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Welcome to Noble Blood, a production

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of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild

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from Aaron Manky listener discretion

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advised. Last

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year, I was lucky enough to go on my honeymoon

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to Italy. We began our

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trip in Venice, and after shaking

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off the jet lag and enjoying our

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first Italian espresso, we

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set off to the iconic Piazza

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San Marco or Saint Mark's Square

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for a tour of the Doge's Palace.

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First built in thirteen forty,

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it was the seat of the government of

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the Venetian Republic and

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the residence of the Doge himself

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for hundreds of years. But

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it's far from your typical medieval

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palace. Its relatively

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simple, rectangular structure

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is balanced by a delicate

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pattern of pink and white

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bricks, with intricate stonework

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elements and plenty of arches

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along the balcony and arcade below.

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Along with the basilica attached

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to it, The palace dominates

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the eastern end of Piazza San Marco,

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Venice's largest and most iconic

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square that for centuries

1:20

was the center of civic

1:23

and religious life in the city.

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The palace became a museum

1:28

in nineteen twenty three.

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Each room in the palace, from

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those making up the Doge's apartments

1:35

to the institutional chambers

1:37

for the Republic's many governing

1:39

bodies, is adorned to

1:42

an almost absurd extent. There

1:45

are hand carved furnishings,

1:47

gilded accents, and on

1:49

nearly every wall and ceiling

1:52

a mural painted by someone

1:54

famous, though our tour guide

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did note a few murals that

1:59

were recreatedations Napoleon

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having stolen the originals. Even

2:04

the bridge from the main palace

2:06

to the now defunct prison

2:09

has a breath taking view of

2:11

the lagoon. That bridge

2:13

is aptly called the Bridge of Size,

2:16

because famously that was the sound

2:18

reportedly heard over the centuries

2:21

from prisoners taking one last

2:23

look at the outside world before

2:26

they were locked up. But perhaps

2:28

the most splendid room in

2:30

the palace is the Chamber

2:33

of the Great Council. It's

2:35

one of the largest rooms

2:37

in Europe, a fun fact that

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you might not think much of until

2:41

you're actually inside of it.

2:44

It is massive and imposing,

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almost one hundred and seventy five

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feet long and over eighty

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feet wide, with fifteen

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foot ceilings, and nearly

2:57

every surface is covered either

3:00

inornate gold, dramatic

3:02

dark wood, or an intricate,

3:05

gigantic painted mural.

3:08

It's easy to get overwhelmed by

3:10

the dizzying amount of art in the

3:13

chamber. You could strain your neck

3:15

trying to take in the twenty one murals

3:18

that grace the walls alone, featuring

3:20

work by the likes of Tintoretto,

3:23

Palma the Younger, and Varones. But

3:26

if you can tear your eyes away from the

3:28

big ticket art, right

3:30

along the top of the walls,

3:33

going all the way around the room are

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a series of smaller portrait

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freezes, all quite similar

3:41

and easy to miss if you aren't

3:43

careful. The portraits,

3:45

all painted in the sixteenth century,

3:48

immortalize the likenesses of

3:51

seventy six Doges who

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reigned in Venice from eight hundred

3:56

and four to fifteen fifty

3:58

six portraits

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depict each Doge in his regalia,

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each holding an obnoxiously long

4:06

and wavy piece of parchment bearing

4:09

his greatest achievements during

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his reign. That is, except

4:14

for one there's a

4:16

break in the parade of Doges.

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Instead of a portrait, there's just

4:21

a painting of a black drape,

4:24

as if to protect viewers from

4:26

laying their eyes upon some great

4:29

shame, and to deny the

4:31

fallen doge the honor of being remembered.

4:35

In thirteen fifty five, the

4:37

Doze in power decided that just

4:40

being the head of a republic wasn't enough,

4:43

and he attempted to stage

4:45

a coup that would prove a

4:47

disastrous and tragic

4:50

failure. In a room otherwise

4:53

filled with color and detail

4:55

and glittering odes to the

4:57

serene republic. The black

5:00

out portrait certainly

5:02

makes it clear that this doge had

5:04

made some fatal error, but

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as if a big old black box

5:09

weren't signal enough that he screwed

5:12

up. The drape also has

5:14

an inscription painted

5:16

in bold gold letters

5:19

that leaves no doubt as

5:21

to the Doge's fate. It

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reads, in Latin, he asked

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locus Marini filetro decapititi

5:29

po creminibus. This

5:32

is the place of Marino Faliero

5:35

beheaded for his crimes. I'm

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Dana Schwartz, and this

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is noble blood. The

5:46

early history of Venice is a

5:48

blend of myth and reality,

5:51

bolstered by a lack of historical

5:54

records and an abundance of dramatic

5:56

flare tradition has

5:59

it that Venice was founded on March

6:01

twenty fifth, in the year four hundred

6:03

and twenty one CE, at

6:06

exactly the stroke of noon.

