Fieschi Giovanni Luigide

Fieschi, Giovanni Luigi de, Count of Lavagni (1523-1547), belonged to a noble Genoese family, which had numbered two Popes in its ranks. He adopted the French and elemocratic views in the politics of his country, and hated the Dorias, who represented the aristocratic party. He formed a conspiracy with his brothers and friends for introducing the French supremacy, and, with a view to obtaining possession of the persons of the Dorias, he invited them to a banquet, which, however, they refused to attend. He then seized the arsenal, and in the endeavour to board some galleys in the port he was drowned, and, though" the conspiracy succeeded for the moment, the power of the Dorias remained unshaken. Fieschi's life has supplied a motive to both poets and prosewriters, the most notable of the latter being Mascardi, who wrote upon it in 1629.