SIENA, THE FIESCHI AND SAMPIERO.
Ravages of the Barbary Corsairs--Bartolomeo Magiocco and the Duke of
Savoy--The conference of Chioggia--Siege of Siena--Doria assassinates
Ottobuono Fieschi--Sampiero di Bastelica and his memorable fight with
Spanish knights--Revolts in Corsica--Vannina d’Ornano--The Fieschi
faction unites with Sampiero--Ferocity of Stefano Doria--Sampiero is
betrayed--Pier Luca Fieschi and his career.
THE cause of the empire vacillated in Germany, and the defeat of
Chiusa followed the rout at Lorene. Charles barely escaped the grasp
of the elector of Saxony, and retreated ill in mind and worse in
body to Villach in Carinthia. The Duke of Alba and Doria put forth
extraordinary exertions to provide him with money and reënforcements,
and Doria’s solicitude for the empire brought new calamities upon the
Republic. When his ships were absent in the imperial service, Dragut
landed at Rapallo, (July 6th, 1550) sacked the town, killed women and
children and carried off the flower of the population. A young peasant
named Bartolomeo Magiocco, having with difficulty escaped from the
town, bethought him of the peril of his betrothed, rushed through the
crowds of pirates, entered the house where she lay asleep, took her up
in his strong arms and bore her safely through a shower of Mussulman
bullets to the top of Mount Allegro. Other pirates infested our waters,
and our towns were so often pillaged that the inhabitants fled into
the mountains and left the coasts deserted and uncultivated. There
was not a hamlet which escaped pillage. The Duke of Savoy Emanuele
Filiberto while fortifying Mont Albano, Sant Opizio and Villafranca
came near falling into the hands of the Africans. A renegade Calabrian,
named Occhiali, hearing that the duke was in Villafranca, landed the
crews of several galleys at night, surrounded the ducal residence, and
awakened its master with the roar of arms. Emanuele escaped by a secret
passage unknown to the assailants. The victor of San Quintino could
ill digest it that he had been compelled to turn his back on a pirate.
He collected around him his pages and esquires, and the first peasants
whom he met, and assailed the Moors. They responded with such vigour
as to drive back his little band and he himself, after fighting long
with obstinate courage, was disarmed and captured; but two Savoyard
gentlemen set him at liberty at the price of their own captivity.
Occhiali returned to his ships loaded with booty and prisoners.
We learn from the chronicle of Miolo that the lords of Morseleto,
Gusinengo and Berra and the castellano of Valperga lost their lives in
this battle, while among the prisoners were seventy-five of the first
gentlemen of Savoy.
The duke mortified at his failure and particularly that two gentlemen
who had risked their lives for him should remain in the hands of the
Corsairs, was forced to offer as a ransom two thousand gold crowns of
the sun. The pirate required that, besides the payment of this sum,
the Duchess of Savoy should visit him and permit him to do homage by
kissing her hand. “This,” said he, “will render me famous throughout
Europe.” Strange union of African barbarity with the chivalry of the
middle ages! The Count of Savoy was not willing that the duchess
should humble herself in the presence of this renegade stained with
the most horrid crimes; but the prince felt deeply the misfortune of
his faithful courtiers and resorted to an artifice which secured their
liberation without humiliating the princess. A woman having the general
appearance of the duchess was clothed in her robes, taken on board the
moorish galley and with great pomp presented to the pirate, who fell on
his knees, kissed her hand with knightly grace, released the captives
and sailed back to Africa the happiest rover of the main.
