he was supported by a party. But he was passed over, and the choice of nobles, clergy, and people fell on Constantine, who really deserved it. Their choice, however, was not enough to decide the matter. The sultan, whose tributary vassal the late emperor had been, must be consulted. Constantine himself, it appears, was not particularly eager to accept what he must have felt was little more than a barren honour. He may well have foreseen that very possibly he might be the last of the long line of so-called Roman emperors. It might be a question whether Amurath would even give him the chance, as he had dared to resist his arms during his government in the Peloponnese. The sultan held his court at Adrianople, and thither Phranza went as an ambassador to learn his wishes. With Amurath's assent Constantine was proclaimed emperor. He was crowned at Sparta in 1449.
Phranza, who was a few years younger than the emperor, had his full confidence and managed all business for him, "I am surrounded," said Constantine of his court, "by men whom I can neither love nor trust nor esteem." The Greek nobles of the last period of the empire seem, indeed, to have been a worthless set. They could, no doubt, now and then fight bravely when the capital itself was attacked. But in general they were quarrelsome and intriguing, cunning and mistrustful, and anything like patriotic feeling had quite died out from among them. The emperor, we may be pretty sure, was not too hard on them. Phranza was indeed a noble exception. He was not only an able man, as a minister
