title: Health care

text: Health information technology (HIT) is "the application of information processing involving both computer hardware and software that deals with the storage, retrieval, sharing, and use of health care information, data, and knowledge for communication and decision making."


title: Transgender flag

text: The first transgender flag is a pride flag having five horizontal stripes of three colors—light blue, pink and white. It was designed by American trans woman Monica Helms in 1999 to represent the transgender community, organizations, and individuals.


title: Transgender flag

text: Similar to the worldwide adoption of a number of identity-specific flags by the LGBT community around the world, including the Rainbow flag, the transgender pride flag is used throughout the world to represent the transgender community, though there are several other flags used and endorsed by varying transgender individuals, organizations and communities. There have been, and continue to be, alternatives suggested to these flags, and the varying flags have been and continue to be used to represent transgender pride, diversity, rights and/or remembrance by transgender individuals, their organizations, their communities and their allies.


title: Transgender flag

text: The most prominent transgender flag design is the "Transgender Pride Flag", used as a symbol of transgender pride and diversity, and transgender rights. The flag was created by American trans woman Monica Helms in 1999, and was first shown at a pride parade in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2000.


title: Transgender flag

text: The flag's design represents the transgender community, and consists of five horizontal stripes: two light blue, two pink, and one white in the center.


title: Transgender flag

text: In the United Kingdom, Brighton and Hove council flies this flag on the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Transport for London also flew the flag from London Underground's 55 Broadway Headquarters for the 2016 Transgender Awareness Week.


title: Transgender flag

text: The flag was flown from the large public flagpole in San Francisco's Castro District (where the rainbow flag usually flies) for the first time on 19 and 20 November 2012 in commemoration of the Transgender Day of Remembrance. The flag-raising ceremony was presided over by local drag queen La Monistat.


title: Transgender flag

text: On 19 August 2014, Monica Helms donated the original transgender pride flag to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.


title: Transgender flag

text: Philadelphia became the first county government in the US to officially raise the transgender pride flag in 2015. It was raised at City Hall in honor of Philadelphia's 14th Annual Trans Health Conference, and remained next to the US and City of Philadelphia flags for the entirety of the conference. Then-Mayor Michael Nutter gave a speech in honor of the trans community's acceptance in Philadelphia.


title: Transgender flag

text: In January 2019, Virginia Representative Jennifer Wexton hung the transgender pride flag outside her office in Washington, D.C., in a move to show support for the transgender community. In March 2019, dozens of Democratic and independent members of Congress flew this flag outside their offices for Trans Visibility Week leading up to the International Transgender Day of Visibility.


title: Transgender flag

text: The flag flew above US state capitol buildings for the first time on Transgender Day of Remembrance 2019. The Iowa State Capitol and California State Capitol displayed the flag.


title: Transgender flag

text: An emoji version of the flag was added to the standard Emoji listing in 2020. The transgender flag emoji (🏳⚧) consists of a sequence of five Unicode code points: , , , , .


title: Transgender flag

text: In addition to Helms' original transgender pride flag design, a number of communities have created their variation on the flag, adding symbols or elements to reflect aspects of transgender identity, such as the canton of the Flag of the United States being added to create a flag representing transgender American identity.


title: Transgender flag

text: Over the years, several transgender flags have been adopted by various transgender individuals, organizations and communities.


title: Transgender flag

text: "I came up with the idea for the transgender flag a few years ago. At the time I did not know of any other flag designs. The design was created for TG pride. Another reason I made the flag is that most cross dressers are not gay. If they use the rainbow flag people will think they are gay. The colors on the flag are from top to bottom. Pink, light purple, medium purple, dark purple, and blue. The pink and the blue represent male and female. The 3 purple stripes represent the diversity of the TG community as well as genders other than male and female."


title: Transgender flag

text: A unique design is used in Israel by the transgender and genderqueer community. This flag has a neon green background (to stand out in public places) and a centred Venus, Mars, and Mars with stroke symbol in black to represent transgender people.


title: Transgender flag

text: In Ontario a flag known as the "Trans Flag", created by Ottawa graphic designer Michelle Lindsay, is used. It consists of two stripes, the top in Sunset Magenta representing female, and the bottom in Ocean Blue representing male, with a tripled Venus, Mars, and Mars with stroke symbol representing transgender people, overlaying them.


title: Transgender flag

text: The Trans Flag was first used by the Ottawa-area trans community for Ottawa's 2010 edition of the Trans Day of Remembrance. This event included a ceremony in which the Ottawa Police unveiled and raised this flag. The ceremony was repeated during the 2011 Ottawa and Gatineau editions of the Trans Day of Remembrance, this time joined by the Ottawa Paramedics, Ottawa City Hall and Gatineau City Hall also raising the Trans Flag during their own ceremonies. The list of groups doing official unfurling/raising of the Trans Flag in the Ottawa-Gatineau area as part of their Trans Day of Remembrance has grown each year. The Trans Flag has also been used as part of the Peterborough Pride Parade.


title: Transgender flag

text: In 1999, San Francisco trans man Johnathan Andrew, under the moniker of "Captain John" on his female-to-male trans website "Adventures in Boyland", designed and published a flag for those within the transgender community. This trans pride flag consists of seven stripes alternating in light pink and light blue separated by thin white stripes and featuring, in the upper left hoist, a twinned Venus and Mars symbol in lavender. The repeated explanation of the color symbolism for Monica Helms' more well-known flag design is remarkably similar/almost identical to that of the description of Andrew's design on other pages. The original description for Andrew's trans pride flag read:


title: Transgender flag

text: In 2014, a new transgender flag known as the "Trans Kaleidoscope" was created by members of the Toronto Trans Alliance (TTA). It was raised at the first Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremony at Toronto City Hall on 20 November 2014. It was selected by TTA members for this occasion, via a vote, over Monica Helms' Transgender Pride flag and Michelle Lindsay's Trans Flag. This vote caused debate, which is the primary source of this flag's notability, as some scorned the choice for a relatively unknown flag. The flag has not received significant usage since the event.


title: Transgender flag

text: The Trans Kaleidoscope is described on the TTA web site as representing "the range of gender identities across the spectrum", with the individual colours representing:


title: Transgender flag

text: "The new white symbol with a black border is an extension of the Trans symbol with the male and female symbols, a combined symbol representing those with a gender identity combining male and female and a plain pole (with neither arrow nor bar) representing those with a gender identity that is neither male nor female, embodying awareness and inclusion of all."


title: Communist Party of India

text: The Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925.


title: Communist Party of India

text: The Communist Party of India was formed on 26 December 1925 at the first Party Conference in Kanpur, which was then known as "Cawnpore". Its founders included M. N. Roy, his wife Evelyn Trent, Abani Mukherji, and M. P. T. Acharya. S.V. Ghate was the first General Secretary of CPI. There were many communist groups formed by Indians with the help of foreigners in different parts of the world, Tashkent group of Contacts were made with Anushilan and Jugantar the groups in Bengal, and small communist groups were formed in Bombay (led by S.A. Dange), Madras (led by Singaravelu Chettiar), United Provinces (led by Shaukat Usmani), Punjab, Sindh (led by Ghulam Hussain) and Bengal (led by Muzaffar Ahmed).


title: Communist Party of India

text: During the 1920s and the early 1930s the party was badly organised, and in practice there were several communist groups working with limited national co-ordination. The government had banned all communist activity, which made the task of building a united party very difficult. Between 1921 and 1924 there were three conspiracy trials against the communist movement; First Peshawar Conspiracy Case, Meerut Conspiracy Case and the Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case. In the first three cases, Russian-trained muhajir communists were put on trial. However, the Cawnpore trial had more political impact. On 17 March 1924, Shripad Amrit Dange, M.N. Roy, Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani, Singaravelu Chettiar, Ghulam Hussain and R.C. Sharma were charged, in Cawnpore (now spelt Kanpur) Bolshevik Conspiracy case. The specific pip charge was that they as communists were seeking "to deprive the King Emperor of his sovereignty of British India, by complete separation of India from Britain by a violent revolution." Pages of newspapers daily splashed sensational communist plans and people for the first time learned, on such a large scale, about communism and its doctrines and the aims of the Communist International in India.


title: Communist Party of India

text: Singaravelu Chettiar was released on account of illness. M.N. Roy was in Germany and R.C. Sharma in French Pondichéry, and therefore could not be arrested. Ghulam Hussain confessed that he had received money from the Russians in Kabul and was pardoned. Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani and Dange were sentenced for various terms of imprisonment. This case was responsible for actively introducing communism to a larger Indian audience. Dange was released from prison in 1927. Rahul Dev Pal was a prominent communist leader


title: Communist Party of India

text: On 26 December 1925 a communist conference was organised in Kanpur. Government authorities estimated that 500 persons took part in the conference. The conference was convened by a man called Satya Bhakta. At the conference Satyabhakta argued for a 'National communism' and against subordination under Comintern. Being outvoted by the other delegates, Satyabhakta left the conference venue in protest. The conference adopted the name 'Communist Party of India'. Groups such as Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan (LKPH) dissolved into the CPI. The émigré CPI, which probably had little organic character anyway, was effectively substituted by the organisation now operating inside India.


