Enrico Dandolo ( anglicised as Henry Dandolo and Latinized as Henricus Dandulus; c. 1107 – May/June 1205) was the

Doge of Venice The Doge of Venice ( ; vec, Doxe de Venexia ; it, Doge di Venezia ; all derived from Latin ', "military leader"), sometimes translated as Duke (compare the Italian '), was the chief magistrate and leader of the Republic of Venice between 726 a ...

from 1192 until his death. He is remembered for his avowed piety, longevity, and shrewdness, and is known for his role in the

Fourth Crusade The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid S ...

and the

Sack of Constantinople The sack of Constantinople occurred in April 1204 and marked the culmination of the Fourth Crusade. Crusader armies captured, looted, and destroyed parts of Constantinople, then the capital of the Byzantine Empire. After the capture of the ...

. Dandolo died in 1205 in

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

and was buried at the

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia ( 'Holy Wisdom'; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque ( tr, Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi), is a mosque and major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The cathedral was originally built as a Greek Ortho ...

Biography

Early life and political involvement

Born in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

1107, Enrico Dandolo was a member of the socially and politically prominent Dandolo family. He was the son of the powerful jurist and member of the ducal court, Vitale Dandolo, and had two brothers: Andrea and Giovanni. His uncle, also named

Enrico Dandolo Enrico Dandolo (anglicised as Henry Dandolo and Latinized as Henricus Dandulus; c. 1107 – May/June 1205) was the Doge of Venice from 1192 until his death. He is remembered for his avowed piety, longevity, and shrewdness, and is known for his r ...

, was

patriarch of Grado This is a list of the Patriarchs of Grado (north-eastern Italy).
''

Though Enrico was himself an elderly man at around 67, he was still under filial subjection. This was a type of partial emancipation in which he could conduct business, but because he worked for the family, most, if not all, documents used Vitale's name rather than Enrico's. Dandolo's first important political roles took place during the crisis years of 1171 and 1172, which were a tumultuous period between the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

and Venetian empires. After Byzantine emperor

Manuel Comnenus Manuel I Komnenos ( el, Μανουήλ Κομνηνός, translit=Manouíl Komnenos, translit-std=ISO; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Latinized Comnenus, also called Porphyrogennetos (; "born in the purple"), was a Byzantine emperor ...

restored Pisans and Genoans, both enemies of the Venetians, to their quarters in Constantinople as part of his plan to reclaim Italy, an angry Venetian mob attacked the recently reinstated Genoese quarter. This attack caused Commenus in March 1171 to order the seizure of goods and imprisonment of thousands of Venetians living in the empire. Popular Venetian anger with the attack forced Doge

Vitale II Michiel Vitale II Michiel (also spelled ''Vital II Michiel'') was Doge of Venice from 1156 to 1172. Vitale Michiel became Doge of Venice at a time when Venice's relations with the Byzantine Empire were becoming increasingly strained. At the same time, ...

to gather a retaliatory expedition, which included Dandolo. This expedition fell apart when its participants were struck by plague in 1172, and upon his return Michiel was killed by a mob of Venetians, angry with his defeat. The succeeding doge,

Sebastiano Ziani Sebastiano Ziani was Doge of Venice from 1172 to 1178. He was one of the greatest planners of Venice. During his short term as Doge, Ziani divided the city-state into many districts. He realised that the government headquarters were too close ...

, sought to form alliances with enemies of the Byzantine empire so that it would feel pressured into coming to terms with Venice. He sent out multiple expeditions to Constantinople and King William II's court in Sicily, several of which Dandolo was a part, although he never met with William. Despite Dandolo's failure to meet with William II, his constant participation in these envoys shows his value and importance within the ducal court, qualities which no doubt contributed to his election as doge in 1192. Dandolo also made trips to Constantinople in 1183 and 1184. The first voyage, on which he embarked with his brother, Giovanni, was the first in which he acted as a ducal legate. On this trip, he most likely engaged in negotiations for reparations of the city's Venetian quarter with the new Byzantine emperor Andronicus I. He also invested and restored land to Venetian monasteries, a deed which earned him the position of legal advocate for the monastery of San Cipriano di Murano. In 1184, Dandolo, serving again as a ducal legate along with Pietro Ziani and Domenico Sanudo, returned to Constantinople to negotiate the restoration of the Venetian quarter with Andronicus. In this meeting, the emperor at last agreed to release the imprisoned Venetians, restore their quarter, and pay for reparations.

