Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1094

Rh 1080 MICHAEL. Venetian, the Genoese, and the Pisan merchants had received from the Latin emperorif. Although the Nicaean emperors considered themselves the legitimate successors of Constantine the Great, the possession of Constantinople was an event of such magnitude as to suggest to Michael the idea of a new coronation, which was accordingly solemnized in the cathedral of St. Sophia. But Michael was crowned alone, without John, an evil omen for the friends of the young emperor, whose fears were but too soon realised, for on Christmas day of the same year 1261, Michael ordered his colleague to be blinded, whereupon he was sent into exile to a distant fortress. This hateful crime caused a general indignation among the people, and might have proved the ruin of Michael had he been a man of a less energetic turn of mind. The patriarch Arsenius, co-guardian to John, was irreconcileable ; he fearlesslj' pronounced excommunication upon the imperial criminal ; and years of trouble and com- motion elapsed before Michael was re-admitted into the communion of the faithful, by the second successor of Arsenius, the patriarch Joseph. But to return to the war with the despot of Epeirus. A short time after the conquest of Constantinople the despot Michael defeated Strate- gopulus, and made him a prisoner. The Greeks had scarcely rallied, when a new enemy rose against them. This was Villehardouin, who had been released from his captivity on condition of ceding some of his territories, and of remaining quiet for the future. But the loss of Constantinople was such a blight to the hopes of pope Urban IV. of effecting a complete union between the Latin and the Greek churches, that he urged the European princes to undertake a crusade against the Greek schismatics, and commanded Villehardouin to com- mence hostilities forthwith, relieving him from the oath he had sworn, to keep peace with Michael. Villehardouin was successful by sea and land, but Michael avoided further danger by promising the pope to do his utmost in order to effect the intended union. Urban was now the first to offer himself as mediator between the belligerents, and as both the parties were tired of bloodshed, peace was soon re- stored (1263). In the following year the war be- tween the emperor and Michael of Epeirus was likewise brought to an end by an honourable peace, and shortly afterwards the despot died. To Ni- cephorus, the eldest of his legitimate sons, who had just married Eulogia, the sister of the emperor, he left Epeirus ; but the better and larger half of his kingdom, viz. Thessaly, became the share of his favourite natural son John, a warlike man, who was well fit to defend his inheritance. In 1265 Ar- senius was deposed because he would not revoke the excommunication of the emperor: his adherents, the Arsenites, caused a schism which lasted till 1312. [Arsenius.] In 1269 Michael was involved in a dangerous war with Charles, king of Sicily, who took up arms on pretence of restoring the fugitive Baldwin to the throne, and who was joined by John of Thessaly, the above-mentioned son of the despot Michael of Epeirus. The despot John, the em- peror's brother, took the field against his name- sake, but, owing to circumstances which it was not in his power to remove, that gallant commander of the Greeks suffered a terrible defeat (1271), and the prince of Thessaly, forthwith marching upon Constantinople, placed the capital in jeopardy. MICHAEL. But the loss of Negropont aiid the destruction of his fleet by the Greeks compelled him to fall back. Justly afraid that the hostilities of the king of Sicily and the despot of Thessaly were only the forerunners of a general crusade of all the Latin princes against him, Michael tried to avoid the storm by at last making earnest proposals towards effecting the union of the Greek church with that of Rome. To that effect the learned Veccus, accom- panied by several of the most distinguished among the Greek clergy, was sent to the council assembled at Lyon in 1274, and there the union was effected by the Greeks giving way in the much-disputed doctrine of the procession of the Holy Ghost, and submitting to the supremacy of the pope. The union, however, was desired only by a minority of the Greeks, and the orthodox majority accordingly did their utmost to prevent the measure from being carried out. Michael in his turn supported his policy with force. The patriarch Joseph Avas de- posed, and Veccus appointed in his stead ; cruel punishment was inflicted upon all those who opposed the union ; and Greece was shaken by a religious commotion which forms a remarkable event in the ecclesiastical history of the East. As space forbids us to dwell longer upon these im- portant transactions, we can only remark that the union was never effectuall}^ carried out, and fell entirely to the ground upon tlie death of Michael. The manifest duplicity and the cruelty with which the emperor behaved in this affair made him odious to his own subjects and contemptible to his new Latin friends, and the latter part of his reign was an uninterrupted series of domestic troubles and foreign wars. His dearly-bought friendship with the Latin, and especially the Italian powers, was brought to a very speedy end. The emperor Baldwin having died, his son Philip assumed the imperial title, and succeeded in forming an alliance between pope Martin IV., Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily, and the Venetians, with a view of reconquering Constantinople and dividing the Greek empire. Soliman Rossi, a French kniglit, commanded the allied forces, and, invading the empire from the north, met at Bel- grade the Greek forces commanded by the magnua doraesticus Tarcaniotes. A pitched battle ensued, in which the invaders were totally routed : the magnus domesticus made a triumphant entry into Constantinople, and all danger of a second invasion was removed. Not satisfied with the glory of his arms and the material benefit he derived from his victory, Michael resolved to take terrible revenge : he paid 20,000 ounces of gold towards equipping a Catalan fleet with which king Peter of Arragon was to attack Sicily, and the *•' Sicilian Vespers," in which 8,000 Frenchmen were massacred, and in consequence of which Sicily was wrested from Charles of Anjou and united with Arragon, were in some degree the work of Michael's fury. In the autumn of the same year (1282) Michael marched against John, the unruly prince of Thessaly, but, before any thing serious had been done, he fell ill, and died on the 1 1th of December, 1282, at the age of 58, leaving the renown of a successful but treacherous tyrant. His son An- dronicus II. succeeded him. (Pachymer. lib. i. — vi.; Niceph. Gregor. lib. iv. — v. ; Acropol. c. 76, &c. ; Phranz. lib. i.) [W. P.J MICHAEL IX. PALAEO'LOGUS, the son of Andronicus II., was associated with his father