Studies from Genoese History

Front matter

GENOESE HISTORY LONDON : PRINTED BY 3POTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STUEET SQCAItK AND PARLIAMENT STEEET STUDIES FROM GENOESE HISTOEY BY colonel g. b. malleson, C.S.I. GUARDIAN TO HIS HIGHNESS THE MAHARAJA OF MYSORE. AUTHOR OF ' HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN INDIA.' 'Have I not— Hear me, my mother Earth 1 behold it,* Heaven ! — Have I not had to wrestle with my lot ? Have I not suffered things to be forgiven ? Have I not had my brain sear'd, my heart riven, Hopes sapped, name blighted, Life's life lied away. And only not to desperation driven Because not altogether of such clay As rots into the souls of those whom I survey ?' Byron LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1875 All rights reserved DEDICATION. Mt dear Barton, My constant companion whilst I penned the contents of this volume, there is no one to whom I could inscribe it more naturally than to yourself.

I hope, however, you will regard the dedication as something more than an offering of friendship. It is, first of all, that ; but I wish it to testify, likewise, to the admiration I entertain for the sincerity which makes it impossible for you to conceal your sympathy with the right, your abhorrence of the mean. Believe me, My dear Barton, Yours very sincerely, G. B. Malleson. Major Barton, 18th Hussars. Mtsoee : August 15, 1874. PBEEACE. The difficulty I experienced in 1872 in obtaining in a concise form, from any English work, information regarding the political history of Genoa, and the men who had moulded her destiny, induced me to devote a considerable portion of my leisure, after my return to India, to a study of the subject. With this object in view, before I left Europe, I provided myself with the authorities likely to assist me in my research.

Such is the origin of these ' studies,' as I may perhaps not unfitly call them. It occurred to me that striking pictures of events fraught with interest, and fertile in results to the Republic, combined with a sketch of the four great families whose members most influenced her fortunes, would convey to the public mind a more vivid picture of the salient points

Preface

. in her history than could be derived from the perusal of a more methodical narrative. Thus, whilst the story of the conspiracy of Gianluigi de' Fieschi shows clearly that not even the oligarchical constitution of 1528, watched over by an Andrea Doria, could secure the Republic against the ambition of discontented nobles — and that of Giulio Cesare Vachero, that she was not more safe against democratic discontent — the sketches of the careers of the Doria, the Spinola, and the Grimaldi bring into brighter contrast the actions of the men under whom she gained her greatest victories and achieved her most splendid successes. But there would have been a void in the design I had marked out, had I omitted all mention of the great Corsican who for so long bade defiance to the arms of the Republic, which during so many years tyrannised over the island of his birth.

I selected the first great rising of Corsica rather than the sub sequent successful revolt, mainly because of the halo shed around it by the genius and patriotism of Sampiero, a man who, though stained by one great crime, offers a very striking example of the truth of

PREFACE.

. IX the axiom, that ' difficulties are only obstacles to be overcome.' Nor would my purpose have been completely accomplished had I omitted all reference to the lite rary condition of the proud city, at a period of apparently settled prosperity. And, if it be objected that the story of Jacopo Bonfadio scarcely represents an era of literary appreciation, I can reply that it but too truly and too justly reflects the fatal result to which the authoritative repression of free thought and free speech must inevitably tend. If the refined and learned Bonfadio was doomed to death because his writings, now recognised as models of style, were so true that they aroused the fears of those members of the oligarchical portion of the community whose consciences were not entirely at ease, and who dreaded still further revelations, it was not to be expected that any other man, honest and con scientious, how great soever his talents, would rush upon the same fate by treading advisedly the same path. I do not claim for this work any greater merit than that of being an accurate compilation from the

PREFACE.

