PAUL THIRD.
He aspires to grandeur for his family--His hostility to the emperor
and to Doria--He encourages Gianluigi in his designs against the
imperial rule in Genoa--Attempts of Cardinal Trivulzio to induce
Fieschi to give Genoa to France--France is induced by the count to
relinquish her hopes of obtaining Genoa--Verrina and his spirited
counsels--Vengeance of Gianluigi against Giovanni Battista della Torre.
ALEXANDER FARNESE was elevated to the Papal throne under the title of
Paul III., not so much for his personal talents as by the influence of
his sister Clara whom he rewarded, as tradition reports, by giving her
poison.
The old Alexander VI., having by accident made her acquaintance, was
inflamed by her charms with an ardent passion, and found means to open
his heart to her. The cunning Farnese at once saw the delirium of the
gray-headed pontiff and did not yield to his solicitations until he had
promised her brother a cardinal’s hat. When the time for making the
nomination approached, the Pope was disposed to fulfil his pledge; but
he found a spirited resistance in Cæsar Borgia, who having never kept
faith with any one was very unwilling that the holy father should abide
by his promises. The name of Abbott Farnese was cancelled from the
list and another inserted in its place. On the eve of the ordination
of the Cardinals, Clara, suspecting what had happened, passed a night
with the pontiff and when he, drunken with lust and wine, fell into a
profound slumber, she searched his papers and ascertained the truth of
her suspicions.
Being an adept in copying and reckless of consequences, she rewrote
the list, counterfeiting the Pope’s handwriting, and placed the name
of her brother first on the roll. On the morrow, she put on all her
seducing charms and detained her paramour in his bed until messengers
came to inform him that the concistory was assembled and only waited
his presence. Clara had foreseen that, if he were called in haste, he
would have no time to look over his papers. In fact, he entered the
concistory and gave the list to the secretaries without looking it
over. His surprise was great when the name of Farnese was read out; but
he preferred silence to the exposure of his senile debaucheries.
It is not our purpose to go over the long career of Farnese. While
yet a youth he had been imprisoned in Sant Angelo for counterfeiting
a brief, and Alexander VI. would have beheaded him if he had not
contrived to escape from prison. We shall not repeat the errors of
his contemporary historians, that he united the black act to his
astronomical learning, and that he thus, through intercourse with
demons, learned many secrets and became skilled in political intrigues.
It is enough to say that, on arriving at the pontifical throne, he
devoted all his efforts to the aggrandizement of his family; and, not
content with obtaining the duchy of Camerino for his bastard son
Pierluigi, intrigued to elevate him to the government of Parma and
Piacenza, and even raised his eyes to that of Milan.
It was not then a reproach, says Segni,[37] that a Pope had
illegitimate children and sought by every means to confer upon them
wealth and dignities; on the contrary, the Pontiff who aspired to
temporal grandeur was in repute as a man of prudence and sagacity.
Paul III. intrigued for a long time with the emperor to acquire the
duchy of Milan for Pierluigi, though he well knew that Charles, in
occupying Lombardy, had protested that he did not wish to hold it for
his own advantage but for that of Italy. In these intentions he was
confirmed by the influence of the Venitians, the marquis Vasto and
the king of France. The Spanish monarch had already disappointed the
ambition of the duke of Orleans, who aspired to the duchy, and he also
refused it to Pierluigi. But the Pope, after long intrigues to overcome
the scruples of the cardinals, gave his son the investiture of Parma
and Piacenza, making them tributary to the church in the sum of nine
thousand ducats.
This act created enmity between the Farnesi and the emperor, though
Paul III. had furnished the latter with men and money for his war
against the Duke of Saxony, sending twelve thousand horse under the
command of Ottavio Farnese and Alessandro Vitelli. But the increasing
greatness of Charles, throwing into the shade the prerogatives and
power of the Papal See, the disappointed hope of a principality
and the league of the emperor with England the enemy of the Papacy,
rendered Paul a bitter foe of Spain and awakened in him the ambition to
crush the imperial power.
Andrea Doria hated the Farnese not less cordially than Charles. He
had opposed the advancement of this family for ten years, and had
frustrated a proposed league between the Papal See and the empire.
He had influenced Charles to refuse the duchy of Milan to Pierluigi,
and subsequently to deny Ottavio, son of Pierluigi, the government
of Tuscany according to a promise the emperor had made when Ottavio
married his illegitimate daughter Margaret, of Austria. Doria urged
against the last scheme that if the Farnese were made masters of
Tuscany they would become powerful enough to lay hands on the Lombard
provinces.
