Posted by Powee Celdran
“As to surrendering the city to you, it is not for me to decide or for anyone else of its citizens; for all of us have reached the mutual decision to die of our own free will, without any regard for our lives“. -Constantine XI Palaiologos, 1453
Welcome back to the Byzantium Blogger and here we are again with another Byzantine history article! In this one being the fifth part of this series featuring top lists concerning the lives of certain emperors who I think have interesting stories, we will talk about the last Byzantine or rather the last Roman emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos (r. 1449-1453)- also known as Constantine Dragases Palaiologos– best remembered for his last stand against the Ottoman Empire in their conquest of Constantinople in 1453 which put a definite end to the Byzantine Empire.
Additionally, this article was made for the special occasion of this day being May 29 which was the day Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453, and I thought that there would be no better way to commemorate this occasion than by making an article focused on the last Byzantine emperor. Constantine XI now is best remembered for his bravery and heroism especially in refusing to surrender to the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II (r. 1451-1481) and instead fight to the death to defend his city, Constantinople against the massive armies of the Ottomans besieging it. Despite Constantine’s brave decision, he was outnumbered and thus after nearly 2 months, the Ottomans broke into Constantinople all while Constantine led one last heroic last stand dying in battle with honor. However, although Constantine XI is best known for his acts of bravery during the final siege of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453, the rest of his life prior to the siege has shown him a number of times show some examples of bravery and defiance which makes him one of the most courageous of all Byzantine emperors, a trait not common for the Byzantine emperors during Constantine XI’s time. Now in this list, we will go over 7 incidents wherein Constantine XI exemplified bravery and defiance both during his impressive pre-imperial career as the Despot of the Morea from 1428-1449 and during his short but eventful reign as the last Byzantine emperor from 1449-1453. On the other hand, I have also covered Constantine XI in videos found on my channel No Budget Films both during his pre-imperial career and as emperor, the links to the videos will be found below. Before beginning this top 7 list, I will give a quick background to the life of Constantine XI Palaiologos and the Byzantine Empire he grew up in.
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By the 14th century, the once powerful Byzantine Empire had been severely reduced in size, population, and wealth all while it too had been further broken apart by a series of civil wars and foreign invasions that took great amounts of land away from the empire.
The most significant of these foreign enemies that conquered Byzantine lands both in Asia Minor and in Europe were the Ottomans, once a small Turkish state or Beylik that eventually transformed into an empire. Ever since the Ottomans gained their first holding in Europe being the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1354, their expansion into the Balkans was rapid that they soon enough conquered most of Serbia and later Bulgaria and Greece. In order to keep the Byzantine Empire alive as the Ottoman Empire was expanding, the Byzantine emperor and Constantine’s grandfather John V Palaiologos (r. 1341-1391) submitted to the Ottomans sultan Murad I (r. 1362-1389) as a vassal thus making the Byzantine emperor have to follow every order his overlord, the Ottoman sultan gave.
John V’s decision to submit Byzantium to the Ottomans as a vassal however further complicated things in the empire as it led to more civil wars in Byzantium that further destabilized it. By the time John V died in 1391, the Byzantine Empire was only left with its capital Constantinople which had become a shadow of its former self as the great imperial capital, a few islands in the Aegean Sea, and half of the Peloponnese Peninsula in Southern Greece known as the Despotate of the Morea, a semi-autonomous Byzantine state usually ruled by the emperor’s son or brother. Following his death, John V was succeeded as emperor by his second son and Constantine’s father Manuel II Palaiologos (r. 1391-1425) who earlier on in his reign witnessed the Ottomans led by their new sultan Bayezid I (r. 1389-1402) blockade Constantinople as punishment for Manuel refusing to continue being their vassal. All while Constantinople was under siege by the Ottomans, Manuel II travelled across Europe visiting the royal courts of France and England to ask for financial and military assistance against the Ottomans. However, all while Manuel was away in Europe, the Ottoman Empire out of chance temporarily collapsed when Sultan Bayezid I was defeated in 1402 at the Battle of Ankara by the powerful Turco-Mongol ruler Timur (r. 1370-1405) who captured Bayezid bringing him several kilometers away to Timur’s capital of Samarkand wherein Bayezid died in captivity there which thus also lifted the Ottoman siege of Constantinople.
