Empire: World History - 24. The Fall of Constantinople

Episode Date: December 20, 2022

The biggest gun in history. A giant underwater chain. A previously unconquerable fortress. Inspirational leaders. Join William and Anita as they discuss the extraordinary story of 1453 and the Fall of Constantinople. To get your free two week trial for Find my past, go to www.findmypast.co.uk and sign up.   LRB Empire offer: lrb.me/xempire   Twitter: @Empirepoduk   Goalhangerpodcasts.com   Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Jack Davenport Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community. Discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcasts, add free listening and a weekly newsletter, sign up to Empire Club at www.mpower.com. Hello and welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arnan. And me, William Drupal. Aplause for the pause. Well done you. Look, wasn't last week fabulous? Peter Frankapan.

Oh, Frank Amanka. Frank Amanka really knocked it out of the park. Wasn't he? He was just fabulous and took us over two episodes through the collapse of Byzantium. And the beginning of the story that we have been, you know, really excited to tell you, which is the Ottoman Empire.

He has this extraordinary range. What was interesting was seeing, in a sense, all three of his books coming into play. We had a little bit of Adakamina, the First Crusade, and his first wonderful book, The Call from the East, which was the first book of his I read. And I remember inviting him to Jaipur long before he became the famous Peter Frankpan

of the Silk Roads to talk about Crusades. And we first of all bonded on the stage talking about a wonderful Arab memoirist called Zama Ibn Monquid, who he had written about. And anyway, he was wonderful on that. Then you had a bit of the Silk Roads and his theories about nomadic peoples coming in and the celljarks. And he told you off. He told me off several times.

Yes, I know. My mother really enjoyed that, by the way. Olive enjoyed it too. He put you in your place, didn't he? That's what my mother said. She goes, who is this Peter Frankapan? He's very funny. He kept telling you two, you were wrong.

And she was saying it was such glee. Thanks, Mum, if you're listening. It's true. He told me I was wrong rather than all the told you. It was honest. I think that's as it should be. He is a professor at both Oxford and Cambridge. He's allowed to do that.

But anyway, listen. This week, we are coming to a subject that you have lobbied hard for, and no wonder, it's such an interesting subject. I have been lobbying hard for this, and it's the cusp between two empires, in fact, rather than just one. And it's the moment of the fall of Constantinople, 1453, and the birth, in a sense of the Ottoman Empire. These were the two crucial empires, which dominated between them, the Middle East, for 1,500. years. There's a special reason for that. This is a book of the same name, the fall of Constantinople, 1453, by a man who really was your sort of your animal guide, your spirit cast. I don't know how to

call him, but he is your patroness. I'm sure you'd welcome that particular. Tell us about Rundsman and why he matters so much to you. Who is this man? So this man is Sir Stephen Rathamon, who I discovered traveling around the Middle East as a backpacker when I was 18, 19, 20. And it was really his books which made me want to become a historian. He wrote a famous and extraordinary three-volume history of the Crusades. He wrote a whole series of books about the history of Byzantine, which when he started writing in the 1930s was considered still to be a sort of a terrible, degenerate form of what had been the great classical Roman Empire. And at that period, in the aftermath

of Gibbon and the very negative views about Byzantium put out by Enlightenment thinkers, everyone looked down on this as a very dark and degenerate phase of the old Roman Empire. And Rutherland was part of the extraordinary generation of historians that reconsidered this whole chunk of world history. And he wrote a whole series of books. The last and to my mind the greatest of which, and my favorite history book, Full Stop, was the fall of Constantinople, which sees this extraordinary moment of cusp. Constantinople, of course, modern Istanbul is a city straddled between Europe and Asia. It sits on the dividing line, on the Bosphorus, between the two continents.

But it's also very much the cusp between two different cities, Byzantium, the Greek capital, founded by ancient Greek merchants and sailors between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara on the Hellespont, which then became for Constantine the capital of New Rome and as the Roman Empire in the West is beginning to look more and more shaky, it first becomes a double capital with Rome and then becomes the last surviving bit of the Roman Empire after the Western Empire collapses and Rome falls. and Ransman, as his greatest work, wrote this short but beautiful book about the moment that that city finally falls after many, many sieges by Arabs, Persians, Vikings, Avars and every imaginable sort of assailant. It's finally the great Ottoman Turkish army in 1453 that does for the city. And you have in this book, Rundsman was a wonderful thing.

for summoning up human beings. He was, to my mind, the greatest narrative historian of our time. Apart from the sublime writing, and you're absolutely right, because you rather airily said it gave me 24 hours, read Ronsamond's book, which I did. I thought it would be a chore, but it was an absolute delight. But then I fell into the rabbit hole of Ronson's life. And just before you go on with the subject matter, I don't even know if you know about this. But do you know his school friends included Cyril Connolly, George Orwell, and Puffin Asquith? First of all, his name was Puffin Asquith, who's the Prime Minister's son. I didn't know there was such a person as Puffin Asquith.

Puffin Asquith. I just feel that we ought to mark the fact that there was a Puffin Asquith, and he went to school with your hero. And he got a full scholarship to Trinity. This is Puffin or this is Rundsman? No, this is your man, Runtzeman. Your man, your grand Runtzeman. But also he got a full scholarship to go to Trinity. And one of his best maids was Cecil Beaton, who took pictures of him with a parrot on his finger.

