From April 5, 1453, Constantinople, the queen of cities, began to be encircled by Turkish verses. With thousands of soldiers and dozens of cannons, Mohammed II began the so-called siege. Despite his efforts, the City held on. Nor did his proposals to Constantine IA Paleologos regarding the surrender of Constantinople have any effect. So he decided on the final raid. The Turkish bombardment intensified from the evening of Sunday 27th May 1453 and continued thus until a few moments before the general assault on the City was launched at dawn on 29th May. The effectiveness of the Turkish artillery had terrified the hapless defenders and astonished even this Muhammad himself.
Thus in his last speech to his troops, shortly before the final assault, he declared smugly, that he was not sending his soldiers to fight on the walls, but to fight in the open field. In the city the situation was completely different. And how could it be otherwise. Gloom prevailed. Almost everyone was certain that the City would not withstand the great, general assault they knew Muhammad intended to launch. On the evening of May 28, the last Christian service since then took place in the Pansept church of Agia Sophia. The emperor received the sacraments, together with all the heads of the army and with thousands of other warriors and civilians, who with tears in their eyes embraced him and kissed his hand.
Immediately afterwards the King mounted his Arabian steed and disappeared into the night with his fellow soldiers. He reached the walls, unsheathed his sword and as a simple soldier took a position, in the most exposed point of the defense, at the cross (roughly repaired part of the wall that had been demolished by the artillery) of the gate of Ag. Romanou. It was well over night. May 29 was already in its early hours. In the Turkish camp there was now a sinful silence.
Suddenly in the darkness there were terrible screams and commotions. And holding torches in their hands, thousands of Turks rushed into the attack. The Venetian Barmaro states that this first wave of attack consisted of at least 50,000 Turks, but also Christian subjects of the sultan. When they came within shooting distance of the cross they charged the defenders with all their weapons, bows, "tufakas", javelins, slings. After the first round they rushed in holding ladders and hooks against the crucifixion. With the hooks they threw down the pithos - ramparts of the defenders and with the ladders they tried to climb to the cross.
"But the soldiers in vain pulled down those ladders below with those who were on them, and all of them were killed in vain, and our men threw down large stones from the ramparts so that few of them could be saved. Those who came under the walls, so many were killed, and then the ladder bearers, seeing them dying, wanted to return back to the camp, so that they too would not be killed by the stones. Then other Turks, who were behind, immediately cut down with their lances those who fled and forced the others back to the walls, so that they were sure to die, one way or the other", says Barbaro.
Under these conditions the Turks continued their desperate attacks against the steadfast defenders and were slaughtered by the thousands. For about two to three hours, the body of 50,000 Turks attacked furiously against the crossing, but to no avail. Muhammad apparently considered these men expendable. About dawn Muhammad allowed the few survivors of the first body to withdraw. As Barbaro mentions, the whole area in front of the rift was filled with Turks' corpses. Their losses are estimated at 20-30,000 dead and wounded. However, they had achieved their goal, which was nothing other than the complete exhaustion of the defenders, who anyway for a week now had been deprived of even sleep.
And where the defenders, having repulsed the assailants, hoped to enjoy a few moments of repose, they heard with horror the Turkish drums resounding. Immediately a new body of 50,000 Turks rushed in clamoring against the "crucifixion." Muhammad, acting on a plan, ordered the second raid, immediately after the inglorious end of the first. He hoped that the few and fierce amyndors would not withstand the continuous attacks of his army. In this second raid, elite troops and stout infantrymen carrying chain breastplates, helmets and shields participated.
Muhammad was surprised to see the elite part of his army intercepted by the few heroes. Terribly irritated, he then ordered his gunners to open fire again. Indeed the Turkish artillery fired against the "crossing", killing many Turks who were in front of it, but also creating a new breach, which could not be repaired, before the attack was repulsed. Through the breach over 300 Turks entered the City. But against him the Greeks fell, says Barbaro, with fury, and engaged with them in a fierce, deadly embrace. A few minutes later the raiders were all dead.
So this time, Muhammad, seeing that the second attack was also failing, ordered a general attack, throwing even his guard into the battle. At the same time, however, the fleet was ordered to attack the sea walls, in order to anchor valuable forces for the defenders, away from the main battle front. Because everything would be judged there, on the land wall, between the gate of Ag. Romanos and a small military pilis, of Kerkoporta.
The attack of the janissaries against the staunch Christian fighters developed into a new, fiercely deadly clash. In spite of fatigue and wounds, a consequence of the previous assaults, the amyndores, with the King and Justinian (a Genoese warlord who led the defense of the City) at their head, again put up a stout defense and faced Muhammad's elite with equal courage. About 750 meters further north, however, the Turks discovered a small gate, the infamous Kerkoporta.
This gate was built externally during the reign of Isaac Angelos, in 1204. However, it was opened again at the beginning of the siege, to be used as an exit gate for the besieged. This particular gate was half buried in the ground and was not easy to be seen by the enemies. For this reason, she was not on guard at that fateful hour, because the guards assigned to her protection had rushed to reinforce the fighters at the "crucifixion".
After breaching it, about 50 janissaries stormed the inner enclosure. They were followed by thousands and attacked the until then heroically raised fighters from the south. Some even lowered the imperial flags from the first tower they conquered and raised the Turkish one. This event had a huge psychological significance and had a particularly adverse effect on the morale of the defenders.
At the same time Justinianis was wounded, either by an arrow or a rifle ball, and despite Constantine's entreaties, he secretly withdrew from the battle line so that his wound could be treated without causing confusion. It did the exact opposite. His absence was felt and the fighters started looking for him. At the same time, they saw the Turkish flags waving, just a few meters from their positions.
Soon confusion prevailed in the ranks of the fighters. In the meantime, thousands of Turks had passed inside the walls and were now attacking Constantine's braves from the side, but also from the front, since the attacks of the janissaries against the now dissolved "cross" never relaxed. Fatally the Amyndores were brought down by the double assault and the multitude of the enemies and by the wounds and wounds.
Then Constantine decided to become a legend. "Ealo the City". The terrible scream echoed. "The City is taken, and I yet live," cried the King in his turn, and dashed forth with sword in hand, and with a few devoted companions to meet the glorious death he deserved. So Constantine, together with Francis Toledius, Theophilos Palaiologos and John Dalmatis rushed against the enemy lines. Four against thousand. The four stood with their backs to the wall and there they faced the thousands of Turks. "They want to live or die," shouted Theophilos Paleologos and rushed the surf with his sword. These four men single-handedly covered the ground with corpses of enemies.
But then Constantine received the fatal blow. He only managed to scream before he fell "there is no Christian to take my head." "The king's companions stopped seeing him in battle. When he decided to die immediately, it was known that Polis had been taken, and he fell out of sight," the chroniclers report.
In agreement with the Duke, the Turks recognized the dead king by his red embrasures, decorated with double-headed eagles. His body was scraped, continues the Duke, and his skin was stuffed with straw, and he was excommunicated. Turkish cowardice and pettiness, even at the time of their victory, was and is indicative of the quality of their culture. Whatever they did, however, together with the thousands of murders, rapes, robberies and lootings, the desolation and complete destruction of the beauty, the peronym of that king of cities, they achieved nothing.
They have not succeeded and will never succeed in uprooting from the memories of a people the legend of the Greek who resists, regardless of the conditions of the struggle, who resists simply because he has to resist, because that is what his culture and history dictate. As Doukas states, "it was not possible to surrender the City to the Turks from the hands of the Greeks. Why, if this could happen, in which street or in which place, or in which city of Christians could the Greeks move without being humiliated and ashamed?