Francesco Foscari

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Francesco Foscari
Venetian Republic
Died1 November 1457(1457-11-01) (aged 84)
Santa Margherita, Venice, Venetian Republic
Burial
Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice
HouseFoscari

Francesco Foscari (19 June 1373 – 1 November 1457) was the 65th

Doge of the Republic of Venice from 1423 to 1457. His reign, the longest of all Doges in Venetian history, lasted 34 years, 6 months and 8 days, and coincided with the inception of the Italian Renaissance.[citation needed
]

Biography

Antonio Gambello, Francesco Foscari, c. 1374-1457, Doge of Venice 1423 (obverse), probably c. 1457

Francesco Foscari was born in 1373, as the oldest son of Nicolò Foscari and his wife Cateruzia Michiel.[1] The Foscari family had been of only moderate importance, but had managed to become one of the few noble families that secured a hereditary place in the Great Council of Venice after the so-called Serrata ("Closing") of the Great Council, and had begun to rise in prominence throughout the 14th century. Francesco's ancestors began holding high public office, and his father Nicolò even became a member of the powerful Council of Ten.[2]

Francesco served the

Francesco Sforza
. Sforza soon made peace with Florence, however, leaving Venice alone.

Coat of arms of Francesco Foscari.

Foscari was married twice: first to Maria Priuli, and then in 1415 to

Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II and the aforementioned Duke of Milan, both Venice's enemies – led to Jacopo's imprisonment on Crete and his eventual death there soon after.[8]

The Parting of the Two Foscari by Francesco Hayez,1842 (Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Florence).

News of Jacopo's death caused Foscari to withdraw from his government duties, and in October 1457 the Council of Ten forced him to abdicate. However, his death a week later provoked such public outcry that he was given a state funeral. Beside his profile portrait by

Frari
, Venice

He was deposed from office on 27 October 1457 and died five days after.[12]

In literature and opera

Foscari's life was the subject of a play

Mary Mitford, author of the popular literary sketches of the English countryside entitled Our Village, also wrote a successful play concerned with events in Foscari's life. Mitford's play Foscari debuted at Covent Garden in 1826 with famed actor Charles Kemble
in the lead.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Romano 2007, p. 3.
  2. ^ Romano 2007, pp. 3–5.
  3. ^ The posts of procuratori di San Marco appointed by the Maggior Consiglio, were, beneath the Doge, the most prestigious administrative posts of the Venetian Republic; the offices of the procuratori, the Procuratie are the long low buildings that enfold Piazza San Marco.
  4. ^ "In proclaiming the new doge the customary formula which recognized the people's share in the appointment and asked for their approval – the last vestige of popular government – was finally dropped." (Villari 1911)
  5. ^ See Wars in Lombardy.
  6. doi:10.2307/3679103
    .; "empire" occurred in the tomb's inscription, though it was never officially employed (p. 163).
  7. ^ Edgcumbe Staley, The Dogaressas of Venice: The Wives of the Doges (London: T. Werner Laurie).
  8. ^ A. Zorzi La Repubblica del Leone ("The Lion's Republic"), p. 237, Bompiani Edizioni, 2001.
  9. Berliner Museen
    . 45 (2): 42–430.
  10. JSTOR 1006192
    .
  11. ^ Mariacher, Giovanni (1950). "New Light on Antonio Bregno". The Burlington Magazine. 92 (566): 123–129.
  12. ^ "Frederick Richard Pickersgill (1820-1900) - The Death of Francesco Foscari, Doge of Venice". www.rct.uk. Retrieved 16 January 2024.

Sources

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Francesco Foscari.
Political offices
Preceded by Doge of Venice
1423–1457 		Succeeded by
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