STATE OF THE PELOPONNESUS. 203 land filled with defiles and mountain-passes. But the high state of material civilisation-the wealth of a large portion of the inhabitants, who generally lived collected together in towns-their love of ease, and their indifference to the fate of the Byzantine empire, which was viewed as a foreign domination-made the people both careless of any change in their rulers, and unfit to offer any serious resistance to a determined enemy. The inhabitants of Greece were habitually viewed with jealousy by the Byzantine government, which feared to see them in possession of arms, lest they should avail themselves of the singular advantages their country presents for asserting their independence. The Peloponnesians were, consequently, little exercised in the use of offensive weapons, unaccustomed to bear the weight of defensive armour, and unacquainted with military discipline; they were, therefore, absolutely ignorant of the simplest dispositions necessary to render their numbers of any practical advantage in the occupation of posts and the defence of towns. The Frank invaders found that they had little else to do but to drive them together into masses, in order to insure their defeat and submission. Under such circumstances, it need not surprise us to learn that the little army of Champlitte subdued the Greeks with as much ease as the band of Cortes conquered the Mexicans; for the bravest men, not habituated to the use of arms, and ignorant how to range themselves on the field of battle or behind the leaguered rampart, can do little to avert the catastrophe of their country's ruin. Like the virtuous priest who, ignorant of theological lore, plunges boldly into public controversy with a learned and eloquent heretic, they can only injure the cause they are anxious to defend. William de Champlitte and his brother Eudes are frequently mentioned by Geffrey de Villehardoin, in his Chronicle, as distinguished leaders of the Crusaders during the siege of Constantinople. Eudes, the elder brother, A. D. 1205. $ 1. CHAP. VIII. died before the conquest of the Byzantine empire, but William received his portion of territory in the Peloponnesus, and accompanied Boniface, king of Saloniki, in his expedition into Greece.1 The Crusaders, after defeating Leo Sguros at Thermopylæ, and installing Otho de la Roche in his possessions at Thebes and Athens, pursued the Greeks into the Peloponnesus, and laid siege to Corinth and Nauplia. James d'Avesnes commanded the force which held Sguros himself blockaded in the Acrocorinth, while Boniface and William de Champlitte advanced with the main body, and invested Nauplia. In the mean time, Geffrey Villehardoin the younger arrived in the camp. He was nephew of the celebrated marshal of Romania, whose inimitable history of the expedition to Constantinople is one of the most interesting literary monuments of the middle ages; but instead of accompanying his uncle and the members of the fourth Crusade who attacked the Byzantine empire, he had sailed direct from Marseilles to Syria. Like most of the Crusaders who visited the Holy Land on this occasion, he performed no exploit worthy of notice; and as soon as he had completed the year's service to which he was bound by his vow, he hastened to return to France. On his voyage he was assailed by a tempest, which drove his ships into the harbour of Modon, where he found himself compelled to pass the winter. It was already known in Greece that the Crusaders had taken Constantinople, and that the central government of the Byzantine empire was destroyed. One of the principal Greek nobles of the 1 The family of Champlitte was often called of Champagne. The father of the two Crusaders was Eudes, son of Hugh, eighth count of Champagne, and his wife. Elizabeth of Burgundy. Hugh, believing himself impotent, refused to acknowledge his son Eudes, and ceded the county of Champagne and all his property to his nephew, Thibaut, count of Blois and Chartres. It was this Hugh, count of Champagne, who bestowed Clairvaux on St Bernard. He died a Templar in Palestine. Eudes, who was called le Champenois, was bred up at his mother's property of Champlitte, which he inherited.-Ducange, note to Villehardoin, p. 268. L'Art de verifier les Dates. Comtes de Champagne et Blois, tom. iii. part ii. p. 125. CHAMPLITTE JOINED BY VILLEHARDOIN. 205 Peloponnesus, who possessed extensive property and influence in Messenia, deemed the moment favourable for increasing his power. For this purpose he hired the military services of Villehardoin and his followers, who were passing the winter at Modon in idleness, and by their assistance subdued all the neighbouring towns. The city of Modon was conceded to Villehardoin as the reward of his alliance; but the Greek dying in a short time, hostilities commenced between his successor and the Franks. At this conjuncture, the French at Modon heard of the arrival of the army of Boniface before Nauplia. Geffrey Villehardoin, who had made up his mind to seek his fortune in Greece, (the flourishing condition of which contrasted in his imagination with the squalid poverty of France and the wretched disorder in Palestine,) boldly resolved to march through the centre of the Peloponnesus and join the camp of the