1086 The order of Carthusians established by Bruno.

1090 The dynasty of Hathinees or Assassins begins in Irak, and continues

for 117 years.

1091 The Saracens in Spain being hard pressed by the Spaniards, call to their assistance Joseph king of Morocco; by which the Moors get possession of all the Saracen dominions in Spain.

1096 The first crusade to the Holy Land, to drive the infidels from Jerusalem.

1098 The order of St. Benedict instituted.

1099 Jerusalem taken by the crusaders; Godfrey elected king; and the order of Knights of St. John instituted.

DURING this period the Danes and Normans began to make depredations, and to infest the neighbouring states. The former conquered the Anglo-Saxons, and seized the government, but were in their turn expelled by the Normans in 1066. In Germany and Italy the greatest disturbances arose from the contests between the popes and emperors. To all this if we add the internal contests, which happened through the ambition of the powerful barons of every kingdom, we can scarcely form an idea of times more calamitous than these. All Europe, nay, all the world, was one great field of battle; for the empire of the Mahometans was not in a more settled state than that of the Europeans. Caliphs, sultans, emirs, &c. waged continual war with each other in every quarter; new sovereignties every day sprung up, and were as quickly destroyed. In short, through the ignorance and barbarity with which the whole world was overspread, it seemed in a manner impossible that the human race could long continue to exist; when happily the crusades, by directing the attention of the Europeans to one particular object, made them in such measure to suspend their slaughter of one another.

The crusades originated from the superstition of the two grand parties into which the world was at that time divided, namely the Christians and Mahometans. Both looked upon the small territory of Palestine, which they called the Holy Land, to be an invaluable acquisition, for which no sum of money could be an equivalent; and both took the most unjustifiable methods to accomplish their desires. The superstition of Omar, the second caliph, had prompted him to invade this country, part of the territories of the Greek emperor, who was doing him no hurt; and now when it had been so long under the subjection of the Mahometans, a similar superstition prompted the pope to send an army to the recovery of it. The crusaders accordingly poured forth in multitudes, like those with which the kings of Persia formerly invaded Greece; and their fate was pretty similar. Their impetuous valour at first, indeed, carried every thing before them; they recovered Palestine, Phoenicia, and part of Syria, from the infidels; but their want of conduct soon lost what their valour had obtained, and very few of that vast multitude which had left Europe ever returned.

GOVERNMENT.

ROME.

MICHAEL V., emperor of the east, surnamed Calaphates from his father's occupation of a caulker of ships, was proclaimed emperor in 1041, after the death of his uncle. Soon after his accession he basely banished his uncle John the eunuch, and confined the empress Zoe in a monastery. The resentment of the people for this conduct broke out into a sedition, in which Zoe and her sister Theodora were recalled, and proclaimed joint sovereigns. Michael retired to a monastery and took the religious habit, hoping to escape further injury; but Theodora caused his eyes to be amputated, and he was banished, with all his relations and adherents after he had possessed the throne only four months.

CONSTANTINE X., surnamed Monomachus, or the Gladiator, a Greek of a noble family, was recalled from exile in Lesbos, at the deposition of the emperor Michael V., was married to Zoe, the daughter of Constantine IX., then the widow of two emperors, and was raised to the throne in 1042. He brought with him a fair widow, the sister of Romanus Seberus, whom he made his declared concubine, with the title of Augusta, and Zoe, who was advanced in years, consented to this. Constantine's reign was disturbed by various revolts, in which he generally remained victor, though one of the rebels, Leo Tomitius, besieged him in his capital. He was also successful against foreign enemies; but his indolence or avarice gave opportunity to the Turks, then a new foe to the empire, to gain a footing in Lesser Asia. He died in 1054.

