and Safiye Sultan, presenting himself with the name of Şehzade Yahya and claiming the throne for it. His claims were never proven and are not believed to be true by modern historians. Valide Sultan When Murad died in 1595, Safiye arranged for her son Mehmed to succeed as a sultan, and she became the Valide Sultan—one of the most powerful in Ottoman history. Committed to his mother to the extreme, the new sultan essentially allowed his mother to rule and gain influence. From then on, no one and nothing could set a limit to Safiye’s will. When she became Valide Sultan in 1595, she became more active in internal and foreign affairs, Until her son's death in 1603, Ottoman politics were determined by a party headed by herself and Gazanfer Ağa, chief of the white eunuchs and head of the enderun (the imperial inner palace). She had to handle serious internal struggles and struggles with the army instead of her son. She gave money for the war expenses from her personal account to support her son. Safiye arranged the highest allowance ever for herself as Valide Sultan. She eventually enjoyed an enormous stipend of 3,000 aspers a day during the latter part of her son's reign. When Mehmed III went on the Eger campaign in Hungary in 1596, he gave his mother great power over the empire, leaving her in charge of the treasury. During her interim rule she persuaded her son to revoke a political appointment of the judgeship of Istanbul and to reassign to the grand vizierate to Damat Ibrahim Pasha, her son-in-law. So no one could do anything in the capital, or even in the whole empire, without Safiye’s permission. She during the 9-year reign of her son has even been accused of corruption in his government and of selling important and lucrative positions at the highest price offered. During this period, the secretary of the English ambassador reported that while in the palace, Safiye "spied a number of boats upon the river [the Bosphorus] hurrying together. The Queen Mother sent to enquire of the matter [and] was told that the Vizier did justice upon certain chabies [kahpe], that is, whores. She, taking displeasure, sent word and advised [the Vizier] that her son had left him to govern the city and not to devour the women; [thus] commanding him to look well to the other business and