[man clears throat]
Sultana Mara, the sultan has arrived.
Here?
Uh... um,
um... I mean... no, I...
He waits in the Assembly Room.
[laughs]
Tell the sultan I'll join him as swiftly as my feet will carry me.
Thank you, Sultana.
[Dr. Marios Philippides] Mara Brankovic is one of the chief
personalities of the 15th century.
Mehmed had the utmost respect for her,
she was crucial.
She was related to everybody,
the royal family of,
uh, Constantinople, uh,
the ruling family of Serbia,
and all her contacts in the West.
She was the link between the Slavic world,
the Greek world, the Ottoman world,
and the Western world.
[Mara] Mehmed...
how I've longed to see you!
Mother Mara.
[door closes]
What is it?
When I came here as a small child, you treated me as your own.
Kind words,
before... something darker?
I'm releasing you from the harem.
Now that my father is gone, I owe you your freedom.
You wish me gone?
[Mehmed] Of course not,
but it's time for you to return to Serbia and your family.
I've arranged a unit of Janissaries to escort you home at week's end.
[Mara] You can't do this!
My family's here!
My place is here,
serving you.
You will serve me, in the Balkans.
I need you, Mother Mara.
Who else can I trust without doubt?
Despite having the options to retire into obscurity after Murad's death,
Mara Brankovic becomes a very important advisor in Mehmed's court.
You will be my voice and my ears in the West as the hour draws near.
Constantinople?
-So soon? -It has to be.
If I fail, I lose my throne,
and maybe my life.
But with it, Mother Mara,
I will become the new Caesar.
[horse neighs]
Then please,
before I leave, take my counsel...
Study the failures of your father,
and those that came before him.
Their defeats will inform your triumph
at the gates of Constantinople.
[narrator] Every empire has a beginning forged of blood,
steel, fortune and conquest.
In 1453, Roman Emperor Constantine XI,
and Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II,
wage an epic battle for Constantinople.
Twenty three Armies have tried to take the legendary city,
all have failed.
Out of the carnage,
one ruler will emerge victorious
and change the course of history
for the next 300 years.
For one empire to rise...
another must fall.
[soldiers screaming]
[men screaming in distance]
[narrator] For two weeks, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II
bombards Constantinople with the largest artillery attack
the world has ever seen.
[screams]
Mehmed sends his elite troops into the teeth
of Emperor Constantine's defenses,
along the city's ancient stone walls.
[yelling]
The defenders, led by Italian soldier-of-fortune,
Giovanni Giustiniani,
repel every attack.
Mmm-argh!
[narrator] The walls are still standing,
but the battle for Constantinople is being fought on multiple fronts.
If we think about the geography of Constantinople,
water surrounds it on pretty much all its sides.
And so, there needs to be a force on water
to take control of the city's, um, surroundings...
And that front is really, really worrying,
and potentially catastrophic for the course of the siege.
[narrator] Constantinople is considered the best defended city
in the medieval world.
But there is a chink in its armor.
The weaker, poorly defended seaward walls along the Golden Horn.
An inlet on the city's Northeastern side.
The entrance to the Golden Horn has one protector...
a massive, half mile long cast-iron chain.
[Lars Brownworth] The Turks have this massive navy,
but they can't get into the Golden Horn
because there's this great chain stretching from the Acropolis,
all the way to the Genovese colony,
the tower of Galata.
[Dr. Emrah Safa Gürkan] So, if an enemy ship comes,
they used to stretch the chain,
so this chain will impede their entrance,
and the navy behind that will fire the ships
because they can't move.
If a friendly ship comes then they will lower the chain so that they could enter.
[narrator] The Roman Navy is small,
less than 30 ships,
but safe inside the harbor of the Golden Horn.
Mehmed has studied the 23 failed sieges.
Without control of the sea lanes,
victory is virtually impossible.
His new 126-ship navy has been probing the Roman defenses
of the Golden Horn for weeks.
[Talbot] The Ottomans kind of had this bad reputation
for not being very seafaring.
There was always this idea that, um, the Ottomans are very much land based,
and naval stuff was for the Greeks.
