George Sphrantzes

George Sphrantzes (1401–c. 1478) was a Byzantine courtier and historian born in Constantinople. From 1418 he attended Emperor Manuel II and became a lifelong confidant of Constantine XI: he governed Glarentza in the Morea, negotiated Constantine's marriage to Caterina Gattilusio in 1440 and was made prefect of Mystras in 1446.

He witnessed the fall of Constantinople in 1453, was enslaved by the Ottomans and ransomed that September; in 1454 he went to Adrianople to ransom his wife.

After taking monastic vows in 1472 he wrote his Chronicle. This key eyewitness record of the empire's final decades ends in 1477.