Fall of Constantinople 1453 - Ottoman Empire DOCUMENTARY

It was an early and deafening spring morning in Constantinople during the year 1453. The thunderous and violent sounds of roaring cannons and clashing swords filled the sky of the Roman capital as the Ottomans began their relentless assault on the ancient city. On top of the grand Theodosian walls overlooking the battle below was the horrified Constantine XI of the much-reduced Eastern Roman Empire. The Emperor knew that a Turkish victory today would bring about the end of his over 2,000-year-old state. Only time would tell if the walls of Constantinople could hold out against the tidal wave of humanity pushing up on its fortifications. Welcome to our season finale on the early history of the Ottoman Empire, in which we will discuss the famous Siege of Constantinople and the explosive end of the Byzantine Empire. This video is sponsored by our youtube members and patrons, who get two exclusive videos weekly, not available anywhere else, for their kind support of our channel. You can join their ranks to watch more than 160 videos, including our series on the Pacific War, Punic Wars, Persian Wars, Spanish War of Succession, Russo-Japanese War, North African Campaign of World War II, History of Prussia, Italian Unification Wars, Risorgimento, Albigensian Crusades and much more. Click the link in the description or pinned comment to get the exclusive videos, early access to all public videos, our schedule, wallpapers, access to a special discord server where we are very active, and much more. Thanks for supporting us, we couldn't be doing it without your help. Over the centuries, the desire of Islamic states to capture the Roman imperial seat of Constantinople was a fascination as old as the Islamic faith itself. Presumably, back in the early years of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad wrote a letter to Emperor Heraclius after a military triumph over the Sassanids. In the letter, Muhammad invited the Emperor to convert to the Islamic faith and surrender himself to Allah, or else he would face his master's judgment. In response, Heraclius is reported to have taken the mysterious letter seriously and even made some inquiries about the new faith and its alleged prophet. Although the religiously devoted Roman ruler decided to retain the Christian faith of his ancestors, he did acknowledge Muhammad's claims to prophethood and preserved his letter. A similar letter by the Prophet was also sent to the Shahanshah of Persia, Khosrow II, but this time around, the letter was torn to shreds and discarded. The responses of the two monarchs to Muhammad's letters would mirror the fate of their respective realms. Whether these scenes from Islamic traditional accounts really transpired or not, by the Arab armies, motivated by holy war, had started to appear on the frontiers of the Roman and Persian Empires and began raiding into Palestine and Mesopotamia. Their goal was to spread the word of God not by letters, but by the sword. By the middle of the century, these newly assembled armies of the newly formed Islamic Rashidun Caliphate had vanquished the numerous armies of both Constantinople and Ctesiphon in various battles around the Middle East. While the Sassanid Persian realm was swallowed whole by the armies of Islam, the declining Roman state was left to withstand the Arab advance alone, albeit at the cost of its Egyptian, Syrian and North African territories. Nonetheless, within a century after their initial push out of the Arabian Peninsula, the followers of the Prophet Muhammad found themselves unable to continue the jihad of their forefathers as they were halted at the stone gates of the Taurus Mountains. Although their territories were reduced by two-thirds, the Eastern Romans had proved to be a more defiant and resilient foe than their Persian neighbours, having survived two significant Arab sieges of Constantinople in 674 and 717, in addition to surviving numerous Arab raids into their core region of Anatolia lasting well into the 9th century. These military setbacks, in particular the two failed sieges on the Eastern Roman capital, remained a significant psychological scar for the various Islamic Caliphates of the Middle Ages for many centuries. Compounded by the fact that many were lost in the two sieges, including the Prophet's own standard-bearer Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, the age of jihad and potential world conquest of Islam had also come to a screeching halt. By the 10th century, the opportunity to seize the Roman imperial seat had long passed, as the later Abbasid Caliphate politically fractured after years of decentralization. The same period saw the Byzantines resurging in military and economic power under the Macedonian dynasty, which saw its imperial members go on the offensive in northern Syria and eastern Anatolia. Nevertheless, the magnificent dream of one day capturing the Queen of Cities never faded in the minds of various Muslim communities throughout the centuries, including the sons of Osman. On the night of March 30th, 1432, Huma Hatun, one of Murad II's many wives, gave birth to a baby boy in the Royal Ottoman Palace at Edena. Even though this birth saw the Ottoman capital celebrate in euphoria, no one, not even Murad himself, thought the young boy would ever become a ruler in his own right, for he was the youngest of three sons, and not likely to become his father's heir. Regardless of his chances of one-day ruling, the Sultan decided to name the baby boy after his late father Mehmed. In the coming years, the Ottoman prince was given an extensive education by the leading scholars of the realm, which was a part of his father's initiative in promoting the arts at his royal court. After some time, it was discovered that Mehmed had a significant thirst for learning, as he would go on at an early age to learn multiple languages, such as Arabic, Persian, Latin, Italian, Greek, Hebrew, and most likely Serbian. The young boy also showed a keen interest in reading Homer's and Herodotus' antique classics, in addition to studying the famous military exploits of ancient figures, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. However, perhaps most influential to Mehmed during his student years was his Islamic education under Turkish scholar Akşem Seddin, where one line from the Hadith fascinated and inspired him to no end. Verily, you shall conquer Constantinople. What