There is a famous picture of him with a parrot, exactly, yeah, as this rather sort of beautiful, loose young man wearing a sort of Japanese kimono in this picture, as I remember. Yes, that's right. And that was actually, you know, the Japanese kimono and the very fashionable French wallpaper was his student digs, which just has really marked him out already from the beginning, as something quite unusual. And again, you know, he's very much part of that generation. He was tutored to no less than Guy Burgess, the Yes. Do you know what he said about Burgess when he was asked later? I mean, honestly, you really have eaten up most of my day just going down rabbit holes here. So thank you for that. I don't know any of this. Go on. Carry on. Yes, okay. So what did he say about Guy Burgess? He said he had intellectual brilliance and very dirty fingernails. So we ought to say, Guy Burgess was a notorious spy here, for those of you who don't know. But had very dirty fingernails. Who knew? But apparently he had very, very dirty fingernails.

but I love this kind of observation of the very, very small and the very large and grand, which also informs the writing. And I think, you know, he writes, actually I can totally see why he formed who you are because he writes the way you do. He builds enormous landscapes with small figures. Well, I've modelled my writing on him. Can I just read, I wrote something about it when I was, I suppose about 19, after I first went to see him, because he lived, fun enough, not very far from where I lived, grew up in Scotland. And he retired from Cambridge because he wanted to write. He decided, you know, he didn't really want to teach.

He wanted to write. And Guy Burgess's fingernails and other things obviously put him off entirely from the business of being a Don. And he decided that his talent was writing. And I'm very glad that he took the decision. He went off to a tower house in Scotland and sat there writing these extraordinary books. But before that, he'd lived this extraordinary life. And that's what I wrote in this piece, aged 19. Stephen Ranserman, who until his death, lived in a towerhouse in the Scottish borders,

was a most undonished don. He's been besieged by Manchu warlords in the city of Tianjin, but escaped to play a piano duet with the last emperor of China. He has lectured Ataturk on Byzantium and he made a grand orator of the great church of Constantinople, which is new Rome. He's smoked to hooker with a grand chelopey offendi of the whirling dervishes, and by reading their tarot cards correctly predicted the death of the death of King George the second of the Hellenes and Fuad, last king of Egypt.

Anyway, it goes on like this, but I was very dazzled by this guy who'd been everywhere. You totally were, yeah. Well, like most people who write about sieges, he'd actually been in one. I mean, how many of us have actually been in a siege? What I found utterly charming about it, I mean, apart from the fact you age 19, 20, writing about Runtzman, it is basically, I love him, I really love him, I really, really love him. But you miss out. I want to be him.

My friend, he would be proud of you today. Let me just tell you. Honestly, honestly, I can totally see how this is a continuity runciman in you. And he really is sublime. But one thing that you missed out, and again, I'm just delighting in the fact that I can tell you stuff. You found all sorts of stuff. I didn't know any of this, exactly. That's why the journalism, the historian thing works, my friend.

Did you know he was an honorary whirling dervish? I didn't know. Because he was. He wasn't an honorary. I should give up trying to be like him. Well, I mean, I think there's still time. I mean, I've seen you throw shapes on a dance floor. There's still time, William.

And also, I mean, you're in love with him, but you've also given me the love of my life now by accident. Because, so William, you are very annoying. So, like, just 24 hours ago before we were recording, you just sort of loftily went, read ransom. You're coming out of a plane at this point. I was coming off an airplane. Honestly, you're very lucky you're in India,

because if I could throw something, I would have done. No, I could tell it wasn't a remark that went down well by the silence, which followed. No, it really wasn't. I was trying to get my cabin down. And then there is, you know, the emperor, Dalrymple going, go to find his book, darling. It's marvellous. But anyway, I found something even better who has given me my spirit animal, who is a man called Nathan Kennett, who does the audio version of his book. And let me tell you about, I mean, this is all a bit of a sidebar, but it's just delightful.

He is the love child, Nathan Kennet, of your brother. Richard Burton, George the 5th, and Orson Wells. Because this is an accent you have never heard before in your life. Where did you find this on Audible? No, no. I did a deep dive on the internet and I found him on YouTube. But he refers to, I mean, he's reading Ronson and Your Hero, which is already beautiful. But he reads it in this most spectacular way, talking about the authoritaires, ambassadors,

each sad thought itself to be taking defensive action. I mean, honestly, it's a, I can neither place the... straight onto YouTube after we finish this recording and he heard this. So gorgeous. I'm sorry, I've said, you haven't told me before. I'd love to. No, no, I thought I'd save it up for right now, but I'm in love with Nathan Kenneth. But anyway, together, Nathan Kennett and your man Rundsenman, Stephen Rundsman, have eaten my day.

Right. Shall we get into the meat of the matter now? Shall we get into 1453 itself and why this siege is so very, very important? William, why does it mark one of the most important chapters of history in this part? the world. Well, if you think of all the different kingdoms and empires that have come and gone across the history of Europe, bizarrely, the history of the Middle East only really has two empires, which take us from, well, I suppose, the Battle of Actium, you know, 50 BC, to the First World War in 1914. And Byzantium and then the Ottoman successively hold that entire arc of the world

during that enormous long period of history. And the one break is 1453, when Byzantium goes down and the Ottomans take their capital for their own. So, I mean, just to remind you, those of you who haven't listened to the Francoban episode so we keep banging on about, they're really, really good, go back and listen to them,

stop what you're doing, and go back and listen to them. But if you haven't, he painted a very beautiful picture of a dying city. So it's a city of vineyards and fields. it has shrunk from a million strong in the 12th century down to 100,000 people. Money is running short and it really is a problem, isn't it, financing? Because the crowns even, they prized out gemstones, William, and put in glass instead. That sort of tells you, doesn't it?

What kind of situation they're facing? I'm going to ask this several times over the course of the next hour, but can I read a bit of ransom? Of course you can. Of course you can. This is some of the opening passages of the fall of Constantinople, and it's Ransman's description of the decaying city, which had once been the greatest city on earth, and now was this. Despite the brilliance of its scholars, Constantinople, by the close of the 14th century, was a melancholy, dying city, the population which, with that of the suburbs had numbered about

one million in the 12th century had shrunk now to more than 100,000 and was still shrinking. The suburbs across the Bosphorus were already in Turkish hands. Pira, across the golden horn, was a Genoese colony. Of the suburbs along the Thracian shore and the Bosphorus and the Marmara, once studied with splendid villas and rich monasteries, only a few hamlets were left, clustering around some ancient church. The city itself, within 14 miles of encircling walls, had even in its greatest days been full of parks and gardens, dividing the various quarters. But now many quarters had disappeared, and fields and orchards separated those that remained.

