Titans of History

by Simon Sebag Montefiore

  Such predictions seemed altogether vindicated when the French king, Charles VIII, invaded Florence in 1494. Lorenzo de Medici’s son and successor, Piero, was driven out of a city, which was by then in the grip of Savonarola’s demagoguery. With French support, a democratic republic was now established in Florence, with Savonarola as its leading figure. In his new role, combining political and religious power, he was determined to create a “Christian and religious republic.” One of the first acts of this new, wholesome republic was to make homosexuality punishable by death.

  Savonarola intensified his criticism of the Roman curia—its corruption personified by the notorious Borgias—and he even went so far as to attack Pope Alexander VI’s disreputable private life. At the same time, he urged the people of Florence to live ever more ascetic lives. The result of the latter exhortations was the act for which the priest became most famous—the Bonfire of the Vanities, in which personal effects, books and works of art, including some by Botticelli and Michelangelo, were destroyed in a conflagration in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria.

  Even as Savonarola reached the height of his power and influence, domestic opposition to his rule was beginning to form. Pointing to his pronouncements against the papacy, these domestic opponents were able to secure the excommunication of Savonarola in May 1497. Beyond Florence, Savonarola was opposed not only by the corrupt Borgia pope, Alexander VI, but also by the duke of Milan—both of whom sought to overturn the king of France’s regional ambitions.

  When French forces withdrew from the Italian peninsula in 1497, Savonarola suddenly found himself isolated. His final undoing came in 1498, in a bizarre episode that reflected the zealous atmosphere he had done so much to create. A Franciscan monk had challenged anyone who refused to accept the pope’s excommunication of Savonarola to an ordeal by fire. One of Savonarola’s most committed followers had duly accepted the contest, the outcome of which would be decided by he who withdrew first (that person being the loser). In the event, the Franciscan failed to appear for the trial—formally handing Savonarola the victory. Yet many felt that Savonarola had somehow dodged the test. A riot ensued, in the course of which Savonarola was dragged from his convent and placed in front of a commission of inquiry, packed with his opponents.

  Effectively placed on trial by papal commissioners, Savonarola was tortured into making an admission of guilt. He was then handed over to the secular authorities to be crucified and burned at the stake. The sentence was carried out on May 23, 1498, at the very spot on which the Bonfire of the Vanities had been lit, and where Savonarola had himself overseen the execution of various “criminals.” As his own pyre was lit, the executioner was reputed to have declared, “The one who wanted to burn me is now himself put to the flames.”

  ISABELLA & FERDINAND

  1451–1504 & 1452–1516

  The King of France complains that I have twice deceived him. He lies, the fool; I have deceived him ten times and more.

  Ferdinand

  They were probably the most successful royal partnership of their era. Isabella was the pious, solemn, red-haired, and blue-eyed queen of Castile, one of the kingdoms that made up Christian Spain, while Ferdinand was the shrewd, crafty, ambitious king of Aragon, another Spanish kingdom, and the ideal Machiavellian monarch. Their marriage in 1469 effectively created the kingdom of Spain by uniting Aragon and Castile (though actually the kingdoms remained separate units). The formation of Spain was just one of the couples’ achievements. Spain, once almost completely ruled by the Muslims, who had created a blossoming Arab-Jewish culture, had been largely reconquered by crusading Spanish monarchs in what was known as La Reconquista. As the Christians gradually reconquered Spain, many of its Jews—known as the Sepharad, the Sephardis—and indeed Muslims, had converted to Christianity, or at least pretended to do so: these converts were called conversos. Clearly some remained Jews in secret but in all likelihood many converted wholeheartedly. Yet gradually the Christian powers in Spain became suspicious of these Jews as a taint in the blood of the Christians—were they really loyal? Were they traitors? The belief that they might represent a taint in the Christian bloodstream was one of the first examples of the racial anti-Semitism that resurfaced in the late nineteenth century. The Inquisition, led by Torqemarda and backed by Ferdinand and Isabella, began its investigations and tortures.