Whereas actually, Mehmed invests heavily in a navy,
not least because there's also the risk the Byzantines might be helped
by naval forces coming from the Italian states.
So, there's this naval aspect to the siege that's often forgotten.
[narrator] In mid-April, the Ottomans receive word of Genoese warships
approaching from the Mediterranean in the West.
[Baltaoglu] They will be here in three days.
Two, if the winds are favorable.
[Candarli] Just the first of many Christian fleets, I fear.
Last night's attack was a disaster.
The Romans and their Italian mercenaries are laughing at us.
They were lucky, Sultan.
Baltaoglu Pasha,
I cannot afford another embarrassment like that.
I have put under your command the largest fleet in our history.
The Genoese ships must not reach the city under any circumstance, Admiral.
I promise you, Sultan,
we will send the Genoese to the bottom of the sea.
The scorpion fish will... [whispers] pick their bones clean.
[chuckles]
I have no doubt you will be victorious.
But, should you fail,
I'll feed you to the scorpion fish.
[narrator] The Genoese Navy is among the most feared in the world.
The man tasked with stopping them is Mehmed's top admiral,
Baltaoglu Suleyman.
Baltaoglu, nicknamed "Son of a Battle Axe,"
has built a reputation as a fearless warrior
during his years in the elite Janissary corps.
[exclaims]
His orders are to stop the Genoese from reaching Constantinople at all costs.
But he'll be battling more than the Italian warships.
The Sea of Marmara is renowned for its treacherous winds and currents.
Baltaoglu anxiously awaits the enemy ships.
The Genoese fleet has been sent by the pope.
An answer to Emperor Constantine's prayers,
and critical to his defense of the city.
The warships enter the Sea of Marmara on April the 20th,
putting them on a collision course with the Ottoman naval blockade.
[men yelling]
[indistinct chatter]
[Brownworth] Four Christian ships appear on the horizon.
Three ships bring supplies from the pope,
archers and men,
and then one ship bringing much needed food.
In God's grace, I said they would come.
In God's grace, they are not here... yet.
They are Genoese, Lord Loukas.
Sit down and enjoy the show.
[Brownworth] So the four ships are sailing,
and the Turkish admiral gets his ships into position.
-[men yelling] -[banging]
Hmm...
just four?
Surely there are more.
This will be over by dinner.
[narrator] On the land wall side of the city,
the stalemate between the Roman defenders and the Ottoman Army continues.
Mehmed's land forces open another front
against Constantinople's seemingly impenetrable walls.
If they can't break through them...
they will go under them.
[shouting] Come on,
you lazy bastards,
dig!
[narrator] Mehmed's mining operation
is led by hundreds of Serbian silver miners.
[Philippides] Mehmed had sappers, as they called them back then,
miners, who were from Serbia,
who dug tunnels under the walls,
to weaken the walls, so they could fall down.
[Talbot] The Ottomans were digging tunnels
underneath the walls to undermine, what's where the word comes from,
the walls of the city by then setting off some gunpowder,
causing them to collapse.
Or setting a fire underneath, and then that would have the same effect,
therefore causing the walls to fall down.
[narrator] But Emperor Constantine and the Romans
have an answer to the miners.
John Grant.
A Scottish soldier with a very particular skill set.
[Talbot] John Grant is this interesting figure,
and pretty much for all of history,
you will find a random British person involved in pretty much every war.
And it's always,
well, more often than not, Scots.
Because they just, for some reason,
have that martial gene, I don't know.
Grant has this reputation as being an engineer,
and his skills are called into use during the siege from the Byzantine side,
because of the use of mines.
In order to stop this, you have the counter-mining process.
So you have another bunch of guys digging under the ground,
trying to listen out for the first bunch of guys digging around.
[Philippides] Grant had a very simple strategy.
He put barrels with water,
and he observed the waves on the water,
and he was able to locate those mines.
Lads, you're on!
[narrator] Over a period of days and weeks,
the Serbian miners clandestinely tunnel from the Ottoman trenches
to the city walls.
