The Red Apple: The Fall of Constantinople 1453

on easter monday in 1453 an ottoman army led by the young and ambitious sultan mehmet ii arrived at the gates of the byzantine capital constantinople this marked the beginning of a siege characterized by the determination of leaders a city with extraordinary fortifications and the most extensive siege artillery the world had seen to this day the fall of constantinople was a true watershed in history it cemented the position of the ottoman empire as the major power in the balkans and the eastern mediterranean and it ended the long chapter of roman history for good the roman empire had in some ways outlasted the so-called fall of rome in 476 a.d almost for a thousand years as it continued to exist as what we nowadays call the byzantine empire up to this day thousands of pages have been written on the fall or conquest of constantinople and barely any other siege in history has received more attention by scholars and history buffs alike in this video we tell the story of the staggering siege of constantinople by weaving together the insights of the most recent scholarly literature this required given the many controversies about this siege quite a lot of reading and this makes for a nice transition to the sponsor of this video blinkist they offer a solution if you have to do a lot of reading in a limited amount of time as they provide key insights for a broad variety of books today we want to recommend their blink of powers and thrones a new history of the middle ages by dan jones while jones didn't write thousands of pages as scholars did on the siege of constantinople he still used a whopping 720 pages you would have to invest almost a week of vacation to work your way through it but with blinkist you can learn the most important facts in just a few minutes and that's exactly what blankist is all about understanding the key messages of more than 5 000 books and podcasts in just about 15 minutes you can choose from bestsellers in 27 categories such as history personal development and communication if you go to blinkist.com sandro man history now you'll get a 25 discount on a one year premium subscription to blinkist which you can try for free for seven days now let's jump back to the video throughout the 14th and 15th century the ottoman empire first conquered the anatolian territories that had once made up the core of the byzantine empire and then expanded into the balkans in the muslim tradition the conquest of constantinople had long been charged up religiously its fault to a muslim army was foretold several times in the hadith a collection of sayings traditionally attributed to the prophet muhammad due to this some believe the conquest of constantinople to be the ultimate objective of islam many ottoman leaders over time tried among them murad ii the father of mehmed after a failed siege in 1422 he devoted much of his energy to consolidating the turkish conquests by the time of his death in 1451 there was little left of the once prosperous byzantine empire some towns a few islands the distant morya and constantinople itself when mehmed ii rose to power many doubted his ability to lead the empire of the ottomans he had said on the throne already when his father wanted to retire in 1444 with only 12 years of age mehmed wasn't able to lead the empire on his own and his father had to return in 1446 in 1451 he became sultan anyways this worried many ottomans and even caused cheers in europe because mehmed was seen as an inexperienced youngster and thus not as a real threat all the more the sultan needed a great success to establish his authority the price he reached for was the widely priced red apple as constantinople was called not everyone was fond of this plan such as the ottoman people who peacefully lived alongside the byzantines as well as many of mehmed's soldiers ranking highest among his critics was the ottoman grand vizier jandali halil pasha once mehmed's teacher and the one who had asked mehmed's father to return to the throne in 1446 this experienced politician was a thorn in mehmed's side yet he was too powerful to be disposed of his votes for caution and peace scored him the reputation of being a friend of the greeks and a traitor and he was indeed well connected to the people of constantinople as really many ottomans were at the time now they had to decide between duty and personal interest less than a year after he had ascended the throne mehmed began to prepare for war in spring of 1452 he ordered a fortress to be built on the european shore of the bosporus opposite a similar construction of his father this stronghold rumeli hizzari was also called boaz kaizen meaning straight blocker or throat cutter this was like pushing a thorn into byzantine flesh it not only violated the territory of the empire but also gave the ottomans complete control over the strait on top of that the sultan sent a substantial raiding force to the maria where the byzantine's emperor's brothers were ruling in order to prevent them from sending help mehmed was reaching for the red apple [Music] mehmet's opponent was the last emperor of rome constantine the alemf poliologos he was a judicious ruler who was very much aware of his standing and who realized mehmed's intentions early on he sent a letter and an offer for tribute to the sultan to convince him of a peaceful solution when this didn't work he tried his luck with political pressure he incarcerated all ottomans in constantinople and threatened to release prince orhan a rival claimant to the sultanate who was held captive in the city and might have stirred up a civil war in the ottoman