title: Communist Party of India

text: Soon after the 1926 conference of the Workers and Peasants Party of Bengal, the underground CPI directed its members to join the provincial Workers and Peasants Parties. All open communist activities were carried out through Workers and Peasants Parties.


title: Communist Party of India

text: The sixth congress of the Communist International met in 1928. In 1927 the Kuomintang had turned on the Chinese communists, which led to a review of the policy on forming alliances with the national bourgeoisie in the colonial countries. The Colonial theses of the 6th Comintern congress called upon the Indian communists to combat the 'national-reformist leaders' and to 'unmask the national reformism of the Indian National Congress and oppose all phrases of the Swarajists, Gandhists, etc. about passive resistance'. The congress did however differentiate between the character of the Chinese Kuomintang and the Indian Swarajist Party, considering the latter as neither a reliable ally nor a direct enemy. The congress called on the Indian communists to utilise the contradictions between the national bourgeoisie and the British imperialists. The congress also denounced the WPP. The Tenth Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, 3 July 192919 July 1929, directed the Indian communists to break with WPP. When the communists deserted it, the WPP fell apart.


title: Communist Party of India

text: On 20 March 1929, arrests against WPP, CPI and other labour leaders were made in several parts of India, in what became known as the Meerut Conspiracy Case. The communist leadership was now put behind bars. The trial proceedings were to last for four years.


title: Communist Party of India

text: As of 1934, the main centres of activity of CPI were Bombay, Calcutta and Punjab. The party had also begun extending its activities to Madras. A group of Andhra and Tamil students, amongst them P. Sundarayya, were recruited to the CPI by Amir Hyder Khan.


title: Communist Party of India

text: The party was reorganised in 1933, after the communist leaders from the Meerut trials were released. A central committee of the party was set up. In 1934 the party was accepted as the Indian section of the Communist International.


title: Communist Party of India

text: When Indian left-wing elements formed the Congress Socialist Party in 1934, the CPI branded it as Social Fascist.


title: Communist Party of India

text: The League Against Gandhism, initially known as the Gandhi Boycott Committee, was a political organisation in Calcutta, founded by the underground Communist Party of India and others to launch militant anti-Imperialist activities. The group took the name ‘League Against Gandhism’ in 1934.


title: Communist Party of India

text: In connection with the change of policy of the Comintern toward Popular Front politics, the Indian communists changed their relation to the Indian National Congress. The communists joined the Congress Socialist Party, which worked as the left-wing of Congress. Through joining CSP, the CPI accepted the CSP demand for a Constituent Assembly, which it had denounced two years before. The CPI however analysed that the demand for a Constituent Assembly would not be a substitute for soviets.


title: Communist Party of India

text: In July 1937, clandestine meeting held at Calicut. Five persons were present at the meeting, P. Krishna Pillai, K. Damodaran, E.M.S. Namboodiripad, N. C. Sekhar and S.V. Ghate.


title: Communist Party of India

text: The first four were members of the CSP in Kerala. The CPI in Kerala was formed on 31 December 1939 with the Pinarayi Conference.


title: Communist Party of India

text: The latter, Ghate, was a CPI Central Committee member, who had arrived from Madras. Contacts between the CSP in Kerala and the CPI had begun in 1935, when P. Sundarayya (CC member of CPI, based in Madras at the time) met with EMS and Krishna Pillai. Sundarayya and Ghate visited Kerala at several times and met with the CSP leaders there. The contacts were facilitated through the national meetings of the Congress, CSP and All India Kisan Sabha.


title: Communist Party of India

text: In 1936–1937, the co-operation between socialists and communists reached its peak. At the 2nd congress of the CSP, held in Meerut in January 1936, a thesis was adopted which declared that there was a need to build 'a united Indian Socialist Party based on Marxism-Leninism'. At the 3rd CSP congress, held in Faizpur, several communists were included into the CSP National Executive Committee.


title: Communist Party of India

text: Two communists, E.M.S. Namboodiripad and Z.A. Ahmed, became All India joint secretaries of CSP. The CPI also had two other members inside the CSP executive.


title: Communist Party of India

text: On the occasion of the 1940 Ramgarh Congress Conference CPI released a declaration called "Proletarian Path", which sought to utilise the weakened state of the British Empire in the time of war and gave a call for general strike, no-tax, no-rent policies and mobilising for an armed revolutionary uprising. The National Executive of the CSP assembled at Ramgarh took a decision that all communists were expelled from CSP.


title: Communist Party of India

text: In July 1942, the CPI was legalised, as a result of Britain and the Soviet Union becoming allies against Nazi Germany. Communists strengthened their control over the All India Trade Union Congress. At the same time, communists were politically cornered for their opposition to the Quit India Movement.


title: Communist Party of India

text: CPI contested the Provincial Legislative Assembly elections of 1946 of its own. It had candidates in 108 out of 1585 seats, winning in eight seats. In total the CPI vote counted 666 723, which should be seen with the backdrop that 86% of the adult population of India lacked voting rights. The party had contested three seats in Bengal, and won all of them. One CPI candidate, Somnath Lahiri, was elected to the Constituent Assembly.


title: Communist Party of India

text: The Communist Party of India opposed the partition of India and did not participate in the Independence Day celebrations of 15 August 1947 in protest of the division of the country.


title: Communist Party of India

text: During the period around and directly following Independence in 1947, the internal situation in the party was chaotic. The party shifted rapidly between left-wing and right-wing positions. In February 1948, at the 2nd Party Congress in Calcutta, B. T. Ranadive (BTR) was elected General Secretary of the party. The conference adopted the 'Programme of Democratic Revolution'. This programme included the first mention of struggle against caste injustice in a CPI document.


title: Communist Party of India

text: In several areas the party led armed struggles against a series of local monarchs that were reluctant to give up their power. Such insurgencies took place in Tripura, Telangana and Kerala. The most important rebellion took place in Telangana, against the Nizam of Hyderabad. The Communists built up a people's army and militia and controlled an area with a population of three million. The rebellion was brutally crushed and the party abandoned the policy of armed struggle. BTR was deposed and denounced as a 'left adventurist'.


title: Communist Party of India

text: In Manipur, the party became a force to reckon with through the agrarian struggles led by Jananeta Irawat Singh. Singh had joined CPI in 1946. At the 1951 congress of the party, 'People's Democracy' was substituted by 'National Democracy' as the main slogan of the party.


title: Communist Party of India

text: Communist Party was founded in Bihar in 1939. Post independence, communist party achieved success in Bihar (Bihar and Jharkhand). Communist party conducted movements for land reform, trade union movement was at its peak in Bihar in the sixties, seventies and eighties. Achievement of communists in Bihar placed the communist party in the forefront of left movement in India. Bihar produced some of the legendary leaders like Kishan leaders Sahajanand Saraswati and Karyanand Sharma, intellectual giants like Jagannath Sarkar, Yogendra Sharma and Indradeep Sinha, mass leaders like Chandrasekhar Singh and Sunil Mukherjee, Trade Union leaders like Kedar Das and others. In the Mithila region of Bihar Bhogendra Jha led the fight against the Mahants and Zamindars. He later went on the win Parliamentary elections and was MP for seven terms.


title: Communist Party of India

text: In early 1950s young communist leadership was uniting textile workers, bank employees and unorganised sector workers to ensure mass support in north India. National leaders like S A Dange, Chandra Rajeswara Rao and P K Vasudevan Nair were encouraging them and supporting the idea despite their differences on the execution. Firebrand Communist leaders like Homi F. Daji, Guru Radha Kishan, H L Parwana, Sarjoo Pandey, Darshan Singh Canadian and Avtaar Singh Malhotra were emerging between the masses and the working class in particular. This was the first leadership of communists that was very close to the masses and people consider them champions of the cause of the workers and the poor.


title: Communist Party of India

text: In 1952, CPI became the first leading opposition party in the Lok Sabha, while the Indian National Congress was in power.


title: Communist Party of India

text: In the 1952 Travancore-Cochin Legislative Assembly election, Communist Party was banned, so it couldn't take part in the election process. In the general elections in 1957, the CPI emerged as the largest opposition party. In 1957, the CPI won the state elections in Kerala. This was the first time that an opposition party won control over an Indian state. E. M. S. Namboodiripad became Chief Minister. At the 1957 international meeting of Communist parties in Moscow, the Chinese Communist Party directed criticism at the CPI for having formed a ministry in Kerala.


title: Communist Party of India

text: The Communist Party of India, along with its units in Bombay, Maharashtra and Gujarat, decided to start armed operations in the area in the July 1954. Both the areas were liberated by the beginning of August. Communist leaders like Narayan Palekar, Parulekar, Vaz, Rodriguez, Cunha and others emerged as the famous Communist leaders of this movement. Thereafter, the struggle to liberate Daman and Diu was begun by the Communist Party in Gujarat and other forces.


title: Communist Party of India

text: The countrywide Goa satyagraha of 1955-56 is among the unforgettable pages in the history of freedom struggle, in which the Communists played a major and memorable role. The CPI decided to send batches of satyahrahis since the middle of 1955 to the borders of Goa and even inside. Many were killed, many more others arrested and sent to jails inside Goa and inhumanly treated. Many others were even sent to jails in Portugal and were brutally tortured.


