Caterina Cornaro

Born into the Venetian patriciate class, Caterina Cornaro (also Corner, b. 1454–d. 1510), ruled the island of Cyprus as its last queen from 1473–1489. Her wealthy and ambitious father, Marco, and uncle Andrea possessed political and mercantile interests in the Cypriot kingdom ruled by the French Lusignan family that facilitated her marriage to King Jacques II in 1468, a union sanctioned and supported by the Venetian Republic. His death in 1473 prompted an attempted coup that Caterina and her infant son, Jacques III, evaded with Venetian assistance the following year. The coup provided justification for Venetian interference in Cypriot governance, which, despite Caterina’s resistance, gradually increased until Venice forced her abdication in 1489. After her return to the Venetian mainland, Caterina divided her time between the hill town of Asolo, which she governed on Venice’s behalf as recompense for her sacrifice of her kingdom; her hunting lodge (Barco) at Altivole; and Venice, where she continued to marshal her royal authority, arranging marriages for family and friends and regularly petitioning the Venetian government for offices and benefices for her former courtiers. Perhaps the most famous woman of the Venetian Renaissance, Caterina appeared in the paintings of Gentile Bellini as well as those of other artists. The image of her sacrifice of her kingdom for the sake of Venice appeared on her tomb in the church of San Salvador, Venice, other family tombs, and on the ceiling of the Great Council Hall in the Doge’s Palace. Venerated in humanist orations and poetry, Caterina and her court provided the setting for Pietro Bembo’s poetic musing on the nature of love, Gli Asolani (1505).