Princes 12 (Conclusion)

(or ‘WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO THE PRINCES IN THE TOWER’)

by Pueros

Chapter 12 – Rewards

(Teheran, Persia, August 1484)

As the terrified Edward was being dragged towards his destiny on the castration table by two of the Governor of Teheran’s servants, he struggled mightily but uselessly to avoid his fate. Uselessly that is until he suddenly decided to bring his mind back from unrestrained panic to careful calculation in the midst of strife, the latter being an invaluable innate skill henceforth. The naked boy, cock still rigid, stopped his wriggling, as if he was resigned to what was about to happen. His adult escorts accordingly relaxed slightly. It was literally a fatal mistake on their part.

Edward stamped his right foot hard on top of the toes of one of the feet, covered only by a soft slipper, of the servant holding his right arm. He immediately followed this up with a vicious backward swing of his heel into the groin of the man holding his left arm. Both yelped and let go of their charge, who quickly disappeared amongst the throng filling the hall of the slave market.

The unguarded back exit was nearby but Edward did not make for it. The English Prince instead went in search of the Ottoman Prince and luckily speedily found him. A trader standing nearby was deprived of a sharp curved knife, resting in a scabbard attached to his waist, and the weapon was soon thrust into the side of one of Selim’s two escorts, who immediately screamed and released his charge to grasp the knife protruding from his agonising wound. The other also removed his hands from the lad, not through pain but in terror. “Follow me!” commanded the rightful occupier of the English throne to the heir of the Ottoman equivalent. The latter, very surprised but immensely happy at the turn of events, unhesitatingly complied.

There was much shouting and confusion within the bustling crowd and this enabled the two nude, now unarmed, boys to rush through the unattended rear door into a quiet alleyway outside. Both ran for their lives. However, as they had departed the hall, their escape had been noticed by two men. A soldier, who had come into the slave market to view the young beauties being offered for sale, started in pursuit, followed by a civilian.

The morning was very hot, with not a cloud in the sky to prevent the sun from beating down mercilessly. The young naked escapees soon became sweaty and tired but the possessors of the adult feet that they could hear running behind them appeared to be unaffected, seemingly remorselessly coming closer and closer. The 13 years old nudes turned a corner and advanced a number of paces down the empty alley until they realised that it was a dead end, with high walls on all sides. They stopped and looked behind to see the soldier, sword in one hand and knife in the other, come round the corner, closely followed by the civilian, also armed with a knife.

Edward and Selim tried some of the doors that backed onto the narrow thoroughfare but all were locked. They eventually found themselves up against the wall marking the end of the alley with the soldier almost on top of them.

The terrified boys, now fearing for more than their balls, stood frozen, awaiting inevitable recapture and probable later horrible punishment if not execution. The soldier slowed to complete his mission. He smirked as he knew that the reward for preventing the loss of the two prisoners would be substantial. Unfortunately for him, the only reward that he actually received was a knife between his shoulder blades. The soldier fell dead to the ground and the two amazed and puzzled Princes looked at the civilian with the bloodstained blade. He immediately answered the question quite clearly displayed in their beautiful young eyes.

The response was in excellent Turkish for it was the man’s native tongue. “I am one of the Sultan’s spies, please follow me your Highness. I shall lead you and your servant to safety!”

The man was as good as his word, although it would take many months to return to Constantinople. Meanwhile, the servants who had carelessly allowed the boys to escape were beheaded for their incompetence, as was the Governor of Teheran.

The furtive journey back to the Ottoman capital was truly epic. The boys were smuggled out of the safe house of the spy, ostensibly a carpet trader, when the search for them in Teheran had become less frantic. They were wrapped amongst two of many rugs loaded into a horse-drawn wagon and which were supposed to be destined for markets in towns and villages to the north. However, their journey took them much further north than those communities. The threesome crossed the Elburz Mountains to a small port on the Caspian Sea. A long boat trip saw them advance up the whole length of the vast lake to Astrakhan, then controlled by Mongols, who took no interest in a trader apparently accompanied by two young slaves.

Another long dangerous wagon ride, this time towards the west, finally saw the trio reach territory controlled by the Ottomans. Officials in the Crim Tartary, conquered by Selim’s grandfather, and now called southern Ukraine and the Crimea, took some persuading before they appreciated that the Sultan’s heir had truly arrived in their land. The boy’s dishevelled appearance had not helped his cause at first. However, after finally realising the error of their ways, the officials treated the threesome like Princes, which of course two were, before providing a galley to cross the Black Sea.

