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State of Genoa under the authority of Andrea Doria, ought to be
reconciled to the King of France; and I do not believe the Genoese
would be disinclined to it, for their sympathies are for France, and
they know the advantages to a Republic of independence and the
free use of their political power. It was useful to the Genoese, at the
moment, to follow the influence of Doria and, ceasing to be French,
to become imperialists, as a step towards liberty; but at present it
would not be less useful to them to unite, without altering the form
of their state, with the other governments of the Peninsula.”
Gianotti expressed the hope that the Pope’s authority might
induce Doria to risk his fortunes with those of Italy, and he thinks
there could not be obstacles on the part of the French monarch,
because political prudence would counsel him to ally himself with
Genoa, without seeking to govern her as a subject province: “rather,”
he adds, “the French king should refuse to govern Genoa, as such
power would involve most embarrassments for himself. The French
king should make allies of the Genoese, solely in order to detach
them from his enemies.” He makes a similar suggestion to all the
Italian states, especially Siena and Florence, “who for common
interests ought to make common cause.” He argues that such a
policy would free these states from that dependence on the empire,
which some believed necessary to their existence, and would give
them the repute of being able to live without leaning on foreign
support. He advocates the policy which adjusts itself to the
conveniences and changes of the times, and enforces this reasoning
by the conduct and aims of the Emperor which left the Italians no
hope but in war. He advises that arms and munitions both of offence
and defence be acquired with as much haste as possible; that
friendship be cultivated with foreign powers. “Peace,” he concludes,
“may be more fatal than war, for the former must in the end subject
us to despotism, while war may fortify our present liberties and
restore those of which we have been defrauded.”[32]
This apparent digression upon the discourse of the Florentine
statesman is very much to our purpose, and that his counsels were
warmly welcomed by the Count Lavagna is manifest, for his scheme
is moulded upon Gianotti’s plan. The Florentine laid down three rules
of policy,—That our provinces, especially Genoa, break with the
Emperor; that they form alliance with France—not to put themselves
in her power, but to keep her from becoming their enemy,—and that,
without seeking material aid from France, all the Republics should
make vigorous preparation for war against the empire.
On these principles Fieschi constructed his too-much calumniated
plot. Those who have written about it, without studying the
character of the times, rather as romancers than historians, have
transmitted us a fable that he sought the supreme control of the
Republic; but he sought no other end than to bring back the
government to its ancient principles. Revolution in Genoa never
aimed at enslaving the people. In those centuries we had foreign
generals and ministers among us, but never absolute rulers; and if
these ministers attempted tyranny, they paid for their audacity with
their blood, like Opizzino d’Alzate, or were expelled, like Trivulzio and
others.
Gianluigi was not so short-sighted as not to know the temper of
the Genoese, or to forget the lesson of then recent examples. He
sought not to usurp the government and become the oppressor of
the people, but to confer on his native land the blessings of its
ancient order.
Though writers in the pay of Spain accused him of corrupt
ambition, lust of gold and thirst for blood, it is time to render him
the tardy justice of saying that no document can be quoted which
proves that he cherished such infamous projects—projects alien to
his gentle and humane character, to the traditions of his family, and
to the spirit of the Guelph party then supported by the most sound
and cultivated intellects of Italy.
Sismondi alone, of all historians, seems to us to have
comprehended the real object of Fieschi. “Andrea Doria,” he writes,
“had restored the name of Republic to his country, but not liberty
nor independence. He called to the government a strict aristocracy,
of whom Gianettino was the master. He bound the fate of his
country to that of Austria, by bonds which humiliated the best part
of the Genoese. Fieschi planned his conspiracy in order to deliver the
country from the yoke of Spain and the Dorias.”[33]
The events we proceed to describe set the seal of truth upon the
words of this illustrious historian.
