Fall of the Byzantine Empire. Causes of the fall of the Byzantine Empire: description, history and consequences The death of Byzantium and the creation of the Ottoman Empire

DEATH OF BYZANTIA

Until 1371, Andronicus, the eldest son of John V Palaiologos, was considered the heir to the throne. After the story of Andronicus' refusal to pay money to the Venetians for his father, the offended emperor deprived him of his rights to the throne and transferred them to his second son Manuel. In 1373, when John V was with his overlord Murad I in Asia Minor, Andronicus and the son of the Sultan, Sanji, conspired and revolted against their fathers. Murad crushed the uprising, he blinded his son and advised him to do the same with Andronicus and his son (future Emperor John VII). However, John V did not follow this advice and, at the risk of incurring the sultan's wrath, ordered that the blinding be incomplete. Andronicus lost one eye, and soon escaped from prison and took refuge in Galata.
In the summer of 1376, he begged for help from the Genoese and made the same request to Murad I. On August 12, after a short siege, Constantinople was taken, the usurper put his father and brother Manuel in prison. For the provided mercenaries, Andronicus IV returned to the rule of the Ottomans the cities on the Gallipoli peninsula, captured at one time by Amadeus of Savoy.
In 1379, John V and Manuel Palaiologos managed to escape to the same Murad I. This time, the sultan sent troops against Andronicus. On July 1, 1379, the soldiers of John and Manuel broke into Constantinople. Andronicus did not give up, for a whole month there were battles in the city. On July 28, the legitimate emperors made the first attempt to storm the Blachernae Palace, on August 4 the palace fell.
Andronicus IV again moved to Galata, taking with him the elderly Ioasaph Kantakouzenos as a hostage. Two years later, the sultan, who benefited from the instability at the top of the empire, forced John V to “forgive” Andronicus, again declare him heir and give the northern cities of the Sea of ​​Marmara as inheritance. In 1385, Andronicus again rebelled against his father, was defeated, surrendered, and soon died.

The grandson of John V (son of Andronicus IV) in April 1390, with the support of Bayezid I, captured Constantinople and was crowned. The reign of John VII lasted only a few months - his uncle Manuel, having arrived in time to help his father, knocked out the usurper from the capital. Eight years later, John VII again raised an uprising, but the same Manuel II this time did not allow his relative's ambitious dreams to come true. John VII frankly offered the French his vague rights to the throne of the empire in exchange for a more tangible one - a castle in Europe and an annual annuity of 25,000 florins, but they refused the dubious deal.

The middle son of John V, Manuel II, was crowned in the spring of 1391. The new emperor was an implacable opponent of the Turks. While still Despot of Thessalonica, he plotted to raise an uprising against the Sultan, and only the threat of Murad I's campaign forced the brave despot to stop preparing a rebellion. Indeed, if the last Palaiologos had a hard time to see the agony of their power, then Manuel II was doubly unhappy, because nature endowed him with an undoubted mind and talents, and the political situation often left him a powerless observer. No matter how hard the basileus tried to restrain the expansion of the Ottomans, it turned out badly for him, who had neither money nor soldiers.
In 1392, the Turks occupied Macedonia, and a year later, Bulgaria. After the capture of the city, the Ottomans slaughtered the population of the capital of the Bulgarians, Tarnovo, without the slightest pity. In 1394, Thessalonica fell, and soon Bayezid presented Manuel II with a deliberately impossible ultimatum, demanding that the qadi (judge) of the Muslim quarter of Constantinople, in the event of litigation with Muslims, also have jurisdiction over the Christian population of the capital. The emperor, of course, refused, and Bayezid started the war.
For almost eight years (with interruptions) the blockade of the Greek capital lasted. Most of the supplies were delivered to the city by sea, free from the Turks, but this was clearly not enough. The inhabitants suffered from hunger, houses were dismantled for heating, but Constantinople held on, relying on itself, God and Western help. Manuel Chrysolor knocked on the thresholds of Catholic sovereigns, begging for soldiers and money to save fellow believers. Despite the prevailing western church after the capture of Wallachia by the Turks, the Hungarian king (and future Holy Roman Emperor) Sigismund was able to organize an anti-Ottoman crusade. The main force of the crusaders were Polish, Czech, German, French and Hungarian knights. In the autumn of 1396, the Christian army reached the Danube city of Nikopol. There was no unity among the knights, the Hungarians quarreled with the French, there was no discipline in the army. On September 25, on the hilly plain near Nikopol, the armies of the Ottomans and the crusaders lined up for a decisive battle. Sigismund Luxembourg (Zsigmond) possessed undoubted military leadership abilities, and at first, despite a two-fold superiority in strength, the Turks suffered heavy losses. The fate of the battle was decided by the recklessness of the French knights, who had not learned anything even after Cressy and Poitiers. Having bravely overthrown the chains of the Janissaries, they, despite the desperate calls of Sigismund to return, pulled ahead, considering the battle won, dismounted and found themselves face to face with fifteen thousand fresh enemy cavalry. Having overturned the French, who did not even have time to sit on the saddle, the Turks and their Serbian allies turned the battle into a real beating of Christians. Ten thousand crusaders were captured. Enraged by the huge losses of the Muslims, Bayazid ordered their execution, except for the three hundred most noble knights, for whom he demanded a ransom. And when Sigismund, who found salvation in Constantinople, returned to Europe through the Dardanelles, the Sultan lined up the captives on both sides of the strait and they sent curses after the royal galley.
The loop of the siege of Constantinople dragged on even tighter, and Manuel II began again to bombard the Christian sovereigns with letters of plea for salvation. Following the example of his father, Vasilevs decided to personally go to Europe. Alas, the trip was fruitless. The Greek capital was saved, unwittingly, by Timur. On July 28, 1402, in one of the largest battles of the Middle Ages, the Battle of Ankira, the armies of the “iron lame” inflicted a crushing defeat on Bayezid I. Most of the Sultan’s troops died, he himself was captured and was sent to the headquarters of the winner in an iron cage. Of course, there was no talk of any siege of Constantinople. In November 1402, Manuel Palaiologos left Paris without receiving the king's soldiers, and by the summer of 1403 he returned to Constantinople.

Taking advantage of the unrest that broke out among the Ottomans, the Romans returned Thessalonica. In 1411, the Turks again laid siege to Constantinople, this time at the initiative of Sultan Musa, the brother of Sultan Mehmed I. Two years later, Mehmed I defeated Musa and lifted the siege. The internecine war in the Ottoman state, which was fueled to a large extent by the intrigues of the Byzantines, lasted until 1418. In 1421, Constantinople supported the dynastic claims of Kyuchuk-Mustafa, the brother of the newly enthroned Sultan Murad II. This turned out to be a major mistake by Manuel II and his co-ruler John VIII. Mustafa, defeated and taken prisoner, pointed to them as the instigators of the rebellion, and the angry sultan in June 1422 approached Constantinople with an army. Over the Bosphorus, the first cannon shots sounded, smoke from the first powder mines hung. The Greeks fought bravely. A decisive assault at the gates of St. Roman was repulsed in August, the Ottomans fled, leaving almost all their guns. Soon a powerful popular uprising began in Asia Minor, and Murad II retreated. Manuel, who was stricken with paralysis, then lay near death in the Blachernae Palace. Then the emperor recovered, but now it was no longer he, a half-paralyzed old man, who determined the policy of the Roman court, but John VIII.
On February 23, 1424, under the threat of a new invasion, Manuel II and John VIII signed a peace treaty with the Sultan on extremely difficult conditions - a tribute of 30,000 hyperpires annually and significant territorial concessions. After that, the senior Palaiologos completely retired. Manuel II died on July 21, 1425, six days before his seventieth birthday.