MICHAEL VI, emperor of the east, surnamed Stratioticus, was appointed by the empress Theodora her successor to the throne, which he ascended in 1056. He was then advanced in years, and enjoyed a reputation for military talents, but was entirely unacquainted with the art of government. In consequence, he was governed by the court eunuchs, at whose instigation he disobliged the principal officers of the army. A conspiracy was formed against him, and Isaac Comnenus was elected to the imperial dignity. Isaac assembled an army in the eastern provinces, with which he proceeded towards the capital. He was met by Michael's army in the neighbourhood of Nice, and a battle ensued, in which the latter was totally defeated. At the approach of Comnenus a decree was unanimously passed, investing him with the title of emperor, and a deputation of bishops was sent to Michael, commanding him to renounce the sovereign power. "What will you give me," said he, "in exchange for the empire?" "The kingdom of heaven,"

they replied. He recognized the call, and retired to a monastery, after a reign of little more than a year.

. ISAAC I., COMNENUS, emperor of the east, son of Manuel, was the first of the noble family of Comneni who arrived at the imperial throne. He, with his brother John, was brought up in the camp and court to civil and military offices of distinction, and he stood in high esteem as a general, when the promotion of Michael Stratioticus to the purple, gave great discontent to the leading men. A conspiracy was formed to dethrone Michael, and raise Isaac Comnenus to the throne. Comnenus now invested with the ensigns of royalty, marched to Nice, which he surprised; and being encountered in the neighbourhood by the generals of Michael, totally routed them, and marched to Constantinople. Michael was obliged by the senate and people to resign his dignity and retire to a monastery; and Isaac was solemnly crowned on Sept. 1, 1057. His short reign was peaceable; but his attempt to recruit the exhausted treasury with the wealth of the monasteries occasioned an arrogant opposition from the patriarch, which the emperor quelled by banishing that prelate. Not long after, he fell into a decline of health, which admonished him to retire from the world. His brother John refusing to aecept of the toil of empire, the purple was conferred upon Constantine Ducas; and Isaac, in 1059, ended his reign of two years and three months in a monastery. He spent the remainder of his life in exercises of piety, not disdaining to perform the most servile offices of the convent, and was frequently honoured by the respectful visits of his successor.

CONSTANTINE XI., emperor of the east, surnamed Ducas, of a noble Greek family, was chosen by the emperor Isaac Comnenus at his voluntary abdication in 1059, as the fittest person to succeed him. Constantine had obtained reputation as an orator and a judge, but was ill-suited to govern an empire, then threatened by numerous barbarian foes. He governed at home with equity and moderation, but his avarice having induced him to neglect the maintenance of the garrisons on the frontier, a body of Uzians, a people of Scythia, consisting of five hundred thousand persons, passed the Danube, and laid the country waste. They penetrated even into Greece, and defeated the imperial generals who had been sent against them. The emperor in vain offered to purchase peace of them by rich presents and a tribute; but at length a great part of the host were destroyed by the plague, and the remainder were cut in pieces by the Bulgarians. Several cities of the empire were much injured by an earthquake during this disastrous reign. Constantine, whose great care was to secure the succession of his three sons, died in 1067, at the age of sixty.

ROMANUS IV., emperor of the East, named Diogenes, a descendant of Romanus Argyrus, in the regency of Eudocia, widow of Constantine Ducas, engaged in a conspiracy for raising

himself to the throne, for which he was tried and condemned to death. This punishment, on account of his fine person, was commuted for a short exile; after which the imperial widow nominated him to the command of her armies, and in 1067, she married him, and he was proclaimed emperor. He had not occupied the throne more than two months, before he put himself at the head of the few troops he could assemble, and crossed the Hellespont to attack the Turkish sultan, who had made incursions into his territories. He came up with the Turks, who were retiring, loaded with rich spoils. He attacked and routed them with great slaughter, and pursuing his success, recovered Aleppo and Hierapolis. In the two following campaigns, Romanus displayed his military talents to great advantage, and finally drove the Turks across the Euphrates. In the fourth campaign he led a numerous army to the deliverance of Armenia. After this he shared in a defeat, and was, in a general engagement, left alone, almost in the midst of his enemies, and was taken prisoner by the Turkish sultan; who obliged him to sign an humiliating treaty, and then set him at liberty. During his misfortunes, a revolution was effected at Constantinople; Eudocia had been driven from the throne, and shut up in a monastery; and her eldest son Michael Ducas, .: had been proclaimed emperor. Romanus was dethroned, and his eyes torn out with circumstances of so much cruelty, that he soon died. This happened in 1071, after a reign of three years and eight months.

