Siege of Constantinople (1422)

For other sieges of the city, see list of sieges of Constantinople.

Siege of Constantinople

Part of the Rise of the Ottoman Empire and Byzantine-Ottoman wars.

Constantinople in 1422; the oldest surviving map of the city.

Date	1422
Location	Constantinople
Result	Byzantine victory

Belligerents

Byzantine Empire

Ottoman Empire

Commanders and leaders

John VIII Palaiologos de facto co-emperor with his retired Father Manuel II Palaiologos

Murad II

Byzantine–Ottoman Wars

Bapheus Dimbos Catalan Campaign 1st Gallipoli Prusa Pelekanon Nicaea Nicomedia 2nd Gallipoli 3rd Gallipoli Adrianople Philadelphia 1st Constantinople 2nd Constantinople Thessalonica 3rd Constantinople Trebizond

The first full-scale Ottoman Siege of Constantinople took place in 1422 as a result of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II's attempts to interfere in the succession of Ottoman Sultans, after the death of Mehmed I in 1421. This policy of the Byzantines was often used successfully in weakening their neighbours.

When Murad II emerged as the winning successor to his father, he marched into Byzantine territory. The Turks had acquired their own cannon for the first time by the siege of 1422, "falcons", which were short but wide cannon.^[1] The two sides were evenly matched technologically, and the Turks had to build barricades "in order to receive… the stones of the bombards."^[1]

The Byzantine defenders won the battle. Contemporary Byzantine tradition ascribed the deliverance of Constantinople to a miraculous intervention by the Theotokos.

Aftermath

In spite of the Byzantine victory, the 'Empire' at this time had in fact been reduced to a few disconnected strips of land besides the city of Constantinople itself. It was also facing grave economic problems and severely lacked soldiers, Pius II promoted the affordable donation of cannon by European monarchs as a means of aid. Any new cannons after the 1422 siege were gifts from European states, and aside from these no other advances were made to the Byzantine arsenal.^[1] As such, the next Ottoman leader, Mehmed II, would be successful in 1453.

Traditions

Byzantine accounts attributed the lifting of the siege to an apparition of the Theotokos upon the city walls, which greatly inspired the defenders.^[1] John Kananos records that:

“

The Romans, although exhausted from fatigue, leapt and were glad… They shouted hymns to the Most Holy Virgin, glorifying her from the depths of their hearts, saying "This is in truth a rich, celebrated, memorable, extraordinary and remarkable miracle worthy of admiration."

”

Also in the same reference, the Turkish Army notes that they themselves even saw a woman in purple robes walking on the outer ramparts of the city.^[1]

References

1 2 3 4 5 Stephen Turnbull, The Walls of Constantinople, AD 324–1453, Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1-84176-759-X.

Major sieges by the Ottoman Empire by century

14th	1326 Prusa 1331 Nicaea 1333 Nicomedia 1360s Adrianople 1385 Sofia 1393 Tarnovo

15th	1422 Constantinople 1422–30 Thessalonica 1448 Svetigrad 1453 Constantinople 1456 Belgrade 1461 Trebizond 1462 Siege of Mytilene 1470 Negroponte 1478 Scutari 1480 Rhodes 1481 Otranto

16th	1517 Cairo 1521 Belgrade 1522 Rhodes 1529 Algiers 1529 Vienna 1532 Güns (Kőszeg) 1532 Maribor 1534 Tunis 1534 Baghdad 1537 Klis 1537 Corfu 1538 Diu 1538 Aden 1539 Castelnuovo 1541 Buda 1543 Nice 1543 Esztergom 1547 Van 1551 Tripoli 1552 Muscat 1552 Hormuz 1552 Eger 1556 Oran 1563 Oran 1565 Malta 1566 Szigetvar 1574 Tunis 1578 Gvozdansko 1593 Sisak 1596 Eger

17th	1638 Baghdad 1663 Uyvar 1664 Novi Zrin 1648–69 Candia 1672 Kamenets 1683 Vienna

18th–19th	1739 Belgrade 1825–26 Missolonghi

Ottoman defeats shown in italics.

Coordinates: 41°01′00″N 28°58′37″E / 41.0167°N 28.9769°E / 41.0167; 28.9769

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