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THE FALL OF CONSTATINOPLE

The Otoman Empire attempted to besiege Constatinople and end rhe Byzantine Empire on half dozen occasions.But these sieges were interrupted by the Crusades,civil wars,rebellions,and the invasion of Timur.However by the middle of 15^th century,the Ottomans consolidated their territory and finally entered a period of internal stability.The next siege of Constatinople was imminent.

In 1444,Sultan Murat II defeatedthe European Crusaders at the Battle of Varna.The king of Poland and Hungary,Vladislav was killed during the battle and the plunged the most powerful states in Central Europe into a crisis.Still the Ottomans faced resistance from Albanian Lord Skanderbeg and the Voivodebof Transylvania,John Hunyadi.

The latter sent numerous letters to the Pope and the kings of Europe calling them to another crusade but since no one was willing,his activity was limited to raiding into Ottoman territory.As Skanderbeg was previously an Ottoman vassal,Murad sent three punitive expeditions against him,but all three armies were ambushed and defeated by the outnumbered Albanian forces.Meanwhile,The sultan was preoccupied with minor rebellions within the Empire and a campaign against the Despotate of Morea in 1446.

During the campaign in Greece,Murat forced the ruler of Morea and future Byzatine emperor constatine XI to become his vassal and pay tribute.It was time to attack Skanderbeg and Murad won a minor victory at the battle of Sventigrad in 1448,but chasing the guerrilla force under Skanderbeg was impossible and after setting a few garrisons along the frontier,Murad returned to Edirne.Meanwhile,Hunyadi was preparing another crusade.

By September of 1448,he finally raised a 30,000 storng army and started a new campaign.He was hoping the despot of Serbia,Durad Brankovic,would join him but the latter was an Ottoman vassal and refused,so instead Serbian lands were raided.Mured knew about all this and started moving his army to prevent Skanderbeg and Hunyadi from joining forces.Subsequent events are not clear ,but it’s seems that in October.Hunyadi moved to the field of Kosova to wait Skanderbeg.Some claim that the latter was blocked by Durad.Others think that the local Ottoman garrisons slowed the Albanian Force.But in any case,on the 17^th of October,the Sultan and his 50,000 troops reached the site where the first battle of Kosova between Lazar and Murad I took place.

On the first battle Hungarian,PoIish,Wallachian and Moldovan forces attacked the Otomans accros the fornt with their armored troops but despiteearly successes,were pushed back.Hunyadi attempted to use his light cavalry to attack Ottoman flanks during the night,but Ottoman light horsemen intercepted and repelled the crusaders.On the second day,Murad ordered  his flanks to retreat and that trinked Hunyadi.His troops attaked the Ottoman center head on and were able to push the Ottoman light infantry back.However, the Janisssaries stooped the Crusader advance near the Sultan’s position.At that point,the Ottomant flanks returned to the battle and encircled Hunyadi’s forces.The leader of the crusading army managed to retreat but more than half of his troops were killed,while the Ottomons lost around 5,000 men.

The battle of kosova 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 tangible success.But focus of the Ottomans,the road to Constatinople was now open.When Murad II passed away and his son Mehmed II came to power in 1451,his singular goal was to take the Byzantine capital.

Constatinople wasn’t the city it once was.The total number of the population was now between 50,000 and 100,000 and vast swathes of land within the walls were empty and even used for farming.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 treaties with Venice,Genoa,and Hungary to ensure that they weren’t going to attack him.A new rebellion by the Karaminds allowed him to cross into Anatolia and consolidate his power in the region.

Constatine XI was hoping to end the practice of paying tribute to the Sultan and threatened to support Mehmed’s cousin Orhan in claiming the Ottoman throne.That gave Mehmed a reason to declare their previous treaty null and void.The Otomans started preparing for war.In April of 1452,the Sultan gave orders to build a fortrees called Rumelihisari on the northern end of the Bosphorus to prevent any ships from assisting Constatinople from the black sea.The fort was built by the end of August and constatine had no other choice but to start bringing his subjects into the city,storing up supplies and sending pleas for help to European states.Only a contingent a Venetian ships and around 1,000 mercenary soldiers led by Giovanni Giustiniani arrived to help ,while most Christian monarchs ignored the pleas.

The Ottomans had more than 100,000 warriors,69 cannons and 126 ships under overallcommand of Mehmed II against 7,000 professional Byzantine troops,among them 500 Ottomans of Prince Orhan and a dozen or so cannons and 26 ships.More than 30,000 locals were pressed into service.The Byzantine and Italian ships were better than their counterparts while their guns were outdated.One of the Ottoman guns was particularly big and would play an iconic role in the upcoming siege.Each section of the wall would be commanded by one of the Italian commanders with Giustiniani being the leader.

Bibliography

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