Crusaders. This enterprise he accomplished in six days, without encountering any opposition on his way. Geffrey was probably already aware that William of Champlitte had received his share of the spoils of the empire in the Peloponnesus; at all events, he offered to serve under his banner, and persuaded him that it would be more advantageous to turn their arms against the western coast of Greece, then called the Morea, than to persist in besieging the impregnable fortresses of Acrocorinth, Argos, and Nauplia. Champlitte quitted the main army with one hundred knights and a considerable body of men-atarms, and, marching westward, entered the land of the Morea, to unite his forces with those left by Villehardoin at Modon.1 The news of an insurrection in Thessalonica 1 Villehardoin, Conquête de Constantinople, p. 122, edit. Buchon. It must be remembered that the act of partition assigned a considerable portion of the Peloponnesus to the Venetians, and Lacedæmon, Patras, Modon, and Corinth were included in their share. What arrangements William of Champlitte entered into with the republic, or how and when the act of partition was modified, is not known. A. D. 1205. § 1. CHAP. VIII. compelled Boniface to hasten back to his own dominions; but before the Franks quitted the Peloponnesus, the force besieging Corinth was roughly handled by the Greeks in a sortie, and James d'Avesnes, one of their bravest leaders, severely wounded. By the act of partition—which William de Champlitte doubtless felt every disposition to carry into execution, as one of those who profited in the highest degree by its provisions-Modon was assigned to the Venetians. It seems probable, from the words of the Chronicle of the marshal, that the first operation of Champlitte was to effect a junction of his forces with those of Villehardoin left to guard the ships at Modon. This was done by marching along the southern coast of the gulf of Corinth, and ordering the ships of Villehardoin to join the expedition at Patras, which was thus blockaded by land and sea. The city of Patras, and the castle of Katakolo, which commands a small port to the north-west of the mouth of the Alpheus, were taken almost as soon as they were invested; and the inhabitants of the populous but open town of Andravida, in the plain of Elis, voluntarily submitted to Champlitte, who then led his troops southward along the coast. Coron and Kalamata were soon after attacked and captured, without serious resistance. As Modon belonged of right to the Venetian republic, Champlitte conferred on Geffrey Villehardoin the fief of Kalamata, as a reward for his assistance, and it long continued to be the family estate of the house of Villehardoin. The Greeks at last collected an army to resist the further progress of the French. It consisted of the few Byzantine troops in the garrisons, the armed citizens of the towns of Lacedæmon, Veligosti, and Nikli, and the Sclavonian mountaineers of the canton of Melingon, on mount Taygetus, the whole amounting to about four thousand men, under the command of a Greek named Michael. The French had not more than seven hundred GREEKS DEFEATED IN MESSENIA 207 cavalry to oppose to this force; but the battle was fought in the Lakkos, or north-eastern portion of the Messenian plain, where the Franks could turn their superior discipline and heavy armour to the greatest advantage. The victory was not long doubtful. The Greeks were utterly routed; and this insignificant engagement was the only battle the invaders were obliged to fight in order to secure a firm footing in the country, and render themselves masters of three-fourths of the peninsula. The city of Arkadia, on the western coast, attempted to make some resistance, but ended by submitting to the victorious army.1 The terms on which Champlitte effected the conquest of the Greek population were by no means unfavourable to the inhabitants. They prove that the feudal barons of the West already understood something of the art of government as well as of war. The citizens of the towns were guaranteed in the unmolested enjoyment of their private property, and of all the municipal privileges they had possessed under the Byzantine government. The Sclavonian cantons of Skorta and Melingon were allowed to retain all the privileges which had been conceded to them by imperial charters. The idea of local administrations and privileged corporations had been rendered familiar to all feudal Europe by the glorious exploits of the Italian cities against the German emperors, and by the charters which had already been granted to several communes in France; so that the feudal prejudices of Champlitte and his followers were by no means adverse to the concession of 1 In this account I have followed Nicetas, p. 393, and Villehardoin, p. 134, who agree, and who appear to me to be much better authorities than the Chronicles of the Conquest, in French and Greek, published by Buchon. I accept, however, the traditional evidence of the Chronicle for the fact that there was only one battle fought between the Greeks and the French in the time of Champlitte. Αὐτὸν μόνον τὸν πόλεμον ἔπηκαν οἱ Ρωμαιοι Εἰς τὸν καιρὸν ὁποῦ ἐκέρδισαν οἱ Φράνκοι τὸν Μοραίαν.ν. 405. The battle was fought near the olive-grove of Koundoura. A. D. 1205. |