Dogeship

On 1 June 1192, after

Orio Mastropiero Orio Mastropiero (died 13 June 1192), forename sometimes rendered as Aurio and surname as Malipiero, was a Venetian statesman who served as the doge of Venice from 1178 to 1192. He was elected by the Council of Forty in 1178 following the retireme ...

abdicated the throne, Dandolo became the new doge. He was the second doge to be chosen by a council of forty electors. Already aged and blind, but deeply ambitious, he displayed tremendous energy and mental capacity. His remarkable deeds over the next eleven years have led some to hypothesize that he actually may have been in his mid seventies when he became Venice's leader. None of the earlier chronicles and contemporary witnesses give his exact age, only mentioning that he was very old. The commonly given birth year of c. 1107 is based on the account of

Marino Sanuto the Younger Marin Sanudo, italianised as Marino Sanuto or Sanuto the Younger (May 22, 1466 – 1536), was a Venetian historian and diarist. His most significant work is his ''Diarii'', which he had intended to write up into a history of Venice. Biography ...

(1466 – 1536) three centuries later, who stated that Dandolo was eighty-five when he assumed the throne. Though not the first doge to take the ''

promissione ducale The ''promissione ducale'' ( la, promissio domini ducis) was an oath of office sworn by the incoming Doge of Venice. It contained not only an oath of allegiance to the Republic of Venice, but also spelled out the constitutional limitations to the D ...

,'' Dandolo's is the earliest that is available to historians. One of Dandolo's first decrees as doge was to evict all foreigners who had lived in Venice for fewer than two years on 16 August 1192. Landlords were obligated to evict any of these foreigners from their premises. Citizens who violated the decree had to pay fifty lire, and foreigners’ goods were confiscated. Additionally, Venetians were not allowed to lend money to foreigners—excepting those from the areas of Umana or Ragusa—for a period that exceeded fifteen days. The reason why this decree was implemented is unknown, but it seems to correlate to a recent increase of foreigners into Venice, since it did not affect foreigners who had been living in the city for more than two years. In 1193, Dandolo commanded an attack on the nearby city of Zara, which for years had troubled Venice and threatened its control over the

Dalmatian Coast Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see #Name, names in other languages) is one of the four historical region, historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of ...

. Until 1180, Zara had been under Venetian control, until they staged a successful rebellion in which they became the sole city on this coast that was against Venetian interests. Dandolo seemed to have always supported Venice's reinstating power over the city, since he had contributed money to doge

's 1187 military attempt to regain control there. Dandolo's 1193 attack on Zara was only somewhat successful. He managed to regain control over the islands of Pago, Ossero, and Arbe, which had been lost in an 1190 attempt led by Mastropiero, though not Zara. In 1194, Dandolo enacted important reforms to the Venetian currency system. Before these reforms, Venice's principal coin was the silver penny, which weighed less than a gram and was about one-quarter fine. Due to the debasement of the silver penny in 1180 and the constant fluctuation in value of Jerusalem and Byzantine coins, Dandolo instated three denominations of this silver penny, the ''bianco'' (half-penny), the ''quartarolo'' (quarter-penny), and the silver ''grosso''. The ''bianco'' had a silver content of about five percent, and was decorated with a cross on one side and St. Mark on the other. The ''quartarolo'' had almost no precious metal content, which made it the first European

token coin In numismatics, token coins or trade tokens are coin-like objects used instead of coins. The field of token coins is part of exonumia and token coins are token money. Their denomination is shown or implied by size, color or shape. They are o ...

since ancient Rome. The '' grosso'' was the first nearly pure silver–and high denomination–coin minted in western Europe in over five centuries. It was decorated with an image of Dandolo and St. Mark on one side, and of

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

enthroned on the other side, which imitated a design typically seen on Byzantine '' aspron trachy'' coins. The ''grosso'' eventually became the dominant coin of Mediterranean commerce.

