This article presents a detailed timeline of the history of the Republic of Venice from its legendary foundation to its collapse under the efforts of Napoleon.
421: On Friday, 25 March, the city of Venice is founded "at the stroke of noon"[dubious – discuss] according to legend[citation needed] by three consuls from Padua, with the establishment of a trading-post on the islands of the Rialto and the church of San Giacomo di Rialto.
466 – Representatives of the island communities meet in Grado to work out a rudimentary system of self-government through 12 tribunes elected annually.
539 – Ravenna is re-taken by the Emperor. The association of island communities and Istria are part of the Byzantine Empire
567 – The Exarchate of Italy is established, based in Ravenna (and thus also known as the Exarchate of Ravenna) with a tribune appointed to rule over maritime Venice
568 – Lombard, a Germanic tribe from the region of Hungary, invades Italy under King Alboin. Great numbers of refugees flee to the lagoons.
Bishop Paul of Altino hears “a voice from heaven” commanding him to climb to the top of a nearby tower and look to the stars for the path to where he must take his flock. They lead him to an island in the centre of the lagoon, later named Torcello “little tower” in memory of the one the bishop had climbed.
726 or 727 – Paul, Exarch of Ravenna, is assassinated; according to legend, so is the provincial governor Marcello. Orso from Eraclea is elected chief of the 12 tribunes. He is given the title of “dux” (which becomes "doge" in the local dialect). Orso is the first sovereign Doge of Venice (the third according to the legendary list which began in 697), having received the title “Ipato” or Consul by the Byzantine Emperor
The Francs, having driven out the Lombards, donate the territory of Ravenna to the Pope who claims the Exarch for himself.
764
In order to maintain necessary good relations with both the Byzantine Empire and the Franks, two tribunes are elected annually to limit ducal power. DogeDomenico Monegario, who becomes resentful of the two tribunes, is deposed, blinded, and exiled
778 – DogeMaurizio Galbaio associates his son Giovanni with him in the Dogeship, thus allowing him to succeed his father without popular sanction or approval of his subjects
c.780 – The Rialto Islands gradually become permanently settled, and on the island of Olivolo (modern-day Isola di San Pietro di Castello) the chapel of Saints Bacchus and Sergius is rebuilt and reconsecrated as the cathedral of St. Peter. It remained the cathedral of Venice for a thousand years, until the City was occupied by Napoleon at the end of the eighteenth century.
The exiled Patriarch of Grado, Fortunatus, returns to Venice from the court of Charlemagne at Aachen and proposes that, in return for his being re-instated at Grado, and the Doge's acceptance of the authority of Charlemagne (who was crowned Emperor of the West by the Pope on Xmas Day AD 800) the Venetians could count on the protection of the Franks when needed. DogeObelerio degli Antenori accepts.
Venetian recognition of Charlemagne as Emperor of the West is seen as treachery by the Eastern Emperor in Constantinople and a Byzantine fleet sails up the Adriatic and attacks a Frankish flotilla at the port of Comacchio situated to the south of the Venetian Lagoon. It is defeated.
DogeObelerio and his brother Beato raise yet another brother, Valentino, to the Dogeship alongside them. It is one step too much for the Venetian people who rise up in opposition against them. Obelerio calls upon Charlemagne's son KingPepin of Italy installed at Ravenna to intervene on their behalf, as had been promised by the agreement of 804.
810
KingPepin of Italy with his army and cavalry sets out from his capital Ravenna to invade the Venetian capital Malamocco, situated on the Lido. But the inhabitants of the lagoon put up fierce resistance under the leadership of Agnello Participazio from Rialto. The siege lasts six months and Pepin's army is ravaged by the diseases of the local swamps and forced to withdraw. A few months later Pepin dies
Doge Obelerio is deposed, and Agnello Participazio, who has defended Venice from the beginning, is chosen to replace him.
811 – Agnello Participazio is the eighth Venetian to hold the title of Doge. His Rialtine house on the present Campiello del Cason becomes the first Doge's Palace within the Venice we know today, soon to be rebuilt in stone next to the chapel of Saint Theodore which stood on the site now occupied by the Basilica of Saint Mark.
887 – Narentines defeated Venetians near the town of Makarska, killing the Venetian doge Pietro I Candiano in open battle. Venetians start paying Croatian prince Branimir (879–892), an annual tribute for the right to travel and trade in the Adriatic Sea[1]
948 – With the weakening of Byzantium, Venice began to see Ragusa as a rival who needed to be brought under her control, but the attempt to conquer the city failed[3]
959 – Pietro IV Candiano is locked in his palace with his son while it burned.