Manuel's two sons, John and Constantine, became the last basils of a thousand-year-old empire. In fact, John VIII ruled over what was left of Byzantium from 1421, when his father made him co-ruler. The reign of this emperor passed in an atmosphere of constant struggle between the Greeks and the descendants of Western feudal lords who owned Achaia and Morea (in 1428-1432, the militant despot Constantine expelled the latter from Morea, where only four cities - Argos, Nauplius, Croton and Modona remained under the protectorate of Venice) .
However, no less significant for the history of Byzantium were conflicts within the country - between the so-called "Orthodox" and "Latinophile" movements. At the head of the first, most influential, was Mark Eugenik, Metropolitan of Ephesus. The Orthodox argued that bowing to the pope, thereby violating the exclusivity of Orthodoxy, even in the name of saving the state from the Muslim threat, is a grave sin and a betrayal of the faith. The point of view of the “Latinophiles” (supporters of contact with the West and even subordination to it), whose positions were shared by the last Palaeologists, was defended by politicians and humanist scientists (after 1440, their leader was Pletho’s disciple, Vissarion, Metropolitan of Nicaea).
The empire again, as in the time of John V, was engulfed in disputes about faith. And how then, everyone had to decide what was more important to save - Orthodoxy or the state ... Clearly seeing that without reliance on the Western countries, Constantinople and Morea would sooner or later be swallowed up by the Ottomans, John VIII made his choice and decided, as his father had once and grandfather, seek support from the Catholic world. Its price was known - union. Negotiations about it went back to the time of Manuel II, but were interrupted by the Turkish siege of 1421. A new stage began in 1431 and lasted seven years. The proposed union was an important political moment in the life of not only Byzantium, but also of Western Europe itself.
November 24, 1437, on eight decorated ships, accompanied by Patriarch Joseph II, an Orthodox church delegation (the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem appointed two plenipotentiaries each from themselves) and taking with them their brother, Despot Dmitry, who, due to the violence of his character, was dangerous to leave in the capital, John VIII Palaiologos set sail.
On April 9, on Great Wednesday, the joint meetings of the Latin and Greek delegations solemnly began. From the first joint meetings it became clear that both sides were stubbornly unwilling to admit that their opponents were right. Relations between Catholics and Orthodox worsened, and disbelief in the ability of the ecumenical council to make any decision became noticeable among both those and others. None of the ambassadors of the Western sovereigns arrived, and the Basel fathers also disregarded the orders of the pope.
Eugene IV subjected the Orthodox to direct pressure - they generally ceased to be given a financial allowance, and the Greeks slowly began to sell personal belongings, books and church utensils in order to somehow support their existence. Vasilevs John confirmed the ban on the members of his delegation from leaving the cathedral and, in turn, urged them to be more accommodating, speaking unambiguously not about finding out the truth, but about the political benefits that the empire would receive if they entered into a union.
In July 1439, forty prelates and Pope Eugene IV, on the one hand, and the Byzantine emperor with his thirty-three hierarchs, on the other, signed the text of the union. The next day, an act took place that the popes could not even dream of three or four hundred years ago - the basileus of the Roman Empire publicly knelt before the governor of St. Peter and kissed his hand. On behalf of the Western states, Eugene IV undertook to keep three hundred soldiers and two galleys in Constantinople, and, if necessary, give an additional twenty galleys for a period of six months or ten for a year. On February 1, 1440, the emperor returned to Constantinople.

Sultan Murad II, having learned about the results of the council, was furious. One of the promises of the pope was (in the future) a crusade against the Turks. This one of the last crusades of thirty thousand Catholic troops really began in 1443. At first, the knights were successful and they liberated a significant part of Bulgaria without great difficulties. The Sultan, busy with the war with the Albanian commander Skanderbeg and the Transylvanian governor Janos Hunyadi, preferred to make peace with the crusaders. However, the leaders of the campaign - Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini and Vladislav III Jagiellon, the king of Poland and Hungary, as well as Hunyadi who joined them, considered it tempting to break the truce and attack the unexpecting Murad II. John VIII refused to openly support the "perjurers", although, of course, they acted in his interests. On a cold day on November 10, 1444, on the Black Sea coast near Varna, largely due to the vehemence of Vladislav III, Christians suffered one of the most difficult defeats of the 15th century. Their army was destroyed, Cesarini died, the king too. The news of the Varna defeat plunged Constantinople into deep despondency. The last opportunity to defend the city with the hands of the Latin army disappeared.

The last autocrat of Byzantium, Constantine XII (born February 8, 1405), the son of Manuel II and the Serbian princess Elena Dragash, ascended the throne of the ancient empire in January 1449. Constantine was already ruling the country - during the departure of John VIII to the Ferrara-Florence Cathedral, and before that he won a certain respect among the Greeks as a brave despot of the Morea. He did not shine with education, preferring military exercises to books, he was quick-tempered, but he had common sense and a gift for convincing listeners. In addition, Konstantin Dragash was characterized by such rare qualities for rulers as honesty and nobility of soul.
In fact, the last Byzantine basileus inherited the capital with its environs, several islands in the Aegean Sea and Morea, bled white by the war with the Turks, from where the sultan took away many prisoners in 1446. Travelers who visited Constantinople were surprised at the desertedness of the great city. The population of the capital since antiquity has decreased by 10 - 12 times and amounted to 35 - 50 thousand people. Many quarters were uninhabited, most of the palaces lay in ruins from the time civil war 1341 - 1347 The majestic Grand Imperial Palace was no exception, for the restoration of which the Palaiologians did not have enough money - the basileus lived in Blachernae.
But Byzantium, and especially its capital, favorably located and well protected, still attracted the Ottoman conquerors. And not only them - in the West, the descendants of the rulers of the Latin state continued to claim their rights to its throne.
Standing on the threshold of a centuries-old national tragedy, the Greek people were divided by political struggle. The attempts of Constantine XII to force the Orthodox Church to recognize the union, without which Western help was impossible, ran into stubborn resistance from hierarchs and ordinary citizens.

While Murad II ruled in Adrianople, Byzantium enjoyed a reprieve. But in February 1451, the Sultan died, and the Ottoman throne was occupied by his twenty-year-old illegitimate son Mehmed II Fatih - the "conqueror", an extremely amazing personality. He spoke, in addition to Turkish, four languages, including Latin and Greek, knew philosophy and astronomy. At the same time, Mehmed was pathologically cruel, cunning, deceitful and treacherous. And if the goal of Konstantin Dragash was to save Byzantium, then Fatih, dreaming of military exploits in the name of the Prophet and the laurels of Timur, vowed to destroy it. Secretive, like all the sovereigns of the East, the Sultan kept his plans secret and recruited troops, trying to lull the Greeks' vigilance with false assurances of friendship and patronage.
Prince Urhan then lived in Constantinople, one of the relatives of the Sultan and a possible contender for the Ottoman throne, whom Mehmed for some reason was in no hurry to execute, but sent away from the court, to the Christians. The emperor announced the need to increase the payment for the maintenance of Urkhan, Fatih considered the demand insulting and a reason to break the peace agreements with Byzantium. No one doubted that the Sultan simply used, as in Aesop's famous fable about the wolf and the lamb, the first pretext that came across.
From April to August 1452, Ottoman engineers with amazing speed erected on the European coast of the Bosporus, in one of the narrowest places, the powerful fortress of Rumeli-Hissar. On the other side, the strait was already guarded by the Anatoli-Hissar citadel built under Bayezid I. Now the batteries of the Turks held the entire Bosporus at gunpoint, and not a single ship without the knowledge of the Sultan could pass to Constantinople from the Black Sea, while the Hellespont was guarded by the Muslim fleet.
The first to feel the power of the Rumeli-Hissar guns was the Italian squadron, which did not want to obey the order to lower the sails. Part of the ships broke through, but the largest galley of the Venetians, having received several stone cores, sank, all the surviving sailors, led by the captain, were executed.
The Sultan could interrupt the supply of the capital of the Greeks with food at any moment. At the end of August, he personally inspected its majestic fortifications and began to equip the army for the campaign scheduled for the next spring.

In Constantinople, they were preparing to repulse the invaders. The city stocked up on bread, firewood and weapons, walls and towers were hastily repaired.
In Thrace, preparations were in full swing for the assault on the Greek capital. In a workshop near Adrianople, a Hungarian named Urban, who at one time did not agree to remain in the service of the poor Dragash, made cannons for the Sultan. By mid-March, a huge (according to various historians, from eighty to three hundred thousand people) Turkish army was ready. A squadron of several hundred military and auxiliary ships was only waiting for the order to go to sea. Mesemvria, Anchialus and Visa were easily conquered by the sultan, while Silimvria and Epivates remained from the Thracian cities under the rule of Palaiologos.
The emperor's secretary and friend, George Sphranzi, who later left vivid memories of the siege of Constantinople, carried out a census of all the men of the city who were able to carry weapons at the sovereign's direction. The results of the calculations - 4973 Greeks and about two thousand foreigners - turned out to be so depressing that Constantine ordered them to be kept secret.
On the roads of the capital, minus a few who fled on the eve of the Turkish siege, twenty-six ships remained: five each from Venetian and Genoese, three from Crete, one each from Ancona, Catalonia and Provence, and ten imperial. Their teams vowed not to leave Constantine Castle in trouble and stand to the end. All able-bodied inhabitants enthusiastically put in order ditches littered with various rubbish and patched up ancient walls. And only the population of Galata kept a neutrality bordering on betrayal. However, by the end of the siege, the Galatians were already openly helping Mehmed.

