o
conciliate the people nearer his dominion by matrimonial alliances
with their rulers. It was in this way that he courted, with greater or
less success, the friendship of Servia, Bulgaria, the Duchy of Thebes,
and the Empire of Trebizond. And by the same method he tried to win
the friendship of the formidable Mongols settled in Russia and Persia.
Accordingly he bestowed the hand of one natural daughter, Euphrosyne,
upon Nogaya,[475] who had established a Mongolian principality near
the Black Sea, while the hand of Maria was intended for Holagu, famous
in history as the destroyer in 1258 of the caliphate of Baghdad. Maria
left Constantinople for her future home in 1265 with a great retinue,
conducted by Theodosius de Villehardouin, abbot of the monastery of
the Pantokrator, who was styled the 'Prince,' because related to the
princes of Achaia and the Peloponnesus. A rich trousseau accompanied
the bride-elect, and a tent of silk for a chapel, furnished with
eikons of gold affixed to crosses, and with costly vessels for the
celebration of the Holy Sacrifice. When the mission reached Caesarea
news came that Holagu was dead, but since reasons of state inspired
the proposed marriage, the bridal party continued its journey to the
Mongolian court, and there in due time Maria was wedded to Abaga, the
son and successor of Holagu, after the bridegroom had received, it is
said, Christian baptism.[476]

[Illustration: FIG. 93.--S. MARY OF THE MONGOLS. EXTERIOR.
(From a Photograph.)]

[Illustration: FIG. 94.--S. MARY OF THE MONGOLS. INTERIOR.]

In 1281 Abaga was poisoned by his brother Achmed,[477] and Maria deemed
it prudent, and doubtless welcome, after an absence of sixteen years, to
return to Constantinople. She appears again in history during the reign
of her brother Andronicus II. Palaeologus, when for the second time she
was offered as a bride to the Mongolian prince, Charbanda, who then
ruled in Persia,[478] the object of this new matrimonial alliance being
to obtain the aid of the Mongols against the Turks, who under Othman had
become a dangerous foe and were threatening Nicaea. With this purpose in
view Maria proceeded to that city, both to encourage the defence of an
important strategic position and to press forward the negotiations with
Charbanda. The Despoina of the Mongols, however, did not comprehend the
character of the enemy with whom she had to deal. Her contemptuous
demeanour towards Othman, and her threa