Not only in Genoa, but throughout Liguria these conspiracies abounded; especially in Chiavari, where the revolt of Fregoso, of which Stradiotto was the leader, had its origin. Blood whenever it was shed, far from quenching the thirst for liberty, begot new advocates for the old supremacy of the people. Soon after, that is in 1539, a pious priest named Valerio Zuccarello, beloved by the people, was accused of revolutionary sympathies and leanings to France. He was subjected to an inquisition and lost his head on the scaffold. The nobility struggled to maintain its power; the people to regain the inheritance of which they had been defrauded. The Republic was passing through such pains as these when Gianluigi Fieschi listened to her complaints and resolved to avenge them.
Maria della Rovere and her children.--The natural gifts of Gianluigi.--Andrea Doria prevents his marriage with the daughter of Prince Centurione.--Gianluigi’s first quarrels with Gianettino Doria.--Naval battle of Giralatte and capture of the corsair Torghud Rais--Count Fieschi espouses Eleonora of the Princes of Cybo--The hill of Carignano in the early part of the sixteenth century--Sumptousness of the Fieschi palace--Gianluigi, Pansa and other distinguished men--Female writers--Eleonora Fieschi and her rhymes.
MARIA Grasso della Rovere, the spirited niece of Julius II. after the death of Sinibaldo removed from the city to her castles, first to those in Pontremoli and Valditaro where she gave birth to Scipione, and then to Montobbio where she established her residence. In those days our matrons, when their husbands were fighting abroad or when they became widows, took active charge of their estates and, laying aside all elegant recreations, employed their zeal in promoting their family fortunes. From this came the masculine counsels and splendid examples which illustrated their history. Of such was Maria della Rovere, daughter of the Duke of Urbino.
Emancipated from the luxury and pomp of her Genoese life, she applied herself, like a good farmer’s wife, to restore the fortunes of her house and to pay the large debts of Sinibaldo, especially the twelve thousand ducats of gold due to Sforza for the feud of Pontremoli. Her chief care, however, was the education of her children. The eldest of them, Gianluigi, was ten years of age at the death of his father. The others were Gerolamo, Ottobuono, Camilla (who became the wife of Nicolò Doria, illegitimate son of Cardinal Gerolamo), Angela, Caterina, and Scipione, born after his father’s death. There was in addition a Cornelio, who though illegitimate (his mother was a certain Clementina of Torriglia), was much beloved on account of his spirited character. Some report that Sinibaldo had other illegitimate children, and number among them a Giulio and a Claudia, the latter of whom married into the family of the Ravaschieri.