Some tell us that Gianluigi plotted, so early as 1537, with Cesare
Fregoso, to place the Republic in the hands of the French king; for
which, Bonfadio adds,[34] he would have lost his head, if Andrea
Doria had not saved him from the rigours of the law. This report was
set on foot by the marquis Vasto, governor of Milan, who, after the
assassination of Cesare Fregoso and Antonio Rancone, the
messengers of King Francis to Soliman, endeavoured to justify his
treachery by declaring, among other things, that he had found in
commentaries of Fregoso, (which he never had in his hands) proofs
that Fieschi took part in that plot. But these pretended conspiracies
with the King of France are now destroyed by very authoritative
testimony. If Bonfadio had remembered that, in 1537, Fieschi was
still a lad, he would have hesitated to adopt that slander. It is
known, too, that personal enmity existed between the families
Fregoso and Fieschi of so bitter a character as to forbid all possibility
of common political views and intimate secret negotiations. The
memory of the day, when Doge Giano Fregoso and his brother
Fregosino, encountering Gerolamo Fieschi, killed him with many
blows, was not effaced; nor was it forgotten that the Fieschi retired
to their castles to plan their revenge, collected three thousand
soldiers and besieged the city from the valley of Bisagno, where the
Fregosi were entrenched. A battle was fought, in which the Doge
was defeated. The Fieschi entered the city as victors, killed Zaccaria
Fregoso, dragged his corpse through the populous streets, and
elevated Antoniotto Adorno to the office of Doge. From that day a
mortal hatred had divided the two families. This fact alone renders
the story of a plot with Fregoso highly improbable.
Bonfadio also accuses Fieschi of having attempted to betray the
city to Pietro Strozzi, which, he says, would have been done, if
Bernardino di Mendozza had not arrived with a strong body of
Bisogni, in good time to overthrow the conspiracy. Some add that
the count sent one Sacco, to Strozzi to instigate him to attack Genoa
and to act as a guide. The circumstance deserves investigation.
In August, 1544, when the emperor had marched into France,
Pietro Strozzi collected an army at Mirandola, with the design of
attacking the territories of Milan in concert with Enghein. Aided by
Pierluigi Farnese, he had already crossed the Po, and entered the
province of Piacenza, where he lay encamped on the slopes of the
Ligurian mountains, when, being assailed by Ridolfo Baglione and
imperial troops sent from Naples, he was forced to fall back to
Serravalle, on the banks of the Scrivia. Here he was overtaken by
the prince of Salerno, and forced to accept battle. The fight was at
first favourable to Strozzi, but in the end he suffered defeat. There
were few killed, because the Italians recognized their brotherhood
on the field of battle, threw down their arms and embraced each
other. Strozzi took shelter with the remnant of his army in the
territory of the Republic. The Fieschi, fearing the rage of a
conquered Strozzi, and perhaps an assault upon Montobbio, fled into
the city, and remained there until Strozzi evacuated his camp in the
Apennines. This shows how completely Bonfadio was in error.[35]
Though, however, the count of Lavagna (then lord of thirty-three
castles) had no secret correspondence with Fregoso nor Strozzi, he
certainly had political relations with other persons; and this is what
remains after eliminating the falsehoods spread abroad by Spain.
Having formed the purpose of deposing the old nobility and
restoring the popular government, Fieschi saw that his best policy
was to follow the fortunes of the Adorni, whose party his ancestors,
and especially his father, had zealously supported. The views of
Gianluigi found an echo in the breast of Barnaba Adorno, count of
Silvano, of whom we must briefly speak.
Silvano is situated in the Val d’Orba in Monferrato, two miles
beyond the Giovi. On the east and west lie the villages of St.
Cristoforo, then a feud of the Dorias, of Montaldeo—honored as the
birth-place, at a later period, of cardinal Mazzarino—and Mornese, a
feud of the Serras; on the south lay Cremolino, possessed by the
Dorias; and on the north the castles of Carpineto, and Montaldo, and
the city of Alessandria. Nearer and almost contiguous to Silvano
stood the castles of Lerma, Tagliolo, Ovada, Rocca Grimaldi,
Capriata, and Castelletto Val d’Orba, also feuds of Barnaba Adorno.
Silvano was fortified by two large and strong towers, and was the
usual residence of Adorno, who had strong friends and political allies
in all the castles and villages around him. He devoted his early years
to arms, and, rising to the rank of colonel under Cæsar, he acquired
distinction in Provence and in the kingdom of Naples. In the latter he
obtained the feud of Caprarica. Weary of the tumults of war, he
retired to his home and married Maddalena, daughter of the Doge
Antoniotto Adorno. In beauty, this woman was excelled by few
persons of her time.
The quiet of Adorno was disturbed by serious quarrels, especially
by one with count Paolo Pico of Mirandola, who attacked his lands
and put Castelletto to fire and sword. This strife, so bloody in the
civil war which it inflamed, was not less spirited before the tribunals
of the empire; but it is not our province to enlarge on its many
vicissitudes.
Adorno cherished the design of cultivating the popular party, and
so raising the declining fortunes of his house, and he soon began to
attempt plots against the new order in Genoa.
