Defenders of the Faith Highlights

Had Suleyman prevailed at Vienna, as the odds suggest he should have, Europe would have been Islamic to the Rhine River in the early sixteenth century. loc: 98

1. AN EMPEROR ARRIVES IN EUROPE loc: 130

twenty-year-old king of Spain, Charles V, the grandson, on his mother's side, of the "Catholic kings of Spain," Ferdinand and Isabella, the grandson, on his father's side, of Maximilian I, Holy Roman emperor. By his maternal lineage, he was also the nephew of Catherine of Aragon, loc: 132

Maximilian had died with his desires unfulfilled. As a result, a furious competition over this grand and ancient title ensued in 1519. Charles's chief rival was the other most powerful leader of Europe, Francis I, the king of France. loc: 143

In 1515, just months after Francis I had become king of France, he won a glorious victory over the Swiss at Marignano and took charge of Italy's wealthiest state, Milan. But Charles V, as king of Spain, had Naples and Sicily in his domain. In between lay the hapless papal states and Machiavelli's independent province of Florence. loc: 148

it fell to the pope to adjudicate between ravenous potentates for his secular counterpart. The pope was Leo X, amiable, courteous, and diplomatic, the scion of the great counting house of Florence, House of Medici, and the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent. loc: 152

Vatican was virtually bankrupt within two years. loc: 157

Romans loved the ripe atmosphere that Leo created. Unprotected though it might be, Rome had again become the cultural center of the civilized world. loc: 160

Leo threw his weight behind Francis I, only to find that he had backed the wrong candidate. loc: 165

Charles was in the best position to buy off the electors. His managers tapped the coffers of the most important bank of Germany, the House of Fugger, in Augsburg. Its campaign contribution of a half million ducats1 proved more than enough to purchase the votes. loc: 166

Before, the Western world had been composed of loose and contentious states under fractious rulers. Now, without really appreciating it, Christian central Europe was girding for the coming battle with Islam under one consolidated rule. loc: 170

His dominion stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean, from the Netherlands through Germany and Austria to Spain and Sicily. loc: 177

Within a month, Montezuma would be dead, and Spain was one important step closer to its conquest of Mexico. loc: 181

France remained the most threatening power to the Hapsburg empire, and of the French, Charles's advisers remarked, "The French care neither for truth nor for friendship, loc: 193

If until 1494, when France had invaded Italy, there had been relative peace among the European powers, a new and menacing threat had, at the same time, emerged in the Orient. This was the rise of a powerful Islamic force in Turkey called the Ottoman Empire. loc: 201

Leo X appealed to the major European powers to set aside their differences and unite against the common threat to Christianity. loc: 204

Leo's crusade found few takers. Opposition was especially fierce in Germany, where a charismatic friar named Martin Luther was causing consternation in the Catholic world. This upstart rejected any call to crusade as a transparent Vatican ploy to extort money from the faithful. loc: 206

2. THE SWORD OF OSMAN loc: 214

the only remaining son of the Ottoman sultan known as Selim I or Selim the Grim. His name was Suleyman. The name itself portended great deeds, for it was a derivative of Solomon, loc: 217

his Circassian mother, the intelligent and beautiful Hafsa Khatun, who was the daughter of the khan of the Crimean Tartars. It was also through her that Suleyman inherited the blood of Genghis Khan loc: 234

Selim I did not command the prestige of his great-grandfather Mehmet II, who had been known as the Conqueror. Mehmet II had crushed the last, woe-begone remnants of the Byzantine Empire more than fifty years earlier in 1453. After capturing Constantinople, he had extended the dominion of the Ottoman Empire through the Balkan Peninsula, conquering most of Serbia, Albania, and Bosnia. loc: 241

But the great Mehmet II had experienced two major failures and, thereby, had left two points of unfinished business to his successors. He had failed to capture Belgrade: he was repulsed there in 1456, and he had failed to capture the Christian bastion of the Knights of the Hospitallers on the island of Rhodes in 1480. loc: 245

the Moors of southern Spain were finally defeated by the Catholic kings Ferdinand and Isabella. With that, the center of gravity for Islamic power shifted from Granada east to Constantinople. loc: 250

Selim waged a three-year war against his placid father for the throne. loc: 254

forced his father to abdicate. loc: 256

to consolidate his hold on power he had his father poisoned on the way to exile and had deaf-mutes strangle his remaining two brothers with a bowstring. loc: 257

He burnished his reputation as the Grim One during his reign when he had some seven viziers beheaded, loc: 259

By 1520 the campaigns of Suleyman's father had doubled the size of the Ottoman Empire. During his rule, Egypt, Palestine, and Syria had come under Ottoman rule. This was a historic achievement, for it meant that the Ottoman sultan now controlled the great cultural centers of Islam: Cairo, Jerusalem, and Damascus. loc: 266

In the Islamic world, the Ottoman emperor was now formally the "Guardian of the Faith." loc: 270

Before his campaign to the east, he massacred thousands of Shi'ites in Anatolia to purify his own land of heresy. loc: 271

But Shi'ism had survived. It remained a vibrant force in Asia Minor. loc: 273

janissaries loc: 280

seize the flower of Christian youth in the Balkans, bring the boys to Constantinople as slaves, school them in loyalty to the sultan, and groom them for leadership. loc: 281

Their loyalty was fierce to the sultan who rewarded them, loc: 285

Suleyman, later known as the Magnificent, grasped the sword of Osman and took charge of the vast Ottoman Empire. loc: 346

With that act, he committed his reign, as nine sultans had done before him, to gaza, or holy war against the infidels. loc: 346

3. SON OF SATAN loc: 348

June 15, 1520, Leo X, loc: 349

the pope issued a lengthy papal bull entitled Exsurge Domine loc: 351

Exsurge Domine represented nothing less than struggle to the death. This was Luther's formal excommunication from the Catholic Church. From his writings, books, and sermons, forty-one specific errors from the true doctrine of the Church were defined. loc: 361

his spirit had hardened. Therefore "we can proceed against him to his condemnation and damnation as one whose faith is notoriously suspect and who is in fact a true heretic." Unless he quickly disavowed these erroneous beliefs, he was to be seized and burned at the stake. loc: 368

Yet allies gathered around him. Chief among them were the humanists, who were at the forefront of the new age of learning. They prized freedom of thought over ecclesiastical dogma loc: 372

Luther's rebellion had been a great spur to German nationalism. loc: 383

"Sylvester von Schaumberg and Franz von Sickingen have freed me from the fear of men," Luther said gratefully. Perhaps, after all, he could escape the fate of his historical mentor, the Czech reformer Jan Hus, loc: 391

the archbishop of Magdeburg was offered the chance to buy another archbishopric, the see of Mainz, on the condition that he raise an additional ten thousand ducats, loc: 396

building fund of St. Peter's loc: 397

Rome suggested the sale of indulgences loc: 398

Indulgences had their origin in the First Crusade in the eleventh century when holy warriors were rewarded for their service to the pope loc: 405

In the first two years of his rebellion Luther could rail against the depravity of Rome, but he respected its immense power. loc: 414

The Holy See dispatched a papal legate to Germany, Cardinal Gaetanus Cajetan, a general of the Dominican order and head of the Inquisition. He was ordered to confront Luther and bring him to heel at a diet of German princes that was being held in Augsburg during the late summer of 1518. loc: 422

Over the next two days, the opponents dueled over the fine points of theology. Luther would recant, he said, if his errors could be proved. loc: 443

by the third day the two began to shout at one another. The interchange ended badly with Cajetan ordering Luther out of his sight. loc: 445

Luther scoffed. Rome was nothing short of Babylon, he wrote, a city of evil, the lair of the Antichrist. loc: 451

as his rebellion spread across Germany, he grew bolder. His public pronouncements became more and more messianic, loc: 456

Over the next two weeks, the crowd moved to the great hall of Pleissenburg Castle for the main event. There the central question for debate was, is the papacy in Rome of human or divine origin? Christ is the head of the Church, Luther argued. Yes, Eck replied, but Christ's church has a vicar on earth. loc: 471

Skillfully and stubbornly, Eck defended Catholic doctrine against Lutheran "despair" and put on an impressive display of learning against Luther's appeal to Scripture. He trapped Luther into endorsing the heresies of Jan Hus, which did not help the cause of one who was himself accused of heresy. Eck pushed Luther into arguing that belief in the divine supremacy of Rome was not necessary to salvation. loc: 474

When it was over, Eck was thought to have won on points. loc: 478

After the debate Lutheran sympathizers turned on Eck personally, loc: 480

Early in 1520 Johann Eck traveled to Rome, and the drafting of restrictions against the "Lutherans" and of a specific excommunication order against Luther himself began. loc: 488

In the first half of 1520, as the excommunication order was debated and refined in Rome, the fine art of insult was broadly employed in Germany. loc: 496

He argued that if Germany did not have the strength of will to free itself from the Vatican's yoke, then "let the Turks execute judgment on Rome." loc: 499

His breach with Rome was now complete, irreconcilable, and permanent. loc: 507

4. A FIELD OF FOOL'S GOLD loc: 508

Catherine longed for her nephew Charles to marry her daughter despite consanguinity, for that would link England with Spain, Germany, Austria, and the Low Countries under one dynasty. loc: 522

the pope, Leo X, was secretly urging an offensive pact of England, Venice, and France against the rising power of Charles. loc: 526

Among these belles in the French court was a vivacious and graceful nineteen-year-old English girl named Anne Boleyn. loc: 572

Queen Catherine, loc: 579

One French commentator patronized her as a "Spanish saint," whose overweening piety "has rendered her so desolate and dismal that her husband only dares to approach her kneeling on the prayer bench." loc: 580

daughter of Queen Isabella of Spain—but loc: 582

Cardinal Wolsey had been the driving force behind this rapprochement, partially as a matter of self-interest, for he counted on French support in his campaign for the papacy. loc: 585

There was a growing sense that war between the Empire and France was inevitable. Soon enough, the question would arise as to which side England would take. loc: 590

Francis was twenty-six, a giant of a man, broad-shouldered, with a large head, aquiline nose, and narrow, squinting Gallic eyes. Graceful, athletic, and strong, he was the Frenchman's idea of the perfect prince. loc: 599

While he kept his teenage queen, Claude, in one pregnancy after another, he chased after a long succession of mistresses, loc: 608

The only woman to whom the French king showed a doting respect and docility was his mother, Louise of Savoy. loc: 614

Henry was three years older. loc: 615

He was a genuine scholar who spoke fluent French and Spanish loc: 617

He was also devout and well versed in the fine points of theology. loc: 619

So began two weeks of banquets and balls and entertainments that sported much but meant little. loc: 625

impulsively he grabbed Francis by the collar and challenged him to wrestle. This proved to be a mistake. Both men stripped to the waist. Henry charged. Francis stepped aside and treated his English counterpart to a tour de Bretagne, a kind of sneaky French flip, in which Henry was spun around, tripped, then slammed flat on his back. loc: 644

Henry stomped off in a huff. loc: 647

"terrible consequences" of Henry's humiliation for Anglo-French relations. loc: 648

No sooner was Henry out of sight than the French began to fortify their border with the English pale and convert their tents and pavilions to military use. While Henry, in turn, promised to tell his French brother all about his coming meeting with Charles V, he was actually preparing to switch his allegiance to the emperor. loc: 653

5. LET IT BE DONE! loc: 660

the oath of coronation: "In the name of Christ, I, Charles of Spain, the Emperor, promise, undertake, and protest in the presence of God that I will be the protector and defender of the Holy Roman Church in all ways that I can loc: 676

swore fealty to the pope loc: 678

swore to guarantee all the rights and possessions of the electors and German princes, loc: 678

promised to increase the Empire by recovering lost lands. loc: 681

seated upon Charlemagne's marble throne, Charles received the symbols of his new dominion: the sword of power, the crown of his empire, and the scepter with its distinctive orb. loc: 683

A few weeks before Charles's coronation, Luther's excommunication was published in the regions around Wittenberg. loc: 693

Any pretense of respect and obedience now dropped away from the statements of Luther himself. loc: 699

Luther called upon all princes to oppose "the incredible madness of the Pope." loc: 704

In his formal answer to the bull of excommunication, he called himself Christ's evangelist and threw down his challenge not only to the pope, to the new Holy Roman emperor, and to the Christian world, but to Suleyman and the world of Islam as well. loc: 704

6. THE SULTAN OF LOVE AND WAR loc: 719

another beauty, named Gülbahar, gave him a son named Mustafa. This was a serious event, for this son was the sultan's first and heir to the throne, and this, in turn, raised the status of his mother to queen mother. loc: 759

Shortly after his accession, Suleyman found the love of his life, Roxellana. loc: 761

Suleyman sent Gülbahar away and transferred his affection, quite permanently, to Roxellana. loc: 769

The loyalty of the janissaries was his top priority. Though they were technically the sultan's slaves, they possessed the power to rebel against the sultan. loc: 788

Second, Egypt commanded his attention, for it represented a conflict between Turk and Arab. His father had conquered the Mamluk kingdom of Egypt and brought the trappings of the caliphate from Cairo to Constantinople. The conquest in 1517 had been harsh, loc: 792

During the conquest, an Egyptian emir named Ghazali had betrayed his Mamluk masters, and in gratitude Selim had rewarded him with the governorship of Syria loc: 808

With the news of Selim's death, however, Ghazali seized the opportunity to rebel against the supposedly shy and docile Suleyman, seeking to reestablish the Mamluk Empire in Syria. loc: 809

Outnumbered now nearly eight to one, Ghazali moved his force west of Damascus into the desert, where on January 27, 1521, it was crushed by the Ottoman forces. loc: 817

prompted by the Hungarian atrocity, he turned his attention north to the Balkans. He meant to teach the insolent Magyars a lesson. loc: 829

ACT TWO HORSETAILS AND WORMS loc: 836

7. A DIET OF WORMS loc: 838

the young emperor promised never to send any accused person outside the borders of Germany proper for trial nor to punish a suspect without a fair hearing. loc: 841

any location where the suspected heretic resided was placed under an interdict. That meant that in the cursed venue, Catholic sacraments, including proper Catholic burials, could not be performed. loc: 849

To Charles, Frederick insisted that the German constitution be followed to the letter. He would not permit Luther to be sent to Rome for trial. If any trial was to be held, he insisted that Luther receive a fair hearing. loc: 858

question hung in the air of whether a secular body of German princes and a mere emperor could examine a priest on matters of faith. The nuncio, Aleander, said emphatically, no, never. Only the pope was competent to judge Luther. loc: 866

the nuncio was caught on the horns of his own dilemma. He wanted a secular punishment, yet he could not accept a secular inquisition to get it. loc: 869

Luther was not the only one whose life might be at risk. In the overheated atmosphere of Worms, Aleander painted a bleak picture for the Vatican. Angry mobs controlled the narrow streets. Antipapal, pro-Luther pamphlets flooded the town: loc: 876