There were still other motives for Andrea’s jealousy of the power of
the Farnese family. A member of the Doria house named Imperiale being
reduced to extreme poverty had obtained an appointment in the army
of Andrea. He distinguished himself in many actions and rose to the
highest honours and wealth. But having satisfied his military ambition
he became a priest, in which character he was first abbott of San
Fruttuoso and afterwards, through the influence of Andrea, bishop of
Sagona in Corsica. Wishing, however, to advance his worldly interests
he retired into Apulia where he acquired many estates, and was elevated
by Andrea to the government of Melfi, in which he largely increased his
wealth.
Before his death, remembering the kindness of Doria, he bequeathed to
him all his possessions. The Papal nuncio seized upon and sequestrated
the estates of the bishop, claiming that they belonged by right to the
church. Andrea protested against this insult before the Papal court,
but Rome, being at once a party to the cause and the judge of it,
decided in its own favour and issued a decree despoiling the admiral of
all his rights in the property of his relative. Paul III. fearing the
vengeance of the admiral of the empire, deputed his nephew Alexander
Farnese to offer, as a compensation for the outrage, the power of
nominating a successor to the bishop. Doria disdained to render a
vassal’s homage to a Farnese and ordered Gianettino to assail and
capture the Papal galleys in the port of Genoa. This capture inflamed
the wrath of the pontiff, and as an act of reprisal he arrested some
Genoese who were in Rome, threatening to confiscate their goods unless
his ships were immediately released. The Senate laid the matter before
Andrea, who answered that Gianettino had captured the Papal vessels
solely because he was stronger at sea than his adversary. Afterwards,
in order to avoid complicating the Republic with his private quarrel,
he released the galleys of the pontiff, after having satisfied the
Farnese that he did not lack the power but the will to revenge himself.
The Pope was induced by Charles V. to restore to Andrea his defrauded
rights; but the Farnese was deeply chagrined and, not being able to
strike openly at the emperor’s favourite, sought secret ways of venting
his displeasure.
Private ambition, personal mortification and political views united to
stimulate the pontiff to humble the emperor, expel the Spaniards and
crush the Dorias. As it was obviously vain to oppose Cæsar so long as
Genoa, governed by the constitution of Doria, was under the Spanish
influence, he naturally fell in with projects which contemplated a
revolution in the Republic.
It is certain, says a modern writer, that Paul was skilled in mingling
modern passions with the administration of his venerable office. He
stood between the old world and the new, and he possessed the spirit
of both; and if the election of Clement had not deprived him of the
pontificate for ten years (as he often lamented) perhaps the fortunes
of Italy, which were not yet desperate, might have been saved by his
industry or, at least, would not have suffered total shipwreck.
At that period several Fieschi families were in a flourishing
state, among them that of Ettore, of the Savignone line, who had
espoused Maria di Gian-Ambrogio Fieschi. From this marriage were
born, Francesco, Giacomo, Nicolò, Paride, Gian-Ambrogio, Urbano and
Innocenzio. Ettore having given some of his property in Rome to Giacomo
and Nicolò, who as priests were stationed in that city, at the death of
the first the father found it necessary to make a journey thither.
Having presented himself to the Pope he was graciously received and
obtained the bishopric of Savona for his second son.
In their conferences the Pontiff spoke of the past grandeur of the
Fieschi family, of the hospitality he had received in the palace in
Vialata in the time of Sinibaldo, and expressed surprise that none
of the sons of Sinibaldo, whom he knew to be young men of spirit
and ambition, had sought honours in the Papal court,--honours which
could not be denied to the scions of a noble house, which counted two
successors of St. Peter and four hundred mitred heads in its ancestry.
He also begged Ettore to inform Fieschi that he entertained the most
flattering opinion of their merits, and should be happy to give full
proof of his esteem.
On his return to Genoa, Ettore informed Gianluigi of the sentiments of
Paul III. and of his nephew the cardinal towards the family, and the
count resolved personally to render thanks to the Pontiff. He visited
Rome, though dissuaded by Panza, in May, 1546 (as Bonfadio tells us).
Some maintain that he went there at other periods, but we find no
authentic evidence to support the assertion.
