"All supreme authority in the Turkish Empire rests in a single man, all obey the Sultan, he alone rules: he receives all revenues, in a word he is master and all other men are his slaves." This quote from a Ragusan citizen to Maximilian I accurately describes the attitudes and politics of the day.
The Ottoman Dynasty emerged from Asia Minor with the Turks invading, often silently, cities just as they began to fall under their own weight. The Turks would wait until a city was falling either from famine or political adversity. They would enter the city, act as citizens and quietly take over, not disturbing the majority of the population. In the early days, they could often take over without any resistance. A quick view of the expansion is as follows: Adrianople 1365, all Bulgaria 1386, Constantinople 1453, Athens 1456, the Morea 1460, Bosnia 1462-1466, Herzegovina 1481, Scutari 1479, Durazzo 1501, (these last two were in Venice), Syria 1516, and the whole of Egypt in 1517. After the fall of Egypt the last of the Abbasids is said to have ceded to Selem I the caliphate over all true Moslem believers, and in August 1517 he received from the son of the Shaikh of Mecca the key to the Ka'ab itself. This made the Ottoman Empire also the leader of the Muslem world.
For our purposes, Suleman the Lawgiver, (Magnificent was only used in Europe) is reigning Sultan over the Ottoman Empire. Officially, no ambassadors were ever sent out of the Empire to any other country. Suleman felt he was above all other rulers signing his letters "I, the Sultan of Sultans, the Sovereign of Sovereigns, Dispenser of Crowns to the monarchs on the face of the earth..."
Once made Sultan, Suleman started to develop an Armada, making Barbarosa his Grand Admiral in 1533. Barbarosa was responsible for the taking of major portions of the north African coast and several Mediterranean islands and coastal cities. It is also where we get the terms Barbary coast and Barbary Pirates (though those terms were not in use during his lifetime).
Under Suleman I, the Ottomans took Belgrade in 1521, Rhodes 1522, Mohacs 1526, loses in Vienna 1529, Guns and ravages Austria 1532, Annexes Iraq 1536, Corfu 1537, Preveze, Aden, Algiers and Annexes Hungary 1541, Yemen 1546, Tripoli 1551, and Jerba in 1560.
The Janissaries (yeni cheri, or new soldiers) are the Sultan's Royal Guard and his army. These boys were selected by Devshirme, a slave tribute where the most attractive and smartest boys were carefully selected to be trained to fill the corps of the sultans guard and if they prove themselves, to become governors or administrators in the empire. Many poorer peoples hoped to get their son's taken as that promised them a better life. In the Ottoman Empire the lowest born could become the highest official as was proven by Suleman's Grand Vizer Ibrahim, born a Christian Greek at Parga, he was captured by corsairs and sold to a Turkish widow who educated him in music, philosophy and languages. He was attached to the princely retinue while he and Suleman were still young and stayed by Suleman's side for the major portion of his reign. As Grand Vizer, he became second only to Suleman himself.
Rulers of the Renaissance
Dates reflect the reigning years
|Ottoman Empire:||Suleman Kanuni (the Lawgiver), born 1494, Sultan from 1520-1566|
|Spain:||Charles I 1516-1555 (also Holy Roman Emperor Charles V)|
|Philip II 1555-1598 (married Mary I of England in 1554)|
|England:||Henry VIII 1509-1547, Edward VI 1547-1553, Mary I 1553-1558, Elizabeth I 1558-1603|
|France:||Francis I 1515-1547 (followed by several in quick succession)|
|Russia:||Ivan the Terrible 1547-1584|
|Holy Roman Emperor:||Maximilian I 1486-1519, Charles V 1519-1558, Ferdinand I 1558-1564|