Carlo Contarini (July 1580 – 1 May 1656) was the 100th Doge of Venice from 27 March 1655 until his death in 1656.

Background 1580–1655

Carlo Contarini was born in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, the son of Elisabetta Morosini and Andrea Contarini; his father died ten days after his birth. He was thus the heir of a large fortune, as well as the Contarini name, so renowned in the history of the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...

. He was married to Paolina Loredano. In the course of a long and distinguished career, Contarini traversed the ''

cursus honorum The , or more colloquially 'ladder of offices'; ) was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The comprised a mixture of ...

'' of the Venetian Republic, serving as '' provveditore'', '' savio'', rector, and member of the

Senate of Venice The Senate (), formally the ''Consiglio dei Pregadi'' or ''Rogati'' (, ), was the main deliberative and legislative body of the Republic of Venice. Establishment The Venetian Senate was founded in 1229, or less likely shortly before that date. ...

. In the years immediately prior to his election as Doge, he had almost entirely withdrawn from public life, and he appears to not even have considered becoming a Procurator of San Marco.

Election and Reign as Doge, 1655–1656

Following the death of Doge Francesco Molin on 27 February 1655, electors met to elect his successor in March 1655, but were divided and could not agree on a candidate. They eventually settled on Carlo Contarini as a compromise candidate because he was allied with all factions, and old enough that he was not expected to have a long reign. He was consequently elected on the 68th ballot on 27 March 1655. Contarini's thirteen-month reign did not see any notable events. As Doge, he sought to reconcile the various factions that divided Venice. Venice's prolonged war with the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

for possession of

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

continued throughout his entire reign. Perhaps because of the heavy workload of being Doge, Contarini fell ill in early 1656, and, after a series of failed medical treatments, died in Venice on 1 May 1656.

References

This article was based on this article on

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. {{DEFAULTSORT:Contarini, Carlo 1580 births 1656 deaths Carlo Republic of Venice people of the Ottoman–Venetian Wars 16th-century Italian nobility 17th-century Italian nobility 17th-century Doges of Venice