History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 6

Name: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 6
Author: Gibbon, Edward

Gibbon, Edward

Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.

released him from the importunity of a virtuous censor: the king
      of Tunis confessed himself the tributary and vassal of the crown
      of Sicily; and the boldest of the French knights were free to
      enlist under his banner against the Greek empire. A treaty and a
      marriage united his interest with the house of Courtenay; his
      daughter Beatrice was promised to Philip, son and heir of the
      emperor Baldwin; a pension of six hundred ounces of gold was
      allowed for his maintenance; and his generous father distributed
      among his aliens the kingdoms and provinces of the East,
      reserving only Constantinople, and one day’s journey round the
      city for the imperial domain. 38 In this perilous moment,
      Palæologus was the most eager to subscribe the creed, and implore
      the protection, of the Roman pontiff, who assumed, with propriety
      and weight, the character of an angel of peace, the common father
      of the Christians. By his voice, the sword of Charles was chained
      in the scabbard; and the Greek ambassadors beheld him, in the
      pope’s antechamber, biting his ivory sceptre in a transport of
      fury, and deeply resenting the refusal to enfranchise and
      consecrate his arms. He appears to have respected the
      disinterested mediation of Gregory the Tenth; but Charles was
      insensibly disgusted by the pride and partiality of Nicholas the
      Third; and his attachment to his kindred, the Ursini family,
      alienated the most strenuous champion from the service of the
      church. The hostile league against the Greeks, of Philip the
      Latin emperor, the king of the Two Sicilies, and the republic of
      Venice, was ripened into execution; and the election of Martin
      the Fourth, a French pope, gave a sanction to the cause. Of the
      allies, Philip supplied his name; Martin, a bull of
      excommunication; the Venetians, a squadron of forty galleys; and
      the formidable powers of Charles consisted of forty counts, ten
      thousand men at arms, a numerous body of infantry, and a fleet of
      more than three hundred ships and transports. A distant day was
      appointed for assembling this mighty force in the harbor of
      Brindisi; and a previous attempt was risked with a detachment of
      three hundred knights, who invaded Albania, and besieged the
      fortress of Belgrade. Their defeat might amuse with a triumph the
      vanity of Constantinople; but the more sagacious Michael,
      despairing of his arms, depended on the effects of a conspiracy;
      on the secret workings of a rat, who gnawed the bowstring 39 of
      the Sicilian tyrant.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 6Gibbon, Edward

History

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 6

Gibbon, Edward

Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.

released him from the importunity of a virtuous censor: the king
      of Tunis confessed himself the tributary and vassal of the crown
      of Sicily; and the boldest of the French knights were free to
      enlist under his banner against the Greek empire. A treaty and a
      marriage united his interest with the house of Courtenay; his
      daughter Beatrice was promised to Philip, son and heir of the
      emperor Baldwin; a pension of six hundred ounces of gold was
      allowed for his maintenance; and his generous father distributed
      among his aliens the kingdoms and provinces of the East,
      reserving only Constantinople, and one day’s journey round the
      city for the imperial domain. 38 In this perilous moment,
      Palæologus was the most eager to subscribe the creed, and implore
      the protection, of the Roman pontiff, who assumed, with propriety
      and weight, the character of an angel of peace, the common father
      of the Christians. By his voice, the sword of Charles was chained
      in the scabbard; and the Greek ambassadors beheld him, in the
      pope’s antechamber, biting his ivory sceptre in a transport of
      fury, and deeply resenting the refusal to enfranchise and
      consecrate his arms. He appears to have respected the
      disinterested mediation of Gregory the Tenth; but Charles was
      insensibly disgusted by the pride and partiality of Nicholas the
      Third; and his attachment to his kindred, the Ursini family,
      alienated the most strenuous champion from the service of the
      church. The hostile league against the Greeks, of Philip the
      Latin emperor, the king of the Two Sicilies, and the republic of
      Venice, was ripened into execution; and the election of Martin
      the Fourth, a French pope, gave a sanction to the cause. Of the
      allies, Philip supplied his name; Martin, a bull of
      excommunication; the Venetians, a squadron of forty galleys; and
      the formidable powers of Charles consisted of forty counts, ten
      thousand men at arms, a numerous body of infantry, and a fleet of
      more than three hundred ships and transports. A distant day was
      appointed for assembling this mighty force in the harbor of
      Brindisi; and a previous attempt was risked with a detachment of
      three hundred knights, who invaded Albania, and besieged the
      fortress of Belgrade. Their defeat might amuse with a triumph the
      vanity of Constantinople; but the more sagacious Michael,
      despairing of his arms, depended on the effects of a conspiracy;
      on the secret workings of a rat, who gnawed the bowstring 39 of
      the Sicilian tyrant.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 6

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 6

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