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Graitzas Palaiologos
Konstantinos Graitzas Palaiologos () was the commander of the Byzantine garrison at Castle Salmeniko near Patras during the invasion of the Despotate of Morea by the forces of Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire in 1460–61. Graitzas descended from an obscure part of the Palaiologos family, but showed more valor than his distant relatives, namely the siblings and co-ruling despotes Thomas Palaiologos and Demetrios Palaiologos. Whereas Thomas fled to Modon, Corfu, and finally to Rome as a refugee, his brother Demetrios surrendered outright to the Sultan. Meanwhile, Graitzas maintained his position, holding his redoubt until July 1461, nearly 8 years after the Conquest of Constantinople. Mehmed the Conqueror commanded the attack personally. The elite Janissaries managed to subdue the town by severing its water supply. Its remaining residents (approximately 6000) were sold into slavery, with 900 children chosen to be drafted to the Devşirme.Stefanos Thomopoulos, History of the city ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th centuryAD, it endured until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The term 'Byzantine Empire' was coined only after its demise; its citizens used the term 'Roman Empire' and called themselves 'Romans'. During the early centuries of the Roman Empire, the western provinces were Romanization (cultural), Latinised, but the eastern parts kept their Hellenistic culture. Constantine the Great, Constantine I () legalised Christianity and moved the capital to Constantinople. Theodosius I, Theodosius I () made Christianity the state religion and Greek gradually replaced Latin for official use. The empire adopted a defensive strategy and, throughout its remaining history, expe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fall Of Constantinople
The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city was captured on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 55-day siege which had begun on 6 April. The attacking Army of the classical Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Army, which significantly outnumbered Constantinople's defenders, was commanded by the 21-year-old List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, Mehmed II (later nicknamed "the Conqueror"), while the Byzantine army (Palaiologan era), Byzantine army was led by List of Byzantine emperors, Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos. After conquering the city, Mehmed II made Constantinople the new Ottoman capital, replacing Edirne, Adrianople. The fall of Constantinople and of the Byzantine Empire was a watershed of the Late Middle Ages, marking the effective end of the Roman Empire, a state which began in roughly 27 BC and had la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
15th-century Byzantine Military Personnel
The 15th century was the century which spans the Julian calendar dates from 1 January 1401 (represented by the Roman numerals MCDI) to 31 December 1500 (MD). In Europe, the 15th century includes parts of the Late Middle Ages, the Early Renaissance, and the early modern period. Many technological, social and cultural developments of the 15th century can in retrospect be seen as heralding the " European miracle" of the following centuries. The architectural perspective, and the modern fields which are known today as banking and accounting were founded in Italy. The Hundred Years' War ended with a decisive French victory over the English in the Battle of Castillon. Financial troubles in England following the conflict resulted in the Wars of the Roses, a series of dynastic wars for the throne of England. The conflicts ended with the defeat of Richard III by Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth Field, establishing the Tudor dynasty in the later part of the century. Constantino ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palaiologos Dynasty
The House of Palaiologos ( Palaiologoi; , ; female version Palaiologina; ), also found in English-language literature as Palaeologus or Palaeologue, was a Byzantine Greek noble family that rose to power and produced the last and longest-ruling dynasty in the history of the Roman Empire. Their rule as Byzantine emperors lasted almost two hundred years, from 1259 to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The origins of the family are unclear. Their own medieval origin stories ascribed them an ancient and prestigious origin in ancient Roman Italy, descended from some of the Romans that had accompanied Constantine the Great to Constantinople upon its foundation in 330. It is more likely that they originated significantly later in Anatolia since the earliest known member of the family, possibly its founder, Nikephoros Palaiologos, served as a commander there in the second half of the 11th century. Over the course of the 12th century, the Palaiologoi were mostly part of the military ari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prosopographisches Lexikon Der Palaiologenzeit
The ''Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit'' ( German: " Prosopographical Lexicon of the Palaiologan era"), abbreviated ''PLP'', is a German-language reference work on the people of the last two centuries of the Byzantine Empire, from 1261 until the Fall of Constantinople The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city was captured on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 55-da ... in 1453, when the Empire was governed by the Palaiologos dynasty. It was published between 1976 and 1995 by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, under the direction of , with the cooperation of Rainer Walther, Hans-Veit Beyer, Katja Sturm-Schnabl, , Sokrates Kaplaneres and Ioannis Leontiadis. It consists of 15 volumes: 12 main volumes, 2 appendix and errata volumes and 1 index volume. In 2001, the PLP was launched online as a subscription-based service ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steven Runciman
Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman (7 July 1903 – 1 November 2000), known as Steven Runciman, was an English historian best known for his three-volume '' A History of the Crusades'' (1951–54). His works had a profound impact on the popular conception of the Crusades. Biography Born in Northumberland, he was the second son of Walter and Hilda Runciman. His parents were members of the Liberal Party and the first married couple to sit simultaneously in Parliament. His father was created Viscount Runciman of Doxford in 1937. His paternal grandfather, Walter Runciman, 1st Baron Runciman, was a shipping magnate. He was named after his maternal grandfather, James Cochran Stevenson, the MP for South Shields. Eton and Cambridge Runciman said that he started reading Greek at the age of seven or eight. Later he came to be able to make use of sources in other languages as well: Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Hebrew, Syriac, Armenian and Georgian. A King's Scholar at Eton College, h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald Nicol
Donald MacGillivray Nicol, (4 February 1923 – 25 September 2003) was an English Byzantinist. Life Nicol was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, to a Church of Scotland minister, and received a classical education at King Edward VII School in Sheffield and St Paul's School in London. Registering as a conscientious objector in 1941, he served in 1942–1946 in the Friends' Ambulance Unit, with which he first visited Greece in 1944–1945, visiting Ioannina and the Meteora monasteries. After his wartime experiences, Nicol matriculated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, to read classics, graduating in 1949. He then returned to Greece in 1949–1950 as a member of the British School at Athens. During this time, he also visited Mount Athos, spending Easter 1949 at the Hilandar Monastery, and revisited Meteora. In 1950, Nicol married Joan Mary Campbell, with whom he had three sons. He completed his doctoral thesis at Cambridge in 1952. The thesis, on the medieval Despotate of Epirus, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General
A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED Online. March 2021. Oxford University Press. https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/77489?rskey=dCKrg4&result=1 (accessed May 11, 2021) The adjective ''general'' had been affixed to officer designations since the late medieval period to indicate relative superiority or an extended jurisdiction. French Revolutionary system Arab system Other variations Other nomenclatures for general officers include the titles and ranks: * Adjutant general * Commandant-General, Commandant-general * Inspector general * General-in-chief * General of the Air Force (USAF only) * General of the Armies, General of the Armies of the United States (of America), a title created for General John J. Pershing, and subsequently grante ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naupactus
Nafpaktos () or Naupactus, is a town and a former Communities and Municipalities of Greece, municipality in Nafpaktia, Aetolia-Acarnania, West Greece, situated on a bay on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth, west of the mouth of the river Mornos. It is named for Naupaktos (, Latinized as ''Naupactus''), an important Ancient Athens, Athenian naval station in the Peloponnesian war. As a strategically crucial possession controlling access to the Gulf of Corinth, Naupaktos changed hands many times during the Crusades and the Ottoman–Venetian Wars. It was under Republic of Venice, Venetian control in the 15th century, and came to be known by the Venetian language, Venetian form of its name, Lepanto. It fell to the Ottoman Empire Ottoman–Venetian War (1499–1503), in 1499 and was used as a naval station by the Ottoman Navy in the 16th century, being the site of the decisive victory by the Holy League (1571), Holy League in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Except for a brief peri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Republic Of Venice
The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 by Paolo Lucio Anafesto, over the course of its History of the Republic of Venice, 1,100 years of history it established itself as one of the major European commercial and naval powers. Initially extended in the ''Dogado'' area (a territory currently comparable to the Metropolitan City of Venice), during its history it annexed a large part of Northeast Italy, Istria, Dalmatia, the coasts of present-day Montenegro and Albania as well as numerous islands in the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and eastern Ionian Sea, Ionian seas. At the height of its expansion, between the 13th and 16th centuries, it also governed Crete, Cyprus, the Peloponnese, a number of List of islands of Greece, Greek islands, as well as several cities and ports in the eastern Me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Devşirme
Devshirme (, usually translated as "child levy" or "blood tax", , .) was the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman practice of Conscription, forcibly recruiting soldiers and bureaucrats from among the children of their Balkan Christian subjects and raising them in the religion of Islam. Those coming from the Balkans came primarily from nobility, noble Balkan families and rayah classes. It is first mentioned in written records in 1438, but probably started earlier. It created a faction of soldiers and officials loyal to the Ottoman Sultan, Sultan. It counterbalanced the Turkish nobility, who sometimes opposed the Sultan. The system produced a considerable number of grand viziers from the 15th century to the 17th century. This was the second most powerful position in the Ottoman Empire, after the sultan. Initially, the grand viziers were exclusively of Turk origin, but after there were troubles between Sultan Mehmed II and the Turkish grand vizier Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Younger, who was the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Janissaries
A janissary (, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops. They were the first modern standing army, and perhaps the first infantry force in the world to be equipped with firearms, adopted during the reign of Murad II (r. 1421–1444, 1446–1451). The corps was established under either Orhan or Murad I, and dismantled by Mahmud II in 1826. Janissaries began as elite corps made up through the '' devşirme'' system of child levy enslavement, by which indigenous European Christian boys, chiefly from the Balkans, were taken, levied, subjected to forced circumcision and forced conversion to Islam, and incorporated into the Ottoman army. They became famed for internal cohesion cemented by strict discipline and order. Unlike typical slaves, they were paid regular salaries. Forbidden to marry before the age of 40 or engage in trade, their complete loyalty to the Ottoman sultan was expected. By the 17th century, due to a drama ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
