The Prince

In 1500 he was sent to France to obtain terms from Louis XII for
continuing the war against Pisa: this king it was who, in his conduct
of affairs in Italy, committed the five capital errors in statecraft
summarized in "The Prince," and was consequently driven out. He, also,
it was who made the dissolution of his marriage a condition of support
to Pope Alexander VI; which leads Machiavelli to refer those who urge
that such promises should be kept to what he has written concerning the
faith of princes.

Machiavelli's public life was largely occupied with events arising out
of the ambitions of Pope Alexander VI and his son, Cesare Borgia, the
Duke Valentino, and these characters fill a large space of "The Prince."
Machiavelli never hesitates to cite the actions of the duke for the
benefit of usurpers who wish to keep the states they have seized; he
can, indeed, find no precepts to offer so good as the pattern of Cesare
Borgia's conduct, insomuch that Cesare is acclaimed by some critics as
the "hero" of "The Prince." Yet in "The Prince" the duke is in point of
fact cited as a type of the man who rises on the fortune of others, and
falls with them; who takes every course that might be expected from a
prudent man but the course which will save him; who is prepared for all
eventualities but the one which happens; and who, when all his abilities
fail to carry him through, exclaims that it was not his fault, but an
extraordinary and unforeseen fatality.

On the death of Pius III, in 1503, Machiavelli was sent to Rome to watch
the election of his successor, and there he saw Cesare Borgia cheated
into allowing the choice of the College to fall on Giuliano delle Rovere
(Julius II), who was one of the cardinals that had most reason to fear
the duke. Machiavelli, when commenting on this election, says that
he who thinks new favours will cause great personages to forget old
injuries deceives himself. Julius did not rest until he had ruined
Cesare.

It was to Julius II that Machiavelli was sent in 1506, when that pontiff
was commencing his enterprise against Bologna; which he brought to a
successful issue, as he did many of his other adventures, owing chiefly
to his impetuous character. It is in reference to Pope Julius that
Machiavelli moralizes on the resemblance between Fortune and women, and
concludes that it is the bold rather than the cautious man that will win
and hold them both.

It is impossible to follow here the varying fortunes of the Italian
states, which in 1507 were controlled by France, Spain, and Germany,
with results that have lasted to our day; we are concerned with those
events, and with the three great actors in them, so far only as they
impinge on the personality of Machiavelli. He had several meetings with
Louis XII of France, and his estimate of that monarch's character has
already been alluded to. Machiavelli has painted Ferdinand of Aragon as
the man who accomplished great things under the cloak of religion, but
who in reality had no mercy, faith, humanity, or integrity; and who,
had he allowed himself to be influenced by such motives, would have been
ruined. The Emperor Maximilian was one of the most interesting men
of the age, and his character has been drawn by many hands; but
Machiavelli, who was an envoy at his court in 1507-8, reveals the secret
of his many failures when he describes him as a secretive man, without
force of character--ignoring the human agencies necessary to carry
his schemes into effect, and never insisting on the fulfilment of his
wishes.

The remaining years of Machiavelli's official career were filled with
events arising out of the League of Cambrai, made in 1508 between the
three great European powers already mentioned and the pope, with the
object of crushing the Venetian Republic. This result was attained in
the battle of Vaila, when Venice lost in one day all that she had won in
eight hundred years. Florence had a difficult part to play during these
events, complicated as they were by the feud which broke out between
the pope and the French, because friendship with France had dictated the
entire policy of the Republic. When, in 1511, Julius II finally formed
the Holy League against France, and with the assistance of the Swiss
drove the French out of Italy, Florence lay at the mercy of the Pope,
and had to submit to his terms, one of which was that the Medici should
be restored. The return of the Medici to Florence on 1st September
1512, and the consequent fall of the Republic, was the signal for the
dismissal of Machiavelli and his friends, and thus put an end to his
public career, for, as we have seen, he died without regaining office.




LITERATURE AND DEATH -- Aet. 43-58--1512-27

On the return of the Medici, Machiavelli, who for a few weeks had
vainly hoped to retain his office under the new masters of Florence, was
dismissed by decree dated 7th November 1512. Shortly after this he was
accused of complicity in an abortive conspiracy against the Medici,
imprisoned, and put to the question by torture. The new Medicean people,
Leo X, procured his release, and he retired to his small property at San
Casciano, near Florence, where he devoted himself to literature. In a
letter to Francesco Vettori, dated 13th December 1513, he has left
a very interesting description of his life at this period, which
elucidates his methods and his motives in writing "The Prince." After
describing his daily occupations with his family and neighbours, he
writes: "The evening being come, I return home and go to my study; at
the entrance I pull off my peasant-clothes, covered with dust and dirt,
and put on my noble court dress, and thus becomingly re-clothed I
pass into the ancient courts of the men of old, where, being lovingly
received by them, I am fed with that food which is mine alone; where I
do not hesitate to speak with them, and to ask for the reason of their
actions, and they in their benignity answer me; and for four hours I