Elizabeth I and the Ottomans: An alliance that saved England
In the 16th century, the Muslim world would come to rescue an isolated Protestant England from a disasterous fate by making it an ally and trade partner.
How did 16th century England, relatively unknown on the world stage, develop a strategic alliance with the Ottoman Empire that ended up saving the otherwise diminutive island from collapse?
Elizabeth I, the ‘Virgin Queen’, ascended the English throne in November 1558 and died on this day, 24 March in 1603. She reigned as a Protestant monarch and was thus isolated among a cluster of Catholic lands.
 |
| Elizabeth I and the Ottomans |
It was then the Muslim world that indirectly came to her rescue by accepting Elizabeth as an ally and trade partner.
The Pope excommunicated Elizabeth from the Catholic church in 1570, which resulted in the lone western Protestant kingdom having limited allies and restricted commercial opportunities with Europe.
Her father, Henry VIII, saddled Elizabeth with a national debt of £300,000. She was left in a position to either sink or swim, and in an act of political expediency, Elizabeth looked for allies in the wealthy Muslim world.
It would be the Ottoman Empire and Moroccan rulers that saved Elizabethan England from a disastrous fate by reciprocating the hand of friendship and opening up trade with this floundering, and at the time, non-descript island.
An expedient alliance
The Muslim world had a long connection with Christian empires, even before Elizabeth entered into these alliances. Since the advent of Islam in the 7th century, the Christian world was miserably aware of this tour de force, that rapidly expanded its territories, wealth and influence, controlling strategic trade routes.
Christian empires had previously enjoyed being a central power, but were challenged by this new religion that inspired rulers who were to dominate the world landscape both politically and economically for over a thousand years. The battle for the Holy Land through a series of Crusades (1096-1291), first called for by Pope Urban II, epitomises the West’s rivalry and fear of the Islamic world.
In England, Elizabeth was aware of the Muslim empires, and she and her advisors knew that an alliance would be expedient for England.
Elizabeth courted the Moroccan kingdom, and Ottoman Empire in particular, although attempts were made with Persia as well. She developed an especially close alliance with the Ottoman Sultan Murad III, and his wife Safiye Sultan.
When first wooing the Sultan, she spoke of the similarities between Protestantism and Islam. Historian Jerry Brotton, who writes extensively about this subject in his book ‘The Sultan and the Queen’, states that Elizabeth wrote to the Sultan on 25 October 1579, and was keen “to assure Murad that she shared his antipathy towards Catholic “idolatry” and those “falsely” professing Christ.”