and when mankind knew neither the just rights ºf
PERIoD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 181
sovereignty, nor the bounds which reason and
equity should have set to the authority of the
priesthood. The court of Rome was then the
only school where politics were studied, and the
Popes the only monarchs that put them in prac-
tice. An extravagant superstition, the inseparable
companion of ignorance, held all Europe in subjec-
tion; the Popes were reverenced with a veneration
resembling that which belongs only to the Deity;
and the whole world trembled at the utterance of
the single word Ea:communication. Kings were
not sufficiently powerful to oppose any successful
resistance to the encroachments of Rome; their
authority was curtailed and counteracted by that
of their vassals, who seized with eagerness every
occasion which the Popes offered them, to ag-
grandize their own prerogatives at the expense of
the sovereign authority.
The Emperor of Germany, who was alone able
to countervail this new spiritual tyranny, was at
open war with his grand vassals, whose usurpa-
tions he was anxious to repress; while they, dis-
respecting the majesty of the throne, and consult-
lºg only their own animosity against the emperor,
"indly seconded the pretensions of the pontiff.
The emperor, however, did all in his power to
Oppose a barrier to this torrent of ecclesiastical
despotism; but the insolence of Gregory became
* extravagant, that, not content to attack him
with spiritual weapons, he set up rival emperors,
*nd excited intestine wars against him; and his
*uccessors even went so far as to arm the sons
*gainst their own father. Such was the origin of
* contests which arose between the Empire and
the Papacy, under the reign of Henry IV., and
182 charter v.
which agitated both º and Italy for a pe-
h
riod of several centuries. ey gave birth, also,
to the two factions of the Guelphs and the Ghibel-
lines, the former Imperial, and the other Papal,
who for a long course of time tore each other to
pieces with inconceivable fury.
Henry V., son and successor of Henry IV., ter-
minated the grand dispute about the investitures
of the ring and the crosier. By the Concordat
which he concluded at Worms (1122) with Pope
Calixtus II., he renounced the ceremony of the
ring and the cross; and granting to the churches
free liberty of election, he reserved nothing to
himself, except the privilege of sending commis-
sioners to the elections, and giving to the newly
elected prelates, after consecration, the investiture
of the regalian rights, by means of the sceptre, in-
stead of the ring and crosier. The ties of vassal.
age which connected the bishops with the empe-
rors, were still preserved by this transaction, con-
trary to the intentions of Gregory VII.; but the
emperors being obliged to approve of the persons
whom the Church should hereafter present, lost
their chief influence in the elections, and were n0
longer entitled, as formerly, to grant or refuse in-
vestiture.
These broils with the court of Rome, the check
which they gave to the Imperial authority, joined
to the increasing abuses of the feudal system, aſ
forded the princes and states of the Empire the
means of usurping the heritable succession of their
duchies, counties, and fiefs ; and of laying the
foundations of a new power, which they after
wards exercised under the name of territorial su"
periority. Frederic II, compelled by the pres'
PERIOD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 183
sure of events, was the first emperor that sanc-
tioned the territorial rights of the states by char-
ters, which he delivered to several princes, secular
and ecclesiastic, in the years 1220 and 1232. The
Imperial dignity thus lost its splendour with the
power of the emperors; and the constitution of
the Empire was totally changed. That vast mo-
marchy degenerated by degrees into a kind of fe-
deral system ; and the Emperor, in course of time,
became only the common chief, and superior over
the numerous vassals of which that association
was composed. The extraordinary efforts made
by the Emperors Frederic I. and II. of the house
of Hohenstaufen, " to reestablish the tottering
throne of the empire, ended in nothing ; and that
House, one of the most powerful in Europe, was
deprived of all its crowns, and persecuted even to
the scaffold.
The empire thus fell into gradual decay, while
the pontifical power, rising on its ruins, gained,
day by day, new accessions of strength. The suc-
cessors of Gregory VII. omitted nothing that po-
licy could suggest to them, in order to humble
more and more the dignity of the Emperors, and
to bring them into a state of absolute dependence,
by arrogating to themselves the express right of
confirming, and even of deposing them; * and com-
pelling them to acknowledge their feudal superio-
rity. Being thus no longer obliged to submit their
election to the arbitration of the Imperial court,
the ambitious pontiffs soon aspired to absolute so-
vereignty.
The custom of dating their acts, and coining
their money with the stamp and name of the em-
F 2
184 CHAPTER V.
peror, disappeared after the time of Gregory VII.:
and the authority which the emperors had exer-
cised at Rome, ceased entirely with the loss of the
prefecture or government of that city; which Pope
Innocent III. took into his own hands (1198), ob-
liging the prefect of Rome to swear the usual oath
of homage to the Apostolic See, which that magis-
trate owed to the emperor, from whom he received
the prefecture. Hence it happened, that the chiefs
of the Empire, obliged to compromise with a power
which they had learned to dread, had no longer
any difficulty in recognising the entire independ-
ence of the Popes; even formally renouncing the
rights of high sovereignty which their predecessors
had enjoyed, not only over Rome, but over the
Ecclesiastical States. The domains of the church
were likewise considerably increased by the acqui-
sitions which Innocent III. made of the March of
Ancona, and the duchy of Spoleto; as well as by
the personal property or Patrimony of the Coun-
tess Matilda, & which the Emperor Frederic II.
ceded to Honorius III. (1220), and which his
successors in the Apostolic chair formed into the
province known by the name of the Patrimony of
St Peter.
One of the grand means which the Popes em.
ployed for the advancement of their new autho-
rity, was the multiplication of Religious Orders, and
the way in which they took care to manage these
corporations. Before the time of Gregory VII,
the only order known in the West was that of the
Benedictines, divided into several families or con-
gregations. The rule of St Benedict, prescribed
at the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle (817) to all
monks within the empire of the Franks, was the
PERIon Iv. A. D. 1074–1800. 185
only one allowed by the Romish Church; just as
that of St Basil was, and still is, the only one
practised in the East by the Greek Church. The
first of these newly invented orders was that of Gram-
mont in Limosin (1073), authorized by Pope Gre-
gory VII. This was followed, in the same cen-
tury, by the order of Chartreux, and that of St
Antony.” The Mendicant orders took their rise
under Innocent III., near the end of the twelfth,
and beginning of the thirteenth century. Their
number increased in a short time so prodigiously,
that, in 1274, they could reckon twenty-three
orders. The complaints which were raised on
this subject from all parts of Christendom, ob-
liged Pope Gregory to reduce them, at the Coun-
cil of Lyons, to four orders, viz. the Hermits
of St William or Augustines, Carmelites, the
Minor or Franciscan friars, and the Preaching or
Dominican friars. The Popes, perceiving that they
might convert the monastic orders, and more par-
ticularly the mendicants, into a powerful engine for
strengthening their own authority, and keeping the
secular clergy in subjection, granted by degrees to
these fraternities, immunities and exemptions tend-
ing to withdraw them from the jurisdiction of the
bishops, and to emancipate them from every other
authority, except that of their Heads, and the Popes.
hey even conferred on them various privileges,
such as those of preaching, confession, and in-
structing the young; as being the most likely means
to augment their credit and their influence. The
consequence was, that the monks were frequently
employed by the Popes in quality of legates and
missionaries; they were feared and respected by
Sovereigns, singularly revered by the people, and

186 CHA PTER V. .
let slip no occasion of exalting a power to which
alone they owed their promotion, their respectabi-
lity, and all the advantages they enjoyed.
Of all the successors of Gregory VII., he who
resembled him most in the superiority of his ge-
nius, and the extent of his knowledge, was Inno-
cent III., who was of the family of the Counts of
Segni, and elevated to the pontificate at the age of
37. He was as ambitious as that pontiff, and e-
qually fertile in resources; and he even surpassed
him in the boldness of his plans, and the success
of his enterprises. Innocent announced himself as
the successor of St Peter, set up by God to govern
not only the Church, but the whole world. It was
this Pope who first made use of the famous com-
parison about the sun and the moon : As God
(says he) has placed two great luminaries in the
firmament, the one to rule the day, and the other
to give light by might, so has he established two
grand powers, the pontifical and the royal; and
as the moon receives her light from the sun, so does
royalty borrow its splendour from the Papal autho-
vity.
Not content to exercise the legislative power as
he pleased, by means of the numerous decretals
which he dispersed over all Christendom, this pon-
tiff was the first that arrogated to himself the pre-
rogative of dispensing with the laws themselves, in
virtue of what he termed the plenitude of his
power. It is to him also that the origin of the In-
quisition is ascribed, that terrible tribunal which
afterwards became the firmest prop of sacerdotal
despotism ; but what is of more importance to re-
mark, is, that he laid the foundations of that exor-
bitant power, which his successors have since ex-

PERIOD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 187
ercised in collating or presenting to ecclesiastical
dignities and benefices. -
The secular princes having been deprived of
their rights of nomination and confirmation, by the
decrees of Gregory VII. and his successors, the
privilege of electing bishops was restored to the
clergy and congregation of each church, and to the
chapters of convents; the confirmation of the elected
prelates belonged to their immediate superiors;
and collation to the other ecclesiastical benefices
was reserved for the bishops and ordinaries. All
these regulations were changed towards the end of
the twelfth century. The canons of cathedral
churches, authorized by the Court of Rome, claim-
ed to themselves the right of election, to the ex-
clusion of the clergy and the people; while the
Popes, gradually interfering with elections and col-
lations, found means to usurp the nomination and
collation to almost all ecclesiastical benefices. The
principle of these usurpations was founded on the
false decretals; according to which all ecclesi-
astical jurisdiction emanates from the court of
Rome, as a river flows from its source. It is from
the Pope that archbishops and bishops hold that
Portion of authority with which they are endowed;
and of which he does not divest himself, by the act
of communicating it to them; but is rather the
more entitled to cooperate with them in the exer-
cise of that jurisdiction as often as he may judge
proper. *
This principle of a conjunct authority, furnished
a very plausible pretext for the Popes to interfere
in collation to benefices. This collation, according
to the canon law, being essential to the jurisdiction
of bishops, it seemed natural that the Pope, who
188 . CHAPTER V.
concurred in the jurisdiction, should also concur.
in the privileges derived from it, namely, in-
duction or collation to benefices. From the
right of concurrence, therefore, Innocent III. pro-
ceeded to that of prevention, being the first pon-
tiff that made use of it. He exercised that right,
especially with regard to benefices which had
newly become vacant by the death of their incum-
bents, when at the Court of Rome; in which cases
it was easy to anticipate or get the start of the bi-
shops. In the same manner, this right was exer-
cised in remote dioceses, by means of legates a
Watere, which he dispersed over the different pro-
vinces of Christendom.
From the right of prevention were derived the
provisional mandates, and the Gràces Eagectatives,
(reversionary grants or Bulls) letters granting pro-
mise of church livings before they became vacant.
The Popes not having legates everywhere, and
wishing, besides, to treat the bishops with some
respect, began by addressing to them letters of
recommendation in favour of those persons for
whom they were anxious to procure benefices.
These letters becoming too frequent and importu-
mate, the bishops ventured to refuse their compli-
ance; on which the Popes began to change their
recommendations into orders or mandates; and ap-
pointed commissioners to enforce their execution by
means of ecclesiastical censures. These mandates
were succeeded by the Gràces Eagectatives, which,
properly speaking, were nothing else than man-
dates issued for benefices, whose titulars or incum-
bents were yet alive. Lastly appeared the Reser-
vations, which were distinguished into general and
special. The first general reservation was that of
PERIOD iv. A. D. 1074–1300. I89
benefices becoming vacant by the incumbents dy-
ing at the Court of Rome. This was introduced
by Pope Clement IV. in 1265, in order to exclude
for ever the bishops from the right of concurrence
and prevention in benefices of that kind.
This first reservation was the forerunner of se-
veral others, such as the reservation of all cathe-
dral churches, abbeys, and priories; as also of the
highest dignities in cathedral and collegiate
churches; and of all collective benefices, becom-
ing vacant during eight months in the year, called
the Pope's months, so that only four months re-
mained for the ordinary collators; and these too,
encroached upon by mandates, expectatives, and
reservations. The Popes having thus seized the
nomination to episcopal dignities, it followed, by
a simple and natural process, that the confirmation
of all prelates, without distinction, was in like
manner reserved for them. It would have even
been reckoned a breach of decorum to address an
archbishop, demanding from him the confirmation
of a bishop nominated by the Pope; so that this
point of common right, which vested the confirma-
tion of every prelate in his immediate superior,
was also annihilated ; and the Romish See was at
length acknowledged over the whole Western
World, as the only source of all jurisdiction, and
all ecclesiastical power.
An extraordinary event, the offspring of that
Superstitious age, served still more to increase the
power of the Popes; and that was the Crusades,
which the nations of Europe undertook, at their
Tequest and by their orders, for the conquest of
Palestine or the Holy Land. These expeditions,
known by the name of Holy Wars, because religion
Was made the pretext or occasion of them, require
190 CHAPTER V.
a somewhat particular detail, not merely of the
circumstances that accompanied them, but also of
the changes which they introduced into the moral
and political condition of society. Pilgrimages
to Jerusalem, which were in use from the earliest
ages of Christianity, had become very frequent
about the beginning of the eleventh century. The
opinion which then very generally prevailed, that
the end of the world was at hand, induced vast
numbers of Christians to sell their possessions in
Europe, in order that they might set out for the
Holy Land, there to await the coming of the Lord.
So long as the Arabs were masters of Palestine,
they protected these pilgrimages, from which they
derived no small emoluments. But when the Sel-
jukian Turks, a barbarous and ferocious people,
had conquered that country (1075) under the Ca-
liphs of Egypt, the pilgrims saw themselves ex-
posed to every kind of insult and oppression.*
The lamentable accounts which they gave of these
outrages on their return to Europe, excited the
general indignation, and gave birth to the roman-
tic motion of expelling these Infidels from the Holy
Land.
Gregory VII. was the projector of this grand
scheme. He addressed circular letters to all the
sovereigns of Europe, and invited them to make a
general crusade against the Turks. Meantime,
however, more pressing interests, and his quarrels
with the Emperor Henry IV., obliged him to de-
fer the projected enterprise; but his attention was
soon recalled to it by the representation of a pil-
grim, called Peter the Hermit, a native of Amiens
in Picardy. Furnished with letters from the Pa-
triarch of Jerusalem to the Pope and the princes
PERIoD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 191
of the West, this ardent fanatic traversed the whole
of Italy, France, and Germany; preaching every-
where, and representing, in the liveliest colours,
the profanation of the sacred places, and the mi-
serable condition of the Christians and poor pil-
grims in the Holy Land. It proved no difficult
task for him to impart to others the fanaticism with
which he was himself animated. His zeal was
powerfully seconded by Pope Urban II., who re-
paired in person to France, where he convoked the
council of Clermont (1095), and pronounced, in
full assembly, a pathetic harangue, at the close of
which they unanimously resolved on the Holy
War. It was decreed, that all who should enrol
their names in this sacred militia, should wear a
red cross on their right shoulder: that they should
enjoy plenary indulgence, and obtain remission of
all their sins.
From that time the pulpits of Europe resounded
with exhortations to the crusades. People of every
rank and condition were seen flocking in crowds
to assume the signal of the cross; and, in the fol-
lowing year, innumerable bands of crusaders, from
the different countries of Europe, set out, one af-
ter another, on this expedition to the East. ” The
only exception was the Germans, who partook but
feebly of this universal enthusiasm, on account of
the disputes which then subsisted between the
Emperor and the court of Rome.” The three or
four first divisions of the crusaders, under the con-
duct of chiefs, who had neither name nor experi-
ence, marched without order and without disci-
Pline; pillaging, burning, and wasting the countries
through which they passed. Most of them pe-
VOL. I. Q 6
192 CHAPTER V".
rished from fatigue, hunger, or sickness, or by the
sword of the exasperated nations, whose territories
they had laid desolate. **
To these unwarlike and undisciplined troops
succeeded regular armies, commanded by experi-
enced officers, and powerful princes. Godfrey of
Bouillon (1096), Duke of Lorrain, accompanied by
his brother Baldwin, and his cousin Baldwin of
Rourg, with a vast retinue of noblemen, put him.
self at the head of the first body of crusaders. He
directed his march through Germany, Hungary,
and Bulgaria, towards Constantinople, and was
soon followed by several French princes, such as
Hugh the Great, brother of Philip I. King of
France; Robert Duke of Normandy, son of Wil.
liam the Conqueror; Stephen VI., Count of Blois;
Eustace of Boulogne, brother to Godfrey de Bouil.
lon, and Robert Count of Flanders, who all pre-
ferred the route by Italy. They passed the winter
in the environs of Bari, Brindisi, and Otranto ; and
did not embark for Greece until the following
spring. Boemond, Prince of Tarentum, son to
Roger, Earl of Sicily, at the instigation of the
French grandees, took the cross, after their exam.
ple, and carried with him into the East the flower
of the Normans, and the noblesse of Sicily, Apulia,
and Calabria. Lastly, Raymond IV., Count of
Toulouse, accompanied by the Bishop of Puy,
traversed Lombardy, Friuli, and Dalmatia, on his
passage to the Holy Land.
The general rendezvous of the crusaders was
at Chalcedon in Bythinia. It is supposed that
their forces united, amounted to six hundred thou-
sand combatants. They commenced their exploits
with the siege of Nice, capital of the empire of
PERIOD I v. A. D. 1074–1300. 193
Roum, of which they made themselves master,
after having repulsed the Turks who had advanc-
ed under the command of the Sultan Kili-Ars-
lan, the son of Soliman, premier sultan of Roum.
Another victory gained over the same sultan (1097)
in the Gorgonian valley in Bythinia, opened for
the crusaders a passage into Syria. There they
undertook the siege of the strong city of Antioch,
which they carried after an immense loss of lives
(1098.) Having at length arrived in Palestine, they
planned the attack of Jerusalem, which the Ca-
liph of Egypt had just recovered from the Turks;
and which the crusaders, in their turn, carried by
assault from the Egyptians (1099.) This city was
declared the capital of a new kingdom, the so-
Vereignty of which was bestowed on Godfrey of
Bouillon, though he refused to take the title of
king. This famous prince extended his conquests
by a splendid victory, which he gained that same
year near Ascalon, over the Caliph of Egypt.
On his death, his brother Baldwin succeeded him,
and transmitted the throne to his cousin Baldwin
of Bourg, whose posterity reigned in Jerusalem
º the destruction of that kingdom by Saladin
87).
ºh- the kingdom of Jerusalem, which
Comprehended Palestine, with the cities of Sidon,
yre, and Ptolemais, the crusaders founded se-
Veral other states in the East. The earldom of
Edessa, first conquered by Baldwin, brother of
Godfrey, passed to several French princes in suc-
Cession until the year 1144, when it was subdued
by Atabek-Zenghi commonly called Sanguin.
The principality of Antioch fell to the share of Boe-
nond, prince of Tarentum, whose heirs and de-
194 CHAPTER V.
scendants added to it, in 1188, the County of Tri-
poli, which had been founded (1110) by Ray.
mond, Count of Toulouse, one of the crusaders,
But they were deprived both of the one and the
other of these sovereignties by the Mamelukes in
1268, who afterwards (1289) conquered Antioch
and Tripoli. Lastly, the kingdom of Cyprus
which Richard Coeur-de-Lion, King of England,
took from the Greeks (1191), was surrendered
by that prince to Guy de Lusignon, whose poste-
rity reigned in Cyprus till the year 1487, when
that island was taken possession of by the repub-
lic of Venice.
The transient duration of these different states,
presents nothing surprising. The Christians of the
East, disunited among themselves, surrounded on
all hands, and incessantly attacked by powerful
nations, found themselves too remote from Eu-
rope to obtain from that quarter any prompt or
effective succour. It was, therefore, impossible
for them long to withstand the efforts of the Ma-
hometans, who were animated as well as the
Christians by a sectarian zeal, which led them to
combine their forces against the enemies of their
religion and their prophet. The enthusiasm of re-
ligious wars did not however become extinct un-
til nearly two centuries. It was encouraged and
supported by the numerous privileges which popes
and sovereigns conferred on the invaders, and by
the rich endowments that were made in their fa-
vour. All Europe continued to be in motion, and
all its principal sovereigns marched in their turn to
the East, either to attempt new conquests, or
maintain those which the first crusaders had
achieved.
PERIOD 1 v. A. D. 1074–1300. I95
Six grand crusades succeeded to the first ; all
of which were either fruitless, or at least without
any important and durable success. Conrad III.,
Emperor of Germany, and Louis VII, King of
France, undertook the second (1147), on account
of the conquests of Atabek-Zenghi, who, three
years before, had made himself master of Edessa.
The third (r.189) was headed by the Emperor
Frederic I, surnamed Barbarossa; Philip Augus-
tus King of France; and Richard Coeur-de-Lion
of England; and the occasion of it, was the tak-
ing of Jerusalem by the famous Saladin (1187).
The fourth was undertaken (1202), at the pressing
instigation of Innocent III. Several of the French
and German nobility uniting with the Venetians,
assumed the cross under the command of Boniface,
Marquis of Montferrat; but instead of marching
to Palestine, they ended their expedition by taking
Constantinople from the Greeks. The fifth cru-
Sade (1217) was conducted by Andrew, King of
Hungary, attended by many of the princes and no-
bility of Germany, who had enlisted under the
banner of the Cross in consequence of the decrees
of the council of Lateran (1215). The Emperor
Frederic II. undertook the sixth (1228). By a
treaty which he concluded with the Sultan of
Egypt, he obtained the restoration of Jerusalem
and several other cities of Palestine; although they
did not long continue in his possession. The
Carizmian Turks, oppressed by the Moguls,
seized on the Holy Land (1244), and pillaged
and burnt Jerusalem. That famous city, together
with the greater part of Palestine, fell afterwards
under the dominion of the Sultans of Egypt.
196 CHAPTER V.
The seventh and last grand crusade, was under-
taken by Louis IX. King of France (1248). He
conceived it necessary to begin his conquests by
that of Egypt; but his design completely mis-
carried. Being made prisoner with his army after
the action at Mansoura (1250), he only obtained
his liberty by restoring Damietta, and paying a
large ransom to the Sultan of Egypt. The un-
fortunate issue of this last expedition, slackened
the zeal of the Europeans for crusading. Still, how-
ever, they retained two important places on the
coast of Syria, the cities of Tyre and Ptolemais.
But these places having been conquered by the
Mamelukes (1291), there was no longer any talk
about crusades to the East; and all the attempts of the
Court of Rome to revive them proved ineffectual.
It now remains for us briefly to notice the ef.
fects which resulted from the crusades, with re-
gard to the social and political state of the nations
in Western Europe. One consequence of these,
was the aggrandisement of the Roman Pontiffs,
who, during the whole period of the crusades,
played the part of supreme chiefs and sovereign
masters of Christendom. It was at their request,
as we have seen, that those religious wars were
undertaken ; it was they who directed them by
means of their legates,—who compelled emperors
and kings, by the terror of their spiritual arms, to
march under the banner of the Cross—who taxed
the clergy at their pleasure, to defray the expenses
of these distant expeditions,—who took under their
immediate protection the persons and effects of the
Crusaders, and emancipated them, by means of
special privileges, from all dependence on any
power, civil or judiciary. The wealth of the
PERIOD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 197
clergy was considerably increased during the time
of which we speak, both by the numerous endow-
ments which took place, and by the acquisition
which the Church made of the immense landed
property which the pious owners sold them on as-
suming the badge of the Cross.
These advantages which the See of Rome drew
from the crusades in the East, were inducements to
undertake similar expeditions in the West and
North of Europe. In these quarters we find
that the wars of the cross were carried on, (1.)
Against the Mahometans of Spain and Africa.
(2.) Against the Emperors and Kings who re-
fused obedience to the orders of the Popes.” (3.)
Against heretical or schismatic princes, such as
the Greeks and Russians. (4.) Against the Sla-
vonians and other Pagan nations, on the coasts of
the Baltic. (5.) Against the Waldenses, Albi-
genses, and Hussites, who were regarded as here-
tics. (6.) Against the Turks.
If the result of the crusades was advantageous
to the hierarchy, if it served to aggrandise the
power of the Roman Pontiffs, it must, on the con-
trary, have proved obviously prejudicial to the au-
thority of the secular princes. It was in fact dur-
ing this period that the power of the emperors,
both in Germany and Italy, was sapped to the
Very foundation; that the royal house of Hohen-
Staufen sunk under the determined efforts of the
Court of Rome; and that the federal system of
the Empire gained gradual accessions of strength.
In England and Hungary, we observe how the
grandees seized on the opportunity to increase their
own power. The former took advantage of their so-
Vereign's absence in the Holy Land, and the latter
198 CHAPTER V.
of the protection which they received from the
Popes, to claim new privileges and extort charters,
such as they did from John of England, and An-
drew II. of Hungary, tending to cripple and cir-
cumscribe the royal authority.
In France, however, the result was different.
There, the kings being freed, by means of the
crusades, from a crowd of restless and turbulent
vassals who often threw the kingdom into a state
of faction and discord, were left at liberty to ex-
tend their prerogatives, and turn the scale of power
in their own favour. They even considerably aug-
mented their royal and territorial revenues, either by
purchasing lands and fiefs from the proprietors who
had armed in the cause of the cross; or by annex.
ing to the crown the estates of those who died in
the Holy Land, without leaving feudal heirs; or
by seizing the forfeitures of others who were per-
secuted by religious fanaticism, as heretics or a-
bettors of heresy. Finally, the Christian kings of
Spain, the sovereigns of the North, the Knights of
the Teutonic order, and of Livonia, joined the
crusades recommended by the Popes, from the de-
sire of conquest; the former, to subdue the Ma-
hometans in Spain, and the others to vanquish
the Pagan nations of the North, the Slavonians,
Finns, Livonians, Prussians, Lithuanians, and
Courlanders.
It is to the crusades, in like manner, that Eu.
rope owes the use of surnames, as well as of ar-
morial bearings, and heraldry. ** It is easy to
perceive, that among these innumerable armies of
crusaders, composed of different nations and lan-
guages, some mark or symbol was necessary, in
order to distinguish particular nations, or signalize
PERIoD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 199
their commanders. Surnames and coats of arms
were employed as these distinctive badges; the
latter especially were invented to serve as rallying
points, for the vassals and troops of the crusading
chiefs. Necessity first introduced them, and va-
nity afterwards caused them to be retained. These
coats of arms were hoisted on their standards, the
knights got them emblazoned on their shields, and
appeared with them at tournaments. Even those
who had never been at the crusades, became ambiti-
ous of these distinctions; which may be considered
as permanently established in families, from about
the middle of the thirteenth century.
The same enthusiasm that inspired the Euro-
peans for the crusades, contributed in like manner
to bring tournaments into vogue. In these solemn
and military sports, the young noblesse were train-
ed to violent exercises, and to the management of
heavy arms; so as to gain them some reputation
for valour, and to insure their superiority in war.
In order to be admitted to these tournaments it
was necessary to be of noble blood, and to show
proofs of their nobility. The origin of these feats
is generally traced back to the end of the tenth, or
beginning of the eleventh century. Geoffrey of
Preuilly, whom the writers of the middle ages
cite as being the inventor of them, did no more,
Properly speaking, than draw up their code of re-
gulations. France was the country from which
the practice of tournaments diffused itself over all
the other nations of Europe. They were very
frequent, during all the time that the crusading
mania lasted.
To this same epoch belongs the institution of
*eligious and Military Orders. These were ori-
200 CHAPTER V.
ginally established for the purpose of defending
the new Christian States in the East, for protect-
ing pilgrims on their journey, taking care of them
when sick, &c.; and the vast wealth which they
acquired in most of the kingdoms of Europe, pre-
served their existence long after the loss of the
Holy Land ; and some of these orders even made
a conspicuous figure in the political history of
the Western nations.
Of all these, the first and most distinguished
was the Order of St John of Jerusalem, called
afterwards the Order of Malta. Prior to the first
crusade, there had existed at Jerusalem a church
of the Latin or Romish liturgy, dedicated to St
Mary, and founded by some merchants of Amalfi
in the kingdom of Naples. There was also a
monastery of the Order of St Benedict, and an
hospital for the relief of poor or afflicted pilgrims,
This hospital, the directors of which were ap-
pointed by the Abbot of St Mary's, having in a
very short time become immensely rich by numer-
ous donations of lands and seignories, both in Europe
and Palestine, one of its governors named Gerard,
a native of Martigues in Provence, as is alleged,
took the regular habit (1100), and formed with his
brethren a distinct congregation, under the name
and protection of St John the Baptist. Pope Pascal
II., by a bull issued in l l 14, approved of this
new establishment, and ordained, that after the
death of Gerard, the Hospitallers alone should
have the election of their superintendant. Ray.
mond du Puy, a gentleman from Dauphiné, and
successor to Gerard, was the first that took the
title of Grand Master. He prescribed a rule for
the Hospitallers; and Pope Calixtus II, in ap"
PERIOD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 201
proving of this rule (1120), divided the members
of the order into three classes. The nobles, cal-
led Knights of Justice, were destined for the pro-
fession of arms, making war on the Infidels, and
protecting pilgrims. The priests and chaplains,
selected from the respectable citizens, were intrust-
ed with functions purely ecclesiastical; while the
serving brethren, who formed the third class, were
charged with the care of sick pilgrims, and like-
wise to act in the capacity of soldiers. These
new knights were known by the name of Knights
of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, and
were distinguished by wearing a white octagon
cross on a black habit. -
After the final loss of the Holy Land, this or-
der established themselves in the Isle of Cyprus.