In this purpose he turned to the count of Lavagna, through the
mediation of a Fra Badaracco, and, after many debates, it was
resolved to unite their forces for the overthrow of the Dorias.
Barnaba was to be elevated to the Dogate, and the count to govern
the eastern Riviera as his father had done before him. They further
agreed to place the Republic under the protection of France, without
prejudice, however, to its liberties, and solely to secure it from the
vengeance of Cæsar. Fra Badaracco, in order to find partisans, held
conversations with some gentlemen whom he supposed to be
dissatisfied with the government of the Dorias. But these persons
exposed the matter in the senate: the friar was arrested, and some
letters of Barnaba Adorno were found on his person. After having
been tortured, Bardaracco was decapitated, having confessed that,
besides Adorno, Gianluigi Fieschi and Pietra Paolo Lasagna were
concerned in the conspiracy. The senators, not being able to obtain
proofs of their guilt, decided not to prosecute the conspirators.
Having thus failed in his first effort, the count sought new paths
to his end. He saw that it was necessary to have an understanding
with the king of France, as a means of restraining the army which
the emperor had in the territories of Milan, and to secure the
capture of the fleet of Doria, which was the chief prop of the
imperial power. It was plain that these naval and military forces
would easily quell any insurrection, unless the troops of France in
Piedmont were directed to hold the army of Cæsar in check.
Gianluigi was induced to enter into an understanding with France by
one of his relatives by blood, of whom we ought briefly to speak,
because his name has been almost forgotten in our domestic
histories.
A branch of the Fieschi family, expelled from Genoa in 1339, had
taken up its residence in Piedmont and acquired there both
possessions and honours. A certain Giovanni Fieschi—made bishop
of Vercelli by Clement VI., in 1348—gave a share of the temporal
government of his diocese to his brother Nicolò, and conferred upon
him some lands and castles.
We find in the archives of the court at Turin that the Fieschi ruled
in Masserano until 1381, and that Nicolò, Giovanni, and Antonio
formed an alliance with count Verde. Some few years later, or in
1394, Lodovico Fieschi, also bishop of Vercelli and cardinal,
petitioned Boniface IX. for the repayment of a large sum of money
spent by him in maintaining the rights of his church, and he
obtained permission to alienate from the jurisdiction of the church
the castles of Masserano and Moncrivello, and to confer the feud
upon his brother Antonio. This investiture was confirmed by
subsequent popes, especially by Julius II.; and Alexander VI. added,
in 1498, the feuds of Curino, Brusnengo, Flecchia, and Riva,
assigning them to the brothers Innocenzo and Pier Luca.
The first of these had a son named Lodovico, and this Lodovico a
daughter named Beatrice, whose hand her father gave to Filiberto
Ferrero, a citizen of Biella, adopting him as a son.
 The Fieschi possessions in this way passed into the family of
Ferrero; and he, having obtained for his son Besso the hand of
Camilla, niece of Paul III., secured the investiture of Masserano, then
created a Marquisate. Whoever is desirous of learning how these
feuds came into the possession of the Ferreri to the exclusion of the
male line, and particularly of Gregory and Pier Luca Fieschi, may
consult Curzio Giuniore.
This Pier Luca II., lord of Crevacuore, where he had an excellent
mint, of whose coinage some specimens are preserved to us,
constantly revolved revolutionary projects, as a means of recovering
his lost dominions, and urged Count Gianluigi to proclaim himself a
partisan of France. It is certain that by the advice of Pier Luca,
Gianluigi bought the Farnesian galleys, of which we shall presently
speak.
The count received Pier Luca at his house in Vialata with every
mark of affection, and lent a willing ear to his suggestions; but
fearing that France would wish to reduce Genoa to the condition of a
French province, he resolved to ascertain the views of the ministers
of that power, and to obtain pledges for the security of popular
liberty.
He entrusted this negotiation to Gian Francesco, (called Gagnino)
Gonzaga of the family of the dukes of Sabbione, a brave soldier,
hostile to the empire. With his uncle Frederick he had fought against
Cæsar at Parma, and later as a colonel of the Florentines in the
celebrated siege of Florence. Being an open partisan of the French,
he was banished from his native land.
Gonzaga presented himself before the French council of state,
and reminded the ministers of the many services which the Fieschi
family had rendered to the French crown; he showed clearly that the
only means of driving the Spaniards from Lombardy, was to destroy
the communication with their other Italian states: and the first step
to this end would be to remove from power in Genoa the faction of
the Dorias. Fieschi, he added, could accomplish this more easily than
any other person, and he would attempt the enterprise if France
would encourage his efforts, and promise not to lay violent hands on
the Republic.