While Charles was struggling with adverse fortune in Germany and
the Turkish fleets were desolating the coasts of Italy, Ferrante
Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno, formed a league with the Duke of Somma
and endeavoured to deliver Naples from the Spanish yoke. A conference
was held with the legates of France at Chioggia in which all those who
hated the Aragonese power participated. There were the Cardinals of
Ferrara and Tornone, Termes, Selves, the Count of Mirandola, Cornelio
Bentivoglio, Giulio Veri, and in fine nearly all the exiles. The
Cardinal of Tornone and Termes discouraged the Neapolitan revolution,
and the confederates turned their attention to Siena. Venice, as in
most occasions stood neutral. But Siena, irritated by recent wrongs
inflicted by imperial ministers, took part in the conference and Count
Pitigliano abandoned the standards of Cæsar and promised to carry the
city over to the side of France. As we have said France was to most
Italians the symbol of our independence, and whether or not she wished
us well she made copious promises, “according,” writes Macchiavelli,
“to the habit of that nation.”
Siena expelled Don Diego Urtado di Mendozza with his Spanish garrison
and established a free government; but the emperor at once despatched
the Marquis of Marignano to punish the rebellion, and France sent
Pietro Strozzi to make a diversion in favour of the city.
On the 16th of June, 1554, the Duke of Florence wrote to the government
of Genoa:--
“Your Excellencies will have learned that Pietro Strozzi, with about
four thousand infantry and three hundred horse, is advancing to unite
with the troops of Mirandola and then to penetrate into Tuscany
and make a diversion in favour of Siena. Being resolved to make a
spirited resistance, I have sent the Marquis of Marignano with about
two thousand infantry and seven hundred horse from my army, who will
encamp to-night at Pescia and advance to-morrow to fight the enemy at
the first good opportunity. I write to your Excellencies, as faithful
allies, to give you an account of our proceeding and to ask you to
add to our troops, for this emergency the one thousand Germans who
are stationed at Spezia, sending them forward direct to Pietra Santa
or embarking them for Leghorn, as shall seem to you most expeditious.
I promise you that as soon as this affair shall be terminated, your
troops shall be returned to you with any part of my own that you may
need. I earnestly entreat your instant coöperation in this matter,
which, as you will see, concerns our common interest and safety. Above
all act promptly for celerity is everything, as we are on the brink of
an engagement with the enemy.”
The Republic, forgetful of the generous sympathy of Siena in its own
straits and the solidarity of the two peoples, granted the request of
Cosimo and hastened to prop the declining fortunes of Spain.
Siena was defended by the bravest Italians of that period. Of many
illustrious names it will suffice to cite only those of Cornelio
Bentivoglio, who succeeded Termes in the supreme command, his
brothers Giovanni and Antongaliazzo--the first of whom was killed at
the battle of Marciano and the second taken prisoner--the Orsini,
Giovanni Vitelli, Adriano, Baglioni, Don Carlo Caraffa, Count Muzio da
Tolentino, Lionetto da Todi, an Avogardo, a Martinengo, Sampiero di
Bastelica and the Genoese Aurelio Fregoso--once a captain in the French
service--and Ottobuono Fieschi. Some other Genoese fought on the side
of Spain, against the brave city, among whom besides Doria (of whom we
shall speak presently) were Alberico Cybo Malaspina, who commanded the
troops of the Holy See. Phillip II. afterwards rewarded him for this
service by creating him prince of the empire and of Massa and Carrara.
The defence of Siena is one of the most brilliant episodes of Italian
history. The very women, led by Laudomia Forteguerri and Faustina
Piccolomini emulated the valour of ancient times. But it was all
fruitless. Leone Strozzi was killed at Piombino, Pietro his brother was
routed at Marciano, and the city, deprived of reënforcements by Doria,
who beat off the French fleet, was forced to yield. The remnant of the
defenders, reduced from forty thousand inhabitants to six thousand,
repaired to Montalcino where they set up their fallen Republic.
The she-wolf of Siena had fallen into the jaws of the Florentine
lion, but the French troops under the command of Flaminio Orsino,
Pietro Strozzi, Port’ Ercole, Orbetello and Talamone remained to be
vanquished, and the Count Marignano moved upon them with a strong army.
