Constantinople is a very big word and for many centuries, millennia even, has been a very big idea and a big cultural and commercial prize. It survived the barbarian invasions of late antiquity to become the mediaeval Queen of Cities, the Mikelgard of Norse derring-do, and furnished Venice and the West with much cultural and artistic booty and inspiration until after the advent of Ottoman control in 1453. It has remained a focus of Greek and Russian Orthodoxy and ambition to the present day and it was once again the focus of covetous eyes upon its occupation by the Allies after the Armistice in 1918. Gordon Wyllie is a charity and trust lawyer who chairs the Law Society of Scotland's Trust and Succession Committee and was a member of the European Commission's Group of Experts on International Succession Law. He is the President of the Burgess Association of Edinburgh, a founding member of the Mediaeval Glasgow Trust, and served three years as Deacon Convener of the Trades of Edinburgh.
An Archaeology Scotland Lecture
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The Struggle for Constantinople