Constantine Palaiologos was born on 8 February 1405 in Constantinople. He was the eighth of the ten children of Emperor Manuel II Palaeologos and his Serbian wife Elena Dragasi (Jelena Dragas in Slavic).
When he grew up he remained for a short time in Taurica (present-day Crimea) and then went to the Peloponnese, where he and his brothers Thomas and Theodore took over the administration of the Despotate of Moreos or Mystras and completed the reconquest of the Frankish-occupied territories. The conflict with his two brothers forced him to return to Constantinople and place himself at the disposal of his brother John VIII Palaiologos, who was on the throne of the Byzantine Empire after their father's death in 1425.
He briefly replaced his brother on the throne when John went to Italy to take part in the Council of Ferrara-Florence, which aimed to reunite the churches after the Schism of 1054. After the failure of the Council, due to the anti-Unionist climate in the Orthodox world, and the arrival of the emperor in Constantinople (1 February 1440), Constantine returned again to the Peloponnese and devoted his efforts to the reorganization of the despotate.
After John's death, Constantine took over the fate of the empire on 6 January 1449, aware of the desperate political and military situation in which the empire found itself. The Ottoman Turks were tightening their grip on Constantinople, and the new Sultan Mohammed II had made it his life's goal to take the city.
Thus, on 15 April 1453 the third siege of Constantinople began,
which ended with its fall on the morning of 29 May 1453. Anticipating his end, Constantine went to Hagia Sophia and received the Blessed Sacrament. Then he bade farewell to his people and took up a battle position with his few soldiers. But through a gate, the Kirk Door, which was forgotten open, the Turks entered and began a terrible massacre. The emperor fought bravely as a mere soldier, but the Ottomans were overwhelmingly outnumbered, and Constantine fell dead, having first asked a Christian to put him to death.
After the fall of Constantinople, the conquerors, on the orders of Muhammad, sought Constantine's body and buried it with royal honours, but the place of his burial was not known. The now enslaved Greeks refused to believe Constantine's loss. They imagined him not dead, but marbled, ready to wake up and "hunt the Turks again, as far as the Red Apple."
Constantine Palaiologos left no descendants, despite his two marriages. On 1 July 1428 he married Madalena Toko, daughter of the lord of Zakynthos Leonardo Toko, who died in childbirth, as did his second wife Katerina Gatiluzio, daughter of the lord of Mytilene Dorino Gatiluzio, whom he married on 27 July 1441.
Source: sansimera
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