The sons of Suleiman fight to the death to see who will control the Empire as geopolitics leads to the rising power of a class of powerful pirates in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, a con man takes control of Moldavia and things get weird.
Major Characters in this Episode
Bayezid
Selim III
John Zápolya
Ferdinand I
Maximillian II
Alexandru Lăpușneanu
Alexander II Mircea
Peter the Younger
The Barbary Pirates
Iacob Heraclid
Timeline of this episode
1559, Selim defeats his brother Bayezid, who flees to Persia
1559, Mircea the Shepherd dies, and the Boyars of Wallachia rise against his 13 year old son Peter the Younger. They win the first battle only to lose two after (with Ottoman support). His mother ran things to protect her son from intrigue.
1561, A major Hungarian lord defects to the Hapsburgs
1561, Alexandru Lăpușneanu is overthrown by Iacob Heraclid
1562, John Zápolya attempts to take his lands but is routed, this sparks a broader uprising which is brutally put down (their leaders were impaled and mutilated)
1562, Heraclid invades Wallachia
1564, Alexandru Lăpușneanu retakes the crown in Moldavia from Iacob Heraclid
1564, Ferdinand dies and his son Maximilian II becomes Holy Roman Emperor as well as King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia
1566, Suleiman dies
1567, John Zápolya and an Ottoman pasha invade the Hapsburg controlled portion of Hungary, but Zápolya becomes sick and so the invasion doesn’t result in much.
1568, Habsburg-Ottoman peace signed in Edirne
1568, The Dutch War of Independence against the Hapsburgs begins (lasts 80 years), this also changes the situation of the Barbary Pirates
1568, Peter the Younger goes into exile, is imprisoned in Constantinople, and is then poisoned. He had become Voivode at 13 and was just 21 at his death. He was succeeded by Vlad Dracul (Dracula)’s great grandson Alexander II Mircea who had grown up in Istanbul. He was exceptionally cruel.
1568, Alexandru Lăpușneanu dies
1568-70, Ottomans attack Astrakhan in a move to expand against Russia, this is the First Russo-Turkish War
1570, John Zápolya signs an agreement with Maximillian to give up his title King of Hungary and replace it with "Prince of Transylvania and Lord of Parts of the Kingdom of Hungary" and promising that his lands would go to Maximillian on his death, becoming his vassal in the meantime
1571, John Zápolya dies, making Maximillian the uncontested King of Hungary
1570-73 the fourth Ottoman-Venetian War