The capture of Bayezid thus threw the Ottoman Empire into a state of chaos wherein his sons all battled each other for control over it and thus giving the Byzantines some time to recover that they true enough even regained Thessaloniki, their second city from the Ottomans. The future emperor Constantine XI was thus born on February 8 of 1404 in Constantinople following his father’s return from Europe and as the son of an emperor, he was a purple-born prince or Porphyrogennetos born in the purple-room of the imperial palace. Constantine too was the 4th out of the 6 sons of the emperor Manuel II and his Serbian wife Helena Dragas, daughter of the Serbian prince and Ottoman vassal Konstantin Dejanovic (r. 1378-1395) who had been killed in battle by the Wallachians in 1395 as he fought on the side of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I. Little though is known about Constantine’s early life except that it was said that from an early age he was already courageous, adventurous, and skilled in martial arts, horsemanship, and hunting. Constantine too grew up at a time when his father the emperor was in relative peace with the Ottoman Empire that had now restabilized under Sultan Mehmed I (r. 1413-1421), the son of Bayezid I and victor of the Ottoman civil war. However, things would all change with Mehmed I’s sudden death in 1421.
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5 Reasons to Feel Bad of Justinian II and 5 Reasons to Hate Him
Byzantine Alternate History Chapter XII (finale)
Byzantine Alternate History Epilogue
The Legacy of the Byzantine Empire
Related Videos on Constantine XI from No Budget Films:
The Last Roman Dynasty Part 8- Schisms at the Verge of Extinction
The Last Roman Dynasty Part 9- The Fall of Constantinople (finale)
I. The 1422 Ottoman Siege of Constantinople
Following the Ottoman sultan Mehmed I’s death in 1421, the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos together with his eldest son and co-emperor John attempted to interfere with the succession of the Ottomans by having a rival claimant challenge Mehmed I’s son Murad II (r. 1421-1451). However, Murad II emerged victorious in this conflict and thus to punish the Byzantines for interfering in the Ottoman succession crisis, he decided to lay siege to Constantinople in 1422.
In this siege, the Ottomans brought with them numerous siege engines including cannons as Murad II did indeed intend to conquer the city. Although the siege lasted for months, the Ottomans failed at taking the city and this was according to Byzantine tradition due to divine intervention by the Theotokos or “Mother of God” who scared the Ottoman besiegers away. However, another main reason to why the city was saved was because Manuel II apparently gave money to Murad II’s younger brother Mustafa in order to start a rebellion in Ottoman territory against his older brother, the sultan. Due to Mustafa’s rebellion in Asia Minor which was not only assisted by the Byzantines but by the Ottomans’ rival Turkish Beyliks of Asia Minor such as the Germiyanids and Karamanids, Murad was forced to lift his siege and crush this said rebellion. Now speaking of the future emperor Constantine XI, apparently it is a known fact that during this Ottoman siege of 1422, he took part in helping lead the defense of the city despite being only 18 that his actions during the siege impressed his eldest brother the co-emperor John that John came to trust him more than his other brothers, thus Constantine would be awarded with the title of “Despot”.
In the meantime, Murad II due to his failure to take Constantinople began laying siege to Byzantine Thessaloniki in 1423- which was eventually taken again and this time for good by the Ottomans in 1430- whereas John travelled to Western Europe to ask for support against the Ottomans who have now returned as a threat to the Byzantines. The aging emperor Manuel II on the other hand following the siege of 1422 suffered a stroke leaving him paralyzed on one side of the body and thus because of this, the imperial government was left in the hands of his eldest son and co-emperor John. Manuel seeing the Ottomans were unstoppable then decided to once more submit to the Ottomans as a vassal through a peace treaty with Murad II wherein Manuel here was assisted in signing it by his 4th son Constantine. In July of 1425, Manuel II died at the age of 75 and thus his eldest son John succeeded as the new senior emperor John VIII Palaiologos (r. 1425-1448).