6:08

Three consuls from nearby Padua

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were said to have founded the city that

6:13

would become an empire, with

6:16

the establishment of a trading

6:18

post on the islands of the Rialto

6:20

and the consecration of a church

6:23

dedicated to Saint James.

6:26

The mainland making up the coast

6:28

of the Venetian Lagoon, which the

6:31

Venetians would come to call the Terra

6:33

Firma, was likely settled in

6:35

the second century by Roman

6:37

refugees from what is now northern

6:40

Italy, who ran to the coast as

6:42

they were fleeing Germanic and hun

6:44

invaders. Successive

6:46

invasions over the course of several

6:49

hundred years continue to

6:51

push them further. Finally,

6:53

after the invasion of the Lombards

6:56

in five hundred and sixty eight, we

6:58

begin to see references in documents

7:01

to the in Kalai Lacouni, or

7:03

the Lagoon dwellers, those

7:06

who had not only begun to take refuge

7:08

on the islands in the Lagoon, but

7:11

had fashioned them to their benefit by

7:13

building embankments, allowing

7:15

them to thrive in what had previously

7:18

been an uninhabitable

7:20

environment. According

7:24

to legend, the lagoon dwellers

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elected their first doge in

7:30

six hundred ninety seven, But

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the first doze for whom we have

7:34

historical evidence was elected

7:37

by the twelve major families

7:39

of Venice a few decades later,

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in seven hundred twenty six or

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seven hundred and twenty seven. But

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unlike most of the dukes that you

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know, who tended to either answer to

7:51

a king or rule an

7:53

area as sovereign, the Venetian

7:56

Doge from the very beginning, was

7:59

intended as the head of a republic.

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The doge was the head of state, but

8:04

a great deal of political power

8:07

rested in the hands of the Concho,

8:10

the People's Assembly, which

8:12

consisted originally of all

8:14

male citizens and patricians,

8:17

that is, nobles of Venice.

8:20

The Concho initially had the responsibility

8:22

of appointing the Doge. The

8:25

doge wasn't a hereditary position,

8:27

but an elected one. The same

8:29

went for the members of the Great

8:31

Council, a group of so called

8:34

wise men appointed by the Concho

8:37

to assist the Doge in governance.

8:39

All this to say, the history of Venice,

8:42

and more importantly Venetian's idea

8:45

of the history of Venice was ever

8:48

present as the Republic continued

8:50

to grow and change into

8:52

the Middle Ages and far beyond. Central

8:55

to the Venetian civic identity

8:59

was this traditional story of a group

9:01

of people coming together to

9:03

collectively defend themselves

9:05

against a common enemy and to build

9:08

their city literally from

9:10

the ground up together. It

9:12

was this steadfast commitment

9:15

to the idea of the republic and

9:17

what it stood for that earned

9:19

Venice its nickname La Serenissima,

9:23

meaning the most serene.

9:25

However, contrary to this self

9:28

given moniker, medieval Venice

9:31

was not without its rumblings.

9:34

Marino Faliera was born in twelve

9:36

seventy four, and by that time

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Venice had seen a number of significant

9:42

political shifts as the

9:44

city wrestled between its republican

9:47

ideals and the hunger of

9:49

a growing elite class who

9:51

wanted more power. We know

9:53

very little, if anything, about

9:56

Marino Falierro's early life. He

9:58

was the son of Yaho Capo Falieriro

10:01

and Bariola Lurdon, and

10:03

was one of three sons. He

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had an uncle who shared his name,

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which has led to some confusion over

10:10

the years. In the historical record, we

10:12

know the Faliero family was patrician,

10:15

which was particularly important

10:18

given that in twelve ninety seven,

10:20

when Faliero was twenty three, the

10:23

nobles of Venice orchestrated

10:25

what came to be known as the

10:27

Great Lockout. The

10:29

Great Council moved to make membership

10:32

in its ranks hereditary rather

10:34

than elected, essentially

10:37

stripping the Concho of its power,

10:39

including the power to elect the

10:41

Doge, and creating a closed

10:44

noble class in the city. Venice

10:47

continued to call itself a republic,

10:49

but it was now very much an oligarchy.