. X best authorities. Thus, for the conspiracy of Fiesco, I have consulted the annals of Bonfadio, the story of Agostino Mascardi, the history of M. Vincens, and the Compendio of Carbone. In many parts I have translated textually from one or other of these writers. For the story of Jacopo Bonfadio, I have had the authority of the excellent work of Count Mazzuchelli and the writers to whom he refers. For the rest, I may say generally that I have consulted and translated freely from the works of Casoni, Bonfadio, Sismondi, Vincens, and Carbone, and the Nouvelle BLographie Generate. Writing in India, dependent entirely upon my own library, and some extracts which I made when in Genoa, I have been unable to carry my researches further. But if, as I am fully conscious, I have fallen short in many particulars, at least I have advanced nothing which cannot be verified.

G. B. M. Mysore: August 15, 1874. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE J.. The Conspiracy of Gianluigi de' Fieschi . 1 II. Jacopo Bonfadio . . . .46 III. Sampieko da Bastelica . . 74 sV. The Conspiracy of Vachero . . . 125 V. The Dokia . . . . 168 VI. The Fieschi . . . . .257 VII. The Grimaldi . . . . 269 VIII. The Spinola 294

Appendix

I. The Several Constitutions of Genoa . . 315 II. The Conspiracies of Genoa . . . 330 III. List of the Doges of Genoa . . .

Chapter I. The Conspiracy Of Fiesco

In the year 1528 Andrea Doria transferred the suzerainty of Genoa from Francois I. of France to Charles V. of Spain. Promptly presenting himself with his fleet before Genoa, he entered the city, and thus addressed the assembled citizens : ' At last the liberty so much desired is restored. But what advan tage will it be to you unless you try to preserve it ? I, indeed, have left no stone unturned to obtain it for you ; and since, following the example of my ancestors, I have devoted myself to the naval service, I have chosen friends and enemies alike for the service of the Republic, having her interests in view more than my own. My only wish has been to save her from oppression. Thus, first I tolerated the faction of the Fregosi, not because I liked them, but W° B because I knew that in the terribly corrupted state of affairs, the wrongs of the country were rather to be wept over than cured.

But since I attained to the command of the fleet you know well if I have not inflicted damage on all your enemies. You know well how I treated the Adorni, the cause of so many misfortunes, and how I favoured France in order to expel them. You know how I have purged your seas of pirates. And you have just seen how, the French yoke having become insupportable, I have, at my own danger and risk, changed the suzerainty, to be able to devote myself entirely to your safety. I should not, indeed, have come to this resolution if the king, as a reward for my victory in Sicily, had not refused to restore to us Savona. Now that the city is delivered from the French, we see the happy beginning of a work which must be completed. To arms then ; let the love of country be your tutelary god ; let us expel the enemy from the Castelletto ; let us dismantle the hated forts of Savona.

How can France, engaged in distant wars, hinder us ? Our greatest enemies are our own divisions. Let us then, first of all, apply our minds seriously to cure these festering wounds, that we may be able to enjoy the fruits of our victories. You have already appointed a minister for that purpose ; yet why is there delay in taking measures to carry it out ? I am here, ready for all your needs; and as I have ever devoted my life and my means to the country, so now will I persevere in serving it with as much, or even greater, zeal.' These words, spoken on September 12 by the first citizen of his country, had a marked and striking effect. The disunion, theretofore prevailing in Genoa, disappeared. Subscriptions were raised ■on the spot. Four captains of the people were elected for the defence of the city, and the operations against the Castelletto and Savona were confided to Count Filippino Doria.

The enthusiasm was at its height, and the opportunity to profit by it offered. Yet the circumstances were grave. The governor of the Castelletto for the King of France, Teodoro Triulzio, had sent pressing messages to the French Commander, the Comte de Saint-Paul, who had just sacked Pavia ; Saint-Paul had obeyed his summons, had marched for Genoa, and had sent a herald to summon the city. But the inspiration of Andrea Doria was not evanescent. By a stratagem the forces of the Genoese were made to appear ten times their real number. The herald was then dismissed, and Saint-Paul, intimidated by his report, retreated. The citizens, greatly encouraged at this, raised bat teries ao-ainst the Castelletto, and terrified Triulzio into retreat. Then came Savona. Against this close neighbour and commercial rival of Genoa Andrea Doria himself led the Genoese fleet, and in a few days he and Sinibaldo Fiesco, commander of the army, entered Savona in triumph.

