ABSTRACT
The historical past was recast into millennial ideologies and folk histories. A number of tales were already in circulation by the end of the fifteenth century; their nucleus focused on Constantine XI and on his immediate family. The plain fact is that Constantine had abandoned his imperial quarters at the palace, which had been turned over to the Venetian bailo, and his troops during most of the siege. One of the most popular alleged resting place of Constantine XI, to which countless Greek pilgrims flocked in the nineteenth century, was located in the courtyard of an inn at Istanbul's Vefa Meidan. The anonymous chronicler has preserved a story that was circulating among the Greeks of the early sixteenth century. In the ensuing centuries, Constantine's fame throughout the Greek-speaking world was destined to rival the popularity that had been enjoyed by another medieval hero in the west, King Arthur.
