Venice : The weapon of the urban Diana cult?

In Edgecumb Stanley’s biography of the dogaressas, the next incident of note was the rise of Charlemange. His history is poor, though, because he doesn’t mention here that Pepin, the son of Charelmange, tried to invade the city on his father’s orders, which led to the seat of power moving to the modern site. Charlemange explicitly says that although he is the rightful heir to the Roman Empire’s territories, it doesn’t include Venice, which belongs to the Emporer of the East.

There are a few seeds of useful material we can glean from this part of Stanley.

The Franks shared the sporting instincts of the Venetians and they were emulous of the boasts of the men of Venice :—” One can catch more fish in a month in the lagunes than in a whole year in all the Mediterranean ! “, and, ” One can entrap more birds at Malamocco than anywhere else in Italy”

Grebe – shooting was a favourite pastime, and ladies entered into the sport quite as enthusiastically as their lords. Cross-bows and clay pellets were the weapons, snaring was barred as unsportsmanlike, and heads were nailed on barn doors as trophies.

In reference to this I’d like to point back to episode 63, which is about ortolans, the bird so good that one hides from God to eat it. I presume they kept grebe heads as trophies because the greater crested grebe has prominent head feathers. They were almost hunted to extinction in the UK for these feathers, which were popular on hats and undergarments. I’m not familiar with any relevant mythology about grebes. There’s a tribe of Russian witches who can become grebes, as I distantly recall.

Here we have women skilled with firing clay pellets from a crossbow. I note that it’s permitted, in Ars Magica, to have potions in ampules, and that poisons are more skillfully brewed in a city filled with alchemists. If we combine this with the previously noted property of Venetian women’s hair, to increase the range and durability of ranged weapons, we begin to see a sacred weapon for the urban Diana cult we have been slowly constructing. Do they use the bolero, the perfumed balls popularised under the Rotting Princess, as poisoned projectiles?

Whilst Charlemagne and his courtiers were pleased to meet the Venetians, in sport, or when on marriage bent, he and they never quite concealed their designs upon the lagunes ; but the monarch’s chagrin was bitter when he was forced to admit the impossibility of success. ‘* As my brand sinks out of sight, nor ever shall appear to me again, so let all thoughts of seizing Venice vanish from my will,” —he once exclaimed, as, standing upon his royal galley off the coast of Padua, he cast his sword far, far away, out into the sea !

This was not his favourite sword, or course, but it does represent his ambition to take Venice, and so if it could be recovered it would be a valuable vessel for enchantment.

From here we follow the story of the first dogaressa. It doesn’t have a lot of relevance to Ars Magica, but as the following episodes follow the many holders of the role, we need to mark the beginning, at least in brief.

The first actual Dogaressa—not merely the wife of the Doge, but the First Lady in Venice and his official consort, was a Frenchwoman—the Countess Carola,—a lady of honour at the Court of Aix-la- Chapelle. Obelario Antenorio and his brother Beato, who was associated with him in the dogado, were the guests of Charlemagne at Aix, and there the Doge saw and wooed his bride. How they got there nobody knows : it was a stupendous journey in those days.

The Emperor approved the match and promised his friendship and protection for the island Republic. Carola was a woman of great energy of character, remarkable for the exercise of a strong will, and endowed with the faculty of attracting respect and obedience. She had a difficult role, for the ladies of Venice resented the introduction of a Frenchwoman as consort of their Doge.

Beato Antenorio, it appears, played a double part, for whilst acting as best man to his brother and paying court to Countess Carola, he was negotiating with the Emperor at Constantinople for a union with a Byzantine princess with a view to supplant the Doge and Dogaressa.

Carola very soon took the measure of Beato’s perfidy, and when he brought his imperial bride to Venice, she adroitly placed Valentino, her husband’s youngest brother, an attractive youth, in the young girl’s way. There was little love lost between Beato and Cassandra, and the brothers very soon became estranged, and thus the Dogaressa held her own triumphantly. The story goes however that, consistent with woman’s ever changing mood, having set Beato against his wife, the Dogaressa became her rival in the affections of Valentino.

Obelario Antenorio, who had been Tribune of Malamocco, was ” an indolent man, irresolute and faithless.” When a Greek fleet approached the lagunes with peaceful intentions, but viewed by the Doge as supporting the pretensions of Beato, he had recourse to the French Court for assistance. This was regarded by the Greeks as an hostile act, and they attacked and destroyed Eraclea, Jesolo, Fossone, Chioggia, and other Venetian ports. The chief men of Venice were slain or taken captive, and Obelario and Beato Antenorio were carried away as hostages to Constantinople, where they and their wives, Carola and Cassandra, died.