Great discussion E succeeded as to the treatment this town should receive. Some were for according pardon; others for treating her as a conquered foe. The former counsels, urged by Agostino Pallavicino, prevailed — perhaps, indeed, because they were accompanied by conditions more certain to effect the desired end. Savona, indeed, was spared ; but the walls of the city and all the fortifications were rased, and in the harbour were sunk ships full of stones. Savona received a blow from which up to the present day she has not recovered. The towns of Novi, Ovada, and Gavi followed the example of submission to the victorious Republic, and the work of conquest was thus completed. But on that followed the more serious question of internal rehabilitation. The first step was to proclaim perfect equality amongst all citizens, classing them under twenty-eight families called Alberghi, describing each by some name illustrious above the others for its merits, its importance, and its wealth.

Then, on October 11, the Code of new laws was published. These were to the following effect: — 1. That a list of nobles should be made, entitled the Nobles of the Golden Book ; that to these should be committed the Government of the Republic ; and that to them others might be added, the power of nominatino them being vested in the Senate. 2. That the Greater Council* should be composed of four hundred nobles, three hundred of them to be elected by lot, and these three hundred to elect a fourth hundred. This Council to possess full powers. 3. That from these four hundred should be taken by lot one hundred to form a Lesser Council, to deliberate upon matters of minor importance, and elect the city magistrates. 4. That from the Greater Council should be chosen eight senators, forming, with the Doge, the executive power. 5.

That the Doge should be President of the Senate, and preside at the Greater and Lesser Councils. In the Senate he alone had the right to refuse to submit any proposition to the vote. 6. That the two Councils should last for one year ; they were then to be dissolved, and fresh elections to take place. The senators to hold office for two years, but at the eud of each six months two of them were to retire, to be replaced from the Greater Council. 7. Eight procurators should preside at the trea sury, to be composed of ex-senators and ex-doges. The senators and the procurators united, were to be called the ' two colleges.' Under this name they would have in common many administrative functions. 8. That a magistracy of five censors should be appointed to see that the laws did not fall into dis use ; they to have supreme authority to control all the other magistrates, and power to inflict punishment when necessary.

This constitution was at once put into operation. Oberto Lazzaro Cattaneo was elected Doge, the thirty-first of that title ; Andrea Doria, who cared rather to pull the strings than to occupy a prominent position in the civil administration, was proclaimed Perpetual President of the Censors. A chair and an honourable rank in the two Councils were assigned him. On the Piazza San Matteo, a new palace was built for him at the public expense, bearing the dedication ' to the Redeemer of his Country'; whilst in the public palace there was erected in his honour a marble statue, ' to the Avenger of his Country and the Founder of her Liberties.' This statue, and the statues of other members of the family, were attacked and broken by the mob, at a period of public frenzy, in 1797. The Golden Book was burned at the same time.

The constitution, of which I have given the pur port, continued, with only one material alteration,1 to be the constitution of Genoa during the lifetime of Andrea Doria. Such it was, actually, at the time of the conspiracy of which I am about to write. It well answered the purpose for which it was designed. For the first time in the history of Genoa, her insti tutions were tolerably secure, alike from personal ambition and popular clamour. This constitution, 1 This alteration was made in 1547. It consisted in substituting election by vote in the councils for election by lot. The change worked badly, and was rescinded in 1576. too, formed the basis of that of 1576, which lasted two hundred and twenty years, and which disappeared only when submerged by the wave of conquest born of the French Revolution.

It will be noticed that the constitution was essentially aristocratic. For although perfect equality had been proclaimed, although all citizens had been declared capable of holding office in the Republic, yet the constitution was so formed that, practically, none but the nobles were really admissible. The men who had formed that constitution had had before them a task apparently of the very greatest difficulty. For, having in the first day of triumph said to the people, f there are no more distinctions between us ; you are all, as we, nobles,' it would seem impossible, on the very morrow of the final victory, to recede. But yet it was done, and, apparently, with the consent of all. The institution of the Golden Book was the keystone of the new arrangement. An order of hereditary nobility was thus formed, to which the working of the machine of government was entrusted ; for the Greater Council, the pivot on which the administra tion revolved, was composed only of men whoso names were inscribed in the Golden Book.