Paul received Gianluigi in the kindest manner, and took pains to show
him honour. During their conversations he spoke much of the ancestors
of the count as having been the first citizens of Genoa. He lamented
that the Dorias had overshadowed the family of Fieschi. Andrea, he
said, by his political tact and by refraining from assuming in name the
power which he possessed in reality, had rendered his vast influence
less obnoxious to his countrymen, but that Gianettino would not imitate
this temperate policy nor long delay to place his yoke on the Genoese.
Count Fieschi, he added, would be the first one humbled, as being the
most dangerous enemy to the empire. He intimated that if Gianluigi had
the spirit to oppose the Doria ambition, the support of the Holy See
would not be wanting in the hour of trial.
He gave a more positive proof of his willingness to act by proposing
that the count should immediately take command of the three galleys
included in the Farnese purchase, which still remained in the service
of the papal government, in order, said he (and he smiled cunningly),
that they may not again be captured by Doria. This conversation, so
familiar and hopeful, greatly encouraged Gianluigi and induced him to
put his designs into immediate execution.
An event occurred during this visit to Rome which nearly overthrew
all these revolutionary schemes. Cardinal Agostino Trivulzio, who,
as protector of France, lost no occasion for promoting the policy of
that nation, established relations of intimacy with Gianluigi, and
undertook to demonstrate that the difficulties of his enterprise were
such as to render it necessary to concede to France the government
of Genoa. France, he said, would place the count at the head of the
local administration, and would give him the command of six galleys,
equipped on a war footing and maintained at the expense of the crown,
of which he could make such use as seemed best. France would also
station a heavy body of troops at Montobbio, to prevent the advance of
the Austro-Spanish troops, and make Fieschi captain of a cavalry force
with the annual pay of ten thousand crowns.
These new propositions came through Prince Giano Caracciolo,
governor-general of Piedmont, and had his seal to their authenticity.
They entirely destroyed the previous arrangements made by Gagnino
Gonzaga, and contemplated the subjection of the Republic to a foreign
power. They did not please Gianluigi, who desired to enlarge the
liberties of his country, not to change the masters of the Republic.
Nevertheless, he asked time for consideration, and without making
further steps in his design he returned to Genoa. Pondering over the
difficulties of his undertaking and the new claims of France, he would
probably have relinquished the enterprise, if Gianettino, who, in the
tone of one who held the dominion of the waves, complained of the
purchase of the Farnese galleys, had not used such bitter and imperious
threats as to inflame anew the resentment of the count. The success
and malevolence of Gianettino, to whom as to the rising sun all eyes
were turned, fortified Gianluigi in his determination to overthrow the
expectant tyrant of Genoa.
Fieschi having delayed to respond to Trivulzio, the latter, fearing
that the new propositions would discourage the count, sent to him
knight Nicolò Foderato of Savona, a relative of Fieschi, to tell him
that Francis I. would abide by the agreement made with Gonzaga, adding
that he had only to recommend vigilance and prudence in guiding his
ship safe into port.
Gianluigi was delighted beyond measure at this favourable turn of
affairs. He subscribed the stipulations at once and sent back the
messenger with warm thanks for the generosity of the French monarch.
Francis really desired above everything to recover his lost dominion
over Liguria, but he was persuaded to defer that ambition to a more
favourable combination of circumstances.
Fieschi now exposed his plans (in this point all the historians agree
and are confirmed by the manuscripts we have seen) to three of his
most devoted friends, Raffaele Sacco, Vincenzo Calcagno and Giovanni
Battista Verrina. He submitted to them the question whether he should
attempt a revolution relying solely on his own forces, or undertake it
in alliance with France.
Sacco was born of not obscure lineage in Savona, being descended from a
knight of Malta and entitled to the annual gift of a paschal lamb. We
find that a branch of the Sacco family living in Genoa had been united
to the family of Venti, and not long after, in 1363, to that of the
Franchi. Sacco was auditor and judge in the feuds of the count and knew
intimately the feelings of his master. He advised that the French arms
be accepted--an opinion partly explained by his being of Savona. Your
forces, said he, are too weak to oppose those of Doria and the emperor;
and though it may be easy to capture the city by a _coup de main_, it
will be impossible to hold it unless you are promptly reënforced by a
good body of troops.
Vincenzo Calcagno was beloved by Gianluigi for long and faithful
services. After the warmest protestations of his fidelity and
obedience as a vassal, he spoke at length of the evils of civil war
and foreign intervention which must follow from an attempt to change
the government. He enlarged on the difficulties of the enterprise.
