usoleum for members of the imperial family. Here in 1317 was buried
Irene, the second wife of Andronicus II., a Spanish princess and
daughter of the Marquis of Monferrat. She came to Constantinople in
1285, when only eleven years old, a beautiful girl, Yolande by name,
distinguished for the elegance of her manners, and for a time was the
idol of the court. But what with the desire which she developed to amass
wealth, and to see her sons share in the government of the Empire, she
ultimately proved the cause of much unhappiness to her husband.[386] She
deserves to be remembered for bequeathing the funds which enabled
Andronicus II. to build the buttresses supporting the walls of S. Sophia
on the north and east.[387]

Here, in 1425, Manuel II. was laid to rest after his long and troubled
reign.[388] Beside him were buried his wife Irene (1450)[389] and his
three sons, Andronicus (1429),[390] Theodore (1448),[391] John VI.
Palaeologus (1448).[392] Here also was placed the tomb of the Empress
Maria of the house of Trebizond, the fourth wife of John VII.
Palaeologus;[393] and not far off was the grave of Eugenia, the wife of
the despot Demetrius and daughter of the Genoese Gatulazzo, who had
helped to overthrow John Cantacuzene and to recover the throne for the
Palaeologi.[394] As we follow to the grave this procession of personages
so closely associated with the fall of Constantinople, one seems to be
watching the slow ebbing away of the life-blood of the Empire which they
could not save.

In 1407 John Palaeologus, then heir-apparent, added to the endowments of
the church by giving it a share in the revenues of the imperial domains
at Cassandra.[395] It would appear that the affairs of the monastery
about this time were not in a satisfactory state, for on the advice of
the historian Phrantzes they were put for settlement into the hands of
Macarius, a monk from Mt. Athos.[396]

A protosyngellos and abbot of the Pantokrator was one of the ambassadors
sent by John VII. Palaeologus to Pope Martin V. to negotiate the union
of the Churches.[397]

[Illustration: PLATE LXIV.
S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. ARCH IN THE NORTH WALL OF THE
SOUTH CHURCH, SEEN FROM THE SOUTH CHURCH, LOOKING NORTHWARDS.]

[Illustration: S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. ARCH IN THE NORTH WALL OF THE
SOUTH CHURCH, SEEN FROM THE CENTRAL CHURCH, LOOKING SOUTHWARDS.
_To face page 230._]

The most famous inmate of the Pantokrator was George Scholarius, better