Johannes Grant

Johannes Grant or Johannis Grandi[1] was a mercenary employed by the Byzantine Empire at the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Contemporary Greek and Latin accounts referred to him as being German,[2][3] although Runciman has suggested he may actually have been a Scot named John Grant.[4] He appears to have been affiliated with the Genoese contingent of mercenaries at the siege, possibly part of the men commanded by Giovanni Giustiniani. His use of counter-mining tunnels prevented the Turks from weakening or invading Constantinople from under the walls.[5][6]

Depictions in Fiction
  • Grant appears as a minor character in The Dark Angel by Mika Waltari
  • John Le Grant, an Aberdonian based on the historical Johannes Grant, appears in The House of Niccolò by Dorothy Dunnett
  • John Grant is the central character in the historical novel Porphyry and Ash
  • 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

References
  1. Leonard of Chios: "Johannis Grandi Alemani", where Grandi can also mean "the great" in Italian
  2. Georgios Sphrantzes: "Johannes the German"
  3. Bartusis, Mark, Late Byzantine Army
  4. Runciman, Steven, Fall of Constantinople 1453, page 84
  5. Nicol, Donald, Last Centuries of Byzantium. Cambridge University Press, 1993 [2nd edition]. Chapter 18.
  6. The Fall of Constantinopla Archived 6 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine



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