Giovanni I Cornaro

Reign as Doge, 1625–1629

Doge Francesco Contarini died on 6 December 1624. Following a long conclave held on 4 January 1625, the Dogal voters converged on Giovanni Cornaro as their preferred candidate. Cornaro's children were strongly opposed to Cornaro's selection as Doge because of Venice's prohibition on the children of Doges being appointed to high office in government or in the Church.

Cornaro now attempted to turn the Dogal position to his family's advantage. In 1626,

In 1627, Renier Zen, a Capi of the Council of Ten, emerged as a vocal critic of Cornaro, accusing him of running Venice for his own family's benefit by, among other things, turning a blind eye to his son Giorgio's trafficking in contraband goods. On 27 October, Zen caused an uproar at a meeting of the Great Council by accusing the Cornaro family of corruption; although the elections were annulled, he was unable to obtain any further sanctions. On December 30, Renier Zen was attacked by masked assassins, who were later found to include Giorgio Cornaro, the son of the Doge.

Zen grew even more outspoken in his criticism of Cornaro in the wake of Giorgio Cornaro's failed assassination attempt. Venice now became divided into two factions, a pro-Conaro faction that was pro-

References

This article is based on this article from Italian Wikipedia.