The Prince Centurione was a firm supporter of the Austro-Spanish rule, and was united to the Dorias. He had fought, as a volunteer and at his own expense, in the wars of Charles in Germany; and his vast wealth procured him favours from the principal monarchs. When the emperor passed through Genoa, his minister asked Doria to lend the royal visitor two hundred thousand crowns, for his enterprise against Algiers. The Genoese responded that he would immediately supply his sovereign with all the money he might need. He presented the money to the emperor and with it a receipt for its payment. The emperor, not wishing to be outdone in generosity, tore the receipt in pieces. Prince Adorno also lent two hundred thousand crowns of gold at one time to Duke Cosimo. He paid eight hundred thousand pieces for the marquisate of Steppa and Pedrera, in Spain, and a large sum to marquis Antonio Malaspina for the estates of Monte di Vai, Bibola and Laula. He bought other castles in the Langhe; and the Venitian ambassadors reported that his rents amounted to a million of ducats.
Memoirs worthy of credit relate that Centurione one day informed Andrea that he had contracted Gianetta in marriage to the first gentleman in Genoa, and named Fieschi; to which Doria answered that no gentleman in Genoa could rank higher than Gianettino, his successor in the admiralty and heir of all his possessions, adding that Centurione ought to renounce Fieschi and give the hand of his daughter to the prince’s nephew. Centurione did not at first consent to break his faith; but the solicitations of Andrea, with whom he did not wish to be at enmity, at length triumphed over his scruples and he espoused Gianetta to Gianettino giving her a dower of seventy thousand gold crowns of the sun.
This violation of plighted faith deeply wounded Gianetta who had set her affections on Gianluigi; and the Princess Oriettina took it so much to heart that she fell sick, and finding herself near death, as a last proof of her devotion to the Fieschi family had that life of St. Catherine written which is still preserved in manuscript in the library of the Genoese studio. This broken contract of marriage was the first spark of that great fire which blazed up between Fieschi and Doria.[26]
The count was gifted with great powers of dissimulation and he did not permit Doria to perceive that he felt the insult. He carried an open face and silently matured his vengeance. He contracted greater familiarity with the new nobles, the old being devoted partisans of Andrea.
The haughty arrogance of Gianettino added new fuel to the fire. This youth forgetful of the humble place from which he had risen, adopted an insolence of tone and a luxury of life which gave general offence. The natural insolence of his character had been greatly increased by a military life and the habit of command.
The control of twenty galleys, the succession as admiral and the proofs of personal courage which he had given raised him above the mass of the citizens;[27] but instead of knightly courtesy he had a scornful and imperious look, and he never entered the city without being attended by a cortège of officers and armed men. He affected in a free land the sumptuous customs of princes.
The people, whom he thrust aside, hated him; the nobles caressed him as a means of getting privileges and honours, but they secretly despised him because he, not content to be their equal, regarded them as subjects. The plebeians murmured; “why such arrogant assumption in a land whose laws forbid despotism! He who refuses to treat you as an equal wishes to make you his slave.[28] See how bravely he drives it towards princely powers?”
Thus the people abhorred Gianettino as its future tyrant, and longed for a favourable moment to strike down the Spanish power and restore the rule of the citizens. The old prince either encouraged or regarded without displeasure, the insolent habits of his heir which were bringing odium upon his house. Gianettino became unboundedly arrogant after his victory over the Corsair Dragut, or Torghud Rais, once governor of Montesche. The annals of Liguria give us but few particulars of this fight, and some modern writers believe that no such battle was ever fought. We have found in old chronicles the materials for correcting the errors and supplying the defects of those who have written upon the subject. This will not lead us beyond the range of our subject; since the honours showered upon Gianettino for this victory stimulated Gianluigi to illustrate his own name by deeds not less worthy of fame, while the pride of the young Admiral grew so high that he insolently treated the count as his inferior.
In the spring of 1539, Prince Doria was with the army in Sicily, and Torghud took advantage of his absence to make a piratical cruise in the Ligurian sea. Andrea, as soon as he received notice of the movement, sent his nephew to oppose the Corsair. The latter had already began his depredations along the coast, and had desolated Capraia, carrying off seven hundred prisoners and a large Genoese galleon. Gianettino, having a fleet of twenty galleys and a frigate commanded by a certain Fra Marco, acted upon his knowledge of the Corsair’s habit of beating up against the wind, and pursued him by the use of his oars. At the same time he sent his lieutenant, Giorgio Doria, with six galleys and the frigate to the bay of Giralatte where he believed the pirate to have run for shelter. His calculations proved to be accurate. Torghud, believing these galleys to be the principal fleet of the Genoese, left two vessels to guard his booty, and sailed to attack Giorgio Doria with nine ships, two of which he had captured from the Venitians at Prevesa.
Hearing the sound of the engagement, Gianettino, who was not far distant, sailed into the waters of Giralatte and joined his lieutenant. The Corsair seeing himself outnumbered, retired from the contest and endeavoured to escape; but Gianettino pursued him so closely that he soon saw flight to be impossible and resolved to sell his life as dearly as possible.