It’s possible that Ion was declared incompetent at some point leaving his ‘mother’ to rule as regent or more likely, the yeniçeri actually approached the Valide Sultan for permission to depose her son. The only problem with the second scenario would be that without a son on the throne Radu would technically lose power unless the new sultan was either related to him or, scandalously, married him. In which case it might have even gone as far as Radu allowing the yeniçeri to do away with Ion privately while letting it be publicly known that the sultan was incompetent and confined to his palace as a result. Then Radu, as regent, turns to the Vatican for assistance and ‘converts’ to Catholicism, pushing for the induction of Methuselah Inquisitors that he can control rather than having actual Inquisitors from Rome come in and destabilise his state. And of course by the time he dies or the Inquisition discover that the Valide Sultan isn’t actually female they can’t make that known because if they publicly denounce him they’ll lose their foothold in the Empire.
Of course that’s all highly convoluted as well as involving huge gaps in the details. After all, if Ion is Radu’s son then where’s the former sultan because it obviously wasn’t Süleyman? And if Süleyman was Radu’s husband then was Radu an Imperial concubine? When did Radu become the former sultan’s concubine after all? Was Süleyman forced to hand over his wife? Was he killed off because he wouldn’t? Or did Radu somehow gain the sultan’s affections after he’d been made a widow? If Süleyman was martyred for his faith and Radu was forcibly made a concubine, and this was normal practice, was Radu seriously the only fertile woman in the sultan’s harem? Were there other sons of the sultan? If so, what happened to them and their mothers? What about Imperial daughters? Was Šahrzād really just Radu’s step-daughter or was she actually Süleyman & Radu’s legitimate daughter relegated to step-daughter status to avoid being targeted by royal enemies or because Radu had to pretend that his marriage had never been consummated so as to gain the sultan’s favour? Was Šahrzād in fact the product of a previous marriage of Süleyman’s or a child born to a concubine, hastily sent off to Timişoara when Süleyman married the much younger Radu? Was Radu in fact a concubine who felt out of favour with the sultan so was palmed off onto a favoured noble as a wife until said noble converted to Catholicism, losing favour, and was killed, after which Radu managed to find his way back into the sultan’s favour and deliver a royal son? And if Radu was a typical Ottoman noblewoman when did he have the time to pick up a terran lover from the Outer? Did he in fact deliver a child fathered by Dietrich and then engineer Süleyman’s death because Süleyman was beginning to suspect that the child wasn’t his?
The whole setup opens itself up to rival claims to the throne from those claming that Radu’s legal marriage to Süleyman legitimates their claim to those claiming that there were other children of the previous sultan besides Ion from whom they’re descended, to those claiming that even Ion may have been fathered by Dietrich and that Radu never actually bore children to anyone else. And somewhere in the background there’ll be a Barvon heir who’s dying to point out that his great, great, great uncle was actually a man.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-06 09:53 pm (UTC)Of course that’s all highly convoluted as well as involving huge gaps in the details. After all, if Ion is Radu’s son then where’s the former sultan because it obviously wasn’t Süleyman? And if Süleyman was Radu’s husband then was Radu an Imperial concubine? When did Radu become the former sultan’s concubine after all? Was Süleyman forced to hand over his wife? Was he killed off because he wouldn’t? Or did Radu somehow gain the sultan’s affections after he’d been made a widow? If Süleyman was martyred for his faith and Radu was forcibly made a concubine, and this was normal practice, was Radu seriously the only fertile woman in the sultan’s harem? Were there other sons of the sultan? If so, what happened to them and their mothers? What about Imperial daughters? Was Šahrzād really just Radu’s step-daughter or was she actually Süleyman & Radu’s legitimate daughter relegated to step-daughter status to avoid being targeted by royal enemies or because Radu had to pretend that his marriage had never been consummated so as to gain the sultan’s favour? Was Šahrzād in fact the product of a previous marriage of Süleyman’s or a child born to a concubine, hastily sent off to Timişoara when Süleyman married the much younger Radu? Was Radu in fact a concubine who felt out of favour with the sultan so was palmed off onto a favoured noble as a wife until said noble converted to Catholicism, losing favour, and was killed, after which Radu managed to find his way back into the sultan’s favour and deliver a royal son? And if Radu was a typical Ottoman noblewoman when did he have the time to pick up a terran lover from the Outer? Did he in fact deliver a child fathered by Dietrich and then engineer Süleyman’s death because Süleyman was beginning to suspect that the child wasn’t his?
The whole setup opens itself up to rival claims to the throne from those claming that Radu’s legal marriage to Süleyman legitimates their claim to those claiming that there were other children of the previous sultan besides Ion from whom they’re descended, to those claiming that even Ion may have been fathered by Dietrich and that Radu never actually bore children to anyone else. And somewhere in the background there’ll be a Barvon heir who’s dying to point out that his great, great, great uncle was actually a man.