II. The Campaign Against Carlo I Tocco
As John VIII became senior emperor, he rewarded his younger brother Constantine not only with the title of “Despot” but with his own lands to rule being a strip along the Black Sea north of Constantinople beginning at the seaside town of Mesembria. As ruler of this small territory, Constantine proved to his eldest brother to be loyal and capable whereas John’s younger brother being Manuel’s 2nd son Theodore II, the Despot of the Morea since 1407 on the other hand expressed discontent about ruling the Morea.
Due to Theodore’s lack of interest in ruling, John VIII designated Constantine as Theodore’s successor as Despot of the Morea. Theodore however soon changed his mind about his uninterest to rule, though it was too late as by 1427 Constantine was already assigned to the Morea as an additional despot, thus Theodore and Constantine were to share rule over the Morea. Now, a major reason to why the Morea needed an additional ruler or despot was because it was threatened by external powers namely the Ottomans who attacked it in 1423, the Latin Principality which ruled half of the peninsula ever since the Crusaders’ conquest of it which followed their temporary capture of Constantinople back in 1204, and lastly by the ambitious Italian pirate lord Carlo I Tocco (r. 1376-1429) who was the Count of Cephalonia and Zakynthos and since 1411 the Despot of Epirus. During the 1420s, Carlo I had been conducting constant naval raids on the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea and its ruler being Theodore II was ineffective in containing Carlo’s raids, thus giving the new emperor John VIII a reason to appoint his brother Constantine as an additional Despot of the Morea. John VIII together with Constantine in 1427 then travelled to the Morea wherein they both personally led the campaign against Carlo’s forces there before arriving at the city of Glarentza which Carlo’s forces captured. Subsequently, Carlo’s pirate fleet was defeated by what was left of the Byzantine navy at the Battle of Echinades in the Ionian Sea off the coast of Glarentza. Due to his defeat, Carlo was forced to cede his conquests in the Morea to the Byzantines including the city of Glarentza and to hand over his niece Theodora Tocco in marriage to Constantine. In 1428, Constantine and Theodora were married, though in 1429 both Carlo I and Theodora died wherein the latter did not produce any children with Constantine.
III. The Conquest of the Principality of Achaea
With the threat of Carlo I Tocco taken care of, the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea was split among the brothers Constantine and Theodore II Palaiologos which was later further complicated when their youngest brother Thomas who was only 19 in 1428 was appointed as an additional Despot of the Morea, thus making there be 3 despots! Since the lands given to them in the Peloponnese Peninsula were too limited for all 3 brothers to rule over, the 3 brothers thus decided to declare war on their neighbor in the peninsula, the Latin Principality of Achaea.
In 1429, the brothers marched on Patras, capital of Achaea which they laid siege to but ultimately failed due to Theodore’s unwillingness to fight and Thomas’ inexperience due to his young age. Constantine however being the most courageous of the brothers decided to continue the siege despite his brothers abandoning him and so together with his secretary George Sphrantzes, they continued laying siege to Patras which turned out to be longer than expected. At one point during the siege, Constantine’s horse was shot by an arrow while he was on it leading to his near death if it were not for Sphrantzes saving his life here. Eventually, the Latin defenders of Patras after negotiations opened the city to the Byzantines in May of 1429 wherein the people of Patras thus recognized Constantine as their new overlord, though the city’s bishop refused to surrender and thus held himself up in a fortress for 12 months before finally surrendering. With the Byzantine conquest of Patras, most of the Morea was thus returned to Byzantine rule, however due to the Latin Principality of Achaea being an Ottoman vassal the way Byzantium was, the sultan Murad II in 1431 in an act to punish Constantine who was his vassal for attacking a fellow Ottoman vassal sent his general Turahan Bey with an army to attack the Byzantine Morea not to conquer it but to teach Constantine a lesson.
