The Ottoman Sultan Suleyman I - known as "Suleyman the Magnificent" in the West - was the most feared and powerful man of the sixteenth century. His journey to power was built on brutal choices and intimate relationships - with the Greek slave who became his closest friend, the Venetian plutocrat who sold him gems and won him allies and the Russian consort who stole his heart. Within a decade, Suleyman reached the walls of Vienna, while his pirate admiral Barbarossa dominated the Mediterranean.
In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to award-winning author Christopher de Bellaigue, about his acclaimed new book The Lion House which recounts the first third of Suleyman's reign, a remarkable rise to power which led to his domination of the Middle East, large swathes of north Africa and the Mediterranean.
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