Ascension of Constantine XI

Date: January 6, 1449 • Location: Fatih, Turkey

Four years before the fall of Constantinople, Constantine XI Palaiologos (pictured) assumed the throne as the last Byzantine emperor.

Constantinople, the capital city of the Byzantine Empire, was captured by the Ottoman Empire on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 53-day siege which had begun on 6 April.