In 1432 then, the Principality of Achaea was finally dissolved when its last prince Centurione II Zaccaria (r. 1404-1429) died and since he had no sons but rather a daughter being Caterina who was married to Constantine’s youngest brother Thomas, Thomas then took control of his late father-in-law’s lands and rather than continuing to rule as Prince of Achaea, Thomas chose to abolish the title and thus the entirety of the Principality of Achaea was annexed into the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea leaving the entire Peloponnese Peninsula once again under Byzantine rule. Constantine meanwhile was not to last long in the Morea as in 1435, he was called by his eldest brother John VIII to return to Constantinople and rule as its regent while John would be away for the Church Council- the Council of Florence-Ferrara- in Italy intended to unite the Byzantine Church with the Church of Rome and thus submit to the pope. Constantine’s older brother Theodore however mistook this as his eldest brother favoring Constantine over him and so both brothers thus almost had a civil war with each other if it were not for the Patriarch of Constantinople Gregory III Mammas and their mother Helena Dragas intervening. At the end, it was agreed that Constantine was to rule in Constantinople while John was away in Italy whereas Theodore and Thomas would remain in the Morea. With the agreement settled, Constantine arrived in Constantinople in 1437 whereas John left for Italy.
IV. Brother Against Brother: Constantine Against Demetrios
Although John VIII returned to Constantinople from Italy in 1440 having officially signed the union with the Catholic Church which thus formally reunited both Byzantine Orthodox and Latin Catholic Churches, his return to Constantinople was met with great opposition among his subjects. The Byzantine populace true enough could not accept the fact of submitting their faith to another being the Latin Catholics, thus they saw this as their emperor betraying them and their religion. Constantine on the other hand supported his eldest brother’s decision to submit to the pope, however their younger brother being Manuel and Helena’s 5th son Demetrios did not and thus he with the support of the people angry at the Church Union began plotting to seize the throne in the name of Orthodoxy from his eldest brother.
All while Demetrios who true enough was the most neglected of the 6 Palaiologos brothers began plotting to seize the throne, Constantine was in search for a new wife wherein his choice was Caterina Gattilusio, daughter of the Genoese lord of the island of Lesbos Dorino I Gattilusio (r. 1428-1455) who was a relative of Constantine’s too. In 1440, Constantine sent his secretary Sphrantzes to Lesbos to propose and arrange the marriage, and in 1441 Constantine himself travelled from Constantinople to Lesbos to marry Caterina. Constantine however after marrying left Lesbos leaving his new wife behind there with her father as Constantine was to return to the Morea and resume his duties in ruling as its despot whereas he discovered that his brothers Theodore II and Thomas had ruled it well while he was away. In 1442 however, Demetrios who had been ruling Constantine’s former territories along the Black Sea made his intentions to take the throne clear wherein he even allied with the Ottoman sultan Murad II who provided Demetrios with troops. Although Constantine attempted to negotiate with his younger brother Demetrios by agreeing to switch places with him whereas Constantine would return to ruling Demetrios’ lands and Demetrios would be Despot of the Morea, it was too late as Demetrios had already been marching on Constantinople.
The situation in Constantinople was apparently so serious that the emperor John VIII who did not have enough troops to defend the city had to ask for Constantine to come over from the Morea and defend the capital. Before Constantine arrived, Demetrios had already began his attack on the capital all while Constantine before reaching Constantinople passed for his wife Caterina in Lesbos but before reaching the capital, they were stopped for months at the island of Lemnos by an Ottoman naval blockade which supported Demetrios. In Lemnos, Caterina died, although soon enough a Venetian fleet arrived to break the Ottoman blockade which thus allowed Constantine to reach Constantinople and force Demetrios to lift his siege. The defeated Demetrios was thus imprisoned and kept under the close watch of Sphrantzes whereas in 1443, Theodore decided to abandon his position as Despot of the Morea and instead rule the town of Selymbria near Constantinople where Demetrios was imprisoned in, thus leaving only Constantine and Thomas in charge of the Morea.