Doria had many enemies in Paris. Though the Chancellor Du Prat
was dead and the constable Montmorency was fallen, yet the
animosities awakened by Doria in that court were not buried. Delfino
still remembered that Doria had taken Genoa from the dominion of
France and he meditated vengeance.
The count of San Polo had not forgotten that Andrea caused his
defeat and captivity at the battle of Landriano, by informing the
Spaniards of the difficulties he was encountering in his retreat.
Cardinal Tournon was unable to pardon Doria for throwing many
obstacles in his way when he went to Rome to attend the conclave
assembled to elect a successor to Clement VIII. Admiral Annebaut
hoped to command the army to be sent for the conquest of
Lombardy as soon as the revolution should break out in Genoa.
Thus all the ministers, actuated at once by personal and political
motives, favoured the plans of Fieschi. Gonzaga was welcomed with
delight and obtained a solemn promise that the crown of France
would renounce all pretensions to the government of Genoa. He was
also empowered to make use of the French troops in Piedmont in
garrison at Turin, Moncalieri, Savigliano and Pinerolo; and to select
in the port of Toulon such ships as might be adapted to serve the
purposes of Fieschi.
This negotiation, securing the coöperation of France without
compromising the independence of the country, is highly creditable
to Gianluigi and shows the keenness of his political vision which
forecast all the dangers and complications of foreign assistance.
Perhaps he listened too hopefully to these promises of foreign
succour; but if French diplomatists then deceived him, he afterwards
showed that he lacked neither courage nor will to undertake his
revolution without their coöperation.
France was at that time prodigal of flattery to Italy. She drew
from us her luxury, her arts and the embellishments of her life;
perhaps also her vices which she repaid to us with usury. She had
apparently no schemes for the overthrow of the Italians, and
sincerely, though not disinterestedly, sought our emancipation from
the Spanish power. We are indebted to her for restraining Cæsar
from destroying among us even the name of liberty; and this
explains why our Republics, our people and our first intellects were
so friendly to France. Whatever secret designs she may have
cherished, she promoted popular franchises in Italy. She encouraged
agriculture and commerce, and in war for the most part abstained
from pillage and carnage, so that the people butchered by the
Spaniards cried out, “Would that the French were here to liberate us
from these miscreants!”
Some tell us that the Count, besides the aid promised, received
an annual sum from France and that he was also salaried by Cæsar.
But we have never found any credible testimony for such
statements, and the authors seem to have spun them out of their
own fancies or received them upon the faith of partisan writers.
They should be consigned to that mass of idle rumours or
malevolent slanders which we have set aside. Of similar cloth is the
fable of the journey of Ottobuono, brother of Gianluigi, to Paris, and
also to Rome to ask justice for a grave injury inflicted upon him by
Gianettino.
In the mean while, Gianluigi lost no opportunity of making
partisans. The times were propitious. The Duke of Piacenza, wishing
to restrain the license of the nobles published a proclamation
requiring them to reside in the city. This command offended not a
few who were feudatories, but not subjects, of the duke. Among
these were the Borromeo of Milan, who possessed Guardasone in
the province of Parma, and the Fieschi who held Calestano. Gianluigi
sent a message to the duke asking that the order might be revoked
in his favour. His request was granted, and he went in person,
ostensibly to thank the duke and render him homage as his
feudatory, but in reality to treat for the purchase of the Farnesian
galleys, a measure recommended by Pier Luca as necessary to the
contemplated revolution.
To conceal his true intent he wrote to the Senate, on the 28th of
September, 1545, that he was in Piacenza to pay homage to the
duke, and that he found nuncios coming there from all the Italian
provinces. He therefore advised that the Republic should also send a
representative. The Senate followed his advice, and charged him
with the honourable office.
Although the galleys of which we have spoken had already been
asked for by Pietro Strozzi, by Prince Adamo Centurione, and by
Cardinal Sauli, for a nephew who had already paid a part of the
price, yet the duke, knowing the use Gianluigi intended to make of
them, gave him the preference. The purchase was effected on the
23rd of November, 1545. The galleys were named the Capitana,
Vittoria, Santa Caterina and Padrona, and had on board, in addition
to arms and equipments, three hundred persons condemned for life,
one hundred and eighty-five for various terms of years, and one
hundred and eighty Turkish and other slaves.
