Editing Constantine XI Palaiologos (section)

== Legacy ==

=== Historiography ===
[[File:Constantine Palaiologos.jpg|thumb|19th-century depiction of Constantine XI with [[Classical antiquity|classical]] Greco-Roman armor]]
Constantine's death marked the end of the Byzantine Empire, an institution tracing its origin to Constantine the Great's foundation of Constantinople as the Roman Empire's new capital in 330. Even as their realm gradually became more restricted to only Greek-speaking lands, the people of the Byzantine Empire continually maintained that they were ''[[Romaioi]]'' (Romans), not ''Hellenes'' (Greeks); as such, Constantine's death also marked the end of the line of Roman Emperors started by [[Augustus]] 1,480 years earlier.{{Sfn|Nicol|1992|p=ix}} Constantine's death and the fall of Constantinople also marked the true birth of the Ottoman Empire, which dominated much of the [[eastern Mediterranean]] until its fall in 1922. The conquest of Constantinople had been a dream of Islamic armies since the 8th century and through its possession, Mehmed II and his successors claimed to be the heirs of the Roman emperors.{{Sfn|Nicolle|Haldon|p=174|Turnbull|2007}}

There is no evidence that Constantine ever rejected the hated union of the Churches achieved at Florence in 1439 after spending a lot of energy to realize it. Many of his subjects had chastised him as a traitor and heretic while he lived and he, like many of his predecessors before him, died in communion with the Church of Rome. Nevertheless, Constantine's actions during the fall of Constantinople and his death fighting the Turks redeemed the popular view of him. The Greeks forgot or ignored that Constantine had died a "heretic", and many considered him a [[martyr]]. In the eyes of the Orthodox Church, Constantine's death sanctified him and he died a hero.{{Sfn|Nicol|1992|p=109}} In Athens, the modern capital of Greece, there are two statues of Constantine: a colossal monument depicting the emperor on horseback on the waterfront of [[Palaio Faliro]], and a smaller statue in the city's [[Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens|cathedral square]], which portrays the emperor on foot with a drawn sword. There are no statues of emperors such as [[Basil II]] or [[Alexios I Komnenos]], who were significantly more successful and died of natural causes after long and glorious reigns.{{Sfn|Harris|2019|p=}}

Scholarly works on Constantine and the fall of Constantinople tend to portray Constantine, his advisors, and companions as victims of the events that surrounded the city's fall. There are three main works that deal with Constantine and his life: the earliest is [[Čedomilj Mijatović]]'s ''Constantine Palaeologus (1448–1453) or The Conquest of Constantinople by the Turks'' (1892), written at a time when tensions were rising between the relatively new [[Kingdom of Greece]] and the Ottoman Empire. War appeared imminent and Mijatović's work was intended to serve as propaganda for the Greek cause by portraying Constantine as a tragic victim of events he had no possibility of affecting. The text is dedicated to the young Prince [[Constantine I of Greece|Constantine]], of the same name as the old emperor and the heir to the Greek throne, and its preface states that "Constantinople may soon again change masters", alluding to the possibility that Greece [[Megali Idea|might conquer]] the ancient city.{{Sfn|Hellebuyck|2006|p=|pp=1–2}}{{better source needed|date=March 2023}}

The second major work on Constantine, [[Steven Runciman]]'s ''The Fall of Constantinople 1453'' (1965), also characterizes Constantine through Constantinople's fall, portraying Constantine as tragic figure who did everything to save his empire from the Ottomans. However, Runciman partly blames Constantine for antagonizing Mehmed II through his threats concerning Orhan. The third major work, [[Donald Nicol]]'s ''The Immortal Emperor: The Life and Legend of Constantine Palaiologos, Last Emperor of the Romans'' (1992), examines Constantine's entire life and analyzes the trials and hardships he faced not only as emperor, but as Despot of the Morea as well. Nicol's work places considerably less emphasis on the importance of individuals than the preceding works do, though Constantine is again portrayed as a mostly tragic figure.{{Sfn|Hellebuyck|2006|p=|pp=2–3}}{{better source needed|date=March 2023}}

A less positive assessment of Constantine was given by [[Marios Philippides]] in ''Constantine XI Dragaš Palaeologus (1404–1453): The Last Emperor of Byzantium'' (2019). Philippides sees no evidence that Constantine was a great statesman or a great soldier. Although the emperor had visions for his reign, Philippides deems him as diplomatically ineffective and unable to inspire the support of his people to achieve his goals. Philippides is highly critical of Nicol's ''The Immortal Emperor'', which he sees as unbalanced. In his book, Philippides points out that Constantine's reconquest of the Morea from the Latins had mostly been achieved through marriages and not military victories. Though much of Philippides' work relies on primary sources, some of his negative assessment seems speculative; he suggests that Constantine's campaigns in the Morea made the peninsula "easier prey for the Turks", something that cannot be substantiated through the actual events that unfolded.{{Sfn|Harris|2019|p=}}

