The Conquest of Constantinople

In 1451, Mehmed II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, chose as his first self-imposed task that he would conquer Constantinople. To prepare, he built up his naval force, then built a huge castle on the western side of the Bosphorus Straits, north of his target and on the shore of the Black Sea. The fortress was called Rumelihisarı. It can still be viewed today (see illustration).

Paired with a castle built on the eastern side of the strait by a previous sultan, the two were able to prevent any possible aid reaching Constantinople from the Black Sea. Mehmed used his position there to extort tolls from ships passing through. A Venetian ship that ignored the command to stop was turned into an example for others: a single shot from a cannon sank the ship, the captain was impaled, and the surviving sailors were all beheaded.

Mehmed was ready in 1453 with an army of over 80,000 soldiers, 320 ships, and dozens of artillery pieces. The siege began in April, surrounding the city by sea as well as land. The harbor into the city, the Golden Horn, was blocked by raising a chain that prevented ships from sailing in. The walls were very thick, reinforced after the attack in 1204 during the 4th Crusade.

Mehmed was undaunted. He had a mile-long road of wood built that would portage some of the ships and equipment over land and into the northern shore of the Golden Horn. It took less than two months from the start of the siege to its conclusion, on 29 May.

Mehmed made Constantinople the new Ottoman capital and declared himself caesar of the Roman Empire. The Catholic Church, Western Europe, and the rest of Christendom never accepted the Ottoman sultan as the head of the Roman Empire. He appointed an anti-Rome philosopher and theologian, Gennadius Scholarius, as Patriarch of Constantinople with all the rights of previous patriarchs, and so Gennadius accepted Mehmed publicly as the rightful successor to the throne.

Mehmed also co-opted the remains of the royal family, rather than eliminate alternate claimants. I'll tell you about the aftermath of the conquest tomorrow.