The traveller Ibn Batuta in the mid-14th century counted 13 distinct townlets within the walls. At the south end of the city, the buildings of the old Imperial Palace were no longer habitable. The last Latin Emperor in his extremity, after selling off most of the city's holy relics to St. Louis and before pouring his son and heir to the Venetians, had stripped the lead off all the roofs and disposed of them for cash. Neither Michael Paliologos nor any of his successors had ever had enough money to restore them. Only a few of the churches were maintained within its grounds, such as the Nea Basilica of Basil I and the Church of the Mother of God at the Faros. nearby the hippodrome was crumbling. Young men and the ability used the arena to play polo. Across the square, the patriarchal palace still contained the patriarch's offices, but he no longer

ventured to reside there. Only the great cathedral of holy wisdom of God, Santa Sophia, was still splendid, and its upkeep was the special charge of state revenues. So you get this impression of this city with this huge extent, which had once enclosed a million people and the richest churches and the richest palaces. And now it's reduced to a few remaining areas of habitation surrounded by vineyards and gardens and fields. Can I tell you a little side tit-bid story? Because you know how I like those.

You mentioned I'm bit bit. You know how I love my tip-bids. There is, I'm trying to find, I was rifling through it. It's one of the things I've been reading in the period. But Ibn Batuta, when he first goes to Constantinople, is told, because he speaks Arabic, of course, and they don't in the city. They still speak Greek. So he's taken to a man who has been paid a lot of money by the palace to be a translator into Arabic. And Ibn Batuta talks to him, and the man just tracks at him and looks quite panicky, and then is sort of prodded and then starts

talking some garbage back. And Ibn Bittito again says, what the hell are you doing? What is this? It turns out this man has been taking money as a translator. It's the best story ever. It's been taking money quite happily and has not one idea of Arabic that has been making quite a lot of money. As an Arabic translator on standby. It was my favourite Ibn Batuta story. But back to our story. So look, it's in a parlour state.

And we have to sort of, again, just remind people why. This is a place that was once the Queen. of cities. The Vikings called it Micklegarth, the great city, and you have these great descriptions by the Vikings coming when it's at its peak and they're just dazzled by this place and they're let in only with sort of escorts

because they're Vikings. Yes. Don't leave them unsupervised. You're doing an unsupervised Viking. Wandering around. No, you do. I think that's actually quite good advice even today. And then there's also these wonderful embassies, I can't remember whether it's your friend Leoprand of Camusona or someone else, who comes in...

Yes, yes, Leopran of Comona, yeah, and is rude. And it's rude about everybody. There's one occasion when one of the envoys goes in to see the emperor and he's sitting on his throne and the guy bows down. And when he looks up, the emperor has suddenly sprung up. They put some sort of mechanical contraption on the throne. And he's up in the air, 30 feet in the air, on some enormous joister.

A surque to Salé comes out of the Behold or Emperor. But, you know, look, I mean, that's all very glamorous. But the reason, again, and we just backfill a little bit here, the reason why, you know, Rundtman is able to write in such a moving way about the terrible state of affairs is because this is a place that's been hammered. You know, from the east, you've got tribal raiders. From the west, you've got these economic pressures. You've got, you know, thanks to crusaders who've been sent by Rome to have a little divert looting

in the city. This is a place that's been kind of brought to its knees. That is now surrounded. The Ottomans have gone way out into as far as the Danube. And so it's just this little Byzantine island surrounded by Ottomans on all sides. So obviously it stays are numbered.

Yeah. I think they, yes, that's right. They only have a few outlying places, a bit of the Peloponnese and the city. That's it. That's all they have now. So, okay, so now the emperor, Michael Palaiologis, is in trouble. And he needs allies to help him push back against this Ottoman ambition. And there is a reason that the Ottomans really want this city. I mean, first of all, it is often referred to as the bone in the throat of

Allah, that all of the areas around it are for Islam. Also, I mean, there's an ancient story about the standard bearer for the prophet died in the city and therefore it is a holy city and it is only a matter of time before it's reclaimed. So he feels, the emperor, Michael, feels very strongly and quite rightly, that this pressing in is not going to stop now at the gates. They're going to come in. So what does he do? He goes on this great search around Western Europe looking for allies, and he goes to Italy, he goes to France, he even comes to England. And he spends Christmas Day at the Palace of Eltham, this unlikely thing a Byzantine emperor coming to Britain in 1400.

Incidentally, you know, I met his descendant running a supermarket to the Peloponnese this autumn. I mean, really? Actually, the last of the Palooga guy lives in Cardamilly, and he runs a supermarket. Did he just tell you he was, or was he genuinely? He genuinely was. He was, his father, I think, was first written about by Patrick Lee Furmore, who moved to Cardamilly. And he was pointed out to me, that's where the last, that's where the last Pallelogus lives. He runs supermarket.

That's amazing. Would it be a stretch to say, and I can't remember if Peter, Frankapann did say this, but You know, that kind of desperate tour of Europe looking for allies? Did he say, or am I just imagining it? It's a little bit like Zelensky nowadays going all over the place saying, help me, help me. The wolves are at the gate. You've got to help me.

