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.