In this volatile environment, Aleander feared for his life. loc: 884

Charles V was keenly aware that the first major event of his reign was fast becoming a fiasco. loc: 889

Charles would gladly have consigned Luther's books and their author to the flames, were it not for the concern that he would alienate the very German princes who had supported his election and who were so important to his empire. loc: 893

Despite this posturing, he was eager to appear. If his suffering and his passion were akin to Christ's, there was one major distinction. Unlike Christ's silence before Pilate, Luther intended to be bold and loquacious. loc: 907

Charles V, pondering the vast expanse of his Hapsburg dominion and the difficulties of its governance, had come to see that one man alone could not manage it. It needed to be divided. So he would cede the Austrian inheritance to his younger brother, Ferdinand, loc: 915

the farthest eastern extension of the Hapsburg dynasty, Hungary, the bulwark against the Turks, was in dire straits. loc: 918

intelligence from Constantinople that preparations were well under way for an Ottoman invasion of the Balkan Peninsula. loc: 924

Before the skeptical German princes, they pleaded for the mobilization of ten thousand soldiers for the defense of Hungary and Europe and Christianity itself. loc: 926

The emperor listened politely, but his attention was elsewhere. Spanish nobles were again in revolt. The diet was quarreling over the powers of the imperial council. If the question was more troops, they would probably be more urgently needed in Italy where his chief rival, Francis I, was again threatening Lombardy. loc: 939

the sense was that the danger was exaggerated. loc: 944

The imperial herald on horseback, the imperial eagle prominent on his bodice, escorted the triumphant procession through the town gate, lending an air of a state visit by a world leader rather than a simple monk in a rickety wagon. loc: 963

Justification by faith alone and the villainy of the pope were the only issues here. loc: 972

I should desire to see my days flow on peaceful and happy. But the cause is Thine. Thou has chosen me for this work. Act then, O God . . . stand at my side." loc: 977

The papal nuncio, Aleander, had been adamant in trying to limit the proceeding to two simple questions. A simple yes or no was all that was required to each question. Above all, this was not a disputation. loc: 984

The excommunication had condemned Luther the man; an imperial ban must condemn Luther the author. With a ban of the Empire following the excommunication of the Church, the Civitas Dei, the community of God, was affirmed. Sacred and profane authority would be joined in their condemnation. Justice could then be done. loc: 986

In this company of nobles, this preamble seemed to level the field. Their power came from inheritance and wealth; their manners from breeding. His power flowed solely from his conscience. loc: 1008

Secondly, yes, he had written against the Roman pope. He had attacked false doctrines, irregular and scandalous behavior that "afflicts the Christian world and ruins the souls of men. loc: 1014

"If I were to revoke what I have written on that subject, I should strengthen this tyranny and open a wider door to many, flagrant impieties." loc: 1017

The nuncio's worst fear was being realized. The villain had his pulpit. And now he went further. He moved to associate himself with Christ himself, the ultimate arrogance and sacrilege. loc: 1027

He challenged the emperor, the high prelates, the illustrious lords, to prove to him from Scripture where he was in error. If they could do so, he would be the first to commit his writings to the flames. loc: 1030

"I can not submit my faith either to the pope or to the council, because it is clear as noonday that they have fallen into error and even into glaring inconsistency with themselves. loc: 1038

I neither can nor will retract anything. For it can not be right for a Christian to speak against his country. Here I stand and can say no more. loc: 1041

Voices demanded that justice be done as it was in the Council of Constance in 1415 when the "safe conduct" given to Jan Hus was consigned to the flames along with Hus himself. When this notion was presented to Charles V that night, it was remembered that the king of Bohemia of Hus's time, Sigismund, had come to live in history's disgrace for betraying his promise of indemnity. loc: 1049

For it was great shame to us and to you, you members of the noble German Nation, if in our time, through our negligence, we were to let even the appearance of heresy and denigration of true religion enter the hearts of men. loc: 1064

I will not hear him again. He has his safe conduct. But from now on I regard him as a notorious heretic, loc: 1067

"Luther is to be regarded as a convicted heretic. When the time is up [the time of his safe conduct, due to elapse in nineteen days], no one is to harbor him. His followers also are to be condemned. His books are to be eradicated from the memory of man." loc: 1071

Diet of Worms issued its decision about the Turkish invasion of the Balkan Peninsula. "The holy Catholic power and seat of sacred Roman power cannot presently promise troops or other assistance as aid against the Turks," loc: 1076

8. THE SHADOW OF GOD SPREADS NORTHWARD loc: 1084

preparations for war were under way in Turkey. The logistics for Suleyman's first imperial campaign were staggering. loc: 1086

Suleyman himself leaned toward a plan to circumvent the daunting bastion at Belgrade loc: 1093

It was dangerous, Piri Pasha argued, to leave an enemy stronghold untouched in the rear of a major campaign, for that would threaten their supply line. As the army prepared to move out, the objective remained in doubt. loc: 1098

Suleyman decided for both. He would split his army, sending the main force of janissaries under Piri Pasha toward Belgrade, while a contingent of heavy and light cavalry struck out on the western swing to Sabac on the Sava River. loc: 1129

A small but brave force occupied the fort now, under a legendary Hungarian champion named Simon Logodi. If he was to die heroically, he was determined to take as many Turks with him as he could. loc: 1134

"This is the first castle that I have conquered," Suleyman said effusively. "It must now be reconstructed, so that it serves its purpose." Its purpose was to help secure an Islamic dominion in the Balkans. loc: 1138

Kalemegdan was built on a high promontory where the Sava River empties into the Danube. loc: 1146

Military men extending back to Roman times had appreciated the considerable defensive advantages of this strategic redoubt, surrounded by water on two sides and commanding both waterways. loc: 1148

For the next twenty-one days the Hungarian defenders, with their Bulgarian mercenaries, turned back wave after wave of Turkish assaults. loc: 1154

At last on August 29 two messengers arrived under a flag of truce and prostrated themselves in front of the sultan. They brought an offer to capitulate if the surviving Hungarians could depart with their families. loc: 1164

Belgrade Cathedral was stripped of its Christian relics and icons, including a miracle icon of the Holy Virgin. loc: 1167

the inner sanctum of the Topkapi was in turmoil. Roxellana had borne a son and named him Mehmet, after Mehmet II, the Conqueror of Constantinople. So now the rivalry of royal infants between Gülbahar's son, Mustafa, and Roxellana's son, Mehmet, loc: 1173

grim Ottoman tradition of fratricide and infanticide in the imperial court, loc: 1176

9. HENRY'S HARANGUE loc: 1186

Lutheranism was spreading unchecked across Europe, and the kings and Catholic potentates of the Continent were powerless to contain it. loc: 1187

In Paris, the Faculty of Theology at the Sorbonne published a condemnation of 104 Lutheran propositions and, six weeks later, made it a criminal offense to publish or sell any religious book without the faculty's stamp of approval. loc: 1188

On May 12, in London, Luther's books were ceremoniously burned at the bishop's residence. loc: 1198

At Oxford University, several popular lecturers spread the new theology, and students embraced it eagerly. loc: 1201

With a little help from Sir Thomas More, he wrote a lengthy diatribe against Luther called Assertio Septem Sacramentorum (My Assertion of the Seven Sacraments). If it was not profound theology, Henry's Assertio was in the finest tradition of medieval insult. loc: 1208

In his diatribe, King Henry would make the assertions that, ten years later, when he was trying to solicit Luther's help in his own conflict with Rome, he would deeply regret: loc: 1221

Leo was in no hurry to make a lavish spectacle out of this modest book, for he too was of a mind to downplay the Luther affair. loc: 1229

Henry VIII was proclaimed officially to be a "Defender of the Faith." loc: 1238

Luther felt compelled to answer. It was not so much the king's insults that demanded a response, as Henry's misrepresentation of Luther's theology and the charge of inconsistency. The king was in for a pasting. loc: 1239

Out of the contest, Henry VIII had received the title that he so coveted, while Luther had defended his beliefs, just as he had shown that no mortal, surely not a mere king, could intimidate him. loc: 1251

Thus, in 1521, even as the dominion of Islam spread north of Belgrade and threatened the heart of Hungary, the Turkish question in Europe remained the subject of academic quibbling. loc: 1257

10. THE BLOOD SPORT OF KINGS AND POPES loc: 1260

His reign had begun so gloriously five years before with his victory over the Swiss at Marignano in northern Italy. That had secured the prize of Milan, the wealthiest duchy in northern Italy, and extended French domain to the very frontier of Venice. loc: 1273

Francis's throne and his dynastic House of Valois were the wealthiest in Europe, and the most secure, loc: 1278

opening shots of the coming four-year war between the House of Valois and the House of Hapsburg. loc: 1293

France was now surrounded by the imperium of the new Caesar. Flanders lay to the north, Spain to the south, the new Germany to the east. loc: 1294

Spain and the Empire were now truly global, and France, wealthy and compact and homogeneous as it might be, was hemmed in. loc: 1300

Francis I declared war on Charles V. loc: 1301

On May 29, Leo X concluded an alliance with Charles. In this switch of horses, elaborate, grandiose language accompanied the Machiavellian act. The two great powers, papal and imperial, were united "in purifying Christendom from all error, in establishing universal peace, in fighting the infidel, and in introducing a better state of things throughout." loc: 1311

Francis was having none of it. Promptly, he blocked all ecclesiastical monies from being sent to Rome. loc: 1315

Wolsey traveled to Bruges to meet Charles V, ostensibly to persuade him to make peace. Instead, in secret, they concluded an offensive alliance with the plan that, if no agreement was reached by November, England would enter the fray on the imperial side and invade France the following May. loc: 1324

On November 19, an imperial force broke through the walls of Milan and took charge of the city. The French fled across the Alps, and in rapid succession Lodi and Pavia, along with the episcopal sees of Parma and Piacenza, came under imperial control. loc: 1337

With his death, the antipapal sentiment in Italy boiled to the surface. The late pope was abruptly ridiculed for the extravagance and indulgence and vulgar ostentation that had driven the papacy to penury and turned the Vatican into a pagan bawdy house. loc: 1357

ACT THREE ANCESTRAL ASPIRATIONS loc: 1361

11. HOLY SMOKE loc: 1363

Giulio de' Medici rushed back to Rome, confident that he would succeed his cousin loc: 1364

For Leo's entire papacy, Giulio had been his relative's right hand, skillfully handling the Machiavellian gyrations of Vatican foreign policy, while the pope lost himself in merriment. Giulio had proved himself not only an able prelate, but a stout military commander; loc: 1366

Francis I let it be known that if the cardinals elected another Medici, "who is the cause of all the war, neither he nor any man in his kingdom would obey the Church of Rome." loc: 1374

the Medici threw their bloc of votes to the most unlikely candidate of all, Adrian of Utrecht. loc: 1376

Blithely, also in the spirit of political maneuvering, with an eye toward subsequent rounds, the other blocs also threw their votes to Adrian as well, and to the amazement of all, he was elected. loc: 1383

the dismay was felt. This was a huge mistake and a terrible accident. loc: 1385

A disgruntled cardinal was more cryptic: "One might almost say that the Emperor is now Pope, and the Pope Emperor." loc: 1387

If mortification was great, nowhere was it greater than in Adrian himself. loc: 1391

The immediate question was whether the new pope would reaffirm the Vatican's place in the anti-French alliance. When the emperor's demand to that effect reached Adrian, the pope signaled a change. He would not follow the lead of imperial policy, and he announced the Vatican's formal withdrawal from the anti-French league. loc: 1396

His goal was to restore peace among the Christian princes, not to set one against the other. Christendom faced a grave threat from Islam. loc: 1399

But the European monarchs were dismissive of this call for unity. loc: 1404

he argued passionately for them to confront the scourge of Lutheranism and to enforce the Edict of Worms. loc: 1407

he became the first pope to acknowledge the abuse and corruption of the Church. Stoutly, he called for major reform. loc: 1416

This admission of collective guilt was greeted with dismay and protest by ecclesiastics, who argued that at the very least it undercut the case of the Church against Luther. loc: 1418

This forthright admission marked the first step toward counter-reformation. loc: 1423

On April 27 the French suffered total defeat at the Battle of Bicocca in Lombardy, and a month later they lost their hold on Genoa. This effectively ended the French presence in Italy for the moment. loc: 1433

the duke of Bourbon, constable of France, defected from the service of Francis I and secretly made his way into the service of the emperor. loc: 1437

one of the most powerful men in France and, besides the king himself, the wealthiest man in France. loc: 1440

tensions arose between the French king and his vassal over ancestral rights and over payment for services as constable. Secretly, Bourbon began to conspire with both Charles V and with Henry VIII about a possible partition of France. loc: 1444

Suleyman the Magnificent arrived in the vicinity of Rhodes with a massive force of over one hundred thousand soldiers. loc: 1448

Facing them on the island was a battalion of the bravest and most capable soldiers in all of Europe: the military monks of the order of the Hospitallers. loc: 1450

12. THE NEST OF CHRISTIAN VIPERS loc: 1454

In 1309, the island had been captured by the Knights of St. John, known as the Hospitallers, after Arabs had driven these crusaders out of their Pales tinian stronghold at Acre eighteen years before. loc: 1459

the Knights of Rhodes had evolved from their founding mission of healing the sick into an organization of Christian piracy. loc: 1464

These rogues of a bygone era had built up their fortress on the northern tip of the island into the most formidable bastion in all of Europe. loc: 1468

these monkish pirates put aside their black cowls, strapped on their armor, and set out to interdict Ottoman trade and shipping. For decades they operated with impunity in their brilliant red ships and enslaved pilgrims on their hajj to Mecca. loc: 1483

So long as Rhodes remained in Christian hands, the Ottoman Empire could never consolidate its control over the eastern Mediterranean. loc: 1489

Suleyman was keeping a close eye on Rhodes. He had been made aware of Villiers's election, and the Sublime Porte had a spy in the fortress loc: 1516

With a section of the wall controlled by French knights under reconstruction, with the disarray caused by the death of the grand master, with serious dissension among the Italian knights in the fortress, the spy was suggesting that this might be a good time for an Ottoman attack. loc: 1520

During the fall and winter, preparations for war went forward, for the new grand master had no doubt about the imminence of an Ottoman attack. loc: 1539

Better than any other military engineer in Europe, he understood the implications of the invention of gunpowder to military defense. The age of chivalry had passed. The engineer was now transcendent over the valorous knight. The threat of explosive bombardment and mining had rendered the traditional thin walls of medieval castles obsolete. loc: 1544

13. IN THE TRUEST SENSE loc: 1582

In mid-June 1522 plague broke out ferociously in Rome, and the conta-I gion spread quickly. Bloated bodies piled up in the streets. With each passing week the epidemic grew worse until the death toll reached 150 a day. loc: 1584

Adrian VI, finally arrived in Rome in August. His physical appearance alone was in sharp contrast to that of the obese Leo X, signaling that a new day had dawned. loc: 1593