From this they passed into Rhodes, which they
had conquered from the Infidels (1310). This
latter island they kept possession of till 1522; and
being then expelled by Soliman the Great, they
obtained (1530) from Charles V., the munificent
grant of the Isle of Malta, under the express terms
of making war against the Infidels. Of this place
º were at length deprived by Buonaparte in
798.
The order of Templars followed nearly that of
St John. Its first founders (1119) were some
French gentlemen; the chief of whom were Hugo
de Payens, and Geoffrey de St Omer. Having
made a declaration of their vows before the Patri-
arch of Jerusalem, they took upon themselves the
Special charge of maintaining free passage and safe
conduct for the pilgrims to the Holy Land. Bald-
win, king of Jerusalem, assigned them an apart-
ment in his palace, near the temple, whence they
202 CHAPTER V.
took the name of Knights of the Temple, and
Templars. They obtained from Pope Honorius
II. (1120) a rule, with a white habit; to which Eu-
gene III. added a red cross octagon. This order,
after accumulating vast wealth and riches, especially
in France, and distinguishing themselves by their
military exploits for nearly two centuries, were at
length suppressed by the Council of Vienna (1312).
The Teutonic order, according to the most pro-
bable opinion, took its origin in the camp before
Acre, or Ptolemais. The honour of it is ascribed
to some charitable citizens of Bremen and Lubec,
who erected a hospital or tent with the sails of
their vessels, for the relief of the numerous sick
and wounded of their nation. Several German
gentlemen having joined in this establishment,
they devoted themselves by a vow to the service
of the sick; as also to the defence of the Holy Land
against the Infidels. This order, known by the
name of the Teutonic Knights of St Mary of Je.
rusalem, received confirmation from Pope Calixtus
III. (1192), who prescribed for them the rule of
the Hospital of St John, with regard to their
attendance on the sick; and with regard to chi-
valry or knighthood, that of the order of Templars,
Henry Walpott de Passenheim was the first grand
master of the order; and the new knights assum.
ed the white habit, with a red cross, to distinguish
them from the other orders. It was under their
fourth grand master, Hermann de Saltza (1230)
that they passed into Prussia, which they conquer.
ed (1309). They fixed their chief residence at
Marienburg; but having lost Prussia in consequence
of a change in the religious sentiments of their
grand master, Albert de Brandenburg (1528),
PERIOD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 203
they transferred their capital to Mergentheim, in
Franconia.
A fourth order of Hospitallers founded in the
Holy Land, was that of St Lazarus of Jerusalem,
who had for their principal object the treatment of
lepers; * * and who, in process of time, from a me-
dical, became a military order. After having long
resided in the East, where they distinguished
themselves in the Holy wars, they followed St Louis
into France (1254), and fixed their chief seat at
Boigny, near Orleans. Pope Gregory XIII. unit-
ed them with the order of St Maurice, in Savoy; and
Henry IV. with that of Our Lady of Mount Car-
mel, in France. On the model, and after the ex-
ample of these four military orders, several others
were founded in succession, in various kingdoms
of Europe. ** All these institutions contributed
greatly to the renown of chivalry, so famous in the
Middle Ages. The origin of this latter institution
is earlier than the times of which we now speak,
and seems to belong to the tenth, or the beginning
of the eleventh century. The anarchy of feudalism
being then at its height, and robberies and private
quarrels everywhere prevailing, several noble and
distinguished individuals, devoted themselves, by a
Solemn vow, according to the genius of the times,
to the defence of religion and its ministers; as al-
80 of the fair sex, and of every person suffering
from distress or oppression. From the end of the
eleventh century, to the time when the crusades
began, we find chivalry, with its pomp and its ce-
emonies, established in all the principal states of
urope. This salutary institution, by inspiring the
"inds of men with new energy, gave birth to many
VOL. I. R
204. '- CHA pt ER. v.
illustrious characters. It tended to repress the
disorders of anarchy, to revive order and law, and
establish a new relationship among the nations of
Europe.
In general, it may be said, that these ultra-
marine expeditions, prosecuted with obstinacy for
nearly two hundred years, hastened the progress
of arts and civilization in Europe. The crusaders,
journeying through kingdoms better organized than
their own, and observing greater refinement in their
laws and manners, were necessarily led to form
new ideas, and acquire new information with re.
gard to science and politics. Some vestiges of
learning and good taste had been preserved in
Greece, and even in the extremities of Asia,
where letters had been encouraged by the patron-
age of the Caliphs. The city of Constantinople,
which had not yet suffered from the ravages of the
barbarians, abounded in the finest monuments of
art. It presented to the eyes of the crusaders,
a spectacle of grandeur and magnificence that
could not but excite their admiration, and call
forth a strong desire to imitate those models, the
sight of which at once pleased and astonished them,
To the Italians especially, it must have proved of
great advantage. The continued intercourse which
they maintained with the East and the city of
Constantinople, afforded them the means of be:
coming familiar with the language and literature of
the Greeks, of communicating the same taste tº
their own countrymen, and in this way advancing
the glorious epoch of the revival of letters.
About the same time, commerce and navigation
were making considerable progress. The cities ºf
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º
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Italy, such as Venice, Genoa, Pisa, and others, in
PERIoD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 205
assisting the Crusaders in their operations, by
means of the transports, provisions, and warlike
stores with which they furnished them, continued to
secure for themselves important privileges and
establishments in the seaports of the Levant, and
other ports in the Greek empire. Their exam-
ple excited the industry of several maritime towns
in France, and taught them the advantage of ap-
plying their attention to Eastern commerce. In
the North, the cities of Hamburgh and Lubec,
formed, about the year 1241, as is generally sup-
posed, their first commercial association, which af-
terwards became so formidable under the name of
the Hanseatic League.” The staple articles of
these latter cities, consisted in marine stores, and
other productions of the North, which they ex-
changed for the spiceries of the East, and the ma-
nafactures of Italy and the Low Countries.
The progress of industry, the protection which
Sovereigns extended to it, and the pains they took
to check the disorders of feudalism, contributed to
the prosperity of towns, by daily augmenting their
population and their wealth. This produced,
about the times we are speaking of, an advanta-
geous change in the civil and social condition of the
People. Throughout the principal states of Eu-
rope, cities began, after the twelfth century, to
erect themselves into political bodies, and to form,
by degrees, a third order, distinct from that of the
°lergy and nobility. Before this period, the inha-
bitants of towns enjoyed neither civil nor political
liberty. Their condition was very little better
than that of the peasantry, who were all serfs, at-
*ched to the soil. The rights of citizenship, and
the privileges derived from it, were reserved for
206 CHAPTER V.
the clergy and the noblesse. The Counts, or go-
vernors of cities, by rendering their power heredi-
tary, had appropriated to themselves the rights
that were originally attached to their functions.
They used them in the most arbitrary way, and
loaded the inhabitants with every kind of oppression
that avarice or caprice could suggest.
At length, the cities which were either the most
oppressed, or the most powerful, rose in rebellion
against this intolerable yoke. The inhabitants form-
ed themselves into confederations, to which they gave
the name of Communes or Free Corporations. Either
of their own accord, or by charters, obtained very of
ten on burdensome terms, they procured for them-
selves a free government, which, by relieving them
from servitude, and all impositions and arbitrary ex-
actions, secured them personal liberty and the pos-
session of their effects, under the protection of
their own magistrates, and the institution of a mi-
litia, or city guard. This revolution, one of the
most important in Europe, first took place in Italy,
where it was occasioned by the frequent interreg-
nums that occurred in Germany, as well as by the
disturbances that rose between the Empire and the
priesthood, in the eleventh century. The anathe-
mas thundered against Henry IV., by absolving
the subjects from the obedience they owed their
sovereign, served as a pretext to the cities of Italy
for shaking off the authority of the Imperial viceroys,
or bailiffs, who had become tyrants instead of rulers,
and for establishing free and republican governments.
In this, they were encouraged and supported by
the protection of the Roman pontiffs, whose solº
aim and policy was the abasement of the Imperial
authority. - #
PERIoD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 207
Before this period, several maritime cities of
Italy, such as Naples, Amalfi, Venice, Pisa, and
Genoa, emboldened by the advantages of their si-
tuation, by the increase of their population and
their commerce, had already emancipated them-
selves from the Imperial yoke, and erected them-
selves into republics. Their example was follow-
ed by the cities of Lombardy and the Venetian
territory, especially Milan, Pavia, Asti, Cremona,
Lodi, Como, Parma, Placentia, Verona, Padua,
&c. All these cities, animated with the enthusi-
asm of liberty, adopted, about the beginning of the
twelfth century, consuls and popular forms of go-
vernment. They formed a kind of military force,
or city guard, and vested in themselves the rights
of royalty, and the power of making, in their own
name and authority, alliances, wars, and treaties of
peace. From Italy, this revolution extended to
France and Germany, the Low Countries, and Eng-
land. In all these different states, the use of Com-
munes, or boroughs, was established, and pro-
tected by the sovereigns, who employed these new
institutions as a powerful check against the en-
croachments and tyranny of the feudal lords.
In France, Louis the Fat, who began his reign
in 1108, was the first king that granted rights, or
constitutional charters, to certain cities within his
domain, either from political motives, or the allure-
ment of money. The nobility, after his example,
eagerly sold liberty to their subjects. The revo-
lution became general; the cry for liberty was raised
everywhere, and interested every mind. Through-
out all the provinces, the inhabitants of cities soli-
cited charters, and sometimes without waiting for
208 - CHAPTER V.
them, they formed themselves voluntarily into
communities, electing magistrates of their own
choice, establishing companies of militia, and taking
charge themselves of the fortifications and warden-
ship of their cities. The magistrates of free cities
in northern France, were usually called mayors, she-
riffs, and liverymen; while, in the south of France,
they were called syndics and consuls. It soon
became an established principle, that kings alone
had the power to authorize the erection of corporate
towns. Louis VIII. declared that he regarded
all cities in which these corporations were esta-
blished, as belonging to his domain. They owed
military service directly and personally to the king;
while such cities as had not these rights or char.
ters, were obliged to follow their chiefs to the
War.
In Germany, we find the emperors adopting the
same policy as the kings of France. The resources
which the progress of commerce and manufactures
opened up to the industry of the inhabitants of
cities, and the important succours which the em-
perors, Henry IV. and V., had received from them
in their quarrels with the Pope and the princes of
the Empire, induced them to take these cities under
their protection, to augment their number, and
multiply their privileges. Henry V. was the first
emperor that adopted this line of policy. He
granted freedom to the inhabitants of several cities,
even to artisans and tradesmen; whose condition,
at that time, was as degraded and debased as that
of serfs. He extended to them the rank and pri-
vileges of citizens, and thus gave rise to the divi-
sion of cities into classes and corporations of trades.
This same prince set about repairing the fault
PERIOD IV. A. D. 1074–1300. ' 209
which the emperors of the house of Saxony had
committed, of giving up to the bishops the temporal
jurisdiction in all the cities wherein they resided.
He gradually superseded these rights, by the new
privileges which he granted to the inhabitants of
cities. The emperors, his successors, followed
his example; in a little time, several of these ci-
ties threw off the yoke of their bishops, while
others extricated themselves from the jurisdiction
of their superiors, or provosts, whether imperial or
feudal, and adopted, in imitation of the cities in
Italy and France, magistrates of their own choos-
ing, a republican form of government, and a muni-
cipal polity.
This liberty in cities, gave new vigour to industry,
multiplied the sources of labour, and created means
of opulence and power, till then unknown in Europe.
The population of these cities increased with their
Wealth. Communities rose into political conse-
quence; and we find them successively admitted to
the diets and national assemblies, in all the principal
states of Europe. England set an example of this;
and though English authors are not agreed as to
the precise time when the Commons of that king-
dom were called into Parliament, it is at least cer-
tain that their first admission belongs to the reign
of Henry III. (about 1265 or 1266), and that the
formal division of the Parliament into two houses,
is as late as the reign of Edward III.” France
followed the example of England; the convoca-
tion of the states, by Philip the Fair (1303), on
the subject of his disputes with Pope Boniface
III., is considered as the first assembly of the
States-general, composed of the three orders of
210 CHAPTER V,
the kingdom. As to Germany, the first diet in
which the cities of the Empire appeared in the form
of a third order, was that of Spire (1309), con-
voked by the Emperor Henry VII., of the house
of Luxembourg. Afterwards, we find these cities
exercising a decisive or deliberative voice at the
diet of Frankfort (1344), under Louis the Bava-
TIails
In all these states, we find the sovereigns pro-
tecting more especially those free cities which
aided them in checking the devastations, and put-
ting a stop to the fury of private or intestine wars,
The most powerful of the feudal chiefs, finding
everywhere cities in a capacity to defend them-
selves, became less enterprising in their ambition;
and even the nobles of inferior rank learned to re-
spect the power of these communities. The royal
authority was thereby strengthened; and the cities,
naturally inclining to the sovereigns that protected
them, served as a counterpoise in the general as-
semblies, to the power of the clergy and the no-
blesse, and were the means of obtaining those sub-
sidiary supplies necessary for the exigencies of the
State.
The liberty which the inhabitants of cities had
thus procured by the establishment of these commu-
nities, or corporate bodies, extended itself to the in-
habitants of the country, by way of enfranchise-
ments. Various circumstances concurred to ren-
der the use of these more frequent, after the twelfth
century. The sovereigns, guided by the maxims
of sound policy, set the first example of this with-
in their own demesnes; and they were speedily
imitated by the feudal lords and nobles, who,
either out of courtesy to their sovereigns, or to
PERIOD 1 v. A. D. 1074–1300. 211
prevent the desertion of their vassals, or acquire
new dependents, were compelled to grant liberty
to the one, and mitigate the servitude of the other.
The communities, or chartered cities, likewise
seconded and promoted these enfranchisements, by
the protection which they granted to the serfs
against their feudal superiors.
In Italy, we perceive these enfranchisements
following as an immediate consequence of the in-
stitution of communities. The continual feuds
that arose among the numerous republics which
had lately thrown off the yoke of authority, made
the liberty of the serfs a measure absolutely me-
cessary, in order to augment the number of cities
qualified to bear arms, and hold places of trust.
Bonacurso, Captain of Bologna (1256), proposed
to his fellow-citizens, and carried the law of en-
franchisement. All those who had serfs were ob-
liged to present them before the Podesta, or Cap-
tain of the people, who affranchised them for a
certain sum or tax, which the republic payed to
the owner. The feudal superiors, finding that
these enfranchisements had a powerful support in
the liberty of the free cities, were obliged either
to meliorate the condition of their serfs, or grant
them liberty.
In France, after the twelfth century, and the
reign of Louis the Fat, these enfranchisements be-
gan to be frequent. The son and successor of that
prince, Louis VII., by royal letter (1180), affran-
chised all the serfs which the crown possessed at
Orleans, and within five leagues of it. Louis X.
Passed a general law (1315), for the enfranchise-
ment of all serfs belonging to the crown. He
there made a positive declaration, that slavery was
212 CHAPTER V.
contrary to nature, which intended that all men by
birth should be free and equal; that, since his
kingdom was denominated the kingdom of the
Franks, or Freemen, it appeared just and right
that the fact should correspond with the name.
He invited, at the same time, all the nobility to
imitate his example, by granting liberty to their
serfs. That prince would have ennobled the ho-
mage he paid to nature, if the gift of liberty had
been gratuitous on his part ; but he made it a mere
object of finance, and to gratify those only who could
afford to pay for it; whence it happened, that en-
franchisements advanced but very slowly; and ex-
amples of it are to be found in history, so late as
the reign of Francis I.
In Germany, the number of serfs diminished in
like manner, after the twelfth century. The cru-
sades, and the destructive wars which the Dukes
of Saxony and the Margraves of the North car.
ried on with the Slavian tribes on the Elbe and
the Baltic, having depopulated the northern and
eastern parts of Germany, numerous colonies from
Brabant, the Netherlands, Holland and Friesland,
were introduced into these countries, where they
formed themselves into establishments or associa-
tions of free cultivators of the soil. From Lower
Germany the custom of enfranchisements extend.
ed to the Upper provinces, and along the banks of
the Rhine. This was encouraged by the free
cities, which not only gave a welcome reception
to the serfs who had fled to shelter themselves
from oppression within their walls, but they even
granted protection, and the rights of citizenship,
to those who had settled within the precincts or
liberties of the town; * or who continued, without
PERIOD 1 v. A. D. 1074–1300. 213
changing their habitation, to reside on the lands
of their feudal superiors. This spirited conduct
of the free cities put the nobles of Germany to the
necessity of aiding and abetting, by degrees, either
the suppression or the mitigation of slavery. They
reimbursed themselves for the loss of the fine or
tax which they had been in the habit of levying,
on the death of their serfs, by an augmentation of
the quit-rent, or annual cess which they exacted
from them on their being affranchised.
In the Low Countries, Henry II., duke of Bra-
bant (1218), in his last will, granted liberty to all
cultivators of the soil;-he affranchised them on
the right of mortmain, and ordained, that, like
the inhabitants of free cities, they should be jud-
ged by no other than their own magistrates. In
this manner, liberty by degrees recovered its pro-
per rights. It assisted in dispelling the clouds of
ignorance and superstition, and spread a new lustre
over Europe. One event which contributed es-
sentially to give men more exact notions on go-
vernment and jurisprudence, was the revival of the
Roman law, which happened about the time we
now speak of. The German tribes that destroyed
the Western Empire in the fifth century, would
naturally despise a system of legislation, such as
that of the Romans, which neither accorded with
the ferocity of their manners, nor the rudeness of
their ideas. In consequence, the revolution which
occasioned the downfal of that empire, brought at
the same time the Roman jurisprudence into de-
Suetude over all the Western world. * *
A lapse of several centuries, however, was re-
quired, to rectify men's ideas on the nature of so-
“iety, and to prepare them for receiving the laws
214 CHA PTER V.
and institutions of a civilized and refined govern-
ment. Such was the general state and condition
of political knowledge, when the fame of a cele-
brated civilian, called Irnerius, who taught the law
of Justinian publicly at Bologna, about the com-
mencement of the twelfth century, attracted to
that academy the youth of the greater part of Eu-
rope. There they devoted themselves with ardour
to the study of this new science. The pupils, in-
structed by Irnerius and his successors, on return-
ing home, and being employed in the tribunals and
public offices of their native country, gradually
carried into practice the principles which they had
imbibed in the school of Bologna. Hence, in a
short time, and without the direct interference of
the legislative authority, the law of Justinian was
adopted by degrees, as a subsidiary law in all the
principal states of Europe. Various circumstances
contributed to accelerate the progress of this revo-
lution. People had felt for a long time the neces-
sity of a new legislature, and the insufficiency of
their national laws. The novelty of the Roman
laws, as well as their equity and precision, arrest-
ed the attention of all Europe; and sovereigns
found it their interest to protect a jurisprudence,
whose maxims were so favourable to royalty and
monarchical power, and which served at once to
strengthen and extend their authority.
The introduction of the Roman jurisprudence
was soon followed by that of the Canon law. The
Popes, perceiving the rapid propagation of this new
science, and eager to arrest its progress, immedi-
ately set themselves to the work of raising that
vast and astonishing edifice the Canon law, as an
engine to promote the accomplishment of their
PERIOD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. ! 5
own greatness. Gratian, a monk of Bologna, en-
couraged by Pope Eugenius III., compiled a col-
lection of Canons, under the title of the Decret,
which he arranged in systematic order, to serve as
an introduction to the study of that law. This
compilation, extracted from different authors who
had preceded him, recommended itself to the
world by its popular method, which was adapted
to the genius of the times. Pope Eugenius III.
gave it his approval in 1152, and ordained that it
should be read and explained in the schools. This
collection of Gratian soon obtained a wide and
most successful reception ; from the schools it
passed to the public tribunals, both civil and eccle-
siastical. At length, Pope Gregory IX., in imita-
tion of the Emperor Justinian, who had caused a
collection of his own statutes, and those of his prede-
cessors, to be made by Tribonian, ordered his chap-
lain Raymond de Pennafort to compile and digest,
in their proper order, all the decisions of his pre-
decessors, as well as his own ; thus extending to
Common practice, what had been originally esta-
blished but for one place, and for particular cases.
He published his collection (1235) under the name
of Decretals, with an injunction, that it should be
employed both in the tribunals and in the schools.
If this new system of jurisprudence served to
extend the jurisdiction, and strengthen the tempo-
ral power of the Popes, it did not fail at the same
time to produce salutary effects on the governments
*nd manners of Europe. The peace, or truce of
God, which some bishops of France, in the ele-
Yenth century, had instituted as a check on the un-
bridled fury of private quarrels and civil discord,
was established, by the Decretals, into a general
VOL. I. S -
216 CHAPTER V.
law of the church.” The judgments of God, till
then used in the tribunals of justice, trial by single
combat, by hot iron, hot and cold water, the cross,
&c. were gradually abolished. The restraints
of the Canon law, added to the new information
which had diffused its light over the human mind,
were instrumental in rooting out practices which
served only to cherish and protract the ancient fe-
rocity of manners. The spirit of order and me.
thod which prevailed in the new jurisprudence,
soon communicated itself to every branch of legis-
lation among the nations of Europe. The feudal
law was reduced to systematic order; and the u.
sages and customs of the provinces, till then local
and uncertain, were collected and organized into a
regular form. ” -
Jurisprudence, having now become a complica.
ted science, demanded a long and laborious course
of study, which could no longer be associated with
the profession of arms. The sword was then ob.
liged by degrees to abandon the courts of justice,
and give place to the gown. A new class of men
thus arose, that of the law, who contributed by
their influence to repress the overgrown power of
the nobility.
The rapid progress which the new jurisprudence
made, must be ascribed to the recent foundation
of universities, and the encouragements which so-
vereigns granted these literary corporations. Be:
fore their establishment, the principal public schools
were those which were attached either to monas'
teries, or cathedral and collegiate churches. There
were, however, only a few colleges instituted; and
these in large cities, such as Rome, Paris, Angers,
Oxford, Salamanca.&c. The sciences there taught
were comprised under the seven liberal arts, viz.
PERIOD I v. A. D. 1074–1300. 217
Grammar, Rhetoric, Dialectics or Logic, Arithmetic,
Geometry, Music, and Astronomy. The first three
were known by the name of Trivium ; and the o-
ther four, which make part of mathematics, by that
of Quadrivium. As for Theology and Jurispru-
dence, they did not as yet figure among the aca-
demic sciences; and there was no school of medi-
cine prior to that of Salerno—the only one of
which any traces are discovered, towards the end
of the eleventh century.
These schools and academies cannot, by any
means, be put in comparison with modern univer-
sities; which differ from them essentially, both as
to the variety of sciences which are professed, and
by their institutions as privileged bodies, enjoying
a system of government and jurisdiction peculiarly
their own. The origin of these Universities is co-
eval with the revival of the Roman law in Italy,
and the invention of academic degrees. The same
Irnerius who is generally acknowledged as the
restorer of the Roman law at Bologna, was also
the first that conceived the idea of conferring, with
certain solemnities, doctorial degrees; and granting
license or diplomas to those who excelled in the
study of jurisprudence. Pope Eugenius III.
(1153), when he introduced the Code of Gratian
into the academy of Bologna, gave permission to
Confer the same degrees in the Canon law, as had
been customary in the Civil law. These degrees
Were much coveted and esteemed on account of
the honours, immunities, and prerogatives which
the sovereign had attached to them. Nothing
owever contributed more to bring universities
into favour, than the privileges and immunities
which the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa conferred
218 CHAPTER V.
on them (1158), by his Authentic, (or rescript,
called Habita). The example of this prince
was speedily followed by the other sovereigns of
Europe.
The teaching of jurisprudence passed from the
school of Bologna to the different accademies of
Europe. Theology also was soon admitted, as
well as medicine ; and these completed the four fa-
culties, as they were called, of which the universities
were composed. That of Paris was the first which
combined all the faculties. It was completed un-
der the reign of Philip Augustus, from whom it
obtained its earliest charter, about the year 1200.
Except itself there are only the universities of
Bologna, Padua, Naples, Toulouse, Salamanca,
Coimbra, Cambridge, and Oxford, that date their
origin in the thirteenth century.**
The downfal of the Imperial authority, and of the
house of Hohenstaufen, and the new power usurped
by the princes and States of the Empire, occasion.
ed a long series of troubles in Germany, and that
frightful state of anarchy, known by the name of
the Grand Interregnum. Strength then triumphed
over law and right; the government was altered
from its basis; and no other means were found to
remedy this want of public security, than by form:
ing alliancies and confederations, such as that of
the Rhine, ** and the Hanseatic League, which
began to appear about this time (1253). The
election of the Emperors, in which all the princes
and states of the empire had formerly concurred,
became then the privilege solely of the great of
ficers of the crown, who, towards the middle of
the thirteenth century, claimed for themselves ex:
clusively the right of electing, and the title ºf
PERIoD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 219.
Electors.” The princes and states of the Empire,
anxious to confirm their growing power, sought
to promote only the feeblest emperors, who were
incapable of supporting the rights and preroga-
tives of the crown. The electors, in particular,
had no other object in view, than to derive a lu-
crative traffic from elections; bargaining every
time with the candidates for large sums, and ob-
taining grants or mortgages of such portions of the
Imperial demesnes as suited their convenience.
One only of these weak emperors, Rodolph, Count
of Hapsburg in Switzerland, (1273) disappointed
the expectations of his electors. He repressed by
force of arms, the disorders of anarchy, restored
the laws and tribunals to their pristine vigour,
and reconquered several of the Imperial domains
from the usurpers who had seized them.
In consequence of the revolutions which we
have now detailed, we find very important and
memorable changes accomplished in the different
provinces of the Empire. The princes and States
of the Germanic body, regarding as their own pa-
trimony the provinces and fiefs with which they
were invested, thought themselves further autho-
rized to portion them out among their sons. The
usage of these partitions became general after the
thirteenth century; and this wrought the downfal
of some of the most powerful families, and tended
to multiply almost to infinity the duchies, prin-
cipalities, and earldoms of the Empire. The Em-
perors, far from condemning this practice, which
by no means accorded with the maxims of the
feudal law, on the contrary gave it their counte-
nance, as appearing to them a proper instrument
• s 2 -
220 w CHAPTER V.
for humbling the power of the grandees, and ac-
quiring for themselves a preponderating authority
in the Empire.
The ancient duchies of Bavaria and Saxony ex-
perienced a new revolution on the fall of the
powerful house of the Guelphs, which was de-
prived of both these duchies by the sentence of
proscription which the Emperor Frederic I. pro-
nounced against Henry the Lion (1180), Duke
of Bavaria and Saxony. The first of these duchies,
which had formerly been dismembered from the
Margravate of Austria by Frederic I. (1156), and
erected into a duchy and fief holding immediately
of the Empire, was exposed to new partitions at
the time of which we now speak. The bishop-
rics of Bavaria, Stiria, Carinthia, Carniola, and
the Tyrol, broke their alliance with Bavaria; and
the city of Ratisbonne, which had been the resi-
dence of the ancient dukes, was declared immedi-
ate, or holding of the crown. It was when
contracted within these new limits that Bavaria
was conferred, by Frederic I. (1180), on Otho,
Count of Wittelsbach, a scion of the original house
of Bavaria. This house afterwards acquired by
marriage (1215) the Palatinate of the Rhine. It
was subsequently divided into various branches, of
which the two principal were the Palatine and
the Bavarian.
As to the duchy of Saxony, which embraced,
under the Guelphs, the greater part of Lower
Germany, it completely changed its circumstances
on the decline of that house. Bernard of Aschers-
leben, younger son of Albert named the Bear, first
Margrave of Brandenburg, a descendant of the
Ascanian line, had been invested in the duchy of
Saxony by Frederic I. (1180), but was found
PERIOD 1 v. A. D. 1074–1300. 221
much too feeble to support the high rank to which
he had been elevated. In consequence, the title,
or qualification to the duchy of Saxony and the
Electorate, was restricted, under the successors and
descendants of that prince, to an inconsiderable
district, situated on both sides of the Elbe ; called
since the Electoral Circle, of which Wittenberg
was the capital. The princes of Pomerania and
Mecklenburg, the Counts of Holstein and West-
phalia, and the city of Lubeck, took advantage of
this circumstance to revolt from the authority of
the Duke of Saxony, and render themselves im-
mediate. A part of Westphalia was erected into
a distinct duchy, in favour of the Archbishop of
Cologne, who had seconded the Emperor in his
schemes of vengeance against the Guelphic princes.
This latter house, whose vast possessions had ex-
tended from the Adriatic Sea to the Baltic and
the Northern Ocean, retained nothing more of its
ancient splendour than the free lands which it pos-
sessed in Lower Saxony, and which the Emperor
Frederic II. (1235) converted into a duchy, and
immediate fief of the empire, in favour of Otho
the Infant, grandson of Henry the Lion, and the
new founder of the House of Brunswick.
