A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY
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| Volume 6 Number 25 - Tuesday, June 22nd, 2004 |
A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY |
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The Fall of Constantinople
Sometimes history records strange coincidences. The mother of Constantine the Great, the founder of Constantinople, was called Eleni and was a native of Naissus, a town in today’s south Serbia. The mother of Constantine XI, the last emperor in Constantinople, was also called Eleni and was a princess from Serbia! Constantine XI, the Paleologos– as he is better known in history–was a tragic figure. Born in 1405, he became emperor when he succeeded his older brother Ioannis VIII at a time when the Byzantine Empire had been reduced to little more than the city of Constantinople and a few adjacent forts. The city that once had more than a million people had shrunk to an impoverished population of no more than 100,000. Forty thousand of them were not even Greek. These were people from Armenia, Genoa, Florence, Raguza, and Venice. There were also many Jews, and even Turks. The Byzantine Empire was already weakened when the city was sacked by the warriors of the Fourth Crusade in 204. The leaders of the Crusade had their own designs but they were helped when Emperor Isaac Angelus was overthrown by Alexius III. The son of Isaac Angelus, also named Alexius, asked the crusaders to help him restore his father to the throne. They did, but when the time came for Isaac and Alexius to pay what they had promised, they had no funds to honor their commitment. Since the crusaders were already inside the city’s walls, seizing power in April 1204 was easy. Baldwin IX of Flanders became the first Latin emperor of Constantinople and a Venetian, Thomas Morozini, became patriarch. Pope Innocent III was only too happy to bring the Eastern Orthodox Church under his Catholic mantle. Constantinople remained under Latin rule until 1261, when it was again conquered by Michael VIII, Paleologos. But by then, the empire was a shadow of its ancient self. Most of Asia Minor was under Turkish rule, with its Greek inhabitants converting in droves to Islam between 1100 and 1453, becoming a major component of today’s Turkish nation. The Balkans were no longer part of the Byzantine Empire, fragmented into small Slavic principalities. Parts of the Greek peninsula were under the rule of Latin overlords. It is important to understand this, because the fate of Constantinople had been sealed long before the armies of Mohammed II “the Conqueror” pierced the walls of the city and ended a history that lasted for more than a thousand years. Constantine XI, Paleologos, had been the ruler of Mystras, a small Greek principality in the Peloponnesus. By the time he became emperor of Constantinople, he had brought under his rule most of the Peloponnesus, after expelling the Latin lords. A “man of mild temper,” according to Laonikos Khalcokondylis, one of the Byzantine historians of the 15th Century, Constantine was acutely aware of the dismal conditions of the empire. A major source of revenue was a grant of 300,000 silver coins paid to him by Sultan Mohammed II(!) for the upkeep of his cousin Orhan, who lived as an exile in Constantinople. Mohammed wanted his cousin kept there to avoid any attempt by Orhan to dispute his rule. Mohammed II came to the throne in 1451 when his father Mourat II died. Within a year, he gave signs that he was determined to take over Constantinople. In the spring of 1452, he started the construction of a strong fort, the Roumeli Hisar, on the European side of the Bosporus, isolating the city and bringing under his control all traffic from the Black Sea to the Aegean and from the Aegean to Constantinople. He had the fort completed within four months, an engineering feat, considering the size of the fort. In the next twelve months, several Byzantine forts surrendered to the Sultan’s forces. In the fall of 1452, the Sultan ordered the transfer of a huge cannon from Adrianople to Constantinople. Constructed by a Hungarian named Urbanus, it took two months to transport the cannon to the outskirts of Constantinople. Mohammed knew the strength of the walls surrounding the city of Constantinople. After all, for centuries many and different enemies had tried to scale the walls of Constantinople and enter the city. All had failed. The Latins had taken over the City in 1204 only because they were already inside as “guests” and “allies.” But Mohammed now had a new weapon: Cannons. If he could breach the walls even at one point, the city would be his. He knew that Constantine’s army was small. Mohammed had some 200,000 men. Constantine, less than ten thousand. His desperate pleas to the western kings to come to his aid were met with indifference. The Pope and the western rulers posed one key condition: the Greek Orthodox