It would be a curious historical problem to trace the families of
emperors and kings, of heroes and conquerors, from the era of their
decline and fall to their ultimate extinction. Some 'Old Mortality'
might find as congenial employment in this field of sepulchral
research as did the original in clearing up the decayed and
moss-grown tombs of the Covenanters. The genealogist makes it his
business rather to flatter the great by blazoning the antiquity of
their pedigrees, than to teach the world a moral lesson on the
instability of earthly grandeur, by chronicling their reverses. Yet
the churchyard has its heraldry, from whose records wisdom might be
extracted for the benefit of the living.
What dynasty in ancient times held a prouder or wider sway than the
illustrious masters of the Roman world? The solid fabric of their
power was the growth of nearly a thousand years, and it cost about
thirteen centuries of revolutions and barbaric invasions before it
was undermined and finally extinguished. If its earlier annals were
disgraced by the crimes of a Tiberius, a Nero, and a Domitian, they
could boast of the virtues and abilities of a Titus, a Trajan, a
Nerva, a Hadrian, the two Antonini, &c.; though it must be admitted
that latterly the balance sadly preponderated on the side of vice
and corruption. If a Justinian or a Constantine appeared, his reign
was but a sunbeam in the midst of the universal degeneracy; or if a
ray of splendour was shed on the empire by his virtues or his
victories, the transient glory was speedily dispelled by irruptions
from without, or intrigue and revolt within. Gradually the work of
decay proceeded, until the vast expanse of the imperial conquests
was contracted to a few provinces, whose capital had been
transferred to the shores of the Bosphorus. A languishing existence
of about six centuries and a half--that is, from the revival of the
western empire in 800 by Charlemagne, to the taking of
Constantinople by the Turks in 1453--was brought to a close by the
death of Constantine Palæologus, the last of a race who had
continued, says Gibbon, 'to assume the titles of Caesar and Augustus
after their dominions were circumscribed to the limits of a single
city, in which the language as well as manners of the ancient Romans
had been long since forgotten!'
The family of Palæologus was of Greek origin, illustrious in birth
and merit. 'As early,' says Gibbon, 'as the middle of the eleventh
century, the noble race of the Palæologi stands high and conspicuous
in Byzantine history. It was the valiant George Palæologus who
placed the father of the Comneni on the throne; and his kinsmen or
descendants continued in each generation to lead the armies and
councils of the state.' The first that wore the imperial purple was
Michael, who was elevated to the throne in 1260. Already he had
distinguished himself as a soldier and a statesman, and had been
promoted in his early youth to the office of 'constable,' or
commander of the French mercenaries. His ambition excited jealousy,
and some acts of imprudence involved him in dangers from which he
thrice escaped. One of those perils was the usual appeal which was
made in the middle ages to the 'judgment of God' to vindicate
injured innocence. To this ordeal Michael submitted, in presence of
the emperor and the archbishop of Philadelphia. 'Three days before
the trial, the patient's arm was enclosed in a bag, and secured by
the royal signet; and it was incumbent on him to bear a redhot bolt
of iron three times from the altar to the rails of the sanctuary,
without artifice and without injury. Palæologus eluded the dangerous
experiment with sense and pleasantry. "I am a soldier," said he,
"and will boldly enter the list with my accusers; but a layman, a
sinner like myself, is not endowed with the gift of miracles. Your
piety, most holy prelate, may deserve the interposition of Heaven,
and from your hands I will receive the fiery globe, the pledge of my
innocence." The archbishop started, the emperor smiled, and the
absolution or pardon of Michael was approved by rewards and new
services.' The voice of the people and the favour of the army placed
the crown on his head, in recompense for his military exploits and
his public merits. With his accession terminated the reign of the
last of the Latin emperors at Constantinople (Baldwin II.), and
Michael became the founder of the Grecian dynasty.
