EMulation betwixt the middle and the meaner sort of people 50 The Citizens Oration to the Senate 51 New reformation 53 Gregory the 11th holds his residence at Avignon ib. New Commission for the management of the War ib. A conspiracy of the Guelfs 54 The conspiracy defeated ib. The Speech of Salvestro de Medici 55 The Balia ib. Reformation again 56 Luigi Guicciardini 's Oration ib. New troubles 57 The Speech of a Plebeian 58 The people rise again 59 The demands of the people 60 Michaele di Lando a Carder of wooll ib. Michael overcomes the multitude 62 The popular faction distinguished from the Plebeian ib. Another reformation 64 The Commons expelled from the Government 65 Michael Lando imprisoned ib. Benedetto's Speech to his friends upon his going into banishment ib. He dies at Rhodes 66 Veri de Medici 's Speech to the Senate 67 Donato Acciaivoli confin'd 68 A new conspiracy defeated ib. The Duke of Milan practises against the City of Florence 69 Several Families banished ib. The King of Naples dies ib. Book IV. PEace betwixt Florence and Milan 72 Imola taken by the Duke Philip 73 The Florentines overthrown ib. Rinaldo Albizi's exhortation to be quiet 74 Giovanni de Medici 's reply to Rinaldo 75 The factions of Urano and the Medici 76 The great courage of Biagio del Milano ib. The cowardize of Zenobi del Pino ib. Piccinino revolts 77 Carmignuola General of the League ib. Peace betwixt the League and the Duke 78 Giovanni de Medici's Speech to his Sons at his death ib Cosimo heir to his Father 79 Volterra revolts ib. Recovered again by the Florentines ib. Rinoldo persuades to war with Lucca 80 Urano opposes it ib. The cruelty of Astorre 81 Rinaldo accus'd 82 His Speech to the ten 83 Pagolo Lord of Lucca deposed 84 The Florentines defeated ib. Peace between the Florentines and the Lucchesi ib. Florence in confusion 85 Cosimo Medici deposed and imprisoned 87 Federigo's Speech to Cosimo his Prisoner ib. Cosimo banished 88 Rinaldo's Speech to his friends ib. Eugenius the Pope labours a Peace 90 Cosimo recalled ib. Rinaldo's answer to the Pope ib. Book V. THe Souldiers in Italy distinguished into two parties 93 The Duke of Milan promises his Daughter to Count Francis Sforza ib. The Pope invaded makes Peace with Sforza ib. Wars in Romagna ib. Sforza General of the Pope's League 94 Peace betwixt the League and the Duke ib. New Ordinances in Florence ib. Alphonso King of Arragon defeated by the Genoeses and brought Prisoner to Duke Philip 95 The Duke and his authority in Genoa ib. Genoa delivered to the Duke of Milan 96 How it recovered its liberty again ib. Rinaldo's Oration to the Duke of Milan ib. The speech of a Citizen of Lucca to the People 98 Controversies between the Greek and Roman Churches 102 Determined at Florence by the submission of the Greek ib. The Pope deluded and his Country invaded by Nich. Piccinino 103 The Speech of Neri a Citizen of Florence to the Venetian Senate 104 Nicolo Piccinino defeated by Count Sforza 106 He scapes to Fenna and from thence very strangely to his Army ib. Verona surprized by Nicolo 107 Recovered again by the Count ib. The Duke of Milan encouraged in his Expedition into Tuscany by Nicolo and the Florentine Exiles 108 The Patriarch of Alexandria General for the Pope ib. The Pope discovers intelligence between the Patriarch and Nicolo and resolves to secure him ib. Is secured by Antonio Governor of the Castle at Rome and dies 109 Commissioners from the Venetians to the Count ib. Nicolo makes a diversion into the Territories of Florence The Count desirous to follow him but is hindred by the Venetians ib. Of Nicolo's proceeding after he left Lombardy 110 111 Nicolo's practices to surprize Crotona 112 Brescia relieved by the Venetians ib. The Duke of Milan's Fleet defeated by the Venetians ib. Nicolo engages the Florentines at Anghiari and is defeated by them ib. The Speech of Count Poppi to the Florentine Commissaries 114 Neri's answer ib. Book VI. THe Duke of Milan proposeth a Peace to Count Sforza and offereth his Daughter in Marriage to the Count 116 The ingratitude of the Venetians ib. Micheletto General for the League ib. Nicolo's insolence to the Duke of Milan 117 Peace between the Duke of Milan and Count Sforza ib. Naples taken by the King of Arragon 118 Florence reformed 119 Nicolo Piccinino dies of grief a couragious but unfortunate General ib. A new War in Lombardy 121 Count Sforza courted by all parties ib. The Duke of Milan dies ib. The Count made General for the Milanesi 122 The Venetians ambitious of the Dutchy of Milan ib. Alphonso invades the Florentines ib. Retreats out of Tuscany 123 The Venetians fall upon Count Sforza in his Trenches at the Siege of Caravaggio and are totally routed by the Count 124 Peace between the Venetians and the Count by which the Venetians were obliged to assist the Count in his obtaining the Dutchy of Milan 125 An Oration made by one of the Milan Embassadors to the Count ib. The Count's answer 126 Cosimo de Medici a friend to the Count 127 The Venetians assist the Milanesi against the Count 128 The Milanesi reduced to great straits by Sforza ib. Milan delivered to Sforza and he made Duke thereof enters into a League with the Florentines 129 The King of Arragon and the Venetians enter into a League ib. Their Embassy to the Florentines ib. The Florentines answer ib. The Florentines prepare War 130 Federigo the Emperor comes into Italy to be Crown'd and enter Florence ib. The King of Arragon invades Tuscany ib. The strange conceit and undertaking of a Citizen of Rome 131 Peace between the Duke of Milan and the Venetians ib. The King of Arragon enters into the League 134 The Pope solicits a War against the Turk ib. A prodigious Tempest ib. The Genoesi invaded by the King of Arragon 135 Genoa delivered to the French ib The King of Arragon dies ib. Calisto the third dies and Pius the second chosen Pope 136 The Genoesi revolt from the French ib. Naples invaded by Giovanni d' Angio ib. The King of Naples defeated ib. He recruits his Army fights and defeats Giovanni ib. Giovanni being defeated and deserted of his Souldiers flies into France ib. Book VII COsimo de Medici and Neri Capponi the two great Citizens in Florence 138 Cosimo dies 139 His children riches honours and actions described 139 140 141 Giacopo Piccinino murdered 142 Francesco Sforza Duke of Milan dies 144. The Florentines invaded by the Venetians 148 Peace between the Florentines and Venetians 149 Piero de Medici's Speech to the Florentines ib. His death 150 Thomaso Soderini in great favour with the Florentines ib. Lorenzo and Guiliano de Medici made Princes of the City of Florence ib. A conspiracy of the Nardi 151 Bernardo defeated and taken 152 The Duke of Milan in Florence ib. Tumults in Volterra ib. Volterra surrendred and sacked 183 Italy in two factions 154
power in their hands took Authority upon themselves to make a Council of the Signori which should sit forty Months for the future their Names being to be put into a purse and drawn out every two Months But for as much as many of the Citizens were jealous their Names were not in the purse there was a new Imborsation before the forty Months began Hence it was the custom of the purse had its Original and was us'd in the Creation of their Magistrats both at home and abroad whereas formerly they were chosen by a Council of the Successors as the term of the Office began to expire At first this way of election was call'd Imborsationi and afterwards Squittini And because every three or at most five years this custom was to be us'd it was thought they had prevented great mischiefs to the City occasion'd by multitude of Competitors and tumults at every election of Magistrats which tumults being to be corrected no way in their Judgments so readily they pitched upon this not discerning the evils which they conceal'd under so small a convenience It was now in the year 1325. when Castruccio having seiz'd on Pistoia was grown so considerable that the Florentines jealous of his greatness resolv'd before he had setled his new conquest to fall upon him and recover it if possible out of his hands Whereupon of Citizens and their Friends they assembled 20000 Foot and 3000 Horse and encamp'd before Alto Pascio by taking it to render the relief of Pistoia the more difficult The Florentines took that pass and when they had done they march'd towards Lucca forraging and wasting the Countrey But by the Imprudence and Treachery of their Commander little progress was made This Person call'd Ramondo da Cardona observing the Florentines to have been very liberal of their liberty and to have confer'd the Government sometimes upon Kings sometimes upon Legats and sometimes upon more inferiour Persons he thought with himself that if he could bring them into any exigence or distress it might easily fall out that they would make him their Prince to this purpose he frequently desir'd and press'd to have the same Authority invested in him in the City as he had in the Army otherwise he could not require nor expect that Obedience which was necessary for a General The Florentines not hearing on that Ear their Captain proceeded but slowly neglecting his time as much as Castruccio improv'd it for Castruccio having procur'd supplies from the Visconti and other Princes of Lombardy and made himself strong Ramondo who before lost his opportunity of conquering for want of fidelity now lost the possibility of preserving himself for want of discretion for marching up