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Despite our sparse history

10:56

of his early life, we do know

10:58

that Falierro's early polite medical career

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was defined by dealing with the aftermath

11:04

of that lockout. His first

11:06

documented appearance in the historical

11:08

record finds him rising in

11:10

these now closed ranks.

11:14

On October tenth, thirteen fifteen,

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at forty one years old, he was

11:19

on the newly formed Council

11:21

of ten, an inquisitorial

11:23

arm of the Venetian government, when

11:26

it decided to reward the man

11:28

who had killed Niccolo Quarini, who

11:31

had played an instrumental role in

11:33

an attempted coup that had taken place

11:35

a few years prior that

11:37

conspiracy had happened in thirteen

11:40

ten, when Niccolo Quarini, Baiamonte

11:43

Tiepolo and other conspirators

11:45

had attempted to overthrow the Venetian

11:47

government in order to restore the

11:50

power of the concho. For

11:52

a number of reasons, including poor

11:54

planning and bad weather, their

11:56

plan failed. The Council of Ten,

11:59

which Falierra was on, was

12:01

originally formed to deal with the

12:03

aftermath of that conspiracy, instituting

12:06

the election of you guessed

12:09

it, ten noblemen who were

12:11

tasked with prosecuting crimes

12:13

against the state. When

12:15

Tiepolo surrendered, the ten exiled

12:18

him and sentenced him to be quote

12:21

condemned in memory. This

12:23

was a legal punishment at the time

12:25

that could be pretty wide ranging in

12:27

what it actually looked like, but the

12:30

intended effect was to remove

12:32

a person from official accounts or

12:34

public memory. The punishment

12:37

of being condemned in memory was

12:39

not really about complete erasure,

12:41

though it was more symbolic than

12:44

anything else, meant mostly

12:46

as a social punishment to

12:48

a person's descendants and associates,

12:51

and a cautionary tale to anyone

12:53

who would dare challenge the nobility's

12:56

power. So think less nineteen

12:59

eighty four and more burn

13:01

from the musical Hamilton. Eliza

13:04

knows that her burning her letters

13:06

won't mean that no one will ever know who

13:08

her husband was in the future. But without

13:11

those letters, the story that we tell about

13:13

him will be different. Forgive the

13:15

musical theater reference, but it seemed

13:17

fitting for Tiapolo being

13:20

condemned in memory meant that

13:22

his house was demolished, and in

13:24

its place a so called column

13:27

of infamy was erected, the

13:30

column which a henchman of Tiapolo's

13:32

would later lose his eyes

13:35

and a hand for attempting to destroy.

13:38

Read roughly translated, this

13:41

land belonged to Baiamante,

13:43

and now for his inquisitous betrayal,

13:46

this has been placed to frighten others

13:49

and to show these words to everyone

13:51

forever. If all this sounds

13:54

a little, I don't know familiar, hold

13:57

that thought. Marino

13:59

Follieri remained on the Council

14:01

of Ten for another five years

14:03

after his first appearance in its records.

14:06

Over the following decades, Falierro

14:08

continued to be appointed to various

14:11

government positions that saw him

14:13

accumulate a good deal of power

14:16

and a great deal of respect. He

14:18

would actually go on to serve on the

14:20

Council of Ten several more

14:23

times, occasionally at its head,

14:25

interspersed with stints engaging

14:28

in mercantile trade, serving

14:30

on a tribunal, mediating disputes

14:32

between commoners, captaining

14:35

a galley ship, and representing

14:37

Venice abroad as a diplomat.

14:40

In thirteen forty three, he was in the running

14:42

for Doge, but in a shocking

14:45

upset, thirty seven year old

14:47

Andrea Dandolo was elected instead.

14:50

The position of Doge, although elected,

14:52

was traditionally given to the eldest

14:55

and most experienced member

14:57

of the patriciate, and Faliero

14:59

outr ranked Dandolo in both

15:01

regards. It must have been a

15:03

real blow to the older man's

15:06

ego, but if it was, he never

15:08

let on. Valiero continued

15:10

to serve Venice faithfully.