Doria had twenty galleys. The sea coast and nobility were his. Foreign
rule was hateful to the Genoese, but above all that of France. Francis
occupied by home politics, embarrassed in Lombardy and in Naples,
would not bestow a thought on Genoa if he did not hope to acquire his
lost power over her. The nobility are in power and hate revolution,
and even the plebeians would oppose a new order of things unless
proposed by a noble. The people are unwilling to obey men without high
rank, accustomed not to yield even to the nobles without desperate
necessity,--and, stimulated by recent events, they would demand full
control of the government. But granted that the revolution may succeed,
no sooner would the new state be created than the crests of Adorni and
Fregoso would be seen in the foreground.
These powerful families, still beloved by the people, would never
consent to submit the government to the control of a species of
prince--a thing they have for centuries resisted with their blood--so
that the efforts of the count will not enhance his personal grandeur,
but only promote the interests of rival families; the name of Fieschi
will become a reproach, distrusted by the nobles, despised by the
people and hated by Cæsar.
Calcagno would have gone on to dissuade the count from the whole scheme
if the impetuous Verrina had not interrupted him with impatience and
anger.
The family of Verrina was originally of Voltri, and came into the city
in 1475. Stefano Verrina had enrolled himself as a noble attached
to the company or _Albergo_ of the Franchi. John Baptist Verrina di
Vincenzo, a most honourable citizen, was then living in Carignano,
though born near the church of San Siro, not far from the count, and
was managing his affairs. Party spirit and private animosities rendered
him a violent enemy of the old nobles; and he could not digest it that
those who had long been excluded from public offices should, through
the reforms of Doria, be invested with the entire control of affairs.
He had once been rich, but his excessive generosity had wasted his
wealth, and he was now supporting the declining fortunes of his family
upon the liberality of Fieschi. His intellect was of a high order, his
courage that of a hero; his spirit was high and venturous, ever intent
on the loftiest designs. He had assumed for a motto--_The world belongs
to him who will take it_.
Verrina demonstrated with great force and eloquence that too much
had already been done to leave any pretext for abandoning the
enterprise--that retreat was more dangerous than the battle.
Revolutionary schemes ought to be executed as soon as formed. The
plans of Fieschi had reached such a stage that the only thing left was
to bring them to completion, to dare everything, to risk life itself
in the struggle. He argued that the enterprise was not difficult;
the Doria ships were idle and their crews scattered along the coasts,
the garrison of the city was reduced to only two hundred and fifty
infantry, many of whom were vassals of the count. The people wanted a
change of government; the Senate was sleeping in imaginary security. It
was folly to procrastinate the hour for delivering the country from the
ambition of Gianettino, when everything was smiling upon their hopes
and nothing but their own hesitation foreboded danger.
He said that it was useless to ask the aid of the French, who had been
humiliated by the captivity of their king and were getting the worse
in their struggle with Charles V., master of all Germany. The very
example of Doria proved the nature of French sympathy for Italy. Doria
had learned too well that Francis desired to reduce the importance of
Genoa by removing Savona from her jurisdiction, and making the latter
the capital of Liguria. The count, said he, has the means of full
success. Raise the cry of popular liberty, and thousands of swords will
be uplifted for the cause. Let Gianluigi dare to proclaim liberty to
these oppressed multitudes. Let him dare to announce himself as their
liberator. When Cæsar fell, Pompey was not declared a rebel, but the
saviour of Rome. Let our master imitate the high example now, when
every wind is propitious; France friendly, Rome and Piacenza ready for
alliance with us, and the people prompt for action.
The arguments of Verrina overcame the doubts of the count, and
he resolved to proceed with the general plan then worked out. He
instructed Foderato to communicate to Trivulzio his desire that the
original compact with Gonzaga be observed in every particular. In the
meantime he came into closer relations with Paul III., by means of the
Pontiff’s nephew the cardinal; and to complete all his preparations he
resolved to go to Piacenza and confer with the duke.
It is of importance to observe that Fieschi, following the counsels of
Verrina, declined the proffer of French troops and galleys. Some paint
this friend of the count as a species of demon. They tell us that he
wished to murder the nobility and appropriate their goods, because he
was overwhelmed with debts, and to raise the count to the office of
Doge, or rather to make him the tyrant of Genoa. In truth, we find
these fables in all the historians, even in the least passionate and
partisan, who seem to have taken no pains to sift testimony, but to
have accepted the Spanish slanders without question.
