Luigi Villari

“ Although Doria was ambitious and harsh, he was a good patriot and successfully opposed the 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, when eighty-four years old, he again put to sea to punish the raids of his old enemies the Barbary pirates, but with no great success. War between France and the Empire having broken out once more, the French seized Corsica, then administered by the Genoese Bank of St George ”

“ DORIA, ANDREA (1466–1560) , Genoese condottiere and admiral, was born at Oneglia of an ancient Genoese family. Being left an orphan at an early age, he became a soldier of fortune, and served first in the papal guard and then under various Italian princes. In 1503 we find him 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. ”

“ 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, who conducted an expedition against Tripoli, but proved even more unsuccessful than his uncle had been at Algiers, barely escaping with his life. Andrea Doria died on the 25th of November 1560, leaving his estates to Giovanni Andrea. The family of Doria-Pamphilii-Landi (q.v.) is descended from him and bears his title of prince of Melfi. Doria was a man of indomitable energy and a great admiral. ”