ANDREA DORIA AND THE REPUBLIC OF GENOA.
The Nobles and the People--Andrea Doria and his first enterprises--How
he abandoned France, and went over to the Emperor--Accusations and
opinions with regard to his motives--The laws of the _Union_ destroyed
the popular, and created the aristocratic Government--The objects of
Doria in contrast with those of the Genoese Government and the Italian
Republics--The lieutenants of Andrea and his naval forces--Popular
movements arrested by bloody vengeance.
WE turn with painful recollections from the conditions of Italy to
that of the Genoese Republic. Our annals offer us only vicissitudes
of intestine divisions and wars, in which, however, there were heroic
achievements that have rendered the Republic illustrious.
The history of Liguria is full of the Doria name. There is no modern
family which can boast so many examples of heroism as this house,
and only the Scipios among the ancients are entitled to equal fame.
From the earliest times they were partisans of the empire; while the
Fieschi, after Innocent IV. maintained the cause of the people, drawing
to that side the powerful family of Grimaldi. The Doria and Spinola
formed alliance, and became the leaders of the Ghibellines. From that
moment a warm contest arose between these great families, and it did
not end until, in 1257, the people elected Guglielmo Boccanegra captain
and defender of their liberties. After his death, the hostile nobles
renewed their insane discords; but the people, weary of these domestic
wars and following the examples of other Italian communes, drove
out the nobles, (1340) and created Simon Boccanegra first Doge. The
nobles were by law excluded from this highest office, and even from
the command of a galley;[13] and not a few illustrious families passed
into the ranks of the people by their own election. It is well known
that before the reforms of Doria, the so-called nobles were held in
less honour than distinguished men of the people, because their rank
excluded them from the Dogate and many other offices. The Doria and
Spinola came to power in a revolutionary period, and in violation of
law. This severe prohibition was afterwards modified, but the office
of Doge continued to be a popular prerogative. The principal families
of the people were the Adorni and Fregosi, in whose hands the supreme
offices remained for several centuries, and these names are conspicuous
in our civil conflicts which were so frequent and bitter that in one
year the head of the government was four times changed. In these
calamitous times--redeemed from disgrace by the three manly figures of
Columbus, Julius II., and Andrea Doria,--the Genoese, whose misfortune
has ever been to despise servitude and to be incapable of preserving
liberty, were compelled to invoke the protection of princes strong
enough to curb the ambition of individual citizens. But it was always
stipulated that the franchises of the city should not be impaired,
nor its laws changed; there was, in fact, no true transfer of power.
Whenever we were borne down by foreign arms, it was the work of the
nobility conspiring against the people.
Even in the time of Louis XII., when Italy was yielding him a tardy
and reluctant obedience, the Genoese rose in rebellion, triumphed over
the plots of the nobles, threw down the government of the royal vicar,
drove out the army of Cleves, assembled in the Church of St. Maria di
Castello, and elected eight tribunes of the people. The nobles were put
to flight, the hostile army routed, and supreme power returned to the
hands of the people.
The Geonese showed themselves truly great. They drew out of his
workshop Paolo da Novi, a silk dyer, and despite his modest refusals
elected him Doge. Nor did they err in electing the modest operative
to the highest office. “Paolo,” as Foglietta writes, “was a man of
honour and integrity, pure from every vice, and proof against all the
temptations of the great.” His first and sole study was the glory and
unity of the Republic. He, in fact, reconquered some feuds for the
state, particularly Monaco, which the Grimaldi had usurped.
In the midst of Paolo’s generous designs, Louis XII., to whom the
Geonese nobility had opened the doors of their country, descended
upon him with a formidable army. Genoa was converted into a field
of battle; every plebeian became a soldier, and the valour of the
citizens checked the impetuous advance of the French battalions. But
the patriots were overcome by numbers and discipline; Paolo di Novi was
betrayed and butchered; the people were reduced to slavery. Rodolfo
di Lanoia, to whom Louis committed the government of the city, was
constrained to resign his office,--says Foglietta--on account of the
boundless avarice and insolence of the nobles who struggled to advance
their private interests by ruining the public weal.
