Everything about Selim Ii totally explained
Selim II (
Ottoman Turkish: سليم ثانى
Selīm-i sānī,
Turkish:
II.Selim) (
May 28 1524 –
December 12 1574), also known as "Selim the Sot", was the
Sultan of the
Ottoman Empire from
1566 until his death. He was a son of
Suleiman the Magnificent (
1520–66) and his favourite wife
Roxelana (also known as Hürrem).
Accession
After gaining the throne after palace intrigue and fraternal dispute, Selim II became the first Sultan devoid of active military interest and willing to abandon power to his ministers, provided he was left free to pursue his orgies and debauches. Therefore, he became known as Selim the Drunkard or Selim the Sot (Turkish:
Sarhoş Selim). His
Grand Vizier,
Mehmed Sokollu, a
Serbian devsirme from what is now
Bosnia and Herzegovina, controlled much of state affairs, and two years after Selim's accession succeeded in concluding at
Constantinople an honourable treaty (
February 17 1568) with the
Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor,
Maximilian II (1564–76), whereby the Emperor agreed to pay an annual "present" of 30,000
ducats and essentially granted the Ottomans authority in
Moldavia and
Walachia.
Against
Russia Selim was less fortunate, and the first encounter between the Ottoman Empire and her future northern rival gave presage of disaster to come. A plan had been elaborated at Constantinople for uniting the
Volga and
Don by a canal, and in the summer of
1569 a large force of
Janissaries and cavalry were sent to lay siege to
Astrakhan and begin the canal works, while an Ottoman fleet besieged
Azov. But a sortie of the garrison of Astrakhan drove back the besiegers; a Russian relief army of 15,000 attacked and scattered the workmen and the
Tatar force sent for their protection; and finally, the Ottoman fleet was destroyed by a storm. Early in
1570 the ambassadors of
Ivan IV of Russia concluded at Constantinople a treaty which restored friendly relations between the Sultan and the
Tsar.
Expeditions in the
Hejaz and
Yemen were more successful, but the conquest of
Cyprus in
1571, which provided Selim with his favourite vintage, led to the calamitous naval defeat against
Spain and
Italian states at
Lepanto in the same year, the moral importance of which has often been underestimated, and which at least freed the
Mediterranean Sea from the
corsairs by whom it was infested.
The Empire's shattered fleets were soon restored (in just six months; it consisted of about 150 galleys and eight galleasses) and the Ottomans maintained control of the Mediterranean (
1573). In August
1574, months before Selim's death, the Ottomans regained control of
Tunisia from Spain who had controlled it since
1572.
Marks of decay
Lord Patrick Kinross' account of Selim's reign is how he starts a chapter of his book called "The Seeds of Decline". He sees the massive outlay for the fleet-rebuilding following the Battle of Lepanto as the start of the Empire's slow decay. Kinross also says that Selim's reputation for drunkenness was solidified in his decision to invade
Cyprus rather than supporting the
Morisco Revolt in
Granada as well as in the manner of his death; Selim died after a period of fever brought on when he drunkenly slipped over on the wet floor of an unfinished bath-house.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Selim Ii'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://selim_ii.totallyexplained.com">Selim II Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
