Lodovico Gritti Aluise Aloysi Luigi Louis Gritti, Ludovico or, as the Venetians called him, Alvise Gritti, and the Hungarians Lajos Gritti.
Background
He was the natural son of Andrea Gritti, the Venetian Bailo in Constantinople during the reign of Sultan Bayezid II, who later became the Doge of Venice in 1523. Foreign some years Gritti"s father served as the Venetian ambassador at the Ottoman court, so Gritti grew up in Istanbul.
Career
He was influential in the Hungarian Kingdom under the reign of King John I of Hungary. He was also a minister of the Turkish sultan, and regent of Hungary from 1530 to 1534. Talented, he received his higher education in Venice and Padua (1496-1507/8) and by 1527 was back in Constantinople where had his first interview with Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha, the Grand Vizier for Suleiman the Magnificent (Suleiman I).
In 1527 Gritti supported King John I of Hungary against Ferdinand I of Habsburg, who wanted the crown for himself.
In 1528 the grand vizier, according to reports, planned to take him on the projected campaign into Hungary where Gritti was to get "an important archbishopric plus a piece of the archduchy of Austria once the Turks had taken them." Lodovico stayed in the city of Buda first as King John"s advisor, and then between 1530 and 1534 as regent of Hungary. 1533 November 19 The governor of Marano to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
"I heard a few days ago that the Captain-General of Croatia apprehended and sent to (your brother"s city of) Lubiana two of Gritti"s spies. In consequence of this the armies of the Turk, consisting of about 1,500 light horse and 22,000 hackbutiers—the whole force to be paid by the king of France—are about to invade Christendom.
And it is the opinion of one of the spies that Gritti himself with his confederates will invade Croatia, Slavonia, and Hungary, and try if he can conquer those countries.
Meanwhile the dukes of Bavaria and Wurtemberg and the count (landgrave) of Hesse will create disturbances in Germany, and so distress Christendom that His Imperial Majesty will find himself in trouble.