Menace in Morea: Book One in the Annals of Morea

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By the advice of her barons she conferred the bailieship of Achaia during her absence on Nicholas III. Omer, the most brilliant nobleman of the time in Prankish Romania. The Count of Cephalonia, who had previously held the oflSce, was considered too advanced in years to under- take the chaise again. The Princess embarked in one of the Venetian galleys which touched at Clarenza on the return journey from Alexandria, and landed at Ancona, whence she made her way across the mountains to the Holy City.

Rome was at that time thronged with pilgrims from all parts of the world, and not the least of the wonders which appealed to its visitors was, according to Giovanni Villani, the manner in which that vast concourse of people found shelter and nourishment for themselves, their attendants and their transport animals, without any disturbance or confusion. It was not altogether by mere coincidence that in her daily visits to the famous shrines her train was con- stantly attended by another noble pilgrim, Philip of Savoy, Count in Piedmont, who had received timely notice of her intended journey, and now availed himself of her presence in Italy to pay his court in person.

But the Princess considered herself the legitimate heiress of the principality which her grandfather had acquired, and the countenance of the Church encouraged her to dis- regard conditions which she might justifiably argue had been unfairly extorted from her. Charles was at the time on his way to Rome to crave subsidies from the Pope for the prosecution of the war with Sicily, which had entirely depleted his treasury.

This can scarcely be St. Omer, who was acting as bailie in Achaia, unless he had temporarily handed over his office to a substitute. It was therefore explicitly declared in the rescript that although he afterwards ratified the marriage already contracted between Isabella and Philip of Savoy, the cession of the principality pre- viously made to his own son was to be held valid and irrevocable. This transfer of Achaia to Philip of Tarentum, withheld from publicity at the time, and only for the first time notified in a rescript of , may seem hardly consistent with the fact that there was a previous cession of the overlordship to him at the time of his marriage to Ithamar in The transfer of the over- lordship in had therefore not severed the essential title of the crown established by the treaty of Viterbo.

He therefore, ten days after the wedding, acting on behalf of his absent son, invested Philip of Savoy with Achaia at his hostel in the quarter of St. It was not tiU December of the following year that she returned with Philip to the Morea. Arrangements were made with Venice for the trans- port of the princely pair and their followers, and they embarked for Clarenza at Ancona, accompanied by Count Guido de Montbel, Hugo de Miribel, and other nobles of Savoy and Piedmont, together with a company of sixty knights and three hundred foot soldiers.

Philip of Savoy pledged himself to respect the usages of Achaia and received the homage of the barons, who duly verified the ratification of the marriage contract. His first care was to set the finances in order and collect arrears of revenue, and he early began to incur unpopularity by laying heavy burdens on the country to meet the expenses of a court which he maintained on an extravagant scale. He filled the fortresses with Piedmontese mercenaries, and -was criticised for displaying a disposition to apply in the Morea the system which he had learned from the tyrants of Lombardy.

This Vincent de Marays, a knight from Picardy, was a partisan of the Count of Cephalonia, and bore a grudge against the chancellor, whom he suspected of having counselled the supersession of his patron as bailie. The chancellor appealed to Nicholas de St. Omer, who, uniting in his person the representation of the ancient baronies of Passava, Akova, and Thebes, was regarded as the typical champion of the old Moreote nobility. Nevertheless if the Prince did not abide by his oath and respect the usages of Achaia, the barons could not respect their oath to him.

He was convinced, however, that the action taken was due to the inspiration of evil counsellors. In the end an account was required of the chancellor, who was restored to liberty, but had to make a deposit of 20, hyperpers, in return for which Philip assigned him lands estimated as yielding an annual revenue of Their meeting was cordial and distinguished by all the pomp and luxury in which the Prince of Achaia delighted.

The scene was Vostitza, on the beautiful bay of jEgion, with its unrivalled prospect over the gulf of Salona and the rugged heights of Delphi, over which towers the haunted summit of Parnassus. From this en- counter Guiot was suddenly called away to undertake the regency of Thessaly as guardian of the infant Johannes Angelas.

In the following year aggressions on the territory of Great Vlachia, instigated by the intriguing Anna of Epirus, forced him actually to take the field there, and he consequently claimed the feudal service of Nicholas de St. Omer, who was his vassal for the half- barony of Thebes.

Omer, haughtily disregarding the interdiction, joined the Duke, not without some misgivings as to the possible confiscation of his fiefs in the Morea. He determined there- fore that, if he should at any time be compelled to withdraw from the country, he would not leave it empty-handed. His evil genius, Vincent de Marays, who lived in the country of Escorta, moved once more by the desire to gratify some personal rancour, per- suaded him to lay a heavy impost on the stubborn and independent Arcadian population, which included many wealthy proprietors.

Arbitrary and irregular levies were wholly contrary to the usages and privi- leges established by a centmy of Frankish rule. But Philip, listening to the suggestions of the crafty Picard, took advantage of the departure of St. Omer, the defender of the old tradition, to place the archons under contribution. The absence of the marshal, however, had also its effect in encouraging the Escortans to resistance.

