Andrea Doria

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Andrea Doria, detail of a portrait by Sebastiano del Piombo; in the Doria Palace, Rome. (credit: Alinari/Art Resource, New York)

(born Nov. 30, 1466, Oneglia, Duchy of Milan — died Nov. 25, 1560, Genoa) Genoese statesman, mercenary, and admiral, the foremost naval commander of his time. A member of an aristocratic family, he was orphaned at an early age and became a soldier of fortune. In 1522 he entered the service of Francis I, who was fighting Emperor Charles V in Italy. Doria later transferred his services to Charles and in 1528 drove the French out of Genoa. He became the new ruler of Genoa and reorganized its government into an effective and stable oligarchy. He commanded several naval expeditions against the Turks and helped Charles V extend his domination over the Italian peninsula. Though greedy and authoritarian, Doria was also a fearless commander with outstanding tactical and strategic talents.

For more information on Andrea Doria, visit Britannica.com.

Doria, Adm Andrea (1466-1560), a naval condottiere and developer of galley warfare in the Mediterranean. Born in Genoa, Doria began his career fighting on land for a variety of causes. Turning his attentions to the sea, he outfitted his own fleet of galleys for operations ostensibly against the Turks and the Barbary pirates. But naval operations at this time were compelled to be self-sustaining, and Doria was never able to concentrate on the main objective. Only after the recapture of Genoa in 1528 from the French brought him recognition from the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who made him admiral of the imperial fleet, was Doria able to turn his attention to attacking the Turks in the eastern Mediterranean.

In 1533 the Turkish Adm Barbarossa began to reverse Christian advances in the Mediterranean, overturning all Doria's conquests. Although the Turkish siege of Corfu (1537) was lifted by the arrival of Doria with a combined imperial and Venetian fleet, this success did not prevent Barbarossa waging a devastating privateering campaign. Attempts by Doria to bring the Turks to battle were unsuccessful and Venice's hold on her Greek territories was steadily weakened. By 1542 the Turks were pushing even into the western Mediterranean, forcing Doria to take refuge in Genoa. The death of Barbarossa weakened Turkish expansion, but they continued to make progress in North Africa. Doria relinquished his command to his nephew Gian Andrea Doria in 1555, who went on to win the decisive victory at Lepanto in 1571, utilizing the fleet that his uncle had created. Doria's legacy was bringing a degree of control and systemization to naval warfare in the Mediterranean, instituting proper supply and replenishment, including the delivery of galley slaves. He was undone by a lack of sound financial resources and divided political control.

— Jon Robb-Webb

In the Mediterranean world of the late Middle Ages, Andrea Doria (1466-1560) was both famous as an adventurer and feared as a ruler. His seafaring skills made him one of the principal maritime commanders of his day, and his alliances with popes and a succession of kings helped make him rich.

"Doria's accomplishments illustrate some of the main themes of Genoese history," noted Steven A. Epstein in Genoa and the Genoese, 958-1528. History has not always treated Doria kindly, however, and a reputation as somewhat of a despot remains as a result of his firm control over the city of Genoa during the later years of his career. Yet Genoa was a warring, fractious city-state where democratic ideals often yielded chaos. A member of one of the city of Genoa's oldest aristocratic families, Doria was born in 1466 in Oneglia, in the Duchy of Milan (now Italy). The Dorias were a prominent and powerful force in the Republic of Genoa, in what is present-day Liguria and stretching several hundred miles along the Mediterranean coast from Monaco to the Italian city of Lerici. Its strategic importance on the Mediterranean coast, wedged between territories held by the rival powers of France and Spain, made it a much-coveted ally.

Mediterranean Power

The seaport city of Genoa itself had been a free commune since the tenth century, and during the intervening centuries had become one of Europe's major urban hubs. It was an important trade center, and rivaled Venice as a maritime power on the seas. The Genoa of Doria's day was a winding, medieval city organized by neighborhoods and ruled by a strong internal political culture. It was a city with an extremely stratified social structure, including a large class of laborers and artisans, and at times its various quarters had even battled one another for political power.