=== Legends of Constantine's family ===
Constantine's two marriages were brief and though he had attempted to find a third wife before the fall of Constantinople, he died unmarried and without children.{{Sfn|Nicol|1992|p=95}} His closest surviving relatives were his surviving brothers in the Morea: Thomas and Demetrios.{{Sfn|Runciman|1969|p=171ff}} Despite this, there was a persistent story that Constantine had left a widow and several daughters. The earliest documented evidence of this idea can be found in a letter by Aeneas Silvius (the future [[Pope Pius II]]) to Pope Nicholas V, dated July 1453. In Aeneas's ''Cosmographia'' (1456–1457), the story is elaborated upon: Mehmed II supposedly defiled and murdered the empress and Constantine's daughters in the celebrations after his victory. Aeneas also wrote of an imaginary son of Constantine who escaped to Galata, across the Golden Horn. The story of Constantine's wife and daughters might have been further propagated through the spread of the late 15th-century Russian tale called the ''[[Nestor Iskander's Tale on the Taking of Tsargrad|Tale on the Taking of Tsargrad]]'', where a similar account appears.{{sfn|Terras|1985|page=302}}{{sfn|Philippides|Hanak|2011|page=132}} 16th-century French chronicler [[Mathieu d'Escouchy]] wrote that Mehmed raped the empress in the Hagia Sophia and then confined her to his [[harem]].{{Sfn|Nicol|1992|p=95}}

The story of Constantine's supposed family survived into modern Greek folklore. One story, propagated until as late as the 20th century, was that Constantine's supposed empress had been six months pregnant at the time of Constantinople's fall and that a son had been born to her while Mehmed was warring in the north. The empress raised the boy, and though he was well-versed in the Christian faith and the Greek language in his youth, he turned to Islam as an adult and eventually became sultan himself, which meant that all Ottoman sultans after him would have been Constantine's descendants.{{Sfn|Nicol|1992|p=96}} Though the circumstances are completely fictional, the story might carry a shred of the truth; a grandson of Constantine's brother Thomas, [[Andreas Palaiologos (son of Manuel)|Andreas Palaiologos]], lived in Constantinople in the 16th century, converted to Islam and served as an Ottoman court official.{{Sfn|Nicol|1992|pp=115–116}}{{sfn|Runciman|1969|p=183–184}}

Another late folk story said that Constantine's empress had shut herself in the imperial palace after Mehmed's victory. After the Ottomans failed to break her barricades and enter the palace, Mehmed had to agree to give her three concessions: that all coins minted by the sultans in the city would bear the names of Constantinople or Constantine, that there would be a street reserved for Greeks alone, and that the bodies of the Christian dead would be given funerals according to Christian custom.{{Sfn|Nicol|1992|p=96}}

=== Lamentations ===
[[File:Constantine Palaiologos 1584.jpg|left|thumb|Constantine XI as depicted in 1584 by [[André Thevet]]]]
The fall of Constantinople shocked Christians throughout Europe. In Orthodox Christianity, Constantinople and the Hagia Sophia became symbols of lost grandeur. In the Russian Nestor Iskander tale, the foundation of Constantinople (the New Rome) by Constantine the Great and its loss under an emperor by the same name was not seen as a coincidence, but as the fulfilling of the city's destiny, just as Old Rome had been founded by [[Romulus]] and lost under [[Romulus Augustulus]].{{Sfn|Nicol|1992|p=|pp=97–98}}

[[Andronikos Kallistos]], a prominent 15th-century Greek scholar and Byzantine refugee to Italy, wrote a text entitled ''Monodia'' in which he laments the fall of Constantinople and mourns Constantine Palaiologos, whom he refers to as "a ruler more perceptive than Themistocles, more fluent than [[Nestor (mythology)|Nestor]], wiser than [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus]], more just than [[Rhadamanthus]] and braver than [[Hercules]]".{{Sfn|Nicol|1992|p=97}}

The 1453 Greek long poem ''Capture of the City'', of uncertain authorship, laments the bad luck of Constantine, which the author blames on Constantine's ill-advised destruction of Glarentza (including its churches) in the 1420s. According to the author, all of Constantine's other misfortunes—the destruction of the Hexamilion wall, the death of his brother John VIII, and the fall of Constantinople—were the result of what happened at Glarentza. Even then, Constantine was not to blame for Constantinople's fall: he had done what he could and ultimately relied on help from Western Europe that never came. The poem concludes that people say Constantine died by his own sword,{{Sfn|Nicol|1992|p=|pp=98–99}} and ends with personally addressing the dead emperor:

