[60] Because of the blatant provocation to the sultan, he lost his temper with the Byzantine messengers,[59][61] supposedly shouting: You stupid Greeks, I have had enough of your devious ways. He is Co-President of Honour of the International Sailing Federation with King Harald V of Norway, since 1994.[15]. Constantine Laskaris is sometimes referred to as Constantine (XI), with Constantine Palaiologos numbered Constantine XI (XII). John returned to Constantinople on 1 February 1440. The hope of capturing Constantinople would not be completely dashed until the Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War in 1922. Philippides is highly critical of Nicol's The Immortal Emperor, which he sees as unbalanced. The salvation of the City depends on you. Near the end of 1451, he had sent a message to Venice stating that unless they sent reinforcements to him at once, Constantinople would fall to the Ottomans. [130] A difficult case is Constantine Laskaris, who might have been the first, albeit ephemeral, emperor of the Empire of Nicaea, one of the Byzantine successor states after the Fourth Crusade. Constantine II (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Βʹ, Konstantínos II, pronounced [ˌkonstanˈdinos]; born 2 June 1940) reigned as the King of Greece from 6 March 1964 until the abolition of the monarchy on 1 June 1973. Instead, the Byzantines used nicknames (for instance "Michael the Drunkard", now given the number Michael III) or patronymics (for instance "Constantine, son of Manuel" rather than Constantine XI) to distinguish emperors of the same name. Anatolia was the empire's most fertile, populated, and wealthy region, and after its loss, Byzantium more or less experienced constant decline. A search for the body was conducted, and when it was found, the emperor's head was cut off and paraded through Constantinople before it was sent to the Sultan of Egypt as a gift, alongside twenty captured women and forty captured men. 21 July] 1868 - 11 January 1923) was King of the Hellenes from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922. The simmering dissent culminated in the Goudi coup in August 1909. Giustiniani was appointed by Constantine as the general commander for the walls on Constantinople's land side. [97] Unbeknownst to anyone, after six hours of fighting, just before sunrise,[97] Giustiniani was mortally wounded. [91], Constantine then sent a response to the sultan, the last communication between a Byzantine emperor and an Ottoman sultan:[90], As to surrendering the city to you, it is not for me to decide or for anyone else of its citizens; for all of us have reached the mutual decision to die of our own free will, without any regard for our lives. Though the increase in diplomatic activity was impressive, it came too late to save Constantinople: the equipment and financing of a joint papal-Venetian armada took longer than expected,[77] the Venetians had misjudged the amount of time on their hands, and messages took at least a month to travel from Constantinople to Venice. After the Ottomans failed to break her barricades and enter the palace, Mehmed had to agree to give her three concessions: that all coins minted by the sultans in the city would bear the names of Constantinople or Constantine, that there would be a street reserved for Greeks alone, and that the bodies of the Christian dead would be given funerals according to Christian custom. The court decision also ruled that Constantine's human rights were not violated by the Greek state's decision not to grant him Greek citizenship and passport unless he adopts a surname. Trouble appeared to have brewed only once: in early 1439, Constantine wrote to his brother in Italy to remind the Pope that the Byzantines had been promised two warships by the end of spring. Over the next year the junta sent intermediaries to the king to negotiate the terms on which he might return to Greece. In 1994, the second government of Andreas Papandreou passed new legislation reversing the 1992 agreement and stripping Constantine of his property in Greece and his Greek citizenship. About fifty Ottoman soldiers made it through one of the gates, the Kerkoporta, and were the first of the enemy to enter Constantinople; it had been left unlocked and ajar by a Venetian party the night before. Constantine refused to accept the self-appointment, and a new political issue resulted. If you want to proclaim Orhan as Sultan in Thrace, go ahead. [32], With Theodore and Demetrios gone, Constantine and Thomas hoped to strengthen the Morea. Both Thomas, who appeared to have had no intention of claiming the throne, and Demetrios, who most certainly did, hurried to Constantinople and reached the capital before Constantine left the Morea. Although Sphrantzes was successful in removing the threat of Turkish reprisal, the threat from the west was realized as the dispossessed Archbishop arrived at the head of a mercenary army of Catalans. But know this: you will make no headway in any of these things. By this time, the Morea was the cultural center of the Byzantine world and provided a more hopeful atmosphere than Constantinople. [4] He was also a strong swimmer and had a black belt in karate, with interests in squash, track events and riding. The