Enrico Dandolo facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
His Serenity
Enrico Dandolo
|
|
|---|---|
Enrico Dandolo (left) shown on a Venetian grosso, a coin he created. Next to him is Mark the Evangelist, Venice's patron saint.
|
|
| 41st Doge of Venice | |
| In office 21 June 1192 – ? May 1205 |
|
| Preceded by | Orio Mastropiero |
| Succeeded by | Pietro Ziani |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1107 Republic of Venice |
| Died | 1205 (aged c. 97-98) Constantinople, Latin Empire |
| Resting place | Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey |
| Spouse | Contessa Minotto (m. in 1151) |
| Children | Ranieri |
| Profession | Patrician, statesman |
Enrico Dandolo (born around 1107 – died May 1205) was the 41st Doge of Venice. A Doge was the elected leader of the Republic of Venice. He led Venice from 1192 until his death.
Enrico Dandolo is remembered for being very religious, living a long life, and being very clever. He is most famous for his important role in the Fourth Crusade and the capture of Constantinople.
Contents
Biography
Early Life and Political Start
Enrico Dandolo was born in Venice around 1107. He came from the powerful and important Dandolo family. His father, Vitale Dandolo, was a judge and worked for the government. Enrico also had two brothers, Andrea and Giovanni. His uncle, also named Enrico Dandolo, was a high-ranking church leader.
Not much is known about Enrico's early life before his father died in 1174. This is because his father lived to be over 90. Even though Enrico was about 67 years old, his father still controlled his business dealings. This meant that most official papers used his father's name instead of Enrico's.
Dandolo's first big political jobs happened during a difficult time between the Byzantine Empire and Venice in 1171 and 1172. The Byzantine Emperor, Manuel Comnenus, allowed merchants from Pisa and Genoa (who were rivals of Venice) to return to Constantinople. An angry Venetian crowd then attacked the Genoese area. Because of this, Emperor Comnenus ordered Venetian goods to be taken and thousands of Venetians to be put in prison in March 1171.
The people of Venice were very angry. The Doge at the time, Vitale II Michiel, sent an expedition to get revenge. Dandolo was part of this group. However, the expedition failed when many people got sick with a plague in 1172. When Doge Michiel returned, an angry crowd killed him.
The next Doge, Sebastiano Ziani, wanted to make alliances with countries that were enemies of the Byzantine Empire. This would put pressure on the Byzantines to make peace with Venice. He sent several groups to Constantinople and to the court of King William II in Sicily. Dandolo was part of many of these groups. Even though he never met King William, his constant involvement showed how valuable he was to the government. These experiences helped him become Doge in 1192.
Dandolo also traveled to Constantinople in 1183 and 1184. On his first trip in 1183, he went with his brother, Giovanni. This was the first time he acted as a special representative for the Doge. He likely talked about getting payments for the Venetian area of the city with the new Byzantine Emperor, Andronicus I. He also helped Venetian monasteries get their land back. This earned him the job of legal helper for a monastery.
In 1184, Dandolo went back to Constantinople as a special representative. He went with Pietro Ziani and Domenico Sanudo. They talked with Emperor Andronicus again about restoring the Venetian area. In this meeting, the emperor finally agreed to free the imprisoned Venetians, give back their area, and pay for damages.
Becoming Doge
On June 1, 1192, after Orio Mastropietro stepped down, Enrico Dandolo became the 41st Doge of Venice. He was the second Doge chosen by a council of forty electors.
Even though he was old and blind, Dandolo was very ambitious. He showed amazing energy and intelligence. His great achievements over the next eleven years have made some people think he might have been younger than his mid-seventies when he became Doge. Old records and people who lived at the time only said he was "very old." The common birth year of around 1107 comes from a writer named Marino Sanuto the Younger who lived three centuries later. He said Dandolo was 85 when he became Doge.
One of Dandolo's first rules as Doge was to make all foreigners who had lived in Venice for less than two years leave the city. This happened on August 16, 1192. Landlords had to make these foreigners leave their homes. Citizens who broke this rule had to pay a fine. Foreigners' goods were taken away. Also, Venetians were not allowed to lend money to foreigners for more than fifteen days, except for people from Umana or Ragusa. We don't know why this rule was made, but it might have been because many foreigners had recently moved to Venice.
In 1193, Dandolo ordered an attack on the nearby city of Zara. Zara had been causing problems for Venice for years and threatened Venice's control over the Dalmatian Coast. Zara had been under Venetian control until 1180, when they rebelled. Zara was the only city on that coast that was against Venice. Dandolo had always wanted Venice to regain control of Zara. His 1193 attack on Zara was only partly successful. He managed to get back control of some islands, but not Zara itself.
In 1194, Dandolo made important changes to Venice's money system. Before these changes, Venice's main coin was the silver penny. It weighed less than a gram and was not very pure silver. Because the silver penny had lost value, Dandolo created three new types of coins. These were the bianco (half-penny), the quartarolo (quarter-penny), and the silver grosso.
The bianco had a small amount of silver. The quartarolo had almost no precious metal. This made it the first European token coin since ancient Rome. The grosso was the first nearly pure silver coin with a high value made in Western Europe in over 500 years. It had a picture of Dandolo and St. Mark on one side. On the other side, it showed Jesus Christ on a throne, similar to Byzantine coins. The grosso eventually became the most important coin for trade in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Fourth Crusade
In 1202, six French leaders of the Fourth Crusade came to Venice. They hoped to get ships and supplies for their journey. Dandolo arranged meetings for them with the Venetian government. The council figured out how much money would be needed for this trip. It would be the biggest project in Venice's history.
