PRINCE GIULIO CYBO.
The revolt of Naples--Andrea Doria subdues it--Plots of the
exiles against his life--Giulio Cybo seizes the feud of Massa and
Carrara--His schemes for revolutionizing the Republic--Conference
of the Genoese exiles in Venice--Capture of Cybo--Doria labours
to have the emperor condemn Giulio to death--Punishment of Cybo
and his accomplices--Letter of Paul Spinola to the Genoese
government--Scipione Fieschi and his disputes with the Republic--Maria
della Rovere--Eleonora Fieschi; her second marriage and death.
ANDREA Doria had finally extinguished in Genoa the popular conspiracies
for liberty, and on the ruins of the Guelph Fieschi house had firmly
planted the Spanish tyranny. Still, in every corner of the Peninsula,
the people, not yet corrupted by the servility of the great, cherished
the memory of better days, and scarcely concealed their antipathy to
Spain. The sword of Doria--which is still sacriligiously suspended over
the high altar of the church of San Matteo--was once more stained with
the blood of the people.
Don Pietro di Toledo, a man of integrity, but haughty and devoted to
Rome, was very solicitous to introduce the Spanish inquisition into
Naples in order to wash out in blood the stains of heresy. Orchine
da Siena, Lorenzo Romano, Montalcino and Vermiglio were preaching
the doctrines of Luther and Zuingle and secretly diffusing the works
of Melancthon and Erasmus. The people learned the intentions of
Toledo, and rose almost to a man, protesting against inquisitors and
martyrdoms. Their protests yielded no fruit and they seized their arms,
deposed the foreign governors and created new magistrates, promising,
however, to maintain their devotion to the empire. Toledo issued a
proclamation that he would proceed to the trial and punishment of
Tommaso Aniello of Sorrento and Cesare Mormile, who were reputed the
leaders of the sedition. The two rebels came before the judges with
such a mass of followers, that the court counted it better policy to
honour rather than punish them. But the viceroy, determined to terrify
Naples, barbarously butchered Gianluigi Capuano, Fabrizio d’Alessandro
and Antonio Villamarino, and threatened capital punishment against any
who should remove the bloody corpses.
This exasperated but did not awe the populace. They made common cause
with the barons, sent deputies to the emperor and signed a truce with
Toledo until the imperial answer should be known. The truce was worse
than war. The _Bisogni_, who had taken refuge in the castles, not only
destroyed the surrounding houses, but in their frequent sorties killed
all who fell into their hands, and the populace retorted by killing the
Spanish prisoners whom they had captured.
Toledo saw that he was too weak to make head against the enraged
populace, who were already investing the forts and citadels held by
his troops, and sent for Doria to deliver him from his embarrassment.
Andrea was ill prepared for so grave an undertaking. His galleys were
damaged and without crews; for besides the Barbary slaves who fled in
that fatal night of the Fieschi, the convicts had first sacked the
ships and then taken refuge in the Apennines. But the admiral entered
on the project of aiding Toledo with unwonted zeal. He obtained money
from Prince Centurione, enlisted new crews and officers, and soon had
a fleet ready to sail. The galleys were sent off under his lieutenants
Marco Centurione, son of Adamo, and Antonio Doria. Thanks to these
ships of Doria, Toledo suppressed the revolt in Naples, took capital
vengeance on the leaders and punished the people with heavy taxation.
Yet it has been said that the emperor _pardoned_ the rebels! History
spoke falsehood. Still, this stormy protest of the people saved Naples
from the inquisition. The masses well knew the real object of Toledo.
He sought less to crush heresy than to exterminate the spirit of
liberty.
