DORIA, FAMIGLIA

DORIA FAMILY. – A Genoese lineage whose earliest records date to the beginning of the 12th century: a MARTINO promoted and built the church of S. Matteo. The D. distinguished themselves for strong Marian virtues and a pronounced Ghibelline spirit. ANSALDO was the fleet commander in the war against the Moors of Spain (1147–49). His son SIMONE distinguished himself during the siege of St John of Acre. Among the descendants of Simone was PIETRO, a leading figure in the technical preparation of the Crusades of Louis IX. The most illustrious representative of the family is without doubt ANDREA (see below). Controversial was the role at the battle of Lepanto of another D.: GIAN ANDREA (1539–1606). The first cardinal of the house was GIROLAMO (see below), the second GIOVANNI, created cardinal by Clement VIII in 1604, bishop of Palermo, d. 1642. Other cardinals: SINIBALDO (1664–1733) archbishop of Benevento, GIORGIO (1708–59) legate in Bologna, GIUSEPPE MARIA secretary of State to Pius

VI. The D

DORIA – Exterior of the Palazzo Doria. Work by G. Valvassori and Raguzzini (early 18th century) – Rome.

I. D. Andrea. – Admiral, b. at Oneglia 30 Nov 1466, d. at Genoa 25 Nov 1560. He began his military career in Rome in 1483 as captain of the guard of Innocent VIII, then entered the service of the duke of Urbino and the king of Naples. After a pilgrimage to the Holy Land he entered the service of the governor of Rome, Giovanni della Rovere. Returning to Genoa in 1504, he suppressed the Corsican revolt. In 1513, with Genoese galleys, he blockaded Genoa, occupied it from the French, and forced its surrender. After Marignano he served France and dispersed the Barbary pirates at Biserta. In 1521 he defeated papal and Spanish galleys attempting a surprise against Genoa. When the city fell into the power of Charles V, he made his base at Marseilles, which he defended against the imperial forces. In the service of Clement VII after Pavia, he returned to the French side in 1527.

But in the following year he clashed with Francis I, and when his contract expired on 1 July 1528, in August he entered the service of Charles V. Besides personal advantages, he secured the independence of Genoa and the two Rivieras under imperial protection and freedom of maritime trade. With the tide turned in favour of the imperials, Doria, having occupied Genoa, reorganised its government, refusing the rank of prince. In 1535 he fought against Barbarossa, taking La Goulette and Tunis. In 1538, after a Christian league was formed at the urging of Venice, attacked by the Turks in her eastern possessions, Doria’s galleys missed the enemy fleet near Prevesa. In 1541 Doria led the expedition against Algiers, which ended in serious failure owing to the precipitate landing of the troops and a storm that destroyed many ships. Retiring to Genoa, in 1547 he suppressed the revolt of Gian Luigi Fieschi and reformed the Constitution of the Republic. In his later years he still directed an expedition to Corsica, where the French had fomented a new rebellion, and obtained that by the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis the island should return to the Republic of Genoa. – See plate CXVI.

II. D. Girolamo. – First cardinal of the noted Genoese family, nephew of Andrea. After the death of his wife Luisa Spinola he entered the ecclesiastical state; in 1529 he received the cardinalate of S. Tommaso in Parione (not without resistance from the Sacred College), as compensation for the promise made to Clement VII by his uncle Andrea to remedy the great famine in Rome (Pastor, IV, 11, p. 329). He was administrator of various churches, including Tarragona, where he held a synod whose acts he published. He attended the coronation of Charles V and d. at Genoa on 25 March or May 1558.

III. D. Pamphili, Giuseppe. – Cardinal, b. at Genoa 11 Nov 1751, d. at Rome 10 Feb 1816. Of no great intellect, his weak character led him to be prone to yielding to Napoleonic pressure.

Very young he was nuncio in Paris (1773), remaining there until 1785, when he was elected (11 Feb 1790) and, from the Institute of Turin, secretary of State to Pius VI (Apr. 1797), but his attitude of excessive submissiveness to the French drew severe criticism (J. Gendry, Pie VI, II, Paris [1907], pp. 287–88). Pius VII, whose election he attended, appointed him prefect of the Congregation of the Council and made him a member of the commission of twelve cardinals for the Concordat of 1801 between the Holy See and the French government; among those who proposed the final ratification of the full text (cf. E. Silvestre, L’histoire, le texte et la destinée du Concordat de 1801, 2nd ed., Paris [1905], p. 22, nn. 1 and 37, n. 1; and I. Rinieri, La diplomazia pontificia nel sec. XIX, I, Rome 1902, pp. 92, 288). Again he served as pro-Secretary of State in Feb. 1808, but at the end of the following month he too, like the other non-Roman cardinals, received the order to leave the city. He went to Paris, where, having attended all the ceremonies of Napoleon’s second marriage, he was among the fourteen cardinals called “the reds.” In 1811 he was ordered—according to Consalvi, whom he accepted with pleasure—to go to Savona with four other “red” cardinals and a commission of French bishops to obtain the Pope’s signature to the Concordat arising from the Council of Paris. Two years later (Jan. 1813), while in Napoleon’s good graces, he acted as intermediary for the resumption of negotiations that led to what was improperly called the Concordat of Fontainebleau. He was bishop of Frascati (1803) and of Porto (1814).