empire however this didn't work out either and to make matters worse in june mehmed returned to the emperor the hats of two of his emissaries the message couldn't have been clearer this was a declaration of war prudent as he was constantine had already asked his allies and the pope for help however the greek orthodox church and the roman catholic church had been divided since the so-called great schism in 1054 and pope nicholas v insisted he could only authorize a crusade when the controversial church union they had negotiated in 1439 was implemented the hard-pressed byzantines had no choice but to allow the papal legate cardinal isidore to proclaim the union in hagia sophia despite widespread resistance however now that this obstacle had been put aside constantinople could hope from help from western europe isidore himself had brought 200 mercenaries and the appeals of the pope combined with the promises of constantine prompted the city-states of northern italy to support constantinople as well venice and genoa were preparing further reinforcements the small band of isidore was only seen as the vanguard of an army on its way to rescue constantinople probably the most valuable addition to the garrison was a well-seasoned soldier of fortune from genoa who sailed to constantinople in january of 1453 this man was giovanni justiniani longo he brought with him 700 experienced and well-armed mercenaries and was to play a decisive role in the siege because he was well versed in defending walled cities constantine made him commander of the landward defenses a last significant reinforcement came from the crews of the ships present in the golden horn the bay of constantinople's north eastern side those added about another 1 000 men to the defending army the number of greek defenders is reported by georgios frances a byzantine politician and eyewitness he counted 4973 able-bodied inhabitants well-equipped but largely lacking military training in addition about 2 000 foreigners provided help all in all recent scholars estimate that no more than 7 thousand to 9 000 trained soldiers defended the stretched out walls of constantinople [Music] constantinople used to be the hub of the medieval world it connected europe asia and the levant and all trade between the mediterranean and the black sea had to pass along its gates however the wars and catastrophes of the last centuries had left their marks on the once shining city in the 1340s the plague had ravaged inside the walls and killed almost half of its inhabitants and the economic crisis caused by the general political decline of the byzantine empire led to further depopulation according to the historian klaus pitta tot no more than 50 000 to 75 000 inhabitants were left by the mid 15th century still constantinople was not a crumbling ball town to the contrary its walls were the trump card of the defenders they were repaired and reinforced in the winter of 1453 perfectly complementing the guarding water 11 meter high walls with 220 towers stretched along the sea and a huge iron chain beared the access to the golden horn this meant the city could only be attacked from the landward side to the west the chain stretched over the golden horn to the genovese colony of pera which according to the professor of the history of byzantium jonathan harris pledged to the ottomans to stay neutral but nevertheless sent soldiers to help in the defense of constantinople some also claimed that they supplied the sultan with vital intelligence at the same time all in all pero's role in the siege is ambivalent and rumor is difficult to separate from fact however the genovese may have conducted themselves in detail they were neither attacked by the ottomans nor did they give away the chain protecting the golden horn while a single wall was sufficient on the seaside the land side was in need of something more solid due to the strategical location of constantinople it was the only possible approach for a besieger there the 5.5 kilometers long theodosian wall stretched from the sea of marmara to the golden horn this rampart was built in the 5th century 80 and repaired and improved several times it was considered the most elaborate piece of fortification for much of the middle ages it featured a 7 meter deep and 18 meter wide moat with a low wall right at the inner edge behind this tower two lines of seemingly impenetrable walls the outer one being 8 meters high and featuring 90 towers the inner one 11 meters high and 4.8 meters thick featuring 96 towers on the top of the walls several stone throwers and cannons were waiting to welcome any attacker upon his arrival giustiniani immediately ordered to optimize these walls even further under his vigilant eye the defenders deepened the moat repaired the wall and sued long cautions filled with straw to hang outside the walls like fenders on a boat they should dampen the impact of ottoman cannonballs giustiniani knew that he didn't have enough man to garrison both walls and wanted to pursue an active defense based on sorties because of this he decided to man primarily the outer wall and only let some archers shoot from the secure heights of the second wall both the byzantines and the ottomans understood that this siege would be all about time mehmed on one hand had no time to lose because a relief army from the west could arrive at any moment it was difficult to supply his huge army and he was in dire need of a success to prove his ability as a leader if he didn't overcome the walls of constantinople in time this could mean his end therefore mehmed wanted to end things quickly the defenders on the other hand were running