The agreement was this: Venice would provide ships and most supplies for the army for up to a year. Four silver marks would be paid for each knight and horse, and two marks for each other person. Also, many Venetians would join the Crusade. Venice promised to provide fifty fully armed warships. In return, the French promised to share any treasures they found. With the strong support of the people, Venice agreed to join the Crusade. Dandolo himself swore on holy items to keep every part of the agreement.
However, Venice soon had a money problem. The six original Crusaders had borrowed money as a down payment for the ships, but they didn't pay it back. When more Crusaders arrived in June, the need for this money became urgent. Many Venetians, whose businesses depended on this payment, were facing financial ruin.
When the payment was due, Dandolo ordered the Crusaders, who were staying on the nearby Lido, to pay 85,000 marks together. Even when everyone, including poor Crusaders, gave all they could, they still owed 34,000 marks. Instead of sending them away, Dandolo decided to lend them this amount from the Venetian government. But, it had to be paid back from the treasures found during the Crusade.
Dandolo also suggested that the Crusaders agree to spend the winter in Zara. This was because pirates from Zara were a threat to Venetian trade. Venice also wanted to regain control over Zara. Agreeing to attack Zara helped convince the Great Council of Venice to agree to Dandolo's plan.
The Crusade fleet left Venice in early October 1202. There was an emotional ceremony in San Marco di Venezia. Dandolo "took the cross," meaning he promised to go on the Crusade. He said he would "go live or die" with the Crusaders. In return, his people supported him, and his sons took his place while he was away.
The Crusaders arrived in Zara in November. The huge size of their fleet scared the people of Zara into almost surrendering. Dandolo gave the people of Zara an ultimatum: either they leave the city right away, or they would be killed.
There was confusion because Pope Innocent had forbidden the Crusade from getting involved in this dispute. This was not part of their original religious goal. Also, the land was controlled by King Emeric of Hungary, who had also been on a crusade. Finally, the Pope threatened to kick anyone out of the church who attacked the people of Zara.
The Crusaders attacked the city anyway. Zara finally fell on November 24, 1202. All the Venetian Crusaders were then kicked out of the church. The French Crusaders had sent a group to the Pope to ask for forgiveness. But Dandolo kept this a secret from the Venetians. He knew they would leave the Crusade if they found out.
Soon after, Alexius Angelus arrived in Zara. He was the son of the Byzantine emperor Isaac II, who had been removed from power. Alexius wanted help to overthrow his uncle, Alexius III, who had violently taken the throne. Dandolo agreed to the Crusade leaders' plan to put Alexius Angelus on the throne of the Byzantine Empire. In return, Alexius would support them and give them money for the Crusade.
So, the Crusaders made another detour to Constantinople. The city was conquered and looted on April 12, 1204. During the looting, Dandolo had many valuable items sent back to Venice. This included the four Horses of St. Mark that still decorate the Venetian cathedral today.
When Constantinople fell, Dandolo knew he needed to quickly bring order back to the empire. This was important to protect Venice. One key task was to find an emperor for the new Latin empire. Dandolo was offered the job, but he refused. Instead, Baldwin of Flanders became the emperor.
The Partitio Romaniae also came from this conquest. It gave Venice three-eighths of the Byzantine Empire. This was based on an agreement made by the Crusaders before the empire fell. Venice received a part of Constantinople near the harbor, a section of the Sea of Marmara coastline, and the city of Adrianople, among other former Byzantine lands. Dandolo was also given the title "lord of three-eighths of the Roman Empire." However, these lands only stayed with Venice until the Latin empire fell in 1261.
Dandolo died in 1205 and was buried in June in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. In the 1800s, an Italian team placed a marker near where his tomb likely was. This marker is still visible today. Tourists often think it is his actual tomb from the Middle Ages. However, the real tomb was destroyed by the Ottomans after they conquered Constantinople in 1453. The Hagia Sophia was then turned into a mosque.
Blindness
It is not fully known when or how Dandolo became blind. One old record says he was blinded by the Byzantines during an expedition in 1171-1172. It claims Emperor Manuel Comnenus "ordered his eyes to be blinded with glass; and his eyes were uninjured, but he saw nothing."
Another study suggests Dandolo became blind because of a bad blow to the back of his head. This likely happened sometime between 1174 and 1176. Records show that Dandolo's signature was clear in 1174 but messy in 1176. This suggests his eyesight got worse over time.
Dandolo's blindness seemed to be complete. Geoffrey de Villehardouin, who was with Dandolo on the Fourth Crusade, wrote that "although his eyes appeared normal, he could not see a hand in front of his face, having lost his sight after a head wound." This old account seems to support the idea that Dandolo's blindness was caused by a brain injury, since his eyes looked fine.
Legacy
Dandolo's son, Ranieri, served as a temporary leader of Venice while his father was away. Ranieri was later killed in a war against Genoa for control of Crete. It is not clear if Enrico Dandolo had other children.
During his time as Doge, Dandolo was married to a woman named Contessa Minotto. Before he left on a political trip to Constantinople in 1183, he gave her and his brother, Andrea, power over his business and personal matters. The identity of Contessa is debated, but she may have been from the Minotto family.
In the 1800s, the Regia Marina (Italian Navy) launched a large warship called the Enrico Dandolo.
Enrico Dandolo and his role in the capture of Constantinople were mentioned by Lord Byron in his poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage:
Oh, for one hour of blind old Dandolo!
Th' octogenarian chief, Byzantium's conquering foe.
Images for kids
-
A 19th-century marker in the Hagia Sophia that shows where Enrico Dandolo might have been buried.
See also
In Spanish: Enrico Dandolo para niños
