Final Byzantine–Ottoman Wars, 1422–1453

The final Byzantine–Ottoman wars began with Murad II’s siege of Constantinople in 1422 and continued through pressure on the Morea, shifting truces and the steady reduction of Byzantine territory. The empire survived through its walls, diplomacy and divisions among its enemies, but it lacked the manpower and revenue to recover its former position.

Constantine Palaiologos spent much of this period as despot in the Morea before becoming Constantine XI in 1449. His career illustrates how the defence of Constantinople depended on provincial strongholds, dynastic cooperation and difficult relations with western powers as well as direct resistance to the Ottomans.

Historical fiction can use this setting for court rivalry, frontier warfare, tribute, diplomacy and the preparation for a siege whose outcome was not yet inevitable to those living through the preceding decades. Simon Turney’s Last Emperor of Rome series begins within this prolonged final struggle.