GENERAL ASSAULT: COMMENCED BY BASHI-BAZOUKS; THEY ARE
DEFEATED; ANATOLIANS ATTACK--ARE ALSO DRIVEN BACK; ATTACKS IN
OTHER PLACES FAIL; JANISSARIES ATTACK; KERKOPORTA INCIDENT;
JUSTINIANI WOUNDED AND RETIRES; EMPEROR’S ALARM; STOCKADE
CAPTURED; DEATH OF CONSTANTINE: HIS CHARACTER; CAPTURE OF
CONSTANTINOPLE.
[Sidenote: General assault commences early morning, May 29, 1453.]
The general assault commenced between one and two hours after midnight
on the morning of Tuesday May 29.[400]
[Illustration: Sketch Map showing the disposition of Turkish Troops
during the last days of Siege; May 1453.
Walker & Cockerell sc.
]
When the signal was given, the city was attacked simultaneously on
all three sides. The orders given by Mahomet on the previous day had
been strictly obeyed. The ships during the night had taken up the
positions assigned to them on the sides of the Marmora and on the
Golden Horn. The armies on the landward side began simultaneously to
attempt the walls at several points.[401]
The principal assault was in the Lycus valley and against the stockade:
where, says Tetaldi, twelve hundred feet of barbican had been destroyed
by the cannon; where, adds Chalcondylas,[402] four of the strongest
towers had been destroyed; where, says Ducas, the Outer Wall had been
so completely broken down that the besiegers and besieged could see
each other, and where, explains Critobulus, the Outer Wall had been so
entirely overthrown by the cannon that it was no longer a wall but only
a stockade built up with beams, fascines, branches and the like, and
barrels of earth.[403]
The defenders were between the stockade and the Inner Wall. Here they
had to defeat the enemy in front of them or die. Mahomet’s intention
was to concentrate his attack on the stockade and on the walls
between the Adrianople Gate and Tekfour Serai and to deal blow after
blow against them with the whole of his available force while making
sufficient show of attack elsewhere to draw away the defenders.
[Sidenote: Assault begun by Bashi-bazouks.]
The assault was commenced by the Bashi-bazouks, the most worthless
portion of Mahomet’s army, who came up for this purpose from the
northern end of the landward walls. Many among them were Moslems, but
there were so many Christians and foreigners that Barbaro calls them
all Christians.[404] Leonard declares that among them were Germans,
Hungarians, and other foreigners of various kinds.[405] Mahomet’s
object in sending forward these men to make the first attack was
mainly that they might exhaust the strength and the ammunition of the
besieged. This, indeed, was his method of utilising his superiority in
numbers.[406] Moreover, says Barbaro, he preferred that these
Christians should be killed rather than his Mussulmans. The
Bashi-bazouks advanced bearing all the scaling-ladders within shooting
distance of the walls and probably extended themselves from Tekfour
Serai to the stockade and beyond to Top Capou. They began the fight
with a general discharge of arrows, of stones from slings, and iron and
leaden balls. Then, with a wild disorderly dash, they rushed across
the ditch and endeavoured to capture the Outer Wall and especially
the stockade. They were armed in ways as numerous and varied as the
races and creeds to which they belonged: some with bows, others with
slings, with arquebuses or with muskets,[407] but most of them simply
with scimitars and shields. Hundreds of ladders were placed against
the walls and the bravest hastened to climb them. Others, mounted on
the shoulders of their comrades, endeavoured to reach the summit or
to strike at the defenders. In the darkness of this night attack,
made by fifty thousand men, there was soon wild confusion everywhere,
but especially in the valley to which for the present the action in
my story is confined. At every point the invaders met with a brave
resistance. While among the attacking party there were many who had no
heart for the fight,[408] there were others who were not deficient in
courage, but they had to meet the best soldiers in the emperor’s army,
a band of two thousand Greeks and Italians all under the leadership
of Justiniani, ‘the incomparable captain, the mighty man and genuine
soldier.’
The defenders threw the ladders down, discharged their arrows, fired
their muskets and culverins,[409] and hurled down a prodigious quantity
of stones. The assailants were so numerous and so crowded together that
the missiles of the besieged told heavily against them. The bravest
who succeeded in climbing within striking distance were struck down.