It's very like that. But the difference is that it's very, he has to do just one thing to get all the assistance he needs, and that is to convert to Catholicism, because these two great churches have been now separated for 400 years. The great schism. The great schism. Since the 11th century, the Orthodox Church is no longer on speaking terms with the Catholic Church. And all the Catholic powers in Europe say it will help you, we'll send ships, we'll send galleys, we'll send everything you need, just convert to Catholicism. And of course, he can't do that because all his people would just overthrow him. And then there's the 1439, there's the Council of Florence, when the whole of the Byzantine church hierarchy goes to Florence and they attempt to bring about a union in all. to allow the aid to come on in. And I think they agreed to have union, but by the time they get back home, the people in Constantinople rejected, particularly the monks of Mount Athos,

won't have it. And so it never comes into effect. And so the Great Crusade to rescue Byzantium never happens. And they're more or less on their own as the Ottomans close in. And the thing is the Ottomans are closing in, and even that is interesting, because the Ottomans have tried this before. They've tried to take the city before and they've failed. In fact, it is the father of the current Sultan who has tried this and embarrassed himself in the past. It's been a moment of great humiliation. Just tell us about that first attempt to take the city by the Ottomans. Well, Ransman said there were 100,000 at this time. I've read in books written since then that I think the estimates today are that there was half that. There are only 50,000 left in the wars of

Constantinople. But we're talking about 1422, right? This is the first time that they try and the city of the Ottomans. And yet at that time, even then, although there's virtually no one left in the city enough to put a proper army out to fight, still the Ottomans can't get in the walls. Because not only is the city defended by the greatest walls, city walls ever built, the great Theodosian land wars. There's amazing sea walls. And then there's this fantastic boom that they put across the golden horn, this chain that they can put, which stops warships getting in. by land and by sea. Now, when you say chain, you say it as if it makes complete sense, but you're talking about an absolutely bloody great, I mean, it is a chain made of links and metal that is what just strung along the harbour. How does it work, the great chain? From one side to the other, and they can winch it up and block any ship coming in. And I believe it's still in the Naval Museum in Istanbul. I remember seeing in guidebooks, there's a bitter few links of this chain still surviving.

So, okay, so it's got, it's got this great chain, but also we should sort of remind people that it's also, it's fortified by this amazing triple wall structure. Do you want to talk about that? I mean, that also is fascinating. Well, this is built way back in the 5th century by the Emperor Theodosius II, and it's one of the great masterpieces of ancient engineering, right up there with what IASOphia is for, for ecclesiastical architecture. In other words, the very greatest church ever built until the Renaissance.

So the Theodosian land walls are to city defenses. And it's an amazingly sophisticated system of walls and ditches and floodable moats. And it has kept out everyone that has tried to attack the city since the fifth century. So it's an incredibly impregnable city. So even though the Ottomans have this vast army, and even though there are no almost no Byzantines left, and even the monks don't make up 50,000 people, if you include them, still it can hold on.

But then comes along our man, Mehmet II. Well, this is a good point to take a break. So let's take a break and then join us after the break when we come and introduce you to the man who will change everything, Mehmet the second. Welcome back. Just before the break, we had tantalizingly showing you a glimpse of the man who really matters in all of this.

Mehmet the second. Well, here's Ransom his description of him. I love this. He was handsome of middle height, but strongly built. His face was dominated by a pair of piercing eyes under arched eyebrows and a thin hooked nose that curved over a mouth with full red lips.

In later life, his features reminded men of a parrot about to eat ripe cherries. That's awesome. Okay, so we know what we're getting with him. We haven't actually done justice to the man who's facing him on the opposite side, and that's Constantine the 11th, the last of the Palaeologis is. What was he like? He was much older, wasn't he?

He was much older. Mehmet II was only 20. I mean, he wouldn't have even have got a boy. He wouldn't be allowed to drink in America by the time he captured Constantinople. while, yes, Constantine the 11th Palaiologus was 48. And he was this, I mean, he is the man to fill the role. He is your archetypal sort of bulldog who looks very good in a suit of armor and is prepared to fight to the end.

He's not an intellectual. He's not a great, he's not a great theologian. He's not renowned for his patronage of the arts or anything like that. But he is the man of the moment who can rally. troops as the Ottomans come close. I mean, he has a tactical mind. He's a soldier, in a way. So the first thing, you know, rather than sort of now looking out for help that may not come

and in historical experience doesn't come, they get nice words when they go to Elton, but they don't actually get much help. He starts to fortify the city. So he does that, first of all, doesn't he, by gathering all the city arms together and looking to the walls, which have fallen. I mean, they're old walls, aren't they, William? They've been starting for quite a long time. Well, it's been around since the fifth century.

They're almost a thousand years old. And he repairs them. He gathers all the cities. And he raises the famous chain. So the chain now blocks the entrance to the golden horn. But they then do a quick head count. And they've got these, what is it, 15 miles of walls. And they do a count.

And to their horror, they find that there's only 4,983 adult troops in the city. Crumbs. And marching towards them. are 300,000 Ottomans. Imagine that. I mean, that's not fair. It's an extraordinary. But it's not fair.

It is this sort of Tolkien-like moment. It is. And I love this. I love this also, you know, when they've done the headcount, 400, 4,983 adult troops, including monks. How useful are your monks? Are these fighting monks? I think they must be fighting monks.

They're certainly included in the mother of fact. Swinging a chasuble, maybe. Doing a lawsuit. over their heads with a, or fog you over the head with a cross. One ally, though, that will make a huge difference, the Genoese, because they have historically been useful before. They've stood by the Byzantine leadership before, and they will do again. And this kind of... So there is a reason for this, is that when Constantinople fell at the Fourth Crusade, the people pushing that were the Venetians. And when Constantinople was recaptured

at the end of the Latin Kingdom, the Venetians are banished, because they're the bad in this story. And of course, they're great, the Venetians, great enemies and allies of the Byzantines are the Genoese. So the Genoese get Pira just over the golden horn, and they get their own little colony, and they are the last sort of lifeline. And Genoa does send 700 men under a fantastic general called Giustiani Longo. And so there's just just 7,000 foreign allies at this vital moment when they need the whole of Europe to come and ride to their defense. There's just 7,000. But there's, And also, and this is one of my favorite details, there's a Scottish engineer called John Grant, who turns up, and he's a mining expert.

What the hell is he doing over there? No idea what he's doing here. He's come via Germany, and he is useful because when the, during the siege, when, as in all medieval sieges, there is mining activity and people try to undermine the walls, John Grant leads the countermine, and he mines under the miners and manages to, there's a famous moment when he actually manages to break into the Ottoman mining operations and kill all the troops in there. So there's the Scots and the Jesuits and the only two allies left to these poor 5,000, including monk Byzantines. Yeah. But also, I mean, just to say, you know, there is this charismatic figure doesn't do it justice.