a wonderful leader will he be! And what a wonderful army will that army be! By the time Mehmed was six years old, he was given the governorship of Amasya, where he continued his education and got first-hand experience of ruling. However, within two years of his arrival, his life was to change forever. The 1440s were chaotic, not only for the Ottoman state, as crusader armies of Western Europe invaded the Sultanate numerous times, but also for the young prince. In only a few years, his two elder half-brothers had unexpectedly died, his mother had been sent away into exile from the imperial harem, and his father had stepped down from the royal throne into political retirement. Being Murad II's sole surviving son, Mehmed ascended to the throne in 1444, causing much political discontent at the imperial court. Forgoing his young age and relative inexperience when it came to matters of state, Mehmed had also wanted to besiege the Roman capital after the great victory at Varna, a move seen as highly risky by the senior members of the Ottoman government. With crusader armies roaming the Balkans, many thought such an expensive and risky military campaign would prove ruinous for the state, but the headstrong Mehmed ignored all concerns and objections. The young sultan is reported as saying to his critics, either I will conquer Constantinople or Constantinople shall conquer me. But such a conquest was not meant to be. Alienating his imperial court with his unrelenting demeanor, Mehmed was forced off the throne in favour of his father by a coup d'etat in 1446, orchestrated by his grand vizier Candali Halil Pasha. He was then exiled to the town of Manisa, where he was to live a life of humiliation, being the first Ottoman sultan to give up his throne unwillingly without a fight. The whole event would forever alter the relationship between Mehmed and Halil Pasha, as both figures and their followers began a tense rivalry within the court of the recently reinstated Murad II. Even with this internal division at the imperial court, Mehmed continued to serve loyally alongside his father on bloody military campaigns in Albania and at the Second Battle of Kosovo. It was in these years that he saw the struggles and hardships of war for the first time, as the sultan's personal aide. However, his time alongside his father was to be cut short, as Murad II died of a sudden stroke in 1451, at the age of 46. Although Mehmed had already been hailed as sultan back in 1444, the succession to the Ottoman throne was still not confirmed, as according to the state tradition, the role of monarch was eligible to all male members of the House of Osman, regardless of their seniority. The former sultan had recently sired another son, the nine-month infant Şizade Ahmed, and unlike Mehmed, he was present at the capital. On top of his potentially dangerous half-brother, Mehmed's already proven dangerous second cousin, Orhan Celebi, still eyed the Ottoman throne from Constantinople as a Byzantine hostage. The exiled Ottoman prince had previously tried to seize the throne by inciting a civil war during the crisis year of 1444, but was defeated on his march to Edirne. The race to hold the highest office of the land had just begun. Like with the death of Sultan Mehmed I back in 1421, the death of Murad II was also kept a secret by the imperial palace until the issue of succession was determined. Wanting to keep the best interest of the state in mind and not wanting to give up the throne to an infant or a Byzantine pawn, Candeli Halil Pasha sent out confidential letters to Manisa informing Mehmed about his father's death and requesting for him to make his way to the capital at once. In only three days, the Ottoman prince and his entourage completed the journey from Manisa to Edirne, crossing the Dardanelles in total secret. Before the wider world knew anything of Murad II's death, Mehmed was crowned sultan in the courtyard of the imperial palace in front of all to see. Six years after losing his throne to a coup d'etat, the eldest son of the former sultan was now back in power. According to traditional Ottoman sources, a tense presentation of ministers took place at the palace the following day, where Mehmed was seated on the imperial throne, receiving statesmen and foreign dignitaries. Although Halil Pasha and his followers ensured the swift ascension of Mehmed II back to power, it was yet to be known if the tensions of the last few years between the grand vizier and the sultan were going to spill over into the next administration. During the presentation, Halil Pasha and his advisors hung at the back of the meeting hall in trepidation, while the 19-year-old sultan was being greeted. Before long Mehmed noticed the uncalm atmosphere at the back of the hall and so he proclaimed Why do my father's viziers hang back? Call them forward and tell Halil to take his usual place. The young sultan then proceeded to insist that Halil Pasha continue his role as grand vizier, shocking many in the hall. This act by the sultan was seen as a political move to unify his inner court in the capital, as it seemed like he had far grander ambitions to attend to. However, before he could attend to such ambitions, the young sultan had to first attend to his household. One of Mehmed's first actions upon re-ascending the throne was to legalize the already common practice of fratricide within the house of Osman. Ever since the reign of Sultan Murad I back in the 1360s, the members of the royal family had often resorted to fratricide in order to secure the throne, most famously seen at its zenith during the bloody years of the interregnum. According to the Ottoman state, all royal princes had an equal claim to the throne, and it was only up to divine will and the prince's competency in political and military affairs that would help win them the race to ultimate power. After a prince had secured the throne, it was expected that he would eliminate all threats to his power as a means to ensure the stability of the state from future civil wars, and this included his siblings, or even in more desperate times, his sons. Although it was not a widely popular act in the eyes of the wider public, the practice of fratricide ensured the stability of the state and the continuity of the imperial family for almost an entire century before Mehmed's second reign. After officially codifying the practice of fratricide into law, the young sultan then ordered the