title: Communist Party of India

text: The satyagraha was led and conducted by a joint committee known as Goa Vimochan Sahayak Samiti. S.A. Dange, Senapati Bapat, S.G. Sardesai, Nana Patil and several others were among the prominent leaders of the Samiti. Satyagraha began on 10 May 1955, and soon became a countrywide movement.


title: Communist Party of India

text: Ideological differences led to the split in the party in 1964 when two different party conferences were held, one of CPI and one of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).


title: Communist Party of India

text: During the period 1970–77, CPI was allied with the Congress party. In Kerala, they formed a government together with Congress as part of a coalition known as the United Front, with the CPI-leader C. Achutha Menon as Chief Minister. This government continued governing throughout the emergency period and was responsible for the many acts of repression throughout the period carried out against political opponents in the guise of fighting naxals, manifesting most infamously in the Rajan Case. The United Front government also used this opportunity to pursue class struggle by punishing those from the managerial classes, money lenders, bosses with anti-labour stances, ration shopkeepers and truckers engaged in black marketing, under stringent provisions of MISA and DIR.


title: Communist Party of India

text: After the fall of the regime of Indira Gandhi, CPI reoriented itself towards co-operation with CPI(M).


title: Communist Party of India

text: In 1986, CPI's leader in Punjab and MLA in the Punjabi legislature Darshan Singh Canadian was assassinated by Sikh extremists. Altogether about 200 communist leaders out of which most were Sikhs were killed by Sikh extremists in Punjab.


title: Communist Party of India

text: CPI was recognised by the Election Commission of India as a 'National Party'. To date, CPI happens to be the only national political party from India to have contested all the general elections using the same electoral symbol. Owing to a massive defeat in 2019 Indian general election where the party saw its tally reduced to 2 MPs, the Election Commission of India has sent a letter to CPI asking for reasons why its national party status should not be revoked. If similar performance is repeated in the next election, the CPI will no longer be a national party.


title: Communist Party of India

text: On the national level they supported the Indian National Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government along with other parliamentary Left parties, but without taking part in it. Upon attaining power in May 2004, the United Progressive Alliance formulated a programme of action known as the Common Minimum Programme. The Left bases its support to the UPA on strict adherence to it. Provisions of the CMP mentioned to discontinue disinvestment, massive social sector outlays and an independent foreign policy.


title: Communist Party of India

text: On 8 July 2008, the General Secretary of CPI(M), Prakash Karat, announced that the Left was withdrawing its support over the decision by the government to go ahead with the United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act. The Left parties combination had been a staunch advocate of not proceeding with this deal citing national interests.


title: Communist Party of India

text: In West Bengal it participates in the Left Front. It also participated in the state government in Manipur. In Kerala the party is part of Left Democratic Front. In Tripura the party is a partner of the Left Front, which governed the state till 2018. In Tamil Nadu it is part of the Secular Progressive Alliance and in Bihar it is the part of Mahagathbandhan. It is involved in the Left Democratic Front in Maharashtra. In 2022 February CPI and Congress formed an alliance in Manipur named Manipur Progressive Secular Alliance. The current general secretary of CPI is D. Raja.


title: Communist Party of India

text: As of 2020, the CPI is a part of the state government in Kerala. Pinarayi Vijayan is Chief Minister of Kerala. CPI have 4 Cabinet Ministers in Kerala. In Tamil Nadu it is in power with SPA coalition led by M. K. Stalin. The Left Front governed West Bengal for 34 years (1977–2011) and Tripura for 25 years (1993–2018)


title: Communist Party of India

text: The following are the members of the Central Control Commission, National Council and Candidate Members to National Council, National Executive, National Secretariat and Party Programme Commission were elected at the 23rd Party Congress of Communist Party of India held from 25 to 29 April 2018 in Kollam, Kerala.


title: Communist Party of India

text: "The tenure of the General Secretary and Deputy General Secretary, if any, and State Secretaries is limited to two consecutive terms—a term being of not less than two years. In exceptional cases, the unit concerned may decide by three-fourth majority through secret ballot to allow two more terms. In case such a motion is adopted that comrade also can contest in the election along with other candidates. As regards the tenure of the office-bearers at district and lower levels, the state councils will frame rules where


title: Communist Party of India

text: In Tripura, the Ganamukti Parishad is a major mass organisation amongst the Tripuri peoples of the state.


title: Communist Party of India

text: Results from the Election Commission of India website. Results do not deal with partitions of states (Bihar was bifurcated after the 2000 election, creating Jharkhand), defections and by-elections during the mandate period.


title: Machine Gun Kelly

text: George Kelly Barnes (July 18, 1895 – July 18, 1954), better known by his pseudonym "Machine Gun Kelly", was an American gangster from Memphis, Tennessee, active during the Prohibition era. His nickname came from his favorite weapon, a Thompson submachine gun. He is best known for the kidnapping of oil tycoon and businessman Charles F. Urschel in July 1933, from which he and his gang collected a $200,000 ransom. Urschel had collected and left considerable evidence that assisted the subsequent FBI investigation, which eventually led to Kelly's arrest in Memphis, Tennessee, on September 26, 1933. His crimes also included bootlegging and armed robbery.


title: Machine Gun Kelly

text: Kelly's first sign of trouble came when he enrolled in Mississippi State University to study agriculture in 1917. From the beginning, Kelly was considered a poor student with his highest grade (a C plus) awarded for good physical hygiene. He was constantly in trouble with the faculty and spent much of his academic career attempting to work off the demerits he had earned. It was during this time that Kelly met a young woman by the name of Geneva Ramsey. Kelly quickly fell in love with Geneva and made an abrupt decision to quit school and marry.


title: Machine Gun Kelly

text: During the Prohibition era of the 1920s and 1930s, Kelly worked as a bootlegger for himself as well as a colleague. After a short time, and several run-ins with the local Memphis police, he decided to leave town and head west with his girlfriend. To protect his family and to escape law enforcement officers, he changed his name to George R. Kelly. He continued to commit smaller crimes and bootlegging. He was arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1928, for smuggling liquor onto a Native American Reservation, and sentenced to three years at Leavenworth Penitentiary, Kansas, beginning February 11, 1928. He was reportedly a model inmate and was released early. Shortly thereafter, Kelly married Kathryn Thorne, an experienced criminal who purchased Kelly's first machine gun and insisteddespite his lack of interest in weaponson his performing target practice in the countryside, and went to great lengths to familiarize his name within underground crime circles.


title: Machine Gun Kelly

text: Kelly's last criminal activity – the July 1933 kidnapping of wealthy Oklahoma City resident Charles F. Urschel and his friend Walter R. Jarrett – would become his undoing. The Kellys demanded a ransom of $200,000 ($ million today), and held Urschel at the farm of Kathryn's mother and step-father. Urschel, having been blindfolded, made note of evidence of his experience, including remembering background sounds, counting footsteps and leaving fingerprints on surfaces in reach. This proved invaluable for the FBI in its investigation, as agents concluded that Urschel had been held in Paradise, Texas, based on sounds that Urschel remembered hearing while he was being held hostage.


title: Machine Gun Kelly

text: An investigation conducted in Memphis disclosed that the Kellys were living at the residence of J. C. Tichenor. Special agents from Birmingham, Alabama, were immediately dispatched to Memphis, where, in the early morning hours of September 26, 1933, a raid was conducted. George and Kathryn Kelly were taken into custody by FBI agents and Memphis police. It is often reported that Kelly was caught without a weapon and allegedly shouted, "Don't shoot, G-Men! Don't shoot, G-Men!" as he surrendered to FBI agents. This version of events appears to be a media myth created months after the arrest. Another version of the raid alleged Kelly had a pistol in his hand, but with a shotgun aimed at his heart he surrendered mumbling something along the lines of "I've been expecting you." However, the FBI's earliest account of the event was written between three and five days after Kelly’s arrest and states: "Agent Rorer saw that Kelly…had proceeded into the front bedroom and was in a corner with his hands raised. He was covered by [Memphis Police] Sergeant [name withheld]." with Kelly not reported to have spoken at all.


title: Machine Gun Kelly

text: The arrest of the Kellys was overshadowed by the escape of ten inmates, including all of the members of the future Dillinger gang, from the penitentiary in Michigan City, Indiana, that same night.


title: Machine Gun Kelly

text: The trial was held at the Post Office, Courthouse, and Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City with Judge Edgar S. Vaught presiding. On October 12, 1933, George and Kathryn Kelly were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.


title: Machine Gun Kelly

text: An investigation in Coleman, Texas, disclosed that the Kellys had been housed and protected by Cassey Earl Coleman and Will Casey, and that Coleman had assisted George Kelly in storing $73,250 of the Urschel ransom money on his ranch. This money was located by Bureau agents in the early morning hours of September 27 in a cotton patch on Coleman's ranch. They were both indicted in Dallas, Texas, on October 4, 1933, charged with harboring a fugitive and conspiracy, and on October 17, 1933, Coleman, after entering a plea of guilty, was sentenced to serve one year and one day, and Casey, after trial and conviction, was sentenced to serve two years in the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas.