Because Justiniani Longo is, I'm just trying to think of the equivalent, it's like the talismanic player who comes on at half-time. is going to score the goals that bring you back. He is, I mean, it's almost as if people think he's got mystical powers, this man in warfare. He obviously was very charismatic. And his arrival, despite the fact he's only brought 700 men, and this is the total number of allies that appear to try and save this doomed city. Despite the fact that he's only got 700, it's a big deal because he's this huge charismatic figure. And he seems to rally everyone.

People are thrilled to be there. He shouts and they're terrified. They see these, you know, masses of troops that are heading for them with their drums and their, you know, fires by night. Yes. I mean, they, they, the Ottomans aren't stealthy about coming to the walls and they want to make their presence known and they want to make. Well, if you're 300,000 men, it's quite difficult to be stealthy. The air would be reverberating. You'd, you know, you'd almost sort of smell the smoke from their, their fires and their torches. And you would just feel your heart beating to the rhythm of their drums. That's how terrifying. it must have been. And yet he is able to make people think they can hold the city. It's an extraordinary power. And so there's two different armies converging on the city. There's the Ottoman army in Europe, because remember by this stage, the Ottomans have gone way over into what's now Eastern Europe, the Danube. And so this enormous army of between 150,000 and 300,000 troops come from the west to the land wars. But the first really sinister sign that something is up comes even before that on the 15th of April, 1452,

when the Ottomans coming from the East, from the Anatolian side, from the Asian side, cross the Bosphorus into Byzantine territory. And without asking permission or announcing themselves, they build their own fortress on the Byzantine side of the Bosphorus. And this is still there today. It's a gorgeous round fortress called Rumele Hussar. If you drive up from Bebek, you can see it. But at the time, it's just known as the straight cutter. Boyaz Kesson, the straight cutter. So, I mean, it's effectively cutting them off.

Is that why it's called the straight cutter? Exactly that. It just severs them from the rest of supply lines, any kind of troop movements. They are cut off from the back. And no one is allowed to pass this castle without permission from the castle from the Ottomans in it. And a couple of Genoese ships try to run the gauntlet. And the Ottomans demonstrate their mastery of artillery by sinking the ship immediately. One shot does it. Wow. Now, listen, I'm glad you've mentioned artillery because we cannot talk about this siege

without talking about, it's time to roll out the big gun, the really, really, really big gun, because this is the super gun that is going to make an enormous amount of difference to those impregnable walls. And by the way, I forgot to tell you that ever since those wars were created in the 5th century, there were reports from those people living in Constantinople that whenever the city was under threat, Theodicus herself, the mother of God, would be on those walls, fighting, you know, in full armour, fighting against the enemy. And so, you know, the people inside really believed they had a divine right to win and that, you know, Mary, mother of God, would protect them. But they haven't reckoned for the workmanship of a man called Orban. Tell us about

Orban the Hungarian. The big thorn in the side of the Christian armies is called Orban the Hungarian. Now, in some of the older sources, they call him Urban, but it must be the same name as the current Victor Orban, which has a certain irony. I actually found out, I had a couple of hours with Orban in Hungary this summer. The Victor one. Victor, I was giving a lecture in Budapest, and I got summoned to the palace. And he likes history. He's a very keen historian, but he hates Muslims.

And he's one of the great Islamophobes of modern politics. And his whole pitch is that we're going to be drowned by Muslims coming from the East. So the fact that it was his ancestor or someone with the same name as him, who actually designed the super gun that destroyed the walls of Constantinople, is a rather nice historical irony. And helped the Ottomans in. I mean, did you tell him? I didn't know it then.

Did you tell him? You should write him. You know what? You know that thing that we met? And another thing. P.S. Anyway, okay, so tell us about this great gunmaker who may or not be related to the present Orban, but certainly was a very famous metal worker of his time. Exactly. And it's a terrible story because Orban, the Hungarian, actually offered his services, first of all, to the Byzantines. And he went and said, I can build the biggest gun in the world. It'll keep the Ottomans at bay. I'm your man. and the Byzantine said we'd love to, but we haven't any cash.

We've already taken the lead off the roofs. We've taken the diamonds out of the crowns. It's all gone. We can't pay you. By all means, build us a gun, but we can't pay you for it. And then he said, no, well, why would I do that? Why would I be building you a gun for free? Said Orban.

And so Orban, Hungarian, goes off and he goes to the Ottomans and says, can I build you the biggest gun in the world to knock down the walls, Constantinople? And of course, Mehmet II says, yes, please. And he puts unlimited resources at Orban's feet. And on the 5th of April, the army is finally in place. And on the 6th of April, 1453, this super gun fires for the first time. And from within the walls, they report this, there's a blast and a crash like thunder from heaven. And poor old Longo, who is, just in the Annie Longo, who is, you know, the star midfielder,

who can turn the match around, is looking at this going, I don't know what to do. So one thing that they do do, which is, I mean, it's sort of so hopeful over practical, is they start attaching bales of hay to the walls. Bales of wool. Even better. Bails of wool.

So that these enormous cannonballs, and we're talking, I mean, I don't think we've actually done justice to how big this gun is. How many people have to move this gun, William? It's so enormous. I mean, I've had 60 oxen had to move it, or, you know, almost a thousand men on either side. I've read, I mean, there are all sorts of hyperbole about how heavy this gun is to move into position

and that the shot is so very heavy. It can only fire a couple of times a day because it's just such an involved thing. I've got my copy of Rundsman to hand here. The length of this barrel was estimated to be 40 spans. That is 26 feet and 6 inches. So it's an enormous gun. And heavy. and heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy.