As Boccanegra was the father of our popular liberty so Doria was its
executioner. He wrested the government from the hands of the people,
and committed it to those of the nobles. He momentarily silenced, but
did not destroy, the rage of parties. By depressing the populace, he
cut the nerves of the Republic; he gave us independence in name, but he
destroyed the franchises of the citizens. A great historian has justly
said, that the liberties given us by Andrea Doria are ridiculous; the
future will accept that as the final decision of history.
Andrea was a soldier from his youth. He learned the rudiments of war
from Domenico Doria, who was of his blood and had distinguished himself
in the court of Innocent VIII. He served successfully under the Pope,
Ferdinando the old of Naples and his son Alfonso II., and sustained
the siege of Rocca Guglelma against Gonsalvo di Cordova. Afterwards he
fought under Giovanni della Rovere, duke of Urbino, and having been
elected tutor of the duke’s son, Francesco Maria, he saved him from the
intrigues of Cæsar Borgia, by taking him to Venice and entrusting him
to the protection of the Venitian senate.
He allied himself with the party of the Fregosi, who were friends of
his house; and when Doge Ottaviano besieged for twenty-two months
the fortress of Cape Faro, which was held for the French; he fought
single-handed with the brave Emanuel Cavallo, and was slightly wounded
in the contest.
But his greatest glory was acquired in naval war. His battles with
the Moors and Turks gave him fame and wealth, and after the battle of
Pianosa (1519), in which, with six vessels, he conquered thirteen of
the enemy’s; capturing several with the famous corsair Gad Ali’ he
became the terror of Saracen ships. When the Fregosi were driven from
power and their places taken by the Adorni, Doria, disdaining to serve
under this family, sold his services to France, and took with him six
galleys belonging to the Republic, which he never restored. The motive
of this appropriation of public property was his bitter animosity to
Spain, whose party the Adorni and the Republic had embraced. This
animosity was rendered more violent by the sack of Genoa in 1522
by the Spanish army, a pillage so horrible that when the authors
of it, Pescara, Colonna and Sforza, presented themselves to Pope
Hadrian humbly asking pardon, the pontiff indignantly repulsed them,
crying,--“I cannot, I ought not, I will not forgive you.”
Doria was so incensed that he condemned to chains and the galleys,
without hope of redemption, all Spaniards who fell into his hands.
In the year 1527, Pope Clement VIII. was allied with his most Christian
Majesty, with the Venitians the Florentines and other governments
against the power of Charles. To further the objects of the alliance
Francis sent Lautrec into Italy at the head of forty thousand men,
and Andrea Doria besieged Genoa with a large force. It is not within
our scope to describe how the Republic, through the influence of
Cæsar Fregosi and Doria, went over to the party of France. Francis,
to gratify the wishes of Andrea, entrusted the government to Teodoro
Trivulzio, Antoniotto Adorno, having gracefully retired from the office
of Doge.
Doria having been created admiral of France, with a salary of
thirty-six thousand crowns, rose to great fame, on account of his
victories and those of his lieutenants. Among these victories, that of
Filippino Doria in the gulf of Salerno, deserves a brief mention, both
because it was won by Italian arms, and because something should be
added to the accounts given by other authors. Lautrec, while besieging
Naples, desired to blockade the port, so as to prevent the supply of
provisions to its defenders, and sent for the galleys of Doria, seven
of which were then in Leghorn, under the command of Filippino Doria
Count of Sassocorbario and Canosa and Andrea’s cousin.
Naples, surrounded on every side, would have been unable to sustain the
siege, and the viceroy, Hugo Moncada, saw the necessity of breaking
the enclosing lines by some daring undertaking. He collected six
galleys called the _Capitana_ and _Gobba_, (the property of Fabrizio
Giustiniano) one belonging to Sicames, another which was the property
of Don Bernardo Vallamarino, the _Perpugnana_ and _Calabrese_. To
these were added ten brigantines and some smaller vessels. The viceroy
embarked upon the ships twelve hundred Spaniards clad in mail and
commanded by the flower of the officers and barons of the kingdom.