At the end of March 1453, the first patrols of the Sultan's cavalry appeared on the surrounding hills, and soon parts of the Turkish light infantry. The Ottomans believed that the Greeks would hide in their homes in fear of them, but they miscalculated. On the morning of April 2, the Christians, led by their brave emperor, launched a sortie, killed several dozen enemies and, rejoicing, returned to the city. The mood of the besieged rose, and when on Thursday, April 5, the main Turkish forces that filled the suburbs approached the walls of the city, the thoughts of the defenders were not gloomy.
The hopes of the besieged were justified. First, all the soldiers of Dragash, both Greek and Latin, were excellently armed and more or less trained to fight. Secondly, the city had powerful double walls with cannons (albeit old ones) and throwing machines. Christians also had stocks of "Greek fire" at their disposal. The capital was supplied in advance with everything necessary - from bread to crossbow arrows, sails and saltpeter. Thirdly, the majority of the population burned with the determination to die rather than surrender. And finally, fourthly, the emperor counted on the troops promised by the pope and the Venetians.
On April 7, Turkish cannons began to speak - a long bombardment of Constantinople began. At first, the shelling did not give the desired effect. Most of the cores did not reach the walls, it was dangerous to move the batteries to the city because of possible undermining and sorties of Christians, and the Turks were afraid to increase the charge - they could not withstand the trunks. The Ottomans only managed to take by storm two small castles on the outskirts - Therapia and Studios. A few dozen prisoners left from their garrisons, the Sultan ordered to impale. The Greeks, on the other hand, made frequent attacks on the gaping Turkish detachments, and these sorties, often carried out with the participation of the basileus himself, brought considerable anxiety to the Ottomans. However, the sorties soon ceased - the soldiers were sorely lacking even to repel frequent attacks along the entire line of fortifications.

The siege of Constantinople was the largest event of the 15th century, in terms of the scale of application the latest ways warfare associated with gunpowder artillery, she knew no equal, the superiority of the Turkish forces was ten or more times, and on the city walls built back in the 5th century, under the command of Constantine XII and his courtiers, mostly not even professional warriors fought, but armor-clad townspeople - merchants and their servants, artisans, monks and even scientists. The few soldiers of Paleolog after the battle fell down from fatigue, and the Sea Walls stood without protection, since there were not enough people for them at all.
On April 20, among the waves of the Propontis, four ships with crosses on the masts, three Genoese and Greek, appeared, loaded with food and with several hundred volunteers on board. The Ottomans lined up one and a half hundred ships in front of them, and an unequal battle dragged on for almost a whole day. A shower of arrows and stones fell upon the Christians, meter by meter, making their way to the entrance to the Golden Horn, blocked off by a steel chain on wooden floats. However, the ability to conduct a naval battle among the Romans and Italians turned out to be incommensurably higher, and technically their galleys were far superior to the Turkish ones. One after another, the Ottoman ships, receiving damage, fell off the battle line, some were raging with might and main fires. Mehmed II, who was watching the clumsy actions of his captains from the shore, became furious. Not remembering himself, he sent his horse into the sea and woke up only when the water came up to the saddle. In the evening, all four Christian ships, having chosen the moment, slipped into the bay, and the chain was wound up again. There was no limit to the jubilation of the inhabitants of the city, in whose eyes a brilliant victory had taken place. The Byzantines and Genoese lost only a few people, the Muslims disproportionately more, and the Sultan's Admiral was saved from imminent execution only by severe wounds received in battle.

In the Golden Horn, Mehmed II ordered the construction of floating batteries. However, shooting from the water, like the land, was bad. The cores flew past the targets, the guns were torn off and thrown into the bay upon recoil. But in early May, Hungarian ambassadors arrived in Fatih's camp. One of them, versed in artillery, was bribed by the Turks and taught their gunners the art of correct aiming. The Greeks are having a hard time. Stone balls destroyed the masonry of walls and towers, and blocks fired from three large-caliber guns collapsed the walls in whole sections. At night, soldiers and townspeople filled up the gaps with stones, earth and logs. In the morning, the wall turned out to be serviceable, and the enemy, who went on the attack almost every day, was again met by arrows, bullets, stones and jets of "Greek fire". The most terrible consequences of the Turkish shooting were human losses. They seemed insignificant in comparison with the damage suffered by the besiegers, but there were too few defenders...
Despite the difficult situation, Dragash was not going to surrender the city. The barbarians still covered the perivolos and the moat with their bodies. The soldiers of the emperor, clad in strong armor, fearlessly withstood arrows and bullets.
On May 18, the Greeks blew up and burned a huge mobile siege tower - the heleopolis, built by Turkish specialists in accordance with all the rules of military science. Five days later, on May 23, the Christians discovered and blew up a tunnel under the city walls. Dozens of diggers and engineers of the Sultan found death underground. The fury of Mehmed II was replaced by despondency. For a month and a half, his gigantic army had been at the Byzantine capital, and there was no end in sight. As it turned out later, the Sultan had no idea about the true number of his opponents. Wanting to intimidate the emperor, Fatih sent a message to him and the townspeople, offering a choice of surrender or a saber, and death to the basileus or conversion to Islam. Some offered to accept these conditions. Oddly enough, among the supporters of surrender were even such irreconcilable opponents as the megaduka Notara and Cardinal Isidore.
The clergy, dissatisfied with Isidore and the confiscation of the clergy's funds for the needs of the siege, grumbled, clashes between the Venetians and the Genoese became more frequent, and the emperor had to work hard to keep the allies from bloodshed. The military council rejected the Sultan's ultimatum. On the fortifications of the dying capital, a minority thought about surrender. Not only men fought bravely, but also their wives and children, capable of holding a spear or crossbow.
On May 23, the ship returned to the city, previously sent by Palaiologos in search of the long-awaited Venetian-Papal fleet. The captain informed the basileus that he was not in the Aegean Sea, and was unlikely to be. The West has betrayed its brothers in faith. While from the towers of the bloodless Constantinople, the sentinels looked in vain in the haze of the Sea of ​​​​Marmara for the sails of Christian galleys, the Venetians bickered with the pope, quarreling over every ducat spent on preparing the expedition.

On May 26, the Turks, to the roar of trumpets, the roar of drums and the fiery howls of dervishes, went to the walls with the whole army. For three hours a fierce battle raged. Forgetting about the strife, the Greeks, Genoese, Venetians, Catalans, French, and even the Turks fought side by side - the servants of Prince Urhan, who offered his services to the emperor. Hundreds of dead bodies piled up along the perimeter of the land walls, and the screams of Muslims dying from wounds and fatal burns were heard in the air. Mehmed II spent the rest of the night in thought. On the morning of the next day, the Sultan traveled around the troops and promised them to give the city for robbery for three days. The soldiers greeted the message with enthusiastic shouts. At night, the Ottoman camp was quiet - preparations were underway.

At dawn on May 28, 1453, the Roman autocrat Constantine XII Palaiologos assembled the last council of war. Speaking before the commanders, the emperor begged them not to disgrace the banner of Constantine the Great, not to give shrines and defenseless women and children into the cruel hands of the Ishmaelites. Having finished his speech, Palaiologos slowly walked around the line of wounded, exhausted knights and quietly asked everyone for forgiveness - if he offended them in any way. Many cried. In the evening, a solemn prayer service was held in the church of St. Sophia. For the first time in the long weeks of the siege, all the priests, both Catholic and Orthodox, performed the service, yesterday's disputants and opponents prayed together.
At one o'clock in the morning, filling the area with wild cries, with fascines and ladders on their shoulders, detachments of bashi-bazouks armed with anything - irregular infantry - rushed forward. The task of this least valuable part of the Sultan's army (the bashi-bazouks were recruited from all sorts of rabble, criminals, vagrants, among them there were many renegade Christians) was to wear down the besiegers, and Mehmed II without hesitation sent half-dressed robbers against Dragash's heavily armed men-at-arms. The bashi-bazouk attack, which lasted two hours, choked with blood. Arrows and stones rushed from the towers, finding their target in the light of the moon and stars, the Turks were chopped with swords and stabbed with spears, they fell in dozens from multi-meter stairs. The streams of "Greek fire" falling down with a loud roar flooded the perivolos with flame, finishing off the wounded and crippled. Heavy arquebus shots crackled from both sides. An alarming rumble of bells floated over the doomed city - the alarm of St. Sophia struck ...
The surviving bashi-bazouks slid away from the walls. After several volleys of batteries, a second wave of attackers appeared on the slopes of the hills. Now, detachments of Anatolian Turks were advancing on the attack, gleaming with their shells. The Greeks and Catholics, not having time to rest, again took up arms.
The battle was in full swing along the entire wall, but Mehmed organized the most stubborn onslaught between the gates of St. Roman and Polyander. The emperor and his retinue covered the weakest area - Mesothichion (where the Lykos stream flowed into the city), Giustiniani's mercenaries fought to his right, the Genoese and a detachment of the emperor's relative, the mathematician Theophilus Paleologus, who converted to Catholicism, fought to the left.
A fierce battle was also going on in Blachernae, where the Venetians held out. An hour before dawn, the ball brought down a large section of the wall near the gates of St. Roman. About three hundred Turks broke through to Paratichion, but the basileus with his Greeks drove them out. In the light of the rising sun, the arrows and bullets flying from above began to strike more accurately, the soldiers of the Sultan fled back, but the steel sticks of the officers again and again drove them to the walls. After four hours of battle, when the Greeks and their allies were exhausted from fatigue and wounds, the best Turkish units, the Janissaries, moved to the gates of St. Roman. Mehmed II personally brought their column to the moat.
This third attack became the most violent. Within an hour, the Janissaries suffered heavy losses, it seemed that this time the assault would also end in failure. Fatih, realizing that after that the only way out would be only lifting the siege, again drove and drove his people forward, under bullets, stones and arrows. And then, wounded, Long Giustiniani fell. The condottiere ordered to carry himself to the galley. Finding themselves without a leader, the Italians began to abandon their posts and leave for the city. Huge growth of the Janissaries Hasan climbed the wall, fighting off the Greeks, his comrades arrived in time to gain a foothold at the top.
Even before the assault, for one of the sorties, the defenders used Kerkoporta - a small gate in the wall. It remained unlocked, and a detachment of fifty Janissaries entered through it. Climbing the wall from the rear, the Turks ran along it, throwing down the exhausted Christians. On the tower of St. Roman, a green banner was clogged. With cries of "Our city!" the Ottomans rushed forward. The Italians were the first to waver and run. The emperor ordered the others to retreat behind the inner wall as well. But many of its gates were locked, traffic jams arose in the panic that began, people fell into pits, from which they took earth to seal the breaches. interior wall no one defended, after the last Greeks, the Turks burst into the city ...