Adrian spoke no Italian and conducted all his business in Latin. More important, he evinced no understanding of or interest in the mores of Italian politics; loc: 1598

He saw classical sculpture and art as pagan and had much of it removed. loc: 1602

The Venetian ambassador was more blunt: "All Rome is horrified at what the Pope has done in this one short week!" loc: 1606

Beyond his frugality and his reclusiveness, Adrian would quickly prove himself to be indecisive as well. loc: 1607

FOR 145 DAYS, in the late summer and fall of 1522, the siege of Rhodes went forward. loc: 1617

Then the shelling of the walls began. And it was awesome. loc: 1622

Despite the massive numbers of the Turkish force—some put the number as high as one hundred thousand—the invading army consisted more of cannon fodder than trained and experienced warriors. loc: 1625

But in the end, yet again the Turks were expelled, their dead, numbering several thousand, filling the trenches. loc: 1637

Thus, if he faltered, the disgrace would be his personally and twice that of 1480. His reign could not bear a repeat performance. Yet he had lost close to half of his invading force. loc: 1649

Suleyman announced his intention to continue the siege through the harsh, waterlogged winter months. loc: 1653

To the end of the month the mining and countermining, the breaching and the repairing of the walls, continued, and the Christians saw clearly that the Turks would not be deterred by the terrible slaughter they were suffering. loc: 1663

On November 30, St. Andrew's Day, one final epic battle took place before the fate of Rhodes was decided. loc: 1683

When the rain stopped and the winds died down and the two sides surveyed the terrible carnage, the conclusion was inescapable that this siege had to end. loc: 1690

Their dead numbered in the tens of thousands. The defenders, in turn, had lost 120 of the best and most precious men on November 30; few true warriors were left. The gunpowder was nearly depleted; their walls were undermined in countless places. The town was in ruins, and the townspeople on the verge of revolt. loc: 1692

At first, Villiers stubbornly resisted any talk of surrender. He proclaimed that all should be ready to stand and fight to the last man, as their vows commanded. But his advisers came back to him, pleading with him to consider the pitiful state of the town, the desperate state of their ordnance, and not to "make the enemy's victory the more splendid by our deaths." No relief from Europe was on its way. They should give up that hope. They were abandoned. loc: 1699

On December 10 formal surrender negotiations got under way, as the burgess of Rhodes traveled to Suleyman's stone pavilion. There, the sultan confirmed his offer and swore his sincerity "by his faith." loc: 1706

a Christian deserter slipped into the Turkish camp with the news that the lull was merely a gambit to gain time so that the defenders might repair their walls. Suleyman flew into a rage, broke off the talks, and resumed his bombardment. loc: 1709

On December 18 the Turks broke through the walls of the Spanish bastion, and fighting took place in the streets of Rhodes for the first time. That was enough. On December 21, Villiers capitulated. loc: 1716

Relying upon Suleyman's word, the Knights of Rhodes began gathering their possessions. loc: 1721

On Christmas Day, four hundred janissaries entered the town . . . and ran amok. loc: 1724

When Villiers turned to leave, Suleyman said to him, "I am sad that you and your followers, who are so courageous and upright, are being forced from your home." loc: 1735

14. IN THE EXTREMITY OF HIS AFFLICTION loc: 1740

The Ottoman Empire now held sway over the entire eastern Mediterranean. The invasion of Italy itself by Islamic forces could not be far away. loc: 1743

Unfairly and outrageously, Charles V laid the blame on the pope. If only the pontiff had granted him the favors that his predecessors had never refused, the danger might have been averted. loc: 1752

The three central goals that Adrian had set for himself at the beginning of his papacy were fading into oblivion. In the north, heresy was rife and spreading; in the east the Muslim infidels were advancing; and soon enough, in the Christian heartland, war would break out among the Christian brethren. As he was ignored by kings, so he was scorned by the Roman people, who were confounded by his sanctimony, his indifference to Roman culture, and his indecisiveness. loc: 1756

France and the Vatican were becoming enemies. Francis I had instructed French churches to send no more money to Rome. In August, Adrian dropped all pretense of neutrality and concluded a treaty with the emperor, Henry VIII, Venice, and several other Italian states to defend Italy against France. loc: 1771

Two weeks later, on September 14, Adrian VI died. loc: 1783

ACT FOUR THE CAPTURE OF A KING loc: 1789

15. THE GREAT PLAN loc: 1791

Now pressing his military campaign to regain control of Lombardy, the French king was determined to travel to Rome to advocate for a French candidate. But the imperial forces, now in control of Milan and commanded by the traitor to the French cause Charles, duke of Bourbon, blocked his way. loc: 1795

Giulio de' Medici loc: 1810

stood for election unabashedly as the candidate of the Empire and Charles V. loc: 1811

On November 19, exactly two years to the day after he had entered Milan at the head of an imperial army, Giulio de' Medici was unanimously elected. loc: 1822

he took the name Clement VII. loc: 1825

Jubilation greeted Clement's election, in Rome and across Europe. loc: 1828

Not many weeks into the new papacy, however, opinions about the new pope began to change. loc: 1841

He vacillated on whether he was responsible for the political alliances of his predecessor, especially Adrian's Holy League with Charles V, Henry VIII, the duke of Milan, and the princes of Florence, Genoa, and Siena, in opposition to the French incursion in the north. Because Clement set no firm commitment, the emperor quickly realized that the new pope was not his creature at all. loc: 1848

the issues facing the new pope were formidable. Luther's revolt raged in Germany. The war in Lombardy seesawed between the great powers, and the hostility between France and the Empire seemed intractable. Hovering above it all was the relentless advance of Suleyman and his Turks into the Balkans. loc: 1853

The Holy Father soon became aware, however, that the hostility between the powers was beyond negotiation. loc: 1858

If he could not unite the Christian powers, perhaps at least he could counterbalance them. Naples to the south belonged to Charles and the Empire. For the time being, Milan in the north was in the hands of the French. Clement tried at first to adopt strict neutrality between the warring parties in Lombardy. But maintaining neutrality in the months ahead would require the most skillful Machiavellian maneuvering, all the more so because the pope was operating from a position of severe weakness. loc: 1861

Charles was furious that his edict remained unfulfilled. To him Luther was "worse than Mohammed." loc: 1872

The imperial envoy recalled that these same princes had passed the Edict of Worms unanimously three years before. It must now be executed. Luther must be put to death. loc: 1874

These appeals met a chilly reception. loc: 1875

The German princes also faced a delicate problem. They could not repeal the Edict of Worms. But to enforce it, especially to burn Luther at the stake, would plunge the entire region into a bloody sectarian war. loc: 1881

When the details of the diet reached Rome, the pope was outraged. Rightly, he saw the diet as a setback and an insult. loc: 1890

In April, Lannoy, the imperial viceroy in Naples, forced the French to abandon Milan and sent their troops scurrying over the Alps. Now imperial dominions surrounded the fragile Papal States north and south. loc: 1896

In Spain, Charles V laid out an ambitious plan for a coordinated attack on France. Bourbon was to come from Italy and conquer Provence before moving into Burgundy. Charles himself would cross the Pyrenees through Rousillon with eighteen thousand Spanish troops and ten thousand Germans and move into Toulouse. And Henry VIII was to cross the Channel to Calais and invade the province of Picardy. loc: 1900

This would become known as the Great Plan, and it would hover over European politics for the coming few years. loc: 1904

Francis I, far from being the unpopular monarch that Bourbon thought, began to raise a tremendous army in Avignon. The bastion of Marseille held out heroically for over a month, and it gradually became apparent that Bourbon's force was insufficient for the job. loc: 1908

On September 28, he raised the siege and began a retreat. loc: 1911

Hearing the reports of the imperial retreat, the French king gave the order to chase, and the pursued became the pursuer. loc: 1912

The race to Milan was on. loc: 1914

A year before, the French king had been beaten and harassed on all sides, his very kingdom at risk from hostile monarchs who surrounded him. Now he was transformed, brash and confident at the head of an immense army. Not only Milan but Naples seemed within his grasp. loc: 1925

From the hardship of the march, from skirmishes and from plague, the French army had been whittled down to about twenty-four thousand. A substantial portion of those were Swiss mercenaries who were there only for the pay and could disappear on the first day of lost wages. loc: 1929

Francis had made a strategic mistake. loc: 1932

16. THE LAST BATTLE IN THE AGE OF CHIVALRY loc: 1934

Clement VII viewed these developments with satisfaction. Again a balance of power had been established in Italy, France versus the Empire, with the Papal States safely sandwiched in between. In Lombardy the French looked like sure winners. loc: 1958

the pope abandoned his neutrality and forged an alliance with Francis. Yet again the Vatican had switched horses. loc: 1962

As part of the agreement, the pope permitted a French expeditionary force to pass safely through papal territories to Naples. loc: 1965

the emperor was appalled loc: 1967

"I entered this war for him alone. I have lost money, men, and friends for his sake. I have risked my honor and even my soul. I could never have believed that he would desert me. However, I do not despair, nor will I yield. I will go to Italy to seek revenge on all who have wronged me, especially this poltroon of a pope." loc: 1968

in this winter season, the siege went soft. In the broad park to the north, safely beyond the range of imperial batteries along the town's walls, the French set up stalls and markets. Peddlers and whores flooded into the French encampment, swelling the settlement by thousands. Laughter, dance, music, and wine replaced military discipline. loc: 1974

If the siege of Pavia could be broken, the French army could be trapped between the garrison of Pavia and fresh imperial troops who were soon expected from Germany. loc: 1983

Francis did not take the bait. His spies had informed him of the desperate financial state of the enemy. If he could hold out in place for only a few more weeks, he had every expectation that the imperial force would disintegrate. loc: 1993

the imperial commander, the marquis of Lannoy, made his desperation manifest. His commander inside Pavia had sent word that he was out of money completely. If relief did not come within a few days, he would have to surrender the city. loc: 2012

The imperial commanders knew now that some dramatic thrust was required. loc: 2016

As dawn broke, the breach was sufficient to allow a column of three thousand imperial forces to enter the enclosure. loc: 2028

Without realizing it, the imperial movements had split the French army into three. loc: 2035

By 7 a.m. the situation moved from scattered contact to the positioning of major formations for pitched battle. loc: 2041

Francis was most confident of his cavalry. It was his pride, his cherished "hares in armor," the heroes who had broken the Swiss ten years earlier at Marignano. These horsemen were more heavily armored than their Spanish counterparts, and the king deployed them now in a charge against a line commanded by Lannoy. The lines clashed in a terrible melee. Within a few minutes, the imperial line buckled and scattered. loc: 2046

his heroic cavalry had taken place ahead of the French artillery. Therefore, the French cannons could not be brought into action without killing their own men. loc: 2051

By 8 a.m. the French cavalry was surrounded, and its annihilation commenced. loc: 2058

Large columns splintered into small bands and fought hand to hand with imperial pikemen . . . until it came down to the king himself. loc: 2060

Francis I fought well, until his great horse was finally brought down, and the king found himself engulfed by imperials loc: 2062

17. MY HONOR AND MY LIFE loc: 2067

The Battle of Pavia was the pivotal battle in the Italian Wars of the early sixteenth century and the climax of the struggle between France and the Hapsburgs. loc: 2068

a historic disaster for France. loc: 2070

the nobility of France was essentially wiped out at Pavia, either through death or capture. loc: 2070

For another century, the balance of power in Europe shifted away from France to Spain, Germany, and the vast domain of the Hapsburg family. For the foreseeable future, there would be only one superpower in Europe. loc: 2073

With this titanic struggle, the nature of warfare changed. No longer was the armored man or force of armored men the most important factor in battle. Now artillery, both cannon and rifle, decided the outcome. loc: 2081

The new weapon, the forerunner of the musket and the rifle, became a standard in European armies within a few years. Thus, the Battle of Pavia may be viewed as the last battle for heroic chivalry and the first battle of modern warfare. loc: 2083

Francis accepted his defeat at Pavia as the will of God. loc: 2102

Partly out of respect for his royal person, partly from admiration for the heroic manner in which he had fallen captive, his captors accorded Francis the dignity and some privileges of a reigning monarch. loc: 2118

The French detachment had never reached its destination. Organized quickly by the Colonna, an Italian force had blocked it. Thus repulsed, the French straggled back to Rome with their own Italian ally, soldiers of another great Roman family, the Orsini. loc: 2127

the soldiers of the two great families squared off against one another in the streets of Rome, loc: 2129

The French under Albany did their best to avoid this internecine trouble, making their way to Civitavecchia on the coast and thence, on French galleys, to Marseille. loc: 2132

The choice of the Iberian Peninsula as the epicenter for the vast and ever-expanding Hapsburg dominion seemed to make sense, for the emperor not only had to look east as far as Vienna and Hungary, north to Denmark and the Netherlands, but also west to the New World. loc: 2135

But still the complicated exigencies of Charles's European domain, especially the war in Italy and the heresy of Germany, were hard to manage effectively at the distant remove of Madrid. loc: 2142

Suddenly the supreme and unchallenged ruler of nearly all of Europe, the secular leader of Christendom, the emperor scanned the room. At this ultimate moment of triumph, instead of congratulation, recrimination was on his mind. loc: 2157

bishop of Osma, Loaysa y Mendoza, was granted the honor of speaking first. loc: 2165

Instead of this, a universal peace among Christian princes must be the emperor's goal. To accomplish this, the king of France should be released without condition. loc: 2183

turned to another for a different perspective. That was the duke of Alva, a young warrior only twenty years of age, who had just returned from the battlefield of Pavia, loc: 2192

"Nothing has a shorter life than the memory of benefits received," Alva said. "The greater the benefits, the more are they repaid with ingratitude. Those who are ashamed of having been reduced to a condition where they need the goodwill of others are also angry and offended for having received it." More hatred and contempt than gratitude and love could be expected. loc: 2203

The price of a "profligate act of kindness" was high. The standing of the emperor would be lessened in the world rather than heightened. The army would feel deceived and lose its vigor. loc: 2212

This forceful presentation swept the court up in consensus, and the bishop of Osma receded into the shadows. The majority believed that the greatest advantage should be derived from the adversary's misfortune, and the emperor approved. loc: 2226

Francis was to give up all claims in Italy, including to Milan, Naples, Genoa, Asti, and Bournai. In France the vassalages of Artois and Hinault were to be turned over. More important, all of Provence and Dauphiné must be given to the king's tormenter, the duke of Bourbon, and his rightful claim to them recognized. Most important, the heartland of France, Burgundy, was to become imperial territory. Beyond these territorial concessions, the figure of two million ducats was set as the king's ransom. loc: 2228

18. I AM KING ONCE AGAIN! loc: 2239

Henry VIII could now be expected to demand that the Great Plan be put into effect, a plan by which he would go to France and be crowned the king of France. After that the allies would carve up Gaul to their liking. What Henry VIII wanted most were the ancient possessions of England in France: Gascony, Normandy, and Guienne. loc: 2247

