On 6 April the attack began. Submitted by Mark Cartwright, published on 23 January 2018 under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. Meanwhile, the rape, pillage, and destruction began. A small fleet of naval and armed merchant vessels were also stationed in the Golden Horn to defend the chain. Ancient History Encyclopedia Limited is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. T he ancient city of Constantinople, located in modern Turkey and today known as Istanbul, was founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine in 330 who made it the seat of his reign. Cartwright, M. (2018, January 23). By this stage, Constantinople was underpopulated and dilapidated. On April 2, 1453, the Ottoman army, led by the 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II, laid siege to the city with 80,000 men. Summary This major study is a comprehensive scholarly work on a key moment in the history of Europe, the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The city’s defenders continued to repair the walls at night and reinforced areas at the damaged Gate of St. Romanus and the Blachernae sector. Ancient History Encyclopedia Foundation is a non-profit organization. Sultan Mehmed II transformed Hagia Sophia into an mosque, and the few partisans of the union fled to Italy.…, The fall of Constantinople in 1453 provided humanism with a major boost, for many eastern scholars fled to Italy, bringing with them important books and manuscripts and a tradition of Greek scholarship.…, …the enterprise and during the siege of Constantinople (April 6–May 29, 1453), the opposing views were voiced in two war councils convened at critical moments. The world owes much of its cultural legacy to Constantinople's walls. The onslaught went on for six weeks but there was some effective resistance. Then again, there were also ominous tales of impending doom: prophesies that proclaimed the fall of Constantinople when the emperor was called Constantine (a good number were, of course) and there was an eclipse of the moon - which there was in the days before the siege of 1453 CE. He stopped to pray and then demanded that all further looting cease immediately. It is at this point that Constantine was killed in the action, most likely near the Gate of St. Romanos, although, as he had discarded any indications of his status to avoid his body being used as a trophy, his demise is not known for certain. As the historian J. J. Norwich notes, That is why five and a half centuries later, throughout the Greek world, Tuesday is still believed to be the unluckiest day of the week; why the Turkish flag still depicts not a crescent but a waning moon, reminding us that the moon was in its last quarter when Constantinople finally fell. Some soldiers are pointing canons to the city and others are pulling boats On April 6 the Ottomans began their artillery barrage and brought down a section of the wall. In 1452 he reached peace treaties with Hungary and Venice. The emperor could have fled the city days before but he chose to stay with his people, and a legend soon grew up that he had not died at all but, instead, he had been magically encased in marble and buried beneath the city which he would, one day, return to rule again. The city fell on 29 May 1453, the culmination of a 53-day siege which had begun on 6 April 1453. The defenders could do no more than fire back with their own smaller cannons by day, hold off the attackers where the cannons had punched the biggest holes, and try and repair those gaps each night as best they could, using rocks, barrels, and anything else they could get their hands on. Mehmed IIby Gentile Bellini (Public Domain). Mehmed was determined to take the Golden Horn and pressure the Byzantines into submission. Upon hearing of his navy’s defeat, Mehmed stripped Baltaoğlu of his rank and arranged for his replacement. Although the sultan attempted to prevent a total sack of the city, he permitted an initial period of looting that saw the destruction of many Orthodox churches. Vast open fields constituted much of the land within the walls. Some Rights Reserved (2009-2021) under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license unless otherwise noted. Theodosian Wallsby Bigdaddy1204 (CC BY-SA). Time was running out for the city but, then, a reprieve came from an unexpected quarter. Baltaoğlu Süleyman Bey commanded a fleet stationed at Diplokionion with an estimated 31 large and midsize warships alongside nearly 100 smaller boats and transports. He hoped to breach them or otherwise force a surrender before a Christian relief force could arrive. Myles Hudson was an Editorial Intern at Encyclopædia Britannica. Constantinople had withstood many sieges and attacks over the centuries, notably by the Arabs between 674 and 678 CE and again between 717 and 718 CE. The city was attacked in 1394 CE and 1422 CE but still managed to resist. Two attempts to rush the Gate of St. Romanus and the Blachernae walls were met with fierce resistance, and the Ottoman soldiers were forced to fall back. Its fall was inevitable, really only a question of time. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Mehmed’s strategy was straightforward: he would use his fleet and siege lines to blockade Constantinople on all sides while relentlessly battering the walls of the city with cannon. The defenders now struggled to station men where they were needed, especially along the structurally weaker sea walls. Mehmed launched a massive go-for-broke, throw-everything-at-them assault at dawn on 29 May. Retrieved from https://www.ancient.eu/article/1180/. In 1453, they captured Constantinople. Constantinople had withstood many sieges and attacks over the centuries, notably by the Arabs between 674 and 678 CE and again between 717 and 718 CE. The battle was part of the Byzantine-Ottoman Wars (1265-1453). The city's plight had been neglected, and negligible help was sent in this crisis. Mehmed II and his army were remarkably restrained in their handling of affairs after the fall of Constantinople. Yet the fall of Constantinople proved to be 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople is a well-written and fast-paced book by Roger Crowley that is ostensibly about Mehmet II’s capture and pillage of Constantinople. Last modified January 23, 2018. He asserted this claim with a series of campaigns that thoroughly subjugated both the Balkans and Greece by the late 15th century. Their fleet moved from Gallipoli to nearby Diplokionion, and the sultan himself set out to meet his army. Perhaps 4,000 were killed outright, and over 50,000 were shipped off as slaves. Thank you! Well, not quite. It did, but The Theodosian Walls were relentlessly blasted, chunk by chunk, into rubble. All of these attacks were unsuccessful thanks to the city’s location by the sea, its naval fleet, and the secret weapon of Greek Fire (a highly inflammable liquid), and, most importantly of all, the protection of the massive Theodosian Walls. S. Runciman, The Fall of Constantinople 1453 (Cambridge, 1965).Back to (8) A. Pertusi, La Caduta di Costantinopoli (2 vols., Milan, 1976); A. Pertusi, Testi inediti e poco noti sulla Caduta di Costantinopoli (Bologna, 1983). Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University and Michigan State University and University of Missouri. He is expected to graduate from the University of Chicago in 2021 with bachelor’s degrees in English language and literature and political... Map showing the expansion of the Ottoman Empire (c. 1300–1700). The battle was part of the Byzantine-Ottoman Wars (1265-1453). They mounted a frontal assault of the land walls on April 7, but the Byzantines repelled them and were able to repair the defenses. Back in Asia Minor, Mehmed faced several revolts as his subjects became unruly while their Sultan and his army were abroad. Each tower was placed around 70 metres distant from another and reached a height of 20 metres. With their capital at Adrianople, further captures included Thessaloniki and Serbia. Cartwright, Mark. He angled one of his cannons such that it could strike the defenders of the chain and then began to construct an oiled wooden ramp upon which he intended to portage his smaller vessels from the Bosporus to the Golden Horn. Byzantine relations with the rest of Europe had soured over the last several centuries as well: the Schism of 1054 and the 13th-century Latin occupation of Constantinople entrenched a mutual hatred between the Orthodox Byzantines and Roman Catholic Europe. The Fall of Constantinople occurred on May 29, 1453, after a siege which began on April 6. The Fall of Constantinople occurred on May 29, 1453, after a siege which began on April 6. The city of Constantinople (modern Istanbul) was founded by Roman emperor Constantine I in 324 CE and it acted as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantine Empire as it has later become known, for well over 1,000 years. Despite a desperate last-ditch defense of the city by the massively outnumbered Christian forces (7,000 men, 2,000 of whom were sent by Rome), Constantinople finally fell to the Ottomans after a two-month … These fearsome weapons were put to good use in November 1452 CE when a Venetian ship, disobeying a ban on traffic, was blown out of the water as it sailed down the Bosphorus. Nevertheless, just as deeply entrenched was the understanding that Byzantine control of Constantinople was a necessary bastion against Muslim control of land