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.