How Historically Accurate is the Rise of Empires: Ottoman Series

Rise of Empires: Ottoman is a docudrama based on the events of 1453 that led to the conquest of Constantinople, then ruled by the Byzantine Empire, by the Ottoman Empire. The series follows Mehmed II (the Conqueror), the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, who tries to create a name for himself in the history books by conquering the famed Byzantine capital of Constantinople , which had never been conquered despite more than twenty attempts by foreign armies. On the other side, Constantine XI leads the Byzantines as they defend the city.

Plot

In the beginning of 1453, Mehmed II has become impatient to conquer Constantinople. He had studied Alexander the Great and others and realized they accomplished many of their great feats at a young age. He wants to be like them and have a lasting conquest that can shape his empire and his legacy. The series looks at the events through 1453 and until the fall of the city in May 29 1453, but various flashbacks during the life o Mehmed II and how he grew up and was shaped by events around him are explored. Mehmed had come to power at a young age (12 years of age), only to then relinquish the throne back to his father at the age of 14, who had earlier retired. At the age of 21, he was back in power and eager to prove himself, as his he was forced to give up the throne in his earlier years because he was seen as unready and too rash to make good decisions. Nevertheless, he always wanted to conquer Constantinople, despite his chief adviser or grand vizier Çandarlı Halil Pasha telling him otherwise. In fact, it is suggested that most Ottoman notables thought conquering Constantinople would be too costly at a time when the empire had other enemies to think about. Constantinople still had its great walls build by Theodosius II in the 6th century. Initially, Constantine XI tries to see what the new Sultan was like, but he learns very quickly that Mehmed II fully intends to capture Constantinople. This leads to Constantine obtaining a group of mercenaries to help protect the city, led by Giovanni Giustiniani Longo, a Genoese nobleman and captain.

On Easter, April 6, 1453, Mehmed's army arrives at Constantinople. Mehmed had a new plan to take the city that had eluded earlier attempts, including by his own father (Murad II), which included using canons, among the earliest sieges to deploy canons, and a new large canon made by Orban, who may have been a Hungarian canon maker. We see various flashbacks of Mehmed as he prepares to attack the city, including that of his childhood where he was taken away from his birth mother and raised by a step-mother. He was educated in several languages, including Greek and Arabic, and had known Serbian in addition to his native Turkish. He was also educated in history as part of his training to become Sultan. Initially, he was not in line to be the first on the throne, but the deaths of his eldest brother led him to be the next Sultan. Initially, the attack on Constantinople scared the Byzantines because they had not expected the canons, particularly the large canon deployed against the city. It seemed that the walls of Constantinople would eventually come down, but this prompted the Byzantines to mount a raid using the Genoese mercenaries who were battle-hardened knights. They effectively raided and fought off Janissaries, elite Ottoman troops who likely were one of Europe's first full-time standing army after the Romans. Through the first two weeks, the Ottomans try to bombard and raid to attack the city and even undermine the walls; however, all these attempts fail. The Ottoman large canon backfires and is destroyed. Their undermining attempts were stopped by counter-mining efforts. The Genoese knights successfully fought off Janissarie attempts to attack the walls. Finally, what also lowered the moral of the Ottomans was the successful penetration of Genoese ships around the Ottoman siege, where three ships, with only two being war ships, were able to go through the Ottoman blockade.

Mehmed thought of a bold plan to bring his ships around a large chain blocking Constantinople's port and the area known as the Golden Horn. He wanted to life his ships out of the Bosphorus and place them in the Golden Horn where the Byzantine ships were. This would force the Byzantines to then have to defend the sea-facing side of the city as well as the land-facing side. At this point, there were probably less than 7000 defenders against the Ottoman army that may have been ten times this size.