Trade, Diplomacy, and History

Abstract

So far this book has focused upon the development of a discourse of Turkish history in England by the seventeenth century, albeit one that continued to draw upon continental writing. I have argued that in response to the Ottoman advance into Europe there evolved a wider European historiographical tradition and have traced its transmission into and adoption in England. In particular I have explored the ways in which its English manifestations were shaped by specific English contexts from the late years of Henry VIII’s reign to the development of the pamphlet news market in the late-sixteenth century. I have also shown how this process was driven by and how it reacted to international events and conflicts such as the Long War of 1593–1606. I have also examined one of the most important works of this discourse — Knolles’s Generali Historie in detail — and argued that the form given to this discourse by Knolles was of lasting importance in shaping early modern English understandings of Turkish history. This chapter will change tack somewhat to explore the developing early modern Anglo-Ottoman economic and diplomatic relationship and how it affected English perceptions of the Turks. Specifically I will look at how the writing of Turkish history in England and accounts of Anglo-Ottoman trade and diplomacy frequently overlapped and entangled.