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Rallying round their head men, Georgi and Janni Mikronas, they declined to pay the tribute, and sent emissaries to the strategus at Mistra, offering allegiance and declaring that all the archons of Escorta were ready to rise in favour of the Emperor. The strategus accepted these over- tures and collecting a force marched on Andritzena, while the insurgents carried and destroyed by fire the weakly-defended castle of St.

Helena can be identified on an Hellenic site above Lavda, the acropolis apparently of the ancient Theisoa. This name is still preserved locally. On the south-eastern border, however, the stronghold of Beaufort, which had been solidly con- structed of cemented limestone by Florence of Hainault to counterbalance the advantage secured by the Greeks when they seized the fort of St.

Meanwhile the captain of Escorta, Nicholas Lenoir of St. Sauveur, who held Caiytena for the Duke of Athens, collecting all the men-at-arms he could muster, occupied the heights above Beaufort and sent urgent messages to the Prince at Andravida, bidding him hasten to the rescue, if he was not pre- pared to lose Escorta altogether. He summoned his barons to follow him, and marching south spread panic among the Greeks who withdrew in haste towards St. Lenoir failed to understand the signals made to him from the keep at Beaufort, and believing himself about to be attacked, lost time in following up the retreating enemy.

He was, however, not too late to secure a considerable booty. All was over when Philip him- self arrived on the scene, and it only remained for him to confiscate the property of the ringleaders, and strengthen the garrisons in Escorta under the orders of Lenoir. The disposal of the property of Count Richard of Cephalonia led to a fresh and serious dispute between the Prince and St.

Omer in his character as advocate and champion of the Moreote nobles. The Prince sup- ported his vassal against his own sister-in-law, whose only hope of attaining justice appeared to her to lie in the intervention of Nicholas de St. In the summer of the marshal returned from Thessaly and chivalrously responded to her appeal. It was no doubt at this time that his wife, the fair Guglielma of Cephalonia, whom he had married after the death of Chaudron, first conceived that violent jealousy of her stepmother, which was before long to occasion a grave scandal in the Morea.

He accompanied Margaret to the presence of the Prince, who after the brief campaign in Escorta was spending the hot summer season at the estate of one of his vassals, perhaps Vincent de Marays, on the banks of the Alpheius. His forbearance, however, did not go so far as to brook the interference of Vincent de Marays, who supported the contentions of the Count. The indignant marshal was on the point of using violence once more, and insisted in any case on the withdrawal from the court of one who had no right to speak there.

Not even the Prince him- self, he contended, could judge an issue between the daughter of ViUehardouin and the Count of Cepha- lonia, but only the twelve barons who were peers of the realm. To this plea there was no reply, and the court adjourned until the morrow.

Meanwhile the Prince consulted his advisers and bitterly complained of the arrogant behaviour of the marshal, who had not for the first time put a slight upon him, and whose pride he intended to humble. But the con- stable, the bishop of Olenos and others preached con- ciliation and prudence. It was safer policy to have him for a fnend than for an enemy. The master of the Templars and Hugues de Charpigny were deputed to persuade Margaret and her champion to agree to this solution.

The settlement, accepted perhaps with a reservation, did not prevent her from once more putting forward a claim to the whole amount ten years later, when her daughter was married to Ferdinand of Majorca. The Prince was now suddenly compelled to abandon his pleasant retirement in the garden lands on the banks of the Alpheius by a summons from his over- lord to take the field in an expedition to Epirus, this time against and not in support of the Despina Anna, whose son-in-law John of Cephalonia was also called upon for a contingent.

The Despot Nicephorus was dead, and his son Thomas had reached the age of fifteen years. His sister Ithamar, the wife of Philip of Tarentum, had, in spite of the engagements taken before she married, either been induced or compelled to abandon the orthodox rite, and now bore the catholic name of Catherine. The ambitious Anna Cantacuzena did not apparently contend that the other conditions of the marriage pact were thereby annulled, but she could not contemplate with equa- nimity the cession of the real power in the despotate to the catholic Philip.

She looked for support, as a patriotic Greek, to Constantinople, and sought to arrange a marriage between her son Thomas and the VOL. The Despina replied, not without justice in view of the existing engagements, that her son was the vassal of the Emperor, and that the claims of Philip of Tarentum would only come up for practical consideration in the event of his death without heirs.

This message was met by a declaration of war, and a small expedition, consisting of horse and foot, under Jean Maucevrier and Raymond de Candolle, the Angevine bailie, were landed at a little port not far distant from Arta. The campaign was brief and inglorious. The Despot and his mother abandoned Arta, and withdrew to Jannina, where the castle, strongly garrisoned, defied the be- siegers so successfully that they exhausted their supplies and were compelled to retire upon their transports at the coast.

An assaidt on the fortress of Bogus, crowning a height between the channels of the river St. George, was not only repulsed, but some hundred of the attacking party were sacrificed by a reckless want of precaution. Raymond de Candolle remained behind in charge of the Neapolitan castles, and Philip and St.

Omer returned to the Morea for the winter season. He had alienated the S 3 anpathies of the Frankish nobles. The shabby treatment accorded to Margaret ViUehar- douin had attracted attention at Naples, and doubtless many other complaints of his levies and exactions had reached the ear of King Charles.

