The King's Hall - The Rise & Fall of Constantinople

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, Brian here with a big announcement from New Christendom Press.

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00:00:56.600 We'll be right back.

00:01:26.600 Near the time of Hesiod and Homer, a Grecian king by the name of Bizas set sail from his home in

00:01:42.680 Megara, headed north and east. The original purpose of his journey is lost to us now,

00:01:48.140 but what came of it, mostly by accident, has proved to be of indefatigable importance for the West.

00:01:55.360 For as Bezos drifted by the wind across the Aegean towards the old shores of Troy,

00:02:00.060 he decided to navigate the narrow clefts of the Hellespont and pass into the Sea of Marmara,

00:02:06.780 further east than many of the most powerful Greek kings before him had ever been.

00:02:11.480 There, of course, he found more water waiting for him to tread.

00:02:15.280 And so he did.

00:02:16.220 The decorated prows of his fleet drove into the mass of water beneath him and before him for countless more hours

00:02:23.600 until, passing the deepest soundings they had taken,

00:02:27.080 they caught first sight of yet another inlet,

00:02:29.860 one whose port city they would find,

00:02:31.840 a city great and terrible, rife with blood and glory.

00:02:35.780 There, kissed by the salty breeze coming through the Bosphorus

00:02:39.300 from the northern Black Sea,

00:02:41.280 and to the shouts of seagulls dancing overhead,

00:02:44.040 King Beezus of Megara laid the foundations of his crowning achievement,

00:02:48.700 the city that would bear his name forever, Byzantium.

00:02:51.780 As generations of kings rose and fell, traveling and conquering and exploring further and further across the fringe of the known world, Byzantium matured into a center of trade and port that was a friend to all.

00:03:05.520 The curious deckhands from Rus would meet in Byzantium with Arab traders and Greek naval fleets, only to find that while they sat happy in the idyllic weather of the Dark Horse City, they could only manage to make friends with one another.

00:03:19.420 Thus was the reputation of Byzantium through all its early history.

00:03:23.300 Whether it was the first years of its founding in the 6th century BC,

00:03:27.540 the reign of the Persians there for centuries after that,

00:03:30.280 or the first steps that Roman Emperor Severus took inside its walls

00:03:34.420 generations after the apostles suffered their martyrdoms,

00:03:38.460 this gateway to the mystic world of the Black Sea and beyond

00:03:41.620 was a haven for the weary, for the poor, for the triumphant, and for the powerful.

00:03:48.120 Byzantium never failed to cast its spell on all who saw it. 0.71

00:03:52.560 This enchantment would lead both to its highest glory and its greatest sorrows.

00:03:58.180 As it came into the grip of Roman rule, a process which unfolded in several stages,

00:04:03.880 beginning in the 2nd century BC and firming up over the next centuries,

00:04:08.200 Byzantium was rebuilt and adorned with stadiums for games and amphitheaters for the arts.

00:04:13.900 Bathhouses were built for the enjoyment of all,

00:04:16.460 and the city encountered a new era of flourishing under the governance of the empire.

00:04:20.720 In 212 AD, the Roman emperor Caracalla endowed Byzantium once more with the privileges of a free city-state inside of Rome,

00:04:29.860 and therefore the city's popularity grew even more.

00:04:33.320 Hordes of Romans, young and old, rich and poor, began to pour in from all regions,

00:04:38.160 causing the center of gravity in the empire to suffer a slight shift away from the Italian 0.92

00:04:43.460 peninsula towards the older eastern world. This gravitational pull to Byzantium steadily increased

00:04:50.940 for many years until with the ascension of Constantine the Great to the throne of the

00:04:55.820 greatest power in the world, it was finalized with the rechristening of the city. No longer

00:05:01.420 would she be called Byzantium. Now she was Constantinople, a city with a new name and a

00:05:07.860 new role as capital city of the empire. She was Nova Roma, the new Rome. Now endowed with the

00:05:14.800 weighty privileges and corresponding duties of the seat of empire, Constantinople evolved from

00:05:20.100 a friend to all into a properly epic city of kings. Constantine began the erection of thick

00:05:26.940 walls surrounding the city, taking advantage of the strategic location of the city, which lay

00:05:32.000 nestled in the cleft of high ground between the Bosphorus Strait and the Marmara Sea. It was the

00:05:38.340 nexus between Europe and Asia, the strongholds of the budding seed of Christendom, blessed by the

00:05:44.800 first great Christian monarch, Constantine, and the line of Christian princes who followed him.

00:05:49.920 It was the resurrected glory of an empire in the dire straits of waning and slow decline.

00:05:55.680 It was a beacon of hope in a world walking the labyrinthine path from antiquity to modernity.

00:06:02.140 It was, in perhaps the most human way imaginable, a good city.

00:06:07.740 But, as was said before, the goodness of the place did not only attract the righteous and well-to-do.

00:06:14.360 Soon enough, the doom of deceit and threat of destruction began to bend all of its will upon the freshly raised wall of Constantinople.

00:06:23.420 The death of Constantine brought great turmoil with it,

00:06:26.360 from unruly sons sowing civil unrest and discord across the empire 0.89

00:06:30.840 to the growing threat of barbaric Visagoths on the outskirts of the empire, 0.99

00:06:36.180 hungry for a way in.

00:06:37.900 Rome was in no way secure.

00:06:39.900 Even the status of Constantinople hung in the balance of politics and power plays

00:06:43.660 from other prominent Romans,

00:06:46.180 some loyal to the faith of Constantine and some not,

00:06:49.480 Some who didn't see the benefits of moving the empire's capital

00:06:52.620 away from its foundations in the Hesperian hills of Rome.

00:06:57.020 Thus, while lovelier and lovelier churches began to spring up across the empire, 1.00

00:07:02.480 uglier and uglier treachery began to eat at the roots of her ancient power.

00:07:08.220 Constantinople, purely by the magnanimity of Constantine's person,

00:07:12.060 was always at the center of these changing tides.

00:07:15.900 One day would see the coronation of Hagia Irene, the first truly breathtaking church in the city,

00:07:22.260 and then the next would see the cultic practices of Hecate or Artemis acted out in the city center for all to see.

00:07:28.740 The political tug-of-war matched the tumult of the spiritual battle taking place for Rome's heart.

00:07:34.460 Into this fray strode an emperor named Theodosius,

00:07:38.340 the last emperor of the united Rome and the civil patron of Nicene Orthodoxy.

00:07:43.120 Taking charge of Constantinople after the devastating Roman loss at the Battle of Adrianople, Theodosius quickly put his house in order.

00:07:52.160 He made peace with the Armenians, the Goths, pre-Iranian Sasanians.

00:07:57.400 He then saw to the protection and uplifting of Constantinople.

00:08:01.100 He extended the Forum Torii until it became the largest public square known to have ever existed in antiquity. 0.94

00:08:07.260 He fought hard for the strict adherence to Nicene Orthodoxy that the Aryans kept undermining

00:08:13.060 and achieved it with the First Council of Constantinople. 0.53

00:08:16.860 But his reign was not without its dark portions as well.

00:08:20.380 And over the course of multiple civil wars,

00:08:23.040 the administrative and defensive improvements Theodosius had tried to make in his empire

00:08:27.300 simply could not hold up.

00:08:29.720 Upon his death, the empire was formally split into eastern and western sections.

00:08:35.820 Constantinople was finally settled as a capital of an empire, but it was a new and diminished empire.

00:08:42.720 Years passed and Constantinople settled.

00:08:46.120 Theodosius II, the son of Emperor Arcadius, built up the city's walls into a triple wall fortification of about 60 feet in height all along its perimeter.

00:08:56.040 It was a potent act that, while undertaken with the utmost prudence, foreshadowed the darkness that was about to descend upon the city of the east.

00:09:06.860 But that darkness had not come yet, and the city, as it reflected the rest of the empire, enjoyed a short season of rest,

00:09:14.160 culminating in Justinian's reign and the construction of one of the greatest cathedrals the world has ever seen, Hagia Sophia, the Church of Holy Wisdom.

00:09:24.040 But even as the brushes were swept across the magnificent floors of this monumental church,

00:09:29.140 the first droplets of what would become a torrential doom began to fall on the ramparts of Constantinople.

00:09:36.660 After the death of the eastern prophet and cultic mystic named Muhammad, 0.76

00:09:41.140 his followers consolidated into an entity called the Umayyad Caliphate. 0.58

00:09:46.120 They ran with their late leader's message, a corresponding example of jihad for the glory of Allah. 0.70

00:09:52.940 Fueled by the promise of either earthly wealth or the eternal rewards of martyrdom, 0.89

00:09:57.060 they pushed across the world in a wave of terror in destruction,

00:10:01.720 casting wave after wave of horrified humanity into their charnel meat grinder as they went. 0.98

00:10:08.940 This tactic of tireless brutality worked well for the caliphate army, 0.96

00:10:13.120 and soon, after having claimed much of the Levant steppe in North Africa for Muhammad, 0.98

00:10:17.660 they turned their sights on this beacon of power there at the western end of the Bosphorus.

00:10:23.180 At the time, Emperor Constantine IV was reigning over the Eastern Roman Empire,

00:10:27.920 which had already begun to be colloquially called the Byzantine,

00:10:32.020 and the realm was enjoying a bit of a noontide.

00:10:34.980 Excepting a small military revolt began in the island of Sicily,

00:10:38.840 which contested the emperor's claim to the throne,

00:10:41.680 Constantine IV's time, as sovereign, was going smoothly.

00:10:45.860 But one day in late April or early May,

00:10:48.320 sentries atop the thick walls of the city

00:10:50.320 spotted an unwelcome sight of ships

00:10:53.040 treading the waters towards the city

00:10:54.800 from the direction of the Hellespont.

00:10:57.440 Constantine had heard of Umayyad fleets

00:11:00.280 harboring for the winter in Smyrna and Cilicia.

00:11:04.120 He'd been advised to prepare for an attempted attack

00:11:06.640 on Byzantium and had done so.

