1106 - A flood swept across the islands of the Lagoon, completely submerging the town of Malamocco on the Lido whose tumbled ruins are visible five hundred years later to the east of the rebuilt town. A few of the elders of the founding family looked nervously out into the lagoon and talked in hushed tones of Daphne and Esme. Later that year devastating fires broke out on the islands of the Rialto, first from the parish of Santi Apostoli it spread out to five other parishes before being extinguished, then in San Lorenzo, the flames leaping across the narrow calli to devour over churches and wooden houses, even shooting across the Grand Canal in the high winds and crackling on to the roofs on the far bank.

Doge Domenico Michiel, turned his attention to the city from which he had been so long absent. He provided it with street lighting before any other city in Europe, ordering that lamps be placed in the numerous small shrines dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and to saints that were then being built into the walls of the calli and on the corners of canals and bridges. Local priests were then entrusted with the care of the shrines and the lamps, any expenses being recouped from the city coffers. Taking the Byzantine Empire's state industries as an example, the Doge saw to the building of the Arsenale north of the church of San Biagio. Here in an industrial complex unique to Europe, which took its name from the Arabic dar-sina'a, meaning a house of industry. The Arsenale was an industrial centre with workshops, foundries and magazines needed to build and outfit all Venetian ships. Fredrick Barbarossa, visiting the city, saw a galley rigged and outfitted in a record-breaking five hours.

The advent to the Imperial Throne in the West of the young, ambitious and ruthless Frederick I of Hoshenstaufen, nicknamed Barbarossa because of his red beard, transformed the political situation of Christendom. Declaring he would restore Imperial Rome to its former grandeur, Barbarossa began by bringing those Italian states which were reluctant to join him to heel. Fearing the Emperor would threaten her independence Venice joined the Greater Lombard League which had been formed to resist Frederick. At the same time however, Venice was being dragged into conflict with the Eastern Emperor, who after having lost Corfu to the Venetians, was encouraging the commercial hopes of Amalfi, Pisa and Genoa, whilst subtly scotching those of Venice.

1171 - The Eastern Emperor had his chance to act when the Genoese Quarter of Constantinople was attacked and pillaged by unknown assailants. The Emperor declared Venice responsible and ordered all Venetians in his Empire to be arrested and their possessions seized. Whilst some managed to avoid the decree, 10,000 Venetians were arrested in Constantinople alone. To the Venetians this amounted to a declaration of War!

A fleet was equipped and dispatched under the leadership of the newly elected Doge Vitale Michiel. However, on his way to Constantinople the Doge and the fleet were intercepted by a fast Byzantine craft which carried news that the Emperor would be willing to accept an honourable peace. The Doge unwisely accepted and after spending weeks in fruitless negotiations he returned to his fleet to find that famine and disease had overtaken the crew. Those of the crew that survived were on the verge of mutiny. The Doge led the sorry remains of the great fleet home to meet a city united in fury against him. Whilst he made his report to the General Assembly an angry mob gathered outside. Fearing for his life the Doge fled, only to be leapt upon by a man who stabbed him to death in the Calle delle Rasse. This incident in hindsight was judged to have been avoidable if the Doge had been kept under more careful supervision and several new laws were passed. The first Doge to be elected under the new procedures was the elderly Doge Sebastiano Ziani. He immediately began a programme of improvement for Venice. Whilst these operations were in progress the Doge focussed himself upon foreign affairs. He came to terms with the Normans in the south of Italy and whilst the Eastern Emperor was still wary of Venice, he managed to orchestrate the reconciliation between Pope Alexander III and Frederick Barbarossa. The ceremony of reconciliation taking place in Venice.

1199 - Now a major European power, Venice was about to acquire an empire. In November, Count Tibald of Champagne proposed a Fourth Crusade to regain Jerusalem. The city had been lost to Saladin some twelve years earlier. It came about that Venice was commissioned, for a huge fee (85,000 marks of silver & one-half of all the campaign's spoils), to provide the ships to transport the army. Egypt, a good trading ally of Venice, was the initial target of the Fourth Crusade, and Venetian Doge Enrico Dandalo agreed to the Egyptian requests to divert the Crusaders.

