c.
40--42.)] [Footnote 20: That king, if the fact be true, must have been Charles the Fair who in five years (1321--1326) was married to three wives, (Anderson, p.

628.) Anne of Savoy arrived at Constantinople in February, 1326.] The empress Anne of Savoy survived her husband: their son, John Palaeologus, was left an orphan and an emperor in the ninth year of his age; and his weakness was protected by the first and most deserving of the Greeks.

The long and cordial friendship of his father for John Cantacuzene is alike honorable to the prince and the subject.

It had been formed amidst the pleasures of their youth: their families were almost equally noble; [21] and the recent lustre of the purple was amply compensated by the energy of a private education.

We have seen that the young emperor was saved by Cantacuzene from the power of his grandfather; and, after six years of civil war, the same favorite brought him back in triumph to the palace of Constantinople.