The labours of the new monarch to retrieve the calamities of war, by
encouraging industry, planting colonies, and extending trade, were
deserving of all praise. His ambition raised up against him many
enemies, spiritual and temporal; but if his policy was not always
judicious, he increased his power and his fame by greatly enlarging
his dominions. It was by his intrigues that the revolt of Sicily was
instigated. A rude insult to a noble damsel by a Frank soldier,
during a procession on the vigil of Easter (1282), spread the flame
of insurrection over the whole island, and 8000 Franks were
exterminated in a promiscuous massacre, which has obtained the name
of the 'Sicilian Vespers.' His son and successor, Andronicus, was
reckoned a learned and virtuous prince; but his long reign is
chiefly memorable for the disputes of the Greek church, the invasion
of the Catalans, and the rise of the Ottoman power. He associated
with him in the administration his son Michael, at the age of
eighteen; and upon the premature death of the latter, his son
Andronicus, the emperor's favourite, became the colleague of his
grandfather. The reign of the elder Andronicus was consumed in civil
discord and disputes with his family, the young princes having
raised the standard of revolt in order to get possession of the
throne. He was at length compelled to abdicate; and assuming the
monastic habit, he spent the last few years of his life in a cell,
blind and wretched, his only consolation being the promise of a more
splendid crown in heaven than he had enjoyed on earth.
After a series of inglorious struggles among the princes of the
imperial house, the crown settled, in 1391, on Manuel, whose reign,
however, was little else than a train of disasters. His capital was
besieged by Amurath, and the Turks were masters of nearly the whole
of his dominions, which had now shrunk into a small corner of
Thrace, between the Propontis and the Black Sea, about fifty miles
in length and thirty in breadth. To retrieve his fortunes, Manuel
resolved on a journey to foreign countries, believing that the sight
of a distressed monarch would draw tears and supplies from the
sternest barbarians. From Italy he proceeded to the coast of France,
where he was received with the characteristic politeness of the
nation. Two thousand of the richest citizens of Paris, armed and on
horseback, came forth to meet him; and at the gates he was welcomed
as a brother by Charles VI., who saluted him with a cordial embrace.
He was clothed in a robe of white silk, and mounted on a milk-white
steed--a circumstance of great importance in the French ceremonial,
white being considered as the emblem of sovereignty. He was lodged
in the Louvre, and a succession of feasts and balls, varied by the
pleasures of the chase, was got up for his amusement. Having
satisfied his curiosity, but without any prospect of assistance, he
resolved to visit England. In his progress from Dover, he was
entertained at Canterbury by the prior and monks of St Austin; and
on Blackheath Henry IV. saluted the Greek hero, who for several days
was honoured and treated in London as Emperor of the East. Having
failed in the object of his journey, he returned to Constantinople
(1402), and was allowed to finish his reign in prosperity and peace
in 1425.
In his declining age, he had appointed as his associate his eldest
son John, the second of the name. The corruptions of the church,
divided between two popes, and the disputes of the clergy, afforded
him ample scope for the exercise of his religious zeal, and it was
to heal these ecclesiastical schisms that he undertook a voyage to
Italy. But the downfall of his race and of the Grecian dynasty was
approaching. At his decease (1448), there were five princes of the
imperial house; but the death of Andronicus, and the monastic
profession of Isidore, had reduced them to three--Constantine,
Demetrius, and Thomas. Constantine ascended the vacant throne, the
factious opposition of his brothers having been appeased by the
interposition of the empress-mother, the senate, the soldiers, and
the clergy, who allowed them the possession of the Morea.
The first act of the new emperor was to despatch an embassy to
Georgia to bring home a princess whom he had chosen for his royal
consort. His next care was to inquire into the state of public
affairs, which had been completely neglected by the weakness or
absence of his predecessor. But the imperial drama had reached its
last act. The danger which had long brooded over the doomed house of
the Palæologi was ready to burst in resistless fury upon the city of
the Cæsars. Mohammed II. had vowed to become master of
Constantinople, and vast were the preparations and the implements of
war which he had provided for its capture or its destruction. The
story of the siege need not here be told; nowhere has it been
recorded with more picturesque and energetic brevity than in the
glowing pages of Gibbon. Operations were carried on with
unprecedented vigour and effect, rendered more terrible by the
lavish use of gunpowder and artillery, then almost new elements in
the art of war. Constantine did all that a Christian prince and a
brave general could do. By his example he animated the courage of
his soldiers, and revived the hearts of the citizens, sinking in
despair. The scene on the day before the assault is thus described
by an eye-witness:--'The emperor and some faithful companions
entered the dome of St Sophia, which in a few hours was to be
converted into a mosque, and devoutly received with tears and
prayers the sacrament of the holy communion. He reposed some moments
in the palace, which resounded with cries and lamentations;
solicited the pardon of all he might have injured; and mounted on
horseback to visit the guards and explore the motions of the enemy.'