The resistance was so stubborn that many began to give way. But they
had not yet sufficiently served their purpose. Until their strength
was exhausted, Mahomet would not consent that they should cease to
exhaust that of the defenders. Those who attempted to withdraw found
themselves between the devil and the deep sea. A body of Turkish
chaouses had been told off with iron maces and loaded whips to drive
back any endeavouring to retreat, and behind them again were stationed
Janissaries ready with their scimitars to cut down any who should
succeed in escaping through the line of chaouses. In this manner the
fight was prolonged for between one and two hours.
[Sidenote: They are beaten back.]
But in spite of all that could be done, in spite of numbers and of
courage, Mahomet’s first division was beaten back with many killed and
wounded. Having served its purpose in exhausting the strength of the
small body of the defenders, it was allowed to withdraw. Some of the
besieged appear to have considered the attack rather as an attempt to
surprise the city by a night alarm than as part of the expected general
assault. They were indeed weary with hard fighting and hard work. For
forty days they had hardly known a single hour of rest,[410] and they
hoped for it, at least until the morning. They were soon undeceived.
[Sidenote: Anatolian division next attack.]
Amid the darkness of the early summer morning a division of Anatolian
Turks could be distinguished pouring over the ridge on which stands
Top Capou. It was the advance of disciplined men, distinguishable by
their breastplates, and their arrival made the situation much more
serious. Here, indeed, was the general assault which all expected at
daylight. The bells throughout the city again sounded everywhere an
alarm; all the inhabitants were at their posts. As the Anatolians came
across the ditch up to the stockade the struggle began once more in
deadly earnest. Trumpets, fifes, and drums sounded their loudest to
encourage the assailants. Besiegers and besieged shouted and roared
at each other. Prayers for help, imprecations, clang of bells within
the city, roar of guns and small cannon within and without made up
the pandemonium of a storming party. Ladders were once more placed
against the walls and were hurled back; men scrambled on each other’s
shoulders trying hard to reach the summit of the stockade. ‘Our men’
are continually throwing down stones and are resisting hand to hand
all who attempt to scale or destroy it. ‘More Turks were killed,’ says
Barbaro, ‘than you would have thought possible.’
Now the great cannon, which during the night had been advanced as near
the wall as possible, is brought into play. An hour before daylight a
well-directed shot from the monster was aimed at the stockade, struck
it and brought a portion of it down. Under cover of the dust from the
falling stones and barrels of earth, but especially of the dense black
smoke of the powder, a band of Turks rushed forward and, before they
could be prevented, three hundred had entered the enclosure. The Greeks
and Italians resisted manfully, fought fiercely to expel them, killed
many and drove the remainder out.[411] The besieged raised shouts of
triumph. The emperor was with his soldiers, always showing himself in
the thick of the fighting, urging men by voice and cheering them by
his example. This second attack was more systematic, fiercer, more
desperate than the first. The Turks had no need of men behind them to
prevent their retreat or to urge them forward. Shouting their wild
battle-cry of Allah! Allah! they rushed on in the darkness as men who,
if they do not court death, at least do not fear it; as men who believe
they are fighting for God, and that in case of death they will be at
once transported to a combined heavenly and earthly paradise.
[Sidenote: They, too, are driven back.]
In spite of the discipline and daring of the Anatolian troops, of
the stimulus derived from their fanatical creed and from the special
promise of reward here and hereafter to those who should succeed in
entering the Queen City or should perish in the attempt, the assault
by them failed as completely as had that of the Bashi-bazouks.
The stubborn bravery of a comparatively small number of Greeks
and Italians behind the hastily formed stockade and the battered,
thousand-year-old walls were so far more than a match for the invaders.
[Sidenote: Assaults in other places also fail.]
The success of the attackers was up to the present not more complete
in other parts of the city. Zagan Pasha had made desperate attempts to
scale the walls near the west end of the Horn under cover of showers
of arrows and other missiles from the ships and from large pontoons
drawn up as near as possible to the walls, but had been defeated by
Trevisano. Caraja Pasha, north of the Adrianople Gate, had crossed
the foss and made a vigorous attempt against the walls broken down
by the cannon between that Gate and the Palace of Porphyrogenitus,
now known as Tekfour Serai.[412] But that district, ‘the high part of
the Myriandrion,’[413] was held by the three brothers Bocchiardi, who
had borne the cost of their men at their own charge, and who covered
themselves, says Leonard, with eternal glory, fighting like Horatius
Cocles and his companions who kept the bridge of old. Their neighbours
at Tekfour Serai and around the southern portion of Caligaria under
the Venetian bailey Minotto,[414] had been equally successful. All
the invaders’ attempts had been defeated. Critobulus is justified
in commenting with pride on the defeat of this second attack. ‘The
Romans, indeed, proved themselves very valiant; for nothing could shake
them, neither hunger nor want of rest, nor weariness from continuous
fighting, nor wounds, nor the thought of the slaughter of their
families which menaced them. Nothing could alter their determination to
be faithful to their trust.’
