Calamity, Cannons, and a Conquering King

Medieval illustration of the Siege of Constantinople
Siege of Constantinople: Bodleian Library MS. Barocci 170

The 1453 Siege of Constantinople

Where did it all go wrong for the Byzantine Empire? And how did poorly planned blackmail result in Constantinople becoming the glorious capital of the Ottomans? The fall of Constantinople in 1453 has arguably been considered the end of the Middle Ages. While the siege of this city was both bloody and tragic for the people living in Constantinople, by the time Mehmed II and his forces came knocking on the gates, the Byzantine Empire was confined to a single city and demoted to a vassel kingdom of their Ottoman neighbors. In this episode of Murmuring Medievalists – the first of two parts on the final siege of the ‘Queen of Cities’ – we tell the tale of the final hours of Byzantium. As the clouds gather for the Greeks above their defensive walls and the Ottomans put on their battle armor, we explore and follow characters on both sides as they prepare for one of history’s most epic and significant sieges.

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Bibliography:

  • Choniates, Niketas, in van Dieten, Jan. Nicetae Choniatae historia, pars prior (Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae 11.1). Berlin: De Gruyter, 1975.
  • Crowley, Roger. Constantinople: The Last Great Siege, 1453. London: Faber and Faber, 2005.
  • Geanakoplos, Deano. Byzantium: Church, Society, and Civilisation Seen through Contemporary Eyes. Chicago and London: Chicago University Press, 1984.
  • Goldwyn, Adam. Witness Literature in Byzantium: Narrating Slaves, Prisoners and Refugees. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.
  • Harris, Jonathan. End of Byzantium. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012.
  • Philippides, Marios, and Hanak, Walter K. The Siege and the Fall of Constantinople in 1453:Historiography, Topography, and Military Studies. Surrey and Burlington: Ashgate Publishing, 2011.
  • Sphrantzes, George, in Grecu, Vasile. Georgios Sphrantzes Memorii 1401-1477 in anexa Pesudo-Phrantzes: Macarie Melissenos Cronica 1258-1481. Bucharest: Academiei republicii socialiste Romania, 1966.
  • Sphrantzes, George, translated in Philippides, Marios. The Fall of the Byzantine Empire: A Chronicle. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1980.

Credits

Producers/ Hosts: Hannah Feodorov, Nicholas van Oosterom

Writer/Editor: Hannah Feodorov, Nicholas van Oosterom

Technical Editor: Hannah Feodorov

Intro Music: Pond5

Incidental Music: Epidemic sound

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