*

besiegers. The city was saved by the heroism of her defenders, aided, unquestionably, by the severity of the season, which the Asiatic troops in the Ottoman army could ill endure, and by the insubordination of the impatient Janissaries. But, whatever be the cause assigned to it, the repulse of Solyman from Vienna is an epoch in the history of the world.

The tide of Turkish conquest in central Europe had now set its mark. The wave once again dashed as far, but only to be again broken, and then to recede for ever.

* Von Hammer, vol. ii. p. 76.

CHAPTER X.

WARS AND TREATIES WITH AUSTRIA-CONQUESTS OVER PERSIA -AUSTRIA TRIBUTARY TO THE PORTE-EXPLOITS OF THE TURKISH ADMIRALS-BARBAROSSA-PIRI REIS-SIDI ALI — DRAGUT — PIALÉ — SOLYMAN'S DOMESTIC TRAGEDIES DEATHS OF PRINCE MUSTAPHA AND PRINCE BAJAZETSIEGE OF MALTA-SIEGE OF SIGETH-DEATH OF SOLYMAN -EXTENT OF THE EMPIRE UNDER HIM-ARMY-NAVY-INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION-LAWS-COMMERCE-BUILDINGS

-LITERATURE.*

A PEACE was concluded between the Sultan and Ferdinand in 1533, by which Hungary was divided between Ferdinand and Zapolya. Solyman had, in the interval, again invaded Germany with forces even stronger than those which he led against Vienna; and as Charles V., on this occasion (1532), put himself at the head of the armies of the Empire, which gathered zealously around him, a decisive conflict between the two great potentates of Christendom and Islamism was anxiously expected. But Solyman was checked in his advance by the obstinate defence of the little town of Güns; and after honourable terms had been granted to the brave garrison of that place (29th August, 1532), Solyman finding that Charles did not come forward to

* Von Hammer, books xxvii. to xxxv.

meet him, but remained posted near Vienna, turned aside from the line of march against that city; and, after desolating Styria, returned to his own dominions. Each, probably, of these two great sovereigns was unwilling to risk life, and empire, and the glorious fruits of so many years of toil and care, on the event of a single day; and neither was sorry that his adversary's lukewarmness for battle furnished a creditable excuse

for his own. The warlike energies of the Ottomans were now for some time chiefly employed in the East, where the unremitted enmity of Persia to Turkey, and the consequent wars between these two great Mahometan powers, were a cause of relief to Christendom, which her diplomatists of that age freely acknowledged.* Solyman led his armies against the Persians in several campaigns (1533, 1534, 1535, 1548, 1553, 1554), during which the Turks often suffered severely through the difficult nature of the countries through which they traversed, as well as through the bravery and activity of the enemy. But the Sultan effected many important conquests. He added to the Ottoman empire large territories in Armenia and Mesopotamia, and the strong cities of Erivan, Van, Mosul, and, above all, of Bagdad, which the Orientals call "The Mansion of Victory." Thus, "The arch of Turkish dominion, which still spans the ample regions from Bagdad to Belgrade," rests at each base upon a conquest of Sultan Solyman's ;

Busbequius, Ferdinand's ambassador at Solyman's court, says: ""Tis only the Persian stands between us and ruin. The Turk would fain be upon us, but he keeps him back. This war with him affords us only a respite, not a deliverance." See also the letters of Sir John Masone, our ambassador at the French court, given by Mr. Tytler in his " Reigns of Edward VI. and Mary," vol. i. p. 360, vol. ii. p. 352.

but its shadow has indeed grown fainter, and grown less, since the Age of which he was entitled the Lord.

The modern Turk, who seeks consolation in remembering the glories of the Great Solyman, must dwell with peculiar satisfaction on the tokens of respectful fear which his nation then received from the most powerful as well as from the weaker states of Christendom. And the year 1547 is made a peculiarly proud one in the annals of the House of Othman, by the humble concession which its rival, the Austrian House of Hapsburg, was then compelled to make to its superior strength and fortune. The war in Hungary had been renewed in consequence of the death of John Zapolya, in 1539; upon which event Ferdinand claimed the whole of Hungary, while the widow of Zapolya implored the assistance of the Sultan in behalf of her infant son. Solyman poured his armies into that country, and in 1541, and the following years, he again commanded in person on the banks of the Danube. He professed the intention of placing the young prince Zapolya on the throne of Hungary and Transylvania when he should have attained the age of manhood; but Ofen and the other chief cities were garrisoned by him with Turkish troops; the country was allotted into Sandjaks, over which Turkish governors were appointed; and the Ottoman provincial system was generally established. The strong cities of Gran, Stuhlweissenburg, and many others, were taken by the Turks in this war; and though their success was not unvaried, the general advantage was so far on the side of the Sultan, that as early as 1544 Charles V. and Ferdinand made overtures for peace;

and in 1547 a truce for five years was concluded, which left the Sultan in possession of nearly the whole of Hungary and Transylvania, and which bound Ferdinand to pay to the Sublime Porte thirty thousand ducats a year, a payment which the Austrians called a present, but the Ottoman historians more correctly term a tribute.

This treaty, to which the Emperor Charles, the Pope, the King of France, and the republic of Venice were parties, may be considered as a recognition by Christendom of the truth of Solyman's title, "Sahibi Kiran,” "Lord of his Age." Austrian pride, indeed, had previously stooped so low before the Sultan, that king Ferdinand, when seeking peace in 1533, consented to style himself the brother of Ibrahim, Solyman's favourite minister, and thus to place himself on the level of a Turkish Vizier. Francis I. had repeatedly sought the aid of Solyman in the most deferential and submissive terms. That aid was more than once effectively given by the Turkish invasions of Hungary and Germany, which compelled the emperor to draw the weight of his arms from off France; and, still more directly, by the Turkish fleets which were sent into the Mediterranean to attack the enemies of the French king.* England,

* As early as 1525, while Francis was a prisoner at Madrid, the aid of the young Sultan Solyman had been implored and promised in his behalf. Hellert, the French translator of Von Hammer, gives in his notes, to the fifth volume of his translation (pp. 150), a translation of a remarkable letter of Solyman to Francis, promising him assistance, which has been discovered in the French archives. The letter is couched in the loftiest strain of haughty generosity, and bids the French monarch, now that he has laid his petition before the throne which is the refuge of the world, fear no longer the enemy who has threatened and ravaged his dominions, and made him captive.