and sea in the eastern Mediterranean. Emperor Constantine XI named Giustiniani commander of his land defenses and spent the rest of the winter strengthening the city for a siege. This final defence was almost 5 metres thick, 12 metres high, and presented to the enemy 96 projecting towers. They extended across the peninsula from the shores of the Sea of Marmara to the Golden Horn, eventually being fully completed in 439 CE and stretching some 6.5 kilometres. The commander in chief, Mehmed…. On 20 April, miraculously, three Genoese ships sent by the Pope and a ship carrying vital grain sent by Alphonso of Aragon managed to break through the Ottoman naval blockade and reach the defenders. After pausing to reposition his cannon, Mehmed reopened fire and thereafter maintained daily bombardment. They largely refrained from slaughtering commoners and nobility, instead choosing to ransom them to their home states and primarily executing only those who fought after the surrender. While it does cover that topic, it is about far more. Constantinople was made the new Ottoman capital, the massive Golden Gate of the Theodosian Walls was made part of the castle treasury of Mehmed, while the Christian community was permitted to survive, guided by the bishop Gennadeios II. This text is from Nicolo Barbaro, Diary of the Siege of Constantinople 1453, trans. It was a powerful statement that the city’s role as a bastion of Christianity for twelve centuries was now over. The largest was 9 metres long with a gaping mouth one metre across. Repaired and rebuilt by Michael VIII (r. 1261-1282 CE) in 1260 CE, the city remained the most difficult military nut to crack in the world, but this reputation did not in any way deter the ever-more ambitious Ottomans. The Turkish army of Mehmet II attacks Constantinople in 1453. The attacking Ottoman army, which significantly outnumbered Constantinople's defenders, was commanded by the 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II (later called "the Conqueror"), while the Byzantine army was led by Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos. Meanwhile, Mehmed, aged only 21 and now known as "the Conqueror", settled in for a long reign and another 28 years as Sultan. Behind that was an outer wall which had a patrol track to oversee the moat. Military support came from Venice and Genoa. The Ottoman galleys were too short to capture the tall European warships, and, with the help of the Golden Horn fleet, the warships safely sailed past the chain. Ancient History Encyclopedia. Constantinople was deeply weakened by 1453 and its eventual fall to the Ottoman Turks shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone. The Ottoman Empire then entered its height and what is known as the Period of Great Expansion, during which time the empire came to include the lands of over ten different European and Constantinople was the next target as Byzantium teetered on the brink of collapse and became no more than a vassal state within the Ottoman Empire. Many of the city’s inhabitants committed suicide rather than be subject to the horrors of capture & slavery. In short, Constantinople, with the greatest defences in the medieval world, was impregnable. To take Constantinople, an army would, then, need to attack by both land and sea, but all attempts failed no matter who tried and no matter what weapons and siege engines they launched at the city. The Byzantine emperor at the time of the attack was Constantine XI (r. 1449-1453 CE), and he took personal charge of the defence along with such notable military figures as Loukas Notaras, the Kantakouzenos brothers, Nikephoros Palaiologos, and the Genoese siege expert Giovanni Giustiniani. We have also been recommended for educational use by the following publications: Ancient History Encyclopedia Foundation is a non-profit organization registered in Canada. Many of the city’s inhabitants committed suicide rather than be subject to the horrors of capture and slavery. What was left of the old Byzantine empire was absorbed into Ottoman territory following the conquest of Mistra in 1460 CE and Trebizond in 1461 CE. It was an ominous sign of things to come. According to Georges Sphrantzes, the Ottoman army numbered 200,000 men, but modern historians prefer a more realistic figure of 60-80,000. Ancient History Encyclopedia. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 signaled a shift in history, and the end of the Byzantium Empire. According to the 15th-century CE Greek historian and eyewitness Georges Sphrantzes, the defending army was composed of fewer than 5,000 men, not a sufficient number to adequately cover the length of the city’s walls, some 19 km in total. https://www.ancient.eu/article/1180/. Now devoid of both a long-standing buffer against the Ottomans and access to the Black Sea, Christian kingdoms relied on Hungary to halt any further westward expansion. Many sought refuge in churches and barricaded themselves in, including inside the Hagia Sophia, but these were obvious targets for their treasures, and after they were looted for their gems and precious metals, the buildings and their priceless icons were smashed, the cowering captives butchered. And they were big ones. The fall of the city removed what was once a powerful defense for Christian Europe against Muslim invasion, allowing for uninterrupted Ottoman expansion into eastern Europe. Many modern scholars also agree that the exodus of Greeks to Italy as a result of this event marked the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance. Ancient History Encyclopedia. John Melville-Jones (New York, 1969). This lesson will provide the background, summary… Still, the Ottomans had plenty of smaller cannon, each capable of firing over 100 times a day. However, on May 29, 1453, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks. Already tested, it could fire a ball weighing 500 kilos over 1.5 km. The Sack of Constantinople occurred in April 1204 and marked the culmination of the Fourth Crusade. The crushing of the Crusader army at Varna in 1444 CE meant that the Byzantines were now on their own. Mehmed, infuriated, then got around the harbour boom by building a railed road via which 70 of his ships, loaded onto carts pulled by oxen, could be launched into the waters of the Golden Horn. It was during this third wave that disaster struck the Byzantines who by now were forced to employ women and children to defend the walls. Emperor Constantine XI is reported to have been killed while either fighting near the breach or fleeing to an escape boat. Fall of Constantinople, (May 29, 1453), conquest of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire. The distance between the outer ditch and inner wall was 60 metres while the height difference was 30 metres. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. By March 1453 Urban’s cannon had been transported from the Ottoman capital of Edirne to the outskirts of Constantinople. He also began to view himself as Kayser-i Rûm (“Caesar of Rome”), the inheritor of the Roman Empire and all its historical lands. However, Constantine’s capacity to defend his city was hampered by his small fighting force. Uncountable art treasures were lost, books were burned, and anything with a Christian message was hacked to pieces, including frescoes and mosaics. As a matter of fact, in the middle of May of 1453 the Venetian Senate was still deliberating about sending a fleet to Constantinople. Oct 7, 2016 - Siege of Constantinople from Bibliothèque nationale mansucript Français 9087 (folio 207 v). The result of years of research, it presents all available sources along with critical evaluations of these narratives. He also began the construction of the Boğazkesen (later called the Rumelihisarı), a fortress at the narrowest point of the Bosporus, in order to restrict passage between the Black and Mediterranean seas. The dwindling Byzantine Empire came to an end when the Ottomans breached Constantinople’s ancient land wall after besieging the city for 55 days. Greek Fireby Unknown Artist (Public Domain). Giustiniani intended to concentrate most of these men at the land walls to the north and west, the centre of which he observed to be the most vulnerable section of the city. His special interests include pottery, architecture, world mythology and discovering the ideas that all civilizations share in common. The emperor refused, and Mehmed gave the news to his men that now, when the city fell, as surely it would, they could plunder whatever they wished from one of the richest cities in the world. In 1396 CE, at Nikopolis on the Danube, an Ottoman army defeated a Crusader army. Our latest articles delivered to your inbox, once a week: Our mission is to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. Now sultan for the second time, Mehmed II intended to complete his father’s mission and conquer Constantinople for the Ottomans. 1453: The Fall of Constantinople. To the Turks, victory not only brought a new imperial capital, but guaranteed that their empire would last. Then the new Sultan, Mehmed II (r. 1451-1481 CE), after extensive preparations such as building, extending, and occupying fortresses along the Bosporus, notably at Rumeli Hisar and Anadolu in 1452 CE, moved to finally sweep away the Byzantines and their capital. Books Even the Genoese colony of Pera, facing the capital, attempted to stay neutral. No significant help could be expected from the West where the Popes were already unimpressed with the Byzantine’s unwillingness to form a union of the Church and accept their supremacy. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. Sack of Constantinople, (April 1204).The diversion of the Fourth Crusade from the Holy Land to attack, capture, and pillage the Byzantine city of Constantinople divided and dissipated the efforts of the Christians to maintain the war against the Muslims. These walls had never been breached in the thousand years since their construction. Constantinople itself became an Ottoman vassal during this period. The Fall of Constantinople (Greek: Ἅλωσις τῆς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως). The Byzantines had catapults and Greek Fire, the highly inflammable liquid which could be sprayed under pressure from ships or walls to torch an enemy, but the technology of warfare had moved on and the Theodosian Walls were about to get their sternest ever test. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. When combined with a large metal chain that had been drawn across the Golden Horn, Constantine was confident that the city’s defenses could repel a naval assault and withstand Mehmed’s land forces until relief came from Christian Europe. In the 15th century, Constantinople’s walls were widely recognized as the most formidable in all of Europe. Rumeli Fortress (Rumeli Hisarı) on the European bank of the Bosporus, Istanbul. The great Bulgar Khans Krum (r. 802-814 CE) and Symeon (r. 893-927 CE) both attempted to attack the Byzantine capital, as did the Rus (descendants of Vikings based around Kiev) in 860 CE, 941 CE, and 1043 CE, but all failed. The dwindling Byzantine Empire came to an end when the Ottomans breached Constantinople’s ancient land wall after besieging the city for 55 days. The sultan thus completed his conquest of the Byzantine capital. For only $5 per month you can become a member and support our mission to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. A small group reached the top of a tower through another gate but were nearly eliminated by the defenders until Giustiniani was mortally wounded by Ottoman gunfire while on the ramparts. In the meantime, Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaeologus entreated major powers in Christendom to aid him in the impending siege. For this reason, Mehmed offered Constantine a deal: pay tribute and he would withdraw. For Genoa’s part, the city-state sent 700 soldiers to Constantinople, all of whom arrived in January 1453 with Giovanni Giustiniani Longo at their head. In 1453 the Turks finally extinguished the Byzantine empire (barring Trebizond, which followed soon after) created by the emperor Constantine in around 330AD in his new capital of … The Fall of Constantinople: A Captivating Guide to the Conquest of Constantinople... Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. The Ottomans then built a pontoon and fixed cannons to it so that they could now attack any part of the city from the sea side, not just the land. Mehmed repopulated the city with people from a multitude of backgrounds and faiths and relocated his capital from Edirne to Constantinople, ensuring a multicultural seat of power for a multicultural empire. The Byzantines were hopelessly outnumbered in men, ships, and weapons. The resulting rubble piles actually absorbed the cannon shot better than fixed walls but, eventually, one of the infantry assaults would surely get through. The fleet was twice driven back, and Baltaoğlu retreated to Diplokionion until the night of the 17th, when he moved to capture the Princes Islands southeast of the city at the same time that Mehmed’s land regiments assaulted the Mesoteichon section of the wall. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 23 Jan 2018. Updates? Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership, https://www.britannica.com/event/Fall-of-Constantinople-1453. The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 CE marked the final collapse of the Roman Empire. The Ottoman cannon created several breaches, but most were too narrow to send troops through. The Byzantines had actually had first option on the cannons as they had been offered them by their inventor, the Hungarian engineer named Urban, but Constantine could not meet his asking price. Between 60,000 and 80,000 soldiers fought on land, accompanied by 69 cannon. Surrounded Constantinople from land and sea while employing cannon to maintain a constant barrage of the siege the fall of constantinople 1453 summary sultan. The captain of the Byzantine emperor Constantine XI is reported to have defenders struggled. Victory at Constantinople represented a serious shift in its dealings with the defences. 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