[Grant] Quick!
If they reach these walls, they'll come crashing down
and these big filthy Turk bastards will have our balls for breakfast!
[explosion]
[all] Ahh!
[narrator] Baltaoglu and the Ottoman Navy
are all that stands between the Genoese fleet
and safe harbor in the Golden Horn.
[all grunting]
[narrator] But first, they must stop the bigger and faster sailing ships.
The Ottoman sailors pick up the pace,
bringing their archers within firing distance of the Genoese sails.
The dying winds slow the Genoese warships.
They are now sitting ducks for the approaching Ottomans.
[man] Pull!
[men] Pull!
[man] Pull!
[men] Pull!
Prepare the archers!
Ready!
Fire!
Take cover!
[shouting]
Put out the fires!
[men shouting]
Yeah!
[shouting]
Ready?
Aim for the sails!
Fire!
They will never survive this.
Don't despair yet.
We just need the winds to pick up.
[shouting]
[Baltaoglu] Go on! Go on!
Go on!
Come on, boys, come on!
-Pull! -[Baltaoglu] Put your backs into it!
They're slowing down!
[man] Help!
[men] Pull!
[narrator] With no wind, the galleons sails go limp,
allowing the smaller oared boats of the Ottomans to close the gap.
Finish them, Baltaoglu.
[narrator] Outside the Western walls of Constantinople,
the Serbian miners continue tunneling towards the city.
[Grant] We're close, boys!
I smell a rat!
-[man coughing] -[dirt tumbling]
Hello, you wee shite!
Go!
[Grant] Light 'em up, lads!
[men screaming]
[screaming]
[narrator] John Grant torches the tunnels with Greek Fire,
an ancient version of napalm
that adheres to whatever it touches and burns for hours.
[cheering]
[narrator] Dozens of Mehmed's miners are killed,
and the walls of Constantinople remain standing.
In the Sea of Marmara, the winds have died completely.
Time is running out on the stranded Genoese fleet,
as the Ottoman warships close in.
They are coming!
Lash the ships together!
[men shouting]
The Christians eventually tie themselves together,
and make kind of this floating castle,
and it looks like a sitting duck.
But the Christian ships have an advantage that they are higher,
they can fire down on the Ottoman ships.
Prepare to board!
Yah!
[Baltaoglu] Argh!
Kill them all!
[screams]
The Ottomans had these, what's called Hadirika,
they are ordinary boats.
Whereas the Europeans had the galleons already.
So, when a Hadirika comes next to a galleon, you have to climb to it.
It's much easier for them to kill you, than it is for you to kill them.
[grunts]
[screaming]
[grunts]
[screams]
Go!
Sink them, Baltaoglu, do it now!
Come on.
[wind blowing]
[screams]
[grunts]
Go!
Move!
[screams]
[narrator] Amidst the chaos,
Baltaoglu is gravely wounded.
The fickle winds of the Marmara intervene once again...
No.
...filling the sails of the Genoese ships.
It is now a last desperate sprint to the Golden Horn.
With many of his men dead or wounded,
Baltaoglu falls further and further behind the fleeing Genoese fleet.
Quickly, men!
Before they make it to the Golden Horn!
[Brownworth] Both sides give as good as they get,
but eventually these four ships managed to make it all the way to the chain,
the chain is lowered and they get through.
Uh, and it's really a morale booster for the besieged people.
[cheering]
What a glorious day!
God has smiled upon us!
Bring me Baltaoglu.
[Sengör] A hundred and forty piece Ottoman Navy
could not stop just four Genoese vessels,
only three of which were military.
And Mehmed was beside himself, he was so upset, rightly so.
[laughter]
The Holy Spirit has saved us today.
Hooray!
As long as the Spirit is here,
the walls will hold!
Hooray!
Sultan!
We brought Suleyman Pasha.
Perhaps the Ottomans will finally learn their place.
Yeah!
Perhaps, but the sultan is proud and has lost much in both men and pride.
He will want something for his pains.
Then let him kneel before the emperor, and beg for it!
Yeah!
Still it would be prudent to remember the temperament of the man.
If we helped him save face...
offer some sort of truce?
-A truce? -God is only truce!
Sultan!
Take it to him yourself, Lord Loukas,
if you like him so much.
[laughter]
Have faith, Loukas, God has spoken.
Mehmed will lead his dogs home with their tail between their legs!
Yeah!
[heavy breathing]
I'll behead you right here.
Tell me why not?
I have failed you, Sultan.
Forgive me.
You made a fool of me.
You're a coward!
Say what you will, Sultan,
but I am no coward.
I would have gladly died on my ship,
and I will gladly die here by your sword.
Any fault is mine.
Punish me, Sultan,
but forgive my men.
We fought till we could fight no more.
-Argh! -Show him mercy, Sultan!
This is an honorable man who has proven himself a loyal soldier
in countless battles.
He has lost an eye for you.
[Crowley] Mehmed was used to making examples of people.
The Admiral, Baltaoglu,
failed to win a sea battle just off the walls,
and Mehmed had him
singled out in front of the whole army,
and he was, uh, going to be executed.
This kind of concentrated the minds of everybody else,
that you could not fail,
and the sultan was watching you.
[sailor] Sultan!
Have mercy for your commander.
I fought with Suleyman Pasha in Bulgaria, he is a good man.
I will sacrifice my life for his.
[Janissary guard] And mine!
He fought like a true warrior.
[shouting] You dare challenge your supreme leader?
I should have you all impaled!
Mercy is noble, Sultan.
Mercy is noble.
Give him 100 lashings.
You are merciful, Sultan.
How bad is he?
Lady Therma?
I only hope we can give them a decent burial.
Your bandage is filthy.
I've been a little preoccupied.
Let me clean the wound, before it festers.
This might be painful.
I can take it.
Mara, news from Constantinople.
[narrator] Word of Mehmed's setback outside the walls of Constantinople
reaches the Balkans.
What is it, sister?
[narrator] His stepmother, Mara, now lives in the palace of her father,
the Serbian ruler Durad Brankovic,
who has a fragile peace treaty with the Ottomans.
[General Stefan] Lord, we can send an army now.
The Ottomans are bogged down outside Constantinople.
The Wallachians would be with us as well.
[narrator] The Serbs and Hungarians are longtime rivals of the Ottomans.
The Hungarians launched a crusade against Mehmed
nine years earlier during his first reign.
They remain a constant threat.
What of the Catholics and the pope?
There is word of an army of 40 Italian ships
gathering in the Aegean.
They could reach the city within a month.
This is--
[Mara] General Stefan.
What is it, daughter?
I wasn't aware you were visiting.
Nothing to be concerned about.
I hear worrying rumors of much bloodshed in Constantinople.
Rumors are always rife, my dear.
Was there something you wanted?
Please, continue.
Get me a messenger now.
He must make haste to Constantinople.
[narrator] After nearly three weeks of fighting,
the siege of Constantinople is at a crossroads.
Mehmed must decide to withdraw and cut his losses, or change tactics.
A larger question hangs heavy over his camp.
Does he still have the loyalty of his troops?
[Gürkan] The morale was low on the Ottoman camp,
propagated by the defeatist elements in the army.
But it was quite possible if the siege took too long,
there was gonna be reinforcements coming from the West.
Then you would've been doomed.
Taking Constantinople would be near impossible for Alexander, or Caesar.
Near, but not impossible.
With their entire armies mustered at the city walls.
Speaking in hypotheticals.
It won't be hypothetical if we lose the faith of our men.
Pasha, I can assure you--
What you need right now, is to turn defeat into victory!
Offer terms for a truce to end the siege.
The emperor would be a fool not to embrace it in the circumstances.
You are in a position to demand concessions,
that no other sultan has achieved.
Taxes, increased borders, territory--
But not the city!
It's a clear victory regardless.
-Maybe back in your day-- -Enough!
[neighs]
From the Serbian court, for the sultan's eyes only.
My stepmother warns of conspiracy from the Balkan states.
We must act quickly.
I agree.
Mehmed, he's young and headstrong.
He wants to do something that really captures the imagination.
But people like Candarli, they're bureaucrats:
"Let's have more peace talks," "We need to be cautious with our neighbors,"
"Let's not jeopardize what we've already got."
Capturing the imagination is all very well, but how much does it cost?
Halil Pasha, I'll consider your suggestion.
That will be all, thank you.
Zagonos Pasha come with me.
[Woodwin] Because if Mehmed fails with this idea that he can take the city,
what would happen then?
[narrator] With rumors of a looming attack from the West,
spies secretly back-channel between the Roman and Ottoman courts.
You grew up playing on the walls,
when the slave master wasn't looking.
So don't tell me you don't know a hidden way out of the city.
But it's too dangerous outside the walls.
Turks are everywhere.
Have I not paid you well?
Found a placement in the palace?
Let me take your message. No one sees a girl like me.
It's a sensitive matter.
I must tend to it personally.
There is...
there is the old cistern system.
Take me there.
[Ana] I used to come down here to play when I was alone.
I've never shown it to anyone else.
[Loukas] I chose you well, my dear girl.
You've had courage in your veins for longer than most warriors.
This way.
[narrator] The ancient cisterns snaking beneath Constantinople
provide a covert way outside the city.
[Ana] We are a quarter of a mile outside the Ottoman camp.
[Loukas] Okay.
Go back to the city.
If the Ottomans see you they will kill you on the spot.
I can deal with them.
Go back.
[Loukas sighs] Hey...
go, child.
[soldier] Stop! Who are you, and what's your business here?
I'm a Roman nobleman with news that could help your cause.
[soldier] Then why you kneel down like a slave huh?
[Loukas sighs]
If you knew who I was, soldier,
you would speak to me with a little more respect.
Argh!
[door opens]
Wake up.
Wake up, you old Greek.
[Loukas groans]
Oh, I've died and gone to hell.
I would choose my words wisely, Lord Notaras.
I'm the only reason you are still alive.
Are you here to defect?
Hardly.
I'm here for business.
[laughs]
I'm here... to discuss terms for truce.
By the order of the emperor?
Leave him to me.
Tell me your offer?
I will tell you what Mehmed should offer.
Your attempts to take the city have failed.
Your army will mutiny soon,
and your young sultan will pay for defeat with his life.
The same could be said about your emperor and his Italian mercenaries.
Constantine is a fair man,
and he is wise enough to know when to stop.
And Mehmed is my sultan.
Ah, then...
talk sense into him.
End this siege before a unified Christian army shows up at these gates.
If they come.
We both know it's just a matter of time.
And if your sultan does not back down,
we all lose.
What terms do you suggest?
[narrator] Pressure mounts to offer the Romans a truce.
Mehmed is running out of time to find a way into Constantinople.
[Murad, voice echoing] One day,
when I die,
this will be yours again.
This sword has seen too many battles to count.
But heed this, my son...
Every great leader...
has such a weapon
imbued with legacy
and legend...
and hope.
But what sustains an empire
is not just its weapons.
It takes wisdom,
and loyalty...
strategy...
and instinct.
Ultimately, Mehmed,
it is your mind
that will win the fight.
Fetch me my cartographer and a scribe!
[Goodwin] Mehmed has that thing that Napoleon had.
He has a pizzazz, and he has luck,
and he has a kind of sense of destiny riding with him.
Somehow everything that Mehmed does,
the timing is right.
Zagonas Pasha, I have discovered a way to get our ships into the Golden Horn,
but we must do it now.
I would move heaven and Earth for you, Sultan, but how?
What I say must not leave this tent.
You cannot tell a soul until the plan is set in motion.
You have my undying loyalty, Sultan, you know that.
Look... [breathing heavily]
If the infidels are forced to defend an attack from the Golden Horn,
and spread their forces,
the land walls will be vulnerable.
Yeah, but the chains. I mean, it's impossible.
So we go round the chain.
I... I don't understand, Sultan, you want to move the army?
I want to move the navy...
over land.
[dramatic music playing]