The Genoese themselves, however, were anything but insular: their dialect contained elements of the Portuguese language, and a colony on the Black Sea had been established and at times governed by members of the Doria family. Several famous explorers, including Christopher Columbus, were Genoese by birth; the Vivaldis navigated the West African coast and still others ventured out into the Atlantic to discover the Azores and Canary islands. But the Genoese also enjoyed a reputation as tyrants as well: their ships brought back Muslims from the eastern edge of the Mediterranean, who were then purchased by Genoa's noble families as slaves, and there was a law stipulating that Jewish people could remain no more than three days in the city. They also held the island of Corsica for over 500 years.

The Dorias

Andrea Doria's ancestors had been political leaders in Genoa as far back as 1134. In 1270, Oberto Doria had established a two-family system of government for Genoa with a member of another influential family, the Spinolas. Other Doria forebears were celebrated sailors or statesmen; the cartographer Domenico Doria served as the Mongols' ambassador to Europe in the late thirteenth century. There were also some Dorias who achieved fame through less than admirable methods: one ancestor, Branca Doria, had allegedly murdered his father-in-law, which earned him mention as a resident of hell in Dante's Inferno. The political power of the Dorias lessened for a time after a series of late fourteenth-century popular revolts which effectively ended the dominance of the noble families. A political system with an elected magistrate known as a doge, as in Venice, replaced it from 1384 to 1515. The Dorias, however, continued to achieve renown in sea battles against rival Venice.

Andrea Doria was orphaned as a child, and journeyed to Rome as a teenager to serve in the papal army of Pope Innocent VIII, a fellow Genoese, who battled the Turks until his death in 1492. Doria made a pilgrimage to the holy city of Jerusalem in 1495, which was a somewhat rare feat at the time, for it involved an arduous and even perilous trek. As he entered adulthood, he became a mercenary, or soldier-for-hire. He fought for King Ferdinand I, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, as well as for Genoa's powerful Casa San Georgia, a private financial collective that held great power. He also assisted Domenico Doria, his uncle, in subduing an anti-Italian revolt on the island of Corsica in 1506.

Condottiere

Through his thirties and forties, Doria accumulated much of his wealth by battling corsairs, or pirate ships, along the coast of North Africa, and fighting Turks; both were standard ways by which Genoese nobles earned distinction. These men were known as condottieres, or commanders-for-hire, and sailed the Mediterranean in manned galleys. In 1519 Doria won a decisive victory over a Turkish force at Pianosa, which further enhanced his reputation. Back home, however, trouble brewed, and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V seized Genoa in 1522. The city was mercilessly sacked, and its pro-French rulers were ousted. In response, Doria entered the service of French regent Francis I, Charles V's foe. Francis I gave Doria command of the French fleet on the Mediterranean, and with it Doria scored a decisive victory at Marseilles in 1524. The following year, however, the French were vanquished, and Francis I was seized and put in prison.

Doria then went into the service of Francis I's ally, the Medici Pope Clement VII, who was taken prisoner himself in 1527, the same year Francis was freed. Doria again led a French incursion, and helped retake Genoa from the Holy Roman Empire. Because of France's new policies governing Genoa, Doria became discontented with Francis I, and switched allegiances. In the service of Charles V, he recaptured Genoa for the Empire in September of 1528, and reentered the city greeted by cheering masses of his fellow Genoese. Historians note that Doria's decision to side with the Empire was a savvy one, since in the end it allowed Genoa to maintain some sovereignty instead of being subsumed by France; it also gained the Republic the protection of powerful Spanish kings.

Led Genoa for Three Decades

Doria was now the de facto ruler of the Republic of Genoa, and held the tittle of Grand Admiral of the fleet of the Holy Roman Empire, which Charles V bestowed upon him because of his services to the Empire. He was also granted the princedom of Melfi. His position allowed him the exclusive rights to supply both Charles V and Spain's Philip II with ships, which tied Doria to sailing fortunes then being made across the Atlantic Ocean. Genoa's new ruler was known as a shrewd businessman-preferring, for example, to hire slaves as oarers on his ships: one free oarer cost 13 scudi annually, but a slave could be purchased for 40 scudi and worked for a decade.

