Doria

Doria, Andrea (1466-1560), a Genoese admiral, born of a noble family that had fallen into decay. Andrea was born at Oneglia, and at the age of nineteen entered the Pope's body-guard. On the accession of Alexander VI. he took service with the Duke of Urbino, and then with Alfonso of Naples, and then went to the Holy Land till the Borgia tyranny should be overpast. He then joined the Prince of Sinigaglia against the Spaniards, who were overrunning Italy. In 1503 he retired to Genoa and commanded the galleys of the republic against the Turkish corsairs, and greatly distinguished himself. In 1522 a revolution in the imperial interest to which he was opposed drove him forth, and he offered his services to the King of France, gaining many victories over the forces of the Emperor. In 1529, for some unknown reason, he quitted Francis I. and offered himself to Charles V., who received him gladly, and in his service Doria inflicted many defeats upon his old comrades the French. He was welcomed at Genoa, where he became head of the State and established a form of government of aristocratic tendencies. The Emperor bestowed upon him the Order of the Golden Fleece, and made him Prince of Melfi. The war against the Corsairs almost became a duel between Doria and Barbarossa, the Turkish leader. In 1531 Doria made an attack upon Barbarossa's stronghold on the Barbary coast, but did not accomplish much, though the next year he took Patras and Coron from the Turks. In 1535 he went with Charles V. to Tunis and destroyed Barbarossa's fleet. The latter, as commanding-inchief the Turkish navy, then harassed the Mediterranean islands, and in 1538 offered battle to the Imperial, Papal, and Venetian fleet, and overcame Doria, who was again worsted by him in 1541, and by his pupil in 1560. Though beloved by the people and a favourite councillor of Charles V. and his son Philip, Doria incurred some odium in his later years for the savage vengeance he took upon the slayers of his nephew. He died at Genoa without issue.