94

THE DECLINE AND FALL

chap, ried, to the virtuous Bertha or Irene of Germa-ny, an d to the beauteous Maria, a French orLatin princess of Antioch . The only daughterof his first wife was destined for Bela an Hun-garian prince, who was educated at Constan-tinople under the name of Alexius; and theconsummation of their nuptials might havetransferred the Roman sceptre to a race of freeand warlike barbarians. But, as soon as Ma-ria of Antioch had given a son and heir to theempire, the presumptive rights of Bela wereabolished, and he was deprived of his promisedbride; but the Hungarian prince resumed hisname and the kingdom of his fathers, and dis-played such virtues as might excite the regretand envy of the Greeks. The son of Maria wasnamed Alexius: and at the age of ten years, heascended the Byzantine throne, after his father’sdecease had closed the glories of the Comne -nian line.

Alexius ii The fraternal concord of the two sons of the

A. D. 1180,

svpt. at. great Alexius had been sometimes clouded byand first an opposition of interest and passion. By am-bition, Isaac the Sebastocrator was excitedAndroni- to fljodfr and rebellion, from whence he was re-claimed by the firmness and clemency of Johnthe Handsome. The errors of Isaac, the fatherof the emperors of Trebizond, were short andvenial; but John, the elder of his sons, renouncedfor ever his religion. Provoked by a real or ima-ginary insult of his uncle, he escaped from theRoman to the Turkish camp: his apostacy wasrewarded with the sultan’s daughter, the title ofChelebi, or noble, and the inheritance of a