00:11:09.280 But to finally see the long approach of enemy ships

00:11:12.140 into Christian waters was a thing most unsettling to the ruler. Nonetheless, he didn't waver. He 0.96

00:11:18.500 stayed true to his honor and faith and bid his countrymen to do the same. So it was that

00:11:23.660 Constantine IV coolly looked upon the first siege of Constantinople, with God on his side

00:11:29.440 and righteous indignation fueling the boldness he was soon to display. After months of waiting

00:11:35.840 and storing provisions while the Arab armies gathered their strength not far from the city

00:11:40.180 gates, the battle finally began with a trumpet blast. But the blast of the trumpet was not the

00:11:45.400 only thing unleashed on that day, for the Christians had a secret tool of war as yet unseen in the 1.00

00:11:51.660 world. Byzantine ships fled out of the port of their emperor as if to run a sortie. The Umayyads 0.97

00:11:58.120 laughed at the feeble sighs of the approaching enemies and waited for what was sure to be an 1.00

00:12:02.860 easy victory on the pathetic capital. But just as the Christians entered shouting distance of their 1.00

00:12:08.820 foe. Fire, like thick liquid, leapt forth from the prow of their ships and engulfed every Arab 1.00

00:12:15.940 vessel it touched in sudden, unquenchable flame. Thus the legend of Greek fire began with an 0.94

00:12:22.540 overwhelmingly successful attack on the much larger Mohammedan military force. Thus was the 0.95

00:12:28.420 reputation of Constantine IV as a staunchly resilient defender of Christendom also begun,

00:12:33.900 A reputation which would prove well-founded.

00:12:37.380 Over the next five years, Umayyad fleets would sail before Constantine every spring, 1.00

00:12:42.960 only to be repelled every time by the Christian defenders and their closely guarded military arts.

00:12:49.500 In the winters, the Arab strongholds across the plains of the land weakened and suffered great loss

00:12:55.360 until, hardly into the reserves of provisions kept for her people,

00:12:59.800 Constantinople was officially victorious over her first siege attempt.

00:13:03.920 But, oh, how many more she would suffer, and how much further they would go.

00:13:09.800 Welcome to the rise and fall of Constantinople.

00:13:13.580 The King's Hall podcast exists to make self-ruled men who rule well and win the world.

00:13:26.460 Well, hey, everybody.

00:13:27.580 Welcome back to another episode of the King's Hall podcast,

00:13:30.460 where we are talking in this season about the first Christendom, the lessons that we can learn

00:13:35.860 from our great forefathers in the faith, stories of courage, and also stories of vice and sin.

00:13:43.420 And we're trying to not only understand the history that has often been stolen from us,

00:13:48.960 but also understand some of the lessons that we can learn today as Christians

00:13:52.300 building in our times. And really, we're New Christendom Press attempting to build

00:13:56.320 towards a new Christendom ourselves.

00:13:59.660 And whatever small part of that story

00:14:01.300 and whatever bricks that we can put into that wall,

00:14:03.980 we want to be skillful and courageous in playing our part.

00:14:07.960 I'm Brian Sauve,

00:14:09.220 joined as always by the only other co-host of the King's Hall

00:14:13.160 who has ever been on an episode of the King's Hall podcast,

00:14:17.120 Ben Garrett.

00:14:17.740 Ben, say hi to the listeners.

00:14:18.620 Yeah, Brian, it's great to be here once again for,

00:14:21.320 I've lost count how many times we've,

00:14:23.380 episodes man we've we've we really do have a history on the show dozens it's great maybe

00:14:28.100 hundreds yeah it could at this point it could be hundreds at any rate man i'm happy to be here

00:14:32.720 there's like this conspiracy theory that there used to be other hosts no there i've heard like

00:14:38.160 the berenstein bears berenstain bears right mandela mandala fruit of the loom i think you

00:14:45.100 know what i'm talking about cornucopia there's a cornucopia exactly there never has been glad that

00:14:48.720 you and this is one of those situations so welcome back everybody we're excited really i'm glad to

00:14:53.260 be here um in i'm in i know guys eric and dan aren't here we're sorry in a very real sense we're

00:15:00.680 not sorry because it's their fault ben and i like to hang out yeah we like to hang out i like being

00:15:04.840 with my guy brian yeah eric and dan decided that it would be a better use of their time to go out

00:15:09.960 into the deep woods of utah and try to coax um different different types of animals into getting

00:15:16.620 close to them uh you know using mating calls yeah trying to try and get male animals to come in 0.54

00:15:22.340 closer to them it seems a little weird to me is hunting gay that's we just lost within 10 seconds

00:15:29.820 of us that's the topic of today's episode though really is that really what we're talking yeah

00:15:34.140 that's the topic i mean the first christian was rife with hunters and i think that's why they

00:15:37.560 failed i that is quite the take ben and i think uh this has been your last episode yeah it was

00:15:43.740 good to be here co-host of the king's hall pocket no uh we they were out of town we said look we

00:15:48.720 we're, we got, we can't leave the listeners hanging. We've got to jump in with another

00:15:53.460 King song. We said, why don't we just take a small story? We don't want to like take something

00:15:58.040 really glorious away from Dan and Eric. Let's just do the entire history of Constantinople.

00:16:03.140 One of the greatest cities. Exactly. In the history of not just the Christian world,

00:16:08.460 but the entire world. The world. And one of the most compelling stories full of, 0.72

00:16:13.700 like it's got ins and outs, it's got highs, it's got lows, it's got white pills, it's got black

00:16:18.100 kip hills we said we're taking it we're doing and they're out of cell service so they couldn't tell

00:16:22.680 us no they can't say no except at the time of recording this dan is actually back and that's

00:16:26.800 true so he doesn't need to know that this has happened the haunted cosmos basically said

00:16:30.500 look at me i am the king's we are the captain now we are the king's hall now and constantinople is

00:16:37.120 just one of the best stories of all time it really is so welcome to the king's cosmos the haunted

00:16:41.160 halls with the haunted halls of the king's cosmos what i what i wanted to start with ben here first

00:16:46.300 is just to say that to the listeners,

00:16:48.840 this episode is gonna be, there's so much story.

00:16:51.280 You just heard the cold open,

00:16:52.940 which was probably 15 minutes or so long

00:16:55.080 that brought us up through the first siege

00:16:57.860 in the 600s, like 677, 674 to 678,

00:17:02.500 I think is the actual range there.

00:17:05.120 So we went from 600 BC

00:17:06.600 with the mythical and legendary founding

00:17:08.560 and the actual founding,

00:17:09.400 the actual founding,

00:17:09.940 which is the same story of Constantinople

00:17:12.760 through that first siege.

00:17:13.880 We're gonna take you all the way

00:17:15.320 through the mid 1400, actually really to today, in a sense, in this story of Constantinople,

00:17:21.480 the rise and fall of this great city, there's going to be less commentary and a lot more story.

00:17:27.240 And so in a way, this episode is going to be kind of like a mega version of something that we do

00:17:33.300 over on the Kings Hall Patreon channel, which if you like the show, you should sign up and support

00:17:38.640 the work we do here and help us keep making it. But over there, we have a show called The

00:17:45.280 Deus Vault, which is a hilarious pun, first of all. Great, great show name. And it is basically

00:17:51.400 stories. So it's like 15 to 45 minute stories that are scripted and we go through with music

00:17:57.580 and all that, just like a cold open, basically, of some of these great stories from Christendom.

00:18:02.260 This episode is going to be more like that, where you're just going to hear a lot of history of what

00:18:07.500 happened in Constantinople. And we really want to inspire you through that. And also like one of the

00:18:13.460 effects for me when i hear the history of constantinople especially where it lands

00:18:20.240 is that it it does fill me with a certain urgency yeah it puts things into perspective yeah i was

00:18:28.120 and i wonder if it does that for you too 100 one of the one of the reasons that we're just going

00:18:32.320 to mostly be story driven for this episode is a because eric and dan are here and yeah i mean

00:18:37.320 they should be here but b when you hear the story of constantinople not much more needs to be said

00:18:42.900 yeah we like the parallels between that time and hours draw themselves for anyone with a brain i

00:18:49.520 think and even more than that it's such an epic story it's almost like an old myth when you really

00:18:56.920 look at it from front to back it begins with constantine and it ends with constantine yeah

00:19:01.820 you know the troubles begin with muhammad and they end with muhammad like so amazing these bookends

00:19:06.760 are really something and everything in between it has it has romance and heroism and triumph and

00:19:11.620 woe and sin and all this stuff. And it's just worth sitting back and appreciating the arc of

00:19:18.380 this gem of the world for what it is. And then at the end, like you said, hoping that there will

00:19:24.440 come a day when it's called Constantinople again. And once again, the songs of the saints

00:19:30.960 ring out in the Hagia Sophia and the Muslim conquest, the evil conquest of that land is 0.87

00:19:37.760 done away with yes and so yeah this episode is going to be a lot of story and frankly i think

00:19:42.100 that let the story speak for itself yeah it will affect you uh it affects me hopefully it affects

00:19:48.160 you yeah and i think that it will lead to greater virtues for all of us the proverbs say the soul

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00:20:51.760 Hmm. Oh, yes. Hey, Dan, what are you doing? I'm just checking my mutual funds, my stock portfolio.

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00:21:04.880 What did Dave Ramsey tell you to do that?

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00:23:28.780 one one of the the just high points for me of constantinople is not just all of the there's

00:23:36.700 political intriguing there's military conquest we're going to talk about greek fire here in a

00:23:40.560 minute and some of the like just how cool of a thing that is uh but is the hagia sofia yeah which

00:23:47.300 was built in 537 by Justinian emperor Justinian the first I believe and if you've ever if you

00:23:54.400 haven't looked this up um and maybe I can like trouble Martin to cut this into the video if

00:24:00.440 there's a convenient version of it but you can listen to clips of people singing in the Hagia

00:24:05.720 Sophia and the reverb in this cathedral is one of the most glorious sounds that exists it like

00:24:13.820 its natural frequency off the dome is, is whatever the, the God frequency is. I can't

00:24:19.880 ever remember like 632 or something like that. And it was, it was constructed by two Greek 0.75

00:24:25.340 geometers and they went in and a lot of people really do think that they were actually given

00:24:30.440 some kind of like divine help and, uh, and, and being inspired to make the greatest echoing

00:24:38.580 cathedral that the world's ever seen. It's absolutely glorious. And I'm not going to

00:24:43.960 black pill right now. We'll black pill later. We'll black pill later for sure. We'll black pill 0.97

00:24:48.640 later. But right now I just want to think about it as it was with the saints singing the Hagia

00:24:55.040 Sophia in the five, six hundred, seven hundreds, eight hundreds, nine, for hundreds and hundreds

00:25:00.400 of years, a lot of our Christian brothers and sisters sang and worshiped in this beautiful

00:25:06.280 cathedral and, and Constantinople is just a city like that. It's full of wonders. It's a city where

00:25:11.640 like every, if you pull up an old map to prepare for this episode, I was, I was kind of trying to

00:25:16.460 walk through the old city as it was and see where the hippodrome was from the Roman period. And

00:25:22.780 to see where the Hagia Sophia is and where the palaces were and the different cisterns and

00:25:26.940 the way they set up the military defenses, the way that they actually put, uh, defended the city,

00:25:33.260 the harbor with the chain where they stretched this great gigantic chain all the way across

00:25:39.860 this straight each link is like two feet long enormous iron yeah and it was like impenetrable

00:25:46.160 it was made so that people literally physically could not sail ships past it and it would defenses

00:25:52.580 like this um made the the i almost said hagi sofia made made constantinople stand for centuries and

00:26:00.380 centuries and frustrate. I mean, that in that first assault, I think it was, was it the first

00:26:06.060 siege when there were 1800 warships? I think that's what it was. No, I think that was with

00:26:11.060 Leo. Or was it the second one? That was Leo. Okay, we'll talk about that. Which is a really famous

00:26:14.440 siege. And we got a whole story about that. Yeah, it's actually the next story that you'll hear.

