Bedmar Conspiracy

The Bedmar Conspiracy was a supposed plot to overthrow the Venetian Republic by coup d'état on Ascension Day in 1618, prompted by the Marquess of Bedmar, Ambassador to the Republic for Hapsburg Spain. It is unclear that there was such a conspiracy, but its reality may have been believed by the Council of Ten. Much of the attention later given to this incident resulted from the 1674 account in French published by César Vichard de Saint-Réal, which formed the source of Thomas Otway's English tragedy Venice Preserv'd of 1682. Contemporary scholarly work has concluded that there is little enough evidence to support the details of the Savoyard Saint-Réal's narrative, or even to conclude that there was a definite plot. Hugh Trevor-Roper wrote:

Was it real, a carefully laid plan to seize the city, or a fantasy generated in the heated atmosphere of the time? We do not know. But whatever it was, it led nowhere.

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