Constantine XI Palaiologos Constantine XI Palaiologos , Latinized as Palaeologus ( , " Kōnstantinos XI Dragasēs Palaiologos " ; 8 February 1404 – 29 May 1453 ) was the last reigning Byzantine Emperor and the last Roman emperor , reigning as a member of the Palaiologos dynasty from 1449 to his death in battle at the fall of Constantinople . Following his death , he became a legendary figure in Greek folklore as the " Marble Emperor " who would awaken and recover the Empire and Constantinople from the Turks . His death marked the end of the Roman Empire , which had continued in the East for 977 years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire . Biography . Constantine was born in Constantinople as the eighth of ten children to Manuel II Palaiologos and Helena Dragaš , the daughter of the Serbian prince Constantine Dragaš . He was extremely fond of his mother and added her surname ( Dragases ) next to his own dynastic one when he ascended the imperial throne . He spent most of his childhood in Constantinople under the supervision of his parents . During the absence of his older brother in Italy , Constantine was regent in Constantinople from 1437 – 1440 . Despot of the Morea . Constantine became the Despotes of the Morea ( the medieval name for the Peloponnesus ) in October 1443 , ruling from the fortress and palace in Mistra . At the time , Mistra , a fortified town also called Sparta or Lacedaemon due to its proximity to the ancient city , was a center of arts and culture rivalling Constantinople . After establishing himself as the Despot , Constantine worked to strengthen the defence of the Morea , including reconstructing a wall across the Isthmus of Corinth called the " Hexamilion " ( Six - mile - wall ) , on the suggestion of the famous scholar and teacher of his , Plethon . In summer 1444 , he launched an invasion of the Latin Duchy of Athens from the Morea , swiftly conquering Thebes and Athens and forcing its Florentine duke to pay him tribute . The Duchy was ruled by Nerio II Acciaioli , a vassal of the Ottoman Sultan . The Turks , frustrated by the attempt of the Greeks to expand from the Morea into central Greece started raising an invading army . Two years later , in autumn 1446 , Sultan Murad II who had come out of retirement , led an army of 50 – 60 , 000 soldiers into Greece to put an end to the pretensions of Constantine . His purpose was not to conquer Morea but to teach the Greeks and their Despots a punitive lesson . Constantine and his brother Thomas braced for the attack at the Hexamilion , which the Ottoman army reached on 27 November 1446 . While the wall could hold against medieval attacks , Sultan Murad used bombards to supplement the usual siege engine s and scaling ladders , leaving the Hexamilion in ruins by 10 December . Constantine and Thomas barely escaped , and Morea was invaded . This put an end to Constantine ' s attempt to expand his Despotate . Marriages . Constantine XI married twice : the first time on 1 July 1428 to Theodora Tocco , niece of Carlo I Tocco of Epirus , who died in November 1429 ; the second time to Caterina Gattilusio , daughter of Dorino of Lesbos , who also died , during childbirth , in 1442 . He had no children by either marriage . After his coronation , in 1451 , Constantine XI sent a commission under George Sphrantzes asking Mara Branković , daughter of the Serbian Despot Đurađ Branković and Byzantine princess Irene Kantakouzene , by then the widow of Murad II , to marry him ( Maria had been allowed to return to her parents in Serbia after the death of Murad ) . The proposal was welcomed by her father Đurađ Branković , but it foundered on the objection of Maria herself who had vowed that " if God ever released her from the hands of the infidel she would lead a life of celibacy and chastity for the rest of her days " . Accordingly , the courtship failed and Sphrantzes took steps to arrange for a marriage with a princess either from Trebizond Empire or the Kingdom of Georgia . The choice eventually fell to an unnamed Georgian princess , daughter of George VIII . He started official negotiations with the Georgian king , who had sent an ambassador in Constantinople for that reason . It was agreed that , next spring , Sphrantzes would sail for Georgia to bring the bride to Constantinople , but Constantine ' s plans were overtaken by the tragic events of 1453 . Reign as Emperor . Despite the foreign and domestic difficulties during his reign , which culminated in the fall of Constantinople and of the Byzantine Empire , contemporary sources generally speak respectfully of the Emperor Constantine . When his brother , Emperor John VIII Palaiologos , died childless , a dispute erupted between Constantine and his brother Demetrios Palaiologos over the throne . Demetrios drew support for his opposition to the union between the Orthodox and Catholic churches . The Empress Helena , acting as regent , supported Constantine . They appealed to the Ottoman Sultan Murad II to arbitrate the disagreement . Murad decided in favor of Constantine and on 6 January 1449 Constantine was crowned in the cathedral at Mistra by the local bishop . It was rare but not unprecedented for an emperor to be crowned in a provincial city . The founder of the dynasty of Palaiologos had been crowned at Nicaea , Asia Minor , John Cantacuzene at Adrianople , Thrace . But they had been thought proper that a second coronation ceremony