But the dreaded 29th of May had come; the last hour of the city and
the empire had struck. After a siege of fifty-three days,
Constantinople, to use the words of Gibbon, 'which had defied the
power of Chosroes, the chazan, and the caliphs, was irretrievably
subdued by the arms of Mohammed II. Her empire only had been
subverted by the Latins; her religion was trampled in the dust by
the Moslem conquerors.'
Constantine had nobly done his duty. Amidst the swarms of the enemy
who had climbed the walls and were pursuing the flying Greeks
through the streets, he was long seen with his bravest officers
fighting round his person, and finally lost. His only fear was that
of falling alive into the hands of the Infidels, and this fate he
sought to avert by prudently casting away the purple. Amidst the
tumult he was pierced by an unknown hand, and his body was buried
under a mountain of the slain. The last words he was heard to utter
was the mournful exclamation: 'Cannot there be found a Christian to
cut off my head?' His death put an end to resistance and order, and
left the capital to be sacked and pillaged by the victorious Turks.
Truly has it been said, that the distress and fall of the last
Constantine are more glorious than the long prosperity of the
Byzantine Cæsars.
The difficulties and dying moments of the emperor have been
faithfully and pathetically dramatised by Miss Joanna Baillie in her
tragedy of _Constantine Palæologus_. She adheres closely to history,
only she makes her hero receive his deathblow from the sword of a
relenting Turk, who admires his bravery, and pronounces over him a
farewell eulogy. All writers agree that the last of the imperial
Palæologi was the best of his race; and had he not been so ill
supported by his worthless subjects, and deserted by every Christian
prince in Europe, he might have repelled the tide of Turkish
invasion, though he would never have restored the glory of the
empire. Yet gallantly did he front the storm, and perish as became
the successor of a long line of kings--the last of the Romans.
The fall of Constantine was the signal for the degradation and
dispersion of his whole race. His two surviving brothers, Demetrius
and Thomas, reigned as despots of the Morea in Greece; but the ruin
of the empire was the gloomy prelude to their own misfortunes.
Demetrius became the pensioner of the new Turkish emperor Mohammed,
and received a city of Thrace and some adjacent islands for his own
maintenance and that of his followers. In this state of humiliating
dependence he remained until death released him from his ignominious
servitude. Thomas, the other brother, was driven into exile by the
invasion of his dominions. He fled to Corfu, and from thence to
Italy--according to Gibbon's account--'with some naked adherents;
his name, his sufferings, and the head of the apostle St Andrew,
entitled him to the hospitality of the Vatican, and his misery was
prolonged by a pension of 6000 ducats from the pope and cardinals.'
He left two sons (he must have had a third, as will afterwards
appear), Andrew and Manuel, who were educated in Italy. The eldest
degraded himself by the looseness of his life and marriage, and died
the inheritor of an empty title. Manuel was tempted to revisit his
native country; and after spending the remainder of his life in
safety and ease at Constantinople, he was gathered to his fathers,
'an honourable train of Christians and Moslems attending him to the
grave.'
From this date--early in the sixteenth century--little is known of
the name and lineage of the Palæologi. The crescent waved over the
royal city of Constantine; and, as an old Byzantine annalist
remarks, the last heir of the last spark of the Roman Empire seemed
to be extinct. History had forgotten them, and the restless tide of
human vicissitudes rolled onwards, unconscious of their existence.
