Page 140 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

140 from Italy to the Canary Islands

year was in actual fact the Prior of the twelve Elders of the Commune.
In 1367, Francesco Malocello was also one of the twelve Elders; but from
that same period, the story of Pietro Malocello is the most remarkable: one
evening in 1363, while hosting the King of Cyprus in his villa in Sturla, he
arranged for the Genoese Doge Simon Boccanegra to be poisoned during
dinner.
In the same years, all the above individuals, besides being entrusted
with prominent public functions, actively committed themselves to
administrating the small State of Varazze, Celle and Albissola; it appears
in fact that in 1262, brothers Giacomo and Enrico Malocello, together with
their nephew Lanfranco bought most of the territory of Varazze for one
thousand Genoese liras from the Marquise Enrico di Ponzone, who was a
Knight Templar (Canale, Nuova Istoria della Repubblica di Genova [New
History of the Republic of Genoa], Vol. 2, page 28).
Nicola Russo (Sulle origini e la costituzione della “Potestatia Varaginis
Cellarum et Arbisolae” [On the origins and founding of the “Potestatia
Varaginis Cellarum et Arbisolae”], Savona 1908 page 116) records how
the already mentioned Tommaso Malocello ruled Varrazze, Celle and
Albissola as a feudatory in 1285.
However, just five years later, the four branches of the Malocello family
divided the land into equal parts, parcelling it out based on the number of
families, made up of inhabitants residing in the three towns mentioned
above and as such subject to vassalage obligations.
The land was parcelled out as follows:
- to Giacomo Malocello’s branch: 45 families in Varazze, 45 families in
Celle, and 10 in Albissola;
- to Enrico Malocello’s branch: 48 families in Varazze, 51 in Celle, and
11 in Albissola;
- to Lanfranco Malocello’s branch: 45 families in Varazze, 44 in Celle
and 10 in Albissola;
- to Lanfranco “Lo Paza” Malocello’s family: 50 families in Varazze, 48
in Celle, 9 in Albissola.
This sharing out brought the family’s history into a second phase, in
which, rather than strengthening and expanding its estate, its objective
would be to rid itself of the same in favour of the Republic of Genoa.
However, we must not allow ourselves to be misled by this conduct,
which is not merely the Malocellos’ passive surrender to their own land due
to an inability to manage it or (worse still) due to an alleged need for money.