Fall of Constantinople

And, we may add, the Renaissance would have been shorn of some of its brilliance in the next century if the dispersion of the Greeks had taken place before Italy was quite fitted to receive them and turn their learning to account.

But in other respects, it is hard to see that much harm would have resulted from the fall of Constantinople in the end of the fourteenth rather than the middle of the fifteenth century.

While Murad I was conquering the Serbians and Bulgarians, John Palaeologus was dragging out a long and unhonored old age.

His reign was protracted for over a half a century, but his later years were much vexed by the undutiful behavior of his children.

George W. Bush was an aberration.

So you needed a disruptor, kind of like Rodney Dangerfield in Caddy Shack, just to shock everybody, and it's kinda like the Siege of Constantinople where the Ottomans, once you blow a hole in things, everything falls.

Mm.

So that's what he did.

That's gigantic.

Um, a seismic event for me, especially, again, I keep mentioning this 'cause I keep wanting to because it's on my mind, but I'm listening to 1453, the Fall of Constantinople, so it's very fresh in my mind.

But yeah, is Turkey still formally a secular democratic society in a primarily Islamic world? Yeah, but take two seconds to look at how Erdogan is ruling the country and understand that he's basically treating it like a, a Islamic fiefdom, and it's definitely-

Well

Indeed, but that then there's, um, the last Roman emperor, the last true emperor of Rome.

So Constantine XI, so he falls in the Siege of Constantinople, doesn't he? But he's also not dead.

Am I wrong?

His body is never found, so it's, you know, there's a bit of a mystery there.

The Byzantine Empire would eventually be restored, but it would be a shadow of its former self, a small, weak state surrounded by powerful enemies.

The fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade was a tragedy of immense proportions, a betrayal that would forever change the relationship between the East and the West, and a sad and bloody end to a golden age.

The immediate aftermath of the Fourth Crusade's Sack of Constantinople was a scene of utter ruin and chaos.

The Crusaders, having found far more wealth than they could have imagined, were now in the business of building a new empire.

And most importantly, the Byzantine people themselves, who had been a subject people for over a century, were now a constant source of rebellion and resistance.

However, a small flicker of the Byzantine spirit remained.

A handful of Byzantine nobles and generals had managed to escape the fall of Constantinople and had established a number of successor states in the provinces.

The most important of these was the Empire of Nicaea, founded by Theodore the Sarfan Laskaris, a son-in-law of the former emperor, Alexios I.

[gentle music] Purple has been the color of royalty since Roman emperors because it's so difficult and expensive to make.

I am a purple maker's assistant, and this is a worst job that disappeared during the Siege of Constantinople when all the purple makers were wiped out.

So we reckon that this is the first time in over 500 years that this particular process has been demonstrated, haven't we, Jim?

Yeah, that's quite true.