Sampiero, Fregoso’s companion in the vicissitudes of a stormy career, was the most formidable soldier and captain of his time. The example of the Fieschi whom he had known in Rome, Mirandola, Siena and France, led him to draw his sword against the Genoese government; and therefore we may be permitted to touch upon the overthrow of his family in a struggle which dyed his native rocks with Genoese blood.
Sampiero was born in humble fortune at Bastelica (whence his surname), and having studied the military art in his youth left his native island and went to Rome. Here, none excelled him in strength and courage. There is a tradition that an Orsini wished to deprive him of this honour and for the purpose challenged him to a joust with a wild bull. The young and reckless Samperio accepted the contest and cut down his ferocious antagonist. He served successively the Florentines against Pisa and the king of France. In the latter service his exploits in Catalonia and Provence raised him to high reputation. The famous defiance of Barletta is far less entitled to fame than his great duel at the battle of Perpignano; but what great Italian writer has preserved the memory of that deed?
On the evening of the tenth of October 1542, five hundred Spanish knights issued from Perpignano with flying colours, and challenged the besieging army to fight them man for man. Sampiero heard the defiance and collected about him some of his bravest knights, among whom were Pecchia da Borgo, Francesco da Verona, Ceccone da San Zenese, Bartolomeo da Fano and other Italians to the number of fifty. He led this little band to the tent of Delfino the French general, and obtained permission to put his fifty against the five hundred Spaniards. The French barons were astonished at his audacity, but Sampiero without waiting to hear their objections dashed down upon the Spaniards with such impetuosity as to hurl them backward at the first shock. In endeavouring to retire the vanquished knights broke their ranks and fell into a confusion which enabled the victors to kill many and capture a larger number without the loss of a man.
After this victory, which would be memorable in any age, the Italians returned to their tents, where the Marshal of France received them with great honour, the flower of his knights greeting them with trumpets and acclamations. Delfino received them one by one and gave them rich presents—especially Sampiero, to whom he gave a rich gold chain.
The fame which he had acquired obscured the memory of his humble birth, and he was counted worthy to espouse Vannina, daughter and heir of Francesco, Marquis of Ornano. He served afterwards in the French army of Piedmont and Paul III. received him at his court with every mark of affection, when after the death of Pier Luigi he was collecting men and captains to avenge the assassination.
The Genoese, suspecting intrigues between the Fieschi and the Pope, seized Sampiero and he only recovered his liberty after urgent solicitations of France in his behalf. This imprisonment filled him with indignation and he resolved to revolutionize Corsica. He landed in the island, under the protection of French and Turkish fleets, at the head of a fine body of Italian soldiers and in a few days wrested it from the Genoese, who had lost the affection of the people by extortion and robberies under the name of imposts collected by bands of thieves called tax and excise officers. The Genoese government again erred by refusing friendly offers made by France. Termes, before moving to the support of the Corsicans, prayed the Republic to ally itself with France on terms which would preserve its independence, and he pledged himself in this case to suppress revolt in Corsica. The influence of Doria was powerful enough to secure the rejection of this proposition, and though he was eighty-six years of age he, with Agostino Spinola for colleague, undertook to crush the rebellion. Both parties fought with equal valour; but the siege of Siena called Doria from the Island to the coast of Tuscany, and Termes had not a sufficient force to conquer the Ligurian power in Corsica.
At that time, Count Scipione Fieschi lived in the court of Catherine de’ Medici, regent of the kingdom of France. The Republic sent there Tobia Pallavicini and Gerolamo Lomellini, under pretence of promoting amicable relations with that crown, but in reality to intrigue against the Fieschi. But Catherine who had induced Henry II. to insert in the treaty of Castel Cambrese stipulations in favour of the family, had not changed sympathies and, instead of yielding to the influence of the Genoese ambassadors, opened negotiations for the restoration of Scipione to his ancestral rights.
Finding the Republic utterly averse to her wishes, she conceived a strong animosity against it, and supported the movements of the Fieschi and other exiles with a vigour which must have produced great results, if the peace with Spain and the Huguenot war had not recalled all her attention to home affairs.
Sampiero was one of the warmest friends both of the Fieschi and the Queen regent, and discontented with peace he incessantly stimulated the exiles to some noble enterprise. Leaving his wife in Marseilles, he visited the courts of Italy and Navarre, and even sailed into Africa to solicit the coöperation of the Turks. He visited the court of Soliman, who, struck with his valour, loaded him with presents and dismissed him with flattering promises.
The Republic was on the alert and took measures to thwart the schemes of the exiles. Poison and daggers had failed, and the Dorias invented another expedient. Sampiero returning from the East learned that his wife Vannina, under the influence of priest Michelangelo Ombrone and Agostino Bacigalupo, had sailed for Genoa. These messengers had been suborned by the Genoese government to decoy Vannina into Genoa under pretence that she might recover the confiscated feud of Ornano and obtain her husband’s pardon, for whose head the Senate had offered a reward of five thousand crowns.