Carola, wife of Obelerio degli Antenori
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