Finally, he himself joined the expedition and gave the command of
the artillery to Gerolamo da Trani and that of the army to Fabrizio
Giustiniano, called the hunchback, a brave Genoese in the pay of Spain.
The latter, knowing the courage and skill of the Ligurian mariners
advised that the Spanish fleet should avoid a close engagement with
Doria; but a contrary opinion prevailed.
Count Filippino was in the waters of Salerno when the report reached
him that the imperial fleet had left Naples.
He asked Lautrec to reinforce him with only two hundred infantry.
Of the eight vessels under his command, that is, the _Capitana_,
_Pellegrina_, _Donzella_, _Sirena_, _Fortuna_, _Mora_, _Padrona_ and
_Signora_, he sent the three last under the command of Nicolò Lomellino
out to sea as if they wished to escape, with orders, however, to turn
about, and, driving down before the wind, attack the enemy in the
rear. Filippino with the remaining five vessels awaited the assault of
Moncada, who, trusting to the strength of his fleet and the bravery
of his captains, confidently looked for a signal victory. The galley
of the viceroy closed with the Capitana, the flag-ship of Doria, who,
firing his basilisk, small cannon and falconets, raked the Spanish
vessel from prow to poop with such fatal accuracy that forty armed men
were killed, among whom were the bravest barons of the kingdom, Leo
Tassino, a nobleman of Ferrara, Luigi Cosmano a famous musician, Don
Pietro di Cardona and many others. The batteries of Moncada replied
but did little damage to the Genoese. The _Gobba_, the galley of
Sicames and that of Don Bernardo were more fortunate. They closed with
the _Pellegrina_ and the _Donzella_ and the Spanish soldiers boarded
without difficulty. The _Perpugnana_ and the _Calabrese_ cannonaded the
_Sirena_ until she was forced to surrender. Doria had now lost three
galleys, the _Capitana_ and the _Fortuna_ were in imminent danger of
being boarded, not being able to sustain the attacks of six galleys
and fifteen smaller vessels whose grappling irons were seizing them
on every side. Everything looked propitious for Moncada and victory
seemed secure to him, when the three galleys which Doria had sent to
sea turned their prows and bore down swiftly before the wind. At close
quarters, they poured in a terrible fire which dismasted the Spanish
vessels and strewed their decks with the dead. The viceroy himself
while standing upon the quarter deck of his vessel with his sword
in one hand, and _rotella_ in the other, animating his crews, was
wounded in his right arm by an arquebus, his left thigh was broken by
a falconet and he fell among his men mowed down under the fire-balls
and showers of stones poured in by the Genoese. Having captured the
flag-ship of the viceroy, Lomellino assailed the _Gobba_. Here more
than a hundred arquebusiers were killed, Cæsar Fieramosca lost his life
and Giustiniano was wounded and lost his galley. Filippino Doria now
released from their chains the convicts and the Turkish slaves with a
promise of liberty and sent them to recover the _Donzella_, which they
soon accomplished. They attacked the _Pellegrina_ and the _Sirena_ with
such fury that the _Perpugnana_ and _Calabrese_, seeing further defence
useless, turned their prows and sailed away seaward. The brigantines
were reduced to helpless wrecks and the remainder of the Spanish
vessels found it impossible to continue the conflict. The marquis of
Vasto and Ascanio Fieramosca, after having displayed a most admirable
courage, seeing their galleys reduced to a sinking condition, Gerolamo
da Trani killed, their captains wounded, their soldiers shattered and
pounded by stones and half consumed by fire, gracefully surrendered to
Nicolò Lomellino who was already at close quarters with the _Mora_.
Sicames and Don Bernardo Vallamarino, fighting to the last, were killed
and their ships sunk. All the lancers were killed, but their leader
Corradino escaped with the galley _Perpugnana_. The killed amounted
to more than a thousand and the prisoners were much more numerous.
Among the latter, the ancient chronicles enumerate the marquis Vasto,
Ascanio Fieramosca, the Prince of Salerno, the marquis Santa Croce,
Fabrizio Giustiniano, and other illustrious barons and famous warriors.
