Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor: Series One and Series Two in one Volume — John Shaqi
Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor: Series One and Series Two in one VolumeWalsh, R. (Robert)
History
Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor: Series One and Series Two in one Volume
Walsh, R. (Robert)
Istanbul (Turkey) -- History; Istanbul (Turkey) -- Pictorial works
The people of the West had now begun to recover from the terror
which the first eruption of these terrible barbarians into Europe
had excited, and to consider the many commercial advantages to be
derived from an intercourse with them. The French and Venetians, in
the reign of Selim, had already established this intercourse; and
the English were supplied with Oriental produce by the latter, who
sent Argosies, or ships of Ragusa, in the gulf of Venice, to England,
freighted with the wealth of the East. One of these rich vessels was
wrecked on the Goodwin sands, and the Venetians were afraid to send
another. But the English having tasted of Asiatic luxuries, could not
dispense with them; and the enterprising Elizabeth, in whose reign the
accident happened, sent Raleigh and Drake to explore the West, while
Harebone was despatched to open a communication with the East. She
wrote a Latin letter, addressed, _Augustissimo invictissmoq. principi
Sultan Murad Can_; in which she seems not only to prize highly the
incipient reformation in England, but also to recommend herself to the
Turk by a principle common to Islamism, “an unconquerable opposition
to idolatry.” Her letter was well received, and Sir E. Barton was
appointed her first resident ambassador. He accompanied Amurath in his
Hungarian wars, and died on his return to Constantinople. He was buried
in the island of Chalki, and his monument still exists in a Greek
convent there. Hence originated an English residence at Constantinople,
and the establishment of the Levant Company, a body of merchants who,
for 240 years, have caused the name of England to be respected in the
East, among the most honoured nations of Europe.
Amurath III. was distinguished by the extraordinary number of his
children. He had attached himself to a fair Venetian, sold to him
as a slave, and raised her to the dignity of Sultana; but she had
no children, and the Janissaries began to express their discontent.
They accused her of sorcery, and caused her attendants to be put to
the torture, to discover what philtres she had used to entangle the
sultan’s affection. None were discovered, except a good and amiable
disposition. Amurath, however, soon attached himself to so many others,
that he filled the seraglio with 200 of his progeny. He died in the
year 1595, at the age of 50, leaving 48 children alive.
The first care of his successor, Mahomet III. was the usual resort
of Turkish policy. He strangled twenty-four of his brothers−-nor was
he satisfied with this carnage. He escaped an insurrection of the
janissaries, and, suspecting that his favourite Sultana and her son
were concerned in it, he caused them to be sewed up in sacks, and
drowned in the sea of Marmora. He died in 1603, after a reign of 8
years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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