down the clock they were outnumbered but well supplied and hoped to stand firm until help would arrive every hand in the city was collecting food or gathering valuables to pay the foreign mercenaries the catastrophes of the last centuries now improved the city's supply situation it was not overcrowded and the spare space had been converted to farmland which now provided additional resources when the siege began the town was well supplied constantinople was not the sorry remnant of an empire doomed to fall to an overwhelming enemy as has been suggested in contrast it seemed as if mehmed had chosen the wrong apple to pick the sultan was certainly no fool he didn't intend to pick this thorny fruit barehandedly he spent the winter recruiting a formidable army both in terms of numbers and quality while christian eyewitnesses gave enormous numbers of up to four hundred thousand men most modern estimates settled for a number somewhere between sixty thousand and one hundred and fifty thousand men according to these numbers the defenders were outnumbered roughly 10 to 1. however it was not the size of this military giant that caught the attention of onlookers but the extensive artillery it brought along mehmed had commissioned huge bombards to shoot the theodosian walls to pieces most famously the ones of a certain christian by the name urban according to the historians marios filipides and walter hanak one of urban's masterpieces and probably the biggest of his guns was the so-called basilicos this monstrous machine was able to shoot stone balls of more than 500 kilograms and allegedly had a reach of over one kilometer while this harbinger of thunder certainly was capable of breaching a wall it was also very cumbersome and only fired a handful of shots per day but combined with various other guns of which the ottomans had all in all about 70 it made for a deadly orchestra the winter of 1452 and 1453 could be seen as the calm before the storm only in february of 1453 did ottoman ships turn up in the waters around constantinople to close the city off from the sea soon after a gentle breeze soared around the bosporus whisperingly announcing the storm to come the whispering in fact were the distant cries of war by the man of the governor of rumelia who were preparing the ground for the ottoman advance they cut down vines and orchards outside constantinople and captured the remaining byzantine towns along the marmara and black sea coast then constantine struck back he sent his ships to rage turkish villages along the shores of the sea of marmara but the preparations of his enemies couldn't be stopped easily soon the ottoman troops finished their march boat after boat arrived at the asian shore of the bosporus and rumelian troops flocked towards the golden horn on the 5th of april which happened to be easter monday of 1453 the sultan himself arrived with the main army by then the heavy artillery was already in place although it had taken two months to hold urban's immense gun from adrianopol to constantinople normally a two days journey when mehmed arrived he pitched his camp on a hill opposite the walls between the saint romanus and the jarisius gate the so-called mesodejion or middle of the wall which is where most of the action would be directed at this spot favored an attacker because the walls were at the end of the valley of the river lucos meaning they were below the ottoman guns so they could fire down on them from a superior position the palace corpse including the janissaries surrounded mehmed's tent the anatolian army formed the right wing extending all the way to the sea of marmara while the rebellion army had its camp on the left of the sultan up to the golden horn on the other shore of the golden horn giganos pasha and a few thousand men secured the heights behind galata saganos pasha was the second vizier and close advisor of the sultan he was absolutely loyal and notoriously belligerent in the early morning of the 5th of april the ottoman army advanced to the siege works which stretched over 4 kilometers along the land wall before the ottoman batteries opened fire mehmed sent a lost appeal to constantine asking him to surrender he should hand over the city and submit to ottoman rule in return for the security of their lives and property the emperor denied [Music] when mehmed's army arrived in early april the defenders were ready and waiting emperor constantine and giusdiniani with three thousand men were to defend the mesotechion while the venetian sailors under girolamo minotto defended the second critical point the blackhernai district the remaining men were spread along the wall and a small reserve was kept ready under lucas notaras notaras was in some sense the counterpart of jandali halil pasha he was the chief minister of the byzantine empire and spoke out for a peaceful solution which scored him to the reputation of a traitor among the defenders on the southern sea walls was also prince orhan who had decided to help the defenders because he feared what the sultan would do if he got hold of him on the 7th of april the smaller ottoman guns opened fire and by and by the bigger bombards joined in on the 11th of april the batteries were complete from then on they didn't keep quiet for a single minute the florentine merchant jacopo tedaldi claimed that they fired between 100 and 150 balls per day the cautions on the walls did next to nothing and soon the first breeches opened in the walls the defenders hurried to repair them with rubble and barrels covered in earth this was actually very effective because the heavy cannonballs merely sank into the soft earth which caused