This action was fought on the 28th of April, 1528. It was not long
after this signal victory so fatal to the imperial power and counted so
honourable to the name of Doria--though it was fought by his lieutenant
Filippino--that Andrea changed sides and enlisted under the very power
he had conquered.
History has not yet given a satisfactory account of the motives which
led Doria, hitherto a violent enemy of Cæsar, to desert the standard
of France and offer his sword to Spain. It was a desertion fruitful
of numberless misfortunes as we shall show in the progress of this
work. It is certain that this change contributed more largely than
anything else to alter the fortunes of Italy, and to reduce her to
slavery under the empire. It induced both peoples and princes to
submit to the Spanish power, Luigi Alamanni, seduced by the influence
of Andrea, adopted that policy, though he was one of the warmest
friends of liberty, and he attempted to persuade the Florentines to
ally themselves with Cæsar. The unfortunate patriot suffered for his
delusion. The people hearing the rumour that he advocated such opinions
compelled him to seek personal safety in exile from Florence.
Returning to the question, we mention first the reasons put forward by
the historians for the justification of Doria. They tell us that France
had not paid him according to her promises; that Frances I. took away
from him the prince of Orange whom Doria had captured, thus defrauding
the Admiral of the twenty thousand ducats of ransom; that the king
sought to get possession of the marquises Vasto and Colonna with a
like motive; that this monarch granted favours in prejudice of Genoese
rights to rebellious Savona; and that a rumour ran of the king’s having
given this city in feud to Montmorency.
However, Doria was blamed (according to the testimony of Varchi,) by
the greater part of the Italians, and many accused him of desertion
and treason. They said that his conduct was not dictated by his
resentment at the liberty of Savona, or the slavery of Genoa, which
he himself enslaved, but rather by his boundless appetite for wealth
and honours. Some affirm that Giovanni Battista Lasagna, whom Doria
had sent to Paris to treat for the recovery of Savona, informed him
that the king’s council had determined to deprive him, not only of his
prisoners, but also of his own life, and that this information led him
to enlist under Cæsar. Others, on the contrary, say that the king of
France having heard that Doria intended to abandon his service, sent to
him Pierfrancesco di Noceto, Count of Pontremoli and his esquire, to
dissuade him from that design and to promise payment of the ransom of
Orange and other prisoners as well as the Admiral’s personal salary. It
is difficult to arrive at the truth when testimony is so conflicting.
One fact only is unquestioned: that before the last day of the month of
June, the period at which his contract with France would expire, he
mounted his galley and repaired to Lerici.
At Lerici, Filippino, having abandoned the blockade of Naples,
joined him, and by the good offices of the marquis Vasto he opened
negociations with Cæsar and entered into the service of Spain, sending
back to Francis the decorations of the order of St. Michael with which
that monarch had honoured him. This desertion to the imperial party
gave to Charles V. (as Segni has sensibly said) the victory in the
Italian strife.[14]
While these events were passing, there were secret and public
consultations in Genoa, for the purpose of quieting the political
factions, uniting the citizens and organizing the civil government on a
better basis. The chief honours of this undertaking belong to Ottaviano
Fregoso, who in 1520 was engaged in these efforts, acting with Raphael
Ponzoni. For the time these praiseworthy designs were unsuccessful,
because Federico Fregoso, archbishop of Salerno and brother of the
Doge, opposed the project with all his ingenuity and power,[15] going
so far as to drive out from the Cathedral of San Lorenzo those citizens
who had assembled to promote concord. The difficult task was resumed
in 1528, and, amidst the horrors of a pestilence which was mowing
down the population, a union was effected without the coöperation of
Doria, though it is now clearly proved that even France counselled the
measure. On the 12th of December, Doria, contrary to the general wish
of the citizens, including his own relations who were open partisans
of France, presented himself before Genoa, landed his mariners and
without bloodshed liberated the city from the control of the small
French garrison.[16]
It is painful to see this brave Admiral selling his sword now to the
Pope, now to Naples, now to France, and finally to Spain! It is painful
to see him becoming the ally of foreign oppressors who sought to subdue
our peoples and engulf Italy. History must pronounce him more fortunate
than great. In truth, most of his undertakings were singularly
successful; but his attempts to capture the famous corsair Chisr,
better known under the name of Barbarossa, who was governing Algiers
for Selim with the title of _Begherbeg_, were not crowned with success.