00:26:18.360 The ways that they defended the city, it's just such a model, I think, of how we need to be

00:26:22.360 thinking in terms of art and Christian culture, and then also depth and defense. And they not

00:26:30.260 only built this city as a monument to civilization and christian culture but then they defended it

00:26:36.700 like that's what it was yeah and in amazing stands i mean where they would route warships

00:26:43.680 armies of that whole navies would come and cast themselves against the defenses of constantinople

00:26:50.620 and they would literally like every enemy would be killed they just splash off like water

00:26:57.700 it was amazing it was like water hitting a window pane one of one of the things we got to talk about

00:27:02.300 is greek fire you got well talk to us about well i was gonna say and then and then tell me about

00:27:06.580 whatever you were gonna say okay so greek fire tell me about greek fire okay okay so uh one of

00:27:11.880 the things again like it just the whole thing smells like it's not even real constantinople

00:27:18.560 was the the new rome yeah it was founded as the new rome and they took all of the best of of rome

00:27:27.180 at its height and put it in this city such that Constantinople, up until the day that it fell,

00:27:33.480 was the most advanced city in late antiquity up to the Middle Ages. And part of why it was

00:27:39.680 advanced was because they kept all of the ingenuity that Rome did really well. They kept

00:27:44.920 the aqueducts. They were still functioning. They kept all the forums. It had the largest public

00:27:49.220 square in the known ancient world, period. And as far as we know, it was the biggest.

00:27:54.660 The Forum Tauri.

00:27:55.860 Yeah, and it really just, it's like, imagine what you think Athens looked like at its height, or even maybe something like Atlantis.

00:28:03.300 That's what Constantinople was.

00:28:05.400 And there's this really, really, like, great poetry in it, in that Constantinople was put through the Hellespont, through the Sea of Marmara.

00:28:15.820 but if you go back the other way into the eastern side of the Aegean, right before going into the

00:28:22.820 Hellespont, you get the ancient ruins of Troy. And so Constantinople is right next to Troy.

00:28:29.380 Troy, if you're familiar with the founding of Rome, like Aeneas fled from the Trojan War.

00:28:35.620 He fled the shores of Ilium, founded Rome in the Hesperian lands in the Italian peninsula,

00:28:41.480 and then the last vestige of Rome that ever survived

00:28:45.060 was founded right back where Troy had been.

00:28:47.740 Yeah.

00:28:48.040 So there's like the whole story is just so poetic.

00:28:50.600 It seems like a myth.

00:28:51.160 Exactly.

00:28:51.780 Yeah.

00:28:52.220 But kind of on the note of the technology that they preserved,

00:28:55.180 one of those technologies was Greek fire.

00:28:57.000 Yeah.

00:28:57.740 Greek fire was not had anywhere else

00:28:59.920 other than the Byzantine Empire,

00:29:01.900 especially in Constantinople.

00:29:03.840 And it was this substance that was like viscous,

00:29:06.680 like syrup or something.

00:29:08.380 And it was more than just like petroleum jelly

00:29:11.680 because they could spray it more like a liquid

00:29:14.760 out of ships that they had in those days

00:29:18.300 made completely out of wood

00:29:19.440 and it didn't damage their ships.

00:29:21.160 And it could set water on fire.

00:29:23.380 Yeah, it would burn on the water

00:29:24.440 so that it made it look like the water itself was burning.

00:29:28.120 Exactly, like you were going through a sea of flame.

00:29:30.420 Dude, I'm just imagining at the first siege,

00:29:32.540 okay, like 678 and the ships are coming, 1.00

00:29:36.640 the Muslim ships are coming, 0.99

00:29:37.780 And then all of a sudden, this small fleet of the Constantinople and Navy comes out and the Muslims are just laughing. 1.00

00:29:47.620 They're like, this is, these Christians are stupid. 1.00

00:29:50.160 They must, we're going to, this could be way easier than we thought. 1.00

00:29:52.500 Because the leaders of the Muslim world, they had their eye on Constantinople.

00:29:57.420 They knew how big and glorious this jewel was. 0.96

00:29:59.860 If they could capture it, it would be like, they would have the gate to Christendom.

00:30:03.080 Exactly. 0.98

00:30:03.540 To the Eastern world. 0.89

00:30:04.460 they'd already conquered so much but they'd have the gate to the rest of the world and so this 0.97

00:30:09.660 little dinky navy comes out and they're laughing until the christians flame throw their faces off

00:30:16.960 yeah it's literally like the air becomes fire and then it gets on them they're immediately 0.74

00:30:23.380 engulfed in flame the ships are engulfed they're like denethor they can't they throw water on it

00:30:28.180 it gets worse bring wood and oil like denethor thus ends denethor it's like a cthelion it's like

00:30:35.420 the lord and steward of gondor remember in monty python when they go to the cave uh-huh yeah it

00:30:41.400 keeps and it's just the rabbit that comes out and then they're right exactly like that's what it 0.98

00:30:45.720 was like that's exactly i mean hundreds of of muslim ships that should have been able to just 1.00

00:30:51.240 wipe the you know mop the floor with these christians yep and then all of a sudden they're 1.00

00:30:55.780 like oh they have flame their ships have flamethrowers and they work like and they work 1.00

00:31:00.000 they constantly work in the 700s or the 600s ad yes they did this successfully not only did they

00:31:07.740 do it successfully this is the craziest part to me they kept the formula secret so well that when

00:31:14.840 constantinople falls in 1453 the secret to greek friars lost and we don't know to this day we are

00:31:21.160 not certain what it was we know that it is not mythical this is a fact a military fact that this

00:31:27.300 art this technology existed it was lost with the christians which to me that's crazy that they were 0.95

00:31:32.980 able to keep it secret when of course everybody is trying can you imagine the muslims trying to 0.99

00:31:39.360 send spies and like we need to steal the secret of this greek fire yeah it would be like having a 0.98

00:31:43.940 nuclear the technology of nuclear weapons for like 800 years and no one else is able to dude it's

00:31:49.480 like we got coca-cola secret recipe the crusty crab patty yeah crabby and we got greek fire like

00:31:55.360 those are the top three and it's in that order even it might be greek fire might even be better

00:31:59.880 than coca-cola i don't know man it'd be tough it'd be a tough call but that kind i mean we

00:32:04.640 kind of glossed over it that is the first black pill is that greek fire is lost and it's because

00:32:09.000 constantinople fell and even if we retake it like we're still not going to know yeah for sure how

00:32:14.960 they did greek fire but how amazing is that this other worldly power almost that they possessed

00:32:20.380 and it was only them and they kept it so secure like think of how much progress they could have

00:32:26.120 made maybe in some other naval battles across the empire had they just like spread the word a little

00:32:32.120 bit more yeah but they didn't because they knew that once that happens it'd be over it goes

00:32:36.340 everywhere yep and now that like they they lose the ability to protect their city in this really

00:32:41.340 really potent way okay so we're gonna move now pretty quick into the second story the second

00:32:47.020 siege which takes place 39 years or so like 39 40 years after the first siege yep and we're gonna

00:32:52.820 talk about the story of leo yeah which may be my favorite constantinople story i think it's it's

00:33:00.760 hard to beat so we're gonna take you to that ben's gonna tell us that story and uh hope you guys enjoy

00:33:06.200 it and we'll come back after that story. Near the end of this wild time in 713, Emperor Anastasius

00:33:25.140 II began his short time upon the throne. A pious man, Anastasius wore the weight of his office

00:33:31.320 visibly and diligently sought to secure his rule, not for his sake, but for the sake of all the

00:33:36.700 Byzantines. Chief among the acts that would see the success of this objective was the handling

00:33:42.640 of the religious schism that was quickly growing between the Eastern Greeks and their Western

00:33:47.940 allies in Rome. You see, the previous emperor, Philippicus, had been foolish enough to elevate 0.88

00:33:53.920 the heretic monothelite John VI to the Sea of Constantinople before the end of his reign.

00:34:00.440 This elevation of a heretic, monothelitism was anathematized at the Sixth Ecumenical Council, 0.94

00:34:07.140 sent shockwaves of scandal and ill will throughout Christendom, 0.92

00:34:10.940 further complicating the already difficult peace and fellowship of the East with Rome.

00:34:16.340 Thus, when Anastasius deposed John VI from his see

00:34:20.420 and elevated the Orthodox patriarch Germanus in 715,

00:34:24.340 a great deal of healing was completed between Anastasius and the Western thrones,

00:34:30.120 those of the emperor and the pope, respectively.

00:34:33.500 Unfortunately, this was not enough.

00:34:36.140 Soon after the dust had settled on the theological dispute,

00:34:39.740 military revolt occurred on the island of Rhodes,

00:34:42.800 which was led by elite Byzantine troops,

00:34:45.480 unhappy with the less aggressive hand of the new emperor.

00:34:49.480 In seeking to send a message of strength to the caliphate,

00:34:52.260 Anastasius had sent his fleet to recapture Rhodes, which was successfully completed under the

00:34:58.700 leadership of a man named Connon. But once Anastasius did not press his advantage and

00:35:04.480 instead settled for Rhodes while rebuilding the defenses of the capital city, some of the soldiers

00:35:09.980 mutinied in protest. Connon was faithful to Anastasius, the rightful emperor, and did all

00:35:15.860 he could to stop the revolt, but it grew too strong. In a bid of utter greed and unchecked

00:35:21.240 anger, the elite of Sikian soldiers sailed from Rhodes to Byzantine, where they forcefully exiled 0.97

00:35:27.360 Anastasius to a monastery in Thessalonica and installed an unknown tax collector who took the

00:35:33.000 name of Theodosius III as emperor. They had succeeded in doing what they thought was best

00:35:38.120 for the empire. Little did they know that in their small and unholy victory, they laid the

00:35:43.560 path for the ascension of one of the greatest monarchs the world has ever seen. Conan, the

00:35:49.560 commander who had stood by Anastasius in his hour of need, fled into the wilderness upon Theodosius

00:35:55.580 III's assumption of power. He knew that he, being a staunch defender of the older emperor and his

00:36:01.740 policies, would be placing his life in danger to stay near the center of action. He took a post on

00:36:07.420 the fringes of the empire, where fighting was thickest and most brutal, where policy meets

00:36:12.140 sword and scimitar, and where the ideals of the capital matter for nothing to get by each day.