almost no damage the ottomans still faced formidable barriers when they mounted their first attack on the wall however the artillery was only one of mehmed's tools right at the beginning of the siege he sent an army of workers to fill the ditch this was vital to prepare the ground for an assault at the same time his miners looked for favorable spots to undermine the defenses and the engineers began to build additional siege equipment such as mobile shelters or siege towers on the 12th of april the bulk of the ottoman armada arrived at gallipoli they laid anchor at the block union even though some modern accounts for example david nicole mentioned that the ottomans attacked the defenders of the chain immediately it seems their admiral suleiman baltaolu in fact confined himself to blocking the city for now so that no ships could leave or enter this was a problem for the defenders because now even if reinforcements were to sell for their help there was no place for them to actually land on the walls giustiniani lived up to his reputation every night he and his men supported by all able hands repaired the damaged pieces of wool and every day they stood up to the ottoman assaults throughout the first weeks they repelled several smaller ottoman assaults their means of choice were their own smaller cannons often loaded with grapeshot to increase its effect against groups of combatants arrows and other missiles and various things to drop on the attackers who were trying to scale the walls often they also met the attackers in the ditch in general giustiniani relied heavily on sorties he often sent small bands of warriors to destroy the progress of the ottoman siege works attack their camp or damage their artillery but because his methods involved high risks it became less and less attractive as the numbers of defenders shrunk and every hand was needed on the walls mehmed was determined and had his men reduced to still resisting fortress of studios on the marmara and tarabiya to completely secure his vulnerable back after a short struggle his men captured the defenders and hung them in plain sight of constantinople the ground for a general assault was almost prepared after a fortnight makemy decided the time had come the words of his advisors first and foremost chandarli halil pasha who had managed to continue the bombardment until the ditch was filled in completely fell on death ears the sultan wanted to cease his prize now the ottomans launched their first assault on the 18th of april under the cover of night the janissaries a part of the heavy infantry and a detachment of archers advanced towards the middle section of the walls giustiniani and his men were prepared the heavily armed genovese mercenaries met the attacking janissaries in the moat while the greeks held the walls because the attack was focused on a very narrow point the attackers couldn't exploit their superior numbers and were thrown back several times after four hours of futile fighting the sultan canceled the attack the ottomans had suffered heavy losses and mehmed was not a single step closer to his goal the victory boosted the morale of the defenders greatly now they believed the walls could stand until eventually health would arrive confidence alone however doesn't fill a stomach although the granaries were not empty yet the defenders saw their reserves dwindle and not only the granaries were affected by the ongoing siege in order to properly man the stretched out walls watch shifts had to be long and were heavy on the defenders the constant bombardment and the fights of the last days had cost many lives and with every man wounded or killed those remaining had to work more hours the numerical inferiority of the defenders began to show they knew they wouldn't hold out much longer without help and supply from the outside just when anxiety threatened to subdue confidence help appeared on the horizon and it did so quite literally on the 20th of april the man stationed on the sea walls recognized the full sails of four ships on the sea of marmara this small fleet as became clear soon consisted of three genovese scalise and a byzantine cargo ship he tried to run the blockade with supplies shouts of joy sounded through constantinople while on the other side of the golden horn it was rather curses that were being heard mehmed was aware that a successful reinforcements of the defenders would be a heavy blow to the morale of his man so knowing what was at stake he ordered baltha olu to intercept the ships at all costs the admiral knew he couldn't afford failure and if he didn't the sultan told him very clearly the ottoman fleet intercepted the genovese when they were about to round the tip of constantinople's peninsula the approaching sailors banked on the strong south wind giving them momentum to break through the blockade but after about an hour of pushing and fighting through the ottoman fleet the wind ceased now a desperate close-up fight began baltoolu's men ceaselessly tried to board the ships this was very difficult though because the sturdy genovese galleys were higher than the ottoman ships nevertheless they came ever closer and at some point the genovese had shot all their arrows and were forced to rely on melee weapons to fend the climbing ottomans off in the end the genovese sailors created a sort of swimming castle by connecting their ships together thanks to this they withstood the ottoman boarding attempts until the red sun touched the water of the golden horn when the fight seemed almost lost the wind stiffened and the genovese sailors finally managed to break through the deadlock and broke through the