forced to abdicate by the Council of Ten. Francesco Foscari's dogeship was marked by Venice's expansion in the terraferma and its wars with the Duchy of Milan, but also by the increasingly autocratic rule of the Doge, and the trials and exile of his son Jacopo Foscari for bribery and corruption. Jacopo's misdeeds, actual and alleged, provided a means for the Doge's political opponents to attack him, and played a major role in Francesco's own downfall. The tragic spectacle of a father, acting as head of state, forced to send his only surviving son into exile, provided much inspiration for artists, such as Lord Byron's The Two Foscari, on which Giuseppe Verdi based his opera I due Foscari. The family continued after that, but never recovered its former prominence. In 1558, brothers Nicolo and Luigi Foscari commissioned a new villa beside the Brenta canal on the terraferma, the main land near Venice, with architect Andrea Palladio. It was completed in 1560 and is one of the most splendid examples of Palladianism. The villa was sold by the family in 1926, but re-purchased in 1973 and restored to its old glory. It houses a museum. In the 19th century count Piero Foscari married the Austrian countess Elisabeth Widmann-Rezzonico, heiress of the lordship of Paternion in Carinthia, Austria. Paternion Castle, together with castles Pöllan and Kreuzen and 8,800 hectares of forest, are still today owned by the Austrian branch, the counts Foscari-Widmann-Rezzonico. References Sources