papacy did not view the situation of the Christians in the East as something positive, but it would not call for any aid to the disintegrating empire if it did not acknowledge obedience to the Catholic Church and renounce what Catholics perceived as errors. [50], On 23 March 1450, Helena Dragaš passed away. Instead of the former imperial palace, the Palaiologoi emperors used the Palace of Blachernae, located considerably closer to the city's walls, as their main residence. After World War II, Greece was in turmoil. [7], Little is known of Constantine's early life. The International Olympic Committee continues to refer to Constantine as His Majesty King Constantine. Constantine was granted a strip of land to the north of Constantinople that extended from the town of Mesembria in the north to Derkos in the south. The procession was abandoned when the icon slipped from its frame and the weather turned to rain and hail. Due to mounting tensions with the Ottomans, Sphrantzes ultimately did not return to Georgia. Pletho praised Helena's fortitude and intellect, and compared her to legendary Greek heroine Penelope on account of her prudence. The chain was only lifted temporarily a few days after the siege began to allow the passage of three Genoese ships sent by the papacy and a large ship with food sent by Alfonso V of Aragon and Naples. Although the emperor had visions for his reign, Philippides deems him as diplomatically ineffective and unable to inspire the support of his people to achieve his goals. Constantine I (Κωνσταντίνος Αʹ, Konstantínos I; 2 August 1868 – 11 January 1923) was King of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922.wikipedia [36], Tiring of Constantine's successes, Murad II, accompanied by Duke Nerio II of Athens, marched on the Morea in 1446, with an army possibly numbering as many as 60,000 men. [53] Andronikos Palaiologos Kantakouzenos, the megas domestikos (or commander-in-chief), disagreed with the emperor on a number of matters, including the decision to marry a Georgian princess instead of an imperial princess from Trebizond. He acceded as king following the death of his father King Paul in March 1964. Giustiniani accused Notaras of treachery and they almost fought each other before Constantine intervened. The sultan informed them that he would let them live as they were, in exchange for an annual tribute, or allow them to leave the city unharmed with their belongings. Constantine grew more and more anxious. Constantine was not a fanatical unionist and merely viewed the Union of the Churches as necessary for the empire's survival. The Ottomans had sent some animals to graze on Byzantine farmland on the shores of the Sea of Marmara, which also angered the locals. Ships were sent to the islands still under Byzantine rule to gather further supplies and provisions. "[20][page needed], Constantine freely travels in and out of Greece on a Danish passport, as Constantino de Grecia (Spanish for 'Constantine of Greece'),[21] because Denmark (upon request) issues diplomatic passports to any descendants of King Christian IX and Queen Louise, and Constantine is a Prince of Denmark in his own right. King Constantine I was the king of Greece during the First World War. Although Turahan failed to take Mystras, this was of little consequence as Murad only wanted to instill terror and did not wish to conquer the Morea at the time. [40], Theodore, once Despot of the Morea, died in June 1448 and on 31 October that same year, John VIII Palaiologos died in Constantinople. Cardinal Isidore disguised himself as a slave and escaped across the Golden Horn to Galata. [citation needed]. Constantine was well received in Kavala which, militarily, was under the command of a general loyal to him. There are three main works that deal with Constantine and his life: the earliest is Čedomilj Mijatović's Constantine Palaeologus (1448–1453) or The Conquest of Constantinople by the Turks (1892), written at a time when tensions were rising between the relatively new Kingdom of Greece and the Ottoman Empire. In August 1451, Constantine's ambassador Andronikos Bryennios Leontaris arrived in Rome to deliver a letter to Pope Nicholas V, which contained a statement from the anti-unionist synaxis at Constantinople. The earliest documented evidence of this idea can be found in a letter by Aeneas Silvius (the future Pope Pius II) to Pope Nicholas V, dated July 1453. The Morea was also constantly threatened by Carlo I Tocco, the Italian ruler of Epirus, who campaigned against Theodore shortly before the Ottoman invasion and again in 1426, occupying territory in the northwestern parts of the Morea. To prevent Glarentza from being seized by pirates, Constantine eventually ordered it to be destroyed. Constantine resolved to commit himself and the city to the mercy of Christ;[93] if the city fell, it would be God's will. Constantine prayed and asked for forgiveness and remission of his sins from all the bishops there before he received communion at the church's altar. Many nobles were convinced that a spiritual price could be paid for material rewards and that if they were rescued from the immediate danger, there would be time later to think more clearly in a calmer atmosphere. [108], Constantine's death marked