According to Busbecq, the murder of Mustafa was not the only conspiracy in which Hürrem was a participant. As Busbecq told it, after Mustafa’s death, Selim, Suleiman’s eldest son by Hürrem, was the sultan’s choice for his successor. Hürrem, however, preferred Bajazet, Selim’s younger brother. Encouraged by his mother’s support and determined to avoid the certain death that awaited him should his brother become sultan, Bajazet launched a conspiracy to overthrow his father and seize the throne. When the conspiracy failed, Bajazet found himself in what was, to say the least, an extremely precarious position. In this passage, Busbecq describes Hürrem’s successful intervention on Bajazet’s behalf. As you read it, consider what Busbecq might have made of Suleiman’s capitulation. What light did it shed on his character and Hürrem’s influence?

You wish for information about Bajazet, and here it is; but, to make my account clearer, I must repeat what I have already said about Suleiman’s family. He has had five sons, the eldest Mustafa, who was child of his concubine from the Crimea, and whose unhappy fate I have already described, and four sons by Roxolana, to whom he is legally married—Mahomet, Selim, Bajazet, and Jehangir. Mahomet married a wife (for the Turks bestow this title on concubines) and died young. Selim and Bajazet are still alive. The youngest son, Jehangir, died in the following circumstances. When the news of Mustafa’s death reached Constantinople, the unhappy youth, who was neither mentally nor physically robust (he was disfigured by a hump), was greatly alarmed, for he felt that a like fate hung over himself. He could only hope to be left unmolested as long as his father lived; when he was laid to rest, the accession of his successor, whoever he was, would coincide with his own death; none of the brothers would be spared, but all alike would be made away with as rivals to the throne, and among them himself. These thoughts terrified him as much as if his immediate execution had been ordered, so that he fell ill and died.

Thus, as I have said, two sons survive; one of whom, Selim, being the elder, is destined by his father to succeed him. Bajazet has the support of his mother’s zeal and affection; either because she pities him on account of the fate which inevitably awaits him, or because of his dutiful attitude towards her, or else because he has won her heart for some other reason. Certainly no one doubts that, if the choice lay with her, she would prefer Bajazet to Selim and place him on the throne. But the father’s wishes must be respected, and he is steadfastly determined that, at his death, no one but Selim shall succeed him. Bajazet, knowing this, is seeking everywhere for some means of escaping the doom which awaits him and of winning a throne instead of certain death. The support of his mother and of Roostem does not allow him altogether to despair, and he deems it more honourable to fall fighting for the throne and trying his luck than to be butchered ingloriously, like a victim for sacrifice, by the hand of his brother. Being of this mind and already openly at enmity with Selim, he saw in the odium excited by the murder of Mustafa a not unfavourable opportunity of putting into execution a project which he had long entertained.

[Busbecq then describes how Bajazet induced his adherents to support the claims of a pretender who impersonated Mustafa and raised the standard of revolt in the Danubian provinces.]

Suleiman, rightly suspecting that the conspiracy was not taking place without the complicity of one of his two sons, decided that it must be taken seriously. He, therefore, wrote upbraiding the Sanjak-beys for having allowed the matter to go so far and for not having dealt with it at the very beginning, as they should have done. He threatened them with serious consequences if they did not send the impostor to him in chains at the earliest possible moment together with the other ringleaders of this wicked conspiracy. He added that, in order to facilitate matters, he was sending to their aid one of the Vizierial Pashas (namely, Pertau, who had married the widow of Mahomet, whom I have mentioned above), accompanied by a large force of soldiers of the guard; if, however, they wished to clear themselves, they should finish off the business by themselves before the reinforcements arrived. . . .

The Sanjak-beys, on receiving Suleiman’s orders, feeling that they must act with vigour, egged one another on and, setting to work with all speed, tried to checkmate and oppose the impostor’s plans. They did their best to break up his bands as they were collecting and to scatter those which had already assembled, while they spread terror far and wide by threats of impending danger.

Meanwhile, the forces of Pertau Pasha were advancing. When they were not far from the scene of the rising, in accordance with the usual behaviour of halftrained troops who are suddenly surprised, the soldiers of the pretender, finding that they were being surrounded on all sides, were seized with panic. At first only a few slipped away; but in the end, forgetful of their honour and their promises, they all deserted their leader and escaped as best they could. The pretender with his chief officers and advisers attempted to do likewise, but he was cut off by the Sanjak-beys and taken alive. All the prisoners were handed over to Pertau Pasha, who sent them with an escort of picked troops to Constantinople. There Suleiman had them strictly questioned under torture and learnt all he wished; he discovered the guilt of Bajazet and all his plans. It was clear that it had been his intention, as soon as the insurgents had collected in sufficient numbers, himself to join them with a large body of men and, according as circumstances dictated, either to lead them straight against Constantinople or else to use them for a surprise attack upon his brother. Owing, however, to his hesitation, his plans were checked by the promptness of the Sultan before they came to maturity. Suleiman, having obtained all the information which he required, ordered the prisoners to be drowned in the sea at midnight; for he judged that it was anything but expedient that any of the facts should be noised abroad or that his domestic troubles should be exposed to the eyes of neighbouring rulers.

Suleiman was greatly enraged against Bajazet, and was considering how he should punish him, and his wife, with her usual cleverness, easily read his thoughts. Letting a few days elapse in order that his wrath might die down, she touched upon the subject in the Sultan’s presence and dwelt upon the thoughtlessness of youth, and the inevitableness of fate, and quoted similar incidents from the past history of Turkey. She pointed out that it is a natural instinct in a man to do his best for himself and his family, and that all men alike wish to avoid death, and that a young man is very easily seduced by evil counsellors from the path of duty and rectitude. It was only fair, she said, to pardon a first offence; and if his son amended his ways, his father would have gained much by sparing his son’s life; if, on the other hand, he returned to his evil ways, there would be ample opportunity to punish him for both his offences. She entreated him, if he would not have mercy on his son, to take pity on a mother’s prayers on behalf of her own child. . . .

By these words, to which she added tears and caresses, Suleiman was softened, and, too much influenced, as always, by his wife, yielded and resolved to spare Bajazet, provided he came and received his orders in person. . . . When he entered his father’s presence, Suleiman bade him sit at his side, and began sternly to upbraid his rash conduct in daring to take up arms under circumstances which made it seem probable that he himself was the object of his attack; even if his schemes were aimed against his brother, his action must be regarded as an atrocious crime. He had, he said, done his best to root up the very foundations of their faith by endangering, through family feuds, the power of the house of Othman, which was the sole remaining support of the Moslem religion. . . . He must cease henceforward from stirring up disorder and provoking his unoffending brother, and refrain from troubling his father’s peace in his old age. If he returned to his old ways and raised a fresh storm it would burst on his own head, and there would be no pardon for a second offence; he would find him not a kind father but the sternest of judges.

To these words Bajazet made a short and appropriate reply, deprecating rather than excusing his fault and promising obedience in future to his father’s authority. Suleiman then ordered the usual beverage (a mixture of sugar and water and various juices) to be brought and offered to his son. Bajazet, not daring to refuse to drink, though he would have preferred to do so, drank as much as appearances required, in great anxiety lest it should be the last draught he should ever swallow. His father, however, soon put an end to his fears by drinking from the same cup. Bajazet, more fortunate than Mustafa in his interview with his father, then returned to the seat of his government.

Source: Edward Seymour Forster, The Turkish Letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927), pp, 79–84.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER