Francesco Erizzo
Francesco Erizzo (born February 18, 1566 in Venice ; † January 3, 1646 there ) was the 98th Doge of Venice .
He ruled from 1631 to 1646. When he took office, the last of the great plague epidemics that had plagued the city since the 14th century raged. The city lost almost a third of its population due to the epidemic that broke out in 1630 and lasted until autumn 1631.
In 1645 the clashes between Venice and the Turks over Crete and the basic supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean began, which ended under Domenico II Contarini with the final loss of the island. Successful for the Republic went from the first Castro war in which a coalition of Florence, Modena and Venice, the papal efforts, the territory of the Papal States to expand, could prevent.
family
The Erizzo were originally located in Istria and have only been recorded in Venice since the 13th century. On the occasion of the serrata of 1297 they were accepted into the circle of patricians, so they belonged to the case nuove .
Life
Erizzo was the second of four sons of Benedetto and Marina Contarini. He had a diplomatic career in the service of the republic and was ambassador to the German Emperor Ferdinand II and to Pope Urban VIII. At the time of his election he held high offices, was provenitor da mar and provenitor da terra ferma when he received the news in Vicenza received from his election.
The Doge's Office
In a brief conclave he was elected Doge in absentia in the first ballot with 44 votes. After the hasty election, the usual celebrations for the Doge's investiture were canceled, as the city was only concerned with the plague and its consequences. The first few months of his term in office were completely dominated by the epidemic, in which the Venetians died like flies and the problem of the burial of the corpses was hardly manageable. The first big celebration took place after the plague subsided with a procession over a ship bridge to a makeshift chapel that had been built on the site of the planned votive church of Santa Maria della Salute opposite the Doge's Palace.
The Castro War
The always latent tensions with the Papal States erupted in the first Castro War , which Pope Urban VIII had instigated at the instigation of his nephew Taddeo Barberini . Venice, together with Modena and Florence , sided with the attacked Odoardo I Farnese , Duke of Parma , whose territory included Castro in Latium . Spain , the Pope's potential ally, was bound by its involvement in the Thirty Years War . After the heavy defeat of the papal troops in the Battle of Lagoscuro , peace negotiations took place and, with Mazarin's assistance , a peace treaty in 1644, which was not very honorable for the Curia and damaged its international reputation. Venice, on the other hand, had successfully repulsed Rome's hegemony efforts.
Battle for Crete
In terms of foreign policy, the republic came under severe pressure after the arrest of the Venetian ambassador in Constantinople in 1645 and the landing of Turkish troops on Crete (Candia). Diplomacy as Venice's preferred means of conflict resolution no longer worked, and bitter fighting broke out with the Turks, which stretched from Dalmatia to the Dardanelles . In the summer of 1645, the Turkish fleet anchored in the bay in front of the fortress Canea (Crete), which was blown up after a long siege. The Venetian naval commander, on his own and without the help of coalition troops, was forced to a bloody retreat. In an act of desperation, the Venetian Senate handed over command to the now 78-year-old Doge on October 8, 1645, who, however, died a little later.
Tomb
Erizzo was buried in the Church of San Martino in the Castello district, while his heart was buried in the Basilica of San Marco - according to a custom not uncommon among European rulers . The monumental marble monument (1633) and the sculpture of the Doge were made by the Trento architect and sculptor Matteo Carmero.
literature
- Andrea da Mosto: I Dogi di Venezia. Florence 1983.
- Helmut Dumler: Venice and the Doges. Düsseldorf 2001.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mausoleo di Francesco Erizzi , accessed on June 5, 2020
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Nicolò Contarini |
Doge of Venice 1631–1646 |
Francesco Molin |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Erizzo, Francesco |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Doge of Venice |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 18, 1566 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Venice |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 3, 1646 |
| Place of death | Venice |