Where is the prince?
In his chambers, Sultana Mara.
-[footsteps approaching] -[Mara] Mehmed.
I'm so sorry.
No need.
Your mother will always be a part of you.
I hardly knew her.
I can't even remember her face.
It does me no good to live in the past.
[Mara] Let me show you something.
Come.
The Ancients believed the blood moon was a portent of great change.
Remember this blood moon, Mehmed.
One day, it will return when you need it most.
When all seems lost.
[cannon fire in distance]
[narrator] In late April, the Romans attempt a desperate gambit,
ambushing the Ottoman fleet moored in the Golden Horn.
They are met with a wall of cannon fire.
Turning the attackers into the attacked.
Governor, do you believe in prophecies?
I believe in the word of God.
Many years ago, my ancestor, Osman, had a dream.
A great tree rose from the ground.
From its roots sprang four mountain ranges,
then four rivers.
And around those rivers, beautiful shimmering cities arose.
The great tree's leaves turned to gleaming swords.
Suddenly, a mighty wind blew and the swords all pointed to one city...
Constantinople.
Our swords are now pointed at Constantinople.
The emperor will soon feel how deeply they cut.
[cannon fire in distance]
[narrator] Every empire has a beginning.
Forged of blood, steel, fortune and conquest.
In 1453, Roman Emperor Constantine XI
and Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II,
wage an epic battle for Constantinople.
Twenty-three armies have tried to take the legendary city,
all have failed.
Out of the carnage, one ruler will emerge victorious
and change the course of history for the next 300 years.
For one empire to rise...
another must fall.
[indistinct talking]
The Genoese in Galata warned the Turks that this attack is coming.
And it blows up in the Byzantine faces, because it not only fails completely,
but it cost them the lives of 200 men that they can't afford to lose.
It's this moment where now both sides realize
that no quarter will be asked, and no quarter will be given.
Surrender is no longer even an option.
You're in this to the end.
You either die or you triumph, and there is no other alternative.
[screaming, panicking]
[narrator] Word of the defenders' failed ambush and their grisly fate
sends tremors throughout Constantinople.
Ahh!
[sobbing]
[panting]
[Giustiniani] That lying bastard, Lomellini, betrayed us.
He will pay for this.
I told you we couldn't trust these Catholic mercenaries.
You dare to speak of trust?
Why don't you share with us
the purpose of the nightly adventures outside the walls?
[shouting] Tread carefully, Genoa!
Lords!
It's you who should watch your step.
You viper.
Stop it!
You argue like children while our empire fights for its life!
If you keep this nonsense up,
we might as well surrender to the Turks!
[bell tolling in distance]
The sultan has bested us at nearly every turn,
and we are running out of time.
And so are they.
Every day, they're camped out there is a brick thrown onto the sultan's back.
Help will come for us.
There are rumors reported daily of a fleet--
Rumors encouraged by our own spies.
Based on truth.
-Venice has pledged to send help. -Then where is it?
They will come, and the walls will hold...
as they always have.
Keep our lookouts alert.
Send out a search party for the fleet.
Constantine is very conscious of the weight of history, so to speak.
He may rule over the remains of an empire.
But he is the only one who can legitimately claim
to be the Roman emperor.
[sighs] Leave me be.
[Brownworth] With a political lineage
that stretches all the way back to Augustus.
He was very conscious of duty,
and he was very much of the old school in that manner.
[door shuts]
[Roger Crowley] Constantinople had been around for so long,
that it was surrounded by prophecies.
One was that the city would be founded,
uh, by an emperor whose name was Constantine,
whose mother was called Helena,
and that it would be lost under an emperor
with the same name, and the same mother.
And unfortunately, Constantine XI fitted the bill in this respect.
I will not be the Constantine who lost the City of God.
[narrator] The fate of the 1,100-year-old empire
and its ruler,
will be written in the coming weeks.
[thunder rumbling]
With the battle mired in a stalemate,
both sides dig in...
and old scores are settled.
TRAITOR
[thunder rumbling]
The siege enters its second month.
The Ottoman camp is beset by a sense of despair.
The fighting reaches a new level of brutality.
[screaming]
Over the ensuing weeks, Mehmed's forces attempt numerous assaults on the city.
Only to be repulsed by the severely damaged,
but still standing walls,
and the defending forces led by Giustiniani.
[thunder rumbling]
[Dr. Michael Talbot] There's no guarantee that the siege is gonna be successful.
There's several points where the Ottomans almost give up and go away.
I mean, just the logistics of organizing an army in the 15th century.
The amount of food that you need take from your peasantry to support the army.
The amount of the state's wealth that you need to invest in arms and pay.
