Timeline May 1453

Events in May 1453 8

• 1453 The 53-day siege -- 6 April to 29 May 1453 The siege of Constantinople lasts 53 days. The defenders number approximately 7,000 -- 5,000 Byzantines and 2,000 Genoese under Giovanni Giustiniani Longo -- against an Ottoman army perhaps fifteen times larger. Urban's cannon batters the Theodosian Walls daily; the defenders repair them each night. Mehmed transports 70 ships overland on greased logs around Galata into the Golden Horn (22 April) -- one of the greatest logistical feats in military history. On the night of 28-29 May, the final assault overwhelms the exhausted defenders after Giustiniani is wounded. Constantine XI dies on the walls. The Ottoman Empire inherits Byzantium.
• 1453 The siege -- 53 days The siege of Constantinople (6 April - 29 May 1453) lasts 53 days. The defenders number approximately 7,000 -- 5,000 Byzantines and 2,000 Genoese and Venetian volunteers under the Genoese captain Giovanni Giustiniani Longo. The Ottoman cannon batter the walls daily; the defenders repair them each night. Mehmed transports 70 ships overland on greased logs around the Genoese colony of Galata to enter the Golden Horn (22 April) -- one of the most audacious logistical feats in military history. The defenders hold for 53 days against odds of perhaps 15 to 1. They are the last Romans.
• 1453 Constantine XI -- the last emperor dies on the walls Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Byzantine emperor, refuses multiple offers to surrender with his life guaranteed. On the night of 28-29 May 1453, he receives communion in Hagia Sophia, asks forgiveness of all present, and takes his place on the walls. When Giustiniani is wounded and carried off the walls (at the critical moment), the defence collapses. Constantine XI is last seen charging into the breach in the walls as Ottoman troops pour through. His body is never definitively identified. He is 49 years old. Mehmed reportedly weeps when he hears of his death, quoting the Persian poet Saadi: 'The spider weaves the curtains in the palace of the Caesars.'
• 1453 Fall of Constantinople -- 29 May 1453 Mehmed II's Ottoman army, equipped with massive bronze cannons cast by the Hungarian engineer Urban, breaches the Theodosian Walls on 29 May 1453 after a 53-day siege. Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Byzantine emperor, tears off his imperial insignia and dies fighting with his men at the breach. The city is sacked for three days. Mehmed rides to Hagia Sophia and orders it converted to a mosque. The Eastern Roman Empire, 1,123 years after Constantine's foundation, is extinguished.
• 1453 Fall of Constantinople -- 29 May 1453 Mehmed II's conquest of Constantinople on 29 May 1453 transforms the Ottomans from a Balkan power into the heirs of Rome. The 53-day siege employs massive bronze cannon cast by the Hungarian engineer Urban; the Theodosian Walls that had held for 1,000 years are breached. Emperor Constantine XI dies on the walls. Mehmed rides to Hagia Sophia and converts it to a mosque. He adopts the title Kayser-i Rum (Caesar of Rome) and begins rebuilding the depopulated city as the capital of a world empire. The conquest reshapes the Mediterranean world.
• 1453 Mehmed II enters Constantinople -- a new empire announced On the morning of 29 May 1453, Mehmed II rides to Hagia Sophia, performs the first Islamic prayer in the building and orders the mosaics plastered over. He adopts the title Kayser-i Rum (Caesar of Rome), asserting that he is the legitimate successor of the Roman Empire. He immediately begins repopulating the devastated city -- forcibly relocating populations from across Anatolia and the Balkans. He preserves the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate (appointing Gennadius Scholarius as Patriarch) and institutes the millet system of religious community self-governance. Constantinople becomes Istanbul -- capital of a world empire.
• 1453 Mehmed enters -- the city falls On the morning of 29 May 1453, Mehmed II rides to Hagia Sophia. He stops a soldier breaking up the marble floor and is told the building is his personal property. He calls for an imam and performs the first Islamic prayer in the building. The call to prayer is heard from its minarets. Mehmed orders the mosaics plastered over. He walks through the deserted imperial palace and quotes a Persian couplet: 'The spider serves as gatekeeper in the halls of Chosroes; the owl plays sentinel on the towers of Afrasiab.' The Eastern Roman Empire, founded by Augustus Caesar, continued by Constantine, is extinguished after 1,123 years.
• 1453 The conquest -- Hagia Sophia becomes a mosque As Mehmed II's army enters Constantinople on 29 May 1453, crowds of terrified civilians take shelter in Hagia Sophia, believing an ancient prophecy that an angel will descend to defend it. No angel comes. The doors are broken open; the civilians are enslaved. Mehmed rides to Hagia Sophia, stops a soldier who is breaking up the marble floor, and declares the building his personal property. He calls for an imam and performs the first Islamic prayer in the building. The call to prayer is heard from its minarets for the first time. Mehmed orders the mosaics plastered over and the building converted to a mosque.