Indeed, a rumour ran that between these two lords of the main there was
a secret contract that they should never meet in pitched battles. It is
certain that Doria conducted his war upon his rival with much coldness
and rather as a neutral than as an enemy. He permitted the pirate to
escape at Prevesa (1539), when he had the power to destroy his fleet.
This failure of Doria left the fierce corsair to spread the terror of
his name for many years along the Italian coasts, particularly in the
kingdom of Naples, where he had already carried desolation and ruin,
devoting to fire and pillage Noceto, Sperlunga and Fondi. He had been
attracted thither by the beauty of Giulia Gonzaga, who narrowly escaped
his hands by fleeing in her night dress, accompanied only by a single
page. The poor page suffered most, for she caused him to be stabbed
because he had that night either seen or dared too much.
Doria is also accused of having used every means to excite the Turks
against Venice; and this Republic, through his plotting, was assailed
in her Greek possessions. Doria, by refusing to unite his forces to
those of the Pope and the Venitians, incurred the responsibility for
the capture of seven thousand Christians at the siege of Corfu, the
pillage of the Ionian Islands and of Dalmatia. Having become a blind
devotee of Spain, whose rule in the Peninsula he wished to strengthen,
he refused to fight at Prevesa, because the Venitians had declined to
receive his _Bisogni_ on board their galleys; or, which amounts to
the same thing, in order to let a flood of Turks overwhelm Venice and
render her submissive to the yoke of Spain. All parties accused him of
having promoted the ruin of Christians by the very means to which they
looked for salvation.
As to the history of his policy in Genoa, if it were our office to
write the life of Andrea, there is much that deserves to be rendered
more clear. It was not a sagacious policy to subject the Republic to
Spain at a time when the seeds of civil concord were springing up. It
was more foolish to permit a foreign ruler to carry on her government,
and despite the entreaties of his relatives to permit Savona to be torn
from the body of the Republic.
Nor should it be forgotten that soon after this, he, to promote
his own ends, wished to make Genoa a partner in his alienation from
France, though his family favoured the _union_ promoted by the amiable
Trivulzio and the King of France. Truth requires us, also, to assert
that he did not enter the service of Spain with the praiseworthy object
of recovering Savona for Genoa. He drove out the French from Genoa in
September, 1528, but Savona had been from the first of July reconciled
and restored to the Republic, a fact which is proved by a decree of
Francis I. soon to be printed.[17] When Guicciardini wrote that, “among
the motives attributed to Doria for his change of masters, it was
believed that the most probable and the principal one was, not offended
pride for having been too highly esteemed or any other personal
discontent, but the desire to advance his own greatness under the name
of national liberty,” we think the verdict creditable to the first of
our Italian historians.
But these accusations cannot deprive Doria of the merit of having
refrained from assuming the absolute sovereignty of his country;
though we know that the love of liberty in his fellow citizens must
have been, sooner or later, fatal to such an ambition. In such an open
assault upon popular liberty, he would have found enemies in his own
house, as he did, in fact, when he enlisted in the service of Spain.
This is proved by the documents which Molini[18] found in the French
Archives, and is a conspicuous proof of the profound antipathy of
Liguria to Spain. Doria, knowing well the liberal tendencies of his
fellow citizens, contrived to get princely authority and power without
assuming the name.
The laws of the _union_ shaped by him changed the face of the Republic.
His chief reform consisted in removing the middle classes from the
public offices by adding new families to the nobility. The gentlemen
resented the elevation of plebeians to their side; the lower classes
complained; for though the law left them free to ascribe themselves
to the nobility, it was soon seen that this law was a new deception.