The extinction of the House of Hohenstaufen
having occasioned a vacancy in the duchies of
Suabia and Franconia, the different states of these
provinces, both secular and ecclesiastical, found
means to render themselves also immediate, (1268.)
A number of cities which had belonged to the do-
mains of the ancient dukes, were raised to the
tank of free and imperial cities; and the Houses of
Baden, Wurtemberg, Hohen-Zollern, and Fursten-
berg, date their celebrity from this period. The
222 CHAPTER V.
death of the anti-emperor, Henry le Raspon (1247),
last landgrave of Thuringia, gave rise to a long
war between the Margraves of Misnia and the
Dukes of Brabant, who mutually contested that
succession. The former advanced an Expectative,
or deed of Reversion of the Emperor Frederic II,
as well as the claims of Jutta, sister of the last land-
grave; and the others maintained those of Sophia,
daughter of the landgrave Louis, elder brother
and predecessor of Henry le Raspon. At length,
by a partition which took place (1264), Thuringia,
properly so called, was made over to the House of
Misnia; and Henry of Brabant, surnamed the In-
fant, son of Henry II. Duke of Brabant, and So-
phia of Thuringia, was secured in the possession of
Hesse, and became the founder of a new dynasty
of landgraves—those of the House of Hesse.
The ancient dukes of Austria, of the House of
Bamberg, having become extinct with Frederic the
Valiant (1246), the succession of that duchy was
keenly contested between the niece and the sisters
of the last duke; who, though females, could lay
claim to it, in virtue of the privilege granted by
the emperor Frederic Barbarossa. Ottocar II,
son of Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, took advan-
tage of these troubles in Austria, to possess him.
self of that province (1251). He obtained the
investiture of it (1262) from Richard, son of John
king of England, who had purchased the title of
Emperor at a vast expense; but Rodolph of Haps-
bourg, treating him as a usurper, made war upon
him, defeated and slew him in a battle which was
fought (1278) at Marchfeld, in the neighbourhood
of Vienna. The duchies of Austria, Stiria, Ca-
rinthia, and Carniola, being then detached from
PERIOD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 223
the kingdom of Bohemia, were declared vacant,
and devolved to the Empire. The investiture of
these the Emperor conferred (1282) on Albert
and Rodolph, his own sons. Albert, the eldest of
these princes, who was afterwards Emperor, be-
came the founder of the Hapsbourg dynasty of
Austria.
In Italy, a great number of republics arose about
the end of the eleventh, or beginning of the twelfth
century. These republics, though they had cast
off the Imperial authority, and claimed to them-
selves the rights of sovereignty, protested, never-
theless, their fealty to the Emperor, whom they
agreed to recognise as their supreme head. The
Emperors, Henry V., Lotharie the Saxon, and Con-
rad III., saw themselves compelled to tolerate an
usurpation which they were too feeble to repress.
But Frederic Barbarossa being determined to re-
store the royalty of Italy to its ancient splendour,
led a powerful army into that kingdom (1158);
and in a diet which he assembled on the plains of
Roncaglia, in the territory of Placentia, he caused
a strict investigation to be made by the lawyers of
Bologna, into the rights on which he founded his
pretensions to the title of King of Italy. The op-
position which the execution of the decrees of that
diet met with on the part of the Milanese, induc-
ed the Emperor to undertake the siege of their
city. He made himself master of it in 1162, raz-
edit to the foundation, and dispersed the inhabi-
tants. w
This chastisement of the Milanese astonished
the Italians, but without abating their courage.
They afterwards took advantage of the reverses of
the Emperor, and the schism which had arisen in
224 CHAPTER W.
the Romish Church, to form a league with the
principal cities of Lombardy (1167), into which
they drew the King of the Two Sicilies, as well as
Pope Alexander III., whom the Emperor treated
as a schismatic. The city of Milan was rebuilt in
consequence of this league; as also that of Alex-
andria, called della Paglia. The war was long
protracted; but the Emperor being abandoned by
Henry the Lion, Duke of Bavaria and Saxony,
the most powerful of his vassals, received a defeat
at Lignano, which obliged him to make an accom-
modation with Pope Alexander III., and to sign,
at Venice, a treaty of six years with the confede-
rate cities (1177). This treaty was afterwards
converted, at Constance, into a definitive peace
(1.183); by virtue of which, the cities of Italy
were guaranteed in the forms of government they had
adopted, as well as in the exercise of the regalian
rights which they had acquired, whether by usage
or prescription. The Emperor reserved for him-
self the investiture of the consuls, the oath of alle-
giance, which was to be renewed every ten years,
and all appeals, in civil cases, where the sum ex-
ceeded the value of twenty-five imperial livres,
(about 1500 francs).
The Emperor Frederic II., grandson of Frederic
I., and heir, in right of his mother, to the kingdom
of the Two Sicilies, made new efforts to restore
the prerogatives of the Empire in Italy. But the
cities of Lombardy renewed their league, into
which they drew Pope Gregory IX. (1226), whose
dignity and power would be endangered if the
Emperor, being possessor of the Two Sicilies,
should succeed in conquering the cities of Lom-
bardy. The war which ensued (1236), was long
PERIoD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 225
and bloody. The Popes Gregory IX. and Innocent
IV., went so far as to preach up a crusade against
the Emperor, as if he had been an infidel; while
that unfortunate prince, after the most courageous
and indefatigable efforts, had the mortification to
See his troops once more discomfited by the forces
of the League.
The cities of Italy were no sooner delivered
from the terror of the Emperors, than they let loose
their fury against each other; impelled by the rage
of conquest, and torn by the internal factions of
the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, as well as by the
contests which had arisen between the noblesse
and the free cities. The partisans of the nobles in
these cities, were strengthened by the very mea-
sures which had been taken to humble them. The
chartered towns by destroying that multitude of
seignories, earldoms, and marquisates with which
Lombardy swarmed before the twelfth century, and
by incorporating them with their own territories,
obliged the deserted nobles and grandees to seek an
establishment within their walls. These latter, find:
ing their partisans united and powerful, soon at-
tempted to seize the government; and hence arose
an interminable source of civil discord, which end-
ed with the loss of liberty in the greater part of
these communities. -
To arrest these evils, and put a check to the
ambition of the powerful citizens, they adopted
the plan of intrusting the government to a single
magistrate, to be called the Podesta, who should
be chosen in the neighbouring cities. This scheme
was but a palliative rather than a remedy; and in
order to guarantee themselves from the oppression
of the nobles, the corporations of several cities
226 CHAPTER V.
gradually adopted the plan of conferring a sort of
dictatorship on one of the powerful citizens, or on
some prince or nobleman, even though he were a
stranger, under the title of Captain ; hoping, in
this way, to succeed in reestablishing peace and
order. These chiefs or captains contrived, in pro-
cess of time, to render absolute and perpetual, an
authority which at first was temporary, and only
granted on certain conditions. Hence the origin
of several new independent sovereignties which
were formed in Italy during the course of the
fourteenth century.
Venice and Genoa at that time eclipsed all the
republics of Italy, by the flourishing state of their
navigation and commerce. The origin of the former
of these cities is generally dated as far back as the
invasion of the Huns under Attila (452.) The
cruelty of these barbarians having spread terror
and flight over the whole country, many of the
inhabitants of ancient Venetia, took refuge in the
isles and lagoons on the borders of the Adriatic
Gulf; and there laid the foundation of the city of
Venice, which, whether we regard the singularity
of its construction, or the splendour to which it
rose, deserves to be numbered among the wonders
of the world. At first its government was popu-
lar, and administered by a bench of tribunes whose
power was annual. The divisions which arose among
these yearly administrators, occasioned the elec-
tion of a chief (697), who took the title of Duke
or Doge. This dignity was for life, and depend-
ed on the suffrages, of the community; but he ex-
ercised nevertheless the rights of sovereignty, and
it was not till after a long course of time that his
authority was gradually abridged; and the go-
PERIoD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 227
vernment, which had been monarchical, became
again democratical. -
Venice, which from its birth was a commercial
city, enjoyed in the middle ages nearly the same
renown which Tyre had among the trading cities
of antiquity. The commencement of its grandeur
may be dated from the end of the tenth century,
and under the magistracy of the Doge Peter Ur-
seolo II., whom the Venetians regard as the true
founder of their state (992). From the Greek
emperors he obtained for them an entire liberty
and immunity of commerce, in all the ports of that
empire; and he procured them at the same time
several very important advantages, by the treaties
which he concluded with the emperor Otho III.
and with the Caliphs of Egypt. The vast in-
crease of their commerce, inspired these republi-
cans with a desire to extend the contracted bounds
of their territory. One of their first conquests
was the maritime cities of Istria, as well as those
of Dalmatia; both of which occurred under the
magistracy of Peter Urseolo II., and in the year 997.
They were obliged to make a surrender of the
cities of Dalmatia, by the emperors of the East,
who regarded these cities as dependencies of their
empire; while the kings of Croatia and Dalmatia
also laid claim to them. Croatia having passed
into the hands of the Kings of Hungary, about the
end of the eleventh century, these same cities be-
“ume a perpetual source of troubles and wars be-
tween the Kings of Hungary and the Republic of
Venice; and it was not till the fifteenth century
that the Republic found means to confirm its au-
thority in Dalmatia.
VOL. I. ... T 7
228 CHAPTER V.
The Venetians having become parties in the fa.
mous League of Lombardy, in the eleventh cen-
tury, contributed by their efforts, to render abor-
tive the vast projects of the Emperor Frederic I,
Pope Alexander III., as a testimony of his grati-
tude, granted them the sovereignty of the Hadri-
atic (1177), ** and this circumstance gave rise to
the singular ceremony of annually marrying this
sea to the Doge of Venice. The aggrandisement
of this republic was greatly accelerated by the
crusades, especially the fourth (1204), which was
followed by the dismemberment of the Greek em.
pire. The Venetians, who had joined this cru-
sade, obtained for their portion several cities and
ports in Dalmatia, Albania, Greece and the Mo-
rea; as also the Islands of Corfu, Cephalonia, and
Candia or Crete. At length, towards the end of
the thirteenth century, this republic assumed the
peculiar form of government which it retained
till the day of its destruction. In the earlier ages
its constitution was democratic, and the power of
the Doge limited by a grand council, which was
chosen annually from among the different classes
of the citizens, by electors named by the people.
As these forms gave occasion to troubles and in-
testine commotions, the Doge Pietro Gradenigo, to
remove all cause of discontent in future, passed a
law (1298), which abrogated the custom of an-
nual elections, and fixed irrevocably in their office
all those who then sat in the grand council, and
this to descend to their posterity for ever. The
hereditary aristocracy thus introduced at Venice,
did not fail to excite the discontent of those whose
families this new law had excluded from the go-
vernment; and it was this which afterwards occa-
PERIOD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 229
sioned various insurrections, of which that of Tie-
polo (1310) is the most remarkable. The partisans
of the ancient government, and those of the new,
attempted to decide the matter by a battle in the
city of Venice. Tiepolo and his party were de-
feated, and Querini, one of the chiefs, was killed
in the action. A commission of ten members was
nominated to inform against the accomplices of
this secret conspiracy. This commission, which
was meant to be but temporary, was afterwards
declared perpetual; and, under the name of the
Council of Ten, became one of the most formida-
ble supports of the aristocracy.
The city of Genoa, like that of Venice, owed
her prosperity to the progress of her commerce,
which she extended to the Levant, Constantino-
ple, Syria, and Egypt. Governed at first by Con-
suls, like the rest of the Italian states, she after-
wards (1190) chose a foreign Podesta or gover-
nor, to repress the violence of faction, and put a
check on the ambition of the nobles. This go-
Vernor was afterwards made subordinate to a Cap-
tain of the people, whom the Genoese chose for
the first time in 1257, without being able yet to
fix their government, which experienced frequent
Variations before assuming a settled and permanent
form. These internal divisions of the Genoese
did not impede the progress of their commerce
and their marine. The crusades of the 12th and
13th centuries, the powerful succours which these
epublicans gave to the crusaders, and to the
Greeks, as well as the treaties which they con-
cluded with the Moorish and African princes, pro-
°ured them considerable establishments in the Le-
Want, and also in Asia and Africa. Caffa, a fa-
230 - CHAPTE R. V.
mous sea-port on the Black Sea, and the port of
Azoph, the ancient Tanais, at the mouth of the
Don, belonged to them ; and served as entrepôts
for their commerce with China and the Indies.
Smyrna in Asia Minor, as also the suburbs of Pera
and Galata at Constantinople, and the isles of
Scio, Metelin and Tenedos, in the Archipelago,
were ceded to them by the Greek emperors. The
kings of Cyprus were their tributaries. The Greek
and German emperors, the kings of Sicily, Cas-
tille and Arragon, and the Sultans of Egypt, Zea-
lously sought their alliance, and the protection of
their marine. Encouraged by these successes,
they formed a considerable territory on the continent
of Italy, after the 12th century, of which nothing
but a fragment now remains to them.
Genoa had at that time, in its immediate neigh-
bourhood, a dangerous rival of its power and
greatness. This rival was Pisa, a flourishing re-
public on the coast of Tuscany, which owed its
prosperity entirely to the increase of its commerce
and marine. The proximity of these two states—
the similarity of their views and their interests—
the desire of conquest—and the command of the
sea, which both of them affected, created a marked
jealousy between them, and made them the na-
tural and implacable enemies of each other. One
of the principal subjects of dispute was the pos-
session of Corsica and Sardinia, * which the two
republics contested at the point of the sword, af.
ter having, by means of their combined force, ex-
pelled the Moors, toward the middle of the
eleventh century. Pisa, originally superior to
Genoa in maritime strength, disputed with her the
empire of the Mediterranean, and haughtily for-
PERIod Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 23#
bade the Genoese to appear within those seas with
their ships of war. This rivalry nourished the
animosity of the two republics, and rendered it
implacable. Hence a continual source of mutual
hostilities, which were renewed incessantly for the
space of 200 years, and only terminated in 1290;
when, by the conquest of Elba, and the destruc-
tion of the ports of Pisa and Leghorn, the Ge-
noese effected the ruin of the shipping and com-
merce of the Pisan republic.
Lower Italy, possessed by the Norman princes,
under the title of Duchy and Comté, became the
seat of a new kingdom in the eleventh century—
that of the Two Sicilies. On the extinction of the
Dukes of Apulia and Calabria, descendants of Ro-
bert Guiscard, Roger, son of Roger, Count of Si-
cily, and sovereign of that island, united the domi-
nions of the two branches of the Norman dynasty
(1127); and, being desirous of procuring for himself
the royal dignity, he attached to his interest the
Anti-pope Anacletus II., who invested him with
royalty by a bull (1130), in which, however, he
took care to reserve the territorial right and an
annual tribute to the Church of Rome. This
prince received the crown of Palermo from the
hands of a cardinal, whom the pope had deputed
for the express purpose. On the death of the
Emperor Lothaire, he succeeded in dispossessing
the Prince of Capua, and subduing the duchy of
Naples (1139); thus completing the conquest of
all that is now denominated the kingdom of Na-
Ples. William II, grandson of Roger, was the
Principal support of Pope Alexander III. ; and of
the famous i.eague of Lombardy formed against the
T 2 - -
332 CHAPTE R. V.
Emperor Frederic Barbarossa. The male line of
the Norman princes having become extinct in
William II., the kingdom of the Two Sicilies
passed (1189) to the House of Hohenstaufen, by
the marriage which the Emperor Henry IV.,
son of Frederic Barbarossa, contracted with the
Princess Constance, aunt and heretrix of the last
king. Henry maintained the rights of his wife
against the usurper Tancred, and transmitted this
kingdom to his son Frederic II., who acquired by
his marriage with Jolande, daughter of John de
Brienne, titular King of Jerusalem, the titles and
arms of this latter kingdom. The efforts which
Frederic made to annihilate the League of Lom-
bardy, and confirm his own authority in Italy,
drew down upon him the persecution of the court
of Rome, who, taking advantage of the minority
of the young Conradin, grandson of Frederic II,
wrested the crown of the two Sicilies from this
rival house, which alone was able to check its am.
bitious projects. Mainfroi, natural son of Fre.
deric II., disgusted with playing the part of tutor
to the young Conradin, in which capacity he at
first acted, caused himself to be proclaimed and
crowned, at Palermo, King of the Two Sicilies,
(1258). The Popes Urban IV., and Clement
IV., dreading the genius and talents of this prince,
made an offer of that kingdom to Charles of An-
jou, Count of Provence, and brother of St Louis,
Clement IV. granted the investiture of it (1265)
to him and his descendants, male and female, on
condition of his doing fealty and homage to the
Holy See, and presenting him annually with a
white riding horse, and a tribute of eight million
ounces of gold. Charles, after being crowned at
PERIoD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 233
Rome, marched against Mainfroi, with an army
chiefly composed of crusaders. He defeated that
prince, who was slain at the battle of Benevento
(1266), which was soon after followed by the re-
duction of the two kingdoms. One rival to Charles
still survived, the young Conradin, the lawful heir
to the throne of his ancestors. Charles vanquished
him also, two years afterwards, in the plains of
Tagliacozzo; and having made him prisoner, to-
gether with his young friend Frederic of Austria,
he caused both of these princes to be beheaded at
Naples (29th October 1268).
Charles did not long enjoy his new dignity.
While he was preparing to undertake a crusade
against Michael Paleologus, a schismatic prince
who had expelled the Latins from Constantino-
ple, he had the mortification to see himself dispos-
sessed of Sicily, on the occasion of the famous Si-
cilian Vespers (1282). This event, which is ge-
nerally regarded as the result of a conspiracy,
planned with great address by a gentleman of Sa-
lerno, named John de Procida, appears to have
been but the sudden effect of an insurrection, oc-
casioned by the aversion of the Sicilians to the
French yoke. During the hour of vespers, on the
second day of Easter (30th March), when the inha-
bitants of Palermo were on their way to the Church
of the Holy Ghost, situated at some distance from
the town, it happened that a Frenchman, named
Drouette, had offered a private insult to a Sicilian
woman : hence a quarrel arose, which drew on a
general insurrection at Palermo. All the French
who were in the city or the neighbourhood were
massacred, with the exception of one gentleman
from Provence, called William Porcellet, who had
234 CHAPTER V.
conciliated all hearts by his virtues. This revolt
gradually extended to the other Sicilian cities.
Every where the French were put to death on the
spot. Messina was the last that caught the infec.
tion; but there the revolution did not take place
till thirty days after the same event at Palermo,
(29th April 1282). It is therefore not true, that
this massacre of the French happened at the same
hour, and at the sound of the vesper bells, over all
parts of the island. Nor is it more probable, that
the plot had been contrived by Peter III., King of
Arragon; since the Palermitans displayed at first
the banner of the church, having resolved to surren-
der to the Pope ; but being driven from this reso-
lution, and dreading the vengeance of Charles,
they despatched deputies to the King of Arragon,
who was then cruising with a fleet off the African
coast, and made him an offer of their crown. This
prince yielded to the invitation of the Palermitans;
he landed at Trapani, and thence passed to Paler-
mo, where he was crowned King of Sicily. The
whole island submitted to him ; and Charles of
Anjou was obliged to raise the siege of Messina,
which he had undertaken. Peter entered and
took possession of the place, and from that time
Sicily remained under the power of the Kings of
Arragon ; it became the inheritance of a particular
branch of the Arragonese princes; and the House
of Anjou were reduced to the single kingdom of
Naples.
Spain, which was divided into several sovereign-
ties, both Christian and Mahometan, presented a
continual spectacle of commotion and carnage.
The Christian States of Castille and Arragon,
were gradually increased by the conquests made
PERIOD IV. A. D. 1074–1300. 235,
over the Mahometans; while the kingdom of Na-
varre, less exposed to conquest by its local situa-
tion, remained nearly in its original state of me-
diocrity. This latter kingdom passed in succes-
sion to female heirs of different houses. Blanche
of Navarre, daughter of Sancho VI., transferred it
to the Counts of Champagne (1234). On the
extinction of the male line of that house, in
Henry I. of Navarre (1274), Joan I., his daugh-
ter and heiress, conveyed that kingdom, together
with the Comtés of Champagne and Brie, to the
crown of France. Philip the Fair, husband of
that princess, and his three sons, Louis le Hutin,
Philip the Long, and Charles the Fair, were, at
the same time, kings both of France and Navarre.
Finally, it was Queen Joan II., daughter of
Louis le Hutin, and heretrix of Navarre, who
transferred that kingdom to the family of the Counts
d'Evreux, and relinquished the Comtés of Cham-
pagne and Brie to Philip of Valois, successor of
Charles the Fair to the throne of France (1336).
The family of the Counts of Barcelona ascend-
ed the throne of Arragon (1137), by the marriage
of Count Raymond. Berenguier IV. with Donna
Petronilla, daughter and heiress of Ramira II.,
King of Arragon. Don Pedro II., grandson of
Raymond-Berenguier, happening to be at Rome
(1204), was there crowned king of Arragon by
Pope Innocent III. On this occasion he did ho-
mage for his kingdom to that pontiff, and engaged,
for himself and successors, to pay an annual tri-
bute to the Holy See. Don James I, surnamed
the Conqueror, son of Don Pedro II, gained some
important victories over the Mahometans, from
whom he took the Balearic Isles (1230), and the
236 U HAPTER V.
kingdom of Valentia, *7 (1238). Don Pedro II.,
eldest son of Don James I., had dispossessed
Charles I. of Anjou and Sicily, which drew down
upon him a violent persecution on the part of Pope
Martin IV., who was on the eve of publishing a
crusade against him, and assigning over his estates
to Charles of Valois, a younger brother of Philip
called the Hardy, king of France. Don James II,
younger son of Don Pedro III., succeeded in
making his peace with the Court of Rome, and
even obtained from Pope Boniface VIII. (1297)
the investiture of the Island of Sardinia, on con-
dition of acknowledging himself the vassal and
tributary of the Holy See for that kingdom, which
he afterwards obtained by conquest from the re-
public of Pisa. -
The principal victories of the Christians over
the Mahometans in Spain, were reserved for the
kings of Castille, whose history is extremely fer-
tile in great events. Alphonso VI., whom some
call Alphonso I., after having taken Madrid and
Toledo (1085), and subdued the whole kingdom
of Toledo, was on the point of altogether expel-
ling the Mahometans from Spain, when a revolu-
tion which happened in Africa augmented their
forces by fresh numbers, and thus arrested the pro-
gress of the Castilian prince.
The Zeirides, an Arab dynasty, descended from
Zeiri, son of Mounad, reigned then over that part
of Africa which comprehends Africa properly so
called (viz. Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers), and
the Mogreb (comprehending Fez and Morocco),
which they had conquered from the Fatamite ca-
liphs of Egypt. It happened that a new apostle
and conqueror, named Aboubeker, son of Omer,
PERIOD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 237
collected some tribes of Arabs in the vicinity of
Sugulmessa, a city in the kingdom of Fez, and
got himself proclaimed Commander of the Faith-
ful. His adherents took the name of Morabethin,
a term which signifies zealously devoted to reli-
gion ; and whence the Spaniards have formed the
names Almoravides and Marabouths. Having
made himself master of the city of Sugulmessa,
this warlike Emir extended his conquests in the Mo-
greb, as well as in Africa Proper, whence he expell-
ed the Zeirides. His successor, Yousuff, or Joseph,
the son of Taschefin, completed the conquest of
these countries; and built the city of Morocco
(1069), which he made the capital of the Mogreb,
and the seat of his new empire. This prince join-
ed the Mahometans of Seville, to whose aid he
marched with his victorious troops, defeated the
king of Castille at the battle of Badajos (1090),
and subdued the principal Mahometan states of
Spain, such as Grenada and Seville, &c.
. The empire of the Almoravides was subverted
in the twelfth century by another Mahometan sect,
called the Moahedins, or Almohades, a word sig-
nifying Unitarians. An upstart fanatic, named
Abdalmoumen, was the founder of this sect. He
Was educated among the mountains of Sous, in
auritania, and assumed the quality of Emir
( 1120), and the surname of Mohadi, that is, the
Chief—the leader and director of the faithful.
Having subdued Morocco, Africa, and the whole
ºf the Mogreb, he annihilated the dynasty of the
Almoravides (1146), and at the same time van-
quished the Mahometan states in Spain. He took
also (1160) from the Normans Tunis, Mohadie,
*nd Tripoli, of which they had taken possession.
238 CHAPTER V.
One of his successors, named Naser-Mohammed,
formed the project of reconquering the whole con-
tinent of Spain. The immense preparations which
he made for this purpose, alarmed Alphonso VIII.,
king of Castille, who immediately formed an alli-
ance with the kings of Arragon and Navarre, and
even engaged Pope Innocent III. to proclaim a
crusade against the Mahometans. The armies of
Europe and Africa met on the confines of Castille
and Andalusia (1212); and in the environs of the
city Ubeda was fought a bloody battle, which so
crippled the power of the Almohades, as to occa-
sion in a short time the downfal and dismember-
ment of their empire. **
About this period (1269), the Mahometans
of Spain revolted afresh from Africa, and divided
themselves into several petty states, of which the
principal and the only one that existed for several
centuries, was that of the descendants of Naser,
Kings of Grenada. Ferdinand III., King of Cas-
tille and Leon, took advantage of this event to re-
new his conquests over the Mahometans. He
took from them the kingdoms of Cordova, Mur-
cia, and Seville (1236, et seq.), and left them on-
ly the single kingdom of Grenada.
These wars against the Mahometans were the
occasion of several religious and military orders
being founded in Spain. Of these, the most an-
cient was that founded and fixed at Alcantara
(1156), whence it took its name ; having for its
badge or decoration a green cross, in form of the
lily, or fleur-de-lis. The order of Calatrava was in-
stituted in 1158; it was confirmed by Pope Alex-
ander III. (1164), and assumed as its distinctive
mark the red cross, also in form of the lily. The
PERIoD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 239
order of St James of Campostella, founded in 1161,
and confirmed by the same Pope (1175), was dis-
tinguished by a red cross, in form of a sword.
Finally, the order of Montesa (1317), supplanted
that of the Templars in the kingdom of Arragon.
The Kings of Castille and Arragon having con-
quered from the Arabs a part of what is properly
called Portugal, formed it into a distinct govern-
ment, under the name of Portocalo, or Portugal.
Henry of Burgundy, a French prince, grandson of
Robert, called the Old, Duke of Burgundy, and
great-grandson of Robert II., King of France, hav-
ing distinguished himself by his bravery in the
wars between the Castillians and the Mahometans,
Alphonso VI., King of Castille, wished to attach
the young prince to him by the ties of blood; and,
for this purpose, gave him in marriage his daugh-
ter the Infant Donna Theresa; and created him
Count of Portugal (1090). This State, including
at first merely the cities of Oporto, Braga, Miran-
da, Lamego, Wiseo, and Coimbra, began to assume
its present form, in the reign of Alphonso I., son
of Count Henry. The Mahometans, alarmed at
the warlike propensities of the young Alphonso,
had marched with a superior force to attack him
by surprise. Far from being intimidated by the
danger, this prince, to animate the courage of his
troops, pretended that an apparition from heaven
had authorized him to proclaim himself King in
the face of the army, in virtue of an express order
which he said he had received from Christ. ** He
then marched against the enemy, and totally rout-
ed them in the plains of Ourique (1139). This
Victory, famous in the annals of Portugal, paved
WOL. I. U . - 4
240 CHAPTER V.
the way for the conquest of the cities Leiria, San-
tarem, Lisbon, Cintra, Alcazar do Sal, Evora,
and Elvas, situated on the banks of the Tagus.
Moreover, to secure the protection of the Court of
Rome against the Kings of Leon, who disputed
with him the independence of his new state, Al-
phonso took the resolution of acknowledging him-
self vassal and tributary to the Holy See (1142).
He afterwards convoked the estates of his king-
dom at Lamego, and there declared his independ-
ence by a fundamental law, which also regulated
the order of succession to the throne. Sancho I.,
son and successor of Alphonso, took from the Ma-
hometans the town of Silves in Algarve; and Al-
phonso III., soon after, (1249), completed the
conquest of that province.
The first Kings of Portugal, in order to gain
the protection of the Court of Rome, were oblig-
ed to grant extensive benefices to the ecclesiastics,
with regalian rights, and the exemption of the
clergy from the secular jurisdiction. Their suc-
ccssors, however, finding themselves firmly esta-
blished on the throne, soon changed their policy,
and manifested as much of indifference for the
clergy as Alphonso I. had testified of kindness and
attachment to them. Hence originated a lòhg
series of broils and quarrels with the Court of
Rome. Pope Innocent IV. deposed Sancho II,
(1245), and appointed Alphonso III. in his place.
Denys, son and successor of this latter prince, was
excommunicated for the same reason, and com-
pelled to sign a treaty (1289), by which the
clergy were reestablished in all their former rights,
In France, the whole policy of the Kings was
directed against their powerful vassals, who shared

PERIoD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 241
among them the finest provinces of that kingdom.