the end of the Byzantine Empire, an institution tracing its origin to Constantine the Great's foundation of Constantinople as the Roman Empire's new capital in 330. [27] Many feared the union would arouse suspicion among the Ottomans. Constantine II (Greek: Κωνσταντῖνος Βʹ, Konstantínos II; born 2 June 1940) is the King of Greece.He is also by birth a Prince of Denmark.. Constantine has stated: "I don't have a name—my family doesn't have a name. It is unclear whether Constantine Laskaris ruled as emperor or not and he is sometimes counted as Constantine XI,[131] which would make Constantine Palaiologos Constantine XII. Constantine was not left without supporting courtiers in Constantinople: Constantine's and John's cousin Demetrios Palaiologos Kantakouzenos and the experienced statesman Loukas Notaras were left in the city. Notaras believed that Constantinople's massive defenses would stall any attack on the city and allow western Christians to aid them in time. Constantine did not reach Constantinople until November and by then, the Ottoman attack had already been repelled. Nicholas V merely wrote that Constantine had to try harder to convince his people and clergy and that the price of further military aid from the west was full acceptance of the union achieved at Florence; the name of the Pope had to be commemorated in the churches in Greece and Gregory III had to be reinstated as patriarch. Kensington. [71] Manuel Palaiologos Iagros, one of the envoys who had invested Constantine as emperor in 1449, was put in charge of the restoration of the formidable walls, a project which was completed late in 1452. With them, they brought a small force of 200 Neapolitan archers. Isidore also added that he had heard that the Ottomans had found his body, cut off his head and presented it to Mehmed as a gift, who was delighted and showered the head with insults before taking it with him to Adrianople as a trophy. Jacopo Tedaldi, a merchant from Florence who participated in the final fight, wrote that "some say that his head was cut off; others that he perished in the crush at the gate. [126], In 1625, Thomas Roe, an English diplomat, sought permission from the Ottoman government to remove some of the stones from the walled-up Golden Gate to send them to his friend, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, who was collecting antiquities. King Constantine I. of Greece (02.08.1868 - 11.01.1923) place of birth: Athens, Greece Greece: His Majesty the King, hon.Generalfeldmarschall Constantine I King of the Hellenes was ruler of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and again fro 1920 to 1922. [87] Even then, Constantinople's fall was not inevitable; the strength of the walls made the Ottoman numerical advantage irrelevant at first and under other circumstances, the Byzantines and their allies could have survived until help arrived. [citation needed]. He was not given a crown; instead, Constantine put on a smaller form of imperial headgear, a pilon, on his head with his own hands. From the outset, the relationship between Constantine and the regime of the colonels was an uneasy one. He’s additionally by arrival a Prince of Denmark. [65] After the capture of several Italian ships and the execution of their crews during Mehmed's eventual siege of Constantinople, Constantine reluctantly ordered the execution of all Turks within the city walls. The coup leaders met Constantine at his residence in Tatoi, which was surrounded by tanks to prevent resistance. Glücksburg, he said, was not a family name but the name of a town. [21], In March 1432, Constantine, possibly desiring to be closer to Mystras, made a new territorial agreement (presumably approved by Theodore and John VIII) with Thomas. Realising that the countercoup had failed, Constantine fled Greece on board the royal plane, taking his family and hapless premier with him. The siege developed into a long and drawn-out engagement, with occasional skirmishes. [57], Most of the kingdoms in Western Europe were occupied with their own wars at the time and the crushing defeat at the Battle of Varna had quelled most of the crusading spirit. Most of the Venetians voted to stay in Constantinople and aid the Byzantines in their defense of the city, agreeing that no Venetian ships were to leave Constantinople's harbor. As Manuel II had once hoped years ago, John hoped to rally support from Western Europe, and he left Constantinople in November 1423 to travel to Venice and Hungary. Sultan Murad II felt uneasy about the recent string of Byzantine successes in the Morea. Immediately, George Papandreou assigned the defence portfolio to himself; this caused alarm in the palace and the conservative security circles, which interpreted this move as an attempt by Papandreou to control the army. If you will admit defeat and withdraw in peace, I shall give you the Peloponnese and other provinces for your brothers and we shall be friends. Initially, relations between the king and Papandreou seemed good, but by 1965, they had deteriorated. [26] Constantine's agreed with his brother's views on the union: if a sacrifice of the independence of their church resulted in the Westerners organizing a crusade and saving Constantinople, it would not have been in