Andrea Doria supplied provisions and artillery and his forty galleys
prevented the reënforcement or retreat of the French by sea. Marignano
carried the fortress of Sant’Ippolito by storm, and successively
the castles of Avvoltojo and Stronco fell into his hands. Chiappino
Vitelli, captain in the pay of Orsino, distinguished himself greatly at
Stronco. Strozzi found his position untenable and retired with Orsino
to Montalto, a castle belonging to the Farnese, situated near the
sea. This retreat discouraged the friends of Siena and all the towns
which had favoured them surrendered to the imperials. At Avvoltojo,
Ottobuono Fieschi was taken prisoner and delivered to Andrea Doria.
Neither his own great age, nor the memory of his bloody vengeance
against the Fieschi family, softened the spirit of the admiral. It is
enough to make one’s heart bleed to think that he who had often spared
the lives of Turkish pirates, who treated the inhuman Barbarossa with
courtesy and released Dragut from his chains, ordered Ottobuono to be
brought to him enclosed in a sack and barbarously butchered before his
eyes.
The murder of this brave warrior, captured while fighting for
national independence, deepened the resentment in the Genoese already
exasperated by the sanguinary vengeance taken against the Fieschi and
the perversion of the Republic. Nor was Genoa alone in opposing the
Doria government; the Ligurians generally shared the feeling of the
capital and the Corsicans, suffering under the despotism of our nobles,
began to show signs of revolt.
Fregoso and Sampiero shared the perils of Ottobuono in the siege of
Siena. Aurelio Fregoso and Fieschi had laid aside their hereditary
enmity at Mirandola and set out together for the seat of war. Eleonora,
widow of Gianluigi, had sealed this new friendship by giving in
marriage to Fregoso her sister-in-law Lucrezia Vitelli. Aurelio was
a soldier of great merit and was afterwards honoured for his valour.
Siena enrolled him among her citizens, Francesco Maria, Duke of Urbino,
invested him with the feud of St. Agata, and Cosimo himself treated him
as an intimate friend.
Sampiero, Fregoso’s companion in the vicissitudes of a stormy career,
was the most formidable soldier and captain of his time. The example
of the Fieschi whom he had known in Rome, Mirandola, Siena and France,
led him to draw his sword against the Genoese government; and therefore
we may be permitted to touch upon the overthrow of his family in a
struggle which dyed his native rocks with Genoese blood.
Sampiero was born in humble fortune at Bastelica (whence his surname),
and having studied the military art in his youth left his native island
and went to Rome. Here, none excelled him in strength and courage.
There is a tradition that an Orsini wished to deprive him of this
honour and for the purpose challenged him to a joust with a wild bull.
The young and reckless Samperio accepted the contest and cut down his
ferocious antagonist. He served successively the Florentines against
Pisa and the king of France. In the latter service his exploits in
Catalonia and Provence raised him to high reputation. The famous
defiance of Barletta is far less entitled to fame than his great
duel at the battle of Perpignano; but what great Italian writer has
preserved the memory of that deed?
On the evening of the tenth of October 1542, five hundred Spanish
knights issued from Perpignano with flying colours, and challenged
the besieging army to fight them man for man. Sampiero heard the
defiance and collected about him some of his bravest knights, among
whom were Pecchia da Borgo, Francesco da Verona, Ceccone da San
Zenese, Bartolomeo da Fano and other Italians to the number of fifty.
He led this little band to the tent of Delfino the French general,
and obtained permission to put his fifty against the five hundred
Spaniards. The French barons were astonished at his audacity, but
Sampiero without waiting to hear their objections dashed down upon the
Spaniards with such impetuosity as to hurl them backward at the first
shock. In endeavouring to retire the vanquished knights broke their
ranks and fell into a confusion which enabled the victors to kill many
and capture a larger number without the loss of a man.
After this victory, which would be memorable in any age, the Italians
returned to their tents, where the Marshal of France received them with
great honour, the flower of his knights greeting them with trumpets
and acclamations. Delfino received them one by one and gave them rich
presents--especially Sampiero, to whom he gave a rich gold chain.
