​FOSCARI, FRANCESCO (1373–1457), doge of Venice, belongedto a noble Venetian family, and held many of the highest officesof the republic—ambassador, president of the Forty, memberof the Council of Ten, inquisitor, procurator of St Mark,avvogadoredi comun, &c. His first wife was Maria Priuli and hissecond Maria Nani; of his many children all save one son(Jacopo) died young. But although a capable administratorhe was ambitious and adventurous, and the reigning dogeTommaso Mocenigo, when speaking on his deathbed of thevarious candidates for the succession, warned the council againstelecting Foscari, who, he said, would perpetually plunge therepublic into disastrous and costly wars. Nevertheless Foscariwas elected (1423) and reigned for thirty-four years. In proclaimingthe new doge the customary formula which recognizedthe people’s share in the appointment and asked for theirapproval—the last vestige of popular government—was finallydropped.

Foscari’s reign bore out Mocenigo’s warning and was full ofwars on theterra ferma, and through the doge’s influence Venicejoined the Florentines in their campaign against Milan, which wascarried on with varying success for eight years. In 1430 anattempt was made on Foscari’s life by a noble to whom he hadrefused an appointment; and three years later a conspiracy ofyoung bloods to secure the various offices for themselves byillicit intrigues was discovered. These events, as well as thelong and expensive wars and the unsatisfactory state of Venetianfinances, induced Foscari to ask permission to abdicate, whichwas, however, refused. In 1444 began that long domestic tragedyby which the name of Foscari has become famous. The doge’sson Jacopo, a cultivated and intelligent but frivolous andirresponsible youth, was in that year accused of the seriouscrime of having accepted presents from various citizens andforeign princes who either desired government appointments orwished to influence the policy of the republic. Jacopo escaped,but was tried in contumacy before the Council of Ten andcondemned to be exiled to Napoli di Romania (Nauplia) andto have his property confiscated. But the execution of thesentence was delayed, as he was lying ill at Trieste, and eventuallythe penalty was commuted to banishment at Treviso (1446).Four years later Ermolao Donato, a distinguished official whohad been a member of the Ten at the time of the trial, wasassassinated and Jacopo Foscari was suspected of complicityin the deed. After a long inquiry he was brought to trial forthe second time, and although all the evidence clearly pointedto his guilt the judges could not obtain a confession from theaccused, and so merely banished him to Candia for the rest of hislife, with a pension of two hundred ducats a year. In 1456 thecouncil received information from the rector (governor) of Candiato the effect that Jacopo Foscari had been in treasonable correspondencewith the duke of Milan and the sultan of Turkey.He was summoned to Venice, tried and condemned to a year’simprisonment, to be followed by a return to his place of exile.His aged father was allowed to see him while in prison, and toJacopo’s entreaties that he should obtain a full pardon for him,he replied advising him to bear his punishment without protest.When the year was up Jacopo returned to Candia, where he diedin January 1457. The doge was overwhelmed with grief at thisbereavement and became quite incapable of attending to business.Consequently the council decided to ask him to abdicate;at first he refused, but was finally obliged to conform to theirwishes and retired on a yearly pension of 1500 ducats. Withina week Pasquale Malipiero was elected in his place and two dayslater (1st of November 1457) Francesco Foscari was dead.