and down lazily with his Army he was overtaken by Castruccio near Alto Pascio assaulted and after a long fight broken to pieces in which Action many Florentines were taken Prisoners and Kill'd and their General among the rest who receiv'd the reward of his infidelity and ill Counsel from Fortune her self which had been more properly bestow'd by the hands of the Florentines The calamities which Castruccio introduced upon the Florentines after his Victory the Depradations Imprisonments Ruin's and Burnings are not to be express'd having no Body to oppose him for several Months together he went where and did what he had a mind to and the Florentines thought themselves happy after such a defeat if they could save the City Nevertheless they were not so desperatly low but they made great provisions of Money rais'd what Soldiers was possible and sent to their Friends for assistance but no providence was sufficient against such an Enemy they were forc'd therefore to make choice of Carlo Duke of Calabria the Son of King Robert to be their Soveraign If it would please him to undertake their defence for that Family having been us'd to the Supremacy of that City they promis'd him rather their Obedience than Friendship But Carlo being personally imploy'd in the Wars of Sicily he sent Gualtieri a French Man and Duke of Athens to take possession in his behalf He as his Masters Leiutenant took possession of the Government and created Magistrats as he plea'sd Notwithstanding his behaviour was so modest and in a manner so contrary to his own Nature every one lov'd him Having finish'd his War in Sicily Charles came with a thousand Horse to Florence and made his entry in Iuly 1326. His arrival gave some impediment to Castruccio kept him from rummaging up and down the Country with that freedom and security which he had formerly done But what the City gain'd abroad it lost at home and when their Enemies were restrain'd they became expos'd to the insolence and oppression of their Friends for the Signori acting nothing without the consent of the Duke in a years time he drain'd the City of four hundred thousand Florins though in the Articles of agreement it was expresly provided he should not exceed 200000. So great were the Impositions which he or his Father laid upon the Town and yet as if these were too few their miseries were increas'd by an accumulation of new jealousies and new Enemies For the Ghibilines of Lombardy were so fearful of Carlos advance into Tuscany that Galiazzo Visconti and the rest of the princes of Lombardy with Money and fair Promises persuaded Lewis of Bavaria who had been Elected Emperour against the Popes will to pass into Italy with an Army Being arriv'd in Lombardy he pass'd forward into Tuscany made himself Master of Pisa by the assistance of Castruccio and having receiv'd a considerable supply of Money there he march'd on towards Rome Whereupon Charles being fearful of his Kingdom and leaving Philippo da Saginitto his Lieutenant in Florence went Home with the Force he brought with him Upon his departure Castruccio seiz'd upon Pisa and the Florentines got Pistoia by stratagem Castruccio march'd immediatly to recover it sat down before it and manag'd his business with so much Conduct and resolution that though the Florentines made many attempts to relieve it both by Insults upon his Army and incursions into his Country their Attacks and their diligences were all ineffectual they could not possibly remove him for so firmly was he resolv'd to chastise the Pistoians and weaken the Florentines that the Pistoians were constrain'd to surrender and receive him once more for their Lord by which Action as he contracted much Honour and Renown so he thereby contracted so much Sickness and Infirmity that he died shortly after upon his return to Lucca And because one ill or good accident goes seldome alone Charles Duke of Calabria and Lord of Florence died at Naples much about the same time so that in a very small space the Florentines were freed from the oppression of the one and the apprehension of the other They were no sooner free but they fell to reforming null'd all the Laws and Ordinances of the ancient Councils and created two new
They admonished besides the whole Family of the Alberti Ricci and Medici for ten years except only some few Among those of the Alberti which were not admonished Antonio was one being esteemed a quiet and a peaceable man their jealousie of this plot being not yet out oâ—t their heads a Monk happened to be apprehended who had been observed whilst the conspiracy was on foot to have passed many times betwixt Bologna and Florence and he confessed he had frequently brought Letters to Antonio Antonio being taken into custody denied it obstinately at first but being confronted by the Monk and the charge justified against him he was fined in a sum of mony and banished three hundred miles distance from the City and that they might not always be in danger of the Alberti they decreed that none of that Family above 15 years of age should be suffered to continue in the Town These things happened in the year 1400 two years after Giovan Galezo Duke of Milan died whose death as we have said before put an end to a War that had been prosecuted for twelve years After which the Government having extended its authority and all things at quiet both abroad and at home they undertook the enterprize of Pisa which succeeded so well they took the Town very honourably and enjoyed that and the rest very peaceably till the year 1433. Only in the year 1412 the Alberti having transgress'd against the terms of their banishment a new Balia was erected new provisions made for the security of the State and new impositions inflicted upon that Family About this time the Florentines had War likewise against Ladislaus King of Naples which ended in the year 1416 upon the death of that King During the time of the War finding himself too weak he had given the City of Cortona to the Florentines of which he was Lord but afterwards recovering more strength he renewed his War with them and managed it so that it was much more dangerous than the former and had not his death determined it as the other was by the death of the Duke of Milan doubtless he had brought Florence into as great exigence as the Duke of Milan would have done and endangered if not ruined its liberty Nor did their War with this King conclude with less good fortune than the other for when he had taken Rome Sienna la Marka and Romagna and nothing remained but Florence to hinder his passage with his whole force into Lombardy he died so that death was always a true friend to the Florentines and did more to preserve them than all their own conduct or courage could do From the death of this King this City remained at peace both abroad and at home eight years at the end of that term their Wars with Philip Duke of Milan reviv'd their factions which could never be suppressed but with the subversion of the State which had governed from the year 1371 to 1434 with much honour and maintained many Wars with much advantage having added to their Dominion Arezzo Pisa Cortona Livorno and Monte Pulciano and doubtless would have extended it farther had the City been unanimous and the old humours not been rubb'd up and reviv'd as in the next book shall be more particularly related THE HISTORY OF FLORENCE Book IV. ALL Cities especially such as are not well constituted under the Titles of Common Wealths do sometime or other alter their Government yet not as many think by means of Liberty and Subjection but by occasion of servitude and licentiousness for only the name of Liberty is pretended by popular Persons such as are the instrument of licentiousness and servitude is sought for by those that are Noble neither of them both desiring to be restrain'd either by Laws or any thing else Nevertheless when it does happen as it happens but seldom that a City has the good fortune to produce and advance some Wise Honest and Potent Citizen by whom the Laws may be so order'd that the humors and emulations betwixt the Nobility and the People if not perfectly compos'd may be yet so well circumscrib'd and corrected that they may be check'd from breaking forth to its prejudice Then it is That City may be call'd free and that State pronounce it self durable for being founded upon good Laws and Orders at first it has not that necessity of good Men to maintain it Of such Laws and Principles many Common Wealths were antiently constituted and continued a long time Others have wanted and do still want them which has frequently occasion'd the variation of the Government from Tyranny to licentiousness and from licentiousness to Tyranny for by reason of the powerful animosities in all of them it is not nor can be possible they should be of any duâ—ation one disgusting the Good and the other the Wise. One doing mischief with ease and the other good with difficulty in this the insolent have too much Authority in another the sots and therefore it is convenient that both one and the other be supported and maintained by the fortune and Valour of some Eminent Man though he may be taken from them by Death or made unserviceable by misfortune I say therefore that Government which flourished in Florence from the death of Giorgio Scali which fell out in the year 1381 was supported first by the conduct of Muso di gli Albizi and afterwards by Nicolo Uzano This City from the year 1414 till the end of the 22 remain'd