The price amounted to thirty-four thousand gold crowns, to be
paid in several instalments; one third on delivery of the vessels,
another on Lady day, 1546, and the last one year later. The deferred
payments were secured upon the feud of Calestano, with the
consent of Gianluigi’s brother Gerolamo, who was lord of that
property.[36] The contracting parties were, on one side, Paolo Pietro
Guidi, president of the ducal chamber, and Giovanni Battista Liberati,
the duke’s treasurer; and the Count of Lavagna on the other. We
must not omit, among the conditions of the sale, that three of the
galleys were to remain for two years longer in the service of the
Apostolic See, Count Fieschi receiving the Papal bonds held by
Orazio Farnese.
The low price of the galleys is explained by this condition, in
virtue of which they were bound to remain in the port of Civita
Vecchia, and the count was obliged to provide for the maintenance
and pay of the officers and crews without deriving any advantage
from the ownership. Gianluigi assigned the command to Giulio
Pojano, who had also commanded them under Orazio Farnese when
the emperor undertook the war of Algiers.
We are not able to decide with certainty whether, after this
purchase, the count went to Rome, as some affirm. We find however
that Duke Pierluigi, having proclaimed a tournament in Piacenza to
take place on the 21st of February, 1546, and requested that the
ladies of his feudatories should also attend, the countess Eleanora,
as well as many others, complied with the invitation and was
presented by her husband to the duke, who now treated Gianluigi as
his equal.
Duke Farnese announced another tournament for the autumn of
the same year, to celebrate the marriage of Faustina Sforza with
Muzio Visconti Sforza, marquis of Caravaggio. At this festival the
flower of the Italian nobility was gathered together; and in the
tournament of the 20th of October, 1546, Nicolò Pusterla and Count
Fieschi obtained the highest honours.
It is not known what means the duke intended to employ for
carrying out the contemplated revolution. Perhaps both Fieschi and
Farnese were yet undecided. It is not impossible (we have strong
testimony for the theory) that they waited, with the hope of enlisting
on their side one who had even more audacity and strength than
themselves, and who would have brought no mean forces into the
alliance.
One of those reformers who makes centuries glorious was
maturing a scheme of greater scope than that of Fieschi. Francesco
Burlamacchi, born of a noble house in Lucca, had conceived the lofty
design of revolutionizing, under popular auspices, the Tuscan cities
oppressed by Cosimo; allying them to the still surviving republics of
Lucca and Siena; embracing in the new nation Perugia, which since
1540 had maintained itself under popular government against the
Papacy; taking away from the Apostolic See the temporal power, and
restoring the church to the consecrated poverty of the Gospel.
He confided in the popular discontent at domestic and foreign
tyranny, and not less in the reformed doctrines which were
advocated by the most distinguished Italians, especially by those of
Lucca. He proposed his scheme to his friends and sought partisans
among the Florentine exiles, the faction of the Strozzi, and even
among the German Lutherans who had at their head Phillip
Landgrave of Hesse, and Frederick, duke of Saxony. Impatient of
delay, he went in person to Venice, then the asylum of the Tuscan
and Genoese exiles, and solicited their coöperation. He made an
arrangement with Leone Strozzi, prior of Capua, by which the latter
agreed to support the enterprize; but Strozzi thought it wiser to
procrastinate until the result of the Germanic war should be known.
Burlamacchi, having been created commissary of ordnance at
Montagna, resolved to undertake his daring enterprize without
waiting longer for foreign aid. He intended to rouse the people to
arms, march rapidly upon Pisa—whose fortress, commanded by
Vincenzo del Poggio, would be opened to him without bloodshed—to
capture Florence, and thence spread the generous fire of liberty over
the Peninsula.
The revolution was planned with great prudence and all
contingencies were amply provided for. Unfortunately, however, he
was obliged in the exercise of his office as Confaloniere of justice to
issue a proclamation against one Andrea Pezzini who was cognisant
of the conspiracy. This person in order to gratify his malice, revealed
the whole scheme to Duke Cosimo. The government of Luca,
mortally terrified by the Pope and the emperor, arrested
Burlamacchi, in August 1546, and obtained from him by torture a
confession of his revolutionary designs. Luca consigned him to the
imperial ministers by whom he was beheaded in Milan.
