Agostino Barbarigo (1420-20 September 1501) was the Doge of Venice from 1486 to 1501, succeeding Marco Barbarigo and preceding Leonardo Loredan. While he was known to have created an alliance that would expel France from Italy during the Italian Wars, Venice suffered large territorial losses in the Mediterranean Sea region as the Ottoman Empire expanded, and Barbarigo died in 1501 as an unpopular doge.
Biography[]
Agostino Barbarigo was born into the wealthy House of Barbarigo of the Republic of Venice, and was the brother of Marco Barbarigo. Unlike the rest of his family, he was an acquaintance of Assassins, and even after the death of his brother in 1486, he continued to help the Assassins Order. He met with Ezio Auditore da Firenze, who had killed his brother (unbeknownst to him), and helped him kill his cousin Silvio Barbarigo by telling him of Silvio's location at the Armory and that he was defended by no less than 200 mercenaries. He was the de facto Doge, but was not yet confirmed by the Council of Forty-One, so he could not call off the mercenaries from his cousin. He still helped in planning the assassination of Silvio, and upon becoming Doge, he promised not to ally with the House of Borgia like the rest of his family.
Doge from 1486 until his death in 1501, Agostino Barbarigo helped create a coalition to expel Charles VIII of France from Italy, gaining territory on the Italian mainland in the process. However, it seemed that Venetian doges could not seize territory in one place without losing it in another. Venice entered into war with Turkey in 1499, leading to the disastrous sea battle of Zonchio which destoyed the Venetian navy. Taking advantage of this loss, the Turks seized Lepanto, Modone, and Corone, all stops along the way to the Orient.
Death[]
Agostino swore to avoid the corruption that his brother Marco had failed to prevent. But like his brother, he succumbed, and Venice was once more in peril of a Templar conspiracy. The Assassin Tessa Varzi sent him four threatening letters that were poisoned, and Agostino fell ill after receiving all of them. He died in bed, many believing that it was natural causes; he was 81 years old at the time of his passing.
Agostino died a disappointment to Venice. Moreover, after his death, he was charged with receiving bottles of wine as gifts and then reselling them tax-free "beneath the staircase of the prisons", by the Inquisitors of the Great Council.