execution of his infant half-brother, Şehzade Ahmet. It was from this legal ruling by Mehmed that Ottoman princes for the next 150 years would have to endure a life of total competition with their siblings, or face an eventual early death. After securing his seat in power and unifying his imperial court, Mehmed now began preparations to fulfill his childhood ambitions of seizing the Queen of Cities, the Roman imperial capital of Constantinople. By the turn of the 15th century, Constantinople had served as the imperial seat of the Eastern Roman Empire for over a millennium. The city was founded by Emperor Constantine the Great in 324 on top of the former ancient Greek colony of Byzantium. His goal was to create a new lavish capital city for his new Christian empire centred in the east, perhaps in an attempt to closely monitor the volatile Persian and Danubian fronts of his already over-expanded realm. The new capital also possessed quite advantageous natural defences against invading armies, as it was situated on a peninsula that could be supplied by a protected deepwater harbour in the form of a northern inlet dubbed the Golden Horn. On top of natural defences, during the 5th century the virtually impregnable three-layered Theodosian walls were constructed, giving the city a further layer of acclaimed invincibility. It was to be these grand walls that repelled and deterred numerous adversaries over the years, such as the Goths, Huns, Avars, Arabs, Slavs, Bulgars, Kievan Rus, and even fellow Roman usurpers. At its height during the 5th and 6th centuries, Constantinople's population had topped around 500,000. During this era, the city was also populated by numerous public buildings, grand squares, imperial palaces, gardens, triumphal arches, and lavish statues from antiquity topped with an enormous Hippodrome. Nevertheless, the crowning jewel of the capital was the Hagia Sophia Church, built during the eventful reign of Emperor Justinian the Great in the 6th century. Ever since its construction, the Church of God's Holy Wisdom had been the world's largest cathedral, thus becoming the centrepiece of Byzantine prestige during the medieval ages and a prime symbol of Orthodoxy's triumph against its many foes in the West and East. However, by the time of 1451, Constantinople had long become a shadow of its former self. Back in 1204, the Theodosian walls were breached for the first time by the Latin Knights of the Fourth Crusade, resulting in a destructive sack of the Roman capital. Although the Romans would recapture their imperial seat from Latin occupation in 1261, the richness of Constantinople's infrastructure and population was left in a desolate state. Roman efforts to reconstruct and repopulate their former queen of cities were also to prove largely fruitless. The 14th century saw the restored Eastern Romans battling amongst themselves in costly and bloody civil wars, while the Black Death ravaged their urban centres, including the capital itself. Meanwhile, in the background, the Sons of Osman established a new state for themselves that saw a further reduction of Byzantine lands in both the Balkans and Anatolia. The significant deterioration of Roman power in the 14th century had seen Constantinople's population dropping well below 50,000. With constant food shortages ravaging the capital, the once-powerful emperors of East Rome had now become reliant on the Italian Maritime Republics of Venice and Genoa for military, political, and economic support. Although Sultan Bayezid I's defeat at the Battle of Ankara had given the Eastern Roman Empire another 50 years of life, very little changed to revert the fortunes of Constantinople. By the reign of John VIII Palaiologos, the situation for Byzantium had become so bad that its rulers forwent the religion of their ancestors in favour of a church union with the papacy. It was believed that by mending the Great Schism of 1054, economic and military assistance from Western Catholic Europe would arrive to the aid of Constantinople and prevent the state from falling to the Ottoman Turks. Two years before the ascension of Sultan Mehmed II, the Emperor John had died of natural causes at the age of 55, after hearing the disastrous news of Hunyadi's defeat at the Second Battle of Kosovo. The late emperor was succeeded by his younger brother, Desperate Constantine of Morea, who took up the purple in a simple ceremony at his provincial capital of Mistras. The Byzantine royal had been a much-celebrated war hero after his military campaigns in the Morea, Boeotia and Thessaly, and was seen as an ideal choice in succeeding his late brother's throne. However, it was now he who was reduced to begging for passage to his throne in Constantinople on a Catalan ship. By the time the now-proclaimed Constantine XI arrived at the Roman capital, the Byzantine world had been shrunk down to the capital itself and its suburbs, a few islands in the Aegean and the isolated province of the Morea. Even though it seemed like the world was rapidly closing in on him, the new autocrat of the Romans, unlike his quarrelsome brothers in the Morea, had been resolute in the face of Ottoman aggression. According to Byzantine and Western sources, he was a straightforward and charismatic man who inspired loyalty in the people around him. Constantine was also a skilled administrator who was highly active in the daily tasks of running a state, and above everything else, incredibly loyal and patriotic to his country. However, the 47-year-old had been unlucky in his private life, having been childless since the conclusion of two marriages. Although he made repeated attempts to forge new dynastic marriages with foreign powers, all had failed to bear fruit. The surprising death of Sultan Murad II in 1451 was widely celebrated across Western Europe, for he had been seen as a competent Muslim leader who had dealt multiple significant defeats against the forces of Christendom during his reign in power. However, with the ascension of his untested son, many in the halls of the Vatican thought it was now the ideal time to strike against the weakened Turks with another round of crusades. Unfortunately for the Papacy, any hopes of another major crusade in the size and scope of the Varna Campaign were severely slashed, as many of Edirne's immediate neighbours were exhausted from the bloody wars of the last decade. As a result, many European powers were now eager to secure a steady peace with