He had not yet paid the formal act of homage to Philip of Tarentum, and he had been ill-advised enough to make con- ditions before undertaking this obligation. But he appears to have made mistakes in transcription, as well as deliberate emendations, combined with a punctuation not always felicitous.

Nor did the gallant St. Omer return to find peace at home. His wife Guglielma was at least ten years his senior. Meanwhile he devoted himself to the chase, paying brief visits at rare intervals to Rhoviata, where he had established his wife in a sort of honourable captivity in charge of ten esquires, with two chaplains and a physician to complete her household. So that winter passed and, with the returning spring of , the Despina realised that Epirus was menaced by a renewal of invasion and the advent of a still larger contingent from the Morea to wipe out the humiliations of the last expedition.

The Moreotes, accustomed to mountain warfare and familiar with the tactics of the Greeks, were in her eyes the more formidable enemies. A secret emissary was despatched with ten thousand gold hyperpers, six thousand of which were handed to Philip and four thousand to the marshal, as the price of their abstention from hostilities.

Neither showed any hesitation in accepting the bribe. The mar- shal proposed to the Prince that he should assemble a parliament at Corinth for the discussion of urgent local affairs. The barons were accordingly summoned to Corinth, and by the end of April the Dukes of Athens and Naxos, the Marquis of Bodonitza, the triarchs of Euboea, and the Count of Cephalonia were all on their way to the isthmus.

Omer begged the Prince to dispense with his company on the road. He had occasion, he asserted, to pay a yisit to the lady of Matagriffon, with a yiew to contracting a loan, but as soon as he had concluded his business he would rejoin his lord at Corinth by the road through Poly- phengo. Poljphengo was the ancient Phlins through Which the most direct route would lie from MatagriJfon to Corinth. Omer would be invited to make good any charge he might have to urge against his wife, or in default be proved to have behaved as ill became an honourable man.

Meanwhile the news of the escape from Rhoviata was brought to MatagriflFon, and St. Omer, swearing vengeance on the brothers for the insult they had offered him, hastened to Corinth, where he arrived before the Prince. From Thebes he summoned all his vassals to attend him in martial equipment, and ordered forage and provisions for a month to be made ready.

The Prince arrived soon after, and with Count John and Maria Comnena his wife came Guglielma herself and her sister, the wife of the constable, Engelbert de Liederkerke. Here at this critical point in the story the sequence of the French chronicle is suddenly interrupted and several sheets are missing. It must, however, be assumed that Philip succeeded in effecting a semblance of reconciliation between the marshal and the Cephalonian faction, for great festivities ensued and a tournament of open challenge, in which a thousand knights took part, was proclaimed, to last for twenty days.

It appears from the mutilated text of the manuscript that seven knights, who had been on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, arrived during the parliament, and being desirous of achieving fame in this new field and finding service in Morea, they issued a challenge to all comers, and proclamation was duly made that seven knights from beyond the sea would encounter any knight who was willing to meet them on horseback. Nothing would satisfy the young Duke of Athens but to pit himself against this champion. The chronicler, who must have become acquainted with such details from personal observa- tion, relates that Guiot was protected by a thick padding underneath his armour, because the conditions of battle were very severe, and a charge of horse against horse was sanctioned.

Bouchart, however, refused to follow his example, and wore only the ordinary equipment of the tourney. Guiot, however, did not attempt to disengage himself, and maintained his seat in the tourney saddle, until the umpires had satisfied them- selves that he had not been unhorsed. This feat of gallantry aroused such enthusiasm that a host of stalwart arms hoisted up dead horse and living rider, and so carried the young Duke in triumph round the lists.

The French chronicle, which carries the history of the Morea some fourteen years further than the existing Greek versions, comes suddenly to a conclusion in the middle of the story of the great tournament of Corinth, and the end is evidently missing. Nego- tiations regarding his investiture and the homage due to Phihp of Tarentum, as overlord, had led to no result, and his evasion of his obligations to prosecute the war in Epirus was by feudal standards accoimted felony.

The Angevines were now menacing his Pied- montese possessions from the neighbouring borders of Provence, and so he decided in November to sail for Italy, accompanied by Isabella, leaving St. Omer, whom he perceived to have more authority than him- self, as baihe in the Morea. Isabella never returned again to the land which her father had acquired. Mahaulte Villehardouin, who now with her twelfth year attained her majority, remained with her husband in Thebes, but the inftint Margaret of Savoy accom- panied her mother to Piedmont.

By an investiture made by Philip in , and confirmed by him before the chief barons of the principality in the following year, she had been granted the captanate of Carytena and Bucelet as her inheritance. In June Charles II. The Frankish barons were at the same time absolved from the conse- quences of breaking the oath of fealty to the deposed ]Wnce. In the ssune month Philip of Tarentum, who had fitted out a fleet with the assistance of Florentine bankers for one more effort to make good his claims in Epirus, came to the Morea and received the homage of the barons.

Inasmuch, however, as Alba had already been bestowed as an appanage for life on the wife of Philip of Tarentum, Charles pledged him- self to pay ounces of gold annually to the dis- possessed Prince as long as his daughter-in-law survived. Alba was soon afterwards raised to a principality. The Duchess of Athens, after she became a widow in , confirmed a cession which had been made by herself and Guy II, conjointly to her mother of power to administer these lands in Hainault, and also granted her for life the usufruct of the original Villehardouin fief of Calamata.

