Federico Cornaro or Corner (died 1382) was a 14th-century Venetian patrician, merchant and politician. In 1379, he was accounted the richest man in Venice, having become wealthy from his sugar plantations in Cyprus. He used this wealth to buy his son a marriage with the heiress of the Lordship of Argos and Nauplia in Greece, which he de facto ruled in their name until his death.
The exact date of his birth and his early career are unknown, and difficult to reconstruct due to the presence of namesake figures of the wider House of Cornaro at the same time. [1] Around the middle of the 14th century, he bought the palazzo now known as the Ca' Loredan, which today houses the municipal council of Venice. [1] There he hosted Albert III, Duke of Austria during his visit in 1361, as well as King Peter I of Cyprus a short while after. The latter event resulted in a close relationship between the two men. Federico received lands and honours—membership in Peter's Order of the Sword, the right to add the Lusignan arms to his own, and the fief of Episkopi in the south of Cyprus—while in exchange in 1365, during another royal visit to Venice, Federico gave the King a loan of 60,000 ducats. [1] Before his departure for the Alexandrian Crusade, King Peter named Federico as his procurator general in his relations with Venice. [1] Federico also undertook, along with his brothers, to pay an annual sum of 5,000 gold florins to Mary of Enghien, the widow of Guy of Lusignan. [1]
The fief of Episkopi, granted with a complete tax exemption as Peter was unable to repay his loans, was soon developed into the major centre for sugar production aimed for the Venetian market. [1] To consolidate his numerous business interests on Cyprus, Federico founded a trading company with his brothers Fantino (who served as its resident agent in Cyprus) and Marco, and with Vito Lion. [1]
The trade with Cyprus, and particularly Episkopi, became the cornerstone of Federico's commercial success; by 1379, he was accounted the richest man in Venice. [1] The Cypriot kings remained insolvent, and a few years after his death, Federico's heirs obtained from James I of Cyprus the kingsom's salt pans as well. Indeed, a branch of the Cornaro family settled in Cyprus and became known as the "Cornaro della Piscopia". [1]
Along with his commercial activities, Federico Cornaro was also active in the Venetian politics of his day. In 1368 he was one of the electors of Doge Andrea Contarini, and served as ambassador to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. [1] In July 1372 he was included in a zonta of thirty patricians to the Council of Ten, convened to debate the Republic's stance against Francesco I da Carrara, lord of Padua. Once war was decided upon, he was named to a commission of five 'sages' charged with financing the war. [1]
In March 1376 he was elected as one of the ambassadors meant to mediate between Florence and the Holy See, but the mission did not materialize in the end. In November of the same year he was sent to Padua to inform its lord of the conclusion of a peace between Venice and the Kingdom of Hungary. [1] In 1377 he was member of a commission of ten patricians convened to negotiate with the King of Aragon, as well as of a five-member board of 'sages' on reducing public expenditure. [1] By confusion with his namesake of the Sant'Aponal branch, he has sometimes been erroneously named as participating in the negotiations for the marriage of Peter II of Cyprus with Valentina Visconti. He did however host Valentina Visconti and her entourage before they sailed for Cyprus. [1]
In 1378, he was sent, along with Giovanni Bembo, as ambassador to Milan, with the aim of convincing its ruler, Bernabò Visconti, of allying with Venice in the War of Chioggia against the Republic of Genoa. [1] In March 1379, he was sent as ambassador to Ferrara. He apparently remained there for the duration of the War, providing supplies for his besieged home city. [1] His influence, especially with Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy, helped end the war in the Treaty of Turin, which among other things guaranteed his commercial interests in Cyprus. [1]
Federico Cornaro served again as ambassador do Francesco I da Carrara, then in a zonta of twenty to the Venetian Senate, and in early 1382 on another embassy to Niccolò II d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara. [1] In April 1382, he was sent to Cyprus to mediate between King Peter II and the Genoese. He returned to Venice in June, just in time to be one of the electors of Doge Michele Morosini. [1]
Being one of the wealthiest Venetian patricians of his age, Federico could afford to conduct his own foreign policy. [2] As part of his entrepreneurial activities in the East, he arranged the marriage of his son Pietro to Maria of Enghien, Lady of Argos and Nauplia in southern Greece, in 1377. [2] Maria of Enghien and Pietro Cornaro were both still young when they became lords of Argos and Nauplia. In the first years of their reign, they resided in Venice, and Federico acted on their behalf, securing permissions from the Venetian government to send supplies or arm a galley to defend the lordship. Even after Pietro left for Nauplia himself following his father's death, the two cities were considered by the Venetian Senate as "more or less as Venetian possessions". [3] By 1394, both cities also passed formally into the possession of the Venetian Republic. [4]
Federico died in late 1382, being survived by his wife Bianca and two sons, Giovanni and Pietro. [1] In accordance to his will, composed in 1378, he was buried next to his brother Marco in the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. His son Giovanni built a funeral chapel for him there in 1417. [1]
Catherine Cornaro was the last monarch of the Kingdom of Cyprus, also holding the titles of Queen of Jerusalem and Queen of Armenia. She became queen consort of Cyprus by marriage to James II of Cyprus, and then regent of Cyprus during the minority of her son James III of Cyprus in 1473–1474, and finally queen regnant of Cyprus upon his death. She reigned from 26 August 1474 to 26 February 1489 and was declared a "Daughter of Saint Mark" in order that the Republic of Venice could claim control of Cyprus after the death of her husband.