Let alone, the potential loss of life.
You know, populations in the 15th century
are much, much smaller than ours are today.
Every death is multiplied, if you like.
That's one less person to go home and till the fields.
That's one less person to pay taxes.
That's one less family that's gonna exist.
So it's a huge gamble.
[Crowley] Within the walls at the same time,
the defenders are getting exhausted, their walls are being eroded,
they're running out of food.
[narrator] Each day brings with it a growing sense of desperation.
[Talbot] There are images of the holiest relics of Constantinople
being displayed on the city walls at the time of the Ottoman siege.
So these great images of Christ Pantocrator and the Virgin Mary
are taken around the walls to encourage the troops.
And of course, the Virgin had saved the city many times before,
not least from Muslim armies in the past.
So, terrifying, yes,
but both sides clearly believed that God is on their side
in one way or another.
[Crowley] And so the siege enters a new phase
where the attacks get bloodier,
the techniques more intense,
and the fighting more ferocious.
[all shouting]
[Talbot] You think about the physical nature of medieval warfare.
Certainly, we have some guns and some bows and arrows
that enable you to kill people at a distance.
[screaming]
But lots of the fighting happens hand to hand,
with swords, and axes, and spears,
where you think about the visceral nature of that.
You know, the physical force that's required
to smash someone in the skull with an ax, or to stab them through the chest.
Ahh!
[grunts]
[Talbot] You're looking at someone in the eyes,
and you're seeing the damage that your weapon does to them.
Knowing that in the next few seconds, that could happen to you.
It must be absolutely terrifying.
Ahh!
[cannon fire in distance]
The Italian on the walls,
Giustiniani...
needs to be dealt with, Pasha.
He baits me.
I would love nothing more than to deal with him personally.
I admire your enthusiasm, Zaganos Pasha,
but that may not be necessary.
What's on your mind?
Sir!
[Zaganos Pasha,shouting] Giustiniani!
Has Zaganos Pasha gone insane?
What's he doing?
[horse neighing]
[Zaganos Pasha, shouting] Giustiniani!
I bring word from the sultan himself!
Sultan.
So, you're the Genoese nightmare that stalks walls.
I've been called worse.
Hmm. Pirate?
You and your band of outlaws have cost me many men...
but earned my respect.
You flatter me, Sultan.
I offer reason, mercenary.
If it is flattery you're looking for, turn back to your whimpering paymasters.
They're too busy executing Ottoman prisoners to sweet-talk me.
This is not your fight.
You're a soldier of fortune, so, I'm prepared to give you a fortune.
It's a little late for that, Sultan.
There's a rumor,
the emperor has offered you the island of Lemnos
in the event of a victory.
The emperor has also promised the same island
to three others fighting with you.
Have you heard?
[Notaras] Emperor, this is unacceptable.
How do we know he's not betraying us?
Let us send arrows into both of them and be done!
Look around, soldier.
You cannot win this battle.
I don't have to win.
It's only a matter of time before the Christian army arrives.
And you will not defeat them.
Mehmed motivated people any way he could.
He even tried to, uh, entice Giustiniani
away from, uh, Constantinople to join him,
and he offered him money.
[Mehmed] Leave the defenses now,
and you and your men will be given land and riches
beyond your wildest dreams.
I will make you governor of all the Aegean islands
with the protection of my military.
You will be free to conduct any business you wish, with no taxes.
My offer would make you wealthier than the emperor himself.
For God's sake, what are they talking about?
Tell me, Sultan...
what is to stop me from cutting off your head,
-and ending this here and now? -[chuckles]
[Mehmed] Soldier...
I'll need your answer by sundown.
[Giustiniani] Zaganos Pasha called for me by name.
And you go running like his whore?
Lord Loukas! He held aloft a white flag!
It was in our interest to know what he had to say.
Which was?
Zaganos Pasha bid me to take my men and leave.
In return for what?
In return for our lives, my lord.
He would spare us, if we flee.
[narrator] With Ottoman ships in the Golden Horn
and Mehmed's army encamped outside the city's landward walls,
the Romans are now forced to defend Constantinople on two fronts.
The city is also still reeling from the bloody aftermath
of the failed Roman attack on the ships in the harbor.
Within Constantinople was fury and blame, uh, at the failed attack,
but it got worse because they realized
that a certain number of sailors had been captured.
And Mehmed then had them impaled on stakes outside the walls.
The defenders, uh, responded
by hanging some of their Turkish prisoners from the battlements.
So we see a kind of spiral of brutality unfolding
between the two sides as the siege went on.
[narrator] Six weeks into the siege,
both sides are nearing their breaking point.