Fourth Crusade

Gustave dore crusades dandolo preaching the crusade

In 1202, six French envoys of the Fourth Crusade arrived in Venice in hopes of acquiring a fleet and supplies. Dandolo arranged meetings for them with the ducal court, in which the council calculated the expenses necessary for this voyage, which would be the largest project in Venetian history. The terms were laid out as such: for up to a year, Venice would provide transportation and most provisions for the army. Four silver marks would be paid for each knight and horse, and two would be paid for each other member. Finally, many Venetians would also join the Crusade and promised to supply fifty fully armed galleys as long as the French promised to split the spoils with them. With the enthusiastic support of the population, Venice's participation in the Crusade was confirmed. Dandolo himself swore on holy relics to uphold every part of the agreement. However, Venice soon faced a financial problem. The six original Crusaders had borrowed money as a down payment for the fleet, but failed to pay it back. When more Crusaders began to arrive that June, the urgency for this money increased as many Venetians, whose business relied on this reimbursement, were being driven closer to financial ruin. When the due date for payment arrived, Dandolo ordered the Crusaders, who were staying on the nearby

Lido Lido may refer to: Geography Africa * Lido, a district in the city of Fez, Morocco Asia * Lido, an area in Chaoyang District, Beijing * Lido, a cinema theater in Siam Square shopping area in Bangkok * Lido City, a resort in West Java owned by MN ...

, to collectively pay 85,000 marks. Even when everyone, including many poor Crusaders, contributed all they could afford, they still owed 34,000 marks. Instead of ejecting them, Dandolo decided to lend this amount from the Venetian state, provided that it was paid back in the form of the spoils of the Crusade. In addition, Dandolo proposed that the Crusaders agree to spend the winter in Zara. This was due to the threat of Zaran pirates to Venetian commerce as well as the Venetian's interest in regaining control over the area. Additionally, staking an interest in Zara helped convince the Great Council to consent to Dandolo's plan. The Crusade fleet left Venice during the first week of October 1202, following an emotional and rousing ceremony in

San Marco di Venezia The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark ( it, Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco), commonly known as St Mark's Basilica ( it, Basilica di San Marco; vec, Baxéłega de San Marco), is the cathedral church of the Catholic Pa ...

where Dandolo "took the cross" –committed himself to crusading–and promised to "go live or die" with the Crusaders in exchange for his people's support, and his sons' taking his place during his absence. The Crusaders arrived in Zara in November, the sheer size of their fleet intimidating the Zarans into near surrender. Dandolo gave the Zarans an ultimatum: either they leave the city right away or they would be killed. Confusion ensued, as Pope Innocent forbade the Crusade from settling this dispute unrelated to their original religious agenda, especially since the land was controlled by King Emeric of Hungary, who had himself participated in a crusade. Finally, Innocent threatened excommunication to anyone who antagonized the Zarans. The Crusaders attacked the city anyway, and it at last fell on 24 November 1202. All of the Venetian members of the Crusade were thus excommunicated (the French Crusaders had sent an envoy to the pope to ask for forgiveness), but Dandolo kept this a secret from them since he knew they would abandon the Crusade if they found out. Shortly afterwards, Alexius Angelus, son of the deposed Byzantine emperor

Isaac II Isaac II Angelos or Angelus ( grc-gre, Ἰσαάκιος Κομνηνός Ἄγγελος, ; September 1156 – January 1204) was Byzantine Emperor from 1185 to 1195, and again from 1203 to 1204. His father Andronikos Doukas Angelos was a ...

, arrived in Zara, looking for help to overthrow his uncle, Alexius III, after he violently seized the throne from Isaac. Dandolo agreed to the Crusade leaders' plan to place Alexius Angelus on the throne of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

in return for his support and funds to help the Crusade. The Crusaders thus took another detour to Constantinople, where the conquest and sack of Constantinople took place on 12 April 1204. During the looting, Dandolo had many items of value sent back to Venice, including the four Horses of St. Mark that decorate the Venetian cathedral to this day.

Latin Empire

When Constantinople fell, Dandolo understood that he needed to quickly restore stability to the empire to avoid disorder that could threaten Venice. One necessary task was to find an emperor for the new

Latin empire The Latin Empire, also referred to as the Latin Empire of Constantinople, was a feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. The Latin Empire was intended to replace the Byzant ...