The Neapolitans were a few years later silent witnesses of fierce
religious persecution. The inquisition employed such zeal, that to
mention Montalto alone, two thousand persons were butchered and
nearly an equal number condemned to death in eleven days. Tradition
says that the executioner cut them down in the streets, like so many
goats. While, through the assistance of Doria, the Spanish power
took firm root in Italy and crushed the spirit of popular liberty,
(I hope that none will believe my respect for the truth dictated by
antipathy towards the great admiral) not a few daring spirits still
struggled to emancipate the nation and to destroy the prop on which
the emperor leaned. The times were sanguinary; blood was washed out
with blood. The partisans of Fieschi raging for vengeance often
attempted to assassinate Andrea; and the obstacles in their way only
increased their fury. In August, 1547, four men of Valditaro, to whom
Galeotto of Mirandola added eight of his bandits, were sent to Genoa
for the purpose of assassinating Doria while he should be coming out
of his palace. It was intended that a conspiracy organized in the
city should seize the moment for proclaiming a popular government
and maintaining it by force of arms. Galeotto promised to lead the
enterprise in person. He was a terrible man, and his partisans believed
that no enterprise could miscarry which had at its head so practiced
a conspirator and assassin. The histories relate of him that when the
Count Gianfrancesco, a literary man of note, had been restored to the
government of Mirandola by the officers of Julius II., Galeotto, in
a night of October, 1533, scaled the fortress with forty companions,
killed the count who was kneeling before the crucifix, his uncle and
his son Alberto, and then shutting up the dependents of the count
in the prison of the fortress took possession of the government of
Mirandola. Charles V. condemned him to death for this horrid crime;
but Galeotto defended himself alike against the arms and the treachery
of Leyva, and finally surrendered the castle to Henry of France for a
large compensation.
With such men, the conspiracy did not seem likely to fail of its
principal object. However, the assassins could not find in Genoa safe
hiding for studying the habits of Andrea. Besides, the cunning old man
was on the alert for such plots, and never left his house except under
a strong escort of his faithful dependents. The assassins found it
necessary to save their own lives by a precipitate flight.
A second attempt at his assassination came to the knowledge of Doria.
Cornelio Bentivoglio, aided by the exiles, especially the Fieschi,
armed a galley with two hundred men and all necessary equipments, with
the design of entering the port by night and attacking the palace of
Doria. At the same time the exiles assisted by Pier Luigi Farnese were
expected to attack the city on the East side. On this occasion, also,
the leader had a reputation which promised success. Bentivoglio was
an audacious and fierce young man, who, having been expelled from the
government of Bologna by his father Costanzo, entered the military
service of France and obtained considerable repute in the art of war.
Perhaps the prince would have fallen under this conspiracy, if his own
counterplot against the Duke of Piacenza had not broken up the plans of
Bentivoglio.
But the Fieschi party did not lay down their arms or relinquish their
hopes of vengeance. They enlisted Prince Giulio Cybo among others in
their cause. This nobleman having taken up and continued the conspiracy
of Fieschi, to whom he was allied, deserves a place in our history. The
arms of Cybo and Fieschi were the same; the former used more unworthy
means than the latter, but both ended their lives in misfortune
consecrated by patriotism.
The family of the Cybo was of very ancient, perhaps of, Byzantine
origin. They possessed in the tenth century islands and walled towns.
In 1188, Ermes Cybo subscribed the treaty of peace between the Pisans
and Ligurians. We find in old manuscripts that, in 1261, they had
palaces in the via del Campo. A Guglielmo Cybo, who died in 1311, built
the magnificent church of St. Francis in Casteletto and there was
erected the marble sepulchre of himself and his family. This Guglielmo
rendered important services to the Republic for which he obtained
the privilege of adding to his arms the device of the Republic.[49]
The family produced many other distinguished men, among whom may
be mentioned Innocent VIII. In his youth, this pontiff became the
father of a son named Francesco who was governor of Rome during the
pontificate of Innocent and married Maddalena de’ Medici sister of Leo
X. In the year 1500, Lorenzo Cybo was born of this marriage in St.
Pierdarena, a suburb of Genoa. Lorenzo devoted himself to arms, and in
the Milan war, carried the fortress of Monza by assault. The cardinal
Innocent Cybo, his elder brother, ceded him the county of Ferentillo
and he also governed Vetralla, Giano and Montegiove. Desirous of
enlarging his estates, he married Ricciarda daughter and heiress of
Alberico Malaspina, Marquis of Massa and Carrara and widow of Count
Scipione Fieschi who died in 1520.
