Royal blood could not quench the fire of its rage, profusely shed by the princes, in defence of their people and religion. Idolatry was enshrined upon the altars, and the priesthood sacrificed to fire and tortured upon the rack.
A temporary relief was afforded to the country by the rise of the Bagratian princes, who were the descendants of Abraham, and who first came into Armenia during the captivity of the Jews under Nebuchadnezzar.
Bagarat, the founder of this Jewish line of princes, was distinguished in the reign of Valarsace, and was appointed by him to the hereditary office of placing the crown upon the king’s head, and all his descendants were known as the Bagratians. Now it happened that Ashot, one of their number, so pleased the caliph in his administration of the affairs of his own tribe, that in the year 859 A. D., he appointed him governor of Armenia, and dispatched Aali-Ermeny, an apostate Armenian, to invest him with magnificent robes of state. Although the nation was again restored to comparative tranquillity under this race of princes, yet internal disunion and foreign oppression did not cease to harass the country, and the Greeks finally destroyed the Bagratian monarchy. But Melik-Shah, of Persia, regained his sway over Armenia, and the power of the Greeks was thenceforth annihilated.
The Armenian princes of the line of Reuben now governed the country, and it was during their reign that the Crusaders took Jerusalem; and while they were besieging Antioch, Constantine, the second of these Armenian princes, supplied the army with provisions. He was in return made a marquis, and received the order of knighthood, besides many valuable presents. This line of princes was extirpated by the Egyptians, who poured an immense and devastating army into their country, and after besieging Leo, the last king, for nine months, took him and all his family to Cairo, with all the royal treasures.
They remained in prison seven years, because they refused to renounce Christianity. By the intervention of king Juan, of Spain, they were set at liberty, and received from him many valuable possessions, such as houses and lands.
King Leo even appealed to England and France to assist him in regaining the throne of Armenia, but without any good success. He died in Paris, A. D. 1393, and was buried in the convent of Celestine.
His wife Mary, who belonged to the family of Lewis Charles, king of Hungary, died at Jerusalem.
The Armenians next fell into the power of the Ottomans; with their last king their glory perished.
The sunrise over Mount Ararat, the meridian brightness over the fairest portion of Asia, and the last departing rays shed over the regions of Silicia, are all merged into the dark pages of history—where but few ever seek to read the tale.
The ancient religion of the Armenians was that of the Magi, but the introduction of Christianity among them was coeval with Christ.