15:13

By September seventh, thirteen fifty

15:15

four, when Dandolo died at only

15:18

forty eight years old, Marino

15:20

Falieriro was in Avignon, serving

15:22

as the ambassador of Venice to

15:25

Pope Innocent the sixth. Meanwhile,

15:28

Venice buried the Doge, and then

15:30

the Great Council began the comically

15:33

complicated process of selecting

15:35

his successor put in

15:37

place to attempt to prevent any

15:40

one noble from making a power grab.

15:42

The process began with the convening

15:45

of the council and now bear

15:47

with me for a system that seems almost

15:50

insanely baroque and complex.

15:53

So once the Great Council had

15:55

convened, the youngest councilor

15:58

present would be sent outside palace

16:00

to choose a random eight to ten

16:03

year old child off the street who

16:05

would serve essentially as the

16:07

Vana White of the Dojal election.

16:10

This random child was

16:12

responsible for drawing smooth

16:15

metal balls called belote

16:17

where the word ballot comes from, with

16:20

the names of councilors written

16:22

on them. Thirty council members

16:24

would be chosen this way, and then from

16:26

those thirties, the child would

16:28

choose nine names. Those

16:31

nine councilors would choose of their

16:33

own volition forty councilors,

16:35

and then out of those forty, the random

16:38

street child would choose twelve.

16:41

The twelve would then choose twenty

16:43

five councilors, and then from

16:45

those the child would draw nine.

16:48

Those nine would choose forty five,

16:50

and the child of those forty five

16:53

would randomly draw eleven, and

16:55

then those eleven would choose forty

16:57

one, and then the

17:00

those forty one people would elect

17:02

the doge, and of those forty

17:05

one electors, thirty five this

17:07

time around voted for Marino

17:09

Faliero, one of the oldest

17:11

and most honorable members of the

17:14

Venetian nobility who had given

17:16

decades of service to the Republic. A

17:18

messenger was soon sent to Avignon

17:21

to retrieve him, and a group of

17:23

twelve ambassadors met him

17:25

in Verona to formally give

17:27

him the good news. He

17:30

was eighty years old, but Marino

17:32

Faliero was finally, finally

17:35

the Doge of Venice. He had

17:38

reached the pinnacle, the ultimate

17:40

goal of any noble Venetian.

17:43

How victorious he must have felt

17:45

on that boat coming into his city,

17:47

watching Venice emerge slowly

17:50

over the water as if to welcome

17:52

him home. But perhaps

17:55

his serenity, like the

17:57

Republic whose honorific he now

17:59

shared, also had the sense

18:02

that something else was bubbling

18:04

under the surface. Marino

18:09

Faliero returned to Venice in October

18:12

thirteen fifty four as

18:14

the ruler of a city in turmoil.

18:17

The Republic had been at war with Genoa

18:20

again, and barely two months

18:22

into Faliero's tenure as Doge,

18:25

Venice faced an embarrassing

18:27

naval defeat against Genoa

18:30

in the Battle of Porto Lungo, the

18:32

result of poor strategy on the

18:34

part of the Venetian naval forces.

18:37

While Genoa gathered power in the

18:39

wake of its victory, the Venetian

18:41

people grew restless. Resentment

18:44

against the nobility had been brewing

18:47

since the Great Lockout, but

18:49

it seemed now to be reaching

18:51

a boiling point. It was

18:53

in this environment of tension, with

18:56

the threat of the Genoese on the horizon,

18:58

that things began to take a turn

19:01

toward the treasonous for Marino

19:03

Faliero almost immediately

19:05

after his reign as Doge began.

19:09

There is much we do not know for

19:11

sure about the lead up to what has been

19:13

termed the Faliero Coup. There

19:16

is uncertainty even about why

19:18

he did it at all. At first

19:20

glance, it seems at odds

19:22

with Falierro's character and history.

