🇹🇷Ottoman Empire Podcast 🇹🇷
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So the FINAL Episode in the Conquest (or Fall to all you Eastern Roman fans of the show)
has finally happened. ➡️Listen to "And Europe Wept" Conquest of Constantinople Podcast Episode⬅️
It has been a long road getting to this point. HOPEFULLY the show rolls on without a hitch. Not hat note most Ottoman Empire history podcasts seem to suffer a "Constantinople Curse" (maybe some Byzantine witch spun a hex way back when), whereby they stop with the Conquest of Constantinople and get no further. This, of course, is a fate I am desperately attempting to avoid for Ottoman Empire Podcast. I don't want to pod fade away sooooo....
The Death of Grand Duke Loukas Notara
Simply put the guy was hated by everyone on May 29, 1453. The Catholic West hated him because he was a double-crosser who made the bold statement that it was better the Sultan's Turban than the Pope's Mitre (that funny hat Popes wore back then). From the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) side he was seen as, ironically, too cozy with the Latin West.
From the Ottoman camp feelings in April of 1453 were mixed against the Grand Duke. On the one hand the Old Guard phalanx surrounding Candarli Halil Pasha just LOVED THE DUDE. Notara exchanged gifts with them and sprinkled the occasional bribe here and there as simply another arm of statecraft. From the Halil camp it could be a lucrative deal when you dealt with Notara.
Plus, before and during the Siege, both Notara and the Old Guard shared the same goal... ending Sultan Mehmed's Siege of Constantinople and everyone going home and returning to the status quo. Then, after a few years both sides could decide how to deal with the upstart Sultan Mehmed be rid of him for good. As long as Constantinople stood independent it benefited Candarli Pasha and Notara.
However, times were a changin' as we say in the American South.
Sultan Mehmed proved FAR to powerful within the rivalries and centrifugal forces of chaos within the Ottoman Empire. He cemented the loyalty of the Janissaries, by purging their middle ranks and replacing them with competent leaders loyal to himself, and craftily appointed war hawks in every vacant post he came across. By the time Constantinople was in his cross hairs... it seemed Candarli, Notara, and the Queen of Cities all had their fates intertwined.
When the city was conquered on May 29, 1453, Notaras had abandoned his post and was hiding inside his palace when the Ottomans found him. He was brought before Sultan Mehmed. Sultan Mehmed wanted to know what had happened to the last Roman Emperor Constantine XI, and these rumors that Notara had hidden treasure. Notara informed the Sultan he had absolutely no idea what happened to good old Constantine and that his treasure was secured as dowries for his daughters in Venice... well out of reach of the Sultan.
The Sultan, angry, ordered Notaras executed. Before doing so Sultan Mehmed II uttered this famous line:
"Inhuman half-breed dog, skilled in flattery and deceit! You possessed all this wealth and denied it to your lord the emperor and to the City, your homeland? And now, with all your intrigues and immense treachery, which you have been weaving since youth, you are trying to deceive me and avoid that fate you deserve. Tell me, impious man, who has granted possession of this City and your treasure to me?
Since God saw it fit to enslave you and all the others to me, what are you trying to accomplish here with your chattering, criminal? Why did you not offer this treasure to me before this war started or before my victory? You could have been my ally and I would have honoured you in return. As things stand, God, not you, has granted me your treasure." Source: "The Siege and Fall of Constantinople in 1453: Historiography, Topography, and Military Studies." by Marios Philippides and Walter K Hanak.
As a fun side note, his daughters escaped to Venice. His two sons, who were slated to be the very next Byzantine Emperors, were captured by the Ottomans. They converted to Islam and entered Ottoman service. They would go on to serve distinguished careers. One as a general and governor and very talented administrator, and the other as a brilliant naval commander then Admiral.
-Frank