OF AUXILIARY, MIXED, AND NATIVE TROOPS
Auxiliary forces, which are the other kind of useless forces, are
when one calls on a potentate to come and aid one with his troops, as
was done in recent times by Julius, who seeing the wretched failure
of his mercenary forces, in his Ferrara enterprise, had recourse to
auxiliaries, and arranged with Ferrando, King of Spain, that he should
help him with his armies. These forces may be good in themselves, but
they are always dangerous for those who borrow them, for if they lose
you are defeated, and if they conquer you remain their prisoner. And
although ancient history is full of examples of this, I will not depart
from the example of Pope Julius II., which is still fresh. Nothing
could be less prudent than the course he adopted; for, wishing to take
Ferrara, he put himself entirely into the power of a foreigner. But
by good fortune there arose a third cause which prevented him reaping
the effects of his bad choice; for when his auxiliaries were beaten
at Ravenna, the Swiss rose up and drove back the victors, against all
expectation of himself or others, so that he was not taken prisoner by
the enemy which had fled, nor by his own auxiliaries, having conquered
by other arms than theirs. The Florentines, being totally disarmed,
hired 10,000 Frenchmen to attack Pisa, by which measure they ran
greater risk than at any period of their struggles. The emperor of
Constantinople, to oppose his neighbours, put 10,000 Turks into Greece,
who after the war would not go away again, which was the beginning of
the servitude of Greece to the infidels. Any one, therefore, who wishes
not to conquer, would do well to use these forces, which are much more
dangerous than mercenaries, as with them ruin is complete, for they
are all united, and owe obedience to others, whereas with mercenaries,
when they have conquered, it requires more time and a good opportunity
for them to injure you, as they do not form a single body and have been
engaged and paid by you, therefore a third party that you have made
leader cannot at once acquire enough authority to be able to injure
you. In a word, the greatest dangers with mercenaries lies in their
cowardice and reluctance to fight, but with auxiliaries the danger
lies in their courage. A wise prince, therefore, always avoids these
forces and has recourse to his own, and would prefer rather to lose
with his own men than conquer with the forces of others, not deeming
it a true victory which is gained by foreign arms. I never hesitate to
cite the example of Cesare Borgia and his actions. This duke entered
Romagna with auxiliary troops, leading forces composed entirely of
French soldiers, and with these he took Imola and Forli; but as they
seemed unsafe, he had recourse to mercenaries, and hired the Orsini and
Vitelli; afterwards finding these uncertain to handle, unfaithful and
dangerous, he suppressed them, and relied upon his own men. And the
difference between these forces can be easily seen if one considers
the difference between the reputation of the duke when he had only the
French, when he had the Orsini and Vitelli, and when he had to rely
on himself and his own soldiers. His reputation will be found to have
constantly increased, and he was never so highly esteemed as when
every one saw that he was the sole master of his forces.
I do not wish to go away from recent Italian instances, but I cannot
omit Hiero of Syracuse, whom I have already mentioned. This man being,
as I said, made head of the army by the Syracusans, immediately
recognised the uselessness of that mercenary militia which was composed
like our Italian mercenary troops, and as he thought it unsafe
either to retain them or dismiss them, he had them cut in pieces and
thenceforward made war with his own arms and not those of others. I
would also call to mind a figure out of the Old Testament which well
illustrates this point. When David offered to Saul to go and fight with
the Philistine champion Goliath, Saul, to encourage him, armed him
with his own arms, which when David had tried on he refused saying,
that with them he could not fight so well; he preferred, therefore,
to face the enemy with his own sling and knife. In short, the arms of
others either fall away from you, or overburden you, or else impede
you. Charles VIII., father of King Louis XL, having through good
fortune and bravery liberated France from the English, recognised this
necessity of being armed with his own forces, and established in his
kingdom a system of men-at-arms and infantry. Afterwards King Louis
his son abolished the infantry and began to hire Swiss, which mistake
being followed by others is, as may now be seen, a cause of danger to
that kingdom. For by giving such reputation to the Swiss, France has
disheartened all her own troops, the infantry having been abolished and
the men-at-arms being obliged to foreigners for assistance; for being
accustomed to fight with Swiss troops, they think they cannot conquer
without them. Whence it comes that the French are insufficiently strong
to oppose the Swiss, and without the aid of the Swiss they will not
venture against others. The armies of the French are thus of a mixed
kind, partly mercenary and partly her own; taken together they are much
better than troops entirely composed of mercenaries or auxiliaries, but
much inferior to national forces.