Nurbanu Sultan

Presumably descended from Venetian nobility, Nurbanu entered the harem of the future Selim II around 1542 and gave birth to his first son, Murad, in 1546. When Selim became sultan in 1566, she led the imperial harem but never matched her mother-in-law Hürrem's influence - Selim deferred to his sister and his Grand Vizier, who also happened to be Nurbanu's son-in-law. After Selim died in 1574, she hid his body in ice until Murad could return from his provincial post. Once Murad took the throne, Nurbanu became the first to hold the formal title of Valide Sultan, a role so powerful that viziers and soldiers lined up to present gifts and receive her robes of honor as if she were co-ruler. She advised her reclusive, impressionable son on matters he couldn't settle alone, corresponded with foreign courts, and waged a quiet campaign against Safiye Sultan, Murad's longtime concubine, whose hold over him threatened Nurbanu's authority. By the final years of her life, as Murad withdrew further from public view, Nurbanu stood at the center of court ceremonies and met with officials during the war with Safavid Persia. She died in 1583, and Murad broke tradition by attending