A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Roxalana
ROXALANA (a Russian Captive, and Slave to Solyman the Magnificent, Emperor of the Turks,)
Supplanted a beautiful Circassian in the heart of her master, who had borne him Mustapha, the destined heir of his empire, and kept possession of it many years without a rival, after which, Roxalana had also several children. All the pleasure, however, she derived from her power, was embittered by the idea that on her son in-law's accession to the throne, from the barbarous policy of the East, her children must be put to death. She began therefore to hate him, and to seek his ruin. With the grand vizier, to whom she had prevailed on the sultan to give her daughter, she planned her own exaltation, and the downfal of the unhappy prince. She pretended great zeal for the Mahometan religion, to which Solyman was much attached, and proposed to found a mosque, when the mufti, whom she consulted , and who had been previously instructed, told her that as a slave she could derive no benefit from that holy deed. Upon this she seemed sunk in sorrow, and Solyman, who was absent with the army, on being informed of her dejection, instantly hastened to remove it, by declaring, under his own hand, she was a free woman. Roxalana on this reassumed all her gaiety of spirit, and built her mosque. But when Solyman returned, she refused to live with him as a concubine any longer, alledging that what was an honour to a slave was a disgrace to a free woman. The passionate monarch consulted the mufti, who suggested the idea of espousing her. Solyman accordingly solemnly married her, thereby disregarding the customs of the monarchs of his race. Now was the time to alienate the heart of the sultan from his son, whose praises she so often repeated, that Solyman began to hear them with uneasiness, and suspicion. He placed spies about him, and consented to another innovation, the appearance of Roxalana's children at court. The crafty visier also contrived to have the different accounts sent to court full of the praises of Mustapha, till Solyman himself set out for the distant army, and had his son put to death in his own presence. The son of this unfortunate prince was likewise privately dispatched, and no rival left to dispute the Ottoman throne with the sons of Roxalana.