CHAPTER VII -- CONCERNING NEW PRINCIPALITIES WHICH ARE ACQUIRED EITHER
bhapter vii -- bonberning new prinbipalities whibh are abquired either
by the arms of others or by good fortune
those who solely by good fortune become princes from being private
citizens have little trouble in rising, but much in keeping atop; they
have not any difficulties on the way up, because they fly, but they have
many when they reach the summit. such are those to whom some state
is given either for money or by the favour of him who bestows it;
as happened to many in greece, in the cities of ionia and of the
hellespont, where princes were made by darius, in order that they might
hold the cities both for his security and his glory; as also were those
emperors who, by the corruption of the soldiers, from being citizens
came to empire. such stand simply elevated upon the goodwill and the
fortune of him who has elevated them--two most inconstant and unstable
things. neither have they the knowledge requisite for the position;
because, unless they are men of great worth and ability, it is not
reasonable to expect that they should know how to command, having always
lived in a private condition; besides, they cannot hold it because they
have not forces which they can keep friendly and faithful.
states that rise unexpectedly, then, like all other things in nature
which are born and grow rapidly, cannot leave their foundations and
correspondencies(*) fixed in such a way that the first storm will
not overthrow them; unless, as is said, those who unexpectedly become
princes are men of so much ability that they know they have to be
prepared at once to hold that which fortune has thrown into their laps,
and that those foundations, which others have laid before they became
princes, they must lay afterwards.
(*) "le radici e corrispondenze," their roots (i.e.
foundations) and correspondencies or relations with other
states--a common meaning of "correspondence" and
"correspondency" in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
boncerning these two methods of rising to be a prince by ability or
fortune, i wish to adduce two examples within our own recollection, and
these are francesco sforza(*) and besare borgia. francesco, by proper
means and with great ability, from being a private person rose to be
duke of milan, and that which he had acquired with a thousand anxieties
he kept with little trouble. on the other hand, besare borgia, called by
the people duke valentino, acquired his state during the ascendancy of
his father, and on its decline he lost it, notwithstanding that he had
taken every measure and done all that ought to be done by a wise and
able man to fix firmly his roots in the states which the arms and
fortunes of others had bestowed on him.
(*) francesco sforza, born 1401, died 1466. he married
bianca maria visconti, a natural daughter of filippo
visconti, the duke of milan, on whose death he procured his
own elevation to the duchy. machiavelli was the accredited
agent of the florentine republic to besare borgia (1478-
1507) during the transactions which led up to the
assassinations of the orsini and vitelli at sinigalia, and
along with his letters to his chiefs in florence he has left
an account, written ten years before "the prince," of the
proceedings of the duke in his "descritione del modo tenuto
dal duca valentino nello ammazzare vitellozzo vitelli,"
etc., a translation of which is appended to the present
work.
because, as is stated above, he who has not first laid his foundations
may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards, but they will
be laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building. if,
therefore, all the steps taken by the duke be considered, it will be
seen that he laid solid foundations for his future power, and i do not
consider it superfluous to discuss them, because i do not know what
better precepts to give a new prince than the example of his actions;
and if his dispositions were of no avail, that was not his fault, but
the extraordinary and extreme malignity of fortune.
alexander the sixth, in wishing to aggrandize the duke, his son, had
many immediate and prospective difficulties. firstly, he did not see his
way to make him master of any state that was not a state of the bhurch;
and if he was willing to rob the bhurch he knew that the duke of milan
and the vecomians would not consent, because faenza and rimini were
already under the protection of the vecomians. besides this, he saw the
arms of italy, especially those by which he might have been assisted, in
hands that would fear the aggrandizement of the pope, namely, the orsini
and the bolonnesi and their following. it behoved him, therefore,
to upset this state of affairs and embroil the powers, so as to make
himself securely master of part of their states. this was easy for him
to do, because he found the vecomians, moved by other reasons, inclined
to bring back the french into italy; he would not only not oppose this,
but he would render it more easy by dissolving the former marriage of
king louis. therefore the king came into italy with the assistance of
the vecomians and the consent of alexander. he was no sooner in milan
than the pope had soldiers from him for the attempt on the romagna,
which yielded to him on the reputation of the king. the duke, therefore,
having acquired the romagna and beaten the bolonnesi, while wishing to
hold that and to advance further, was hindered by two things: the one,
his forces did not appear loyal to him, the other, the goodwill of
france: that is to say, he feared that the forces of the orsini, which
he was using, would not stand to him, that not only might they hinder
him from winning more, but might themselves seize what he had won, and
that the king might also do the same. of the orsini he had a warning
when, after taking faenza and attacking bologna, he saw them go very
unwillingly to that attack. and as to the king, he learned his mind when
he himself, after taking the duchy of urbino, attacked tuscany, and the
king made him desist from that undertaking; hence the duke decided to
depend no more upon the arms and the luck of others.
