Fall of Constantinople?

I cannot recall the referance or book, but I remember reading that at the fall of Constaninople, the Emperor Constantine XI made his last stand with a Venetian, a Genovese, a French man, an English man and three Greeks at his side. A fanciful legend no doubt, but it would make a good story how these men of different nationalities ended up meeting their fate at the side of the last Byzantine Emperor.

It is more than likely a product of the fact that Constaninople was defended by a confederate force of Greeks and Northern Italians, but it would still make a hell of a story.
 
1453: The Fall of Constantinople (2003) by Lina Murr Nehme is one that I've seen mentioned a few times and is on my to-buy list. I've been considering taking the bus to Istanbul and the city's history would be interesting to know when I'm there.

Svalbard, one of the other possible reasons for the such a plethora of nationalities is that there were a lot of mercenaries involved, on both sides. The Genovese often used mercenaries and Orban, who built the bombard for the Ottomans, had originally offered his services to the Byzantines. For some reason, they did not take him up so he sold his services to their enemy.

Mind you, it's a good job that group didn't walk into a bar together. It would have been the start of a terrible joke.:D
 
I cannot remember the title, but a book I read a number of years ago(too long to mention years) about the fall of Constaninople to the Fourth Crusade was a very good read. A few stand out points was a last stand by a group of English Varangarians on a rooftop and the final assault by the Crusaders on the walls of Constaninople. The plot centered around a half Elven-Human Princess from a mythical realm in Wales caught up in the great events of the time.
 
I said:
Finally bought this, am hoping to start soon. :)
Click to expand...

Let us know what you think about it. Is it historical fiction because the title sounds like a very interesting historical non-fiction?
 
I think it's supposed to be historical fiction, but it's already started with a "prophecy" and makes me groan (surely we don't need this plot device in historical fiction?).

However, will see how the next few chapters pan out.
 
Am not enjoying the CC Humphrey's Constantinople book.

- it opens with prophecy, used as if we're reading some kind of fantasy novel.
- at nearly page 100, we've yet to see anything of Constantinople
- dues ex machina is used to bring a couple of the characters together
- the characters are lifeless and uninteresting
- no themes have been set up, other than a gypsy girl's prophecy, and one of the characters is a violent misogynist
- It heads hops like crazy, which is really disorientating at times

- Anachronisms!!

On the page I've just read, Humphreys describes:

- - a character holding onto the gunwale of a boat (the term was developed much later for the big wooden cannon ships)
- - the scientific name for a gum tree (I presume the tree of life has not been described in scientific terms as yet)
- - Casual use of French words such as "rendez-vous" which seems plain lazy.

I've struggled to get into this book so far, and I'm finding it hard to want to continue.
 
The only other thing I see in Wiki is The Dark Angel by Mika Waltari. Now Waltari was known as a fairly good, and more accurate than most, historical novelist. (he's mainly famous for writing The Egyptian,) but it's out of print and rather expensive so I'm not recommending it.

The problem is there was really surprisingly little drama to the 1453 event. Constantinople was a shadow of its former self, having never really recovered from the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Even the Greek Christians within the city thought they would be safer under the Sultan's protection than with any Latin Christians. It turned out they were probably right too, as Mehmet II left them mainly alone and limited looting whereas the Latins had sacked the city in what Steven Runciman called "one of the worst crimes against humanity ever recorded"

I really wish Svalbard could remember the title of the book he mentions. Those elvish princesses do get around, don't they :)
 
JoanDrake said:
The only other thing I see in Wiki is The Dark Angel by Mika Waltari. Now Waltari was known as a fairly good, and more accurate than most, historical novelist. (he's mainly famous for writing The Egyptian,) but it's out of print and rather expensive so I'm not recommending it.

The problem is there was really surprisingly little drama to the 1453 event. Constantinople was a shadow of its former self, having never really recovered from the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Even the Greek Christians within the city thought they would be safer under the Sultan's protection than with any Latin Christians. It turned out they were probably right too, as Mehmet II left them mainly alone and limited looting whereas the Latins had sacked the city in what Steven Runciman called "one of the worst crimes against humanity ever recorded"

I really wish Svalbard could remember the title of the book he mentions. Those elvish princesses do get around, don't they :)
Click to expand...

It was called The Golden Horn by Judith Tarr.
 
Many decades ago, John Mason Neale's The Fall of Constantinople (also known as Theodora Phranza) was #655 in Everyman's Library, that series of books once often seen at library sales and so on. I own a copy but haven't read it yet. It was first published in the late 1840s (another book from pretty far back in my backlog). Neale was an industrious Victorian clergyman and antiquarian. I believe this was his longest work of fiction.
 
How about the Fall of Constantinople by Nanami Shiono and Constantinople: The Last Great Siege, 1453 by Roger Crowley?
 
I know you're looking for the final fall of the Great City, but if the sack of Constantinople in 1204 by the fourth crusade interests you at all, I could recommend some stuff (I have a WIP set there, so I've done a ton of research on the Latin empire that supplanted the Byzantine rulers for a time. Even have a few Byzantine/Frankish coins from the period!)

One of my favorite authors, Umberto Eco, wrote a novel set during that time period. It is called Baudolino, and it is a historical fiction/fantasy quest story that starts during the sacking of the city. I highly recommend it, though it has nothing to do with the fall in 1453.
 
Well, this one is definitely history not alternative history, but it's one of those history books that reads like it was written by a fiction author, if you know what I mean to say. It's my favorite about the fourth crusade:

The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople http://www.amazon.com/dp/0143035908/?tag=brite-21
 
Sorry to hear that: the Byzantine empire generally and Constantinople specifically have been next on my reading list for a while and there's been no apparent standout work. I didn't get as far as buying 'A Place Called Armageddon", mind you: the cover of an armoured soldier scaling/abseiling the city wall one-handed was a bad sign. And the title irked me: "Armageddon" is a lazy go-to word to throw in a book title, when somehow the fall of Constantinople seemed laden with far better, more meaningful possibilities. The hunt goes on.
 
Best *historical* work on the fall is by Sir Steven Runciman. Crowley is a good update, but nothing beats the literary style of Runciman. Recommended for the Crusades too. "I, Brian" will be glad to know Runciman had a strong pro-Greek bias.
 
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