The Dukes of Burgundy, Normandy, and Aquitaine;
the Counts of Flanders, Champagne, and Toulouse;
the Dukes of Bretagne, the Counts of Poitiers,
Bar, Blois, Anjou and Maine, Alençon, Auvergne,
Angoulême, Perigord, Carcassonne, 3° &c. formed
so many petty sovereigns, equal in some respects to
the electors and princes of the Germanic empire. Se-
veral circumstances, however, contributed to main-
tain the balance in favour of royalty. The crown was
hereditary, and the demesne lands belonging to the
king, which, being very extensive, gave him a power
which far outweighed that of any individual vas-
sal. Besides, these same demesnes being situate
in the centre of the kingdom, enabled the sove-
reign to observe the conduct of his vassals, to di-
vide their forces, and prevent any one from pre-
ponderating over another. The perpetual wars
which they waged with each other, the tyranny
which they exercised over their dependants, and
the enlightened policy of several of the French
kings, by degrees reestablished the royal authority,
which had been almost annihilated under the last
princes of the Carlovingian dynasty.
It was at this period that the rivalry between
France and England had its origin. The fault
that Philip I. committed, in making no opposition
to the conquest of England, by William Duke of
Normandy, his vassal, served to kindle the flame of
War between these princes. The war which took
Place in 1087, was the first that happened between
the two nations; it was renewed under the subse-
Quent reigns, and this rivalry was still more in-
Creased, on occasion of the unfortunate divorce be-
*ween Louis VII. and Eleanor of Poitou, heiress
242 CHAPTER V.
of Guienne, Poitou, and Gascogne. This di-
vorced Princess married (1152) Henry, surnamed
Plantagenet, Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou
and Maine, and afterwards King of England; and
brought him, in dowry, the whole of her vast pos-
sessions. But it was reserved for Philip Augustus
to repair the faults of his predecessors. This great
monarch, whose courage was equal to his prudence
and his policy, recovered his superiority over Eng-
land; he strengthened his power and authority by
the numerous accessions which he made to the
crown-lands, * (1180–1220). Besides Artois,
Vermandois, the earldoms of Evreux, Auvergne,
and Alençon, which he annexed under different
titles, he took advantage of the civil commotions
which had arisen in England against King John,
to dispossess the English of Normandy, Anjou,
Maine, Lorraine, and Poitou (1203); and he
maintained these conquests by the brilliant victory
which he gained at Bouvines (1214), over the com-
bined forces of England, the Emperor Otho, and
the Count of Flanders. ** .
Several of the French kings were exclusively
occupied with the crusades in the East. Louis
VII., Philip Augustus, and Louis IX. took the
cross, and marched in person to the Holy Land.
These ultra-marine expeditions (1147, 1248),
which required great and powerful resources, could
not but exhaust France ; while, on the contrary,
the crusades which Louis VIII. undertook against
the Albigenses and their protectors, the Counts of
Toulouse and Carcassonne, considerably augment-
ed the royal power. Pope Innocent III., by pro-
claiming this crusade (1208), raised a tedious and
bloody war, which desolated Languedoc ; and dur-
PERIOD 1 v. A. D. 1074–1300. 243
ing which, fanaticism perpetrated atrocities which
make humanity to shudder. Simon, Count Mon-
fort, the chief or general of these crusaders, had
the whole estates of the counts of Toulouse ad-
judged him by the Pope. Amauri, the son and
heir of Simon, surrendered his claims over these
forfeitures to Louis VIII. King of France (1226);
and it was this circumstance that induced Louis to
march in person at the head of the crusaders,
against the Count of Toulouse, his vassal and cou-
sin. He died at the close of this expedition, leav-
ing to his son and successor, Louis IX., the task
of finishing this disastrous war. By the peace
which was concluded at Paris (1229), between the
King and the Count, the greater part of Languedoc
was allowed to remain in the possession of Louis.
One arrangement of this treaty was the marriage
of the Count's daughter with Alphonso, brother to
the King; with this express clause, that failing heirs
of this marriage, the whole territory of Toulouse
should revert to the crown. The same treaty ad-
judged to the Pope the county of Venaissin, as an
escheat of the Counts of Toulouse ; and the Count
of Carcassonne, implicated also in the cause of the
Albigenses, was compelled to cede to the King all
right over the viscounties of Beziers, Carcassonne,
Agde, Rodez, Albi, and Nismes. One conse-
quence of this bloody war was the establishment
of the terrible tribunal of the Inquisition, ** and
the founding of the order of Dominicans.”
Henry II., a descendant of the house of Planta-
8ènet, having mounted the throne of England, in
right of his mother Matilda, annexed to that crown
*he duchy of Normandy, the countries of Anjou,
U 2
244 CHAPTER V.
Touraine, and Maine, together with Guienne, Gas-
cogne and Poitou. He afterwards added Ireland,
which he subdued in 1172. This island, which
had never been conquered, either by the Romans,
or the barbarians who had desolated Europe, was,
at that time, divided into five principal sovereign-
ties, viz. Munster, Ulster, Connaught, Leinster,
and Meath, whose several chiefs all assumed the
title of Kings. One of these princes enjoyed the
dignity of monarch of the island; but he had nei-
ther authority sufficient to secure internal tran-
quillity, nor power enough to repel with success
the attacks of enemies from without. It was this
state of weakness that induced Henry to attempt
the conquest of the island. He obtained the sanc-
tion of Pope Adrian IV., by a bull in 1155, and
undertook, in a formal engagement, to subject the
Irish to the jurisdiction of the Holy See, and the
payment of Peter's pence.” The expulsion of Der-
mot King of Leinster, who had rendered himself
odious by his pride and his tyranny, furnished
Henry with a pretext for sending troops into that
island, to assist the dethroned prince in recovering
his dominions. The success of the English, and
the victories which they gained over Roderic, King
of Connaught, who at that time was chief monarch
of the island, determined Henry to undertake, in
person, an expedition into Ireland (in October
1172.) He soon reduced the provinces of Lein-
ster and Munster to submission ; and after having
constructed several forts, and nominated a viceroy
and other crown officers, he took his departure
without completing the conquest of the island.
Roderic, King of Connaught, submitted in 1175:
but it was not till the reign of Queen Elizabeth
PERIoD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 245
that the entire reduction of Ireland was accom-
plished.
In England, the rashness and rapacity of John,
son of Henry II., occasioned a mighty revolution
in the government. The discontented nobles, with
the Archbishop of Canterbury at their head, join-
ed in a league against the King. Pope Innocent
III. formally deposed him, made over his kingdom
to the Crown of France, and proclaimed a crusade
against him in every country of Europe. John
obtained an accommodation with the Pope ; and in
order to secure his protection, he consented to be-
come a vassal of the Church, both for England and
Ireland; engaging to pay his Holiness, besides
Peter's pence, an annual tribute of a thousand
marks. But all in vain; the nobles persisted in
their revolt, and forced the King to grant them the
grand charter of Magna Charta, by which he and
his successors were forever deprived of the power
of exacting subsidies without the counsel and ad-
vice of Parliament; which did not then include
the Commons. He granted to the city of London,
and to all cities and burghs in the kingdom, a re-
newal of their ancient liberties and privileges, and
the right of not being taxed except with the ad-
vice and consent of the common council. More-
over, the lives and properties of the citizens were
secured by this charter; one clause of which ex-
pressly provided, that no subject could be either
arrested, imprisoned, dispossessed of his fortune, or
deprived of his life, except by a legal sentence of
his peers, conform to the ancient law of the coun-
try. This charter, which was renewed in various
subsequent reigns, forms, at this day, the basis of
the English Constitution.
246 CHAPTER V.
King John, meantime, rebelled against this char-
ter, and caused it to be rescinded by Pope Inno-
cent III., who even issued a bull of excommunica-
tion against the barons; but they, far from being
disconcerted or intimidated, made an offer of their
crown to Louis, son of Philip Augustus King of
France. This prince repaired to England, and
there received the fealty and homage of the gran-
dees and the nation. John, abandoned by all his
subjects, attempted to take refuge in Scotland;
but he died in his flight at the Castle of Newark.
His death made a sudden change in the minds
and sentiments of the English. The barons for-
sook the standard of the French prince, and rallied
round that of young Henry, son of King John,
whose long and unfortunate reign was a succession
of troubles and intestine wars. Edward I., son
and successor of Henry III., as determined and
courageous as his father had been weak and in-
dolent, restored tranquillity to England, and made
his name illustrious by the conquest which he
made of the principality of Wales.
This district, from the most remote antiquity,
was ruled by its own native princes, descended
from the ancient British kings. Although they
had been vassals and tributaries of the kings of
England, they exercised, nevertheless, the rights
of sovereignty in their own country. Lewellyn,
prince of Wales, having espoused the cause of the
insurgents in the reign of Henry III., and made
some attempts to withdraw from the vassalage of
the English crown, Edward I. declared war against
him (1282); and in a battle fought near the
Menau, Lewellyn was defeated and slain, with
2000 of his followers. David, his brother and
PERIoD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 247
successor, met with a fate still more melancholy.
Having been taken prisoner by Edward, he was
condemned to death, and executed like a traitor
(1283). The territory of Wales was annexed to
the crown ; the king created his eldest son Ed-
ward, Prince of Wales; a title which has since
been borne by the eldest sons of the kings of Eng-
land.
At this period, the kingdoms of the North pre-
sented, in general, little else than a spectacle of
horror and carnage. The warlike and ferocious
temper of the Northern nations, the want of fixed
and specific laws in the succession of their kings, **
gave rise to innnmerable factions, encouraged in-
solence, and fomented troubles and intestine wars.
An extravagant and superstitious devotion, by
loading the church with wealth, aggravated still
more the evils with which these kingdoms were
distracted. The bishops and the new metropoli-
tans, 7 enriched at the expense of the crown-
lands, and rendered bold by their power, and the
strength of their castles, domineered in the senate
and the assemblies of the states, and neglected no
opportunity of encroaching on the sovereign's au-
thority. They obtained, by compulsion, the in-
troduction of tithes, and the immunity of the ec-
clesiastics; and thus more and more increased and
cemented the sacerdotal power. ** This state of
trouble and internal commotion tended to abate
that ardour for maritime incursions which had so
ong agitated the Scandinavian nations. It did
not, however, prevent the kings of Denmark and
Sweden from undertaking, from time to time, ex-
peditions by sea, under the name of Crusades, for
248 CHAPTER V.
the conversion of the Pagan nations of the North,
whose territories they were ambitious to conquer.
The Slavians, who inhabited the coasts of the
Baltic, were then constantly committing piracies,
in imitation of the ancient Normans, plundering
and ravaging the provinces and islands of Den-
mark. Valdemar I., wishing to put an end to
these devastations, and thirsting moreover for the
glory of converting to Christianity those nations
against whom all the efforts of the Germans had
failed, attacked them at different times with his
numerous flotillas. He took and pillaged several
of their towns, such as Arcona and Carentz or
Gartz, in the isle of Rugen (1168), Julin, now
called Wollin, and Stettin, two sea-ports in Po-
merania (1175–6). He made the princes of Ru-
gen his vassals and tributaries, and is generally re-
garded as the founder of Dantzic (1165), which
originally was merely a fort constructed by the
Danes. Canute VI., son and successor of Walde-
mar I., followed the example of his father; he re-
duced the princes of Pomerania (1183) and Meck-
lenburg (1186), and the counts of Schwerin (1201),
to a state of dependence ; he made himself master
of Hamburg and Lubec, and subdued the whole
of Holstein. Valdemar II. assumed the title of
King of the Slavians, and Lord of Nordalbingia.
He added Lauenburg, a part of Prussia, Estonia,
and the Isle of Oesel, to the conquests of his pre-
decessors, and became the founder of the cities of
Stralsund and Revel (1209 and 1222).
This prince, master of nearly the whole south-
ern coast of the Baltic, and raised to the summit
of prosperity by the superiority of his commercial
and maritime power, commanded for a time the
PERIOD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 249
attention of all Europe; but an unforeseen event
eclipsed his glory, and deprived him of all the ad-
vantages of his victories and his conquests. Henry,
Count of Schwerin, one of the vassals of Waldemar,
wishing to avenge an outrage which he pretended
to have received from him, seized that prince by
surprise (1223), and detained him for three years
prisoner in the castle of Schwerin. This circum-
stance aroused the courage of the other vanquish-
ed nations, who instantly took to arms. Adolphus,
Count of Schauenburg, penetrated into Holstein,
and subdued the princes of Mecklenburg and Po-
merania, with the cities of Hamburg and Lubec.
Waldemar, restored to liberty, made several efforts
to reconquer his revolted provinces; but a power-
ful confederacy being formed against him, he was
defeated in a battle fought (1227), at Bornhoevet,
near Segeberg, in Holstein. Of all his conquests,
he retained only the Isle of Rugen, Estonia, and
the town of Revel, which, in course of time, were
lost or abandoned by his successors.
Sweden, which had been governed in succes-
sion by the dynasties of Stenkil, Swerkar, and St
'rie, was long a prey to internal dissensions, which
arose principally from the two different forms of
Worship professed and authorized by the state.
The whole nation, divided in their religious senti-
ments, saw themselves arranged into two factions,
and under two reigning families, mutually hating
and exasperated against each other, for nearly half
* century. Two, and sometimes more, princes were
seen reigning at once from 1080 till 1133, when
the throne began to be occupied ultimately by the
escendants of Sweyn and St Eric. During all
this time, violence usurped the place of right, and
250 CHAPTER V.
the crown of Sweden was more than once the
prize of assassination and treason.
In the midst of these intestine disorders, we find
the Swedes even attempting foreign conquests,
To these they were instigated both by the genius of
the age, which encouraged crusades and military
missions, as well as by the desire of avenging the
piracies which the Finlanders, and other Pagan
tribes of the North, committed from time to time
on the coasts of Sweden. St Eric became at once
the apostle and the conqueror of Finland (1157);
he established also a Swedish colony in Nyland,
and subdued the provinces of Helsingland and
Jamptland. Charles I., son of Swerkar, united
the kingdom of Gothland to Sweden, and was the
first that took the title of these two kingdoms.
Eric, surnamed Laspe, or the Lisper, resumed the
crusading system of warfare; and, in the character
of a missionary, conquered Tavastland and the
eastern part of Bothnia. Birger, a prince of the
Folkungian dynasty, who ascended the throne of
Sweden in 1250, conquered, under the same pre:
text, Carelia and Savolax, and fortified Viburg,
He compelled the inhabitants of these countries to
embrace the Christian religion (1293), and annex.
ed them to Finland. We find, also, several of the
Swedish kings undertaking missionary expeditions
against their Pagan neighbours the Estonians, who,
from time to time, committed dreadful ravages on
the coasts of Sweden. These expeditions, which
were always esteemed sacred, served as an excuse
for the sovereigns of the North in avoiding the
crusades to the Holy Land, in which they took no
part. ** -
Prussia and the Prussians are totally unknown
PERIOD 1 v. A. D. 1074–1800. 251
in history before the end of the tenth century. *
The author of the Life of St Adelbert of Prague,
who suffered martyrdom in Prussia in the reign
of Otho III., is the first that mentions them under
this new name (997). Two hundred years after,
the Abbé of Oliva, surnamed the Christian, be-
came the apostle of the Prussians, and was ap-
pointed by Pope Innocent III. the first bishop of
Prussia (1215). This idolatrous nation, haughty
and independent, and attached to the reigning su-
perstition, having repulsed all the efforts that were
repeatedly made to convert them to Christianity,
Pope Honorius III., in the true spirit of his age,
published a Crusade against them (1218), to pro-
selytize them by force. Armies of crusaders were
poured into Prussia, and overran the whole coun-
try with fire and sword. The Prussians took cruel
vengeance on the Polonese of Masovia, who had
made common cause against them with the cru-
saders of the East. At length, Conrad, duke of
Masovia, finding himself too weak to withstand
the fury of the Prussians, called in the Teutonic
knights to his aid ; and, anxious to secure forever
the assistance and protection of that order, he made
them a grant of the territory of Culm ; and more-
over, promised them whatever lands he might con-
quer from the common enemy (1226). This con-
tract having been sanctioned by the Emperor Fre-
deric II, the knights speedily came into posses-
Sion of their new dominions (1230). They ex-
tended themselves by degrees over all Prussia, af.
ter a long and murderous war, which they had car-
ried on against the idolatrous natives. That coun-
try, which had been peopled by numerous German
VOL. I. x
252 charter V.
colonies in succession, did not submit to the yoke
of the Teutonic order, until the greater part of its
ancient inhabitants had been destroyed. The
Knights took care to confirm their authority and
their religion in Prussia, by constructing cities and
forts, and founding bishoprics and convents. The
city of Koninsberg “on the Pregel, was built in
1255; and that of Marienburg on the Nogat,
which became the capital of the Order, is suppo.
sed to have been founded in 1280.
The Teutonic knights completed the conquest
of that country (1283), by the reduction of Suda.
via, the last of the eleven provinces which com.
posed ancient Prussia. We can scarcely conceive
how a handful of these knights should have been
able, in so short a time, to vanquish a warlike and
powerful nation, inspired with the love of liberty,
and emboldened by fanaticism to make the most
intrepid and obstinate defence. But we ought to
take into consideration, that the indulgences of the
court of Rome allured continually into Prussia a
multitude of crusaders from all the provinces of
the Empire; and that the knights gained these
over to their ranks, by distributing among them
the lands which they had won by conquest. In this
way, their numbers were incessantly recruited by
new colonies of crusaders, and the nobles flocked
in crowds to their standard, to seek territorial ac-
quisitions in Prussia.
The increase of commerce on the Baltic, in the
twelfth century, led the Germans to discover the
coasts of Livonia. Some merchants from Bremen,
on their way to Wisby, in the island of Gothland,
a sea-port on the Baltic very much frequented at
that time, were thrown by a tempest on the coast
PERIOD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 253
near the mouth of the Dwina (1158). The desire
of gain induced them to enter into a correspondence
with the natives of the country; and, from a wish
to give stability to a branch of commerce which
might become very lucrative, they attempted to
introduce the Christian religion into Livonia. A
monk of Segeberg in Holstein, named Mainard,
undertook this mission. He was the first bishop
of Livonia (1192), and fixed his residence at the
Castle of Uxkull, which he strengthened by forti-
fications. Berthold, his successor wishing to ac-
celerate the progress of Christianity, as well as to
avoid the dangers to which his mission exposed
him, caused the Pope to publish a crusade against
the Livonians. This zealous prelate perished
sword in hand, fighting against the people whom
he intended to convert. The priests, after this,
were either massacred or expelled from Livonia;
but, in a short time, a new army of crusaders
marched into the country, under the banner of Al-
bert, the third bishop, who built the city of Riga,
(1200) which became the seat of his bishopric, and
afterwards the metropolitan see of all Prussia and
Livonia. The same prelate founded the military
order of the Knights of Christ or Sword-bearers,
to whom he ceded the third of all the countries he
had conquered. This order, confirmed by Pope
Innocent III. (1204), finding themselves too weak
to oppose the Pagans of Livonia, agreed to unite
with the Teutonic order (1237), who, at that time,
nominated the generals or provincial masters in
Livonia, known by the names of Heermeister and
Landmeister. Pope Gregory IX, in confirming
the union of these two orders, exacted the surren-
der of the districts of Revel, Wesemberg, Weisen-
254 CHAPTER V.
stein, and Hapsal, to Valdemar II., which the
knights, with consent of the Bishop of Dorpat, had
taken from him during his captivity. This retro-
cession was made by an act passed at Strensby,
(1238). Several documents which still exist in
the private archives of the Teutonic order at Kon-
ingsberg, and especially two, dated 1249 and 1254,
prove that, at this period, the bishops of Riga still
exercised superiority, both temporal and spiritual,
over these Knights Sword-bearers, although they
were united with the Teutonic order, which was
independent of these bishops. The combination
of these two orders rendered them so powerful,
that they gradually extended their conquests over
all Prussia, Livonia, Courland, and Semigallia;
but they could never succeed farther than to sub-
ject these nations to a rigorous servitude, under
pretence of conversion.
Before we speak of Russia and the other Eastern
countries of Europe, it will be necessary to turn
our attention for a little to the Moguls, whose con-
quests and depredations extended, in the thirteenth
century, from the extremity of northern Asia, over
Russia and the greater part of Europe. The na:
tive country of this people is found to be those
same regions which they still inhabit in our day,
and which are situated to the north of the great
wall of China, between Eastern Tartary and mo-
dern Bukharia. They are generally confounded
with the Tartars, from whom they differ essential-
ly, both in their appearance and manners, as well
as in their religion and political institutions. This
nation is divided into two principal branches, the
Eluths or Oelots, better known by the name of
Calmucs, and the Moguls, properly so called.
PERIoD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 255.
These latter, separated from the Calmucs by the
moulitains of Altai, are now subject to the domi-
nion of China.
The Moguls, scarcely known at present in the
history of Europe, owe their greatness to the ge-
nius of one man—the famous Zinghis Khan. This
extraordinary person, whose real name was Tem-
wdgin, or, according to Pallas, Daemutschin, was
born in the year 1163, and originally nothing
more than the chief of a particular horde of Mo-
guls, who had settled on the banks of the rivers
Onon and Kerlon, and were tributary to the em-
pire of Kin. His first exploits were against the
other hordes of Moguls, whom he compelled to
acknowledge his authority. Emboldened by suc-
cess, he conceived the romantic idea of aspiring to
be the conqueror of the world. For this purpose,
he assembled near the source of the river Onon,
in 1206, all the chiefs of the Mogul hordes, and
the generals of his armies. A certain pretender
to inspiration, whom the people regarded as a holy
man, appeared in the assembly, and declared that
it was the will of God that Temudgin should rule
over the whole earth, that all nations should sub-
mit to him, and that henceforth he should bear
the title of Tschinghis-Khan, or Most Great Em-
peror. 4”
In a short time, this new conqueror subdued the
two great empires of the Tartars; one of which,
called also the empire of Kin, embraced the whole
of Eastern Tartary, and the northern part of China;
the other, that of Kara-Kitai, or the Khitans,
extended over Western Tartary, and had its capi-
tal at Kaschgar in Bukharia.” He afterwards
x 2
256 . chapter v.
attacked the Carismian Sultans who ruled over
Turkestan, Transoxiana, Charasm, Chorasan, and
all Persia, from Derbent to Irak-Arabia and the
Indies. This powerful monarchy was overturned
by Zinghis-Khan, in the course of six campaigns;
and it was during this war that the Moguls, while
marching under the conduct of Toushi, the eldest
son of Zinghis-Khan, against the Kipzacs or Cap-
chacs, to the north of the Caspian Sea, made their
first inroad into the Russian empire. Zinghis, af.
ter having subdued the whole of Tangout, died in
the sixty-fifth year of his age (1227). Historians
have remarked in him the traits of a great man,
born to command others, but whose noble quali.
ties were tarnished by the ferocity of his nature,
which took delight in carnage, plunder, and devas.
tation. Humanity shudders at the recital of the
inexpressible horrors exercised by this barbarian,
whose maxim was to exterminate, without mercy,
all who offered the least resistance to his victori.
OUIS 3.I’II18,
The successors of this Mogul conqueror follow.
ed him in his career of victory. They achieved
the conquest of all China, overturned the caliphate
of Bagdat, and rendered the sultans of Iconium
their tributaries. ** Octai-Khan, the immediate
successor of Zinghis, despatched from the centre of
China two powerful armies, the one against Corea,
and the other against the nations that lie to the
north and north-west of the Caspian Sea. This
latter expedition, which had for its chiefs Gáyouk,
son of Octai, and Batou, eldest son of Toushi, and
grandson of Zinghis-Khan, after having subdued all
Kipzak, penetrated into Russia, which they con:
quered in 1237. Hence they spread over Poland.
period iv. a. d. 1047–1800. 257
Silesia, Moravia, Hungary, and the countries border-
ing on the Adriatic Sea; they plundered cities, laid
waste the country, and carried terror and destruction
wherever they went. * All Europe trembled at
the sight of these barbarians, who seemed as if
they wished to make the whole earth one vast
empire of desolation. The empire of the Moguls
attained its highest point of elevation under Cub-
lai, grandson of Zinghis, towards the end of the
tenth century. From south to north, it extend-
ed from the Chinese Sea and the Indies, to the ex-
tremity of Siberia; and from east to west, from
Japan to Asia Minor, and the frontiers of Poland
in Europe. China, and Chinese Tartary formed
the seat of the empire, and the residence of the
Great Khan ; while the other parts of the domi-
nions were governed by princes of the family of
Zinghis Khan, who either acknowledged the Great
Khan as their supreme master, or had their own
particular kings and chiefs that paid him tribute.
The principal subordinate Khans of the race of
Zinghis, were those of Persia, Zagatai, and Kipzac.
Their dependence on the Great Khan or emperor
of China, ceased entirely on the death of Cublai
(1294), and the power of the Moguls soon became
extinct in China. 40
As for the Moguls of Kipzac, their dominion
extended over all the Tartar countries situated to
the north of the Caspian and the Euxine, as also
over Russia and the Crimea. Batou-Khan, eld-
est son of Toushi, was the founder of this dynasty.
Being addicted to a wandering life, the Khans of
Kipzac encamped on the banks of the Wolga, pass-
ing from one place to another with their tents and
flocks, according to the custom of the Mogul and
258 CHAPTER V.

Tartar nations.” The principal sect of these Khams
was called the Grand or Golden Horde or the
Horde of Kipzac, which was long an object of
the greatest terror to the Russians, Poles, Lithu-
anians and Hungarians. Its glory declined to-
wards the end of the fourteenth century, and en-
tirely disappeared under the last Khan Achmet, in
1481. A few separate hordes were all that re-
mained, detached from the grand horde, such as
those of Casan, Astracan, Siberia and the Crimea;
—all of which were in their turn subdued or ex-
tirpated by the Russians. *
A crowd of princes, descendants of Vlademir
the Great, had shared among them the vast do-
minions of Russia. One of these princes invested
with the dignity of Grand Duke, exercised cer-
tain rights of superiority over the rest, who never-
theless acted the part of petty sovereigns, and
made war on each other. The capital of these
Grand Dukes was Kiow, which was also regard-
ed as the metropolis of the empire. Andrew I.
prince of Suzdal, having assumed the title of
Grand Duke (1157), fixed his residence at Vla-
demir on the river Kliazma, and thus gave rise to
a kind of political schism, the consequences of
which were most fatal to the Russians. The
Grand Duchy of Kiow, with its dependant princi-
palities, detached themselves by degrees from the
rest of the empire, and finally became a prey to
the Lithuanians and Poles.
In the midst of these divisions and intestine
broils, and when Russia was struggling with difficul-
ty against the Bulgarians, Polowzians,” and other
barbarous tribes in the neighbourhood, she had
the misfortune to be attacked by the Moguls under
PERIOD Iv. A. D. 1704–1300. 259
Zinghis Khan. Toushi, eldest son of that con-
queror, having marched round the Caspian, in order
to attack the Polowzians, encountered on his pas-
sage the Princes of Kiow, who were allies of that
people. The battle which he fought (1223), on
the banks of the river Kalka, was one of the most
sanguinary recorded in history. The Russians
were totally defeated; six of their princes perished
on the field of battle ; and the whole of Western
Russia was laid open to the conqueror. The Mo-
guls penetrated as far as Novogorod, wasting the
whole country on their march with fire and sword.
They returned by the same route, but without ex-
tending their ravages farther. In 1237 they made
a second invasion, under the conduct of Batou,
son of Toushi, and governor of the northern parts
of the Mogul empire. This prince, after having
vanquished the Polowzians and Bulgarians, that is
the whole country of Kipzac, entered the north
of Russia, where he took Rugen and Moscow, and
cut to pieces an army of the Russians near Kolom-
na. Several other towns in this part of Russia.
were sacked by the Moguls, in the commencement
of the following year. The family of the Grand
Duke, Juri II., perished in the sack of Vlademir;
and he himself fell in the battle which he fought
with the Moguls near the river Sita. Batou ex-
tended his conquests in northern Russia as far as
the city Torshok, in the territory of Novogorod.
For some years he continued his ravages over the
whole of Western Russia; where, among others,
he took Kiow, Kaminiec in Podolia, Vlademir
and Halitsch. From this we may date the fall of
the Grand Duchy of Kiow, or Western Russia,
which, with its dependent principalities in the fol-
266) CHAPTER V.
lowing century, came into the possession of the
Lithuanians and Poles. As for the Grand Duchy
of Vlademir, which comprehended Eastern and
Northern Russia, it was subdued by the Moguls
or Tartars, whose terrible yoke it wore for more
than two hundred years. *
An extraordinary person who appeared at this
disastrous crisis, preserved that part of Russia
from sinking into total ruin. This was Prince
Alexander, son of the Grand Duke, Jaroslaus II.,
who obtained the epithet or surname of Newski,
from a victory which he gained over the Knights
of Livonia near the Neva, (1241). Elevated by
the Khan Batou, to the dignity of Grand Duke
(1245), he secured, by his prudent conduct, his
punctuality in paying tribute, and preserving his
allegiance to the Mogul emperors, the good will
of these new masters of Russia, during his whole
reign. When this great prince died in 1261, his
name was enrolled in their calendar of saints.