quiet King Ladisâ—ans being dead and Lombardy divided into several Cantons so that neither abroad nor at home had they the least cause of apprehension The next Citizens in Authority to Nicolo Uzano were Bartolmeo Valori Nerone de Nigi Rinaldo de gli Albizi Neri di Gino and Lapo Nicolini The factions which sprung from the animosity betwixt the Albizi and the Ricci which were with so much mischief reviv'd afterward by Salvestro de Medici could never be extinguish'd and although that which was most generally succour'd prevailed but three years and was afterwards depress'd yet the greatest part of the City had imbib'd so much of their humor as could never be wrought out True it is the frequent exprobrations and constant persecutions of the heads of that party from the year 1381 to 1400 had almost brought them to nothing The first Families which were persecuted as the chief of that faction were the Alberti Ricci and Medici who were rob'd of their Men as well as their Money and if any of them continued in the City their imployments and dignities were most certainly taken from them which usage had indeed debas'd that party and almost consum'd it However the memory of the injuries receiv'd and a secret desire of being reveng'd lay close in the Hearts of many of them and having no opportunity to show it they kept it private to themselves Those of the Popular Nobility who govern'd the City so quietly committed two errours which were the ruine of their Government
conquered had time to recruit and the Conqueror had none to pursue This disorder and perversness in the Souldier was the reason that Nicolo was recruited and on Horse back again before his defeat was known thorow Italy and sharper war he made upon his Enemies afterwards than he had â—ver done before This it was that after his rout before Brescia enabled him to surprize Verona this it was that after he was worsted at Verona gave him opportunity to invade Tuscany this it was that after his loss at Anghiari recruited him again and made him stronger in the field ere he got to Romagna than he was before which gave the Duke new hopes of defending Lombardy though by means of his absence he had looked upon it as lost for whilst Nicolo was giving the Enemy an alarm at Tuscany the Duke of Milan was reduced to a condition of hazarding all and therefore apprehending he might be undone before Nicolo who was sent for would come to his rescue to stop the Career of the Count and temper his fortune by industry which he could not do by force he had recourse to those remedies which in the like case he had many times used and sent Nicolo da Esti Prince of Ferrara to Peschiera to the Count to persuade him in his name to a Peace and to remonstrate to him that the prosecution of the War could not turn to his advantage for if the Duke should be distressed and unable to maintain his â—eputation the Count would be the first which would suffer by it by reason the Venetians and Florentines would have no farther occasion and by consequence no farther esteem for him and as a testimony of the sincerity of his proposal the Duke offered to coâ—â—mmate his Marriage and send his Daughter to Ferrara to be delivered to him as soon as the peace was concluded to which the Count replied that if the Duke did truly desire peace he might easily have it for the Venetians and Florentines were as much inclined to it as he but the difficulty would be to persuade them he was in earnest as knowing he would never have proposed any such thing had not some necessity constrained him and as soon as that should be removed he would make War upon them again As to the business of his Marriage he could not repose any confidence in his promise having been so often baffled by him before nevertheless if every thing else were agreed he should proceed in it as his friends should advise The Venetians who are jealous of their Souldiers where they have no reason to be so had reason enough to be suspicious here which the Count being desirous to remove prosecuted the War with all diligence imaginable but his mind was so inflamed with ambition and the Venetians so slack and intepidated with jealousie little more was done that Summer so that when Nicolo Piccinino returned into Lombardy Winter came on and the Armies were sent to their Winter quarters The Count to Verona the Duke to Cremona the Florentines into Tuscany and the Popes Army to Romagna which after the Battle of Anghiari assaulted Furli and Bologna in hopes to have taken them from Francesco Piccinino who kept them from his Father and defended them so well they could not get them out of his hands nevertheless their coming into those parts so terrified the people of Ravenna that to avoid the domination of the Church by consent of Osâ—asio di Potenta their Lord they submitted to the Venetian who in recompence of his kindness that he might never recover by force what he had given them with so little discretion sent Ostasio with his only Son to spend their days in Candia where they died in which expedition his Holiness wanting Mony notwithstanding the Victory at Anghiari he was glad to sell the Castle of Borgâ— a San Sepulcro to the Florentines for 25000 Ducats Things being in this posture and all sides thinking themselves safe as long as it was Winter all thoughts of peace were laid aside especially by the Duke who thought himself doubly safe both in the season of the year and the arrival of Nicolo had therefore broke of his Treaty with the Count a little abruptly and in great haste rigged out Nicolo again with all provisions and accoutrements that were necessary for the War the Count having notice of his preparations went to Venice to consult the Senate how affairs were to be ordered the next Summer When Nicolo was ready perceiving the Enemy out of order he never staid for the spring but in the coldest of the Winter he passed the Adda and Acri surprized 2000 Horse and took most of them prisoners but that which touched the Count nearest and startled the Venetians was the defection of Ciarpellone one of his principal officers who went over to the Duke the Count had no sooner the news but he left Venice and coming with all possible speed to Brescia he found Nicolo retired and gone back to his former station the Count had no mind finding the Enemy gone to follow him at that time but chose rather to defer till some advantage should tempt him and give him opportunity to revenge himself he prevailed therefore with the Venetians to recal the forces they had in the Florentine service in Tuscany and to confer the command of them upon Micheletto Attendulo Gattamelata being dead The spring being come Nicolo Piccinino was first in the field and beseiged Cignano a Castle some twelve miles distant from Brescia to the relief of which the Count addressed himself and betwixt these two Generals the War was managed as formerly The Count being fearful of Bergamo went with his Army and encamped before Martinengo a Castle which if taken lay very convenient for the succouring of Bergaino which City was by Nicolo greatly distressed who finding he could not easily be disturbed but by the way of Martinengo had supplied it plentifully with all things so as the Count was forced to besiege it with all his Army whereupon Nicolo marched with his forces where he might most conveniently incommode him and intrenched himself so strangely the Count could not without manifest danger assail him so that thereby he brought things to that pass that the besieger was in more distress than the besieged and the Count than the Castle For the Count could neither keep the siege for want of provisions nor rise for fear of Nicolo's Army and every body expected victory for the Duke and destruction for his Enemy but fortune which never wants ways of favoring her friends and disobliging her Enemies brought it about that Nicolo in confidence of his Victory was grown so insolent haughty that without respect to the Duke or himself he sent him word that he had served him a long time and as yet not gained so much ground as would bury him when he died he desired therefore to know what recompence he was to expect for all his dangers and fatigues for it being
