The ferocity and excesses of Andrea Doria—The benefits which he derived from the fall of the Fieschi—The Farnesi participated in Genoese conspiracies—Schemes of Andrea against the duke of Piacenza—Landi is instigated by Andrea to kill the duke—The assassination of Pierluigi—The assassins and the brief of Paul III.
The office of historian becomes a painful one when we are required to describe some of the actions of Andrea Doria, actions which throw a shade over his fame, and take away a part of his laurels from the greatest admiral of Italy. It is a work of simple devotion to truth to show that Andrea maintained the Spanish power in the Peninsula, and that he overstepped all bounds in his rage against the defeated Fieschi. Sismondi says that the prince in destroying his enemies to avenge Gianettino went to lengths of ferocity unworthy of a great man.
He had applied to himself that saying of Lorenzo di Medici: “While there are Gatti in Genoa the Republic will never have peace, and perhaps on this account found it easier to obtain Medicean aid in exterminating these Gatti.” At all events he gave himself no rest while the work of destruction remained incomplete. He embraced in his scheme of vengeance the Strozzi and their allies.
The activity of Andrea was wonderful. Wherever he had representatives, public or private, thither flew his messages and messengers. He neglected nothing at home or abroad. Politics, arms, arts, commerce—he had his eye on everything—on the exiles especially. Aided by Cosimo, he set an assassin named Bastiano da Finale to dodge the steps of Piero Strozzi who was marching to Siena. He employed seven assassins to murder Ottobuono, Scipione and Cornelio Fieschi. We learn from Venitian letters preserved in the Tuscan archives that one of these wretches accompanied by two companions went several times to Venice to assassinate the brothers of Gianluigi. This correspondence relates that this assassin was artfully banished from Genoa as a popular conspirator, as a means of giving him access to the Genoese exiles, though he was secretly recommended by Doria to the ambassador of the emperor. Doria would have better provided for his fame if, content with depriving the Fieschi of the means of revolution, he had declined the services of bravos and refused the price of blood so lavishly offered by the emperor.
After the capture of Montobbio, Doria, under orders from Cæsar invested the Republic (February 29th, 1548) with the feuds of that place, of Varese and Roccatagliata. Cristoforo Lercaro had already occupied the last in the name of Genoa. The cession was made to appear as a gift, though the Republic already possessed the right of eminent domain over Roccatagliata and the valley of Neirone. The governor of Milan held fast to Pontremoli, in order, as Doria advised, to keep that strong post then the key of the Lombard provinces, in imperial hands. Gonzaga also occupied Loano, Carrega, Grondona, Borbagia, San Stefano d’Aveto, Calice, Veppo and other castles, a part of which Charles (June 19th 1548) gave in feud to various partisans of the empire. This was not imperial munificence, but king-craft and a device to strengthen the Spanish power in Liguria. Andrea obtained some wealthy feuds, among them Torriglia, (which was erected into a marquisate) Carrega, Garbagna, Grondona and ten other castles. San Stefano d’Aveto was ceded to Antonio Doria who was hiring four galleys to the empire. Ettore Fieschi, of the Savignone branch, received some feuds as a reward for not having shared in the conspiracy of his relatives. The castle of Castelano was ceded to the Duke of Parma. Agostino Landi retained the burgh of Valditaro. This Landi had promised to assassinate Pierluigi Farnese whom Doria had condemned to death for his secret intrigues with Gianluigi. It is worth our while to clear up the history of this part of Andrea’s vengeance.
The cities of Parma and Piacenza, having been detached from the duchy of Milan and put into the hands of the Holy See, were ceded by Paul III. to his natural son Pier Luigi Farnese who had been legitimated in 1501 by Julius II. To secure his son in this new duchy, the Pope supported Charles in the German war and in his expedition to Tunis, where, aided by Doria the emperor restored the inhuman Muley-Hassan to the throne which he mounted by the assassination of his twenty-two brothers. The alliance of Farnese with the empire was cemented by the marriage of Pierluigi’s son, Ottavio, with Margaret a natural daughter of Cæsar and widow of Alessandro de Medici. Francis Sforza died and the duchy of Milan reverted to the empire giving rise to a war with France. The Pope thought to gain profit for Pier Luigi out of this contest for the duchy by securing him the investiture, and Cæsar, at the conference of Busseto, promised to grant the pontiff’s request. The emperor did not keep his pledge and the Pope began to abandon the imperial cause. He reproached Charles with the fact that certain prelates devoted to the empire had proposed in the council of Trent innovations on the rights of the Papal See, and expressed his discontent with the mild, treatment of the partisans of Luther in Germany. He went further and began to intrigue, in 1547, for a league with France against Charles.
Francis I. at the moment when he was most zealously engaged in uniting England, Germany and Italy against Spain was stricken by death at Rambouillet after a twenty years’ conflict with the increasing power of Charles Fifth. The emperor now saw himself without a rival and hastened to take advantage of the occasion. He renewed hostilities against the Duke of Saxony, though his army had been thinned by the withdrawal of the Papal troops. It is not our purpose to recount the story of this Germanic war. Charles conducted it to a successful termination because the affairs of Italy no longer distracted his attention. But his victories over the league of Smacalda increased the suspicions and fears of Paul III. who saw that if Charles was successful in Germany he would be master at the council of Trent. It was no secret that the emperor designed to take that occasion for avenging himself on the Pope for sympathy with the Fieschi and France. The Roman court was too jealous of its prerogatives not to be alarmed at the prospect of having its power limited by an ambitious monarch favourably disposed towards the policy of the German reformers. It was thought necessary to remove the seat of the council to some city nearer to Rome and more under Papal influence, where Charles could not intrigue nor display his arms with so much effect.
Fortune favoured the Pope. Some of the assembled prelates fell sick and the physicians, especially Fracastoro who was employed by Rome for the business, reported that a fierce contagion had broken out in the city. Many of the prelates abandoned Trent in great haste and the council was removed to Bologna. The cardinals and bishops of the imperial faction remained in Trent by express order of Charles. The remainder, thirty-four in number, accompanied the Papal legates. There were mutual recriminations and the very council assembled to destroy scism was menaced with a scism in its own bosom.
Cæsar made angry appeals and intrigued adroitly to secure the reassembling of the Synod in Trent. The Pope refused, and Charles avenged himself by that decree of Interim, in which he declared that until the council should be reconvoked in Trent every one was at liberty to think as he pleased in matters of religion. The decree occasioned great scandal in the church.