blockade under the cheers of the people they entered the harbour delivered new men and fresh food mehmed in contrast was fuming mad he vented his feelings by having balta all flocked and stripped from his possessions and post this seemingly small defeat was dispiriting for the whole ottoman army to make things worse there was a rumor that john hunyadi the regent of hungary had crossed the danube with an army to come to constantinoples viii and furthermore that a venetian fleet had set sail all this unnerved mehmed and more so his men pressure on him rose with every day the siege stretched out and the critics of the young sultan felt vindicated and became louder and louder [Music] mehmed was not yet at his wit's end his guns and repeated assaults kept the defenders more than busy and inflicted heavy damage on the 21st of april they shot down an entire tower and several meters of wall near the saint romanus gate on top of that mehmed had gone out of his way to think outside the box and had long made an alternative plan in fact he had already set it in motion clandestinely but spies on both sides were virtually everywhere and it was quite a challenge to hide mehmed's preparations especially because his undertaking was rather hard to hide he was planning to bring the proverbial mountain to the prophet the clever sultan had his fleet transported to the golden horn by land this was a strategical stroke of genius because it allowed the ottomans to attack the seemingly inapproachable side of the golden horn in practice the most trustworthy of his men were working to prepare a street to hold parts of their navy over the hill behind pera and put them to water near the modern district of kazim pasha on the 22nd of april the ship street was ready and about 72 ships were hauled uphill by crews of man and oxen and then led into the water of the golden horn according to one primary source the street consisted of a shallow trench lined with beams and smeared with fat so thick that the ships could sail over it as if they were sailing over water this crossing was covered by a barrage of the ottoman artillery so that no ship dared to come close and no listener could hear the noise of the work behind peta when the defenders spotted the first ship slipping into the horn they were shocked they were fully aware of what this meant they now had to move some of their men men that were not going to be available to begin with from the land walls to the golden horn according to jonathan harris the ships didn't even need to attack their mere presence forced the defenders to exhaust themselves the defenders realized this and knew that there was only one way of solving this dilemma they had to take the initiative and launch their own offense while the defenders postponed their plans to destroy the enemy ships in the horn several times because of internal quarrels the ottomans added yet another advantage to their arsenal by building a pontoon bridge over the golden horn this bridge consisted of barrels connected with chains and iron hooks and laid out with wooden planks it was stable enough to support artillery pieces this new connection between the two parts of the ottoman army was finished on the 23rd of april it augmented the advantage of bigger numbers a great deal because now man and guns could be moved very quickly several attempts by the defenders to burn it failed the month was nearly over when preparations to attack the ottoman vessels in the horn were finally finished on the 28th of april just before dawn four or five ships quietly rode off they allegedly wanted to burn the ottoman ships with greek fire the famous incendiary weapon of the byzantines but as they were approaching the anchorage gun flares suddenly lit the dark and loud bangs of cannons tore the silence apart a traitor had given away the plan of the defenders the sailors put up as could they fight as they could but they were sitting ducks and in the end two of their ships were sunk and 50 men were killed forty jumped into the water to swim to safety and found an even worse fate they were picked up by the ottomans and impaled in plain sight of the defenders the next day the response of constantinople came promptly and it was not less cruel they brought 260 prisoners of war to the walls and hung them one by one this was the moment of no return in the siege the moment when the spiral of violence escalated and it became evident that both sides would fight to the bitter end [Music] soon desperation was spreading in the streets of the town because the food was beginning to run out the stocks of the city were soon even lower than before the breakthrough on the 20th of april morale was now very low and whenever the ottomans slowed down their bombardment just a little bit whole bands of men left the walls to help their families to get food in early may the emperor finally seized all food available in the city stored it centrally and started to give out rations the centralized distribution of bread alleviated the problem somewhat the atmosphere was extremely tense and here and there voices were being raised against the emperor and his conduct of the defense as food was a concern for the poor money was for the rich according to jonathan harris many of the wealthy inhabitants were reluctant to put their wealth at the emperor's disposal he soon had to collect valuables from the churches and melt them down to mint more coins so that he could pay the mercenaries no one especially not the foreigners were willing to risk their lives for free hoping for at least a sign of relief the byzantines sent out a small brigantine disguised as an ottoman vessel to