During the late Middle Ages, the two cities of Argos and Nauplia formed a lordship within the Frankish-ruled Morea in southern Greece.
Isabella of Brienne (1306–1360) was suo jure Countess of Lecce and Conversano, claimant to the Duchy of Athens and Kingdom of Jerusalem, etc.
Louis of Enghien titular Duke of Athens, Count of Brienne and Lord of Enghien in 1381–1394, Count of Conversano in 1356–1394.
The Contarini is one of the founding families of Venice and one of the oldest families of the Italian Nobility. In total eight Doges to the Republic of Venice emerged from this family, as well as 44 Procurators of San Marco, numerous ambassadors, diplomats and other notables. Among the ruling families of the republic, they held the most seats in the Great Council of Venice from the period before the Serrata del Maggior Consiglio when Councillors were elected annually to the end of the republic in 1797. The Contarini claimed to be of Roman origin through their patrilineal descendance of the Aurelii Cottae, a branch of the Roman family Aurelia, and traditionally trace their lineage back to Gaius Aurelius Cotta, consul of the Roman Republic in 252 BC and 248 BC.
Peter II, called the Fat, was the eleventh King of Cyprus of the House of Lusignan from 17 January 1369 until his death. He was the son of Peter I of Cyprus and Eleanor of Aragon. He succeeded to the throne while he was still under age, following the assassination of his father in 1369. He was also titular Count of Tripoli and King of Jerusalem.
The House of Cornaro or Corner were a Venetian patrician family in the Republic of Venice and included many Doges and other high officials. The name Corner, originally from the Venetian dialect, was adopted in the eighteenth century. The older standard Italian Cornaro is no longer common in Italian sources referring to earlier members of the family, but remains so in English.
The House of Morosini was a powerful Venetian noble family that gave many doges, statesmen, generals, and admirals to the Republic of Venice, as well as cardinals to the Church.
The Barbaro family was a patrician family of Venice. They were wealthy and influential and owned large estates in the Veneto above Treviso. Various members were noted as church leaders, diplomats, patrons of the arts, military commanders, philosophers, scholars, and scientists.
Nerio I Acciaioli or Acciajuoli was the de facto Duke of Athens from 1385 to 1388, after which he reigned uncontested until his death in 1394. Born to a family of Florentine bankers, he became the principal agent of his influential kinsman, Niccolò Acciaioli, in Frankish Greece in 1360. He purchased large domains in the Principality of Achaea and administered them independently of the absent princes. He hired mercenaries and conquered Megara, a strategically important fortress in the Duchy of Athens, in 1374 or 1375. His troops again invaded the duchy in 1385. The Catalans who remained loyal to King Peter IV of Aragon could only keep the Acropolis of Athens, but they were also forced into surrender in 1388.
Otto Orseolo was the Doge of Venice from 1008 to 1026. He was the third son of Doge Pietro II of the House of Orseolo, and Maria Candiano, whom he succeeded at the age of sixteen, becoming the youngest doge in Venetian history.
Jacopo Tiepolo, also known as Giacomo Tiepolo, was Doge of Venice from 1229 to 1249. He had previously served as the first Venetian Duke of Crete, and two terms as Podestà of Constantinople, twice as governor of Treviso, and three times as ambassador to the Holy See. His dogate was marked by major domestic reforms, including the codification of civil law and the establishment of the Venetian Senate, but also against a mounting conflict with Emperor Frederick II, which broke into open war from 1237 to 1245.
Episkopi is a village lying partly in the Limassol district of Cyprus and partly in the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia. It is approximately 14 km (9 mi) west of Limassol and 40 km (25 mi) east of Paphos. Episkopi is built on the hill of ancient Kourion, close to the western bank of the Kouris River.
Beatrice Regina della Scala was Lady of Milan by marriage to Bernabò Visconti, Lord of Milan, and politically active as the adviser of her spouse.
Giovanni I Corner or Cornaro was the 96th Doge of Venice, reigning from 24 January 1625 until his death.
The island of Cyprus was an overseas possession of the Republic of Venice from 1489, when the independent Kingdom of Cyprus ended, until 1571, when the island was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.
Maria of Enghien, also known as Marie of Enghien or d'Enghien, was the Lady of Argos and Nauplia in Frankish Greece from 1376 or 1377 to 1388. Because she was a minor when she inherited the lordship from her father, Guy of Enghien, his brother, Louis of Enghien, was appointed to be her guardian. Louis gave Maria in marriage to a Venetian patrician, Pietro Cornaro, in 1377. Maria moved to Venice, but she was involved in the administration of her lordship. After her husband died, she sold the lordship to the Republic of Venice for a regular income in 1388.
Pietro Cornaro, also known as Peter Cornaro or Corner, was Lord of Argos and Nauplia in Frankish Greece from 1377.
This is an alphabetical index of people, places, things, and concepts related to or originating from the Republic of Venice. Feel free to add more, and create missing pages.
Marco Cornaro or Marco Corner (1406–1479) was a merchant, politician and diplomat of the Cornaro family of the Republic of Venice. He had already earned great wealth and made a prestigious marriage before entering politics in middle age. He was deeply involved commercially and politically in the Kingdom of Cyprus. In 1457, he was sentenced to exile from Venice for two years. He spent the next nine years in Cyprus. His daughter, Catherine, became queen of Cyprus in 1468. His grandson, James III, became king in 1473–1474, but died in infancy. In 1474–1476, Cornaro was in Cyprus to stabilize his daughter's rule. He was one of the electors of the doge in 1476 and 1478.