(Topkapi Palace, Constantinople, March 1485)

14 years old Edward was brought before the similarly aged Selim, who was lying naked on his huge, richly draped bed. Next to him, equally nude, was his latest gelded catamite, just 11 years old. “I have just enjoyed buggering my eunuch,” the heir to the Ottoman throne kindly informed the rightful King of England, “so I want you to strip and join us. You may have the pleasure of cleaning your younger brother’s juices from my member before I enjoy your anal orifice as well.”

Edward, like his younger sibling, was deeply ashamed at the circumstances in which he found himself but, fully knowing the likely excruciating consequences of disobedience, having seen the Forbidden Palace’s well-equipped punishment facility, meekly complied.

Edward disrobed and walked to the bed, cock just as rampant as that of Selim. The English Prince

smiled at his grinning Turkish counterpart and said “Liar!” before leaning over to give his young lover a lingering kiss. He was, in the past, deeply ashamed at the circumstances in which he found himself but not anymore. His brother Richard, rightful Duke of York, was also no longer Selim’s bedboy but was present only to perform one function.

“Turn over and splay your legs,” commanded Edward to the young Ottoman, “so that my brother can grease you and I can enjoy your anal orifice as my reward for saving the life of the next Sultan!” Selim’s grin widened as he meekly complied. He had gained much exquisite pleasure from the delightful and now skilful attentions his friend regularly afforded to his sublime rear.

The Princely duo had been back in the palace for a few days but this was the first time that they had spent privately together since their return. Edward had been granted several requests in return for his part in saving Selim from nullification and probably much worse. As a result, he and Christian were no longer koceks but had been given other roles, as had Richard, and an envoy had been despatched with some very valuable luggage to find the Moor trader. The spy had become an immensely rich man.

Bayezid had been happy to provide appropriate rewards for Selim’s salvation, even if he had not been prepared to sacrifice Syria for his son’s return. The boy never forgave his father for this stance, or forgot the lesson that he had gleaned from the keen willingness that his younger brother had apparently exhibited at being appointed, albeit temporarily, the new heir to the throne. His new English friend’s influence would not extend to preventing the Ottoman Prince from ultimately rewarding his parent and sibling with exquisite revenge.

(Paris, France, June 1485)

Henry Bolingbroke had had to leave Brittany for Paris quickly the previous year, afraid of being arrested by the local Duke and returned to almost certain execution by Richard III. Henry had been promoting a tenuous claim to the English throne and the current incumbent wanted his rival eliminated.

Henry was now under the protection of the King of France but had been very frustrated at his inability to raise sufficient funds to take an army to England to reclaim the throne for the Lancastrian cause from the Yorkist regicide. He was beginning to believe that he would be forced to remain in exile for life, leaving Richard with his ill-gotten crown.

Henry was intrigued to be asked for an audience by a rich Moorish trader and had therefore granted the man his wish. His decision was rewarded in a manner that would change history as the Moor had brought with him a huge chest, which had originated in a faraway land. The chest was full of gold coin, on top of which was a letter written in English.

(Bosworth, England, August 1485)

“A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” was quoted by Shakespeare in his ‘Richard III’ (V. iv. 7) as being amongst the eponymous monarch’s last words before he was rewarded for his usurpation of the English throne by being slain at the battle of Bosworth, although such a plea was probably hyperbolical. However, the importance of Henry Bolingbroke’s victory cannot be underestimated. It brought an end to the Wars of the Roses and, although the new monarch, the first of the Tudors, was to be troubled by some impostors posing as the elder of the ‘Princes in the Tower’, his reign brought much-needed general tranquillity and prosperity. The King, largely unheralded but arguably the greatest in English history, left a peaceful and strengthened country, firmly in the control of the monarchy and with a full treasury, for his son, Henry VIII, to play with.

Henry VII now appreciated from the letter, the contents of which only he and the 14 years old sender knew about, where his young relations were located and why they did not want to return to their homeland to reclaim their inheritance. On his deathbed, he believed that he had rewarded the Princes for their largesse by not letting them down over his custodianship of the kingdom. He had married the boys’ sister, Elizabeth of York, helping to resolve the English dynastic dispute that had caused the Wars that had lasted for three decades. By so doing, he also ensured that the Princes’ blood flowed in the veins of his successors. Elizabeth I had many of the virtues of her great uncles within her character.

Henry VII had additionally ensured that a certain personage, who had been even more responsible for the boys’ fate than Richard III, had also received his due reward. In 1502, the King had lured Sir James Tyrell, by now governor of the fortress of Guisnes in France, from his stronghold by a ruse and had him executed, appropriately, in the Tower of London.