Peter the Great built, in honour of his memory, a
convent on the banks of the Neva, to which he
gave the name of Alexander Newski; and the Em-
press Catherine I., instituted an order of knighthood
that was also called after the name of that prince.
Poland, which was divided among several prin-
ces of the Piast dynasty, had become, at the time
of which we speak, a prey to intestine factions,
and exposed to the incursions of the neighbouring
barbarians. These divisions, the principal source
of all the evils that afflicted Poland, continued
down to the death of Boleslaus II. (1138), who,
having portioned his estates among his sons, or:
dered that the eldest should retain the district of
Cracow, under the title of Monarch, and that he

PERIOD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 261
should exercise the rights of superiority over the
provincial dukes and princes, his brothers. This
clause, which might have prevented the dismem-
berment of the state, served only to kindle the
flame of discord among these collegatory princes.
Uladislaus, who is generally considered as the
eldest of these sons, having attempted to dispos-
sess his brothers (1146), they rose in arms, ex-
pelled him from Poland, and obliged his descend-
ants to content themselves with Silesia. His sons
founded, in that country, numerous families of dukes
and princes, who introduced German colonies into
Silesia; all of which, in course of time, became
subject to the kings of Bohemia. Conrad, son
of Casimir the Just, and grandson of Boleslaus III.,
was the ancestor of the Dukes of Cujavia and
Masovia. It was this prince who called in the
assistance of the Teutonic Knights against the Pa-
gans of Prussia, and established that order in the
territory of Culm (1230).
The Moguls, after having vanquished Russia,
took possession of Poland (1240). Having gain-
ed the victory at the battle of Schiedlow, they
set fire to Cracow, and then marched to Lignitz
in Silesia, where a numerous army of erusaders
were assembled under the command of Henry,
duke of Breslau. This prince was defeated, and
slain in the action. The whole of Silesia, as well
as Moravia, was cruelly pillaged and desolated by
the Moguls. -
Hungary, at this period, presented the spectacle
of a warlike and barbarous nation, the ferocity of
whose manners cannot be better attested than by
the laws passed in the reigns of Ladislaus and
Coloman, about the end of the eleventh and be-
262 CHAPTER V.
ginning of the twelfth century. Crimes were then
punished either with the loss of liberty, or of some
member of the body, such as the eye, the nose,
the tongue, &c. These laws were published in
their general assemblies, which were composed of
the king, the great officers of the crown, and the
representatives of the clergy and the free men,
All the other branches of the executive power
pertained to the kings, who made war and peace at
their pleasure ; while the counts or governors of
provinces claimed no power either personal or he
reditary. * .
Under a government so despotic, it was easy
for the kings of Hungary to enlarge the boundaries
of their states. Ladislaus took from the Greeks
the duchy of Sirmium (1080), comprising the
lower part of Sclavonia. This same prince ex:
tended his conquests into Croatia, a country which
was governed for several ages by the Slavian
princes, who possessed Upper Sclavonia, and ruled
over a great part of ancient Illyria and Dalmatia,
to which they gave the name of Croatia. Dircis'
laus was the first of these princes that took the
title of king (in 984). Demetrius Swinimir, one
of his successors, did homage to the Pope, in order
to obtain the protection of the Holy See (1076).
The line of these kings having become extinct some
time after, Ladislaus, whose sister had been mar:
ried to Demetrius Swinimir, took advantage of the
commotion that had arisen in Croatia, and conquer.
ed a great part of that kingdom (1091), and espe:
cially Upper Sclavonia, which was one of its de-
pendencies. Coloman completed their conquest
in 1102, and the same year he was crowned at
Belgrade king of Croatia and Dalmatia. In course
PERIOD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 263
of a few years, he subdued the maritime cities
of Dalmatia, such as Spalatro, Trau, and Zara,
which he took from the republic of Venice. ** The
kingdom of Rama or Bosnia, fell at the same
time under his power. He took the title of King
of Rama (1103); and Bela II., his successor,
made over the duchy of Bosnia to Ladislaus, his
younger son. The sovereignty of the Kings of
Hungary was also occasionally acknowledged by
the princes and kings of Bulgaria and Servia, and
even by the Russian princes of Halitsch and
Wolodimir. *
These conquests gave rise to an abuse which soon
proved fatal to Hungary. The kings claimed for
themselves the right of disposing of the newly
conquered provinces in favour of their younger
sons, to whom they granted them under the title
of duchies, and with the rights of sovereignty.
These latter made use of their supreme power to
excite factions and stir up civil wars.
The reign of King Andrew II. was rendered
remarkable by a revolution which happened in the
government (1217). This prince having under-
taken an expedition to the Holy Land, which he
equipped at an extravagant and ruinous expense,
the nobles availed themselves of his absence to aug-
ment their own power, and usurp the estates and
revenues of the crown. Corruption had pervaded
every branch of the administration; and the king,
after his return, made several ineffectual efforts
to remedy the disorders of the government, and
recruit his exhausted finances. At length he ad-
opted the plan of assembling a general Diet
(1222), in which was passed the famous decree
VOL. I. - Y 8
264 CHAPTER V.
or Golden Bull which forms the basis of that defec.
tive constitution which prevails in Hungary at this
day. The property of the clergy and the noblesse
were there declared exempt from taxes and mili-
tary cess; the nobles acquired hereditary posses.
sion of the royal grants which they had received
in recompense for their services; they were freed
from the obligation of marching at their own ex-
pense on any expedition out of the kingdom ; and
even the right of resistance was allowed them, in
case the king should infringe any article of the
decree. It was this king also (Andrew II.) that
conferred several important privileges and immu-
nities on the Saxons, or Germans of Transylvania,
who had been invited thither by Geisa II. about
the year 1142.
Under the reign of Bela IV. (1241) Hungary
was suddenly inundated with an army of Moguls,
commanded by several chiefs, the principal of
whom were Batou, the son of Toushi, and Gayouk
son of the great Khan Octai. The Hungarians,
sunk in effeminacy and living in perfect security,
had neglected to provide in time for their defence,
Having at length rallied round the banner of their
king, they pitched their camp very negligently on
the banks of the Sajo, where they were surprised
by the Moguls, who made terrible havoc of them,
Coloman, the king's brother, was slain in the ac-
tion; and the king himself succeeded with difficul-
ty in saving himself among the isles of Dalmatia.
The whole of Hungary was now at the mercy of
the conqueror, who penetrated with his victorous
troops into Sclavonia, Croatia, Dalmatia, Bosnia,
Servia, and Bulgaria; every where glutting his fury
with the blood of the people, which he shed in tor.
PERIOD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 265
rents. These barbarians seemed determined to
fix their residence in Hungary, when the news of
the death of the Khan Octai, and the accession of
his son Gayouk to the throne of China, induced
them to abandon their conquest in less than three
years, and return to the East loaded with immense
booty. On hearing this intelligence, Bela ven-
tured from his place of retreat and repaired to
Hungary, where he assembled the remains of his
subjects, who were wandering in the forests, or
concealed among the mountains. He rebuilt the
cities that were laid in ashes, imported new colo-
nies from Croatia, Bohemia, Moravia, and Saxony;
and, by degrees, restored life and vigour to the
state, which had been almost annihilated by the
Moguls.
The Empire of the Greeks, at this time, was
gradually verging towards its downfal. Harassed
on the east by the Seljukian Turks, infested on the
side of the Danube by the Hungarians, the Patzi-
nacites, the Uzes and the Cumans; * * and torn to
pieces by factiousand intestine wars, that Empire was
making but a feeble resistance to the incessant at-
tacks of its enemies, when it was suddenly threaten-
ed with entire destruction by the effects of the
fourth crusade. The Emperor Isaac Angelus had
been dethroned by his brother, Alexius III. (1195),
who had cruelly caused his eyes to be put out.
The son of Isaac, called also Alexius, found means
to save his life; he repaired to Zara, in Dalmatia
(1203), to implore the aid of the Crusaders, who,
after having assisted the Venetians to recover that
rebellious city, were on the point of setting sail
for Palestine. The young Alexius offered to in-
demnify the Crusaders for the expenses of any ex-
266 CHAPTER V.
pedition which they might undertake in his favour;
he gave them reason to expect a reunion of the
two churches, and considerable supplies, both in
men and money, to assist them in reconquering
the Holy Land. Yielding to these solicitations, the
allied chiefs, instead of passing directly to Syria,
set sail for Constantinople. They immediately
laid siege to the city, expelled the usurper, and re-
stored Issac to the throne, in conjunction with his
son Alexius.
Scarcely had the Crusaders quitted Constanti-
nople, when a new revolution happened there,
Another Alexius, surnamed Mourzoufle, excited
an insurrection among the Greeks; and having
procured the death of the Emperors Isaac and
Alexius, he made himself master of the throne,
The Crusaders immediately returned, again laid
siege to Constantinople, which they took by as:
sault; and after having slain the usurper, they
elected a new Emperor in the person of Baldwin,
Earl of Flanders, and one of the noble Crusaders.”
This event transferred the Greek Empire to the
Latins (1204). It was followed by a union of the
two churches, which, however, was neither gene.
ral nor permanent, as it terminated with the reign
of the Latins at Constantinople.
Meantime, the Crusaders divided among them.
selves the provinces of the Greek Empire,_both
those which they had already seized, and those
which yet remained to be conquered. The great-
er part of the maritime coasts of the Adriatic,
Greece, the Archipelego, the Propontis, and the
Euxine; the islands of the Cyclades and Sporades,
and those of the Adriatic, were adjudged to the
republic of Venice. Boniface, Marquis of Mont-
PERIOD I v. A. D. 1074–1300. 267
ferrat, and commander-in-chief of the crusade, ob-
tained for his share the island of Crete or Candia,
and all that belonged to the Empire beyond the
Bosphorus. He afterwards sold Candia to the
Venetians, who took possession of it in 1207.
The other chiefs of the Crusaders had also their
portions of the dismembered provinces. None of
them, however, were to possess the countries that
were assigned them, except under the title of
vassals to the Empire, and by acknowledging the
sovereignty of Baldwin.
In the midst of this general overthrow, several
of the Greek princes attempted to preserve the
feeble remains of their Empire. Theodore Las-
caris, son-in-law of the Emperor Alexius III., re-
solved on the conquest of the Greek provinces in
Asia. He made himself master of Bithynia, Ly-
dia, part of the coasts of the Archipelago, and
Phrygia, and was crowned Emperor at Nice in
1206. About the same period, Alexius and Da-
vid Commenus, grandsons of the Emperor Andro-
nicus I., having taken shelter in Pontus, laid there
the foundation of a new Empire, which had for its
capital the city of Trebizond.
At length Michael Angelus Commenus took
possession of Durazzo, which he erected into a
considerable state, extending from Durazzo to the
Gulf of Lepanto, and comprehending Epirus, Acar-
mania, Etolia, and part of Thessaly. All these
princes assumed the rank and dignity of Empe-
rors. The most powerful among them was Theo-
dore Lascaris, Emperor of Nice. His successors
found little difficulty in resuming, by degrees, their
superiority over the Latin Emperors. They re-
Y 2
268 CHA PT E. R. V.
duced them at last to the single city of Con-
stantinople, of which Michael Paleologus, Empe-
ror of Nice, undertook the siege ; and, with the
assistance of the Genoese vessels, he made himself
master of it in 1261. Baldwin II., the last of the
Latin Emperors, fled to the Isle of Negropont,
whence he passed into Italy; and his conqueror
became the ancestor of all the Emperors of the
House of Paleologus, that reigned at Constanti-
nople until the taking of that capital by the Turks
in 1453.
It now remains for us to cast a glance at the
revolutions of Asia, closely connected with those
of Europe, on account of the crusades and expe-
ditions to the Holy Land. The Empire of the
Seljukian Turks had been divided into several
dynasties or distinct sovereignties; the Atabeks
of Irak, and a number of petty princes, reigned in
Syria and the neighbouring countries; the Fata-
mite Caliphs of Egypt were masters of Jerusalem,
and part of Palestine, when the mania of the cru-
sades converted that region of the East into a
theatre of carnage and devastation. For two hun-
dred years Asia was seen contending with Europe,
and the Christian nations making the most extra-
ordinary efforts to maintain the conquest of Pales-
time and the neighbouring states, against the arms
of the Mahometans.
At length there arose among the Mussulmans
a man of superior genius, who rendered himself
formidable by his warlike prowess to the Christians
in the East, and deprived them of the fruits of their
numerous victories. This conqueror was the fa-
mous Saladin, or Salaheddin, the son of Ayoub or
Job, and founder of the dynasty of the Ayoubites,
PER iod 1 v. A. D. 1074–1300. 269
The Atabek Noureddin, son of Amadoddin Zenghi,
had sent him into Egypt (1168) to assist the Fatamite
Caliph against the Franks, or Crusaders of the West
While there, he was declared vizier and general of
the armies of the Caliph ; and so well had he esta-
blished his power in that country, that he effected
the substitution of the Abassidian Caliphs in place
of the Fatamites ; and ultimately caused himself
to be proclaimed Sultan on the death of Noured-
din (1171), under whom he had served in the quality
of lieutenant. Having vanquished Egypt, he next
subdued the dominions of Noureddin in Syria;
and, after having extended his victories over this
province, as well as Mesopotamia, Assyria, Armenia
and Arabia, he turned his arms against the Christ-
ians in Palestine, whom he had hemmed in, as it
were, with his conquests. These princes, separated
into petty sovereignties, divided by mutual jealousy,
and a prey to the distractions of anarchy, soon
yielded to the valour of the heroic Mussulman.
The battle which they fought (1187), at Hittin,
near Tiberias (or Tabaria), was decisive. The
Christians sustained a total defeat; and Guy of
Lusignan, a weak prince without talents, and
the last King of Jerusalem, fell into the hands of
the conqueror. All the cities of Palestine opened
their gates to Saladin, either voluntarily or at the
point of the sword. Jerusalem surrendered after
a siege of fourteen days. This defeat rekindled
the zeal of the Christians in the West ; and the
most powerful sovereigns in Europe were again
seen conducting innumerable armies to the relief
of the Holy Land. But the talents and bravery
of Saladin rendered all their efforts unavailing;
and it was not till after a murderous siege fo
270 CHAPTER V.
three years, that they succeeded in retaking the
city of Ptolemais or Acre; and thus arresting
for a short space the total extermination of the
Christians in the East.
On the death of Saladin, whose heroism is ex-
tolled by Christian as well as Mahometan au-
thors, his Empire was divided among his sons. Se-
veral princes, his dependants, and known by the
name of Ayoubites, reigned afterwards in Egypt,
Syria, Armenia, and Yemen or Arabia the Happy.
These princes quarrelling and making war with
each other, their territories fell, in the thirteenth
century, under the dominion of the Mamelukes.
These Mamelukes (an Arabic word which signifies
a slave) were Turkish or Tartar captives, whom
the Syrian merchants purchased from the Moguls,
and sent into Egypt under the reign of the Sultan
Saleh, of the Ayoubite dynasty. That prince
bought them in vast numbers, and ordered them to
be trained to the exercise of arms in one of the mari-
time cities of Egypt. * From this school he rai-
sed them to the highest offices of trust in the state,
and even selected from them his own body guard.
In a very short time, these slaves became so nume-
rous and so powerful, that, in the end, they seized
the government, after having assassinated the Sul-
tan Touran Shah, (son and successor of Saleh), who
had in vain attempted to disentangle himself of
their chains, and recover the authority which they
had usurped over him. This revolution (1250)
happened in the very presence of St Louis, who,
having been taken prisoner at the battle of Man-
soura, had just concluded a truce of ten years with
the Sultan of Egypt. The Mameluke Ibeg, who
PERIOD Iv. A. D. 1074–1300. 27 I
was at first appointed regent or Atabek, was soon
after proclaimed Sultan of Egypt.
The dominion of the Mamelukes existed in E-
gypt for the space of 263 years. Their numbers
being constantly recruited by Turkish or Circas-
sian slaves, they disposed of the throne of Egypt
at their pleasure ; and the crown generally fell to
the share of the most audacious of the gang, pro-
vided he was a native of Turkistan. These Ma-
melukes had even the courage to attack the Mo-
guls, and took from them the kingdoms of Damas-
cus and Aleppo in Syria (1210), of which the lat-
ter had dispossessed the Ayoubite princes. All
the princes of this latter dynasty, with those of
Syria and Yemen, adopted the expedient of sub-
mitting to the Mamelukes; who, in order to be-
come masters of all Syria, had only to reduce the
cities and territories which the Franks, or Christi-
ams of the West, still retained in their possession.
They first attacked the principality of Antioch,
which they soon conquered (1268). They next
turned their arms against the county of Tripoli,
the capital of which they took by assault (1289).
The city of Ptolemais shared the same fate; after
an obstinate and murderous siege, it was carried
sword in hand. Tyre surrendered on capitulation;
and the Franks were entirely expelled from Syria
and the East in the year 1291.
REVOLUTIONS OF EUROPE.
CHAPTER VI.
PERIOI) V.
FROM POPE RON IFA C E VIII. TO THE TAKING OF
CONSTANTINOPLE BY THE TURKS,
A. D. 1300–1453.
At the commencement of this period, the Ponti-
fical power was in the zenith of its grandeur. The
Popes proudly assumed the title of Masters of the
World; and asserted that their authority, by di-
vine right, comprehended every other, both spi-
ritual and temporal. Boniface VIII. went even
farther than his predecessors had done. Accord-
ing to him, the secular power was nothing else
than a mere emanation from the ecclesiastical;
and this double power of the Pope was even
made an article of belief, and founded on the sa-
cred scriptures. “God has intrusted" (said he)
“to St Peter and his successors, two swords, the
one spiritual, and the other temporal. The for-
mer can be exercised by the church alone; the o-
PERIoD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 273
ther, by the secular princes, for the service of the
church, and in submission to the will of the Pope.
This latter, that is, the temporal sword, is subor-
dinate to the former ; and all temporal authority
necessarily depends on the spiritual, which judges
it; whereas God alone can judge the spiritual
power. Finally, (added he), it is absolutely in-
dispensable to salvation, that every human crea-
ture be subject to the Pope of Rome.” This
same Pope published the first Jubilee (1300),
with plenary indulgence for all who should visit
the churches of St Peter and St Paul at Rome.
An immense crowd from all parts of Christen-
dom flocked to this capital of the Western world,
and filled its treasury with their pious contribu-
tions. *
The spiritual power of the Popes, and their
jurisdiction over the clergy, was moreover increased
every day, by means of dispensations and appeals,
which had multiplied exceedingly since the in-
troduction of the Decretals of Gregory IX. They
disposed, in the most absolute manner, of the dig-
nities and benefices of the Church, and imposed
taxes at their pleasure on all the clergy in Chris-
tendom. Collectors or treasurers were establish-
ed by them, who superintended the levying of the
dues they had found means to exact, under a mul-
titude of different denominations. These collec-
tors were empowered, by means of ecclesiastical
censure, to proceed against those who should re-
fuse to pay. They were supported by the autho-
rity of the legates who resided in the ecclesiastical
provinces, and seized with avidity every occasion
to extend the usurpation of the Pope. Moreover,
in support of these legates appeared a vast num-
274, s' ' CHAPTER VI.
ber of Religious and Mendicant Orders, founded in
those ages of ignorance ; besides legions of monks
dispersed over all the states of Christendom.
Nothing is more remarkable than the influence of
the papal authority over the temporalities of princes,
We find them interfering in all their quarrels—ad.
dressing their commands to all without distinction
—enjoining some to lay down their arms—receiv-
ing others under their protection—rescinding and
annulling their acts and proceedings—summoning
them to their court, and acting as arbiters in their
disputes. The history of the Popes is the history
of all Europe. They assumed the privilege of legi-
timating the sons of kings, in order to qualify them
for the succession; they forbade sovereigns to tax
the clergy; they claimed a feudal superiority over
all, and exercised it over a very great number;
they conferred royalty on those who were ambi-
tious of power; they released subjects from their
oath of allegiance; dethroned sovereigns at their
pleasure; and laid kingdoms and empires under
interdict, to avenge their own quarrels. We find
them disposing of the states of excommunicated
princes, as well as those of heretics and their fol.
lowers; of islands and kingdoms newly discovered:
of the property of infidels or schismatics; and
even of Catholics who refused to bow before the
insolent tyranny of the Popes. *
Thus, it is obvious that the Court of Rome, at
the time of which we speak, enjoyed a conspicuº
ous preponderance in the political system of Eu-
rope. But in the ordinary course of human affairs,
this power, vast and formidable as it was, began,
from the fourteenth century, gradually to diminish,
The mightiest empires have their appointed term;
PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 275
and the highest stage of their elevation is often the
first step of their decline. Kings, becoming more
and more enlightened as to their true interests,
learned to support the rights and the majesty of
their crowns, against the encroachments of the
Popes. Those who were vassals and tributaries
of the Holy See, gradually shook off the yoke;
even the clergy, who groaned under the weight
of this spiritual despotism, joined the secular
princes in repressing these abuses, and restraining
within proper bounds a power which was making
incessant encroachments on their just prerogatives.
Among the causes which operated the downfal
of the Pontifical power, may be ranked the excess
of the power itself, and the abuses of it made by
the Popes. By issuing too often their anathemas
and interdicts, they rendered them useless and con-
temptible; and by their haughty treatment of the
greatest princes, they learned to become inflexible
and boundless in their own pretensions. An instance
of this may be recorded, in the famous dispute
which arose between Boniface VIII. and Philip
the Fair, King of France. Not content with con-
stituting himself judge between the King and his
Vassal the Count of Flanders, that Pontiff main-
tained, that the King could not exact subsidies
from the clergy without his permission; and that
the right of Regale (or the revenues of vacant bi-
shoprics) which the Crown enjoyed, was an abuse
which should not be tolerated. 3 He treated as a
piece of insanity the prohibition of Philip against
exporting either gold or silver out of the kingdom;
and sent an order to all the prelates in France to
repair in person to Rome on the 1st of November,
VOL. I. Z
276 CHAPTER VI.
there to advise measures for correcting the King
and reforming the State. He declared, formally,
that the King was subject to the Pope, as well in
temporal as in spiritual matters; and that it was
a foolish persuasion to suppose that the King had
no superior on earth, and was not dependent on
the supreme Pontiff.
Philip ordered the papal bull which contained
these extravagant assertions to be burnt; he for-
bade his ecclesiastics to leave the realm ; and
having twice assembled the States-General of the
kingdom (1302–3), he adopted, with their advice
and approbation, measures against these dangerous
pretensions of the Court of Rome. The Three
Estates, who appeared for the first time in these
Assemblies, declared themselves strongly in favour
of the King, and the independence of the crown,
In consequence, the excommunication which the
Pope had threatened against the King proved inef.
fectual. Philip made his appeal to a future assembly,
to which the three orders of the State adhered. *
The Emperor Louis of Bavaria, a prince of su.
perior merit, having incurred the censures of the
Church for defending the rights and prerogatives
of his crown, could not obtain absolution, not.
withstanding the most humiliating condescensions,
and the offer which he made to resign the Impe-
rial dignity, and surrender himself, his crown and
his property, to the discretion of the Pope. He
was loaded with curses and anathemas, after 3
series of various proceedings which had been in-
stituted against him. The bull of Pope Clement
VI., on this occasion, far surpassed all those of his
predecessors. “May God (said he, in speaking
of the Emperor) smite him with madness and dis’
PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 277
ease ; may heaven crush him with its thunder-
bolts; may the wrath of God, and that of St
Peter and St Paul, fall on him in this world and
the next ; may the whole universe combine a-
gainst him ; may the earth swallow him up alive :
may his name perish in the first generation, and
his memory disappear from the earth ; may all
the elements conspire against him ; may his chil-
dren, delivered into the hands of his enemies,
be massacred before the eyes of their father.”
The indignity of such proceedings roused the at-
tention of the princes and states of the Empire;
and on the representation of the Electoral College,
they thought proper to check these boundless pre-
tensions of the Popes, by a decree which was pass-
ed at the Diet of Frankfort in 1338. This decree,
regarded as the fundamental law of the Empire,
declared, in substance, that the Imperial dignity
held only of God; that he whom the Electors
had chosen emperor by a plurality of suffrages,
was, in virtue of that election, a true king and
emperor, and needed neither confirmation nor co-
ronation from the hands of the Pope ; and that all
persons who should maintain the contrary, should
be treated as guilty of high treason.
Among other events prejudicial to the authority
of the Popes, one was, the translation of the Pon-
tifical See from Rome to Avignon. Clement W.,
archbishop of Bourdeaux, having been advanced to
the papacy (1305), instead of repairing to Rome,
had his coronation celebrated at Lyons; and thence
he transferred his residence to Avignon (1309),
out of complaisance to Philip the Fair, to whom
he owed his elevation. The successors of this
Pope continued their court at Avignon until 1867,
278 CHAPTER VI.
when Gregory XI. again removed the See to Rome.
This sojourn at Avignon tended to weaken the au-
thority of the Popes, and diminish the respect and
veneration which till then had been paid them.
The prevailing opinion beyond the Alps, admitted
no other city than that of Rome for the true capital
of St Peter; and they despised the Popes of
Avignon as aliens, who, besides, were there sur-
rounded with powerful princes, to whose caprice
they were often obliged to yield, and to make con-
decensions prejudicial to the authority they had
usurped. This circumstance, joined to the lapse
of nearly seventy years, made the residence at
Avignon be stigmatized by the Italians, under
the name of the Babylonish Captivity. It occa-
sioned also the diminution of the papal authority
at Rome, and in the Ecclesiastical States. The
Italians, no longer restrained by the presence of
the sovereign pontiffs, yielded but a reluctant obe-
dience, to their representatives; while the remem-
brance of their ancient republicanism induced them
to lend a docile ear to those who preached up in-
surrection and revolt. The historian Rienzi in-
forms us, that one Nicolas Gabrini, a man of great
eloquence, and whose audacity was equal to his
ambition, took advantage of these republican pro-
pensities of the Romans, to constitute himself
master of the city, under the popular title of Tri-
bune (1347). He projected the scheme of a new
government, called the Good Estate, which he
pretended would obtain the acceptation of all the
princes and republics of Italy; but the despotic
power which he exercised over the citizens, whose
liberator and lawgiver he affected to be, soon re-
duced him to his original insignificance; and the
PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 279
city of Rome again assumed its ancient form of
government. Meantime the Popes did not re-
cover their former authority; most of the cities
and states of the Ecclesiastical dominions, after
having been long a prey to faction and discord,
fell under the power of the nobles, who made an
easy conquest of them ; scarcely leaving to the
Pope a vestige of the sovereign authority. It re-
quired all the insidious policy of Alexander VI.,
and the vigilant activity of Julius II., to repair
the injury which the territorial influence of the
Pontiffs had suffered from their residence at Avig-
Il()]].
Another circumstance that contributed to hum-
ble the papal authority, was the schisms which
rent the Church, towards the end of the fourteenth,
and beginning of the fifteenth century. Gregory
XI., who had abandoned Avignon for Rome, be-
ing dead (1378), the Italians elected a Pope of
their own nation, who took the name of Urban VI.,
and fixed his residence at Rome. The French
cardinals, on the other hand, declared in favour of
the Cardinal Robert of Geneva, known by the
name of Clement VII, who fixed his capital at
Avignon. The whole of Christendom was divided
between these two Popes; and this grand schism
continued from 1378 till 1417. At Rome, Urban
VI. was succeeded by Boniface IX, Innocent VII.,
and Gregory XII. ; while Clement VII. had Be-
medict XIII. for his successor at Avignon. In
order to terminate this schism, every expedient
was tried to induce the rival Popes to give in
their abdication; but both having refused, seve-
ral of the Cardinals withdrew their allegiance, and
Z 2 -
280 CHAPTER VI.
assembled a council at Pisa (1409), where the
two refractory Popes were deposed, and the ponti-
fical dignity conferred on Alexander V., who was
afterwards succeeded by John XXIII. This elec-
tion of the council only tended to increase the
schism. Instead of two Popes, there arose three;
and if his Pisan Holiness gained partisans, the
Popes of Rome and Avignon contrived also to
maintain each a number of supporters. All these
Popes, wishing to maintain their rank and dignity
with that splendour and magnificence which their
predecessors had displayed before the schism, set
themselves to invent new means of oppressing the
people; hence the immense number of abuses and
exactions, which subverted the discipline of the
church, and roused the exasperated nations against
the court of Rome.
