Download or read book The Fall of Constantinople 1453 written by Steven Runciman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-26 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This classic account shows how the fall of Constantinople in May 1453, after a siege of several weeks, came as a bitter shock to Western Christendom. The city's plight had been neglected, and negligible help was sent in this crisis. To the Turks, victory not only brought a new imperial capital, but guaranteed that their empire would last. To the Greeks, the conquest meant the end of the civilisation of Byzantium, and led to the exodus of scholars stimulating the tremendous expansion of Greek studies in the European Renaissance.

Download or read book The Siege and the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 written by Marios Philippides and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-05-02 with total page 919 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This major study is a comprehensive scholarly work on a key moment in the history of Europe, the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The result of years of research, it presents all available sources along with critical evaluations of these narratives. The authors have consulted texts in all relevant languages, both those that remain only in manuscript and others that have been printed, often in careless and inferior editions. Attention is also given to 'folk history' as it evolved over centuries, producing prominent myths and folktales in Greek, medieval Russian, Italian, and Turkish folklore. Part I, The Pen, addresses the complex questions introduced by this myriad of original literature and secondary sources.

Download or read book Constantinople written by Philip Mansel and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2011-11-10 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philip Mansel's highly acclaimed history absorbingly charts the interaction between the vibrantly cosmopolitan capital of Constantinople - the city of the world's desire - and its ruling family. In 1453, Mehmed the Conqueror entered Constantinople on a white horse, beginning an Ottoman love affair with the city that lasted until 1924, when the last Caliph hurriedly left on the Orient Express. For almost five centuries Constantinople, with its enormous racial and cultural diversity, was the centre of the dramatic and often depraved story of an extraordinary dynasty.

Download or read book A Place Called Armageddon written by C. C. Humphreys and published by Sourcebooks Landmark. This book was released on 2013-06-04 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With Muslim soldiers outside the gates of Constantinople, Gregoras, who once vowed never to return to the cursed home that betrayed him, hears the desperate call for help.

Download or read book Constantine XI Draga Palaeologus 1404 1453 written by Marios Philippides and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-09-03 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Constantine XI’s last moments in life, as he stood before the walls of Constantinople in 1453, have bestowed a heroic status on him. This book produces a more balanced portrait of an intriguing individual: the last emperor of Constantinople. To be sure, the last of the Greek Caesars was a fascinating figure, not so much because he was a great statesman, as he was not, and not because of his military prowess, as he was neither a notable tactician nor a soldier of exceptional merit. This monarch may have formulated grandiose plans but his hopes and ambitions were ultimately doomed, because he failed to inspire his own subjects, who did not rally to his cause. Constantine lacked the skills to create, restore, or maintain harmony in his troubled realm. In addition, he was ineffective on the diplomatic front, as he proved unable to stimulate Latin Christendom to mount an expedition and come to the aid of south-eastern Orthodox Europe. Yet in sharp contrast to his numerous shortcomings, his military defeats, and the various disappointments during his reign, posterity still fondly remembers the last Constantine.

Download or read book Constantinople 1453 written by David Nicolle and published by Greenwood. This book was released on 2005 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title details the epic four-month siege of the city of Constantinople, last vestige of the once mighty Roman and Byzantine Empires. Mehmet 'The Conqueror' led an army of 80,000 men with a massive siege train against the city. Defending were a mere 10,000 men under the Emperor Constantine XI. The Turkish artillery battered the ancient city walls mercilessly, levelling a large section. A gallant defence held off the massive Turkish assault for several hours. Refusing appeals to flee, Constantine returned to the breaches and fought until overwhelmed and killed. Thus died the last Emperor of the Byzantines and with him his once glorious empire. David Nicolle examines one of the most famous military encounters in history, which marked the final demise of the Roman/Byzantine Empire.

Download or read book The Siege of Constantinople 1453 Seven Contemporary Accounts written by and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book fall of constantinople written by and published by . This book was released on 1886 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Fall of Constantinople written by David Nicolle and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 2007-05-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Byzantium was the last bastion of the Roman Empire following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It fought for survival for eight centuries until, in the mid-15th century, the emperor Constantine XI ruled just a handful of whittled down territories, an empire in name and tradition only. This lavishly illustrated book chronicles the history of Byzantium, the evolution of the defenses of Constantinople and the epic siege of the city, which saw a force of 80,000 men repelled by a small group of determined defenders until the Turks smashed the city's protective walls with artillery. Regarded by some as the tragic end of the Roman Empire, and by others as the belated suppression of an aging relic by an ambitious young state, the impact of the capitulation of the city resonated through the centuries and heralded the rapid rise of the Islamic Ottoman Empire.