In , in spite of her formal renunciation, she made a will constituting her eldest daughter Mahaulte her universal heiress in Morea, but reserv- ing Garytena, Beauvoir, and Beauregard as a dowry for her younger daughter Margaret of Savoy, and soon afterwards she died, barely fifty years of age, apparently at the court of William of Hainault. The results to Philip of Tarentum of the new expedition to Epirus were an estrangement with his wife and serious pecuniary entanglements with the Bardi of Florence. One of his first acts of authority was to transfer the bailieship from St.

Omer to the Duke of Athens, who as the husband of Mahaulte Ville- hardouin would be more readily accepted as a ruler than the hereditary marshal by his opponents of the Cephalonian faction. In the following year, on the death of Charles II.

The position which had been forced on the house of Villehardouin by Charles of Anjou, confirmed by his heir in his treatment of the second generation, appears to have caused some misgivings to his less unscrupulous descendants. In spite of all the devices by which the title to Achaia had been secured to the Angevine dynasty, some doubt would appear to have been entertained whether a flaw might not be found in it, some dread lest perhaps an appeal to the high court of chivalry in France, or the feudal conscience of the age, might gain support for the claims of the disinherited great-granddaughter of the original con- queror, which it is probable had been asserted by the Duke of Athens on behalf of his wife.

It appears from the will of Gautier de Brienne that in the beginning of the bailie whom he recognised was QiUe de la Planohe. A possible explanation of the coexistence of two bailies at the same time will be found in the next chapter. To compass this ambition he successfully intrigued to bring about one of the most remarkable combinations recorded in his- tory, involving not less than four marriages, and two transfers of betrothed brides to other husbands. Catherine de Valois, who then became the heiress of the Frankish title, was in her early childhood betrothed to Hugh V. Such betrothals, sanctioned by the Church, were held to be solenm contracts which only the dispensation of the Church could set aside.

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He did not, however, appear before a tribanal appointed to examine into this charge as well as into another of having plotted the assassination of Philip, and was in December banished from the realm bj King Robert. Influences were, however, brought to bear upon Catherine, and arguments were put into the mouth of this child of eleven years, which she could never have initiated herself, in order to make out a case for the dissolution of the engagement. The consent of Hugh was readily obtained and, in view of the consideration promised, his own secure position in Burgundy seemed vastly preferable to the obligation to fight for a problematical throne on the Bosphorus.

A new bride was, moreover, provided for him by King Philippe le Bel, the daughter of his second son Philippe le Long. Philip reserved the homage due to himself as overlord and stipulated for a renewal of the obligation, which had originally been imposed on Isabella Villehardouin, making his consent an indispensable condition of any subsequent remarriage of Mahaulte, should she once more become a widow. The future Prince of Achaia was pledged to furnish material support for the reconquest of the empire, by providing a contingent of two hundred knights.

If no heirs were bom to the marriage Achaia was to revert to the house of Burgundy. In the document in which he accorded his sanction to the new dignities of Louis of Biur- gundy, Philippe le Bel insisted on a special clause providing that, should Louis die before his wife and leave no heir, Mahaulte should at any rate retain the principality of Achaia for her own lifetime. To this stipulation Philip of Tsorentum signified his agree- ment and pledged himself to obtain the approval of his brother Robert, under penalty of a fine of 40, hvres if unsuccessful. Louis also received from his brother a wedding gift in the form of the transfer to himself of the titular rights to the kingdom of Thes- salonica, which Baldwin II.

Another Jeanne, the sister of Philip of Valois and half-sister of ,Catherine, was to become the bride of the young Charles of Taxentum, who had had to renounce the hand of Mahaulte. Since, however, the territories to be partitioned remained in the category of castles in Spain, it is unnecessary to burden the text with the details of their distribution. But to the strenuous man of action nurtured under the immediate influence of Rome, the possible reconquest of the eastern throne was in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries no shadowy dream.

The idea which had predominated the pre- ceding epoch of two supreme institutions, one temporal the other spiritual, the Papacy and the Empire, co- existing for the governance of mankind, stiU exerted their influence. The Holy Roman Empire had prac- tically expired as a world-power with the Hohen- staufens. In the discord of the two forces the Church had triumphed. But the principles which underlay the imperial theory were not dead, and if Rome was the seat of the Papacy, the legitimate traditional seat of the Empire was in Byzantium. The Angevine dynasty, imported into southern Italy by the Popes, became their secular and executive arm, and the re- establishment of the empire in its immemorial place, as the temporal complement to the spiritual system of the curia, seemed a natural solution of the idea which had for so long exercised a potent fascination over the minds of men.

The Franks had occupied that throne, if only for a term of fifty years, and the Roman Church had extended its authority, nominally at any rate, over the Balkan peninsula. To a firm believer in the ultimate triumph of the Church it was inconceivable that the ground once gained had been more than temporarily lost, and the ideal of the restoration of the Latin empire through the Latin Church was a vital and practical moving force. During the course of the complicated negotiations in France, Catherine of Valois had completed her twelfth year, and with it attained her majority.

