Monarchs Retired from Business
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MONAECHS RETIRED PROM BUSINESS. '^^<^<^<X (0)F S WE 32) IS W 3320S MONARCHS RETIRED FROM BUSINESS. BY DR. DORAN, AUTHOR OP ' KNIGHTS AND THEIR DATS,' ' QUEENS OP ENGLAND OF THE HOUSE OF HANOVEB," ' HABITS AND MEN, 'TABLE TEAITS AND SOMETHING ON THEM.' IN TWO VOLUMES. VOLUME II. ' I've thought, at gentle and ungentle hour, Of many an act and giant-shape of power, Of the old Kings with high-exacting looks, Sceptred and globed." LEIGH HUNT. LONDON : RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, ^jluiilisfjer in tiinarg t0 |^er fHajrstg. 1857. [The right of Translation is reserved^] PRINTED BY JOHN EDWABD TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STEEET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. CONTENTS OP THE SECOND VOLUME. PAGE INCIDENTS IN THE LIYES OF RETIRED MONAECHS, DOWN TO THE DEATH OF VALERIAN 1 DIOCLETIAN 16 MAXIMIAN TO ROMULUS AUGUSTUS 30 3Kje Eastern Empire. GRAVE OB CLOISTER 46 THE BYZANTINE C^SARS OF THE ICONOCLASTIC PERIOD . 59 THE BASILIAN DYNASTY. MONARCHS AMONG THE MONKS . 77 THE COMNENI. MORE TENANTS FOR STUDION 88 THE BALDWINS 96 THE MOST CHRISTIAN KING, MONK ANTONY 102 THE PAPAL DYNASTY 112 ----- :*=== THE THREE Pn 136 Russia. THE CZARS 168 IVAN VI 175 Sardinia. VICTOR AMADEUS 1 195 THREE CHOWNLESS KINGS , . 205 VI CONTENTS. PAGE EEIC IX. CHBISTIAX II.............. 218 SWEDEN ................... 233 THE STOBY OF EEIC XIV............. 240 CHEISTINA .................. 255 GUSTAVUS IV............... 308 Spam. PHILIP V................... 330 CHABLES IV.................. 334 Portugal. SANCHO II................... 350 ALPHONSO VI.................. 354 Curfeeg. THE Two BAJAZETS ............... 373 Conclusion .............. 394 MONARCHS RETIRED FROM BUSINESS, FROM JULIUS TO YALERIAN. " Here a vain man his sceptre breaks, The next a broken sceptre takes, And warriors win and lose ; This rolling world will never stand, Plunder'd and snatch'd from hand to hand, As power decays or grows." ISAAC WATTS. THE Roman Empire had lasted about three centuries, and something like half a hundred Caesars had succeeded each other in the uneasy enjoyment of the Imperial dignity, with ita attendant perils, before mankind wonderingly beheld the spectacle of a despotic monarch voluntarily surrendering, as it was alleged, his title and privileges, and descending to the condition of a private individual. This monarch was Diocletian. Before that unusual event had occurred, Rome had seen many of her Imperial masters compelled to lay down their " greatness. Of the Twelve Caesars," three alone died na- tural deaths, Augustus, Vespasian, and Titus. Five fell by YOL. n. B 2 MONARCHS RETIRED FROM BUSINESS. the swords of assassins, Julius, Caligula, Galba, Vitellius, and Domitian. Two died by their own hand, Nero and Otho. Two were despatched by means of poison, Tiberius (it is believed) and Claudius. Some of these, who lived to know and see that their so- vereign power had passed into the keeping of a successor, may come under our notice as unsceptred monarchs. The detail of their conduct to our and we belongs subject ; may say at once, that in no one case was that conduct marked by dignity. When Nero learned that he had a master, in Galba, he upset the table at which he was seated, feasting, dashed to pieces his two most favourite crystal glasses, called for a box of poison, which he was afraid to use, and then rushed into the Servilian gardens to think upon what he should do next. There, or within his sleeping-room, he passed a miser- able and at he found that his Guards night ; when, daybreak, had not only deserted him, but had carried off the little gold box containing the poison, and even the very covering of his bed, he ran headlong down to the Tiber, where he stopped short on the bank, and slowly walked back again. It was then, barefooted and half-dressed as he was, that he was en- countered by the faithful Phaon, who flung a cloak over his shoulders, tied an old handkerchief about his head, hoisted the bewildered wretch on to a horse, and rode away with him towards a country-house, four miles off. In danger of discovery, the fugitive party abandoned their horses, scram- bled through thickets, brakes, bye-paths, and brambles, and at length reached the neighbourhood of the desired asylum. The tender feet of the Emperor were mangled and bloody, despite the care which had been shown by his friend to spread his cloak upon the ground for the ex-Emperor to tread upon. Phaon asked him to conceal himself for awhile in a gravel- but Nero declared that it looked too much like a pit ; grave, BETIBED MONAECHS OF EOME. 3 and he was determined not to be buried alive. He sat down under a wall, picked the burrs and,brambles from his dress, drank from the hollow of his hand a few drops of water, and sighed over the thought of the draughts he used to imbibe of boiled water made cool again in snow. He was