📍 Sea of Marmara, just off Constantinople, January 29, 1453.
🎬 The Sea of Marmara was a metallic gray that morning as the Genoese galleys approached the walls of Constantinople. Armed figures stood out on the decks, helmets gleaming, crossbows at the ready. At their head loomed an imposing figure: Giovanni Giustiniani Longo, commander of the 700 Genoese mercenaries, sent by Genoa to defend the Christian city.
From the ramparts, the watchmen shouted: ‘Ships! Our allies are coming!
Hope rises again.
📜 Was the Christian support sufficient?
At the beginning of 1453, the Byzantine Empire stood alone against the vast and determined Ottoman Empire. Constantine XI multiplied his pleas for help to the Christian powers of the West. Promises abounded, prayers rose, but no army came.
A messenger of the Byzantine emperor on his way to Rome and the palace of Pope Nicholas V to plead for aid.
Only one hope took shape in January 1453: Giovanni Giustiniani Longo, a Genoese nobleman seasoned in the art of fortress defense, arrived in Constantinople. He was accompanied by 700 hardened Genoese soldiers, armed with crossbows and protected by sturdy leather cloaks and chainmail. Their discipline, courage, and technology would transform the defense of the city.
The Genoese reinforcements departed aboard two galleys, leaving the Genoese island of Chios behind them in the Mediterranean.
On January 29, 1453, the two galleys sailed into the Golden Horn.
Giustiniani disembarks at the port of Neorion.
The detachment moved through the streets of Constantinople, watched closely by the city’s curious inhabitants.
Constantine XI entrusted Giustiniani with the defense of the City.
Giustiniani surveyed the defenses and set about reinforcing the mighty walls.
Giustiniani was appointed commander of the defense of the land walls, particularly at the St. Romanus Gate, the central point of the fortifications and the main target of Ottoman artillery. His military effectiveness revived hope among the defenders. His prestige commanded respect, even from the Byzantine officers.
Meanwhile, a handful of other contingents made their way to the city:
A handful of Cretans, Venetians, and Catalans joined the defenders.
Monks, priests, merchants, and European sailors still in the city seized weapons and stood alongside the defenders.
In early 1453, a Venetian fleet returning from a mission in the Black Sea put into Constantinople. Its commander, Admiral Alviso Diedo, pledged his support to Emperor Constantine XI. With him came five galleys, strengthening the Byzantine and Genoese squadrons in their watch over the harbor’s entrance.
Venetian admiral Alviso Diedo came to Constantinople’s aid with his ships and sailors. He was given command of the city’s maritime defenses and the mighty chain guarding the mouth of the Golden Horn.
But despite the solidarity of these men, the West turned a deaf ear. The Council of Florence, which in 1439 had proclaimed the union of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, sowed division rather than unity. Rome spoke of a crusade, yet no army ever marched. Venice wavered. The king of Hungary was consumed with his own wars. And across Europe, the crowns were entangled in struggles of their own.
In the end, the Christian response amounted to little more than a few ships and a lone band of mercenaries. And yet, for weeks, these men allowed Constantinople to stand. But without a true army at their back, their efforts could not alter the city’s fate…
🎭 Excerpt from the novel – In his palace at Blachernae, Emperor Constantine XI convened his council, summoning the Genoese and Venetian envoys to join him.
📍 Constantinople — the Golden Horn, March 30, 1453.
“Niccolò trailed Giustiniani to the Palace of Blachernae, where an exceptional imperial council was gathering.”
The Byzantines received the Venetian sailors and Genoese mercenaries as if they were saviors. With their discipline, fine equipment, and unyielding bravery, they kept the walls standing for nearly two months against the relentless Ottoman onslaughts.
Yet this aid, for all its courage, arrived too late and remained too isolated. Constantinople stood as a besieged fortress — forsaken by the West.
The battle was about to reach new heights of fury…
You’ve completed: The Christian Counterattack and the Mercenaries.
Next chapter: The Great Maneuvers and the Naval Turning Point
Will you take the role of Giustiniani and stand in defense of Constantinople?
