The role of Alvise Gritti within the Ottoman politics in the context of the "Hungarian Question" (1526-1534)

Abstract

Alvise Gritti is one of the most interesting and vivid characters appeared in both Ottoman and European history of the sixteenth century. As an Istanbul-born Venetian, Gritti was the son of Andrea Gritti, the Doge of Venice elected in 1523, from a non-Muslim Ottoman woman. Since he was accepted as illegitimate according to the Venetian law, he was deprived from the right of participation into the Venetian politics. He found the opportunity of having a political carrier in Istanbul, his birth place, where he had come to engage in commerce; mediated between the Ottoman sultan and the European states; and undertook important tasks in the “Hungarian Question”, which was considered as one of the most important political problems of the period. This thesis intends to peruse the life and the roles of Alvise Gritti within the Ottoman politics. In this context, besides the political conjuncture of the period, the family, the personality, and the extensive commercial and political networks of Alvise Gritti and the tasks that he undertook as part of the “Hungarian Question” mainly by light of the Venetian sources. The thesis reaches the conclusion that Alvise Gritti is one of the “versatile personalities” of his time; he advanced through the present political system and deposed by the same system whenever he started to use it for his benefits. Thus, it was deduced that the examination of the life of Gritti and his political roles is important and necessary not only to reveal a figure rarely appeared in the Ottoman history but also to understand the general political structure and the diplomatic relations of the period more clearly.