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Narrating a War: The Battle of Lepanto from the Perspective of the King and the Poet

Year 2024, , 47 - 62, 14.06.2024
https://doi.org/10.32704/erdem.2024.86.047

Abstract

The victory achieved by the combined forces of Spain and Venice
under the leadership of Pope V. Pius in the Battle of Lepanto in
1571 against the Ottoman Empire resulted in great excitement
in the Christian world. It served as a success story, demonstrating
how effective European powers could be when they united against
the Ottomans. King James’s epic poem “The Lepanto” (1591) and
Richard Knolles’ famous history book General History of the Turks
(1603) are two widely known early modern texts that address the
events of this battle. Presenting a close reading of these two works
and the image of “the other” they produce, this article argues that the
relatively positive image of the Turkish other that emerged in certain
texts produced in early modern England cannot be generalized to all
works of the period.
With the economic developments that took place between England
and the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century, Ottoman society
began to occupy a significant place in the English intellectual world.
Queen Elizabeth I’s steps toward making commercial agreements with
the Ottoman Empire led to the emergence of various and sometimes
contradictory images of the Ottomans in the early modern English
mindset. On one hand, the Ottomans were perceived as the enemy
of the entire Christian world, while on the other hand, they assumed
the role of supporters of England, which had been excluded from the
Catholic world and was seeking new partners. This situation implies a
diversification of the Ottoman image in texts of the period. Moreover,
the Ottoman image in texts of this period was not solely based on
the English/Western/Christian - Ottoman/Eastern/Muslim binary
opposition. Reading the Ottoman image in early modern England
within the English/Protestant - European/Catholic - Ottoman/Muslim
triangle instead of the traditional East-West binary allows for a more
accurate understanding of the images in the texts. The close reading
of King James I’s poem and Richard Knolles’ work on the Battle of
Lepanto approaches the depiction of Turks and Spanish in these texts
from this perspective. James I’s attempt to respond to criticisms after
the publication of his poem, which accuses him of praising a Catholic
victory, and Knolles’ meticulous avoidance of praising Spain and
the Catholic world in his work indicate that the Western/Christian
perception in early modern England was not homogeneous or unified.

References

  • Artemel, Suheyla (1995). “‘The great Turk’s Particular Inclination to Red Herring’: The Popular Image of the Turk during the Renaissance England”, Journal of Mediterranean Studies 5 (2), 188-208.
  • Burton, Jonathan (2000). “Anglo-Ottoman Relations and the Image of the Turk in Tamburlaine”, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 30 (1): 125-156.
  • Burton, Jonathan (2005). Traffic and Turning Islam and English Drama 1579-1624. Cranbury: Rosemont Publishing.
  • Craigie, James (1955) Ed. The Poems of James VI of Scotland. Edinburgh: W. Blackwood and Sons.
  • Çırakman, Aslı (2002). From the “terror of the World” to the “sick Man of Europe”: European Images of Ottoman Empire and Society from the Sixteenth Century to the Nineteenth. New York: Peter Lang.
  • Herman, Peter C. (2002). “Best of Poets, Best of Kings: King James VI and I and the Scene of Monarchic Verse”, Daniel Fischlin ve Mark Fortier (Ed.), Royal Subjects: Essays on the Writings of James VI and I içinde (61-103), Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
  • James I, King of England (1603). His Maiesties Lepanto, or heroicall song being part of his poeticall exercises at vacant houres., 1566-1625. London: By Simon Stafford, and Henry Hooke.
  • Knolles Richard (1603). The generall historie of the Turkes from the first beginning of that nation to the rising of the Ottoman familie. by Richard Knolles, London: Printed by Adam Islip.
  • Kut, Naz Defne (2023). “From Representation to Imagination: The Battle of Lepanto in European Painting.” Turkish Journal of History 76 s. 223-259.
  • Llopis, Franco Borja ve Laura Stagno (2021) Ed. Lepanto and Beyond: Images of Religious Alterity from Genoa and the Christian Mediterranean, Leuven: Leuven University Press.
  • McJannet, Linda (2006). The Sultan Speaks: Dialogue in English Plays and Histories about the Ottoman Turks, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Olinski, Timothy (2022). The Battle of Lepanto: The Image of the Turk in Renaissance Neo-Latin Poetry, (Doktora Tezi), Queen’s University.
  • Perry, C. (1997) The Making of Jacobean Culture: James I and the Renegotiation of Elizabethan Literary Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Rickard, Jane (2004). “From Scotland to England: The Poetic Strategies of James VI and I.” Renaissance Forum 7: 1-12. (Erişim tarihi: 20 Eylül 2022)
  • Schneider, Christian (2015). “A Kingdom for a Catholic? Pope Clement VIII, King James VI/I, and the English Succession in International Diplomacy (1592–1605)” The International History Review, 37 (1), 119–141.
  • Sharpe, Kevin (1994). ‘The King’s Writ: Royal Authors and Royal Authority in Early Modern England’, Kevin Sharpe ve Peter Lake (Ed.), Culture and Politics in Early Stuart England içinde (117-138), London: Macmillan.
  • Stilma, A. (2006). “The Battle of Lepanto: the introduction of James VI of Scotland to the Dutch”, Houlbrooke, R. (Ed.) James VI and I: Ideas, Authority and Government içinde (9-23) Burlington: Ashgate.
  • Stilma, A. (2017). A King Translated: The Writings of King James VI & I and their Interpretation in the Low Countries, 1593-1603, Routledge: London.
  • Strunck, Christina (2011). “The Barbarous and the Noble Enemy: Pictorial Representations of the Battle of Lepanto”, James G. Harper (Ed.) The Turk and Islam in the Western Eye, 1450-1750: Visual Imagery Before Orientalism içinde (217-240), Burlington: Ashgate.
  • Warner, G. F. (1905). “James VI and Rome”, The English Historical Review, 20 (77), 124-127.
  • Wormald, Jenny (1983). “James VI and I: Two Kings or One?” History 68 (223) 187-209.