00:36:17.900 Here, as with everywhere else,

00:36:20.300 Kahnan proved both shrewd and brave.

00:36:23.220 After playing a cat-and-mouse game of guerrilla tactics 1.00

00:36:25.740 with the much larger Muslim army 0.98

00:36:27.840 stationed in the same region of Anatolia,

00:36:30.500 he successfully parlayed peace

00:36:32.340 with the leader of those opposing forces,

00:36:35.060 a man named Maslama.

00:36:37.560 Behind the curtain of peace,

00:36:39.400 Kahnan, appealing to his Arab heritage

00:36:41.680 and life spent around Muslims of all kinds, 0.54

00:36:44.180 was able to do far more than barter the ceasefire that threatened his life every day. 0.94

00:36:49.660 He told Maslama that he was disillusioned with the empire that had raised him, 1.00

00:36:53.860 that he was angry with the endless deceit of the so-called Christian regime 0.76

00:36:57.800 and their treatment of his old lord Anastasius.

00:37:01.380 Bending his pathos into these grievances,

00:37:04.060 Connan struck a seemingly insane deal with Maslama. 0.97

00:37:07.480 The Muslim army would let Connan go freely and well-provisioned to Constantinople, 0.98

00:37:13.200 where, once he was inside of its walls, 0.80

00:37:16.340 Maslama's men would then arrive to support

00:37:18.780 Kanan's own bid for the throne.

00:37:21.260 In doing this, Kanan swore to turn Byzantium

00:37:24.280 and therefore the empire itself

00:37:26.100 into a Muslim state, 0.97

00:37:28.400 a vassal state of the Mohammedans. 1.00

00:37:30.860 The audacity of the plan appealed 0.98

00:37:32.960 to Maslama's sense of romance and military conquest

00:37:35.960 and he saw no reason to doubt the sincerity

00:37:38.700 of Kanan's apostasy from Christ.

00:37:41.180 He heartily agreed to this plan

00:37:42.680 and sat back to wait on the wonderful honor he'd inevitably receive for his wise dealings.

00:37:48.980 The armies set to motion right away.

00:37:51.640 Conan and his troops went ahead into the city,

00:37:54.500 and Maslama, following not too close behind,

00:37:57.740 sent emissaries ahead to inform Emperor Theodosius III

00:38:01.060 that he and his men would be coming and staying to besiege the city

00:38:05.460 as long as it took for the emperor to abdicate

00:38:08.640 and crown this new vassal of his as king. 0.55

00:38:12.680 With the threat of Muslim occupation close at hand, 0.89

00:38:16.000 Conan entered the royal courts he had so often enjoyed in the company of Anastasius

00:38:20.400 and immediately demanded, upon pain of torture and death, that Theodosius abdicate. 0.72

00:38:26.280 This false usurper, taking after his own kind,

00:38:30.200 complied right away beneath the looming and war-hardened figure of the mighty Conan.

00:38:35.780 But Conan was no simple man.

00:38:38.320 Upon gaining the throne, he took upon himself the name of Leo,

00:38:41.720 the name he would be remembered by in Christendom,

00:38:45.000 and sent messages to Maslama informing him of their success.

00:38:49.000 When Maslama excitedly replied, asking when he would lower the city gates

00:38:53.140 and let the Muslim army enter, Leo's reply was stern and without hesitation.

00:38:58.600 Never. 0.92

00:38:59.840 The Syrian general had outplayed the Muslim, 1.00

00:39:02.800 had stolen the throne of the empire back from the thief who exiled Anastasius, 0.97

00:39:06.880 and had no plans whatsoever of giving the demoniac hordes of Allah the keys to the city, to God's city. 0.92

00:39:15.120 Thus Leo, by this deception and aggression, brought about an hour of great triumph for the Eastern Empire. 0.93

00:39:21.500 For upon receiving this message from the king, and after killing the messenger who brought it,

00:39:27.060 Maslama mustered all of his forces and started to bombard the city from all sides.

00:39:32.820 Thus began the second siege of Constantinople.

00:39:35.200 150,000 Umayyad Arabs surrounded the walls of the city

00:39:40.060 A massive fleet of reinforcements harbored outside of the Bosphorus

00:39:44.640 Smoke filled the air and crept into the sky above Constantinople

00:39:48.820 From the swarming war machines littering the enemy camp

00:39:52.080 Siege engines and battering rams and catapults slung death at the triple walls

00:39:57.400 And the wooden and iron gates

00:39:59.100 But each stone, ram, and earthen ramp was turned to dust

00:40:02.980 against the impenetrable stone that had been placed there by Theodosius II.

00:40:08.480 Leo, calm and cool, stood near Hagia Sophia and gazed out over the city towards the sea.

00:40:15.740 He, confident in the defense of the city, its provisions, and the faithfulness of God to his

00:40:20.840 people, smiled a wry and knowing smile as he watched the swelling horde of Muslims gather

00:40:26.740 to try and take his throne. Maslama, for his part, turned his focus to the blockading of the sea. 0.97

00:40:32.980 Given his mass of troops on land, he knew that communication with Christendom by escape into the Aegean was the best tactic Constantinople had to wait out the storm. 0.84

00:40:43.200 He therefore sent forth his own fleet as a wall of defense intent upon trapping the Byzantines inside, turning their home into a deadly prison. 0.96

00:40:52.180 Or at least, that was his hope. 0.92

00:40:54.260 But Leo had seen through the devilish plan and was ready to strike the soft underbelly of Maslama. 1.00

00:41:00.000 As more and more Muslim ships poured into the Sea of Marmara 1.00

00:41:03.380 and neared the Bosphorus to reinforce the blockade, 0.97

00:41:06.880 Leo ordered the great chain that had been placed across the strait to protect it be removed,

00:41:12.260 all but inviting the enemy ships in to do their worst.

00:41:15.840 While Maslama marveled at his good fortune for dropping the chain, he thought,

00:41:19.920 must have been some kind of mistake or treachery,

00:41:22.920 the reason for Leo's wry smile became apparent in blazing destruction.

00:41:27.320 Out of the morning mist came the cavalry of ships bearing Greek fire. 0.99

00:41:31.800 They sprayed the sticking and flaming balm all over the Muslim fleet 0.98

00:41:35.960 until it seemed as if the entire sea itself was burning.

00:41:39.600 Dozens of ships turned to either side and ran aground on the rocky shores near the inland,

00:41:44.680 seeking escape for their terrified passengers.

00:41:46.980 They continued to burn until hardly any trace of each vessel remained.

00:41:51.200 But the bulk of the fleet burned too fast and too hot to land any of her troops on the shore.

00:41:56.500 They sank into the Marmarous Sea and dealt the first blow of resistance to Muslama.

00:42:01.720 To add to his injury, Muslama soon received word that the caliph, his brother, had died in the night.

00:42:08.340 The captain knew that his successor, a more prudent man named Omar II,

00:42:12.940 would not be keen on spending resources on a siege that was already not going well.

00:42:17.260 He gritted his teeth against the mounting obstacles and doubled down on his attack, but it availed not.

00:42:22.820 As Greek fire decimated the Muslim fleet each day, the season turned from warm to cold, bitter cold,

00:42:30.440 and the Umayyad forces settled into one of the most brutal winters that part of the world had 0.52

00:42:34.820 ever seen. On top of this, Muslim provisions were delayed in arriving, and so Maslama was hard-pressed

00:42:41.520 to reassure his men that they'd eventually be suckered. Unfortunately for him, these promises

00:42:46.740 were empty. What's more, the call to arms had reached the winter-hardened Bulgarians from the 0.99

00:42:51.820 north, who had arrived to harry the Muslim forces day after day, even as they froze to death in

00:42:57.680 their camps. By the time reinforcements of men and supplies arrived in the spring, it was too 0.83

00:43:03.060 late. Maslama was beaten, and his forces were dwindled to nothing. He continued to press for

00:43:08.960 an advantage, though, for he had an ace up his sleeve. Omar II, you see, upon hearing that his

00:43:15.660 men were at the walls of the West, and upon learning how much it had already cost, was not

00:43:20.720 willing to order a retreat yet. He promised Maslama 800 ships filled with yet more fresh

00:43:27.080 men and provisions to arrive from the port of Alexandria very soon. They had just to last it

00:43:33.240 out. At the same time, Leo was beginning to see the effect of his slight overconfidence in repelling

00:43:39.820 the Muslims quickly. Though they had fared well in the winter, they were quickly running out of 1.00

00:43:44.860 the resources in the city. The worst-case scenario was quickly approaching, and he had little in the

00:43:50.380 way of plans to avoid it. The tide had turned in the blink of an eye back to Maslama. But just when

00:43:56.140 a brutal fight to the death seemed inevitable for the Byzantines, salvation came from the most

00:44:01.320 unexpected of places. When the 800 Muslim ships arrived from Egypt, soldiers on the wall of 0.93

00:44:07.520 Constantinople rejoiced to see that they were filled not with Umayyad infantry, but with Egyptian 0.71

00:44:13.300 Christians. Omar had spread his forces too thin and had been forced to trust Christian slaves to 0.98

00:44:20.180 make up the bulk of his relief efforts to Maslama. But where the Muslim longs for the selfish gain of 1.00

00:44:25.820 death in battle, the Christian love of martyrdom for the sake of others runs even deeper. In a rush, 0.98

00:44:32.480 under the cover of night, the Egyptians mutinied and cast their Arab masters into the sea. 1.00

00:44:38.480 They drove their ships into the Bosphorus before destroying them and finding safe haven in the 0.88

00:44:43.680 city of Christians. The sea, it is said, looked like a hardwood floor from all of the loose timber 1.00

00:44:49.460 now filling it. The Muslim forces descended into chaos. At that moment, Leo released his 1.00

00:44:55.860 fire-bearing ships once again and put the remainder of the Muslim fleet to flight, 1.00

00:45:01.000 abandoning their still crippled land forces, leaving them to exile or death. The visiting 0.99

00:45:06.300 Bulgars made quick work of slaughtering 22,000 starved and sickly Arabs that day, 0.88

00:45:12.440 and the Umayyads were routed completely.

