Sanudo Diaries: August stories, receiving Anne de Foix, 1502

nedits: In Venice, 510 years ago, still looking back on the years of doge Loredan's leadership, long before, 

imagine a greasy table in a smoky room with metal cups

dirt floors, unpleasant smells, flies everywhere, poorly lit, fish and pork hanging from the rafters.

Small groups here and there nurse at their drink, heads bowed.

A madrigal in tattered but fading once-bright leggings

sings a low but not unhappy song of a time, not that long before,

just a bit of doggerel to show how far they might have come,

'Anne of Foix grew up in Blois

under one of the French Regencies.

She studied her Greek, Latin, French and Crecy,

Manners, Decorum and Courtesy,

horrored by the barks off in Araby,

plagued by the wake thrown off by Turkey

whose advances approached at every turn.

Still she would serve her country as

Queen Consort of King Hungary

and leave her childish things behind.

Not for herself or just her family

she traveled on a rich itine'ry

with retinues, and guards and compagnie

bedecked with trains and finery 

to spread a Regal Couturie.

Along the Rhone and down the Rhine

she traveled off to Aix en Provence,

Milan and thence, especially to Venezia

who threw her a splendid Party Royale."

Venice, even with this new doge in 1502, still maintaining good relations with France (and her new king) at a time when alliances were shifting against the Turk and becoming more united at home,

...  Anne de Foix, , the cousin to the wife of french King Louis XII comes for a visit. That last link is a contemporary portrait commissioned by her new husband Ladislav, Roy de Hongarie...

1502: Putting on a show for a future Queen

Editor's note: "she was now en route as bride to Ladislas VI, king of Bohemia, Hungary and Poland. Since she could intervene with the kings of France and Hungary in favor of an alliance against the Turks, her reception in Venice by the government of Doge Loredan was sumptuous, and the entertainments provided were extensive. The queen - for so she was already entitled - arrived on July 31 and was met in style and lodged at the Casa del Marchese. A joust in her honor was to be held a few days later..." p. 70

Sanudo Diaries: August 4, 1502 (4:296-96) "At sixteen hours after sunset the platforms were put up in the Piazza; the barriers and the sand had been set out the day before. All this took place because the Hungarians wanted to hold a joust to show off their large horses and fine trappings. Fifty-four women had arrived, bedecked with jewels, etc.; they mounted the platforms, where the heads of the Ten had already seated themselves to prevent anyone else from going up there. While they awaited there for the queen to arrive with the doge and the Signoria, word reached them that the horses that were to be used for the joust were in Treviso and would arrive the next day. So a message was sent to the women to come down from the platforms and go to the Ducal Palace for the festivities because the joust was not yet ready, and they did so. The festivities were presented by the compagnia of the Elect and began at about eighteen hours. The doge came forward to greet the queen and lead her onto the platform. In the midst of this came a great wind and rain storm that lasted an hour and a half. The festivities were held in the palace; the queen danced with Lord Galeazzo Visconti, of Milan. Then the refreshments were served; they were very nice and cost 300 ducats or more...."

Editor's note: "This was a costly visit, complicated by Anne's retinue of seven hundred Hungarian horsemen and her inability to leave the city for Hungary until her dowry arrived from France. In addition to reporting the expenses, Sanudo weighs the cost against the political advantage such entertainment might bring:" p. 70

Sanudo's Diaries: "The expenses involved in honoring this most serene queen, which amounted to more than 400 ducats per day, began to be regretted. Nor is there any discussion of when she might leave, because the Hungarians have been charged not to take her from here until they have received the 40,000 ducats in dowry promised to her by the king of France. Many of the French who accompanied the queen, seeing that the matter would take a long time, are leaving and returning to Milan."

nedits: Three years before, in 1499, Louis XII of France had seized Milan from the forces of the Sforza family that had held it for 49 years and held it as well a a number of other Italian cities as a protectorate, responsible for its security and general welfare. Hence the very cordial relations between the Duke of Milan and the new Queen.

Sanudo's Diaries: "Some of the Hungarians are leaving by way of Treviso. Thus the queen remains here with a retinue of sixty to seventy mouths. A light galley and another long-oared ship were prepared for her, to take her to Segna [a seaport on the Croatian-Dalmatian coast] in comfort. An election was held in the Senate to choose one of the lords of the Arsenal, who currently are ser Alvise Marzelo, ser Toma Duodo, and ser Piero Lando, to serve as the captain of the galley that accompanies the queen. The winner was ser Piero Lando, the younger, handsomest, and wisest. It seems that now, however, people are saying that the queen does not want to go by sea, but by way of Treviso and then through the lands belonging to the king of the Romans."

Editor's Footnote: "Maximillain I was called 'emporer' by his contemporaries and still is called/known by this title. However, because he was never crowned by the pope, technically he held only the title 'king of the Romans' until his death in 1519." p. 71

Sanudo: "One thing is that in the past days she has been here with almost 600 mouths to feed, counting the French, the Hungarians, and the Milanese. A great deal of money has been spent and a lot of resources consumed. Word is out that two Frenchmen and two Hungarians are making a record of all the honors paid to the Queen in our mainland cities and here in Venice so that it may be shown to the king of France and the king of Hungary. And the queen, who is very perceptive, told the doge that she had not known what it meant to be a queen until her arrival in Venice and that she will therefore commend this state to His Majesty the king and that she wishes always to be a daughter of this most illustrious Signoria. To which the doge replied with kind and fitting words that this was nothing in comparison with the feeling in Venice's heart for her."

Editor's note: "For the next two days, the queen toured Venice. She went to Murano to watch glass being made. She visited the relics of the body of St Barbara at the Crosechieri (Crociferi).` [Many relics were kept there for safe-keeping and located near the lagoon, it burned down in 1513 and all the relics were lost.] She went to Santa Maria Mazor [Santa Maria Maggiore] to see where the monastery was going to be built. She attended a concert in Canareggio, where music of all kinds was played (4:298). And on Sunday she was invited, along with other members of the foreign community, to the regular meeting of the Great Council. However, behind the facade of pleasurable activities, Anne de Foix's situation was quite entangled in diplomatic negotiations over her dowry, and the costs continued to escalate. But the legendery Venetian hospitality prevailed, and Sanudo summarizes the situation with the popular wisdom of a proverb:"

Sanudo's Diaries: August 7, 1502: (4:298): "The queen did not come to the Great Council meeting, but the French and the Hungarian ambassadors did. Arrangements for the election of the new members of the Ten were begun. Then in the evening the queen went to vespers at the Celestia and then to the Vergini to hear the nuns sing. Thus she is not yet ready to leave, because the French do not want to give the 40,000 francs to the Hungarian ambassadors, who are here until the king has received the bride into his home and consummated the marriage. And the Hungarians have been told that she may not come to Hungary until she has the money. So Her Most Serene Highness is in a bad mood. Letters have been sent to Milan, to the king of France, and to Hungary; in the meantime she will remain here. Every day she goes to visit churches and monasteries, and she continues to stay at our expense. In eight days 4500 ducats have been spent. Our officials have had to close their eyes so as not to lose the benefits of her visit; it ha been said in this regard that "Chi beve el mar, puol bever el fiume' ['if you can drink a sea, you can drink a river'.]'

Editor's footnote: "The suggestion is that the Venetian government, which had already invested so much in the queen's visit, hoping by that investment to find favor with the kings of France and Hungary and to enlist their aid against the Turks, could well invest a little more. It was another two weeks before the queen finally left Venice, on 22 August."


All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes from Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selection from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll,  editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008