Italy was understood to be the asylum of the imperial outcasts; and
there they might have vegetated in oblivion, or dropped into
unhonoured graves without leaving a single representative, had not a
monumental inscription revealed the fact, that a descendant of the
Cæsars had found a retreat and a tomb in an obscure parish in
England. In the small church of Landulph, in Cornwall, the following
inscription upon a small metal tablet, fixed in the wall, removes
all doubt as to the identity and royal pedigree of the person whose
memory it records. In its original spelling it runs thus:--'Here
lyeth the body of Theodoro Paleologvs of Pesaro in Italye, descended
from ye Imperiall lyne of ye last Christian Emperors of Greece,
being the sonne of Prosper, the sonne of Theodoro, the sonne of
John, the sonne of Thomas, second brother to Constantine Paleologvs,
the eighth of that name, and last of ye lyne yt raygned in
Constantinople vntill svbdeued by the Turkes; who married with Mary
ye davghter of William Balls of Hadlye in Sorffolke Gent., and had
issu five children, Theodoro, John, Ferdinando, Maria, and Dorothy,
and departed this life at Clyfton ye 21st of Janvary 1636.'[1] It
appears, then, that Theodore, who married and died in Cornwall, was
the fourth in direct descent from Thomas, younger brother of the
Emperor Constantine, and who fled 'with some naked adherents to
Italy,' where his children were educated.[2] The truth of the story
related in the inscription was corroborated by a circumstance which
happened upwards of twenty years ago. The vault in which Palæologus
was interred having been accidently opened, curiosity prompted the
lifting of the lid. The coffin, which was made of oak, was in an
entire state, and the body sufficiently perfect to shew that the
dead man exceeded the common stature. The head was a long oval, and
the nose believed to have been aquiline; a long white beard reached
down the breast--another symbol of his Greek extraction.
Of his family little is known: Theodore, the eldest son, was a
sailor, and died on board the _Charles II._, as is proved by his
will, dated 1693. He appears to have possessed landed property, and
to have left a widow named Martha, but no issue. The younger
daughter, Dorothy, was married at Landulph to William Arundell in
1636, and died in 1681.[3] Maria died unmarried, and was buried in
the same church in 1674. Of John and Ferdinando, the other sons, no
memorial seems to have been preserved in this country; and it was
believed as highly probable that the church of Landulph contained
the remains of the last survivors of the Grecian dynasty, once the
illustrious sovereigns of Byzantium.
Time, however, the great revealer of secrets, brought to light facts
which proved that one of the sons of Theodore of Pesaro in Italy had
removed to the West Indies, where he lived for some years, and died
in 1678. It is mentioned by the historian Oldmixon[4] as a
tradition, that a descendant of the former imperial Greek family of
Constantinople resided in Barbadoes; but he doubts the fact, without
giving any reason for his scepticism. The tradition, however, proves
to have been quite current, and the circumstance that led to its
confirmation, and to the discovery of the body of Ferdinando
Palæologus, and other relics testifying to his connection with the
Greek emperors, are narrated by Sir Robert Schomburgk in his recent
history of Barbadoes. During the terrible hurricane of 1831, which
nearly destroyed the island, among the other public buildings that
yielded to the violence of the storm, was the parish church of St
John, which stood in a romantic situation near the 'Cliff,' at an
elevation of 824 feet. When the ruins were removed, and in clearing
out the rubbish, 'the coffin of Ferdinando Palæologus (we quote Sir
Robert's account) was discovered under the organ-loft, in the vault
of Sir Peter Callotin. The circumstance that the coffin stood in a
direction opposite to the others deposited in the vault, drew
attention to it; the head was lying to the west, the feet pointing
to the east, according to the Greek custom. These accounts raised
the curiosity of the rector of the parish; and in order to ascertain
how much truth was connected with the tradition, he resolved to
examine the supposed coffin of Palæologus; it was consequently
opened on the 3d of May 1844, in presence of Mr R. Reici, jun.; Mr.
J.G. Young; and Mr J. Hinkson. The coffin was of lead, and in it was
found a skeleton of an extraordinary size, imbedded in quicklime,
which is another proof of the Greek origin of Palæologus, as it is
the custom in Greece to surround the body with quicklime. The coffin
was carefully deposited in the vault now in possession of Josiah
Heath, Esq., of Quintyer's and Redland.'
In the above discovery and examination, the coincidences are so
numerous and so remarkable as to leave no doubt whatever that the
Ferdinando Palæologus, whose body lies interred in St John's church,
was the same individual mentioned in the Landulph inscription as a
son of Theodore. The size of the skeleton, the envelope of
quicklime, the position of the body, are corroborative of an Eastern
descent. The name of the mother, Mary Balls, is an additional
presumption, as among the earliest proprietors in the island several
of that name occur; and three estates are given in Oldmixon's list
as belonging to the family of the Balls. It has been assumed,
therefore, with good reason, that a relationship may have existed
between the mother of Ferdinando and the Balls in Barbadoes,
which--at a period when so many families emigrated from England,
chiefly from Kent and the southern and western counties--might have
induced young Palæologus to seek his fortunes in the New World,
after his father's death in 1636.
