Carola, wife of Obelerio degli Antenori
Italian noble
Carola (fl. 811) is the name used by Edgecumbe Staley in his book The dogaressas of Venice to refer to the Dogaressa of Venice married to Doge Obelerio degli Antenori (r. 804-811).
Among many claims, she is sometimes purported to be the first consort of a Venetian doge with the title and position of dogaressa of Venice, although this is a claim that only appears for the first time in 1858, over 1,000 years after her supposed reign. The first mention of a consort of Obelerio in the surviving historical record is in the Chronicon Altinate, said to be an unnamed daughter of Charlemagne, and several other early accounts fail to mention any wife or consort of Obelerio. Despite the lack of contemporary evidence, the consort figure in the Chronicon Altinate became part of the canon of Venetian history, and thus is found in many accounts of Obelerio's reign.
Life
According to Staley's book, regarded by modern scholars as a "fictional and fanciful" account of the dogaressas, Carola was originally a Frankish countess and a lady-in-waiting to the empress of Charles the Great. In Staley's narrative, she met Obelerio when he and his brother Beato visited the court of Charles in Aix-La-Chapelle. Charles gave his blessing to the union and declared it to be a political alliance and gave his protection to Venice. Staley describes Carola as strong-willed, energetic and with an ability to create respect and obedience, and says that she was somewhat disliked for the perceived Frankish influence she represented.
“Carola, wife of Obelerio degli Antenori” enters the record as italian noble. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Carola, wife and Obelerio can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14916766. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1858.
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This entry incorporates text from “Carola, wife of Obelerio degli Antenori” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.