Jacopo Tiepolo

Jacopo Tiepolo was the son of Pietro Tiepolo of the San Ermagora parish in Venice. The identity of his mother is unknown, as is the date of his birth, but it was likely in the late 1160s. His family was engaged in trade, and Tiepolo himself is first attested in 1190, as a merchant trading with the Byzantine capital, Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) In 1196, he is even recorded as participating in a merchant fleet to Constantinople which failed due to a mutiny of its crews at Abydos, at the entrance of the Dardanelles. Unlike his ancestors, who had been merchants but uninvolved in Venetian politics, Tiepolo's social rise was couple with increasing participation in politics. Thus in 1205 he was one of the forty electors of Pietro Ziani, who had financed Tiepolo's trade venture in 1190, as Doge of Venice. In 1207 he served as judge in Venice, and in 1209 he was named as the first Duke of Crete, a post he held until 1214. Duke of Crete Tiepolo's job was to establish the Venetian administration over the island of Crete, which had been purchased by the Republic from Boniface of Montferrat. Tiepolo supervised the establishment of a Venetian colony, himself setting up the settlement of the island by military colonists from the metropolis. In 1211, a major revolt broke out against Venetian domination by the Greek inhabitants of Crete. Aided by the Genoese, the Greeks rose in revolt, so that Tiepolo was forced to call upon the aid of the Venetian lord of the Duchy of Naxos, Marco Sanudo. Sanudo successfully subdued the revolt, but initially refused to vacate the island. It was not until 1213 that Tiepolo was able to persuade Sanudo, through diplomatic means, to abandon his claims on Crete. Podestà of Constantinople This experience as a colonial administrator was likely a major reason why in 1218 Tiepolo appointed as Podestà of Constantinople, Venice's representative in the capital of the Latin Empire and governor of the local Venetian colony. He remained in this post for two years, during which he acted almost as an autonomous agent, concluding peace and trade treaties on Venice's behalf with the Emperor of Nicaea, Theodore I Laskaris, in August 1219, and with the Sultan of Iconium, Kayqubad I, in March 1220. His understanding of his role is exemplified by his assumption of the Byzantine title of despot and the appropriation of the appellation "ruler of a quarter and a half of the Empire of Romania" that was normally attributed to the Doge. During the interregnum after the death of Latin Empress Yolanda in September 1219, he was among the most powerful magnates of the Empire along with regent Conon de Béthune. In January 1221, Tiepolo was in Rome to witness Matthew, the newly appointed Latin Patriarch of Constantinople, renounce his see's rights of jurisdiction over the Venetian ecclesiastical institutions in the Latin Empire, in favour of the Patriarchate of Grado. In the second half of the same year Tiepolo served as podestà of Treviso. In this capacity he signed a peace treaty with Berthold, Patriarch of Aquileia, which favoured the latter. Tiepolo was back in Rome in April 1223, in order to obtain from Pope Honorius III the waiving of some ecclesiastical sanctions imposed on Venetian residents in the Latin Empire. After that, he sailed to Constantinople (likely in autumn of the same year), to again take up residence as the Venetian podestà. On 20 February 1224 he concluded an agreement with Latin Emperor Robert of Courtenay which confirmed the economic privileges the Venetians enjoyed in the Latin Empire. It is unknown when his tenure ended; his immediate successor is not known, and at the earliest he cannot have left Constantinople before autumn 1224. In spring 1227, Tiepolo was again sent as envoy to Rome, and was again podestà of Treviso later in the same year. His second tenure there was marked by his legislative activity. On his return to Venice, in 1228 he was ducal councillor. == Dogate ==