Mehmed. By the fall of 1451, Venice had renewed peace with the young Sultan, while Hungary under John Hunyadi agreed on a three-year truce in hostilities. In the following months, Genoa, Rhodes, Wallachia, Bosnia and Trebizond were similarly able to secure guarantees of peace with Edirne, as many believed that the new Sultan was now under the thumb of his peace-orientated Grand Vizier. Lastly, to further secure peace in the Balkans, the young Sultan returned his much-trusted stepmother, Mara Branković, back to her homeland of Serbia, after spending the last 15 years in the imperial Ottoman harem. She was now tasked with maintaining the neutrality of her father's realm, while also keeping an eye on Buddha's influence in the country. As a lulling peace settled on the broader region, Ibrahim II Bey of the Karamanid Beylik misread Mehmed's intentions for weakness and started conducting raids into Ottoman territories in western Anatolia during the fall of 1451. Being faced with his first real test since coming back to power, the young Sultan personally led his armies against the forces of Konya in a short but victorious campaign. Once again, Ottoman specialization in gunpowder weapons proved superior to the classic Turkoman usage of unorganized Ghazi warriors and light cavalry. However, the destruction of the Karamanid Beylik was for now to be delayed, as fears of a potential Mamluk military intervention to save their allies in Konya loomed over. As a result, only the border towns of Akşehir and Beyşehir were transferred back to Ottoman authorities during the following peace negotiations. Mehmed's first military campaign had resulted in an overwhelming victory. In addition to conquering his first lands, the young Sultan also took advantage of the sudden war by putting loyal men in positions of power within the ranks of the elite Janissary military corps. A determined Mehmed still remembered the Janissary rebellion that led to his deposition back in 1446, and he also knew that he needed the elite corps on his side for the eventual confrontation against the Byzantines. So, as a result, over 7,000 recruits were added to the ranks of the Kepekulu, along with dozens of loyal military officers and governors being stationed in high places of power. As the swift Karamanid campaign came to a close, tensions between Edirne and Constantinople had begun to sour. According to traditional Ottoman sources, Constantine XI had sent a series of belligerent letters to the young Sultan, demanding double the annual tribute for Orhan Celebi and without such payment he would be forced to release him from captivity in Constantinople. The Roman Emperor's implication was understood clearly by the Ottoman court. If Mehmed failed to pay the tribute, a fellow claimant to the throne would be at large to instigate a new civil war. While the imperial court at Edirne exploded into mad fury, the young Sultan received the hostile letters with a poker face, as he gained a pretext for war against Constantinople. According to him, the Red Apple that was the Roman capital was now ripe for the taking. By the spring of 1452, the construction of a new waterfront fortress across from the old fortress of Anadolu Husari began in earnest. The young Sultan not only wished to blockade the narrowest point on the Bosporus of maritime traffic from the Black Sea, but also to secure a significant crossing hub for his armies in the Balkans and Anatolia, safe from the prying ships of the Italian merchant republics. In only four and a half months, the construction of the Rumeli-Husari, or Rumelian Castle, was completed, thus further cutting off the Roman capital from the rest of the world. Overnight, vital grain supplies from the Black Sea were cut off from the Roman capital, causing a major panic within the city. To make matters even worse, later that same fall, the fortress first saw action when three Venetian ships refused to stop for inspection by local Turkish authorities, resulting in the bombardment and sinking of the fleet's flagship and the demise of its entire crew. The construction of the Rumeli-Husari sent the imperial court in Constantinople into a fury, as the fortress was built on Byzantine territory without the consultation of the emperor. Petitions regarding the legality of the fortress were sent to Edirne, but only the bloodied heads of Roman diplomats were received by the imperial court in return. With a major war seeming to be looming around the corner, Constantine began his correspondence with the Western powers of Europe for military assistance at once. The emperor had been a staunch supporter of the Union of the Churches, implemented back during the Council of Ferrara Florens, as it was a means to secure Byzantium's military and economic survival with Western assistance. However, with the three failed crusades of the 1440s and a loss in general appetite to make war with Edirne, the Eastern Romans were now left with limited options in order to stave off Mehmed's eventual siege of their capital. Venice received Byzantium's pleas with deaf ears, as they had recently signed a renewed peace with Edirne the previous year and did not want to provoke a new, costly war that could harm its possessions in the Aegean. In spite of this, the Merchant Republic did allow Constantine to recruit troops from its colony island of Crete as a compromise. Also, like the Raj rivals, Genoa also turned a blind eye to Constantine's pleas, but did allow for local governors in their colonies of Chios and Galata to take independent actions with the Ottomans and Byzantines for their survival. Messages were also sent to Hungary and Aragon, offering both countries the remaining Roman territories of Lemnos, Mesembria, and Cilimbria, in exchange for military help against Mehmed, but neither kingdom offered Constantinople a response. Lastly, and perhaps the most practical of all the pleas, the Emperor contacted his two brothers in the Moraia, despots Thomas and Demetrios, for immediate military assistance. However, such hopes of assistance were dashed, as Mehmed got wind of the appeal and ordered his trusted general, Turahan Bey, to invade the Moraia during the fall of 1452. In a short campaign, the local region was ravaged, making it impossible for either Palaiologi brother to send troops to aid the Roman capital. With Turkish navies now blockading the Dardanelles and Bosphorus Straits, and no substantial help coming from the west, East Rome