00:45:15.300 On August 15th of 718,

00:45:17.940 exactly one year after it began,

00:45:20.720 the siege was lifted

00:45:21.620 and Leo III's legacy was sealed.

00:45:24.720 Constantinople had endured yet again.

00:45:26.800 i think you guys can tell why that's one of my favorite stories it's like the coolest thing

00:45:43.940 the uno reverse when leo first of all what was his name conan i don't know if it's conan i think

00:45:50.240 it's conan conan conan eric conan eric conan yeah he was conan people constantly dude because

00:45:56.960 he's like muslims totally on your team like super bitter and he had legitimate cause like they took 0.74

00:46:03.260 his guy they took his emperor yeah you know exiled him gave his throne to a lesser man 1.00

00:46:08.100 i'm on your team muslims let's go retake the city i'll be like a puppet king many such cases in 0.89

00:46:14.740 history here it is here it is basically this yeah between the jews and the rome and the roman empire 0.99

00:46:19.560 so he he goes in first of all plays the best hand of poker because he's basically like if you don't

00:46:31.020 give me the throne i'm you're all gonna die well it's i mean i'm like think of the aura that this

00:46:37.280 guy must have had seriously he goes in dude this is like baron trump you know baron trump

00:46:43.080 lasan al-gaib type stuff okay he just comes he goes in and he's like you are no longer the king

00:46:48.780 i am i'm now the king and theodosius the third is like you're exactly right like so right let

00:46:54.360 me get out of your way sorry my things kept the seat warm for you yeah and then he just goes right 0.99

00:46:59.500 into like ordering people around and the muslims are like the muslims are like oh excellent hey 0.57

00:47:04.880 dude you um when when are you gonna like let us in like we we won our plan worked and he was like 1.00

00:47:10.220 our plan i've never i've never spoken to you and what do you who are you what do you i will kill 0.96

00:47:15.500 you if you don't leave and then proceeds to win yeah muslama really does remind me of like bad 0.97

00:47:20.920 luck brian not you i don't actually know you know the meme bad luck brian no i don't you know it's

00:47:25.920 like this nerdy guy with brace face and stuff and it's like asks the girl to the dance and she says

00:47:30.900 yes it was a prank everyone laughs at him yeah yeah no one's because i'm so different from that

00:47:36.100 brian right exactly um i can't identify at all yeah you're like you're literally leo

00:47:40.500 so i think leo the third who is this leo he took the name leo and he was the third one yeah so he

00:47:49.420 i think he's he is in the running for my favorite uh emperor i like justinian because he built

00:47:55.980 hagi sophia yeah obviously constantine but leo is like he's one of the non-obvious guys in the

00:48:03.280 running for my, cause Constantine the first, Constantine the great, the first great Christian

00:48:10.480 ruler in the world. Yeah. But how on earth is Leo the third, a non-obvious because people don't know

00:48:15.800 who he is. That that's not true. Ask 99 Christians today at mega churches. Fair enough. Who's Leo

00:48:21.960 the third? Constantine. They're going to be like, he persecuted Christians. It's embarrassing.

00:48:26.220 Okay. Who's your, all right. Mine's tied. Mine's like a five point tie. You can't. Okay. If we're

00:48:31.340 allowed five then i get to go again okay fine hold on here's my five constantine the great 1.00

00:48:35.220 yeah easy enough easy theodosius the first yeah that's true he executed a ton of arians

00:48:40.400 he also expanded the defenses of the city yeah well no not him didn't he expanded the city i

00:48:46.300 mean he did some yeah but his theodosius the second built the triple wall yeah he's not actually

00:48:51.820 one of my favorites but he did build the trip he did build a trip which was monumental at the time

00:48:55.160 it was like totally they were like you can't triple wall and he's like watch me triple wall

00:48:59.500 you see the double wall more add it it's like kobe and kanye normal king's hall listeners are

00:49:06.820 so annoyed right now they're like this is why we don't listen to haunted cosmos but hey cancel

00:49:10.440 your king's hall patron come over to haunted cosmos patreon i promise you won't we have so

00:49:14.420 much fun okay just any in the first because sofia amazing leo is really cool but dude

00:49:21.180 constantine the 11th ah we'll get there the tragedy of tragedies we'll get there but what

00:49:26.680 a way to go the bookend i think we can agree y'all will hear about him in a minute what a way to go

00:49:31.300 theoden at helms deep if gandalf doesn't show up with a huorns yeah exactly like tolkien literally

00:49:36.980 based all of helms deep on the concert on the fall of constantinople except he was like what

00:49:44.400 would have made it so that they could win oh i know if help would have come from the west if demon

00:49:49.220 trees and help from the west not dude those were fairy trees they were good still the fairies are

00:49:55.740 good now. Okay. Anyway, anyway, anyway. Yeah. So this is a one question that rise that does come

00:50:03.020 from this, like again, we're not going to plumb the depths of it, but this whole thing was like

00:50:07.160 a big military deception, which actually turns out to be quite a controversial topic in the

00:50:13.960 Christian, in the world of Christian theology, a lot of even church fathers, and it's a fairly

00:50:19.120 strong historical position that you should never engage in deception as a Christian to the class

00:50:25.720 like would you tell them that you had the jews hidden in the exactly the ss game you know like 0.84

00:50:30.600 that kind of thing and um to me it's always been obvious that this kind of military deception is

00:50:36.400 licit because i think you see it in scripture with things like gideon and the pots yeah where

00:50:43.120 they smash the pots and they they give the illusion that their army is far bigger than it is

00:50:47.420 ehud is a really big one yeah because it's like it's kind of more on this level because ehud is

00:50:53.040 doing an individual deception of eglon yeah and he's totally like yeah man come in for a hug you 0.80

00:50:59.320 know what i mean and then stabs that and the poop comes out yes exactly and he's his fat every dude

00:51:05.940 eglon looked like me it swallowed up the sword no dude you're so handsome thanks man i was fishing

00:51:11.640 i knew you were fishing but uh i i think this is an example actually of a licit military deception

00:51:20.420 that we, we, we need to learn. Like when you, when you look at the political and military

00:51:26.320 realities of, um, defending building and defending civilization and cities and culture and peoples,

00:51:33.580 um, you, you have to reckon in a fallen world with the fact that we have enemies at the gate

00:51:38.200 who will steal, kill, and destroy. They will rape, pillage, murder, slit the throat, 1.00

00:51:42.980 kill everybody you love. And we need men and rulers and politicians and statesmen 1.00

00:51:49.900 who are able to be innocent as doves, but also wise as serpents.

00:51:53.940 And so Leo, to me, is one of these examples of just my word.

00:51:58.860 The thing is...

00:51:59.620 The absolute stones on this guy.

00:52:01.260 I know.

00:52:01.720 This guy, he had some gusto.

00:52:04.100 Look, I'm not one to disparage Leo, but I do think it's worth bringing up,

00:52:09.500 like, would the siege have happened if he hadn't have done this?

00:52:14.100 Eventually.

00:52:14.920 Eventually it would have.

00:52:16.000 But maybe not right then.

00:52:17.160 Maybe it wouldn't have been as severe.

00:52:18.360 you know he thought that he was going to be able to end it pretty quick and it did end up costing

00:52:23.280 like a lot it was a year yeah it was exactly a year and a lot of byzantian citizens uh died

00:52:29.500 yeah died in defense and so that is something and then the other thing too is like leo entered into

00:52:35.380 this parlay with muslama well conan did um kind of so that he would stop getting hunted on the

00:52:44.660 fringes of the empire. Now, at the same time, he had it in his mind, like, I need to get rid of

00:52:50.940 Theodosius III. He's a usurper. He got rid of Anastasius, my guy. He's like Miraz. Yeah,

00:52:56.500 exactly. And like, Anastasius was the proper ruler of the Byzantine empire. And so I think

00:53:01.900 that his motivations were good, but you do really have to think like, that was a bold move,

00:53:08.240 maybe a little reckless because it resulted in a year-long siege. Look, let's not get bogged down

00:53:13.660 with the details in how long the siege was for my guy leo the third ultimately though it ended up

00:53:20.280 great dude i mean caspian you got to break a couple eggs make an omelet yeah i mean when

00:53:24.860 aslan showed up he wasn't like caspian don't drive out the tel marines he was like

00:53:28.420 kill him in single combat yeah yeah so and i mean there's also the element too i think that

00:53:34.720 uh one of the differentiators between a christian minister and a christian prince 0.98

00:53:39.760 is a Christian minister has to have the heart for converting everyone, for converting the world.

00:53:46.540 The Christian prince has to have the stomach to look after the protection of his nation.

00:53:52.180 And those are different things.

00:53:53.880 Yeah, they're completely, they require different strengths.

00:53:56.960 Right. 0.91

00:53:57.300 Like a Christian, it's easier for a Christian minister to be an ideologue about deception 0.80

00:54:01.220 and whether or not there's such a thing as righteous military deception. 0.96

00:54:04.740 A Christian prince oftentimes doesn't have the luxury of being an ideologue in that regard.

00:54:09.760 He has to have the stomach to do what's required for the good of his people. 0.93

00:54:13.480 And a lot of times that means a lot of killing.

00:54:16.520 It can from time to time.

00:54:19.100 A lot of times.

00:54:19.720 To do that.

00:54:20.240 Pretty much all the time.

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00:57:22.860 One of the threads, we're not going to beat it to death,

00:57:25.060 but one of the threads that really runs through

00:57:27.160 the history of Constantinople

00:57:28.480 in ways that go in both directions from the East and the West is dysfunction between Christian

00:57:34.300 brothers, dysfunction between the great schism, obviously between the East and the West formally.

00:57:40.380 But we also, and actually before that, even like with the Roman division into multiple empires,

00:57:45.980 then we have the Christian division into multiple churches. And that's obviously a shame. Like 0.77

00:57:52.960 the unity of the church is very important. So we talked about this last episode in our

00:57:59.300 brother wars conversation, but one of the through lines in the story of Constantinople and, and

00:58:05.380 really not just Western Christendom or Eastern Christendom, but Christendom encompassing both

00:58:10.540 is that Constantinople, I'm confident would still be in Christian hands if the Christian church

00:58:16.780 through this period had been at her maturity of unity.

00:58:20.560 So if we had, and Lord willing,

00:58:23.160 I believe that the Lord will work this unity

00:58:25.040 in his church on post-millennial.