be held also at Constantinople , performed by the patriarch . Constantine was the exception . The patriarch at the time , Gregory III , was a unionist , ( see East – West Schism ) shunned by most of his clergy . Constantine knew that to receive his crown from Gregory would add fuel to the existing fires of religious discord in the capital . He sailed from Greece on a Venetian ship arrived in Constantinople on 12 March 1449 . Sultan Murad died in 1451 , succeeded by his 19 year old son Mehmed II . Soon afterwards , Mehmed II began agitating for the conquest of Constantinople . Constantine responded to this by threatening to release Prince Orhan , who was a pretender to the Ottoman throne , unless Mehmed met some of his demands . Because of this , Mehmed considered Constantine to have broken the truce and the following winter of 1451 – 52 , Mehmed built Rumelihisari , a hill fortress on the European side of the Bosporus , just north of the city cutting the communication with the Black Sea to the east . This came in addition to the building of Anadoluhisarı , the fortress opposite of Rumelihisari on the Asian side , and gave the Ottomans absolute control over the sea traffic of the Bosporus Strait . For Constantine that was a clear prelude for a siege and immediately started organizing the defence . He managed to raise funds to stockpile foods for the upcoming siege and to repair the old Theodosian walls , but the poor state of the Byzantine economy did not allow him to raise the necessary army to defend the city against the massive Ottoman army . Desperate for any type of military assistance , Constantine XI appealed to the West reaffirming the union of Eastern and Roman Churches which had been signed at the Council of Florence , a condition the Catholic Church imposed before any help could be provided . The union had been overwhelmingly criticized by the strong anti - union ( " " anthenotikoi " " ) part of his subjects , while it dangerously estranged him from Loukas Notaras , his chief minister and military commander who was a leading anti - union figure . Finally , although some troops did arrive from the mercantile city states in the north of Italy , the Western contribution was negligible compared to the needs , given the Ottoman strength . Constantine also sought assistance from his brothers in Morea , but any help was forestalled by an Ottoman invasion of the peninsula in 1452 which took place exactly for that reason . The siege of the city began in the winter of 1452 . Constantine faced the siege defending his city of 60 , 000 people with an army only numbering 7 , 000 men . Confronting the Byzantine forces was an Ottoman army numbering many times that , backed by state - of - art siege equipment provided by a very competent Hungarian arms maker named Orban . Fall of Constantinople and death . Before the beginning of the siege , Mehmed II made an offer to Constantine XI . In exchange for the surrender of Constantinople , the emperor ' s life would be spared and he would continue to rule in Mistra , to which , as preserved by G . Sphrantzes , Constantine replied : He led the defence of the city and took an active part in the fighting alongside his troops in the land walls . At the same time , he used his diplomatic skills to maintain the necessary unity between the Genoese , Venetian and the Greek troops . He died on 29 May 1453 , the day the city fell . His last recorded words were : " The city is fallen and I am still alive " , and then he tore off his imperial ornaments so as to let nothing distinguish him from any other soldier and led his remaining soldiers into a last charge where he was killed . Soldiers were sent hastily to search amongst the dead and the first that was believed to be the emperor ' s , a body that had silk stockings with an eagle embroidered in it , the head was decapitated and marched around the ruined capital . However , it failed to gather any recognition from the citizens of Constantinople . There were no known surviving eyewitness to the death of the Emperor and none of his entourage survived to offer any credible account of his death . Legacy . A legend tells that when the Ottomans entered the city , an angel rescued the emperor , turned him into marble and placed him in a cave under the earth near the Golden Gate , where he waits to be brought to life again to conquer the city back for Christians . While serving as ambassador to Russia in February 1834 , Ahmed Pasha presented Tsar Nicholas with a number of gifts , including a jewel - encrusted sword supposedly taken from Constantine XI ' s corpse . Constantine XI ' s legacy was used as a rallying cry for Greeks during their war for Independence with the Ottoman Empire . Today the Emperor is considered a national hero in Greece . During the Balkan Wars and the Greco - Turkish War , under the influence of the " Megali Idea " , the name of the then - Greek king , Constantine , was used in Greece as a popular confirmation of the prophetic myth about the Marble King who would liberate Constantinople and recreate the lost Empire . Constantine Palaiologos ' legacy is still a popular theme in Greek culture . The well known contemporary composers Apostolos Kaldaras and Stamatis Spanoudakis have written elegies for the Marble King . Unofficial saint . Some Eastern Orthodox and Greek - Catholics consider Constantine XI a saint ( or a " national martyr " or " ethnomartyr " , Greek : ) .