Ricciarda bore Lorenzo several children, one of whom was Eleonora
wife of Gianluigi Fieschi. There were besides, Isabella, who married
Vitaliano Visconti Borromeo, Giulio and Alberico. Giulio, whose career
we shall briefly recount, was born in Rome in 1525, and was educated
in the court of Charles V. where the beauty of his person and the
sprightliness of his intellect acquired him the admiration of the
Spanish courtiers.
The mother of Giulio, who was in possession of Massa and Carrara,
formed the resolution of transferring the feud to the younger brother,
Alberico. Giulio went to Rome and in vain employed entreaty and
threats to change her purpose. He then resolved to take by force of
arms a property which he believed his own. In 1545, when Ricciarda and
Cardinal Cybo were in Carrara, he attacked the castle of that place at
the head of fifty men and endeavoured to capture his mother. She fled
into the tower and foiled his design. She punished with severity some
vassals who had aided Giulio, and returned to Rome where she ceded
the feud to Alberico. This increased the exasperation of Giulio who
renewed his hostile purposes with greater energy. Cosimo furnished him
some peasant bands of Pietrasanta, and Gianettino Doria supported him
with his fleet. In September, 1546, the disinherited count appeared
before Massa with one thousand infantry and one hundred cavalry. His
partisans in the town, especially the brothers Moretto and Bernardino
Venturini, seized the gate of St. Giacomo and opened it to Giulio, who
was recognized by the people as their rightful master. The fortress
was still held by Pietro Gassani; but Gianettino Doria arrived with
his galleys, landed artillery and forced him to surrender to Paolo
di Castello. The fortresses of Moneta and Lavenza were also given
up to the partisans of Giulio, who, grateful for the assistance of
Gianettino, espoused his sister Peretta. But his reign was of short
duration. Ricciarda appealed to Charles V., who ordered Gonzaga to have
the fortress consigned to Cardinal Cybo. Giulio refused, Cosimo turned
against him, captured him at Agnano, and the young count did not obtain
his liberty until he had ceded the castle (8th March, 1547) which was
occupied by Spanish troops until Ricciarda returned to it two years
later.
It is probable that Giulio had at this time some intrigues with the
French court. The emperor had declared against him, and he was desirous
of obtaining the support of France by ceding the fortress of Massa.
The partisans of Spain were alarmed at the prospect of having a French
garrison so near to Genoa, and Andrea Doria assisted in forcing Giulio
to relinquish his hold on his father’s domains.
The young count, full of bitterness for the treatment he had received,
went to Gonzaga in Piacenza (the latter was called to Piacenza by the
assassination of Pier Luigi Farnese) and remonstrated against being
deprived of his inheritance. He received no encouragement from Spain,
who refused to restore the Castle of Massa, and went to Parma and
conferred with Ottavio Farnese who was also soured against the imperial
agents for old and new acts of hostility. He then returned to Rome
and negotiated with his mother, who agreed to recognize him as Lord
of Massa and Carrara for forty thousand gold crowns of the sun. He
borrowed twenty thousand gold crowns upon interest, and pledged the
twenty thousand crowns of the dower of Peretta for the rest. He applied
to Andrea Doria for the dower of his wife; but the prince, having
suspicions of Giulio’s complicity with Fieschi, refused to pay over the
money and neither personal entreaty nor the influence of friends could
induce the prince to satisfy the just demands of Giulio and Peretta. He
alleged that the damages he had suffered in the Fieschi sedition had
rendered it impossible for him to pay so considerable a sum, and wished
to charge Giulio with the expenses of Gianettino’s expedition of Massa.
The chronicle of Venturini, which we consult, disproves the statements
of those who wrote history without the aid of documents, and renders it
clear that Andrea debited Cybo with all the expenses incurred while the
galleys lay on the coast of Massa, of which he had preserved a minute
account rather as a merchant and usurer than as a Prince.