The balls were said to weigh 1,200 weight. Not quite sure that's heavy. I mean, I don't know. But thank you for reading it out. It's heavy. So bales of wall that they then sort of dangle on the outside of the walls are going to make absolutely no difference at all. And they're hoping these balls are going to boeing off, but they don't at all. And it says that the first ball with that thunder crash hurtled through the air for a mile,

then buried itself six feet deep in the earth. And people have never seen this before. I mean, these are the early days of really serious artillery. Heavy artillery, yeah. Yeah, it's not a well-known thing. And there are, you know, there are many armies in the world in 1400 that don't have any artillery. And so the site of this sort of, you know, the greatest gun ever built does put the defenders very much on edge.

And then there's a couple of sort of rather terrifying moments. There's some outlying fortresses on the edge of the walls. And the genissaries, these crack troops. are sent against them. And the janitoris, just to remind people, those young boys who've been taken from land that has been conquered by the Ottomans and taken away from their families

and then raised as crack troops to be loyal unto the Ottomans until their dying breath. That's who they are. And they are ferocious fighters. And what happens to them? William, I interrupted just to remind people who they are. Yeah, so the outline castle is called Therapia. and there are only 40 survivors at the end of two days of attacks by the genusories.

And they surrender unconditionally, hopeful that they're going to be treated well because they've fought very bravely. Instead, they're put to death by impalement. They put stakes up and they just drop these people onto them alive. And it's one of the most hideous ways of dying. It's like sort of crucifixion. You take a long time to die and it's very, very painful. So first of all, day one, you've had Albon, Victor Albaid's gun. And then day two, you've seen your friends impaled our mass outside the walls.

So things are getting a bit uncomfortable. And then just after that, the Pope sends some grain ships. Better late than never. Really? Yeah. He hasn't sent any soldiers, but he sends three grain ships. and this is kind of one of the crucial sort of scenes of the siege because at this point European ships are much taller than Ottoman ships. Ottoman ships are low in the water.

They're manned by slave rowers, you know, the famous sort of scene in all those movies of, you know, some guy with a big kettle drum beating and all the people pulling their oars. So these Ottoman boats come out and try to capture the three papal grain ships. But the papal ships are much taller and they can shoot down. and there's no breeze. So the papal boats just sort of stay there. They're open to attack, and all these Ottoman boats come out from the Asian side of the Bosphorus and try and pull these three papal ships towards the Asian shore.

And for two hours, fighting goes on. There's lots of heroic firing down from the European ships onto the Ottoman galleys below them. And then just as evening comes, there's that evening breeze you get on the Mediterranean coast. and the sails of these three papal ships fill with air, and they sail off, and the chain is lowered, and they sail into the golden horn. And this is one of the kind of great moments of hope for the defenders, because they've now got enough grain to see them through, and they've seen the Ottoman Navy defeated. And I must say, I mean, you know, look, those of you who are listening, who are getting quite cross and saying, hang on a minute, how come you're casting the Ottomans as the bad guys? No, no, we're not.

The fact is that we're British and the thing about the underdog is something, and we know how this is going to end. So this is more pity than anything else because this is not going well. I mean, if you are in Constantinople and you are watching all of this, the hope that you get from those grain ships is going to be pretty short-lived, isn't it? Because tell us about the ditch, William, the filling of the ditch. They fill in the ditch in front of the Theodosian walls. They're moving slowly forward. They're getting closer to the walls. They being the Ottomans.

And again, can we give us some credit? to Mehmet, what a brilliant strategist he is, because this is total war. He's learned from the humiliation of his father that, you know, you do not go for Constantinople unless you're all in. And actually, it's sort of a master tactician, first of all,

to put the money in, to get the troops out, to get the troops who are going to fight. They're all on a register, and they all have to show up. And if they don't show up, curtains for them. So there is a loyalty of fighting force that is fit, unlike the head count, including monks, they're inside.

5,000, including months. I know. And this enormous gun, and then going around the back and then setting up a fortress. I mean, he's not messing around, is he, William? No, no. He's thought about this.

Although he's only 20, he's been thinking about this for two years. He's planned it meticulously. What a brilliant mind on a 20-year-old. I mean, you've got to think, wow, that is just a kid with barely just a gap. Yes, exactly that.

Exactly that. Exactly that. Exactly that. So, okay, so they're filling in the ditch. So that means that they can then breach that first defence, the first wall? But the land walls are the land walls. And seven weeks later, no progress has been made. Despite the gun, they managed to work at night and rebuild the gaps that appear. They managed to put up little palisades where previously a ball has struck and

created an enormous gash in the defences. And after seven weeks, the chief vizier, Halil, who's this old guy who, you know, the 20-year-old Mehmet looks up to, who was his father's vizier and has been around all his life, 30 years older than him, Haleel goes to Mehmet and says, you know, this is the same old story. We've all tried this many times. The Arabs tried it. The Persons tried it. The Vikings tried it.

The Avaz tried it. Just call it off. This isn't going to work. And Mehmet says, no, I'm not having this. And then he produces this masterstroke. And this is the thing that really. really alarms the Byzantines. Because up to now, they've had control of the Golden Horn, this strip, this wonderful strip of sea that runs along the sea walls. And it's protected by

the chain that we were talking about. And there's no way that the Ottopians can get into it and get close up. And then on the morning of the 22nd of April, an extraordinary sight greets the defenders. Memet has secretly built. a road over the top of the hill leading back down into the Golden Horn. And he's built a sort of railway. He's built a 15th century precursor to the railway. He's put giant beams on the ground, greased with animal fat. And he manages to create a sort of harness using thousands of oxen. And he starts moving his galleys from the Bosphorus over the hill. Ships on wheels. Ships on wheels, William. This is insane. Ships on wheels. And not only are ships on wheels, but the ships are full of sailors with

their own and their sails are up. So on the morning of the 22nd of April, the defenders are peering over the walls and they see these boats with their sails up coming down the hill towards them, overland with the wind billowing in their seals and then plopping into the golden So suddenly, what had been their impregnable space is now an Ottoman lake. And they realise that things are getting serious for the first time. And I mean, the sound of praying, I think there are people at the time just saying, basically the city falls to its knees and says, we need God. We need God because we're not going to be able to withstand this much longer.

