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.