Arcielda Candiano

Arcielda Candiano was a Dogaressa of Venice by marriage to the Doge Pietro III Candiano. Her name is sometimes given as Richelda.

Life

She was possibly the child of a Venetian and one of the Narentine Slav women who were brought to Venice as Venetian [slave trade|slave captives] after the campaign against the Narentian pirates in the Adriatic in 887, before she married Pietro III Candiano.
With the death of her husband in 959, Arcielda retired to become a nun as was by that time the custom for widowed dogaresses, though she inherited, through the terms of Pietro's will, a vineyard and other property in the marchese of Veneto, which she gave to the nuns of San Zaccaria.
Her four sons were Pietro [IV Candiano], Domenigo Candiano, Bishop of Torcello, Vitale Candiano, Doge of Venice and Stefano Candiano.