Constantine XII, Theophilus Palaiologos and two other knights fought at the gates of St. Roman (according to another version - at the Golden). When a crowd of janissaries fell right on them, the basileus shouted to his relative: “Come on, let's fight these barbarians!” Theophilus replied that he wanted to die rather than retreat, and, brandishing his sword, rushed towards the enemies. A scuffle formed around the mathematician, and Dragash had an opportunity to escape. But the last ruler of Byzantium chose to share the fate of his empire. Following Theophilus, he stepped into the thick of the battle, and no one else saw him alive ...
Skirmishes broke out in the streets, in which the Ottomans cracked down on the surviving defenders of the city. At the same time, robbery began, accompanied by all the horrors that the brutal soldiery carried. Hundreds of children, women and old people fled to St. Sophia, believing that in a terrible hour God would not leave them. In the Golden Horn, people mad with horror, crushing and pushing each other into the water, tried to escape on the surviving ships. The Turks, occupied with robbery, did not interfere with the flight, and the ships were able to sail away, leaving those who did not have enough space on the piers.
By evening, Mehmed II entered the blood-drenched city. The Sultan ordered the officers to monitor the safety of the buildings that became his property. From St. Sophia, the Sultan, struck by her greatness, himself drove out the fanatics who smashed her.
Byzantium fell on Tuesday, May 29, 1453. In the evening, Constantine Palaiologos was identified in a huge pile of corpses by small golden double-headed eagles on purple boots. The Sultan ordered the king's head to be cut off and put on the hippodrome, and the body to be buried with imperial honors. The last Palaeologus - Prince Giovanni Laskaris Palaiologos - died in 1874 in Turin. The city, founded by Constantine I, son of Helen, was forever enslaved by the barbarians under Constantine XII, son of Helen. In this, Rome II repeated the fate of Rome I.

From this came a whole series of evils:

The imperial power, being all-encompassing, was not independent, could not acquire the character of the supreme. She could not have proper control over management. She cut herself off from the people. As a result, the moral character of power could be preserved only in so far as the Church managed to do it. But constant upheavals brought forward people of a type that is not at all easily amenable to moral and religious influence. Thus, even from a moral point of view, arbitrariness in Byzantium was not reliably curbed.

The bureaucracy itself was also extremely corrupted from its own omnipotence, from the absence of public control, from the lack of any bodies in society capable of helping the Supreme Power to control and curb the bureaucracy. All such a political situation, finally, had a demoralizing effect on society itself, which was alienated from the state.

Thus, the fatal circumstance in Byzantine statehood was the absence or excessive weakness of the social order. From this, the whole machine of state action deteriorated, and from the same Byzantium lost the ability to assimilate influence on the peoples that were part of the empire, or those surrounding it. Byzantine statehood did not attract these peoples to itself, on the contrary, it was antipathetic to them, as a force that only exploited, but did not give almost anything and, moreover, promised the peoples of the empire only enslavement by bureaucracy. The social forces of any province, any nationality, when included in the empire, were doomed to decay and destruction. But under this condition, an independent desire to be with Byzantium, to enter into its composition, did not arise and could not arise anywhere. And here is the result general scheme The life of the empire consisted in the fact that the empire gradually decreased, lost region after region, expanded something for a minute, but then again declined. The numerical strength of the empire was constantly decreasing. And the weaker it became quantitatively, the harder it became for the population to maintain the heavy bureaucratic administrative machine of Byzantium. Such a course of evolution inevitably predicted a fatal denouement. The strength of the Turks could develop only because it was given to them by the possible growing decline of Byzantium itself.

The political death of Byzantium, therefore, was entirely due to the shortcomings of its state system, which not only did not develop the social system, but even did not allow it to develop with all its might. The religious beginning somewhat paralyzed the ill-fated tendencies of the bureaucratic system, which stifled that on which the strength of states grows: the social system. The Church, in so far as it was her own, replaced the lack of social connection. The Church, as far as possible for moral and religious influence, healed the morals corrupted by the political system. The Church finally gave the emperors, to some extent, the significance of the Supreme Power.

But the old Roman absolutism, which inevitably gives rise to centralization and bureaucracy, did not allow the Byzantine autocrat to develop into a true Supreme Power, directing the administration it produces through all the social and political forces of the nation, and not just the bureaucracy.

This was the reason for the death of the Byzantine statehood, which did not know how to use social forces.

The true type of monarchical Sovereignty that determines the direction political life, but in the matter of managing a state building on a nation, living and organized, this type of statehood was destined, subsequently, to be developed by Muscovite Rus', which, thanks to the lessons of Byzantium, took the monarchical supreme power as the basis of the state, and in its fresh national organism found the mighty forces of the social system , in alliance with which the monarch built his state.

In the late Middle Ages, Byzantium fell, and a new aggressive power of the Turks, the Ottomans, appeared in its place. The Ottoman Empire arose in the west of Asia Minor from the possessions of Sultan Osman (1258-1324). In Byzantium at that time there was a sharp internal struggle. The Ottomans, helping one of the contenders for the throne, made a number of campaigns in Europe. For this they received in 1352 a fortress there. Since that time, the Ottomans began to conquer the Balkans. The Turkish population is also transported to Europe. The Ottomans captured a number of Byzantine territories, after defeating the Serbs in the Kosovo field in 1389, they subjugated Serbia and Bulgaria.

In 1402, the Ottomans were defeated by the ruler of Samarkand, Timur. But the Turks managed to quickly restore their strength. Their new conquests are connected with the Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror. In April 1453, a Turkish army of 150 thousand people appeared under the walls of Constantinople. They were opposed by less than 10 thousand Greeks and mercenaries. The city was stormed in May 1453. Most of its defenders fell in battle. Among them was the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos. Mehmed II declared the city his capital under the name Istanbul.

Then the Turks captured Serbia. In 1456 Moldavia became a vassal of Turkey. The Venetians were defeated. In 1480, Turkish troops landed in Italy, but could not gain a foothold there. After the death of Mehmed II, the conquests in the Balkans continued. The Crimean Khanate became a vassal of the Sultan. Hungary was later captured. Poland, Austria, Russia and other countries were subjected to devastating raids. The Turks began conquests in Asia and North

Changes in the internal life of European states.

In addition to tires, Europeans had to endure other disasters in the late Middle Ages. In 1347, an epidemic of plague (“black death”) hit the continent. The plague inflicted the greatest damage on the common people. Thus, the population of France was reduced by almost half.

Population decline has led to a decrease in the need for food. Peasants began to grow more industrial crops, which they then sold to urban artisans. The freer the peasant was, the more successfully he acted in the market, the more income he received and the more he could bring profit to his lord. Therefore, after the epidemic in many countries accelerated the liberation of the peasants from serfdom. In addition, the reduction in the number of workers increased their value, forced the feudal lords to treat the peasants with great respect. However, most of the lords set huge ransoms for the release of the peasants. Revolts were the answer.

Particularly large actions of the peasants took place in France and England, where the situation worsened in connection with the Hundred Years' War. In the north of France in 1358 an uprising broke out, called jacquerie(Jacks contemptuously called the peasants the nobles). The rebels burned feudal castles and exterminated their owners. Jacquerie was severely suppressed. In England, in the spring of 1381, a peasant uprising broke out. Roofer became its leader Wat Tapler. Peasants killed tax collectors, sacked estates and monasteries. The peasants were supported by the lower classes of the city. Entering London, Tanler's detachments dealt with the hated nobles. At a meeting with the king, the rebels put forward demands for the abolition of serfdom, corvée, and so on. The uprising was also put down. Despite the defeats, peasant uprisings accelerated the liberation of the peasants.

The formation of centralized states in Fraction and England.

In France, a decisive step towards strengthening the central power was taken by the king Louis X!(146! - 1483). In the course of long wars, the king defeated the powerful Kir-scrap the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. Part of Burgundy, Provence, Brittany were annexed to the king's possessions. Many regions and cities have lost swap privileges. Lost the value of the States General. The number of officials has increased. The creation of a standing army, the service in which was paid by the king, made the feudal lords (nobility) more and more dependent on him. The nobility, although it partially retained its possessions, lost its former independence. France entered the 16th century as a major centralized

state.