A new General Council was convoked at Con-
stance (1414) by order of the Emperor Sigis-
mund; and it was there that the maxim of the
unity and permanency of Councils was established,
as well as of its superiority over the Pope, in all that
pertains to matters of faith, to the extirpation of
schism, and the reformation of the church, both in
its supreme head, and in its subordinate members,
The grand schism was here terminated by the ab-
dication of the Roman pontiff, and the deposition
of those of Pisa and Avignon. It was this famous
council that gave their decision against John Huss,
the Reformer of Bohemia, and a follower of the
celebrated Wickliff. His doctrines were con-
demned, and he himself burnt at Constance ; as
was Jerome of Prague, one of his most zealous
partisans. As to the measures that were taken at
Constance for effecting the reformation of the
PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 281
Church, they practically ended in nothing. As
their main object was to reform the Court of
Rome, by suppressing or limiting the new prero-
gatives which the Popes for several centuries had
usurped, and which referred, among other things,
to the subject of benefices and pecuniary exactions,
all those who had an interest in maintaining these
abuses, instantly set themselves to defeat the pro-
posed amendments, and elude redress. The Coun-
cil had formed a committee, composed of the
deputies of different nations, to advise means for
accomplishing this reformation, which the whole
world so ardently desired. This committee, known
by the name of the College of Reformers, had al-
ready made considerable progress in their task,
when a question was started, Whether it was pro-
per to proceed to any reformation without the
consent and cooperation of the visible Head of the
Church 2. It was carried in the negative, through
the intrigues of the cardinals; and, before they
could accomplish this salutary work of reforma-
tion, the election of a new Pope had taken place
(1417). The choice fell on Otho de Colonna,
who assumed the name of Martin V., and in
conformity with a previous decision of the council,
he then laid before them a scheme of reform.
This proceeding having been disapproved by the
different nations of Europe, the whole matter was
remitted to the next council; and in the mean-
while, they did nothing more than pass some con-
cordats, with the new Pope, as to what steps they
should take until the decision of the approaching
Council.
This new council, which was assembled at Basle
(1431) by Martin V., resumed the suspended work
282 CHAPTER VI,
of reformation. The former decrees, that a Gene-
ral Council was superior to the Pope, and could
not be dissolved or prorogued except by their own
free consent, were here renewed ; and the greater
part of the reserves, reversions, annats, and other
exactions of the Popes, were regularly abolished.
The liberty of appeals to the Court of Rome, was
also circumscribed. Eugenius IV., successor to
Martin V., alarmed at the destruction thus aimed
at his authority, twice proclaimed the dissolution
of the Council. The first dissolution, which oc-
curred on the 17th of December 1431, was revok-
ed, at the urgent application of the Emperor Si-
gismund, by a bull of the same Pope, issued on
the 15th of December 1433. In this he acknow-
ledged the validity of the Council, and annulled
all that he had formerly done to invalidate its au-
thority. The second dissolution took place on
the 1st of October 1437. Eugenius then trans-
ferred the Council to Ferrara, and from Ferrara to
Florence, on pretext of his negotiating a union with
the Greek church. This conduct of the Pope
occasioned a new schism. The prelates who re-
mained at Basle, instituted a procedure against
him; they first suspended him for contumacy, and
finally deposed him. Amadeus VIII., Ex-duke of
Saxony, was elected in his place, under the name
of Felix V., and recognised by all the partisans of
the Council as the legitimate Pope. This latter
schism lasted ten years. Felix V. at length gave
in his demission; and the Council, which had with-
drawn from Basle to Lausanne, terminated its
sittings in 1449. $$.
The French nation adopted several of the de-
crees of the Council of Basle in the famous Prag-
PERIoD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 283
matic Sanction, which Charles VII. caused to be
drawn up at Bourges (1438); and whose stipulations
served as the basis of what is called the Liberties of
the Gallican Church. The example of the French
was speedily followed by the Germans, who ac-
ceded to these decrees, at the Diet of Mayence in
1439. The Court of Rome at length regained
a part of those honourable and lucrative rights of
which the Council of Basle had deprived them, by
the concordats which the Germans concluded
(1448) with Nicholas V., and the French (1516)
with Leo X. The Councils of which we have
now spoken, tended materially to limit the exor-
bitant power of the Roman pontiffs, by giving
sanction to the principle which established the su.
periority of General Councils over the Popes. This
maxim put a check to the enterprising ambition of
the Court of Rome; and kings availed themselves
of it to recover by degrees the prerogatives of their
crowns. The Popes, moreover, sensible of their
weakness, and of the need they had for the pro-
tection of the sovereigns, learned to treat them with
more attention and respect.
At length the new light which began to dawn
about the fourteenth century, hastened on the pro-
gress of this revolution, by gradually dissipating
the darkness of superstition into which the na-
tions of Europe were almost universally sunk. In
the midst of the distractions which agitated the
Empire and the Church, and during the papal
schism, several learned and intrepid men made
their appearance, who, while investigating the origin
and abuse of the new power of the Popes, had the
courage to revive the doctrine of the ancient can-
ons, to enlighten the minds of sovereigns as to
284. CHAPTER VI.
their true rights, and to examine with care into
the just limits of the sacerdotal authority. Among
the first of these reformers was John of Paris, a
famous Dominican, who undertook the defence of
Philip the Fair, King of France, against Pope
Boniface VIII. His example was followed by the
celebrated poet Dante Alighieri, who took the
part of the Emperor Louis of Bavaria against the
Court of Rome. Marsilo de Padua, John de Jan-
duno, William Ockam, Leopold de Babenberg, &c.
marched in the track of the Italian poet; and a-
mong the crowd of writers that signalized them-
selves after the grand schism, three French authors
particularly distinguished themselves, Peter d'Ail-
ly, Nicholas de Clemange, and John Gerson, whose
writings met with general applause. Most of these
literary productions, however, were characterized
by bad taste. The philosophy of Aristotle, stu-
died in Arabic translations, and disfigured by scho-
lastic subtleties, reigned in all the schools, impo-
sed its fetters on the human mind, and nearly ex-
tinguished every vestige of useful knowledge. The
belles lettres were quite neglected, and as yet had
shed no lustre on the sciences. Sometimes, how-
ever, genius broke with a transient splendour
through the darkness of this moral horizon; and
several extraordinary persons, despising the vain
cavils of the schools, began to study truth in the
volume of nature, and to copy after the beautiful
models of antiquity. Such was Roger Bacon
(1294), an Englishman, and a Franciscan friar,
who has become so famous by his discoveries in
chemistry and mechanical philosophy. Dante
(1231), nurtured in the spirit of the ancients,
was the first that undertook to refine the Italian
PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 285
language into poetry, and gave it the polish of ele-
gance and grace in his compositions. He was suc-
ceeded by two other celebrated authors, Petrarca
and Boccacio (1374–5).
The period of which we speak gave birth to se-
veral new inventions, which proved useful auxi-
liaries to men of genius, and tended to accelerate
the progress of knowledge, letters, and arts. A-
mong the principal of these may be mentioned the
invention of writing paper, oil-painting, printing,
gunpowder, and the mariner's compass ; to the
effects of which, Europe, in a great measure, owes
its civilization, and the new order of things which
appeared in the fifteenth century.
Before the invention of paper from linen, parch-
ment was generally used in Europe for the tran-
scribing of books, or the drawing out of public
deeds. Cotton paper, which the Arabs brought
from the East, was but a poor remedy for the
scarceness and dearth of parchment. It would ap-
pear, that the invention of paper from linen, and
the custom of using it in Europe, is not of older
date than the thirteenth century. The famous
Montfaucon acknowledges, that, in spite of all his
researches, both in France and Italy, he could ne-
ver find any manuscript or charter, written on our
ordinary paper, older than the year 1270, the time
when St Louis died. The truth is, we know nei-
ther the exact date of the invention of this sort of
paper, nor the name of the inventor. " It is cer-
tain, however, that the manufacture of paper from
cotton must have introduced that of paper from
linen; and the only question is, to determine at
what time the use of linen became so common in
Europe, as to lead us to suppose they might con-
286 CHAPTER v I.
vert its rags into paper. The cultivation of hemp
and flax being originally peculiar to the northern
countries, it is probable that the first attempts at
making paper of linen rags were made in Germa-
ny, and the countries abounding in flax and hemp,
rather than in the southern provinces of Europe.
The most ancient manufactory of paper from linen
to be met with in Germany, was established at
Nuremberg (1390).
The invention of oil-painting is generally ascri-
bed to the two brothers Van-Eick, the younger of
whom, known by the name of John of Bruges,
had gained considerable celebrity about the end of
the fourteenth century. There is, however, rea-
son to believe that this invention is of an older
date. There are two authors who have carried it
back to the eleventh century, viz. Theophilus and
Eraclius, whose works in manuscript have been
preserved in the library at Wolffenbüttel, and in
that of Trinity College, Cambridge; and who speak
of this art as already known in their times. Ac-
cording to them, all sorts of colours could be mix-
ed up with linseed oil, and employed in painting;
but they agree as to the inconvenience of applying
this kind of painting to images or portraits, on ac-
count of the difficulty in drying colours mixed with
oil. Admitting the credibility of these two au-
thors, and the high antiquity of their works, it
would appear, nevertheless, that they made no
great use of this invention; whether it may be
that painters preferred to retain their former mode,
or that the difficulty of drying oil colours had dis-
couraged them. It is, however, too true, that the
finest inventions have often languished in unmerit-
ed neglect, long before men had learned to reap
PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 287
any adequate advantage from them. Were the
Van-Eicks the first that practised this style of
painting P Or did John of Bruges, the younger
of the brothers, and who carried it to the highest
degree of perfection, invent some mixture or com-
position for increasing the exsiccative qualities of
linseed or nut oil; especially with regard to co-
lours not easily dried ? It belongs to connoisseurs
and artists to examine these questions, as well as
to decide whether the pictures, alleged to have
been painted in oil-colours before the time of the
Wan-Eicks, were executed with any degree of per-
fection in that style of painting." This invention
totally changed the system and the principles of
the art of painting. It gave birth to rules as to
light and shade, and procured modern painters one
advantage over the ancients, that of rendering their
works much more durable.
One of the most important inventions is that of
printing; which was borrowed, it would appear,
from the art of engraving on wood; while this lat-
ter owes its origin to the moulding or imprinting
of common cards, which seems to have suggested
the first idea of it. The use of cards was borrowed
from Italy; though we find this custom established
in Germany soon after the commencement of the
fourteenth century, where card-makers formed a
distinct trade, about four and twenty years before
the invention of printing. It is probable that the
Germans were the first who designed models and
proper casts for the impression of cards.” The
desire of gain, suggested to these card-makers the
idea of engraving on wood, after the same man-
ner, all kinds of figures or scenes from Sacred His-
VOL. I. 2 A
288 CHAPTER VI,
tory, accompanied with legends, or narratives, in-
tended to explain their meaning. It was from
these legends, printed in single folios, and publish-
ed also in the form of books, or rather of impres-
sions from engravings on solid blocks of wood,
that the art of typography took its origin. 8 This
wonderful art, to which Europe owes its astonish-
ing progress in the sciences, consists of two distinct
inventions,—that of the moveable types, and that of
the font. The former belongs to John Gutenberg,
a gentleman of Mayence, who made his first at-
tempt in moveable types at Strasburg, in 1436;
the other, which is generally attributed to Peter
Schoeffer of Gernsheim, took place at Mayence in
1452. Gutenberg resided at Strasburg from 1424
till 1445. Being a noble senator of that city, he
married a lady of rank; and during the twenty
years of his residence there, he cultivated all sorts
of occult arts, especially that of printing. It was
chiefly in reference to this latter art that he con-
tracted an acquaintance with several of his wealthy
fellow-citizens, one of whom, named Andrew
Drizehn, having died, his heirs brought an action
against Gutenberg on account of some claims
which they laid to his charge. The magistrate
ordered an inquiry to be instituted, the original
copy of which, drawn up in 1439, was discovered
by Schoepflin (1745) in the archives of the city,
and is still preserved in the public library at Stras-
burg. According to this authentic document, it
appears, that from the year 1436, there existed a
printing-press at Strasburg, under the direction of
Gutenberg, and in the house of Andrew Drizehn,
his associate; that this press consisted of forms,
that were fastened or locked by means of screws;
PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 289
and that the types, either cut or engraved, which
were enclosed within these forms, were moveable.”
Gutenberg, after his return to Mayence, still
continued his typographical labours. While there,
he contracted an acquaintance with a new asso-
ciate in the exercise of his art (1445)—the famous
John Faust, a citizen of Mayence. This second
alliance continued only five years; and it is with-
in this interval, as is generally supposed, that the
invention of the font, or casting of types, should
be placed; as well as that of the die and the mould
or matrix, by the help of which the art of typo-
graphy was brought nearly to its present state of
perfection.” Some disputes, which had arisen be-
tween these new associates, having dissolved their
partnership, Faust obtained the press of Guten-
berg, with all its printing apparatus, which had
fallen to him by sequestration. Gutenberg, how-
ever, fitted up another press, and continued to
print till the time of his death, in 1468. Not
one of the books which issued from the press of
this celebrated man, either at Strasburg or Mayence,
bears the name of the inventor, or the date of the
impression ; whether it was that Gutenberg made
a secret of his invention, or that the prejudices at
the cast to which he belonged prevented him from
boasting of his discovery. * Faust, on the con-
trary, no sooner saw himself master of Gutenberg's
presses, than he became ambitious of notoriety,
an example of which he gave by prefixing his name
and that of Peter Schoeffer to the famous Psalter,
which they published in 1457. -
The arts of which we have just spoken, in all
probability, suggested the idea of engraving on
Copper, of which we can discover certain traces
290 CHAPTER VI.
towards the middle of the fifteenth century. The
honour of this invention is generally ascribed to a
goldsmith of Florence, named Maso Finiguerra,
who is supposed to have made this discovery about
the year 1460, while engraving figures on silver-
plate. Baccio Baldini, another Florentine, An-
drew Montegna, and Mark Antony Raimondi,
both Italians, followed in the steps of Finiguerra,
and brought this art to a high degree of perfection.
There is, however, some cause to doubt whether
Finiguerra was exactly the first to whom the idea
of this sort of engraving occurred; since, in differ-
ent cabinets in Europe, we find specimens of en-
graving on copper, of a date earlier than what has
been assigned to Finiguerra. If, however, the
glory of this invention belongs in reality to the
Italians, it is quite certain that the art of engrav-
ing on copper, as well as on wood, was cultivated
from its infancy, and brought to perfection, in Ger-
many. The first native engravers in that country
who are known, either by their names or their
signatures, in the fifteenth century, were Martin
Schoen, a painter and engraver at Colmar, where
he died in 1486; the two Israels Von Mecheln,
father and son, who resided at Bockholt, in West-
phalia; and Michael Wolgemuth of Nuremberg,
the master of the celebrated Albert Durer, who
made so conspicuous a figure about the end of the
fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century.
Next to the invention of printing, there is no
other that so much arrests our attention as that of
gunpowder, which, by introducing artillery, and a
new method of fortifying, attacking, and defending
cities, wrought a complete change in the whole
art and tactics of war. This invention comprises
PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 291
several discoveries which it is necessary to dis-
tinguish from each other. (I.) The discovery of
nitre, the principal ingredient in gunpowder, and
the cause of its detonation. (2.) The mixture of
nitre with sulphur and charcoal, which, properly
speaking, forms the invention of gunpowder. (3.)
The application of powder to fire-works. (4.) Its
employment as an agent or propelling power for
throwing stones, bullets, or other heavy and com-
bustible bodies. (5.) Its employment in springing
mines, and destroying fortifications.
All these discoveries belong to different e-
pochs. The knowledge of saltpetre or nitre,
and its explosive properties, called detonation,
is very ancient. Most probably it was brought
to us from the East (India or China), where
Salpetre is found in a natural state of prepar-
ation. It is not less probable that the nations
of the East were acquainted with the composition
of gunpowder before the Europeans, and that it
was the Arabs who first introduced the use of it
into Europe. The celebrated Roger Bacon, an
English monk or friar of the thirteenth century,
was acquainted with the composition of powder,
and its employment in fire-works and public fes-
tivities; and according to all appearances, he ob-
tained this information from the Arabic authors,
who excelled in their skill of the chemical sciences.
The employment of gunpowder in Europe as an
agent for throwing balls and stones, is ascertained
to have been about the commencement of the
fourteenth century; and it was the Arabs who
first availed themselves of its advantages in their
Wars against the Spaniards. From Spain the use
2 A 2
292 CHAPTER VI.
of gunpowder and artillery passed to France, and
thence it gradually extended over the other States
of Europe. As to the application of powder to
mines, and the destruction of fortified works, it
does not appear to have been in practice before
the end of the fifteenth century. ** The intro-
duction of bombs and mortars seems to have been
of an earlier date (1467). The invention of these
in Europe, is attributed to Sigismund Pandolph
Malatesta, Prince of Rimini; but in France they
were not in use till about the reign of Louis XIII.
Muskets and matchlocks began to be introduced
early in the fifteenth century. They were with-
out spring-locks till 1517, when for the first time
muskets and pistols with spring-locks were manu-
factured at Nuremberg.
Several circumstances tended to check the pro-
gress of fire-arms and the improvement of artillery.
Custom made most people prefer their ancient
engines of war; the construction of canons was
but imperfect; 3 the manufacture of gunpowder
bad; and there was a very general aversion to the
newly invented arms, as contrary to humanity,
and calculated to extinguish military bravery.
Above all, the knights, whose science was render-
ed completely useless by the introduction of fire-
arms, set themselves with all their might to op-
pose this invention.
From what we have just said it is obvious, that
the common tradition which ascribes the invention
of gunpowder to a certain monk, named Berthold
Schwartz, merits no credit whatever. This tra.
dition is founded on mere hearsay; and no writers
agree as to the name, the country, or the circum-
stances of this pretended inventor; nor as to the
PERIOD v. A. D. 1360–1453. 293
time and place when he made this extraordinary
discovery. Lastly, the mariner's compass, so
essential to the art of navigation, was likewise the
production of the barbarous ages to which we
now refer. The ancients were aware of the pro-
perty of the magnet to attract iron ; but its direc-
tion towards the pole, and the manner of com-
municating its magnetic virtues to iron and steel,
were unknown even to all those nations of anti-
quity who were renowned for their navigation and
commerce. This discovery is usually attributed
to a citizen of Amalfi, named Flavio Gioia, who is
said to have lived about the beginning of the four-
teenth century. This tradition, ancient though it
be, cannot be admitted, because we have incontest-
able evidence that, before this period, the polarity
of the loadstone and the magnetic needle were
known in Europe; and that, from the commence-
ment of the thirteenth century, the Provençal ma-
riners made use of the compass in navigation.”
It must be confessed, however, that we can
neither point out the original author of this valu-
able discovery, nor the true time when it was
made. All that can be well ascertained is, that
the mariner's compass was rectified by degrees;
and that the English had no small share in these
corrections. It is to this polar virtue or qua-
lity of the loadstone, and the magnetic needle,
that we owe the astonishing progress of commerce
and navigation in Europe, from the end of the
fifteenth century. These were already very con-
siderable at the time of which we speak, although
navigation was as yet confined to the Mediter-
ranean, the Baltic, and the shores of the Indian
Ocean.
294, CHAPTER VI.
The cities of Italy, the Hanseatic towns, and
those of the Low Countries, engrossed, at that
time, the principal commerce of Europe. The
Venetians, the Genoese, and the Florentines, were
masters of the Levant. The Genoese had more
especially the command of the Black Sea, while
the Venetians laid claim exclusively to the com-
merce of India and the East, which they carried on
through the ports of Egypt and Syria. This rivalry
in trade embroiled these two republics in frequent
disputes, and involved them in long and sanguinary
wars. The result turned in favour of the Vene-
tians, who found means to maintain the empire of
the Mediterranean against the Genoese. The ma-
nufactories of silk, after having passed from Greece
into Sicily, and from Sicily into the other parts of
Italy, at length fixed their principal residence at
Venice. This city came at length to furnish the
greater part of Europe with silk mercery, and the
productions of Arabia and India. The Italian
merchants, commonly known by the name of Lom-
bards, extended their traffic through all the different
states of Europe. Favoured by the privileges and
immunities which various sovereigns had granted
them, they soon became masters of the commerce
and the current money of every country where
they established themselves; and, in all probabili-
ty, they were the first that adopted the practice of
Letters or Bills of Exchange, of which we may
discover traces towards the middle of the thirteenth
century.
The Hanseatic League, which the maritime
cities on the Baltic had formed in the thirteenth
century, for the protection of their commerce
against pirates and brigands, gained very consider-
PERIOD. v. A. D. 1300–1453. 295
able accessions of strength in the following century,
and even became a very formidable maritime power.
A great number of the commercial cities of the
Empire, from the Scheld and the isles of Zealand,
to the confines of Livonia, entered successively
into this League; and many towns in the interior,
in order to enjoy their protection, solicited the fa-
vour of being admitted under its flag. The first
public act of a general confederation among these
cities, was drawn up at the assembly of their de-
puties, held at Cologne, in 1364. The whole of the
allied towns were subdivided into quarters or cir-
cles; the most ancient of which were the Venedian
quarter, containing the southern and eastern coasts
of the Baltic ; the Westphalian, for the towns on
the western side ; and the Saxon, comprehending
the inland and intermediate towns. A fourth cir-
cle or quarter was afterwards added, that of the
cities of Prussia and Livonia. The boundaries of
these different circles and their capital towns varied
from time to time. The general assemblies of the
League were held regularly every three years, in
the city of Lubec, which was considered as the
capital of the whole League; while each of the
three or four circles had also their particular or
provincial assemblies.
The most flourishing epoch of this League was
about the end of the fourteenth and the early part
of the fifteenth century. At that time, the depu-
ties of more than four score cities appeared at its
assemblies; and even some towns who had not the
privilege of sending deputies were, nevertheless,
regarded as allies of the League. Having the com-
mand of the whole commerce of the Baltic, their
cities exercised at their pleasure the rights of peace
296 CHAPTER v1.
and war, and even of forming alliances. They
equipped numerous and powerful fleets, and offered
battle to the sovereigns of the North, whenever
they presumed to interfere with their monopoly,
or to restrict the privileges and exemptions which
they had had the weakness to grant them. The pro-
ductions of the North, such as hemp, flax, timber,
potash, tar, corn, hides, furs, and copper, with the
produce of the large and small fisheries on the
coasts of Schonen, Norway, Lapland, and Iceland,”
formed the staple of the Hanseatic commerce.
They exchanged these commodities, in the western
parts of Europe, for wines, fruits, drugs, and all
sorts of cloths, which they carried back to the
North in return. Their principal factories and
warehouses, were at Bruges for Flanders, at Lon-
don for England, at Novogorod for Russia, and at
Bergen for Norway. The merchandise of Italy and
the East was imported into Flanders, in Genoese
or Venetian bottoms, which, at that time, carried
on most of the commerce of the Levant and the
Mediterranean.
Extensive as the trade of the Hanseatic cities
was, it proved neither solid nor durable. As they
were themselves deficient in the articles of raw
materials and large manufactories, and entirely de-
pendent on foreign traffic, the industry of other na-
tions, especially of those skilled in the arts, had a
ruinous effect on their commerce; and, in course
of time, turned the current of merchandise into
other channels. Besides, the want of union among
these cities, their faetions and intestine divisions,
and their distance from each other, prevented them
from ever forming a territorial or colonial power,
or obtaining possession of the Sound, which alone
PERIoD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 297
was able to secure them the exclusive commerce
of the Baltic. The sovereigns of Europe, perceiv-
ing at length more clearly their true interests, and
sensible of the mistake they had committed in sur-
rendering the whole commerce of their kingdom
to the Hanseatic merchants, used every means
to limit and abridge their privileges more and
more. This, in consequence, involved the con-
federate towns in several destructive wars with
the Kings of the North, which exhausted their
finances, and induced one city after another
to abandon the League. The English and the
Dutch, encouraged by the Danish Kings, took
advantage of this favourable opportunity to send
their vessels to the Baltic; and by degrees they
appropriated to themselves the greater part of the
trade that had been engrossed by the Hanseatic
Union. But what is of more importance to re-
mark, is, that this League, as well as that of Lom-
bardy, having been formed in consequence of the
state of anarchy into which the Empire had fallen
in the middle ages, the natural result was, that
it should lose its credit and its influence in pro-
portion as the feudal anarchy declined, and when
the administration of the Empire had assumed a
new form, and the landed nobility, emboldened by
the accessions which the seventeenth century had
made to their power, had found means to compel
their dependent cities to return to their allegiance,
after having made repeated efforts to throw off
their authority, encouraged as they were by the
protection which the League held out to them.
In this manner did the famous Hanseatic
League, so formidable at the time of which we
now speak, decline by degrees during the course of
298 CHAPTER VI,
the seventeenth century, and in the early part of
the eighteenth; and during the Thirty Years War
it became entirely extinct. The cities of Lubec,
Hamburg and Bremen, abandoned by all their
confederates, entered into a new union for the
interests of their commerce, and preserved the an-
cient custom of treating in common with foreign
powers, under the name of the Hanse Towns.
The cities of Italy and the North were not the
only ones that made commerce their pursuit in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Ghent, Bru-
ges, Antwerp, and other towns in the Nether-
lands, contributed greatly to the prosperity of trade
by their manufactures of cloth, cotton, camlets,
and tapestry; articles with which they supplied the
greater part of Europe. The English exchanged
their raw wool with the Belgians, for the finished
manufactures of their looms, while the Italians fur-
mished them with the productions of the Levant,
and the silk stuffs of India. Nothing is more sur-
prising than the immense population of these ci-
ties, whose wealth and affluence raised their rulers
to the rank of the most powerful princes in Eu-
rope. The city of Bruges was, as it were, the
centre and principal repository for the merchan-
dise of the North and the South. Such an entre-
pôt was necessary, at a time when navigation was
yet in its infancy. For this purpose, Flanders and
Brabant were extremely proper, as these provinces
had an easy communication with all the principal
nations of the Continent; and as the great number
of their manufactories, together with the abun-
dance of fish which their rivers afforded, naturally
attracted a vast concourse of foreign traders. This
superiority, as the commercial capital of the Low
PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 299
Countries, Bruges retained till nearly the end of
the fifteenth century, when it lost this preponde-
rance, which was then transferred to the city of
Antwerp.
The intestine dissensions with which the cities of
Flanders and Brabant were agitated, the restraints
which were incessantly imposed on their com-
merce, and the frequent wars which desolated the
Low Countries, induced, from time to time, a
great many Flemish operatives about the four-
teenth century, and the reign of Edward III., to
take refuge in England, where they established
their cloth manufactories under the immediate pro-
tection of the crown. One circumstance which
more particularly contributed to the prosperity of
the Dutch commerce, was the new method of
salting and barrelling herring, which was disco-
vered about the end of the fourteenth century
(or 1400) by a man named William Beukelszoon,
a native of Biervliet, near Sluys. The new passage
of the Texel, which the sea opened up about the
same time, proved a most favourable accident for
the city of Amsterdam, which immediately mono-
polized the principal commerce of the fisheries,
and began to be frequented by the Hanseatic
traders.
We now return to the history of Germany. The
Imperial throne, always elective, was conferred, in
1308, on the princes of the House of Luxem-
bourg, who occupied it till 1438, when the House
of Hapsburg obtained the Imperial dignity. It
was under the reign of these two dynasties that
the government of the Empire, which till then had
been vacillating and uncertain, began to assume a
VOL. I. 2 B
300 CHAPTER VI.
constitutional form, and a new and settled code of
laws. That which was published at the Diet of
Frankfort in 1338, secured the independence of
the Empire against the Popes. It was preceded
by a League, ratified at Rensé by the Electors,
and known by the name of the General Union of
the Electors. The Golden Bull, drawn up by the
Emperor Charles IV. (1356), in the Diets of Nu-
remberg and Metz, fixed the order and the form
of electing the Emperors, and the ceremonial of
their coronation. It ordained that this election
should be determined by a majority of the suf-
frages of the seven Electors—and that the vote of
the Elector, who might happen to be chosen,
should also be included. Moreover, to prevent
those electoral divisions, which had more than
once excited factions and civil wars in the Em-
pire, this law fixed irrevocably the right of suffrage
in the Principalities, then entitled Electorates. It
forbade any division of these principalities, and for
this end it introduced the principle of birth-right,
and the order of succession, called agnate, or di-
rect male line from the same father. Finally, the
Golden Bull determined more particularly the
rights and privileges of the electors, and confirm-
ed to the electors of the Palatinate and Saxony
the viceroyalty or government of the Empire dur-
ing any interregnum.
The efforts which the Council of Basle made for
the reformation of the church excited the attention
of the Etates of the empire. In a diet held at
Mayence (1439), they adopted several decrees of
that council, by a solemn act drawn up in presence
of the ambassadors of the council, and of the kings
Qf France, Castille, Arragon, and Portugal. A-
PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 301
mong these adopted decrees, which were not af-
terwards altered, we observe those which establish
the superiority of councils above the Popes, which
prohibited those appeals called omisso medio, or
immediate, and enjoined the Pope to settle all ap- .
peals referred to his court, by commissioners ap-
pointed by him upon the spot. Two concordats,
concluded at Rome and Vienna (1447–48), be-
tween the Papal court and the German nation,
confirmed these stipulations. The latter of these
concordats, however, restored to the Pope several
of the reserves, of which the Pragmatic Sanction
had deprived him. He was also allowed to retain
the right of confirming the prelates, and enjoying
the annats and the alternate months.