As the leader of the city of Genoa, Doria displayed a comparable astuteness. First, he imposed laws that rid the city of its fractious political rivalries, and instituted an oligarchic form of government that returned political power to the aristocrats. Under the terms of a constitution that went into effect under Doria (and lasted until 1797), Genoa was ruled by its four main families, granted a certain number of commoners noble status every year, and was headed by a doge with little actual power. Genoa's political decisions were instead made in two council chambers, the Maggiore Consiglio and the Minore Consiglio. The latter elected the city officials, the doge, and appointed its financial and legal ministers. Supervising this structure were five syndics, of whom Doria was "perpetual prior." His rule, which began in 1528 and endured over thirty years, has been considered a virtual dictatorship; hints of political opposition were sometimes ruthlessly extinguished.

Doria, now a wealthy, powerful, but older man, built a Palazzo del Principe for himself at Fassolo, situated just west of the city walls. He shared it with his wife, the Princess Peretta Uso di Mare. The structure was designed so that he could see every ship entering and departing Genoa's port. Inside, the lavish paintings and frescoes depicted him as a heroic figure from classical mythology, and celebrated him as the one who brought peace. Indeed, Doria did not rest on his laurels in his palace: he still led several naval battles against the Turks well into his sixtieth decade, including a victorious one at Tunis in 1535. Yet his power in Genoa had also earned him enemies, and pro-French families tried to undermine his rule by carrying out a plot that resulted in the murder of his nephew Giannettino Doria in 1547. An investigation uncovered the culprit, and Doria extracted harsh retribution.

At the age of 84 Doria was still sailing in anti-pirate expeditions on the Mediterranean. When war broke out between France and Spain, Doria allied with the Spaniards and captured Corsica from the French. He retired in 1555 from his admiral duties, passing on his post to another a grandnephew, Giovanni Andrea Doria. He died on November 25, 1560, just a few days before his 94th birthday; he outlived many of the great names of his era. Perhaps because of the looting of the city by Holy Roman Empire armies in 1522, the portrait of Doria that hangs in one of the city's museums, attributed to Jan Massys, is the first depiction of any of Genoa's rulers. In the twentieth century, a luxury liner was named after him. Unfortunately, the ship bearing his name collided with another ship off the coast of Massachusetts in 1956, resulting in the loss of 44 lives.

Further Reading

Epstein, Steven A. Genoa and the Genoese, 958-1528, University of North Carolina Press, 1996.

For other uses, see Andrea Doria (disambiguation).

Portrait of Andrea Doria, by Sebastiano del Piombo.

Andrea Doria or D'Oria (30 November 1466 – 25 November 1560) was an Italian condottiere and admiral from Genoa.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Wars between France and the Holy Roman Empire 3 Reestablishment of the Genoese Republic 4 Doria as imperial admiral 5 Later years 6 Ships 7 References

Early life

Doria was born at Oneglia from the ancient Genoese family, the Doria di Oneglia branch of the old Doria, de Oria or de Auria family. His parents were related: Ceva Doria, co-lord of Oneglia, and Caracosa Doria, of the Doria di Dolceacqua branch. Orphaned at an early age, he became a soldier of fortune, serving first in the papal guard and then under various Italian princes.

In 1503 he was fighting in Corsica in the service of Genoa, at that time under French vassalage, and he took part in the rising of Genoa against the French, whom he compelled to evacuate the city. From that time onwards, he became famous as a naval commander. For several years he scoured the Mediterranean in command of the Genoese fleet, waging war on the Turks and the Barbary pirates.

Wars between France and the Holy Roman Empire

In the meanwhile Genoa had been recaptured by the French, and in 1522 by the armies of the Holy Roman Emperor.

But Doria joined the French or popular faction and entered the service of King Francis I of France, who made him captain-general; in 1524 he relieved Marseille, which was besieged by the Imperialists, and later helped to place his native city once more under French domination.

Dissatisfied with his treatment at the hands of Francis, who was mean about payment, he resented the king's behavior in connection with Savona, which he delayed handing back to the Genoese as he had promised.

Consequently, on the expiration of Doria's contract he entered the service of Emperor Charles V (1528).

Andrea Doria as the god Neptune, by Agnolo Bronzino

Reestablishment of the Genoese Republic

Doria ordered his nephew Filippino, who was then blockading Naples in alliance with a French army, to withdraw; Doria then sailed for Genoa where, with the help of some leading citizens, he expelled the French and re-established the republic under imperial protection.