But that which rendered the new scheme accept able to the majority, was the necessity for the creation of new nobles. Of the more than one hundred and fifty families of the old nobility, only thirty-five remained. To these were added more than four hundred names newly ennobled. But, in order to maintain pure and intact the order of nobility, it was decided, as has been already stated, that not the names, but the bearers of them only, should be en nobled, and that these should be affiliated to, or grafted on, such old illustrious families as could boast of six living branches. Of these old illustrious families, but thirty-five survived ; and of these thirty five, but twenty-three fulfilled the required condition. But there were other families as ancient as these twenty-three who had always claimed the privilege of belonging to the people.

Of these, five, the Giustiniani, the Fornari, the Franchi, the Saoli, and the Promontori, possessed the requisite number of branches. To these twenty-eight families, all the nobles, old and new, were affiliated. There were then but twenty-eight noble houses in Genoa. Yet the union was more nominal than real. The old families, those of the Portico Vecchio,1 as they were called, despised their new coadjutors, whilst these, on their side, styled of the Portico Nuovo,2 entertained the profoundest jealousy of their rivals. A sort of understanding was, however, come to be tween them. It was agreed verbally, though not recorded, that the offices of state should be divided equally between the two Portici, and that the Doge, whose office was biennial, should be chosen alternately from each. Both these stipulations were watched 1 Or the Portico di San Luca. 2 Or the Portico di San Pietro. with jealousy, and it was the infraction of one of them that contributed to the general distrust which made possible the success of a conspiracy.

Andrea Doria belonged to the Portico Vecchio. His position, after the events of 1528, was peculiar. Admiral of the fleet, nominated in 1532 Prince of Melfi by the Emperor Charles V., he held no ad ministrative office in the state, and yet he domi nated all the administrators. His fleet he held at the orders of the protector of the Republic, Charles V. It was manned by officers and men devoted to him self. In the Councils he exercised no authority, yet his opinion was anxiously sought for, and always eagerly followed. He was, in fact, a state within a state, impressing his will upon the latter solely by means of his vast moral influence and force of character. His mode of living was remarkable. He kept no state ; he walked without a following. He had soft, pleasant manners, was accessible to all, was generous and liberal in his presents, and as courteous to the beggar as to the noble.

His services to Genoa had been great. He was the living representative of her glory, the wielder of her armed force, and yet, to all outward appearance, the humblest of her citizens. I do not propose to follow the naval achieve ments of the great admiral subsequently to 1528. These had no effect on the civil administration. It is to this latter, to the causes which contributed to the rising of the Fieschi, that I wish to devote all my attention. The jealousies between the two Portici manifested themselves from the very beginning. Hardly had the new constitution come into operation when they began to appear. The young men of the Portico Vecchio scarcely deigned -to notice the newly nominated nobles. These, indignant at this treatment, began to ask themselves whether, in becoming nobles, they had advanced their position.

Better, far better, they argued, to be the leaders of the popular party than the despised ruck of the nobility. Yet the am bition to belong to the upper class still reigned in Genoa. The constitution of 1528 had scarcely been fixed before applications for admission to the order of nobles became frequent. Many citizens com plained of having been unfairly excluded. To such a height did the excitement rise that, in 1531, the Government found itself forced to admit forty-seven supplementary nobles from amongst the citizens. In addition to these, every year ten fresh nomina tions were allowed to be made by the senators. Great abuses accompanied these annual nomina tions. They became very soon marketable. Often they constituted the dower of a daughter or a payment for services rendered ; and there was no position so low from which a man might not hope to make a jump to the higher stage.