title: Machine Gun Kelly

text: Machine Gun Kelly spent his remaining 21 years in prison. During his time at Alcatraz, he got the nickname "Pop Gun Kelly." According to fellow inmate Dale Stamphill, the nickname originated because, "He told big fish stories. The cons called him ‘Pop Gun Kelly’ after cork guns that were popular with kids...the guys didn’t take him seriously..." This may have stemmed from the fact that, in addition to his exaggerated tall tales, Kelly was a model prisoner and did not act like the brutal gangster his wife, the media, and FBI had made him out to be. He spent 17 years on Alcatraz as inmate number 117, working in the prison industries, continuing to boast and exaggerate his past escapades to other inmates, and was quietly transferred back to Leavenworth in 1951. He died of a heart attack at Leavenworth on July 18, 1954, his 59th birthday, and was buried at Cottondale Texas Cemetery in Kathryn Kelly's stepfather's family plot with a small headstone marked "George B. Kelley 1954". Kathryn Kelly was released from prison in 1958 and lived in relative anonymity in Oklahoma under the assumed name "Lera Cleo Kelly" until her death in 1985 at the age of 81.


title: Machine Gun Kelly

text: Machine Gun Kelly and his crimes are portrayed in films such as "Machine-Gun Kelly" (1958), "The FBI Story" (1959) and "" (1974).


title: Machine Gun Kelly

text: Crime novelist Ace Atkins' 2010 book "Infamous" is based on the Urschel kidnapping and on George and Kathryn Kelly. Kelly is (along with Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson) one of the main characters of the comic book series "Pretty, Baby, Machine".


title: Machine Gun Kelly

text: George and Kathryn Kelly were the inspiration for "Machine Gun Kelly" (1970), a song written by Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar and recorded by James Taylor on his 1971 album "Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon".


