Venice Timeline

• 661 Naples (in the south) becomes independent from the Lombards.
• 697 Venice (in the north) becomes an independent republic with, traditionally, Paolo Anafesto the first Doge (leader). Closely associated with the Byzantine Empire in the east.
   
  Click here for a full list of their doges.
• 814 Following Charlemagne's death, Venice becomes a great trading intermediary between the Western and Eastern Roman Empires.
• 1082 Fights off Normans. Hungarians. Slavs.
• 1147 During the Crusades, relations cool somewhat between Venice and Constantinople.
• 1204 From this year, when Constantinople was burned and sacked by the Doge of Venice, Venice temporarily ruled the Eastern Mediterranean, including Crete, Cyprus etc.
• 1261 Genoa helped Constantinople evict Venice from Constantinople.
• 1380 Genoa (with its trading concessions on Black Sea) was now defeated. Venice rules again.
• 1468 In Cyprus, the king of Cyprus takes a Venetian lady as his bride. He dies that same year, also her child (by him). Upon her death in 1489, Cyprus, somewhat grudgingly (because of its Greek Orthodox traditions) becomes a part of Venice (with its many Latin traditions).
• 1508 Venice was defeated by a union of Spain France and the Holy Roman Empire.
   
  Maximilian (in Vienna) that same year declares himself to be Holy Roman Emperor but is never crowned.
• 1530 His son Charles has the last papal coronation in Bologna in Italy.
• 1533 Pope Clement VII in Rome acknowledges Copernicus's heliocentric system of the earth.
• 1571 Cyprus lost by Venice to the Ottoman Turks.
• 1669 Crete lost by Venice to the Ottoman Turks.
• 1797 The last Doge of Venice surrenders to French troops on 12 May 1797 and leaves the Doge's Palace two days later. Napoleon's soldiers then defeat and plunder Venice. Napoleon hands the city, briefly, over to Austrian administration. After Austrian troops surrender to him in 1805, France administers the city until Napoleon's defeat in 1814, when Austria regains its administration.
• 1866 Prussia defeats Austria. Hands the city over to the new Republic of Italy.

 
Some notes regarding Shakespeare, who based a few of his plays in or around Venice, working with stories written in mediæval Spanish, French, Italian at that time.

• Two Gentlemen of Verona (thought by some to have been written between 1589 and 1593 and to be Shakespeare's first play). Verona is a city 100 kms from Venice.
• Merchant of Venice (thought to have been written between 1596 and 1599).
• Othello (thought to have been written in 1603, based on an earlier story by Giraldi). Othello was a Moor (from Morocco) based in Venice, a "Baptised" military general. In those days, Moors were normally referred to as Mohammedans or Turks. Regarding the word Muslim, an Arabic word, it was not added to English until 1610. Islam, also Arabic, was not added to English until 1816.

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