He reformed the constitution in an aristocratic sense, most of the nobility being Imperialists, and put an end to the factions which divided the city, by creating 28 Alberghi or "clans". The 28 Alberghi that formed this new ruling class included the Cybo, Doria, Fieschi, Giustiniani, Grimaldi, Imperiale, Pallavicino, and Spinola families.^[1][2]

He refused offers to take the lordship of Genoa and even the dogeship, but accepted the position of "perpetual censor", and exercised predominant influence in the councils of the republic until his death. The title "censor" in this context was modeled on its meaning in the Roman Republic (i.e. a highly respected senior public official - see Roman censor), rather than its modern meaning having to do with censorship. He was given two palaces, many privileges, and the title of Liberator et Pater Patriae (Liberator and Father of his Country).

Doria as imperial admiral

As imperial admiral he commanded several expeditions against the Ottoman Empire, capturing Koroni and Patras, and co-operating with the emperor himself in the capture of Tunis (1535). Charles found him an invaluable ally in the wars with Francis I, and through him extended his domination over the whole of Italy.

In February 1538, Pope Paul III succeeded in assembling a Holy League (comprising the Papacy, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, the Republic of Venice and the Maltese Knights) against the Ottomans, but Hayreddin Barbarossa defeated its combined fleet, commanded by Andrea Doria, at the Battle of Preveza in September 1538. This victory secured Turkish dominance over the Mediterranean for the next 33 years, until the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.

He accompanied Charles V on the ill-fated expedition on Algiers in 1541, of which he disapproved, and which ended in disaster. For the next five years he continued to serve the emperor in various wars, in which he was generally successful and always active, although now over seventy years old.

Later years

After the Peace of Crépy between Francis and Charles in 1544, Doria hoped to end his days in quiet. However, his great wealth and power, as well as the arrogance of his nephew and heir Giannettino Doria, had made him many enemies, and in 1547 the Fieschi conspiracy to dislodge his family from power took place. Giannettino was killed, but the conspirators were defeated, and Doria showed great vindictiveness in punishing them, seizing many of their fiefs for himself. He was also implicated in the murder of Pier Luigi Farnese, duke of Parma and Piacenza, who had helped Fieschi.

Other conspiracies followed, of which the most important was that of Giulio Cybo (1548), but all failed. Although Doria was ambitious and harsh, he was a patriot and successfully opposed Emperor Charles's repeated attempts to have a citadel built in Genoa and garrisoned by Spaniards; neither blandishments nor threats could win him over to the scheme.

Nor did age lessen his energy, for in 1550, aged 84, he again put to sea to confront the Barbary pirates, but with no great success. In 1552 the Ottoman fleet under the command of Turgut Reis defeated the Spanish-Italian fleet of Charles V under the command of Andrea Doria in the Battle of Ponza (1552). War between France and the Empire having broken out once more, the French seized Corsica in the Invasion of Corsica (1553), then administered by the Genoese Bank of St George. Doria was again summoned, and he spent two years (1553-1555) on the island fighting the French with varying fortune.

He returned to Genoa for good in 1555, and being very old and infirm he gave over the command of the galleys to his great-nephew Giovanni Andrea Doria, the son of Giannettino Doria, who conducted an expedition against Tripoli, but proved even more unsuccessful than his great-uncle had been at Algiers, barely escaping with his life after losing the Battle of Djerba against the Turkish fleet of Piyale Pasha and Turgut Reis. Andrea Doria left his estates to Giovanni Andrea. The family of Doria-Pamphilii-Landi is descended from Giovanni Andrea Doria and bears his title of prince of Melfi. Judged by the standards of his day, Doria was an outstanding leader.

Ships

Several ships were named in honour of the Admiral:

• The liner SS Andrea Doria, which was launched in 1951, had its maiden voyage in 1953 and sank in 1956.
• The battleship Andrea Doria built in 1916 which served in both World Wars.
• The Italian Missile Cruiser Andrea Doria built in 1964 and decommissioned in 1991.
• The Italian Horizon class frigate Andrea Doria, commissioned in 2007.
• Two US Navy ships named Andrew Doria.

References

1. ^ “The Grimaldis of Monaco”, Anne Edwards, HarperCollins, 1992, [1], ISBN 0002151952
2. ^ “Genoa and the sea : policy and power in an early modern maritime republic, 1559-1684”, Thomas Allison Kirk, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005., pg. 25 [2], ISBN 0801880831

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• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• "Andrea Doria" in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia.

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