Leonardo Loredano
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Leonardo Loredano or
Leonardo Loredan (
1436 –
1521) reign
1501-
1521 was the
doge of the
Republic of Venice during the famous Cambrai League period, which nearly destroyed the Republic several times. The whole mess started when Venice made a daring attempt on a few Papal state cities which had begun to become independent and ran to Venice for shelter from Papal vengeance. Venice may have gotten this done as a quiet, sneaky, little conquest if
Pope Pius III had lived. As a strange twist, in the Papal election around the time of their conquests in the Papal states, they had managed to push Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere il Veneziano onto the Papal throne. The Cardinal was named il Veneziano because of his sympathies and connections with Venice. He was elected as
Pope Julius II. Venetians thought they had it made now but, in fact, Julius II turned on Venice and ended up excommunicating them and forming a league with France, the
Holy Roman Empire, and several other Christian states interested in Italian land gains against Venice. The league had nearly eradicated them when Venice signed a forced peace treaty with the Papacy. As what would now seem extremely strange to a modern reader, the Papacy now turned on France, saying they were the reprehensible rogues in Italy. After annihilating France's troops, France and Venice signed an alliance against the Papacy. Eventually, Pope Julius II died and this strange alliance thing died off.
Leonardo himself did very little during this time, but he didn't rock the boat while Venice was nearly destroyed by Germans, French, and Spaniards. This was also a time of economic crisis for Venice now that western Europeans could sail to India as easily as Venetians could. Trade through the Suez for Venice dwindled. Leonardo was a symbol of what figureheads Doges could become if they have too many outside things to deal with. This was a good thing for him, though, for it was an extremely rough time for Venice, and Leonardo was at least good enough to not die or attempt some sort of coup against his constitution like some others did in times of crisis.
