.... :-) .... nice, you got it (that with the pictures).
Interesting, that you confirm, that Finale might have been once more important than Imperia and Savona. Savona definitely should have won influence with pope Sixtus and his dramatic nepotism. I had the suspicion, that there was something like this. Thanks also for the link ... I got this translation:
1162 - Frederick I Barbarossa invests Henry the Wert (brave) or Guercio, Marquis of Savona, of the Marquisate of Finale
1226 - Frederick II confirms the investiture
1338 - Giorgio Del Carretto tries to conquer the city of Albenga by force, but the intervention of the Republic of Genoa causes the destruction of the Fort and the Port of Varigotti; the Marquis is imprisoned
1396 - the construction of Castelfranco begins, which was supposed to defend a new port in Finale (here is the main reason for the centuries-old hostility of Genoa: the fear of competition ....)
1448 - Galeotto del Carretto conquers Stellanello and Giustenice: Genoa occupies part of the Marquisate but must retire due to the intervention of France
1449 - sacking of Finale by Genoa; Giovanni del Carretto rebuilds Castel Gavone
1451 - the war is disastrous for Finale: Genoa imposes harsh conditions, including its presence in Castelfranco
1452 - renovation of Castel Gavone and the walls of Finalborgo
1500 - pact of alliance and mutual assistance against possible Genoese attacks with the Duchy of Milan
1541 - the despotic behavior of the Del Carretto family provokes a strong hostility of the Finalesi: with this pretext Genoa sends an army and a fleet to Finale that plunder the city and ruin its maritime traffic (also in this case the real reason is a planned imminent construction of the new port of Finale ...)
1558 - Alfonso Del Carretto continues his despotic attitude: a new armed intervention by Genoa which obliges him to hand over the administration of the Finale area for five years
1566 - the Finalesi take up arms against Alberto Del Carretto, who retires to Castel Gavone, placed in a state of siege; the people assume the administration of the marquisate by appointing a general, the consuls and other military and civil officials
1567 - Emperor Maximilian II arrested Alberto del Carretto who was deported to Vienna, ordering the passage of the Marquisate to the Imperial Chamber and appointing the Finalesi as Commissioners; in the same period the King of Spain Philip II sent an exploratory mission to Finale to examine the possibility of taking possession of the Marquisate in a good-natured way; Genoa intervenes in Vienna to try to prevent it; the Finals express the desire to remain united with Milan (see the pact of 1500) and therefore the preference for Spain
1571 - the Constable of Castile occupies Finale on the pretext of preventing a French occupation: a garrison of 8,000 men remains who will stay 3 years
1598 - Andrea Sforza Del Carretto sells the Finale States to the King of Spain for an income of 104,000 ducats in a city of the Kingdom of Naples with the title of Prince
1602 - the Finals renew the oath of loyalty to Spain and the Emperor grants the title of the Marquisate to the King of Spain Philip III
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1450/1535 - The rebirth
The successor of Galeotto I was Giovanni I Del Carretto, who - together with his brother - had secretly supported the Viscount Captain Nicolò Piccinino. When Galeotto died, he returned to Italy where, with the military help of the Marquis of Monferrato and the King of France Charles VII, on 20 December 1450 he reconquered the marquisate in a single day. Giovanni was an excellent leader, an excellent diplomat and a skilful and cold calculator. He immediately began to repair the damage caused by the war: he had the walls of Finalborgo rebuilt, which he equipped with new buildings, and Castel Gavone, which he restored to its ancient prestige. Already after only two years the fief was characterized by a notable commercial and urban revival. Politically he re-established close relations with Milan. In 1458 internal uprisings broke out in Genoa, then in the hands of France: Giovanni immediately took advantage of this to take over the interior of the entire Riviera di Ponente. When peace returned in 1459, almost all the conquered territories were recognized, including the fortress of Castelfranco: however, he had to return the fortifications of Pieve di Teco to Genoa. Banco San Giorgio in Genoa forgave him the taxes on salt which he had not paid for three years . Giovanni gave up the now anachronistic title of "Marquis of Savona and Lord of Finale" to assume the more realistic title of "Marchese del Finale". It must be emphasized that in those years the Marquisate was the only independent state of Liguria Marittima: for 22 years it had fought against Genoa to remain autonomous and had managed to preserve its freedom, while the Superba had fallen into the hands of foreigners and in 1463 Luigi XI King of France sold it to Milan! A long peaceful period began for Finale. Giovanni died in 1468 leaving eleven children.
His successor was the eldest son Biagio (known as Galeotto II) Del Carretto, of whom little is known as he died at a young age, leaving his wife and a daughter. It is remembered that he was the promoter of the foundation of the Olivetan Monastery of Finalpia (1476) at the ancient sanctuary of the same name.
Alfonso I Del Carretto, brother of Biagio Galeotto, went to the government of the Marquisate. Relations with Milan were not as good as in the past after the reconquest of Genoa by Prospero Adorno 1478), on the occasion of which he supported Roberto Sanseverino in his appointment as Captain General of the Republic. He preferred to remain neutral even in the subsequent siege of Savona. When Gian Galeazzo Sforza took over Genoa (1488) Alfonso re-established relations with Milan. In 1496 the Emperor appointed him Vicar of all the Carretto funds, granting him the possibility of minting coins. Appointed Captain of the Genoese army (1501) at the head of which he fought in Corsica. During his distance from Finale, Brother Carlo Domenico attempted a coup d'état: obtained 400 men from Genoa, he returned to Finale and re-established his dominance, during which the Marquisate experienced the splendor of Renaissance art still visible in the churches and monasteries of the period. He died in 1523
His son Giovanni II Del Carretto ruled for a few years, which were however marked by the maximum expansion of the Marquisate. Well regarded by the Emperor Charles V, with whom he was linked by friendship, in 1529 he received a very large diploma of investiture: the boundaries of the fiefdom reached up to Andora and included the Marquisates of Ceva and Asti, as well as the Counts of Casteggio and Pavia. He was present at the coronation of Charles V in Bologna (February 24, 1530) by Clement VII: the Emperor passed through Finale in December 1529. In 1535 he followed Charles V to Tunis, where, fighting against the Turks, he was seriously wounded and , transported to Sicily, he died after six days of agony.