In England, there were also internal strife. which ended with the strengthening of the power of the king. In 1455, the War of the Scarlet and White Roses broke out between supporters of the two branches ruling dynasty: Lancasters and Minks. It led to the death of a significant part of the large feudal lords. In 14K5, the king came to power Henry VII Tudor(1485 - 1509). Under him, the central government was greatly strengthened. He achieved the dissolution of the troops of large feudal lords, executed many, and took the land for himself. Parliament still met, but everything was decided by the will of the king. England, like France, became centralized state. In such a state, the entire territory is really subordinate to the central government, and management is carried out with the help of officials.

medieval culture. Beginning of the Renaissance

Science and theology.

Social thought in the Middle Ages developed within the framework of the Christian faith. The Bible was the supreme authority. However, this did not exclude heated disputes over the most various issues. Philosophers were looking for general patterns of development of nature, human society and their relationship with God.

XI century was the time of birth scholastics. Scholasticism is characterized by the subordination of thought to authority. One of the scholastics formulated the thesis that philosophy is the servant of theology. It was assumed that all knowledge has two levels - the supernatural, given in revelation by God, and the "natural", sought by the human mind. "Supernatural" knowledge can be obtained by studying the Bible and the writings of the church fathers. "Natural" knowledge was sought by the human mind in the writings of Plato and Aristotle.

In the XII century. the confrontation of various trends in scholasticism led to open opposition to the authority of the church. Led it Pierre Abelard, whom his contemporaries called "the most brilliant mind of his century." Abelard made understanding a precondition for faith. Abelard's opponent was Bernard Clairvaux. He was one of the most prominent representatives of medieval mysticism. In the middle of the XV and. dealt a blow to scholasticism Nikolay Kuzansky. He insisted on separating the study of nature from theology.

A peculiar phenomenon of medieval science, which was intertwined with faith, became alchemy. The main task of all alchemists was to find a way to transform simple metals into gold, which supposedly happened with the help of the so-called "philosopher's stone". Alchemists own the discovery and improvement of the compositions of many paints, metal alloys, medicines.

Development of education.

From the 11th century rise of medieval schools. Education in schools was conducted at first only on Latin. Thanks to the knowledge of Latin, scientists different countries could freely

communicate with each other. Only in the XIV century. there were schools with teaching in national languages.

The basis of education in the Middle Ages was the so-called "seven liberal arts". They were divided into two levels: initial, which included grammar, dialectics And rhetoric, and the highest, which included astronomy, arithmetic, geometry And music.

In the XII-XIII centuries. with the growth of cities, urban schools gained strength. They were not subject to the direct influence of the church. Schoolchildren have become bearers of the spirit of freethinking. Many of them wrote witty poems and songs in Latin. The church and its ministers especially got it in these songs.

Universities.

The scales that existed in some cities turned from the 12th century. V universities. The so-called union of schoolchildren and teachers for study and protection of their interests. The first higher schools similar to universities appeared in the Italian cities of Solerno (medical school) and Bologna (law school). In 1200, the University of Paris was founded. In the XV century. there were already about 60 universities in Europe.

Universities enjoyed wide autonomy, which was granted to them by kings or popes. Teaching was conducted in the form of lectures and disputes (scientific disputes). The university was divided into faculties. The junior, obligatory for all students, was artistic department. The "seven liberal arts" were taught here. There were three senior faculties: legal, medical And theological. The basis of education in many universities was the works of Aristotle, which became known in Europe through Muslim Spain. Universities, being centers of knowledge, played an important role in cultural development.

Architecture. Sculpture.

With the growth of cities, urban planning and architecture developed intensively. Dwelling houses, town halls, guild scrap, shopping arcades and merchant warehouses were erected. In the center of the city there was usually a cathedral or a castle. Lofts with arcades were built around the main city square. Streets branched out from the square. Scrap lined up along the streets and embankments in 1 - 5 floors.

In the XI-XIII centuries. dominated European architecture novel-skip style. This name arose because the architects used some of the building techniques of ancient Rome. Romanesque churches are characterized by massive walls and vaults, the presence of towers, small windows, and an abundance of arches.

Cathedrals in the Gothic style began to be built from the 12th century. in northern France. Gradually, this style spread throughout Western Europe, remaining dominant until the end of the Middle Ages. Gothic cathedrals were erected by order of urban communes and emphasized not only the power of the church, but the strength and freedom of cities. In the Gothic cathedral, light, openwork walls seemed to dissolve, giving way to high narrow windows, decorated with magnificent colored stained-glass windows. The interior of the Gothic Cathedral is illuminated by the light of stained glass windows. Rows of slender pillars and a powerful rise of pointed arches create a feeling of unstoppable movement upwards and forwards.

Gothic sculpture possessed great expressive power. Human suffering, purification and exaltation through them are reflected in the lindens and in the figures. Painting in Gothic cathedrals was represented mainly by painting altars.

The invention of printing.

The invention of the printing press made a revolution not only in book business, but also in life.

the whole society. A German is considered the creator of the European method of printing. Johannes Gutenberg. His method (printed typesetting) made it possible to obtain an arbitrary number of identical prints of text from a form composed of letters - movable and easily replaceable elements. Gutenberg was the first to use a press to obtain an impression, developed recipes for printing ink and an alloy for casting. lit.

The first printed page of Gutenberg dates from 1445. The first complete printed edition in Europe was in 1456 a 42-line Bible (2 volumes, 1282 pages). The discovery of Gutenberg made the book, and with it knowledge, much more accessible to a wide range of literate people.

Early Renaissance.

In the XIV-XV centuries. in the culture of Europe there are great changes associated with the unprecedented rise of science. literature, art. This phenomenon has been named Rebirth (Renaissance). Renaissance figures believed that after the death of antiquity, a period of decline began - the Middle Ages. And only now begins the revival of ancient education, science, culture. The birthplace of the Renaissance was Italy, where much of T ancient heritage and where educated people from Byzantium fled to escape from the Turks. From the 14th century lovers of antiquity developed ideas humanism(recognition of the value of a person as a person, his right to free development and manifestation; of his abilities). Later they themselves began to be called humanists. Florence, Venice, Milan became the centers of humanism.

One of the leading trends in the first half of the XV century. was civil humane. Its founder was Leonardo Bruni, higher executive Republic of Florence. He translated a number of Aristotle's works from Greek into Latin, and wrote his own works, among them The History of the Florentine People.

Another prominent Italian humanist of the 15th century. Lorenzo Valla clearly raised the question of the relationship between secular culture and the Christian faith. Culture, Balla believed, is one of the aspects of spiritual life that does not depend on the church. It reflects and directs worldly life, encourages a person to live in harmony with himself and the world around him.

Another direction in Italian humanism of the XV century. represented creativity Leon Baptista Alberti. He was a thinker and writer, art theorist and architect. Alberti's humanistic concept of man is based on the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, Cicero and Seneca. Her main thesis is harmony as one of the fundamental laws of life. Both the universe and the inner world of man obey the laws of harmony. Humanist

He affirmed the ideal of an active civil life, in which a person reveals the natural properties of his nature.

In contrast to humanism, which began to take shape in the second half of the 14th century, painting, sculpture and architecture took the path of innovation only in the first decades of the 15th century. At this time, a new type of building is being formed in Italy - palazzo I villa(urban and suburban housing). The simplicity of the facade, the perfection of proportions, spacious interiors - that's character traits new architecture.

Florence became the center of painting in the Renaissance. In the second half of the XV century. artists are looking for building principles perspectives for image three-dimensional space. During this period, various schools are formed - Florentine, North Italian, Venetian. A large number of currents arise inside them. The most famous painter of the Early Renaissance was Sandro Bpttichemi.

TOPIC 4FROM ANCIENT Rus' TO THE MOSCOW STATE

Formation of the Old Russian state

Exactly 555 years ago, on May 29, 1453, the capital of the great Byzantine Empire, Constantinople, fell under the blows of the Ottoman Turks; The Eastern Roman Empire ceased to exist. In Islamic history, this event is called Fath ul-Istanbul - the Islamic discovery of Istanbul, and Sultan Mohammed II (Mehmet) - Mohammed the Liberator. The medieval Latin chronicler correctly wrote: "Constantinople is not only the eye of the Christian faith, but also the object of desires of the whole world." April 13 this year marks 804 years since the Catholic crusaders "deviated" from the goal of their campaign (IV) - the liberation of the "Holy Sepulcher", and instead captured and plundered the city of Emperor Constantine, after which Byzantium was no longer able to recover and became easy prey for conquerors...

In more than a thousand years of the history of the Second Rome, these two events stand apart, their role in the genesis of civilization is enormous. With the transition of the Patriarch of Constantinople to the citizenship of the Ottomans, all the patriarchs of the Orthodox world lived in Muslim states: Constantinople, Jerusalem (Palestine), Antioch (Syria), Alexandria (Egypt). When the Grand Duke of Moscow decided to establish a chair of the patriarchy in Moscow, he sent an embassy to the Ottoman sultan with a request to allow its organization.