In a city like Genoa, but recently deprived of the popular liberty
which she had enjoyed for centuries, the idea of destroying free
institutions could not have entered the brain of a sane politician.
Neither Verrina nor the count were so short-sighted as to believe that
an enterprise which the emperor, with the support of all the nobles,
had found impossible could be easily executed by them. The ancient
story is repeated in our times. The victors have written the history of
the vanquished with the sword.
This seems to us the place to describe an atrocious deed, which shows,
on the one hand, the great affection of the count for the members of
his family; and, on the other, how deeply he felt injuries and how
terribly he avenged them. The tragedy of which we now speak still
lives in tradition on the spot where it was enacted. We have drawn
the history of it from old documents, which agree in general with the
account written by Bandello, who received it from the lips of Catando
d’Arimini, an intimate friend of Gianluigi.[38]
We have already stated that Sinibaldo had, besides his legitimate
children, a son named Cornelio and a daughter named Claudia. This
daughter was beautiful and attractive in person and manners. While
yet very young she was married to Simone Ravaschiero di Manfredi. He
was a rich and influential citizen of Chiavari and desired a family
alliance with the Fieschi, in order to secure their assistance against
count Agostino Lando, with whom he was contesting the jurisdiction of a
castle in the duchy of Piacenza. The marriage was celebrated with the
splendour to which the Fieschi were habituated, and Claudia took up her
residence in Chiavari, acquiring through the purity of her life and the
charms of her conversation the admiration of all who knew her. Giovanni
Battista Della Torre, one of the most high-born and wealthy citizens
of the district, paid her such assiduous court that she soon perceived
the object of his attentions. She defended herself with dexterity and
disappointed the hopes of her admirer. The young man, beside himself
with his foolish passion and consuming with amorous fires, studied to
find some means of obtaining by stratagem that which had been denied to
his love.
He chose the occasion of her husband’s absence in Genoa to adjust his
accounts with Gianluigi, and, by bribing a servant, penetrated into the
chamber of Claudia and concealed himself under her bed.
The lady was accustomed, when her husband was absent, to require
her maid before she retired to rest to examine all the corners and
hiding-places of her apartments; and on that evening, as if presaging
the danger which was near, ordered the servant to make careful search
whether any one was there concealed. The maid looked under the bed,
and, seeing a man hidden there, uttered a loud cry, at which Claudia
leaped from her couch and ran into her father-in-law’s room. The old
man roused his servants, armed them and went to take vengeance on the
violater of his domestic dominions. But Della Torre, finding his plot
had failed, leaped from a window of considerable height, and, falling,
received severe bruises and wounds. Nor would he have escaped, if some
neighbours who heard the noise of his fall had not come to his relief
and saved him from the fury of Manfredi, by bearing him away to the
house of one of them.
On the following morning Manfredi sent swift messengers to inform his
son and Gianluigi of what had happened. The count was terribly enraged,
but he concealed his anger and waited to know the nature of Della
Torre’s wounds and what hope there might be of his recovery. Learning
that, though disfigured for life, he would recover from the effects
of the fall, he called to him his brother Cornelio and his cousin
Simone and said to them: “You know, Cornelio, the outrage which Della
Torre has committed against our sister Claudia, and I believe that if
you have the spirit which belongs to your blood you will arrange with
Simone to take such vengeance as the case requires. I have prepared
two galleys, manned by twenty well-armed and brave men each. Set
sail. Three hours before dawn you will be in Chiavari. There, without
any delay, you will assail the house of Della Torre, and if you tear
him into a thousand pieces you will give him that reward which his
crime merits. Having accomplished your purpose, take refuge in my
castles which are near there and of which I give you the countersigns.
Afterwards leave me to provide for everything. Unless you discharge
this duty, you, Cornelio, will never come into my presence lest I kill
you with my own hands; and you, Simone, will be no longer kinsman nor
friend of mine.”
The two promised to execute his commands, and setting sail, they
arrived at Chiavari at the hour appointed. Having landed, three of
them went to the gates of the town and asked the guardian to admit
them. Once within, the three threw out the drawbridge, and the others,
who were concealed close at hand, thus marched in, threatening the
guardians with death if they raised an alarm.
They made straight for their enemy’s house, broke down the door, rushed
into the apartment where Della Torre was sleeping and tore him in
pieces.
Having accomplished their vengeance, they retired to the castle of
Roccatagliata, where the government did not dare to molest them.