A Diplomatic Novelty? Ultimatum Given to the Venetian Republic in 1570 and the Edition of Relevant Letters by Sultan Selim II and his Grand Vizier

Abstract

In this article, I propose an edition and interpretation of letters by Selim II and his grand vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha to the Republic of Venice to demand peaceful surrender of Cyprus. The letters specify that if the summoned party were to refuse, the island was to be ravaged within months. To interpret these rather peculiar but hitherto insufficiently analysed letters, I first revise the political context and then recontextualize them as an ultimatum, a specific instrument of so-called coercive diplomacy.