prudent, treacherous indeed in the artifices by which he guarded himself against his formidable allies, but careful to avoid as much as possible all open hostility, and even desirous of promoting, (s) though for his own interest, the success of their arms. The second great expedition, the only other which was conducted wholly by land, occurred in the reign of Manuel the grandson of Alexius, who * is described as of a more violent character than his grandfather, so that he not only harassed the crusaders himself by various injuries, but even acted in correspondence with the infidels for their entire destruction. The third expedition was conducted partly by land, the emperor Frederic I. having advanced by this route from Germany; and on this occasion again the crusaders were encountered by the hostility of Isaac Angelus, though directed by that cowardly meanness, which was fitted to facilitate a domestic revolution. The † vices and incapacity of this last sovereign suffered the empire to crumble into ruin. The revolt of the Bulgarians and Walachians, which happened in the year 1186, was provoked by his misconduct, the flocks and herds of these simple people, their only subsistence, having

* Decline and Fall, &c. vol. 6. p. 78–80. + Ibid. vol. 6. p. 131-134.

been driven away for the celebration of the royal nuptials, and their warriors having been exasperated by a refusal of equal rank and pay in the armies of the empire. The reign of Isaac was then agitated by the attempts of various candidates for the throne, which he so unworthily filled, until at length, in the year 1195, he was deposed by his brother, whom the historian, having exhausted, as he says, the language of contempt on the former, contents himself with denominating the baser Alexius. The usurpation sent the son of Isaac, who was also called Alexius, to seek the aid of the Latins, and a second, but transient usurpation, completed the catastrophe of the government. In this brief narrative we observe a guarded jealousy exercised against the crusaders until they had removed the Turkish power to some distance from Constantinople; an impetuous violence then employed in inflaming the resentment, which had been kindled by the suspicious prudence of the first of the three emperors; and the vice and incapacity of the third, while he continued to provoke the animosity of the crusaders, weakening the empire by dismemberment, and subjecting the throne itself to those efforts of ambition, by which the state was rendered ripe for its destruction.

The new empire was not however fitted for a long duration. The imperial territories, which

had been recently diminished by the revolt of the Bulgarians and Walachians, * and were at this time yet more reduced by the independence of the recently acquired provinces beyond the Hellespont, and of a new principality of Epirus, comprehending also Ætolia and Thessaly, were (t) divided into several portions, and only a fourth part was reserved for the dominion of the emperor. This petty principality was at the same time exposed to dangers both domestic and external. The Greeks, already sufficiently alienated by religious and national antipathies, were irritated by an exclusion from all civil and military honours; and the diminutive and feeble empire was surrounded by enemies eager to take advantage of its weakness, by the revolted Bulgarians and Walachians, the fugitive princes of Nice and Trebizond, and the new despot of Epirus. What was deficient in these causes of destruction, was † supplied by the commercial rivalry of the Genoese and the Venetians, the former being easily induced to assist in the restoration of the Greeks, that they might themselves enjoy those advantages, which the latter had received from the establishment of the Latin empire.

In the division of the Turkish dominion the
G 2

* Decline and Fall, &c. vol. 6. p. 182, 183. † Ibid. vol. 6, p. 203.

independent dynasty of Roum was established in the Lesser Asia, their power* extending from the Euphrates to Constantinople, and from the Black Sea to the confines of Syria. Through this formidable power did the crusaders endeavour in the earlier expeditions to force their way to Palestine; and it was by the experience of the difficulties with which they struggled in their progress through the Lesser Asia, that they were induced to conduct their armies afterwards by sea. So far then as the maritime cha- · raci r of the later expeditions was connected with the seizure of Constantinople, and the establishment of the Latin empire of that eastern capital, in the same degree must the great Turkish principality of the Lesser Asia be considered as entering into the general combination of events, which constitutes the history of the crusades.

These expeditions, which had been diverted from their original object to the attack of Constantinople, were terminated in Africa. The fourth crusade had been employed in the reduction of the Greek empire; the fifth was partly, and the sixth entirely occupied, in the invasion of Egypt; and the whole series was concluded with an unsuccessful attempt to effect the conquest of Tunis. As the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem had been overthrown by Saladin,

*Decline and Fall, &c. vol. 5. p. 675.

who had previously rendered himself sultan of Egypt, and at his death possessed an empire extending from the Indian ocean to the mountains of Armenia, and from the Tigris to the African Tripoli, it was naturally concluded, that the most effectual method of prosecuting these enterprises was to deprive their enemy of the resources supplied by Egypt, the seat of his government. The effort, though repeated, was unsuccessful, and decided the fortune of the crusades. In the year 1218, twenty-five years after the death of Saladin, the crusaders attacked Damietta, and took it after a siege of sixteen months; but the camp having been overflowed by the waters of the Nile, they were compelled to retreat, and to conclude a peace on the condition of relinquishing their conquest. Damietta was again taken in the year 1249, and the crusading army, having advanced to the same spot which had before proved fatal, was defeated in consequence of the precipitation of the van-guard, and afterwards captured, with its leader Lewis IX. of France, in attempting to effect a retreat. The final effort of the Christians, in the year 1270, was exhausted in the war of Tunis, which was begun by the same prince at the close of his reign, and concluded in the same year by his successor, Lewis having

* Decline and Fall, &c. vol. 6. p. 88.

+ Savary's Letters on Egypt, vol. 1. letter 25.