Loukas Notaras (Gr. Λουκας Νοταρας) (?-3 or 4 June 1453) was the last Megas Doux of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. This position (literally Grand Duke, but more appropriately Lord High Admiral) had been expanded under the late Palaiologid emperors and functioned as an unofficial Prime Minister, overseeing the Imperial Bureaucracy in place of the Megas Logothetes who had previously exercised this function. The Megas Doux (Gr. ... The Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centred at its capital in Constantinople. ... The title of Grand Duke (Latin, Magnus Dux; German, Großherzog, Russian, Великий князь) used in Slavic, Baltic, and Germanic countries, is ranked in honour below King but higher than a sovereign Duke (Herzog) or Prince (Fürst). ... For the international law of the sea, see Admiralty law. ... The Byzantine Empire had a complex system of aristocracy and bureaucracy. ...

Because of his famous phrase "I would rather see a Muslim turban in the midst of the City (ie, Constantinople) than the Latin miter," he is often thought to have been in league with the Synaxis and the Orthodox resistance to the Union of Churches established by the Council of Florence. This is in fact not the case, as he worked with his emperor Konstantinos XI Palaiologos to secure Western aid by whatever avenues they could find while simultaneously attempting to avoid riots by the Orthodox faithful. Unfortunately for his memory, this pragmatic middle course led to his vilification by both sides of the debate, attacks which were not lessened by the intense politicking going on among the late Imperial hierarchy. Konstantinos's close friend and personal secretary Georgios Sphrantzes, for instance, seldom has a charitable word for Notaras and his antipathy was adopted by Gibbon in turn. A Synaxis is a group of churchmen - especially in the Orthodox church - who would otherwise compose a Synod but lack an officiating Patriarch. ... The Eastern Orthodox Church (encompassing national Orthodox jurisdictions such as Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, etc. ... A decree of the Council of Constance (9 October 1417), sanctioned by Pope Martin V obliged the papacy to summon general councils periodically. ... Constantine XI Paleologus Constantine XI Paleologus (sometimes numbered Constantine XII or Constantine XIII), also known as Constantine Drageses (Gr. ... George Phrantza or Georgios Phrantzes (1401-c. ...

During the siege of Constantinople, Notaras led the troops along the north-western Sea Wall, as well as the incredibly successful anti-mining efforts near the Blachernae Palace. Some accounts of the siege have him deserting his post after the Turkish flag was raised on the tower above the Kerkoporta; again, however, this may have been politically-motivated slander. In any case, he was able to hold the Sea Wall - which had been the point of entry of all earlier successful attacks on the city - against the Turkish fleet until the breach along the Mesotekhion rendered his services moot. The 1453 Siege of Constantinople (painted 1499) The Fall of Constantinople was the conquest of the Byzantine capital by the Ottoman Empire under the command of Sultan Mehmed II, on Tuesday, May 29, 1453. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Notaras, his Palaiologina wife and his son were all captured by the Turks and originally granted clemency in the name of reestablishing order and in exchange for much of Notaras's fortune, which he had had the sense to invest elsewhere. Nonetheless, he was shortly executed along with his son and Kantakouzenos son-in-law. This may have simply been due to the capricious Sultan rethinking the wisdom of allowing a noble with ties to the Vatican and Venice to live; Gibbon believes he was caught already in the middle of such intrigue. The more common story, however, is that given by Runciman: John VI Cantacuzenus (c. ...

The kindness that Mehmet had shown to the Emperor's surviving ministers was of short duration.... Five days after the fall of the city [3 June] he gave a banquet. In the course of it, when he was well flushed with wine, someone whispered to him that Notaras's fourteen-year old son was a boy of exceptional beauty. The Sultan at once sent a eunuch to the house of the [Megas Doux] to demand that the boy be sent to him for his pleasure. Notaras, whose elder sons had been killed fighting, refused to sacrifice the boy to such a fate. Police were then sent to bring Notaras with his son and his young son-in-law, the son of the Grand Domestic Andronicus Cantacuzenus, into the Sultan's presence. When Notaras still defied the Sultan, orders were given for him and the two boys to be decapitated on the spot. Notaras merely asked that they should be slain before him, lest the sight of his death should make them waver. When they had both perished he bared his neck to the executioner. The following day nine other Greek notables were arrested and sent to the scaffold. (151) Mehmed II Mehmed II (March 30, 1432 – May 3, 1481; nicknamed el-Fatih, the Conqueror) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a short time from 1444 to 1446, and later from 1451 to 1481. ...

That this story was first written by Doukas (XL,381), another source generally uncharitable to Notaras, lends to its credibility.

His wife died a slave along the way to Adrianopolis, the Ottoman capital, in the city of Messene. Two of his family are given on a passenger list for a Genovese ship escaping the fall of the city. His daughter Anna became with her aunt the focal point of the Byzantine expatriate community in Venice. Edirne is a city in (Thrace), the westernmost part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. ... Location within Italy Flag of Genoa Christopher Columbus monument in Piazza Aquaverde Genoa (Italian Genova, Genoese Zena, French Gênes) is a city and a seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria. ... Anna Notaras (Gr. ... Location within Italy Venice (Italian Venezia), the city of canals, is the capital of the region of Veneto and of the province of Venice, 45°26′ N 12°19′ E, population 271,663 (census estimate 2004-01-01). ...

A collection of Lucas Notaras's letters in Latin has been published in Greece under the title Epistulae. It includes Ad Theodorum Carystenum, Scholario, Eidem, Ad eundem, & Sancto magistro Gennadio Scholario. He figures as a character in the book Johannes Angelos by the Finnish author Mika Waltari (1952, Eng. translation The Dark Angel, 1953.) Mika Toimi Waltari (September 19, 1908 - August 26, 1979) was a Finnish author, best known for the historical novel The Egyptian. ...

Sources

The Immortal Emperor, by Prof. Donald M. Nicol

The Fall of Constantinople 1453, by Sir James Cochran Stevenson (Steven) Runciman Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman (7 July 1903 - 1 November 2000) was a British historian known for his work on the Middle Ages. ...

Byzantium: Decline and Fall & A Short History of Byzantium, by John J. Cooper, the 2nd Viscount Norwich John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich (born 15 September 1929), known as John Julius Norwich, is a British historian, travel writer and television personality and the son of the Conservative politician and diplomat Duff Cooper, who in 1952 was created Viscount Norwich, and of Lady Diana Cooper, a celebrated beauty...

"Le rachat des Notaras apres la chute de Constantinople ou les relations "trangres" de l'elite byzantine au XVe siecle", by Thierry Ganchou, in Migrations et diasporas mediterranennes (Xe-XVIe siecles)