Count of Ossero

Who he is

Name

Ruggero Morosini, count of Ossero in 1198, when he also became Venice's rector of Pola; he died as count before March 1208, when Venice granted the county to his sons Robert, Peter (or John) and Andrew, so he very probably holds it that winter

Title

Count of Ossero (comes Absari) for Venice

Since

by 1198

Born

not pinned

Family

The Venetian Morosini

Confidence

high

Treccani (Enciclopedia Italiana, Istria) as cited on the Northern Italy map (Count of Ossero); FMG Medieval Lands (Croatia: counts of Absar), citing the Venetian grant of March 1208 to the sons of the late Count Ruggero Morosini for the county of Absarus with the islands Leporaria, Auriola and Seracana; English Wikipedia (War for Zadar) for the loss of 1190.

Overlord

Venice (Doge Enrico Dandolo)

What it holds

• Ossero and its district: the islands of Cres (Cherso) and Lošinj, with Unije, Susak and Ilovik.

How it was acquired

Venetian since the 11th century; lost in 1190; recovered by 1198 (date of recovery not pinned).

Allies and rivals

Venice's outpost facing Arbe and Zara in the war for Zara.

How things stand that morning

Venetian on 1 January 1200 under its Venetian count, Ruggero Morosini (attested 1198, dead before March 1208).

Wealth

Sheep, wool and fish; the canal of Ossero on the coasting route.

Military

Not recorded.

Threats

• Zara and the Hungarian crown, which held the islands in the 1190s.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. Autumn 1202 (later)The crusade fleet passes on its way to Zara.Depends on: The crusade treaty with Venice. Stopped by: The crusade not sailing with Venice.

Places of note

• Ossero: The bishop's town and seat of the count.
• Cherso: Harbour village on Cres under Ossero.

Where the sources disagree

• Duplicates Count of Ossero on the Northern Italy map (same ground, same realm, same holder): keep one.

Evidence: The 1190 loss rests on one source; the count is attested in 1198 and by the 1208 grant to his sons.

On the map: Drawn whole. Duplicates Count of Ossero (Northern Italy map): the compiler should keep one.

Primary sources for Venice

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• History of the bishops of Salona and Split, by Thomas the Archdeacon, Thomas of Split (about 1266). Written two generations later by a Split churchman born about 1200. Read online
• History of the doges of Venice (about 1229, with a continuation). The earliest surviving Venetian narrative close to the events. Read online
• The Conquest of Constantinople, Robert de Clari, knight of Picardy (about 1205 to 1216). A rank-and-file crusader's account that begins with the preaching of the crusade and the taking of the cross in 1199 to 1200 by the counts of Flanders, Blois and Champagne and by the Picard lords, among them Peter of Amiens, Robert's own lord, then the negotiations with Venice. Read online
• The Conquest of Constantinople (Villehardouin), Geoffrey of Villehardouin (about 1207 to 1213). Opens with the preaching of Fulk of Neuilly and the tournament at Ecry (28 November 1199) where Theobald III of Champagne and Louis of Blois took the cross, then the taking of the cross by Baldwin of Flanders, Hugh of Saint-Pol, Geoffrey of Perche and others through early 1200, the assemblies at Soissons and Compiegne in 1200, and the six envoys sent to Venice in the winter of 1200 to 1201. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
• Charters of the kingdom of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia, volume 2, 1101 to 1200 (documents of 1101 to 1200, edited 1904). The Croatian and Dalmatian charters to 1200: the acts of Duke Andrew as lord of Croatia and Dalmatia (1197 to 1204), the Hungarian kings' grants, the Templars and the bishops of Zagreb, Split, Zadar and Trogir, the communal statutes of the coastal towns, and the papal letters of 1200 to Emeric about Ban Kulin of Bosnia and heresy. Read online
• Documents on the Early Commercial and Political History of Venice, including the Partitio Romaniae of 1204 (documents 814 to 1299, edited by G. L. F. Tafel and G. M. Thomas, 3 vols (Vienna, 1856 to 1857)). Volume 1 (814 to 1205) prints Venice's treaties with Byzantium, the chrysobull of 1198 to Venice with its list of imperial provinces, the Venetian treaty with the crusaders of April 1201, and the Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae of late 1204, which divides the Empire by its fiscal districts and so records the provincial structure (themes, episkepseis, estates) that was in place in 1200. Read online
• Greek Acts and Documents of the Middle Ages, Sacred and Secular (documents of the 9th to 15th centuries, edited by F. Miklosich and J. Muller, 6 vols (Vienna, 1860 to 1890)). Volume 3 (Acta et diplomata res Graecas Italasque illustrantia, 1865) prints the imperial chrysobulls to Venice, including Alexios III's of November 1198 with its list of the provinces and towns of the Empire where Venetians traded, the best single picture of the imperial provinces as they stood on 1 January 1200, together with the Pisan and Genoese privileges. Read online

1 more in the sources library for Poland, Hungary and the Adriatic.