Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/456

 434 THE DECLINE AND FALL [AD. 1236] At the summons of the emperor, the vassals and allies armed in her defence ; broke through every obstacle that opposed their passage ; and, in the succeeding year, obtained a second victory over the same enemies. By the rude poets of the age, John of Brienue is compared to Hector, Roland, and Judas Maccabaeus ; '^* but their credit and his glory receives some abatement from the silence of the Greeks. ^^ The empire was soon deprived of the [A.D. 1237] last of her champions ; and the dying monarch was ambitious to enter paradise in the habit of a Franciscan friar. ^*^ Baldwin n. In the double victory of John of Brienne, I cannot discover March 23^ the iiamc or exploits of his pupil Baldwin, who had attained the July 25 ' age of military service, and who succeeded to the Imperial dignity on the decease of his adopted father.^" The royal youth was employed on a commission more suitable to his temper ; he was sent to visit the A'estern courts, of the pope more especially, and of the king of France ; to excite their pity by the view of his innocence and distress ; and to obtain some supplies of men or money for the relief of the sinking empire. He thrice repeated these mendicant visits, in which he seemed to prolong his stay and postpone his return ; of the five-and-twenty years of his reign, a greater number were spent abroad than at home ; and in no place did the emperor deem himself less free and secure than in his native country and his capital. On some public occasions, his vanity might be soothed by the title of Augustus and by the honours of the pm*ple ; and ^ Philip Mouskes, bishop of Toumay (a.d. 1274-1282), has composed a poem, or rather a string of verses, in bad old Flemish French, on the Latin emperors of Constantinople, which Ducange has published at the end of Villehardouin. [What Ducange published was an extract from the Chronique rim^e of Mouskes, which began with the Trojan war. The whole work was first published by De Keiffenberg in 1836. Gibbon identifies Mouskes with Philip of Ghent, who became bishop of Tournay in 1274. This is an error. Mouskes was a native of Tournay and died in 1244.] See p. 224, for the prowess of John of Brienne. N'Aie, Ector, Roll' ne Ogiers '- Ne Judas Machabeus li fiers Tant ne fit d'armes en estors Com fist li Rois Jehans eel jors, Et il defors et il dedans La paru sa force et ses sens Et li hardiment qu'il avoit. 55 [John Asen, threatened by the approach of Zenghis Khan (see below, chap. Ixiv. ), gave up the war and made a separate peace and alliance with the Eastern Emperors. But the alliance was soon abandoned, and Asen returned to his friend- ship with Nicasa.] 5*' See the reign of John de Brienne, in Ducange, Hist, de C. P. 1. iii. c. 13-26. 5" See the reign of Baldwin IL till his expulsion from Constantinople, in Du- cange (Hist, de C. P. 1. iv. c. 1-34, the end 1. v. c. 1-33).