The ties which united the numerous states of
the German empire having been relaxed by the in.
troduction of hereditary feudalism, and the down-
fal of the Imperial authority, the consequence was,
that those states, which were more remote from
the seat of authority, by degrees asserted their in-
dependence, or were reduced to subjection by their
more powerful neighbours. It was in this man-
ner that several provinces of the ancient kingdom
of Burgundy, or Arles, passed in succession to the
crown of France. Philip the Fair, taking advan-
tage of the disputes which had arisen between the
Archbishop and the citizens of Lyons, obliged the
Archbishop, Peter de Savoy, to surrender to him
by treaty (1312) the sovereignty of the city and
its dependencies. The same kingdom acquired the
province of Dauphiny, in virtue of the grant which
the last Dauphin, Humbert II., made (1349) of
his estates to Charles, grandson of Philip de Va-
lois, and first Dauphin of France. Provence was
302 -- CHAPTER VI.
likewise added (1481) to the dominions of that
crown, by the testament of Charles, last Count of
Provence, of the House of Anjou. As to the city
of Avignon, it was sold (1348) by Joan I., Queen
of Naples, and Countess of Provence, to Pope
Clement VI., who at the same time obtained let-
ters-patent from the Emperor Charles IV, renoun-
cing the claims of the Empire to the sovereignty of
that city, as well as to all lands belonging to the
Church.
A most important revolution happened about
this time in Switzerland. That country, formerly
dependent upon the kingdom of Burgundy, had
become an immediate province of the Empire
(1218), on the extinction of the Dukes of Zah-
ringen, who had governed it under the title of Re-
gents. About the beginning of the fourteenth cen-
tury, Switzerland was divided into a number of
petty states, both secular and ecclesiastical. Among
these we find the Bishop of Basle, the Abbé of
St Gall, the Counts of Hapsburg, Toggenburg,
Savoy, Gruyeres, Neufchatel, Werdenberg, Bu-
check, &c. The towns of Zurich, Soleure, Basle,
Berne, and others, had the rank of free and im-
perial cities. A part of the inhabitants of Uri,
Schweitz, and Underwalden, who held immediate-
ly of the Empire, were governed by their own
magistrates, under the title of Cantons. They
were placed by the Emperor under the jurisdiction
of governors, who exercised, in his name and that
of the Empire, the power of the sword in all these
cantons. Such was the constitution of Switzer-
land, when the Emperor Albert I. of Austria, son
of Rodolph of Hapsburg, conceived the project of
extending his dominion in that country, where he
PERIolo v. A. D. 1300–1453. 303
already had considerable possessions, in his capa-
city of Count of Hapsburg, Kyburg, Baden, and
Lentzburg. Being desirous of forming Switzer-
land into a principality, in favour of one of his
sons, he made, in course of time, several new ac-
quisitions of territory, with the view of enlarging
his estates. The Abbeys of Murbach, Einsiedel,
Interlaken, and Disentis, and the Canons of Lu-
cerne, sold him their rights and possessions in Gla-
ris, Lucerne, Schwietz, and Underwalden. He
next directed his policy against the three imme-
diate cantons of Uri, Schweitz, and Underwalden ;
and endeavoured to make them acknowledge the
superiority of Austria, by tolerating the oppres-
sions which the governors exercised, whom he had
appointed to rule them in the name of the Em-
pire. It was under these circumstances that three
intrepid individuals, Werner de Stauffach, a native
of the canton of Schweitz, Walter Fürst of Uri,
and Arnold de Melchthal of Underwalden, took
the resolution of delivering their country from the
tyranny of a foreign yoke.” The conspiracy which
they formed for this purpose, broke out on the 1st
of January 1308. The governors, surprised in
their castles by the conspirators, were banished
the country, and their castles razed to the ground.
The deputies of the three cantons assembled, and
entered into a league of ten years for the mainte-
nance of their liberties and their privileges; re-
serving however to the Empire its proper rights, as
also those claimed by the superiors, whether lay
or ecclesiastical. Thus a conspiracy, which was
originally turned only against Austria, terminated
in withdrawing Switzerland from the sovereignty
2 B 2
304 CHAPTER VI.
of the German empire. The victory which the
confederates gained over the Austrians at Mor-
garten, on the borders of the canton of Schweitz,
encouraged them to renew their league at Brun-
men (1315); and to render it perpetual. As it was
confirmed by oath, the confederates, from this cir-
cumstance, got the name of Eidgenossen, which
means, bound by oath. This league became hence-
forth the basis of the federal system of the Swiss,
who were not long in strengthening their cause by
the accession of other cantons. The city of Lu-
cerne, having shaken off the yoke of Hapsburg,
joined the League of Brunnen in 1332, Zurich in
1351, Glaris and Zug in 1353, and Berne in 1355.
These formed the eight ancient cantons.
The situation of the confederates, however, could
not fail to be very embarrassing, so long as the
Austrians retained the vast possessions which they
had in the very centre of Switzerland. The pro-
scription which the Emperor Sigismund and the
Council of Constance, issued against Frederic, Duke
of Austria (1415), as an adherent and protector
of John XXIII., at length furnished the Swiss with
a favourable occasion for depriving the house of
Austria of their possessions. The Bernese were the
first to set the example; they took from the Aus.
trian Dukes, the towns of Zoffingen, Arau, and
Bruck, with the counties of Hapsburg and Lentz-
burg, and the greater part of Aargau. Kyburg
fell into the hands of the Zurichers; the Lucernese
made themselves masters of Sursée; and the free
bailiwicks, with the county of Baden, the towns
of Mellingen and Bremgarten, were subdued by
the combined forces of the ancient cantons, who,
since then, have possessed them in common.
PERIod v. A. D. 1300–1453. 305
In the kingdom of Lorraine a new power rose
about this time (1363), that of the Dukes of Bur-
gundy. Philip the Hardy, younger son of John
the Good, King of France, having been created
Duke of Burgundy by the King his father, married
Margaret, daughter and heiress of Louis III.,
last Count of Flanders. By this marriage he ob-
tained Flanders, Artois, Frenche-Comté, Nevers,
Rethel, Malines, and Antwerp, and transmitted
these estates to his son John the Fearless, and his
grandson Philip the Good. This latter prince in-
creased them still more by several new acquisitions.
The Count of Namur sold him his whole patrimony,
(1428). He inherited from his cousin Philip of
Burgundy, the duchies of Brabant and Limbourg,
(1430). Another cousin, the famous Jaqueline de
Bavaria, made over to him by treaty (1433) the
counties of Hainault, Holland, Zealand, and Fries-
land. Finally, he acquired also the duchy of
Luxembourg and the county of Chiny, by a com-
pact which he made with the Princess Elizabeth
(1443), niece of the Emperor Sigismund. These
different accessions were so much the more impor-
tant, as the Low Countries, especially Flanders and
Brabant, were at that time the seat of the most
flourishing manufactories, and the principal mart
of European commerce. Hence it happened, that
the Dukes of Burgundy began to compete with the
first powers in Europe, and even to rival the Kings
of France.
Among the principal reigning families of the
Empire, several revolutions took place. The an-
cient Slavonic dynasty of the Dukes and Kings of
Bohemia became extinct with Wenceslaus V., who
was assassinated in 1306. The Emperor Henry
.306 CHAPTER VI.
VII., of the house of Luxembourg, seized this op-
portunity of transferring to his own family the
kingdom of Bohemia, in which he invested his son
John (1309), who had married the Princess Eliza-
beth, sister to the last King of Bohemia. John,
having made considerable acquisitions in Bohemia,
was induced to cede, by treaty with Poland, the
sovereignty of that province. The Emperor Charles
IV., son of John, incorporated Silesia, as also
Lusatia, with the kingdom of Bohemia, by the
Pragmatics which he published in 1355 and 1370.
The war with the Hussites broke out on the death
of the Emperor Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia
(1418); because the followers of John Huss, and
Jerome of Prague, had refused to acknowledge, as
successor of that prince, the Emperor Sigismund, his
brother and heir, whom they blamed for the mar-
tyrdom of their leaders. This war, one of the
most sanguinary which the spirit of intolerance and
fanaticism ever excited, continued for a long series
of years. John de Trocznova, surnamed Ziska,
general-in-chief of the Hussites, defeated several
times those numerous armies of crusaders, which
were sent against him into Bohemia; and it was
not till long after the death of that extraordinary
man, that Sigismund succeeded in allaying the
tempest, and reestablishing his own authority in
that kingdom.
The house of Wittelsbach, which possessed at
the same time the Palatinate and Bavaria, was
divided into two principal branches, viz. that of
the Electors Palatine, and the Dukes of Bavaria,
By the treaty of division, which was entered into
at Pavia (1329), they agreed on a reciprocal suc-
cession of the two branches, in case the one or the
PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 307
other should happen to fail of heirs-male. The
direct line of the Electors of Saxony of the Asca-
nian House happening to become extinct, the Em-
peror Sigismund, without paying any regard to the
claims of the younger branches of Saxony, con-
ferred that Electorate (1423), as a vacant fief of
the Empire, on Frederic the Warlike, Margrave of
Misnia, who had rendered him signal assistance in
the war against the Hussites. This Prince had
two grandsons, Ernest and Albert, from whom are
descended the two principal branches, which still
divide the House of Saxony.
The Ascanian dynasty did not lose merely the
Electorate of Saxony, as we have just stated ; it
was also deprived, in the preceding century, of the
Electorate of Brandenburg. Albert, surnamed
the Bear, a scion of this house, had transmitted this
latter Electorate, of which he was the founder, to
his descendants in direct line, the male-heirs of
which failed about the beginning of the fourteenth
century. The Emperor Louis of Bavaria then be-
stowed it on his eldest son Louis (1324), to the
exclusion of the collateral branches of Saxony and
Anhalt. The Bavarian Princes, however, did not
long preserve this Electorate; they surrendered it
(1373) to the Emperor Charles IV., whose son
Sigismund ceded it to Frederic, Burgrave of Nu-
remberg, of the House of Hohenzollern, who had
advanced him considerable sums to defray his ex-
peditions into Hungary. This Prince was solemnly
invested with the electoral dignity by the Emperor,
at the Council of Constance (1417), and became
the ancestor of all the Electors and Margraves of
Brandenburg, as well as of the Kings of Prussia.
The numerous republics which had sprung up
308 CHAPTER VI.
in Italy, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
were torn to pieces by contending factions, and a
prey to mutual and incessant hostilities. What
contributed to augment the trouble and confu-
sion in that unhappy country was, that, during
a long series of years, no Emperor had repaired
thither in person, or made the smallest attempt
to restore the Imperial authority in those states,
The feeble efforts of Henry VII., Louis of Ba-
- varia, and Charles IV., only served to prove,
that in Italy the royal prerogative was without vi.
gour or effect. Anarchy everywhere prevailed;
and that spirit of liberty and republicanism which
had once animated the Italians gradually disap-
peared. Disgusted at length with privileges which
had become so fatal to them, some of these repub-
lics adopted the plan of choosing new masters;
while others were subjected, against their inclin-
ations, by the more powerful of the nobles. The Mar.
quises of Este seized Modena and Reggio (1336),
and obtained the ducal dignity (1452) from the
Emperor Frederic III. Mantua fell to the house
of Gonzaga, who possessed that sovereignty first
under the title of Margraves, and afterwards under
that of Dukes, which was conferred on them by the
Emperor Charles V. in 1530. But the greater
part of these Italian republics fell to the share of
the Visconti of Milan. The person who found.
ed the prosperity of their house was Matthew
Visconti, nephew of Otho Visconti, Archbishop of
Milan. Invested with the titles of Captain and
Imperial Viceroy in Lombardy, he continued to
make himself be acknowledged as sovereign of
Milan (1315), and conquered in succession all the
principal towns and republics of Lombardy. His
PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 309
successors followed his example: they enlarged
their territories by several new conquests, till at
length John Galeas, great grandson of Matthew
Wisconti, obtained, from the Emperor Wenceslaus
(1395), for a sum of a hundred thousand florins
of gold which he paid him, the title of Duke of
Milan for himself and all his descendants. The
Wisconti family reigned at Milan till 1447, when
they were replaced by that of Sforza.
Among the republics of Italy who escaped the
catastrophe of the fourteenth century, the most
conspicuous were those of Florence, Genoa and
Venice. The city of Florence, like all the others in
Tuscany, formed itself into a republic about the end
of the twelfth century. Its government underwent
frequent changes, after the introduction of a de-
mocracy about the middle of the thirteenth cen-
tury. The various factions which had agitated
the republic, induced the Florentines to elect a ma-
gistrate (1292), called Gonfaloniere de Justice, or
Captain of Justice; invested with power to assemble
the inhabitants under his standard, whenever the
means for conciliation were insufficient to sup-
press faction and restore peace. These internal agi-
tations, however, did not prevent the Florentines
from enriching themselves by means of their com-
merce and manufactures. They succeeded, in
course of time, in subjecting the greater part of the
free cities of Tuscany, and especially that of Pisa,
which they conquered in 1406. The republic of
Lucca was the only one that maintained its inde-
pendence, in spite of all the efforts whichsthe Flo-
rentines made to subdue it. The republican form
of government continued in Florence till the year
1530, when the family of the Medici usurped the
310 CHAPTER vi.
sovereignty, under the protection of the Emperor
Charles V.
The same rivalry which had set the Genoese to
quarrel with the Pisans, excited their jealousy a-
gainst the Venetians. The interests of these two
Republics thwarted each other, both in the Levant
and the Mediterranean. This gave rise to a long
and disastrous series of wars, the last and most me-
morable of which was that of Chioggia (1376–82).
The Genoese, after a signal victory which they
obtained over the Venetians, before Pola in the
Adriatic Gulf, penetrated to the very midst of the
lagoons of Venice, and attacked the port of Chiog-
gia. Peter Doria made himself master of this
port; he would have even surprised Venice, had
he taken advantage of the first consternation of the
Venetians, who were already deliberating whether
they should abandon their city and take refuge in
the isle of Candia. The tardiness of the Genoese
admiral gave them time to recover themselves.
Impelled by a noble despair, they made extraor-
dinary efforts to equip a new fleet, with which
they attacked the Geneose near Chioggia. This
place was retaken (24th June 1380), and the se-
vere check which the Geneose there received, may
be said to have decided the command of the sea
in favour of the Venetians. But what contributed
still more to the downfal of the Genoese, was the
instability of their government, and the internal
commotions of the republic. Agitated by con-
tinual divisions between the nobles and the com-
mon citizens, and incapable of managing their own
affairs, they at length surrendered themselves to
the power of strangers. Volatile and inconstant,
and equally impatient of liberty as of servitude,
PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 3II
these fickle republicans underwent a frequent
change of masters. Twice (1896–1458) they
put themselves under the protection of the Kings
of France. At length they discarded the French,
and chose for their protector either the Marquis
of Montferrat or the Duke of Milan. Finally,
from the year 1464, the city of Genoa was con-
stantly regarded as a dependency of the duchy of
Milan, until 1528, when it recovered once more
its ancient state of independence.
While the Republic of Genoa was gradually
declining, that of Venice was every day acquiring
new accessions of power. The numerous esta-
blishments which they had formed in the Adriatic
Gulf and the Eastern Seas, together with the ad-
ditional vigour which they derived from the intro-
duction of the hereditary aristocracy, were highly
advantageous to the progress of their commerce
and marine. The treaty which they concluded
with the Sultan of Egypt (1343), by guarantee-
ing to their republic an entire liberty of commerce
in the ports of Syria and Egypt, as also the privi-
lege of having consuls at Alexandria and Damas-
cus, put it in their power gradually to appropriate
to themselves the whole trade of India, and to
maintain it against the Genoese, who had disputed
with them the commerce of the East, as well as
the command of the sea. These successes en-
couraged the Venetians to make new acquisitions;
the turbulent state of Lombardy having afforded
them an opportunity of enlarging their dominions
on the continent of Italy, where at first they had
possessed only the single dogeship of Venice, and
the small province of Istria. They seized on
VOL. I. 2 C -
312 CHAPTER VI.
Treviso, and the whole Trevisan March (1888),
which they took from the powerful house of Car-
rara. In 1420 they again got possession of Dal-
matia, which they conquered from Sigismund,
King of Hungary. This conquest paved the way
for that of Friuli, which they took about the same
time from the Patriarch of Aquileia, an ally of
the King of Hungary. At length, by a succession
of good fortune, they detached from the duchy of
Milan (1404) the cities and territories of Vicenza,
Belluno, Verona, Padua, Brescia, Bergamo, and
Cremona (1454), and thus formed a considerable
estate on the mainland.
Naples, during the course of this period, was
governed by a descendant of Charles, of the first
House of Anjou, and younger brother of St Louis.
Queen Joan I., daughter of Robert, King of Naples,
having no children of her own, adopted a younger
prince of the Angevine family, Charles of Du-
razzo, whom she destined as her successor, after
having given him her niece in marriage. This un-
grateful prince, in his eagerness to possess the
crown, took arms against the Queen his benefac-
tress, and compelled her to solicit the aid of foreign
powers. It was on this occasion that Joan, after
rescinding and annulling her former deed of adop-
tion, made another in favour of Louis I., younger
brother of Charles V., King of France, and founder
of the second House of Anjou. But the succours
of that prince came too late to save the Queen
from the hands of her cruel enemy. Charles
having made himself master of Naples and of the
Queen's person (1382), immediately put her to
death, and maintained himself on the throne, in
spite of his adversary Louis of Anjou, who ob-
PERIoD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 313
tained nothing more of the Queen's estates than
the single county of Provence, which he transmit-
ted to his descendants, together with his claim on
the kingdom of Naples. Joan II., daughter and
heiress of Charles of Durazzo, having been at-
tacked by Louis III. of Anjou, who wished to en-
force the rights of adoption which had descended
to him from his grandfather Louis I., she implored
the protection of Alphonso V., King of Arragon,
whom she adopted and declared her heir (1421);
but afterwards, having quarrelled with that prince,
she changed her resolution, and passed a new act
of adoption (1423) in favour of that same Louis
of Anjou who had just made war against her.
René of Anjou, the brother and successor of that
prince, took possession of the kingdom of Naples
on the death of Joan II. (1435); but he was ex-
pelled by the King of Arragon (1445), who had
procured from Pope Eugenius IV, the investiture
of that kingdom, which he transmitted to his na-
tural son Ferdinand, descended from a particular
branch of the Kings of Naples. The rights of the
second race of Angevine princes, were transferred
to the Kings of France, along with the county of
Provence (1481). -
Spain, which was divided into a variety of so-
vereignties both Christian and Mahometan, pre-
sented at this time a kind of separate or distinct
continent, whose interests had almost nothing in
common with the rest of Europe. The Kings of
Navarre, Castille, and Arragon, disagreeing a-
mong themselves, and occupied with the internal
affairs of their own kingdoms, had but little lei-
sure to attempt or accomplish any foreign enter-
prise. Of all the Kings of Castille at this period,
3.14. CHAPTER VI.
the most famous, in the wars against the Moors,
was Alphonso XI. The Mahometan kings of
Morocco and Grenada having united their forces,
laid siege to the city of Tariffa in Andalusia,
where Alphonso, assisted by the King of Portugal,
ventured to attack them in the neighbourhood of
that place. He gained a complete victory over
the Moors (1340); and this was followed by the
conquest of various other cities and districts; a-
mong others, Alcala-Real, and Algeziras.
While the Kings of Castille were extending
their conquests in the interior of Spain, those of
Arragon, hemmed in by the Castillians, were ob-
liged to look for aggrandisement abroad. They
possessed the country of Barcelona or Catalonia,
in virtue of the marriage of Count Raymond Be-
renger IV. with Donna Petronilla, heiress of the
kingdom of Arragon. To this they added the
county of Rousillon, and the seignory or lordship
of Montpellier, both of which, as well as Cata-
lonia, belonged to the sovereignty of France. Don
James I., who conquered the kingdom of Valen-
cia and the Balearic Isles, gave these, with Rou-
sillon and Montpellier, to Don James his younger
son, and who was a descendant of the Kings of
Majorca, the last of whom, Don James III., sold
Montpellier to France (1349). Don Pedro III.,
King of Arragon, and eldest son of Don James I.,
took Sicily, as we have already seen, from Charles
I. of Anjou. Ferdinand II., a younger son of
Don Pedro, formed a separate branch of the kings
of Sicily, on the extinction of which (1409), that
kingdom reverted to the crown of Arragon. Sar-
dinia was incorporated with the kingdom of Arra-
on by Don James II., who had conquered it from
PERIoD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 315
the Pisans. Finally, Alphonso V., King of Arra-
gon, having deprived the Angevines of the kingdom
of Naples, established a distinct line of Neapolitan
kings. This kingdom was at length united with
the monarchy of Arragon by Ferdinand the Ca-
tholic.
In Portugal, the legitimate line of kings, de-
scendants of Henry of Burgundy, had failed in
Don Ferdinand, son and successor of Don Pedro
III. This prince had an only daughter named
Beatrix, born in criminal intercourse with Elea-
nora Tellez de Menéses, whom he had taken from
her lawful husband. Being desirous to make this
princess his successor, he married her, at the age
of eleven, to John I., King of Castille ; securing
the throne to the son who should be born of this
union, and failing him, to the King of Castille his
son-in-law. Ferdinand dying soon after this mar-
riage, Don Juan, his natural brother, and grand-
master of the order of Aviez, knowing the aver-
sion of the Portuguese for the Castillian sway,
turned this to his own advantage, by seizing the
regency, of which he had deprived the Queen-
dowager. The King of Castille immediately laid
siege to Lisbon ; but having miscarried in this en-
terprise, the States of Portugal assembled at Coim-
bra, and conferred the crown on Don Juan, known
in history by the name of John the Bastard. This
prince, aided with troops from England, engaged
the Castillians and their allies the French, at the
famous battle fought on the plains of Aljubarota
(14th August 1385). The Portuguese remained
masters of the field, and John the Bastard succeed-
ed in maintaining himself on the throne of Portu-
- 2 C 2
316 CHAPTER VI.
gal. The war, however, continued several years
between the Portuguese and the Castillians, and
did not terminate till 1411. By the peace which
was then concluded, Henry III., son of John I.,
King of Castille, agreed never to urge the claims
of Queen Beatrix, his mother-in-law, who had no
children. John the Bastard founded a new dy-
nasty of kings, who occupied the throne of Por-
tugal from 1385 to 1580.
In France, the direct line of kings, decendants
of Hugh Capet, having become extinct in the
sons of Philip the Fair, the crown passed to the
collateral branch of Valois (1328), which furnish-
ed a series of thirteen kings, during a period of
two hundred and sixty one years.
The rivalry between France and England, which
had sprung up during the preceding period, assum-
ed a more hostile character on the accession of the
family of Valois. Till then, the quarrels of the
two nations had been limited to some particular
territory, or province; but now they disputed even
the succession to the throne of France, which the
kings of England claimed as their right. Edward
III., by his mother, Isabella of France, was ne-
phew to Charles IV., the last of the Capetian
kings in a direct line. He claimed the succession
in opposition to Philip VI., surnamed de Valois,
who being cousin-german to Charles, was one de-
gree more remote than the King of England. The
claim of Edward was opposed by the Salic law,
which excluded females from the succession to the
throne; but, according to the interpretation of that
prince, the law admitted his right, and must be
understood as referring to females personally, who
were excluded on account of the weakness of their
PERIoD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 317
sex, and not to their male descendants. Granting
that his mother, Isabella, could not herself aspire
to the crown, he maintained that she gave him the
right of proximity, which qualified him for the
succession. The States of France, however, hav-
ing decided in favour of Philip, the King of Eng-
land did fealty and homage to that prince for the
duchy of Guienne; but he laid no claim to the
crown until 1337, when he assumed the title and
arms of the King of France. The war which be-
gan in 1338, was renewed during several reigns,
for the space of a hundred years, and ended with
the entire expulsion of the English from France.
Nothing could be more wretched than the situa-
tion of this kingdom during the reign of Charles
VI. That prince having fallen into a state of in-
sanity in the flower of his age, two parties, those
of Burgundy and Orleans, who had disputed with
each other about the regency, divided the Court
into factions, and kindled the flames of civil war
in the four corners of the kingdom. John the
Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, and uncle to the
king, caused Louis, Duke of Orleans, the King's
own brother, to be assassinated at Paris (1407).
He himself was assassinated in his turn (1419)
on the bridge of Montereau, in the very presence
of the Dauphin, who was afterwards king, under
the name of Charles the VII. These dissensions
gave the English an opportunity for renewing the
war. Henry the V. of England gained the famous
battle of Agincourt, which was followed by the
conquest of all Normandy. Isabella of Bavaria
then abandoned the faction of Orleans, and the
party of her son the Dauphin, and joined that of
Burgundy. Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy,
3.18 CHAPTER VI,
and son of John the Fearless, being determined to
revenge the death of his father, which he laid to
the charge of the Dauphin, entered into a negocia-
tion with England, into which he contrived to
draw Queen Isabella, and the imbecile Charles
the VI. By the treaty of peace concluded at
Troyes in Champagne (1420), it was agreed that
Catharine of France, daughter of Charles VI. and
Isabella of Bavaria, should espouse Henry V., and
that, on the death of the King, the crown should
pass to Henry, and the children of his marriage
with the Princess of France; to the exclusion of
the Dauphin, who, as an accomplice in the mur-
der of the Duke of Burgundy, was declared to
have lost his rights to the crown, and was banish-
ed from the kingdom. Henry V. died in the
flower of his age, and his death was followed soon
after by that of Charles VI. Henry VI., son of
Henry V. and Catharine of France, being then
proclaimed King of England and France, fixed his
residence at Paris, and had for his regents his two
uncles, the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester.
Such was the preponderance of the English and
Burgundian party in France at this period, that
Charles VII., commonly called the Dauphin, more
than once saw himself upon the point of being ex-
pelled the kingdom. He owed his safety entirely
to the appearance of the famous Joan of Arc, call.
ed the Maid of Orleans. This extraordinary wo-
man revived the drooping courage of the French.
She compelled the English to raise the siege of
Orleans, and brought the King to be crowned at
Rheims (1429).. But what contributed still more
to retrieve the party of Charles VII., was the re-
conciliation of that prince with the Duke of Bur-
PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 3.19
gundy, which took place at the peace of Arras
(1435). The Duke having then united his forces
with those of the King, the English were in their
turn expelled from France (1453), the single city
of Calais being all that remained to them of their
former conquests.
An important revolution happened in the go-
vernment of France under the reign of Charles VII.
The royal authority gained fresh vigour by the ex-
pulsion of the English, and the reconciliation of va-
rious parties that took place in consequence. The
feudal system, which till then had prevailed in
France fell by degrees into disuse. Charles was the
first king who established a permanent militia, and
taught his successors to abandon the feudal mode of
warfare. This prince also instituted Companies of
ordonance (1445); and, to defray the expense of
their maintenance, he ordered, of his own autho-
rity, a certain impost to be levied, called the Tax
of the Gens-d'armes. This standing army, which at
first amounted only to six thousand men, was aug-
mented in course of time, while the royal finances
increased in proportion. By means of these esta-
lishments, the kings obtained such an ascendancy
over their vassals that they soon found themselves
in a condition to prescribe laws to them, and thus
gradually to abolish the feudal system. The most
powerful of the nobles could make little resistance
against a sovereign who was always armed; while
the kings, imposing taxes at their pleasure, by de-
grees dispensed with the necessity of assembling
the states-general. The same prince secured the
liberties of the Gallican church against the en-
croachments of the Court of Rome, by solemnly
adopting several of the decrees of the Council of
320 - CHAPTER VI.
Basle, which he caused to be passed in the Na-
tional Council held at Bourges, and published un-
der the title of the Pragmatic Sanction (1438).
In England, two branches of the reigning family
of the Plantagenets, those of Lancaster and York,
contested for a long time the right to the crown.
Henry IV., the first king of the House of Lancas-
ter, was the son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lan-
caster, and grandson of Edward III. King of Eng-
land. He usurped the crown from Richard II.,
whom he deposed by act of Parliament (1399).
But instead of enforcing the rights which he in-
herited from his father and grandfather, he rested
his claims entirely upon those which he alleged
had devolved to him in right of his mother, Blanch
of Lancaster, great grand-daughter of Edward,
surnamed Hunchback, Earl of Lancaster. This
prince, according to a popular tradition, was the
eldest son of Henry III., who, it was said, had
been excluded from the throne by his younger
brother Edward I., on account of his deformity,
This tradition proved useful to Henry IV. in ex-
cluding the rights of the House of Clarence, who
preceded him in the order of succession. This
latter family was descended from Lionel, Duke of
Clarence, and elder brother of John of Gaunt,
Philippine, daughter of Lionel, was married to Ed-
ward Mortimer, by whom she had a son, Roger,
whom the Parliament, by an act past in 1386,
declared presumptive heir to the crown. Ann
Mortimer, the daughter of Roger, married Rich-
ard, Duke of York, son of Edward Langley, who
was the younger brother of John of Gaunt, and
thus transferred the right of Lionel to the Royal
House of York. wº-
PERIoD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 321
The Princes of the House of Lancaster are
known in English history by the name of the Red
Rose, while those of York were designated by that
of the White Rose. The former of these Houses
occupied the throne for a period of sixty three
years, during the reigns of Henry IV. V. VI. It
was under the feeble reign of Henry VI. that the
House of York began to advance their right to the
crown, and that the civil war broke out between
the two Roses. Richard, Duke of York, and heir
to the claims of Lionel and Mortimer, was the
first to raise the standard in this war of competi-
tion (1452), which continued more than thirty
years, and was one of the most cruel and sangui-
nary recorded in history. Twelve pitched battles
were fought between the two Roses, eighty princes
of the blood perished in the contest, and England,
during the whole time, presented a tragical spec-
tacle of horror and carnage. Edward IV., son of
Richard, Duke of York, and grandson of Ann
Mortimer, ascended the throne (1461), which he
had stained with the blood of Henry VI., and of
several other Princes of the House of Lancaster.
