After the Conquest

Once Mehmed II had taken Constantinople in 1453, absorbing it into the Ottoman Empire, he declared himself Roman Caesar. His thinking was that Constantinople had been the seat of the emperors of Rome since 330CE, and therefore whomever sat on that throne was in charge. Western Europe and the Popes did not support this claim, but thinking was different in the East. 

Contemporary Byzantine scholar George of Trebizond (1395 - 1486) supported this view. Another who aligned with the new Caesar was Gennadius Scholarius, whom Mehmed chose as the new Patriarch of Constantinople.

Note that Mehmed did not declare Eastern Orthodoxy heretical. He was actually quite magnanimous to his potential opposition. For example, when he then turned his attention to the royal family, he did not simply execute anyone who might have provided the nucleus of an insurrection and coup.

The defeated Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos, who had died during the siege, had no heirs. He had nephews of a deceased brother who would have been next in line. As was mentioned in the post on the Janissaries, a Muslim practice called devşirme (the "ş" is pronounced like "sh") took children of conquered peoples and converted them, training them to be loyal Muslims.

Mehmed took at least two boys who were purportedly related to Constantine, converted them to Islam and renamed them Hass Murad Pasha and Mesih Pasha. Hass—a title meaning "private" or "personal"—became beylerbey ("lord of lords"), the commander-in-chief of the Balkans in 1468. (The illustration shows his signature.) Mesih (1443 - 1501) became Grand Admiral of the Ottoman Navy.

We do not know the parentage of the two young men who rose so high in the sultan's favor. Contemporary Ottoman chronicles claim they were nephews of Constantine, but offer different names for their father. Still, Murad and Mesih were lucky that Constantine was succeeded by Mehmed and not another prominent Greek noble, who might have followed the Byzantine tradition of eliminating all possible opposition through incarceration, execution, or blinding.

It would be nice to think that the two boys had not only good lives but peaceful ends. That was not to be the case, however. I'll give you the rundown on their careers tomorrow.

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.