V. Constantine’s Campaigns in Greece and the Defense of the Hexamilion Wall
During the time Constantine and Thomas ruled as Despots of the Morea, the Byzantine Morea was a thriving cultural center that was definitely more prosperous than the capital Constantinople and thus it was the goal of both Constantine and Thomas to keep the Morea prosperous in case Constantinople falls to the Ottomans. Part of the brothers’ projects was the reconstruction of the Hexamilion Wall which blocked off the Isthmus of Corinth- the entrance from mainland Greece to the Peloponnese Peninsula- which their father Manuel II had built but was destroyed by the Ottomans in their attack in 1431.
In 1444, the reconstruction of the wall was completed which impressed many inhabitants of the Morea including the Venetian lords there. Additionally, Constantine had also staged local athletic games for the people of the Morea wherein they could run races for prizes in order to appease them. Constantine’s and Thomas’ policies true enough made them popular rulers in the Morea and to further increase his popularity among his subjects, Constantine in 1444 as well decided to lead a campaign deep into Ottoman held Greece and recapture territory for the Byzantine Empire. This was true enough the perfect time to do this as the Ottomans here were busy defending the Balkans against a massive Crusade launched by the kingdoms of Europe- namely Hungary and Poland- to stop the Ottoman advance. Here, Constantine first marched north and invaded the Latin Duchy of Athens- another Ottoman vassal as well- wherein the Duke of Athens Nerio II Acciaioli (r. 1435-1451) surrendered to Constantine as a vassal and thus began paying tribute to him instead of the Ottomans. After his successful campaign against the Duchy of Athens, Constantine proceeded north marching his army which included 300 soldiers provided to him by the Duke of Burgundy Philip III the Good (r. 1419-1467) to Thessaly wherein he managed to recapture some territory there from the Ottomans.
The Ottoman sultan Murad II however in November of 1444 managed to defeat the multi-national European Crusade at the Battle of Varna wherein the King of Poland and Hungary Wladyslaw III (r. 1434-1444) was even killed all while the Hungarian general John Hunyadi who was in charge of the armies barely escaped with his life. Due to Murad’s recent victory, he now could focus his attention once again on the Byzantines and particularly Constantine who he now saw as a threat due to his expansion into Thessaly. As Murad returned to Greece, the Duke of Athens Nerio II returned his loyalty to Murad becoming his vassal again and thus turning on Constantine. With an army of 60,000 men, Murad II accompanied by Nerio II of Athens marched into the Morea in 1446 again to punish Constantine for his defiance in attacking a fellow Ottoman vassal and attacking Ottoman territory. As usual of him, Constantine refused to surrender his conquests in Greece to the Ottomans and instead prepared to go to battle. The Ottomans true enough recaptured what Constantine had gained in Greece and following that laid siege to the Hexamilion Wall at the entrance of the Morea forcing both Constantine and Thomas to rush north with 20,000 men to defend it. Although bravely defended by the Morea’s Byzantine troops, the wall stood no chance against Murad’s cannons which reduced it to rubble all while many of the defenders were either killed or captured whereas Constantine and Thomas barely escaped with their lives. The Ottoman troops under Turahan Bey then proceeded south to pillage the Morea, though they failed at besieging its capital Mystras which was on the slope of a mountain. When seeing that the Ottomans were once again unstoppable, Constantine and Thomas agreed to surrender once again as a vassal to them and to resume paying tribute. Additionally, both brothers promised that as Ottoman vassals they would never restore the Hexamilion Wall again. Furthermore, Murad II scored an additional victory in 1448 against the Hungarians led by John Hunyadi again and their allies at the Second Battle of Kosovo (Kosovo II) while in the same year as well both Theodore the former Despot of the Morea and the emperor John VIII died, thus leaving the Byzantine Empire in a succession crisis.