(Constantinople, 1512)

Bayezid had not been particularly successful in adding lands to the Ottoman dominions during his reign and, believing as a result that he had somehow displeased Allah, became something of a religious mystic. The Sultan’s inability to conquer much territory and his increasing disinterest in state affairs caused disaffection amongst many of the country’s senior civilian and military officers. Selim therefore successfully took the opportunity to reward his father and brother for what had happened 28 years earlier. He usurped the throne and murdered his younger brother, along with his other male siblings and all their sons to ensure that no dangerous opposition to his coup, or rivals to his position, remained within his family.

Selim’s English friend was on the Empire’s northern borders and could do nothing to discourage the new Sultan from fratricide. Nevertheless, Edward remained loyal, despite his distaste for what had occurred, and both he and Richard were both promoted in reward for their previous services for the new master of the Ottoman Empire.

Richard, now known by a Turkish name and having been for many years the senior eunuch administrator who had looked after Selim’s Princely affairs, became the Kapi Agha or Chief White Eunuch, basically the head of the Imperial Civil Service.

Edward, also now with a Turkish name and having been for many years a senior Janissary, became the supreme commander of Selim’s Asian army, with Christian his principal lieutenant. They and their Sultan were to enjoy much glory over the next eight years as the Arab lands were conquered, doubling the size of the Empire. Syria, Mesopotamia, including modern-day Iraq, Palestine, Egypt and most of Arabia were all brought under Ottoman control.

At Mecca, location of the principal shrine of Islam, Selim, at Richard’s suggestion, assumed the title of Caliph. Ottoman Sultans were for centuries thereafter considered to be the spiritual leaders of all Muslims, displacing the Caliphate of Baghdad and thus cementing their position as their faith’s most powerful rulers.

The absorption of the Arab world into the Ottoman dominions led to many Arab intellectuals, artists, artisans and administrators flocking to Constantinople, making the Empire a much more sophisticated state, although tinged with greater devotion to Islam. An additional affect of total control of the Middle East trade routes by the Turks was to compel European states to seek alternative ways round Africa to China and India, thereby encouraging a golden age of exploration. The western European nations also looked more to the west, promoting a more rapid development of the Americas than would otherwise have occurred. It is a strange fact that the United States of America might not be the great country that it undoubtedly now is if Selim and his friends had not enjoyed such success.

(Vienna, Austria, 1529)

Suleyman inherited an enviable position when he succeeded his father, Selim, after the latter had died of natural causes in 1520, mourned in particular by two English friends. The new Sultan’s reign was to be long and brilliant, augmented initially by his sensible decision to retain his father’s chief eunuch and general in their prominent positions.

The Empire reached the height of political power and came close to its maximum geographical extent during Suleyman the Magnificent’s 46 years on the throne. The new Sultan started the adornment, at his Kapi Agha’s suggestion and with his expert administrative assistance, of many of the principal cities of Islam with splendid mosques, aqueducts, bridges and other works. His Chief White Eunuch also devised wise new regulations relating to land tenure that earned his master the title of ‘Kanuni’ or ‘Lawgiver’. His chief general helped him to launch the conquest of those parts of the Balkans not already under Ottoman control, as well as Tabriz, Aden, Rhodes and much of north Africa as far as Algiers. For his achievements, the potentate was regarded everywhere as the most significant ruler in the world.

In 1529, the Ottoman European army, under Edward’s command, had just broken the power of Hungary and was now besieging Vienna. If the city fell, the whole of Christian Europe would be in great peril from Muslim conquest and the loyal general was on the brink of success when he was fatally wounded. On his deathbed, the 58 years old, who, in traditional Janissary fashion, had retained his Christianity, saw his imminent demise as a sign from Heaven. He therefore persuaded his distraught Imperial master to be satisfied with his existing territorial gains in the north. The Sultan accepted the wisdom of the person who had served him and his father so well as both man and boy. The former English Prince, who had never bothered to bed a female, therefore performed one final service for his faith and made yet another major contribution to the history of the world.

Just before he closed his eyes for the last time, with his beloved Dane, Christian, holding his hands, Edward wondered at God’s ways. He finally realised that the Lord, who was about to receive him, had never meant him to be a King of England, or his now eunuch brother a royal Duke of that realm, but instead people far more significant.

THE END

of

‘PRINCES’

(or ‘WHAT REALLY HAPPENDED TO THE PRINCES IN THE TOWER’)

by Pueros