Still, internal order was main tained; the unwritten contract between the rival parties was strictly observed ; there were no signs of disorder until, in 1545, the election of Giambattista de' Fornari as Doge, in direct contravention of the understanding of the two Portici, excited a spirit of animosity, such as a man of ambition and resource was able to mould to his own ends. It happened in this wise. The unwritten, but well understood, agreement between the two Portici had been that the Doge should be chosen alter nately from each. On January 4, 1543, the term of office of the Doge, Andrea Centurione, expired. He belonged to the Portico Nuovo. It was the turn, therefore, of a member of the Portico Vecchio to be elected. But the nobles of the Portico Nuovo, greatly outnumbering their rivals, and enraged at the slights to which they were being constantly subjected, dis regarded the unwritten compact, and elected one of their own number, Giambattista de' Fornari.

There was nothing against Fornari personally. He was a man of admitted talents. It is true he was a popularity hunter ; but up to the time of his election nothing had been divulged to indicate that he hunted popularity for ignoble purposes. He was about the best man of the party. It was not against himself,. then, that the indignation of the nobles of the Portico Vecchio was directed. It was against the mode by which his election had been carried, against the viola tion of the compact, the sudden and evidently predetermined effort of their rivals to reintroduce discord and party strife, that their anger was launched. It was useless for them to complain. The coup had been predetermined. Their protests were met with con tempt, and their anger with shouts of laughter. Fornari was made Doge in spite of them.

Whilst everything in the interior of the city thus tended to discord, foreign intriguers were watching how they might wrest the city from the suzerainty of Spain. Pope Paul III., one of the most unscrupulous and ambitious of men, had caused his nephew, Pier luiai Farnese, to be nominated Duke of Parma and Piacenza. He coveted still further for him the Duchy of Milan, vacant by the death of Francesco Sforza. But the Emperor Charles V., whilst not actually refusing, yet gave him only promises so evidently delusive, that Paul determined to use every effort to overthrow his power in Italy. An accident determined Genoa as the first scene of his intrigues. Imperiale Doria, Bishop of Savona, died. He left all his possessions, which were many, and his wealth, which was great, to his relative, Andrea.

But the Court of Rome had no idea of letting these heirlooms and that wealth slip so easily from its control. Pro fessing to regard them as devolving by right on the Holy See, it took possession of them in their entirety. In vain did Doria reclaim them. He was refused. Doria was not the man to submit to such treatment, and the opportunity he longed for soon came to him. It happened that there were, at the moment, some pontifical galleys at Genoa. As soon as he recognised that the refusal of the Pope to make over to him the inheritance of his relative was absolute and deter mined, he ordered his lieutenant and heir, Giannet tino, to seize the galleys by force. This was at once done. The Pope was furious, but Doria was firm nor were the galleys restored until the Pope had paid to the admiral the entire amount, and surrendered the lands withheld from him.

The insult, however, rankled, and the Pope de termined on revenge. He did not care for small measures, but from that moment he began to conspire for the extermination of the Doria and the expulsion of the Spaniards from Genoa. The first tracing out of the plot he entrusted to his nephew, Pierluigi, a bad man in a bad age; and it was not long before he learned that much might be accomplished by stimu lating the ambition and flattering the self-love of the head of the great house of Fieschi, the Count Gianluigi. The reader may recollect that with a member of this family, Count Sinibaldo Fiesco, Doria had been encased at the siege of Savona. Sinibaldo had been Do o an intimate friend and supporter of Andrea Doria. The representative of one of the oldest families of Liguria, he had recognised in the policy of Doria one "■rand ruling principle — the endeavour to preserve a small Republic from being swallowed up by great monarchies fighting for empire.

To this principle lie subscribed heartily, and when he died, some ten years after the capture of Savona, he left to the guardianship of Doria the four sons he had had by Maria della Rovere, the niece of Pope Julius II. Their names were Gianluigi, Girolamo, Ottobuono, and Scipione. The mother, Maria della Rovere, a woman of great talents and vast ambition, retired with her children, after her husband's death, to the castle of Moutorio, where she began to live a retired life, devoting herself to the education of her sons and the redemption of the property from debt. But amid the intervals of education she was ever descant ing on the lost grandeur of the family, on the place it had once held in Genoa and on the Ligurian coast, and on the position it might occupy yet, if but a favourable opportunity were to occur.

