Since 1354 the Ottoman Turks had been advancing westwards, overrunning Constantinople (and renaming it Istanbul) in 1453, gaining control of the Black Sea and the main routes to the Balkans and driving on to the eastern Adriatic. Owing to the exploits of successive Sultans, the Ottomans were, by 1520, the undisputed leaders of the Muslim world. For the rest of the century they cast their shadow over western Europe. Then the encounters between Ottoman Empire and Britain have begun.Britain’s relations with Turkey have a long history. Formal diplomatic relations were established with the appointment of an English ambassador to the “Sublime Porte” (as the Ottoman government was known) in 1583. In 1793 London received one of the first permanent Turkish embassies established abroad.