the aegean to look out for signs of a christian fleet while the situation in the city became ever more dramatic the ottomans were divided by the rumors of a marching hungarian army again it was chandarli halil pasha who spoke out for the peace faction and proposed withdrawal the pro-war faction led by saganos pasha in contrast insisted on continuing the siege the sutton knew he personally had already gone all in and ordered his men to step it up a notch the ottomans intensified their efforts on all ends they were especially focusing on the land walls though their workers hurried to fill in the ditch their miners dug away as quickly as possible and their cannons ceaselessly thundered at the town now also from the eastern side of the golden horn this not being enough they launched their second major assault at the bridge near the saint romanus gate on may the 7th bravely the defenders confronted them and after a bloody struggle pushed them back five days later the third main assault followed this time the ottomans attacked the blackhearnai district at midnight this was the most promising attempt they had made yet step by step they fought their way forward and only with the uttermost effort the defenders could stop them although these and many smaller attacks were repelled successfully they were hard on the men on the walls so hard in fact that a large number of venetian sailors had to reinforce them while all attempts above ground were failing for now the miners tried their luck underground mining was usually an attacker's best bet when it came to breaching walls and the ottomans had very capable men at the shovels they were mostly of serbian origin and many of them had worked for many years in the silver mines of their home region the defenders detected these tunnels only shortly before they could have been used to devastating effect luckily for them they had a man as capable as the serbian miners a german mercenary by the name of johannes grandi who had a lot of experience in military engineering made it his quest to interfere with the miners his methods were quite basic but very effective he listened for digging sounds and used vessels of water to detect convulsions when he had located a tunnel his men would hastily dig a counter mine to break into the attacker's tunnels and either flood them or burn them out johannes and his men got their hands full to keep up with the ottoman miners and they just about managed to keep them off on the 23rd of may they broke into an ottoman tunnel yet again and captured a group of serbian miners they were brought to the torture chamber and questioned for the location of other miners throughout the next two days they detected two additional mines in total johannes mann neutralized seven major mine tunnels simultaneously to the mines the ottoman navy began to mount pressure as well on the 16th 17th and 21st of may the ottoman armada attacked a blocking chain all three attacks were repelled but the defenders realized that they still had to keep a vigilant eye on the ships outside the horn another thing that required their attention were the siege towers which the ottomans were now constructing these were intended to provide suppressing fire at the walls to cover the ottoman attacks and the workers in the ditch according to filipinas and hanak one of these ponderous giants was destroyed in a sortie by the defenders near the piggy gate on the 18th of may after fierce hand-to-hand combat a small sallying force got to it with a torch and set it on fire during the next days several other siege towers met the same fate on the 23rd of may the scouting brigantine returned to constantinople no help was in sight consternation spread quickly among the tired men the exhaustion of fighting repairing and hunger coupled with bad news let their morale crumble murmurs of defeat grew ever louder bad omens were spotted in the smallest irregularity and prayers and masses sounded through the streets with their nerves wearing thin there was also more and more quarrels among themselves for instance between the latin and orthodox christians or between venetians and genovese but also between the commanders most prominently giustiniani and notaros had a falling out the defenders were stretched to the breaking point physically and mentally but despite the morale of the people inside constantinople being lower than the fill level of their empty granaries they had in fact defied all ottoman attempts up to this moment this put immense pressure on the sultan the conditions in his own camp were not much better he had to act now but before he took action he sent another embassy to the emperor asking him to surrender the emperor was not willing to give up his city he would hold on to his capital with his life receiving this answer mechmet decided it was time to go all in orders were given for the man to rest and prepare the fate of constantinople would be decided in an all-out assault now mehmed's mastery of psychological warfare came to bear he capitalized on the fact that the defenders already looked at a sea of tents he had his troops light thousands of fires and make tremendous noise and chant at the walls to underline their numerical superiority the exhausted defenders were terrified justinyani stayed on the walls all night and made his men work without rest to close any breaches after three days of intense preparations on both sides the ottomans took battle order it was the early morning of the 29th of may about three hours before dawn when they began to move trumpets horns and drums sounded and the ottoman hosts raised harrowing war cries this time mechmed soldiers