Trouble at Home

Gothic architecture always felt dark. Venice's most beautiful Gothic building was the art museum known as the Golden House, while the second most beautiful was the Doge's Palace, its surface almost resembling lace, faced with pink Verona marble and pierced by graceful arched windows.

The palace's main entrance was the Porta della Carta, located between the Doge's Palace and St Mark's Basilica. Above it, Doge Francesco Foscari knelt before the Lion of St. Mark.

In the Republic of Venice, the individual submitted to the power of the state. The present sculpture was a nineteenth-century copy of the original, which had been destroyed when Napoleon's army invaded Venice.

In another era, a soldier like Napoleon would have been court-martialed long ago. Even when he was in the army, he had been unruly—capable of winning battles but unwilling to obey orders. During the invasion of Italy, he delayed his superiors' commands whenever he could. How could he possibly have become Emperor of France?

The Republic of Venice was a trading state. Whenever possible, it made friends. The Genoese were Venice's rivals. The Roman Curia, Venice, Florence, Naples, and Milan were five evenly matched states. Though they differed greatly in scale and nature, they roughly maintained a balance of political power. Such a situation was unfavorable to Italian unification.

Foreigners saw Italy as a treasure house of art: wealthy yet divided, militarily weak, and a prize that was both easy to defeat and highly profitable.

In truth, Italians had ambitions too. After all, Rome stood on their land. Francesco Foscari's war with the Milanese had not been a trade dispute, but a war of annexation.

Thanks to its abundant wealth, Venice could always pay its troops on time. Its policy of maintaining mercenaries to expand national defense had also been highly successful, and