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How is the Greek church, so afflicted and persecuted, to return to ecclesiastical union and a devotion for the Apostolic See when she sees in the Latins only an example of perdition and the works of darkness, so that with reason she already detest them more than dogs?
Pope Innocent III.
Mehemmed II, who had failed to control the army and state in the 1440s, requiring Murad’s resumption to the throne, was much more in control by 1452, and he recognised that taking Constantinople, the prize that had eluded the Muslims for centuries, would cement his reign. The West realized, far too late, that ‘this time’ the Ottomans were not going to turn back from conquering the city. Cardinal Isidore arrived in Constantinople in November 1452 with Venetian troops but also brought the pope’s requirement that the great schism be healed by Constantine XI’s acceptance of Catholicism before any assistance could be expected. A service dedicated to the union was therefore made in Hagia Sophia in December 1452 and the heads of the Orthodox Church agreed to the ending of the schism. They could not, however, carry the lower clergy and laypeople with them and widespread rioting followed the service. Genoa had even more to lose than Venice if Constantinople fell as Caffa, their Black Sea port, could be strangled by whoever controlled Constantinople. Two galleys and 700 troops were sent.
Byzantium’s walls were not capable of resisting cannonballs and there were few emplacements for cannon. The famous floating chain that closed the Golden Horn was still extant and functional however, and the city boasted orchards, fresh water, and farm animals. Fish could also be landed daily from safe harbours and there was abundant water storage in the city. Mehemmed knew, therefore, that he would need to batter, not starve, the city into surrender.
The chain of the Golden Horn repelled the Ottoman navy, so Mehemmed constructed a long wooden slipway. The ships were taken overland and launched beyond the boom. Meanwhile the Ottoman guns, including the monster Basiliske had breached the walls at the gate of Saint Romanus. A series of night attacks failed, as did mining of the Blachernae Walls.
Ottoman engineers constructed a bridge across the Golden Horn to allow a swifter deployment of their forces as Mehemmed, nearly at the end of his resources and facing a coup by his emirs, prepared to gamble on a mass attack.
Despite lashing rain, sappers started to fill the defensive ditches around Constantinople in the early hours of 29 May. Three hours before dawn the artillery started up and an infantry attack began. This first wave was virtually slaughtered. Ottoman ships then attempted to place scaling ladders against the walls but were repulsed. A further infantry assault failed at the Saint Romanus Gate.
Mehemmed had one more card to play, his 3,000 Palace Janissaries. After an hour fighting at the Romanus Gate they discovered a wall-gate had been left open after a Byzantine sortie. They managed to get their banner up on the battlements, this and the fatal wounding of the Genoese captain, Giustiniani Longo, caused panic in the defenders. The Venetians and Genoese bolted to their ships in the harbour, and Mehemmed poured troops into the breach.
Emperor Constantine, according to legend, died crying out heroically for a Christian among the Turks to take his head, but was more likely killed in the sack that had begun as soon as the defenders scattered from the walls.