Abstract

The Friulan feudal lord Lucio, count Della Torre and Valsassina (1695-1723), was banned from the Venetian Republic in 1717 for serious crimes and then went on to live in the Austrian territories amid scandals and economic difficulties. After murdering his wife Eleonora Madrisio Della Torre, with the help of two members of the family of the counts Strassoldo, he was finally beheaded in Gradisca in 1723. Some mostly unpublished correspondence of the archive Della Torre Valsassina in Udine offers the opportunity to get a closer look at "Conte Lucio"'s daily struggle to survive during his exile. Through the prism of this individual experience, we can explore significant aspects of the 17th and 18th century evolution in the political-diplomatic relations between Venice and the House of Habsburg, in the ethics and behavior of the nobility, and in the dialectics of power between old aristocracy and authority of the prince in a border region with a strong feudal presence such as Venetian and Austrian Friuli.