For the Orthodox world, Constantinople is more than a symbol. Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonians, Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, Romanians, Moldavians, Georgians, Ethiopians, Egyptian Copts and Armenians are still connected with the heritage and traditions of Byzantium by visible and invisible threads. The influence of the Second Rome on all spheres of life of Eastern Christianity remains enormous.

"The Second Death of Homer and Plato"

Fatal "rejection"

Izantium was dying long and painfully. After the death in 1180 of Vasileus Manuel Komnenos, the empire plunged into an abyss of rebellions, uprisings, and palace coups. Representatives of the dynasty of Angels became the gravediggers of the former greatness of the richest city in the world. The crusaders, sent to the IV Crusade by the greedy hand of the 90-year-old Venetian Doge Enrico Dandolo, with the tacit consent of the Pope Innocent III, became embroiled in palace intrigues on the Bosphorus, pledging to help one representative of the dynasty as opposed to another. Immediately after the first, unsuccessful assault on the Latins on July 17, 1203, the usurper of the throne, Alexei III, fled, taking the treasury. It seemed that the goal of the campaign had been achieved, and it was time to go to Palestine to fight the Saracens: the blinded Isaac returned to the throne and his co-ruler son Alexei paid the crusaders a huge amount - about 100 thousand silver marks, almost half of the money stipulated in the contract. But the Venetians are adamant and demand final retribution. They convince the French, Germans, Sicilians to stay under the walls of Constantinople.

The final denouement came after another coup and the coming to power of the ardent opponent of the Latins, Alexei IV Murzufla. But in the open field, the "Franks" (as the Byzantines called their enemies) had no equal. Under the walls of the city in February, the Greeks were defeated. A bad omen was the loss in battle of the imperial shrine - the icon of the Mother of God, written, according to legend, by the evangelist Luke. On April 9, the assault bogged down, and the crusaders began to talk about the displeasing to God of their enterprise. And then the church hierarchs entered into action, who, in the name of the Pope, absolved the sins of all those who rush to the stronghold of heretics-"schismatics". On April 12, the crusaders captured part of the city; Theodore Laskaris, elected by the nobility as the new emperor, was forced with his supporters to leave through the Bosporus to Asia Minor, where he created the Empire of Nicaea - in the next 55 years, a constant rival of the Latin Empire.

"Palace City" at the feet of the barbarians

How does the Greek Nicetas Choniates in his Chronicles describe the sack of Constantinople by the crusaders on April 13, 1204: western troops against the population of Christ, not showing decisively the slightest leniency to anyone, but depriving everyone of money and property, dwellings and clothes, and completely not leaving those who had anything! God to pass the Christian countries without bloodshed ... arm your hands against the Saracens and stain your swords with the blood of the devastators of Jerusalem! And the Latins do not hesitate to describe the sack of Constantinople - Marshal of Champagne Geoffroy Villardouin in his memoirs “testifies to you in conscience and in truth that for many centuries never found so much booty in one city. Everyone took a house for himself, which he liked, and there were enough such houses for everyone ”(sources say about 30-50 thousand “pilgrim” warriors”).

One of the reasons for the irreconcilable rivalry between Rome and Constantinople was the spiritual, intellectual, and economic gulf that separated them. Catholics also spoke about the wealth of Byzantium, for example, Chrétien de Troyes, who admiringly broadcast in the novel “Clijes”: “I don’t dare to describe it, because there are no words for such miracles in our nature.” One of the participants in the campaign, Robert de Clary, in the book “The Conquest of Constantinople”, talking about the plunder of the Pharos church, notes: “... they found two pieces of the cross of the Lord as thick as a human leg, .. and then they found an iron tip from a spear with which our Lord was pierced in side, and two nails with which his hands and feet were pierced ... ”,“ the pilgrims looked at the vastness of the city, and palaces, and rich abbeys, and rich monasteries, and great miracles that were in the city; they marveled at this for a long time and were especially amazed at the monastery of St. Sophia and the wealth that was there. There is the surprise of the barbarians!

The great empire, the successor of the Roman Empire, was never able to recover from the terrible pogrom of 1204. Latin crusaders with a rapture worthy best use destroyed the city of Emperor Constantine. Gelena Grineva, a researcher of the Western European Middle Ages, very subtly remarked: “The garden city, the palace city was destroyed ... The West here was, as before, a stranger ... The Latin Empire withered for half a century, because the West, having dismembered a bird, but never found a mechanism, who makes her chirp and flutter, turned away with boredom and bewilderment.

Byzantine revenge and geopolitical zuntswang

After almost half a century of exile in Nicaea and the restoration of the empire by Michael Palaiologos, Byzantium did not become the dominant power in the Christian East. In the Balkans in the XIII-XIV centuries. Serbia, Bulgaria and Hungary fought for hegemony; Dozens of Frankish principalities arose in Greece (remnants of the Latin Empire), and the Venetian and Genoese republics strengthened their influence in the Eastern Mediterranean. It was impossible to discount the Epirus despotism of the dynasty of Angels, Albanians, Bosnians, Wallachians and the Great Komnenos - the emperors of the Trebizond Empire on the southeastern coast of the Black Sea. But the main danger to Constantinople came from the Ottoman Turks. After the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, Serbia lost its independence, and soon it was Bulgaria's turn. The Ottoman "noose" around the miserable remnants of the possessions of Byzantium was tightened ever tighter. The city of Constantine, several cities in Thrace, Thessalonica, a dozen islands in the Aegean Sea and the Peloponnesian Peninsula - that's all that remains of the great empire.

In 1396, Sultan Bayazid the Lightning defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of Nikopol. But already in 1402, an event occurred that postponed the capture of Constantinople by the Turks by as much as 50 years. At the beginning of the year, Bayezid tried to starve the capital of Byzantium, but, worried about the invasion of Timur's troops into Asia Minor, he rushed towards Khromts. The defeat of the Ottoman Turks was complete, and Bayezid himself died in captivity. There was a pause. Sultan Murad II found himself under the walls of Constantinople in 1422, but just a few hours later, worried about the conspiracy, he retreated.

The paleologists tried to save the state. Emperor Manuel II even managed to win back a number of cities in Thrace from the Turks and strengthen the "Byzantine party" at the Sultan's court. But the West remained the main force that could really help. Emperor John VIII was convinced that only an alliance with Rome could save the empire, and “the only way to force your subjects to accept the union is to approve it at a council, which, as far as possible, would approach the Ecumenical in its representation” (Stephen Runciman. "The Fall of Constantinople in 1453").

Union with Rome - the last chance?

Having spent many years in his youth in the West, John VIII Palaiologos was familiar with the mood of the pope and sovereigns. In 1437 he leaves for Italy. In Ferrara, the emperor, Patriarch Joseph, representatives of the eastern patriarchs, bishops and scholars began negotiations with the papal curia on a union. The plague forced everyone to move to Florence. Among the main issues is the correct interpretation of the canons of the Ecumenical Councils and the works of the Church Fathers. Many Orthodox hierarchs ignored the Council, and therefore the emperor elevated three learned monks to the rank of metropolitan: Bessarion from Trebizond, Isidore from Kyiv, and Mark Eugenikus. Each Byzantine spoke at the debates on his own (hierarchs, including the patriarch, are considered equally enlightened from above in understanding the dogmas of the faith, and the interpretation of the works of theologians is the prerogative of the laity); because the Latins, who acted as a single team, looked stronger.

The emperor, an educated man, tried in every possible way to smooth over the conflicts that arose; question about teaching Divine Energy and hung in the air. Patriarch Joseph agreed with Rome on such an issue as the formula of the Latins about the Holy Spirit proceeding from both the Father and the Son (filiogue). The Latin doctrine of posthumous cleansing by the prayers of the Church of the souls of the dead without remission of sins was adopted. The Roman high priest was recognized as the administrator of the Universal Church, but the Eastern Patriarchs retained their rights and privileges. All Greeks refused to kiss the papal shoe, except for Isidore. The question arose - are you ready for the union Orthodox churches countries of the Danube basin, Eastern Europe, Transcaucasia? Retaining only rituals and worship, the emperor and the patriarch (the latter died in Italy; one scholar said that he, “as a decent person who had lost the remnants of his prestige, had no choice”) signed a union, where they recognized the dogmas of Rome and the primacy popes, forcing the majority of priests and philosophers to do the same. The philosopher Plethon evaded signing documents and, even under the threat of deprivation of dignity, Mark of Ephesus.

Moscow was called the "Third Rome". And recently a date flashed by that no one paid attention to - 560 years ago, the "Second Rome" - Constantinople - collapsed. He reached the highest peak, overcame all enemies, but it was not wars that turned out to be disastrous for him, but an attempt to make friends with the West and adjust to Western standards. In general, the history of this power seems to be very instructive, especially for the present times.

When the Roman Empire perished under the blows of the "barbarians", its eastern part withstood. She still called herself the Roman Empire, although it was already a different state - Greek, and a different name - Byzantium - was introduced into history. This state has shown amazing vitality. In the chaos of the Early Middle Ages, it remained the main center of high civilization in Europe. Byzantine commanders won victories, the fleet dominated the seas, and the capital, Constantinople, was rightfully considered the largest and most beautiful city peace.

