Editing Enrico Dandolo (section)

===Dogeship===
[[File:EnricoDandolo.jpg|thumb|Engraving of Dandolo from the early 19th century.]]
On 1 June 1192, after [[Orio Mastropiero]] abdicated the throne, Dandolo became the new doge.{{sfn|Madden|2012|p= 110}} He was the second doge to be chosen by a council of forty electors.{{sfn|Madden|2012|p= 110}} Already aged and blind, but deeply ambitious, he displayed tremendous energy and mental capacity.{{sfn|Madden|2003|p= 92}}<ref>{{Cite book|title=Venice|last=Madden|pages=111}}</ref> His remarkable deeds over the next eleven years have led some to hypothesize that he actually may have been in his mid seventies when he became Venice's leader. None of the earlier chronicles and contemporary witnesses give his exact age, only mentioning that he was very old. The commonly given birth year of {{Circa|1107}} is based on the account of [[Marino Sanuto the Younger]] (1466 – 1536) three centuries later, who stated that Dandolo was eighty-five when he assumed the throne.{{sfn|Madden|2003|p= 92}} Though not the first doge to take the ''[[promissione ducale]],'' Dandolo's is the earliest that is available to historians.{{sfn|Madden|2003|p= 95-96}}

One of Dandolo's first decrees as doge was to evict all foreigners who had lived in Venice for fewer than two years on 16 August 1192.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Venice|last=Madden|pages=426}}</ref> Landlords were obligated to evict any of these foreigners from their premises. Citizens who violated the decree had to pay fifty lire, and foreigners' goods were confiscated. Additionally, Venetians were not allowed to lend money to foreigners—excepting those from the areas of Umana or Ragusa—for a period that exceeded fifteen days.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice|last=Madden|pages=106}}</ref> The reason why this decree was implemented is unknown, but it seems to correlate to a recent increase of foreigners into Venice, since it did not affect foreigners who had been living in the city for more than two years.{{sfn|Madden|2003|p= 107}}

In 1193, Dandolo commanded an attack on the nearby city of [[Zadar|Zara]], which for years had troubled Venice and threatened its control over the [[Dalmatia|Dalmatian Coast]]. Until 1180, Zara had been under Venetian control, until they staged a successful rebellion in which they became the sole city on this coast that was against Venetian interests.{{sfn|Madden|2003|p= 111-112}} Dandolo seemed to have always supported Venice's reinstating power over the city, since he had contributed money to doge [[Orio Mastropiero]]'s 1187 military attempt to regain control there.{{sfn|Madden|2003|p=112}} Dandolo's 1193 attack on Zara was only somewhat successful. He managed to regain control over the islands of Pago, Ossero, and Arbe, which had been lost in an 1190 attempt led by [[Orio Mastropiero|Mastropiero]], though not Zara.{{sfn|Madden|2003|p= 112}}

In 1194, Dandolo enacted important reforms to the Venetian currency system. Before these reforms, Venice's principal coin was the silver penny, which weighed less than a gram and was about one-quarter fine.<ref>Stahl, Alan M. "The Coinage of Venice in the Age of Enrico Dandolo." In ''Medieval and Renaissance Venice'', edited by Ellen E. Kittell and Thomas F. Madden, 124–40. (University of Illinois Press, 1999.) p. 124</ref> Due to the debasement of the silver penny in 1180 and the constant fluctuation in value of Jerusalem and Byzantine coins,{{sfn|Madden|2003|p= 109-110}} Dandolo instated three denominations of this silver penny, the ''bianco'' (half-penny), the ''quartarolo'' (quarter-penny), and the silver ''grosso''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Coinage|last=Stahl|pages=124}}</ref> The ''bianco'' had a silver content of about five percent, and was decorated with a cross on one side and St. Mark on the other.{{sfn|Madden|2003|p= 110}} The ''quartarolo'' had almost no precious metal content, which made it the first European [[token coin]] since ancient Rome.{{sfn|Madden|2003|p= 110}} The ''[[Venetian grosso|grosso]]'' was the first nearly pure silver–and high denomination–coin minted in western Europe in over five centuries.{{sfn|Madden|2003|p= 110}}<ref>{{Cite book|title=Medieval and Renaissance Venice|last1=Kittell|first1=Ellen E.|last2=Madden|first2=Thomas F.|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=1999|location=Urbana|pages=7}}</ref> It was decorated with an image of Dandolo and St. Mark on one side, and of [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]] enthroned on the other side, which imitated a design typically seen on Byzantine ''[[Aspron|aspron trachy]]'' coins.{{sfn|Madden|2003|p= 110}} The ''grosso'' eventually became the dominant coin of Mediterranean commerce.{{sfn|Madden|2003|p= 110}}