their young Hostage into Prison and dispatch'd supplies to Bagno and those parts to secure them and made that Country dependant upon themselves Gherardo a Traitor in the mean time both to his friends and his Son had much ado to escape leaving his Wife Family and fortune in the hands of his Enemies This accident was lookt upon as a great deliverance in Florence for had the King made himself Master of those parts he might with little expenso have overrun all as far as Valdi Tevere and Casentino and brought such distraction upon their affairs that the Florentines must have divided their Army and been disabled thereby from attending the Aragonian forces about Sienna with their Army entire Besides the provisions which the Florentines had made in Italy to oppose the confederacy of their Enemies they sent Agriolo Acciaivoli their Embassador into France to negotiate with that King for the sending King Rinato d' Angio into Italy in the behalf of the Duke and themselves and to represent to him that coming thither for the defence of his friends when he was once entred and had settled them he might set up his own claim to the Kingdom of Naples and they would be engag'd to assist him and so whilst in Lombardy and Tuscany the War was carried on as we have related in France the Treaty was concluded and Rinato oblig'd in Iune to come into Italy with 2400 Horse and the League on the other side obliged at his arrival at Alexandria to pay him 30000 Florens and 10000 per men afterwards whilst the War should continue but being ready upon this stipulation to pass into Italy he was obstructed by the Duke of Savoy and the Marquess of Monferrat who were friends to the Venetians and would not suffer him to pass Hereupon Rinato was desired by the Florentine Embassador to march with his Forces into Provence and for the encouragement and reputation of his friends to pass himself and part of them into Italy by Sea leaving the rest in Provence till the King of France should prevail with the duke of Savoy that they might march through his Country and as the Embassador advised it was done for Rinato went by Sea and the rest at the King of France's mediation were permitted to pass into Italy through the Dominions of the Duke of Savoy King Rinato was received by the Duke of Milan with all the demonstrations of Kindness imaginable and having joyned their Forces they assaulted the Venetians with such terror that in a little time all the Towns they had taken about Cremona were recovered and not contented with them they took almost all the Country of Brescia for the Venetian Army not thinking it self secure in the field was retreated under the very walls of that City Winter coming on and the Duke at Verona he thought fit for the refreshment of his men to put them into quarters and consigned Piazenza for the quarters of Rinato where having remained all that Winter in the year 1453 without any action considerable when the spring was come and the Duke resolved to draw into the field and drive the Venetians out of all they had upon the terra firma Rinato signified to the Duke that of necessity he must return into France This resolution of Rinato's was unexpected to the Duke and gave him no little anxiety He went to him immediately himself and endeavoured with all possible importunity to dissuade him but neither prayers nor promises could prevail with him any farther than to leave part of his forces with them and to engage himself to send his Son Giovanni who in his room should continue in the service of the League How unwelcome so ever it was to the Duke Rinato's departure was not at all displeasing to the Florentines for having recover'd what they had lost themselves and being grown fearless of Alfonso they had no maw that the Duke should get more than his own Towns in Lombardy Rinato continuing his resolution departed for France and as he had promis'd sent his Son Giovanni into Italy who staid not in Lombardy but remov'd presently to Florence where he was honorably entertain'd This departure of Rinato dispos'd Duke Francesco to peace the Venetians the Florentines and Alfonso were all weary of the War and ready to embrace it and the Pope desir'd it above all by reason that that very year Mahomet the great Turk had taken Constantinople and made himself Master of all Greece which alarm'd all Christendom but especially the Venetians and the Pope who imagined already they felt his Talons in Italy The Pope therefore desired all the Potentates of Italy that they would send their several Plenipotentiaries to him to negotiate a general peace His motion being accepted and the Embassadors met when they came to the matter so much difficulty arose as there was but small hopes of accommodation Alfonso required that the Florentines should reinburse him for all the charges he had been at in the War and the Florentines expected the same The Venetians demanded Cremona of the Duke and the Duke Bergamo Brescia and Crema of them So that these difficulties seem'd impossible to be remov'd Nevertheless what was so desperate at Rome among so many was easily concluded betwixt two of them at Milan and Venice for whilst the peace was negotiating at Rome and proceeded thus slowly on the ninth of April 1454 it was determined betwixt the Duke and the Venetians that each of them should be restor'd to what they were possess'd of before the War That the Duke should have liberty to recover what the Marquess of Monferrat and the Duke of Savoy had taken from him and that three months time should be allow'd to the rest of the Princes of Italy to come in The Pope the Florentines the Siennesi and other little Potentates came in within the time prefix'd and ratifi'd it and the Venetians Florentines and Duke made a peace betwixt them three for 25 years Alfonso was the only Prince of Italy who seem'd to be refractory conceiving he could not concur without diminution in respect he was to be admitted rather as an auxiliary than a principal upon which score he continued irresolute a good while and would not declare at length upon several Embassies from the Pope and other Princes he suffered himself to be prevailed upon and he and his Son entred into the League for 30 years After which the King and the Duke made several alliances and cross-matches together marrying their Sons and Daughters reciprocally into one another families Yet that Italy might not be left without feed or foundation for a new War Alfonso would not enter into the League till he had leave by consent of the colleagues to make War upon the Genoeses and Gismondo Malatesta and Astorre Prince of Faenza Peace being concluded upon those terms Ferrando Alfonso's Son who had been at Sienna returned into Naples having done nothing considerable in Tuscany but lost many of his Men. This Peace
all Italy be involved in a War For this they can have no excuse if any Man have offended them they might have offended him again and not blended and confounded private injury with publick revenge This is it which revives our calamities though the Authors are extinct That is it which has brought the Pope and King of Naples upon us with their Armies though their declaration be only against me and my family I wish to God it were true and that their design was no farther the remedy would be easie and your deliverance at hand I should not be so ill a Citizen as to postpone the publick to my private security no I would willingly quench your flames though with my own blood and destruction but because the injuries of great persons are alway cloathed with some plausible pretence they have chosen this to exasperate you against me if you think I deserve it I am now in your hands to be continued or rejected as you please you are my Fathers you are my Patrons what ever you command I will endeavour to do and not refuse with my own blood to finish this War which is begun with my Brothers The Citizens could not contain from tears whilst Lorenzo was speaking and with the same pity as they had heard him he was answered by one deputed by the rest That the whole City did acknowledge the merits both of his ancestors and himself That he should be of good cheer for with the same readiness and devotion as they had revenged his Brothers death and prevented his they would preserve his person and reputation and expose their whole Country rather than desert him That their actions might be commensurate they appointed him a guard to secure him against domestick designs and payed them out of the publick treasure after which they addressed themselves to the War and raised what Men and mony they were able They sent for aid to the Duke of Milan and the Venetians according to the league and the Pope more like a Wolf than a Shepherd being ready to devour them they tried all ways to justifie themselves that they could think of possess'd all Italy with his treachery against their state remonstrated his impieties to all the World and that he exercised his Papacy with as much injustice as he gained it for he had sent those whom he had advanced to the highest degree of Prelacy in the company of Traitors and Murderers to commit treason in the Church in the time of divine service and the Celebration of the Sacrament and after that having been unable to kill all the Citizens alter the Government and sack the City he interdicted it with his Pontifical maledictions and threatned to destroy it But if God were just and the violences of Men offensive to him he must needs be displeased at the proceeding of his Vicar and permit that Men having no other refuge might resort unto him For which reason the Florentines not only refuse his interdiction but forced their Priests to celebrate divine service as before They called a Council in Florence of all the Tuscan Prelats within their jurisdiction and appealed to them concerning their differences with the Pope against which in justification of his cause it was alledged that it belonged properly to the Pope to supplant Tyrants to suppress ill Men and to advance good all which he was to remedy as opportunity was offered But that secular Princes had not right to imprison Cardinals to execute Bishops to kill or dismember or drag about the streets the bodies of the Priests and to use the innocent and the nocent without any difference or distinction Nevertheless the Florentines not at all refusing his quarrels and complaints dismissed the Cardinal which was in their power and sent him back to the Pope yet the Pope without any regard to that civility caused them to be invaded with all his forces and the Kings both their Armies under the Command of Alfonso Duke of Calabria Ferrando's eldest Son and Federigo Conted ' Urbino entred Chianti and by means of the Siennesi who were of the Enemies party â—took Radda several other Castles and