Venice Preserv'd is based on an actual plot which took place in Venice in 1618. Its nightmarish atmosphere of treachery, untruth and conflicting loyalties is a distillation of the political climate of those years when, in the name of "truth", truth became inadmissible, when oaths became frivolities, and innocence became conspiracy, as "the bloodiest hoax in history" ran its course, namely 'The Resolve for Killing the King.'