The Conspiracy of Gianluigi Fieschi, or, Genoa in the sixteenth century.

by Emanuele Celesia

We have esteemed it our duty to give the letter of the illustrious exile. We leave comment and criticism to other pens.

Among those condemned for contumacy to decapitation and confiscation of goods was Scipione Fieschi. The sentence pronounced against him gave rise to a legal cause which has no equal either in its duration or the fame of the jurists who conducted it. Rolando a Valle was the advocate of Fieschi, and the claims of the Republic were maintained by Giovanni Cefalo, Tiberio Sigiano, Nervio, Menocchio and the college of Padua. The case was contested with singular pertinacity, and most princes were interested for one or the other party.

Scipione after the death of Gianluigi, not being able to return to Loano which was bequeathed to him by his father, because the Dorias had seized the feud, took refuge in Valditaro and there, as we have seen, induced the people to put themselves into the hands of Pier Luigi Farnese. He afterwards visited Rome, where the Pope received him privately and treated him with great affection. At a subsequent period he was the guest of Giulio Cybo in Massa and the two were warm friends.

When Cybo was arrested Scipione saw that it was necessary that he exculpate himself before Cæsar, and he asked an imperial audience through Francesco Barca, but the request was not granted. On the contrary, when the emperor learned that Scipione was charged, in the Cybo process, with being one of the chief accomplices he ordered Suarez, by decree of March 14th, 1550, to institute proceedings against him. He was cited to appear in Genoa for trial and obtained a safe conduct; but afterwards he remembered the breach of faith with Gerolamo and declined to appear. The case against him was conducted by Giovanni Giacomo Cybo-Peirano, and after the death of this advocate, it was carried on by his son. Doria himself employed an advocate to watch the progress of the trial and hasten its completion. In the meantime Scipione passed into France and entered the service of Henry II. He did not however take up a permanent residence there, the jurists of Padua having advised him to reside alternately at Rome, Venice and Mirandola. We know that he was accused of receiving and favouring exiles from Genoa, of capturing Spanish ships with his own galleys, of condemning the prisoners to the oar and plundering the works of art which these vessels were transporting to the empress Augusta. The archives of Spain are full of accusations of similar character; but they are the fictions of informers.

Figuerroa gave his decision on the 28th of January, 1552, but for some reason it was not confirmed by the emperor, and this gave Scipione strong hopes of being reinstated in his father’s domains. But Doria and the Republic employed influences which overcame the imperial scruples and Ferdinand confirmed the sentence on the 12th of April, 1559, in such terms as to destroy all the hopes of Fieschi.

Nevertheless, in the treaty of Castel Cambrese, Phillip II. who had succeeded to the crown of Spain, stipulated with Henry II. of France, that all those who had been punished with confiscation for aiding either crown should be reinstated in their property, particularly mentioning Ottaviano Fregoso and Count Scipione and declaring them as fully restored to their rights as though they were parties to the treaty. Phillip further pledged himself to secure the restoration to Scipione of those feuds which had been seized by the empire or the Republic. The Spanish monarch issued his decree to the senate of Milan ordering the surrender of Pontremoli to Fieschi; but it was not carried into effect. The senate held that the condemnation was a just punishment for a double treason committed both by Scipione and his brothers and refused to obey the imperial decree. The queen of France who had a high esteem for the young Scipione interceded for him, and Ferdinand moved by her powerful entreaties on the 13th of July, 1552, invested the count with Varese, Montobbio and Roccatagliata; at the same time he signed some other decrees in his favour. These various decrees gave rise to the controversy before the tribunals, with Scipione on one side, and the Republic and the possessors of the feuds on the other. The count maintained the nullity of his condemnation, while the Republic insisted on its legality and maintained that Scipione had lost all claims to the property confiscated for his treason, and that the decrees of the emperor were without force or validity. Finally, on the 2nd of August, 1574, the emperor Maximilian gave his decision against the claims of Scipione and absolved the Republic, Antonio and Pagano Doria, Ettore Fieschi (of the Savignone branch) and Count Claudio Landi, who were in possession of the lands and castles of the Fieschi.

We shall speak of Ottobuono Fieschi in another place. It is enough to say here that, after the fall of Montobbio and the union of Valditaro with Piacenza, he went to the court of Farnese, where he lived for some time. He afterwards went to Mirandola under an escort of ducal cavalry, and waited there for brighter days. Maria della Rovere shut herself up in the castle of Calestano. The governor of Parma requested her in the name of the duke to leave that residence, in order to relieve Pier Luigi from the charge of sustaining herself and sons. The suspicions of the imperial party respecting the duke were about this time turned into certainty. Cesare della Nave, of Bologna, a man of good education who had been created ducal commissary in Valditaro, divulged the fact that Manara had been instructed by Pier Luigi to render all possible assistance to Gerolamo at Montobbio. Maria then went to Rome, and afterwards spent some time in Parma, where she dictated her will on the 23rd of October, 1553. She bequeathed all her property to her daughter Camilla, wife of Nicolò Doria who afterwards as we shall see took up the conspiracy of Gianluigi. Maria lived for several years after the date of her will. The registers of the notary Antonio Roccatagliata show that Camilla only entered upon the inheritance of her mother on the 26th of September, 1561.

As for Panza, we find in some old manuscripts, for which we are indebted to the courtesy of the learned Baron Giacomo Baratta, that about 1550, he was archpriest in the parochial church of Rapallo. Probably the preceptor of Gianluigi, after the destruction of his master’s family, retired to some spot secluded from political tumults and ended his days in the practice of those virtues which adorned his previous life.

The memory of Eleonora wife of Gianluigi has been blackened by recent accusations. After the death of her husband, beside herself with grief she threw herself into the arms of her mother. The Strozzi papers contain a petition addressed by her to Charles V. in which she sets forth that her dower was secured upon the feud of Cariseto, and prays that the emperor may command Gonzaga to deliver it to her with all its appurtenances in satisfaction of her claims against the estate of Gianluigi Fieschi. Perhaps she did not obtain her request; for we learn from confused notices that she did not recover her dower for some years after when she invested it in the bank of St. George.

Some years after Gianluigi’s death, she married Chiappino Vitelli. Her husband was the son of that Nicolò who was killed by Braccolini for stabbing his own wife, Gentilina, while she lay in bed beside him. Chiappino was a brave soldier and a captain of some repute. He was a friend of Cosimo, followed the fortunes of the empire and received for his warlike virtues the investiture of Cetona with the title of marquis. He distinguished himself in the affair of Pignone with the Moors, in the liberation of Malta from the siege of the Turks, in Flanders and in Holland. Phillip II. gave him the principal charge of the last named war. He was at this time of monstrous obesity, and having received several wounds had to be carried in a palanquin to visit his trenches. While making the round of his work the Bisogni, who fretted at being commanded by an Italian, threw him down into the foss, (1575). On receiving intelligence of his death, Eleonora gave up her life to pious duties, and entered the convent of the Murate in Florence, a foundation noted for the illustrious women who fled to it for peace, some of whom were members of her own family.