plundered the whole Country Next they encamped before Castellina the Florentines seeing themselves thus fiercely attacked were in great fear as having but few men of their own and the assistance of their friends coming in very slowly for though the Duke indeed had sent them supplies yet the Venetians refused it as not thinking themselves obliged to relieve them in their particular quarrels for as they pretended private animosities were not in reason to be defended at a publick expence So that the Florentines to dispose the Venetian to better things sent Tomaso Soderini Embassador to that State whilst in the mean time they raised what Men they could and made Hercules Marquess of Ferrara their General Whilst in this manner they were employed in their preparations the Enemy had brought Castellina to such distress that despairing of relief the Garison surrendered after forty days siege From hence the Enemy advanced towards Arezzo and sat down before Monte S. Senino The Florentine Army was by this time drawn out and being marched towards the Enemy had posted it self within three miles of them and incommoded them so that Federigo sent to Urbino to desire a truce for some few days which was granted but with so much disadvantage to the Florentines that those who requested it were amazed when they had obtained it for without it they must have drawn off with disgrace But having those days allowed to recollect themselves when the time was expired they went on with their siege and took the Town under the very nose of our Army By this time Winter being come to provide themselves good quarters the Enemy drew his Army into the Country of Sienna the Florentines where they thought most convenient and the Marquess of Farrara having done little good to himself or other People returned from whence he came About this time Genoa was in rebellion against the State of Milan and upon this occasion Galeazzo being dead and his Son Giovan Galeazzo a minor and unfit for the Government difference arose betwixt Sforza Lodovico Ottaniano Ascanio his Unckles and Medona Bona his Mother each of them pretending to the tuition of the Child In which competition Madona Bona the Dutchess Dowager prevailed by the Counsels of Tomaso Soderini the Florentine Embassador in that Court at that time and Cecco Simonetto who had been secretary to the late Galeazzo whereupon Sforzi flying from Milan Ottaniano was drawn as he was passing the Adda and the rest dispersed into several places Roberto de san Severino ran the same fortune and fled having forsaken the Dutchess in those disputes and joyned himself with the Unckles The troubles falling out not long after in Tuscany those princes hoping from new accidents or new success every one of them attempted what he thought likely to restore him to his Country King Ferrando observing the only
no sooner taken and settled themselves in Pietra Santa but Embassadors came to them from the Lucchesi to demand it as an appendix to their Commonwealth alledging that among the rest there was an express article that what ever should be taken either of the one side or the other should be restored to the first owners The Florentines did not deny the agreement but answered that they could not tell whether in the Peace they were then negotiating with the Genoeses they might not be obliged to restore it and therefore they could give them no positive resolution till that was determined and if it should happen that they should not be obliged it would be necessary for the Sienesi to think of some way to satisfie for the expence they had been at and the damage they had received by the loss of so many considerable Citizens and when they did so they might be consident they should have it This whole Winter was consumed in negotiations of Peace betwixt the Florentines and the Genoesi which were transacted at Rome by the mediation of the Pope but nothing being concluded the Florentines would have fallen upon Serezana in the spring had they not been prevented by Lorenzo's indisposition and a new War betwixt Ferrando and the Pope For Lorenzo was not only troubled with the Gout which was his hereditary disease but he had so great pains and affliction at his stomach that he was forced to go to the baths to be cured But the chiefest occasion was the War which was originally from hence The City of Aquila was subject to the Kingdom of Naples but so as in a manner it was free In that City the Count de Mortorio was a Man of more than ordinary reputation The Duke of Calabria lying with his Horse not far from Tronto pretending a desire to compose certain tumults which had happened betwixt the Peasants in those parts but being really ambitious to reduce that City to a more intire subjection to his Father sent to the Count to let him know he desired to speak with him and take his advice in the regulation of those affairs The Count not having the least jealousie repaired to him immediatly but he was seized as soon as he arrived and sent Prisoner to Naples This accident being known in Aquila altered the affections of the whole City insomuch that the People taking Arms Antonio Concinello the King's Commissary was slain and with him such of the Citizens as were known to be affected to the Neapolitan interest and that they might have friends to defend them in their Rebellion they set up the Banner of the Church and sent Embassadors to the Pope to tender him the possession of their City and implore his protection against the Tyranny of the King The Pope was easily persuaded to their defence as a Person that hated the King both upon publick and private accounts whereupon being informed that Roberto da San Severino a great Enemy to the State of Milan was out of imployment he sent for him to Rome with all speed made him his General and solicited all the friends and relations of the Count de Mortorio to rise in his behalf so that the Princes of Altemura Salerno and Besignana took up Arms against the King The King seeing himself engaged so unexpectedly in a War sent to the Florentines and Duke of Milan for their aid the Florentines were very irresolute what was to be done they thought it unreasonable to leave their own designs for the promotion of other Peoples besides that the taking up Arms again so suddenly against the Church must needs be very dangerous nevertheless being in League and under an obligation they prefer'd their faith before either interest or danger took the Orsini into their pay and sent their whole force under the Count de Pitigliano towards Rome in assistance of the King By this means the King had two Camps that under the Duke of Calabria he sent towards Rome in conjunction with the Florentines to attend the motion of the Army of the Church the other he kept at home to secure his own Country against any commotion by the Barons and in both places things occurred with variety of success but at length the King remaining in all places superior by the mediation of Embassadors from Spain in August 1486 a Peace was concluded to which the Pope being depress'd and discouraged with his ill fortune consented and all the Princes of Italy with him only the Genoesi were excepted as Rebels to the State of Milan and usurpers upon the territories of Florence The Peace being concluded Roberto da San. Severino having been neither faithful to the Pope nor terrible to the Enemy was turned out of Rome in disgrace and being pursued by the forces of the Florentines and the Duke when he was past Cesenna finding they gained upon him and would be presently upon his back he betook himself to his heels and with about 100 Horse fled away to Ravenna leaving the rest of his party either to be entertained by the Duke or destroyed by the Country The King having signed the Peace and reconciled himself with his Barons he caused Giovanni Coppola and Antonello d' Anversa and their Sons to be put to Death as Persons who had betrayed his secrets to the Pope in the time of the War By the experiment of this War the Pope having observed with what diligence and alacrity the Florentines preserve their alliance though he hated them before for their affection to the Genoesi and their asistance to the King he began now to caress them and show greater favour to their Embassadors than formerly he had done which inclination being intimated to Lorenzo he improved it with all possible industry as knowing it would gain him great reputation if to his friendship with the King he could add the amity of the Pope This Pope had a Son called Francesco and being desirous to advance him both in fortune and friends which when he was dead might support him he could not find a Person in all Italy with whom he might more safely ally him than with Lorenzo de Medici and therefore he ordered things so that he married him to a daughter of Lorenzo's This alliance being finished his Holiness had a desire that the Genoesi by agreement should deliver up Serezana to the Florentines and declared to them that they could not in justice retain what Agostino had sold them nor could Agostino convey that to San. Giorgio which was none of his own but with all his arguments he could never prevail so that whilst these things were in agitation in Rome the Genesi went on with their preparations and rigging out many of their Ships before they could have any news of it at Florence they landed 3000 Men and assaulted the Castle of Serezanello which stands upon the Serezana and was Garisoned by the Florentines and having sacked and burned the Town which lies on one side of it they
