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Andrea Doria[AndrA´A dO´rEA] Pronunciation Key, b. 1466 or 1468, d. 1560, Italian admiral and statesman, of an ancient family prominent in the history of Genoa. He started his career as a condottiere and in the Italian Wars fought for Francis I of France. In 1528 he fell out with Francis and went over to Charles V, Holy Roman emperor and King of Spain, under the condition that the independence of Genoa be preserved. Doria became (1528) virtual dictator of Genoa, but even under the constitution that he imposed the republican institutions were preserved. He mercilessly suppressed conspiracies against himself (1547, 1548) and ended factional strife. As admiral of the fleet, Doria assisted the Spanish against the Turks and the pirate Barbarossa. He helped Charles V in taking Tunis from Barbarossa in 1535 but failed at Algiers in 1541. In 1559 he recovered, with French aid, Corsica for Genoa.
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