[Sidenote: Assault by Janissaries.]
There remained but one more chance--on May 29 at least--of capturing
the city by general assault. Two divisions had failed. But Mahomet
noted that his plan of attack by successive divisions had greatly
weakened the defenders at the stockade. He therefore decided to put
forth all his strength and to send forward his reserves. These
consisted of the _élite_ of his army, the veteran warriors of his
bodyguard, infantry bearing shields and pikes, a body of archers,
another of lancers, and, more skilled and more trustworthy than all,
his body of twelve thousand Janissaries.[415] These reserves were now
to attempt the assault at the stockade under the immediate leadership
of their great commander, while the remainder of the army made a
simultaneous attack against other portions of the landward walls.
Mahomet began the new assault with the utmost care. Dawn was now
supplying sufficient light[416] to enable him to superintend a more
elaborate plan. The assault was not to be a mere wild rush and
scramble. Having urged his guards to show their valour, Mahomet put
himself at their head and led them as far as the foss.[417]
At the moment, says Barbaro, when the defenders were rejoicing at
having driven out the three hundred from the barbicans, the pagans
again fired their big gun and under cover of the smoke and dust the
besiegers advanced. A huge but orderly crowd of archers, slingers,
and musketeers discharged their arrows and other missiles. Successive
volleys were steadily fired upon the Greeks and Italians defending
the whole length of the stockade, so that they could hardly show a
head over the battlements without being struck. The missiles fell
in numbers, says Critobulus, like rain. They darkened the sky, says
Leonard. When the defenders had been thrown into some confusion by
this long hail of missiles, Mahomet gave the signal for advance to
his ‘fresh, vigorous, and invincible’ Janissaries. They rushed across
the foss and attempted as their predecessors had done, to carry the
stockade by storm.
Ten thousand of these ‘grand masters and valiant men,’ says Barbaro,
with admiration for a brave enemy, ‘ran to the walls, not like Turks,
but like lions.’ Fighting in presence of their sovereign, says
Critobulus, they never lost their dash, but fought like men possessed
and as if life were of no value. They tried to tear down the stockade;
to break or pull down the great barrels of earth which crowned it;
to drag out the beams and thus break down or make a passage through
into the Enclosure; to climb over it on the scaling-ladders which once
placed against the wall were immediately crowded with assailants.
Their shouts and yells, their calls upon Allah, the noise of their
drums, fifes, and trumpets, the roar of the culverins and cannon once
more struck terror into the affrighted citizens and were heard, says
Barbaro, across the Bosporus. For a while all was mad confusion.
We do not need the confirmation of Barbaro and Critobulus of the
statement that the Greeks and Italians were worn out with their long
defence before the attack by the Janissaries commenced. They had been
hewing and hacking, throwing down stones and hurling back ladders for
nearly, or perhaps quite, three hours and were unequal to contend
with many times their numbers of men ardent and fresh for battle. But
they knew, as indeed did every one within the city, that the crisis
of the attack was at hand, and they manfully fought on. The church
bells added to the din: the alarm bells on the walls were calling for
every available help. Women and children, monks and nuns, were either
assisting to bring stones to their friends on the walls or were on
their knees praying that their great city should not fall into the
hands of the pagans. Justiniani and his little band met the attack
with lances, axes, pikes, and swords, and cut down the foremost of
their assailants. For a short time the fight became a hard hand-to-hand
encounter, neither party gaining any advantage over the other.
[Sidenote: The Kerkoporta incident.]
Contemporaneously with this latter portion of the struggle in the Lycus
valley, an incident, possibly of supreme importance, was taking place
about half a mile to the northward.