title: Machine Gun Kelly

text: Kelly was an inspiration to the popular UK punk band, The Angelic Upstarts, for their track “Machine Gun Kelly” written by Thomas ‘Mensi’ Mensforth.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Constantine XI Dragases Palaiologos or Dragaš Palaeologus (, "Kōnstantînos Dragásēs Palaiológos"; 8 February 1405 – 29 May 1453) was the last Byzantine emperor, reigning from 1449 until his death in battle at the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. Constantine's death marked the definitive end of the Eastern Roman Empire, which traced its origin to Constantine the Great's foundation of Constantinople as the Roman Empire's new capital in 330. Given that the Eastern Roman Empire was the Roman Empire's medieval continuation, with its citizens continuing to refer to themselves as Romans, Constantine XI's death and Constantinople's fall also marked the definitive end of the Roman Empire, founded by Augustus almost 1,500 years earlier.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Constantine was the fourth son of Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos and Helena Dragaš, the daughter of Serbian ruler Konstantin Dejanović. Little is known of his early life, but from the 1420s onward, he is repeatedly demonstrated to have been a skilled general. Based on his career and surviving contemporary sources, Constantine appears to have been primarily a soldier. This does not mean that Constantine was not also a skilled administrator: he was trusted and favored to such an extent by his older brother, Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, that he was designated as regent twice during John VIII's journeys away from Constantinople in 1423–1424 and 1437–1440. In 1427–1428, Constantine and John fended off an attack on the Morea (the Peloponnese) by Carlo I Tocco, ruler of Epirus, and in 1428 Constantine was proclaimed Despot of the Morea and ruled the province together with his older brother Theodore and his younger brother Thomas. Together, they extended Roman rule to cover almost the entire Peloponnese for the first time since the Fourth Crusade more than two hundred years before and rebuilt the ancient Hexamilion wall, which defended the peninsula from outside attacks. Although ultimately unsuccessful, Constantine personally led a campaign into Central Greece and Thessaly in 1444–1446, attempting to extend Byzantine rule into Greece once more.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: In 1448, John VIII died without children, and as his favored successor, Constantine was proclaimed emperor on 6 January 1449. Constantine's brief reign would see the emperor grapple with three primary concerns. First, there was the issue of an heir, as Constantine was also childless. Despite attempts by Constantine's friend and confidant George Sphrantzes to find him a wife, Constantine ultimately died unmarried. The second concern was the religious disunity within what little remained of his empire. Constantine and his predecessor John VIII both believed a union between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches was needed to secure military aid from Catholic Europe, but much of the Roman populace opposed the idea. Finally, the most important concern was the growing Ottoman Empire, which by 1449 completely surrounded Constantinople. In April 1453, the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II laid siege to Constantinople with an army perhaps numbering as many as 80,000 men. 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. The emperor stayed to defend the city and on 29 May, Constantinople fell. Constantine died the same day. Although no reliable eyewitness accounts of his death survived, most historical accounts agree that the emperor led a last charge against the Ottomans and died fighting.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Constantine was the last Christian ruler of Constantinople, which alongside his bravery at the city's fall cemented him as a near-legendary figure in later histories and Greek folklore. Some saw the foundation of Constantinople (the New Rome) under Constantine the Great and its loss under another Constantine as fulfillment of the city's destiny, just as Old Rome had been founded by a Romulus and lost under another, Romulus Augustulus. He became known in later Greek folklore as the Marble Emperor (), reflecting a popular legend that Constantine had not actually died, but had been rescued by an angel and turned into marble, hidden beneath the Golden Gate of Constantinople awaiting a call from God to be restored to life and reconquer both the city and the old empire.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Constantine Dragases Palaiologos was born on 8 February 1405 as the fourth son of Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos (1391–1425), the eighth emperor of the Palaiologos dynasty. Constantine's mother (from whom he took his second last name) was Helena Dragaš, the daughter of Serbian ruler Konstantin Dejanović. Constantine is frequently described as "Porphyrogénnētos" ("born in the purple"), a distinction granted to sons born to a reigning emperor in the imperial palace.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Manuel ruled a disintegrating and dwindling Byzantine Empire. The catalyst of Byzantium's fall had been the arrival of the Seljuk Turks in Anatolia in the 11th century. Though some emperors, such as Alexios I and Manuel I, had successfully recovered portions of Anatolia through help from western crusaders, their gains were only temporary. Anatolia was the empire's most fertile, populated, and wealthy region, and after its loss, Byzantium more or less experienced constant decline. Although most of it was eventually reconquered, the Byzantine Empire was crippled by the 1204 Fourth Crusade and the loss of Constantinople to the Latin Empire, formed by the crusaders. The Byzantine Empire, under the founder of the Palaiologos dynasty, Michael VIII, retook Constantinople in 1261, though the damage to the empire was irreversible and the empire continued to decline over the course of the 14th century as the result of frequent civil wars. Over the course of the 14th century, the Ottoman Turks had conquered vast swaths of territories and by 1405, they ruled much of Anatolia, Bulgaria, central Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Thessaly. 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.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: As the empire dwindled, the emperors concluded that the only way to ensure that their remaining territory was kept intact was to grant some of their holdings to their sons, who received the title of despot, as appanages to defend and govern. Manuel's oldest son, John, was raised to co-emperor and designated to succeed his father. The second son, Theodore, was designated as the Despot of the Morea (the prosperous province constituting the Peloponnese) and the third son, Andronikos, was proclaimed as Despot of Thessaloniki in 1408. The younger sons; Constantine, Demetrios and Thomas, were kept in Constantinople as there was not sufficient land left to grant them.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Little is known of Constantine's early life. From an early age, he was admired by George Sphrantzes (later a famed Byzantine historian), who would later enter his service, and later encomiasts often wrote that Constantine had always been courageous, adventurous, and skilled in martial arts, horsemanship, and hunting. Many accounts of Constantine's life, both before and after he became emperor, are heavily skewed and eulogize his reign, as most of them lack contemporary sources and were composed after his death. Based on his actions and the surviving commentary from some of his advisors and contemporaries, Constantine appeared to have been more comfortable with military matters than with matters of state or diplomacy, though he was also a competent administrator—as illustrated by his tenures as regent—and tended to heed his councilors' advice on important matters of state. Aside from stylized and smudged depictions on seals and coins, no contemporary depictions of Constantine survive. Notable images of Constantine include a seal currently located in Vienna (of unknown provenance, probably from an imperial chrysobull), a few coins, and his portrait among the other Byzantine emperors in the Biblioteca Estense copy of the history of Zonaras. In the latter he is shown with a rounded beard, in noted contrast to his forked-bearded relatives, but it is unclear whether that reflects his actual appearance.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: After an unsuccessful Ottoman siege of Constantinople in 1422, Manuel II suffered a stroke and was left paralyzed in one side of his body. He lived for another three years, but the empire's government was effectively in the hands of Constantine's brother John. Thessaloniki was also under siege by the Ottomans; to prevent it from falling into their hands, John gave the city to the Republic of Venice. 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. By this time, Manuel had abandoned his hope of western aid and had even attempted to dissuade John from pursuing it. 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.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: John was impressed by his brother's actions during the 1422 Ottoman siege, and trusted him more than his other brothers. Constantine was given the title of despot and was left to rule Constantinople as regent. With the aid of his bedridden father Manuel, Constantine drew up a new peace treaty with the Ottoman sultan Murad II, who momentarily spared Constantinople from further Turkish attacks. John returned from his journey in November 1424 after failing to procure help. On 21 July 1425, Manuel died and John became the senior emperor, John VIII Palaiologos. 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. It also included the port of Selymbria as his appanage in 1425. Although this strip of land was small, it was close to Constantinople and strategically important, which demonstrated that Constantine was trusted by both Manuel II and John.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: After Constantine's successful tenure as regent, John deemed his brother loyal and capable. Because their brother Theodore expressed his discontent over his position as Despot of the Morea to John during the latter's visit in 1423, John soon recalled Constantine from Mesembria and designated him as Theodore's successor. Theodore eventually changed his mind, but John would eventually assign Constantine to the Morea as a despot in 1427 after a campaign there. Though Theodore was content to rule in the Morea, historian Donald Nicol believes that the support was helpful, as the peninsula was repeatedly threatened by external forces throughout the 1420s. In 1423, the Ottomans broke through the ancient Hexamilion wall—which guarded the Peloponnese—and devastated the Morea. 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.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: In 1427, John VIII personally set out to deal with Tocco, bringing Constantine and Sphrantzes with him. On 26 December 1427, the two brothers reached Mystras, the capital of the Morea, and made their way to the town of Glarentza, which was captured by the Epirotes. 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. In order to seal the peace, Tocco offered his niece, Maddalena Tocco (whose name was later changed to the Greek "Theodora"), in marriage to Constantine, her dowry being Glarentza and the other Moreot territories. Glarentza was given to the Byzantines on 1 May 1428 and on 1 July, Constantine married Theodora.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: The transfer of Tocco's conquered Moreot territories to Constantine complicated the Morea's government structure. Since his brother Theodore refused to step down as despot, the despotate became governed by two members of the imperial family for the first time since its creation in 1349. Soon thereafter, the younger Thomas (aged 19) was also appointed as a third Despot of the Morea, which meant that the nominally undivided despotate had effectively disintegrated into three smaller principalities. 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. Constantine made Glarentza, which he was entitled to by marriage, his capital. Meanwhile, Thomas was given lands in the north and based himself in the castle of Kalavryta. During his tenure as despot, Constantine was brave and energetic, but generally cautious.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Shortly after being appointed as despots, Constantine and Thomas, together with Theodore, joined forces in an attempt to seize the flourishing and strategically-important port of Patras in the northwest of the Morea, which was ruled by its Catholic Archbishop, Pandolfo Malatesta (Theodore's brother-in-law). The campaign ended in failure, possibly due to Theodore's reluctant participation and Thomas' inexperience. Constantine confided with Sphrantzes and John at a secret meeting in Mystras that he would make a second attempt to retake Patras by himself; if he failed, he would return to his old appanage by the Black Sea. Constantine and Sphrantzes, confident that the city's many Greek inhabitants would support their takeover, marched towards Patras on 1 March 1429, and they besieged the city on 20 March. The siege developed into a long and drawn-out engagement, with occasional skirmishes. At one point, Constantine's horse was shot and killed under him and the despot nearly died, being saved by Sphrantzes at the cost of Sphrantzes being captured by the defenders of Patras (though he would be released, albeit in a state of near-death, on 23 April). After almost two months, the defenders opened up to the possibility of negotiation in May. 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. Constantine agreed to this and withdrew his army. On 1 June, Constantine returned to the city and, since the Archbishop had not returned, met with the city's leaders in the city's Cathedral of St. Andrew on 4 June and they accepted him as their new lord. The Archbishop's castle, located on a nearby hill, fought against Constantine for another 12 months before surrendering.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Constantine's capture of Patras was seen as an affront by the Pope, the Venetians, and the Ottomans. In order to pacify any threats, Constantine sent ambassadors to all three, with Sphrantzes being sent to talk with Turahan, the Ottoman governor of Thessaly. 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. Unfortunately for Malatesta, the Catalans had little interest in helping him recover Patras, and they attacked and seized Glarentza instead, which Constantine had to buy back from them for 6,000 Venetian ducats, and began plundering the Moreot coastline. To prevent Glarentza from being seized by pirates, Constantine eventually ordered it to be destroyed. During this perilous time, Constantine suffered another loss: Theodora died in November 1429. The grief-stricken Constantine first had her buried at Glarentza, but then moved to Mystras. Once the Archbishop's castle surrendered to Constantine in July 1430, the city was fully restored to Byzantine rule after 225 years of foreign occupation. In November, Sphrantzes was rewarded by being proclaimed as the city's governor.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: 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. Thomas ended the Principality of Achaea by marrying Catherine Zaccaria, daughter and heir of the final prince, Centurione II Zaccaria. When Centurione died in 1432, Thomas took control of all his remaining territories by right of marriage. The only lands in the Peloponnese remaining under foreign rule were the few port towns and cities still held by the Republic of Venice. Sultan Murad II felt uneasy about the recent string of Byzantine successes in the Morea. In 1431, Turahan sent his troops south on Murad's orders to demolish the Hexamilion wall in an effort to remind the despots that they were the Sultan's vassals.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: 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. Thomas agreed to cede his fortress Kalavryta to Constantine, who made it his new capital, in exchange for Elis, which Thomas made his new capital. Relationships between the three despots eventually soured. John VIII had no sons to succeed him and it was thus assumed that his successor would be one of his four surviving brothers (Andronikos having died some time before). John VIII's preferred successor was known to be Constantine and though this choice was accepted by Thomas, who had a good relationship with his older brother, it was resented by Constantine's older brother Theodore. When Constantine was summoned to the capital in 1435, Theodore falsely believed it was to appoint Constantine as co-emperor and designated heir, and he travelled to Constantinople to raise his objections. The quarrel between Constantine and Theodore was not resolved until the end of 1436, when the future Patriarch Gregory Mammas was sent to reconcile them and prevent civil war. The brothers agreed that Constantine was to return to Constantinople, while Theodore and Thomas would remain in the Morea. John needed Constantine in Constantinople as he was departing for Italy soon. On 24 September 1437, Constantine reached Constantinople. Although he was not proclaimed as co-emperor, his appointment as regent for a second time, suggested to John by their mother Helena, indicated that he was to be regarded as John's intended heir, much to the dismay of his other brothers.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: John left for Italy in November to attend the Council of Ferrara in an effort to unite the Eastern and Western churches. Although many in the Byzantine Empire opposed a union of the Churches, as it would mean religious submission under the Papacy, John viewed a union as necessary. 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. 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. 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. 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. Helena and Sphrantzes were also there to advise Constantine. In 1438, Constantine served as the best man at Sphrantzes' wedding, and would later become the godfather to two of Sphrantzes' children.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: During John's absence from Constantinople, the Ottomans abided by the previously established peace. 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. Constantine hoped that the ships would leave Italy within fifteen days, as he believed that Murad II was planning a strong offensive against Constantinople. Although the ships were not sent, Constantinople was not in danger as Murad's campaign focused on taking Smederevo in Serbia.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: In June 1439, the council in Florence, Italy, declared that the churches had been reunited. John returned to Constantinople on 1 February 1440. Although he was received with a grand ceremony organized by Constantine and Demetrios (who had returned sometime earlier), the news of the unification stirred a wave of resentment and bitterness among the general populace, who felt that John had betrayed their faith and their world view. Many feared the union would arouse suspicion among the Ottomans. 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.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Despite having been relieved of his duties as regent upon John's return, Constantine stayed in the capital for the rest of 1440. He may have stayed in order to find a suitable wife, wishing to remarry since it had been more than ten years since Theodora's death. He decided on Caterina Gattilusio, daughter of Dorino I Gattilusio, the Genoese lord of the island Lesbos. Sphrantzes was sent to Lesbos in December 1440 to propose and arrange the marriage. In late 1441, Constantine sailed to Lesbos with Sphrantzes and Loukas Notaras, and in August he married Caterina. In September, he left Lesbos, leaving Caterina with her father on Lesbos, to travel to the Morea.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Upon his return to the Morea, Constantine observed that Theodore and Thomas had ruled well without him. He believed that he could serve the empire's needs better if he was closer to the capital. His younger brother Demetrios governed Constantine's former appanage around Mesembria in Thrace, and Constantine pondered the possibility that he and Demetrios could switch places, with Constantine regaining the Black Sea appanage and Demetrios being granted Constantine's holdings in the Morea. Constantine sent Sphrantzes to propose the idea to both Demetrios and Murad II, who by this point had to be consulted about any appointments.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: By 1442, Demetrios had no desire for new appointments and was eyeing the imperial throne. He had just made a deal with Murad himself and raised an army, portraying himself as the champion of the Turk-supported cause that opposed the union of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches and declared war on John. When Sphrantzes reached Demetrios to forward Constantine's offer, Demetrios was already preparing to march on Constantinople. The danger he posed to the city was so great that Constantine was summoned from the Morea by John to oversee the city's defenses. In April 1442, Demetrios and the Ottomans began their attack and in July, Constantine left the Morea to relieve his brother in the capital. 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. Although Venice sent ships to assist them, Caterina fell ill and died in August; she was buried at Myrina on Lemnos. Constantine did not reach Constantinople until November and by then, the Ottoman attack had already been repelled. Demetrios' punishment was a brief imprisonment. In March 1443, Sphrantzes was made governor of Selymbria in Constantine's name. From Selymbria, Sphrantzes and Constantine were able to keep a watchful eye on Demetrios' activities. In November, Constantine relinquished control of Selymbria to Theodore, who had abandoned his position as Despot of the Morea, which made Constantine and Thomas the sole Despots of the Morea and gave Constantine Mystras, the despotate's prosperous capital.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: With Theodore and Demetrios gone, Constantine and Thomas hoped to strengthen the Morea. By this time, the Morea was the cultural center of the Byzantine world and provided a more hopeful atmosphere than Constantinople. Patrons of art and science had settled there at Theodore's invitation and churches, monasteries, and mansions continued to be built. The two Palaiologos brothers hoped to make the Morea into a safe and nearly self-sufficient principality. The philosopher Gemistus Pletho, employed in Constantine's service, said that while Constantinople had once been the New Rome, Mystras and the Morea could become the "New Sparta", a centralized and strong Hellenic kingdom in its own right.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: One of the projects of the brothers' plan to strengthen the despotate was the reconstruction of the Hexamilion wall, which was destroyed by the Turks in 1431. Together, they completely restored the wall by March 1444. The project impressed many of their subjects and contemporaries, including the Venetian lords in the Peloponnese, who had politely declined to help with its funding. The restoration had cost much in both money and manpower; many of the Moreot landowners had momentarily fled to Venetian lands to avoid financing the venture while others had rebelled before being compelled through military means. Constantine attempted to attract the loyalty of the Moreot landowners by granting them both further lands and various privileges. He also staged local athletic games, where young Moreots could run races for prizes.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: In the summer of 1444, perhaps encouraged by news from the west that a crusade had set out from Hungary in 1443, Constantine invaded the Latin Duchy of Athens, his direct northern neighbor and an Ottoman vassal. Through Sphrantzes, Constantine was in contact with Cardinal Julian Cesarini, who along with Władysław III of Poland and Hungary was one of the leaders of the crusade. Cesarini was made aware of Constantine's intentions and that he was ready to aid the crusade in striking at the Ottomans from the south. Constantine swiftly captured Athens and Thebes, which forced Duke Nerio II Acciaioli to pay the tribute to him instead of the Ottomans. The recapture of Athens was seen as a particularly glorious feat. One of Constantine's counsellors compared the despot to the legendary ancient Athenian general Themistocles. 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. His initial campaign had been remarkably successful and he had also received foreign support from Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy, who had sent him 300 soldiers. With the Burgundian soldiers and his own men, Constantine raided central Greece as far north as the Pindus mountains in Thessaly, where the locals happily welcomed him as their new lord. 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. The townspeople were so excited at their liberation that they renamed the town to Kantakouzinopolis in his honor.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: 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. Despite the overwhelming number of Ottoman troops, Constantine refused to surrender his gains in Greece and instead prepared for battle. The Ottomans quickly restored control over Thessaly; Constantine and Thomas rallied at the Hexamilion wall, which the Ottomans reached on 27 November. Constantine and Thomas were determined to hold the wall and had brought all their available forces, amounting to perhaps as many as 20,000 men, to defend it. Although the wall might have held against the great Ottoman army under normal circumstances, Murad had brought cannons with him and by 10 December, the wall had been reduced to rubble and most of the defenders were either killed or captured; Constantine and Thomas barely escaped the catastrophic defeat. Turahan was sent south to take Mystras and devastate Constantine's lands while Murad II led his forces in the north of the Peloponnese. 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. The Turks left the peninsula devastated and depopulated. Constantine and Thomas were in no position to ask for a truce and were forced to accept Murad as their lord, pay him tribute, and promise to never again restore the Hexamilion wall.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Theodore, once Despot of the Morea, died in June 1448 and on 31 October that same year, John VIII Palaiologos died in Constantinople. Compared to his other living brothers, Constantine was the most popular of the Palaiologoi, both in the Morea and in the capital. It was well known that John's favored successor was Constantine and ultimately, the will of Helena Dragaš (who also preferred Constantine), prevailed in the matter. 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 many favored Demetrios for his anti-unionist sentiment, Helena reserved her right to act as regent until her eldest son, Constantine arrived, and stalled Demetrios' attempt at seizing the throne. Thomas accepted Constantine's appointment and Demetrios was overruled, though he later proclaimed Constantine as his new emperor. Soon thereafter, Sphrantzes informed Sultan Murad II, who also accepted the appointment on 6 December 1448. With the issue of succession peacefully resolved, Helena sent two envoys, Manuel Palaiologos Iagros and Alexios Philanthropenos Laskaris, to the Morea to proclaim Constantine as emperor and bring him to the capital. Thomas also accompanied them.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: In a small civil ceremony at Mystras, possibly in one of the churches or in the Despot's Palace, on 6 January 1449, Constantine was given the title of "Basileus" of the Romans. 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. Although emperors were traditionally crowned in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, there was historical precedent for smaller and local ceremonies: centuries ago, Manuel I Komnenos had been given the title of emperor by his dying father, John II Komnenos, in Cilicia; Constantine's great-grandfather, John VI Kantakouzenos, had been proclaimed emperor at Didymoteicho in Thrace. Both Manuel I and John VI had been careful to perform the traditional coronation ceremony in Constantinople once they reached the capital. In Constantine's case, no such ceremony was ever performed. Both Constantine and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Gregory III Mammas, were supporters of the Union of the Churches: a ceremony in which Gregory crowned Constantine emperor might have led the anti-unionists in the capital to rebel. Constantine's rise to emperor was controversial: although he was accepted on account of his lineage with few alternative candidates, his lack of a full coronation and support for the Union of the Churches damaged public perception of the new emperor.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Careful not to anger the anti-unionists through being crowned by Gregory III, Constantine believed that his proclamation at Mystras had sufficed as an imperial coronation and had given him all the constitutional rights of the one true emperor. In his earliest known imperial document, a chrysobull from February 1449, he refers to himself as "Constantine Palaiologos in Christ true Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans". Constantine arrived at Constantinople on 12 March 1449, having been provided means of travel by a Catalan ship.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Constantine was well prepared for his accession to the throne after serving as regent twice and ruling numerous fiefs throughout the crumbling empire. 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. Instead of the grand imperial capital it once was, 15th century Constantinople was an almost rural network of population centers, with many of the city's churches and palaces, including the former imperial palace, abandoned and in disrepair. 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. The city's population had declined significantly due to the Latin occupation, the 14th century civil wars, and outbreaks of the Black Death in 1347, 1409 and 1410. By the time Constantine became emperor, only about 50,000 people lived in the city.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: One of Constantine's most pressing concerns was the Ottomans. One of his first acts as emperor, just two weeks after arriving in the capital, was to attempt to secure the empire by arranging a truce with Murad II. He sent an ambassador, Andronikos Iagaris, to the sultan. Iagaris was successful, and the agreed-upon truce also included Constantine's brothers in the Morea to secure the province from further Ottoman attacks. In order to remove his rebellious brother Demetrios from the capital and its vicinity, Constantine had made Demetrios his replacement as Despot of the Morea to rule the despotate alongside Thomas. Demetrios was granted the Constantine's former capital, Mystras, and authority over the southern and eastern parts of the despotate, while Thomas ruled Corinthia and the northwest, alternating between Patras and Leontari as his place of residence.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Constantine tried to hold numerous discussions with the anti-unionists in the capital, who had organized themselves as a "synaxis" to oppose Patriarch Gregory III's authority, on account of him being a unionist. Constantine was not a fanatical unionist and merely viewed the Union of the Churches as necessary for the empire's survival. The unionists found this argument to be baseless and materialistic, believing that help would be more likely to come through trust in God than a western crusading campaign.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Another pressing concern was the continuation of the imperial family as neither Constantine nor his brothers had male children at the time. In February 1449, Constantine had sent Manuel Dishypatos as an envoy to Italy to speak with Alfonso V of Aragon and Naples in order to secure military aid against the Ottomans and forge a marriage alliance. The intended match was the daughter of Alfonso's nephew, Beatrice of Coimbra, but the alliance failed. In October 1449, Constantine sent Sphrantzes to the east to visit the Empire of Trebizond and the Kingdom of Georgia and see if there were any suitable brides there. Sphrantzes, accompanied by a large retinue of priests, nobles, musicians and soldiers, left the capital for nearly two years.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: While at the court of Emperor John IV Megas Komnenos in Trebizond, Sphrantzes was made aware that Murad II had died. Though John IV saw this as positive news, Sphrantzes was more anxious: the old sultan had grown tired and had given up all hope of conquering Constantinople. His young son and successor, Mehmed II, was ambitious, young and energetic. Sphrantzes had the idea that the sultan could be dissuaded from invading Constantinople if Constantine married Murad II's widow, Mara Branković. Constantine supported the idea when he received Sphrantzes' report in May 1451 and sent envoys to Serbia, where Mara had returned to after Murad II's death. Many of Constantine's courtiers opposed the idea due to a distrust of the Serbians, causing Constantine to question the viability of the match. Ultimately, the opposition of the courtiers to the marriage proved pointless: Mara had no wish to remarry, as she vowed to live a life of celibacy and chastity for the rest of her life once released from the Ottomans. Sphrantzes then decided that a Georgian bride would suit the emperor best and returned to Constantinople in September 1451, bringing a Georgian ambassador with him. Constantine thanked Sphrantzes for his efforts and they agreed that Sphrantzes was to return to Georgia in the spring of 1452 and forge a marriage alliance. Due to mounting tensions with the Ottomans, Sphrantzes ultimately did not return to Georgia.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: On 23 March 1450, Helena Dragaš died. She was highly respected among the Byzantines and was mourned deeply. Gemistus Pletho, the Moreot philosopher previously at Constantine's court in the Morea, and Gennadios Scholarios, future Patriarch of Constantinople, both wrote funeral orations praising her. Pletho praised Helena's fortitude and intellect, and compared her to legendary Greek heroine Penelope on account of her prudence. Constantine's other advisors were often at odds with the emperor and each other. Her death left Constantine unsure of which advisor to rely on the most. 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. The most powerful figure at the court was Loukas Notaras, an experienced statesman and "megas doux" (commander-in-chief of the navy). Although Sphrantzes disliked Notaras, he was a close friend of Constantine. As the Byzantine Empire no longer had a navy, Notaras' position was more of an informal prime minister-type role than a position of military command. Notaras believed that Constantinople's massive defenses would stall any attack on the city and allow western Christians to aid them in time. Due to his influence and friendship with the emperor, Constantine was likely influenced by his hopes and ideas. Sphrantzes was promoted to "First Lord of the Imperial Wardrobe": his office gave him near unhindered access to the imperial residence and a position to influence the emperor. Sphrantzes was even more cautious towards the Ottomans than Notaras, and believed the "megas doux" risked antagonizing the new sultan. 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.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Shortly after Murad II's death, Constantine was quick to send envoys to the new Sultan Mehmed II in an attempt to arrange a new truce. Mehmed supposedly received Constantine's envoys with great respect and put their minds to rest through swearing by Allah, the Prophet Muhammad, the Quran, and the angels and archangels that he would live in peace with the Byzantines and their emperor for the rest of his life. Constantine was unconvinced and suspected that Mehmed's mood could abruptly change in the future. In order to prepare for the future possibility of Ottoman attack, Constantine needed to secure alliances and the most powerful realms that might be inclined to aid him were in the West.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: The nearest and most concerned potential ally was Venice, which operated a large commercial colony in their quarter of Constantinople. However, the Venetians were not to be trusted. During the first few months of his rule as emperor, Constantine had raised the taxes on the goods the Venetians imported to Constantinople since the imperial treasury was nearly empty and funds had to be raised through some means. In August 1450, the Venetians had threatened to transfer their trade to another port, perhaps one under Ottoman control, and despite Constantine writing to the Doge of Venice, Francesco Foscari, in October 1450, the Venetians were unconvinced and signed a formal treaty with Mehmed II in 1451. To annoy the Venetians, Constantine attempted to seal a deal with the Republic of Ragusa in 1451, offering them a place to trade in Constantinople with limited tax concessions, though the Ragusans could offer little military aid to the empire.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: 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. The news that Murad II had died and been succeeded by his young son also lulled the western Europeans into a false sense of security. To the papacy, the Union of the Churches was a far more pressing concern than the threat of Ottoman attack. 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. Constantine hoped that the Pope would read the letter and understand Constantine's difficulties with making the Union of the Churches a reality in the east. The letter contained the "synaxis"'s proposal that a new council be held at Constantinople, with an equal number of representatives from both churches (since the Orthodox had been heavily outnumbered at the previous council). On 27 September, Nicholas V replied to Constantine after he heard that the unionist Patriarch Gregory III had resigned following the opposition against him. 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. The ultimatum was a setback for Constantine, who had done his best to enforce the union without inciting riots in Constantinople. The Pope appeared to have completely ignored the sentiment of the anti-unionist "synaxis". Nicholas V sent a papal legate, Cardinal Isidore of Kiev, to Constantinople to attempt to help Constantine enforce the union, but Isidore did not arrive until October 1452, when the city faced more pressing concerns.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: A great-grandson of Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I, Orhan Çelebi, lived as a hostage in Constantinople. Other than Mehmed II, Orhan was the only known living male member of the Ottoman dynasty, and thus was a potential rival claimant to the sultanate. Mehmed had previously agreed to pay annually for Orhan being kept at Constantinople, but in 1451, Constantine sent a message to the sultan complaining that the payment was not sufficient and hinted that unless more money was paid, Orhan might be released, possibly sparking an Ottoman civil war. The strategy of attempting to use hostage Ottoman princes had been used before by Constantine's father Manuel II, but it was a risky one. Mehmed's grand vizier, Çandarlı Halil Pasha, received the message at Bursa and was appalled at the threat, considering the Byzantine to be inept. Halil had long been relied upon by the Byzantines, through bribes and friendship, to maintain peaceful relations with the Ottomans, but his influence over Mehmed was limited and he was ultimately loyal to the Ottomans, not the Byzantines. Because of the blatant provocation to the sultan, he lost his temper with the Byzantine messengers, supposedly shouting:


