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Just before the beginning of the siege in 1453, Mehmed II made an offer to Constantine XI to hand over the city peacefully and continue to rule in the Peloponessus. OTL, Constantine replied this:

To surrender the city to you is beyond my authority or anyone else's who lives in it, for all of us, after taking the mutual decision, shall die out of free will without sparing our lives.
However, what if Mehmed was actually serious about gaining the city peacefully ? Let's say he offers Constantine the following:

1. to relocate most of the population of the city to southern Greece (cost free)

2. assures him that the Hagia Sophia would remain the seat of the Patriarch

3.that he would offer him support in maintaining their religious independence from Rome (better the sultans turban than the popes tiara)

4. that Constantine would keep all his titles, pass them on to his successors and that they would not be adopted by any future sultan

5. all territories held by westerners in Boetia and the Aegean (including Rhodes and Crete) would be handed over to Constantine once taken (he would only have to pay a fraction of the income he receives from those places)

6. the ottoman empire would guarantee their independence

7. both Constantine and some of the most influential nobles in the city would receive some hefty bribes to influence their decision (surely this would cost Mehmed less than paying for the siege)



Basically, the Ottomans would let the Rhomaioi administrate and defend the territories in which they're a majority anyway, and would also get money for it. Maybe a situation similar to the Danubian principalities, where the Turks refrained from outright annexation and were content with collecting tribute and occasionally meddling in succession affairs ?

Would the Romans accept ? And assuming they did, how would future events turn up ?
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