Of the residence of Ferdinando in the island for thirty years, ample
evidence exists in various documents. Sir Robert Schomburgk was
shewn by the rector of the parish, the Rev. J.H. Gittens, an old
vestry-book of St John's, in which various entries occur of the name
of Ferdinando Palæologus, from 1649 till 1669, as vestryman,
churchwarden, trustee, surveyor of the highway, sidesman to the
churchwarden, and lieutenant, &c. The last entry is that of his
burial, 'October 3d 1678.' His name also appears in a legal document
respecting the sale of some land, executed in 1658. But the most
important evidence of his identity with the Cornwall family is his
will, in which the names of his sisters, Maria and Dorothy, occur.
It was entered in the Registrar's Office, the 20th of March 1678,
and proved before the deputy-governor, Colonel Christopher
Codrington. The widow became the sole survivor and heiress of the
property, Theodorious having died in his youth, so that the last of
the Palæologi reposes in the parish church of St John, in the island
of Barbadoes; and the estate which once belonged to the descendant
of the Greek emperors now forms part of Clifton Hall and the
Plantation Ashford. Laying these circumstances together, and
considering how completely the will of Ferdinando corroborates the
Landulph inscription, of which he probably knew nothing, the
genealogical problem, we think, is fairly wrought out, and the last
of the descendants of the Roman Cæsars traced to his final
resting-place beyond the Atlantic. A curious anecdote is mentioned
by Sir Robert Schomburgk as to the revival of the tradition of one
of the Palæologi being in Barbadoes. He says, but without vouching
for its truth, that during the last conflict for Grecian
independence and deliverance from the Turkish yoke, a letter was
received from the provisional government at Athens, addressed to the
authorities in Barbadoes, inquiring whether a male branch of the
Palæologi was still existing in the island, and conveying the
request that if such were the case he should be provided with the
means of returning to Greece, and the government would, if required,
pay all the expenses of the voyage. This story was not current in
Europe, at all events; and we on this side the water never dreamed
that among the competitors of King Leopold for the throne was a
veritable scion of the old imperial sovereigns of Constantinople.
The events detailed in the preceding narrative are fitted to suggest
various interesting reflections and amusing speculations. The fate
of the Palæologi--one day on a throne, the next in a dungeon,
passing from regal state to wretched exile--may have been the bitter
lot of other imperial families. If we find the descendants of the
Greek emperors in the humble occupation of sailors and
churchwardens, and vestrymen and road-trustees, there is nothing
extravagant in the supposition, that we may have royal porters and
scavengers on our streets, the sceptre having degenerated into the
besom, and the truck taken the place of the chariot of state. The
family of Nimrod may still exist, and retain their ancestral
propensities in the craft of sportsmen and deer-stalkers, or in the
lower grade of Jehus and jockeys. Who knows but the posterity of
Solomon may be retailing old clothes, and the heirs of the
Nebuchadnezzar dynasty still exist somewhere--perhaps among our
graziers or cattle-dealers, our keepers of dairies or secretaries of
agricultural associations. The line of Tamerlane may have ended in a
grave-digger, and that of Frederick Barbarossa in a hair-dresser.
The ideal transmigration of Pythagoras was not more improbable or
more wonderful than the strange metamorphoses through which, in the
course of centuries, the living representatives of kings and
emperors are sometimes doomed to pass.
* * * * *
[Footnote 1: There is a slight error in the date of the inscription,
as the entry of his burial is October 20th 1636.]
[Footnote 2: Only two sons of Thomas are mentioned by Gibbon--Andrew
and Manuel; but the evidence of the Landulph tablet shews that he
must have had a third, John.]
[Footnote 3: Her name is entered in the register as 'Dorothea
Paleologus de Stirpe Imperatorious.']
[Footnote 4: _British Empire in America_, vol. ii. p. 111.]