The pair apparently married at some point, as a letter to the Venetians written during Murad IV's reign states that Ahmed had wed Kösem; nevertheless surviving contemporary evidence surrounding the exact circumstances of their marriage is scarce.

In an effort to build her own position, Kösem secured the appointment as grand vizier of Mere Hüseyin Pasha, an Albanian man who presented himself as a reformer, promising to move against the assassins.

The letter, which formally addressed Kösem, wrote: "Her Majesty the Sultana Valide [...] for the late Sultan Ahmed, whom Allah took with him, was a very important person and he loved her so much that he honoured her by marrying her."

The letter further indicates that Kösem would rule in her son's name: "We have great hope and faith in the valide sultan, who - among all women enjoying the position - is distinguished by maturity and virtue of character.

"[47] Shortly after Murad's enthronement, a Venetian ambassadorial message remarked on Kösem's political experience: "[A]ll power and authority [is with] the mother, a woman completely different from that of Sultan Mustafa, in the prime of life and of lofty mind and spirit, [who] often took part in the government during the reign of her husband.

"[48] As per Ottoman tradition, Murad had all his brothers confined in the Kafes, a part of the Imperial Harem where the palace eunuchs kept possible successors to the throne under a form of house-arrest and constant surveillance.

"Enraged by his mother's excessive support for the governor of Egypt, Murad moved to break Kösem's ties with her son-in-law Admiral Hüseyin Pasha, the husband of her daughter Fatima, by forcing the dissolution of the marriage.

Kösem is said to have tried to satisfy her son with a gift of ornately dressed horses and a banquet of ten thousand aspers but Murad was trying hard to keep his mother away from politics, and his actions suggest that he was disturbed by her great influence.

Perhaps in response to this, as well as fearing that he would suffer the same fate as his elder half-brother Osman II, Murad decided not to allow anyone else to interfere in his administration of the empire, and ordered his mother to sever her contacts with his statesmen, threatening her with exile from the capital if she did not comply.

Alvise Contarini, who was sent by the Venetian government to Constantinople on the occasion of Ibrahim's accession, presented letters of congratulation addressed to Kösem to Grand Vizier Mustafa Pasha for delivery.

'[76] After supposedly curing Ibrahim's impotency by offering him a cocktail of aphrodisiacs, pornography and seductive females, the sultan rewarded the hoca with a chief justiceship, the second highest ulama position,[77] an appointment which was one of numerous examples of the overturning of authority and procedure at court.

[85] Due to the shortfall in the Imperial funds, Kösem and her allies urged Ibrahim to launch a naval assault on the Venetian-controlled island of Crete, Venice's largest and wealthiest overseas possession.

[19] After Kösem's departure, and in another assault on palace protocol, Ibrahim began humiliating his sisters Ayşe, Fatma, and Hanzade, as well as his niece Kaya, subordinating them to his concubines, to whom he gave their land and jewels.

If the sovereign be a rational being, though an infant, a wise Vizier may restore order to the world; but a grown-up Sultan, who is without sense, ruins all things by murder, by abomination, by corruption, and prodigality."

The newly appointed Grand Vizier Mehmed Pasha asked the Şeyhülislam Abdürrahim Efendi for a fatwā sanctioning Ibrahim's execution which was granted, with the message: "If there are two caliphs, kill one of them."

[118] According to the French historian Alphonse de Lamartine, in May 1649, following the defeat of the Ottomans in the Battle of Focchies, Kösem presided over the divan from behind a curtain, with the young sultan present.

This insolence made Kösem's anger boil over and she listed the former grand vizier's shortcomings, including his alleged plans to assassinate her: "When certain imperial commands have been issued, they have said [to the sultan], 'my dear, who taught you to say these things?'

A large gathering of 15,000 artisans and merchants marched to Şeyülislam Abdülaziz Efendi's residence, weeping and ripping their garments, and complaining that their protests had gone unheard, that they had been subjected to harmful impositions such as heavy monthly taxes, and that they feared debtors' prison.

"[125] The sultan then asked what was causing the uproar and advised the Şeyülislam to return the next day when the merchants would submit their grievances to him, but they responded, "We will not take a step backward until we receive what we deserve.

"[135][136]Süleyman Ağa promptly invited the Grand Vizier Siyavuş Pasha to the palace and told him that Kösem was usually in bed at that time, being entertained by 'her Eunuchs, and Favourites, with Musick, Singing, and other unusual delights'.

Eiginsi Mustapha Passa, Sword-bearer to the [grand vizier], and chief of the Presence Chamber, a man of a Lions heart and undaunted resolution, understood something formerly of the bad inclinations of the Old Queen [Kösem] toward the [sultan], readily replied, Great Master be not troubled, tomorrow you shall see (God willing) the Heads of your Enemies at your feet.

Kösem, on the other hand, recognised his voice and went mad, stuffing her precious jewels into her pockets and fleeing along the Golden Way and through the Court of the Black Eunuchs to the Dome with Closets, probably hoping to escape from the palace through the Carriage Gate.

Rycaut described the funeral of the woman he referred to as the 'Queen': "The Black Eunuchs immediately took up the Corpse, and in a reverent manner laid it stretched forth in the Royal Mosch; which about 400 of the Queens Slaves encompassing round about with howlings and lamentations, tearing the hair from their heads after their barbarous fashion, moved compassion in all the Court.

Her vast estates and tax farms in Anatolia and Rumelia and other places, her jewellery, precious stones and twenty boxes of gold coins that she had hidden in the Büyük Valide Han near the Grand Bazaar were all confiscated by the treasury.

[155][156] The Grand Vizier Siyavuş Pasha responded by proposing that the Sacred Standard of Muhammed, which was typically brought out at the beginning of campaigns against Christian or Shia nations, be displayed above Topkapı Palace's main gate.

To implement a levy of all able-bodied men for the public defence, the grand vizier ordered criers to pass through the streets of Constantinople shouting, "Whoever is a Muslim, let him rally around the banner of the religion.

[165] Every year in the Islamic month of Rajab she would leave the palace in disguise to arrange the release of imprisoned debtors and other offenders (excluding murderers) by paying their debts or compensation for their crimes.

[173] In his memoirs, Karaçelebizade Abdülaziz Efendi, a prominent member of the ulama, described a meeting of the imperial council at which the subject of crown lands held by royal women was being discussed.

The historian Şarih ül-Menarzade argued that Kösem's extensive charities were also misconceived since they were financed from her immense personal fortune, viewing her wealth as an abuse of the empire's fiscal management, especially at a time when the treasury was in dire straits, the peasantry impoverished, and the military unpaid.

"Among her contemporaries, the writer Michel Baudier depicted her as a female politician "enjoying authority" while his French counterpart Jean-Baptiste Tavernier described her as "a woman very wise and well-versed in state affairs.