Of the three ways into the city which Mahomet declared he had opened
for his troops, one was to the north of the Adrianople Gate. The
walls between this gate and the Palace of Porphyrogenitus were, in
construction, like those in the Lycus valley, but the inner Theodosian
wall, instead of extending as far as that palace (now known as Tekfour
Serai), stopped short about a hundred yards from it. There a short
wall at right angles connected it with the second or Outer Wall. In
this transverse wall was a postern giving access from the city to
the Inner Enclosure or Peribolos. The short Outer Wall north of the
transverse wall, having to do duty for the two city walls, had been
made exceptionally strong. A small postern gate, partly below the level
of the ground and underneath the extremity of the palace,[418] led
directly from the city to the Outer Enclosure. This gate was known as
the Kerkoporta or Circus Gate.[419] It had been built up and almost
forgotten for many years previous to the siege, but when easy access
to the Outer Enclosure was deemed necessary, certain old men recalled
its existence and it was reopened. As its position caused it to be
concealed from persons who were not close to the tower, it may easily
have been left undefended for a while during the night under the
impression that it would not be noticed.[420]
The Outer Wall between the Kerkoporta and the Adrianople Gate had been
largely damaged and a breach made which had been stormed unsuccessfully
during the night. The Turks had here also, as well as near the Romanus
Gate, been able to pass the ditch and take possession of the Outer
Enclosure.
As daylight approached, some of the enemy noticed that the Kerkoporta
had been left open. A number of Janissaries (stated by Ducas to be
fifty) hastened through and took possession of it. They were soon
followed by others, who gained access to the Inner Enclosure first
through the Kerkoporta and then through the neighbouring postern
already mentioned in the transverse wall, the distance between the
two posterns being about thirty yards. They surprised and attacked
those who were occupied in resisting the attempts of Caraja’s main
division to storm the breach or scale the Outer Wall. Every foot they
captured allowed their numbers to be increased by comrades who could
now climb the Outer Wall without opposition or who crowded in through
the Kerkoporta and the postern in the transverse wall. The besieged,
overwhelmed by numbers, and having their retreat into the city through
the postern cut off, fled towards the Adrianople Gate, the postern of
which was soon blocked by the crowd, the stronger trampling upon the
weaker, so that presently all egress from the Enclosure was impossible.
A slaughter took place and a few Turks entered the city, while others
mounted the walls, pulled down the emperor’s flags and those of St.
Mark and replaced them by the Turkish standards.
The entry of the Turks by the Kerkoporta is only related by Ducas, but
it is incidentally confirmed by the fact mentioned by Phrantzes and
other writers, that while the struggle in the Lycus valley was going
on, the Turkish standards were raised on the towers to the north of
the Adrianople Gate before an entry had been effected elsewhere.[421]
Critobulus’s statement that Caraja’s men crossed the foss, made a
vigorous assault, and sought to pass within the broken-down (Outer)
wall, but were repulsed, probably refers to the same incident.[422]
Ducas is careful to state that the emperor and the Romans did not
know what had happened, because they were at some distance and were
too much occupied in defending themselves in a different place, which
he explains to be where the wall had been broken down: that is, at
the stockade in the Lycus valley. While they were thus fighting, he
says, to resist the entry through the ruined wall, God willed that the
enemy should enter the city by this other way. Leonard mentions that
the arrangements for sending messengers from one part of the wall to
another were defective. The emperor, however, was probably informed
of the entry by the Kerkoporta and of the capture of at least part
of the enclosure between that postern and the Adrianople Gate, and
hastened thither before his army under Justiniani learned that the
Turkish standards had been hoisted on the towers near the Adrianople
Gate.[423] The few Turks who had entered the city, bent upon plunder,
made for the rich monasteries of Choras and St. John in Petra and the
Blachern palace; but it would appear that the brothers Bocchiardi
were able to regain possession of the Enclosure and to prevent any
considerable number of the enemy from following those who had entered
the Kerkoporta. Possibly even they were strong enough to close it. The
fact that the entry at the Kerkoporta is not mentioned by Critobulus
may be taken to confirm the view that, if he knew of it at all, he only
regarded it as a somewhat unimportant incident.
Meantime in the Enclosure in the Lycus valley the struggle was
being bravely fought out with pikes, axes, javelins, long lances and
swords, for now, as Critobulus is careful to inform us, ‘the fight was
hand-to-hand.’[424] The obstinate resistance of the little band of
Greeks and Italians appears to have met with some success. The attack
by the Janissaries and the rest of the sultan’s own division had so far
failed and was weakening.
[Sidenote: John Justiniani wounded.]