Her marriage was celebrated at Fontainebleau on the 13th of July , and thenceforth Philip of Tarentum was entitled to consider himself the legitimate Frankish pretender to the throne of Constantinople. The marriage of Mahaulte of Hainault apparently took place about the same time, and in the same year Louis of Burgundy took the oath of fealty to Philip and assumed the title of Prince of Achaia.

After some not uimatural delay he proceeded to Venice and completed his preparations for the journey. It was not, however, till the spring of that he actu- ally started for his new principality. To make the occasion of this disaster clear, it will be necessary to revert for a while to the contemporary history of Athens and Euboea, and to trace the rise and progress of the redoubtable Catalan adventurers whose arrival on the scene marks the real close of the age of chivalry in Greece.

The gifted soldier-author is as a rule careful about facts and truthful in the main, with a bias venial in one of that band of buccaneers, to whose credit he has set it down that they assigned the glory of their lawless exploits to God, while in their mutual relations they respected the principle which even thieves have proverbially found it their interest to observe. Giovanni Villani on the other hand, to quote a less interested authority, has described him as both cruel and dissolute.

The name of Roger de Flor has gained an addi- tional savour of romance by translation from its Teu- tonic original into the language of the south. Among the Byzantines Paohymer deals with Rogers brilliant and brief career. He was himself half German and half Italian, and was known in the latter country as Ruggiero del Fior. The confiscations which overtook all the partisans of the Hohenstaufens reduced the family to poverty, and the boy grew up among the sailor-folk who frequented the Apulian port, then one of the busiest in the world.

He was about eight years old when a fighting ship of the knights of the Temple, commanded by brother Vassal, a native of Marseilles, put in to Brindisi to winter there. By the time Roger reached the age of twenty he was a past master of navigation both in theory and practice, and his abilities were recognised by the Grand Master of the Temple, who bestowed on him the cloak of the order and appointed him to command the Falcon, u, vessel reputed to be the largest then afloat, which the knights had purchased from Genoa. The young captain, who was open-handed and had a facile charm of manner, made friends at all the ports he touched.

Believing his life to be in danger and having probably none too clear a conscience, he abandoned the Falcon at Marseilles and went to Genoa, where friends assisted him to equip a galley on his own account. Robert either declined or ignored the offer of the renegade Templar, as a faithful partisan of the Church was indeed bound to do, and so the Olivette set her course for Messina, where the son of Richard Blume was received with open arms by the grandson of Manfred, who had recommenced the struggle which his brother James had renounced in order to recover his ancestral throne in Aragon.

By the peace there con- tracted in Frederick was recognised as King of Sicily for life, under a promise that on his death it should revert to the reigning Angevine sovereign at Naples,' and he received the hand of Leonora, the daughter of Charles II. Frederick undertook to restore all the for- tresses he had gained north of the straits, and released Philip of Tarentum, who had been his prisoner since the disastrous battle of Falconara in The rivalry between the French and the Aragonese, which had for so long distracted southern Italy, was now to be transferred to Romania with not less far-reaching effect.

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The long war in Sicily had attracted thither a great army of mercen- aries, of Catalan horsemen, of experienced sailors, and of those redoubtable Spanish infantry soldiers, known as Almogavars,' adventurers whose subsistence depended less on their pay than on the opportunities which a state of war afforded them for plunder.

In time of peace such an assemblage of unruly swashbucklers menaced the tranquillity of the country in which they were stranded. Roger perceived that with the peace of Calatabelotta the advantages of his career as vice- admiral of Sicily were at an end. The reconciliation of Frederick with Rome might even raise the question of his surrender to the Grand Master of the Temple, and he realised it was time to seek a new scene of action. He accordingly submitted to the King his plan for ridding the island of the dangerous Catalan element.

He proposed to remind Andronicus of these and earlier fnendly acts, and to offer his sword to the empire, which was now menaced by the growing power of the Turks in Asia Minor, taking with him as many of the mercenary troops as were ready to share his fortunes. Its form points to an Arabic etymology. Monoada discusses the question whether the name was originally applied to a race or to a class of soldiery, and decides that it was a nationid appellation.

In support of this view he refers to Pachymer, who classified the iUmogavars as descendants of the Avars, and considers that eventually the name came to be applied to all who served in the infantry which had first been recruited from these Almogavars. These terms were accepted with alacrity by Andronicus, who was almost without serviceable troops for the defence of his frontiers. Some Almogavars and half as many horsemen eventually joined the expedition.

Other chiefs brought their own contingents, and not the least in this noble company of adventurers was Ramon Muntaner himself. Frederick parted with his successful admiral like a generous prince. He presented him with two galleys and two transports, which, added to eight galleys already in his possession and other vessels which Roger had bought or captured, made his fleet a for- midable one. He also furnished him with money and victual for the journey, biscuit, cheese, salt pork and onions.

