A troubled philip ii's spanish kingdom versus suleyman's ottoman empire at his height

As the adviser to King Philip II of Spain, understanding the Ottoman Empire especially that of the rule of Suleyman is quite important. King Philip II of Spain is the son of the Habsburg, Charles V. Charles V had a history of failure when it came to Suleyman. Charles V left his son with a very weak and sad throne to rule over. A majority of this stemmed from his failures to Suleyman. Understanding how Suleyman is as a leader and how the future heir may rule is quite important on how King Phillip II of Spain, and explains how he should plan and prepare his military. Understanding Suleyman’s politico-military tactics and successes; as well as his relationships and succession, will be extremely important to report on for King Phillip II of Spain.

Suleyman’s personal relationships really helped with his success in the Ottoman Empire. Two of these people that had great influence on him were Hürrem Sultan and Pargali Ibrahim Pasha. Hürrem Sultan was a harem girl that Suleyman was obsessed with. She was the first girl that was sold for pleasure that eventually married the Sultan, which shocked most everyone in the empire. This was unusual because, “ women’s work, …, was composed of a wide variety of chores” (Rossabi). She was also allowed to be at court with him for the rest of her years, which has not like previous Sultan’s. Many times the Sultan’s would move through different girls in the harem. This just shows how much he cared about Hürrem Sultan. The other influential person in Suleyman’s life was his childhood friend Pargali Ibrahim Pasha. Pasha went to the Palace School which is where he met Suleyman. Suleyman gave Ibrahim several different rankings from falconer, to officer of the Royal Bedchamber, to Grand Vizier and commander-in-chief. He also was eventually trusted with Turkish European territories. Suleyman truly did care for Ibrahim because when Ibrahim feared for his life by being offered these high positions, Suleyman promised to never execute him. This rarely happened because even the slightest failure would result in death because it was seen as a weakness of the Sultan. However, this promise did not remain true. Ibrahim’s high ranking and growing wealth caused the Sultan’s court to gain many enemies. Ibrahim even took the name serasker sultan’ which to many view it as a threat to Suleyman. However, trusting Ibrahim, Suleyman executed the finance secretary after a fight between Ibrahim and the secretary broke out. However, the secretary told Suleyman about how Ibrahim was conspiring against Suleyman. This pushed Suleyman to the edge which resulted in Ibrahim’s execution. This just shows how trusting Suleyman is because one word of an issue for the previous sultans would have resulted in immediate death without a chance of redemption.

Suleyman’s was military is one of the many reasons the Ottoman Empire was as large and powerful as it was. Suleyman succeed in many conquest, one of which his grandfather failed. This was when he successfully conquered Belgrade from Hungary. This was such an important gain for the Ottomans. They had already defeated the Bulgarians, Byzantines, Serbs, and Albanians. Conquering Belgrade was the next step for the Ottomans to infiltrated Europe. After bombarding Belgrade from the Danube with only about 700 men, Suleyman eventually was able to spark fear throughout Europe because he was on his way to conquer them. However, Suleyman decided to engage in a five month battle in the Mediterranean. This battle involved the Ottoman navy and Rhodes. Suleyman himself led this battle and at the end allowed the opponents to survive. This caused him to shift gears back to central Europe. The relationship the Ottomans had with Hungary were basically nonexistent which allowed Suleyman to siege of Hungary; however, when Suleyman found the body of King Louis of Hungary, he expressed his remorse. It really shows this softer side of Suleyman that has been previously expressed with Hürrem Sultan and Ibrahim. While having lost their leader, several Hungarian nobles we trying to find the next person to take control of Hungary. The Habsburgs, Ferdinand I and Charles V, regained control of Buda and took control of Hungary as the Hungarian nobles wanted. However, this did not last long. Suleyman took over Buda and then continued to conquer lands in the west. This eventually led to the attempt to take control of Vienna. However, terrible weather conditions caused the Ottomans to have to retreat while leaving all of their equipment and weapons. This retreat gave the Habsburgs, Charles V and Ferdinand I, the idea to attempt to take control of Buda again. However, after five long years of failing to take control the Habsburgs eventually gave up taking control of Hungary. They also reluctantly agreed to a treaty with Suleyman. This treaty allowed Charles V to be called the King of Spain; however, Suleyman was the ultimate ruler receiving the title “ Caesar”. The Habsburgs, Charles V and Ferdinand I, were Suleyman’s greatest rivals in Europe. However, he was able to have them cave in, and this allowed the Ottomans to have a strong political influence in Europe for years. He also took extreme measures to ensure his empire would remain large after this attempt by the Habsburgs. “ The sultan gave orders that six thousand of the best Janissary troops were to be selected for the expedition,” to siege Malta (Tenance).

Although Suleyman seemed to have a softer side, he was a force to be reckoned with and still did not take lightly to the idea of being overthrown. Suleyman has another wife besides Hürrem Sultan, and she had Suleyman’s eldest son, Mustafa. Hürrem Sultan was not too keen with the idea that Mustafa would become Sultan because that generally meant that he sons would be executed in order to prevent a possible takeover for Sultan. She instigated issues between the people that supported Mustafa’s succession, and this is what ultimately led her to her death. However, everything ended up in her favor. Word got around that Mustafa was in agreeance with taking over the throne which ended up threating Suleyman. This caused Suleyman to execute his son in order to prevent from being overthrown. Selim, Hürrem Sultan’s son, became the next in line for the throne, and he eventually did seven years later when Suleyman died.

Suleyman appeared to be a more reasonable ruler that those of his predecessors; however, this might have made him a great force to be reckoned with. He promised many of those around him that they would not be executed; however, just as they became comfortable enough, they somehow messed up and were executed. This is a tactic King Philip II of Spain should consider using. People are more willing to do what he would want because they were given larger roles and titles. There is also this sense of trust; however, once that trust is broken there is no going back. This will help King Phillip II have loyal followers that do much of his dirty work; however, he can end it at the first sign of mistrust instead of just killing them to kill them. This is also true when it comes to successors because King Philip II can train one that will continue his legacy. Also, by using Suleyman’s tactic of conquering smaller areas first to build the Empire and then taking down the larger ones, is one that King Phillip II can use to eventually build a kingdom to take down the Ottoman’s. Also building a large enough military to conquer almost any kingdom will be critical.