It was at this moment that one of those fateful accidents occurred
which have at times decided the destiny of nations. John Justiniani,
who under the emperor was in supreme command, was severely wounded. He
bled profusely, and determined to leave his command in order to obtain
medical aid. The wound was so severe that it proved mortal within a
few days. But those present did not recognise its gravity. Some of
his contemporaries deny that it was sufficiently grave to justify his
leaving the field, but Critobulus, writing some years afterwards,
states that he had to be carried away.[425] Leonard and Phrantzes say
that when the emperor was informed of his determination to enter the
city, Constantine besought and implored him not to do so but to return
to his post, endeavouring to persuade him that the wound was slight and
pointing out that his departure would demoralise not only his own men
but the Greeks, and strongly urged that the fate of the city depended
on his remaining. Justiniani, however, pleaded the pain of his wound,
demanded that the key of the gate leading into the city should be given
to his men,[426] and insisted upon leaving the Peribolos or Enclosure,
promising to return when his wound had been attended to. The keys of a
small gate which Justiniani had caused to be opened in the Inner Wall
to give easier access to the Enclosure behind the stockade were brought
and he entered the city.[427]
The story told by Chalcondylas is that in reply to the emperor’s
question whither he was going, Justiniani said that he was going where
God Himself had opened a way for the Turks. It may well be doubted.
He was accompanied, say Critobulus and others, by his own men, a
statement, however, which can hardly apply to the whole four hundred.
The unlocking of the gate proved at once to be a dangerous temptation
to soldiers who had been fighting continuously for hours and who had
seen the departure of their leader. Justiniani made his way to his
ship, which was stationed at the boom, and escaped to Chios, where he
died within a few days--or possibly on the way thither.[428]
[Sidenote: Justiniani’s departure creates a panic.]
His departure was calamitous and at once created a panic. He was a
commander who had the full confidence of those under him, and his
absence struck dismay into their hearts. Barbaro says that it was
through his flight that the shout was then raised, ‘The Turks have got
in;’ that everybody then cried in alarm to God for mercy, and that
men wept like women. It was through him, and ‘he lied in his throat,
because they had not yet got in.’[429] Leonard, himself a Genoese, who
speaks of Justiniani with warm admiration, is hardly less severe upon
him in regard to his manner of leaving the fight. He declares that, as
he had at first shown courage, now he displayed cowardice. He ought
to have borne the pain and remained, or at least to have appointed
some one in his place. The spirit of his followers was broken by his
desertion. The Podestà of Pera, also a Genoese, seems himself to have
condemned his departure. He says the enemy was opposed right manfully,
but Justiniani deserted his gate, and withdrew to the sea, and by that
gate the Turks entered without resistance. Remembering that this is
the testimony of the chief Genoese official against the great Genoese
captain, it may be regarded as reflecting the general opinion of the
time.[430] We, however, may well remember that Justiniani had remained
in the city with his men, had worked day and night at the repairs of
the walls, had, by the testimony of all, been the great organiser of
the defence, and, knowing that he died of his wounds, may be charitable
enough to believe that he did not desert his post except under the
pressure of pain too great to be endured.
It is beyond doubt that his departure demoralised both the foreigners
who remained and the brave little band of Greeks who had borne
with them the brunt of the fighting. Leonard asserts that when his
countrymen saw themselves without a leader, they began to abandon their
posts.
[Sidenote: Emperor tries to rally defenders of stockade.]
Meanwhile the emperor, behind the stockade, was endeavouring to rally
his men, and fighting with a courage worthy of his great name. He
himself took the post of Justiniani and led the defending party. He had
no other men to replace those who had left, but he rallied the Greeks
and the remainder of the Genoese and Venetians, and with his own small
bodyguard rushed to the stockade.
[Sidenote: Final charge of Janissaries.]
Mahomet witnessed, from the opposite side of the foss, the
demoralisation caused by the departure of Justiniani. He noted that
the stockade and broken walls had fewer defenders, that many of them
were secretly slipping away, and that those who remained were fighting
less vigorously. He saw that the opportune moment for him had come and,
calling out to his men, ‘We have the city: it is ours already; the wall
is undefended,’ urged his Janissaries to fear nothing, but follow him,
and the city would be captured.[431] At his bidding and under his lead,
the Janissaries hastened once more to rush the stockade and to climb
upon the _débris_ of the wall destroyed by the gun.[432]
The sultan had promised great rewards to the first who should gain a
position on the wall. A stalwart Janissary named Hassan gained this
honour. A man of gigantic stature, he was able, while holding his
shield in his left hand, to fight his way to the top of the broken
wall, and was followed by some thirty others. The Greeks resisted
their entry and killed eighteen. But Hassan maintained his position
long enough to enable some of his followers to climb up and get over
the wall. A fierce skirmish took place, and many were killed on both
sides. Hassan himself was wounded by a stone, slipped and fell, fought
bravely on his knees, but was overpowered and killed.[433] But the
discrepancy in numbers was too great. Once a few were able to maintain
their position on the wall, the Turks mounted and got over to the
inner side of the stockade in crowds. The remnant of the defending
army stood their ground for a while, but the invaders drove a number
of them back and into the deep ditch which had been dug between the
great wall and the stockade and out of which it was difficult to
escape.[434] Many were thus killed within the Peribolos, of which for
the first time the Turks were now the masters. Some of the invaders
climbed the great wall behind the defenders to hurl down stones on
them, and a fierce fight went on along the length of the stockade in
the Lycus valley, and possibly indeed along the whole length of the
walls in the Mesoteichion. Suddenly, in this the supreme moment of the
struggle, shouts were heard both within and without the walls and from
the direction of the harbour, shouts which were taken up by the Greeks,
Ἑάλω ἡ πόλις: ‘the city is taken; the Turkish flags are flying on the
towers.’
