Constantine XI Palaiologos

Constantine XI Dragases Palaiologos was the final sovereign of the Roman Empire, whose heroic death sealed the fall of Constantinople and closed the curtain on fifteen centuries of Roman imperial continuity. Prior to ascending the throne, Constantine served as Despot of the Morea in the Peloponnese, revitalizing the Byzantine fortress city of Mystras. He became emperor in 1449, inheriting a hollowed empire reduced to little more than the imperial capital itself, completely encircled by Sultan Mehmed II's Ottoman Empire.

When Mehmed II besieged Constantinople in April 1453 with over 80,000 troops and massive super-cannons, Constantine commanded a desperate garrison of only 7,000 Greeks and Venetian-Genoese volunteers. When offered his life and rule over the Peloponnese if he surrendered the city, Constantine famously replied: 'To surrender the city is beyond my authority or that of anyone who lives in it; by common decision, we shall all die of our own free will, without sparing our lives.' On May 29, 1453, as the city walls were breached, Constantine cast aside his imperial purple regalia and charged into the breach at the Gate of St. Romanus, dying sword in hand alongside his soldiers. He entered folklore as the 'Marble Emperor' (Marmaromenos Vasilias).