entered the winter of 1452-1453 in a state of doom and gloom. The ongoing blockades severely depleted the capital's grain reserves, while snowstorms and torrential downpours of the winter season demoralized the citizens of the city. The already unpopular pro-unionist Constantine was now openly jeered at in public by his own citizens for the misfortunes of the Roman state. However, being true to his resolute character, the Emperor went into action by preparing for the upcoming Ottoman siege, even if all odds were against him. Throughout the winter, the neglected sections of the land and seawalls of the city were repaired and fortified. The main ditch in front of the seawalls was cleared out, and new weapons were forged and distributed to the city's garrison. In an indicator showcasing the desperation of the Eastern Romans, such a large-scale operation was funded by the scavenging of precious metals from the rooftops of abandoned buildings, gathering of stones from old gravestones, and donations from the church. As Constantinople prepared for war, good news in the form of unexpected western assistance had finally arrived. Hearing of the true desperation faced by the Romans, two Genoese galleons had broken through the Ottoman blockade and arrived at the capital in January. Loaded with ample military equipment, 400 heavily armoured troops from Genoa and 300 troops from the Aegean, they were led by the charismatic Giovanni Justiniani Longo, a Genoese nobleman and mercenary commander from the island of Chios. Being a self-proclaimed expert in siege warfare, Constantine appointed Justiniani as the leader of the city's land defences and with the imperial rank of protostrator. The emperor also promised him the island of Lemnos if the Ottoman siege were to be repelled. In the coming weeks, the defenders were reinforced by smaller contingents numbering around 200-300 men from Aragon, Castile, and Naples. However, all of these military developments were to be overshadowed by the surprise departure of 700 anxious Venetian and Cretan soldiers and sailors who had previously sworn to help defend the city, but now thought their odds for survival were slim in the siege to come. Although the event was a major setback in morale for the defenders, Justiniani's efforts to prepare the defences of Constantinople continued on with haste. During the background of all these Roman preparations, Mehmed had also spent the winter preparing for the upcoming siege. He had called for the mobilisation of his household troops and provincial armies all across his realm for the following spring, in addition to repairing all roads and bridges surrounding his capital. The latter preparation was to be vital in the transportation of the new bombard, constructed by a Hungarian cannon founder and engineer named Orban. The renegade mercenary had first offered his services to Constantine back at the start of 1452, but after seeing that the Roman emperor lacked the funds needed for the creation of his cannons, he then offered his services to an already eager Biderno. He claimed to Mehmed himself that his largest cannon, dubbed the Silica, could blast the walls of Babylon itself. While Orban and other Turkish engineers worked tirelessly on casting dozens of cannons during the winter season, the first salvo in the war to come was fired when Ottoman troops under Kharadzha Bey crossed into Byzantine Thrace in February of 1453. In only a matter of weeks, the last remaining Roman settlements in the region were seized and their fortifications dismantled. With the road to Constantinople being cleared open, Mehmed paraded out of Edirne in great pomp in late March at the head of a great host. According to the Sultan, it was now time to fulfill not only his dream of conquering New Rome but also the dream of every Islamic state since the original siege of the city back in the 8th century. A day after Orthodox Easter was celebrated within Constantinople, the first Ottoman troops began making camp only 5 miles from the walls of the city itself. The siege of Constantinople had just begun. Mehmed was now in command of the largest army assembled in his nation's history, consisting of 60 to 100 thousand troops. He divided his land forces into four major sections. The Sultan and the Capiculus soldiers were encamped on the advantageous terrain in front of the gates of St. Romanus and Charisius, enabling Turkish cannons to fire down at the Theodosian Walls from a high elevation. Ishak Pasha's army of Anatolia stood to Mehmed's right, stretching down to the Sea of Mamara. While Khoreja Pasha's army of Rumelia stood to his left, stretching up to the Golden Horn. In front of the Ottoman host was a line of newly constructed trenches, earth ramparts and siege walls, positioned 250 yards away from the city's walls. The last portion of the land army was led by Mehmed's second vizier, Zanos Pasha, stationed on the heights behind the neutral Genoese colony of Galata north of the Golden Horn. Lastly, blockading Constantinople from the sea was a Turkish fleet of around 110 galleys and other light ships under the command of Admiral Boutallu Süleyman. As the numerous Ottoman army took up their positions for the upcoming siege, the outnumbered defenders of Constantinople looked on in horror. They were now faced with the difficult task of defending over 20 kilometers of defenses with only 7 to 8 thousand men. Luckily for the defenders, the defenses in question were the mighty three-layered Theodosian Walls that had stopped and destroyed many armies in past sieges of the capital. Mustering 2,000 of his best native troops, Constantine took up positions at the Mesotachion or Middle Wall, while Justiniani and his foreign troops were stationed on the Charisius Gate to his north. The rest of the 5.5 kilometer land walls and its fortified towers were manned by various contingents of Byzantine, Venetian and Genoese troops, numbering an additional 1 to 2 thousand troops. Meanwhile, the southern sea walls on the Marmara coast were more lightly defended than the land walls, garrisoned by just over 1 thousand troops comprised of Byzantine, Turkish, Catalan and Papal soldiers. Similarly, the northern sea walls by the Golden Horn were guarded by Venetian and Genoese sailors, totaling only a few hundred men and an allied fleet of 26 ships. Protecting the allied fleet and the northern harbors of the city was a massive chain spanning across the Golden Horn into the Genoese