1535/1598 - The epilogue
John II was followed by his son Alfonso II Del Carretto. His father died when he was only ten years old, the regency was taken over by his uncle Marco Antonio Del Carretto. In 1546 he reached the age of majority and assumed full powers. With him began the decline of the Marquisate. His tyrannical arbitrary decisions provoked violent riots: the initial spark came from Calice Ligure where a commoner, Antonio Capellino, led the people against the Marquis, who, fearing the worst, closed himself up in Castel Gavone. The insurgents brought before the Senate of Genoa as many as 66 charges, including robberies, rape, massacres as well as others equally serious. Alfonso did not accept the arbitration of Genoa, which, fearing a French intervention, militarily occupied the Finale area. Spain was also called to try mediation: refusing all attempts at settlement, the Marquis took refuge in Vienna, where he requested the intervention of the Emperor Ferdinand. The case was entrusted to the latter's advisers for examination, oriented in favor of Alfonso and in March 1569 Alfonso was reinstated. In the meantime, the Finale was quiet: the government of the territory had been taken over by the Municipality, which had abolished the taxes and laws issued by the Marquis. Alfonso the cousin Alberto Del Carretto di Gorzegno at the reconquest of the fiefdom: at the head of 2,000 soldiers Alberto occupied Finale: he demanded from the Finale the oath of loyalty which he obtained by promising justice and immunity to the exiles. However Alberto did not keep his promises: he put military expenses on the population, imprisoned the rebels, exiled the Municipality, imposed new taxes and confiscated assets belonging to private individuals. A new rebellion broke out and Alberto was forced to close himself in Castel Gavone, besieged by the population. Driven by the facts, Alfonso entered into secret negotiations with France. The fact leaked out and the Spanish Governor of Milan sent 6,000 men to Finale who took Castel Gavone (1571). Only in 1582 Alfonso II was reinstated in the fief by a Diet of German princes: he was unable to return to Finale because he died in Vienna in 1583.
Due to the absence of children, the succession in the title fell to his brother Alessandro Del Carretto, previously Abbot of Conchas and Bounecombe in France. In 1584 he abandoned his ecclesiastical career and asked the Emperor for the investiture of the Marquisate. The recognition did not arrive, despite the promise to leave the Marquisate as an inheritance to the Emperor. He never came to Finale: he died in Carcare, where he resided, in 1596.
He was succeeded by his brother Sforza Andrea Del Carretto, who lived in Vienna at the court of Emperor Rudolph II. He too requested the investiture, never granted under a pretext (on his death the Marquisate would have been in the Empire anyway due to lack of male descent). In secret Andrea Sforza negotiated the sale of the Marquisate to Spain (whose soldiers were still in Finale) which for years had been looking for an outlet on the Mediterranean for its territories in the Milanese area and in the Lombard plain. Tired and sick, on 16 May 1598 Sforza Andrea, in the presence of the Governor of Milan, completed the sale of the Marquisate to the King of Spain Philip II for a perpetual income of 24,000 ducats a year and appointed his universal heir Giò Andrea Doria, who at the his death (1602), had him erect a splendid funeral monument in the Church of Santa Caterina di Finalborgo: the mausoleum can now be admired in the church of San Biagio, where it was later transferred. After almost half a millennium, the dominion of the Del Carretto on the Finale ceased: on a practical level, the Spanish domination had already begun some years ago.
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Les cartes à jouer du XIV au XX siècle Vol. 2 by Allemagne, Henry René d', 1863-1950
https://archive.org/details/McGillLibra ... up?q=final
Page -448-
« Le seul moyen de rétablir le commerce des cartes à Marseille serait de supprimer le droit sur les cartes destinées à l'étranger, car c’est la circonstance qui a obligé les maîtres et veuves d’abandonner leur fabrique ou de congédier la plupart de leurs ouvriers qui créèrent les nouvelles manufactures à Gênes, à Savone, à Final, à Oueille, à Monaco, à Nice et sur toute la côte d’Italie. 11 ne serait pas juste de déchoir de leur maîtrise ou de faire faire les renonciations demandées par les cartiers, car ces maîtres ou veuves ayant momentanément quitté le métier, qui ne pouvait pourvoir à leur subsistance, doivent pouvoir y rentrer lorsque le métier redeviendra florissant, c’est-à-dire lorsqu'on aura obtenu la levée des droits sur les cartes d’exportation.
This statement belongs to a letter from 1754. I was interested in this passage, cause competing cities are mentioned. Automatic translation:
The only way to re-establish the card trade in Marseilles would be to abolish the duty on cards intended for abroad, because it is the circumstance which obliged the masters and widows to abandon their factories or to dismiss most of their workers. workers who created the new factories in Genoa, Savona, Final, Oeuille, Monaco, Nice and all over the Italian coast. It would not be fair to forfeit their mastery or to have the renunciations requested by the cartiers made, for these masters or widows having temporarily left the profession, who could not provide for their subsistence, must be able to return to it when the profession once again flourishes, that is, when the duties on the export cards have been lifted.