19:25

How could this man who had seemingly

19:27

spent decades in service of Venice

19:30

without causing any trouble turn

19:32

on his beloved republic so

19:35

suddenly In classic

19:37

Venetian fashion. There is a

19:40

traditional story on one hand,

19:42

and a less interesting, more

19:44

complicated, but ultimately more

19:47

likely theory. On the other we'll

19:50

start with the juicy story. Obviously

19:53

not long into Falierro's reign,

19:55

it seems early thirteen fifty

19:57

five Faliero married a woman

19:59

named Alquina Grattenigo,

20:02

the daughter of a former doge, Pietro

20:04

Grottenigo. This was not Faliero's

20:07

first marriage, but we don't know

20:09

much about his first wife. She

20:12

may have been named Thomasina Contarini,

20:15

and it seems that they had two daughters,

20:18

Lucia and Pinola. In any

20:20

case, Alquina, at forty five years old,

20:22

was much younger than her husband,

20:25

only slightly more than half of Faliero's

20:28

age. The truth is we know pretty

20:30

little about her too, but the

20:33

story tends to paint her as a

20:35

fourteenth century gold digger,

20:38

beautiful, vivacious, and most

20:41

of all licentious.

20:43

According to the story, she was rumored

20:46

to have been engaging in affairs

20:48

with numerous members of the patrician

20:51

class. During a carnival

20:53

celebration at the Doge's palace

20:56

in thirteen fifty five, it

20:58

is said that Doge Faliero observed

21:01

one of these nobles, the twenty

21:04

four year old Michel Steno flirting

21:07

with the Dogaressa, or

21:09

possibly flirting with one of her ladies

21:11

in waiting. Either way. Incensed

21:14

at the disrespectful actions

21:16

of the young noble, Faliero

21:18

kicked Steno out of the festivities.

21:21

The incident would have certainly

21:24

rankled the aging doge to

21:26

see his beautiful, younger wife receiving

21:29

attention from a much younger man,

21:32

But the real kicker came reportedly

21:35

hours later, when Steno

21:37

snuck back into the palace under

21:39

cover of night and carved an

21:41

insult into Faliero's chair

21:43

in the chamber of the Great Council.

21:46

It got right to the heart of the matter. Quote

21:49

Marino Falliero with the beautiful

21:51

wife, he maintains her and

21:54

others enjoy her. For

21:56

this act, the story goes, Steno

21:59

was a rested, but still Falierro

22:02

wasn't satisfied. He wasn't

22:04

just angry at Steno, but at the

22:07

entire Patricia. After his

22:09

decades of service, this was

22:11

how they were paid him by sleeping

22:14

with his wife and defacing the symbols

22:16

of his office. He thought of

22:19

the other city states of Italy,

22:21

whose dukes commanded almost absolute

22:24

power in comparison to his they

22:26

would never have been humiliated in

22:29

that way, and if they were, the

22:31

punishment would have surely been more

22:33

severe. Well maybe

22:35

it could be. Of

22:38

course, there isn't really much

22:40

actual historical evidence to support

22:43

this salacious revenge

22:45

story, and it seems to have

22:47

begun spreading much later,

22:50

which is generally a good historical

22:52

indicator that the story didn't

22:54

really happen. It's more

22:57

likely that Falierro's quarrels with

22:59

the nobility were political

23:01

in nature and bolstered by

23:03

the class tensions brought on by

23:06

the lockout and stoked by

23:08

the war with Genoa. If

23:10

indeed he looked to the other city

23:13

states and to the absolute power

23:15

wielded by their dukes, Faliero

23:18

was probably thinking less about

23:20

punishing his personal enemies and

23:23

more about how a singular,

23:25

powerful doge might benefit

23:28

Venice. We also can't

23:30

discount simple greed or

23:32

hunger for power. At his trial,

23:35

Falierro seemed to regret the

23:37

coup and framed it more as a crime

23:40

of passion than a calculated

23:42

political scheme, never mentioning

23:44

any belief that absolute rulership

23:47

would benefit Venice. It's

23:49

possible he simply saw an opportunity

23:51

to have it all and tried

23:54

to take it. Whatever the

23:56

reason, it seems that the conspiracy

23:58

began to take shape in in the early spring

24:01

of thirteen fifty five. It

24:04

was then that Faliero connected with Bertuccio

24:07

Isirello and Filippo Calendario,

24:10

two men who were among the class of Venetians

24:13

who were respected and wealthy, but

24:15

still excluded from the closed

24:18

noble class. We don't

24:20

know much about Isorello, but Calendario

24:23

was an architect and was in fact

24:25

among the designers of the DOJ's

24:28

Palace that you can still see today.

24:31

The plot had less the air of a

24:33

popular revolution and more the air

24:35

of a pyramid scheme. The idea

24:38

was that Faliero and Isorello would

24:40

each recruit twenty men to their cause,

24:42

and each of those men were going

24:45

to recruit another forty after

24:47

that, though the plot becomes very

24:50

very simple in a manner

24:52

of speaking, kill all

24:55

the nobles and their families.