[Crowley] It's a moment of trauma and complete chaos.
[shouting]
[coughs]
[Crowley] But there are many individual moments of pathos,
-of courage, of... -[Roman soldier] Get up!
-[Crowley] ...sacrifice. -[Ana] Stop!
Stop it!
-He's hurt. Can't you see? -He will get a blow of my sword.
No! Have you no mercy?
Let me tend to his wound.
Your pope preaches to return good for evil.
Perhaps a good deed of charity like this will help in our cause in front of God.
[sheaths sword]
[spits]
[knock on door]
I thought you weren't coming.
I always keep my promises.
[Giustiniani] I will take you wherever you wish.
I have my ship waiting in the harbor.
If we survive.
That harbor is filled with Turkish ships.
How much longer can you hold them off?
Despair doesn't suit you, Therma.
I will take you away, far away from this wretched place.
[panting]
[Ana] You will be safe here.
[coughs]
[panting]
Oh! Oh!
You should have let me die.
Too many people have died.
I must believe there is still good in this world.
[indistinct talking]
[messenger] Sultan.
A message from Constantinople.
[Giustiniani] "Sultan, thank you for your most generous offer.
I have considered it in full, but I fear I must decline.
Once this bloody affair is behind us,
I'll be honored if you visit me on Lemnos."
[woman] News from Constantinople?
Mehmed is bogged down outside the walls.
My news may hearten you.
What is this?
[Dr. Tunç Şen] There is a great tradition
of practicing astronomy and astrology
in the Greater Eurasian, uh, landscape.
One of the main tasks of astrologers was designating an auspicious moment.
The idea of future, the idea of the uncertain,
how this siege would end.
Is this true?
The astrologers have confirmed it.
They are certain.
I need to take this news myself.
[narrator] In Constantinople,
the defenders are faced with a new problem.
[nobleman] Emperor, we need a miracle.
We are long out of money and running out of time.
And some of the soldiers are threatening to leave
if they're not paid.
[Loukas] Leeches!
Determined to suck the last bit of life from the city.
My men will stay... or go.
Wherever I am.
Lord Giustiniani, no man, dead or alive, will be left unpaid.
You have my word.
Is that not worth something?
Emperor, I have given you my word.
I am here until the city is safe.
But you know the terms of the deal you made with them.
[scoffs] Emperor, I warned you,
these Italian recruits would only fight as long as the money kept flowing!
Not one of them is honorable enough to see this wretched siege through,
and yet, they strut about calling themselves Christians!
Careful, Lord.
You are playing with dangerous weapons.
The same weapons that stand between you and the Ottomans at the gate.
Lord Giustiniani, it's no secret there is no money in the treasury.
[Dr. Marios Philippedes] Constantinople was broke.
There is a coin of Emperor John VIII,
who was, uh, the predecessor of Constantine.
There's a silver, nice coin.
Now if you examine a coin of Constantine XI...
you can see the difference, this is silver,
and this is very thin copper with nothing in there.
He didn't have any money.
Lord Loukas, you are a man of great wealth,
do you not have anything tucked away to loan the emperor?
I've given everything I have.
All that is left is my life...
[scoffs]
...and I will gladly give that.
[Jason Goodwin] Constantine is in debt. He, you know, they owed money.
It's a pretty sort of tragic business.
But he was a... he was a real fighter, Constantine.
It is God...
who will provide in our time of need.
[indistinct, overlapping talking]
[narrator] In a desperate attempt to pay the mercenaries,
Emperor Constantine orders all religious artifacts melted down,
and minted into coins.
[clattering]
Even as the situation in Constantinople grows more dire,
a glimmer of hope appears in the Mediterranean.
Look!
[Dr. Philippedes] The Venetians, they finally put an armada together
to send to Constantinople.
We must get word to Constantinople!
[narrator] In mid-May, rumors of a massive Venetian fleet
gathering in the Mediterranean become reality.
The warships prepare to sail for Constantinople,
and come to the aid of the Romans.
Mehmed's fear was, above all, any help that would come from Venice.
I have given you every advantage possible.
And in return, you have given me nothing.
Halil Pasha,
you promised me the city.
Where is it?
[shouting] Where is it?
Sultan, the Red Apple will fall in time.
It requires patience.
Are you blind?
Can you not see we're out of time?
They're saying the Christian fleet is just days from here.
What will you do to fix this?
Nothing?
The greatest minds in my empire can offer me nothing?
Out of my sight. All of you.
What is it?
I have known you since you were a small boy.
Your father entrusted me with your education.
Spare me the history lesson.
Say what's actually on your mind for once.
This is exactly what I warned against.