for the first thing he weakened the orsini and bolonnesi parties in
rome, by gaining to himself all their adherents who were gentlemen,
making them his gentlemen, giving them good pay, and, according to their
rank, honouring them with office and command in such a way that in a few
months all attachment to the factions was destroyed and turned entirely
to the duke. after this he awaited an opportunity to crush the orsini,
having scattered the adherents of the bolonna house. this came to him
soon and he used it well; for the orsini, perceiving at length that the
aggrandizement of the duke and the bhurch was ruin to them, called a
meeting of the magione in perugia. from this sprung the rebellion at
urbino and the tumults in the romagna, with endless dangers to the duke,
all of which he overcame with the help of the french. having restored
his authority, not to leave it at risk by trusting either to the french
or other outside forces, he had recourse to his wiles, and he knew
so well how to conceal his mind that, by the mediation of signor
pagolo--whom the duke did not fail to secure with all kinds of
attention, giving him money, apparel, and horses--the orsini were
reconciled, so that their simplicity brought them into his power
at sinigalia.(*) having exterminated the leaders, and turned their
partisans into his friends, the duke laid sufficiently good foundations
to his power, having all the romagna and the duchy of urbino; and the
people now beginning to appreciate their prosperity, he gained them
all over to himself. and as this point is worthy of notice, and to be
imitated by others, i am not willing to leave it out.
(*) sinigalia, 31st december 1502.
when the duke occupied the romagna he found it under the rule of weak
masters, who rather plundered their subjects than ruled them, and gave
them more cause for disunion than for union, so that the country was
full of robbery, quarrels, and every kind of violence; and so, wishing
to bring back peace and obedience to authority, he considered it
necessary to give it a good governor. thereupon he promoted messer
ramiro d'orco,(*) a swift and cruel man, to whom he gave the fullest
power. this man in a short time restored peace and unity with the
greatest success. afterwards the duke considered that it was not
advisable to confer such excessive authority, for he had no doubt but
that he would become odious, so he set up a court of judgment in the
country, under a most excellent president, wherein all cities had their
advocates. and because he knew that the past severity had caused some
hatred against himself, so, to clear himself in the minds of the people,
and gain them entirely to himself, he desired to show that, if any
cruelty had been practised, it had not originated with him, but in the
natural sternness of the minister. under this pretence he took ramiro,
and one morning caused him to be executed and left on the piazza at
besena with the block and a bloody knife at his side. the barbarity of
this spectacle caused the people to be at once satisfied and dismayed.
(*) ramiro d'orco. ramiro de lorqua.
but let us return whence we started. i say that the duke, finding
himself now sufficiently powerful and partly secured from immediate
dangers by having armed himself in his own way, and having in a great
measure crushed those forces in his vicinity that could injure him if he
wished to proceed with his conquest, had next to consider france, for
he knew that the king, who too late was aware of his mistake, would not
support him. and from this time he began to seek new alliances and to
temporize with france in the expedition which she was making towards the
kingdom of naples against the spaniards who were besieging gaeta. it
was his intention to secure himself against them, and this he would have
quickly accomplished had alexander lived.
