Note 29 — Book I. LETTERS TO MAXIMILIAN.

The Comte de Fiesco was chevalier d’honneur to the Queen. The Fieschi were Counts of Lavagna, and one of the four principal families of Genoa. The conspiracy of the Fieschi in 1547 is one of the most famous incidents of Genoese history. The object of the conspirators was to overthrow the power of Andrew Doria, and to detach Genoa from the Imperialists, and bring the republic into close connection with France. The conspiracy miscarried, owing to its leader, Count John Louis Fiesco, falling from the planks by which he was boarding a galley, and being drowned. Owing to the darkness of the night the accident was not discovered till it was too late to assist him. His brothers were executed except Scipio, the youngest, who escaped to France, and is the person mentioned in the text. In 1568 he was Ambassador to the Court of Maximilian. He was afterwards chevalier d’honneur to Louise de Vaudemont, the Queen of Henry III., and one of the original knights of the Order of the Holy Ghost.—Lippomano, Ambassadeurs Vénitiens, ii. 413. He married Alphonsina Strozzi, who is the Countess mentioned by Busbecq. She was originally dame d’honneur to Catherine de Medicis.