Endowed with such gifts, there was no illustrious family which did not seek his hand for a daughter. Among the beautiful damsels who in every part of Italy were ambitious of the title of Countess of Lavagna, he fixed his eyes upon Ginetta, daughter of Prince Adamo Centurione. In every maidenly grace she was unrivalled. The prince and his wife Oriettina, who loved Gianluigi, were delighted to expouse Gianetta to the most virtuous knight in Genoa. However, difficulties arose which overthrew the project; and as the misfortunes of Fieschi begin from this disappointment, we deem it of importance to touch upon some circumstances which were unknown to, or have been ignored by historians. The Prince Centurione was a firm supporter of the Austro-Spanish rule, and was united to the Dorias. He had fought, as a volunteer and at his own expense, in the wars of Charles in Germany; and his vast wealth procured him favours from the principal monarchs. When the emperor passed through Genoa, his minister asked Doria to lend the royal visitor two hundred thousand crowns, for his enterprise against Algiers. The Genoese responded that he would immediately supply his sovereign with all the money he might need. He presented the money to the emperor and with it a receipt for its payment. The emperor, not wishing to be outdone in generosity, tore the receipt in pieces. Prince Adorno also lent two hundred thousand crowns of gold at one time to Duke Cosimo. He paid eight hundred thousand pieces for the marquisate of Steppa and Pedrera, in Spain, and a large sum to marquis Antonio Malaspina for the estates of Monte di Vai, Bibola and Laula. He bought other castles in the Langhe; and the Venitian ambassadors reported that his rents amounted to a million of ducats. Memoirs worthy of credit relate that Centurione one day informed Andrea that he had contracted Gianetta in marriage to the first gentleman in Genoa, and named Fieschi; to which Doria answered that no gentleman in Genoa could rank higher than Gianettino, his successor in the admiralty and heir of all his possessions, adding that Centurione ought to renounce Fieschi and give the hand of his daughter to the prince’s nephew. Centurione did not at first consent to break his faith; but the solicitations of Andrea, with whom he did not wish to be at enmity, at length triumphed over his scruples and he espoused Gianetta to Gianettino giving her a dower of seventy thousand gold crowns of the sun. This violation of plighted faith deeply wounded Gianetta who had set her affections on Gianluigi; and the Princess Oriettina took it so much to heart that she fell sick, and finding herself near death, as a last proof of her devotion to the Fieschi family had that life of St. Catherine written which is still preserved in manuscript in the library of the Genoese studio. This broken contract of marriage was the first spark of that great fire which blazed up between Fieschi and Doria.[26]