Sold – Queen Anne Confers a Coat of Arms on the Venetian Ambassador

For some thousand years, the chief magistrate and leader of the Republic of Venice was the Doge. Doges were elected by the citystate’s aristocracy who commonly selected the most politically shrewd older man from among the city’s great ruling families.

One of those families was the Cornaros, who supplied four doges and numerous cardinals of the church over a span of some 360 years.

Doge Marco Cornaro was elected in 1365 after having been instrumental in suppressing a plot to overthrow the republic and impose a monarchy. He reestablished commercial relations with Egypt, interrupted since 1356, by successfully prevailing upon Pope Urban V to revoke his prohibition on dealing with infidels. He initiated construction of the wing of the Doge’s Palace toward the basin of San Marco and commissioned decoration of the Grand Council chamber. During the Rennaisance, one of his descendents, Francesco Cornaro, was a patron of the arts.

He commissioned Andrea Mantegna to create a cycle of four paintings on classical subjects, chosen because of their association with historical Roman figures with whom the Cornaro family claimed kinship. Upon Mantegna’s death, Cornaro turned to his equally celebrated brother-in-law, Giovanni Bellini, to execute The Continence of Scipio.

Throughout the 17th century and into the 18th, the Cornaros were at the center of power, and were described in a biography as massively wealthy. Giovanni Cornaro served in a succession of increasingly prestigious and responsible offices until his election as Doge of Venice in January 1625. His son, Francesco Cornaro, was a senator and a Procurator di San Marco before he was elected Doge in May 1656. Francesco’s grandson, Doge Giovanni Cornaro II, was elected to that office in May 1709. His brother, Francesco Cornaro, was the ambassador of Venice to Great Britain, one of the most prestigious diplomatic prizes the republic could confer.

Surely the scion of one of Venice’s foremost families and the brother of the likely incoming doge was worthy of honor at the court of Queen Anne, and the Queen determined to confer on Ambassador Cornaro a knighthood and coat of arms.

Document Signed, Court of St. James, London, December 4, 1708, granting a coat of arms to Francesco Cornaro. “We having taken into our royal consideration the great worth and prudence of Signor Francesco Cornaro, ambassador from the Republic of Venice, during his residence in our Court, have been graciously pleased to confer upon him the honour of Knighthood, and as a farther mark and testimony of our good esteem of the said Signor Francesco Cornaro, to give and assign unto him an addition to his paternal coat of arms (being per pale or and azure) on a chief gold, the red and white roses of York and Lancaster conjoined, and the holy thistle of Scotland inoculated on the stem thereof (being the badge of our United Kingdom of Great Britain), according to the manner depicted in the margin. To be born and used by him the said Signor Francesco Cornaro, and the heir male of his body lawfully begotten…And our will and pleasure is that you require and command our servants the King’s Heralds and Pursuivants of Arms…to marshall the same according to ye blazon thereof on all occasions. And further that this our concession and declaration be duly registered in our College of Arms, and for so to do this shall be your warrant.”The document is also signed by the Earl of Sunderland and the paper contains the royal watermark. Adrawing of the coat of arms described appears above Anne’s signature. On the right the lion of Venice is drawn out; at left it simply says, “The same on this side.” Below is the Ambassador’s anything-but-humble motto, “Without compare.” This is our first royal coat of arms document, and it creates a fascinating association.