00:58:26.760 I believe that's gonna happen

00:58:27.820 as a historical reality in the future

00:58:30.680 when we will see reunification

00:58:32.740 and much, much greater unity across Christendom.

00:58:38.160 But I think it's the case that had they had that maturity

00:58:41.860 and not been in their toddler or adolescent phase

00:58:44.080 of the church at this point,

00:58:45.120 that Constantinople would still be a Christian city.

00:58:48.740 Yeah, and honestly, I don't think you need to look further

00:58:52.260 than one of the things that you'll hear

00:58:54.780 in the closing story of this episode

00:58:56.320 is about the Fourth Crusade.

00:58:57.860 But the Fourth Crusade was predicated

00:59:00.020 on a lot of other things that really started with,

00:59:03.440 and I mean petty, petty squabbles over.

00:59:09.060 And I'm not saying that like the theology is petty.

00:59:11.140 I just mean to let it get to that level

00:59:13.500 in civil unrest and in like military disagreement that's petty yep and if they could have avoided

00:59:21.560 that if there would be you know and you can blame it on all sorts of things the the simony of the

00:59:25.980 west and and the greed of of the west sure i i that's of course to blame the um the general

00:59:32.560 weakness of a lot of the emperors in the byzantine world a lot of them were not very pious men a lot

00:59:39.580 of them, uh, were not actually good statesmen or administrators. And so they, they did a poor job

00:59:45.180 of propping up the economy and the military and staying up to date with all these things. You can

00:59:49.680 blame it on all these factors, but when it comes down to it, it was a failure of love for one

00:59:53.880 another. Like the, the brothers in the East and the brothers in the West simply hated each other

01:00:00.200 functionally. And it led to the, again, the destruction of the greatest jewel of Christendom 0.81

01:00:05.860 Wasn't, I might be remembering this wrong, but wasn't Muhammad II the son of a Christian slave 0.81

01:00:13.200 girl? Yeah. So, and ultimately in this final story, we'll bring you into here in momentarily, 0.94

01:00:19.000 you're going to hear the destroyer of Constantinople, the one who takes it 0.71

01:00:24.620 from Christian hands, never to be returned in our lifetimes and in history since was the son 0.98

01:00:31.580 of a christian slave girl so you think this is a great example of the kind of thing that while

01:00:36.940 we're bickering while the christians are infighting and warring with one another both within the west 0.87

01:00:42.200 within the east because that was true and then also intramurally but between the two um muslims 0.96

01:00:47.900 are enslaving their christian sisters turning them into concubines and wives in their courts 0.99

01:00:53.560 and and turning and making christian women into the mothers of the destroyers of of the christian 0.99

01:01:00.700 east. Yeah. And so the mothers of demoniac children. Just like the Janissaries. It's 0.65

01:01:05.500 another example of that where they would steal the Christian children and train them to be elite 0.99

01:01:10.380 soldiers against their own Christian families. So you see this just again and again. One of the 0.82

01:01:17.740 through lines in Christendom 1.0 is the Christian church needs to learn how to get along lest we be 0.72

01:01:24.620 swept away and destroyed by our enemies, who absolutely will, if given an opening,

01:01:31.260 seek to destroy Christ's people, not just spiritually, but also even physically.

01:01:36.640 And we shouldn't be surprised at mayhem and chaos that comes into our countries and into

01:01:42.960 our families even when we fail in this basic task of unity. Like so much of the New Testament

01:01:49.460 is just, hey, love one another, be of like mind, have this purpose amongst yourself,

01:01:55.000 which is yours in Christ Jesus, to be unified, be at peace with the brothers and other churches

01:01:59.460 and in other lands. You know, that's part of the whole induction of the diaconate is so that there

01:02:04.800 wouldn't be an overflowing dispute between the Hellenist and the Hebrew widows. And if we can't 0.62

01:02:11.560 get that right, then we should expect nothing less than civil turmoil and an inability to actually 1.00

01:02:18.040 make progress in doing what we want to do, which is institutionalizing Christianity across the

01:02:24.760 world by discipling the nations effectively. One of the things, one of the greatest tragedies of 0.97

01:02:29.700 this whole story, and we're not going to ruin the whole thing, but you know that Constantinople

01:02:34.500 falls, so this isn't a big deal. But one of the things that Constantine XI did, which was the

01:02:43.240 emperor when constantinople fell is he reached out to the west and he was willing to sign this

01:02:50.160 agreement and in return for their defensive help that said that they would do the latin mass

01:02:56.680 in their cathedrals so in the hagia sophia they would do the latin mass in return the west said

01:03:04.560 we will send you military aid now that's a bit like first of all it's i think it's wrong for

01:03:10.800 the West to blackmail them in that way, like banking any sort of military aid on basically

01:03:18.500 abandoning their convictions and their religion. But then when Constantine XI did it, help never

01:03:25.540 came. So, and the West was dealing with its own problems. It's not like they just wanted to see

01:03:32.260 the East die and burn away. It's not like that, but it is like they put all of this stock into

01:03:38.120 like, well, if you would just do the Latin mass, everything will be fine. Well, they did the Latin 0.92

01:03:42.900 mass and Constantinople still fell. And it's because help never came out of the West. And 0.56

01:03:48.040 that's a big tragedy to me. Yeah. It looms large. I mean, you did mention it, but it looms large,

01:03:53.680 even in the stories and mythologies of our time, like Lord of the Rings, where help is supposed

01:03:58.380 to come from the West, the hope of men, supposed to come from the West. This has been deeply

01:04:02.460 imprinted on Christian culture and on our mythos as a people. So, you know, what, what's the goal

01:04:09.900 here? Cause we're going to, we're going to take you into the episode or into the last story here,

01:04:12.920 but the goal of an episode like this is it's to inspire you. We do want you to see the glory

01:04:18.980 of what it is that Christians have built in times past, what our fathers are capable of,

01:04:25.420 what we're capable of again, but it's also sobering. Like it's not all, it's not all rah,

01:04:30.940 hurrah um this is one of the most black pilling stories at the end it ends sadly yeah i mean 0.57

01:04:37.840 like let me just tell everybody a joke here before so that you can just before we black

01:04:43.600 pill you the other day i keep asking people you know where monkey pox comes from but i can't get

01:04:50.300 a straight answer that's good hey i got a joke you tell me a joke before you go in i came up

01:04:55.660 with this joke one time as a kid how do you catch a squirrel how do you catch a squirrel i don't

01:05:00.620 know you climb up a tree and act like a nut my mom thought that was so funny she didn't i hate

01:05:06.820 no she did actually because i was like three and i said all right okay i will say this uh one of

01:05:11.880 the other tolkien parallels that we can draw is uh is the battle of pelonor fields where gondor's

01:05:18.440 laid under siege by this orc army and theoden is called in for help and there's the scene where

01:05:26.720 you know, Aragorn rolls into Edoras and he's like, Gondor calls for aid. The beacons are lit.

01:05:32.300 And then Theoden says, and Rohan will answer. And you know, especially in the movies,

01:05:37.060 this is conveyed that Theoden actually is like, am I going to do it? Am I going to be willing to

01:05:42.540 go give more of my people's lives to help Gondor who, even though they had their own issues,

01:05:47.200 never came to mind. I think one of the takeaways, one of the things that we should learn from this

01:05:52.800 episode and from this story of Byzantium, maybe an exercise in the fifth commandment, you know,

01:05:59.080 not repeating the sins of our forefathers is when that other camp calls for aid against the common

01:06:05.660 enemy, go help them. Yeah. Like it doesn't matter how annoyed you are. If they're, if they're

01:06:11.720 Christians and they're being attacked by a common enemy to you and they ask for help, just go help. 1.00

01:06:18.180 Go help the disbies. Go help the disbies. Go help the Pentecostals. Yeah. Go help them. 0.99

01:06:22.040 like they love the same God. Don't let them get by, don't let them get taken over by, by the

01:06:27.460 hordes of demoniac, you know, uh, uh, evil people that are roaming around the world today. Like

01:06:32.880 be Theoden, set your pride aside and just go give aid to the Christians. Yeah. Well, before we, 0.91

01:06:39.000 before we head into this last story, guys, I just want to remind you, if you're listening

01:06:42.600 here on the podcast feed, that's great. Um, we're going to keep doing this podcast exactly how we

01:06:47.540 always have really as high quality audio as we can on podcast feeds we do have the show up now

01:06:53.260 on youtube and rumble some video platforms it's also the full episodes are up on x

01:06:59.620 under our king's hall twitter account or x account there that you can watch so now we've added a

01:07:06.200 multi-camera different angles things like that that was possible again through the support of

01:07:10.800 patrons that we have that generously support our show from month to month chip in a couple bucks

01:07:16.440 a month to help make this possible. We've been able to hire a full-time audio and video editor

01:07:21.500 to help us with all these projects, which we're very thankful for. So thank you to all of our

01:07:26.540 supporters. Even if you listen on audio and plan to continue, go check out the YouTube channel,

01:07:30.800 leave a comment, support us there. And we hope that that can actually, this is a platform where

01:07:36.440 a lot of people who probably have never heard of anything we're doing are there. And that it's

01:07:42.580 funny how even maybe the Lord could use something like the Google YouTube algorithm to push this 0.99

01:07:48.560 show in front of, uh, non-Christians or maybe Christians that like some of you who listen now,

01:07:53.580 you've had this experience where you were like a little bit normie. And then you, you found the

01:07:58.760 King's hall. And the next thing you knew, you were like, basically you had a crusader replica armor

01:08:03.700 set on the way from wish.com. Yeah. And you're naming your kid. Your name is now your kid's

01:08:08.980 So thanks to our supporters.

01:08:12.040 Check it out there, even if you listen

01:08:13.360 on the normal podcast feeds.

01:08:17.400 And with that, we're gonna take you

01:08:19.220 to this final installment

01:08:21.960 in this brief overview of the rise and fall of Constantinople.

01:08:26.320 Be sure if you're interested in this subject,

01:08:29.100 go pick up some books.

01:08:30.100 There are dozens and dozens of volumes

01:08:33.020 that have been written

01:08:33.720 just on different aspects of Constantinople.

01:08:36.420 We've skipped a rock across the surface of this story.

01:08:39.500 There's so much more to learn, but be interested in it.

01:08:43.000 Interested people are interesting people.

01:08:45.420 Yeah.

01:08:45.660 So go take interest in it.

01:08:47.420 Fest and Alente, thanks for listening.

01:08:49.560 Now, enjoy this last story.

01:08:51.340 Yeah, thanks for having me, Brian.