We have already seen what had happened to cause this cry to be raised.
The detachment of Turks who had gained entrance through the Kerkoporta
had captured some of the lofty towers between it and the Adrianople
Gate, and had there raised the Turkish standards.
‘“The city is captured!” the cry sent dismay into the hearts of our
men, but encouraged the enemy.’[435] It was not true, says Barbaro.
The city was not then taken. But meantime the Turks were now up and
over the walls in crowds. Within a quarter of an hour, says Barbaro, of
their first obtaining possession of the stockade there must have been
thirty thousand of them within the Peribolos.
[Sidenote: Stockade captured.]
The success of the Janissaries in overcoming the first serious line of
defence[436] was followed up instantly by the other Turkish troops.
The news of the entry across the stockade seems to have spread like
wildfire, and though it is difficult to believe the statement of
Barbaro that the Enclosure was filled from one end of the walls to the
other with seventy thousand of the hostile army, it is possible that
the vigour which follows success enabled the Janissaries and other
portions of the army to obtain entry at once into the Enclosure at
various other places. Some of the defenders fled in panic and made
for the small gate through which Justiniani had retired, the only one
behind them which was open. They rushed on in such haste as to trample
each other down.
[Sidenote: Death of Constantine.]
At this moment the emperor, who had been called off to the northern
end of the valley to learn the meaning of the display of the Turkish
flags and to resist the inrush of the invaders who had entered by
the Kerkoporta, returned. Spurring his horse, he galloped down the
Enclosure to the stockade where the Turks were crowding in,[437] and
tried to rally the remainder of the defenders. Calling upon his men
to follow him, he threw off his imperial insignia, drew his sword,
sprang into the thick of the fight, and attempted to drive the invaders
back.[438] With Don Francisco of Toledo on his right, Theophilus
Palaeologus and John Dalmata on his left, his own sword broken, he
endeavoured to check the advancing crowd. Theophilus shouted that he
would rather die than live. The four checked for a moment the inrush
of the Turks, slew some of them, and cut their way to the wall where
the Turks were pouring in. But they were hopelessly outnumbered. The
emperor was lost sight of amid the crowd. He and his companions fell
fighting, and the enemy continued to pour through the breaches.[439]
[Sidenote: City captured May 29.]
Once the enemy had obtained entrance into the Enclosure the defenders
were in a trap. The only exit into the city open to them was by the
small gate through which Justiniani had passed. The Military Gate
of St. Romanus, the Gate of the Assault, remained locked. A heap of
slain, Genoese and Greeks,[440] near it made escape impossible. The
defeat of the survivors of the gallant band which Justiniani had led
was forthwith completed by a body of the Janissaries who entered the
Enclosure across the broken stockade, formed themselves in regular
order, and swept everything before them.[441] Their overwhelming
numbers soon enabled them to kill all opponents who had not escaped
into the city. The great wall being partly broken down and without
defenders, and the Gate of St. Romanus being forced or opened, access
to the city was easy. A band made their way to the Adrianople Gate,
which they opened from the inside, and the city was from that moment in
the power of the enemy.[442]
As the sun rose Mahomet saw that his great effort had succeeded. Where
Arabs, with even greater numbers than he commanded, in the first flush
of the victorious career of Islam, with the presence of the great
Eyoub, the companion of the Prophet, to encourage them and to speak
of the wondrous rewards which Paradise had in store for the believers
who should enter New Rome or die in the attempt; where Murad thirty
years before; and where twenty other besieging armies had been unable
to capture the world’s capital, he had succeeded. Seated on horseback
beneath his great standard and insignia, he watched with the legitimate
pride of a conqueror the entry of his hordes into the city.[443] The
morning sun shed its rays upon him and his standard as his soldiers
thronged through the Gate of the Assault or hastened towards that of
Adrianople. The entry was not long after sunrise and probably between
five and six o’clock.[444]
[Sidenote: Capture of city due to two accidents.]