These re peated exhortations sank deep into the mind of the eldest son, Gianluigi. In vain did his tutor, Paolo Pansa, one of the most learned and virtuous men of the time, endeavour to temper his ambition. In vain did he impress upon him the blessings of content ment, of moderation in his desires. The maternal counsels prevailed. Long hours did Gianluigi spend in reading and meditating over the lives of Nero, the Prince of Machiavelli, the conspiracy of Catiline. Thus did he train his mind to meet every event with courage and fortitude, and prepare to throw himself into the midst of civil contention. Yet all this time his countenance showed no trace of emotion ; it was calm and serene as though no passion burned within. At the time of the events I am about to record, Gianluigi Fiesco was in his twenty-fifth year.

He was well-made, strikingly handsome, with a countenance so open and ingenuous that it seemed to betray every thought of the soul. An apparent sincerity manifested itself in all his conversation, a generosity in his acts, a severity in his manner. He had taken every advantage of his education, and was learned and instructed to an extent very remarkable in those days. Yet, with all this, he was a skilled dissimu lator, a subtle speculator in human hearts, very ambitious, cruel, and addicted to every kind of lust. He was a tyrant by nature, envious of the property of others, impatient under every obstacle to his own advancement.1 Yet, at the time he came of age, he had ample means to suffice for every ordinary need. The large estates which he inherited from his father had been freed from debt by the provident care of his mother.

But these vast possessions were still further increased, a year or two later, by his marriage with Eleonora Cibo dei Marchesi di Massa, one of the most beautiful and amiable women of the day, a member of an old Genoese family, and very richly endowed. What more could he desire? Andrea Doria held him in the highest esteem, loved him as 1 Such at least is the character given of him by the historian Giunio Carbone. his own son, had loaded his family with benefits, and Doria was then in his seventy-eighth year. With all his ambition, with his knowledge of Doria's love for him, might he not hope, at no distant period, to succeed to his position? No! That was the one thing he could not hope for — at least by legal means. Doria was old, but Doria had nominated his succes sor, and that successor was not Gianluigi Fiesco.

For that post Doria had fixed upon the son of his first cousin, or, as he was called, his nephew, Giannet tino Doria, his adlatus in command of the fleet. Now between Giannettino and Fiesco there existed no sympathy. Born to lofty fortunes, brought up as the successor designate of his uncle, Giannettino* was far from inheriting the simplicity and sympathy with his fellowmen which had won for that uncle his popularity. His manners were the very reverse. He never appeared in public unless surrounded by a large following, and he despised popular applause. In the society of his equals he was even less bear able. He required homage from everyone. He looked upon himself as the superior of all the nobles of Genoa. He scarcely deigned to be even polite. It was this bearing which incensed Fiesco. He might have continued to bridle his ambition sufficiently to serve under Andrea ; but the thought of tolerating Giannettino as a master was simply insupportable, and it was to render such an event impossible that his mind first began to conspire.

His ideas as to the form the conspiracy should take were at first somewhat vague. He found, indeed, that he could count upon the jealous, the disaffected, and the reckless. These, for the most part, belonged to the Portico Nuovo, and to that faction he zealously attached himself. He then secretly sounded Bar naba Adorno, son of the doge Antoniotto of that family, then living in exile near the frontier. Bar naba was by no means unwilling to disturb the peace of Genoa for his own advantage, but his intrigues, clumsily carried out, were discovered. Gianluigi then turned towards France ; but, before he could arrange any settled plan of action with that country, he received from Pope Paul III. overtures which at once decided the course he was to follow. Dissembler as he was, endeavouring always to conceal alike his ambition and his intellect under a serene and modest exterior, Gianluigi had not been able to hide either his ambition or his great powers from the piercing vision of the Pope's nephew, Pierluigi Farnese.