The fame which he had acquired obscured the memory of his humble birth,
and he was counted worthy to espouse Vannina, daughter and heir of
Francesco, Marquis of Ornano. He served afterwards in the French army
of Piedmont and Paul III. received him at his court with every mark of
affection, when after the death of Pier Luigi he was collecting men and
captains to avenge the assassination.
The Genoese, suspecting intrigues between the Fieschi and the Pope,
seized Sampiero and he only recovered his liberty after urgent
solicitations of France in his behalf. This imprisonment filled him
with indignation and he resolved to revolutionize Corsica. He landed
in the island, under the protection of French and Turkish fleets, at
the head of a fine body of Italian soldiers and in a few days wrested
it from the Genoese, who had lost the affection of the people by
extortion and robberies under the name of imposts collected by bands
of thieves called tax and excise officers. The Genoese government
again erred by refusing friendly offers made by France. Termes, before
moving to the support of the Corsicans, prayed the Republic to ally
itself with France on terms which would preserve its independence,
and he pledged himself in this case to suppress revolt in Corsica.
The influence of Doria was powerful enough to secure the rejection of
this proposition, and though he was eighty-six years of age he, with
Agostino Spinola for colleague, undertook to crush the rebellion.
Both parties fought with equal valour; but the siege of Siena called
Doria from the Island to the coast of Tuscany, and Termes had not a
sufficient force to conquer the Ligurian power in Corsica.
At that time, Count Scipione Fieschi lived in the court of Catherine
de’ Medici, regent of the kingdom of France. The Republic sent there
Tobia Pallavicini and Gerolamo Lomellini, under pretence of promoting
amicable relations with that crown, but in reality to intrigue against
the Fieschi. But Catherine who had induced Henry II. to insert in the
treaty of Castel Cambrese stipulations in favour of the family, had
not changed sympathies and, instead of yielding to the influence of
the Genoese ambassadors, opened negotiations for the restoration of
Scipione to his ancestral rights.
Finding the Republic utterly averse to her wishes, she conceived a
strong animosity against it, and supported the movements of the Fieschi
and other exiles with a vigour which must have produced great results,
if the peace with Spain and the Huguenot war had not recalled all her
attention to home affairs.
Sampiero was one of the warmest friends both of the Fieschi and the
Queen regent, and discontented with peace he incessantly stimulated the
exiles to some noble enterprise. Leaving his wife in Marseilles, he
visited the courts of Italy and Navarre, and even sailed into Africa to
solicit the coöperation of the Turks. He visited the court of Soliman,
who, struck with his valour, loaded him with presents and dismissed him
with flattering promises.
The Republic was on the alert and took measures to thwart the schemes
of the exiles. Poison and daggers had failed, and the Dorias invented
another expedient. Sampiero returning from the East learned that his
wife Vannina, under the influence of priest Michelangelo Ombrone and
Agostino Bacigalupo, had sailed for Genoa. These messengers had been
suborned by the Genoese government to decoy Vannina into Genoa under
pretence that she might recover the confiscated feud of Ornano and
obtain her husband’s pardon, for whose head the Senate had offered a
reward of five thousand crowns.
This news inflamed Sampiero with the greater wrath that it was likely
to create the belief that she went there by his advice and so to injure
his fellow exiles. He lamented his misfortune to Pier Giovanni da
Calvese, who had been the companion of his journey into the East, and
Calvese informed him that he had known the fact for some days, but had
concealed it lest he should share the fate of Florio da Corte, whom
Sampiero had killed.
Sampiero was so angry that he ran his companion through and left him
dead on the spot. On arriving at Marseilles, he learned that the Queen
had sent Antonio San Fiorenzo in chase of Vannina, and that she had
been overtaken at Antibo and confined in the castle of Zaisi near
Aix. Sampiero started at once for the castle with the intention of
taking his wife under his own care, but the Count of Provence fearing
that he would do her mischief left her to choose her own course. The
magnanimous woman did not hesitate a moment to put herself entirely in
the power of her husband.
