the Consort of his successor Doge Antonio Grimani.” In 1461 Leonardo married Giustina Giustiniani di Pancrazio di Marco, of the wealthy branch of San Moisè, who died in 1500, one year before Leonardo became Doge, and with whom he had nine children: the procurator Lorenzo (1462–1534), Girolamo (1468–1532), the only one to continue the branch, Alvise (1472–1521), Vincenzo (died in Tripoli in 1499), Bernardo (1481–1519), Donata, wife of Giacomo Gussoni da S. Vitale, Maria, wife of Giovanni Venier, of the branch that gave birth to Doge Francesco Venier (1554–56), Paola, wife of Giovanni Alvise Venier, descendant of Doge Antonio Venier (1382–1400), and Elisabetta, wife of Zaccaria Priuli. Some historians claim that his election as Doge in October 1501 was not entirely due to his talent as a politician but also because his wife came from the very influential Giustiniani family. Political career Loredan began his political ascent on 13 December 1455, at the age of nineteen, when he became a lawyer in the Giudici di Petizion, a magistracy concerned mainly with financial scandals and bankruptcies, for which he had Filippo Loredan as guarantor. A few years later, Leonardo sat on the Savi del Consiglio where he was responsible for assessing and evaluating foreign policy matters prior to their examination in the Senate. On 13 November 1468 he became consul of the Merchants and on 15 November 1473 he was elected Camerlengo di Comun. In 1480, along with Marco and Agostino Soranzo, Andrea Erizzo, Paolo Contarini and Nicolò Donà, he was chosen to administer approximately 30,000 ducats, collected through free donations from devotees of the miraculous image of the Virgin, to be used for the construction of the church dedicated to S. Maria dei Miracoli, in the district of S. Leone (Cannaregio), designed by Pietro Lombardo and his sons. In 1481 he was elected as a Savio di Terraferma and in November 1483 he was among the electors of Doge Marco Barbarigo. Between 1485 and 1486 he was still appointed Savio del Consiglio, and on 29 April 1487 he was elected mayor of Padua, taking over from Antonio Venier. He held this position until 1489, when he was elected to the prestigious position of ducal councillor. In 1490 he was called again as a Savio del Consiglio. On 1 August 1491 he was re-elected ducal councillor for the Cannaregio district and in 1492 he returned as Savio del Consiglio. In July