The constitution of Doria was fashioned with aristocratic aims, and if
it established equality, it was only among the nobles. The people had
neither guaranty nor representation. Leo writes that however wisely
the instrument was framed, it failed to establish the rights of the
plebeians. This class had no more share in the state than the peasantry
of the Riviera, and remained, with its precarious and humble title of
citizenship, subject to the nobility.
The law which changed a family into a collection of persons, or
_Albergo_, was more than unjust, it was iniquitous. Those who entered
these _Alberghi_ were forced to renounce their own names, however
honourable they might be, to extinguish their own memory and that of
their ancestors, in order to assume the name of the congregation; so
that for example, a Biagio Asereto would be compelled to take the name
of a Vivaldi for no other reason than that the latter name was borne
by more persons. Many truly illustrious and most honourable houses
preferred to remain in the number of the people; and it is related that
of two brothers Castelli; one made himself a noble under the title
of Grimaldi, while the other remained a man of the people under his
christian name Giustiniano.
It can no longer be denied that the laws of 1528 destroyed the
government by the people and created that by the nobility. The book of
gold was opened every year to eight plebeians of the city and of the
Riviera; but this was not enough to silence the just complaints of that
portion of the people, who until these reforms had always taken part in
public affairs. In 1531, to satisfy the common grievance, forty-seven
families, who before had been left forgotten among the lower class,
were enrolled among the nobles; the expedient did not at all tend to
remove the defects of the constitution. These admissions into the class
who held power were controlled by the caprices of a single person or at
best only a few. Every year eight senators were appointed to select the
eight families for promotion, and in practice each senator selected one
from his friends among the people. The gravest abuses grew out of this,
and the book of gold was often opened to the most vulgar and degraded
plebeians.
Neither moral nor intellectual qualifications, nor even distinguished
services rendered to the country, could break down the barrier to the
patriciate; but the inscribing of a name often served for the dowers
of Senator’s daughters--nay, it was even sold.
The new nobles, in order to increase their numbers and to retain the
friendship of the people, inscribed their relatives and friends,
however despicable might be their social condition. There was even a
greater abuse. The chancellors, who kept the book of gold, inscribed
names at their pleasure. In 1560 the names of three families were
ordered to be erased, having been entered without authority.
These abuses were never fully abolished until the reforms of 1576 which
entirely excluded the people from the public offices.
We have seen that the reforms of Doria, practically placed the
government in the hands of the nobles. The newly inscribed were few
in number; and things were so arranged that the old patricians always
had the control in the administration. This created a new element of
discord in the hatred which sprung up between the old and the new
nobles. A profound rancour diffused its virus through the body politic,
and clanships grew strong and fought hard against each other. Nothing
was wanting but names; and names are sometimes a great power, by which
to designate the opposing factions. The names were found, and the old
nobles were called the _Portico of San Luca_, and the new, _Portico
of San Pietro_. Both epithets were derived from the places where the
hostile factions were accustomed to assemble.
The new men, finding that they could not triumph by weight of numbers
in the public councils, resolved to attempt secret ways to their
end. They managed so well that in 1545 they secured the election to
the Dogate of Giovanni Battista de Fornari.[19] The faction of San
Luca raised a great outcry of indignation, but in vain. De Fornari,
a new noble, stepped over their heads into the highest office. They
remembered the humiliation, and afterwards avenged themselves upon the
new Doge.
From what we have said it will be seen that the laws of Andrea, far
from restoring the Republic, sowed new seeds of discontent between the
nobles, so concordant in their discord, and the people over whom they
ruled.
Doria, Admiral of Cæsar, conqueror by the arms of his lieutenants in so
many battles, and owner of more than twenty galleys, concentrated all
power in the hands of the old nobility, whom he made blindly devoted to
his interests. It is no marvel that he directed at pleasure the ship of
the Republic. Without the name, he possessed the supremacy and honours
of a prince. Men called him the Father of his country and the Restorer
of liberty. What we have said shows the nature of the liberties which
he gave the State, and they will be further illustrated in the progress
of this history. He loved his country; but he spent all his long life
in establishing a stable despotism in the room of tumultuous liberty.