Cybo was thus deprived of the means of satisfying his mother and
recovering his paternal inheritance; and he conspired with the king of
France, Duke Ottavio and Signor Mortier to deal a great blow against
the Spanish power, beginningwith Genoa where the Dorias constituted
the prop of Spain. He held many consultations with the Cardinal of
Belais, the exiles Cornelio Fieschi, Paolo Spinola and others. The
confederates fixed on the following plan:--The movement should be begun
in Genoa where the Fieschi had warm friends and the Spaniards were
detested. Ottobuono Fieschi, who though living in Venice had devoted
dependents, should furnish five hundred infantry and Spinola should
introduce into the city and conceal in his house one hundred men of
the valleys; Giulio would send from Massa upon barks a body of men
ostensibly to be enrolled at Milan in the imperial regiment which he
commanded. They believed that Doria would have no suspicion on account
of the close alliance of Cybo with his family, and that all obstacles
would be easily overcome. Some persons were placed by intrigue in the
service of Andrea and Centurione, with instructions to assassinate
them at a preconcerted signal. It was believed that the death of those
two and a few other partisans of Spain would open an easy path to the
overthrow of the imperial power in Genoa.
Venice was at that period the asylum of all those patriots whom
domestic and foreign tyranny had driven into exile. In the shadow of
the lion of St. Mark, Donato Gianotti wrote his weighty prose and that
wonderful discourse to Paul III. of which we have spoken. There lived
Carnesecchi, Gino Capponi, Vico de’ Nobili, the Strozzi, Varchi, the
good Nardi and Lorenzino de’ Medici. The latter meditated there that
defence of his which has no comparison in our literature. Bartolomeo
Cavalcanti, a man of great talents and eloquence, disgusted with the
government of Cosimo, had voluntarily joined the exiles. There were
also many Genoese who had been expelled from home for complicity with
party broils. Thither went Cybo, Gaspare Venturini, Paolo Spinola and
captain Alessandro Tomasi of Siena, captain Paolo da Castiglione, who
was to have been of the party, pretended to be ill at the moment of
setting out and remained in Rome to betray the conspirators to the
ministers of Spain.
On Christmas Eve, Cybo collected his partisans in the house of
Gaspare Fiesco-Botto. There were present besides the exiles already
mentioned, the Fieschi brothers, Ottaviano Zino and Count Galeotto di
Mirandola. Cybo spoke warmly of the revolution which he was planning.
He declared that he wished to free the country from the yoke of Spain
and restore to its bosom the virtuous exiles whom he saw around him,
whose only crime was an ardent love of country. He desired to continue
the revolution begun by his unfortunate friend and relative the Count
Gianluigi, and to avenge his untimely fate. Fortune had crushed that
rising too soon to permit him to reënforce Fieschi with the troops
he had collected at Borghetto and ordered to move on Genoa. He had
afterwards pretended to support the Doria party only from motives of
convenience. But he would now throw aside the mask and proclaim them
to be traitors who had bound the Republic and delivered her to the
Spanish tyranny. Everything promised success to the new rising; the
arms were collected, all hearts burning for action and the Dorias
unprepared to encounter the popular storm. Cæsar himself was in no
condition to resist the sudden uprising of an indignant people, leagued
to sweep Italy clean of his barbarian hordes. The exiles were greatly
moved by these bold words, and swore to participate in the struggle for
emancipation. But Cosimo was watching Giulio; and Gonzaga and Doria,
to whom Castiglione had revealed everything, had their eyes on all the
conspirators. The informer paid dearly for his treachery. Venturini
tells us that he himself (perhaps with the connivance of Prince
Alberico) killed the traitor with his own hand.
The conspirators, true to their promises, abandoned hospitable Venice
and went to the posts assigned them by Cybo. Ottaviano Zino returned
to Genoa, and, while studying to seem idle, laboured incessantly to
prepare the populace for revolt. Paolo Spinola was sent to Garfagnana,
once subject to the Fieschi, where he hoped to find ardent partisans.