Some confused and scattered papers which we have seen imply
that there were messages and interviews between Gianluigi and
Burlamacchi, and this corresponds with that which Adriani has
written of the Lucchese revolutionist, viz: that he had formed
friendship and made allies in every part of Europe. It is then very
probable that he sounded Count Fieschi, whose enmity to the
Spaniards was well known, as one whose great wealth and
numerous dependents would greatly reinforce the revolution. Fieschi
was often at his castle in Pontremoli and it would have been easy for
the two to hold secret interviews without awakening the least
suspicion. It is possible that Fieschi though satisfied of the good faith
of France, believed that nothing could be attempted in Italy without
her active coöperation or, being a Guelph, disdained to embark in a
scheme for the overthrow of the temporal power of the Papacy.
These first plots of Fieschi confute the charge, disproved by other
and more direct evidence, made by sacred college of Padua, that he
conspired against the government of the Dorias with the sole object
of destroying Gianettino who was paying court to the countess of
Lavagna.
 CHAPTER VI.

PAUL THIRD.

He aspires to grandeur for his family—His hostility to the emperor and to Doria—
He encourages Gianluigi in his designs against the imperial rule in Genoa—
Attempts of Cardinal Trivulzio to induce Fieschi to give Genoa to France—
France is induced by the count to relinquish her hopes of obtaining Genoa—
Verrina and his spirited counsels—Vengeance of Gianluigi against Giovanni
Battista della Torre.

Alexander Farnese was elevated to the Papal throne under the title of
Paul III., not so much for his personal talents as by the influence of
his sister Clara whom he rewarded, as tradition reports, by giving
her poison.
The old Alexander VI., having by accident made her
acquaintance, was inflamed by her charms with an ardent passion,
and found means to open his heart to her. The cunning Farnese at
once saw the delirium of the gray-headed pontiff and did not yield to
his solicitations until he had promised her brother a cardinal’s hat.
When the time for making the nomination approached, the Pope was
disposed to fulfil his pledge; but he found a spirited resistance in
Cæsar Borgia, who having never kept faith with any one was very
unwilling that the holy father should abide by his promises. The
name of Abbott Farnese was cancelled from the list and another
inserted in its place. On the eve of the ordination of the Cardinals,
Clara, suspecting what had happened, passed a night with the
pontiff and when he, drunken with lust and wine, fell into a profound
slumber, she searched his papers and ascertained the truth of her
suspicions.
Being an adept in copying and reckless of consequences, she
rewrote the list, counterfeiting the Pope’s handwriting, and placed
the name of her brother first on the roll. On the morrow, she put on
all her seducing charms and detained her paramour in his bed until
messengers came to inform him that the concistory was assembled
and only waited his presence. Clara had foreseen that, if he were
called in haste, he would have no time to look over his papers. In
fact, he entered the concistory and gave the list to the secretaries
without looking it over. His surprise was great when the name of
Farnese was read out; but he preferred silence to the exposure of
his senile debaucheries.
It is not our purpose to go over the long career of Farnese. While
yet a youth he had been imprisoned in Sant Angelo for
counterfeiting a brief, and Alexander VI. would have beheaded him if
he had not contrived to escape from prison. We shall not repeat the
errors of his contemporary historians, that he united the black act to
his astronomical learning, and that he thus, through intercourse with
demons, learned many secrets and became skilled in political
intrigues. It is enough to say that, on arriving at the pontifical
throne, he devoted all his efforts to the aggrandizement of his
family; and, not content with obtaining the duchy of Camerino for
his bastard son Pierluigi, intrigued to elevate him to the government
of Parma and Piacenza, and even raised his eyes to that of Milan.
It was not then a reproach, says Segni,[37] that a Pope had
illegitimate children and sought by every means to confer upon them
wealth and dignities; on the contrary, the Pontiff who aspired to
temporal grandeur was in repute as a man of prudence and sagacity.
Paul III. intrigued for a long time with the emperor to acquire the
duchy of Milan for Pierluigi, though he well knew that Charles, in
occupying Lombardy, had protested that he did not wish to hold it
for his own advantage but for that of Italy. In these intentions he
was confirmed by the influence of the Venitians, the marquis Vasto
and the king of France. The Spanish monarch had already
disappointed the ambition of the duke of Orleans, who aspired to the
duchy, and he also refused it to Pierluigi. But the Pope, after long
intrigues to overcome the scruples of the cardinals, gave his son the
investiture of Parma and Piacenza, making them tributary to the
church in the sum of nine thousand ducats.