. Dandolo was offered the position, but he refused, and Baldwin of Flanders instead took the throne. Dandolo did accept, however, the title of despot. The ''

Partitio Romaniae The ''Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae'' (Latin for "Partition of the lands of the empire of ''Romania'' .e., the Byzantine Empire, or ''Partitio regni Graeci'' ("Partition of the kingdom of the Greeks"), was a treaty signed among the crusader ...

'' also resulted from this conquest, and it awarded Venice three-eighths of the Byzantine Empire in accordance with an agreement drafted by the Crusaders before the fall of the empire. This included a part of Constantinople near the harbor, a portion of the shoreline of the Sea of Marmara, and the city of Adrianople, among other former Byzantine possessions. Dandolo was also awarded the title "lord of three-eighths of the Roman Empire", although these acquisitions only lasted until the collapse of the Latin empire in 1261.

Death and burial

Dandolo died in May or June 1205 and was buried in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. In the 19th century an Italian restoration team placed a cenotaph marker near the probable location, which is still visible today. The marker is frequently mistaken by tourists as being a medieval marker of the actual tomb of the doge. The real tomb was destroyed by the Ottomans after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and subsequent conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque.

Blindness

It is not known for certain when and how Dandolo became blind. According to the Chronicle of Novgorod he had been blinded by the Byzantines during the 1171-1172 expedition to Byzantium. Supposedly, Emperor Manuel Comnenus "ordered his eyes to be blinded with glass; and his eyes were uninjured, but he saw nothing". According to Thomas F. Madden's study, Dandolo had

cortical blindness Cortical blindness is the total or partial loss of vision in a normal-appearing eye caused by damage to the brain's occipital cortex. Cortical blindness can be acquired or congenital, and may also be transient in certain instances. Acquired cortic ...

as a result of a severe blow to the back of the head received sometime between 1174 and 1176. Documents show Dandolo's signature being fully legible in 1174 but sprawling across the paper in 1176, suggesting that his sight deteriorated over time. Dandolo's blindness appears to have been total. Geoffrey de Villehardouin, whom Dandolo accompanied on the Fourth Crusade, wrote that "although his eyes appeared normal, he could not see a hand in front of his face, having lost his sight after a head wound". This piece of primary evidence seems to support Madden's theory that Dandolo's blindness was cortical, since his eyes appeared to be unharmed.

Legacy

Dandolo's son,

Ranieri Ranieri is an Italian surname and given name originated from the masculine Germanic given name Ragnar (Old Norse ''Ragnarr''). Surname *Teodorico Ranieri (b. unknown, d. 1306), Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church *Massimo Ranieri (born ...

, served as vice-doge during Dandolo's absence and was later killed in the war against

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

for the control of

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

. It is unclear if he had other children besides Ranieri as the existence of none can be confirmed by contemporary evidence. Ranieri's daughter

Anna Dandolo Anna Dandolo ( sr, Ana Dandolo / Ана Дандоло; 1217–1258) was a Venetian noblewoman who became Queen of Serbia as the third wife of King Stefan the First-Crowned, founder of the Serbian kingdom. She was crowned with Stefan in 121 ...

married Serbian Grand Prince, subsequently King,

Stefan Nemanjić Stefan Nemanja II ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Немања II, ), or Stephen the First-Crowned ( sr, / , ; – 24 September 1228), was the Grand Prince of Serbia from 1196 and the King of Serbia from 1217 until his death in 1228. He was the first ...

(r. 1196–1228) in 1217, making Enrico an ancestor to much of the later

Nemanjić dynasty The House of Nemanjić ( sr-Cyrl, Немањић, Немањићи; Nemanjić, Nemanjići, ) was the most prominent dynasty of Serbia in the Middle Ages. This princely, royal, and later imperial house produced twelve Serbian monarchs, who rul ...

. During his dogeship, Dandolo was married to a woman named Contessa, to whom he delegated authority over his commercial and private affairs along with his brother, Andrea, and assumed friend Filippo Falier of the San Tomà parish, before he departed on a political trip to Constantinople with his brother, Giovanni, in 1183. Contessa's identity is debated, and it is often thought that she may have been a member of the Minotto clan though the veracity of this claim is inconclusive. In the nineteenth-century, the

Regia Marina The ''Regia Marina'' (; ) was the navy of the Kingdom of Italy (''Regno d'Italia'') from 1861 to 1946. In 1946, with the Italian constitutional referendum, 1946, birth of the Italian Republic (''Repubblica Italiana''), the ''Regia Marina'' ch ...