MICHAEL VII., emperor of the East, of the house of * Ducas, surnamed Parapinaces, was the son of Constantine XI. On the defeat and capture of the emperor Romanus Diogenes, who had married Eudocia, the widow of Constantine, Michael was proclaimed emperor in 1071, by the influence of his uncle, the Cæsar John. He had studied philosophy and rhetoric, and possessed, says Gibbon, "the virtues of a monk, and the learning of a sophist," but was unfit for the cares of the empire, which devolved upon his uncle. He was, however, accused of diminishing the measure of corn for his own emolument and that of a rapacious favourite, during a scarcity, which fixed upon him his reproachful surname. The peace of the empire was disturbed soon after his accession by an invasion of the Turks, who made an alarming progress, and more than once defeated the emperor's generals. At length, in the midst of the public confusion, two of his commanders, Botoniates, and Bryennius, raised a revolt, and Michael, finding himself unequal to the task of reducing them, left a clear field to their mutual competition, and retired to a monastery in 1078, after reigning six years and half. He died in the possession of the see of Ephesus.

NICEPHORUS III., Botoniates, emperor of the East, was a general under Constantine Ducas, when he was defeated

and taken prisoner in an invasion of the Scythian Uzians. He commanded the Asiatic forces of the empire, when the contemptible character of Michael Ducas encouraged him to revolt, and make an alliance with the Turks, whom he had been sent to oppose. Nicephorus Bryennius, the general in Europe, revolted at the same time, and advanced to Constantinople, but was repulsed by the inhabitants, who were exasperated by the licentiousness of his troops. Botoniates soon after approached Chalcedon with a body of Turkish auxiliaries, and, Michael having retired into a monastery, was solemnly recognised as emperor, and crowned by the patriarch in March, 1078. Alexius Comnenus, who had faithfully adhered to Michael till his resignation, offered equal fidelity to Nicephorus III., and was employed by him against three competitors, Ursellius, Bryennius, and Basilacius. All these he successively reduced; and Nicephorus strengthened his authority, by marrying Mary, the widow of the late Michael. He was now advanced in years; and having no male issue, he was persuaded by two favourites to nominate in his testament for his successor, a youth who was his relation. The empress, who had a son married to a daughter of Nicephorus, whom she had destined to the empire, obtaining intelligence of this nomination, communicated it to the brothers, Alexius and Isaac Comnenus, who promised to support her interest. For this purpose they determined upon deposing the emperor; and withdrawing to the army encamped on the Thracian border, they engaged the chief officers in their conspiracy. Alexius was proclaimed by the soldiery, and advanced at their head to Constantinople, into which capital he was privately admitted. Nicephorus, deserted by all his friends, quitted the throne, after a reign of nearly three years, and retreated to a monastery, where he took the habit, and ended his days in peace and obscurity.

ALEXIUS I., COMNENUS, emperor of the East, son of John Comnenus, who was brother of the emperor Isaac, was born at Constantinople, in 1048. After having received an excellent education, he was early employed in military service, and, along with his elder brother Isaac, commanded against the Turks. Alexius, during the reign of Nicephorus, defeated Bryennius and Basilacius, two competitors for the throne. In consequence of some court intrigues, the two brothers of the Comneni were driven into rebellion, and withdrawing to the army on the borders of Thrace, they obtained its concurrence in the deposition of Nicephorus. Isaac, though the elder, readily consented to the preference of Alexius. He was saluted emperor by the troops, and immediately marched to Constantinople; the capital was betrayed into his hands, and his barbarian soldiers obtained much wealthy spoil from the churches and monasteries. By the influence of George Palæologus, the fleet was induced to declare in his favour; and the resignation