The Ottoman Empire and the policy of alliances: Franco-Ottoman relations in the transition from the XVIth to XVIIth centuries

Although Western historiography considered the Ottoman Empire as a marginal and antagonist factor, the Ottomans were an integral component of the history of Early Modern age. The conscientious policy of balance of power towards the Christian powers made Ottomans a crucial element in the struggle for hegemony. The Franco-Turkish alliance that was established in the reigns of Francis I and Suleiman the Magnificent mainly depended on mutual enmity against Spanish hegemony in Europe. In the late sixteenth century, after the death of Henry III the French Wars of Religion gave rise to a chaotic situation in which the Catholic King sought the opportunity to place France under its control. This could have caused an irreversible change in the balance of power in the Mediterranean, an unacceptable situation for the geostrategic interests of the Ottoman sultans. The Ottoman Empire played a major role in the French foreign policy against Spanish claims during the different phases of the reign of Henry IV. Even Clement VIII implicitly instrumentalized Ottoman-French friendship to strengthen both its own position as well as that of France with respect to the Spanish Monarchy. This article aims to demonstrate the limits and efficiencies of politics of alliance in the transition from the sixteenth to the seventeenth century considering the role of England and the Republic of Venice.