24:58

The plan was to wait until in April

25:00

fifteenth at dawn, attacking

25:03

at the stroke of the bells from San

25:05

Marco. Without the nobility,

25:07

power in Venice would shift back to

25:09

where it belonged to the people,

25:12

or perhaps more accurately, to

25:15

the one noble who wouldn't be killed,

25:17

the Doge leading the people. Things

25:22

started off well enough. The

25:24

conspirators found sympathy, especially

25:27

with those working in maritime trade,

25:29

who were particularly resentful

25:32

of the nobility in the wake of the Battle

25:34

of Porto Lungo. The best

25:36

part was that, given the recruitment

25:38

structure of the coup, the Doge's

25:40

involvement was really only known

25:43

to the inner circle of a few trusted

25:46

men. It was that lack of

25:48

transparency, though, that would ultimately

25:50

prove to be Faliero's downfall.

25:53

On the night before the coup was set

25:56

to take place, one conspirator

25:58

who had been roped into the pyramid

26:00

scheme, a man named beltrom attempted

26:03

to warn the Procurator of San

26:05

Marco, Niccolo Leone of

26:07

the impending danger. Beltrommee

26:10

had no knowledge of Falierro's involvement,

26:13

and so Leon of course went

26:15

straight to the Doze with his concerns.

26:18

When Falierro dismissed them, however,

26:21

suspicion began to set in.

26:23

Beltrommee seemed to have his information

26:26

on good authority. Why did

26:28

the Doze just brush them off? Leon

26:31

brought his concerns to a few trusted

26:34

members of the Great Council. It

26:37

turned out that Beltroma was not the

26:39

only conspirator who had squealed,

26:41

and several other nobles had

26:44

also been warned of the plot. It

26:46

was becoming clear that something was

26:49

very, very wrong, and

26:51

that Faliero may have had

26:54

something to do with it. Within

26:56

hours, the Council of Ten was

26:58

convened, along with every major

27:01

magistracy in the Republic except

27:04

the Doge. As

27:07

nobles filed into the Piazza

27:09

San Marco, armed to the

27:11

teeth and awaiting reinforcements,

27:14

Philippo Callandario and Bertucci

27:16

Isirello were arrested. Under

27:19

interrogation and likely torture,

27:22

they revealed the names of many of

27:24

their fellow conspirators,

27:26

including that of Marino Faliero,

27:29

the Doge of Venice.

27:32

On April fifteenth, the day

27:34

that would have changed Venetian history

27:36

forever, nine of the

27:38

conspirators, including Calendario

27:41

and Isarello, were hanged from

27:43

the arches of the Doge's palace.

27:46

Legend has it that they were hanged with

27:48

bits in their mouths so that

27:50

they couldn't use their last words

27:53

to shout to the crowd watching

27:55

from the square. Below and stir

27:57

up even more anti patrician. Several

28:01

other conspirators were sentenced

28:03

to life imprisonment. With

28:06

that done, the nobles had to turn their

28:08

attention to their greatest betrayal,

28:11

the Doge himself. The

28:13

Council of Ten, the very council

28:15

from which Falierro himself had prosecuted

28:18

a similar conspiracy just forty

28:20

years earlier, presided over

28:22

the trial, along with the Minor

28:24

Council and the Zonta, which

28:27

were all tasked with mitigating the

28:29

Doja's authority. The trial

28:32

was quick and somber, and

28:34

by the next day a verdict had been

28:36

reached. The Doge's fate was

28:38

sealed on April seventeenth,

28:41

thirteen fifty five, after

28:43

fewer than seven months in office,

28:45

and just two days after he thought

28:48

he would be the Lord of Venice, Marino

28:51

Faliero was sentenced to

28:53

death. This would

28:55

not be a public execution.

28:58

If Venetians knew anything was how

29:00

to spin a story, and they knew

29:02

the difference between a trader and a martyr

29:05

is often a matter of optics. They

29:08

had made a display of the commoners

29:10

they executed. It was also important

29:13

to show the might of the republic against

29:15

those who would destroy it. But a

29:18

doze who had turned on his own government

29:21

was another matter entirely. There

29:23

would be no opportunity for Marino

29:26

Faliero to become a popular hero

29:28

in death. Instead, the

29:30

sentence would be carried out in

29:32

Falieriro's own home, in the

29:34

courtyard of the Doge's palace. Despite

29:38

its privacy, however, the execution

29:41

was very much a performance in

29:44

the presence of the entire nobility,

29:47

the men with whom Falierro had worked

29:49

with for decades and then betrayed.

