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,