Simone Spinola (Genoa, 1497 - Genoa, 3 October 1569) was the 66th

Doge A doge ( , ; plural dogi or doges) was an elected lord and head of state in several Italian city-states, notably Venice and Genoa, during the medieval and renaissance periods. Such states are referred to as " crowned republics". Etymology The ...

of the

Republic of Genoa The Republic of Genoa ( lij, Repúbrica de Zêna ; it, Repubblica di Genova; la, Res Publica Ianuensis) was a medieval and early modern maritime republic from the 11th century to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast. During the Lat ...

Biography

Born in Genoa in a period around 1497, Simone Spinola was member of the noble

Spinola family The House of Spinola, or Spinola family, was a leading Italian political family centered in the Republic of Genoa. Their influence was at its greatest extent in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Important members Guido Spinola was one o ...

of the Luccoli branch and adhered to that nobility considered "old" and opposed to the "new" one. A skilled merchant, in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

and in the

County of Flanders The County of Flanders was a historic territory in the Low Countries. From 862 onwards, the counts of Flanders were among the original twelve peers of the Kingdom of France. For centuries, their estates around the cities of Ghent, Bruges and Ypr ...

, he made his fortune while maintaining economic and state relations with Genoa. And in certain years he returned to the Genoese republic where, among other positions, he held the position of consul. Without ever neglecting his interests in Flanders where he periodically went, he received the position of ambassador to Genoa from the Senate in the papal court of

Pope Pius V Pope Pius V ( it, Pio V; 17 January 1504 – 1 May 1572), born Antonio Ghislieri (from 1518 called Michele Ghislieri, O.P.), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1566 to his death in May 1572. He is v ...

during 1566. Returning to the Genoese capital in 1567, Simone Spinola, on 15 October that year, was elected by the Grand Council new Doge of the Republic of Genoa, the twenty-first since the biennial reform and the sixty-sixth in republican history. The benevolent efforts that led to a reconciliation of the relations between the Genoese republic and its colony of

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are mentioned in the annals of the main and relevant facts of its stave. He had not yet completed his mandate when, suddenly, Doge Spinola died in Genoa on 3 October 1569. The body was buried in the mausoleum of the chapel of Santa Caterina da Siena inside the no longer existing church of San Domenico.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spinola, Simone 1497 births 1569 deaths 16th-century Doges of Genoa Spinola family People from Genoa

Biography

See also

References