The Neapolitans were a few years later silent witnesses of fierce religious persecution. The inquisition employed such zeal, that to mention Montalto alone, two thousand persons were butchered and nearly an equal number condemned to death in eleven days. Tradition says that the executioner cut them down in the streets, like so many goats. While, through the assistance of Doria, the Spanish power took firm root in Italy and crushed the spirit of popular liberty, (I hope that none will believe my respect for the truth dictated by antipathy towards the great admiral) not a few daring spirits still struggled to emancipate the nation and to destroy the prop on which the emperor leaned. The times were sanguinary; blood was washed out with blood. The partisans of Fieschi raging for vengeance often attempted to assassinate Andrea; and the obstacles in their way only increased their fury. In August, 1547, four men of Valditaro, to whom Galeotto of Mirandola added eight of his bandits, were sent to Genoa for the purpose of assassinating Doria while he should be coming out of his palace. It was intended that a conspiracy organized in the city should seize the moment for proclaiming a popular government and maintaining it by force of arms. Galeotto promised to lead the enterprise in person. He was a terrible man, and his partisans believed that no enterprise could miscarry which had at its head so practiced a conspirator and assassin. The histories relate of him that when the Count Gianfrancesco, a literary man of note, had been restored to the government of Mirandola by the officers of Julius II., Galeotto, in a night of October, 1533, scaled the fortress with forty companions, killed the count who was kneeling before the crucifix, his uncle and his son Alberto, and then shutting up the dependents of the count in the prison of the fortress took possession of the government of Mirandola. Charles V. condemned him to death for this horrid crime; but Galeotto defended himself alike against the arms and the treachery of Leyva, and finally surrendered the castle to Henry of France for a large compensation.
With such men, the conspiracy did not seem likely to fail of its principal object. However, the assassins could not find in Genoa safe hiding for studying the habits of Andrea. Besides, the cunning old man was on the alert for such plots, and never left his house except under a strong escort of his faithful dependents. The assassins found it necessary to save their own lives by a precipitate flight.
A second attempt at his assassination came to the knowledge of Doria. Cornelio Bentivoglio, aided by the exiles, especially the Fieschi, armed a galley with two hundred men and all necessary equipments, with the design of entering the port by night and attacking the palace of Doria. At the same time the exiles assisted by Pier Luigi Farnese were expected to attack the city on the East side. On this occasion, also, the leader had a reputation which promised success. Bentivoglio was an audacious and fierce young man, who, having been expelled from the government of Bologna by his father Costanzo, entered the military service of France and obtained considerable repute in the art of war. Perhaps the prince would have fallen under this conspiracy, if his own counterplot against the Duke of Piacenza had not broken up the plans of Bentivoglio.
But the Fieschi party did not lay down their arms or relinquish their hopes of vengeance. They enlisted Prince Giulio Cybo among others in their cause. This nobleman having taken up and continued the conspiracy of Fieschi, to whom he was allied, deserves a place in our history. The arms of Cybo and Fieschi were the same; the former used more unworthy means than the latter, but both ended their lives in misfortune consecrated by patriotism.
The family of the Cybo was of very ancient, perhaps of, Byzantine origin. They possessed in the tenth century islands and walled towns. In 1188, Ermes Cybo subscribed the treaty of peace between the Pisans and Ligurians. We find in old manuscripts that, in 1261, they had palaces in the via del Campo. A Guglielmo Cybo, who died in 1311, built the magnificent church of St. Francis in Casteletto and there was erected the marble sepulchre of himself and his family. This Guglielmo rendered important services to the Republic for which he obtained the privilege of adding to his arms the device of the Republic.[49] The family produced many other distinguished men, among whom may be mentioned Innocent VIII. In his youth, this pontiff became the father of a son named Francesco who was governor of Rome during the pontificate of Innocent and married Maddalena de’ Medici sister of Leo X. In the year 1500, Lorenzo Cybo was born of this marriage in St. Pierdarena, a suburb of Genoa. Lorenzo devoted himself to arms, and in the Milan war, carried the fortress of Monza by assault. The cardinal Innocent Cybo, his elder brother, ceded him the county of Ferentillo and he also governed Vetralla, Giano and Montegiove. Desirous of enlarging his estates, he married Ricciarda daughter and heiress of Alberico Malaspina, Marquis of Massa and Carrara and widow of Count Scipione Fieschi who died in 1520.
