Orseolo

An aristocratic Venetian family that produced four doges. Pietro I (doge from 976), who became a saint. Pietro II (doge from 991), who conquered Dalmatia in 1000. The family's influence petered out with Ottone (doge from 1009), who defeated the patriarch of Aquileia, but was exiled in 1026. Domenico was doge for just a day.

Orseolo, the name of a Venetian family, three members of which filled the office of doge. 928-997) acted as ambassador to the emperor Otto I before he was elected doge in August 976. He is chiefly celebrated, however, for his piety and his generosity, and after holding office for two years he left Venice secretly and retired to a monastery in Aquitaine, where he passed his remaining days. 1009), a son of the previous doge, was himself elected to this office in 991. The fleet which achieved this result was led by the doge in person; In honor of this victory the Venetians instituted the ceremony which afterwards grew into the sposalizio del mar, or marriage of the sea, and which was celebrated each year on Ascension Day, while the doge added to his title that of duke of Dalmatia. The doge was on very friendly terms with the emperor Otto III and also with the emperors at Constantinople, and in 1003 he sailed against the Saracens and compelled them to raise the siege of Bari. In 1003 his son Giovanni was associated with him in the dogeship, and on Giovanni's death in 1007 another son, Ottone, succeeded to this position. 1032), whose godfather was the emperor Otto III, became sole doge on his father's death in 1009. About 1024 Ottone and Orso were driven from Venice, but when Orso's rival, Poppo, patriarch of Aquileia, seized Grado, the exiled doge and his brother was recalled and Grado was recovered. he found a refuge in Constantinople, where he remained until his death, although in 1030 an embassy invited him to return to Venice, where his brother Orso acted as agent for fourteen months. Orso remained patriarch of Grado until his death in 1045, and another member of the Orseolo family, Domenico, was doge for a single day in 1031. After the fall of the Orseoli the Venetians decreed that no doge should name his successor, or associate any one with him in the dogeship. Ottone's son, Pietro, was king of Hungary for some time after the death of his uncle, St. Stephen, in 1038.