vain. John brought a large delegation to Italy, including Joseph II, the Patriarch of Constantinople; representatives of the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Jerusalem; large numbers of bishops, monks, and priests; and his younger brother Demetrios. King Constantine of Greece with his wife, Queen Anne-Marie at their former home in north London in 2000. George Papadopoulos retaliated by declaring Greece a republic (1 June), a decision which was confirmed by a plebiscite on 29 July. Although Sphrantzes also approved of appealing to the west for aid, he believed that any appeals had to be highly discreet in order to avoid Ottoman attention. If Constantine eludes his bold and impetuous grasp, it will only be because God continues to overlook your cunning and wicked schemes. [14], In 1427, John VIII personally set out to deal with Tocco, bringing Constantine and Sphrantzes with him. Constantine I (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Αʹ, Konstantínos I; 2 August [O.S. It was replaced on 3 April 1967 by another caretaker government under the leader of the ERE, Panagiotis Kanellopoulos. He also attended the NATO Air Force Special Weapons School in Germany, as well as the University of Athens, where he took courses in the school of law. King Paul I of Greece and Princess Irene travel in - Vintage photograph 1281277. [74], Constantine and John VIII before him had badly misjudged the level of opposition against the church union. He won a much smaller amount, receiving a monetary compensation of €12 million for the lost property, with a far smaller sum awarded to his unmarried younger sister, Princess Irene, and his aunt Princess Katherine. Manuel believed that an eventual church union, which would become John's goal, would only antagonize the Turks and the empire's populace, which could have started a civil war. Perhaps knowing that they would support a final assault, Mehmed ordered Zagan to tour the camp and gather the opinions of the soldiers. [7][better source needed], A traditionalist, right-wing nationalist group of middle-ranking army officers led by Colonel George Papadopoulos took action first and staged a coup d'état on 21 April. [3] In 1963 Constantine became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Klontzas' miniatures show the emperor sleeping beneath Constantinople and guarded by angels, being crowned once more in the Hagia Sophia, entering the imperial palace and then fighting a string of battles against the Turks. On the way, Constantine met his wife at Lesbos and together they sailed to Lemnos, where they were stopped by an Ottoman blockade and were trapped for months. 21 July] 1868 – 11 January 1923) was King of Greece from 18 March 1913 to 11 June 1917 and from 19 December 1920 to 27 September 1922. There were no known surviving eyewitnesses to the death of the emperor and none of his entourage survived to offer any credible account of his death. His teenage bride was Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark. The ships, carrying soldiers, weapons and supplies, had passed by Mehmed's scouts alongside the Bosphorus unnoticed. [78] Emperor Frederick III's only response to the crisis was a letter sent to Mehmed II in which he threatened the sultan with an attack from all of western Christendom unless the sultan demolished the Rumelihisarı castle and abandoned his plans to Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire, once extending throughout the eastern Mediterranean, was reduced to the imperial capital of Constantinople, the Peloponnese, and a handful of islands in the Aegean Sea, and was also forced to pay tribute to the Ottomans. Nicol's work places considerably less emphasis on the importance of individuals than the preceding works do, though Constantine is again portrayed as a mostly tragic figure. [95] On the evening of 26 May, the dome of the Hagia Sophia was lit up by a strange and mysterious light phenomenon, also spotted by the Ottomans from their camp outside the city. Malatesta journeyed to Italy in an attempt to recruit reinforcements and the defenders agreed that if he did not return to them by the end of the month, Patras would surrender. Later Greek historians accepted Critobulus's account, never doubting that Constantine died as a hero and martyr, an idea never seriously questioned in the Greek-speaking world. Even then, Constantine was not to blame for Constantinople's fall: he had done what he could and ultimately relied on help from Western Europe that never came. Once upon a time, in a kingdom by the sea, a handsome 24-year-old king married a beautiful 18-year-old princess, and the people of the kingdom rejoiced, and the king and queen lived in a golden palace in the capital, surrounded by royal gardens. Sphrantzes was sent to Lesbos in December 1440 to propose and arrange the marriage. As Constantine's campaign progressed, one of his governors, Constantine Kantakouzenos, also made his way north, attacked Thessaly, and seized the town of Lidoriki from the Ottomans. [48], Another pressing concern was the continuation of the imperial family as neither Constantine nor his brothers had male children at the time. [97] The service in the Hagia Sophia was interrupted, with fighting-age men rushing to the