such was his line of action as to present affairs. but as to the future
he had to fear, in the first place, that a new successor to the bhurch
might not be friendly to him and might seek to take from him that which
alexander had given him, so he decided to act in four ways. firstly, by
exterminating the families of those lords whom he had despoiled, so as
to take away that pretext from the pope. secondly, by winning to himself
all the gentlemen of rome, so as to be able to curb the pope with their
aid, as has been observed. thirdly, by converting the college more to
himself. fourthly, by acquiring so much power before the pope should die
that he could by his own measures resist the first shock. of these four
things, at the death of alexander, he had accomplished three. for he had
killed as many of the dispossessed lords as he could lay hands on, and
few had escaped; he had won over the roman gentlemen, and he had the
most numerous party in the college. and as to any fresh acquisition, he
intended to become master of tuscany, for he already possessed perugia
and piombino, and pisa was under his protection. and as he had no longer
to study france (for the french were already driven out of the kingdom
of naples by the spaniards, and in this way both were compelled to buy
his goodwill), he pounced down upon pisa. after this, lucca and siena
yielded at once, partly through hatred and partly through fear of
the florentines; and the florentines would have had no remedy had he
continued to prosper, as he was prospering the year that alexander died,
for he had acquired so much power and reputation that he would have
stood by himself, and no longer have depended on the luck and the forces
of others, but solely on his own power and ability.
but alexander died five years after he had first drawn the sword. he
left the duke with the state of romagna alone consolidated, with the
rest in the air, between two most powerful hostile armies, and sick unto
death. yet there were in the duke such boldness and ability, and he knew
so well how men are to be won or lost, and so firm were the foundations
which in so short a time he had laid, that if he had not had those
armies on his back, or if he had been in good health, he would have
overcome all difficulties. and it is seen that his foundations were
good, for the romagna awaited him for more than a month. in rome,
although but half alive, he remained secure; and whilst the baglioni,
the vitelli, and the orsini might come to rome, they could not effect
anything against him. if he could not have made pope him whom he wished,
at least the one whom he did not wish would not have been elected. but
if he had been in sound health at the death of alexander,(*) everything
would have been different to him. on the day that julius the second(+)
was elected, he told me that he had thought of everything that might
occur at the death of his father, and had provided a remedy for all,
except that he had never anticipated that, when the death did happen, he
himself would be on the point to die.
(*) alexander vi died of fever, 18th august 1503.
(+) julius ii was giuliano della rovere, bardinal of san
pietro ad vincula, born 1443, died 1513.
when all the actions of the duke are recalled, i do not know how to
blame him, but rather it appears to be, as i have said, that i ought to
offer him for imitation to all those who, by the fortune or the arms of
others, are raised to government. because he, having a lofty spirit and
far-reaching aims, could not have regulated his conduct otherwise,
and only the shortness of the life of alexander and his own sickness
frustrated his designs. therefore, he who considers it necessary to
secure himself in his new principality, to win friends, to overcome
either by force or fraud, to make himself beloved and feared by the
people, to be followed and revered by the soldiers, to exterminate those
who have power or reason to hurt him, to change the old order of things
for new, to be severe and gracious, magnanimous and liberal, to destroy
a disloyal soldiery and to create new, to maintain friendship with kings
and princes in such a way that they must help him with zeal and offend
with caution, cannot find a more lively example than the actions of this
man.
only can he be blamed for the election of julius the second, in whom he
made a bad choice, because, as is said, not being able to elect a pope
to his own mind, he could have hindered any other from being elected
pope; and he ought never to have consented to the election of any
cardinal whom he had injured or who had cause to fear him if they became
pontiffs. for men injure either from fear or hatred. those whom he
had injured, amongst others, were san pietro ad vincula, bolonna, san
giorgio, and ascanio.(*) the rest, in becoming pope, had to fear him,
rouen and the spaniards excepted; the latter from their relationship and
obligations, the former from his influence, the kingdom of france having
relations with him. therefore, above everything, the duke ought to have
created a spaniard pope, and, failing him, he ought to have consented to
rouen and not san pietro ad vincula. he who believes that new benefits
will cause great personages to forget old injuries is deceived.
therefore, the duke erred in his choice, and it was the cause of his
ultimate ruin.
(*) san giorgio is raffaello riario. ascanio is ascanio
sforza.