  In 1492, they completed this process when they conquered the last Islamic principality, the Emirate of Granada, a triumphant moment for the couple because they were completing the last crusade. Both regarded themselves as crusaders and indeed Isabella was accustomed to rule from a military camp. The last emir of Granada surrendered on the understanding that Muslims would have freedom of worship. The monarchs would soon go back on this promise, forcing Muslims to convert to Christianity. Then, literally days later, the two Catholic Monarchs—a title awarded them by the Pope—issued their Alhambra Decree, which ordered the Jews of Iberia to either convert to Christianity or face expulsion. Already under sustained persecution, many Jews probably did now convert, but the vast majority—somewhere between 30,000 and 80,000—had to leave Spain, beginning one of the most traumatic experiences in Jewish life between the fall of the Jerusalem Temple in AD 70 and the Holocaust of the 20th century. It seems that Ferdinand had calculated that the Jews would simply convert and was surprised by Jewish loyalty to their faith. Either way, Ferdinand and Isabella set off a tumultuous movement of people: they also expelled the Jews from their other kingdoms—Ferdinand ruled swathes of Italy—and other monarchs in Europe followed suit, expelling their Jews too. The Jews moved gradually eastward, thousands of them ending up in Poland—then one of the most tolerant kingdoms of Europe—in Holland, and the eastern Mediterranean, where many were welcomed by the Ottoman sultans, who settled them in cities from the capital Istanbul to Salonika. These Jews added to the growing Jewish populations of Poland and Ukraine but also became the Jewish Sephardic communities of the Arab world: they often spoke Turkish, Arabic and their own special language—Ladino, a patois of Spanish and Hebrew.

  That was not the last key decision of 1492—the Catholic Monarchs next agreed to fund the expedition of Christopher Columbus that discovered the New World and began the Spanish conquest of a new continent. Thus in many ways, the couple played a key role in the creation of the modern world.

  Ferdinand was also king of Sicily and Naples and spent many of his later years campaigning in Italy, but he never gave up his crusading credentials. His ultimate aim was to liberate Jerusalem and indeed he claimed the title of king of Jerusalem, one still used by the king of Spain. He launched a series of attacks along the coast of Muslim North Africa, even conquering Tripoli in today’s Libya.

  The couple married their daughter Catherine of Aragon to Prince Arthur, son of King Henry VII of England and after the prince’s death, she married his son and heir, Henry VIII, becoming the mother of Queen Mary I. When Isabella died in 1508, she was succeeded on the Castilian throne by their daughter Juana. Juana was married to Philip the Handsome, Habsburg duke of Burgundy and son of the Emperor Maximilian and they had a son, Charles of Ghent. But Juana the Mad was unbalanced; Philip the Handsome died young and so Ferdinand ruled Castile as regent until his death when the Spanish kingdoms along with vast Habsburg lands in Germany and the Low Countries as well as the new territories of America, were inherited by Ferdinand and Isabella’s grandson, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain, who in his day was the most powerful monarch in the world.

  COLUMBUS

  1451–1506

  For the execution of the voyage to the Indies, I did not make use of intelligence, mathematics or maps.

  Christopher Columbus

  Cristobal Colon—better known as Christopher Columbus—was the maverick son of a Genoese weaver who for years had dreamed of sailing across the Atlantic to open up a new path to India, but instead discovered America. An extraordinary sailor, adventurer, dreamer, and obsessional eccentric of remarkable drive and will, he had petiti
oned the Portuguese court in vain for many years to fund this voyage. He then turned his attentions to the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella who, on finally conquering the last Islamic principality of Iberia agreed to fund the voyage. Bizarrely, part of his dream was to find the spices and gold that would pay for a crusade to liberate Jerusalem, to rebuild the Temple for Catholicism and even to attack the Holy City from the other side. In return for royal backing, he demanded and received the title of Grand Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Viceroy and Governor of any new lands plus a generous share of the income from them.

  On August 3, 1492, Columbus set off on his first expedition with three ships and on October 12 he spotted land, one of the islands of the Bahamas—the first sight of the Americas. He went on to explore the coast of Cuba and Hispaniola before returning to Spain, convinced that he had simply discovered a new route to the Indies. Indeed he called the indigenous people Indians. A year later he set off again with a much larger expedition of settlers, soldiers, priests.