Others on similar missions travelled to other places. Cybo, who had
supreme command, obtained through the aid of Montachino a dependent
of Scipione Fieschi, three thousand gold crowns. The French agents
gave him countersigns for the Governor of Mondovi, Candele, who was
instructed to support the movement with two thousand infantry. He
then travelled through Ferrara and Parma to Pontremoli. The governor
of that feud, Pietro Dureta, encountered him at the ford of the Magra
and attacked him. Cybo drew his sword and raised the cry of _Gatto_
hoping to raise the vassals of Fieschi; but he was struck in the head
by a halberd, received a wound in his right hand and fell lifeless
to the ground. He was sent to Milan under a strong guard and Nicolò
Secco was appointed to prepare the process against him. The letters of
the Fieschi which were found on his person left no room to doubt his
guilt. Some tell us that he was several times tortured and confessed
that Farnese, Maffei, Ghisa and the Pope himself were accomplices in
the plot, and that the Fieschi and Farnese were its instigators. The
emperor did not wish to execute Cybo; and we find evidence in documents
of the period that even the bloodthirsty Gonzaga made every exertion
to save him. On the other hand Graneville and Doria laboured with all
their power to secure his punishment. In fact, so soon as Doria heard
of this plot, committed rather in intention than act and excusable by
the youth of the conspirator, “the prince (I use the words of Porzio)
inflamed to wrath by the offence and full of vengeful animosity,
disregarded the double tie which bound him to the young man, and made
incessant appeals to Cæsar for the blood of his relative.”
Many Italian and foreign princes asked grace for the prisoner, and
the emperor was at first undecided; but severity triumphed over
mercy--Doria desired vengeance and he obtained it. The victim met his
fate with manly intrepidity. He was beheaded and his body exposed
between two wax candles in the public square. Nearly all the historians
are in error regarding the time of his execution. The chronicle of
Venturini declares that it occurred on the 18th of May, 1548. He was
scarcely twenty years of age. Porzio says:--“His courage and military
capacity inspired all who knew him with the conviction that, if he had
not perished in boyhood, he would have become one of the first captains
of his age. He made a single mistake: that of endeavouring to expel
one foreigner with another--to drive out the Spaniards in order to
establish the French in Italy.”
Zino was not more fortunate in Genoa. His friends urged him to flee
from the city; but he, wrapped in false security, refused to follow
their advice. He was arrested and his mangled limbs were found one
morning on the piazza of the Ducal palace. Other accomplices lost their
property by confiscation or fell in other countries under the dagger
of assassins employed by Doria, to whom none could deny the right of
inflicting punishment at his own pleasure. He made free use of this
privilege of his position. It is certain that he was implicated in the
assassination of Luciano Grimaldi, Lord of Monaco, whom Bartolomeo
Doria Marquis of Dolceacqua killed with thirty-two stabs. Andrea
bequeathed this form of justice to his successor. So far as we know, no
one has ever been able to explain why Giovanni Andrea Doria imprisoned
his secretary Antonio Ricciardi da Loano, whom Spotorno calls one of
the brightest intellects of Liguria. The unhappy victim after being
buried for a long time in a dungeon, without being able to soothe
his angry master or ever learn the cause of his punishment, became
desperate and committed suicide by dashing out his brains against the
walls of his cell.
We do not know the fate of Paolo Spinola who was declared a rebel and
fled to Venice. There is in the Genoese archives a letter from him
written the 6th of April, 1548 to the Genoese government. It paints in
vivid colours the triple slavery of Genoa to Charles V., Doria, and the
bank of St. George which, having lands and jurisdiction of a peculiar
character, was a state within the state.
Spinola writes:--
“Your Excellencies having made a public proclamation, calling upon
me to render before you an account of my conduct within the term of
one month under pain of being declared a rebel, and this proclamation
having only at this moment come to my knowledge, I am constrained to
ask you as just persons--which I suppose you to be--to extend the time
and give me proper space for presenting myself before you, placing me
in fact in the same position I would occupy if the summons bore the
present date. And, as I know that all cities have malignant citizens
and Genoa above all others, (there being many among you who are opposed
to your peace and liberty) so that poor people are no longer free
except in name and your Excellencies can give no real security to
property and persons, it is necessary that men ask better guarantees
than those of the government from the persons who are masters of our
liberties. Andrea Doria being the chief of these our masters, prince
both in name and fact, and having more power than your Excellencies,
and I knowing him to be a mortal enemy of my family, I pray you if
you grant my first prayer to hear also the second, which is that you
furnish me a safe conduct of the said Andrea Doria promising me freedom
from all molestation, direct or indirect, on his part that of any
persons dependent upon him. Furthermore, for as much as the emperor,
to your shame and mine, takes more thought for the concerns of your
city than for his subject provinces, being in name our friend but in
fact our master and lord, and since I must pass through his dominions
to reach your city, I also ask the safe conduct of Don Ferrante, the
imperial lieutenant general in Italy, in the same terms as the former.