There would be no Great Plan, Henry was told bluntly. Not only would there be no Great Plan, but Charles would marry not the princess of England, loc: 2252

Charles V dawdled. Had he acted swiftly, as he had been advised, he might have swept into leaderless France or crushed the remaining Italian resistance in Lombardy. Instead, he treated the victory at Pavia as the total and lasting annihilation of French power and resources. Through his inaction, a stalemate ensued, and a period of intrigues began. loc: 2260

alliances began to form against the emperor. In the months after Pavia, Charles was in danger of losing the fruits of his great victory. loc: 2262

In Germany, in the meantime, a revolt of the peasants against their feudal lords was reaching its height. It had begun the previous fall as peasants, taking to heart Luther's teaching against spiritual authority, applied the same message to temporal authority. loc: 2272

The peasants rose in bands. They were brutally crushed, only to rise elsewhere with a violence equal to their oppressors'. They protested against tithes and unfair rents, against arbitrary punishment, and against harsh game and forest laws. loc: 2280

As the butchery and arson continued—in Thuringen 70 monasteries were torched; in Franconia 293 castles were burned—he lost sympathy with the rebels altogether and dis mayingly swung over to the side of the oppressors. loc: 2284

Luther did so with a brutality of language that was remarkable loc: 2285

Let the nobles take the sword as ministers of God's wrath. loc: 2288

He accepted that the blood of the peasants was on his own head, "but I put it all on our Lord God, for he had commanded me." It was a lot to take on his head, for in the final suppression of the Peasant's Revolt, some tens of thousands, inspired by Luther's "evangelical liberty," were slaughtered. loc: 2293

he proclaimed marriage to be the natural state of a man and a woman. The vow of chastity for priests was an abomination, he said. loc: 2306

With his marriage and his support of the nobles in the repression, however, he lost standing as both a social and a moral leader. loc: 2315

When the time was ripe, Morone launched his bold proposal. The Italian states were on the verge of uprising. Naples was tired of being dominated by strangers. If Pescara would lead them against the emperor, he could become the king of Naples. The pope himself had given his blessing to the scheme. loc: 2325

Unfortunately for the conspirators, Pescara, Neapolitan or not, had a great contempt for Italians, and soon enough he reported the overture to the emperor. loc: 2330

The emperor once again had solid proof of the pope's efforts to undermine him. loc: 2333

Francis was locked up in the dank and musty alcazar of Madrid. loc: 2339

restriction began to wear on Francis, and eventually he lost his gay temperament, as he complained constantly of his undignified treatment. Gradually, he sank into dark melancholy. In October he contracted a severe fever and slid close to death. loc: 2341

Bourbon was offered the supreme command of imperial forces in Italy, as well as the duchy of Milan, since the duke of Milan, Francesco Sforza, had forfeited his rule with the Morone scandal. loc: 2355

Francis devised a masterstroke. He informed Charles that he was now prepared to abdicate his throne rather than accede to the ignominy and disgrace of butchering his kingdom. loc: 2362

But toward the end of the year the positions softened. Francis agreed in principle to hand over Burgundy if the parliament of France (such as it was) sanctioned the transfer, and the nobility of Burgundy acquiesced. All the other concessions were accepted, including his marriage to Eleonore, the royal domain for Bourbon in the south of France, and Francis's participation in a grand crusade against the Turks. loc: 2367

The treaty was a transparent sham. loc: 2373

ACT FIVE MORE WAS LOST AT MOHÁCS loc: 2390

19. THE GOLDEN- GRILLED WINDOW loc: 2392

Where could Francis turn? He had to look farther east. Secretly, from his cell in Madrid's alcazar, he wrote a letter to Suleyman the Magnificent loc: 2397

This overture came to the Sublime Porte as a welcome augury. After years of being snubbed and insulted, Suleyman was suddenly being courted by a major prince of the European unbelievers, loc: 2399

For five years, since he had captured Belgrade on August 29, 1521, all Europe lay open to him. Yet his attention had been drawn elsewhere, to problems in the east, in Egypt, in Persia, in the Mediterranean itself. loc: 2403

it was unclear whether the sultan's next military adventure would be north through the Balkans or east to Shi'ite Persia. loc: 2423

The Turks, in Luther's view, should be seen as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, coming to visit upon Christians only what they deserved for their corruption and decadence. loc: 2431

Moreover, Luther clearly admired the Turkish system of occupation. loc: 2433

For the time being, the Ottomans tolerated Hungary's independence, so long as it prevented a Hapsburg from ascending to the Hungarian throne and so long as its foreign policy was essentially pro-Ottoman. loc: 2437

Ironically, though help was not to be forthcoming from any quarter, the pope steadfastly cautioned Hungary against making any compromise with the heathen Turks. Hungary must hold on to its feeling of belonging to a European Christian civilization. loc: 2447

They demanded two things as the price of noninterfer ence: tribute and safe passage for Ottoman troops through Hungarian territory. The latter could have only one purpose: an attack on Vienna loc: 2450

Aggravating this dire circumstance was the pathetic state of the Hungarian royal house. The king, Louis II, was Polish by his ancestry—his loc: 2452

In 1521 he married Maria of Hapsburg. They seemed like a matched pair. Delighting in masquerade balls and elaborate tournaments, they disdained the weighty affairs of state. As one fortress after another on their southern border fell to the Turks, they left such annoying distractions to their military archbishop, Paul Tomori. loc: 2459

When his court ran out of money, he was forced to beg from his nobles, who soon deserted him, loc: 2462

After the total victory of Charles V over Francis I at the Battle of Pavia in February of 1525, the news was soon reported to Suleyman. Its implication was clear. The Christian dominion in Europe was now consolidated under one head, loc: 2469

Soon enough, the situation would no longer be state against state, but empire against empire, faith against faith, Europe against the Orient. From Suleyman's perspective his long-delayed push on central Europe should begin promptly, while the opportunity was ripe. loc: 2472

Now, three years since the fall of Rhodes, when the sultan, instead of preparing for war, took himself off to the amusements of Adrianople, the janissaries revolted. This stunning act of treason cut to the heart of Ottoman traditions, loc: 2482

the revolt prodded Suleyman into action on the military front. loc: 2488

20. THE HIGHWAY OF HOLY STRUGGLE loc: 2502

On April 17, 1526, Francis I was released from his captivity. Scarcely had he set foot on French soil than he flamboyantly disavowed the severe terms of the Treaty of Madrid. loc: 2503

When he heard about the betrayal of his former captive, Emperor Charles V was furious. Yet his ire was even greater against the pope than against Francis I. For the pope to ally himself with the French monarch who had broken his solemn word was scandalous. loc: 2508

the pivotal event in Turkish domination of the Balkans took place in 1389 at the Battle of Kosovo. In that legendary battle, resented and remembered especially by Serbians six hundred years later, the Turks crushed a combined force of Bosnians, Serbians, and Croats, and the entire Balkan Peninsula fell under Turkish rule. loc: 2523

The Christian families of Bulgaria became a rich source for the enslavement of janissaries, the flower of Balkan youth who were seized from their families between the ages of ten and twelve, sent to Constantinople for training, loc: 2528

As the janissaries provided the Ottomans with first-rate soldiers, so their recruitment undermined the ability of annexed territory to resist. loc: 2530

the lot of the subject peoples, especially the peasantry, improved under Ottoman rule. Aside from the brutal enslavement of janissaries, Christians were not required to perform military service. Aside from voluntary and self-serving conversions, no systematic effort at enforced conversion to Islam was undertaken. Aside from the capitation tax, Christian churches were permitted to function as before. Commerce thrived as the Ottomans built new roads. loc: 2533

basis was laid for a patchwork of Christian and Muslim communities, living side by side under an efficient and relatively benign Ottoman administration. loc: 2537

The Ottoman strength was now close to one hundred thousand men, loc: 2541

For months Hungarian generals had pleaded with their king to deploy troops along the Sava to hinder the Turks at this most vulnerable point to prevent them from reaching the north bank. loc: 2557

The Turkish army crossed the Sava on July 9, ferrying thirty thousand troops across the river in less than three hours and entering Belgrade. loc: 2564

One last obstacle remained along "the highway of holy struggle," as Suleyman's jihad was being called. This fortress, called Petrovaradin, was an immense bastion, loc: 2566

The Turkish armies could easily bypass it, but not the Turkish flotilla, the main source of supply for the vast army, loc: 2570

The siege lasted for two terrible weeks, before the Turkish engineers finally undermined a portion of the wall, and the Turks poured through the breach. Petrovaradin fell on July 28. loc: 2576

21. SQUABBLING AT SPIRES loc: 2578

Charles proclaimed himself too busy to attend the diet and delegated its leadership to his brother, the archduke of Austria, Ferdinand I. loc: 2586

Ferdinand was a firm believer in the necessity to enforce the edict of Worms, but the mood had shifted in recent times. loc: 2590

"Each prince should enforce the Edict of Worms in so far as he might be able." This was the germ of a new principle of territorial control of religion, known as Cujus regio, ejus religio: each region shall have its own religion. If that principle took hold officially, the authority of Rome was shattered. loc: 2591

the spread of Lutheranism. loc: 2594

nearly all of northern Germany had come under its spell, as had all of Swabia in the south. The Catholic liturgy was everywhere scrapped; Catholic masses were forbidden; loc: 2594

in the war of lampoons the Catholics were outclassed. loc: 2612

For two months in Speyer, seemingly oblivious to this juggernaut creeping north in the Balkans, the factions haggled over the dominion of papal authority, with the reformers professing their Lutheranism more openly and brazenly than ever before. loc: 2624

After the Peasant's Revolt, partly to save the Reformation, Luther had thrown in his lot with the princes rather than the peasants and espoused the principle of obedience to the orders of rightful authority. loc: 2633

He opposed aggressive war, especially any war fought in the spirit of a crusade or holy war. He had not departed from his opinion that the Vatican's repeated calls for crusades against the Turks were merely ploys to raise money. loc: 2642

It is against his doctrine because He says that Christians shall not resist evil, shall not fight or quarrel, nor take revenge. loc: 2649

Especially loathsome was the Muslim belief that Christ was a mere prophet, not divine, and lesser than Mohammed. The sword, Luther said, was the essence of the Turkish faith, "in which all abominations, all errors, all devils, are piled up in a heap. loc: 2652

And so war itself was a necessary evil when it was fought as a defensive measure, he now felt. In that spirit, war had a rightful place in the world. loc: 2658

Toward the end of its proceedings, the diet reluctantly took up the Turkish question. Only Archduke Ferdinand appreciated the grave danger. loc: 2667

the Diet of Speyer produced its unanimous proclamation. Against Vatican objections, it endorsed the notion of a general council to settle differences between Catholics and Lutherans, loc: 2678

Until that council of reconciliation was convened (perhaps in another twenty years), "every state should live, rule, and believe as it might hope and trust to answer before God and his imperial majesty." loc: 2680

This weak and vague assertion was, in effect, a declaration of independence. loc: 2681

The consequence of this compromise was far more sweeping than the delegates intended. The door was opened for the rapid growth of official Reformist states. Soon after the diet of Speyer, Saxony, Hesse, Prussia, Anhalt, Lüneburg, East Friesland, Schleswig-Holstein, Silesia, and the imperial cities of Nuremberg, Augsburg, Frankfurt, Ulm, Strassburg, Bremen, Hamburg, and Lübeck all became officially Lütheran. Only Bavaria in the south remained stoutly papist. loc: 2685

The Edict of Worms was virtually dead, all the more so because the pope and the emperor were at each other's throats and neutralizing one another. loc: 2689

The conclave at Speyer had immensely advanced the cause of the Reformation. The history of Protestantism had begun. loc: 2692

22. THE GAME PACK OF JIHAD loc: 2694

Louis II, had remained in Buda, intently aware of the looming danger in the south, loc: 2696

The issue was whether to remain in Buda for these reinforcements and thereby give up the southern part of his country without a fight, or to move south with the insufficient forces he had, making a stand around Mohács and risking probable defeat. loc: 2699

So unpopular was he with the Hungarian people that an uprising was possible with the least setback to the royal enterprise. loc: 2702

By tradition, it was important to Suleyman to be back in Constantinople by the end of October for the traditional feast known as kassim gunu, which always marked the beginning of winter for the Ottoman Empire. He needed to complete his mission expeditiously, whatever precisely that mission was, in order to begin a timely march home. The Hungarians were well aware of this constraint. loc: 2725

But the Hungarian troops were now primed and eager for combat. The opposing armies were already locked in close proximity, and a safe retreat was fast becoming impossible. Moreover, the psychological priming was under way. loc: 2731

The most impressive asset of the Hungarian force was its armored cavalry. Both sides understood that a determined charge by this mounted force could cut through any Turkish line. loc: 2765

The viziers acknowledged that an assault by the enemy cavalry, covered as it was "with steel from head to toe," could not be resisted no matter how stout the defensive line. Experience had taught them that a charge of heavily armored knights could destroy a whole line of infantry, creating panic and confusion throughout the ranks. loc: 2776

Tomori burst in on him in a frenzy. They should immediately attack the exposed Turks on the left flank, for they were certainly exhausted. Indecisive as always, the king vacillated, but finally, dilatorily, acquiesced and ordered an attack. Valuable time had been lost. loc: 2789

The initial charge of the Hungarian cavalry was brilliantly successful. loc: 2792

As the Ottoman left flank scattered, so in the center, the disciplined janissaries of the sultan began to descend en masse onto the plain. loc: 2797

Briefly, infantry of Hungarian mercenaries came into play, fighting bravely in the center. Tough and professional though they were, they were soon overwhelmed by superior numbers as the Anatolian army now entered the fray. The long Ottoman line began to bend and envelop the Hungarians, until the Magyars were desperately fighting in a large, confining rectangle, completely surrounded. loc: 2807

Gradually, relentlessly, the Hungarian force was swallowed up, loc: 2810

Of the entire Hungarian force of perhaps twenty-five thousand, only two thousand prisoners remained. loc: 2815

the Hungarian army was completely annihilated. Among the dead was the flower of Hungarian nobility: loc: 2820

23. THE SOW AND HER PIGLET loc: 2831

It was military victory medieval-style, Turkish style, with terror and memory at its core. loc: 2833

With the sultan's blessing, his vast army went on a wild, three-week rampage. loc: 2837

On September 11 Suleyman arrived at Buda loc: 2845

Ibrahim Pasha also had his eye on special spoils for himself: three giant statues of Hercules, Apollo, and Diana that were status symbols of the European Renaissance. loc: 2855

His purpose, he said, was to communicate the superiority of the Ottoman Empire over the declining cultures of Christian Europe. As we will see, their display had a very different effect. loc: 2857

three hundred arsonists fanned out across the city to set their fires. loc: 2859

So, it would seem, Suleyman's five-month Balkan campaign had been brilliantly successful. Hungary had been completely subdued. Its Hapsburg, Christian leadership was wiped out. A great and historic victory had been won at Mohács, a victory so total that it would be remembered centuries later, as a complement to the Turkish victory at Kosovo in 1389. Mohács became a standard against which all Hungarian misfortune, ancient or modern, personal or collective, would be measured. loc: 2874