  In all there were four voyages around the Caribbean, via Jamaica and Hispaniola, during which Columbus landed on mainland Central and South America, establishing the Spanish presence on the new continent. But Columbus, now Grand Admiral and Governor of the Indies, accompanied by his brothers and children, found it hard adapting to his new role, particularly when he came into confrontation with the newly appointed governors sent by the court in Spain.

  Ultimately he was arrested and sent back to Spain, though on his return he was freed by the Catholic Monarchs and reconfirmed in his titles. He was allowed to take one more voyage, his fourth, but his career as an actual governor was over.

  He spent his last years frustrated by his great achievements and limitations and his bad health, writing books of plans for his new Jerusalem Temple and other dreams. His eldest son Diego, who married the niece of the duke of Alba, was confirmed in 1509 in his father’s titles as Grand Admiral and Viceroy and spent many years governing parts of the Indies from his residence in San Domingue in today’s Dominican Republic. On his death, his son Luis Colon was awarded the title of Admiral of the Indies and a dukedom. But there ended the three generations of the dynasty of Columbus. Others would conquer and govern the new empire of Spain. To Christopher Columbus himself, the new lands were always the Indies. It was others who called them the New World and it was the Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci after whom the Americas were to be named.

  SELIM THE GRIM

  1470–1520

  A carpet is large enough to accommodate two sufis, but the world is not large enough for two Kings.

  Selim the Grim

  Sultan Selim I defeated Persia (Iran) and the Mamluks, and conquered the entire Middle East, including Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem for his Ottoman empire, in a reign that was short, bloody and extremely successful. Having eliminated all internal challengers, he established the Ottomans as the preeminent power in the Islamic world. One of the cruelest sultans, he was also one of the greatest.

  Selim was born in 1470, the son and heir apparent of Sultan Bayezid II, whose reign had been undermined by royal infighting as the sultan found himself challenged by his brother Cem. The latter had sought assistance from various European allies—notably the military order of the Knights of St. John and the papacy—but ultimately wound up dead in a Neapolitan jail. This family feud, however, was nothing compared with what was to follow.

  Tall and strong, the young Selim stood out for his bravery and his keen intelligence. Many looked to him as a model ruler in waiting. One who was not so convinced, however, was his brother Ahmed, who desired the throne for himself. The rivalry between the two became increasingly bitter. In 1511, after Ahmed had pacified a rebellious Ottoman province in Asia Minor, he made as if to march on the capital, Istanbul. Selim fled.

  In semi-exile as governor of Trabizon (a region of northern Anatolia, next to the Black Sea), Selim honed his military skills, leading a succession of military campaigns against Georgia and succeeding in bringing the towns of Kars, Erzurum and Artvin under Ottoman control. Selim returned from his provincial assignment in 1512, and, with the support of the Janissary militias, defeated and killed Ahmed in battle. He then forced his father to abdicate.

  Bayezid died soon afterward, and there ensued an extraordinary bout of intra-familial bloodletting. Selim understood the problems that could flow from sibling rivalry, having witnessed the clash between his father and uncle, not to mention his own experiences with his brother Ahmed. He came up with a simple but ferocious solution: the elimination of all possible rivals to the throne. He not only had his two surviving brothers and his nephews murdered, but even his own sons—with the sole exception of Suleiman, the son he had designated as his one true heir.

  Selim then set about adding to his dominions. Hitherto, the focus for Ottoman expansion had been westward into Europe—particularly the Balkans. Selim adopted a different policy. Signing a peace treaty with the European powers, he turned his attention east, to the Safavids of Persia, whose Shi’ite empire posed a direct ideological challenge to the Ottoman sultans, upholders of the Sunni tradition. In addition, the Safavids had been stirring up unrest among the Kizilbash (Turkmen tribes in eastern Anatolia). In 1514 Selim moved decisively against his Safavid neighbors, and defeated them at the Battle of Chaldiran on the River Euphrates.