Further, having learned that the administration of the bank of St.
George has, contrary to all right and precedent, added its authority to
your summons, I ask that the said administration send me a safe conduct
of like tenor with the others above requested. So soon as I receive
these several safe conducts, I shall feel myself secure against the
malevolence of individuals, and will immediately place myself in your
hands and abide your just judgment.”
We have esteemed it our duty to give the letter of the illustrious
exile. We leave comment and criticism to other pens.
Among those condemned for contumacy to decapitation and confiscation of
goods was Scipione Fieschi. The sentence pronounced against him gave
rise to a legal cause which has no equal either in its duration or the
fame of the jurists who conducted it. Rolando a Valle was the advocate
of Fieschi, and the claims of the Republic were maintained by Giovanni
Cefalo, Tiberio Sigiano, Nervio, Menocchio and the college of Padua.
The case was contested with singular pertinacity, and most princes were
interested for one or the other party.
Scipione after the death of Gianluigi, not being able to return to
Loano which was bequeathed to him by his father, because the Dorias
had seized the feud, took refuge in Valditaro and there, as we have
seen, induced the people to put themselves into the hands of Pier
Luigi Farnese. He afterwards visited Rome, where the Pope received him
privately and treated him with great affection. At a subsequent period
he was the guest of Giulio Cybo in Massa and the two were warm friends.
When Cybo was arrested Scipione saw that it was necessary that he
exculpate himself before Cæsar, and he asked an imperial audience
through Francesco Barca, but the request was not granted. On the
contrary, when the emperor learned that Scipione was charged, in the
Cybo process, with being one of the chief accomplices he ordered
Suarez, by decree of March 14th, 1550, to institute proceedings against
him. He was cited to appear in Genoa for trial and obtained a safe
conduct; but afterwards he remembered the breach of faith with Gerolamo
and declined to appear. The case against him was conducted by Giovanni
Giacomo Cybo-Peirano, and after the death of this advocate, it was
carried on by his son. Doria himself employed an advocate to watch
the progress of the trial and hasten its completion. In the meantime
Scipione passed into France and entered the service of Henry II. He did
not however take up a permanent residence there, the jurists of Padua
having advised him to reside alternately at Rome, Venice and Mirandola.
We know that he was accused of receiving and favouring exiles from
Genoa, of capturing Spanish ships with his own galleys, of condemning
the prisoners to the oar and plundering the works of art which these
vessels were transporting to the empress Augusta. The archives of Spain
are full of accusations of similar character; but they are the fictions
of informers.
Figuerroa gave his decision on the 28th of January, 1552, but for some
reason it was not confirmed by the emperor, and this gave Scipione
strong hopes of being reinstated in his father’s domains. But Doria and
the Republic employed influences which overcame the imperial scruples
and Ferdinand confirmed the sentence on the 12th of April, 1559, in
such terms as to destroy all the hopes of Fieschi.
Nevertheless, in the treaty of Castel Cambrese, Phillip II. who had
succeeded to the crown of Spain, stipulated with Henry II. of France,
that all those who had been punished with confiscation for aiding
either crown should be reinstated in their property, particularly
mentioning Ottaviano Fregoso and Count Scipione and declaring them as
fully restored to their rights as though they were parties to the
treaty. Phillip further pledged himself to secure the restoration
to Scipione of those feuds which had been seized by the empire or
the Republic. The Spanish monarch issued his decree to the senate of
Milan ordering the surrender of Pontremoli to Fieschi; but it was not
carried into effect. The senate held that the condemnation was a just
punishment for a double treason committed both by Scipione and his
brothers and refused to obey the imperial decree. The queen of France
who had a high esteem for the young Scipione interceded for him, and
Ferdinand moved by her powerful entreaties on the 13th of July, 1552,
invested the count with Varese, Montobbio and Roccatagliata; at the
same time he signed some other decrees in his favour. These various
decrees gave rise to the controversy before the tribunals, with
Scipione on one side, and the Republic and the possessors of the feuds
on the other. The count maintained the nullity of his condemnation,
while the Republic insisted on its legality and maintained that
Scipione had lost all claims to the property confiscated for his
treason, and that the decrees of the emperor were without force or
validity. Finally, on the 2nd of August, 1574, the emperor Maximilian
gave his decision against the claims of Scipione and absolved the
Republic, Antonio and Pagano Doria, Ettore Fieschi (of the Savignone
branch) and Count Claudio Landi, who were in possession of the lands
and castles of the Fieschi.
