Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/277

 OONSTANTINE XIII. CONSTANTINE PAVLOVITCH 273 in Greek. The most important are : a life of his grandfather, Basil I. ; Hepl TUV defiaruv, a description of the 'provinces of the empire; De Administrando Imperio,. a work without a Greek title, written to instruct his son in the political state of the empire, and containing much information in relation to the geography, ethnology, and politics of the time; BiflMov TdK.TtK.6v and BtfiMov GTpa.TrjyiK.6v, two treatises on the art of war; and 'Endeaic r^f fiaaiheiov raewf, which gives a detailed account of the ceremonies at the court of Constantinople. He wrote several smaller treatises on religious and other matters, and caused many works to be compiled by the most able scholars of the time. CONSTANTINE XIII., Palseologus, the last em- peror of the East, born in 1394, killed at the taking of Constantinople, May 29, 1453. He was the son of Manuel and brother of John Palseologus, emperors of Constantinople. He succeeded his brother as emperor in 1448, his succession being however disputed by his younger brother Demetrius, who claimed that, having been born in the purple, he was the legitimate heir. The sultan Amurath II. had made large conquests in the Byzantine empire, and now held his court in Adrianople ; and by his assent the crown was given to Constan- tino, who was then in Greece. But Moham- med II., the son of Amurath, resolved to com- plete the conquest of the Byzantine empire by the capture of Constantinople. Constantine's appeals for aid to the princes of Christen- dom met with little response. The siege was formally opened April 6, 1453. The defence was obstinate, and for weeks it appeared that the siege would be unsuccessful. Mohammed offered favorable terms, which were refused by Constantine, who declared that he would find a throne or a grave under the walls of Constantinople. The decisive assault was fixed for the 29th of May, the sultan promising double pay to his soldiers, and that the man who first mounted the walls should be re- warded by the government of the richest prov- ince of his empire. While the action hung in even scales, an arrow or bullet pierced the armor of Giovanni Giustiniani, the command- er of the Genoese auxiliaries, who had borne the bravest part in the defence. In spite of the remonstrances of Constantine, the Genoese troops fled through a breach which the Turks had effected, and were followed by the other auxiliaries. The walls were then stormed, and Constantine, who fought to the last, was killed by an unknown hand. His body, recognized by the golden eagles embroidered on the shoes, was discovered under a heap of slain; the head was cut off and brought to Mohammed, who however gave the body an honorable burial. It is said, though Gibbon doubts the truth of the story, that the head was sent around Persia and Arabia as a trophy. CONSTANTINE NIROLAYEVITCH, grand duke of Russia, second son and fourth child of the emperor Nicholas, born in St. Petersburg, Sept. 21, 1827. He was made grand admiral when a mere child, and carefully educated for the navy. He visited Constantinople in 1845, and two years later made a voyage from Archangel to the Mediterranean, visiting sever- al European cities during his absence. In Sep- tember, 1848, he married Alexandra, daugh- ter of the duke of Saxe- Altenburg. In the fol- lowing year he accompanied Paskevitch in the Hungarian campaign. During the Crimean war he commanded the fleet of the Baltic in conjunction with Ltltke. Being acknowledged leader of the old Russian party in opposition to the progressive views of his elder brother Alexander, his father required him to take an oath of fidelity to the heir apparent. Alexan- der, on his accession in 1855, placed him at the head of the ministry of the marine. He was charged with the execution of the decree which emancipated the serfs, and was made lieutenant general in Poland during the polit- ical agitations which resulted in the insurrec- tion of 1863. In January, 1865, he became president of the council of the empire. CONSTANTINE PAVLOVITCH, grand duke of Russia, son of the emperor Paul I., younger brother of Alexander I., and elder brother of Nicholas, born in St. Petersburg, May 8, 1779, died at Vitebsk, June 27, 1831. His grand- mother, Catharine II., is said to have destined him to reign over a new empire of the East, in accordance with a popular prophecy that a Constantine should rule again at Constanti- nople, and attempted to educate him with that view ; but he was a wilful and capricious youth, and cared for nothing but military exercises. At the age of 17 he married the princess Juli- ana of Saxe-Coburg, but after some years of unhappiness she left him and returned to Ger- many. He accompanied Suvaroff to Switzer- land in 1799, and subsequently had a command at Austerlitz, and fought in several battles in the struggle with France, displaying bravery, but little skill as a commander. The duchy of Warsaw having been given to Russia by the congress of Vienna, and transformed by Alex- ander into a constitutional kingdom of Poland in 1815, he was made commander-in-chief of the Polish forces, with powers which made him the virtual ruler, though Zajonczek was the nominal viceroy. He gave the army a thorough discipline, but his capricious sever- ity alienated from him the most distinguished of its officers. In 1820 he conceived a vio- lent passion for a Polish lady, the countess Jo- hanna Grudzinska, and through the interces- sion of the emperor obtained a divorce from the princess of Saxe-Coburg, with permission to marry again. In return he formally re- nounced for himself and his descendants the right of succession to the crown. The docu- ment containing this renunciation was kept secret until the death of Alexander in 1825, when, though actually proclaimed emperor by a revolutionary party at St. Petersburg, Con- stantine insisted upon maintaining his renun-