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CHAP. III. stronger force, determined to exact signal satisfaction for the treatment of the Europeans. Affairs at Trebizond were in a state of anarchy. Michael was stretched on a sick-bed, incapable of action. An internal revolution. was on the eve of explosion. With much difficulty peace was negotiated with the Genoese; but it was only obtained by ceding to them the fortress of Leontokastron, which Alexios II. had constructed to restrain their insolent pretensions, (1349.) Kerasunt, however, was restored to the Trebizontine government. From this period the Genoese acquired the complete command of the harbour of Daphnous, and the importance of the empire of Trebizond began to decline.

Against all these misfortunes, an old man like Michael, worn out with sickness, and naturally destitute of talent, either as a soldier or a statesman, was ill suited to contend. Party spirit revived, conspiracies were formed, and popular tumults broke out, until at last Michael was dethroned, on Sunday the 13th December 1349, after a reign of five years and seven months. He was compelled by the partisans of his successor, Alexios III., to enter the monastery of St Sabas; but after a short time, the imperial monk was sent to Constantinople for greater security.

CHAPTER IV.

RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE IMPERIAL SUPREMACY IN THE ILLEGITIMATE BRANCH OF THE HOUSE OF GRAND-KOM

NENOS.

SECT. I. -REIGN OF ALEXIOS III. PROGRESS OF THE TURKOMANS. REVENGE OF LERCARI. MAGNIFICENT ECCLESIASTICAL ENDOW

MENTS-A.D. 1349-1390.

ALEXIOS III., son of Basilios by Irene of Trebizond, had been brought from Constantinople by the party of the Scholarioi and the citizens to occupy the throne. He was now declared emperor by the senate and the people, and solemnly crowned in the church of St Eugenios, though he had not yet completed his twelfth year. His real name

was John, but he adopted that of Alexios, which was the name of his deceased brother, on account of the auspicious influence it was supposed to exert over the family of Grand-Komnenos. The youth of the prince secured the aristocracy from all immediate attempts to diminish their power, and they hoped to profit by their tenure of administration, in such a way as to consolidate their authority, without openly restricting the exercise of the imperial prerogative, to which the people had given so many proofs of devotion.

The young emperor had received his education at Constantinople, and the usurper John Cantacuzenos assisted in placing him on the throne, in order to exclude the

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CHAP. IV. legitimate branch of the family of Grand-Komnenos, represented by the emperors Michael and Joannes III., from the empire, on account of their alliance with the house of Paleologos, the lawful emperors of Constantinople. That the union might be drawn as close as possible between the two dynasties of intruders, the young Alexios, when only fourteen years old, was married to Theodora, the daughter of Nicephorus, cousin of the emperor of Constantinople.1 The marriage ceremony of the imperial children was celebrated in the church of St Eugenios, whom the young Alexios selected as the patron saint of his dynasty, in addition to the previous duties of the saint, as protector of the family of Grand-Komnenos and guardian of the empire of Trebizond. The church and monastery, which had been ruined by the conflagration during the reign of Irene Paleologina, (1340,) were both rebuilt, and enriched with great external splendour; but the appearance of the existing church proves that the arts had already declined at Trebizond, and the restoration of the shrine of his patron saint by the magnificent Alexios will bear no comparison, either in solidity or purity of architectural decoration, with the earlier church of St Sophia--and it is doubtless far inferior in these qualities to the preceding building whose place it occupied.2

The rebellions of the aristocracy and the seditions of the people continued with unabated violence during the early part of this reign. Each noble and senator strove, by intrigue or force, to secure for himself some private

1 Panaretos, p. 365, § 16. Cantacuzenos mentions that he had a brother, to whom he intrusted the government of Adrianople, named Nicephorus.-Cant., Hist., p. 841, 879.

2 The church is converted into a mosque, called Yeni Djama djami, or New Friday mosque. Some very defaced paintings of emperors, with one-headed eagles embroidered on their robes, and fragments of inscriptions, may still be traced on the external wall to the west, where the portico stood, which has now disappeared. Of the monastery, which so often served as a fortress in the civil wars of Trebizond, no remains exist, unless they are concealed in the Turkish houses near the church.

A. D.

advantage, before the prevailing system of partitioning the resources of the state should be brought to a conclu- 1349-1390. sion. No concessions of the ministers of state could satisfy even the pretensions of a single faction, so that plot was succeeded by plot. Nor were the people always inclined to submit tamely to see their interests sacrificed to the rapacity of the aristocracy, or stand idle spectators while the officers of state squandered the heavy taxes, that were employed to maintain bands of armed followers, who did little else than plunder the country they ought to have been guarding against the inroads of the Turkomans. On one occasion the family of Doranites, mastering the whole administration, of which they had for some time held the principal offices, forced the young emperor to retire to Tripolis; but they were soon after overpowered by the people, who often changed sides in their vain endeavours to find individual leaders willing to establish order, and conduct the government according to law.

The fortresses of Limnia, Tzanicha, Kerasunt, and Kenchrina were for a time in the hands of various parties of rebel nobles. Limnia was recovered from the Doranites by an expedition led by the emperor's mother, with Panaretos, the author of the dull Chronicle which has preserved a place for the revolutions of Trebizond in the world's history, as one of her council. It would hardly tend to give us a clearer insight into the state of society at this period, if we were to repeat the meagre enumeration Panaretos has left us of the various revolutions that followed one another for some years in quick succession. A few prominent facts will paint with greater accuracy the universal disorder. The grand-duke Niketas, who was the leader of the Scholarioi, had been invested with the direction of the public administration at the popular rising which drove the Doranites from power; but in the course of about two years, the young emperor having

CHAP. IV. recovered possession of the fortresses of Limnia, Tzanicha, § 1. and Kenchrina, and displaying both the power and the will to take upon himself the direction of the administration, the grand-duke and his partisans retired to Kerasunt. Counting on their influence over the factious native militia, and their popularity with the citizens, they made an attempt to recover their power by force. The rebels presented themselves before the capital in the spring of 1355, with a fleet of one large ship and eleven smaller vessels. Their arrival caused great disorders; but they found the young emperor's authority firmly established, and they were compelled to return to Kerasunt without having gained their object. This retreat marks the period at which the power of the emperor was again reestablished in its full supremacy; but an altered state of society, and a general feeling that individuals, whether high or low, must trust to their individual position, and not to the law or the central administration, for justice, gave the authority of the emperors of Trebizond, henceforth, rather the characteristics of feudal suzerainty blended with Oriental despotism, than the old Byzantine ascendency of supreme legislator and incorruptible and allpowerful judge. Force, to the exclusion of justice, acquired the same influence over public opinion among the Greek race, that it had long held in western Europe and among the Mohammedan nations; and as the social organisation of the Greek people was now essentially unwarlike, their repudiation of law produced nothing but degradation; and their appeal to force, from their want of discipline and courage, rendered them despicable, and soon lowered them in the scale of society.

The defeat of the grand-duke before Trebizond was followed up by Alexios with some vigour. He sailed to attack the rebels in Kerasunt with two ships and a small fleet of transports, and after a single engagement the place capitulated. The grand-duke assembled his troops