Domenico Morosini

Domenico Morosini (died February 1156) was the thirty-seventh doge of the Republic of Venice, reigning from 1148 until his death in 1156.

Descendant of a noble family (he was a count), Morosini succeeded in reconciling the two factions that had divided Venetian patrician families for years, thus ending a political conflict that had also caused the Republic to lose ground in its territories and primacy in its commercial activities. Quite unexceptional otherwise, Morosini's dogeship was marked by renewed prosperity and reconciliation.

Morosini's early years are difficult to reconstruct, due to the absence of reliable records and sources. As a matter of fact, his birthyear is unknown, as are the activities and connections of his family before his interest in politics.
This unusual lack of publicly recorded information is likely because his dukedom was relatively unremarkable in terms of conquests, expansion, and events of significance — historians of the Republic would have had little interest in "digging up the past" either to glorify or to marr his legacy. He was married to a woman named Sophia, according to legend a captive from the East.

The Morosini had been raised to countship in the late 10th century C.E. after they, with the support of Holy Roman Emperor Otto II, had vanquished the rival Caloprini family.
Domenico brought the family to the forefront of Venetian political life, starting a tradition that would see his successors contribute greatly to the wellbeing of the Republic. Ruggiero Morosini would be admiral of the Venetian navy that defeated the Genoese in 1298, while Francesco Morosini would defeat the Turks on several occasions, somewhat slowing down the westward progress of the Ottoman Empire in the process.

Morosini took office at a time when relations between Venice and two of its long-time allies, Byzantine Greece and the Normans, were beginning to deteriorate.

After the death of his father, emperor Alexios I Komnenos, in 1118, John II Komnenos refused to confirm the 1082 treaty (a chrysobull) with the Republic, which had given it unique and generous trading rights within the Byzantine Empire (there would be no import duties on Venetian shipments to and from the territories of the Empire). An incident involving the abuse of a member of the imperial family by Venetians led to a dangerous conflict, especially as Byzantium had depended on Venice for its naval strength.
After a Byzantine retaliatory attack on Kerkyra, John II exiled the Venetian merchants from Constantinople, but this produced further retaliation, and a Venetian fleet of 72 ships plundered Rhodes, Chios, Samos, Lesbos, Andros and captured Kefalonia in the Ionian Sea.

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