1202 - The forces gathered in Venice only to find that they couldn't raise the sum required (51,000 rather than 85,000). In the negotiations that followed the Doge extracted a promise from the French leaders of the crusade to recover the colony of Zara recently captured by the Hungarian King. Pope Innocent, upon hearing of this agreement to attack a Christian port threatened to excommunicate anyone involved in the attack and was ignored. After Zara was recovered the Crusaders apologised to the Pope and were forgiven on the condition that they return the booty they seized. The Venetians, in their first of many clashes with the Papacy, ignored the Pope and kept the loot.
Isaac Angelus, Emperor of Byzantium, had been deposed, blinded and mutilated in 1195 by his brother Alexius III. The deposed Emperor's son, also called Alexius, had fled to Germany and then Venice where he was guest of the Doge. So no sooner had Zara been taken than the force was diverted to Constantinople, with some Venetian persuasion and the promise of money from Alexius (son of Isaac) in return for their help in the succession.

1204 - The force arrives in Constantinople and proceeds to besiege the city leading to the Sack of Constantinople, one of the most disgusting episodes in European History. Thousands were massacred by the Christian soldiers and virtually every precious object that could be lifted was stolen from the city, mainly by the Venetians. So vast was the scale of the destruction and murder that a contemporary historian regretted that the city had not fallen instead to the Infidel. Ultimately the consequences of the sack of the city were disastrous - not only did no help reach the forces in the Holy Land but it fatally divided the Eastern Empire between the native Greeks and the barbarous Westerners. The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and the resulting threat to Western Europe were distant but direct results of this action. Venice achieved it's aims though. It now held sway over forty percent of the Roman Empire. The city now held a string of ports in an almost uninterrupted chain from the lagoon to the Black Sea.

The enmities created by the Fourth Crusade in the Eastern Empire were soon to rebound on Venice. The Genoese were soon the main opposition in the Eastern Markets and maintained a rivalry so fierce that some Venetian historians referred to their succession of conflicts as the Five Genoese Wars. Genoa's hatred of Venice led to an alliance with the dethroned Byzantine Dynasty, whose own hatred of the Venetians was no less intense.

1261 - Within months of the Pact of Ninfeo being signed, Michael Palaeologus VII was installed as Emperor in Constantinople. Venice now faced a struggle to hold onto their commercial interests against the favoured Genoese. Although after several Venetian victories in the Levant the Emperor soon realised he had backed the wrong republic. He sent ambassadors to Venice and in 1268 a treaty was concluded which allowed the Venetians to recover their commercial position in the Holy Land. For the rest of the century, and almost all the Fourteenth Century, the defeat of Genoa was the primary aim of Venice's rulers. Both sides suffered terrible defeats.

1230 - The Dominican and Franciscan Orders arrived in Venice and upon being granted land set about erecting large churches. In 1233 the new Emperor of the West, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, visited Venice. He assured the Venetians that they could rely upon him confirming and even extending their trading concessions in his territories if they did not remain neutral and sided with him against the Pope and the Lombard League. The Venetians were wary. They had enough problems with their own empire without being drawn into the quarrels raging on the mainland.

Venice seemed to be ceaselessly working to those that visited the city. In every sestieri people practised their crafts producing an almost infinite variety of products. In some, men were making playing cards and others organs. Elsewhere in the city mosaicists were pursuing their trade, their product being very much in demand in Venice. The potteries and their studios produced fine porcelain whilst the box makers manufactured the chests that would allow the merchants to transport these fragile items. There were smiths of various kinds working in foundries and forges producing weapons and armour as well as fine jewellery. Above all though were the glass workers whose products Venice was famous for.

1254 - Marco Polo was born to a rich family of merchants who traded with the Near East. The family left Marco in a boarding school and sold up to visit the capital of the Mongol Empire of Kublai Kahn on the Volga. They returned in 1271 as the Khan's ambassadors to the Pope. When they next set out they took the seventeen year old Marco with them as they journeyed to far off Cathay. They returned to Venice in 1295, where their friends failed to recognise the strangers in Tartar clothing. It was only when the strange clothing was split open and the jewels secreted inside flooded out onto the floor that they were recognised. The tale of the family's journeys was told by Marco to a fellow prisoner in a Genoese prison. They had both been captured in 1298 when he had commanded a galley in one of the many battles against the Genoese.

Many Venetians were explorers and the knowledge they brought back with them led to Venice becoming an important sight for cartography. One noted cartographer, Fra Mauro, a Camaldolese monk, lived on the island of San Michele.

1297 - During the Genoese campaigns the constitution of Venice arrived at a state that would endure until the fall of the Republic. The most significant step in this evolution being the Serrata del Maggior Consiglio, a measure which basically allowed a role in the government of the city only to those families already involved in it. Unsurprisingly many of those disenfranchised by the Serrata resented its instigator Doge Pietro Gradenigo.

At the battle of Curzola in 1298 65 ships out of a Venetian fleet of 95 were lost and 5000 Venetians taken captive.

ack to the Crusades ...

orward to a Cytie Glorious ...