were literally everywhere even from the horn and the sea did sailors try to scale the walls the focal point of the attack was however still the middle section of the wolves where the ditch was now filled in completely and both walls had been damaged severely at first the sultan sent in the christian troops provided by his vessels in masses they tried to scale the improvised stockades giustiniani's men had erected but they were met with a hailstorm of missiles and stones when the rose further to the back saw this disastrous outcome they turned around to flee but their ottoman comrades part their way and after some time mehmed ordered his cannons to open fire indiscriminately slaying everyone between themselves and the walls the losses were obviously tremendous but as planned this first wave tired the defenders the second wave consisted of the better trained and more disciplined provincial troops who fought bravely and even made it to the bridge near the saint romanus gate they failed as well and around 5 30 am the sultan ordered his second wave to retreat as well mehmed's last fresh troops his palace corpse including the janissaries men indoctrinated from early childhood and eager to fight and die for the sultan were ready to lead the lost and decisive blow the exhausted defenders desperately prepared to make a lost stand the bright sun of may although obscured by powder smoke revealed how badly the defenders were outnumbered no more than 500 archers and slingers held their ground on the walls facing the golden horn giustiniani the remainder of his genovese mercenaries and the bulk of the greeks all in all about 3 000 men defended the outer walls in the middle section the rest of the ramparts were defended by critically few men some stretches facing the sea were defended only by one man at every other battlement when the third flood of attackers descended upon constantinople the defenders desperately tried to hold it off the sultan led his man from the front but prudently fell back at the ditch after another hour of bloody struggle the ottomans slowly gained the upper hand the final breakthrough is explained by the sources by two pieces of bad luck firstly giustiniani who fought amidst his man was wounded by an arrow or musket ball penetrating his arm and chest he had to retreat to his ship to care for his wounds this caused confusion according to some sources even panic among the defenders while that alone might not have caused the defense to collapse the second accident made the chaos perfect allegedly a sally port in the inner wall the so-called carco porta had been left open by mistake this allowed the janissaries to enter the inner wall attack the defenders at the stockades from above and fight their way in to open the gates for their comrades soon the defense broke and the ottomans flooded into the city the defenders ran for their lives the janissaries right at their heels hungry for vengeance the foreigners retreated to the harbor to leave the town on their ships the greeks went home to protect their families among the many who were killed was the emperor constantine the alem no details are known about his death but he was true to his word and died defending his capital the emperor was dead the city had fallen as the ottoman soldiers poured into the city from all sides they butchered everyone who stood in their way and only stopped when the last bit of resistance was broken what followed then was the customary sack which a city had to endure when it had resisted to the bitter end the ottoman soldiers plundered raped and took slaves the spoils were enormous so that years later the saying one who has been at constantinople was among the ottomans synonymous with a rich man after three days the sultan called the sack to a halt according to modern estimates about four thousand people were killed in the attack and 30 000 were taken away as slaves during the next weeks the capital of the byzantine empire was virtually depopulated the overall losses of the ottomans are likely to have been very high too but they remain unknown with constantinople fell its defenders the emperor died in the defense prince orhan flung himself over the walls fearing to be captured chandali halil pasha and lucas notaras were both executed shortly after the victory and finally giovanni giustiniani died from his wounds on the way home to his beloved genova all who had been a thorn in the sultan's side had perished the fall of constantinople effectively marked the end of the byzantine empire although it took mehmed another eight years to reduce the last remnants with the fall of constantinople the 1 100 year existence of the byzantine empire came to an end after the siege mehmed made the city the capital of the ottoman empire it became his stable foothold on the european shore of the bosporus the hub for his expansionist plans and this was exactly what the central and western european states and christendom feared when the conquest was perfect the sultan entered the city he allegedly went directly to hagia sophia to proclaim the muslim faith with this mehmed had achieved the victory he so direly needed he had succeeded where the hosts of islam across the ages had failed and henceforth he was known as mehmed the conqueror [Music] you

Channel: SandRhoman History

Views: 735,485

Keywords: siege, constantinople, 1453, staggering siege, sandrhoman, history, byzantine, empire, byzantine empire, mehmed the conqueror, ottoman empire, fall of constantinople, fall, education, educational, documentary, sieges

Id: 4i3EVuKI2mc

Length: 47min 48sec (2868 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 03 2022