Church had to unite with the Catholic Church, in effect accepting the supremacy of the Pope. This was a vexing problem for Constantine. The Greek people in the city were divided between those who opposed vehemently any union of the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches and those who favored the agreement, which had been signed in Florence in 1439. The opponents of any ties with the Vatican went as far as saying—in the words of one of their leader Loukas Notaras—that they “would prefer to see in the City the turban of the Turk than the tiara of a Catholic.” [One of the anti-union leaders, Genadios Scholarios, would be appointed patriarch of Constantinople by Mohammed after the fall of the city]. In spite of this opposition, Constantine sent emissaries to Rome seeking military assistance. In exchange, he promised that he himself and his subjects would abide by the 1439 Florence agreement, and that the exiled Patriarch Grigorios—a leader of those favoring the union of the two Churches—would be restored to his throne. Constantine also asked the Pope to send his representatives to Constantinople to begin talks with the Orthodox clergy to calm the animosity, which had followed the schism of 1054 and the mutual excommunication of the two Churches. Pope Nicholas responded to this invitation and sent cardinal Isidore of Poland. He was warmly received by Constantine and talks began immediately between the Orthodox prelates, who favored the union. On December 12, 1452—six months before the fall of Constantinople—Isidore and the Catholic clergy, who had come to the city with him, celebrated a joint mass with the Orthodox clergy at the great church of Aghia Sofia. In the end, nothing came of this effort. The great majority of monks and priests, as well as the overwhelming majority of the Orthodox faithful, opposed so strongly any thought of union with the Catholics that Constantine had no choice but to give up. In any event, it was too late. Only one man from Genoa, with the name John Justinianis, came to Constantinople with two hundred men on four sailing ships. It is not clear if he came on his own. Some sources claim that he was invited by Constantine, who promised to give him the island of Lemnos as a reward if all went well. Now it was only a matter of time. Still, most people inside the city, including Constantine, expected that the walls of Constantinople would withstand the attacks, as they had occurred so often in the past. By February, 1453, Mohammed was ready to commence the siege of Constantinople. The city was encircled from all sides. The bombardment of the walls started on April 12, 1453. In the past, all enemies had tried to breach the walls using the primitive armaments of rams and catapults. The walls proved impregnable. This time, the enemy was using cannons that had the power to breach the walls. The huge “bombarda” of the Hungarian ironsmith concentrated its shots on one point in the walls, near one of the gates. Legend has it that someone forgot the gate was open or that someone else opened the gate (Kerkoporta) deliberately. Most likely, it was the relentless bombardment that opened a gap in one of the gates. The bombardment continued for almost two weeks. On April 22, the Turkish fleet entered the Golden Horn (Keratios Kolpos) reinforcing the siege. The bombardment continued for the next four weeks but the walls could not be breached. On May 23 the Sultan sent emissaries to Constantine. He offered to let him leave unharmed and go to Mystra in the Peloponnesus, his ancestral home, or any other place he chose—if he surrendered the city. Constantine’s answer has come down in history as one of the most majestic responses: “It is not for me or anyone else hereto surrender the city. We are all committed willingly to die and not to try to save our lives.” (The Greek original loses much of its nobility in translation). After this defiant reply, the Sultan intensified the bombardment of the walls. On the 28th of May, a religious service was held in Aghia Sofia, in the presence of the emperor and his officers. They all took communion, knowing it would be for the last time. The next day, May 29, 1453, the first Turkish soldiers passed through one of the gates and entered the city. The fighting now was man to man. It was an uneven fight as thousands of Turks poured into the city. The walls had been breached and the few defenders were doomed. The emperor himself, surrounded by enemy soldiers, fought on foot, defending the Romanos gate. No one knows exactly how he died. His body was found the next day together with the lifeless bodies of those who had fought with him to the end. It is said that a soldier brought the emperor’s head to the Sultan. He ordered that the dead emperor be buried with all honors.
The empire
Constantine the Great had founded in 325 A.D.,
more than a thousand years before, was no more. |
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