29:51

The fallen Doze was led by

29:54

procession into the courtyard. Members

29:56

of the Council of Ten stripped him of

29:59

his royal regale before he

30:01

was beheaded with a sword to

30:03

complete the story and likely

30:05

also to satisfy curious commoners.

30:08

Once the deed was done, one of

30:11

the ten leaned out of a balcony

30:13

with a bloody sword in one hand

30:15

and Faliero's head in the other. He

30:18

announced their victory. Look

30:21

justice has been done to the trader. On

30:24

that day in thirteen fifty five, Marino

30:27

Faliero's new legacy was

30:29

cemented, but his punishment

30:31

was far from over. Like

30:34

Baiamante Tiapolo before him,

30:36

Falieriro was sentenced to dominetio

30:39

memorie, being condemned

30:41

in memory. In addition

30:43

to his removal from official records,

30:46

the day of his conviction, April sixteenth,

30:49

would be marked every year, and

30:51

subsequent dojes would hold a precession

30:54

and ceremony in Piazza

30:56

San Marco to remember Falierro's

30:58

tragic betrayal and inevitable

31:01

defeat. Legend has it

31:03

that all of the coinage from Faliero's

31:06

reign, which would have borne his likeness,

31:09

was melted down, although

31:11

it's more likely that, given how short

31:13

his reign was, it simply hadn't

31:15

been minted yet. But Marino

31:18

Faliero's sentence wouldn't really

31:21

be complete until eleven years

31:23

later, in thirteen sixty

31:25

six, when the Council of Ten

31:27

decreed that his portrait in the Chamber

31:30

of the Great Council should be

31:32

painted over and an

31:34

inscription placed in its stead

31:37

hic fuits locus ser Marina

31:39

Feletri decapitated

31:41

pro crimine pro di tiones.

31:44

This was the place of Sir Marino

31:47

Fallieri beheaded for the crime

31:49

of treason. You may

31:51

have noticed that that's not quite

31:54

the inscription I read at the beginning

31:56

of this episode. That's because

31:59

in fifteen seven twenty seven, over

32:01

two hundred years after Marina Fellieri's

32:04

execution, a fire destroyed

32:06

significant portions of the DOJ's

32:08

Palace, including the chamber of

32:10

the Great Council. When it was

32:13

rebuilt, new paintings had to be

32:15

commissioned to replace the old,

32:17

including the set of portraits and

32:20

the portrait that had been painted over

32:23

that had been present in the previous

32:25

iteration of the chamber. Instead

32:27

of simply omitting his portrait,

32:30

the Venetian government chose to keep

32:33

the spirit of Falierro's condemnation,

32:36

commissioning the black drape with

32:38

the inscription. As you can still see

32:41

today, there's no portrait

32:43

under the new painting. However, with

32:45

the fire, the last vestiges

32:48

of the memory of who Marino Faliero

32:50

had been before the coup, devoted

32:53

politician, defender of

32:56

Venice, long and faithful servant

32:58

to the republic, had finally

33:00

been erased, leaving only

33:03

Marino Fallieri, the trader and

33:05

his punishment in his place.

33:17

That's the story of Marino Faliero's

33:19

ill fated conspiracy. But

33:21

stick around after a brief sponsor

33:24

break to hear about how an

33:26

unexpected historical figure helped

33:29

to resurrect his memory.

33:38

A few months after spending a couple

33:40

of rainy days writing scary stories

33:43

with his fellow romantics at Villa

33:45

Diadatti, the famed poet

33:47

and noble blood favorite Lord

33:50

Byron found himself in Venice

33:52

for the first time. It

33:55

was the winter of eighteen sixteen.