In the title of the chapter in which the passage occurs he speaks of The marriage of Roger with the daughter of Irene PalsBologa, the wife of the Bulgarian king, was celebrated without loss of time, and the sixteen-year- old bride, who before his arrival must have contem- plated the alliance with some misgivings, is said to have become passionately attached to the magnificent adventurer, whose power of personal fascination was not less than his tireless energy and resource in action. But the wedding festivities were disturbed by a quarrel which broke out between the Catalans and the Genoese, at this time the most numerous and influential foreign community in Con- stantinople, established in the suburbs of Pera and Galata.

The Genoese con- trolled the maritime resources of the empire, and as their enmity had been incurred by this episode, Roger perceived the necessity of providing for the safety of his galleys and transports and of having an adequate fleet at his own disposal. Six weeks after his arrival he left his young bride in Constantinople, and landing at Artaki' immediately inflicted a signal defeat on the Turks. This important victory, not unjustly held by Greek historians to have stayed the tide of invasion which menaced the very existence of the empire, only excited the jealousy and suspicion of the B3rzantine adminis- tration, and in particular of Michael, the son of Andronicus, who was indignant that the uncouth Catalans should have succeeded where himself had failed.

The season was too far advanced for further operations and the army went into winter quarters at Artaki, whither the young megaduchess came accom- panied by her mother and an illegitimate daughter of Roger by a C q riote lady, whom he had without shocking the spirit of contemporary ethics confided to their care. Muntaner describes in detail how the billeting and victualling of the men during the winter was entrusted to a joint-commission of six notables of the country and six representatives of the army, with a view to making equitable arrangements for the Catsdans and preventing injustice to the local popula- tion.

Roger, who had escorted his wife and mother-in-law back to Constantinople, now proposed to take the field again, and assembling his forces caused all the notes of account, made out in duplicate, to be collected for revision. During their stay at Artaki a breach between Roger and Fernand Ximenes led to the withdrawal of the latter. He took ship with his detachment for Athens and offered his services to Guy II.

A suspicion gradually grew to a conviction there, that the megaduke was aiming at the creation of a subject state in Asia Minor, over which he might rule himself as a vassal of the Emperor. A fresh revolt of the Bulgarians, who were raiding the narrow confines of the empire in Europe, afforded an opportune pretext for the recall of the Catalans to co-operate with Michael Falseologus, and at the end of the year the host was conveyed back across the Dardanelles and established in headquarters at Gallipoli. Boger proceeded to Constantinople and pressed for further advances, which Andronicus en- deavoured to meet by an issue of debased coinage.

Their return to the European side had sufficed to frighten the Bulgarians into submission. But in the meantime the Turks were recovering their lost ground in Asia. They once more attacked Philadelphia, and the Emperor found himself obUged to come to terms with his trouble- some mercenaries. It was agreed that after the relief of Philadelphia military fiefs should be constituted in Asia for the soldiery, who would then cease to draw pay and perform feudal service for their tenure, forming a sort of buffer state between the empire and the barbarian.

The cities, however, were to be exempted from their control. He refused, however, to con- sider the reduction of the force for which the Emperor had pressed. Before leaving for Anatolia he determined, in response no doubt to a flattering invitation, to go to Adrianople and take leave of Michael Palseologus, in spite of the entreaties and warnings of his wife and mother-in-law, who feared treachery with only too good reason. Roger, however, laughed at their fears and, after despatching his wife, who three months later became the mother of a boy, to the capital, set out escorted by Almogavars and a small band of horsemen for Adrianople, in which fortress Michael had secretly assembled a force of some Alans and Turcomans.

He was not yet forty years of age when the sailor lad of Brindisi who had become a Ceesar of the empire ended his fantastic and brilliant career, the victim of his own temerity in trusting in the good faith of his constant enemy. His men, who had been billeted about the town, were simultaneously hunted down and massacred.

Michael hurried off a force of Turcomans and Alans to GraUipoh to attack the Catalans before the news could become known there. The movement was a complete surprise. Nearly all the horses out at grass were destroyed or captured, as well as a great number of the unsuspecting troopers. A few survivors from the massacre of Adrianople straggled in with the disastrous news, and the Catalans exacted terrible reprisals from all the Greeks who came within their reach.

The Greeks had resolved as far as lay in their power to exterminate the Catalans. Once there he was disarmed and made a prisoner, his vessels were overmastered, and the galleys with their prizes sailed for Genoa. It was in vain when they appeared off Gallipoli that Muntaner en- deavoured to effect his release by offering a ransom of a thousand hyperpers. The little band of Ghillipoli, reduced to some men, now formed a heroic resolution. The sea was still open to them, but to withdraw would have been in their eyes an eternal infamy.

They therefore knocked the bottoms out of their remaining ships that none might be tempted to run away. Dramatic preparations preluded their sortie against the overwhelming host of the besiegers. On the tower of the castle they hoisted the banner of St. Peter, and made three standards ready to carry into action, two bearing respectively the arms of Aragon and Sicily, and the third the effigy of St.

They invoked the favour of Heaven on their desperate venture, and a seaman was found who could chant the canticle of the blessed St. Peter, which brought tears to the eyes of the hardened adventurers. Then all kneeling down they sang the Salve Regina. The June sky was clear, but as they sang a cloud passed overhead and a gentle rain fell upon them, ceasing with the last notes of the chorus, an omen which filled their hearts with joy.

