OF NEW DOMINIONS ACQUIRED BY THE POWER OF OTHERS OR BY FORTUNE
Those who rise from private citizens to be princes merely by fortune
have little trouble in rising but very much in maintaining their
position. They meet with no difficulties on the way as they fly over
them, but all their difficulties arise when they are established. Such
are they who are granted a state either for money, or by favour of him
who grants it, as happened to many in Greece, in the cities of Ionia
and of the Hellespont, who were created princes by Darius in order to
hold these places for his security and glory; such were also those
emperors who from private citizens became emperors by bribing the
army. Such as these depend absolutely on the good will and fortune of
those who have raised them, both of which are extremely inconstant and
unstable. They neither know how to, nor are in a position to maintain
their rank, for unless he be a man of great genius it is not likely
that one who has always lived in a private position should know how to
command, and they are unable to command because they possess no forces
which will be friendly and faithful to them. Moreover, states quickly
founded, like all other things which are born and grow rapidly, cannot
have deep roots, so that the first storm destroys them, unless, as
already said, the man who thus becomes a prince is of such great genius
as to be able to take immediate steps for maintaining what fortune
has thrown into his lap, and lay afterwards those foundations which
others make before becoming princes. With regard to these two methods
of becoming a prince,--by ability or by good fortune, I will here
adduce two examples which have taken place within our memory, those of
Francesco Sforza and Cesare Borgia.
Francesco, by appropriate means and through great abilities, from
citizen became Duke of Milan, and what he had attained after a thousand
difficulties he maintained with little trouble. On the other hand,
Cesare Borgia, commonly called Duke Valentine, acquired the state
through the fortune of his father and by the same means lost it, and
that although every measure was adopted by him and everything done
that a prudent and capable man could do to establish himself firmly
in that state that the arms and the favours of others had given him.
For, as we have said, he who does not lay his foundations beforehand
may by great abilities do so afterwards, although with great trouble
to the architect and danger to the building. If, then, one considers
the progress made by the duke, it will be seen how firm were the
foundations he had laid to his future power, which I do not think it
superfluous to examine, as I know of no better precepts for a new
prince to follow than the example of his actions; and if his measures
were not successful, it was through no fault of his own but only by
the most extraordinary malignity of fortune. In wishing to aggrandise
the duke his son, Alexander VI. had to meet very great difficulties
both present and future. In the first place, he saw no way of making
him ruler of any state that was not a possession of the Church. And in
attempting to take that of the Church, he knew that the Duke of Milan
and the Venetians would not consent, because Faenza and Rimini were
already under the protection of the Venetians. He saw, moreover, that
the arms of Italy, especially of those who might have served him, were
in the hands of those who would fear the greatness of the pope, and
therefore he could not depend upon them, being all under the Orsinis
and Colonnas and their adherents. It was, therefore, necessary to
disturb the existing condition and bring about disorders in the states
of Italy in order to obtain secure mastery over a part of them; this
was easy, for he found the Venetians, who, actuated by other motives,
had invited the French into Italy, which he not only did not oppose,
but facilitated by dissolving the marriage of King Louis. The king
came thus into Italy with the aid of the Venetians and the consent of
Alexander, and had hardly arrived at Milan before the pope obtained
troops from him for his enterprise in the Romagna, which he carried out
by means of the reputation of the king. The duke having thus obtained
the Romagna and defeated the Colonnas, was hindered in maintaining it
and proceeding further by two things: the one, his forces, of which he
doubted the fidelity; the other the will of France, that is to say,
he feared lest the arms of the Orsini of which he had availed himself
should fail him, and not only hinder him in obtaining more but take
from him what he had already conquered, and he also feared that the
king might do the same. He had evidence of this as regards the Orsini
when, after taking Faenza, he assaulted Bologna and observed their
backwardness in the assault. And as regards the king, he perceived his
designs when, after taking the dukedom of Urbino, he attacked Tuscany,
and the king made him desist from that enterprise; whereupon the
duke decided to depend no longer on the fortunes and arms of others.
The first thing he did was to weaken the parties of the Orsinis and
Colonnas in Rome by gaining all their adherents who were gentlemen and
making them followers of himself, by granting them large pensions,
and appointing them to commands and offices according to their rank,
so that their attachment to their parties was extinguished in a few
months, and entirely concentrated on the duke. After this he awaited an
opportunity for crushing the Orsinis, having dispersed the adherents of
the Colonna family, and when the opportunity arrived he made good use
of it, for the Orsini seeing at length that the greatness of the duke
and of the Church meant their own ruin, convoked a diet at Magione in
the Perugino. Hence sprang the rebellion of Urbino and the tumults in
Romagna and infinite dangers to the duke, who overcame them all with
the help of the French; and having regained his reputation, neither
trusting France nor other foreign forces in order not to have to oppose
them, he had recourse to stratagem. He dissembled his aims so well that
the Orsini, through the mediation of Signor Pavolo, made their peace
with him, which the duke spared no efforts to make secure, presenting
them with robes, money, and horses, so that in their simplicity they
were induced to come to Sinigaglia and fell into his hands. Having
thus suppressed these leaders and made their partisans his friends,
the duke had laid a very good foundation to his power, having all the
Romagna with the duchy of Urbino, and having gained the favour of
the inhabitants, who began to feel the benefit of his rule. And as
this part is worthy of note and of imitation by others, I will not
omit mention of it. When he took the Romagna, it had previously been
governed by weak rulers, who had rather despoiled their subjects than
governed them, and given them more cause for disunion than for union,
so that the province was a prey to robbery, assaults, and every kind
of disorder. He, therefore, judged it necessary to give them a good
government in order to make them peaceful and obedient to his rule.
