Ibrahim Pasa conducts preliminary negotiations in Constantinople in January 1536 with the representative of the French king for a commercial treaty.
Süleyman, alarmed by his usurpation of the titles of sovereignty and fearing for his own throne, has the grand vizier executed on March 15.
(Christian historians will later accuse Francis of encouraging Ottoman expansion into central Europe to relieve Habsburg pressure on him, but the Ottoman advances should be ascribed less to French overtures than to Süleyman's own ambitions, together with his fears of Habsburg rule in Hungary and a possible alliance among the Habsburgs, Hungarians, and Safavids.)
The sultan regards the French king largely as a supplicant for commercial favors, which are granted in the Capitulations treaty of 1536, an agreement by which French subjects are given the freedom to travel and trade in the sultan's dominions and subjects of other states wishing to do the same are required to secure French protection.
French and other merchants and travelers in the Ottoman Empire are allowed to remain under French laws and courts in cases concerning themselves and are granted special privileges in cases involving Ottoman subjects.
Thus is established the foundation of the French predominance in the Levant, which will remain until modern times.
