From its early days as a monarchy, through the Republic and the Roman Empire, Rome lasted a millennium... or two. On May 29, 1453, after an Ottoman army stormed Constantinople, Mehmed triumphantly entered the Hagia Sophia, which would soon be converted to … Mehmed II went on to conquer the Greek statelets of Mistra in 1460 and Trebizond in 1461. The fall of Constantinople brought the Byzantine empire to an end after 1,000 years, but - renamed Istanbul - the city was to continue to play a historic role. While some scholars have noted that 40 per cent of Constantinople’s population had disappeared, others believe that the plague caused the death of a quarter of the … Constantinople was transformed into the Islamic city of Istanbul. Recruited as boys, they grew up in the sultan's service. A New Rome in a New Setting The Eastern … What emperor brought the Byzantine Empire to its peak of power? From 1451 Sultan Mehmed II started closing in on Constantinople: he laid siege to the city on April 2, 1453. The end of the Byzantine Empire took place in 1453. Add in civil unrest, natural disasters and powerful enemies such as the Arabs, Seljuk Turks, Bulgars, Normans, Slavs, and Ottoman Turks, and you can see why the Byzantine Empire eventually crumbled. came in contact with Monophysite Christianity. The Byzantine Empire (or Eastern Roman Empire) ... At the end of May 1453, the Turks captured Constantinople by entering through one of the gates along the walls and the Empire came to an end. Constantine named the capital “New Rome,” but the city was renamed in his honor after his death. Bayezid had been lucky - or so it seemed. What is the Hagia Sofia? A coalition of Christian princes came together to face Murad I at the Amselfeld in Kosovo in 1389. Just as he prepared to close in on Constantinople, however, Bayezid met his own nemesis. Q: What caused the fall of Constantinople? No single issue caused the end of the Byzantine Empire. The empire struggled on into the 15th century, the emperors gradually losing their importance in favor of religious officials. Many of them, ironically, had originated from the empire's Christian territories. Over time, its economic and military might waned and along with it, the empire’s capacity to seize an opportunity. However, they were one of the several enemies the Byzantines had to cope with in the 11th century. European knights would have to fight their way through repeatedly and, exhausted, find themselves facing the enemy's elite soldiers: the janissaries. By the end of the first millennium, the empire was on the retreat; the Seljuk Turks had overrun most of its Middle Eastern territories. Eventually, along with southeastern Europe, it occupied much of the old Arab Empire. The Byzantine Empire at the end of the 6th century . Thus, the Empire of Trebizond, one of the last Greek claimants to the Roman Empire, came to an end. Heraclius and his Dynasty . Byzantine Empire, the eastern half of the Roman Empire, which survived for a thousand years after the western half had crumbled into various feudal kingdoms and which finally fell to Ottoman Turkish onslaughts in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most p… Christian Europe fought back - Hungary's Janos Hunyadi scored some spirited victories in the 1440s - but the European nations were still dogged by disunity, leaving them weak. The Ottomans were named for Osman, a 14th-century Turkic warlord whose divinely ordained imperial destiny was said to have been revealed to him in a dream. He founded the Palaiologos Dynasty, the longest and last dynasty of Byzantine rulers. The 6 th part of the greatest emperors of Byzantium however will not only focus on one emperor but his dynasty as the dynasty of Heraclius had a couple of great emperors which was not only its founder Heraclius (r. 610-641) but particularly his great-grandson Constantine IV (r. 668-685). Since then, the empire's fortunes had partially recovered. It was made great by its economy, military, unity, and ability to take advantage of the moments of weakness of rivals and neighbors.