Constantine XI Dragases Palaiologos or Dragaš Palaeologus (Greek: Κωνσταντῖνος Δραγάσης Παλαιολόγος, romanized: Kōnstantīnos Dragásēs Palaiológos; 8 February 1404 – 29 May 1453) was the last reigning Byzantine emperor from 23 January 1449 until his death in battle at the fall of Constantinople on 29 May 1453. Constantine's death marked the definitive end of the Eastern Roman Empire, which traced its origin to Constantine the Great's foundation of Constantinople as the Roman Empire's new capital in 330.
Constantine was the fourth son of Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos and Serbian noblewoman Helena Dragaš. Little is known of his early life, but from the 1420s onward, he repeatedly demonstrated great skill as a military general. Based on his career and surviving contemporary sources, Constantine appears to have been primarily a soldier. This does not mean that Constantine was not also a skilled administrator: he was trusted and favored to such an extent by his older brother, Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, that he was designated as regent twice during John VIII's journeys away from Constantinople in 1423–1424 and 1437–1440. In 1427–1428, Constantine and John fended off an attack on the Morea (the Peloponnese) by Carlo I Tocco, ruler of Epirus, and in 1428 Constantine was proclaimed Despot of the Morea and ruled the province together with his older brother Theodore and his younger brother Thomas. Together, they extended Roman rule to cover almost the entire Peloponnese for the first time since the Fourth Crusade more than two hundred years before and rebuilt the ancient Hexamilion wall, which defended the peninsula from outside attacks. Although ultimately unsuccessful, Constantine personally led a campaign into Central Greece and Thessaly in 1444–1446, attempting to extend Byzantine rule into Greece once more.
In October 1448, John VIII died without children, and as his favored successor, Constantine was proclaimed emperor on 6 January 1449. During his brief reign, Constantine would have to deal with three main issues. First, there was the issue of an heir, as Constantine was also childless. Despite attempts by Constantine's friend and confidant George Sphrantzes to find him a wife, Constantine ultimately died unmarried. The second concern was religious conflict within what little remained of his empire. Emperor Constantine and his predecessor John VIII both supported the reunion between the Greek Orthodox and Catholic Churches proclaimed at the Council of Florence. They accordingly sought to secure military aid from Catholic Europe, but much of the Byzantine populace, led by Mark of Ephesus, opposed the church union. Finally, the most important concern was the growing Ottoman Empire, which by 1449 completely surrounded Constantinople. In April 1453, the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II laid siege to Constantinople with an army perhaps numbering as many as 80,000 men. Even though the city's defenders may have numbered less than a tenth of the sultan's army, Constantine considered the idea of abandoning Constantinople unthinkable. The emperor stayed to defend the city, which fell on 29 May 1453. Constantine died in battle on the following day. Although no reliable eyewitness accounts of his death survived, most historical accounts agree that the emperor died fighting in a last stand against the Ottomans.
Constantine was the last Christian ruler of Constantinople, which alongside his bravery at the city's fall cemented him as a near-legendary figure in later histories and Greek folklore. Some saw the foundation of Constantinople (the New Rome) under Constantine the Great and its loss under another Constantine as fulfillment of the city's destiny, just as Old Rome had been founded by a Romulus and lost under another, Romulus Augustulus. He became known in later Greek folklore as "The Marble Emperor" (Greek: Μαρμαρωμένος Βασιλιάς, Marmaroménos Vasiliás lit. 'Emperor turned into Marble'), reflecting a popular legend that Constantine had not actually died, but had been rescued by an angel and turned into marble, hidden beneath the Golden Gate of Constantinople awaiting a call from God to be restored to life and reconquer both the city and the old empire.
Constantine Dragases Palaiologos was born on 8 February 1404 as the fourth son of Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos (r. 1391–1425), the eighth emperor of the Palaiologos dynasty. Constantine's mother (from whom he took his second last name) was Helena Dragaš, member of the powerful House of Dragaš and daughter of Serbian ruler Konstantin Dejanović. Through his paternal grandmother, Helena (1333–1396), Constantine was related to the prominent Kantakouzenos family, while his maternal lineage linked him to the Serbian imperial Nemanjić dynasty. Constantine is frequently described as Porphyrogénnētos ("born in the purple"), a distinction granted to sons born to a reigning emperor in the imperial palace.
Manuel ruled a disintegrating and dwindling Byzantine Empire. The catalyst of Byzantium's fall had been the arrival of the Seljuk Turks in Anatolia in the 11th century. Though some emperors, such as Alexios I and Manuel I, had successfully recovered portions of Anatolia through help from western crusaders, their gains were only temporary. Anatolia was the empire's most fertile, populated, and wealthy region, and after its loss, Byzantium more or less experienced constant decline. Although most of it was eventually reconquered, the Byzantine Empire was crippled by the 1204 Fourth Crusade and the loss of Constantinople to the Latin Empire, formed by the crusaders. The Byzantine Empire, under the founder of the Palaiologos dynasty, Michael VIII, retook Constantinople in 1261. Over the course of the 14th century, the Ottoman Turks had conquered vast swaths of territories and by 1405, they ruled much of Anatolia, Bulgaria, central Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Thessaly. The Byzantine Empire, once extending throughout the eastern Mediterranean, was reduced to the imperial capital of Constantinople, the Peloponnese, and a handful of islands in the Aegean Sea, and was also forced to pay tribute to the Ottomans.
As the empire dwindled, the emperors concluded that the only way to ensure that their remaining territory was kept intact was to grant some of their holdings to their sons, who received the title of despot, as appanages to defend and govern. Manuel's oldest son, John, was raised to co-emperor and designated to succeed his father. The second son, Theodore, was designated as the Despot of the Morea (the prosperous province constituting the Peloponnese) and the third son, Andronikos, was proclaimed as Despot of Thessaloniki in 1408. The younger sons; Constantine, Demetrios and Thomas, were kept in Constantinople as there was not sufficient land left to grant them.
Little is known of Constantine's early life. From an early age, he was admired by George Sphrantzes (later a famed Byzantine historian), who would later enter his service, and later encomiasts often wrote that Constantine had always been courageous, adventurous, and skilled in martial arts, horsemanship, and hunting. Many accounts of Constantine's life, both before and after he became emperor, are heavily skewed and eulogize his reign, as most of them lack contemporary sources and were composed after his death. Based on his actions and the surviving commentary from some of his advisors and contemporaries, Constantine appeared to have been more comfortable with military matters than with matters of state or diplomacy, though he was also a competent administrator—as illustrated by his tenures as regent—and tended to heed his councilors' advice on important matters of state. Aside from stylized and smudged depictions on seals and coins, no contemporary depictions of Constantine survive. Notable images of Constantine include a seal currently located in Vienna (of unknown provenance, probably from an imperial chrysobull), a few coins, and his portrait among the other Byzantine emperors in the Biblioteca Estense copy of the history of Zonaras. In the latter he is shown with a rounded beard, in noted contrast to his forked-bearded relatives, but it is unclear whether that reflects his actual appearance.