colony of Galata. Moreover, around 1 thousand Roman troops were held in reserve, led by the Emperors Magus Dux and Chief Minister Lucas Notaris, who were stationed in the Petra Quarter of the capital. Finally, Nikephoros Palaiologos was stationed in the ancient ruins of the Church of the Holy Apostles. Following the Islamic tradition of offering terms of surrender to the besieged party in exchange for their protection, Mehmed sent a final message to the Emperor under a flag of truce. However, remaining true to his character, the resolute and firm Constantine rejected the Sultan's terms as he was determined to defend his capital to the last soldier. As the war of letters and petitions neared its end, the war of gunpowder and blood began with a grand Ottoman bombardment on the Theodosian Walls at dusk on April 6th. The next five days saw Turkish artillery crews testing their newly constructed cannons for the first time, while Serbian sappers underground started digging tunnels towards the city's defences. Concurrently, Turkish engineers commenced their efforts to fill in the moat in front of the Mesopotamian, yet frequent sorties by Lord Justiniani's Genoese troops impeded any significant progress. Meanwhile at sea, Ötellu's fleet launched naval operations by surrounding Constantinople and capturing the Prince's Islands south of the capital. On April 12th, Orban's heavy cannons, including the massive Basilica cannon, arrived on the battlefield after an arduous march from Edirne. Shooting colossal payloads ranging from 200 to 1,500 pounds, these new war machines began blasting the ancient fortifications of the Roman capital in full force, specifically the Mesotaikon and Blakone land walls. Eyewitnesses spoke of the monstrous sounds and clouds of black smoke emitted by the enormous cannons, with one account claiming that the quakes from the guns could be felt from the Asian shores of the Bosporus. However, despite their initial psychological impact on the defenders, operating such cannons proved to be difficult, as the issue of overheating and cracking within the guns became an apparent problem to Turkish artillery crews. According to Christian sources, Orban allegedly met his doom when one of his creations overheated and blew up after being fired. All of this meant that cannons like the Basilica itself could only be fired a few times a day, giving the defenders ample time to rebuild their defenses between each bombardment. In any case, after six days of repeated cannon fire, Sultan Mehmed concluded that the damage to the Mesotaikon was now sufficient for a significant frontal assault. On the night of April 18th, infantry contingents were sent to breach a collapsed section of the wall near the Saint-Romain-escaped, while the navy attempted to break through the chain on the Golden Horn. However, what was thought to be an optimistic operation on the land walls turned into a bloody affair, as a bitter melee began raging within the moat in front of the collapsed wall section. The heavily armored Genoese under Justiniani had reinforced the sector earlier in the day, enabling the defenders to successfully hold a strategic narrow chokepoint against the incoming Ottoman assault. With the Turkish infantry unable to leverage their vastly superior numbers, and facing Roman arrows and javelins from the wall, the battle in the moat quickly descended into a savage bloodbath. After four gruesome hours and hundreds of casualties, the Sultan called off the assault on the Mesotaikon. The Theodosian walls had once again repelled another invading army at their gates. Meanwhile, the naval assault on the chain also failed, as the crews of shorter Turkish galleys couldn't scale the taller carracks of the allied fleet. The dual frontal assaults of April 18th resulted in a significant humiliation for Mehmed, but the worst was yet to come. Weeks prior to the siege, three Genoese merchant ships, provisioned with food, men, and weapons, had been dispatched by the Pope to aid Constantinople. By the first week of April, the fleet had arrived in Chios, where they were joined by a Byzantine grain vessel, and two weeks later they had entered the Dardanelles Strait. Fortunately for Mehmed, his scouts in Gallipoli had informed him about the fleet's whereabouts a week before they arrived at the Roman capital, providing ample time for Baltauluso layman to prepare his ships to intercept them. With Constantinople on the brink of famine, it was crucial for the Ottoman war effort that no reinforcements reach the city. By April 20th, the Christian fleet appeared on the horizon of the city, causing jubilation among the defenders on the walls. However, the journey to dock safely in the Golden Horn was to be challenged, as Baltauluso and his fleet awaited in front of the chain. Late in the evening, the two sides clashed east of the walls of the Acropolis, observed by many spectators from the city, and the Sultan himself from the Galata shore. Despite a significant numerical advantage, the Turkish fleet struggled to penetrate the enemy's vessels with arrows and cannon fire due to the height difference between their galleys and the Christian carracks. Unable to sink his foes, Baltauluso then ordered his ships to board and capture the enemy fleet, but like two days earlier, the taller carracks proved too daunting for Ottoman sailors and infantry to scale. By sunset, the southern winds from the Marmara had picked up, propelling the Christian carracks forward for their final dash to the Golden Horn. Pushing past the smaller Turkish galleys around them, the fleet successfully crossed the chain before nightfall, to the astonishment of the defenders. With the morale of the defenders of Constantinople rising after the arrival of vital manpower and supplies, Mehmed went into a full rage, dismissing Baltauluso Leman from his post and appointing Hamza Bey to his position. To make things worse, it was also during this period that rumours of a potential invasion from Hungary by John Hunyadi had circulated the Ottoman camp, giving credence to the warnings of the Grand Vizier from before the siege. With Constantine now sending out terms of peace from an elevated position of bargaining power, the Sultan sought the advice of his Imperial Council, but after long debates and discussions it was decided that the siege was to be continued, as too much was already on the line. It was thought that a failure to capture the Roman capital now could lead