Andrea Cornaro-Influencer and Uncle

Andrea Cornaro was Caterina Cornaro's uncle. He was advisor and councillor to King James II of Cyprus. His first diplomatic success was when he convinced James to free Famagusta from Genoese occupation, with the result that Genoa's position in commerce and the economy was taken by his native Venice.

There came a time, when James had to find a wife. Caterina Cornaro was suggested. It was a union of opportunity. The Cornaro family were wealthy and Cypriots considered them as Cypriots. The Cornaro family would also give James financial relief.

Caterina Cornaro was born in the Cornaro palace in Venice in 1454, on the feast day of St Catherine. In her book 'Ladies of Medieval Cyprus and Caterina Cornaro,' Leto Severis expalins that "Caterina gave signs of a dynamic character, a well-balanced mind and great intelligence." The marriage of Caterina Cornaro and James II  was performed in the cathedral of St Nicholas in Famagusta " with fitting magnificence."

Caterina became pregnant but James her husband became sick and died on July 7th 1472. Everyone was talking about assassination by poison and there were suspicions against the Venetians. Caterina's uncle Andrea Cornaro now became one of the guardians of the state after James II's death.

On the 28th August 1473, Caterina gave birth to a boy. He was christened on the 28th September 1473 and became James III. In the same year, on the 13th and 14th of November 1473, a revolt broke out organised by the Neapolitans and supported by a section of the Cypriot population. That night Caterina's uncle Andrea Cornaro, was killed.

James III the sickly baby of Caterina and James II, died just before his first birthday on the 24th August 1474. As Leto Severis explains in her book, Caterina understood how the Venetians had used her, for their own calculating means. She blamed her husband's death and her child's death, on them. She gathered her strength to continue her life. She felt that she had a duty of protecting the name of the Lusignans and the place that had received her with so much love. She wanted to protect the old crusader family but was made to give her power to the Venetians in 1489.

It is interesting to note that in September 1477 Venice decided to send a hundred noble families from Venice to establish themselves in Cyprus, so that they would change the nationality of the island. They were ordered to develop the land and could not leave the island for five continuous years.