01:08:52.980 It's been great to have you, Ben.

01:08:53.600 Prepare yourself to hear the story of one of the saddest years in human history, 1453. 0.93

01:09:05.960 The Turk snuffs out the name of Christ 0.94

01:09:21.220 and has already sworn, 1.00

01:09:22.800 has already vowed himself to his own God

01:09:24.880 not to remain at peace under any agreement

01:09:27.280 unless he hears the praises of Muhammad sung.

01:09:31.260 But where now is Godfrey, 0.61

01:09:33.100 Bohemond, Baldwin, and the rest of the princes who liberated the sepulcher of Jesus Christ 0.99

01:09:38.360 from the hands of the infidel. Bartolomeo de Giano, 1438. In the intervening history between

01:09:45.580 the second great siege of Byzantium and her fall, we learn just how treacherous it is to play at

01:09:51.160 these global games of conquest and empire. More than that, these things betray how deep the rifts

01:09:57.340 of disagreement between those who should be brothers can go when bitterness is given freedom

01:10:02.340 to germinate. After Leo departed and the Western church enmeshed itself heroically in the arrest of

01:10:08.840 Muslim expansion across the world, the consequences of schism between Rome and the Orthodox proved far 0.99

01:10:15.920 worse than any could have imagined. Beginning in the late 11th century, successful commercial 0.96

01:10:21.240 endeavors from the western half of Christendom started making inroads in the east. Merchants

01:10:26.340 from Venice, Genoa, and Pisa opened up operations in the Orthodox territory, even as far as the

01:10:32.820 walls of Constantinople. At the time, Alexios Comnenos reigned as the Byzantine emperor.

01:10:39.140 He welcomed this bridge between east and west and provided civil protection for the Catholics

01:10:44.060 so they might continue furthering the flourishing of his own lands. This shrewd economic policy,

01:10:49.860 though unpopular with some of the Orthodox patriarchs that advised him, proved to help a

01:10:54.880 great deal in coagulating the empire's many wounds it carried from war, civil unrest, and economic

01:11:01.660 ruin. Alexios faced nearly constant war with the Muslims during his reign, yet he proved the 1.00

01:11:08.880 stalwart defender for his life and made great progress in turning back the Muslim tide and 1.00

01:11:14.920 saving his empire from total ruin. This toleration of Catholic merchants was a massive part of his 0.99

01:11:20.320 success. But as I said, some of the purists didn't see it that way. Eventually, Alexios Komnenos died

01:11:27.760 and the people finally appreciated just how competent of a ruler he had been. A new administration

01:11:33.460 took charge, an administration which proved to be lesser sons of a greater sire, incapable of

01:11:40.320 filling the shoes of their predecessor. Therefore, the decision was made to lean further and further

01:11:45.840 into the things that Alexios had done so well.

01:11:48.780 They didn't consider the fact

01:11:50.060 that there can often exist too much of a good thing.

01:11:53.520 As they increased the rights and privileges

01:11:55.600 of the Western merchants,

01:11:57.540 they decreased the effectiveness

01:11:59.160 of their own economic endeavors

01:12:01.060 and even naval supremacy.

01:12:03.560 After all, why use the older and slower Eastern ships

01:12:06.100 when the West is willing to help

01:12:07.420 with their state-of-the-art vessels?

01:12:10.000 Such it was that after just a single generation,

01:12:12.440 the West had a maritime death grip

01:12:14.240 on the Byzantine Empire. 0.64

01:12:15.840 The good idea had been taken too far.

01:12:17.780 To the ultimate ruin, everything Alexios had tried to build.

01:12:22.700 To correct this overcorrection, Alexios' grandson, Manuel Comnenos,

01:12:27.740 took drastic measures to reduce the privileges of Venetian merchants in Byzantium

01:12:33.220 by increasing the privilege of other Italian city-state merchants. 0.95

01:12:37.320 He thought the cure to too many Venetians was to let in 0.91

01:12:40.680 hordes of other kinds of Italians to clean up the mess. 0.97

01:12:44.000 But of course, this led to social chaos 0.88

01:12:46.040 within the walls of Constantinople.

01:12:48.440 Eventually, it all served to ignite the underlying bad blood

01:12:51.360 that already existed due to the great schism 0.95

01:12:54.220 of the two sides' respective religions.

01:12:56.820 The tension reached a boiling point

01:12:58.360 just as Manuel Comnenos died in 1180.

01:13:02.120 At that point, since his son was too young to assume rule,

01:13:05.640 the widow queen Maria of Antioch

01:13:07.620 acted as a regent for the empire.

01:13:10.060 She continued to pour out favors to the Italian merchants

01:13:12.720 whose numbers were always swelling despite the discord it was causing with their own native

01:13:17.580 people then in april of 1182 the critical mass of tension was reached and tragedy followed 0.88

01:13:24.520 in a mad rush of the mob byzantines started massacring any latin person they could find

01:13:29.960 anger fueled their beatings and sword thrusts until 60 000 latin men women and children had

01:13:37.320 been murdered. Blood ran in rivers down the streets of the city that had so long avoided

01:13:43.100 war inside of its own walls. Empress Maria was executed while waiting for tensions to 0.75

01:13:48.520 cool in her own home. Thus, a major blow was dealt to the already delicate relationship

01:13:53.200 between the Eastern and Western empires of Christendom. The West, it turns out, was not

01:13:58.020 willing to forget it. And all of the worst tendencies and brothers reached their crescendo

01:14:02.960 when this massacre of the Latins by the Byzantines was avenged in the Fourth Crusade,

01:14:09.020 which broke through the walls of Constantinople in 1204,

01:14:12.640 a feat previously never accomplished.

01:14:14.920 Under the pretext of financial gain promised by the rightful claimant to the Byzantine throne

01:14:19.680 if the Crusaders would restore his rule,

01:14:22.140 the forces of the West returned slaughter for slaughter

01:14:25.340 when they charged through the gates of Constantinople

01:14:28.260 and brutally killed all in their path.

01:14:30.420 And while this unforced error was eventually settled and peace was restored, it was an even

01:14:35.160 more delicate peace than before. One can't help but wonder how history may have been different

01:14:40.660 had the East and the West not been so diligently focused on killing each other when the true enemy

01:14:46.960 was standing just outside of Byzantium's gate. I suppose no one is told what might have been.

01:14:53.620 But one wonders nonetheless. By the year 1402, the Byzantine Empire, in its stronghold capital

01:14:59.740 of Constantinople, the last remaining Roman city, was dying. An off-and-on siege by Ottoman Turks

01:15:06.540 on the city had beleaguered the city for a decade. Food reserves were all but used up,

01:15:12.180 the Byzantine army was weak and worn and tired, shrinking day by day, and the storm of Mongolia

01:15:18.280 that came from the north had sent all of Christendom, but especially the east, into a whirlwind

01:15:23.500 of new troubles. Dejected and degenerate, but not at all indignified, Emperor Emmanuel toured

01:15:29.940 various countries in the West, appealing to their pity and courage to return and help him save the

01:15:35.700 land of his fathers. The tour, it must be said honestly, can't be called a success. Though the

01:15:41.300 West pitied their Eastern brothers with great sincerity, their own problems demanded the

01:15:46.040 strength of their youth. Back on the shores of Bosphorus, in between the famine and disease 0.71

01:15:51.620 that stacked up bodies within the walls 0.97

01:15:53.680 and the occasional Byzantine climbing over them

01:15:56.540 to escape to the Muslim camp,

01:15:59.220 a message came to Manuel's son, John VII,

01:16:01.940 from the Ottoman commander, Bayezid,

01:16:04.880 demanding an immediate surrender from the prince.

01:16:08.000 John, stern and faithful, replied with the following,

01:16:11.240 quote, tell your master that we are weak,

01:16:13.780 but that we trust God who can make us strong

01:16:16.580 and can put down the mightiest from their seats.

01:16:18.880 let your master do as he pleases end quote and though Bayezid scoffed at the naivete of the boy

01:16:25.500 the boy's prayers would be answered in the form of another villain the Mongol Turk Tamerlane

01:16:30.980 mocking Bayezid's age and failure from afar and calling his leadership into question the Ottoman 0.94

01:16:36.640 commander's ego couldn't not take the challenge he thus recalled all of his troops from Europe 0.72

01:16:42.020 lifting the siege of Constantinople in the process and marched to war with Tamerlane but as with all

01:16:48.060 the other close calls from disaster Constantinople had suffered in the past, this peace also wouldn't

01:16:54.000 last long. Before long, death would come knocking for real. Somewhere deep down, they all must have

01:17:00.740 known everything dies. Constantinople's death came in the form of a boy born to Sultan Murad II

01:17:08.280 by way of a European Christian slave girl. His name was Muhammad II, an important name,

01:17:14.520 and his destiny was to finish what his faith's founder had begun. 1.00

01:17:18.800 He thus grew into his name, mixing Islamic piety with all the depravity you may expect from such a savage culture. 0.98

01:17:25.980 At 19 years old, when he became sultan, his first act was to murder all of his brothers, 19 of them, 1.00

01:17:32.560 including an infant, by strangulation. 0.76

01:17:35.120 He then decapitated three concubines who were pregnant with some of his brother's children.

01:17:39.860 And turning from this raving madness to the pious and political strategist,

01:17:44.520 He replied to the message sent from Constantinople by Constantine XI,

01:17:49.160 congratulating him on his ascension to the sultanate with kind words of friendship and peace.

01:17:54.660 Christendom never even saw it coming.

01:17:56.620 Though it is fitting, ironic even, that the last emperor of Byzantium was named Constantine 0.78

01:18:02.460 and the man who made him the last emperor was named Muhammad.

01:18:06.700 But thus it was that Muhammad, in 1452, took a small company of men with him

01:18:11.460 to build a brick wall blockade across the Bosphorus.

01:18:14.520 sending a clear message to the citizens of Constantinople and their emperor

01:18:18.880 that he had no intention of staying true to his words of peace.

01:18:22.820 When messengers went to the Turks to ask them

01:18:25.080 why they were doing something so obviously aggressive

01:18:27.580 when the ink on the treaties was still wet,

01:18:30.380 Muhammad sent them back relieved of their heads.

01:18:33.700 War was declared, and the final siege of Constantinople

01:18:36.940 was ready to begin like day ready to break at any moment over the mountains.

01:18:42.520 Constantine closed the gates and destroyed all the bridges that had been recently rebuilt.

01:18:47.500 He pulled taut the great iron chain guarding the Bosphorus from entry by enemy ships.

01:18:52.760 He did this and comforted his people with the promises of God.