Suleyman stood transcendent, the most feared emperor in the world. His path, and the path of Islam, lay open to the Rhine River. Only Vienna stood in his way. loc: 2879

with Louis II dead and the chivalry of Hungary virtually wiped out, Suleyman had no authority with whom to negotiate a graceful exit and subservient rule over his conquest. loc: 2884

Ferdinand was, as Suleyman was well aware, a far more substantial character than his weak, little-mourned brother-in-law, and he was the blood brother of Suleyman's most formidable adversary, the king of Spain and the Holy Roman emperor, Charles V. If Ferdinand's claim was accepted, a Hapsburg Austro-Hungarian empire would formally be established and extended southward loc: 2888

Instead of pushing the Hapsburgs back, the Turkish victory had sucked them farther in. loc: 2892

Ferdinand defeated Suleyman's vassal at Tokay and had himself crowned at Székesfehérvár as the sole monarch of the land. It was as if the Battle of Mohács had been for naught. Suleyman had left behind no garrison authority, no occupation force. loc: 2900

ACT SIX THE SACK OF ROME loc: 2905

24. ALAS, POOR ITALY loc: 2907

Clement VII, was feeling em boldened. loc: 2909

The time had arrived to renew the campaign to liberate northern Italy from the Spanish occupiers loc: 2911

Clement VII might be the spiritual leader of the Christian world, but his first priority was as the leader of the Italian people. He would be the last pope to claim this right. loc: 2915

By its fracture into petty principalities, Milan, Venice, Florence, Siena, Ferrara, Urbino in the north, Naples, Apulia, and Sicily to the south, each tasty morsels for outsiders, the peninsula had ceased to be a player on the greater stage of Europe. Instead, it had become the victim of the larger powers who feasted on its wealth. loc: 2922

the Holy League of Cognac was formed between the Vatican and Venice, France, Florence, and the beleaguered Sforza clan of Milan. loc: 2934

By the terms of the alliance, Milan was reaffirmed as the possession of its traditional rulers, the Sforza. All the possessions that had been taken by the imperialists were to be returned. Florence was to be protected. Most significant, war was to be declared on Emperor Charles V, and his vassal state of Naples was to be wrested from him. loc: 2936

Charles V soon caught wind of this league, and his reaction was swift. loc: 2952

events did not go well for the papal forces. loc: 2970

On July 24, unrelieved and starved, the castle of Milan surrendered. loc: 2974

Frantically, the pope looked to Francis I. Where were the French? he asked, reminding Francis of his obligations under the league. But, as a historian wrote, "The fickle king had repented of his martial zeal and was squandering his time and his revenues on the chase, gambling, and women." loc: 2975

the gullible Clement VII fell haplessly into the trap. Summarily, he pardoned all the past transgressions of the Colonna family and lifted his admonition against Cardinal Colonna. With the threat from the south having miraculously disappeared, the pope felt he could now look to his budget. The cost of maintaining a garrison of six thousand soldiers and six hundred cavalry was a burden on his treasury. Despite howls of protest from his advisers, he dismissed the greater part of Rome's defenses, reducing his palace guard to a mere five hundred men. loc: 2999

the treaty had lulled the pope into a false sense of security, while among the local populace dissatisfaction with the pontiff was rising. loc: 3005

with this apologia Charles V tied the war in Italy to the wider question of the internal rot in Christianity. The war in Italy was linked to the Catholic Reformation. loc: 3023

So distracted by their internal divisions and quarrels were the Christian kings of Europe that they had overlooked the greater threat from the outside. Clement VII had been among the most distracted. loc: 3029

25. SETTING THE STAGE loc: 3042

On the morning of September 19, 1526, an army of nearly four thousand Spanish troops, under the command of Ugo di Moncada and the Colonna, appeared before the gates of Rome. loc: 3043

The Romans offered no resistance to the invaders. They were fed up with papal war taxes and especially the tax on wine, and they regarded this as a family spat, Medici versus Colonna. loc: 3047

marauders raced through the corridors of the Vatican, into the papal apartments, even into the pope's very bedroom, stripping whatever could be removed: loc: 3051

Clement's cardinals quickly talked him out of this insane posturing and hustled him through the covered passage to the bastion of Castel Sant'Angelo. loc: 3059

Moncada's demands were stiff. There was to be a four-month truce; papal troops were to be withdrawn from Lombardy, and the pope's fleet, under Andrea Doria, was to be withdrawn from Genoa. A full pardon for the Colonna was required. In return, Moncada would withdraw his troops to Naples. loc: 3064

Their action had detached the Vatican from this so-called Holy League. That the pontiff was subservient to the emperor's whim had been made abundantly clear. Now, Moncada advised the emperor, for public consumption, to act as if he disapproved and disavowed the action of his unruly agents. loc: 3075

To the north in Lombardy the illusion of a tilt back toward the pope lasted through October. loc: 3092

his Venetian and Swiss soldiers now encircled Milan and were pressing hard against the imperial defenders. And the defenders were now in a bad way. loc: 3093

In Spain he equipped a fleet to transport some ten thousand Spanish and German troops to the Italian front. loc: 3103

Simultaneously, the emperor ordered a similar number of troops to be levied in Germany loc: 3106

the imperial pincer would be formidable. loc: 3108

George von Frundsberg loc: 3110

With this extensive experience in field command, he became a visionary in military science. He had ushered in a new era of military discipline, military organization, order of battle, and esprit de corps. loc: 3116

"father of the landsknechts." These were the fearsome and colorful soldiers of southern Germany who came into existence as a corps d'elite during the reign of Maximilian I in the 1490s and who were recruited from the farms and towns of Swabia, loc: 3118

There he recruited thirty-five companies, or twelve thousand troops. These landsknechts were mainly Lutheran. In his recruitment Frundsberg pointed to his encouragement of Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms five years before and waved a golden rope, promising that with their help and God's he would go to Rome and hang the pope. loc: 3129

Charles de Lannoy, landed his fleet at Gaeta. On the shore he was greeted by the Colonna, Cardinal Pompeo Colonna and the general Ascanio Colonna. loc: 3158

Romans panicked and started to hide their possessions. "We are on the brink of ruin," loc: 3166

26. PAY! PAY! loc: 3169

Lannoy turned up in Rome to present his demands. Predictably, they were harsh and unrealistic: loc: 3171

the French ambassador brought an additional demand: the price of French support in the Italian war was the kingdom of Naples. loc: 3176

"The pope does not have a penny left," loc: 3179

Bourbon was bringing with him an unruly horde that was already in open mutiny. His Spanish soldiers had not been paid for months, and they were frantic. loc: 3191

the only thing that Bourbon was really offering was the dream of great plunder in Florence or Rome. loc: 3194

the pope acceded to the viceroy's terms: the cities in the north to the Empire; the restoration of the Colonna; disbanding of the papal army; Naples to remain imperial; Milan to the displaced Sforza; and sixty thousand ducats for the Spanish and German invaders in return for an eight-month armistice and the withdrawal of the imperial army from Italy. loc: 3207

the rumor of this dubious treaty reached the sopping, hungry soldiers outside Bologna. The wretched imperial troops saw their predicament starkly. They had come all this way, endured unspeakable hardship without pay; they were within reach of the enormous wealth of Florence and Rome; and it would be all for nothing. loc: 3212

revolt was immediate. loc: 3216

Frundsberg was shocked and heartbroken at their defiance. He was suddenly seized with an attack of apoplexy and sank down on a drum, suffering a stroke. loc: 3223

command of the mob fell to Bourbon, who emerged from his malodorous hiding place and attempted to exercise a measure of control. To mollify his soldiers, now described as "raging lions," he promised to enforce the "law of Mohammed" when they reached Florence or Rome: three days of unrestricted plunder upon the victory over a resisting foe. loc: 3227

He admitted candidly that he was powerless to control his troops and was, therefore, compelled to advance. loc: 3230

Suddenly, disgruntled, armed youths, angry at the dictatorial Medici rule in Florence and terrified of the imperial army close by, stormed the Palazzo Signoria in an attempt to overthrow Medici rule and reestablish a more conciliatory republic. loc: 3262

When news of Urbino's presence in Florence reached Bourbon, he scrapped his designs on Florence and decided to move on Rome. This decision further infuriated his hungry soldiers, who were by now surviving as roving bands and eating unripe almonds off the trees. loc: 3266

In early May the unruly imperial horde surged south, laying Montepul ciano and Montefiascone to waste, loc: 3275

Its commanders were powerless to control the savagery of the plundering. loc: 3277

27. RABBLE AT PORTA SAN SPIRITO loc: 3283

In Rome, meanwhile, Clement VII at last comprehended his desperate I need for a quick influx of money to raise a defense, and repugnant as it was to him, he sold three cardinal's hats for forty thousand ducats each. Of course, armies do not spring up overnight, and this maneuver came far too late to make a difference. loc: 3284

the pope seemed to have an infinite capacity for self-delusion. loc: 3293

the pontiff rode around the city offering encouragement and declined to flee to Civitavecchia on the coast, where the navy of Andrea Doria waited offshore. loc: 3297

Without artillery the attackers were at a decided disadvantage, reduced to scaling ladders and hand weapons. But the thickness of the fog allowed them to get close to the walls before they could be seen. At first they were repulsed with heavy losses. loc: 3309

Mortally wounded in the thigh, Bourbon was taken to an adjoining chapel, where he died within a half hour. loc: 3317

Now completely leaderless, the assault was renewed with a vengeance. Within an hour the invaders broke through both gates and poured into the Borgo. loc: 3319

Castel Sant'Angelo quickly became the sole place of refuge. As smoke mingled with the fog, its denizens, including now fourteen cardinals, two ambassadors, and three thousand others along with the pope, peered helplessly down on the scene of devastation. loc: 3326

Only pockets of resistance remained in the Vatican. Swiss guards died to the last man loc: 3332

"On May 6 we took Rome by storm; put 6,000 men to death, took everything that we could find in the churches and on the ground, and burnt a great part of the city." loc: 3335

They stripped churches and palaces and monasteries, stealing relics and paintings, lifting all things of value until an estimate of the loss could later be put at one million ducats. loc: 3338

the prince of Orange, to whom nominal command of the mob had devolved and who was only twenty-five years old, was himself gravely wounded before the Castel Sant'Angelo as he tried in vain to control the plundering. loc: 3349

"Marchionesses, countesses, and baronesses now served the unruly troops, and long afterward the patrician women of the city were called 'the relics of the sack of Rome.' loc: 3361

Bourbon had promised to exercise the law of Mohammed when they captured Florence or Rome. loc: 3363

The spoils of war were the warrior's reward on earth for his struggle in the highest duty against the infidel, just as paradise was his reward in heaven. loc: 3365

But the occupiers of Rome were no longer an army in any sense, nor were they bound by any Islamic laws. They were leaderless in their unbridled ravaging. loc: 3368

Meanwhile, in the streets, Spaniards and landsknechts began to turn on one another in dispute over dividing the spoils from the richest palaces, and this had a greater effect on bringing the situation under control. loc: 3376

the landsknechts were still demanding three hundred thousand ducats as the price for desisting. loc: 3389

With no progress toward a resolution, the invaders prepared to besiege the Castel Sant'Angelo. loc: 3397

If the castle fell, the Apostolic See would forever be destroyed. loc: 3401

On June 5 the pope surrendered. loc: 3412

Within a few weeks, news of the Italian developments reached Charles V in Spain, and he reacted with the most deplorable hypocrisy. loc: 3419

he laid the blame for the sack of Rome on the pope himself. loc: 3426

the real focus of his council was on how to take advantage of an opportunity so rich in possibility. Perhaps the emperor should go to Italy and personally set the pontiff free in a great and charitable show of unity between the Empire and the papacy. Perhaps this was the occasion for his formal coronation as the Holy Roman emperor, the secular leader of all Christians. loc: 3434

the Lutherans left Rome, partly because there was nothing more to rob, partly because the plague again became virulent. loc: 3439

The pope remained a captive in the Castel Sant'Angelo until early December, when he escaped in a slouch hat and rags, laden with baskets, in the disguise of a peddler. In Orvieto, he took up residence in the tumbledown house of the local archbishop, and he sought to reclaim his dignity and that of his office. loc: 3443

His bitter confinement at Orvieto was also a time of reflection. Had his detractors been right? Had the culture of ecclesiastical Rome contributed to the ruin of the Holy City? Was the Curia really so corrupt that it deserved God's punishment? Was the sack of Rome a version of the Apocalypse? loc: 3456

the glorious Renaissance of Italy was coming to an end. The great age of Italian history was dying in a bathos of collective guilt, an acceptance of divine punishment and self-flagellation, a desperate need for healing, and a longing for order, even if only the Caesar who had caused the catastrophe could provide that order. loc: 3463

ACT SEVEN THE END OF THE RENAISSANCE loc: 3465

28. SINGLE COMBAT loc: 3467

revulsion spread across Europe, and as the year 1527 drew to a close, the enemies of the Empire bound together in their determination to confront the domination of the Hapsburgs. Under the skillful hand of Cardinal Wolsey, England and France formed an anti-imperial alliance. loc: 3470

emperor continued to issue his public apologies loc: 3474

What he really meant was that he wished to go to Rome to thank God for the unexpected victories that had been granted him, and to be crowned at last, loc: 3477

He had convinced himself that his good fortune was God's plan, and he was his Lord's chosen instrument to unite Christendom to face down the infidel. loc: 3478

envoys from France and England presented Charles V with a formal declaration of war. loc: 3486

Francis I was nothing less than a coward and a knave, the emperor blurted out. loc: 3493

the Holy Roman emperor drew himself up in moral outrage and threw down the gauntlet. Instead of Christian blood being further spilled, let the kings fight, man-to-man, in hand-to-hand combat. loc: 3494

France was emboldened and cheered by the progress of its army in the south. Not only was Naples on the verge of falling, but the French had seized large sections of Apulia and Calabria. loc: 3503

Officially, the challenge was accepted. Charles need only name the time and place for the single combat. loc: 3512

Charles had developed a new obsession. Desperately, he wanted to go to Rome to be officially crowned by the pope as the Holy Roman emperor. loc: 3528

Andrea Doria, disgruntled at neither receiving the money nor the dignity he required for his service to the French king, abruptly removed his blockade of Naples just as the city was about to fall to France. loc: 3536

plague broke out in the French army. Within weeks it had been reduced to a third of its size. loc: 3539

29. SHOWDOWN AT BLACKFRIARS loc: 3545

Catherine had had six pregnancies, which included two princes. All but one had ended in miscarriage, loc: 3548