976 – Pietro I Orseolo resigned to become a Camaldolese hermit in Abbey of Sant Miguel de Cuxa in the Pyrenees
1000 – A powerful fleet move to Istria and Dalmatia commanded by DogePietro II Orseolo to secure the Venetian fight Narentine pirates, who were suppressed permanently. The bloodiest armed conflict during the expedition was the battle of Lastovo
1082 – Needing Venetian naval assistance, the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos grants them major trading concessions within his Empire in a chrysobull
1084
Domenico Selvo personally leads a fleet against the Normans, but is defeated and loses 9 great galleys, the largest and most heavily armed ships in the Venetian war fleet. He is deposed the same year by popular revolt to a monastery where he dies three years later
1116: July 15 – Doge Ordelafo Faliero conquers the troops of Stephen II of Hungary who have arrived to relieve Zara and the remaining towns of Dalmatia surrender to Venice
1117 – Stephen II of Hungary regains Dalmatia while the Venetians are on a naval expedition, Doge Ordelafo Faliero dying in battle near Zara; Domenico Michele is elected Doge to succeed him, reconquers the territory and agrees a 5-year truce
1122 – Byzantine emperor John II Komnenos refuses to renew the trading rights granted by Alexios I in 1082. The Venetian fleet raids the Greek coasts in retaliation, until the rights are re-confirmed in 1125
1171 – The Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos expels all Venetians from Constantinople. Outbreak of a war that continues inconclusively until relations normalize ca. 1180
1202: 23 November – During the Fourth Crusade, crusader and Venetians reconquered Zara. Unable to raise enough funds to pay to their Venetian contractors, the crusaders agree to reconquer the city
1203 – The Fourth Crusade is diverted towards the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, under the request of the Byzantine Emperor
1345 – Siege of Zadar begins and lasts until 1346. It was successful.
1348 – The Black Plague begins to spread in Venice killing half of the population
1350 – Third war with Genoa breaks out and lasts until 1355. Venice allies with the Byzantines and the Pisans
1354 – Marino Faliero is elected Doge and convicted of treason after a failed attempt to overthrow Republican Rule on 17 April. He is executed and condemned to damnatio memoriae
1409 – Ladislaus of Naples sells his "rights" on Dalmatia to the Republic of Venice for 100,000 ducats. Dalmatia will with some interruptions remain under Venetian rule for nearly four centuries, until 1797.
1410 – Venice has a navy of 3,300 ships (manned by 36,000 men) and has taken over most of Venetia, including such important cities as Verona and Padua
1446 – The Republic fights another league, formed by Milan, Florence, Bologna and Cremona
1453: May 29 – Constantinople falls to the Ottoman Turks, but Venice manages to maintain a colony in the city and some of the former trade privileges it had under the Byzantines
1509 – Venice is engaged in various military endeavors
14 May: Venice is crushingly defeated at the Battle of Agnadello, in the Ghiara d'Adda, marking one of the most delicate points of Venetian history. French and imperial troops were occupying the Veneto, but Venice manages to extricate herself through diplomatic efforts
July: Andrea Gritti recaptures Padua, successfully defending it against the besieging imperial troops. Spain and the Pope break off their alliance with France, and Venice regains Brescia and Verona from France
1515 – Venice forms an alliance with France and defeats the imperial and Swiss soldiers in the battle of Marignano
1605 – Conflict between Venice and the Holy See begins with the arrest of two members of the clergy guilty of petty crimes, and with a law restricting the Church's right to enjoy and acquire landed property
The plague ends in Venice with 50,000 dead – nearly a third of the population. As a votive offering for the city's deliverance from the pestilence, Venice builds a church to Our Lady of Health (Santa Maria della Salute)
1638 – While the Venetian fleet is cruising off Crete, a corsair fleet from Barbary consisting of 16 galleys from Algiers and Tunis enters the Adriatic
1645 – Beginning of the Cretan War (1645–69) (Candian War) between Venice and the Ottoman Turks. Although Venice is generally superior at sea, its forces are unable to prevent the Turks from landing in and conquering much of Crete, nor of dislodging them after
1716 – Successful defense against Ottoman siege of Corfu. Austrian intervention takes off pressure from the Venetians, but they are unable to retake their lost possessions
1717 – Performance of Juditha Triumphans an oratorio of Antonio Vivaldi commissioned by the Republic to celebrate allegorically the defense of Corfu
1718: 21 July – The Treaty of Passarowitz – Austria makes large territorial gains, but Venice loses the Morea, for which her small gains in Albania and Dalmatia, where the Venetians are able to advance up to the modern-day Bosnian/Croatian border, taking in the whole Sinjsko Polje and Imotski, are little compensation
May 1 – Domenico Pizzamano fires on a French ship trying to force an entry from the Lido forts. Napoleon declares war
May 12 – The Maggior Consiglio – the Great Council of Venice – sits for the last time and approves a motion to hand over power "to the system of the proposed provisional representative government", although there is not a quorum of votes: 512 vote for, ten against, and five abstain
May 16 – The provisional municipal government meets in the Hall of the Maggior Consiglio. The preliminaries of the Peace of Leoben are made even harsher in the Treaty of Campoformio, and Venice and all her possessions become Austrian
^ abWeiner, Gordon M. (1970). "The Demographic Effects of the Venetian Plagues of 1575–77 and 1630–31". Genus. 26 (1/2). Sapienza University of Rome: 41–57. JSTOR29787908.
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