The Tatars of Timur Lang (Tamerlane) stopped this flow for a moment and unwittingly gave Byzantium a moment of respite by crushing the troops of Sultan Bayezid (Bajazet) in Ankara, in 1403. Then the skin of shagreen shrinks to new:under Murad II (1421-1451), the Turks conquered most of the Peloponnese and Thessaloniki. In his later years, Murad is shown to be peaceful. But the young Mehmed II, his son and successor, did not have the same dispositions. Very quickly, he manifested his intention to seize the old capital embedded in the heart of his empire.
Curiously, the moribund city still imposes itself:it is true that Murad himself led the siege in vain, in 1422. His successor had to extract the decision from very recalcitrant advisers. And yet! The capital is no more than a shadow of itself, already ruined and deserted. The population, which was close to one million in the 12th century, was only around 50,000 around 1450! Travelers describe a sparse and miserable city. The suburbs which extend on the other side of the Bosphorus are already in the hands of the Turks. Beyond the Golden Horn, the strait separating the two parts of the city, Pera is a Genoese colony that behaves like an independent city. Very quickly a colossal fortress rose on the Bosphorus, north of Constantinople:it still exists today and the Turks call it Rumeli Hisar... The last emperor of Byzantium, Constantin XII Dragases, who first shown haughty towards the inexperienced young man that is this sultan of nineteen years, sends ambassadors to protest against this act of hostility; Mehmed has them beheaded.