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Constantine and his advisors had catastrophically misjudged the determination of the new sultan. Throughout his brief reign, Constantine and his advisors had been unable to form an effective foreign policy towards the Ottoman Empire. Constantine mainly continued the policy of his predecessors, doing what he could to brace Constantinople for attack, but also alternated between supplicating and confronting the Ottomans. Constantine's advisors had little knowledge and expertise on the Ottoman court and disagreed in how to deal with the Ottoman threat and as Constantine wavered between the opinions of his different councilors, his policy towards Murad and Mehmed was not coherent and resulted in disaster.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Mehmed II considered Constantine to have broken the terms of their 1449 truce and quickly revoked the small concessions he had given to the Byzantines. The threat of releasing Orhan gave Mehmed a pretext for concentrating all of his efforts on seizing Constantinople, his true goal since he had become sultan. Mehmed believed that the conquest of Constantinople was essential to the survival of the Ottoman state: by taking the city, he would prevent any potential crusade from using it as a base and prevent it falling into the hands of a rival more dangerous than the Byzantines. Furthermore, Mehmed had an intense interest in ancient Greco-Roman and medieval Byzantine history, his childhood heroes being figures like Achilles and Alexander the Great.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Mehmed began preparations immediately. In the spring of 1452, work had begun on the Rumelihisarı castle, constructed on the western side of the Bosporus strait, opposite to the already existing Anadoluhisarı castle on the eastern side. With the two castles, Mehmed could control sea traffic in the Bosporus and could blockade Constantinople both by land and sea. Constantine, horrified by the implications of the construction project, protested that Mehmed's grandfather Mehmed I had respectfully asked the permission of Emperor Manuel II before constructing the eastern castle and reminded the sultan of their existing truce. Based on his actions in the Morea, especially during at the time of the Crusade of Varna, Constantine was clearly anti-Turkish and he preferred himself to take aggressive action against the Ottoman Empire; his attempts to appeal to Mehmed were simply a stalling tactic. Mehmed's response to Constantine was that the area he built the fortress on had been uninhabited and that Constantine owned nothing outside of Constantinople's walls.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: As panic ensued in Constantinople, the Rumelihisarı was completed in August 1452, intended not only to serve as a means to blockade Constantinople but also as the base from which Mehmed's conquest of Constantinople was to be directed. To clear the site of the new castle, some local churches were demolished, which angered the local Greek populace. Mehmed had them massacred. The Ottomans had sent some animals to graze on Byzantine farmland on the shores of the Sea of Marmara, which also angered the locals. When the Greek farmers protested, Mehmed sent his troops to attack them, killing about forty. Outraged, Constantine formally declared war on Mehmed II, closing the gates of Constantinople and arresting all Turks within the city walls. Seeing the futility in this move, Constantine renounced his actions three days later and set the prisoners free. 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.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Constantine began to prepare for what was at best a blockade, and at worst a siege, gathering provisions and working to repair Constantinople's walls. 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. He sent more urgent requests for aid to the west. 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. Although the Venetians were sympathetic to the Byzantine cause, they explained in their reply in February 1452 that although they could ship armor and gunpowder to him, they had no troops to spare as they were fighting against neighboring city-states in Italy at the time. When the Ottomans sank a Venetian trading ship in the Bosporus in November 1452 and executed the ship's survivors on account of the ship refusing to pay a new toll instituted by Mehmed, the Venetian attitude changed as they now also found themselves at war with the Ottomans. Desperate for aid, Constantine sent pleas for reinforcements to his brothers in the Morea and Alfonso V of Aragon and Naples, promising the latter the island of Lemnos if he brought help. The Hungarian warrior John Hunyadi was invited to help and was promised Selymbria or Mesembria if he came with aid. The Genoese on the island Chios were also sent a plea, being promised payment in return for military assistance. Constantine received little practical response to his pleas.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Above all, Constantine sent many appeals for aid to Pope Nicholas V. Although sympathetic, Nicholas V believed that the papacy could not go to the rescue of the Byzantines unless they fully accepted the Union of the Churches and his spiritual authority. Furthermore, he knew that the papacy alone could not do much against the formidable Ottoman Turks, a similar response to one given by Venice, which promised military assistance only if others in Western Europe also came to Constantinople's defense. On 26 October 1452, Nicholas V's legate, Isidore of Kiev, arrived at Constantinople together with the Latin Archbishop of Mytilene, Leonard of Chios. With them, they brought a small force of 200 Neapolitan archers. Though they made little difference in coming battle, the reinforcements were probably more appreciated by Constantinople's citizens than the actual purpose of Isidore's and Leonard's visit: cementing the Union of the Churches. Their arrival in the city spurred the anti-unionists into a frenzy. On 13 September 1452, a month before Isidore and Leonard arrived, the lawyer and anti-unionist Theodore Agallianos had written a short chronicle of contemporary events, concluding with the following words:


