On the 29th May, 1453, the city of Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks. It was the final end of Byzantium. It was also the final end of the Crusades. Indeed, many historians regard it as the end of the Middle Ages. I regret to say that this episode is also the end of this podcast. But I am delighted to say that I have a new podcast called "The Fall of the Roman Empire"! And I would be thrilled if you would like to tune into that. See you there!

The Ottoman Sultan, Mehmet II, has decided to launch an all-out attack on the city of Constantinople. But the brave defenders are prepared. They resist wave after wave of Turkish troops until their luck runs out with a cruel twist of fate. 

For seven weeks the Turks had besieged Constantinople. But all they had to show for it were heavy casualties and not a single victory either on land or at sea. The Turkish Sultan, Mehmet II, had a moment of doubt. Should he abandon the siege? Find out in this episode.

Constantinople is surrounded. For seven weeks, it has endured Turkish attacks by land and sea. Its defenders have fought heroically but now they are exhausted. But so too are the Turks. Their losses have been huge and the Turkish Sultan, Mehmet II, starts to wonder whether he should call the siege off.

The Ottoman Turks have dragged their ships overland into the Golden Horn and Constantinople is now surrounded on all sides. In desperation, the defenders plan for a night attack to destroy the Turkish fleet and a last appeal to the West for help.

Constantinople was probably the best fortified city in the medieval world. But it had one weak spot. To the north of the city lay the Golden Horn, the wide estuary that was blocked to enemy ships by a great iron chain. The Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II pondered long and hard how to break into the Golden Horn. Then he came up with an extraordinary idea.

With over 100,000 Turkish soldiers facing them, the 7,000 or so defenders of Constantinople awaited the first attack. All they could do was to hope and pray for a miracle.

As the Turkish army approached Constantinople in 1453, the Byzantine defenders were joined by a handful of Genoese, Venetians and other adventurers prepared to join the fight to save the great Christian city.

By 1452, the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II had decided to launch a huge attack on the ancient city of Constantinople. But as he gathered his army from all over his dominions, he knew that he would need more than soldiers. To breach the ancient walls he would need gunpowder and cannons!

With the Ottoman Turks closing in on Constantinople, the Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologus made a last desperate appeal to the West for help. But would it be too little and too late?

The Ottoman onslaught against Constantinople is getting closer. Two new leaders emerge on either side. Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Emperor of Byzantium, and the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II, better known as Mehmet the Conqueror. Both men will go down in history as great heroes - discover why in this podcast.

In the fourteenth century, the growing power of the Ottoman Turks seemed unstoppable. But there was one man who checked it. This was Timur the Lame, or Tamerlane, as he was called in Europe. Of mixed Turkish and Mongol descent, he created a vast empire at the end of the fourteenth century that was modelled on the Mongol Empire of the legendary Genghis Khan.

In the thirteenth century, the Mongols destroyed the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in Anatolia. But after the Mongols left, a new Turkish dynasty began to rise to power in western Anatolia. This dynasty was that of the Ottomans. 

In this new mini-series, we will hear about the fall of Byzantine Constantinople in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks. Many people see it as a turning point in history, marking the end of the Middle Ages. But what really happened? Find out here. 

The year is 1396. The Ottoman Turks are threatening to conquer Eastern Europe and take Constantinople from the Byzantines. A new Crusade against them is proclaimed, and a great international army from Hungary and Western Europe is raised to meet them in battle.

As Crusading enthusiasm faded in Europe in the fourteenth century, in the East an obscure Turkish emir called Osman founded a new dynasty. This would rise to become one of the greatest empires in the world: the Ottoman Turks. The response in Europe was to call for a new crusade.

Although the Crusading spirit of the eleventh century had faded in Europe after the fall of Outremer in 1291, there was still enough interest in 1365 to launch one last Crusade to recover the Holy Land. It would be remembered for its particular destruction and brutality.

With Outremer destroyed in 1291, Christian Europe lost its final link with the original crusading ideology focused on the capture of Jerusalem. What then should happen to the three religious Military Orders which had been established to defend Outremer - the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Teutonic Knights? A particularly grim fate awaited the Templars, which has served as the inspiration for countless myths and conspiracy theories, not least that contained in Dan Brown's bestseller The Da...

The year is 1291. Outremer, as the Crusader states in the Middle East were called, has one last great battle to fight as a vast Mamluk army advances on Acre, the Crusader capital.

The year is 1287. The final countdown to the destruction of the Crusader states in the Holy Land has begun. But there is a strange air of complacency among the last Crusaders as the final storm begins to build.

In the 1280s, the age of the Crusaders was nearly over. But the Mongols, still the most powerful empire on the planet, were keen to unite with Christian Europe to defeat the Mamluks. So, what went wrong? Find out in this episode.

Baibars, the Mamluk Sultan, is on the verge of destroying the Crusaders. But there is one last hope of help from the West. The English King Henry III has vowed to go on crusade. Now an old man, he sends his son, Prince Edward, to the Holy Land to lead the Ninth Crusade.