(Italian Navy) launched an ironclad

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

named . Enrico Dandolo and his role in the conquest of Constantinople were referenced by

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

in his poem ''

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage ''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'' is a long narrative poem in four parts written by Lord Byron. The poem was published between 1812 and 1818. Dedicated to " Ianthe", it describes the travels and reflections of a world-weary young man, who is dis ...

'':

Popular culture

* Doge Enrico Dandolo leads the

civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). Ci ...

of Venice in the popular

turn-based strategy A turn-based strategy (TBS) game is a strategy game (usually some type of wargame, especially a strategic-level wargame) where players take turns when playing. This is distinguished from real-time strategy (RTS), in which all players play si ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

Civilization V ''Sid Meier's Civilization V'' is a 4X video game in the ''Civilization'' series developed by Firaxis Games. The game was released on Microsoft Windows on September 21, 2010, on OS X on November 23, 2010, and on Linux on June 10, 2014. In ...

's'' second

expansion pack An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game or collectible card game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, characters, or ...

Brave New World ''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hiera ...

''. * Dandolo is mentioned briefly in

Dan Brown Daniel Gerhard Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author best known for his thriller novels, including the Robert Langdon novels ''Angels & Demons'' (2000), '' The Da Vinci Code'' (2003), ''The Lost Symbol'' (2009), '' Inferno'' (2013), ...

's book, ''

Inferno Inferno may refer to: * Hell, an afterlife place of suffering * Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire Film * ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film * Inferno (1953 film), ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker * Inferno (1973 fi ...

'', by main character

Robert Langdon Professor Robert Langdon is a fictional character created by author Dan Brown for his ''Robert Langdon'' book series: ''Angels & Demons'' (2000), ''The Da Vinci Code'' (2003), ''The Lost Symbol'' (2009), ''Inferno'' (2013) and ''Origin'' (2017 ...

in connection with his final resting place — the

. The novel was also adapted into a

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

by the same name in 2016, featuring

Tom Hanks Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...

and

Felicity Jones Felicity Rose Hadley Jones (born 17 October 1983) is a British actress. She started her professional acting career as a child, appearing in '' The Treasure Seekers'' (1996) at age 12. She went on to play Ethel Hallow for one series of the tel ...

. * Enrico Dandolo and his involvement in the

are the subject of a novel, 'The Venetian Crusader' by Paul Quinn published by Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers Ltd, 202

Notes

Bibliography

* * Gallo, Rudolfo (1927). "La tomba di Enrico Dandolo in Santa Sofia a Constantinople". Rivista mensile della Citta di Venezia 6. * Kittell, Ellen E.; Madden, Thomas F. (1999). Medieval and Renaissance Venice. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. * * * Madden, Thomas F. (2012). ''Venice: A New History''. New York: Viking Press. * Madden, Thomas F. (1999) “Venice’s Hostage Crisis: Diplomatic Efforts to Secure Peace with Byzantium between 1171 and 1184.” In Medieval and Renaissance Venice, edited by Ellen E. Kittell and Thomas F. Madden. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. * Okey, Thomas (1910). Venice and its Story. London: J.M. Dent and Sons, Ltd. * * * Stahl, Alan M. (1999). “The Coinage of Venice in the Age of Enrico Dandolo.” In Medieval and Renaissance Venice, edited by Ellen E. Kittell and Thomas F. Madden. Urbana: University of Illinois * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dandolo, Enrico 1100s births 1205 deaths Christians of the Fourth Crusade

Enrico Enrico is both an Italian masculine given name and a surname, Enrico means homeowner, or king, derived from ''Heinrich'' of Germanic origin. It is also a given name in Ladino. Equivalents in other languages are Henry (English), Henri ( French), Enr ...

12th-century Doges of Venice 13th-century Doges of Venice Blind politicians Republic of Venice diplomats Medieval Italian diplomats Blind royalty and nobility 12th-century diplomats