Andrea Doria

Andrea Doria was born in Liguria on 30 November 1466 and became Europe's foremost naval commander by the early sixteenth century. From 1528 he served as Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's grand admiral in the Mediterranean and chief shipbuilder, running his own ships as a privateer on the side to multiply his fortune. His fleets secured the imperial lines between Spain and Italy even as his record against Ottoman admirals stayed mixed, and he helped shape the Spanish and Italian approach to amphibious war. As a citizen of Genoa he leveraged his imperial ties to protect the republic's independence while refusing formal office, accepting only the title Father of the Fatherland. His constitutional reforms - shrinking the doge's term to two years, barring plebeians, vesting power in the councils - held until the republic fell in 1797, 237 years after his death on 25 November 1560.