Bir Savaşı Anlatmak: Kralın ve Şairin Gözünden İnabahtı Savaşı

Year 2024, , 47 - 62, 14.06.2024
https://doi.org/10.32704/erdem.2024.86.047

Abstract

kuvvetlerinin 1571 yılında, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu karşısında İnabahtı
Savaşı’nda kazandıkları zafer, Hristiyan dünyasında büyük bir
şaşkınlık ve coşku yaratmış; Avrupalı güçlerin bir araya geldiklerinde
Osmanlılar karşısında ne derece etkin olabileceklerini gösteren bir
başarı öyküsü olarak pek çok edebî eserlerde işlenmiştir. I. James’in
1591’de yayımlanan “The Lepanto” şiiri ve Richard Knolles’un
1603 tarihli General History of the Turks eseri, erken modern dönem
İngiltere’sinde İnabahtı Savaşı’nı ele alan ve yazıldıkları dönemde
geniş kitlelere ulaşmış iki metindir. İngiliz kralı I. James’in ve Richard
Knolles’un İnabahtı Savaşı anlatılarına ve bu anlatılarda üretilen öteki
imgesine odaklanan bu makale, erken modern dönem İngiltere’sinde
üretilmiş belli metinlerde ortaya çıkan görece olumlu Türk
imgesinin dönemin tüm eserleri için genellenemeyeceği görüşünü
savunmaktadır. Aynı askerî mücadeleyi anlatmaları sebebiyle seçilmiş
bu iki eserin yakın okuması, erken modern dönemde öteki kavramının
Doğu-Batı/Müslüman-Hristiyan/İngiliz - Osmanlı ikili karşıtlıkları
yerine İngiliz - Osmanlı - İspanyol/Protestan - Müslüman - Katolik
üçgeni ve bu üçgenin ortaya çıkardığı karmaşık imgeler ekseninde
değerlendirilmesi gerektiğini ortaya koyar. 16. yüzyılda İngiltere
ile Osmanlı İmparatorluğu arasında yaşanan ekonomik gelişmelerle
birlikte Osmanlı toplumu İngiliz düşünce dünyasında önemli bir yer
tutmaya başlamıştır. Kraliçe I. Elizabeth’in Osmanlı İmparatorluğu
ile ticari anlaşmalar yapma yolundaki adımları, Osmanlıların erken
modern dönem İngiltere zihin dünyasında birbirinden oldukça farklı
ve hatta birbiriyle çelişen imgelerle yer etmesine sebep olur. Bir
yandan tüm Hristiyan dünyasının düşmanı olarak görülen Osmanlılar
öte yandan Katolik dünyadan dışlanmış ve yeni ortaklar arayışına
girmiş İngiltere’nin destekçisi rolünü üstlenmiştir.
Bu durum, dönemin edebî metinlerinde de Osmanlı imgesinin
çeşitleneceği anlamına gelir. Dahası, bu dönem metinlerinde Osmanlı
imgesi sadece İngiliz /Batılı/ Hristiyan – Osmanlı /Doğulu /Müslüman
ikili karşıtlığı ekseninde kurulmamıştır. Erken modern dönem
İngiltere’sindeki Osmanlı imgesini Doğulu-Batılı ikili karşıtlığı
yerine İngiliz /Protestan – Avrupa /Katolik – Osmanlı /Müslüman
üçgeninde okumak, metinlerdeki imgelerin daha doğru anlaşılmasını
sağlayacaktır. İngiliz kralı I. James’in ve Richard Knolles’un İnabahtı
Savaşı anlatılarının yakın okuması bu metinlerde Türklerin ve
İspanyolların resmedilişine bu açıdan yaklaşmaktadır. I. James’in
şiirinin ikinci basımında yaptığı değişikliklerle bir Katolik zaferini
övdüğü türünden eleştirilere cevap vermeye çalışması ve Knolles’un
eserinde bir yandan “Doğulu öteki”nin zulmünü detaylandırırken
kendisi için Batılı öteki olan İspanya’yı ve Katolik dünyasını övmekten
itinayla uzak durması, erken modern dönem İngiltere’sinde Batı/
Hristiyan algısının da homojen, yekpare olmadığının göstergesidir.

