The Fall of Constantinople

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul.© Digital Vision/Getty Images

THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE

On May 29 1453 , The Constantinope fall in the hands of Sultan Mehmed II , it all started from mid 15 century where there are constant struggles for dominance with it's Balkan neighbours and Roman Catholic rivals had diminished Byzantine imperial holdings to Constantinople and the land immediately west of it. 

 

In 1444,Sultan Murat II defeated the European Crusaders at the Battle of Varna and The king of Poland and Hungary, Vladislav was killed during the battle , and then they drown the most powerful states in Central Europe into a crisis. then John Hunyadi sent many letters to popes and kings of European for help , to make another crusader but no one was willing to help and his activity was limited to raiding into Ottoman territory. Murad II sent three diligent expeditions against him, but all three armies were ambushed and defeated by the outnumbered Albanian forces. Meanwhile,The sultan was distracted with minor rebellions in the Empire and a campaign against the Despotate of Morea in 1446.

The Battle of Svetigrad

©pollitecon/html/ebooks/The-Siege-Of-Svetigrad-Saint-city-1448.pdf

Then in 1448 the Battle of Svetigrad started, it was a battle between Skanderbeg and Murad II and Murad II won the battle. but chasing the guerrilla force under Skanderbeg was impossible and after setting a few garrisons along the frontier, Murad II then returned to Edirne. Meanwhile, Hunyadi was preparing for another crusade.

By September of 1448, he finally raised 30,000 strong army and started a new campaign. He was hoping the despot of Serbia, Durad Brankovic, would join him but the letter was an Ottoman vassal and refused, so instead Serbian lands were attacked. Mured knew about all this and started moving his army to prevent Skanderbeg and Hunyadi from joining forces. The following events are not clear, but it’s seems that in October, Hunyadi moved to the field of Kosovo to wait for Skanderbeg. Some claim that the letter was blocked by Durad. Others think that the local Ottoman guard slowed the Albanian Force. 

Battle of Kosovo

© alchetron/Battle-of-Kosovo

But in any case, on the 17th of October, The Sultan and his 50,000 troops reached the site where the first Battle of Kosovo between Lazar and Murad I took place.The Ottomans won The Battle. The Battle of Kosovo sealed the fate of the Balkan people for the next few centuries. Skanderbeg continued his resistance and a few more campaign against him didn’t bring any actual success. And now the road to Constantinople was open for the Ottoman forces.

But in 1452 Murad II passed away and his son Mehmed II came to power in, his only goal on taking his father place was to take the Byzantine capital.

Constatinople wasn’t the city it once was.The Byzatine emperor Constantine XI now controlled only a small territory along the coast and had to pay tribute to the Ottoman Sultan. Mehmed signed an agreement with Venice, Genoa, and Hungary to make sure that they weren’t going to attack him. A new rebellion by the Karamanids allowed him to cross into Anatolia and consolidate his power in the region.

The Otomans started preparing for war. In April of 1452, the Sultan gave orders to build a fortress  called Rumelihisari on the northern end of the Bosphorus to prevent any ships from attacking Constatinople from the black sea. The fort took 5 month to build and constatine had no other choice but to start bringing his citizen into the city, storing up supplies and sending pleas for help to European states. Only a group of Venetian ships and around 1,000 mercenary soldiers led by Giovanni Giustiniani arrived to help ,while most Christian monarchs ignored the pleas.

Rumeli Fortress, IstanbulRumeli Fortress (Rumeli Hisarı) on the European bank of the Bosporus, Istanbul.© William J. Bowe 

The Ottomans had more warriors, cannons and ships under command of Mehmed II against the professional Byzantine troops, but they had less the amount than the Ottoman and also the Byzantine command 30,000 locals to joined into service for helping the wars. The Byzantine and Italian ships were better than their counterparts while their guns were outdated. One of the Ottoman guns was huge and played an iconic role in the upcoming war. Each section of the wall would be commanded by one of the Italian commanders with Giustiniani being the leader, while Constantine and his Guard were in reserve in the Blachernae Palace.

The defenders repaired the walls and a chain was set across the Golden Horn to prevent the Ottomans from attacking the walls from the sea. 

      The Battle started on April 1st 1453, The vanguard of the Ottoman army arrived at the walls of Constantinople and began making camp the next day. Then on the 5th of April, The Sultan reached the city and started preparing to besiege it. The Giant Ottoman cannons were in place on the 6th of April and started blasting the Theodosian Walls, but with little effect . The cannon were so massive they needed three hours to reload and the Byzantine troops were able to repair the damage done to the walls.

On the 7th , the Sultan ordered hig light infantry and skirmishers to assault the walls,but the defenders easily repelled the Ottomans. Unfortunately for them, their biggest cannons were lost in the accident and their smaller ones were not capable of doing much damage. On the 8th and 9th , The Byzantines attempted a few sallies but no positive result were achieved. 2 days later on the 11th , The Ottoman started battering on the city walls and thus bombardment continued until the very end of the siege. Then on the 17th and 18th, the Ottomans attempted night assaults, but the defenders held on. 

Meanwhile, on the water, the Ottomans fleet was unable to penetrate the chain and move into the Golden Horn.

 On the contrary ,at the 20th of April , a few Venetian ships arrived and joined the defenders. The sultan needed to employ a new strategy. He famously ordered his ships to be moved across land near the Genoese colony of  Pera. The ships were then set to water in the Golden Horn behind the chain on April 28th. Constantine sent his fire ships to quickly get rid of this threat, but the Ottomans lost this battle. From now on, the Constantine had to keep at least part of his troops on the northern wall and that weakened his defenses elsewhere. Some of the Byzantine cannons were also moved into the area, but they failed to defend the Allied ships which had to return to the harbours. Their crews joined the defense.

 Gates of St. Romanus

© dailysabah/feature/2015/07/31/the-historical-city-gates-of-istanbul

On May 6th, Ottoman cannons managed to destroy the Gates of St. Romanus and during the night, their forces almost breached the defenses in the area. But Giustiniani arrived and fended off the attackers. Then on the 11th, the Caligarian Gates was damaged and the Ottomans moved in towards the Blachernae Palace but the Emperor was able to push them back.

On the 29th,  The Ottoman Sultan commanded an all-out assault , a massive bomb attack and followed by light infantry assault, but despite numerical advantage, they failed to take the walls from Giustiniani. Mehmed’s artillery destroyed part of the gates near the Gates of St. Romanus and 3,000 Janissaries were sent to attack this position. The Byzantine were able to defend once again, but the Janissaries took one of the towers and planted the Ottoman flag. At this point, Giustiniani was heavily wounded and carried away from the battlefield. This was a massive blow to the morale of the defenders and when a few hundreds of Janissaries entered the city near the Gates of St. Romanus , the Byzantine defenses fell. Citizens and defenders attempted to board the ship and leave the city. 

It is believed that Constantine was killed leading a last desperate attack against the enemy near the Gates of St. Romanus. 

That is how the last Roman Emperor died alongside with his empire. Mehmed’s victory at Constantinople represented a serious shift in it's dealings with the East. The Fall of Constantinople was the event that marked the end of the Medieval Era , sparked the next phase of the Renaissance, started the Ages of Discovery and colonization and also centuries of wars between Powers and the Ottoman Empire.

Bibliography

Sutra and Zhenni. (2020, March 4). Fall of Constatinople 1453. Retrieved from YouTube: https://youtu.be/8W0OTGQEY8E