He was mortally wounded by the suspicion of the Corsicans that her
voyage to Genoa had been a treachery of his own, and he had no means of
exculpating himself but by taking vengeance for the crime on the person
of the offender. But he loved Vannina passionately and for some days
patriotism and affection contended for the mastery in his bosom. But
Vannina knew his perplexity, and came to his relief by imploring death
at his hands. She gathered about her the servants of her household and
her younger son Antonfrancesco (Alfonso was in the French court) and
addressing her husband in passionate terms, she said: “kneel before
me, and show to these persons that you still love me, that I am worthy
of you. Call me donna, Madonna.” Sampiero comprehended her thought and
fell at her feet covering her hands with tears and kisses. Then they
entered into a private apartment, and what passed between them there
is known only to God. The servants heard sighs, sobs, kisses; then a
shriek followed by a deep silence. Sampiero mounted his horse and rode
swiftly to Paris. By killing Vannina he satisfied the Corsicans of his
fidelity, and more, that no affection could withhold him from punishing
the guilty.
The hatred of Sampiero to the government of Genoa was doubled by the
part it had played in this tragedy of his domestic life. He obtained
the permission of the French Queen to undertake the war of Corsica,
and formed friendship among the Genoese exiles who shared his views,
“especially,” says Osino, “with a Gerolamo Fieschi and Cornelio
Fregoso. The latter used every argument and artifice to entice Cosimo
to favour the enterprise and even attempt it in his own name and
interest.” Cosimo temporized; and Sampiero, little accustomed to count
up obstacles or enemies, passed into Corsica with only two ships and a
few companions. One asked him:--“In case your ships should be lost, in
what could you trust for safety?” Sampiero replied: “I trust only to my
sword.”
He seized the castle of Istria, routed the Genoese at Corte, and Terra
del Commune, opened its gates to his little band. It would be long
to recount all the battles which he fought against trained troops,
always winning victories. The battles of Vescovado and Pietra di
Caccia kindled a general revolution in the island. In the last, the
Genoese killed were more than three hundred, and they lost many more
as prisoners. Among the latter Sampiero found a Giovanni Battista
Fieschi (of the Savignone branch) and, instead of treating him as a
conquered enemy, entertained him with friendly courtesy in memory of
kindness done him by the Fieschi in France. In fact the Fieschi had
never refused him any favour; and when he sent Leonardo da Corte and
Anton Padovano da Brando to Paris, in quest of aid, Scipione Fieschi
had induced the Queen to give twelve thousand crowns and some troops.
The Fieschi favoured Sampiero because they believed trouble abroad
would render revolution easier at home. The energy and valour of this
warrior would have given the Republic infinite trouble, if treachery
had not interrupted the progress of his brilliant vengeance. Though
the forces of the senate in Corsica were large and had been reënforced
by German and Spanish infantry, they seemed powerless before the
revolution. Two causes rendered them impotent; the desperate ardour
of the islanders goaded to madness by the agents of the Bank of
St. George, and the absence of the popular element in the Genoese
administration. A people unaccustomed to arms, removed from all share
in the government, and jealously watched by a dominant oligarchy, is
not apt to rush enthusiastically upon death in defence of the power
of a few patricians. Finding the war going constantly against them,
the senators resolved to send into Corsica Stefano Doria, Lord of
Dolceaqua, and they expected him to sink the rebellion in a deluge
of fire. He was indeed a man of extraordinary military talents, and
his ferocity was still greater. Charles V. prized his soldierly
qualities, and Phillip II. created him colonel and knight of St. James
of Campostella. Emanuele Filiberto, also, of whom he was a feudatory,
covered him with honours, made him councillor and captain-general, and
entrusted him with the defence of Nice against the Turks. He acquired
distinction in the battles of Ceresole and Cuneo, and this induced the
Republic to select him for the Corsican war.
