In his day, Francesco Morosini was, perhaps, the greatest of Venice’s heroes. A descendent of the ancient and powerful Morosini family, he led Venetian forces to many glorious victories in the Great Turkish War against the Ottoman Empire. In fact, in 1687 he managed to conquer the entire Peloponnese – on a map, that great southern peninsula of Greece, with its finger-like projections pointing south into the Mediterranean, that seems to be thumbing its nose at Crete… As well it might, because, years before, Morosini had been forced to surrender Crete to the Turks.
But we needn’t dwell on that. Better, liberator of the Peloponnese. And, lest we forget, he went on to take Athens back from the Turks, too (if only temporarily). So, it is not surprising that he was elected Doge as soon as that office became vacant, which it did in 1688.