In Scotland, the male line of the ancient kings
having become extinct in Alexander III., a crowd
of claimants appeared on the field, who disputed
with each other the succession of the throne. The
chief of these competitors were the two Scottish
families of Baliol and Bruce, both descended by
the mother's side from the Royal Family. Four
princes of these contending families reigned in
Scotland until the year 1371, when the crown
passed from the House of Bruce to that of Stuart.
Robert II., son of Walter Stuart and Marjory
Bruce, succeeded his uncle, David II, and in his
322 CHAPTER VI.
family the throne remained until the Union, when
Scotland was united to England about the begin.
ning of the seventeenth century. Under the go-
vernment of the Stuarts, the royal authority ac-
quired fresh energy after being long restrained and
circumscribed by a turbulent nobility. Towards
the middle of the fifteenth century, James I., a
very accomplished prince, gave the first blow to
the feudal system and the exorbitant power of the
grandees. He deprived them of several of the
crown-lands which they had usurped, and confis-
cated the property of some of the most audacious
whom he had condemned to execution. James II.
followed the example of his father. He strength-
ened the royal authority, by humbling the power-
ful family of Douglas, as well as by the wise laws
which he prevailed with his Parliament to adopt.
The three kingdoms of the North, after having
been long agitated by internal dissensions, were
at length united into a single monarchy by Mar-
garet, called the Semiramis of the North. This
princess was daughter of Valdemar III., the last
King of Denmark of the ancient reigning family,
and widow of Haco VII., King of Norway. She
was first elected Queen of Denmark, and then of
Norway, after the death of her son, Olaus V.,
whom she had by her marriage with Haco, and
who died without leaving any posterity (1387).
The Swedes, discontented with their King, Albert
of Mecklenburg, likewise bestowed their crown
upon this princess. Albert was vanquished and
made prisoner at the battle of Fahlekoeping (1389).
The whole of Sweden, from that time, acknow-
ledged the authority of Queen Margaret. Being
desirous of uniting the three kingdoms into one
PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 323
single body-politic, she assembled their respective
Estates at Calmar (1397), and there caused her
grand-nephew Eric, son of Wratislaus, Duke of
Pomerania, and Mary of Mecklenburg, daughter
of Ingeburg, her own sister, to be received and
crowned as her successor. The act which ratified
the perpetual and irrevocable union of the three
kingdoms, was approved in that assembly. It
provided, that the united states should, in future,
have but one and the same king, who should be
chosen with the common consent of the Senators
and Deputies of the three kingdoms ; that they
should always give the preference to the descen-
dants of Eric, if there were any ; that the three
kingdoms should assist each other with their com-
bined forces against all foreign enemies; that each
kingdom should preserve its own constitution, its
senate, and national legislature, and be governed
conformably to its own laws.
This union, how formidable soever it might ap-
pear at first sight, was by no means firmly conso-
lidated. A federal sytem of three monarchies,
divided by mutual jealousies, and by dissimilarity
in their laws, manners, and institutions, could pre-
sent nothing either solid or durable. The predi-
lection, besides, which the kings of the union who
succeeded Margaret showed for the Danes; the
preference which they gave them in the distribu-
tion of favours and places of trust, and the tone
of superiority which they affected towards their
allies, tended naturally to foster animosity and
hatred, and, above all, to exasperate the Swedes
against the union. Eric, after a very turbulent
reign, was deposed, and his nephew, Christopher
VOL. I. 2 D
324. CHAPTER VI,
the Bavarian, was elected King of the union in
his place. This latter prince having died without
issue, the Swedes took this opportunity of break-
ing the union, and choosing a king of their own,
Charles Canutson Bonde, known by the title of
Charles VIII. It was he who induced the Danes
to venture likewise on a new election ; and this
same year they transferred their crown to Christian,
son of Thierry, and Count of Oldenburg, descended
by the female side from the race of their ancient kings.
This prince had the good fortune to renew the union
with Norway (1450); he likewise governed Swe-
den from the year 1437, when Charles VIII. was
expelled by his subjects, till 1464, when he was
recalled. But what deserves more particularly to
be remarked, is the acquisition which Christian
made of the provinces of Sleswic and Holstein,
to which he succeeded (1459), by a disposition
of the States of these provinces, after the death
of Duke Adolphus, the maternal uncle of the new
King of Denmark, and last male heir of the
Counts of Holstein, of the ancient House of Schau-
enburg. Christian I. was the progenitor of all the
Kings who have since reigned in Denmark and
Norway. His grandson lost Sweden; but, in the
last century, the thrones both of Russia and Swe-
den were occupied by princes of his family.
Russia, during the whole of this period, groaned
under the degrading yoke of the Moguls and the
Tartars. The Grand Dukes, as well as the other
Russian princes, were obliged to solicit the con-
firmation of their dignity from the Khan of Kip-
zack, who granted or refused it at his pleasure.
The dissensions which arose among these northern
princes, were in like manner submitted to his de-
PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 325
cision. When summoned to appear at his horde,
they were obliged to repair thither without delay,
and often suffered the punishment of ignominy and
death. ” The contributions which the Khans at
first exacted from the Russians in the shape of
gratuitous donations, were converted, in course of
time, into regular tribute. Bereke Khan, the suc-
cessor of Batou, was the first who levied this tri-
bute by officers of his own nation. His successors
increased still more the load of these taxes; they
even subjected the Russian princes to the perform-
ance of military service.
The Grand Ducal dignity, which for a long
time belonged exclusively to the chiefs of the
principalities of Vladimir and Kiaso, became com-
mon, about the end of the fourteenth century, to
several of the other principalities, who shared a-
mong them the dominion of Russia. The princes
of Rezan, Twer, Smolensko, and several others,
took the title of Grand Dukes, to distinguish
themselves from the petty princes who were esta-
blished within their principalities. These divi-
sions, together with the internal broils to which
they gave rise, emboldened the Lithuanians and
Poles to carry their victorious arms into Russia;
and by degrees they dismembered the whole western
part of the ancient empire.
The Lithuanians, * who are supposed to have
been of the same race with the ancient Prussians,
Lethonians, Livonians, and Estonians, inhabited
originally the banks of the rivers Niemen and
Wilia; an inconsiderable state, comprehending
Samogitia and a part of the ancient Palatinates of
Troki and Wilna. After having been tributaries
to the Russians for a long time, the princes of
326 CHAPTER VI.
Lithuania shook off their yoke, and began to ag-
grandise themselves at the expense of the Grand
Dukes, their former masters. Towards the middle of
the eleventh century, they passed the Wilia, founded
the town of Kiernow, and took from the Russians
Braclaw, Novgorodek, Grodno, Borzesc, Bielsk,
Pinsk, Mozyr, Polotsk, Minsk, Witepsk, Orza,
and Mscislaw, with their extensive dependencies.
Ringold was the first of these princes that assumed
the dignity of Grand Duke, about the middle of the
thirteenth century. His successor Mendog or Min-
dow, harassed by the Teutonic Knights, embraced
Christianity about the year 1252, and was declar-
ed King of Lithuania by the Pope ; though he
afterwards returned to Paganism, and became one
of the most cruel enemies of the Christian name.
Gedimin, who ascended the throne of the Grand
Duke (1315), rendered himself famous by his new
conquests. After a series of victories which he
gained over the Russian Princes, who were sup-
ported by the Tartars, he took possession of the
city and Principality of Kiow (1320). The whole
of the Grand Duchy of Kiow, and its dependant
principalities on this side the Dnieper, were con-
quered in succession. The Grand Dukes of Li-
thuania, who had become formidable to all their
neighbours, weakened their power by partitioning
their estates among their sons; reserving to one,
under the title of Grand Duke, the right of supe-
riority over the rest. The civil dissensions which
resulted from these divisions, gave the Poles an
opportunity of seizing the principalities of Leo-
pold, Przemysl, and Halitsch (1340), and of tak-
ing from the Lithuanians and their Grand Duke

PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 327
Olgerd, the whole of Volhynia and Podolia, of
which they had deprived the Russians (1349.)
Nothing more then remained of the ancient
Russian Empire except the Grand Duchy of
Wolodimir, so called from the town of that name
on the river Kliazma, where the Grand Dukes of
Eastern and Northern Russia had their residence,
before they had fixed their capital at Moscow ;
which happened about the end of the thirteenth or
the beginning of the fourteenth century. This
Grand Duchy, which had several dependant and
subordinate principalities, was conferred by the
Khan of Kipzach (1320) on Iwan or John Danilo-
vitsh, Prince of Moscow, who transmitted it to his de-
scendants. Demetrius Iwanovitsh, grandson of Iwan,
took advantage of the turbulence which distracted
the grand horde, and turned his arms against the
Tartars. Assisted by several of the Russian princes
his vassals, he gained a signal victory near the
Don (1380), over the Khan Temnic-Mamai, the
first which gained the Russians any celebrity, and
which procured Demetrius the proud epithet of
Donski, or conquerer of the Don. This prince,
however, gained little advantage by his victory;
and for a long time after, the Tartars gave law to
the Russians and made them their tributaries.
Toktamish Khan, after having vanquished and .
humbled Mamai, penetrated as far as Moscow,
sacked the city, and massacred a great number of
the inhabitants. Demetrius was forced to implore
the mercy of the conqueror, and to send his son a
hostage to the horde in security for his allegiance.
The chief residence of the Teutonic Order,
which had formerly been at Verden, was fixed at
- 3 D 2
328 CHAPTER VI,
Marienburg, a city newly built, which from that
time became the capital of all Prussia. The Teu.
tonic Knights did not limit their conquests to
Prussia; they took from the Poles Dantzic or
Eastern Pomerania (1311), situated between the
Netze, the Vistula, and the Baltic Sea, and known
since by the name of Pomerelia. This province
was definitively ceded to them, with the territory
of Culm, and Michelau, by a treaty of peace which
was signed at Kalitz (1343). The city of Dantzic,
which was their capital, increased considerably
under the dominion of the Order, and became one
of the principal entrepôts for the commerce of the
Baltic. Of all the exploits of these Knights, the
most enterprising was that which had for its ob-
ject the conquest of Lithuania. Religion, and a
pretended gift of the Emperor Louis of Bavaria,
served them as a pretext for attacking the Lithu-
anians, who were Pagans, in a murderous war,
which continued almost without interruption for
the space of a century. The Grand Dukes of
Lithuania, always more formidable after their de-
feat, defended their liberties and independence
with a courage and perseverance almost miracul-
ous ; and it was only by taking advantage of the
dissensions which had arisen in the family of the
Grand Duke, that they succeeded in obtaining
possession of Samogitia, by the treaty of peace
which was concluded at Racianz (1404).
The Knights of Livonia, united to the Teutonic
Order under the authority of one and the same
Grand Master, added to their former conquests
the province of Estonia, which was sold to them
by Valdemar IV., King of Denmark.” The Teu-
tonic Knights were at the zenith of their greatness,
PERIOD v. A. D. H.300–1453. 829
about the beginning of the fifteenth century. At
that time they were become a formidable power
in the North, having under their dominion the
whole of Prussia, comprehending Pomerania and
the New March, as also Samogitia, Courland,
Livonia and Estonia.” A population proportioned
to the extent of their dominions, a well regulated
treasury, and a flourishing commerce, seemed to
guarantee them a solid and durable empire. Ne-
vertheless, the jealousy of their neighbours, the
union of Lithunia with Poland, and the conver-
sion of the Lithuanians to Christianity, which de-
prived the Knights of the assistance of the Cru-
saders, soon became fatal to their Order, and ac-
celerated their downfal. The Lithuanians again
obtained possession of Samogitia, which, with Su-
davia, was ceded to them by the various treaties
which they concluded with that Order, between
1411–1436.
The oppressive government of the Teutonic
Knights—their own private dissensions, and the
intolerable burden of taxation—the fatal conse-
quence of incessant war—induced the nobles and
cities of Prussia and Pomerania to form a confe-
deracy against the Order, and to solicit the pro-
tection of the Kings of Poland. This was granted
to them, on their signing a deed of submission to
that kingdom (1454). The result was a long and
bloody war with Poland, which did not terminate
till the peace of Thorn (1466). Poland then ob-
tained the cession of Culm, Michelau and Dantzic ;
that is to say, all the countries now comprehended
under the name of Polish Prussia. The rest of
Prussia was retained by the Teutonic Order, who
promised, by means of their Grand Master, to do

330 . . .” CHAPTER VI,
fealty and homage for it to the Kings of Poland.
The chief residence of the Order was then trans-
ferred to Coningsberg, where it continued until
the time when the Knights were deprived of
Prussia by the House of Brandenburg.
At length, however, Poland recovered from
this state of weakness into which the unfortu-
nate divisions of Boleslaus III. and his descend-
ants had plunged it. Uladislaus IV. surnamed
the Dwarf, having combined several of these prin-
cipalities, was crowned King of Poland at Cracow
(1320). From that time the Royal dignity be-
came permanent in Poland, and was transmitted
to all the successors of Uladislaus. ** The immedi-
ate successor of that Prince was his son Casimir
the Great, who renounced his rights of sovereignty
over Silesia in favour of the King of Bohemia,
and afterwards compensated this loss by the acqui-
sition of several of the provinces of ancient Rus-
sia. He likewise took possession of Red Russia
(1340), as also of the provinces of Volhynia, Po-
dolia, Chelm and Belz, which he conquered from
the Grand Dukes of Lithuania (1349), who had
formerly dismembered them from the Russian
Empire.
Under Casimir the Great, another revolution
happened in the government of Poland. That
Prince, having no children of his own, and wish-
ing to bequeath the crown to his nephew Louis,
his sister's son, by Charles Robert King of Hun-
y, convoked a general assembly of the nation
at Cracow (1339), and there got the succession of
the Hungarian Prince ratified, in opposition to the
legitimate rights of the Piast Dynasty, who reign-
ed in Masovia and Silesia. This subversion of the

PERIoD v. A. D. 1800–1453. 331
hereditary right of the different branches of the
Piasts, gave the Polish Nobles a pretext for inter-
fering in the election of their Kings, until at last
the throne became completely elective. It also
afforded them an opportunity for limiting the power
of their Kings, and laying the foundation of a re-
publican and aristocratic government. Deputies
were sent into Hungary (1355), even during the
life of Casimir, who obliged King Louis, his in-
tended successor, to subscribe an act which pro-
vided that, on his accession to the crown, he should
bind himself, and his successors, to disburden the
Polish nobility of all taxes and contributions;
that he should never, under any pretext, exact
subsidies from them ; and that, in travelling, he
should claim nothing for the support of his court,
in any place during his journey. The ancient race
of the Piast sovereigns of Poland ended with Ca-
simir (1370), after having occupied the throne of
that kingdom for several centuries.
His successor in Poland and Hungary was Louis,
surnamed the Great. In a Diet assembled in 1882,
he obtained the concurrence of the Poles, in the
choice which he had made of Sigismund of Luxem-
bourg, as his son-in-law and successor in both
kingdoms. But on the death of Louis, which
happened immediately after, the Poles broke their
engagement, and conferred their crown on Hed-
wiga, a younger daughter of that Prince. It was
stipulated, that she should marry Jagello, Grand
Duke of Lithuania, who agreed to incorporate Li-
thuania with Poland, to renounce Paganism, and
embrace Christianity, himself and all his subjects.
Jagello was baptized, when he received the name
of Uladislaus, and was crowned King of Poland
332 * CHAPTER WI.
at Cracow (1386).” It was on the accession of Ja-
gello, that Poland and Lithuania, long opposed in
their interests, and implacable enemies of each
other, were united into one body politic under the
authority of one and the same King, Neverthe-
less, for nearly two centuries, Lithuania still pre-
served its own Grand Dukes, who acknowledged
the sovereignty of Poland; and it was not, pro-
perly speaking, till the reign of Sigismund Augus-
tus, that the union of the two states was finally
accomplished (1569). This important union ren-
dered Poland the preponderating power of the
North. It became fatal to the influence of the
Teutonic Order, who soon yielded to the united
efforts of the Poles and Lithuanians.
Uladislaus Jagello did not obtain the assent of
the Polish mobility to the succession of his son,
except by adding new privileges to those which
they had obtained from his predecessor. He was
the first of the Polish kings who, for the purpose
of imposing an extraordinary taxation, called in
the Nuncios or Deputies of the Nobility to the
General Diet (1404), and established the use of
Dietines or provincial diets. His descendants en-
joyed the crown until they became extinct, in the
sixteenth century. The succession, however, was
mixed; and although the princes of the House of
Jagello might regard themselves as hereditary pos-
sessors of the kingdom, nevertheless, on every
change of reign, it was necessary that the crown
should be conferred by the choice and consent of
the nobility.
In Hungary, the male race of the ancient kings,
descendants of Duke Arpad, had become extinct
in Andrew III. (1801). The Crown was then
PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 333
contested by several competitors, and at length
fell into the hands of the House of Anjou, the
reigning family of Naples. Charles Robert, grand-
son of Charles II. King of Naples, by Mary of
Hungary, outstripped his rivals, and transmitted
the Crown to his son Louis, surnamed the Great
(1308). This Prince, characterized by his emi-
nent qualities, made a distinguished figure among
the Kings of Hungary. He conquered from the
Venetians the whole of Dalmatia, from the fron-
tiers of Istria, as far as Durazzo ; he reduced the
Princes of Moldavia, Walachia, Bosnia and Bul-
garia, to a state of dependence; and at length
mounted the throne of Poland on the death of his
uncle Casimir the Great.” Mary, his eldest daugh-
ter, succeeded him in the kingdom of Hungary
(1382). This Princess married Sigismund of Lux-
embourg, who thus united the monarchy of Hun-
gary to the Imperial crown. -
The reign of Sigismund in Hungary was most
unfortunate, and a prey to continual disturbances.
He had to sustain the first war against the Otto-
man Turks; and with the Emperor of Constanti-
nople, as his ally, he assembled a formidable army,
with which he undertook the siege of Nicopolis in
Bulgaria. Here he sustained a complete defeat by
the Turks. In his retreat he was compelled to
embark on the Danube, and directed his flight
towards Constantinople. This disaster was fol-
lowed by new misfortunes. The malcontents
of Hungary offered their Crown to Ladislaus, called
the Magnanimous, King of Naples, who took posses-
sion of Dalmatia, which he afterwards surrendered
to the Venetians. Desirous to provide for the de-
fence and security of his kingdom, Sigismund ac-
334 & HAPTER VI,
quired, by treaty with the Prince of Servia, the
fortress of Belgrade (1425), which, by its situation
at the confluence of the Danube and the Save,
seemed to him a proper bulwark to protect Hun-
gary against the Turks. He transmitted the crown
of Hungary to his son-in-law, Albert of Austria,
who reigned only two years. The war with the
Turks was renewed under Uladislaus of Poland,
son of Jagello, and successor to Albert. That
Prince fought a bloody battle with them near Var-
na in Bulgaria (1444). The Hungarians again sus-
tained a total defeat, and the King himself lost his
life in the action. “ The safety of Hungary then
depended entirely on the bravery of the celebrated
John Hunniades, governor of the kingdom, during
the minority of Ladislaus, the posthumous son of
Albert of Austria. That general signalized him-
self in various actions against the Turks, and ob-
liged Mahomet II. to raise the siege of Belgrade
(1456), where he lost above twenty-five thousand
men, and was himself severely wounded.
The Greek Empire was gradually approaching
its downfal, under the feeble administration of the
House of Paleologus, who had occupied the throne
of Constantinople since the year 1261. The same
viees of which we have already spoken, the great
power of the patriarchs and the monks, the ran-
cour of theological disputes, the fury of sectaries
and schismatics, and the internal dissension to
which they gave rise, aggravated the misfortunes
and disorders of the state, and were instrumental
in-hastening on its final destruction. John I. and
his successors, the last Emperors of Constanti-
nople, being reduced to the sad necessity of pay-
fig tribute to the Turks, and marching on military
PERIOD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 335
expeditions, at the command of the Sultans, owed
the preservation of their shattered and declining
Empire, for some time, entirely to the reverses of
fortune which had befallen the Ottomans; and to
the difficulties which the siege of their capital pre-
sented to a barbarous nation unacquainted with the
arts of blockade.
The power of the Ottoman Turks took its rise
about the end of the thirteenth century. A Turk-
ish Emir, called Ottoman, or Osman, was its ori-
ginal founder in Asia Minor. He was one of the
number of those Emirs, who, after the subversion
of the Seljukians of Roum or Iconium, by the
Moguls, shared among them the spoils of their an-
cient masters. A part of Bithynia, and the whole
country lying round Mount Olympus, fell to the
share of Ottoman, who afterwards formed an al-
liance with the other Emirs, and invaded the pos-
sessions of the Greek Empire, under the feeble
reign of the Emperor Andronicus II. Prusa, or
Bursa, the principal city of Bithynia, was conquer-
ed by Ottoman (1327). He and his successors
made it the capital of their new state, which, in
course of time, gained the ascendancy over all the
other Turkish sovereignties, formed, like that of
Ottoman, from the ruins of Iconium and the Greek
Empire.
Orchan, the son and successor of Ottoman, in-
stituted the famous Order of the Janissaries, to
which in a great measure the Turks owed their suc-
cess. He took from the Greeks the cities of Nice
and Nicomedia in Bithynia; and, after having sub-
dued most of the Turkish Emirs in Asia Minor,
he took the title of Sultan or King, as well as that
VOL. I. 2 E 10
336 CHAPTER VI,
of Pacha, which is equivalent to the title of Em-
peror. His son Soliman crossed the Hellespont,
by his orders, near the ruins of ancient Troy, and
took the city of Gallipoli, in the Thracian Cher-
sonesus (1358). The conquest of this place opened
a passage for the Turks into Europe, when Thrace
and the whole of Greece was soon inundated by
these new invaders. Amurath I., the son and suc-
cessor of Orchan, made himself master of Adria-
mople and the whole of Thrace (1360); he next
attacked Macedonia, Servia and Bulgaria, and ap-
pointed the first Beglerbeg, or Governor-general of
Romelia. Several Turkish princes of Asia Minor
were obliged to acknowledge his authority; he
made himself master of Kiutaja, the metropolis
of Phrygia, which afterwards became the capital
of Anatolia, and the residence of the governor of
that province (1389). Amurath was slain at the
battle of Cassova, which he fought with the Despot
of Servia, assisted by his numerous allies. In this
bloody battle the Despot himself was slain, and
both sides equally claimed the victory. Bajazet
I., the successor of Amurath, put an end to all
the Turkish sovereignties which still subsisted in
Asia Minor. He completed the reduction of Bul-
garia, and maintained the possession of it by the
signal victory which he gained at Nicopolis (1396)
over Sigismund, King of Hungary. The Greek
Empire would have yielded to the persevering
efforts of that prince, who had maintained, for ten
years, the siege of Constantinople, had he not been
attacked, in the midst of these enterprises, by the
famous Timour, the new conqueror of Asia.
Timour, commonly called Tamerlane, was one
of those Mogul Emirs who had divided amongst
Period v. A. D. 1300–1453. 337
them the sovereignty of Transoxania, after the ex-
tinction of the Mogul dynasty of Zagatai. Trans-
oxiana was the theatre of his first exploits; there
he usurped the whole power of the Khans, or Em-
perors of Zagatai, and fixed the capital of his new
dominions at the city of Samarcand (1369). Per-
sia, the whole of Upper Asia, Kipzach, and Hindos-
tan, were vanquished by him in succession ; where-
ever he marched, he renewed the same scenes of
horror, bloodshed, and carnage, which had marked
the footsteps of the first Mogul conqueror. ** Ti-
mour at length attacked the dominions of Bajazet
in Anatolia (1400). He fought a bloody and de-
cisive battle near Angora, in the ancient Gallogre-
cia, which proved fatal to the Ottoman Empire.
Bajazet sustained an entire defeat, and fell himself
into the hands of the conquror. All Anatolia was
then conquered and pillaged by the Moguls, and
there Timour fixed his winter quarters. Mean-
time he treated his captive Bajazet with kindness
and generosity; and the amecdote of the iron cage,
in which he is said to have confined his prisoner,
merits no credit. Sherefeddin Ali, who accompa-
nied Timour in his expedition against Bajazet,
makes no mention of it; on the contrary, he avers
that Timour consented to leave him the Empire,
and that he granted the investiture of it to him
and two of his sons. Bajazet did not long survive
his misfortune; he died of an attack of apoplexy
(1403), with which he was struck in the camp of
Timour in Caramania.
Timour, a short time after, formed the project
of an expedition into China; but he died on the
route in (1405), at the age of sixty-nine. His vast
dominions were dismembered after his death.
338 CHA PTER VI.
One of his descendants, named Babour, founded a
powerful Empire in India, the remains of which
are still preserved under the name of the Empire
of the Great Mogul. The invasion of Timour re-
tarded for some time the progress of the Turkish
Empire. The fatal dissensions, which arose among
the sons of Bajazet, set them at open war with
each other. At length Amurath II., the son of
Mahomet I., and grandson of Bajazet, succeeded
in putting a stop to these divisions, and restored
the Empire to its primitive splendour. He de-
prived the Greeks of all the places which still re-
mained in their hands on the Black Sea, along the
coast of Thrace, in Macedonia and Thessaly.
He even took, by assault, the wall and forts which
they had constructed at the entrance of the isth-
mus of Corinth, and carried his ravages to the very
centre of the Peloponnesus.
The two heroes of the Christians, John Hunnia-
des and Scanderbeg, arrested the progress of the
Ottoman Sultan. The former, who was General
of the Hungarians, boldly repulsed the Sultan of
Servia, whom he was ambitious to conquer. The
other, a Greek Prince, who possessed one of the
petty states of Albania of which Croja was the
capital, resisted with success the repeated attacks
of the Turks. Supported by a small but well dis-
ciplined army, and favoured by the mountains
with which his territory was surrounded, he twice
compelled Amurath to raise the siege of Croja.
At length appeared Mahomet II., the son and suc-
cessor of Amurath, (1451). This Prince, who
was raised to the Ottoman throne in the twentieth
year of his age, conceived the design of achieving
the conquest of the Greek Empire, by the taking
PERIoD v. A. D. 1300–1453. 339
of Constantinople. He succeeded in overcoming
all the difficulties which obstructed this enterprise,
in which several of his predecessors had failed.
At the head of an army of three hundred thousand
combatants, supported by a fleet of 300 sail, he
appeared before that capital, and commenced the
siege on the 6th April 1453. The besieged ha-
ving only from 8000 to 10,000 men to oppose the
superior force of the enemy, yielded to the power-
ful and redoubled efforts of the Turks, after a vi-
gorous defence of fifty-three days. The city was
carried by assault, 29th May, and delivered up to
the unrestrained pillage of the soldiers. Constan-
tine, surnamed Dragases, the last of the Greek
Emperors, perished in the first onset; and all the
inhabitants of that great and opulent city were car-
ried into slavery.” Mahomet, on entering the very
day of the sack, saw nothing but one vast and dis-
mal solitude. Wishing afterwards to attract new
inhabitants to this city, which he proposed to make
the seat of his Empire, he guaranteed an entire li-
berty of conscience to the Greeks who might come
to settle there; and authorized them to proceed to
the election of a new patriarch, whose dignity he
enhanced by the honours and privileges which he
attached to it. He restored also the fortifications
of the city, and, by way of precaution against the
armaments of the Venetians and other western na-
tions, which he had some reason to dread, he con-
structed the famous castle of the Dardanelles, at
the entrance of the Hellespont.
This conquest was followed by that of Servia,
Bosnia, Albania, Greece, and the whole Peloponne-
sus or Morea, as well as most of the islands of the
Archipelago. The Greek Empire of Trebizond,
340 CHAPTE H VI.
on the coast of Asia Minor, submitted in like man-
ner to the law of the conqueror (1466). David
Commenus, the last Emperor, fell by the swords
of the Mahometans, and with him perished many
of his children and relations. Such a rapid succes-
sion of conquests created an alarm among the
powers of Christendom. In an assembly, which
Pope Pius II. held at Mantua (1459), he propos-
ed a general association among the powers of the
West against the Turks. A crusade was publish-
ed by his orders, and he was on the point of set-
ting out in person at the head of this expedition,
when he was suddenly cut off by death at Ancona
(1464), where he had appointed the general ren-
dezvous of the confederate troops. This event,
added to the terror which the arms of Mahomet had
created among the nations of the West, disconcerted
the plans of the Crusaders, and was the means of
dissolving their confederacy. The Turkish Em-
pire thus became firmly established in Europe, and
the Tartars of the Crimea put themselves at the
same time under the protection of the Porte.
END OF V() LUM E FIRST.
PRINTED BY J. HUTCHISON,
FOR THE HEIRS OF D. WILLISON.
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