THE DECLINE AND PALL

172

CHAP.

LXVII.

Constan-tine In-lastof the Ko-niau orGreek em-perors,

A. d. 1448,Nov. 1-A D. 1453,May 20 .

last reign of the princes of Constantinople , whoso feebly sustained the name and majesty of theCaesars. On the decease of John Palaeologus ,who survived about four years the Hungariancrusade,® the royal family, by the death of An-dronicus, and the n onastic profession of Isidore,was reduced to three princes, Constantine , De-• metrius, and Thomas, the surviving sous of theemperor Manuel. Of these the first and the lastwere far distant in the Morea; but Demetrius,who possessed the domain of Selybria, was in thesuburbs, at the head of a party: his ambition wasnot chilled by the public distress; and his con-spiracy with the Turks and the schismatics hadalready disturbed the peace of his country. Thefuneral of the late emperor was accelerated withsingular and even suspicious haste: the claim ofDemetrius to the vacant throne was justified bya trite and flimsy sophism, that he was born inthe purple, the eldest son of his father’s reign.But the empress-mother, the senate and soldiers,the clergy and people, were unanimous in thecause of the lawful successor; and the despotThomas, who, ignorant of the change, acciden-tally returned to the capital, asserted with be-coming zeal the interest of his absent brother.An ambassador, the historian Phranza, was im-mediately despatched to the court of Adrianople .Amurath received him with honour, and dis-missed him with gifts ; but the gracious appro-

* The chronology of Phranza is clear and authentic, but instead offour years and seven months, Spondanus (a. d. 1445, No 7) assigns•even or eight years to the reign of the last Constantine , which he de-duces from a spurious epistle of Eugenius IV. to the king of Ethiopia .