Editing Mehmed III (section)

==Relationship with England==
In 1599, the fourth year of Mehmed III's reign, [[Queen Elizabeth I]] sent a convoy of gifts to the Ottoman court. These gifts were originally intended for the sultan's predecessor, [[Murad III]], who had died before they had arrived. Included in these gifts was a large jewel-studded clockwork organ that was assembled on the slope of the [[Topkapı Palace#Third Courtyard|Royal Private Garden]] by a team of engineers including [[Thomas Dallam]]. The organ took many weeks to complete and featured dancing sculptures such as a flock of blackbirds that sung and shook their wings at the end of the music.<ref name="Malcolm">{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3616223/How-fear-turned-to-fascination.html | title=How fear turned to fascination | access-date=31 October 2013 | last=Malcolm | first=Noel | date=2004-05-02 | publisher= telegraph.co.uk
| location=London}}</ref><ref>Jean Giullou: ''Die Orgel. Erinnerung und Vision.''Christoph Glatter-Götz 1984 p. 35 with image</ref> Also among the English gifts was a ceremonial coach, accompanied by a letter from the Queen to Mehmed's mother, [[Safiye Sultan (wife of Murad III)|Safiye Sultan]]. These gifts were intended to cement relations between the two countries, building on the trade agreement signed in 1581 that gave English merchants priority in the Ottoman region.<ref name="Jardine">{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7155903.stm | work=BBC News | title=An eye for detail | date=December 21, 2007}}</ref> Under the looming threat of Spanish military presence, England was eager to secure an alliance with the Ottomans, the two nations together having the capability to divide the power. [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth]]'s gifts arrived in a large 27-gun merchantman ship that Mehmed personally inspected, a clear display of English maritime strength that would prompt him to build up his fleet over the following years of his reign. The Anglo-Ottoman alliance would never be consummated, however, as relations between the nations grew stagnant due to anti-European sentiments reaped from the worsening Austro-Ottoman War and the deaths of Safiye Sultan's interpreter and the pro-English chief Hasan Pasha.<ref name="Jardine"/><ref name="Woodhead">{{cite web|url=http://gale.cengage.co.uk/images/WoodheadOttomans1.pdf|date=28 April 2011|title=ENGLAND, THE OTTOMANS AND THE BARBARY COAST|author=Christine Woodhead|access-date=28 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314080131/http://gale.cengage.co.uk/images/WoodheadOttomans1.pdf|archive-date=14 March 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>