This act created enmity between the Farnesi and the emperor,
though Paul III. had furnished the latter with men and money for his
war against the Duke of Saxony, sending twelve thousand horse
under the command of Ottavio Farnese and Alessandro Vitelli. But
the increasing greatness of Charles, throwing into the shade the
prerogatives and power of the Papal See, the disappointed hope of a
principality and the league of the emperor with England the enemy
of the Papacy, rendered Paul a bitter foe of Spain and awakened in
him the ambition to crush the imperial power.
Andrea Doria hated the Farnese not less cordially than Charles.
He had opposed the advancement of this family for ten years, and
had frustrated a proposed league between the Papal See and the
empire. He had influenced Charles to refuse the duchy of Milan to
Pierluigi, and subsequently to deny Ottavio, son of Pierluigi, the
government of Tuscany according to a promise the emperor had
made when Ottavio married his illegitimate daughter Margaret, of
Austria. Doria urged against the last scheme that if the Farnese were
made masters of Tuscany they would become powerful enough to
lay hands on the Lombard provinces.
There were still other motives for Andrea’s jealousy of the power
of the Farnese family. A member of the Doria house named
Imperiale being reduced to extreme poverty had obtained an
appointment in the army of Andrea. He distinguished himself in
many actions and rose to the highest honours and wealth. But
having satisfied his military ambition he became a priest, in which
character he was first abbott of San Fruttuoso and afterwards,
through the influence of Andrea, bishop of Sagona in Corsica.
Wishing, however, to advance his worldly interests he retired into
Apulia where he acquired many estates, and was elevated by Andrea
to the government of Melfi, in which he largely increased his wealth.
Before his death, remembering the kindness of Doria, he
bequeathed to him all his possessions. The Papal nuncio seized upon
and sequestrated the estates of the bishop, claiming that they
belonged by right to the church. Andrea protested against this insult
before the Papal court, but Rome, being at once a party to the cause
and the judge of it, decided in its own favour and issued a decree
despoiling the admiral of all his rights in the property of his relative.
Paul III. fearing the vengeance of the admiral of the empire,
deputed his nephew Alexander Farnese to offer, as a compensation
for the outrage, the power of nominating a successor to the bishop.
Doria disdained to render a vassal’s homage to a Farnese and
ordered Gianettino to assail and capture the Papal galleys in the port
of Genoa. This capture inflamed the wrath of the pontiff, and as an
act of reprisal he arrested some Genoese who were in Rome,
threatening to confiscate their goods unless his ships were
immediately released. The Senate laid the matter before Andrea,
who answered that Gianettino had captured the Papal vessels solely
because he was stronger at sea than his adversary. Afterwards, in
order to avoid complicating the Republic with his private quarrel, he
released the galleys of the pontiff, after having satisfied the Farnese
that he did not lack the power but the will to revenge himself.
The Pope was induced by Charles V. to restore to Andrea his
defrauded rights; but the Farnese was deeply chagrined and, not
being able to strike openly at the emperor’s favourite, sought secret
ways of venting his displeasure.
Private ambition, personal mortification and political views united
to stimulate the pontiff to humble the emperor, expel the Spaniards
and crush the Dorias. As it was obviously vain to oppose Cæsar so
long as Genoa, governed by the constitution of Doria, was under the
Spanish influence, he naturally fell in with projects which
contemplated a revolution in the Republic.
It is certain, says a modern writer, that Paul was skilled in
mingling modern passions with the administration of his venerable
office. He stood between the old world and the new, and he
possessed the spirit of both; and if the election of Clement had not
deprived him of the pontificate for ten years (as he often lamented)
perhaps the fortunes of Italy, which were not yet desperate, might
have been saved by his industry or, at least, would not have suffered
total shipwreck.
At that period several Fieschi families were in a flourishing state,
among them that of Ettore, of the Savignone line, who had
espoused Maria di Gian-Ambrogio Fieschi. From this marriage were
born, Francesco, Giacomo, Nicolò, Paride, Gian-Ambrogio, Urbano
and Innocenzio. Ettore having given some of his property in Rome to
Giacomo and Nicolò, who as priests were stationed in that city, at
the death of the first the father found it necessary to make a journey
thither.
Having presented himself to the Pope he was graciously received
and obtained the bishopric of Savona for his second son.
