This account of the siege and fall of Constantinople was written by Hermodoros Michael Kritovoulos, who was a civil servant working for Mehmed II. Continue reading
George Sphrantzes was a courtier in the Byzantine empire, serving as an important diplomat and ambassador for several emperors. Continue reading
The diary of Nicolo Barbaro is perhaps the most detailed and accurate eyewitness account of the siege and fall of Constantinople. Continue reading
The Fall of Constantinople: Bishop Leonard and the Greek Accounts By Marios Philippides Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, Vol.22 (1981)
English Refugees in the Byzantine Armed Forces: The Varangian Guard and Anglo-Saxon Ethnic Consciousness Nicholas C.J. Pappas (Sam Houston State University, 2004) One of the most interesting episodes in Byzantine military history and in medieval English history is the Anglo-Saxon … Continue reading
Strategies of Defence, Problems of Security: the Garrisons of Constantinople in the Middle Byzantine Period John Haldon Constantinople and its Hinterland: Papers from the Twenty-Seventh Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Oxford, April 1993 (1995) The title I have chosen is intended … Continue reading
Anna Comnena, the Alexiad and the First Crusade John France Reading Medieval Studies: v.10 (1984) Abstract By her own account Anna Comnena began to write the Alexiad shortly after the death of her husband, Nicephoros Bryennios, in 1137. He had … Continue reading
Foundations of Venetian Naval Strategy from Pietro II Orseoto to the Battle of Zoncho, 1000-1500 John E. Dotson Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies v.32 (2001) For Venetians during the Middle Ages the sea was life. The prosperity, the very existence, … Continue reading
Robert of Clari was a knight from Picardy who took part in the Fourth Crusade, which ended with the capture of Constantinople in 1204. Robert seems to have returned to France in 1205, since although his work contains references up … Continue reading
If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me… Continue reading
