10 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. chants coming from far -distant countries. The islands of the Archipelago and coasts of the -^gean have at all times supplied great numbers of sailors. The movement within the empire itself for the purpose of government over so wide a territory as that ruled from Constantinople must also have been great. The result was a population in which there was an unusually large number of travellers. Travel brought in- telligence, and the profits of commerce brought independence. The interests of the population required security for life and property, and the people on many occasions showed that they were indisposed to tolerate a ruler who neglected these first necessities of good government. We shall see that the population of the capital cared little for mere dynastic changes, but on many occasions showed resentment against rulers who tampered with the coinage, or who could not re- press piracy and keep the peace of the seas. In the twelfth century the government of the country was Powerofmer- ^^ ^^^^ hauds of the cmpcror and the nobles. Many chant nobles. ^£ ^.j^g latter wcrc merchant princes; sometimes, indeed, men of imperial blood, but still men who engaged in commerce. In the dynastic struggles of the last quarter of that centur}^, men belonging to the class of nobles were continually putting themselves forward, or being put forward by others, as candidates for the imperial throne. The frequency of such attempts, together with the support they met with, points to the fact that the monarchs were coming to be regarded merely as the persons chosen as rulers from the class of nobles. The nobles had lessened the dis- tance between themselves and the emperor, and as each generation passed had become possessed of a larger share of the government of the country. There was, indeed, nothing like a caste of nobles. One family became impoverished and sank into obscurity, while another family, like that of Ange- los, rose from small beginnings, and by prosperity and alli- ances with the nobles rose to power, and ultimately furnished occupants of the throne. The power of the merchant princes had been continually increasing, while that of the emperor had been growing less. To such an extent had this change