VI. Constantine’s Defiance Against the Ottomans as Emperor
John VIII Palaiologos in 1448 true enough died without naming a successor but it was still clear that Constantine was obviously his most preferred choice among his younger brothers all while their mother Helena Dragas now very old true enough also favored Constantine among her 6 sons.
Among the 3 surviving Palaiologos brothers Constantine, Demetrios, and Thomas, Constantine too was the most popular among the populace though Demetrios was still favored by the pro-Orthodox faction and so he and Thomas went to Constantinople to compete for the throne leaving Constantine behind in the Morea. However, neither Demetrios nor Thomas became emperor as their mother for one ruled as regent in Constantinople while there was no emperor whereas she too was saving the spot for Constantine all while she too wrote to the Ottoman sultan Murad II to approve of Constantine as the new Byzantine emperor. As Byzantium’s overlord, Murad II true enough approved of Constantine as the new Byzantine emperor and in January of 1449 at a small ceremony in Mystras, Constantine was crowned as Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos not by the Patriarch of Constantinople but by a local bishop as if he were crowned by the patriarch in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, it could spark riots considering Constantine supported his late brother John VIII’s policy of Church Union. Shortly after his coronation, Constantine XI travelled to Constantinople by a Catalan ship- considering the Byzantine navy now was almost non-existent- all while he left the Morea to be ruled by Demetrios and Thomas with the former replacing Constantine in his position as Despot of the Morea.
Now the Constantinople that Constantine XI was to rule in was no longer the grand imperial metropolis but a shadow of its former self with its population having dropped to only 50,000 thanks to all the civil wars and the plague of Black Death in the previous century, but this still did not stop Constantine from ruling and preserving his empire. As emperor, Constantine’s first acts included securing peace with Murad II as the sultan’s vassal and searching for a new wife considering both his wives had died in the past and thus Constantine sent envoys to the King of Aragon and Naples Alfonso V (r. 1416-1458) as well as to the breakaway Byzantine Empire of Trebizond and the Kingdom of Georgia in hopes to find a potential wife from either of the states. The search for a wife and a possible alliance with a more powerful kingdom however failed all while in 1450, Constantine’s mother Helena died and in 1451, Murad II died and was thus succeeded by his ambitious young son Mehmed II who at only 19 had the intention to no longer have Byzantium as a vassal but to conquer it.
Knowing that Mehmed II would be a serious threat to Byzantium, Constantine once again began searching for allies which here was primarily the pope Nicholas V who Constantine appealed to willing to once again submit the Byzantine Church to his authority the way his late brother did but failed to do. On the other hand, in order to distract Mehmed, Constantine attempted to release Mehmed’s second cousin Orhan who lived as a hostage in Constantinople and use him to start a rebellion in the Ottoman Empire against Mehmed as Orhan too had a claim to the Ottoman throne. Constantine’s scheme to release Orhan and start an Ottoman civil war however failed as Mehmed discovered the plot thus angering him. The plot of Constantine to start an Ottoman civil war thus gave Mehmed a pretext to achieve his ultimate goal, the conquest of Constantinople which he believed was totally necessary not only because it was his life’s ambition but because he believed that destroying the Byzantines would allow the Ottomans their survival as true enough despite the Byzantines having been so reduced, they were the ones after all asking for assistance from the more powerful west against the Ottomans. Mehmed II then began his preparation for his siege in 1452 constructing the Fortress of Europe in the Bosporus in order to fully block off Constantinople from foreign aid coming from the Black Sea.
The construction of the said fortress on Byzantine soil thus angered Constantine who then declared war on Mehmed by fortifying Constantinople’s walls and arresting all Turks within the city who he later had executed in retaliation to the Ottomans destroying a Venetian ship using the fortress’ cannons and executing its crew. The Venetian ship incident true enough made the Republic of Venice ally with the Byzantines against the Ottomans and even promise to send Constantine with ships for Mehmed’s upcoming siege. On the other hand, the Hungarian engineer Orban offered Constantine his services to create a massive cannon which could defend Constantinople against the Ottomans but lacking the funds to construct the cannon, Constantine declined the offer and thus Orban instead offered his services to Mehmed who then funded the cannon’s construction.