It was a Satur- day morning, twenty-two days before the feast of St. Peter, when they marched out to battle. There was no van, nor centre, nor reserve, but the Almo- gavars were on the right, the remnant of the horsemen on the left. The enemy had their camp on a height some two miles distant, whence their first battle issued to dispute the advance of the Catalans.

As is usual in the accounts of battles at this time, the number of the killed recorded by Mimtaner is evidently fantastic. Three only of the Catalans were found missing, while the losses of the enemy, many of whom were drowned while trying to escape in the boats of the local fishermen, are set down at 26, The booty secured was enormous: Another army was nevertheless brought up, this time by Michael Palseologus in person, and once more the Catalans, leaving only a hundred men to protect their women and children in the fortress, boldly took the offensive.

The same order of battle was observed, with the same result. The Alans in the Byzantine van were routed and flung back in hopeless confusion on the centre, while a number of their Turkish mercenaries deserted to the enemy. Michael, who fought bravely, was himself wounded in the face by the gallant sailor who had chanted the canticle of St.

Once more an immense booty fell into the hands of the Catalans, who were now effec- tually masters of the country. So great was the terror which their name inspired, that their horsemen rode unmolested and almost single-handed up to the very outskirts of Constantinople in the pursuit of a highly profitable brigandage. Rhedestos, where the Catalan envoys had been murdered, was subjected to a terrible reprisal, as a warning that such breaches of faith would not meet with impunity.

Every inhabitant, without regard to age or sex, was put to death, and Roccaforte made the empty city his headquarters. Muntaner remained in charge of Gallipoli. From these three points they raided and scoured the surrounding country. It still remained to exact vengeance from the Alan tribesmen and their chief Gircon for the murder of Roger de Flor. The Alans, some 10, strong, were most effectually sur- prised in their camp, only about a tenth of their number being under arms when the onslaught was made.

Having their women and children with them, after the manner of the Tartars, they bravely stood their ground. Encumbered with their families they could neither retreat nor manoeuvre, and barely three hundred are said to have escaped from the field. The women and children were either killed by their husbands and fathers before they met death them- selves, or became the spoils of the victors. Mean- while a Genoese squadron under Antonio Spinola, which was conveying to Italy the younger son of the Emperor as successor to the marquisate of Mont- ferrat, attacked the little garrison at Gallipoli.

Muntaner called upon the women to take charge of the ramparts, and making a sortie with his handful of men, succeeded, although himself severely wounded in the first phase of the engagement, in driving their assailants back to the ships. Spinola himself was among the six hundred slain. The company now received an important acces- sion of strength by incorporating a band of Turkish deserters from the imperial army, to the number of horse and foot, under their emir Ximelek.

They led a merry Ufe, growing prosperous and rich at the expense of the unfortunate local proprietors. Themselves they neither sowed nor pressed the grape, but every man eat and drank of the best, requisi- tioning whatever his necessities suggested. Gallipoli remained their headquarters for some seven years, and it was not until the whole country round for a march of ten miles had been sucked dry that the question arose of moving their camp from the scene of their devastating operations.

Boccaforte however was not prepared to treat him as more than an equal. Thus, although there was no open breach thanks to the efforts of Muntaner, the company was divided into two partisan camps. King Frederick of Sicily whose banner the Catalans had adopted, and who still claimed their allegiance, attempted to reconcile the menacing schism by despatching to Gallipoli the Infant Ferdinand, son of the King of Majorca, to take over the supreme command of the company and enter into possession in his name of the towns and fortresses which they had occupied.

Boccaforte on the other hand, who was absent conducting the siege of Nona, realised that the appointment of the Infant would deprive him of the advantages of his dominant position. He was well aware that the other leaders, who were all of noble blood, regarded him as an upstart adventurer, and that, having been the first to recognise Ferdinand, they would take the opportunity to undermine his position.

He aimed at succeeding himself to the place of Boger de Flor, and it was consequently his object to get rid of the new comer by any available means. So before the Infant could arrive in the camp under Nona, Boccaforte had already privately arranged with the representatives of his companies what answer was to be returned him, when he caused the letters of Frederick of Sicily to be pubhcly read. His followers, moreover, far outnumbered the rest of the company. Ferdinand of Majorca on receiving their reply announced that under such conditions he could not remain, and must return to Sicily.

He agreed, however, to march with the company until they had entered the territories of the kingdom of Thessalonica, whither they had now deter- mined to transfer their sphere of operations. And so in a spirit of mutual mistrust, and not without profound misgivings, the captains took their disposi- tions to break up the camp at Gallipoli. It was arranged that Muntaner, after levelling the defences at Gallipoli and Madytos, should embark all the sailors with the women and children in such vessels as were available and sail to Christopolis, while the men-at-arms marched overland.

When they were only two stages from Christopolis an unlucky chance led to a misunderstanding which had the gravest consequences. Thus it happened that the rearguard of the latter found themselves in touch with the advance guard of the former, and either party, excited by the quarrels of their leaders, believed that the other was about to attack.