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Constantine and John VIII before him had badly misjudged the level of opposition against the church union. Loukas Notaras was successful in calming down the situation in Constantinople somewhat, explaining to an assembly of nobles that the Catholic visit was made with good intentions and that the soldiers who had accompanied Isidore and Leonard might just be an advance guard; more military aid might have been on its way. 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. Sphrantzes suggested to Constantine that he name Isidore as the new Patriarch of Constantinople as Gregory III had not been seen for some time and was unlikely to return. Although such an appointment might have gratified the pope and led to further aid being sent, Constantine realized that it would only stir up the anti-unionists more. Once the people of Constantinople realized that no further immediate aid in addition to the 200 soldiers was coming from the papacy, they rioted in the streets.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Leonard of Chios confided in the emperor that he believed him to be far too lenient with the anti-unionists, urging him to arrest their leaders and try harder to push back the opposition to the Union of the Churches. Constantine opposed the idea, perhaps under the assumption that arresting the leaders would turn them into martyrs for their cause. Instead, Constantine summoned the leaders of the "synaxis" to the imperial palace on 15 November 1452, and once again asked them to write a document with their objections to the union achieved at Florence, which they were eager to do. On 25 November, the Ottomans sank another Venetian trading ship with cannon fire from the new Rumelihisarı castle, an event which captured the minds of the Byzantines and united them in fear and panic. As a result, the anti-unionist cause gradually died down. On 12 December, a Catholic liturgy commemorating the names of the Pope and Patriarch Gregory III was held in the Hagia Sophia by Isidore. Constantine and his court were present, as was a large number of the city's citizens (Isidore stated that all of its inhabitants attended the ceremony).