Ricciarda bore Lorenzo several children, one of whom was Eleonora wife of Gianluigi Fieschi. There were besides, Isabella, who married Vitaliano Visconti Borromeo, Giulio and Alberico. Giulio, whose career we shall briefly recount, was born in Rome in 1525, and was educated in the court of Charles V. where the beauty of his person and the sprightliness of his intellect acquired him the admiration of the Spanish courtiers.
The mother of Giulio, who was in possession of Massa and Carrara, formed the resolution of transferring the feud to the younger brother, Alberico. Giulio went to Rome and in vain employed entreaty and threats to change her purpose. He then resolved to take by force of arms a property which he believed his own. In 1545, when Ricciarda and Cardinal Cybo were in Carrara, he attacked the castle of that place at the head of fifty men and endeavoured to capture his mother. She fled into the tower and foiled his design. She punished with severity some vassals who had aided Giulio, and returned to Rome where she ceded the feud to Alberico. This increased the exasperation of Giulio who renewed his hostile purposes with greater energy. Cosimo furnished him some peasant bands of Pietrasanta, and Gianettino Doria supported him with his fleet. In September, 1546, the disinherited count appeared before Massa with one thousand infantry and one hundred cavalry. His partisans in the town, especially the brothers Moretto and Bernardino Venturini, seized the gate of St. Giacomo and opened it to Giulio, who was recognized by the people as their rightful master. The fortress was still held by Pietro Gassani; but Gianettino Doria arrived with his galleys, landed artillery and forced him to surrender to Paolo di Castello. The fortresses of Moneta and Lavenza were also given up to the partisans of Giulio, who, grateful for the assistance of Gianettino, espoused his sister Peretta. But his reign was of short duration. Ricciarda appealed to Charles V., who ordered Gonzaga to have the fortress consigned to Cardinal Cybo. Giulio refused, Cosimo turned against him, captured him at Agnano, and the young count did not obtain his liberty until he had ceded the castle (8th March, 1547) which was occupied by Spanish troops until Ricciarda returned to it two years later.
It is probable that Giulio had at this time some intrigues with the French court. The emperor had declared against him, and he was desirous of obtaining the support of France by ceding the fortress of Massa. The partisans of Spain were alarmed at the prospect of having a French garrison so near to Genoa, and Andrea Doria assisted in forcing Giulio to relinquish his hold on his father’s domains.
The young count, full of bitterness for the treatment he had received, went to Gonzaga in Piacenza (the latter was called to Piacenza by the assassination of Pier Luigi Farnese) and remonstrated against being deprived of his inheritance. He received no encouragement from Spain, who refused to restore the Castle of Massa, and went to Parma and conferred with Ottavio Farnese who was also soured against the imperial agents for old and new acts of hostility. He then returned to Rome and negotiated with his mother, who agreed to recognize him as Lord of Massa and Carrara for forty thousand gold crowns of the sun. He borrowed twenty thousand gold crowns upon interest, and pledged the twenty thousand crowns of the dower of Peretta for the rest. He applied to Andrea Doria for the dower of his wife; but the prince, having suspicions of Giulio’s complicity with Fieschi, refused to pay over the money and neither personal entreaty nor the influence of friends could induce the prince to satisfy the just demands of Giulio and Peretta. He alleged that the damages he had suffered in the Fieschi sedition had rendered it impossible for him to pay so considerable a sum, and wished to charge Giulio with the expenses of Gianettino’s expedition of Massa.