And now commenced a reign which continued twenty-two years (1289-1311), during which time the most important changes were made in the government of Venice; serious wars were undertaken, and great disasters encountered; the Republic was placed under the ban of the Church; grave revolutions occurred. Indeed, these years seem not to have had a day that was not heavy with important results; and yet, as we now review them after the lapse of centuries, we know that the effect of wars, insurrections, interdict, and plague combined, did not compare in importance with two great political changes which were brought about under Gradenigo's leadership,—the closing of the Great Council (Serrata del Consiglio Maggiore), and the establishment of the Council of Ten.
Daniel Barbaro sums up the character of Gradenigo thus:—
"He was a person of infinite astuteness and sagacity. For the vigor of his understanding and the soundness of his judgment he was not more remarkable than for his constancy of purpose and firmness of will. In the prosecution of his formed designs his energy and resolution were indomitable. As an orator, his delivery was fluent, his language copious, and his manner persuasive. Toward his friends and partisans, no one was more urbane in deportment, more profuse in kindness, more apparently studious to please. Toward those who had provoked his enmity, no one could be more unforgiving and implacable. In politics he was a dexterous tactician and an habitual dissembler; and he at all times evinced a backwardness to employ force, until intrigue and artifice were exhausted."
There is little doubt that Gradenigo was pledged to fully carry out the policy of the aristocrats. By a certain management they had been essentially in power for a long time, but occasionally they were made to realize the dissatisfaction of the people and their claim to authority. The time was favorable for the politicians to perfect and initiate their schemes, almost unnoticed by the people, who were fully occupied with the Genoese war, which gave them much anxiety and distracted their thoughts from what was being quietly done in their very midst. The intent of the closing of the Great Council was to exclude from election all save the aristocrats; it is thus explained by Romanin:—
"The citizens were divided into three classes: first, those who neither in their own persons nor through their ancestors had ever formed part of the Great Council; second, those whose progenitors had been members of it; third, those who were themselves members of the Council, both they and their fathers. The first were called new men, and were never admitted save by special grace; the second class were included from time to time; finally, the third were elected by full right."
This measure was not perfected without much diplomacy extending over many years,—indeed, it may he said to have been initiated in 1172,—and when it was finally accomplished Venice was ruled by an oligarchy beyond dispute, and for all time. It was confirmed in the statute-book when all Venice was occupied with the fitting out of the great fleet to be commanded by the Admiral Andrea Dandolo. The Genoese war had thus far been uncertain in its results, the advantage being sometimes on one side, and again on the other, until the Venetians were thoroughly aroused, and willing to contribute money and men, and to do everything possible to put an end to this vexatious conflict.
Dandolo's fleet numbered ninety-five vessels, and carried more than thirty thousand fighting men. One man-of-war was fitted out and commanded by Marco Polo, lately returned from travels in Tartary and other countries then rarely visited. So rich was he that he was called "Messer Marco Milioni;" and but for his engaging in this war our knowledge of him to-day might have been confined to this title.
The fleet sailed from Venice early in September, 1298, and proceeded down the Adriatic to the island of Curzola, where Dandolo learned that Lampa Doria, with the Genoese fleet, was approaching. He had but seventy-eight ships, many of them being much larger and heavier than those of the Venetians. Doria had hoped to reach Venice before Dandolo sailed, and was much chagrined to find the enemy's squadron stretched across the gulf in three lines, completely barring his passage.
Doria was so impressed by the superiority of the Venetians, and so well knew their indomitable spirit, that he at once gave up the thought of a battle, and sent to Dandolo to arrange terms of submission, offering to give up all his stores. Dandolo answered that the only terms he would accept were those of the unconditional surrender of the Genoese. This acted like a tonic on the courage of Doria and his men, and they determined to fight. Ten Genoese galleys were placed in concealment behind the island, and the remaining sixty-eight were disposed in line of battle.
Dandolo, finding that he was so placed that his men must fight with both the sun and wind in their faces, began to doubt the wisdom of his haughty and insolent reply, and decided to consult the civil councillors who had been sent from Venice as his advisers. Dandolo did not hesitate from fear, but from common prudence, which recognized the disadvantages he must encounter. But the civilians in their ignorance and arrogance urged him to fight, and he at once proceeded to do all in his power to overcome his unfortunate position.