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Constantine's brothers in the Morea could not bring him any help: Turahan had been called on by Mehmed to invade and devastate the Morea again in October 1452 to keep the two despots occupied. The Morea was devastated, with Constantine's brothers only achieving one small success with the capture of Turahan's son, Ahmed, in battle. Constantine then had to rely on the only other parties which had expressed interest in aiding him: Venice, the pope, and Alfonso V of Aragon and Naples. Although Venice had been slow to act, the Venetians in Constantinople acted immediately without waiting for orders when the Ottomans sank their ships. The Venetian bailie in Constantinople, Girolamo Minotto, called an emergency meeting with the Venetians in the city, which was also attended by Constantine and Cardinal Isidore. 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. The decision of the local Venetians to stay and die for the city had a significantly greater effect on the Venetian government than Constantine's pleas.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: In February 1453, Doge Foscari ordered the preparation of warships and army recruitment, both of which were to head for Constantinople in April. He sent letters to the pope, Alfonso V of Aragon and Naples, King Ladislaus V of Hungary, and the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III to inform them that unless Western Christianity acted, Constantinople would fall to the Ottomans. 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, the Venetians had misjudged the amount of time on their hands, and messages took at least a month to travel from Constantinople to Venice. 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. Constantine continued to hope for help and sent more letters in early 1453 to Venice and Alfonso V, asking not only for soldiers but also food as his people were beginning to suffer from the Ottoman blockade of the city. Alfonso responded to his plea by quickly sending a ship with provisions.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Throughout the long winter of 1452–1453, Constantine ordered the citizens of Constantinople to restore the city's imposing walls and gather as many weapons as they could. Ships were sent to the islands still under Byzantine rule to gather further supplies and provisions. The defenders grew anxious as the news of a huge cannon at the Ottoman camp that was assembled by the Hungarian engineer Orban reached the city. 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. Many of the city's foreign inhabitants, notably the Venetians, offered their aid. Constantine asked them to man the battlements to show the Ottomans how many defenders they were to face. When the Venetians offered their service to guard four of the city's land gates, Constantine accepted and entrusted them with the keys. Some of the city's Genoese population also aided the Byzantines. In January 1453, notable Genoese aid arrived voluntarily in the form of Giovanni Giustiniani—a renowned soldier known for his skill in siege warfare—and 700 soldiers under his command. Giustiniani was appointed by Constantine as the general commander for the walls on Constantinople's land side. Giustiniani was given the rank of "protostrator" and promised the island of Lemnos as a reward (though it had already been promised to Alfonso V of Aragon and Naples, should he come to the city's aid). In addition to the limited western aid, Orhan Çelebi, the Ottoman contender held as a hostage in the city, and his considerable retinue of Ottoman troops, also assisted in the city's defense.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: On 2 April 1453, Mehmed's advance guard arrived outside Constantinople and began pitching up a camp. On 5 April, the sultan himself arrived at the head of his army and encamped within firing range of the city's Gate of St. Romanus. Bombardment of the city walls began almost immediately on 6 April. Most estimates of the number of soldiers defending Constantinople's walls in 1453 range from 6,000–8,500, out of which 5,000–6,000 were Greeks, most of whom were untrained militia soldiers. An additional 1,000 Byzantine soldiers were kept as reserves inside the city. Mehmed's army massively outnumbered the Christian defenders; his forces might have been as many as 80,000 men, including about 5,000 elite janissaries. 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. The Ottoman use of cannons intensified and sped up the siege considerably.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: An Ottoman fleet attempted to get into the Golden Horn while Mehmed began bombarding Constantinople's land walls. Foreseeing this possibility, Constantine had constructed a massive chain laid across the Golden Horn which prevented the fleet's passage. 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. The arrival of these ships on 20 April, and the failure of the Ottomans to stop them, was a significant victory for the Christians and significantly increased their morale. The ships, carrying soldiers, weapons and supplies, had passed by Mehmed's scouts alongside the Bosphorus unnoticed. Mehmed ordered his admiral, Suleiman Baltoghlu, to capture the ships and their crews at all costs. As the naval battle between the smaller Ottoman ships and the large western ships commenced, Mehmed rode his horse into the water to shout unhelpful naval commands to Baltoghlu, who pretended not to hear them. Baltoghlu withdrew the smaller ships so that the few large Ottoman vessels could fire on the western ships, but the Ottoman cannons were too low to do damage to the crews and decks and their shots were too small to seriously damage the hulls. As the sun set, the wind suddenly returned and the ships passed through the Ottoman blockade, aided by three Venetian ships which had sailed out to meet and cover them.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: The sea walls were weaker than Constantinople's land walls, and Mehmed was determined to get his fleet into the Golden Horn; he needed some way to circumvent Constantine's chain. On 23 April, the defenders of Constantinople observed the Ottoman fleet managed to get into the Golden Horn by being pulled across a massive series of tracks, constructed on Mehmed's orders, across the hill behind Galata, the Genoese colony on the opposite side of the Golden Horn. Although the Venetians attempted to attack the ships and set fire to them, their attempt was unsuccessful.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: As the siege progressed, it became clearer that the forces defending the city would not be enough to man both the sea walls and the land walls. Furthermore, food was running out and as food prices rose to compensate, many of the poor began to starve. On Constantine's orders, the Byzantine garrison collected money from churches, monasteries and private residences to pay for food for the poor. Objects of precious metal held by the churches were seized and melted down, though Constantine promised the clergy that he would repay them four-fold once the battle had been won. The Ottomans bombarded the city's outer walls continuously, and eventually opened up a small breach which exposed the inner defenses. Constantine grew more and more anxious. He sent messages begging the sultan to withdraw, promising whatever amount of tribute he wanted, but Mehmed was determined to take the city. The sultan supposedly responded:


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: To Constantine, the idea of abandoning Constantinople was unthinkable. He did not bother to reply to the sultan's suggestion. Some days after offering Constantine the chance to surrender, Mehmed sent a new messenger to address the citizens of Constantinople, imploring them to surrender and save themselves from death or slavery. 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. Some of Constantine's companions and councilors implored him to escape the city, rather than die in its defense: if he escaped unharmed, Constantine could set up an empire-in-exile in the Morea or somewhere else and carry on the war against the Ottomans. Constantine did not accept their ideas; he refused to be remembered as the emperor who ran away. According to later chroniclers, Constantine's response to the idea of escaping was the following:


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Constantine then sent a response to the sultan, the last communication between a Byzantine emperor and an Ottoman sultan:


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: The only hope the citizens could cling to was the news that the Venetian fleet was on its way to relieve Constantinople. When a Venetian reconnaissance ship that had slipped through the Ottoman blockade returned to the city to report that no relief force had been seen, it was made clear that the few forces that had gathered at Constantinople would have to fight the Ottoman army alone. The news that the whole of Christendom appeared to have deserted them unnerved some of the Venetians and Genoese defenders and in-fighting broke out between them, forcing Constantine to remind them that there were more important enemies at hand. Constantine resolved to commit himself and the city to the mercy of Christ; if the city fell, it would be God's will.