The empire was the main stronghold of Christianity, created its own world system, Orthodox - in the X century. Rus' also entered it. But even in Western countries, poor and fragmented, the church existed thanks to the support of the Greeks - Constantinople allocated money, liturgical literature, and qualified clergy to it. Over time, significant differences have accumulated between the Western and Eastern churches. Roman theologians were poorly educated and made serious mistakes in dogmatics. And most importantly, the popes were included in the role of the leaders of the "Christian world." They crowned and regulated kings, began to put their power above secular.

However, the Roman pontiffs recognized themselves as vassals Byzantine emperors- the Greeks provided them with patronage, protected from enemies. Yes, even among Western rulers, the authority of Byzantium was inaccessible, they fawned over it, dreamed of intermarrying with the Greek dynasty, and wooed the royal daughters and sisters. Very few have received this honor. They usually answered that they were the kings of the "barbarians" and were not worthy to marry "born in Purtur" (as is known, St. Vladimir forced the Byzantines to such a marriage only by force, having taken Chersonese).

The fabulous riches of Byzantium attracted many, and it lay in a busy place, covering the border between Europe and Asia. It was attacked by invasions of Persians, Avars, Arabs, Bulgarians. But the soldiers of the empire fought valiantly. The entire population came to the defense of the cities. And the engineers invented a terrible weapon - "Greek fire". Its composition is still unknown, from vessels of a special design, installed on the walls of fortresses or ships, jets of burning liquid were thrown out, which could not be extinguished with water. Byzantium fought off all enemies.

But the West did not experience such powerful blows, gradually crawled out of the confusion, intensified. And the Greeks accumulated internal diseases. Constantinople was drowning in luxury and depravity. Officials were predatory, the metropolitan mob spoiled themselves, longed for magnificent holidays, circuses, distributions of money, food, wine. In the XI century. the inertia of greatness broke. Court groups of nobles and oligarchs began to put their puppets on the throne and plunder the treasury. In pursuit of sources of income, the army was destroyed. Military service and maintenance of troops was replaced by an additional tax. Declared that it is better to hire professionals. Although the mercenaries cost five times more than their soldiers, and the money collected did not reach the troops, it spread into the pockets of the thieves. The defense collapsed, Pecheneg raids began from the north, and Seljuk Turks from the east.

In Rome, they realized that they could no longer count on help, and Pope Leo IX found himself another support - the Norman pirates. Rude and arrogant messages went to Constantinople from the Vatican, and in 1054 the Latin and Greek churches were divided. And among the Greeks, the ugliness and predation of the nobility angered the subjects, civil strife broke out. The Seljuks took advantage of this, captured almost all of Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine.

Alexei Komnenos won the turmoil. The position of the empire was difficult, but not critical. The Pechenegs were far inferior in strength to the Avars or the Bulgarians, and the Seljuk state broke up into emirates that fought among themselves. But Komnenos was by nature a convinced "Westernizer". Instead of mobilizing national forces, he began to build bridges with Europe. Against the attacks of the Normans, the king called the fleet of Venice to the rescue, and for this he granted her the right to duty-free trade throughout Byzantium. And in 1091 it became known that the Pechenegs and the Seljuk leader Chakha were preparing the next raids. Alexei panicked, turned to the pope and the kings with a message: “The empire of Greek Christians is greatly oppressed by the Pechenegs and Turks ... I myself, clothed with the rank of emperor, do not see any outcome, I do not find any salvation ... So, in the name of God, we implore you, soldiers of Christ, hurry to help me and the Greek Christians…”

Help was not required. The Byzantines defeated the Pechenegs in alliance with the Polovtsians and Russians. And Chakha was killed in a quarrel with other Seljuk leaders, his campaign did not take place. But the emperor continued to negotiate with the West about "common threats", and Pope Urban II came in handy, a crusade was proclaimed at the cathedral in Piacenza. In 1096, an avalanche of knights flowed to the east. On Greek soil, they fully showed themselves. Robbery, self-willed. But Comnenus humbled himself and fawned. He presented the leaders with breathtaking treasures, if only they were friends with Byzantium, they would recapture its lost territories. And the crusaders did not refuse gratuitous jewelry, they even brought a vassal oath to the emperor for this. Without much difficulty, they defeated the scattered emirs, occupied Syria and Palestine. But they were not occupied at all for the Greeks. They expelled the imperial representatives from their army and became full masters in the Middle East.

The son and successor of Alexei Comnenus John tried to correct his father's miscalculations. In contrast to the West, he strengthened the alliance with Russia, married his daughter to the Suzdal prince Yuri Dolgoruky. The Venetians, strangling trade, refused to confirm the privileges. Where there! It was too late. Venice immediately sent a fleet that began to devastate the Byzantine shores. I had to return the privileges, and also pay with apologies "compensation for losses."

And John's heir Manuel Komnenos turned out to be a "Westernizer" even worse than his grandfather Alexei. He gave foreigners high positions at the court, in the army, and in the government. Constantinople began to dress according to European fashions. Men flaunted in stockings and short pants, ladies put on high caps, squeezed their busts with corsages. Knightly tournaments became a favorite spectacle. In addition to the Venetian merchants, Manuel launched the Genoese and Pisans into the country, giving them the same broad rights. Western management models were also adopted. The archons, the rulers of the provinces, who had previously been only officials of the king, received greater independence like the dukes. And to collect taxes, the Western system of farming was introduced. Farmers contributed cash to the treasury, and collected from the population themselves, with interest.

Manuel made an alliance with Rome. He sacrificed Orthodoxy, agreed to subordinate the Greek Church to the Vatican. And with regard to Rus', the policy has changed dramatically. He intended to subjugate her to his influence. He supported the strife, helped put Mstislav II on the throne of Kiev, who recognized himself as a vassal of the emperor. The Greek Metropolis launched an attack on the Russian Church, removed the bishops, excommunicated the Kiev Caves Monastery under a trifling pretext. But Mstislav II and Metropolitan Kirill in 1169 solemnly met the ambassadors of the Pope. It was supposed to conclude an alliance with him, to send Russian soldiers to the enemy of Rome and Byzantium, the German emperor. St. Right-Believing Vladimir Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky. He sent regiments and captured Kyiv. Mstislav II, the Greek Cyril and the papal ambassadors fled, and from the defiled metropolitan churches the Vladimirites took away all the shrines (the Pechersky Monastery was taken under protection).

The people murmured, and rogues, eager for power, took advantage of this. The son of Manuel, Alexei II, was overthrown and killed in 1182 by his uncle Andronicus - declaring himself a defender of the people's interests. In 1185, under the same slogan, Isaac Angel threw him off the throne. But it only got worse. Under Angel, according to contemporaries, “positions were sold like vegetables”, “traders, money changers and dress sellers were awarded honorary distinctions for money.” It got to the point that the head of the Lagos prison released thieves and robbers for the night, and part of the booty went to him.

The Angels were also friends with the West. But the West never became a friend of Byzantium. The European kings held secret negotiations with the dissatisfied, and a wave of "velvet revolutions" rolled - Armenian Cilicia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and the Empire of Trebizond separated from Byzantium. And the archons of the provinces enjoyed the great rights they had received, did not pay attention to the government, and even fought with each other.

Meanwhile, the crusades fizzled out. Muslims appreciated the greed and cruelty of the Europeans. Especially distinguished by this was the English king Richard the Lionheart, who exterminated thousands of prisoners. The population rallied against the invaders, it became clear that the Middle East could not be held. But the coveted riches and lands were much closer! Pope Innocent III with the Venetian Doge Dandolo from 1098 began to prepare the Fourth Crusade - against the collapsed Byzantium.

It took place in 1204. There were only 20 thousand Crusaders! But Byzantium no longer had either an army or a navy. Admiral Strifn plundered and sold the ships, timber, canvas, anchors. The "Greek fire" also turned out to be lost. Engineers have not been trained for a long time, the composition was forgotten. Even the population of Constantinople was half a million! But instead of defense, it rallied and squabbled over who would lead the country. The knights easily broke into the city. They killed a little, but they robbed thoroughly. Palaces, houses, temples. The young and beautiful were selected from the inhabitants for sale into slavery, and the rest were stripped to their underwear or naked (in the West, even a shirt was considered of considerable value) and driven out.

And when crowds of robbed people wandered along the roads, the inhabitants of the province laughed at them! Say, that's what you need, the "snickering" Constantinopolitans. But soon their turn came. The knights moved next, divided the villages, and the peasants suddenly found out that they were serfs. And serfdom in the West was cool. Build a castle for the owner, plow on corvée, pay, they will beat you or hang you for wrongdoing. In place of Byzantium, the Latin Empire was spread. Persecution of Orthodox priests and bishops unfolded, punishers descended on Athos, tortured and executed monks, demanding to convert to Catholicism.