he is accepted That besides them he will hearken to no body That he considers well before he resolves and that his resolutions once taken are never to be altered He that does otherwise shall either precipitate his affairs by means of his Flatterers or by variety of advices often change his designs which will lessen his esteem and render him contemptible To This purpose I shall instance in one Modern Example Father Lucas a Servant to Maximilian the present Emperor giving a Character of His Majesty declared him a person that never consulted any body and yet never acted according to his own judgment and inclination and the reason was because he proceeded contrary to the presriptions aforesaid for the Emperor is a close Man communicates his secrets with no body nor takes any man's advice but when his determinations are to be executed and begin to be known in the world those who are about him begin to discourage and dissuade him and he being good natur'd does presently desist Hence it comes to pass that his resolutions of one day are dissolved in the next no man knows what he desires or designs nor no man can depend upon his resolutions A Prince therefore is always to consult but at his own not other peoples pleasure and rather to deter people from giving their advice undemanded but he ought not to be sparing in his demands nor when he has demanded impatient of hearing the truth but if he understands that any suppressed it and forbore to speak out for fear of displeasing then and not till then he is to show his displeasure And because there are those who believe that a Prince which creates an opinion of his prudence in the people does it not by any excellence in his own Nature but by the Counsels of those who are about him without doubt they are deceived for this is a general and infallible rule That that Prince who has no Wisdom of his own can never be well advised unless by accident he commits all to the Government and Administration of some honest and discreet man In this case 't is possible things may be well ordered for a while but they can never continue for his Minister or Vicegerent in a short time will set up for himself but if a Prince who has no great judgment of his own consults with more than one their Counsels will never agree nor he have ever the cunning to unite them Every man will advise according to his own interest or Capriccio and he not have the parts either to correct or discover it And other Counsellors are not to be found for men will always prove bad unless by necessity they are compelled to be good So then it is clear That good Counsels from whomsoever they come proceed rather from the Wisdom of the Prince than the Princes Wisdom from the goodness of his Counsels CHAP. XXIV How it came to pass that the Princes of Italy have most of them lost their Dominions THE Qualities aforesaid being observed they make a new Prince appear in the number of the more Ancient and render him presently more firm and secure in his Government than if he had descended to it by right of inheritance for the Actions of a new Prince are liable to stricter observation than if he were Hereditary and when they are known to be virtuous gain more upon people and oblige them farther than antiquity of Blood because Men are more affected with present than pass'd things and when in their present condition they find themselves well they content themselves with it without looking out any where else employing themselves wholly in defence of their Prince unless in other things he be defective to himself So that thereby he will have double honor in having laid the foundation of a new Principality and embellished and fortified it with good Laws good Force good Friends and good Example whereas he multiplies his disgrace who being born Prince loses his inheritance by his own ill management and imprudence And if the Soveraign Princes in Italy who in our time have lost their Dominions be considered as the King of Naples the Duke of Milan and others there will be found in their beginning one common defect as to the management of their Arms for the reasons largely discours'd of before besides some of them will appear to have been hated by the people or if they have had so much prudence as to preserve a friendship with them they have been ignorant how to secure themselves against the Grandees for without these errors no States are lost that have Money and strength enough to bring an Army into the Field Philip of Macedon not Alexander the Great 's Father but he who was overcome by Titus Quintus had no great force in comparison of the Romans and the Grecians which invaded him yet being a Martial Man and one that understood how to insinuate with the People and oblige the Nobility he maintained War several years agaisnt both of them and though at last he lost some Towns yet he kept his Kingdom in spight of them Those therefore of our Princes who for many years together were settled in their Principalities if they lost them afterwards they cannot accuse fortune but their own negligence and indiscretion for not having in quiet times considered they might change and it is the common infirmity of Mankind in a calm to make no reckoning of a Tempest when adversity approached they thought more of making their escape than defence resting their whole hopes upon this that when the people were weary of the insolence of the Conqueror they would recal them again Which resolution is tolerable indeed when others are wanting but to neglect all other remedies and trust only to that is much to be condemned for a man would never throw himself down that another might take him up besides that may not happen or if it does not with your security because that kind of defence is poor and depends not on your self and no defences are good certain and lasting which proceed not from the Princes own Courage and Virtue CHAP. XXV How far in human affairs Fortune may avail and in what manner she may be resisted I Am not ignorant that it is and has been of old the opinion of many people that the affairs of the world are so govern'd by Fortune and Divine Providence that Man cannot by his Wisdom correct them or apply any remedy at all from whence they would infer that we are not to labour and sweat but to leave every thing to its own tendancy and event This opinion has obtained more in our days by the many and frequent revolutions which have been and are still seen beyond all humane conjecture And when I think of it seriously sometimes I am in some measure inclined to it my self nevertheless that our own free will may not utterly be exploded I conceive it may be true that fortune may have the arbitrement of one half of our
their promises and encouraged by the strength of his own force he entertained a design of making himself Master of Tuscany and to give more reputation to his affairs he entred into a League with Matteo Visconti Prince of Milan He put out a Proclamation afterwards that all his Subjects which were capable to bear Arms should be ready at a certain warning to put themselves into Service and for the better order of the Muster Rolls by which his Militia was to be regulated the City of Lucca having five Gates he divided the whole Country into five parts and disposed every Soldier under his officer with so much exactness that in a short time he could march with 20000 Men besides what he could draw out of Pisa. Whil'st he was fortifying himself with Soldiers and Friends it fell out that the Guelfs in Plaisansa having driven out the Ghibilins and received considerable succours from Florence and the King of Naples came thundering down upon the Territories of the Prince of Milan The Prince desired Castruccio to give the Florentines diversion to carry the War into their Country to withdraw them from Lombardy and thereby to put them upon the defensive Castruccio desired no more and fell with a flying Army into the Valley of Arno took Fucechio and San-Miniato and ravaged the Country so effectually that the Florentines were constrained to call back their Troops out of Lombardy but the necessity of another diversion called back Castruccio to the recovery of Lucca In his absence the Family of the Poggi which had been always his friends and contributed more to his Elevation than any of the rest regreting that they had not been rewarded according to the merits of their Services conspired with several others of the Inhabitants to bring the City to revolt They began the tumult one morning and having put themselves in Arms they killed the Chief Officer which Castruccio had established for the administration of justice But whil'st they were disposing themselves to push on their Sedition Stephano Poggio an old Man of a peaceable temper and one who had not medled at all in the Conspiracy of his Relations made use of the authority he had with them caused them to lay down their Arms and offered his intercession to Castruccio that they might obtain their demands Upon the first notice of this Commotion Castruccio drew a party out of his Army and leaving the rest under the Command of Pagolo Guinigi he marched with all diligence back to Lucca where finding things quieter than he expected he knew very well how to make his advantage of so temperate a submission and disposed his Troops and his Friends in all the Posts that might make him Master of the Town Stephano Poggio who thought in this juncture he had highly obliged Castruccio came