 After Nerio's death, she secured her right to act as guardian of her son and thereby regent of the Duchy and had the Ottomans consent to it.Not long after she came to power, she fell in love with the Venetian Bartolomeo Contarini, who visited Athens, and asked him to propose to her.He explained that he was already married, but to make himself able to marry Chiara, he returned to Venice, and murdered his wife, after which he returned to Athens and married the regent, in 1453.