Mehmed III
Mehmed III was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1595 until his death in 1603. Mehmed was known for ordering the execution of his brothers and leading the army in the Long Turkish War, during which the Ottoman army was victorious at the Battle of Keresztes. This victory was however undermined by some military losses such as in Győr and Nikopol. He also ordered the successful quelling of the Jelali rebellions. The sultan also communicated with the court of Elizabeth I on the grounds of stronger commercial relations and in the hopes of England to ally with the Ottomans against the Spanish.
Early life
Mehmed was born at the Manisa Palace on 26 May 1566, during the reign of his great-grandfather, Suleiman the Magnificent. He was the son of Murad III, himself the son of Selim II, who was the son of Sultan Suleiman and Hurrem Sultan. His mother was Safiye Sultan, an Albanian from the Dukagjin Highlands. His great-grandfather Suleiman I died the year he was born, and his grandfather became the new sultan, Selim II. His grandfather Selim II died when Mehmed was eight, and Mehmed's father, Murad III, became sultan in 1574. Murad died in 1595, when Mehmed was 28 years old.Mehmed spent most of his time in Manisa with his parents and his teacher, Ibrahim Efendi. His circumcision took place on 29 May 1582 when he was 16 years old.
Reign
Fratricide
Upon ascending to the throne, Mehmed III ordered that all of his nineteen brothers be executed. They were strangled by his royal executioners, many of whom were deaf, mute or 'half-witted' to ensure absolute loyalty. Fratricidal successions were not unprecedented, as sultans would often have dozens of children with their concubines.Power struggle in Constantinople
Mehmed III was an idle ruler, leaving government to his mother Safiye Sultan, the valide sultan. His first major problem was the rivalry between two of his viziers, Serdar Ferhad Pasha and Koca Sinan Pasha, and their supporters. His mother and her son-in-law Damat Ibrahim Pasha supported Koca Sinan Pasha and prevented Mehmed III from taking control of the issue himself. The issue grew to cause major disturbances by janissaries. On 7 July 1595, Mehmed III finally sacked Serdar Ferhad Pasha from the position of Grand Vizier due to his failure in Wallachia and replaced him with Sinan.Safiye as Valide Sultan
When Mehmed III ascended the throne, the real power behind the throne was the Mehmed's mother Safiye Sultan who ruled the Ottoman Empire with her son, exerting as much and sometimes even exceeding the influence and authority as Mehmed III. Safiye was so powerful during the reign of Mehmed III that she was even regarded by the ministers and dignitaries as a co-ruler of the Ottoman Empire.She headed the Imperial council in the absence of Mehmed, and controlled the appointments and dismissals of Ministers, Grand Viziers and even Sheikh-ul-Islam and she had complete control over the Ottoman Treasury and Finances. She filled the entire Imperial court with her supporters, and therefore didn't experience any sort of protest against her power and influence in the empire, during most of her tenure. If any minister challenged her, they were very unlikely to remain in power for long. As Valide Sultan, her personal purse was three times that of the Sultan, the highest level of salary for a person in the empire. Since the public and officials knew of her active role in state affairs, they would turn to her in order to get their work done, and sometimes they would even block her carriage to make requests in person on such matters. During her son's reign, Mehmed consulted her on important matters and did not make a decision without her consent.
Safiye was also known for her extravagant and lavish lifestyle, which made her many enemies but no one dared to openly challenge her. When Mehmed III went on the Eger campaign in Hungary in 1596, he gave his mother great power over the empire, leaving her in charge of the treasury. During her interim rule she persuaded her son to revoke a political appointment in the judgeship of Constantinople and to reassign the grand vizierate to Damat Ibrahim Pasha, her son-in-law so that no one could do anything in the capital, or even in the whole empire, without Safiye's permission. During the 9-year reign of her son, she was even accused of corruption in his government by selling important and lucrative positions at the highest price offered.
Safiye was instrumental in the execution of her grandson Mahmud in 1603, having intercepted a message sent to his mother by a religious seer, who predicted that Mehmed III would die in six months and be succeeded by his son. According to the English ambassador, Mahmud was distressed at "how his father was altogether led by the old Sultana his Grandmother while the state went to ruin, she respecting nothing but her own desire to get money, and often lamented thereof to his mother," who was "not favored of the Queen mother." The prince was therefore a serious threat to her and her son's reign. The sultan, provoked by her, suspecting a plot and jealous of his son's popularity, had him strangled.
But even for a short period of several weeks in 1600, even the Sultan saw his mother's influence on him and her presence in the palace as disturbing and insisted that she leave the palace and no longer control his affairs. However, she had built extensive support network, and continued to exert a tacit influence over the state through one of the chief eunuchs, appointing her allies to powerful positions. After five weeks, the Sultan was forced to cancel his mother's exile due to the pressure from the Imperial court and she returned to the Palace with even more influence and authority. Safiye continued to co-rule the Empire with him until his death, whereupon she lost all her power and influence and was exiled to Old Palace by her grandson and the new sultan Ahmed I.
Austro-Hungarian War
The major event of his reign was the Austro-Ottoman War in Hungary. Ottoman defeats in the war caused Mehmed III to take personal command of the army, the first sultan to do so since Suleiman I in 1566. Accompanied by the Sultan, the Ottomans conquered Eger in 1596. Upon hearing of the Habsburg army's approach, Mehmed wanted to dismiss the army and return to Istanbul. However, the Ottomans eventually decided to face the enemy and defeated the Habsburg and Transylvanian forces at the Battle of Keresztes, during which the Sultan had to be dissuaded from fleeing the field halfway through the battle. Upon returning to Istanbul in victory, Mehmed told his viziers that he would campaign again. The next year the Venetian Bailo in Istanbul noted, "the doctors declared that the Sultan cannot leave for a war on account of his bad health, produced by excesses of eating and drinking".In reward for his services at the war, Cigalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha was made Grand Vizier in 1596. However, with pressure from the court and his mother, Mehmed reinstated Damat Ibrahim Pasha to this position shortly afterward.
However, the victory at the Battle of Keresztes was soon set back by some important losses, including the loss of Győr to the Austrians and the defeat of the Ottoman forces led by Hafız Ahmet Pasha by the Wallachian forces under Michael the Brave in Nikopol in 1599. In 1600, Ottoman forces under Tiryaki Hasan Pasha captured Nagykanizsa after a 40-day siege and later successfully held it against a much greater attacking force in the Siege of Nagykanizsa.