Constantinople (Fourth Crusade).
The city was besieged July 7, 1203, by the French and Venetian Crusaders under Count Thibaut de Champagne. After a feeble defence, it was surrendered July 18, by the Usurper, Alexius, and occupied by the Crusaders, who restored Isaac Angelus to the throne, and withdrew.
In January 1204 the Crusaders again laid siege to Constantinople, and at the end of three months, in the course of which Isaac Angelus died, and Mourzoufle assumed the purple, they stormed and pillaged the city. Baldwin was then proclaimed first Latin Emperor of the East.
On July 25, 1261, Constantinople was taken by surprise by the troops of the Greek Emperor, Michael Palæologus, under his lieutenant, Alexius Strategopulus. The Latin Emperor, Baldwin II, made no attempt at resistance, but escaped to the Venetian galleys, and the restoration of the Greek Empire was accomplished without opposition.
Constantinople.
A naval action fought February 13, 1352, between 64 Genoese galleys under Doria, and 75 Greek and Venetian galleys under Pisani. The Genoese were victorious, taking or sinking 26 galleys, and forcing Pisani to retire into the fortified harbour. The Genoese lost 13 galleys.
Constantinople (Ottoman Invasion of Europe).
On June 10, 1422, Amurath II, with 200,000 Turks, laid siege to the city, which was defended by the Greek garrison under the Emperor Manuel. After a siege of two months, in which the Turks lost heavily in their numerous assaults, and in the defenders' sallies, Amurath[, Amurath] was called away to Boursa by a domestic revolt, and raised the siege.
On April 6, 1453, the Turks again laid siege to Constantinople with 258,000 men under Mohammed II. The garrison, consisting of 5,000 Greeks and 2,000 foreigners, though short of ammunition, made a gallant defence, but were overpowered by numbers in a general assault on May 25, and the city was captured. Constantine Palæologus, the last Emperor of the East, was killed by an unknown hand, in the tumult which followed the storming of the ramparts.