SCENE 1:            Introduction

            Constantinople was a very well defended city and its empire had its origins in a direct line back to the Romans and Constantine the Great who founded the city as the centre of the eastern Roman Byzantine Empire in the 4^th century.

            As the western Roman Empire was overrun by barbarians from the north the eastern empire became smaller but did not capitulate, while the Greek influence in the empire became stronger creating a large centre for learning and philosophy.

            The Ottoman Empire was established on the Anatolian plateau during the 13^th century, growing from a small group of people who had fled in terror from the advancing Mongol hordes. It had grown to become a large Muslim based empire at the beginning of the renaissance.

            As the Ottoman Empire grew in strength it began to threaten the Byzantium’s based in Constantinople with colonies in both Greece and the edge of the Anatolian Peninsula. Constantinople was for the Ottomans a bottle neck, one which when broken would allow them to flood down into Europe, but this bottleneck was not so easy to dislodge.

SCENE 2:            The Defences of Constantinople, 1453

            Constantinople was a city (now called Istanbul, renamed after the Ottomans conquered it) which is situated on a triangular piece of land formed by the passage between the Sea of Marmara (leading to the Mediterranean sea through the Dardannelles) and the Bosphoros (connecting the Sea of Marmara to the Black sea)

This land is bordered by two stretches of water (one inlet and one channel) and one stretch of land which was easily defended.

            The very heavily fortified walls, huge metal chains laid across the harbour and the massive superiority of the Byzantine/Greek defenders coupled with naval force gave them a huge advantage over any attacker.

            A 100 foot ditch was dug along the 6 mile long triple wall making the city almost impregnable

            The city was defended by men using small arms such as muskets etc but they did not have a large supply of gunpowder. They did not dare use cannons for they might shake the foundations of the walls

            Rocky soil helped prevent the use of mines to undermine the walls.

SCENE 3: The Siege

            The Ottomans attacked the city in 1453 under Mehmed II with so many troops that the Christians (Greeks and Byzantiums) were out numbered 20 to 1.

            This was the first siege of a city in which cannons were used in a large way but these were only able to fire 7 shots a day. Near the end of the siege they were to have a decisive impact on the battle.

            The Ottomans first tried directly assaulting the walls and filling up the ditches with logs and wood but the Greeks always managed to clear all the fillings by morning.

            The Ottoman fleet number almost 300 but was made up of light ships which were lightly armoured and fairly slow. When the Greeks were running low on supplies a fleet was sent from Greece to bring in supplies and contained only 5 Greek warships. These 5 warships managed to burn up and destroy the entire Ottoman fleet of 300 ships (mainly troop carriers) and relieve the besieged city

            The Ottomans tried digging mines under the walls but were always repelled and forced back by the Greeks mainly because the ground was so rocky it was almost impossible to dig the mines at any reasonable speed.

            It seemed as if the siege would never end

SCENE 4: The final battle

            After all their failures the Ottomans almost gave up hope but then decided on a new and totally different plan.

            They carried a new fleet over land to the end of the inlet that was one of the sides of Constantinople and launched it into the inlet where it was shallow and the Greek deep sea ships could not sail.

            By night a bridge was created across the inlet using the ships and attacked the city simultaneously from the wall with an artillery barrage which open multiple holes in the walls.

            The Greeks/Christians could not hold a double attack as they were now outnumbered about 50/100 to one

            Many of the dignitaries fled into the church to “be delivered by an angel of god holding a flaming sword” but the Ottomans captured them.

SCENE 5:            The beginning of the Renaissance

            Many of the Greek scholars and learned men fled to Italy before and after the battle where they set up schools of learning which resembled those in Constantinople. This fact is as some say one of the initiating features of the renaissance. Even before the fall of their great city the Greeks had been travelling to Europe and in particular Venice to try and get aid from the Roman church. Many Italian scholars had also travelled to Constantinople to learn from the extensive libraries and work stored there. This awakened the Italians to their classical origins and created an urge to recover what had been lost.

SCENE 6:            The Demise of the Feudal system

            Another explanation for the development of the Renaissance is said to have developed is the appearance of the Black Plague in Mainland Europe. This helped begin the demise of the present feudal system because the peasant population base around which the feudal system was so dependent diminished in rapid proportions creating a new middle class in the society. The feudal system worked in the way that the king was given protection by his nobles in exchange for their land which was run by the peasants. The destruction of this age-old system led to a total restructuring of the social system which could be said to have been one of the major factors which led to the social changes of the Renaissance Revolution.

            One of the most noted places in which this social change occurred was in the city of Florence and Italy in general where the people over threw the aristocracy and created Republics and non-feudal governments. This being so most of the rest of Europe then returned to the old feudal system and the difference in stability between Italy and the rest of Europe was noticeable.

SCENE 7:            What was the Renaissance?

            The word Renaissance is a French word meaning re-birth and that is literally what it refers to. It refers to a re-birth of arts and culture into Europe after the Middle Ages that basically passed by without the arts. The word Renaissance is often interpreted however as two things. Firstly it is often interpreted as everything that occurred during the Renaissance Period such as the wars fought, governments that ruled and colonies settled. But Renaissance also refers to the actual revolution, which lay solely in the arts and focused around one of the city-states of Italy, Florence. This revolution was the resurgence of creative study and the glorification of artists, painters and sculptures instead of them being treated as baggage in the community. This revolution really only effected the higher parts of the social ladder and the peasants were still too poor to enjoy such luxuries.

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