But it's April and, of course, there are portents. There is torrential hail. there is an icon is dropped in Iosophia. All these bad sort of omens begin to come. And on the Monday of the 28th of May, which is about a month after these ships have gone into the Golden Horn, there's suddenly a day of complete silence. And this terrifies everybody because in a sense they got used to the booming of the supergun and all the beating of the drums and all this sort of thing.

and they are chilled by the fact that on the Monday there's no sound at all. And they wonder, what does this mean? Complete silence. And this has happened just after the ditch has finally been successfully filled. So they know that, you know, the next thing is, it's coming. It's coming. This storm, this Ottoman storm is about to break on them. And it does, doesn't it?

It does. And the first thing is the night before they can hear the guns being pulled forward over the filled in ditch. and not just the supergun but all the vast Ottoman artillery is being pulled forth by slaves with oxen right up to the walls. So grinding and grunting and the sound of war just coming closer and closer.

They can actually smell the oxen below them and they can hear them the night before than the Monday evening. Tuesday of the 29th the guns open at close point-blank range. And everyone realizes this is this is it. And the bells in the city all begin to ring the last time that these bells will

ring. And everyone's called to the front. And everyone knows this is, this is the last day. This is it. So there are successive armies. And the first one into action are the wonderfully named Bashi Bashees. That's a good news. Tell us about the bashy bazooks. Who are the bashy bazooks? The bashy bazooks are the sort of heavy metal bands of the Ottoman army. They're Irregulars. There's three armies, each under a Pasha, and each one has 50,000 men. And one wave, then a second wave, then a third wave. Each of 50,000 comes at the walls. And to the amazement of the 5,000 defenders, they are pushed back. And at lunchtime, the bashy bezoaks have made no progress. They, everyone is exhausted. The bashy bazooks retreat. And the Byzantines

think for a moment, is this, you know, have we beaten this? Is this it? I mean, I read somewhere else, not in Ransomor, but there was four hours of fighting, the most sort of brutal, almost sort of, you know, pushback fighting. And this is, you know, just again, those people in the city suddenly go, can we do this? Can we do this? Can we really do this? Four hours later. And I just suddenly looked up, you know, you were looking up the weight of those, the cannon, because I just think, you know, you said something hundred weight and I'm trying to do. I think it's 500 kilograms per ball. 500 kilograms coming out. Just imagine that.

And this gun, the urban gun or Orban gun, has a one-kilometer reach on it. So there is power and pounding. And yet still, after this four hours of fighting, they have a moment. Can we really do this? Can we really do this? Can we survive this as well as the things that we've survived in the past? Then what happens? Then the cattle drums strike up again.

And this time, it's the genissaries. And the genoceries are the opposite of the bashi bazooks. The bashy bazooks all over the place. They're not properly trained. They're wild men who've sort of turned up wanting a share of the loot. And basically, the Ottomans have used them to exhaust the defenders. And then at lunchtime, they bring on the genoceries. The genoceries line up in perfect rank.

And they march forward rank after rank after rank. Complete silence, totally disciplined, not a sound to be heard. heard and then they're off and they're heading for the walls. And that is kind of, you know, you can tell pretty well within 20 minutes that this is not going to end happily because they immediately managed to shoot Giustiani, the Genoese general. And he gets a musket shot, bang. The talismanic figure who can make people brave and suddenly he gets hit, so all hope is gone. And not only does he get hit, he makes the fatal mistake which wrecks his reputation.

among Greeks to this day of asking to be taken to his ship. For the last six months, he's been on the walls rebuilding them. When the gun goes off, he's the man first into the hole to organise a palisade and fill it with sandbags or whatever they fill the broken walls with. He's been fighting off all the different assaults, and he's the man leading the defence against the bashing bassooks. But the juniciaries have got, this is one of the things. We often think of the Ottomans as the sort of as the more backward army compared to the Europeans.

But they are great pioneers of artillery. Artillery regimental discipline of tactics. And handguns. Yeah. They had the first army to have massive handguns. And this is what Justiani is shot by. Yes, of course. A handgun.

Yes. I don't know why I was sort of thinking of one of those sort of old-pussian long muskets. So yes, you're right. I mean, it's something quite different. So, okay, so he falls. There is now despondency. So he falls, and he's carried, he's carried to his boat. And they're seen.

And so this is it, you know, the main man, our main protector is leaving what hope is there now? What is the emperor, the 48-year-old Paliologus, the last man standing? What is he doing while all hell is breaking loose around him? So he comes up and he tries to beg Justiniani not to retreat to his boat. He says, if you go, we're lost. But he's in such terrific. pain. I mean, it's no fun to be shot. And he's bleeding everywhere. And he says, just take me to my boat. I'm finished. This is me now. And he's screaming agony. He knows he's dying. And his departure panics the

defenders. And they fatally leave. There's been a little sort of side gate called the Kirkaporteur, which the defenders have been using to mount assaults on the troops. They've been whipping out of this and doing these little side attacks on the genusories. Little crack squads going out. Yeah, uh-huh. And in the panic when Justiniani is taken to his boat, they leave the door open. Can you believe it? This vital moment.

And the Ottomans spot this. The Janissaries spot this and they get in there. They break in. And the person who is immediately summoned is, of course, the last emperor himself, the great Constantine. And I have to, I'm afraid, I know you're bored of ransom of now. I'm not bored of runciman. Can I just say I love the way you love runciman. I love us. That's so sweet. Go on then. Hit us with some runciman.