We shall speak of Ottobuono Fieschi in another place. It is enough to
say here that, after the fall of Montobbio and the union of Valditaro
with Piacenza, he went to the court of Farnese, where he lived for some
time. He afterwards went to Mirandola under an escort of ducal cavalry,
and waited there for brighter days. Maria della Rovere shut herself
up in the castle of Calestano. The governor of Parma requested her in
the name of the duke to leave that residence, in order to relieve Pier
Luigi from the charge of sustaining herself and sons. The suspicions
of the imperial party respecting the duke were about this time turned
into certainty. Cesare della Nave, of Bologna, a man of good education
who had been created ducal commissary in Valditaro, divulged the fact
that Manara had been instructed by Pier Luigi to render all possible
assistance to Gerolamo at Montobbio. Maria then went to Rome, and
afterwards spent some time in Parma, where she dictated her will on the
23rd of October, 1553. She bequeathed all her property to her daughter
Camilla, wife of Nicolò Doria who afterwards as we shall see took up
the conspiracy of Gianluigi. Maria lived for several years after the
date of her will. The registers of the notary Antonio Roccatagliata
show that Camilla only entered upon the inheritance of her mother on
the 26th of September, 1561.
As for Panza, we find in some old manuscripts, for which we are
indebted to the courtesy of the learned Baron Giacomo Baratta, that
about 1550, he was archpriest in the parochial church of Rapallo.
Probably the preceptor of Gianluigi, after the destruction of his
master’s family, retired to some spot secluded from political tumults
and ended his days in the practice of those virtues which adorned his
previous life.
The memory of Eleonora wife of Gianluigi has been blackened by recent
accusations. After the death of her husband, beside herself with grief
she threw herself into the arms of her mother. The Strozzi papers
contain a petition addressed by her to Charles V. in which she sets
forth that her dower was secured upon the feud of Cariseto, and prays
that the emperor may command Gonzaga to deliver it to her with all
its appurtenances in satisfaction of her claims against the estate of
Gianluigi Fieschi. Perhaps she did not obtain her request; for we learn
from confused notices that she did not recover her dower for some years
after when she invested it in the bank of St. George.
Some years after Gianluigi’s death, she married Chiappino Vitelli. Her
husband was the son of that Nicolò who was killed by Braccolini for
stabbing his own wife, Gentilina, while she lay in bed beside him.
Chiappino was a brave soldier and a captain of some repute. He was a
friend of Cosimo, followed the fortunes of the empire and received
for his warlike virtues the investiture of Cetona with the title of
marquis. He distinguished himself in the affair of Pignone with the
Moors, in the liberation of Malta from the siege of the Turks, in
Flanders and in Holland. Phillip II. gave him the principal charge
of the last named war. He was at this time of monstrous obesity, and
having received several wounds had to be carried in a palanquin to
visit his trenches. While making the round of his work the Bisogni,
who fretted at being commanded by an Italian, threw him down into the
foss, (1575). On receiving intelligence of his death, Eleonora gave
up her life to pious duties, and entered the convent of the Murate in
Florence, a foundation noted for the illustrious women who fled to it
for peace, some of whom were members of her own family.
We find evidence that she lived in the same cell which had sheltered
Caterina Sforza Riario--the heroic mother of the heroic Giovanni of the
black bands--until new were constructed for her at her own expense.
She ended her days here in 1594, and Alberico I., prince of Massa and
Carrara caused her mortal remains to be placed, with an appropriate
inscription, beside those of her aunt Catterina, widow of Gio. Maria
Varano Duke of Camerino, who with a courage more than manly sustained
the siege of her castles by Mattia Varano.
The name of Eleonora was rendered immortal not only by her love of
letters, but also by her splendid charities, of which the Monte di
Pietà of Massa is a living monument.