The Fall of Byzantium – Oral and Written Tradition

The Ottoman conquest of Byzantium in 1453 resonated far more profoundly in Western Europe than the city’s diminished political significance as a Turkish vassal state would seemingly justify. This heightened reaction was due to the symbolic importance of the event and the brutal, protracted siege marked by tragic and heroic events. In addition to the historically verified facts acknowledged by scholarly research, a rich body of legend emerged. In my paper, I examine data concerning the fates of the female members of the imperial family, as well as the origins of the narrative concerning Gertuka, an alleged traitor executed by the Sultan. These stories are legendary and lack historical basis: Emperor Constantine XI was a childless widower, the figure of Gertuka can be traced to Lukas Notaras megas dux preserving only a distorted version of the name. Certain later historical works report the deaths of both Gertuka and Notaras, without realizing that they refer to the same person. In my paper, I argue that these legendary elements did not emerge through a slow and gradual distortion of genuine events; rather, they were already present in the sources dating back to 1453 (e.g. at Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, the Armenian kolophons, Jan Dlugosz, and perhaps Nestor Iskander) Their emergence can be attributed to the lack of information – an unavoidable consequence of war. The memory of battlefield rumours persisted, and later crystallized in the 16th and 17th centuries into complex narratives that significantly shaped the modern legacy of Byzantium.