  With his immediate rivals thus neutralized, Selim then prepared to take on the empire of the Mamluks to the south, whose rule extended from Egypt through Palestine to Syria, and who had provoked Selim’s anger by their apparent interference in Ottoman affairs. Marching his army south, Selim destroyed successive Mamluk armies at Marj Dabiq (north of Aleppo) in 1516 and at al-Raydaniyyah (near Cairo) in 1517. In so doing, he brought Syria, Palestine and Egypt under Ottoman sway. Selim now proclaimed himself caliph, and was declared guardian of the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. His triumph was to be short-lived. In September 1520 he died after a short illness, probably a form of cancer, leaving his empire to his son, Suleiman.

  PIZARRO

  c. 1475–1541

  Friends and comrades! On that side [south] are toil, hunger, nakedness, the drenching storm, desertion, and death; on this side ease and pleasure. There lies Peru with its riches; here, Panama and its poverty. Choose, each man, what best becomes a brave Castilian. For my part, I go to the south.

  Pizarro

  Francisco Pizarro personifies the brilliant adventurism and the callous inhumanity of the Spanish conquistadors. Some went on to help rule this gold-rich empire, but many others lived the itinerant lifestyle of the military adventurer—ruthlessly exploiting native populations and extorting the wealth of the land to build vast private fortunes. Pizarro’s place in history is that of the man who destroyed the empire of the Incas and delivered much of the New World into Spanish hands.

  One of the greatest Europeans of his age, Pizarro was lean, tall, fit and a superb, kindly, quiet-spoken leader, beloved by his men. He was illiterate, old-fashioned and usually wore a black cassock, white hat and sword and dagger. But he was enormously experienced in the warfare of the conquest of the Indies and prepared to be utterly ruthless and brutal to his enemies. He displayed the same qualities against the Indians to achieve the psychological dominance needed to compensate for his massive numerical inferiority. His achievements—the conquest of an empire with a preposterously small band of men—remain astonishing and Pizarro is still regarded as a hero in his home town of Trujillo in Spain.

  Like many other young Europeans of the time, he was lured by the promise of the New World. He was accompanied and assisted by his brothers and by 1502 Pizarro had arrived in the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (modern Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and it was there that his career as a conquistador began. By 1513 he was fighting alongside Vasco Núñez de Balboa. However the following year Balboa was removed from his position as governor of Veragua—the territory he had helped establish for the Spanish crown. His replacement was a man named Pedrarias Dávila and, r
ather than stand by his comrade, Pizarro immediately professed his loyalty to Dávila. Five years later, on the orders of Dávila, Pizarro arrested Balboa, who was subsequently executed. As a reward for his allegiance to Dávila, Pizarro was made mayor of the recently founded Panama City.

  Although Pizarro used his new role to accumulate significant riches, these did not satisfy his ambitions. Rumors of a fabulously wealthy country to the south—Piru—had reached Panama by this time. Inspired by such stories, Pizarro formed a partnership with a soldier-adventurer, Diego de Almagro: they agreed to lead an expedition in search of “Piru,” with all the lands they conquered to be divided equally between them.

  An unsuccessful attempt in 1524 was followed by a far more promising expedition in 1526, in which the existence of a wealthy empire to the south was confirmed. With their appetites whetted, the conquistadors resolved on a third trip. However, the governor of Panama had grown impatient with Pizarro’s failure to deliver immediate results and ordered the venture to be abandoned.

  When news reached Pizarro of the governor’s decision, he drew a line in the sand with his sword and declared, “There lies Peru with its riches; here, Panama and its poverty. Choose, each man, what best becomes a brave Castilian.” Of those present, just thirteen men committed to stay with him. Accompanied by Almagro and Luque, Pizarro now continued on his journey, and in 1528 he first entered the territories of the Inca empire. Originating in the Peruvian highlands in the twelfth century, the Incas by the mid-1500s had grown into a mighty empire encompassing much of the west coast of South America. Under three particularly successful rulers (Pachacuti, r. c. 1438–c. 1471; Topa Inca, r. c. 1471–c. 1493; and Huayna Capac, r. c. 1493–1525) they came to dominate much of what is modern-day Ecuador, Peru, parts of Argentina, and Chile. Shortly before the Spaniards arrived in 1532, however, the empire was fractured by civil war that broke out during the rule of Huayna Capac’s son, Atahualpa, leaving the empire a sitting target, especially given the technical superiority of the Incas’ European assailants.