Constantine meanwhile also asked his brothers in the Morea Demetrios and Thomas to come to his aid but they both failed as the Ottomans led by Turahan Bey had just attacked their lands all while the other powers of Europe furthermore could not help too as for one France and England were still fighting each other at the Hundred-Years’-War, the kingdoms of Spain were still fighting the war known as the Reconquista, and the Holy Roman Empire in Germany was as usual at war with each other. However, by the end of 1452, the pope true enough answered Constantine’s call for aid by sending the Papal legate Cardinal Isidore of Kiev, a native Byzantine Greek from the Morea who converted to Catholicism to Constantinople and despite the people rioting once again against Church Unity, the Church Union was formally sealed at the Hagia Sophia. Although no real assistance from Western Europe came, an army of 700 Genoese soldiers specializing as crossbowmen led by the general and former pirate Giovanni Giustiniani Longo from Chios arrived in Constantinople in January of 1453 ready to assist Constantine whereas Mehmed eventually marched his massive army of 80,000 with the newly created massive cannon included to the walls of Constantinople.
VII. The Siege and Constantine’s Last Stand
Despite Mehmed II having brought a massive army with him with 70 cannons included, the land walls of Constantinople which date back to the 5th century were still very massive enough to slow down a siege as it true enough successfully defended Constantinople numerous times in the past 11 centuries.
As Mehmed II began his siege, Constantine XI’s first act in defending the capital was in raising a large chain to block off the Golden Horn harbor from the Ottoman fleet. Now, in this article I will no longer mention the full details of the 1453 Siege of Constantinople as that will be for another time, rather here, we will simply discuss Constantine’s part in his defense of the city. As for Constantine XI, during the siege considering that he had run out of funds whereas the people inside too were starving, Constantine had metal objects taken from churches and from the houses of the rich melted in order to mint coins. The siege thus dragged on for over a month that at one point, the Ottomans using their cannons opened up a small breach in the land walls near the imperial palace wherein Constantine himself repelled the Ottomans’ attack here. Constantine too true enough sent messages to Mehmed promising to pay him as much tribute money as he could in order for Mehmed to lift his siege. Mehmed however declined the offer as at this point, he had no other intention but to take Constantinople, though Mehmed also offered Constantine an ultimatum wherein he would be allowed to return to ruling the Morea with his brothers if he surrendered Constantinople to the Ottomans.
Constantine in his usual bravery and defiance refused Mehmed’s offer and according to later chroniclers, Constantine was said to have responded to Mehmed: “As to surrendering the city to you, it is not for me to decide or for anyone else of its citizens; for all of us have reached the mutual decision to die of our own free will, without any regard for our lives”. As the days passed with no additional help from the west arriving, the defending Byzantines observed strange things occurring to them first of all a lunar eclipse which was true enough part of an ancient prophecy saying that the city would fall during one, then next came an incident where the icon of the Theotokos suddenly fell on the ground while it was on a procession thus suddenly turning the weather to rain and hail, and lastly a mysterious blue light was seen above the Hagia Sophia cathedral which the Byzantines took as a sign of doom and the Ottomans outside the walls as a sign of victory; the blue light over the Hagia Sophia though is said to have been due to the result of a volcanic eruption all the way in Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean which happened at around the same time.