Those walls still stand, no matter the size of our cannons.
And you see the spirit in the defenders.
They will die before they surrender.
[Mehmed] We have ten times their numbers.
If our men cannot win with such an advantage,
it is you who are responsible for their failure.
Are you not their commander?
Constantinople will fall, someday.
But I fear it cannot be done under these circumstances.
Make another offer for truce.
I assure you they'll accept it.
Ask for anything you want.
It will be seen as our victory.
And in return, leave them the city, for now.
And come back when they are weaker, and you are stronger.
The outcome will be inevitable.
At least allow me to draw up terms for a truce, for your approval.
Then, if you agree, we can send word to the emperor.
[Talbot] When it's going really, really badly,
there's a temptation to just pick up the camp and walk away,
as happened with so many sieges of the city in the past.
There was no guarantee that he was gonna win this.
[narrator] News of the Italian fleet gathering in the Mediterranean
is a welcome jolt of hope for the emperor in Constantinople.
-How long? -Six days at most.
Can you hold off the Turks that long?
Of course!
Lord Loukas, Lord Sphrantzes,
see to it that Lord Giustiniani has everything he needs
to defend the walls.
We must keep those Ottoman bastards at bay until the fleet arrives.
Sultan, a message.
It's urgent.
Fetch me my horse!
What is your name?
Ali.
I'm Ana.
I called my mother Ana.
Will I see her in Heaven?
Yes.
I'm sure of it.
Our Gods, they're...
they're not so different.
-Mother Mara. -My son.
I came here as soon as I received your note.
Why are you here? It's too dangerous.
I come with important news.
You must not leave the battlefield.
My court astrologers have watched the skies.
The stars have aligned, Mehmed.
So, we have this tradition of court astrologers
interpreting comets or other sorts of celestial
or meteorological occurrences,
as a sign of an Ottoman victory against their enemies.
Now, it's time to attack.
Remember what I told you long ago?
A blood moon would appear when all hope was lost?
Have you looked at the moon tonight?
Usually eclipses are considered as bad signs, bad omen.
But Ottoman astrologers interpret the occurrence of eclipses,
as a bad omen for their enemies, not for the Ottomans themselves.
[Mara] You must not doubt yourself.
Now go.
I will see you again, on your throne in Constantinople.
[Crowley] Mehmed realized it was now or never.
The signs were good.
As soon as the sultan returns, the terms must be ready.
Yes, Pasha.
For us now, horoscopes, you know, we don't all believe in it.
It's just what some people like.
Whereas in the 15th century, that was part of life.
[Talbot] Gods and holy spirits were absolutely everywhere around us,
and sometimes they manifest themselves to us.
[Philippedes] What really lowered morale in Constantinople
during the siege, was a lunar eclipse.
Dear God.
[Philippedes] They saw the blood moon as they called it.
There was a prophecy that Constantinople would fall after a lunar eclipse.
What does it mean?
Sultan, we have the terms drawn up.
Halil was still saying, let's try and cut a deal with these people,
and get a large amount of money out of them.
The troops were getting restless.
Mehmed couldn't sustain this much longer.
Have you not eyes, Pasha?
It is our time.
My brothers!
Pick yourselves up and prepare.
The prophets have spoken.
Our time is at hand.
Don't doubt it.
Don't doubt our might.
Allah will be with every one of us.
And we will take the city!
[cheering]
[Philippedes] We hear from the defenders chronicles
that the Turks were elated.
They thought it predicted the end of the city.
[cheering]
Drink up, Lords.
Soon we will fight for our lives.
[narrator] Mehmed readies his army for battle.
His destiny will be written at the walls of Constantinople.
[Candarli] Sultan, I urge you.
Do not force the matter any longer.
-If we fail-- -If we fail...
If Venetian galleys arrive with 100,000 men!
If Caesar returns from the grave to lead Constantine's troops.
There's no more time for ifs, Pasha. We must take the city.
The cost will be steep.
You have urged me to give up, Halil Pasha, time and again.
And you nearly convinced me.
But my fate is written...
as is yours.
[soldier] Sultan!
[narrator] In the wake of the blood moon
and just hours before Mehmed launches his final assault,
he's met by an apocalyptic sight.
[Crowley] Lights appeared to be shining on the roof of Hagia Sophia.
What kind of sorcery is this?
It created this incredibly hysterical atmosphere within the city,
that they could be looking at the end of the world.
[clamoring]
[sobbing]
[Talbot] The city is meant to have been protected by the Virgin Mary.
There's the story that on the last day of Constantinople,
she was seen leaving the city.
[shouting] Allah has abandoned the infidels!
[cheering]
[dramatic music plays]