Download or read book 1453 written by Roger Crowley and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2013-02-12 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gripping exploration of the fall of Constantinople and its connection to the world we live in today. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 signaled a shift in history and the end of the Byzantium Empire. Roger Crowley's readable and comprehensive account of the battle between Mehmet II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and Constantine XI, the 57th emperor of Byzantium, illuminates the period in history that was a precursor to the current conflict between the West and the Middle East. For a thousand years Constantinople was quite simply "the city": fabulously wealthy, imperial, intimidating - and Christian. Singlehandedly it blunted early Arab enthusiasm for Holy War; when a second wave of Islamic warriors swept out of the Asian steppes in the Middle Ages, Constantinople was the ultimate prize: "The Red Apple." It was a city that had always lived under threat. On average it had survived a siege every forty years for a millennium – until the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmet II, twenty-one years old and hungry for glory, rode up to the walls in April 1453 with a huge army, "numberless as the stars." 1453 is the taut, vivid story of this final struggle for the city, told largely through the accounts of eyewitnesses. For fifty-five days a tiny group of defenders defied the huge Ottoman army in a seesawing contest fought on land, at sea, and underground. During the course of events, the largest cannon ever built was directed against the world’s most formidable defensive system, Ottoman ships were hauled overland into the Golden Horn, and the morale of defenders was crucially undermined by unnerving portents. At the center is the contest between two inspirational leaders, Mehmed II and Constantine XI, fighting for empire and religious faith, and an astonishing finale in a few short hours on May 29, 1453 – a defining moment for medieval history. 1453 is both a gripping work of narrative history and an account of the war between Christendom and Islam that still has echoes in the modern world.

Download or read book The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans written by Michael Angold and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-11 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 marked the end of a thousand years of the Christian Roman Empire. Thereafter, world civilisation began a process of radical change. The West came to identify itself as Europe; the Russians were set on the path of autocracy; the Ottomans were transformed into a world power while the Greeks were left exiles in their own land. The loss of Constantinople created a void. How that void was to be filled is the subject of this book. Michael Angold examines the context of late Byzantine civilisation and the cultural negotiation which allowed the city of Constantinople to survive for so long in the face of Ottoman power. He shows how the devastating impact of its fall lay at the centre of a series of interlocking historical patterns which marked this time of decisive change for the late medieval world. This concise and original study will be essential reading for students and scholars of Byzantine and late medieval history, as well as anyone with an interest in this significant turning point in world history.

Download or read book The Fall of Constantinople written by Ruth Tenzer Feldman and published by Twenty-First Century Books. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did the loss of one city change the history of Europe? In the Middle Ages, Constantinople’s perfect geographic location—positioned along a land trade route between Europe and Asia as well as on a strategic seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean— made the city extremely desirous, and as a result, prone to attack. Under the control of the Roman and Byzantine Empires, Constantinople became known as "the Eye of the World," a center of government, trade, art, religion, and learning, and was even more desirous. Rulers built three sets of walls to protect Constantinople from attacks by Asiatic tribes. But the city’s fall to the Turkish Ottomans in 1453 marked the official end of the Byzantine Empire—and the end of the Middle Ages. Learn how the fall of Constantinople became one of history’s most pivotal moments.

Download or read book City of Fortune written by Roger Crowley and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-01-24 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The rise and fall of Venice’s empire is an irresistible story and [Roger] Crowley, with his rousing descriptive gifts and scholarly attention to detail, is its perfect chronicler.”—The Financial Times The New York Times bestselling author of Empires of the Sea charts Venice’s astounding five-hundred-year voyage to the pinnacle of power in an epic story that stands unrivaled for drama, intrigue, and sheer opulent majesty. City of Fortune traces the full arc of the Venetian imperial saga, from the ill-fated Fourth Crusade, which culminates in the sacking of Constantinople in 1204, to the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1499–1503, which sees the Ottoman Turks supplant the Venetians as the preeminent naval power in the Mediterranean. In between are three centuries of Venetian maritime dominance, during which a tiny city of “lagoon dwellers” grow into the richest place on earth. Drawing on firsthand accounts of pitched sea battles, skillful negotiations, and diplomatic maneuvers, Crowley paints a vivid picture of this avaricious, enterprising people and the bountiful lands that came under their dominion. From the opening of the spice routes to the clash between Christianity and Islam, Venice played a leading role in the defining conflicts of its time—the reverberations of which are still being felt today. “[Crowley] writes with a racy briskness that lifts sea battles and sieges off the page.”—The New York Times “Crowley chronicles the peak of Venice’s past glory with Wordsworthian sympathy, supplemented by impressive learning and infectious enthusiasm.”—The Wall Street Journal