He loved his country; but obeying the orders which he received weekly
from Cæsar, he enslaved that country to Spain. On the contrary, the
Republic had always better consulted her interests by standing in a
neutral attitude between contending princes.
Ottaviano Sauli gave eminent proof of such political wisdom when the
Republic sent him as its envoy to the Duke of Milan, and he brought
back and enforced by his advice the counsel of that prince, to keep
neutral and resist the influence of Cæsar in Genoa. The government
preferred this policy, and in its letters to the English king, to
Venice and to Florence, openly avowed that its chief care was to live
in freedom; that it knew the advantages of neutrality, and would not
bow to the will of others; that its single aim was to strengthen and
maintain its integrity and its policy of supporting the independence of
the other Italian Republics.[20]
These were generous words, and they were supported by deeds. But Doria
willed the supremacy of Spain, and he triumphed. Then Genoa, in the
siege of Florence, favoured the enemies of Italy; even threw a lance at
Siena; extinguished in blood the revolt of Naples, and, with the arm of
Doria, strangled everywhere the voice of national liberty.
From that moment the robust vigour of the Republic began to decrease,
and the shadows of old age fell on her. The lifeless forms of the
court of Spain took the place of our civil strifes and our heroic
achievements abroad.
Doria, though naturally disposed to temperate and modest habits of
life, gradually developed the pomp and state of a prince. He lived in
Fassolo, in the houses once given to Pietro Fregoso for his brave deeds
in Cyprus (1373). Doria called from every part of Italy the most famous
architects to embellish this palace. The sculptures of Montorsoli and
of Giovanni and Silvio Corsini da Fiesole, the paintings of Pierin
del Vaga, Pordenone, Gerolamo da Trevigi, Giulio Romano and Beccafumi
rendered this residence famous throughout Italy. Here he was surrounded
by his own soldiers, and received, writes Mascardi,[21] not as a simple
citizen, but as a proud grandee. The same author ascribes to this
luxury of life the origin of the conspiracy of Fieschi; and he approves
ostracism by republics of citizens who affect the manners of princes.
These mimicries of royalty gave general dissatisfaction; but the
selection of Gianettino di Tommaso as his adopted son and his successor
in the dignity of Admiral, was even more unpopular.
We find notices of this young man which represent him to have once,
on account of the slender means of his father, kept a shop for the
sale of oil. Afterwards he entered the service of Bernardo Invrea, a
silk-weaver, and remained with him until, being pursued by the sheriff
for some offence, he found it necessary to seek safety on board the
galleys of Andrea, to whom he was allied by blood.
Taking up from necessity the profession of arms, Gianettino soon
acquired a considerable name for warlike feats marked by enterprise and
audacity. He possessed an intrepidity rather singular than rare. He
soon became haughty and despotic putting on airs fitter for a Castilian
than a Genoese, and decorating himself with a coat of arms as though
supreme authority were already in his hands. The prince, instead of
correcting these excesses, permitted the arrogant youth to lord it over
the plebeians and to indulge his wild caprices at pleasure.
Count Filippino Doria, as we have seen, contributed to the fame of
Doria. He was of humble fortune until the Duke of Urbino, as a mark of
gratitude for having perilled his life to succour the duke in a single
combat, conferred upon him an estate of the Urbino family. Some other
members of Doria’s house, who had been schooled under him, gave good
proof of their skill and acquired riches and honours which reflected
lustre on their master. Such were Francesco Doria di Giovanni;
Antonio Doria, marquis of Santo Stefano, Aveto and Ginnosa, and one
of the principal generals at the victory of San Quintino; Giovanni
Battista Doria, son of Antonio and heir of his valour; Giorgio Doria,
and Domenico Doria who having abandoned the cloister was called the
_Converso_.
To these we should add, Andrea Doria d’Alaone; the brothers Cristoforo
and Erasmo Opizio, who as lieutenants of Andrea went in 1534 to the
aid of Messina; Giorgio di Melchiorre; Imperiale di Bartolomeo, lord
of Dolceaqua; Lamba di Alaone; Lazzaro di Andrea; and Scipione di
Antonio, all in repute as brave Admirals; and they sailed so many ships
and gained so many victories that it seemed as if this family claimed
exclusive dominion of the seas.