{{blockquote|quote=Tell me, where are you to be found? Are you alive, or did you die by your own sword? The conquering Sultan Mehmed searched among the severed heads and corpses, but he never found you ... There are those that say that you are hidden beneath the almighty right hand of the Lord. Would that you were really alive and not dead.{{Sfn|Nicol|1992|pp=99–100}}|title=|source=}}

=== The Marble Emperor ===
{{See also|King asleep in mountain}}[[File:Constantine XI Palaiologos (4552304506).jpg|thumb|Marble statue of Constantine XI at the [[National Historical Museum, Athens|National Historical Museum]] in [[Athens]]]]
In 15th-century Byzantine historian [[Laonikos Chalkokondyles]]'s ''The Histories'', Chalkokondyles finished his account of Byzantine history with hope for a time when a Christian emperor would rule over the Greeks again. In the late 15th century, a legend originated among the Greeks that Constantine had not actually died, but was merely asleep and was waiting on a call from heaven to come and rescue his people.{{Sfn|Nicol|1992|p=98}} This legend eventually became the legend of the "Marble Emperor" (Greek: ''Marmaromenos Vasilefs'', lit. the "Emperor/King turned into Marble").{{Sfn|Clogg|1992|p=19}} Constantine Palaiologos, hero of the final Christian days of Constantinople, had not died, but had been rescued, turned into marble and immortalized by an angel moments before he was to be killed by the Ottomans. The angel then hid him in a secret cave beneath the Golden Gate of Constantinople (where emperors in the past had marched during [[Roman triumph|triumphs]]), where he awaits the angel's call to awaken and retake the city. The Turks later walled up the Golden Gate, explained by the story as a precaution against Constantine's eventual resurrection: when God wills Constantinople to be restored, the angel will descend from heaven, resurrect Constantine, give him the sword he used in the final battle and Constantine will then march into his city and restore his fallen empire, driving the Turks as far away as the "[[Red Apple Tree]]", their legendary homeland. According to the legend, Constantine's resurrection would be heralded by the bellowing of a great ox.{{Sfn|Nicol|1992|p=|pp=101–102, 104}}

The story can be seen depicted in a series of seventeen miniatures in a 1590 chronicle by Cretan historian and painter [[Georgios Klontzas]]. Klontzas' miniatures show the emperor sleeping beneath Constantinople and guarded by angels, being crowned once more in the Hagia Sophia, entering the imperial palace and then fighting a string of battles against the Turks. Following his inevitable victories, Constantine prays at Caesarea ([[Kayseri]]),  marches on Palestine and returns triumphant to Constantinople before entering [[Jerusalem]]. At Jerusalem, Constantine delivers his crown and the [[True Cross]] to the [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre]] and finally travels to [[Calvary]], where he dies, his mission completed. In the final miniature, Constantine is buried in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.{{Sfn|Nicol|1992|p=102}}

In 1625, [[Thomas Roe]], an English diplomat, sought permission from the Ottoman government to remove some of the stones from the walled-up Golden Gate to send them to his friend, [[George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham]], who was collecting antiquities. Roe was denied permission and observed that the Turks had some sort of superstitious dread of the gate, recording that the statues placed on it by the Turks were enchanted and that if they were destroyed or taken down, a "great alteration" would occur to the city.{{Sfn|Nicol|1992|p=|pp=102–103}}

The prophecy of the Marble Emperor endured until the [[Greek War of Independence]] in the 19th century and beyond. It was fuelled when the King of the Hellenes, [[George I of Greece|George I]], named [[Constantine I of Greece|his firstborn son and heir]] Constantine in 1868. His name echoed the emperors of old, proclaiming his succession not just to the new Greek kings, but to the Byzantine emperors before them as well. Once he acceded to the throne as Constantine I of Greece, many in Greece hailed him as ''Constantine XII'' instead. Constantine I's conquest of Thessaloniki from the Turks in 1912 and his leadership in the [[Balkan Wars]] 1912–1913 seemed to be evidence that the prophecy was about to be realized; Constantinople and the Red Apple Tree were believed to be Constantine's next goals. When Constantine was forced to abdicate in 1917, many believed he had been unjustly removed before completing his sacred destiny. The hope of capturing Constantinople would not be completely dashed until the Greek defeat in the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)|Greco-Turkish War]] in 1922.{{Sfn|Nicol|1992|p=|pp=107–108}}