to make him a visit and judged it unnecessary to beg any thing of him all that he requested was that he would pardon his Family allow something to their ancient Services and give some little Indulgence to the transports of their youth Castruccio received him with much affection and told him that he was more pleased to find those troubles appeased than he had been offended at the news of their Commotion and having pressed him to bring the Male-contents to him he added that he thank'd his stars for giving him such an opportunity of signalizing his Clemency Upon Stephano's importunity and Castruccio's promise they came all to attend him but Castruccio apprehending that this new Service of Stephano might some time or other be reproached to him again he resolved to make a signal Example and accordingly regulating himself by the severe politicks of Usurpers who upon such nice and critical occasions make no bones to sacrifice the innocence of particular man to the conservation of the multitude he commanded that the Mutineers and Stephano with them should be conducted to Prison and from thence to Execution Whil'st he was thus employed the Florentines recovered San Miniato and Castruccio holding it imprudence to keep in the Field whil'st he was insecure in the Town resolved to give some relaxation to his Arms He endeavour'd privately to feel how the Florentines stood disposed to a Truce and the War having exhausted their Coffers he found them so coming that it was concluded for two years upon condition that either party should retain what was then in their possession Castruccio being disintangled from his foreign Embarrasments applyed himself wholly to his security at home and under several pretences to quit himself of all those who were likely to dispute his Soveraignty of Lucca not sparing his Confiscations and Proscriptions against the Exiles nor the Executions of any who were under his hands To excuse himself he gave out that he had had too much Experience already of the infidelity of those people to trust them again But a strong Citadel which erected in the City was the true way to continue his Authority and to give the more terror to the Citizens he caused the houses of his adversaries to be demolished and the Citadel to be built of their Materials His peace with the Florentines and his Fortifications at Lucca employ'd him not so much as to lessen his thoughts how he might make himself greater being unwilling again to come to an open War he entertained private correspondencies both on one side and the other He had an ardent desire to make himself Master of the Town of Pistoia persuading himself it would give him footing in Florence and in this prospect he held a secret Commerce of amity with the different parties which were predominant in Pistoia This double intelligence was managed with that slyness and delicacy that each of them believed they were particularly in his Confidence It was a long time that these two opposite Cabals had divided or rather distracted that City The one called the Faction of the Bianchi had Bastiano da Possente for its head and the other called the Neri was commanded by Iacopo de Gia. Each of them boyling with desire to supplant its competitor repos'd much upon the promises of Castruccio and these two Heads of the Factions who had long been suspected to one another took Arms at length both at a time Iacopo posted himself towards the Gate that goes to Florence and Bastiano towards that which leads to Lucca At first it was in debate severally by each of them whether they should call in the Florentines but finding Castruccio more active and his Forces better Soldiers each of them sent privately to him to solicit his assistance Castruccio carried it very demurely and promised succour to both He told Iacopo that in person he would relieve him and to Bastiano he sent word he would do it by Pagolo Guinigi his Lievtenant General and the person of the world he loved best for he regarded him as his Son Having acquainted them both that they should expect their supplies about midnight he agreed with Pagolo and causing him to march with part of
or insolence of the Enemy you immediately prepare to correct him he will not invade you so boldly though he be stronger than you and then your friends will come in more freely to your assistance who had you abandoned your self would certainly have forsaken you This is intended only where you have but one Enemy where you have more the best way is to give and promise what you think fit that if possible you may draw off some or other of them from their Confederacy and so break their League by dividing them CHAP. XV. Weak States are irresolute and uncertain in their Councils and slow Councils are most commonly pernicious FRom these occasions and beginnings of the War betwixt the Latins and the Romans we may observe that in all consultations it is best to come immediately to the point in question and bring things to a result without too tedious an hesitation and suspence And this we may learn from the Council which the said Latins took at that time when their war with the Romans was in debate For the Romans suspecting the defection of the Latins for their better information and that they might reduce them if possible without blows sent to them to send over eight of their Principal Citizens to Rome to consult with them about keeping of the Peace The Latins being conscious to themselves of many things which they had acted against the pleasure of the Romans call'd a Council to consider of the persons that were to go and what their Comissioners should say when they came there The Council being divided one man proposing one thing and another man another Annius the Praetor had this expression Ad summam rerum nostrarum pertinere arbitror ut cogitetis magis quid agendum nobis quam quid loquendum sit facile erit explicatis Consiliis accommodare rebus verba I conceive it more pertinent to our business That you consider rather what is to be done than what is to be said for when you are come to a resolution it will be no hard matter to accomodate your words Which saying was doubtlesly true and ought to be regarded by all Princes and Commonwealths For whilst we are ambiguous and uncertain what is to be done we cannot tell how to adapt and accommodate our language but when we are come to a resolution and have decreed what is to be done it is not so difficult I have inserted this passage the more willingly because I my self have known this irresolution do much mischief to the detriment and dishonour of our State and it is a fault peculiar to all weak and improvident Princes and Governments to be slow and tedious as well as uncertain in their Councils which is as dangerous as the other especially when the debate is about the relief or protection of a friend for your slowness does no good to him and exposes your self These uncertain or tedious resolutions proceed either from want of courage and force or from the crossness and malevolence of the Counsellors who carried away by some private passion of their own will rather ruine the State than not accomplish their revenge so that instead of expediting and pushing things to a conclusion they impede and obstruct whatever is before them For your good Citizens though the vogue of the people runs the more dangerous way will never hinder the coming to a result especially in things that will not dispense with much time Girolamo a Tyrant in Syracuse being dead and the War betwixt the Romans and Carthaginians very hot a Council was called by the Syracusans and it was debated which side they should take The question was canvas'd with such order by both parties that it remained in ambiguo and nothing was resolved till at length Appolonides one of the Principal in that City in a grave and prudent Oration remonstrated That neither they were to be blamed who had spoken for the Romans nor they who adhered to the Carthaginians but the length and uncertainty of their debate for that irresolution would be the occasion of certain ruine but if they came to a conclusion with which side soever they joyn'd they might hope for some good Titus Livius could not better have displayed the danger of this kind of suspence than in this case of the Latins whose assistance against the Romans being desired by the Lavinians they were so long in their debate that when at last they came to a resolution their supplies were scarce gone out of their Gates before they had news that their Confederates were beaten Whereupon Milonius the Praetor said very wittily This little ground which we have marched will cost us very dear to the Romans and this hapned to them for the tediousness of their Councils for they should either have assisted or denyed them out of hand had they denyed them the Romans had not been disgusted had they complyed they might have supported their Associates and have kept them from being ruined but doing neither they destroyed their friends and hazarded themselves Had this precept of bringing things to a speedy resolution been followed by the Florentines they had prevented many mischiefs and damages which they met withal upon the coming of Lewis XII into Italy against the Duke of Milan for the said King Lewis having resolved upon the said expedition he proposed to their Embassadors in his Court that the Florentines should not interpose or concern themselves in the quarrel upon which terms he would receive them into his protection and defend them from any harm the Embassadors agreed and a Months time was allowed for ratification from the City But the ratification was deferred by the imprudence of some persons who favoured the Duke of Milan's interest till the French had almost conquered all and being offered then it was refused by the King of France who knew well enough that the Florcntines were then forced to what they did and desired his amity more out of fear than affection which piece of delay cost the Florentines a good round Sum of Mony and might well have been their ruine as just such an accident was afterward And this indiscretion of theirs was the greater because they were no way serviceable to the Duke of Milan who if he had prevailed would doubtless have shown himself a greater Enemy to them than the King of France Of this slowness and uncertainly of Councils I have spoken before but new occasion presenting it self I have discoursed of it again as a thing worthy the observation of all Commonwealths especially like ours CHAP. XVI How much the Soldiers of our times do differ from the Discipline of the Ancients THe Battel which the Romans fought with the Latins in the Consulships of Manlius Torquatus and Decius was the greatest and most important that ever they had in any War with any other Nation For as the Latins lost all by losing the Victory and the Romans got the Dominion of them So the Romans had they lost the Battel must have lost