If credit is to be given to the story of the entry of the Turks at the
Kerkoporta as related by Ducas, then it may be said that the capture of
the city was due to two accidents: the leaving open of that gate and
the wound of Justiniani. It is beyond doubt that the immediate cause
of the capture was the withdrawal of John Justiniani, followed by the
flight of a considerable number of his men.
In the words of Cambini, a contemporary of the siege, but writing at a
sufficiently remote period to look calmly upon the events he narrates,
Justiniani had so conducted himself that, until he was wounded, every
one looked to him for the salvation of the city, and upon his quitting
the battlefield the courage of those whom he led failed them.
Whatever hypothesis as to the character of his wound be accepted,
whether when urged by the emperor he could have remained or not, his
departure was an irretrievable misfortune. Few as were the defenders
when compared with the great host attacking, they had never altogether
lost hope. The Podestà of Galata, writing within a month of the capture
of the city, declares that he and the Genoese longed for the general
attack, because victory for the Christians appeared certain.[445] On
the other hand, there is reason to believe that the besiegers were
far from confident of being able to capture it. There was, as we have
seen, a strong peace party in Mahomet’s camp headed by Halil Pasha. The
reports were well founded of a fleet in the Archipelago on its way to
the city. Thirty ships sent by the pope had arrived at Chios and were
awaiting favourable winds at the time they heard of the success of
Mahomet.[446]
There were rumours of a Hungarian army coming to attack them in the
rear. The emperor had promised to give Selymbria to Hunyadi in return
for his aid. Some inkling of the arrangement may have reached the
sultan. The king of Catalonia had made an agreement with Constantine
in return for the island of Lemnos.[447] It is in the highest degree
probable that Mahomet believed that if any of these forces should
arrive before Constantinople either by land or by sea, he would have to
abandon the siege. With these possible dangers threatening him, it is
not unreasonable to conclude that if the besieged could have succeeded
in repulsing the Turks in their greatest attack, and have held the
city for even one day longer, Mahomet himself would have considered
it necessary to withdraw his army, and Constantinople might possibly
have been saved for Europe. Hence the withdrawal of Justiniani was an
event of supreme importance. It led to the capture and decided the fate
of the city, and gave the death-blow to the Eastern Empire. The ships
bringing help, which were on their way, were too late. One is almost
driven to the belief of Pusculus, ‘Auxilium Deus ipse negavit.’[448]
[Sidenote: Death of Constantine.]
In the struggle which took place, the emperor bore a part worthy of his
name and of his position. He perished among his own subjects and the
remnant of the Latins who were aiding him. Whether the story related
by Ducas and Leonard, that the emperor asked if there was no Christian
willing to kill him, be true or not, there can be no doubt that he met
his death like a brave man. All accounts attest his courage. Critobulus
states that when he saw that the enemy had succeeded and were pouring
through the breaches in the walls, he shouted, ‘The city is taken and I
am still alive,’ and thereupon dashed into the midst of the enemy and
was killed.[449]
[Sidenote: Manner of his death.]
The manner of his death is, however, doubtful. No contemporary writer
was present. Phrantzes, who had attended him at and after midnight,
expressly tells us that he had been sent on duty elsewhere. Critobulus
states that the emperor fell near the postern which Justiniani had
opened from the city to the stockade;[450] Leonard, that he was struck
down by a Janissary, recovered himself, was again struck down and
killed.[451] Ducas declares that two Turks claimed to have killed the
emperor and to have taken his head, which was recognised by Notaras,
and that it was placed on a column in the Augusteum, then stuffed and
sent to be shown in Persia, Arabia, and Asia Minor.[452] The story of
Ducas is to a certain extent confirmed by the Moscovite, who states
that a scribe brought the head of the emperor to Mahomet, who, when
he was assured that it was genuine, kissed it and then sent it to the
patriarch. It was then encased in a silver vase and buried under the
altar of St. Sophia. He adds that the body was carried in the night to
Galata and there buried.[453] To some extent their story is confirmed
by Pusculus, who says that in struggling with the Janissaries ‘at the
mound,’ where he killed three Turks, he was slain by the mighty stroke
of a sword; that his head was cut off from his shoulders by one who
knew him, and taken to Mahomet, who paid the promised reward.[454]
None of these stories as to the manner of death can be regarded as
altogether trustworthy. Barbaro, with the sailor-like bluntness which
usually characterises his matter-of-fact statements when not attacking
the Genoese, says, ‘No news was received of his fate, whether he was
living or dead, but some say that his body was seen among the number
of the dead, while others asserted that he was trampled to death at
the entry which the Turks made at the gate of St. Romanus.’ Phrantzes,
who, like Barbaro, was in the city at the time, records that, after
the capture, the sultan caused diligent search to be made to learn
whether the emperor was alive or dead; that men were sent to seek among
the heaps of the slain; that many heads were washed, but no one could
recognise that of the emperor; but that a body was found which had the
imperial eagles embroidered on the socks and greaves, and that this
body was given over to the Christians to be buried with due honours.