walls to defend the city and the other men and women helping the parts of the army stationed within the city. [77], In February 1453, Doge Foscari ordered the preparation of warships and army recruitment, both of which were to head for Constantinople in April. Loukas Notaras was given command of the walls along the sea walls of the Golden Horn and various sons of the Palaiologos and Kantakouzenos families were appointed to man other positions. Demetrios showed opposition against a church union, but John decided not to leave him in the East since Demetrios had shown rebellious tendencies and was thought to try to take the throne with Ottoman support. [26], Despite having been relieved of his duties as regent upon John's return, Constantine stayed in the capital for the rest of 1440. Constantine was just one year old when Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany invaded Greece, and he spent the next four years in exile in Egypt and Cape Town, South Africa, (where his sister Irene was born) with his family. In 2004, Constantine returned to Greece temporarily during the Athens Olympic Games as a member of the International Olympic Committee. Constantine was born at Psychiko, a suburb in northern Athens, the nephew of King George II and the second child and only son of the king's brother and heir-presumptive, Crown Prince Paul. Outraged, Constantine formally declared war on Mehmed II, closing the gates of Constantinople and arresting all Turks within the city walls. [102], Constantine's two marriages were brief and though he had attempted to find a third wife before the Fall of Constantinople, he died unmarried and without children. Theodore did not share control over Mystras with Constantine or Thomas; instead, Theodore granted Constantine lands throughout the Morea, including the northern harbor town of Aigio, fortresses and towns in Laconia (in the south), and Kalamata and Messenia in the west. [9] By Constantine's time, Constantinople was a shadow of its former glory; the city never truly recovered from the 1204 sack by the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade. In the Battle of the Echinades, a naval skirmish off the coast of Glarentza, Tocco was defeated and he agreed to relinquish his conquests in the Morea. All that you will achieve is to lose what little you still have. At first things seemed to be going according to plan. [34] Constantine attempted to attract the loyalty of the Moreot landowners by granting them both further lands and various privileges. According to a nationwide 2007 survey of 2,040 households conducted on behalf of the newspaper To Vima, only 11.6% supported a constitutional monarchy. King George died in 1947, and Constantine's father became the new king, making Constantine the crown prince. Constantine arrived at Constantinople on 12 March 1449, having been provided means of travel by a Catalan ship. He said to the Toronto Star: I consider myself King of the Hellenes and sole expression of legality in my country until the Greek people freely decide otherwise. [22] Relationships between the three despots eventually soured. [19], By the early 1430s, the efforts of Constantine and his younger brother Thomas had ensured that nearly all of the Peloponnese was under Byzantine rule again since the Fourth Crusade. Even though the city's defenders may have numbered less than a tenth of the sultan's army, Constantine considered the idea of abandoning Constantinople unthinkable. On 24 December 2004, Constantine and Anne-Marie and members of the former royal family visited the Presidential Mansion (the former Royal Palace) in Athens where Constantine met President Costis Stephanopoulos, who gave them a tour. Although the crusading army was destroyed by the Ottoman army led by Murad II at the Battle of Varna on 10 November 1444, Constantine was not deterred. [112], The second major work on Constantine, Steven Runciman's The Fall of Constantinople 1453 (1965), also characterizes Constantine through Constantinople's fall, portraying Constantine as tragic figure who did everything to save his empire from the Ottomans. A later account by Ottoman historian Ibn Kemal is similar to Tursun's account, but states that the emperor's head was cut off not just by an unnamed marine, but by a giant of a man, who killed Constantine without realizing who he was. Constantino I ( grego: Κωνσταντίνος Α', Konstantínos I; 02 de agosto [ OS 21 de julho] 1868-1811 de Janeiro de 1923) foi Rei da Grécia 1913-1917 e de 1920 a 1922. Constantine II (Greek: Κωνσταντῖνος Βʹ, Konstantínos II; pronounced [ˌkonstanˈdinos]; born 2 June 1940) is the former King of Greece, reigning from 1964 until the monarchy was abolished in 1973.He is also by birth a Prince of Denmark.. It was hoped that the new young king and the new prime minister would be able to overcome past dissensions. They are frightened of the Crown because it is a unifying force among the people.[3]. Do not forsake us in your distress. Despite the relentless attack, the defense, led by Giustiniani and supported by Constantine, held firm. [4] Constantine's mother (from whom he took his second last name) was Helena Dragaš, the daughter of Serbian ruler Konstantin Dejanović.

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