They dismounted, and for a few minutes the four of them held the approach to the gate through which Giustiani had just been carried. But the defence was broken now. The gate was jammed with Christian soldiers trying to make their escape as more and more genissaries fell on them. Theophilus shouted that he'd rather die than live and disappeared into the oncoming hordes. Constantine himself knew now that the empire was lost, and he had no wish to survive it. He flung off his imperial regalia, and with Don Francisco and John Dalmatto still at his side, he followed Theophilus. He was never seen again. Oh, wow. That is a fact. Eventually, when he's, when his body is found, he's recognized only by his purple shoes. Oh. Oh. And they're then

follows, you know, as in any pre-modern war, I suppose, even in a modern war, when a city falls, it's a terrible thing. It's a sacking of a city. And how does it look? How does that feel in Constantinople? What happens to the city? So the rules of war at this point, and there are rules of war, even in, even at this period of history. And the rules are that if a city resists and does not surrender, it can be sacked for three days. Right. And in those three days, the attackers have got the right to do what they're what they like. They can seize anything. They can rape whoever they want.

They can take slaves. They can, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's all that pre-modern horror can possibly imagine. And the troops crash into the city. A few galleys escapes. Some of the Genoese, including Justiniani's gallery, manages to get away. Justiniani dies. But those who don't escape and are found in the, in the, in the streets are enslaved.

And there's massacre. quarter after quarter deeper and deeper into the city as the genoceries and the other troops head. It's about, what, four miles from the land walls to the point of Aesophia. And no quarter is given to man or woman, old or young, commoner or aristocrat. And quite a few people hide in the great church of Aisophea because there's a prophecy that if the city falls, people will be safe in Isofi. So lots and lots of people, including crowds of women and monks pour into the church. But even that is not sacrosanct, and terrible scenes of rape and pillage and murder take place in Aesofia. And there's a description, which is blood flowed in the city like rainwater in gutters after a sudden storm.

So you get the idea. Yeah, I mean, this is audio, so you can't see, but we both did a shudder at the same time just because. Just imagine. Now, listen, in all this time, we've talked about Constantine, who has died and is only recognizable by his purple shoes. It's purple socks. Oh, okay. But where is Mehmet the second?

Because, I mean, anyone who imagines that he's been on the front line directing his troops, that's not how it's happened. I mean, he's a 21, 20, 21 year old who has just planned this and is calmly waiting like a chess player. He's not there on the front, is he? But he does arrive now. He arrives. He comes through the conquered city. And he breaks the rules of war by declaring the pillage to be at an end on the evening of day one.

He's so impressed with the defenders that anyone who is not already captured and is not already a slave is free to continue in the city. And he spares anyone who is still alive. And he then rides all the way into the city to the great church. of Aosophia, the main church of the Orthodox world, he dismounts, he covers his turban with dirt as a sign of humility, and then he walks into the church and declares it to be a mosque, and declares himself to be the new Caesar of the Romans. He likes to see himself not as a foreign figure. He wants to take on the mantle of Rome, the successor of Constantine. So he orders an end to the slaughter. He says any churches which have been taken should be given back. And this is why

Constantinople, in his reign, continues with a Greek majority. Yes. And far from sort of, you know, the picture that's painted of him by contemporaries, like there's a man called Dukas, who is absolutely insistent that he is the Antichrist and writes about him as if this is now the reign of the Antichrist. This is a time for the city which is rich in many cultures, many faiths, many people who come and are able to exist within the walls. We're going to discover more about this in the next episode because the siege itself suggests as if this is a great defeat of Christianity by Islam. But as our next guest, Mark David Baer, who is an expert on the history of the Ottomans,

is going to show us, it actually turns out to be a lot less confrontational, a lot more integrated with the history of Europe than the story of the siege would lead us to suspect. It is. And there's a very important point that when they want to refill the city, who is it they get in to do? They bring in the Jews who the Europeans have expelled from Granada, from Spain, and who have been given refuge in Salonica. And he brings the Salonica Jews into Istanbul to fill the quarters. And so it's a complicated, it's a complicated story. I mean, it's not a pretty sight. There is rape, there is loot, there is pillage, hundreds of slaves are led off at this point. but the city is not gutted. The city will, by the end of Mehmet's reign, be larger and fuller and richer and more bustling than it has been at any point since the 12th century. And nonetheless, this is one of the kind of crucial turning points of history. Europe is completely shocked. Surprisingly, they hadn't seen it coming. They thought, you know, there'd be many scrapes before. But it's not like they haven't been told. I mean, the poor Byzantines have been, you know,

hammering on their doors for almost 100 years, saying this is coming, this is getting really bad now, this is coming. And even now, there's no crusade. Europe just sort of shrugs and takes it. For the Greeks, this is the beginning of, you know, a long period of domination by the Ottomans. And you will never find any Greek anywhere who has a good word to say about the Turks to this day.

It's one of those big wounds in history, unhealed, like, I suppose, like India and Pakistan. Look at Cyprus, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. And you see it sort of played out as a line, not in the sand, but through a country. But the other big thing, of course, is Russia. Russia now sees itself as the last surviving pillar of orthodoxy. Rome was the first Rome. Constantinople was the second Rome.

Moscow now regards itself as the third Rome. And they see themselves now as the last surviving true Christian. at the last Orthodox, not under captivity. Well, listen, I hope you agree that the Ottomans is a really interesting, a really interesting chapter in history and one that has deep roots, but also tall branches that reach into our present day. So look, join us again next week, where Mark Bayer is going to be our very special guest. Mark is a fantastic guest.

I read his book, I reviewed his book when it came out last year, and then I got him to the Jaipur Festival, and he's a wonderful speaker. So I think we're going to be in for a real treat. And he's one, I mean, very, very few people today can read Ottoman Turkish. Of course, when Atta took over the state of the Republic of Turkey in the 1920s, he changed the script to a Latin script. So all modern Turks now grow up using the Latin script. And very few people can read Ottoman manuscripts.

Mark David Baer is one of them. He spent long years in Topkapi working away on the Ottoman records. And this is his first book that pulls it all together. and it's a cracker. So I think we're in for a very, very exciting episode next week. Until then,

it's goodbye from me. And goodbye from me. I don't get to say my name this time. Well, do you want to? Okay, I'm another going to. The man of the false ending. Hang on a minute. Goodbye from me, William Darrup.

Is that here you are? And goodbye from me, Anita Arndt, and we're definitely going for a Capitina.