Domenico Michiel (Vice Doge)

Domenico Michiel was together with Leachim , the son of the Venetian Doge Domenico Michiel , from August 1122 to June 1125 vice duke of the Republic of Venice , with which the two men ran the business of government. This was necessary because the Doge personally led a fleet against Byzantium and into the Holy Land during this time . The office of vice-duke existed only sporadically between 1122 and 1205 and was last filled by Ranieri Dandolo . It is also unusual that two vice-dues were appointed and that they resigned after the doge returned. In addition, neither of them was intended as a successor. They were supported by the three iudices Giovanni Michiel, Domenico Bassedello and Domenico Stornato.

At times, the vice duke Domenico Michiel, like Leachim, was the son of the doge. Until the early 17th century, the two deputies of the Doge, both Domenico and Leachim, were largely forgotten because they found no place in the Venetian chronicle. Apart from a document issued by Leachim and Domenico in October 1124 for the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore , nothing is known about their activities in Venice .

Origin, representation

The origin of the vice-duke cannot be clearly clarified, possibly the eponymous office holders, i.e. the doge and the vice-duke, were not related at all. After 1125, when the victorious fleet returned under the leadership of the Doge, the two vice-dues probably resigned from office. They no longer appear in the sources. As successors, both were apparently out of the question, because the Doge decided on another candidate.

The Crusader States around 1135

The need for a perennial substitute for the Doge arose through the war against Byzantium for a trade privilege from 1082, which the Byzantine emperor had not extended, and through participation in the fighting in the Holy Land. In 1120, ambassadors from the Patriarch of Jerusalem and King Baldwin II reached Venice as well as other Christian capitals. They sought support there, because the year before the army of the Principality of Antioch had been destroyed in the Battle of the Blood Field by the army of the Emir of Aleppo , Ilghazi . Michiel was also urged to help by a letter from Pope Calixtus II .

But first the doge wanted to clarify the relationship with the emperor. In his final years, Alexios I had opened the empire to competitors from Pisa and Genoa , and relations with the crusader states were tense. After the emperor's death in 1118, the doge turned to his son and successor John II to have the great privilege (Chrysobullon) of 1082 renewed. But the emperor refused, whereupon the doge had war prepared.

In August 1122, a fleet of 100 ships, 15,000 strong, and under the personal guidance of the Doge, set sail. They attacked the Byzantine Corfu , but broke off the siege in the spring on the news of the capture of King Baldwin II. On May 30, 1123, they defeated a fleet of the Egyptian sultan before Ascalon and attacked Tire. The Pactum Warmundi was concluded in Jerusalem . This pactum provided that Venice should have its own quarters in each city of the Kingdom of Jerusalem . In addition, there was extensive tax exemption, permission to use the measures and weights there and legal supervision of its citizens. The latter should also apply to cases in which there was a dispute with non-Venetians. The Venetians were thus removed from royal jurisdiction. Corresponding privileges should also apply to the principality of Antioch . In addition, Venice was to receive a third of the cities still to be conquered, Tire and Ascalon, and their territories. After his liberation, King Baldwin confirmed these far-reaching privileges. Tire surrendered after four months of siege. Allegedly the enthusiasm was so great - at least this is what the Historia ducum Venetorum from the 13th century claims - that the Doge was offered the crown of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. After these widespread successes, the fleet went home. On the way back she approached the Byzantine island of Rhodes , whose capital was besieged, then islands of the Aegean were sacked. In Dalmatia , Hungary had subjugated the cities, but now the Doge forced the surrender of Traù and Spalato . In June 1125 the fleet returned to Venice after almost three years. It was not until 1126 that the emperor informed the doge that he was ready to restore the treaties.

The vice duke Leachim personally signed a certificate with "Ego Leachim Michael vice dux manu mea subscripsi", while no certificate has been handed down from his colleague Domenico Michiel.

reception

Just as Andrea Dandolo in his Chronica per extensum descripta, which was written in the middle of the 14th century and soon became authoritative for the historiography of Venice, does not mention the son of the Doge Leachim and his colleagues at all, so is the Cronica di Venexia detta di Enrico Dandolo from the late 14th century 3rd century, the oldest vernacular chronicle of Venice. Also Pietro Marcello called the two men in 1502 in his later into the vernacular entitled Vite de'prencipi di Vinegia translated work, with no word. This is due to the strong dependence of Venetian historiography on the work of Doge Andrea Dandolo.

The Frankfurt lawyer and judge Heinrich Kellner describes in his Chronica , published in 1574, that is Warhaffte actual and short description, of all people living in Venice , the deeds of "Dominicus Michiel", who in 1120 became "Hertzog". But even he does not report on a vice-duke (or even two). Since the waiter is heavily dependent on Marcellus, this is not surprising.

In the translation of Alessandro Maria Vianoli's Historia Veneta , which appeared in Nuremberg in 1686 under the title Der Venetianischen Herthaben Leben / Government, und Die Aussterben / Von dem First Paulutio Anafesto an / bis on the Marcum Antonium Justiniani , who was in power at the time, the author believes, “ no pen / as clever and well-cut it may be / his incomparable high understanding and heroic deeds will be able to boast and describe sufficiently. "The leather coins," which he calls Michelotti, "the author mentions, as well as the acceptance of the coins in the "coat of arms" of the Falier, also that he was followed in 1129 by "Petrus Polanus" in office. But he left the question of maintaining Michiel supremacy in the doge's absence unanswered.

Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna , who knew the archive holdings extremely well, points out in the fourth volume of his huge work Delle Inscrizioni Veneziane , published in 1834 , in which he lists and classifies a huge number of Venetian inscriptions, that there were a number of name variants for the Dogean son , which often gave cause for confusion. So before him Luchino , Ioachino , Leaco and its diminutive Leachino , but also Eleaco were common. The contemporary and therefore correct name emerged from a document in which the vice-duke signed himself, namely as Leahino . There a Pietro and a Marcello appear as sons of the vice-duke. Many of these discoveries were made by Fortunato Olmo , according to Cicogna, who wrote a history of the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore from 1619 . This was still aware of stocks that are now considered lost.

Unlike Heinrich Kretschmayr 1905 in the first volume of his three-volume History of Venice . In connection with the war in the Levant , Kretschmayr brings in the new idea that the Doge might have had the ambition to revise the rejection of a hereditary monarchy that was enforced over a hundred years ago. It is true that the Doge did not appoint his son as his successor, but rather his son-in-law, but the Doge was probably accessible to such ideas at an advanced age. So the Doge led the fleet himself, while his sons “Leachino” and Domenico stayed behind as “Vice-Dogs” - Kretschmayr himself puts the word in quotation marks (p. 225). At the same time he considers Domenico to be the Doge's second son. "Glorious victor in three theaters of war, Domenico Michiele returned to Venice in June 1125, henceforth a great figure in patriotic history." The Doge's high position, perhaps also personal efforts, would have ensured that the Dogat of the family was retained in the female line , because his son-in-law Pietro Polani became his successor. In a comment, Kretschmayr sees nothing unusual in the substitution by his sons, similar to Enrico Dandolo , even if other authors claim that his substitution by his son " Renier Dandolo " was "contrary to common belief" (p. 492). Here the author is referring to a line of continuity, which was ineffective in the long term, but which had the potential to revive the traditional striving for hereditary rule, i.e. the establishment of a Dog dynasty.

swell

• Luigi Lanfranchi (ed.): S. Giorgio Maggiore , vol. II, Venice 1968, n. 145, pp. 318-320, October 1124 ( Venice State Archives , San Giorgio Maggiore, b. 65, proc. 119).
• Luigi Andrea Berto (Ed.) Historia ducum Venetorum (Testi storici veneziani: XI – XIII secolo), Padua 1999, pp. 4 f., 8–11.
• Roberto Cessi , Fanny Bennato (eds.): Venetiarum historia vulgo Petro Iustiniano Iustiniani filio adiudicata , Venice 1964, pp. 2, 73, 92, 101-108, 256.

literature

• Marco Pozza: Michiel, Domenico , in: Dizionario biografico degli Italiani 74 (2010) 300–303 (here brief treatment of Vice-Duke Domenico Michiel).
• Heinrich Kretschmayr : History of Venice , 3 vol., Vol. I, Gotha 1905, pp. 225, 492.

Remarks

1. ↑ Andrea Castagnetti : La società veneziana nel Medioevo , vol. I: Dai tribuni ai giudici , Verona 1992, p. 82.
2. ^ Marco Pozza: Gli Atti originali della cancelleria veneziana. 1090-1198 , Il Cardo, 1994, p. 53; Luigi Lanfranchi : S. Giorgio Maggiore , Comitato per la pubblicazione delle fonti relative alla storia di Venezia, 1968, pp. 318-320, here: p. 320.
3. ^ Ester Pastorello (Ed.): Andrea Dandolo, Chronica per extensum descripta aa. 460-1280 dC , (= Rerum Italicarum Scriptores XII, 1), Nicola Zanichelli, Bologna 1938, pp. 231-237 ( digitized, pp. 230 f. ).
4. ^ Roberto Pesce (Ed.): Cronica di Venexia detta di Enrico Dandolo. Origini - 1362 , Centro di Studi Medievali e Rinascimentali “Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna”, Venice 2010, pp. 58–60.
5. ↑ Pietro Marcello : Vite de'prencipi di Vinegia in the translation by Lodovico Domenichi, Marcolini, 1558, pp. 62-65 ( digitized version ).
6. ↑ Heinrich Kellner : Chronica that is Warhaffte actual and short description, all life in Venice , Frankfurt 1574, p. 25v – 27r ( digitized, p. 25v ).
7. ↑ Alessandro Maria Vianoli : Der Venetianischen Herthaben life / government, and withering / from the first Paulutio Anafesto an / bit on the now-ruling Marcum Antonium Justiniani , Nuremberg 1686, pp. 200-208 ( digitized ).
8. ^ Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna : Delle Inscrizioni Veneziane , Vol. IV, Venice 1834, p. 297, note 67.
9. ↑ Historiarum insulae S. Georgii Maioris prope Venetias positae libri tres Fortunato Ulmo Veneto Cassinensi , BMV: Ms. lat. IX, 177 (after: Sabine Engel: An adulteress among monks. Rocco Marconis Adultera (c. 1516) by San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice , in: Daphnis 32 (2003) 399-434, here: p. 405.) Olmo published 1612 De translatione corporis S. Pauli martyris è Constantinopoli Venetias ad Monasterium S. Georgii Maioris ( digital copy ).
10. ^ Heinrich Kretschmayr : History of Venice , 3 vol., Vol. 1, Gotha 1905, pp. 225, 492 ( digitized , pages 48 to 186 are missing!).