Phrantzes[455] does not profess to have seen the body, and makes no
mention of the head having been brought to the sultan and recognised
by Notaras the Grand Duke, as stated by Ducas. Tetaldi confirms the
statement that the emperor died at the time of the assault. He adds,
‘Some say that he had his head sliced off; others that he died at the
gate _en s’en cuidant yssir_. Either story may be true. He died in the
throng, and the Turks would have cut off his head.’
Against the version of Phrantzes is to be placed the fact that his tomb
is unknown and that no contemporary--or, indeed, subsequent--writer
mentions where it was. Had it existed, it is not likely to have been
forgotten by the Greeks. Had the body been purposely buried in a secret
place, there would probably have grown up a legend about it which would
have kept its memory green.[456]
[Sidenote: Character of Constantine.]
Constantine Palaeologus Dragases in the fiftieth year of his age
disappears amid the final charge of the Turkish Janissaries. Although
there were rumours of his escape, his death within the Inner Enclosure
of the Lycus valley cannot reasonably be doubted. His conduct during
the whole of the siege had earned respect. He had done his best to
encourage his subjects to fight bravely, had stimulated them by his
speech and by his example. He had spared no exertion day and night to
organise the defence, had tried to reconcile hostile parties and to
unite all for the common safety. When the long-standing jealousies
and rivalries between his own subjects and the citizens of the two
republics threatened to weaken the force available for the defence of
the city, it was he who by his personal influence and the respect
and even affection which he had acquired and inspired persuaded them
to postpone their quarrels. Fanatical Greeks and equally fanatical
Catholics had almost forgotten for the time their animosities and
had joined forces for the honour of God and for the defence of
Christianity. At his instigation, Roman cardinal and Orthodox bishops
had thrown themselves energetically into the common labour of resisting
the Moslem hordes. At his entreaty the task of completing the Union of
the Churches was by common accord allowed to stand over. The example
of the religious chiefs was followed by their flocks. Whenever we are
able to get a glimpse of the emperor’s personality we see him as a
man without conspicuous ability but whose devotion to his country was
complete, whose sympathy made friends of all who were brought into
contact with him, and won for him the admiration of his own troops and
of the brave Italians who fought under him. His refusal to leave the
city when urged to do so by the patriarch and other leaders both of
the Church and people was the more praiseworthy when it is remembered
that the arguments in favour of departure were at least plausible, and
that he had apparently come to the conclusion that, in spite of all his
exertions, Mahomet would succeed in capturing it.
He was holding the last great stronghold of Eastern Christianity
against the attempt of Islam to capture that which in the eyes of all
Moslems represented the capital of Christendom. The steadfastness and
tenacity with which the imperial city had maintained its lordship
for upwards of a thousand years and had during the whole of that
period served as a bulwark against the invasion of Europe by Asiatic
hordes were worthily represented in its last emperor. Various
causes, for which he can in no way be held responsible, had sapped
the strength of the city and made its capture possible, but with
a Roman obstinacy that would have done honour to the best of his
predecessors he deliberately chose not to abandon it but to die in
its defence. To his eternal honour it must be said that, despairing
of or not considering the question of ultimate success, he never
wavered, never omitted any precaution to deserve victory, but fought on
heroically to the end and finally sacrificed his life for his people,
his country and Christendom. The exact spot where he lies buried is
unknown, but, in the bold metaphor, quoted as already old by the great
consort of Justinian, he judged that ‘the empire was an excellent
winding-sheet.’[457] His death was a fitting and honourable end of the
Eastern Roman Empire.