334 The Eastern Empire. ROME. The Eastern Empire. 
Twenty days after the expulsion of the Latins, Michael 
made his triumphant entrance into the capital. He immedi¬ 
ately set about reinstating the nobles, calming the fears of 
the inhabitants, encouraging the industry and confirming 
the privileges of strangers, and re-peopling the half-deserted 
city, by inviting settlers from the provinces. His attention 
was next diverted to the consolidation of his own power; he 
was crowned again, and alone, in the church of Saint Sophia ; 
the name and honours of John Lascaris, his ward and asso¬ 
ciate, were insensibly abolished; and though the conscience 
of the usurper might restrain him from murder, he caused 
the eyes of the unfortunate youth to be put out, and then 
confined him in a distant castle, where he spent many melan¬ 
choly years. 
Arsenius, the patriarch, however, had the courage to arraign 
this treason and ingratitude. He pronounced the sentence 
of excommunication against Michael, who in vain confessed 
his guilt, and deprecated the judgment. The unrelenting 
prelate only condescended to answer, that for such an atro¬ 
cious crime, signal expiation must be made, and seemed to 
hint at an abdication of his power-, but the emperor disdained 
to purchase absolution so dear, and they parted without 
coming to any agreement. 
After the sentence of excommunication had long hung 
over Palaeologus, and embarrassed his measures, the clergy 
themselves began to blame the inflexible spirit of Arsenius; 
and soon after he was deposed from his episcopal office, and 
banished to a small island, where he died. At the end of 
six years, the imperial penitent gained absolution, and was 
restored to the communion of the faithful; but a powerful 
faction, which lasted forty-eight years, was the consequence 
of this ecclesiastical warfare. 
Michael wrested from the Franks several of the finest 
islands of the Archipelago, and the eastern side of the Morea 
was again possessed by the Greeks; but in the prosecution 
of these conquests, the country beyond the Hellespont was 
left exposed to the Turks; and the minds of the Greeks were 
alienated from their sovereign, by his union with the Latin 
chureh, which the subtle Palaeologus had consented to, in 
order to allay the resentment of Urban IV., who had pro¬ 
claimed a crusade in favour of the suppliant Baldwin. 
This stroke of policy seems to have missed its aim. 
Palaeologus was regarded with ahhorrence by his subjects, 
and even his own family and favourites either deserted him, 
or conspired against him. At once his violence was detested 
at Constantinople, and his irresolution arraigned at Rome; 
and while he was striving to reduce his people under the 
domination of the holy see, he himself was excommunicated 
by pope Urban the Fourth. 
The vexation occasioned by these schisms and commo¬ 
tions, brought on a malady, of which he died at the age of 
fifty-five, and the pious Andronicus, his son and successor, 
denied his father the burial of a prince and a Christian. 
Andronicus, afterwards surnamed the Elder, had been 
proclaimed and crowned emperor in the fifteenth year of 
his age; and held that title nine years as the colleague, and 
fifty as the successor, of his father. The first step taken by 
the new emperor, was to conciliate the clergy, by annulling 
the union between the Greek and Latin churches. As he 
was easily offended, and of a suspicious temper, he soon be¬ 
came jealous of his brother Constantine and his ablest 
generals, whom he removed from the command of his armies, 
and thus opened an easier passage to the Turks, who now 
-first entered Europe. 
The empire of Andronicus was also assaulted and endan¬ 
gered by a race of men, who had been nurtured in discoid 
by his father Michael. After the massacre and revolution 
in Sicily, known by the name of the Sicilian vespers, many 
thousands of the Genoese and Catalans having heard that 
the Greek provinces of Asia were invaded by the Turks, 
determined to share the spoil. Frederic, king of Sicily, 
facilitated their departure, and in a warfare of twenty years, 
-arms were their sole possession and property. 
Roger de Flor was the most popular of their chiefs, a man 
who had supported every character, and run tlirough every 
variety of fortune. Having obtained a powerful navy, he 
sailed from Messina for Constantinople, with 8000 adven¬ 
turers, and was received with transport by Andronicus, who 
created him duke of Romania. He defeated the Turks in 
two bloody battles, and was hailed as the deliverer of Asia: 
but his demands were at least equal to his services; and his 
licentious followers became equally formidable to the 
Mahometans and the empire. At last he was assassinated 
in the apartment of the empress, and the greatest part of his 
soldiers shared the same fate, from the fury of the people. 
Fifteen hundred, however, fortified themselves in Gallipoli, 
and having twice defeated the united force of the empire, 
intercepted the trade of Constantinople and the Black Sea, 
till, weakened by want and intestine feuds, they retired from 
the vicinity of the capital. 
Nor was it only by external enemies that Andronicus 
was assailed. The people were discontented and mutinous; 
and to avoid being plundered themselves, sometimes joined 
the plunderers. Indeed, the valour and learning for which 
this emperor is celebrated, seems to have contributed little, 
either to the prosperity or glory of his long and uninterest¬ 
ing reign. The abject slave of superstition, his mind was 
continually agitated by the fears of a future state; and while 
he fixed his attention on that, he seems to have forgotten 
that he was born to fill an important station in the present 
life. 
Michael, the eldest son of Andronicus, was associated t© 
the purple, but his mediocrity of talents neither excited the 
jealousy, nor raised the hopes of the people. This prince 
had two sons,named Andronicus and Manuel. The former, 
from an early appearance of wit and beauty, was endeared 
do his grandfather, who caused him to be educated with 
great care, as his heir and favourite, and the names of the 
father, son, and grandson, were frequently united, in the 
acclamations of the people. The mind of the youth being 
corrupted by indulgence, he beheld with impatience the 
double obstacle that opposed his rising ambition: the capital 
was disturbed by his tumultuous revels; and the lives of his 
brother and father were at length sacrificed to his vices. 
A beautiful lady of high rank, but licentious manners, had 
consigned her person to the arms of young Andronicus; but 
the prince suspecting her fidelity, placed guards at her door, 
and their arrows pierced a casual passenger in the street. 
That passenger was prince Manuel, who died of the wound; 
and their common father, Michael, expired of grief a few 
days after. 
The profligate Andronicus but ill dissembled his joy at the 
principal bars to his ambition being thus removed; and the 
reigning emperor, alarmed at his conduct, transferred his 
regard to another grandson. The long-acknowledged heir 
was exposed to the indignity of a public trial; but the 
court was soon filled with the armed retainers of the younger 
Andronicus, and the reconciliation to which his grandfather 
consented, only exposed his weakness, and strengthened the 
presumption of the former. 
A short time after, the young prince escaping from the 
capital, erected his standard at Adrianople, and in a few 
days assembled fifty thousand horse and foot, commanded 
by John Cantacuzene, the great domestic. The motions of 
this formidable force, however, were slow and doubtful, and 
their progress was checked by intrigue and negociation. 
During seven years, the quarrel of the Andronici was sus¬ 
pended and renewed; and the ungrateful grandson in every 
new treaty rose in his pretensions. At last this civil war 
was terminated, by the surprise-of Constantinople, and the 
final retreat of the old emperor to a cloister, in which he 
wore the monastic habit for two years, and then expired, 
in the seventy-second year of his age. 
The elder Andronicus perhaps found it advisable to retire 
from the busy scene, having long lost the respect of his sub¬ 
jects, while the destructive progress of the Turks served still 
further to alienate the minds of the people. “ How different,” 
said the younger Andronicus, “ is my situation from that of 
the son of Philip! Alexander complained that his father 
left him nothing to conquer: alas! my grandsire will leave 
me 