And yet the Lord had mercy on Byzantium. When the crusaders stormed Constantinople, a group of young aristocrats elected Theodore Lascar as emperor. He fled to Asia Minor. The government has long given up on the outskirts of the local area, did not provide them with any protection from the Seljuks. However, the border population learned to organize themselves, to wield weapons, like the Cossacks. Laskar was at first unkindly received. The cities did not let him in, the governors did not want to obey. But the crusaders followed, and Theodore became the banner around which the patriots gathered. The Latins were thrown away...

The Empire of Nicaea was born, and a miraculous transformation took place. All the worst, corrupt, remained in the Latin Empire, looking for how it would be more profitable to attach themselves to the invaders. And the best, honest, self-sacrificing people flocked to Nicaea. The patriarchy was restored - Rus' also passed under its auspices. Theodore relied on the common people - and defeated all enemies! Latinians, Seljuks, rebels.

His successor John Vatatsi carried out reforms. On the lands confiscated from the traitors, he created large state farms. He supported the peasants, reduced taxes, personally controlled officials. Ordered to buy domestic, not foreign goods, and the result was amazing! The recent run-down outskirts of Byzantium has become the richest country in the Mediterranean! A powerful fleet was built, the borders were covered with fortresses. Even the Tatar-Mongols did not attack this power, they made peace and an alliance. The Nicaean troops cleared Asia Minor of the crusaders and began to liberate the Balkans.

But ... the magnates were extremely dissatisfied with the "people's kingdom" - under the Laskars, not the well-born and rich, but the capable were nominated. In 1258 Emperor Theodore II was poisoned. The head of the conspirators, Michael Palaiologos, became regent under his 8-year-old son John. And in 1261, a Nicene detachment, with a sudden raid, recaptured Constantinople from the crusaders. To the noise of celebrations on the occasion of the liberation of the capital, Michael overthrew and blinded the child, he himself put on the crown.

Indignation arose, Patriarch Arseny excommunicated him from the church, the inhabitants of Asia Minor rebelled. But the king had already formed a mercenary army and suppressed the rebellion with the most severe massacre. The oligarchs and crooks again found themselves at the helm of the state. The huge treasury accumulated by the Laskars was squandered on the revival of the former court tinsel. The worst Byzantine vices, ambitions, and abuses returned.

Michael Palaiologos again undertook to establish friendship with the West and, for the sake of greater mutual understanding, in 1274 concluded the Union of Lyon, subordinated the church to the Vatican. For refusing to change Orthodoxy, people were imprisoned and executed, uprisings were drowned in blood, and Uniate punishers again committed atrocities on Athos. Michael's son Andronicus II tried to correct what his father had done by terminating the union. But the ruined country no longer gave income. I had to disband the fleet, reduce the army. The Balkans were in complete disarray. Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians, Latin barons, Italians are bogged down in wars with each other.

And in Asia Minor, from the fragments of various tribes, a new community arose - the Ottomans. There was actually no "Turkish conquest" of the empire. The Ottomans simply settled the lands that the Byzantines themselves devastated during the suppression of uprisings. The locals joined them. They did not see anything good from the government, they were only beaten three skins. The Turks helped their own, protected. People converted to Islam and turned into full-fledged Ottomans, the community grew rapidly.

In Constantinople, at first, they did not appreciate the dangers. On the contrary, they began to invite the Turks to participate in wars. They took cheap, were content with prey. Ottoman troops became the best in the Greek army! But one fine day, the Turks began to cross the Dardanelles in boats, populate Thrace, depopulated by civil strife. Only then the government clutched its heads, but could not do anything. The Greek archons began to pass to the Ottomans, turning into Turkish beys. Cities surrendered without a fight and were the winners. Adrianople (Edirne), with its 15,000 inhabitants, fell into decay, Sultan Murad made it his capital, and it grew into a luxurious center with a population of 200,000.

For help, the Byzantines turned to the same place, to the west. In 1369 Emperor John V went to Rome. Lebezil, agreeing to the union, and the pope did not immediately accept him, allowed him to kiss the shoe and take the oath of allegiance. Then John went to the French court, but achieved nothing, except for new humiliations. And on the way back, the Venetians arrested him for debts. Fortunately, the son helped out, sent money. Well, when John returned, the sultan poked at him and pointed out: what is outside the walls of Constantinople is yours, and outside the walls is mine. And the Emperor relented. He recognized himself as a vassal of Murad, began to pay tribute, sent his daughter to the Sultan's harem.

It was dangerous to argue. The Turks conquered the warring Balkan peoples: the Bulgarians, the Serbs. And Byzantium was completely impoverished. Served at the court earthenware covered with gilding, rhinestones sparkled on crowns and thrones - genuine stones were pawned to usurers. Emperors sold their islands, cities. And Constantinople was destroyed by the inhabitants themselves. They pulled away stones and bricks of palaces and temples for new buildings, small and lopsided. Marble was burned to lime. Residential areas were punctuated by vast areas of ruins and wastelands.

There was no more thought of national revival. The "Turkophile" party fought, believing that it was necessary to obey the Sultan, and the "Westernist" party, which relied on Europe. The West really intervened, in 1396 he began a crusade (distributing in advance which countries and regions who would get it). But the inhabitants of the Balkans already knew what the dominion of the crusaders was. Even the Serbs, who fought the Turks on the Kosovo field 7 years ago, preferred to take the side of the Sultan. The Europeans were smashed to smithereens near Nikopol.

However, the Greek "Westerners" did not learn anything from this. Emperor John VIII once again went with an outstretched hand to European countries. As a result, a council was convened in Ferrara and Florence, and in 1439 a union was concluded. Although the results were disastrous. Rome, which had entered at that time, reached a complete decay of morals, bribe-takers, homosexuals, and murderers succeeded each other on the papal throne. The patriarchs of Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Antioch refused to obey such high priests; they anathematized the union. Rus' did not accept it either, Grand Duke Vasily II arrested and expelled the Uniate Metropolitan Isidore sent to Moscow.

Most of the Greeks also protested. It got to the point that the Uniate Patriarch Gregory Melissin chose to flee to Rome, and they did not dare to replace him, the country was left without a patriarch at all. Well, the Turks in those centuries patronized Orthodoxy, did not hurt the faith. The popes undertook crusades twice more, in 1443 and 1448, but the Ottomans, together with the Serbs, Bulgarians, and Romanians, beat the knights together.

Finally, Sultan Mohammed II decided to eliminate the nest of intrigues sticking out in the middle of his possessions. The reason for the war was given by Emperor Constantine XII, a brave military man, but a useless politician. He again communicated with the West, turned to the Sultan with a daring message. In 1453 the Turks besieged Constantinople by land and sea. The European allies of the Greeks, the Venetians and Genoese, were quick to assure the Sultan of their loyalty in order to maintain trade gains. And even the brothers of the Emperor Thomas and Dmitry, the rulers of the destinies in Morea, did not help. At that time they fought among themselves and agreed that the Turks would help them!

When Constantine called the population of the capital to arms, out of 200,000 inhabitants, only 5,000 responded. In addition to them, a squad of mercenaries went on the defensive, foreign merchants with servants - to protect their own homes. This handful fought heroically, but the forces were too unequal. On May 29, the Turks broke into the city. The emperor and his associates were killed. And the rest of the inhabitants were no longer capable of self-defense. They huddled at home and waited for someone to save them or cut them out. They were cut out, and 60 thousand were sold into slavery.

Although Rome had not yet calmed down, it announced a new crusade to "liberate" the Greeks. It's not about the Greeks, but about saving the perishing union. The papal envoys aroused the hopes of the rulers of the surviving fragments of the empire, Thomas of the Sea, David of Trebizond, they rebelled. But the Western knights received too much from the Turks, there were no more willing ones. And the sultan drew conclusions: as long as pieces of Byzantium exist in his state, the West retains a pretext for aggression. In 1460 Mohammed II crushed these fragments.

Thomas fled, died in Rome. His dissolute sons Andrei and Manuel sold the rights to the Byzantine throne to anyone who would pay (bought by the French). And dad married his daughter Sophia to the Russian sovereign Ivan III, hoping to draw him into the union through his wife, but in vain. But after this marriage, Ivan III included the Byzantine double-headed eagle in his coat of arms, and the growing Moscow began to turn into the “Third Rome”. In general, the West and Rus' shared the legacy of Constantinople. All material wealth flowed into Europe - what the crusaders did not plunder was pumped over by Italian merchants.

And Rus' inherited spiritual and cultural treasures. It adopted the best achievements of Greek history, philosophy, architecture, icon painting, and inherited the role of the world center of Orthodoxy. By the way, Pope Sixtus IV was greedy with Sophia's dowry. I did not want to fork out, but many books were evacuated from Byzantium to Italy. They turned out to be unnecessarily for dad, and they loaded a huge wagon train as a dowry. It was the only thing that survived from the colossal baggage of Byzantine literature. Everything else was soon destroyed by the Inquisition as "heretical". The Monk Maximus the Greek, who saw the collection of books that came to Russia, admired: “All Greece does not now have such wealth, nor Italy, where Latin fanaticism reduced the works of our theologians to ashes.”