Arrest and Execution of Carmagnola — The Two Foscari

“Are these thy boasts—
To mix with kings in the low lust of sway,
Yell in the hunt and share the murderous prey.”

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Passing of Doges and the Return of War

In June of the following year, the venerable and faithful Doge Andrea Contarini was laid to rest in the cloister of San Stefano, and Michele Morosini was elected in his stead. During the darkest days of the War of Chioggia, Morosini had given an inestimable pledge of loyalty to the Republic by purchasing communal property for 25,000 ducats.

When friends reproached him for such apparent folly, he replied with austere resolve:

“If the land should perish, I have no desire for fortune.”

Less than a year later, Morosini was carried off by the plague. In October 1382, Antonio Venier ascended to the dogeship.

Condottieri, Corruption, and the Price of Loyalty

Peace was but a fleeting visitor to Italy. A prolonged period of war and diplomacy followed, as Venice alternately allied with and opposed the despots of northern Italy — the Carrara and the Visconti. Bribery, treachery, and violence were freely employed on all sides, and more than once the Senate and the Council of Ten connived at attempts to poison the Republic’s enemies.

This was the age of the Condottieri. Patriotism was a commodity sold to the highest bidder. Martial courage and military science were traded for gold.

No gold, no army.

Christian or Turk, English or German, Italian or French — all were welcome who could sell strength and skill. English soldiers were especially prized:

“Let us have as many English as possible and as few Germans and Italians.”

“A thousand English lances are worth more than five hundred thousand of any others.”

Such were the instructions issued by the Signory to its commanders.

Visconti, Carrara, and the Betrayal of Vicenza

In 1387, a secret treaty bound Gian Galeazzo Visconti of Milan and the Carrara of Padua to partition the dominions of the Scala family:

• Verona was promised to Visconti
• Vicenza to the Carrara

The feeble descendant of Can Grande — Dante’s magnifico atque victorioso domino — lingered as a Venetian pensioner until poison completed Visconti’s work in Friuli. His widowed and orphaned family sank into beggary.

Before the Carrara fully grasped what had occurred, Visconti stealthily seized Vicenza. Their appeal to Venice was met with indifference. Still wounded by the War of Chioggia, the Republic listened instead to Visconti, who offered both revenge and territorial reward. Treviso once more became Venetian, and lands commanding two vital Alpine passes were ceded to the Republic.

Visconti then turned his ambitions toward Florence. Alarmed at the monster it had helped to create, Venice reversed its course and aided the Carrara in recovering Padua. Yet in 1402, just as Visconti’s life’s ambition neared fulfilment, death struck him down. His dominions became prey to generals and enemies alike.

Defiance, Insult, and Open War

The Carrara joined the ensuing scramble and laid siege to Vicenza. Visconti’s widow appealed to Venice for aid. The price of alliance was severe:

Verona and Vicenza.

Summoned to raise the siege, the Carrara stood defiant. When their herald arrived at the edict stone in St Mark’s Square, he narrowly escaped death at the hands of the crowd. A rumour had spread that the Venetian trumpeter sent to the Paduan camp had been mutilated by order of Jacopo Carrara, his ears and nose cut off, and dismissed with the brutal taunt:

“Now I have made you a Saint Mark.”

Victory and Vengeance

The war ended in complete Venetian triumph:

• 1404 — Vicenza occupied
• 1405 — Verona captured
• Three months later — Padua fell

The Carrara — father and sons — were taken prisoner. As they passed through Venice, the populace cried out:

“Crucify them! Crucify them!”

Initially treated with leniency, their fate was sealed when papers seized in Padua revealed a vast conspiracy against the Republic, implicating some of Venice’s highest officials.

The Council of Ten, assisted by a Zonta, sat day and night in judgment. In January 1406, word spread through the Piazza that the elder Carrara had been strangled in his cell. The next day, his sons were said to have met the same fate.

“Dead men wage no wars,” muttered the people.

The Fall of Carlo Zeno

Another day passed, and to the astonishment of Venice, the venerable and honoured Carlo Zeno was summoned before the Ten and put to the question. The Decemvirs respected no rank or reputation. Zeno was convicted of correspondence with the Republic’s enemies, stripped of his honours, and imprisoned.

The Zenith of Venetian Power

In the early fifteenth century, Venice rode the full tide of territorial expansion:

• To the north, she touched the Alps
• To the west and south, the Adige
• To the east, she reached the Carnic Alps

Dalmatia, repurchased for 200,000 florins, was held by force of arms, and for the eighth time the banner of St Mark was raised over Zara. Feudal lords dying without heirs bequeathed their lands to the Republic. After war with the Emperor and his allies, Friuli was secured.

By 1422, Venice possessed Corfu, Argos, Nauplia, and Corinth. A Venetian sat upon the Chair of St Peter, and two of her bishops entered the Sacred College.

A city of fewer than 200,000 inhabitants ruled an empire of land and sea. Her wealth was prodigious.

Splendour, Ceremony, and the Compagnia della Calza

With power came magnificence. Public and private life grew ever more sumptuous. Four gowns prepared for the trousseau of Jacopo Foscari’s bride alone cost 2,000 ducats.

In 1400, the renowned Compagnia della Calza (Guild of the Hose) was founded to provide princely entertainment and enhance the splendour of state festivals. Its members, drawn from the wealthiest families, organised:

• Lavish banquets
• Serenades
• Jousts
• Regattas

They were divided into companies bearing fanciful names — Sempiterni, Cortesi, Immortali — and wore richly embroidered hose adorned with arabesques, stars, animals, and, on solemn occasions, gold, pearls, and precious stones.

Their doublets were of velvet or cloth of gold; their mantles of damask or crimson tabi cloth, fitted with pointed hoods displaying the emblem of the company. Jewelled caps and pointed shoes completed the attire. Women were admitted as members and wore the Calza emblem embroidered on their sleeves.

All, however, remained subject to the vigilant authority of the Council of Ten.

Venice glittered in gold and ceremony — yet beneath the splendour lay violence, fear, and absolute power.