01:18:56.440 He did this and began the distribution of daily rations to the people.

01:19:01.200 He did this and sent one final plea for aid to the West, but the West never came.

01:19:05.940 still drowning in their own troubles and unwilling to spend so much for the protection of their

01:19:11.760 Orthodox brethren. But some of the Latins, moved by the plight of their old friends,

01:19:17.180 did come of their own accord to help in this time of greatest need. Among these was one man named

01:19:21.960 Giovanni Guistiania, a man who would prove himself ultimately to be a hero. For now,

01:19:28.060 he joined his 400 veteran soldiers to the little more than 6,000 men remaining behind the walls of

01:19:34.000 the city. Once there and altogether, all that remained was to wait for the end of the world

01:19:39.000 to begin, to pray that it wouldn't come, at least not yet. In the end, some 7,000 Christians stood

01:19:46.600 proud to defend Constantinople from over 100,000 Muslim soldiers and 100 warships, more than 14 to

01:19:54.560 odds. And so the end began. On April 6th, 1453, Muhammad launched his attacks. Right away, in the 0.99

01:20:04.140 quickly kindled heat of explosion and sweat and stone, a hole was almost made in the western wall.

01:20:10.460 But Giovanni was there with his men in a flash, raining guns and crossbows and catapults down

01:20:15.660 on the encroaching Turks until they were driven back into the ditch from whence they had come. 0.93

01:20:20.500 By nightfall of the first day, the potential breach was repaired and the city was still standing up to its Armageddon. 0.89

01:20:27.000 That night, a naval assault approaching the chain was driven back by guns mounted on either side of Bosphorus, spewing Greek fire at the ships.

01:20:36.240 The routes were small, but they had an outsized effect on the morale of both armies. 0.94

01:20:41.320 Muhammad was furious and Constantine was comforted. 0.91

01:20:44.740 What followed was weeks of nearly constant bombardment of the walls by the Turks. 1.00

01:20:49.880 siege engines were pushed forward, catapults flung whatever destructive mass they could

01:20:55.180 against the stone. But still, the stone didn't relent. Even the newfangled cannons that shot

01:21:00.460 heavy iron balls at high speeds didn't avail much on the walls. Instead, they often collapsed

01:21:06.400 under their own recoil, they were cumbersome to move and load, and often couldn't be aimed

01:21:11.160 properly at all. The Christian shouts of hope rang out frequently from the city in those early days.

01:21:17.940 Impatient, Muhammad ordered a mad rush of thousands of soldiers

01:21:21.680 to just one section of the wall he thought most weak.

01:21:25.240 After a stream of attack for four straight hours,

01:21:28.400 the Christians fought the horde back,

01:21:30.300 killing 200 of their number and suffering no losses themselves. 0.67

01:21:34.420 Driven to great lengths of anger, 0.97

01:21:36.380 Muhammad was ready for his elephants in the Alps moment 0.99

01:21:39.080 and tried something wild on the advice of a Christian turncoat. 0.99

01:21:43.620 He ordered teams of men and thousands of oxen to haul entire ships completely up out of the Marmara Sea 0.76

01:21:50.380 and over a hill on the southern side of the Bosphorus.

01:21:53.940 From there, they pushed the vessel back into the water,

01:21:57.300 thus bypassing the iron chain of protection the city relied on and entering the port of the city.

01:22:03.380 Christian sailors in the area were shocked to see 70 Muslim ships falling down nearly on top of them

01:22:09.380 with war cries and virtually no warning.

01:22:12.040 The Christians stood no chance and quickly succumbed to the fighting.

01:22:16.360 Forty men survived and swam to shore, only to be brutally impaled there by the Sultan.

01:22:21.920 Whatever morale had been gained by the unlikely resistance thus far mounted dwindled quickly.

01:22:28.100 Hunger steadily crept in.

01:22:30.080 Soldiers worried for the well-being of their families,

01:22:32.600 who were often just beneath their stations on the wall, worrying about their heads above.

01:22:38.740 What it must have been like to move

01:22:40.320 from the fearful eyes of daughters and sons and wives

01:22:43.460 to the hateful mass of demon soldiers can only be imagined,

01:22:47.600 though perhaps it's better not to try. 0.66

01:22:50.120 Infighting began as Easterners and Westerners

01:22:52.580 accused one another of betrayal,

01:22:54.900 of taking more than their share of the food,

01:22:57.080 of cowardice and more.

01:22:58.940 Constantine tried to reinstate peace and order,

01:23:01.600 but found that not even the common enemy of war

01:23:04.560 could undo the damage caused by centuries of schism. 0.97

01:23:07.900 Without even knowing it, Muhammad was stalking the very easy prey of great victory from inside 0.96

01:23:13.700 of the walls rather than out. When nobles advised Constantine to quit the city and seek aid in 0.98

01:23:19.420 Europe, he responded with the pious words, how could I leave the church of our Lord and his

01:23:24.620 servants the clergy and the throne and my people in such a plight? What would the world say about

01:23:29.660 me? I pray you, my friends, in future, do not say to me anything else but nay, sire, do not leave us.

01:23:36.120 Never, never will I leave you.

01:23:37.660 I am resolved to die here with you. 0.64

01:23:41.140 The emperor, it is said, 0.98

01:23:42.720 then wept aloud to the sound of war drums

01:23:45.040 echoing outside of the walls.

01:23:47.140 Yet, despite the despair

01:23:48.960 and the weeks of cannon fire on the wall, 0.99

01:23:51.600 the Muslim army had made no progress

01:23:53.540 in actually entering the city. 0.54

01:23:55.580 Muhammad then ordered the charge 0.93

01:23:56.880 of his newly constructed Helopolis, 1.00

01:23:59.600 a mobile tower and siege engine

01:24:01.480 much taller than the wall actually was

01:24:03.740 and equipped with flaming catapults.

01:24:05.560 He pushed this right up to the wall to give cover to men beneath it

01:24:08.840 who began to dig frantically, undermining the wall.

01:24:12.080 This effort, though, was stopped by Giovanni again.

01:24:14.900 Giovanni and his men, who destroyed the tower

01:24:16.680 by throwing kegs of gunpowder into the Foss.

01:24:19.880 Another small victory, but too small.

01:24:22.740 The attacks continued, giving the small force of defenders

01:24:25.780 little opportunity to rest,

01:24:28.080 while fresh troops continually poured in for the Muslims. 0.98

01:24:31.360 Then came the announcement from Muhammad.

01:24:33.860 the cloud the Christians so much dreaded, 0.97

01:24:36.620 that the grand assault would take place on May 29th.

01:24:39.900 On May 27th, the emperor could be found weeping against his palace wall,

01:24:44.780 having heard the conclusive news that no relief was coming on the hills from the west.

01:24:49.780 His cries went up with the rest of those poor souls in the lonely city

01:24:53.760 until the wind rang with the wailing.

01:24:57.320 On May 28th, Christian services were rendered in the city

01:25:00.360 and God's mercy was implored by all pious souls.

01:25:04.000 Deep into that night, Constantine spoke to his advisors

01:25:06.980 and bid them die like honorable men of God

01:25:09.300 before the wrath that would surely take them. 0.93

01:25:12.340 He was a good king.

01:25:14.060 Following the speech, he went into the Hagia Sophia,

01:25:16.800 received communion, returned home to bid his wife farewell,

01:25:20.200 and took up his post along the wall with the rest of his men.

01:25:23.520 He would die there very soon. 0.91

01:25:25.920 At 2 a.m. on May 29th, Muhammad released hell on Constantinople. 0.91

01:25:30.900 Trumpets shouted and cymbals clanged in a cacophony of noise and confusion and frenzy. 0.93

01:25:37.080 Cannon fire lit the night and crash after crash of heaving iron slammed into the quaking wall. 0.85

01:25:44.040 Suddenly, thousands of crazed bashi bazooks, irregular troops of the Ottoman army known for their guerrilla war tactics, 0.91

01:25:50.760 slammed themselves into the wall and climbed atop one another to reach its peak. 1.00

01:25:55.800 Though they were cut down by the tired defenders of Christendom,

01:25:58.260 they were followed by the ladders and hooks and ropes and arrows of the sultan's guard who further

01:26:04.700 wore down the defenders thinning strength and though thousands of enemies lay piled and dead

01:26:09.800 at the base of the wall muhammad's plan had succeeded the soldiers of byzantium were on their

01:26:15.540 last threads of strength by four in the morning the cannons had made several breaches which the

01:26:21.920 Janissaries fought to swarm through. Their former kin fought them off bravely and tried everything 0.99

01:26:27.960 they could to hold their ground. Giovanni held his men together and bravely pushed back against

01:26:33.120 the brainwashed former friends of God and Christ. But blood sprayed out from open wounds on countless

01:26:39.400 men and painted the breaches in evil crimson. Thick and dark drafts of this bitter drink

01:26:45.460 shot into men's faces from the dead. With wives and children behind them, the men fought like angels.

01:26:51.920 but even this was not enough. Giovanni suddenly reeled at a shot through his chest. He sank down

01:26:58.920 with a mortal wound and had to be carried away to the sound of the emperor pleading with him to

01:27:03.960 stay. As this happened, horror of horrors, Turks began pouring into the city through a side door 0.95

01:27:09.520 that in the midst of all of the chaos had been left open by some of the defenders. Turks shouted

01:27:15.580 with laughing cries as they planted their flags on every street. Massive and brutish Muslims let 1.00

01:27:21.320 out their rage on the small band of christian soldiers until one muslim might have slain a 1.00

01:27:26.040 dozen byzantines the janissaries charged in and ramped up the death all was death and all was 0.97

01:27:33.340 still shrouded in the din of early morning with the sunrise came the cries of the maddened emperor

01:27:39.700 constantine riding his horse into the thickest of the fighting slaying turk after turk under the

01:27:45.340 fury of his red blade in a rush of enemies the last emperor of byzantium could be seen

01:27:51.040 falling and then rising again, only to fall all over. Constantine XI died fighting by the gates

01:27:57.660 of his city, the sides of his finest men. Thus ended Constantinople, the last vestige of old 0.69

01:28:04.680 Rome and the doorway of Christendom. It's never been retaken. 0.82

01:28:21.040 Thank you.

01:28:51.040 Thank you.

01:29:21.040 Thank you.

01:29:51.040 We'll see you next time.

01:30:21.040 over to patreon.com slash thekingshall

01:30:24.540 if you'd like to support the show

01:30:25.980 and get some extra content.

The King's Hall - October 18, 2024

The Rise & Fall of Constantinople

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