He accepted the appointment with great confidence, and swore to
exterminate the whole Corsican people. He said:--“when the Athenians
captured the city of Melas, after a siege of seven months, they
butchered all the inhabitants over fourteen years of age and
repopulated the island. The Corsicans merit a like punishment, and we
should imitate the example. Such vigour prepared the Athenians for the
conquest of the Pelopenesus, Greece, Africa, Sicily and Italy; and
only by exterminating their enemies did they acquire glory for their
arms. I know it will be said that such severity violates the rights of
peoples and the laws of humanity; but why listen to such follies? I
only ask that they shall be made to fear us, and, in comparison with
the applause of Genoa, I despise the judgment of posterity to which the
simple appeal.”
On these principles, Doria burned and devastated half the island, but
he did not conquer Sampiero. The conspirator in brief pauses of the
battle, assembled the people in Bozio and laid the foundations of a
Republic in the fashion of that of Sambucuccio di Alando. Doria was
recalled; Vivaldi and Defornari who followed him accomplished nothing
of moment.
The senate, despairing of victory in war, resorted to plots against
the life of Sampiero. He was riding one day with his son Alfonso
towards the castle of Rocca, when Raffaele Giustiniani, assailed him
with a band of horsemen. Among the assailants, were some Corsicans
who had deserted Sampiero, particularly Ercole da Istria and three
brothers Ornano. They attacked him in a disadvantageous position in
the valley of Cavro; but Sampiero told his son to save himself by
flight and plunged into the thick of his enemies. He prostrated Gian
Antonio Ornano with the fire of his arquebus, and was grappling with
his enemies when he was killed by a musket ball in the shoulder. It was
believed that Vittolo, his esquire, corrupted by the Genoese general,
fired the fatal shot. His death did not dishearten the Corsicans;
they fought two years longer under Alfonso, then only seventeen years
of age. But finally both parties grew tired of the war and terms of
accommodation were settled. The exiles now lost all hope of recovering
their country.
Though the Fieschi and their partisans were dead and Count Scipione
disinherited, it is not probable that Andrea Doria forgot that Pier
Luca Fieschi had advised Gianluigi to form an alliance with France;
but perhaps others anticipated him in that part of his vengeance.
We have seen that Paul III., having given his niece in marriage to
Ferrero, invested him with the Marquisate of Masserano which belonged
to Fieschi. The latter, indignant at this robbery, ceased to pay the
annual tribute to the Pope for Crevacuore. Paul, for this, and, says
the papal brief, “Also for falsifying money in his unlawful mints and
other crimes,” condemned him, deprived him of his feud and gave it also
to Ferrero. But neither the sentence, papal briefs or excommunications
sufficed to expel Pier Luca from his castle, which he afterwards sold
to the Duke of Savoy, (1548.) The duke took an oath that neither he
nor his descendants would cede the whole or any part of the county of
Fieschi to Ferrero or any person of his race. Gregory XIII. absolved
him from this oath, and in spite of Pier Luca the feud reverted to
Basso Ferrero and Clement XVII. erected it into a principate.
We do not know how Pier Luca died; but the manuscripts we consult speak
of his end as miserable. Almost all the Fieschi patrimony in Piedmont
fell into the power of the Ferrero, who treated their subjects with a
severity which strikingly contrasted with the paternal government of
their old masters and led to many seditions and revolts. Urban VIII.,
moved by the loud complaints of the people, deprived Prince Filiberto,
son of Basso, of his entire state, and his son, also named Basso, was
only permitted to assume the government through the interposition of
Duke Feria and Victor Amedeus II. We have before us a letter of the
latter, dated January 23rd, 1632, urging the people of Crevacuore to
accept Basso “who is not responsible for the faults of his brother and
father.” But the new Basso was no better than the old. Alexander VII.
removed him from the government and ordered the destruction of the two
fortresses of Masserano and Crevacuore. Here we pause; for the history
of these feuds is no longer within the range of our subject.
The Doria and imperial faction did not rest while one of the Fieschi
conspirators breathed the vital air. Even Giulio Pojano, who commanded
the galleys of Gianluigi, fell into snares set for him by that party.
He was accused of plotting against the life of Fulvia da Coreggio, wife
of Count Lodovico Mirandola, arrested by her orders and strangled in
prison.