Defenders of the faith

Charles V, Suleyman the Magnificent, and the battle for Europe, 1520-1536

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Last edited by ImportBot
December 17, 2022 | History

Defenders of the faith

Charles V, Suleyman the Magnificent, and the battle for Europe, 1520-1536

  • 0 Ratings
  • 3 Want to read
  • 0 Currently reading
  • 0 Have read

A bestselling historian recounts sixteen years that shook the world— the epic clash between Europe and the Ottoman Turks that ended the Renaissance and brought Islam to the gates of ViennaIn the bestselling Warriors of God and Dogs of God, James Reston, Jr., limned two epochal conflicts between Islam and Christendom. Here he examines the ultimate battle in that centuries-long war, which found Europe at its most vulnerable and Islam on the attack. This drama was propelled by two astonishing young sovereigns: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Turkish sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. Though they represented two colliding worlds, they were remarkably similar. Each was a poet and cultured cosmopolitan; each was the most powerful man on his continent; each was called “Defender of the Faith”; and each faced strident religious rebellion in his domain. Charles was beset by the “heresy” of Martin Luther and his fervid adherents, even while tensions between him and the pope threatened to boil over, and the upstart French king Francis I harried Charles’s realm by land and sea. Suleyman was hardly more comfortable on his throne. He had earned his crown by avoiding the grim Ottoman tradition of royal fratricide. Shiites in the East were fighting off the Sunni Turks’ cruel repression of their “heresy.” The ferocity and skill of Suleyman’s Janissaries had expanded the Ottoman Empire to its greatest extent ever, but these slave soldiers became rebellious when foreign wars did not engage them.With Europe newly hobbled and the Turks suffused with restless vigor, the stage was set for a drama that unfolded from Hungary to Rhodes and ultimately to Vienna itself, which both sides thought the Turks could win. If that happened, it was generally agreed that Europe would become Muslim as far west as the Rhine.During these same years, Europe was roiled by constant internal tumult that saw, among other spectacles, the Diet of Worms, the Sack of Rome, and an actual wrestling match between the English and French monarchs in which Henry VIII’s pride was badly hurt. Would—could—this fractious continent be united to repulse a fearsome enemy?

Publish Date
Publisher
Penguin Press
Language
English

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Edition Availability
Cover of: Defenders of the Faith
Defenders of the Faith
2009, Penguin USA, Inc.
Electronic resource in English
Cover of: Defenders of the faith

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Book Details


Published in

New York

Table of Contents

The die is cast
Horsetails and worms
Ancestral aspirations
The capture of a king
More was lost at Mohacs
The sack of Rome
The end of the Renaissance
The gates of Vienna
Last gasp in Europe
The natural enemy

Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
940.2/32
Library of Congress
D231 .R47 2009, D231.R47 2009

The Physical Object

Format
Hardcover
Pagination
xxi, 407 p., [16] p. of plates
Dimensions
25 x x centimeters

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL22849674M
Internet Archive
defendersoffaith00rest
ISBN 10
1594202257
ISBN 13
9781594202254
LCCN
2008054655
OCLC/WorldCat
276819733
Library Thing
8172025
Goodreads
6203507

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History

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December 17, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
July 22, 2019 Edited by MARC Bot remove fake subjects
January 9, 2019 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
June 17, 2010 Edited by ImportBot add details from OverDrive
April 19, 2010 Edited by WorkBot update details