Only her daughter Mary had survived, and this put the survival of the Tudor dynasty itself at risk, for up until this time, no woman in England had served as monarch. loc: 3549

the pretext for a change of circumstance presented itself when the bishop of Lincoln questioned the fundamental basis of Henry's marriage to Catherine. loc: 3555

Now, charged the bishop of Lincoln, Henry's union to his brother's wife was "not good but damnable." loc: 3560

Wolsey hoped that Henry's marriage might be dissolved, and that his king would then marry a French princess. loc: 3565

Henry's brief for divorce became bound together with the progress of that war. loc: 3574

He thinks of nothing but his Anne. He cannot be without her for an hour, and it moves one to pity to see how the King's life, the stability and the downfall of the whole country, hangs upon this one question." loc: 3577

the pope agreed to a commission, but its proceedings would be open and its mandate was only to investigate the legality of the marriage, not to issue a final, actionable judgment. loc: 3592

Eventually, Clement VII did agree to a so-called decretal commission. But he left himself the loophole of revoking or nullifying its decision if he so chose. loc: 3597

Cardinal Wolsey seized on a simple solution to the difficulty. Catherine should find religion, enter a convent, and renounce her marriage. loc: 3603

Catherine stood firm, unmoved and unintimidated by his bluster. She may even have become more adamant in her decision after his undignified harangue. loc: 3618

As the news of the divorce campaign became known, public opinion turned against Henry, and Catherine's popularity soared. loc: 3625

With the collapse of the French army in Italy, Clement swung over to the imperial side. His policy of delay in Henry's case had worked. He no longer needed Henry's support. loc: 3632

June 17, 1529, did the case finally come to a head and be heard in central London at Blackfriars. With Cardinals Wolsey and Campeggio presiding, Queen Catherine swept into the court, loc: 3645

she made a solid legal case that Rome, not England, had jurisdiction over the matter. loc: 3650

By the pope's revoking the London court and remanding the case to Rome, Cardinal Wolsey's religious and diplomatic policy lay in ruins. In assuring Henry that he could secure the desired result and that Campeggio was merely a neutral observer, Wolsey had oversold his power to his king. loc: 3664

on June 29, 1529, the pope and the emperor joined hands in a treaty, "out of grief at the divisions of Christendom, to beat off the Turks, and to make way for a general peace." The pope acknowledged the hegemony of the Empire in Italy, while the emperor guaranteed the protection of the Papal States. loc: 3676

In European politics Henry VIII was now left as the man out, and England's breach with Rome came one huge step closer. loc: 3680

30. MORE THAN TABLE TALK loc: 3681

the three years of the Speyer Recess had enabled the Lutheran princes of central Germany to consolidate their gains and to expand the reach of their revolutionary new doctrines. The movement that had begun twelve years before with a conscientious protest by a single man had been transformed into a political entity, with territorial expanse, backed by powerful princes and buttressed by powerful armies. loc: 3716

Did Suleyman intend to follow his capture of Rhodes with the occupation of Otranto, thus establishing an Islamic base in the boot of Italy? Or were his ambitions larger, to reclaim Sicily for Islam as it had been for 263 years around the turn of the first millennium? Or worse, were the cries of Suleyman's warriors at Rhodes real? "To Rome, to Rome!" they had shouted. Or was Suleyman's focus to be on the heart of Europe? To move past Buda, to capture Vienna, to threaten Germany itself? Signs of preparations for a major Turkish offensive somewhere were being reported from Constantinople. loc: 3725

In March 1529 the delegates arrived for the Second Diet of Speyer. For this all-important convention the Catholics came in force and were fated to be in the clear majority. loc: 3729

Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. loc: 3731

"They had come to bury the Reformation," a scribe wrote later. loc: 3736

If the arrival of the evangelicals was modest, their entrance was also troubled. Not only were they in the minority, but they were split. A rival reformer had burst upon the scene to challenge Luther. He was Huldrych Zwingli, a Swiss reformer who was to Switzerland as Luther was to Germany. loc: 3742

Both rejected the Catholic concept of transubstantiation, where the bread and wine are miraculously transformed into the actual body and blood of Christ. But they disagreed on the symbolic presence or absence of Christ in the Eucharist. loc: 3746

Their rivalry weakened the evangelical side now at the Second Diet of Speyer. loc: 3749

imperial decree from Charles V. loc: 3750

The duty of the diet was to declare the religious tolerance of the First Diet of Speyer null and void. The Edict of Worms was to be reinstated and applied throughout Germany without waiting for a general council. Any further expansion of reformist doctrines was to be prohibited beyond the status quo. There were to be no further innovations in Catholic doctrine. The emperor expected the diet to ratify these imperial measures within a few days and disband. loc: 3753

The reaction was swift. Led by Philip of Hesse, the evangelical delegates united in appealing to the emperor and all impartial Christian judges against the tyranny of the Catholic majority. loc: 3762

"In matters concerning God's honor and the salvation of our souls," the appeal read, "each man has the right to stand alone and present his true account before God. loc: 3765

What before had been scattered opposition was now organized into a unified force. The new order of things in Germany was solidified. If the Catholic contingent came to Speyer determined to bury the Reformation, they left with it stronger than ever. loc: 3771

They issued the formal legal version of their appeal and demanded that it be entered into the official record of the diet. They called the document their Protestation. It protested all the measures of the diet that, they said, violated their conscience, the word of God, and the promises of 1526. loc: 3773

Yet that minority now comprised a virtual nation-state in the heart of Germany: Saxony, Brandenburg, Lüneberg, Braunschweig, Hesse, Anhalt, and fourteen imperial cities. These dissenters were bold enough to believe that the Catholic majority had neither the stomach nor the force to pursue a sectarian civil war against them. loc: 3779

Ironically, when the news of the diet reached Martin Luther, he approved of the Protestation, but strenuously disapproved of any military action or alliance to defend the Lutheran dominion by force. His conscience could not countenance bloodshed in defense of his gospel. He especially abhorred the idea of an alliance with the Zwinglians. They represented a new form of heresy: deviation from Luther's own evangelical doctrine. loc: 3784

As the Protestants seceded from the Catholic union, the Catholic majority had no way to impose its will. As Rome had its doctrine, now Protestantism had its organizing principle, its official credo, and its essential constitution in opposition. The protest of conscience at Speyer became the collective expression of Luther's individual declaration of conscience at the Diet of Worms eight years earlier. loc: 3789

Still, if the Protestants were unified in a negative sense against Rome and united militarily against attack, they were passionately divided in doctrine, especially over the interpretation of the Last Supper. loc: 3793

Catholics, especially Archduke Ferdinand I, wanted to solve the religious question quickly and definitively, even if it had to be accomplished by fiat, so that he could secure immediate aid from the German estates to defend Hungary and Austria against the Turks. But Protestants, by withholding their aid, might extract concessions from the Catholic side on the question of religious tolerance. loc: 3800

So long as the Catholic world was under grave threat from Suleyman, the Protestants had a measure of mobility and safety. loc: 3804   • Delete this highlight

Note: This is the part i have been missing. The presence of the threar of Suleyman allowed the Protestants the leverage for a long enough time to keep from getting buried by the empire. Edit

Through the days of the Second Diet of Speyer, discussion had alternated between the two great issues. Ferdinand had made his choice. There would be no concessions to the heretics; a solution to religious wandering would be imposed. loc: 3815

The Protestants had made their choice as well: no concessions, no aid. Ferdinand's desperation was their leverage. To aid Ferdinand with troops for his defense against the Ottomans was to strengthen his ability to repress the new teaching. loc: 3817

In this debate Luther propounded a novel theory to flatter his own movement. The power of the Turks was regenerated largely because the power of the Gospel had been regenerated in his Reformation. As the truth of his teaching had reinvigorated Christianity, so the devil had reinvigorated his forces in opposition. So resistance to the devil, to the Antichrist, to the whoremongers of Islam, was now acceptable to him. loc: 3827

A crusade to Luther was blasphemy. Holy war was the antithesis of Christ's message. A citizen's protection of his homeland, however, was right and appropriate. In turn, the duty of princes, especially Emperor Charles V, was to protect their citizens from outside threat, and their power was derived from God. loc: 3834

With Luther's changed attitude, his Protestant princes could now, in good conscience, contribute to that force. loc: 3842

Luther now realized that if the Turks invaded Europe and conquered Germany to the Rhine River, Europe as a Christian civilization, either Catholic or Protestant, would cease to exist. loc: 3850

31. HIS MOUTH RAINS PEARLS loc: 3855

the Sublime Porte announced that Zápolya was now under the protection of the Empire and was recognized as the king of Hungary. loc: 3903

Ferdinand was shocked at the formal agreement between Zápolya and the Sublime Porte. loc: 3905

they professed a desire for peace among "neighbors" and asked the Sublime Porte to recognize Ferdinand's right to the throne of Hungary. When the envoys spoke of Hungary as a Hapsburg domain, Ibrahim had had enough. "By what right do you claim this when Sultan Suleyman has subjugated Hungary?" loc: 3908

Before the envoys were dismissed from the sultan's presence, the audience concluded with Suleyman promising to give his answer to the archduke in Vienna. The loc: 3942

Ibrahim Pasha officially took his place at the pinnacle of power, as the sultan appointed him to the supreme command of the army with absolute authority. loc: 3952

On May 10, 1529, a huge army departed from Constantinople. loc: 3965

When Ferdinand's agents reported the arrival of the Turks in Belgrade in June, he wrote a last desperate appeal to his brother, Charles, for help: loc: 3967

At these frantic pleas, Charles, as usual, remained indifferent. Once he cleared up his business with the pope and the French king, he wrote languidly, he would try to help. loc: 3971

ACT EIGHT THE GATES OF VIENNA loc: 3973

32. THE BANKS OF THE RHINE RIVER loc: 3975

Almost immediately, the grand expedition was dogged by terrible weather. loc: 3981

The arrival in Belgrade was a month later than had been planned. loc: 3986

another installation ceremony was held for Zápolya. loc: 3998

Importantly, neither Suleyman nor Ibrahim Pasha attended this perfunctory ceremony. loc: 4000

Within the confines of his own domain, the Archduchy of Austria, the Kingdom of Bohemia, and the Margravate of Moravia, Ferdinand had more success. loc: 4005

His realms of Moravia and Bohemia promised nine thousand foot soldiers and eight hundred cavalry. loc: 4007

German pikemen who had wrecked Rome two years earlier. Most significantly, a formidable commander, Nicolas von Salm, arrived with a thousand pikemen and seven hundred Spanish musketeers. loc: 4009

Immediately, von Salm put his mind to the sorry state of Vienna's defenses. The wall was thickened and raised in height to twenty feet. The ditch behind it was cleaned out and deepened. loc: 4028

Turkish raiders swept across the Austrian border. The reputation of these mounted irregulars, known as the akinjis, preceded them—they were the Turkish terror incarnate—and the Austrian towns in their path emptied. To the Italians these marauders were known as the despoilers, but to Germans, more pointedly, as sackmen. With their sacks hanging from their saddles, ready to be filled with the spoils of war, they stormed forward, looting and burning everything in their path. loc: 4037

By crossing into Austria, Suleyman's soldiers were crossing more than a state border. They were leaving the orbit of Constantinople and entering the orbit of Rome, loc: 4043

By transgressing the restraint and moderation of his forebear, Suleyman was violating an important precedent. He might defeat opposing armies. But unless he planned to repopulate Austria with Turks, he would have difficulty in holding on to his conquered territory in the long run. loc: 4050

Graf von Salm's hasty reinforcements could not disguise the fact that the city was wholly unsuited to defense. loc: 4059

Due to the soaking rains, they had left their heavy artillery behind in Hungary. The siege would therefore have to rely on mining operations. loc: 4060

In the first days Suleyman realized that he had underestimated the strength and the passion of the defenders. loc: 4075

the Austrians roared out of the Salz Gate in almost daily sorties that inflicted heavy casualties on the Turks. loc: 4081

After a third unsuccessful assault, Suleyman's confidence in victory began to wane. loc: 4086

The Turks needed to face facts. The janissaries were complaining. Morale was flagging. Supplies were running low. The animals were mired in the mud, and fodder was running out. Their light cannons had accomplished nothing, and their mining operations had been repulsed. The enemy was apt to be reinforced at any time. Vienna was not Rhodes. loc: 4101

money no longer motivated the Turkish soldiers. Reluctant and exhausted, they had to be whipped and beaten with sticks into action. The effort failed at a great cost. loc: 4108

The first siege of Vienna thus ended in humiliation for the Turks. The retreat was to be as brutal. loc: 4110

No one wished to state the obvious. This siege was a stunning first defeat for Suleyman. A much inferior force had turned back the great and righteous Ottoman army. loc: 4125

The celebrations had one bittersweet element. Their heroic leader, Nicolas von Salm, had been killed in the fray. loc: 4133

33. CORONATION IN FAT CITY loc: 4143

the representatives of the emperor and the pope signed the Treaty of Barcelona, which put their harsh differences and insults of the past to rest. The way was at last clear for Charles V to realize his dream of traveling to Italy for his splendid official coronation as Holy Roman emperor. loc: 4146

The mother of Francis I, Louise of Savoy, had suffered much through her son's captivity in Spain and was suffering as much through the captivity of her grandsons there. The aunt of Charles V, Margaret of Austria, the Hapsburg regent of the Netherlands, could identify with this feminine agony, so these two estimable dowagers, with the tacit support of their brood, took it upon themselves to end the seven-year strife loc: 4152

the Peace of the Ladies, it marked the official end of the seesaw, draining Italian Wars. France gave up all her claims in Italy and, by so doing, ended the thirty-five-year quest of French kings for hegemony in Milan and Naples. loc: 4155

Charles V could achieve two fundamental objectives. He could get his coronation, and he could finally turn his attention to the heresy in Germany and the threat to Austria. loc: 4159

Officially now, the Empire stood alone as the superpower of Europe. loc: 4160

Bologna had largely escaped the turmoil of the last few years in Italy. Known as the Fat City for its love of food and life, for its two leaning towers, its joy in art and learning, it was here rather than in Rome that the coronation would have to take place. loc: 4176

bitterness of Romans toward the emperor was still great. loc: 4180

They settled the symbolism first. The allusion must be to ancient Rome, not to the present day. This was to be the union of St. Peter and Caesar. The spiritual and the temporal were joined at last. loc: 4188

Bologna became faux Rome. loc: 4191

For the next three months the emperor and the pope resided in adjoining apartments in the Palazzo Pubblico on the Piazza Maggiore, while their supernumeraries fought over protocol. The two potentates had many intimate conversations during the period, and no doubt many elaborate meals, for during this period Charles's gluttony was especially out of control. loc: 4220

On February 22, 1530, in the great hall of the Palazzo Pubblico, Clement crowned Charles with the iron crown of Lombardy, whose ring of gold contained a nail from the True Cross of Christ. loc: 4246

the ritual of Aachen was followed: the kiss of peace, the anointing with holy oil, the presentation of the sword, orb, and scepter. loc: 4255

following the tradition of the previous thirty Holy Roman emperors, Charles was invested as a canon of the Church. loc: 4265

