The siege of Constantinople began in early April 1453. Mehmed ll's army numbered about 80,000 men plus 70 heavy cannon, including enormous wall-smashing bombards, commanded by a Christian. The sultan also had a body of miners to dig under the city walls, along with a fleet of perhaps 300 warships.
The 10,000 troops defending the walls of Constantinople fought off the first attacks. They shot down the advancing Ottomans or doused them with Greek fire. The fighting was at close quarters, and the Ottomans suffered great losses. The Byzantines also found the Ottoman miners. They placed poisonous "stinkpots" in the tunnels to gas the Ottomans or blew them up with gunpowder.
On May 29 Mehmed's cannon finally punched a big hole in the city walls.
A hand-to-hand battle followed as the Byzantines, including Emperor Constantine XI, tried desperately to keep the Ottomans out. The defenders had so few troops that they had to leave parts of the walls almost unmanned. The Ottomans found one of these weak points and poured in. The defenders were slaughtered almost to a man, Including Constantine.
Since they had stormed the city, the Ottomans were allowed to plunder its treasures. Their looting spree lasted for three days. The fall of Constantinople marked the end of the Byzantine Empire. The great city became the capital of the new empire of the Ottomans.
Ottoman infantry, other than the corps of Janissaries, was poorly trained, lightly equipped, and of little use except for chasing a defeated enemy. However, the vast numbers of such infantry often weakened the morale of their enemies.
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