Page 138 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

138 from Italy to the Canary Islands

As we said above, we are listing the members of the Malocello family
most known for holding public office at a political level in the free
Commune of Genoa.
The most significant is Giacomo Malocello, who was one of the eight
Noblemen of Genoa in 1236. Three years later he was one of the four
ambassadors sent by the city of Genoa to Pope Gregory IX. Two years later
still, Guglielmo Malocello, appointed Admiral of the Ligurian Maritime
Republic, in command of a fleet of twenty-seven galleys, was appointed
to transport a large number of prelates to the Council called by Gregory
IX and on that occasion became responsible for one of Genoa’s most
serious naval defeats, as not wanting to wait for the backup of many other
galleys which had already been sent from Genoa, he decided to engage in
battle with the joined forces of the German Empire and Republic of Pisa,
which were sailing towards the island of Giglio, led by Admiral Ansaldo
De Mari, who decisively defeated Malocello, sinking twenty-two of his
twenty-seven ships and capturing many important prelates and eminent
Genoese citizens. However, this defeat did not seem to damage Guglielmo
Malocello’s career in public office very much, as eighteen years later
(in 1259) he was co-ambassador (together with Cardinal Fiesco) of the
Ligurian Republic at the papal court. And it fact, Cardinal Fiesco appears
to have been the one who asked the Republic of Genoa to have Guglielmo
as his partner in France.
In 1240, Enrico Malocello was one of the eight Noblemen of Genoa.
In the same period, Simone Malocello was Senior Knight of Genoa,
having been the Consul of the Republic, in 1230; later on, in 1258, he
became Consul (still on behalf of his city) in the city of Akkon, between
Tyre and Haifa in the Holy Land, and helped to suppress a serious conflict
which took place in that city with the Venetians.
In 1250, Lanfranco Malocello was one of the eight Noblemen who
collaborated with the Podestà of Genoa; two years later, in 1252, he was
ambassador at the court of Pope Alexander IV and then in the Commune of
Florence in 1258; he continued his career by becoming Podestà of Lucca
in 1266, then ambassador at the court of the Kingdom of Sicily in 1267,
followed by the office of Podestà of greater Bologna (1271) and finally
ambassador to the King of France (1280).
Among the last descendants of the family we can mention a certain
Tommaso Malocello, who was one of the twelve elders of Genoa in 1303;
the same office was held in 1353 by Simone Malocello, who in that same