References

  • Artemel, Suheyla (1995). “‘The great Turk’s Particular Inclination to Red Herring’: The Popular Image of the Turk during the Renaissance England”, Journal of Mediterranean Studies 5 (2), 188-208.
  • Burton, Jonathan (2000). “Anglo-Ottoman Relations and the Image of the Turk in Tamburlaine”, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 30 (1): 125-156.
  • Burton, Jonathan (2005). Traffic and Turning Islam and English Drama 1579-1624. Cranbury: Rosemont Publishing.
  • Craigie, James (1955) Ed. The Poems of James VI of Scotland. Edinburgh: W. Blackwood and Sons.
  • Çırakman, Aslı (2002). From the “terror of the World” to the “sick Man of Europe”: European Images of Ottoman Empire and Society from the Sixteenth Century to the Nineteenth. New York: Peter Lang.
  • Herman, Peter C. (2002). “Best of Poets, Best of Kings: King James VI and I and the Scene of Monarchic Verse”, Daniel Fischlin ve Mark Fortier (Ed.), Royal Subjects: Essays on the Writings of James VI and I içinde (61-103), Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
  • James I, King of England (1603). His Maiesties Lepanto, or heroicall song being part of his poeticall exercises at vacant houres., 1566-1625. London: By Simon Stafford, and Henry Hooke.
  • Knolles Richard (1603). The generall historie of the Turkes from the first beginning of that nation to the rising of the Ottoman familie. by Richard Knolles, London: Printed by Adam Islip.
  • Kut, Naz Defne (2023). “From Representation to Imagination: The Battle of Lepanto in European Painting.” Turkish Journal of History 76 s. 223-259.
  • Llopis, Franco Borja ve Laura Stagno (2021) Ed. Lepanto and Beyond: Images of Religious Alterity from Genoa and the Christian Mediterranean, Leuven: Leuven University Press.
  • McJannet, Linda (2006). The Sultan Speaks: Dialogue in English Plays and Histories about the Ottoman Turks, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Olinski, Timothy (2022). The Battle of Lepanto: The Image of the Turk in Renaissance Neo-Latin Poetry, (Doktora Tezi), Queen’s University.
  • Perry, C. (1997) The Making of Jacobean Culture: James I and the Renegotiation of Elizabethan Literary Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Rickard, Jane (2004). “From Scotland to England: The Poetic Strategies of James VI and I.” Renaissance Forum 7: 1-12. (Erişim tarihi: 20 Eylül 2022)
  • Schneider, Christian (2015). “A Kingdom for a Catholic? Pope Clement VIII, King James VI/I, and the English Succession in International Diplomacy (1592–1605)” The International History Review, 37 (1), 119–141.
  • Sharpe, Kevin (1994). ‘The King’s Writ: Royal Authors and Royal Authority in Early Modern England’, Kevin Sharpe ve Peter Lake (Ed.), Culture and Politics in Early Stuart England içinde (117-138), London: Macmillan.
  • Stilma, A. (2006). “The Battle of Lepanto: the introduction of James VI of Scotland to the Dutch”, Houlbrooke, R. (Ed.) James VI and I: Ideas, Authority and Government içinde (9-23) Burlington: Ashgate.
  • Stilma, A. (2017). A King Translated: The Writings of King James VI & I and their Interpretation in the Low Countries, 1593-1603, Routledge: London.
  • Strunck, Christina (2011). “The Barbarous and the Noble Enemy: Pictorial Representations of the Battle of Lepanto”, James G. Harper (Ed.) The Turk and Islam in the Western Eye, 1450-1750: Visual Imagery Before Orientalism içinde (217-240), Burlington: Ashgate.
  • Warner, G. F. (1905). “James VI and Rome”, The English Historical Review, 20 (77), 124-127.
  • Wormald, Jenny (1983). “James VI and I: Two Kings or One?” History 68 (223) 187-209.
There are 21 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language Turkish
Subjects Comparative and Transnational Literature
Journal Section Erdem
Authors

Seda Erkoç Yeni 0009-0006-4325-1661

Publication Date June 14, 2024
Submission Date October 18, 2023
Acceptance Date December 14, 2023
Published in Issue Year 2024

Cite

APA Erkoç Yeni, S. (2024). Bir Savaşı Anlatmak: Kralın ve Şairin Gözünden İnabahtı Savaşı. Erdem(86), 47-62. https://doi.org/10.32704/erdem.2024.86.047

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ERDEM Journal is indexed by TR Dizin, MLA International Bibliography, EBSCOhost, SOBIAD, ASI (Advanced Science Index) ISAM, DAVET, AYK Journal Index and Academindex.