[CHAPTER XVII.]
THE SPANISH DOMINION IN LIGURIA.
The Fieschi at the court of France—Louis XIV supports their claims—Bad effects of the law of Garibetto—Severe laws against the Plebeians—Death of Andrea Doria—Estimate of his public services—New commotions—Magnanimity of the people—The old nobles make open war on the Republic—Treaty of Casale in 1576—The Spanish power in Italy, particularly in Liguria—Aragonese manners corrupt our people—New taxes and customs—The nobility accepts the fashions, manners and vices of the Spaniards—Change of the character of the Genoese people—Last splendours of Italian genius.
It is not our purpose to follow Count Scipione in his wanderings; we shall only speak of so much of his exile as is necessary to the narration of the last of the Fieschi drama. He married Alfonsina, daughter of Robert Strozzi and Maddalena de’ Medici, and obtained many marks of esteem from the royal house of France, whom he and Strozzi served. Elizabeth, wife of Charles IX., treated him with the same familiarity as Catherine de’ Medici. He distinguished himself at the siege of Rochelle, and Henry III. knighted him in the order of Saint Esprit.
Scipione left a son, Francesco, Count of Lavagna and Bressuire, who fell at the head of his troops in the siege of Monte Albano (1621), and from whose marriage with Anna Le Veneur a noble family was born. The eldest, Charles Leo, married Gillona de Harcourt, (1643), who bore him Gianluigi Mario, a name which the Genoese Republic never forgot. Louis XIV. took him under his protection, and demanded of the Republic the restoration to Mario of his ancestral domains. The Senate refused, and he sent a formidable fleet, commanded by Segnalai (1684), who bombarded the city, and ruined churches, monuments and palaces. Innocent XI. interposed without effect; the fierce monarch required that the Doge and four senators should supplicate mercy in Paris; that the Republic should disarm its galleys and pay a hundred thousand crowns to Count Fieschi. The Republic abandoned by Spain, was forced to accept these conditions, and Louis on his part promised no longer to support the pretentions of the Fieschi. Count Gianluigi Mario died in 1708, without offspring, and the counts of Lavagna in the line of primogeniture ended with him.
We have spoken in another place of the addition to our statutes of the law called in derision, Garibetto,[52] the effect of which was to exclude the new nobles and the men of the people from political power.
The artifice was this: The old and new nobles in equal numbers filled the public offices, and, the latter being the more numerous class, the individuals of it held the highest office less frequently than the individuals of the old nobility. The rule was distasteful for many reasons: it was not made in a lawful way, but imposed by the authority of Andrea Doria, when many of the nobles themselves (says Doge Lercaro) were opposed to the measure; and it was contrary to the wishes of the vast majority that a few patricians should have almost exclusive claims upon the Dogate.
The people were little pleased that they were now totally excluded from that office, to which formerly they alone were eligible, while the plebeians[53] fretted at the insolence of the patricians and Spanish gentlemen among us.
There were new conspiracies. The spies of the emperor learned that a Fra Clemente of the order of St. Francis had brought back from France some schemes for a revolution and Suarez communicated the information to the Senate. The friar was arrested at Ceva and, having been tortured, he declared that De Fornari was intriguing with the king of France to promote a revolution in Genoa. De Fornari, the same who had been elected Doge against the wish of the old nobles, and who was therefore very obnoxious to that party and idolized by the people, was captured and confined in Antwerp.