He became Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's grand admiral, a position he employed both to protect Genoa's independence and to maintain his own control over the city.

[5] Several ships were named in honour of the admiral, the most famous being the Italian passenger liner SS Andrea Doria, launched in 1951, which sank following a collision in 1956.

[7] In 1522, during the Italian War between France and the empire of Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, Genoa was conquered and sacked by imperial troops under the command of Prospero Colonna and Fernando d'Ávalos, forcing Doria to escape with the fleet again.

Taking refuge in Monaco, he helped the French defend Marseille, but the war came to an abrupt end when Francis I was captured by the imperial army in Pavia.

However, he ended up siding with France again when Pope Clement VIII formed the League of Cognac to oppose Charles V, for which Doria was hired to command their armada while Giovanni delle Bande Nere did the same in their land army.

With Giovanni's death in action and the sack of Rome by mutinied imperial troops, the situation worsened for the League of Cognac, who depended on Doria more than ever.

However, Andrea became dissatisfied with his treatment at the hands of Francis, who was mean about payment and replaced Doria for the French admiral Antoine de La Rochefoucauld.

The 28 Alberghi that formed this new ruling class included the Cybo, Doria, Fieschi, Giustiniani, Grimaldi, Imperiale, Pallavicino, and Spinola families.

[19][20] He refused offers to take the lordship of Genoa and even the dogeship, but accepted the position of "perpetual censor", and exercised predominant influence in the councils of the republic until his death.

[21] To protect the restored republic from future foreign attacks, Andrea Doria sponsored the construction of a new city wall, which was built in the third decade of the sixteenth century, on a design by the military engineer Giovanni Maria Olgiati.

[24][10][25] In summer 1532, in response to the Turk invasion of Hungary in April, Andrea attacked the Ottoman positions in the Aegean Sea with a Spanish-Genoese fleet of 48 galleys and 35 vessels.

[29] Barbarossa, now turned into grand admiral of the Ottoman Empire, launched his own offensive from Constantinople with 80 galleys and French support, sacking around Naples and Sicily.

[34] Shortly after, Babarossa attacked and sacked the Balearic Islands with 27 galleasses he gathered in Algiers, leading Doria to give him chase unsuccessfully with 30 galleys, with orders of Charles V to bring the Turk privateer dead or alive.

[35] In a shocking move, Francis allied with the Ottomans in 1536, installing Barbarossa with a Franco-Turk fleet in Marseille, although the defenses built by Doria dissuaded them from trying to take Genoa.

In April 1537, Barbarossa appeared in front of Italy with 170 ships, but he had come to negotiate, and through a Spanish prisoner he proposed the emperor a possible desertion of the Ottoman Empire, citing his enmity with Lütfi and the political turmoil after the killing of Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha.

In 1538, being given command of the Holy League, Doria sailed off with 80 Venetian galleys, 36 from the Vatican States, 30 from Spain, as well as 50 naos, with the goal to seek the encounter with Barbarossa's fleet and defeated him.

However, infighting within the League or inscrutable orders on Doria's part, depending on the sources, caused the rout of their fleet in the subsequent Battle of Preveza in September 1538.

In 1540, his nephew Giannettino Doria obtained a big victory in the Battle of Girolata, capturing Dragut, the most eminent Turkish captain other than Babarossa.

Doria tried to warn the emperor of the terrible timing of the move, as it was autumn and the Mediterranean weather was dangerous, but he was not heeded, and the Genoese reluctantly accepted to participate anyways.

Again, Barbarossa and Bourbon conquered and sacked Nice, except by its citadel, and retreated with the arrival of Doria, who disembarked a land army led by Alfonso d'Avalos in Villefranche.

To great outrage of Christendom, in 1544 Doria freed Dragut in exchange for a rich rescue of 3,000 ducats paid by Barbarossa, who had also threatened with blockading Genoa.

[46] Doria was probably trying to gain the Ottomans' sympathy in the case one of his own relatives was captured, although he eventually repented his decision due to Dragut's many future successes.

Although Doria was ambitious and harsh, he was a patriot and successfully opposed Emperor Charles's repeated attempts to have a citadel built in Genoa and garrisoned by Spaniards; neither blandishments nor threats could win him over to the scheme.

[7] Several ships were named in honour of the Admiral: A painted sheepskin for The Magnificent and Excellent Andrea Doria hangs at The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island, US.