This was to be the last time in history that a pope and an emperor would join in a union of spiritual and temporal power in Christendom. With this ceremony a seven-hundred-year-old tradition came to an end. Charlemagne and Charles V were to be the brackets of a dying ideal, the ideal of a universal empire joined with a universal religion. loc: 4268

34. THE CREED OF PROTEST loc: 4283

Philip of Hesse now assumed the role of de facto leader of the evangelicals on the political front. loc: 4288

in this early stage of the Reformation, the Lutheran and Zwinglian factions were in passionate disagreement over points of dogma, and this weakened the overall cause. loc: 4291

Where Luther was precise, uncompromising, and confrontational, Melanchthon could be conciliatory and flexible. By forcing Luther to be specific, the sides discovered that they agreed on many things: marriage of priests, original sin, the nature of grace, baptism, the role of the state versus the church. Indeed, they agreed on thirteen of fourteen articles that Luther and Melanchthon had penned. But Lutherans and Zwinglians disagreed passionately and profoundly about the Eucharist. loc: 4308

After four days the rivals went their separate ways, confident in their own righteousness, and their factions diverged accordingly. But a process of defining essential articles of faith was established. The Marburg Colloquy became the first draft of the theological basis of Lutheranism. loc: 4316

Luther would not be permitted to proceed to Augsburg. The route to the independent imperial city would take them through 150 miles of hostile Catholic Bavaria, loc: 4327

At long last, Charles understood the full implications of the Ottoman assault on Christian Europe and realized how close they had come to disaster. The heart of Christendom had only survived through sheer luck. Had the Ottomans arrived at their destination six weeks earlier and with their heavy cannons, the result would surely have been different. loc: 4333

If Elector John bristled with optimism over Charles's ostensible moderation, Charles bristled with confidence over his ability to restore religious unity. He was now in a position to impose his will on his rebellious German lands. After his coronation, he felt his duty keenly as the temporal leader of Roman Catholicism. loc: 4338

He was intent to "tear the heresy out at its roots," loc: 4342

five days into the conference the Protestants seized control of the agenda. loc: 4352

On June 25 the Augsburg Confession was read out. The document constituted the fundamental sacramental beliefs of the evangelicals. Its text would become the most important statement of faith during the Reformation, loc: 4361

The Lutherans agreed with Rome on the Trinity, original sin, baptism, and repentance. But the doctrine of justification by faith alone was boldly enunciated without qualification. Works might be good, but they counted for nothing before God. The Lutheran view of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist was laid out starkly. loc: 4365

The second part, consisting of seven additional articles, addressed the wrongs of the Church and the way in which evangelical doctrine corrected these wrongs. loc: 4368

Lutherans called for a separation between political and theological power. loc: 4371

the diet took on the feel of an ecclesiastical court, with prosecution and defense, call and response. Into July and August, Charles V listened to this discourse with rising frustration, loc: 4372

Charles held on to his hope for a third way, a council where the Protestant cause would get a full and fair hearing, while the Church would commit to correcting its abuses. loc: 4376

The pope had consistently expressed only horror at the idea of a council. This was about heresy against Church doctrine, not about the Church itself. loc: 4383

On August 3, the Catholic side formally answered with its own point-by-point rebuttal called a Confutation. With that, Philip of Hesse packed up and left in disgust. Melanchthon, in turn, would eventually answer the Catholic rebuttal with his Protestant surrebuttal, loc: 4386

While Melanchthon labored to keep the door open to an accord, Luther wanted the door slammed shut. loc: 4392

Increasingly, Charles's options were reduced to two: use force or do nothing. loc: 4399

The Diet of Augsburg broke up in failure and alienation. loc: 4401

War seemed in the offing. Once again, Philip of Hesse took the lead in organizing the opposition. He called for a conference of the dissidents, to be convened in Schmalkalden in central Germany in December. loc: 4403

in February 1531, eight Lutheran principalities and eleven independent German cities formed a defensive alliance against their emperor. Their creed was the Augsburg Confession. If one of their numbers was attacked, all would come to its defense. loc: 4405

Ironically, Martin Luther himself opposed the league in principle. He favored theological opposition, but not military action. loc: 4407

Between its theological grounding now committed to writing and its military alliance, the Lutheran movement was firmly established as a Protestant theocracy within a Catholic empire. loc: 4413

35. CEREMONY OF AMNESIA loc: 4416

the eastern imperial capital uproariously celebrated the circumcision of Suleyman's three oldest princes: Mustafa, Mehmet, and Selim. loc: 4419

At all costs, the ceremony had to surpass in its grandeur the coronation of the Holy Roman emperor in Bologna. loc: 4421

ever since the naval victory of the Turks over Venice in the Battle of Sapienza in 1499, the watery city-state had pursued a policy of accommodation. loc: 4434

Francis I and Suleyman were engaged in an active correspondence about the Holy Land. loc: 4437

The eldest, Mustafa, was the crown prince. The sultan looked down upon his firstborn with great pride. loc: 4482

He was the son not of Roxellana but of the sultan's first favorite, the Circassian beauty Gülbahar, known as Rose of the Spring. loc: 4486

In the year after this ceremony, Suleyman bowed to the imprecations of Roxellana and dispatched Mustafa, with his mother, to Manisa as governor, partly to get them out of the Sublime Porte. It would take Roxellana another twenty-three years to accomplish her ambition. In 1553, despite heroics in eastern campaigns, Mustafa was accused of high treason on a trumped-up charge. In the traditional Ottoman way, he was strangled with a bowstring by deaf-mutes, as his father listened behind curtains close by. loc: 4490

The third son, Selim, was to compete with a fourth son, Bayezid (who was not included in this circumcision ceremony). Nearly thirty years later, the two would fight for the crown, and Selim would prevail. Bayezid was executed with four of his sons. loc: 4494

ACT NINE LAST GASP IN EUROPE loc: 4498

36. TWO WIVES loc: 4500

In July 1529 the dispute between the king and queen of England had been removed to Rome. But there it languished for many months. The pope's natural inclination was to vacillate and delay, loc: 4507

When the case was first shifted to Rome, Catherine expected a quick decision in her favor. loc: 4512

she had forced the king's chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, into disgrace, loc: 4514

Clement VII felt compelled on March 7, 1530, to issue a stern warning to Henry, Anne, and their chief advisers. If Henry and any woman should contract to be married while his legal wife's case was still under consideration in Rome, they would be subject to the most severe ecclesiastical punishments. loc: 4520

Henry considered this a provocation. loc: 4522

Civil wars and grave mischief could only be prevented by the king marrying another woman, from whom he might obtain a male heir. "This can not be done till his present marriage is annulled. And if the Pope would still refuse to do this, they must conclude that he has abandoned them, and so they must seek other remedies. loc: 4524

If he ruled in Catherine's favor, legitimate as her case was, Henry might act on his threat to break with Rome. If he ruled in Henry's favor, he would surely alienate his temporal brother, Charles V. If Henry did break with Rome, millions of devout Roman Catholics in England would be separated from their spiritual roots. loc: 4534

Philip's question seemed to intrigue Luther, and the next year he sermonized on it. Bigamy, he concluded, was not specifically contrary to Scripture. loc: 4543

Luther said in his sermon, "It is not forbidden that a man should have more than one wife. I could not forbid it today." To this he added a coda: "But I would not advise it." loc: 4546

Henry reacted in anger. The pope, he said coarsely, was in the pocket of Emperor Charles V and the Spaniards. loc: 4553

Henry now took his first formal step toward a breach. In mid-January 1531 he called a general convocation of the English clergy. Invoking an arcane and largely forgotten law called praemunire that dated back to the time of Richard II, in which the pope was forbidden to interfere in the internal affairs of England, Henry had himself proclaimed the "Protector and Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England." The effect of this action was to bludgeon the English clergy into submission and obviate any chance that they would resist him. loc: 4564

In late summer Henry banished her from the court. She departed obediently with the parting remark that no matter where she was, "nothing could remove her from being his wife." As the queen vacated her royal apartments, Anne Boleyn moved into them. loc: 4574

37. FUTILE DIPLOMACY loc: 4584

noteworthy was his fixation with the life of Alexander the Great, whose empire had stretched from India to the heart of Europe. loc: 4598

the envoys of European aristocracy were struck by the emphasis on merit rather than pedigree in Ottoman society. loc: 4601

In the summer of 1530 at the Diet of Augsburg, Charles V had rattled his saber at the Lutherans and issued his ultimatum to them. He would give them until the following spring to recant their errors. If they did not, they would face military action. In the spring of 1531, however, he had done nothing, and he would do nothing for an obvious reason: he had come to realize the gravity of the Turkish threat. loc:

Note: This seems to sum up the theme of the book. The Reformation succeeded because of the Turkish threat.

His mandate at Bologna, to protect the Christian patrimony against all threats, must now take precedence over his desire to purify the faith. loc: 4608

Ibrahim was now referring to Ferdinand as "only a little fellow of Vienna, and worth small attention." Charles V, meanwhile, was never referred to as an emperor, but merely as the king of Spain. loc: 4624

"For a long time the king of Spain has declared his wish to go against the Turks. I, by the grace of God, am proceeding with my army against him. If he is great in heart, let him await me in the field, and then whatever God wills shall be. loc: 4629

Suleyman was now casting the conflict as a contest for the mastery of the world. There could be only one emperor of the world, only one superior civilization, only one true faith. loc: 4632

An unexpected development in October changed the dynamic. Luther's rival in the Reformation, Huldrych Zwingli, had embraced violence by taking his evangelicals to war against the five Catholic cantons in Switzerland. On October 11, in a battle at Kappel, the Zwinglians were roundly defeated, and Zwingli himself was killed. loc: 4637

Luther ridiculed the notion of Zwingli as a martyr, regarding his death as divine punishment loc: 4640

The political effect of Zwingli's death was to weaken the influence of his adherents in southern Germany while it strengthened the Lutheran hold there. loc: 4641

By February 1532 the Catholic side was offering to formally recognize the current status of the Lutherans in return for military support against the Turks. Thus, in effect, Suleyman became a tacit ally of the Reformation. loc: 4643

Clement VII cowered loc: 4645

Note: This is consistently the portrait of Clement that Rosten paints. I wonder how accurate it is, or is it just an embellishment of a story teller.

a formal peace accord was reached on July 23, 1532. This "general stable peace" prohibited armed conflict between the two Christian sides. loc: 4650

38. STUCK AT GÜNS loc: 4652

By this time, Suleyman was already in Belgrade. loc: 4653

Despite the French king's promise in the Peace of the Ladies three years before to give up consorting with Turks and to join in the defense of Christian Europe, Francis had actually made a secret alliance with Suleyman's vassal János Zápolya to support the Transylvanian's claim as king of Hungary. loc: 4670

There was no turning back from this epic duel for the mastery of the world. The matter had become personal. loc: 4676

By now it was early August, prime fighting season, and the Christian force was indeed massing in southern Bavaria at Regensburg. Charles had been elated at how quickly and enthusiastically his army of defense had mobilized itself. loc: 4699

The total strength of the force was about eighty thousand. Charles was well pleased. The moment for which he had been born and risen to power had arrived. This clash would mark his fulfillment as the secular defender of the faith. This was the highest calling of chivalry. loc: 4703

the Turkish army under Ibrahim Pasha arrived in the environs of Güns. loc: 4707

By the time Suleyman himself arrived three days later with the main army, it was clear that not only would the fortress not surrender, but it planned a stiff defense. loc: 4710

Slowing down the Islamic cyclone, therefore, was his sole purpose. loc: 4719

Six days into the siege a number of all-out assaults had been repelled, and the Turkish forces grew restless. loc: 4725

supplies started to run short. loc: 4727

With no further progress, Ibrahim offered to talk a second time. His sudden interest in peace negotiations had behind it a considerable incentive: his janissaries were on the verge of revolt. loc: 4733

Jurischitz replied that he was merely the servant of the Holy Roman emperor, who had entrusted the town and fortress to his care. As such he would surrender to no one as long as he lived. loc: 4737

As each of these retorts were reported to Suleyman, he grew more livid. He ordered one more furious assault. loc: 4741

The commander needed only to bow before the sultan and he would be saved. Jurischitz declined. loc: 4764

The strangest of conclusions was arranged for this historic David-and-Goliath affair. To save face, a contingent of janissaries was permitted to occupy a breach in the walls for several hours. loc: 4778

At an agreed-upon time, 11 a.m. the next day, the Turks withdrew from the breach, and to this day the bells of Güns (now the Hungarian border town of Köszeg) chime at that hour every morning. loc: 4787

The Turks had wasted three precious weeks on this pointless assault. The chill of fall was not far away. Notwithstanding the lame efforts of Turkish propaganda to turn defeat into victory, the siege of Güns would later be compared to the humiliation of Xerxes at Thermopylae. loc: 4789

The city would surely be far better defended this time. Moreover, the Ottomans realized that their supply of heavy cannons was insufficient, and they had not brought enough siege equipment. loc: 4794

How might the Ottomans lure the king of Spain into a pitched battle under the most favorable conditions? Eschewing any more attacks on fortified bastions, a strategy of scorching the earth was adopted. loc: 4804

At this unspeakable devastation Charles reacted by doing . . . nothing. Instead of coming to the rescue of his lands, he tarried in his safe remove behind a range of Alps in southern Bavaria. loc: 4810

the absence of any challenge from Charles seemed to intensify the fury of the invaders even further, and they took out their frustrations on the local populace and landscape. loc: 4814

After a day of rage, the Turks turned south toward home. Suleyman and Ibrahim had given up on the pusillanimous king of Spain. loc: 4818

On September 23, with laurels rather than a battle helmet on his head and with the great bells of St. Stephen's Cathedral tolling joyously, Charles V entered Vienna in triumph. loc: 4823

When the Holy Roman emperor rose before his soldiers, he shouted out in Spanish, "I will kill this Turkish dog! And nothing will prevent me from being on the battlefield myself!" loc: 4825

The second invasion had thrust deeper into Christian lands than ever before. The plunder had been huge. Many castles had surrendered. The land was ravished. But the invasion had not captured Vienna or any other important place. It had stumbled at Güns and failed to subdue the fortresses at Graz and Riegersburg. The mark it had left was psychological, not physical, but the importance of that was not to be underestimated. The "Turkish terror" would reverberate for centuries. loc: 4829

39. THE POMPOSITY OF IBRAHIM PASHA loc: 4835

In mid-January, Jerome of Zara, an envoy from Ferdinand I, arrived in Constantinople with a new offer of peace. loc: 4837

On the borderlands of the Ottoman and Holy Roman empires, three irritants and one major dynastic question needed to be addressed if peace was to be possible. loc: 4847

the Christians still held a strategic outpost called Koroni. Commanding the sea routes between Rumelia and Crete, it monitored and harassed Turkish naval activity in the Ionian Sea and the Sea of Crete. loc: 4849

