his wife's dowry, of personal estates on the mainland under the vassalage of the emperor made him look like a mainland feudal lord, which was alien to the Venetians. His living isolated from the people with a bodyguard of mercenaries hired from his mainland possessions and his manoeuvring to acquire family control of the top of the church made him all-powerful. When he asked the Venetians to help him to defend his personal interests in the Ferrara area, the rebellion broke out. Staley Edgcumbe wrote that the rebellion was due to the fact that both the doge and his wife were disliked and too powerful. They were seen as being haughty and living in “proud and contentious isolation.” Waldrada was seen as being petulant and the fact that she was accompanied by Florentine guards was disliked. Pietro was seen as being vainglorious and treated the nobles and officials with “coldness and disdain”. He had a retinue of Tuscans and Greeks and Germans. He also formed a clique of members of the branches of his family form Padua and Vicenza whose power was a threat to the established order. Death In 976 the Doge's Palace was attacked. Since the palace was like a fortress, it was set alight. The doge was forced to come out and he was killed, together with his young son Pietro by Waldrada, by some notables (among whom there were some of his relatives). Their bodies were thrown in the slaughterhouse, but were later recovered and buried in the monastery of Sant'Ilario, in Fusina, on the mainland coast of the Lagoon of Venice, perhaps because Pietro owned large estates in the area. Two previous doges, Agnello e Giustiniano Partecipazio, who founded the monastery, were also buried there. As the fire spread, some 300 buildings were destroyed, including the churches of St Mark's, the old San Teodoro, and the newly completed Santa Maria Zobenigo. Waldrada managed to escape the attack, taking her young daughter Marina with her. She fled to the empress Adelaide, the mother of the new emperor, Otto II, in Verona. She appealed to Otto II to set fire to Venice and imprison its people. She demanded the reconstitution of her dowry. The new doge, Pietro I Orseolo, sent an envoy to Piacenza to discuss her claim with Otto II. These were amended in a way that satisfied both parties (Pietro IV had introduced the Mundio,