Ximenes, who was following close behind, saw him fall and, being unarmed, turned his bridle and saved himself by flight. Then the en- counter became general. Ferdinand rode forward and strove to arrest the imnatural combat, and Roccaforte with his cavahers formed a ring round the Prince to protect him from the Turks. With difficulty order was at length restored, but not until some six or seven hundred victims had been uselessly slain. Feman Ximenes had taken refuge in an imperial castle, and the Prince held him under the circum- stances excused, when he declined to rejoin the company, fearing treachery from his mortal enemy Roccaforte, who had now prompted the rest of the axmy to subscribe to the decision which his own corps had adopted.

The Infant, finding that all were now firmly persuaded not to acknowledge him, unless he would take over the leadership in his own name and not on account of King Frederick, took his leave of them with a good grace and embarked in his own galleys which had followed the line of march along the coast. In the neighbouring island of Thasos he feU in with the Catalan fleet on its way to Christopolis in charge of Muntaner, who now learned from the Infant what had taken place since they parted, and promised loyally to remain under his orders and accompany him to Sicily. But he craved and obtained permission first to carry out his commission and bring his convoy safely in, after which he would return to Thasos.

To such among them as did not wish to remain he assigned vessels to carry them to Negripont. He then handed over the great seal and all the books and records. Many efforts were made to induce him to stay, and the Turks were most instant in their prayers that he would not desert them. But Muntaner, who was the most loyal of men, had given the Prince his word that he would return, and indeed there was little inducement for him to remain.

Ximenes never rejoined the Catalans. He offered his services to Andronicus, who accepted the offer, bestowed upon him the hand of a lady of the imperial house, and eventually appointed him Grand Admiral. An attack on the city of Thessalonica was however energetically repulsed, and one at least of the wealthy monasteries in the holy peninsula of Athos defended itself with success.

At length they established a new Gallipoli at Cassandria. In the latter days of the Catalan occupation at Gallipoli he had gone thither to crave their assistance in consummating an act of private vengeance by a raid on Phocsea. Ticino Zaccaria, who had secured a footing and a stronghold in the island of Thasos, was in appointed governor of Phocaea by his uncle Benedetto, the sovereign and chief of the family.

With the assistance of a band of buccaneers placed at his disposal by Muntaner, who also supplied the necessary ships, Ticino took his revenge by raid- ing and devastating the flourishing city, returning with an immense booty, which was honourably divided, according to the code extolled by the chronicler, between the two partners in this iniquitous reprisal. Muntaner himself obtained possession by lot of a piece of the true cross, encased in gold and precious stones, which had once belonged to the Apostle St.

John, while the dalmatic woven by the Virgin herself, in which the Evangelist performed the mass, and a copy of the Apocalypse written by his own hand in letters of gold, were the portion of his Genoese associate. Zaccaria entertained his guests for some days with princely hospitality and engaged permanently for his own service a certain number of loyal Catalans, who consented to remain in Thasos. Then the Infant took his leave and sailed with Muntaner for Halmyros, where on his outward journey he had left behind four men to bake biscuit for the ships.

As these were no longer to be found and could not be satis- factorily accounted for, no further excuse was needed for indulging the predatory instincts of the Catalans, and Halmyros was raided with fire and sword. In spite of the wiser counsel of his followers, who realised that their most recent exploits might be called in question there, Ferdinand determined to touch at Negripont, where he had been well received on his voyage to Gallipoli.

As iU luck would have it, there had just come in from the south ten Venetian galleys and an armed boat, the transport and escort of Thibaut de Sipoys, the presumptive admiral of a restored western empire, sailing on a mission from Charles of Valois, who as husband of the titular Empress Catherine de Courtenay still dreamed of reconquering the Byzantine throne, and was therefore anxious to enlist the services of the Catalan Company.

While the Infant and Muntaner were on shore contracting for a safe - conduct from the triarchs, whose waters were notorious for the immunity they offered to pirates, the Venetian galleys attacked the little Spanish flotiUa. He him- self with En Garcia Gomez Falacin, another Catalan noble who had incurred the enmity of Roccaforte and had therefore abandoned the company, were arrested by order of Thibaut de Sipoys, who did not scruple also to lay hands on the person of the Prince of Majorca. The Infant was then placed in charge of Jean de Noyers, who was instructed to convey him to Thebes, where the Duke of Athens was re- quested to detain him at the pleasure of Charles of Valois.

These anticipations were only partially realised, for while on the one hand En Garcia Gomez was beheaded immediately on landing by the orders of Roccaforte, Muntaner was received with demonstrations of affection and loaded with gifts by both Catalans and Turks, and his old comrades made it a first condition of opening negotiations vrith Thibaut de Sipoys, that the property sequestrated in Negripont should be restored in fuU. Roccaforte, who had compromised himself irretrievably with Frederick of Sicily and the whole house of Aragon, perceived the advantage of coming to terms with Charles of Valois and, on the arrival of the Venetian squadron at Cassandria, the company took the oath of allegiance to his envoy.

Muntaner re- sisted the entreaties of the Catalans, seconded by those of Thibaut himself, to remain with the company, and embarked on board the galley of Giovanni Quirini, who was returning to Negripont with the Venetian flotilla. It was not long before Roccaforte, who felt him- self to be master of the situation, began to treat the representative of Charles of Valois with as little ceremony as he had shown to the nominee of Frederick of Sicily.

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