Johannes Grant or Johannis Grandi was a mercenary employed by the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
at the
fall of Constantinople in 1453.
Contemporary Greek and Latin accounts referred to him as being German, although
Runciman has suggested he may actually have been a Scot named John Grant. He appears to have been affiliated with the Genoese contingent of mercenaries at the siege, possibly part of the men commanded by
Giovanni Giustiniani
Giovanni Giustiniani Longo ( el, , ''Iōánnēs Lóngos Ioustiniánēs''; la, Ioannes Iustinianus Longus; 1418 – 1 June 1453) was a Genoese captain, a member of one of the greatest families of the Republic of Genoa, a kinsman to the powerful ...
. His use of counter-mining tunnels prevented the Turks from weakening or invading Constantinople from under the walls. He would fill barrels with water and observe the waves, using
incendiary weapons, mostly
Cheirosiphon to destroy
Ottoman tunnels.
The Fall of Constantinopla
Depictions in Fiction
* Grant appears as a minor character in '' The Dark Angel'' by Mika Waltari
Mika Toimi Waltari (; 19 September 1908 – 26 August 1979) was a Finnish writer, best known for his best-selling novel '' The Egyptian'' ( fi, Sinuhe egyptiläinen). He was extremely productive. Besides his novels he also wrote poetry, short stor ...
* John Le Grant, an Aberdonian based on the historical Johannes Grant, appears in ''The House of Niccolò
''The House of Niccolò'' is a series of eight historical novels by Dorothy Dunnett set in the mid-fifteenth-century European Renaissance. The protagonist of the series is Nicholas de Fleury (Niccolò, Nicholas van der Poele, or Claes), a boy ...
'' by Dorothy Dunnett
Dorothy, Lady Dunnett (née Halliday, 25 August 1923 – 9 November 2001) was a Scottish novelist best known for her historical fiction. Dunnett is most famous for her six novel series set during the 16th century, which concern the fictiti ...
* John Grant is the central character in the historical novel ''Porphyry and Ash
__NOTOC__
Porphyry (; el, Πορφύριος, links=no, ''Porphyrios'' "purple-clad") may refer to:
* Porphyry (geology), an igneous rock with large crystals in a fine-grained matrix and important Roman building material
* Porphyritic, the gene ...
''
* John Grant is featured in the third episode of the historical docudrama series '' Rise of Empires: Ottoman''; here he is depicted as Scottish.
* John Grant is the central character in the historical novel '' Master of Shadows'' by Neil Oliver
Neil Oliver (born 21 February 1967) is a British television presenter, archaeologist, historian and author. He has presented several documentary series on archaeology and history, including ''A History of Scotland'', ''Vikings'', and ''Coast'' ...
References
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown
German military engineers
Scottish military engineers
15th-century Scottish people
15th-century German engineers
Fall of Constantinople
People of the Byzantine–Ottoman wars
Place of birth unknown
{{Scotland-engineer-stub