The history of Liguria is full of the Doria name. There is no modern family which can boast so many examples of heroism as this house, and only the Scipios among the ancients are entitled to equal fame. From the earliest times they were partisans of the empire; while the Fieschi, after Innocent IV. maintained the cause of the people, drawing to that side the powerful family of Grimaldi. The Doria and Spinola formed alliance, and became the leaders of the Ghibellines. From that moment a warm contest arose between these great families, and it did not end until, in 1257, the people elected Guglielmo Boccanegra captain and defender of their liberties. After his death, the hostile nobles renewed their insane discords; but the people, weary of these domestic wars and following the examples of other Italian communes, drove out the nobles, (1340) and created Simon Boccanegra first Doge. The nobles were by law excluded from this highest office, and even from the command of a galley;[13] and not a few illustrious families passed into the ranks of the people by their own election. It is well known that before the reforms of Doria, the so-called nobles were held in less honour than distinguished men of the people, because their rank excluded them from the Dogate and many other offices. The Doria and Spinola came to power in a revolutionary period, and in violation of law. This severe prohibition was afterwards modified, but the office of Doge continued to be a popular prerogative. The principal families of the people were the Adorni and Fregosi, in whose hands the supreme offices remained for several centuries, and these names are conspicuous in our civil conflicts which were so frequent and bitter that in one year the head of the government was four times changed. In these calamitous times--redeemed from disgrace by the three manly figures of Columbus, Julius II., and Andrea Doria,--the Genoese, whose misfortune has ever been to despise servitude and to be incapable of preserving liberty, were compelled to invoke the protection of princes strong enough to curb the ambition of individual citizens. But it was always stipulated that the franchises of the city should not be impaired, nor its laws changed; there was, in fact, no true transfer of power. Whenever we were borne down by foreign arms, it was the work of the nobility conspiring against the people. Even in the time of Louis XII., when Italy was yielding him a tardy and reluctant obedience, the Genoese rose in rebellion, triumphed over the plots of the nobles, threw down the government of the royal vicar, drove out the army of Cleves, assembled in the Church of St. Maria di Castello, and elected eight tribunes of the people. The nobles were put to flight, the hostile army routed, and supreme power returned to the hands of the people.