In their conferences the Pontiff spoke of the past grandeur of the
Fieschi family, of the hospitality he had received in the palace in
Vialata in the time of Sinibaldo, and expressed surprise that none of
the sons of Sinibaldo, whom he knew to be young men of spirit and
ambition, had sought honours in the Papal court,—honours which
could not be denied to the scions of a noble house, which counted
two successors of St. Peter and four hundred mitred heads in its
ancestry. He also begged Ettore to inform Fieschi that he entertained
the most flattering opinion of their merits, and should be happy to
give full proof of his esteem.
On his return to Genoa, Ettore informed Gianluigi of the
sentiments of Paul III. and of his nephew the cardinal towards the
family, and the count resolved personally to render thanks to the
Pontiff. He visited Rome, though dissuaded by Panza, in May, 1546
(as Bonfadio tells us). Some maintain that he went there at other
periods, but we find no authentic evidence to support the assertion.
Paul received Gianluigi in the kindest manner, and took pains to
show him honour. During their conversations he spoke much of the
ancestors of the count as having been the first citizens of Genoa. He
lamented that the Dorias had overshadowed the family of Fieschi.
Andrea, he said, by his political tact and by refraining from assuming
in name the power which he possessed in reality, had rendered his
vast influence less obnoxious to his countrymen, but that Gianettino
would not imitate this temperate policy nor long delay to place his
yoke on the Genoese. Count Fieschi, he added, would be the first
one humbled, as being the most dangerous enemy to the empire.
He intimated that if Gianluigi had the spirit to oppose the Doria
ambition, the support of the Holy See would not be wanting in the
hour of trial.
He gave a more positive proof of his willingness to act by
proposing that the count should immediately take command of the
three galleys included in the Farnese purchase, which still remained
in the service of the papal government, in order, said he (and he
smiled cunningly), that they may not again be captured by Doria.
This conversation, so familiar and hopeful, greatly encouraged
Gianluigi and induced him to put his designs into immediate
execution.
An event occurred during this visit to Rome which nearly
overthrew all these revolutionary schemes. Cardinal Agostino
Trivulzio, who, as protector of France, lost no occasion for promoting
the policy of that nation, established relations of intimacy with
Gianluigi, and undertook to demonstrate that the difficulties of his
enterprise were such as to render it necessary to concede to France
the government of Genoa. France, he said, would place the count at
the head of the local administration, and would give him the
command of six galleys, equipped on a war footing and maintained
at the expense of the crown, of which he could make such use as
seemed best. France would also station a heavy body of troops at
Montobbio, to prevent the advance of the Austro-Spanish troops,
and make Fieschi captain of a cavalry force with the annual pay of
ten thousand crowns.
These new propositions came through Prince Giano Caracciolo,
governor-general of Piedmont, and had his seal to their authenticity.
They entirely destroyed the previous arrangements made by
Gagnino Gonzaga, and contemplated the subjection of the Republic
to a foreign power. They did not please Gianluigi, who desired to
enlarge the liberties of his country, not to change the masters of the
Republic.
Nevertheless, he asked time for consideration, and without
making further steps in his design he returned to Genoa. Pondering
over the difficulties of his undertaking and the new claims of France,
he would probably have relinquished the enterprise, if Gianettino,
who, in the tone of one who held the dominion of the waves,
complained of the purchase of the Farnese galleys, had not used
such bitter and imperious threats as to inflame anew the resentment
of the count. The success and malevolence of Gianettino, to whom
as to the rising sun all eyes were turned, fortified Gianluigi in his
determination to overthrow the expectant tyrant of Genoa.
Fieschi having delayed to respond to Trivulzio, the latter, fearing
that the new propositions would discourage the count, sent to him
knight Nicolò Foderato of Savona, a relative of Fieschi, to tell him
that Francis I. would abide by the agreement made with Gonzaga,
adding that he had only to recommend vigilance and prudence in
guiding his ship safe into port.
Gianluigi was delighted beyond measure at this favourable turn
of affairs. He subscribed the stipulations at once and sent back the
messenger with warm thanks for the generosity of the French
monarch. Francis really desired above everything to recover his lost
dominion over Liguria, but he was persuaded to defer that ambition
to a more favourable combination of circumstances.
Fieschi now exposed his plans (in this point all the historians
agree and are confirmed by the manuscripts we have seen) to three
of his most devoted friends, Raffaele Sacco, Vincenzo Calcagno and
Giovanni Battista Verrina. He submitted to them the question
whether he should attempt a revolution relying solely on his own
forces, or undertake it in alliance with France.
Sacco was born of not obscure lineage in Savona, being
descended from a knight of Malta and entitled to the annual gift of a
paschal lamb. We find that a branch of the Sacco family living in