Ferdinand's soldiers still held the great Moravian fortress of Esztergom. So long as this river bastion remained in Christian hands, it deterred the Turks from another invasion of Austria. loc: 4853

More important than any of these flashpoints was the conundrum of the Hungarian throne. loc: 4856

Ibrahim was alternately expansive, arrogant, accommodating, boastful, and menacing. loc: 4871

In short, the diplomats should take note: Ibrahim Pasha was the real power in the land, not Suleyman. If his sultan had attributes of Jupiter, he, Ibrahim Pasha, was the true Caesar of the world. loc: 4885

Eventually, the grand vizier stated his opening position. On Koroni, the Ottomans owned a thousand fortresses like it, and thus the Peloponnesian outpost was of little importance. They would rather conquer it by force than secure it through negotiation. On the throne of Hungary, the sultan had committed himself to King Zápolya and could not break his word. loc: 4903

On June 2, Ibrahim summoned the Austrian envoys to his grand palace loc: 4915

This was to be a command performance, every word to be reported to the sultan. loc: 4918

Jerome of Zara must have sensed that something ominous lay behind this dilatory conversation, and he answered with startling candor. loc: 4921

It soon became apparent that Suleyman had seen Charles's insulting letter and was putting the worst possible construction on it. If the sultan was merely on the level with Ferdinand, then Charles must consider himself superior. loc: 4948

Although six previous envoys had failed to make peace, these diplomats would be honored with a favorable response to their request. "The great Caesar grants you a firm, propitious peace, not for seven years or twenty-five or a hundred, but for two hundred, three hundred years, indeed for an eternity, so long as you shall want this peace and so long as you do not break it." loc: 4962

In the summer of 1533, as the diplomats were making their way slowly to Charles and Ferdinand, Constantinople lapsed into a terrible plague. The plague raged into the fall, with fifteen hundred dying in a day. Before it was over, some fifty thousand Turks had perished. When the Austrian envoy finally returned from Spain the following spring (April 1534), he found the atmosphere in the imperial city much changed. The Sublime Porte had turned its gaze eastward to Baghdad, the "Belgrade of the East," and beyond to Persia, in the grip of the Shi'ite heresy. loc: 4970

There would be no formal peace, lasting seven or two hundred years or an eternity, only a fragile truce. Only the decision of the Sublime Porte to concentrate its resources in Asia Minor gave Europe a chance to take a deep breath. loc: 4984

In early June Suleyman crossed the Bosporus into Asia and would be gone for another year and a half. But before he left, he took the extraordinary step of marrying Roxellana, the love of his life. Making Roxellana the first concubine in Ottoman history to be freed and then married constituted an enormous breach of tradition, in which it was customary for sultans to have single children by multiple slaves. loc: 4986

ACT TEN THE NATURAL ENEMY loc: 4998

40. TWO IRAQS loc: 4999

Persia rather than central Europe had been the natural and traditional enemy of the Ottoman Empire. loc: 5001

the founder of the Safavid dynasty, Shah Ismail I, who had come to power in 1501, who had done much to consolidate the tribes of that ancient land under a powerful head, and who had established Shi'ism as the official creed of his domain. loc: 5003

Suleyman's concentration on Christian Europe during the first decade of his reign had provided the Persian rival an opportunity for consolidation. loc: 5027

As the Turkish army marched east through the dominions of Armenian and Turkmen princes from whom the Ottomans were descended, a dispute over strategy developed between the two men. loc: 5041

While Ibrahim wanted to move on Baghdad, Chelebi urged an assault on Tabriz, the Persian capital and the seat of the heresy. loc: 5043

In reality Chelebi expected that an insufficient Ottoman force would surely face stiff resistance and would probably be defeated as the shah defended his capital. loc: 5046

As Ibrahim's inadequate force approached Tabriz and hovered perilously over Chelebi's trap, Shah Tahmasp abruptly ordered his army to retreat east to the shores of the Caspian Sea, and thus the great holy battle between Sunnis and Shi'ites was, at least temporarily, avoided. To Chelebi's dismay Ibrahim entered the Persian capital unopposed on July 13, 1534. loc: 5066

As word of the charge swept through the army, the soldiers scoffed at the charge, assuming, correctly, that Ibrahim cooked up the hoax to dispose of his rival. Ibrahim's standing among the troops plummeted as Chelebi's rose. loc: 5073

41. CHARLES AND THE BARBARY SEA DOGS loc: 5078

As far back as 1518 the powers of Western Christendom had been trying to encourage the Persians to open up a second front in the east. loc: 5081

the fortuitous campaign against Persia represented not only Charles's deliverance from a third invasion of Europe but a counterbalance to the initiatives of Francis I with Suleyman. loc: 5086

For nearly three centuries, the coastline of North Africa had been the lair of the notorious Barbary pirates, loc: 5091

At the turn of the century, the Spanish dilemma grew more severe after the Catholic kings of Spain expelled the Islamic Moors from Andalusia in southern Spain. Many of these Muslim refugees fled to Algiers, full of hatred and obsessed with a passion for righteous revenge. The pirates took full advantage of this new group of fresh, well-motivated recruits. loc: 5099

In their struggle against the Spanish the Muslims of North Africa turned to two swashbuckling Turkish corsairs, known as the brothers Barbarossa. loc: 5102

The sultans supplied him with arms and financial support, dispatched a contingent of two thousand janissaries to him, and made him governor-general of Algiers, loc: 5110

the emperor realized the need for more vigorous naval action in the Mediterranean, partly to exterminate the wily old pirate of Algiers, partly to protect Spanish interests in North Africa, partly to safeguard the boot of Italy. Andrea Doria was pressed into duty, and his fleet bolstered. loc: 5117

clearly the Ottoman navy, made up of outdated and poorly led ships, was unsatisfactory for a great empire. loc: 5125

Barbarossa set sail west as the admiral of the Turkish fleet, with one hundred ships, a regiment of janissaries, and ten thousand soldiers. loc: 5133

For weeks he terrorized the west coast of Italy from the tip of its boot all the way to Naples. loc: 5134

Pasha. The pirate was to attempt to kidnap the most famous belle in all of Italy, Giulia Gonzaga, loc: 5140

Barbarossa sailed into Tunis without a fight and took charge of the strategic city. Barbarossa's raid on the Italian coast and, more important, his capture of Tunis sent shock waves through Europe, ending the complacency that Suleyman's eastern tilt had induced. The Mediterranean suddenly presented a new and dangerous peril. loc: 5150

42. TUNIS: THE LAST CRUSADE loc: 5155

The naval crusade in the Mediterranean was linked to the land crusade of protecting Vienna and the eastern flank. After Vienna and Güns, Charles now fully appreciated the peril to Western civilization. Among his titles was king of Spain, and Spain's history for five hundred years was defined by a Christian struggle against Islam. loc: 5159

Charles needed, at least for the time being, to defer his desire to crush the heresy of Martin Luther, since pressure on the Protestant German states might drive them as well into an alliance with Francis I. For the moment, Luther was behaving himself, loc: 5169

Charles encouraged his brother to forbearance. "We must take things as they are," loc: 5172

the emperor finally donated the island of Malta to the order as its permanent home, with an outpost in Tripoli, Libya. As the Knights of Malta the order found new life, just as life itself drained out of the grand master himself. Villiers de'LIsle-Adam died in September 1534, as Barbarossa took charge of Tunis. loc: 5177

In the late spring of 1535 Charles V gathered his naval expedition in Sardinia under the supreme command of Andrea Doria. With the Spanish in the majority of the force of thirty thousand, loc: 5188

At the siege of Tunis Charles V was for the first time a battlefield commander. loc: 5209

An objective of the expedition had been accomplished, but not the main objective. That was the killing or capture of Barbarossa himself. loc: 5217

Still, the battle for Tunis was fierce. As he deployed his soldiers on the battlefield, Charles had his horse shot from beneath him, loc: 5225

Barbarossa fled the city. On July 21, Tunis fell without a fight. loc: 5230

soldiers went about their work gleefully, massacring thousands of inhabitants and enslaving thousands more, an atrocity that would stain Charles's reputation and would stand in marked contrast to the mercy that Suleyman would soon show to his captives in Baghdad. loc: 5232

Across Europe the Christian victory at Tunis was hailed as a glorious achievement. Charles at last basked in full magnificence as the unrivaled champion of Christendom, loc: 5238

Kheir-ed-din Barbarossa rapidly reclaimed his dominance of the high seas. Within five years of his defeat at Tunis, he was once again the master of the Mediterranean loc: 5258

IF THE YEAR 1534 was defined by Suleyman's invasion of Persia, Barbarossa's conquest of Tunis, and Charles's call to crusade, it was also defined by England's final split with the Roman Catholic Church. loc: 5264

The king's second marriage, to Anne Boleyn, was made public, and in June of 1533, she was crowned queen of England. Pope Clement VII responded with a formal sentence of excommunication against the English king. The papal representative in England was recalled, and diplomatic relations with the Holy See were broken off. Early in 1534 the English Parliament severed all connection with Rome. loc: 5267

Just as Protestantism was now secure in central Europe, so it was in England as well. loc: 5272

43. BAGHDAD, ABODE OF PEACE loc: 5276

Baghdad. Noble city of peace. Home of the great caliphs. Bulwark of saints, so called because so many holy men and martyrs are buried here. Refuge of poets and scholars. Built in the eighth century A.D. by Mansur, the second caliph of the House of Abbas. The center of the enlightened Abbasid dynasty and its greatest caliph, Harun ar-Rashid, a dynasty of which Suleyman considered himself to be a natural descendant. loc: 5277

But Baghdad was no longer a great city. In A.D. 1258 the Mongols of Genghis Khan's grandson had sacked it, shattering the irrigation system that had made the Tigris valley a fertile paradise, leveling its monuments, including the great center of learning, the House of Wisdom, and throwing thousands of invaluable books and manuscripts into the Tigris River. loc: 5288

in A.D. 1400 the Tartars of Tamerlane had swept down from the steppes of Samarkand loc: 5291

The enfeebled Abbasids had fled to Egypt after the Mongol invasion, removing the spiritual heart of the holy city, until Selim the Grim, Suleyman's father, had transferred the caliphate, empty and pointless, from Cairo to Constantinople. loc: 5292

divan had decided to pursue the shah, who had retreated east to the shores of the Caspian Sea. loc: 5297

Because they had marched so far east and south, however, the Ottoman army would now have to cross the rugged, mountainous terrain of Azerbaijan and Kurdistan. loc: 5300

Ottoman columns finally spilled into the valley of the Tigris River. They found their city of peace to be undefended. loc: 5312

Despite the fatwa that sanctioned pillage, and despite his anger over the profaning of Sunni holy sites, Suleyman ordered that the inhabitants of the city and their possessions were not to be touched. loc: 5316

The triumph of the Ottomans and of Sunnism was total, and yet the sultan set out not only to restore the legendary Abode of Peace to its former splendor, but to reach out to the very heretics he had come to exterminate. loc: 5330

Ibrahim pressed Suleyman to issue the execution order. Hours later, Chelebi was dragged to the horse market and hanged. loc: 5351

Whatever he had done, Chelebi wrote, Ibrahim himself was even more guilty, for Ibrahim with his Persian gold was planning to assassinate Suleyman and claim the title of sultan for himself. loc: 5354

44. THE ABRUPT END OF A GREAT FRIENDSHIP loc: 5366

Once Tabriz was secured, it took the great Ottoman army four more months to march home. loc: 5367

Almost immediately, the murmurings against Ibrahim spread through the capital. loc: 5369

His commercial acquisitions with Venice, which resulted in expensive personal purchases, raised the question of his greed, his vanity, and his ambition, as if he wished to surpass Suleyman in magnificence and supplant him as sultan. loc: 5380

Ibrahim himself had stepped over an important line of demarcation between a slave and a sovereign. loc: 5393

The next morning the body of Ibrahim Pasha was discovered outside the main gate of the Topkapi Palace. He had been strangled, with signs of a great struggle. The corpse was loaded on a wagon and buried unceremoniously in an unmarked grave in a dervish cemetery near the Galata Bridge. loc: 5417

EPILOGUE loc: 5420

Both epic leaders continued to be almost constantly at war until their old age, but the balance of power for their respective empires remained basically the same. loc: 5422

Suleyman would launch another six imperial campaigns, returning four times to the Danube but never again threatening Vienna. He returned twice again to Persia, but never subdued the Shi'ite reign of the Safavids, loc: 5433

Charles invaded Provence in 1536, while Francis made gains in the kingdom of Naples in southern Italy. They would fight their last war between 1542 and 1544. That would end with the Peace of Crépy. loc: 5444

the emperor became a formidable military commander, taking the field against the French in Provence and Germany, leading the naval expedition at Algiers, crushing a rebellion in Ghent in 1540. With these exploits he was widely perceived, in his own lifetime, to be a kind of classical hero. loc: 5446

After imperial forces captured the elector of Saxony, and Philip of Hesse surrendered, Charles defeated the Lutheran states in 1547. This led to the so-called Armed Diet of 1548, which marked the high-water mark of Charles's power in Germany. But military conquest could not shake the hold of Lutheranism, for Protestantism was now firmly established both in Germany and in England. loc: 5451

In 1556, worn-out, world-weary, and suffering from gout, Charles abdicated his throne as Holy Roman emperor and turned it over to his brother, Ferdinand. loc: 5462

Charles V gradually ate his way toward death. loc: 5471

He enjoined his son, Philip II, to reinstate the Inquisition in Spain with its full force, so that every heretic in Spain would be brought to justice. loc: 5484

In perhaps the most startling addition to the will, Charles expressed his regret that he had honored his promise of a safe passage to the Reformer, loc: 5489

In these last years of Suleyman's reign Constantinople became the most vibrant, creative city in the world. loc: 5494

Suleyman's greatest tragedy came of his own doing, with the murder of Mustafa, his first son with Roxellana's predecessor and rival Gülbahar. For the great sultan had allowed himself to be maneuvered into believing Roxellana's jealous and conspiratorial whispers that Mustafa was plotting to overthrow his father. To his immense grief later and to his discredit, Suleyman acquiesced one dark day near Konya in the execution of the most natural leader of his brood. loc: 5510

That left Selim—Selim the Sot, as he was known—as the sole survivor for the Osmanli line. In Suleyman's last years, he was tormented by his son's debauches, loc: 5514

After Suleyman died, the few years of Selim's rule marked the beginning of the decline of the Ottoman Empire. loc: 5516

Ferdinand's successor was making trouble again in Hungary, and so in May of 1566, at the age of seventy-two, Suleyman left Constantinople on his twelfth and last imperial campaign. loc: 5518

Again one hundred thousand Turkish soldiers faced several thousand determined warriors behind unprepossessing walls, and again it would take several critical weeks to bring the place to heel at tremendous cost. loc: 5533

Burdened by anxiety, he died of natural causes on his own battlefield. loc: 5536