Suleiman the Magnificent - Sultan of Sultans - Extra History - #3

📜 Suleiman the Magnificent - Part 3 - Extra History
Suleiman returned from his campaigns to find that two of his sons had died of illness that year, but also that his favorite concubine had borne him a new son. Her name was Roxelana, and although she was only a Polish slave, he loved her deeply and soon elevated her to become his legal wife, the Hürrem Sultan. He also promoted his best friend, Ibrahim, up the ranks until he finally appointed him grand vizier. With these two ruling at his side, he felt ready to take on the world. But Ahmed Pasha, his second vizier, was jealous of Ibrahim. He'd expected to get the position of grand vizier for himself, and when he didn't, he asked for a governorship of Egypt instead - which he then used to mount a rebellion against Suleiman. His rebellion triggered a wave of uprisings through the empire. Suleiman sent Ibrahim to quell them all, which he did, and then reorganized the provinces to break up the power blocs that had acted against his sultan. At the same time, Suleiman had begun working on a great work of law, reforming the hodgepodge legal heritage of the Ottmans into a unified code that would guide the empire for the rest of its days. While it was still in progress, he saw an opportunity to reach for Hungary again and he took it. His troops marched through a torrential downpour of rain until they encountered the Hungarian troops on the Field of Mohács. Impetuous nobles had pushed the young King Louis II to take the field and go on the offensive, despite being outnumbered and outgunned by the vast Ottoman force. Their brave but foolhardy charge failed, and the Ottomans surrounded and destroyed them. Although Suleiman wept over the corpse of the young king, calling his death a tragedy, he did not shy from claiming his victory and declaring Hungary his own.

*Miss an episode in our Suleiman the Magnificent Series?*

Artist: Lilienne Chan I Writer: James Portnow I Voice: Daniel Floyd I Editor: Carrie Floyd

#ExtraHistory #OttomanEmpire #History

[Gamechamp]

"He was really really sad when his sons died, but then he had another one and was happier than ever!" That was a quick turnaround.

[dragatus]

This is going suspiciously well for Suleiman so far.

[ludicrus]

"So there he was, the mightiest monarch of the mightiest empire of the modern world, ready to conquer life with his true love and his one true friend at his side faithfully at his side." Again, love the parallels to Justinian.

[MegaMementoMori]

Very capable and loyal friend? Check.
Success at squashing rebellions? Check.
Major law reform? Check.
Famous queen that he raised from obscurity due to love? Check.
Lavish architecture projects? Check.
Conquests? Check.

That's it, Suleiman is Justnian reborn.

[MidwestArtMan]

Embracing looks weird when you don't have arms.

[yorkziea]

Man, Suleiman really likes hugging...

[chainsawgood]

Actually, her name was Aleksandra. Roxellana is what she was called by Western chroniclers because it ties into the region she was kidnapped from by the Tatar slavers who originally sold her to Suleiman.
To the Turks, she was known as Hurrem, meaning "cheerful one", because of her cheerful disposition and playful personality.
Also, Suleiman wasn't married before. The woman you referred to as his "wife" was actually just his former favourite concubine, and the mother of Mustafa.
I was really hoping you'd go into more detail about the relationship between Hurrem and Suleiman. Hopefully it comes up in the later episodes.

[icedragon]

James, you've outdone yourself in the writing of this one. This series is without a doubt the most beautiful Extra History to date.

[Liberater]

damn egypt is given to a lot of people

[lockretvids]

Okay, here are some things to the "lies" episode:

1. The Turks didn't cross the Danube (at least not where it was shown :P). The Ottoman army marched through Bosnia and crossed the Szava and the Drava rivers to reach Mohács. The village (and the plains) are on the other side of the Danube.

2. It wasn't the nobility that forced the king of Hungary to fight. When word reached him that the Ottomans were on the way, he immediately sent word to muster the forces of the country. But it was unanswered. The "mobilisation" only started when the Ottomans reached Bosnia. This meant that everyone was 3 MONTHS LATE. Luckily Louis II was also the king of Bohemia and had a good relationship with the Habsurgs of Austria so he had access to german and czech mercenaries to bolster his forces. The knights described in the episode were actually far inferior in number to the mercenaries (but the army size of 30000 is a fair estimate).

3. The reinforcements didn't know whether they should move or not. János Szapolyai (the Voivod of Transylvania) had 15000 men near the Tisza but he recieved conflicting orders literally every other day: one said they should hurry to assist in the coming battle, the other said that they should guard the river in case there's a flanking attack.

4. The Turks didn't have men, more like 50-60000 arriving in two groups. The Hungarians wanted to rout the Anatolian army before the Rumelian arived to help them. Which failed... and backfired miserably.

5. The turkish scouts didn't find the body of the king right after the battle because he drowned in a brook during the retreat. He fell off his horse while trying to cross the Csele and his heavy armor was his doom. Also, he wasn't a child. In 1526 he was already 20 years old.

6. Suleiman didn't want to belive that this was everything Hungary could muster. He awaited the arrival of the "main" force because he thought that it was merely the vanguard that he had just defeated. He kept his army on high alert for an entire day before he figured out what was really going on.

7. This may be a personal interpretation but the video implies that Suleiman captured Hungary right after the battle. This is false. The Turks merely sacked Buda and rampaged through Central Hungary before they left the country. Suleiman didn't return to capture the kingdom until exactly 15 years later. If you think I'm being poetic, I'm not. The battle of Mohács took place on 29th of August 1526. Buda fell to the Ottomans on the 29th of August 1541...

I realise that some things must be changed for the sake of the narrative but I still hope that this will reach you! Wonderful work you're doing, keep it up! :)

[Swordsmen]

Suleiman truly was a man of heart. Crying for the loss of an important person, such as the enemy's is something we rarely see in history.

Props for this guy.

[spriddlez]

Holy Hot Mess is the best sneaky joke in one of these that I've seen in a while haha.

[victormenjivar]

Sulieman and Ibrahim looks like they had one of the most epic of bromances in the whole world.

[Overhazard]

Those are some remarkably small heads if Ibrahim could fit five hundred of them into a bag about the size of his own head.

[Unseenarchivist]

I feel so sorry for the boy king of Hungry. elected by rivals, forced and schemed against, and ultimately pushed to his death by the foolishness of old men. poor little bastard.

[extrahistory]

With his best friend and the love of his life by his side, Suleiman is ready to take on the world.

[thefoxoflaurels]

I think one for Mansa Musa would be fascinating.

[MrCyberGal]

For those of us who know of the final fate of Ibrahim and Suleiman's friendship... this is heartbreaking :(

[Nextgen]

I sometimes forget how war kept on changing with technology. Armor Plate and Spear's V.S. Gun's and Cloth.

Really does remind me of my Civilization campaign's.

[GarlicPudding]

Makes me want to start an Ottoman game in Europa Universalis 4.