Download or read book The Conquest of Constantinople written by Robert de Clari and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) comprised French knights and Venetian sailors; they set out to capture the Holy Land but ended up sacking Constantinople, the Byzantine capital. Robert of Clari, an obscure knight from Picardy, provides an extraordinary account of the trials, travails, and decidedly mixed triumphs of the Fourth Crusade. Told from the perspective of an ordinary soldier, The Conquest of Constantinople offers a rare and colorful firsthand description of the crusaders' various experiences, including the hardships they endured and the battles they fought.

Download or read book History of Mehmed the Conqueror written by Kritovoulos and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Five hundred years ago the great walled city of Constantinople fell under the relentless siege of the Ottoman Turks led by Sultan Mehmed II, Mehmed the Conqueror. Kristovoulos, one of the vanquished Greeks, later entered into the service of the Conqueror and began to write a history of the Sultan's life, starting with the year 1451, the beginning of Mehmed's 31-year reign. Death apparently prevented Kritovoulos from completing his account, but the manuscript covering the first seventeen years has been preserved and this exciting chronicle is here translated into English for the first time. Charles T. Riggs, who died in February 1953 at Robert College in modern Istanbul, was a missionary in the Near East. Originally published in 1954. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Download or read book 1453 written by Billy Kotsis and published by . This book was released on 2020-09-09 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Battles, intrigue, good vs evil, romance, history and betrayal.... Welcome to the year, 14531453 is told as a story by the emperor's secretary, George Sphrantzes, which includes a number of 'first person' accounts and flashbacks to other eras that impacted the Byzantine Empire. While this is based mostly on facts and stories that took place in 1453, it also includes drama, with the occasional sense of humour and romance added in.Constantinople/Byzantium, one of the greatest cities in Greek history, became a shadow of its former self, due to civil wars and the betrayal of the Crusaders of 1204. Against the backdrop of a controversial 'union' of churches with the Vatican, the emperor must find a way to save his city, with just 8,000 soldiers, meagre resources and a sultan who could bring 120,000 fighters and his musical trumpets to the gates of Constantinople. Those gates and walls were bombarded and attacked over a period of six weeks, with twists and turns in the fortunes of both leaders throughout.The brilliance of Emperor Constantine Paleologos, against the genius of Sultan Mehmet, two leaders who would define the fortunes of two significant empires; the millennium old Byzantine Empire and the growing Ottoman entity.Add to the mix, the betrayal by some of the emperor's allies, a life of successes and disasters including heartbreak in the arena of love, Constantine was steeled enough to handle a siege. Could the young sultan hold his resolve too? Was he ready to take on the experience of the emperor and the walls of Constantinople?This is more than a tale of a siege. 1453, allows the reader to delve into some of the problems confronting the defenders, their bravery and their personalities. The charismatic Giustiniani and his soldiers from Chios and Genoa, the Venetians who stayed in the city, Orhan the Turkish prince and his followers who fought for the city, Grant the Scot who stood out with his unique appearance and humour, and a mysterious band of Cretans who simply had no idea how to lose.The sultan also had a myriad of characters at his side. Though, none as energetic and resourceful as this young leader who seemingly navigated one hurdle after the other in his pursuit of the city.This is far more than a Greeks vs Turks siege. It is about two empires representing multi-ethnicities, contrasting leaders who knew how to inspire their followers and a sub text of politics that was played out in Venice and the Vatican. A siege set on land and sea, it also highlights how some Christians fought with the sultan and how 700 Muslims also fought for the emperor.For all those inside and outside the walls, their theatre was, the eternal city of Constantinople. H Stin Poli, which today is called Istanbul.

Download or read book The End of Byzantium written by Jonathan Harris and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2011-01-25 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By 1400, the once-mighty Byzantine Empire stood on the verge of destruction. Most of its territories had been lost to the Ottoman Turks, and Constantinople was under close blockade. Against all odds, Byzantium lingered on for another fifty years until 1453, when the Ottomans dramatically toppled the capital's walls. During this bleak and uncertain time, ordinary Byzantines faced difficult decisions to protect their livelihoods and families against the death throes of their homeland. In this evocative and moving book, Jonathan Harris explores individual stories of diplomatic maneuverings, covert defiance, and sheer luck against a backdrop of major historical currents and offers a new perspective on the real reasons behind the fall of this extraordinarily fascinating empire.