to a Janissary rebellion or, much worse, another crusade from the west in the future. As a result, Byzantine demands for peace were rejected. Motivated to take action, Mehmed now came to the conclusion that he had to secure the Golden Horn in order to divert the resources and manpower of the defenders from the western land walls to the northern seawall. However, realising he couldn't breach the chain itself, the Sultan decided to transport his fleet, stationed at the double columns, across the forested terrain behind the colony of Galata into the Golden Horn. Supervised by Zaganos Pasha, a secret road made of wooden tracks was constructed, while cannon fire from the main army and above the Genoese colony masked the noise of such a massive engineering project. Additionally, cannons began firing from the northern shore of the Golden Horn, to prevent the allied fleet from venturing beyond the chain following their naval successes from the previous week. Throughout the late night of April 21st, thousands of wooden greaser rollers, soldiers, and hundreds of oxen dragged dozens of ships over four kilometers under cover of darkness. By the next morning, the defenders on the northern seawalls awoke to shock and horror, witnessing Turkish ships freely sailing in the Golden Horn, under the protection of cannon fire from the opposing shoreline. The entire military operation was Sultan Mehmed's strategic and psychological masterstroke, causing Constantinople to erupt in massive panic, leading to the reserves of Lucas Notaris now rushing to reinforce the northern seawall. In the following days, plans to eliminate the Turkish fleet in the Golden Horn were discussed by the Emperor's War Council. After many discussions, the plan of Venetian galley captain Giacomo Cocco gained support, which was to burn the enemy ships with Greek fire, the same substance that had devastated the Arab fleet during the siege of 717-718. After many delays, on the night of April 28th, five vessels loaded with Greek fire began sailing slowly under the cover of night towards the Turkish fleet, in total silence. Everything seemed to be going according to plan until a last-second full-speed dash by Cocco himself alerted Ottoman forces in the area, leading to cannon fire raining upon the ambushing Christian ships. In the night bombardment, all five ships were either sunk or captured, resulting in numerous casualties for the defenders, including the death of the Venetian captain. In an act demonstrating the heightened brutality of the siege, the surviving crew of the ambushed ships were impaled in front of the land walls the next morning, followed by the execution of 250 Turkish prisoners on Constantine's orders. The days after the failed ambush saw a renewed Ottoman focus on bombarding both the gates of St. Romanus and Charisias, in addition to the northern sea walls and the bogged-down fleet at the Neorian and Prashopian harbours. It was during this dire period that Constantine's War Council began advising him to escape discreetly to the Morea for his own safety, but to no avail. Instead, the Byzantine emperor doubled down on his war effort by beginning to melt down church metals to mint new coinage for his mercenaries and native troops after a series of defections on the land walls. The action couldn't have come soon enough. On the night of May 7th, Mehmed ordered a second frontal assault near a collapsed section of the wall by the gate of St. Romanus, but the inspiring leadership of Justiniani saved the day and the Ottoman attack was repelled. On May 12th, another frontal attack was ordered, this time on the Blakene walls, which saw Ottoman troops climb and breach the city walls for the first time. Only a hasty counterattack, laired by the emperor himself, repelled the attackers. With his assaults on the land walls failing, Mehmed now turned to his Serbian sappers to undermine the defences of Constantinople. Back in April, the sappers had tried digging tunnels towards the Mesopotamia, but due to the uneven terrain of the area, they were forced to abandon their operations in favour of targeting the Caligaria gate on the Blakene walls. By mid-May, the sappers had finally reached the walls, but due to the anti-mining tactics of John Grant, such operations were hindered. The resourceful Scottish mercenary used barrels filled with water to observe ripples, helping him identify the movements of the sappers below, upon which either stink gas or Greek fire was funneled into an opening in the ground. By the third week of May, both sides had been exhausted, after more than 50 days since the start of the siege. On the defender's side, only half of the original strength of the city's garrison remained, while there was still no sign of the promised reinforcements from the west. In reality, a fleet from Venice had been on its way to reinforce the capital, but constant delays had forced it to only reach the Aegean by the end of May. To make matters worse, the citizens of Constantinople woke up on May 28th to thick fog and illuminating flaming lights coming off the dome of the Great Hagia Soviet Church, which was interpreted as the Virgin Mary abandoning the city and its defenders. Meanwhile, the mood on the attacker's side was even worse. The multiple failed frontal assaults of the last few weeks had severely demoralized the Ottoman army, with some beginning to believe the Roman capital was unconquerable. Supplying the grand Turkish host with daily amounts of food and water for over 50 days had also begun to strain Ottoman logistics and funds, even though the entire Sultanate's resources were concentrated on the siege. With tensions already heightened, another offer of surrender was rejected by the Emperor on May 26th, leading Mehmed to call for a war council. During the meeting, the Grand Vizier once again pushed for lifting the siege, as fears of a Hungarian invasion rose when an emissary from Buda arrived at the Sultan's tent to However, following a series of motivating speeches by Zaganos Pasha and Sheikh Akshamsaddin, the Sultan decided to launch one final grand assault on the Roman capital. Either he would conquer Constantinople, or he would see his army crumble in front of its walls. On May 27th, the Theodosian Walls were again bombarded in full force, while final inspections were carried out by Mehmed himself, culminating in him giving a final motivating speech to his troops. Likewise, the defenders also prepared for the