For this purpose he appointed Messer Remiro d' Orco, a cruel and able
man, to whom he gave the fullest authority. This man, in a short time,
was highly successful in rendering the country orderly and united,
whereupon the duke, not deeming such excessive authority expedient,
lest it should become hateful, appointed a civil court of justice in
the middle of the province under an excellent president, to which each
city appointed its own advocate. And as he knew that the harshness of
the past had engendered some amount of hatred, in order to purge the
minds of the people and to win them over completely, he resolved to
show that if any cruelty had taken place it was not by his orders, but
through the harsh disposition of his minister. And taking him on some
pretext, he had him placed one morning in the public square at Cesena,
cut in half, with a piece of wood and blood-stained knife by his side.
The ferocity of this spectacle caused the people both satisfaction and
amazement. But to return to where we left off.
The duke being now powerful and partly secured against present perils,
being armed himself, and having in a great measure put down those
neighbouring forces which might injure him, had now to get the respect
of France, if he wished to proceed with his acquisitions, for he
knew that the king, who had lately discovered his error, would not
give him any help. He began therefore to seek fresh alliances and to
vacillate with France in the expedition that the French made towards
the kingdom of Naples against the Spaniards, who were besieging Gaeta.
His intention was to assure himself of them, which he would soon have
succeeded in doing if Alexander had lived. These were the measures
taken by him with regard to the present. As to the future, he feared
that a new successor to the Church might not be friendly to him and
might seek to deprive him of what Alexander had given him, and he
sought to provide against this in four ways. Firstly, by destroying all
who were of the blood of those ruling families which he had despoiled,
in order to deprive the pope of any opportunity. Secondly, by gaining
the friendship of the Roman nobles, so that he might through them hold
as it were the pope in check. Thirdly, by obtaining as great a hold on
the College as he could. Fourthly, by acquiring such power before the
pope died as to be able to resist alone the first onslaught. Of these
four things he had at the death of Alexander accomplished three, and
the fourth he had almost accomplished.
For of the dispossessed rulers he killed as many as he could lay hands
on, and very few escaped; he had gained to his party the Roman nobles;
and he had a great share in the College. As to new possessions, he
designed to become lord of Tuscany, and already possessed Perugia and
Piombino, and had assumed the protectorate over Pisa; and as he had
no longer to fear the French (for the French had been deprived of the
kingdom of Naples by the Spaniards in such a way that both parties
were obliged to buy his friendship) he seized Pisa. After this, Lucca
and Siena at once yielded, partly through envy of the Florentines and
partly through fear; the Florentines had no resources, so that, had he
succeeded as he had done before, in the very year that Alexander died
he would have gained such strength and renown as to be able to maintain
himself without depending on the fortunes or strength of others, but
solely by his own power and ability. But Alexander died five years
after he had first drawn his sword. He left him with the state of
Romagna only firmly established, and all the other schemes in mid-air,
between two very powerful and hostile armies, and suffering from a
fatal illness. But the valour and ability of the duke were such, and
he knew so well how to win over men or vanquish them, and so strong
were the foundations that he had laid in this short time, that if he
had not had those two armies upon him, or else had been in good health,
he would have survived every difficulty. And that his foundations were
good is seen from the fact that the Romagna waited for him more than a
month; in Rome, although half dead, he remained secure, and although
the Baglioni, Vitelli, and Orsini entered Rome they found no followers
against him. He was able, if not to make pope whom he wished, at any
rate to prevent a pope being created whom he did not wish. But if at
the death of Alexander he had been well everything would have been
easy. And he told me on the day that Pope Julius II. was created,
that he had thought of everything which might happen on the death of
his father, and provided against everything, except that he had never
thought that at his father's death he would be dying himself. Reviewing
thus all the actions of the duke, I find nothing to blame, on the
contrary, I feel bound, as I have done, to hold him up as an example
to be imitated by all who by fortune and with the arms of others have
risen to power. For with his great courage and high ambition he could
not have acted otherwise, and his designs were only frustrated by the
short life of Alexander and his own illness.
Whoever, therefore, deems it necessary in his new principality to
secure himself against enemies, to gain friends, to conquer by force
or fraud, to make himself beloved and feared by the people, followed
and reverenced by the soldiers, to destroy those who can and may injure
him, introduce innovations into old customs, to be severe and kind,
magnanimous and liberal, suppress the old militia, create a new one,
maintain the friendship of kings and princes in such a way that they
are glad to benefit him and fear to injure him, such a one can find no
better example than the actions of this man. The only thing he can be
accused of is that in the creation of Julius II. he made a bad choice;
for, as has been said, not being able to choose his own pope, he could
still prevent any one being made pope, and he ought never to have
permitted any of those cardinals to be raised to the papacy whom he had
injured, or who when pope would stand in fear of him. For men commit
injuries either through fear or through hate.
Those whom he had injured were, among others, San Pietro ad Vincula,
Colonna, San Giorgio, and Ascanio. All the others, if assumed to the
pontificate, would have had to fear him except Rohan and the Spaniards;
the latter through their relationship and obligations to him, the
former from his great power, being related to the King of France.
For these reasons the duke ought above all things to have created a
Spaniard pope; and if unable to, then he should have consented to Rohan
being appointed and not San Pietro ad Vincula. And whoever thinks that
in high personages new benefits cause old offences to be forgotten,
makes a great mistake. The duke, therefore, erred in this choice, and
it was the cause of his ultimate ruin.