When Andrea prepared for any enterprise he commanded, in addition to
the _triremes_ of the empire, not less than twenty _taride_ or large
galleys of his own, manned by his own officers and crews and paid by
the emperor at the rate of five hundred broad ducats of gold per month
for each vessel. He took with him, also, the ships of the Republic,
and those of his relations and of other citizens who chartered their
_panfili_, or vessels of sixty oars, to the emperor of Spain. At the
assault of Prevesa the prince commanded, not to speak of square-sailed
galleons and caracks, twenty-two triremes whose names we find set down
in the chronicles of that period.[22] Antonio Doria, who was only less
illustrious in naval warfare than Andrea--though, as Badaero wrote in
his report to the Venitian senate, he was so fond of traffic that,
when his ships passed from one port to another, they carried so much
merchandise that they looked like merchantmen--had six vessels in his
division. There were many other Genoese ships in this expedition. Two
belonged to Onorato Grimaldi, lord of Monaco; two were the property
of the Cicala, and one each of Centurione, Preve, the Gentile and
Francesco Costa, not to speak of many others. The Fieschi also sent a
vessel, and the Republic furnished twelve.
In fact there was no distinguished family which did not arm a ship,
but not one of these houses could rival Doria, not even the Cicala
who always kept not less than six galleys in commission. It is worth
while to remind the Italians, who are so prone to forget the glory of
their ancestors, that Andrea was the first to use armoured ships in
battle. In his assault on Tunis, he had in his fleet a galleon called
Sant’Anna, to which he was principally indebted for the victory which
restored Muley-Hassan to his throne. This ship was the first ever clad
with slabs of lead fastened by pivots of bronze. She was built at Nice
in 1530, and was equipped by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.
She was manned by three hundred warriors and carried many guns. The
solidity of her armour rendered her invulnerable to the enemy’s fire.
There were a large chapel and sumptuous saloons under her decks, and
what seems more strange, ovens so well arranged that they furnished her
crew with fresh bread daily.[23]
The Republic having broken with France, was prostrated under the
power of Spain and Doria. The citizens were profoundly indignant
at this double servitude. They were prohibited by law, under the
severest penalties, from proposing or advocating any change in the
new constitution of the Republic; so that many, before the attempt
of Fieschi, ardently wished to throw off the yoke and place the
country once more under the protection of France. In 1534, Granara and
Corsanico went to Marseilles followed by many of the people with the
intention of preparing a revolution. The enterprise became known by
Doria, and Granara lost his head. Corsanico was captured by Doria, and,
without the least form of condemnation, hurled into the sea.
A few months later, Tomaso Sauli who had attempted a similar conspiracy
with Cardinal di Agramonte, in Bologna, was condemned and quartered.
The exiles excelled all others in their devotion to liberty; and in
1536, led by Cæsar Fregoso and Cagnino Gonzaga, with ten thousand foot
and eight hundred horse, they marched to attack Genoa. This is not the
place to relate how after a few skirmishes they broke up their camp;
it is only to our purpose to add that hundreds of citizens who were
suspected of complicity with the exiles lost their heads, while their
houses were levelled with the earth.
Not only in Genoa, but throughout Liguria these conspiracies abounded;
especially in Chiavari, where the revolt of Fregoso, of which
Stradiotto was the leader, had its origin. Blood whenever it was shed,
far from quenching the thirst for liberty, begot new advocates for
the old supremacy of the people. Soon after, that is in 1539, a pious
priest named Valerio Zuccarello, beloved by the people, was accused
of revolutionary sympathies and leanings to France. He was subjected
to an inquisition and lost his head on the scaffold. The nobility
struggled to maintain its power; the people to regain the inheritance
of which they had been defrauded. The Republic was passing through such
pains as these when Gianluigi Fieschi listened to her complaints and
resolved to avenge them.