33:58

The abdication of the last Doge

34:00

of Venice, who had capitulated to

34:02

Napoleon, had happened not

34:05

quite ten years prior. Although

34:08

the city's millennium or so long

34:10

tenure as a serene republic

34:13

was well and truly over,

34:16

the memory of its glittering, powerful

34:19

past was still very much

34:21

alive. Byron didn't

34:23

intend to stay in Venice for too

34:26

long, but on brand

34:28

as ever, he met a girl,

34:31

several girls, actually, all of

34:33

them married, and that's a story

34:35

for another episode maybe, But because

34:38

of his illicit romantic pursuits,

34:41

Byron ended up staying in Venice

34:43

longer than planned, three years

34:46

in fact, and it ended up

34:48

having a significant impact

34:50

on his work. Between

34:52

swimming at the beach on Ledo,

34:55

learning Armenian from a community

34:57

of monks, and of course,

35:00

arming married women in their fancy

35:02

Venetian palazzos. Byron

35:04

had the opportunity to spend

35:07

some time in the Doge's Palace,

35:09

which at the time still housed

35:11

some administrative and cultural

35:14

offices. It's clear

35:16

that the palace stuck with him.

35:18

In fact, it was Byron who gave

35:20

the bridge of size, translated

35:23

from the Italian Pontide

35:25

Soupire its famed English

35:28

moniker, when he wrote about it

35:30

in his verse poem Child

35:33

Harold's Pilgrimage. I

35:35

stood in Venice on a bridge

35:37

of size, a palace and

35:39

a prison on each hand. But

35:42

something else in the Doje's Palace struck

35:45

our dear Byron, the black

35:48

veil painted in the chamber of the

35:50

Great Council. He would later

35:52

write that seeing Marino Faliero's

35:54

absent portrait, along with

35:56

the great staircase leading

35:58

into the courtyard where the Doge

36:01

had been executed, had quote

36:04

struck forcibly upon his imagination,

36:07

so much so that in fact, in

36:09

eighteen twenty he published

36:11

a tragic play dramatizing

36:14

Marino Faliero's strange and

36:17

tragic story. To

36:19

Byron, who had spent time reading

36:21

Venetian chronicles, hunting

36:24

for the Doge's grave and learning

36:26

everything he could about Venetian history.

36:29

Marino Faliero was quote a

36:31

man of talent and courage, but

36:34

also a quote fiery character

36:37

plagued by an ungovernable

36:39

temper. A failure as a

36:42

ruler, perhaps, but as

36:44

a compelling dramatic figure.

36:47

Byron could think of no one better

36:49

suited to the position. Byron's

36:52

play, Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice

36:55

was meant mostly to be read, and

36:57

it was, but it was also performed in

37:00

in London shortly after its publication

37:02

in eighteen twenty one. Two middling

37:05

reviews. Byron maintained

37:07

that critics who disliked the play were

37:09

just disappointed there wasn't a romance

37:12

plot in it. Nevertheless,

37:14

the play was influential. The

37:16

painter Eugene Delacroix's gruesome

37:19

depiction of Falierro's beheading on

37:21

the Giant Staircase, completed

37:23

in eighteen twenty five or twenty six,

37:26

was drawn from Byron's writing. A

37:29

later performance of Byron's play in

37:31

eighteen twenty nine would also

37:34

inspire the playwright Casimir Delvin

37:36

to offer his own spin on the

37:38

Faliero story, which would in

37:40

turn inspire Gaetano Donizetti's

37:43

opera Marino Faliero, which

37:45

premiered in Paris in eighteen

37:48

thirty five. Byron's

37:50

curiosity and the play that came

37:53

of it restored some piece

37:55

of Marino Faliero's life and

37:58

legacy. Though certainly not

38:00

the paragon of historical accuracy,

38:03

it allowed generations of people to

38:05

think beyond the blacked out

38:07

portrait and the boogeyman

38:10

story of the evil doge who almost

38:12

destroyed Venice. What

38:14

we've been left with, funnily enough,

38:17

is a figure who is elusive

38:20

and dramatic, part fiction

38:23

and part fact, in

38:25

other words, unmistakably

38:28

Venetian. Noble

38:43

Blood is a production of iHeartRadio

38:46

and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankee.

38:49

Noble Blood is created and hosted

38:51

by me Dana Schwartz, with additional

38:54

writing and researching by Hannah

38:57

Johnston, hannah's Wick, Mira

38:59

Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori

39:01

Goodman. The show is edited

39:04

and produced by Noemi Griffin

39:06

and rima Il Kahali, with

39:08

supervising producer Josh Thain

39:11

and executive producers Aaron Manke,

39:14

Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.

39:16

For more podcasts from iHeartRadio

39:19

visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple

39:21

podcasts, or wherever you listen

39:24

to your favorite shows.