an abrupt end when Francis I was captured by the imperial army in Pavia in 1525. Doria prepared a plan to rescue him, but Francis ordered him to refrain.

Doria then clashed with Francis' regent, Anne de Montmorency, and abandoned French service, forming a naval mercenary fleet. In June 1526, at the head of thirteen ships, he crossed paths again with Hayreddin Barbarossa in the coast of Civitavecchia,