Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/86

 68 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. who now became emperor under the style of Alexis II. He was a weak boy, and of an age when it is absurd to aSSX^ charge him, as Nicetas does, with vanity, love of pleasure, and incapacity. On the death of his fa- ther there was at once a scramble for the office of chief min- ister. His mother, Maria of Antioch, wlio had retired in her grief to a monastery, was compelled, in the interest of her son, to return to the world, and assume the rule of the capi- tal. Her power was unfortunately shared with the protose- bastos Alexis. The latter, who was soon regarded as her par- amour, was a member of the imperial family, and grandson of the Emperor John. Maria and Alexis, in order to gain to their side as many of (.Q^^t the nobles as possible, allowed the courtiers to plun- intiigues. ^^j. ^^iq trcasury, and for some time Constantinople was witness of wild scenes of disorder and riot. Durino: eio^h- teen months the court was full of intrigues, but at length the influence of the protosebastos became supreme. His design was, apparently, to make himself emperor. He took the gov- ernment entirely into his own hands. He disregarded alike the orders of the empress and of the emperor her son. He obtained an edict by which it was declared that any grants made by the emperor were null until they were countersigned by him. The late emperor's sister, also named Maria, who was the wife of the Caesar John, entered into an arrangement with a natural son of Manuel and others in order to free her brother, the young emperor, from the control of his mother and the protosebastos, or possibly in order to depose the boy emperor and place John on the throne. Whatever may have been her motive, the first step to success was to get rid of the protosebastos. A plot was formed to assassinate the latter, but failed, and the conspirators were arrested. The csesar and his wife, however, had the sympatliy of the people. They took sanctuary in Ilagia Sophia. An attempt to arrest them by force in the church was defeated. A band of Italian glad- iators and of Georgians defended them, and they were pro- tected by the patriarch, and had the support of a large portion of the inhabitants, who were indignant at the treatment of the