=== Regnal number ===
[[File:Palaió Fáliro, Constantine XI Palaiologos.JPG|thumb|The larger, waterfront statue of Constantine XI in Athens]]
[[File:Constantine Palaeologos.JPG|thumb|Statue of Constantine XI in [[Mystras]]]]
Constantine Palaiologos is generally reckoned to have been the eleventh emperor with that name.{{Sfn|Nicol|1992|p=ix}} As such, he is typically referred to as ''Constantine XI'', with 'XI' being a [[regnal number]], used in monarchies since the Middle Ages to differentiate among rulers with the same name in the same office, reigning of the same territory. Regnal numbers were never used in the Roman Empire and despite an increase in emperors of the same name during the Middle Ages, such as the many emperors named Michael, Leo, John or Constantine, the practice was never introduced in the Byzantine Empire. Instead, the Byzantines used nicknames (for instance "[[Michael III|Michael ''the Drunkard'']]", now given the number Michael III) or [[patronymic]]s (for instance "Constantine, ''son of Manuel''" rather than Constantine XI) to distinguish emperors of the same name. The modern numbering of the Byzantine emperors is a purely historiographical invention, created by historians beginning with [[Edward Gibbon]] in his ''[[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'' (1776–1789).{{Sfn|Foss|2005|p=94}}

Since the name Constantine connected an emperor with the founder of Constantinople and the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine the Great, the name was particularly popular among emperors. Whilst modern historiography generally recognizes eleven emperors by the name, older works have occasionally numbered Constantine Palaiologos differently. Gibbon numbered him as ''Constantine XIII'' after counting two junior co-emperors, [[Constantine Lekapenos]] (co-emperor 924–945) and [[Constantine Doukas (co-emperor)|Constantine Doukas]] (co-emperor 1074–1078 and 1081–1087). The modern number, ''XI'', was established with the publication of the revised edition of [[Charles le Beau]]'s ''Histoire du Bas-Empire en commençant à Constantin le Grand'' in 1836. Early [[Numismatics|numismatic]] (coin-related) works typically assigned Constantine Palaiologos higher numerals since there were numerous coins minted by junior co-emperors of the name Constantine as well.{{Sfn|Foss|2005|p=|pp=93–94}}

There is particular confusion in the correct number of Constantines since there are two different Roman emperors commonly numbered as Constantine III'':'' the Western usurper [[Constantine III (Western Roman Emperor)|Constantine III]] ({{Reign}}407–411) of the early 5th century and the briefly reigning Byzantine [[Constantine III (Byzantine emperor)|Constantine III]] ({{Reign}}641) of the 7th century. In addition to them, the emperor commonly known today as [[Constans II]] ({{Reign}}641–668) actually reigned under the name Constantine, and has sometimes been referred to as Constantine III.{{Sfn|Foss|2005|p=|pp=93–94}} A difficult case is [[Constantine Laskaris]], who might have been the first, albeit ephemeral, emperor of the [[Empire of Nicaea]], one of the Byzantine successor states after the Fourth Crusade. It is unclear whether Constantine Laskaris ruled as emperor or not and he is sometimes counted as ''Constantine XI'',{{Sfn|Foss|2005|p=|pp=98–99}} which would make Constantine Palaiologos ''Constantine XII''. Constantine Laskaris is sometimes referred to as ''Constantine (XI)'', with Constantine Palaiologos numbered ''Constantine XI (XII)''.{{Sfn|Haldon|2005|p=176}}

Counting comprehensively those who were officially recognized as rulers under the name Constantine, including those that only ruled nominally as co-emperors but with the supreme title, the total number of emperors named Constantine would be 18. By counting and numbering all previous co-emperors with that name, including [[Constantine (son of Leo V)]], [[Constantine (son of Basil I)]], Constantine Lekapenos and Constantine Doukas, in addition to Constans II, Constantine Laskaris and the western Constantine III, Constantine Palaiologos would most appropriately be numbered as ''Constantine XVIII''.{{efn|Omitting the very short-lived [[Constantine (son of Theophilos)]], who died in infancy.}} Scholars commonly do not number co-emperors as the extent of their rule was mostly nominal and, unless they inherited the throne later, did not hold independent supreme power. By counting the western Constantine III, Constans II and Constantine Laskaris—all emperors reigning with supreme power under the name of Constantine (though it is questionable in Laskaris's case)—the numbering of Constantine Palaiologos would be ''Constantine XIV''.{{Sfn|Foss|2005|p=|pp=101–102}}