upcoming assault by repairing their defences on the land walls, holding a mass in the Hagia Sophia, and parading religious icons throughout the streets of the capital. The Romans and their allies had overcome more than 50 gruelling days of besiegement and over 5,000 cannon shots to their defences, but now everything came down to the final battle. The Ottoman army had spent the entirety of May 28th devoted to atonement and prayer, before taking their positions for the night-time assault. Sometime near midnight, the sounds of cannon fire were replaced by loud religious chants and music from the Turkish Mehter Band. Watching from the land walls in horror, Constantine and Justiniani witnessed a sea of bright flames spanning from the Marmara to the Golden Horn. By 1.30am, the first wave, made up of light infantry in the form of Azebs and Bashi Bazooks, was underway, concentrating on the Blakene walls, the Mesetaikion, and the third military gate to the south. At the same time, the fleet under Hamza Bey began scaling operations all along the southern sea walls, but faced great difficulties caused by the wild currents of the Marmara. Concurrently, the fleet in the Golden Horn, along with pontoon bridges built by the army of the latter, also began scaling operations on the northern sea walls and faced much opposition. After two hours of bloody combat, the first wave on the land walls was called off in favor of the second wave, made up of the better-trained provincial army of Anatolia. But by 5.30am, this wave had also been repelled, giving way to the third and final wave composed of the Sultan's elite Cappicullo troops, mostly consisting of Janissaries. Yet, as the exhausted Roman and Italian forces of Constantine and Justiniani prepared to make a frantic stand at the Mesetaikion, disastrous news elsewhere began trickling down to the Emperor. After repelling Khorejapash's army of Rumelia from the Blakene walls, the Italian defenders of the Kirkaporta gate had sallied out against the attackers, but forgot to lock the gate behind them after their incursion. In only a matter of time, a group of 50 Ottoman soldiers spotted the open gate. Before long, they overwhelmed the local defenders in the sector and captured the imperial palace. Meanwhile, another disaster awaited the defenders, as the vigilante protector of the city, Lord Justiniani, had been severely wounded, hit by an arrow in his leg and a stray lead bullet in his chest while defending the St. Romanus gate. While he was being stretched off the battlefield, a giant Janissary named Hasan of Ulubat and his thirty companions managed to scale and hoist the first Ottoman standards atop the ancient walls before succumbing to arrow fire. With their foes invigorated and their heroic leader now gone from the front lines, panic erupted among the defenders. To make matters worse, Ottoman forces from the north had begun to flank around and unlock the gates of Tiresias and the 5th military gates. Elsewhere, the Platea gate was breached by the Galata army in the north, while Hamza Bey's sailors began clearing the southern sea walls of local Turkish, Catalan and Papal defenders. As more and more attackers poured through the walls, the defenders of the Mesopotamian buckled under immense pressure and began frantically retreating to the safety of the Neorian and Prashopian harbours. While Turkish troops now indulged themselves in looting, a few hundred defenders and citizens fled on board the allied fleet, which broke through the chain and began sailing to the Aegean. Back at the walls, Constantine XI tried to organize a last stand, but to no avail. According to myths, the emperor accepted his fate and gave a final speech to his retinue. God forbid that I should live as an emperor without an empire. As my city falls, I will fall with it. Whosoever wishes to escape, let him save himself if he can, and whoever is ready to face death, let him follow me. Flinging off his imperial insignia and drawing out his sword, the Roman emperor charged head first into a group of nearby Janissaries, never to be seen again. By 7am, all resistance had collapsed and Turkish troops had reached as far as the Oghuzlayan and the Hagia Sophia, pillaging, killing, and enslaving their way through the main Mese road. After 53 gruelling days, the siege of Constantinople came to a bloody close. Although Mehmed previously promised his army three full days of sacking, he decided to rescind his order on May 30th, wishing to reduce the harm already done to the city, which he aimed to turn into his new capital. Entering from the Tiresias Gate with his entourage, the Sultan inspected and toured the ancient sites of the city, before making immediate plans to convert the Hagia Sophia into a grand mosque and repopulate the former Roman capital. Having achieved his childhood dream and the ambition of various Islamic powers throughout the centuries, Mehmed then declared himself Kaiser-i-Ruh, the new Caesar of Rome. According to him, for all intents and purposes, his newly proclaimed empire was the official continuation of the Roman Empire, a legacy dating back to the days of Augustus Caesar and Constantine the Great. Seizing an opportunity to eliminate a political rival during such a high moment, Mehmed began his rule in Constantinople by executing his Grand Vizier on dubious allegations of bribery. The most senior surviving Byzantine official, Chief Minister Lucas Notaris, was also executed and his wealth was seized. In only 150 years, the members of the House of Osman had established a small independent state on the fringes of Anatolia and became one of the foremost powers of their era. With the Middle Ages coming to an end alongside the Roman Empire, a new Golden Age awaited Mehmed II and his successors, as conquests lay on the horizon for the newly established Ottoman Empire. In our next season on the History of the Ottomans, we will explore said Golden Age, so make sure you are subscribed and have pressed the bell button. Please, consider liking, subscribing, commenting, and sharing – it helps immensely. Recently, we have started releasing weekly Patreon and Youtube member-exclusive content. Consider joining their ranks via the link in the description or button under the video to watch these weekly videos, learn about our schedule, get early access to our videos, access our private discord, and much more. This is the Kings and Generals channel, and we will catch you on the next one.