at length got into the house, where he turned away in disgust from the piece of brown bread which was offered his last drank a little him, banquet ; again luke- warm water, flung himself on an old flock-bed, and cursed his destiny. They who surrounded him, counselled him to make an end and he had a quickly ; thereupon grave made before him, to his exact measure. He ordered sundry pre- parations to be made for his funeral, commanded water for the the washing of his body, wood for pile, expressed a hope that they who survived him would allow his head to remain on his body, and he then burst into an agony of tears at the thought, as he said, of what a clever fellow the world was about to lose: "Qualis artifex pereo !" was his exclama- tion. It was not his only one. He cited lines from various and Latin as to his situation and Greek authors, applicable ; when reproached for dallying so long before he put himself to death, very appositely and naturally inquired if any one present was willing to show him the way by setting him the example. He then made a few more pedantic quotations, and finally, with trembling hands, put the dagger to his throat. He would have held it there long enough, had it not been for Epaphroditus, who grasped his hands and forced the weapon into his throat. The terror of the ex-monarch was fixed on his features after death. But even Tie had friends : five thousand crowns were expended on his funeral laid in a silk pile, on which his body was splendid coverlet. A couple of his old nurses collected his ashes, and an Im- perial concubine accompanied them in the pious task of solemnly depositing the remains in the tomb of the Domitii. For hands on his tomb and years after, loving hung garlands ; B 2 4 MOtfARCHS BETIRED FEOM BUSINESS. surely Nero could not have won this tribute of sympathy, spontaneously made, had he not had some touch of virtue in him, which saved him from ranking beneath humanity! survived to hear Otho hailed as but Galba, too, Emperor ; G-alba died with no more dignity than Nero. To the sol- diers who approached to slay him, he offered a donation. The men however were not to be deceived by a fallen poten- tate who, when he became Emperor, had promised them a gift of money, and had forgotten to keep his word. Otho himself, when he fell into the condition of an unsceptred monarch, was determined, without however being dignified. When resolved to die, he first went to sleep, in order that at dawn of day, on awaking, he might deal the one effective blow with a steady hand. So soundly did he sleep his last sleep, just previous to the death which he reserved for him- self on awaking, that, according to Plutarch, his snoring disturbed his attendants in a neighbouring room. As for the pale and pimple-faced Vitellius, he may perhaps be considered by some as the first Emperor who resigned his for when the Flavians were dignity ; elevating Vespasian, he the to let him into with life begged army go privacy, ; and in presence of the Senate, he unbuckled his dagger and laid it before the august assembly, in token of his resignation. How he would have passed his leisure may be guessed at from the fact that when he ran off towards the Aventine, he was accompanied only by two persons, his cook and his baker and he had a with stuffed with to ; girdle him, gold, help him to live luxuriously by their means. But he soon fell into the hands of the Flavian to these he denied party ; his own identity, but they paraded him through Borne, hold- ing a sword under his chin to compel him to keep his face raised in the sight of the reviling people. At the Gemonice, " or place of execution, he was done to death gradually," as " Suetonius describes it, by stabbing him gently with small pricks at a time." RETIRED MONARCH'S OP ROME. 5 " " The first five Emperors who followed the Twelve reigned during what has been called the happiest years of the human race. The first of these five, Nerva, was the first Roman Emperor of foreign extraction : his father was a Cretan. Some authors speak of him as having abdicated after a brief reign. The truth however is, that he merely associated Trajan with him in power. That there was no abdication is shown by a phrase in Pliny's panegyric on " Trajan, wherein he says, You entered on your second con- sulship when you were Emperor, but also under an Em- peror." Nerva himself, too, remarked, after he had taken a " partner in power : I have done nothing that can hinder me from laying down my power, and living with security iu " a private station." Of the so-called happy Emperors," Nerva was but avaricious and ad- sober, ; Trajan, prodigal dicted to Hadrian had a sense of the fitness drinking ; and reasonableness of remained a heathen An- Christianity, yet ; toninus Pius loved quiet, more than martial glory, woman's or and Marcus Aurelius delivered love, splendid dissipation ; popular lectures to gratified assemblies, and worshipped a wife who hourly betrayed him.