On May 28, the night before the city fell, Constantine with the rest of the defenders whether Orthodox or Catholic all gathered in the Hagia Sophia for one last service wherein for once since 1054, both Churches were reunited as all knew their end was near. The Ottomans however without warning began their final attack on the city in the early hours of May 29 and during this attack, Giustiniani was wounded thus leaving Constantine in charge of both the defense and leading Giustiniani to safety. Due to Constantine and the rest of the defenders overwhelmed, the Ottoman troops broke in to one of the breaches they made into the wall and stormed into the city with one division climbing a tower, putting down the Byzantine flag, and raising the Ottoman one. Seeing that the city had been lost to the Ottomans, Constantine once again refusing to surrender led one last charge disappearing into the thick of battle never to be seen again. With the last Byzantine emperor gone at the age of 49, Mehmed II thus rode into the city victorious and having conquered the Byzantine capital he became known as “Mehmed the Conqueror” thus putting an end to the Roman state once and for all.
Conclusion
Following the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople which thus eventually became the new Ottoman capital under Mehmed II, Constantine XI’s allies who survived had different fates: the Genoese general Giovanni Giustiniani died of his wounds on a ship headed back home to Chios, Constantine’s top advisor Loukas Notaras was captured by Mehmed and executed, Cardinal Isidore managed to escape across the Golden Horn alive disguised as a slave, Mehmed’s cousin Prince Orhan who also fought at the defense of Constantinople was captured and executed as well, and Constantine’s trusted secretary George Sphrantzes who was a witness to the 1453 Siege of Constantinople was captured and enslaved by the Ottomans but shortly after released whereas he retired as monk and wrote his history on Constantine XI and the final siege.
As for Constantine’s brothers the Despots of the Morea Demetrios and Thomas, they would hold out against the Ottomans in the Morea until Mehmed’s conquest of it in 1460. Thomas with his family fled to Italy but before convincing Pope Pius II to launch a new Crusade to take Constantinople back from the Ottomans, Thomas died there in 1465. Demetrios on the other hand although wanting to continue in submitting to the Ottomans as a vassal was tricked by Mehmed and imprisoned in the former Ottoman capital Edirne (once Byzantine Adrianople) wherein he would die in 1470. Once Mehmed II had conquered the Morea, his next conquest was that of the Empire of Trebizond which too fell in 1461 with Mehmed’s capture of the city of Trebizond along the Black Sea therefore putting a definite end to the Byzantine Empire. Additionally, once Mehmed captured Constantinople in 1453, the Church Union Constantine XI had worked so hard to achieve was dissolved as Mehmed true enough opposed it seeing it as a threat to him and he dissolved it by appointing the anti-unionist Gennadius Scholarius as Patriarch of Constantinople. Although turning the Hagia Sophia and many other churches in Constantinople into mosques, Mehmed at least allowed his Orthodox Christian subjects there to continue practicing their religion so long as Islam remained the majority.
Constantine XI meanwhile according to legends among Greeks in Constantinople did not exactly die but rather before being killed by the Ottomans was carried off by an angel and placed in a cave beneath Constantinople’s Golden Gate wherein he would one day return to liberate the city from the Ottomans. Whether Constantine XI really died or not during the siege of 1453, he would still be the last Eastern Roman emperor in one straight line that goes all the way back to the first Roman emperor in Constantinople Constantine I the Great (r. 306-337)- who he coincidentally shared the same name with- and more so all the way back to the first Roman emperor Augustus (r. 27BC-14AD). Constantine XI’s example thus shows that the Roman Empire ended with a worthy emperor who although may have not been the greatest warrior and administrator but someone willing to fight and die for his empire no matter the cost thus giving the Roman (Byzantine) Empire itself a deserving ending wherein it fought courageously against the enemy rather than shamefully surrendering- the way the Western Roman Empire ended in 476. Overall, Constantine XI both during his time as emperor and before it is one perfect example of bravery, courage, and sometimes defiance in dire times which truly makes him admirable whereas other men of his time facing the same situation would have not reacted to it with such courage. Certainly, Constantine XI’s life is one of bravery and heroism when all seems to be lost and this surely makes him worthy of being one of Byzantium’s greatest emperors in terms of example. Now, what are your thoughts on Constantine XI and his rule as well as on his examples of bravery and defiance? I would like to thank you all for reading this article and please continue to support me by following and subscribing to my sites!
The Byzantium Blogger 