the Church the Gibilins with the Emperor Innocent 4th Pope Clement 5th Pope Adrian 5th Pope Nicholas 3d. of the House of 〈◊〉 The first introduction of Popes Nephews Martin 10th Pope Pope Celestine resigns to Boniface 8th The first Jubilees ordain'd by Boniface every 100 years Benedict chosen dies and is succeeded by Clement 5th who remov'd his residence â—nto France 1306. 〈…〉 The 〈◊〉 a great Famiâ—y in Milan made Princes of that City by the extirpation of the Torri The 〈…〉 Milan The Dukedom of Milan falls to the Sforzâ—s The Original of the Venetiaâ—s Candia given to the Venetians by the French Benedict 12th Pope Clement 6th Pope The Jubilee reduc'd to 50 years Avignon given to the Pope by the Queen of Naples Innocent 6th Pope Urban 5th Pope Gregory 12th Pope The Pope returns to Rome after 71 years absence in France Urban 6th Pope Clement 7th Anti-Pope Guns first us'd betwixt the Genoveses and Venetians Urban and Clementn succeeded by Boniface 9th Benedict 13th Boniface dies Innocent 7th succeeds him and Gregory the 12th Innocent Alexander 5th elected and succeeded by Iohn 23d Three Popes at once Martin 5th The Queen of Naples calls in the K. of Arragon to her assistance adopts him and makes Braccio da Montone her General The State of Ittaly The Convenience of Colonies The Original of Florence The Denomination of Florence The first Division of Florence The Guelfs and Ghibilin Faction in Florence The Union Government of the City of Florence The Antiani The Captain of the People and Podesta Their Militia A generous Custome Manfredi King of Naples a great Patron of the Ghibilines Ferinata Uberti Carlo d' Anio call'd into Italy by the Pope A new Model in Florence New Commotion A second Model by the Guelfs The 12 Buoni Huomini La Credenza Gregory X. Florence under Excommunication Innocent 5. The Jealousie of the Popes Nicolas 3. The Ghibilines return Martinus Pope The Government reformed by the Citizens The three Priori to goxern two Months to be chosen out of the City indifferently The Segnori Discord betwixt the Nobility and people The Priori The Gonfaloniere Perswasion to the Nobility to be quiet The 〈◊〉 to the people New reformation in Florence 1298. The differen â—ein the family of the Cancellieri the occasion and consequence The Biaâ—chi and Nerâ—â— Charles of Valoâ—s made Governor of Florence New troubles occasioned by Corso Donati The Medici and Giugni Florence burned 1304. Corso Donati Condemned His death 1308. New divisions Laudo de Agobbio Castruccio Castracani The Council of the Signori to â—it forty Months whereas before it was occasional Election of Magistrats by Imborsation Ramondo da Cardona General of the Florentines The Duke of Athens Governor of Florence Lod the Emperour called into Italy The Death of Castruccio and the Duke of Calabria New reformation The Florentines quiet at Home Their Buildings A Captain of the Guards Maffeo da Muradi Lucca sold to the Florentines Taken from them by the Pisans The Duke of Athens The Speech of one of the Senators to the Duke of Athens The Dukes Answer 1342. The Dukes of Athens chosen Prince by the People The Duke of Athens his practice in Florence 〈◊〉 Morrozzâ— Three Conspiracies aganist the Duke at one time Commotion in Florence The Duke expell'd His Character New Reformation The Nobilty depos'd The Nobility attempt to recover their Authority The People Arm against them The Nobility utterly depress'd Emulation betwixt the â—iddle and the meaner sort of people The Ammoniti The Citizens Oration to the Senate New Reformation Gregory XI holds his Residence at Avignon New Commission for the management of the War 1377. A Conspiracy of the Guelfs The Conspiracy defeated The Speech of Salvestro de Medici The Balia Reformation again Luigi Guicciardini's Oration New troubles The Speech of a Plebeian The people rise again The demands of the people Michaele di Lando Michaele overcomes the multitude The popular Faction distinguished from the plebean Reformation The Commons expell'd from the Government 1381. Michaele Lando imprisoned Lodovic's death Carlo d' Angio ' s death Magnificencâ— envied Benedetto's Speech Benedetto dies at Rhodes 1381. Veri de Medici's Speech to the Senate Donato Acciaivoli confin'd 1397. A new Conspiracy defeated The Duke of Milan practises against the City Several Families banished 1400. The King of Naples dies Uzano advices against the Medici Philippo Visconti Lord of Lombardi Peace betwixt Elorence and Milan Imola taken by the Duke Philip. The Florentines overthrown Albizi's exhortation to be quiet Rinaldo de gli Albizi Nicolo Urano Giovanni de Medici 's reply to Rinaldo The sactions of Uzano and the Medici The great courage of Biagio del Milano The Cowardize of Zenobi del Pino Picinino revolts Carmignuola General of the League Catasto Peace betwixt the league and the Duke 1428. Giovanni de Medici's Speech to his Sons at his Death Cosino heir his Father Giusto Volterra revolts Giusto slain Rinaldo persâ—ades the War Uzano opposes it The Cruelty of Astro. The Seravezzesi complain Rinaldo acâ—us'd His Speech to the Ten. Pagolo Lord of Lucca depos'd The Florentines defeated 1433. Peace betwixt the Florentines and Lucchesi Nicolo da Uzano's answer to Barbadori Federigâ—'s speech to Cosimo his Prisoner Cosimo banished 1433. Rinaldo's speech to his Friends Eugenius the Pope labours a peace Cosimo recall'd Rinaldo's answer to the Popâ— 1433. The Souldiers in Italy distinguished into two parties The Duke of Milan promises his Daughter to Conte Fran. Sforza The Pope invaded makes peace with Fran. Sforza Wars in Romagna Fran Sforza General of the Pope's Leagâ—e Peace betwixt the League and the Duke New Ordinances in Florence Alphonso brought prisoner to Duke Philip. The Dogs and his authority in Cenoa Francisco Spinola Genoa recovers its liberty Rinaldo's Oration to the Duke of Milan 1437. The Speech of a Citizen of Lucca to the people Jealousie betwixt the Venetian and the Coun. The Venetians untractable Conte di Poppi Controversies betwixt the Greek and Roman Churches Determined at Florence by the submission of the Greek The Pope deluded and his Country invaded by Piccininâ— The Conte earnestly persuaded not to desert the Venetians 1438. Neri 's speech to the Venetian Senate Nicolo Piccino defeated by the Count. Escapes to Tenna and from thence very strangely to his Army Verona surprized by Nicolo Recovered by the Count. The Duke encouraged in his expedition into Tuscany by Nicolo and the Florentine exiles The Patriarch of Alexandria General for the Pope The Patriarch a friend to Rinaldo The Pope discovers intelligence betwixt the Patriarch and Nicolo and resolves to secure him the Patriarch secured and dies Commissioners to the Count from the Venetians The Count desirous to follow Nicolo Dissuaded by the Duke of Venice They 〈◊〉 to a resolution The Count Poppi revolts from the Floâ—rentine Nicolo illâ—advised by Count Poppi Nicolo practises to surprize Crotona Brescia reliâ—ved The Battle of Anghiari Piccinino defeated Poppi besieged Poppi's speech to the
Florentine Comissaries Neri's answer The Duke proposeth a peace The ingratitude of the Venetians Micheletto General for the League Nicolo's insolence to the Duke Peace betwixt the Duke and the Count. 1441 Naples taken by Alfonso Baldaccio General of the Florâ—ntine foot 1444. Florence reformed Nicolo dyes 1445 Troubles in Bologna Santi Bentivoglio Cosimo 's speech to Santi New war in Lombardy The Count courted by all Parties Duke Philip died 1447. The Count made General for the Milanesi The Venetians ambition of the Dutchy of Milan Alfonso Invades the Florentines Alsonso retreats of Tuscany The Venetians totally defeated Peace betwixt the Venetians and the Count excluding the Milanesi The Oration of one of the Milan Embassadors to the Count. The Counts answer Cosimo de Medici a friend to Francesco Neri Capponâ— against him The Venetious assist the Milanesi Gasparre da Vico Mercato his advice Francesco enter'd Milan and made Duke of it 1450 The Duke of Milan and the Florentines Confederate The King of Aragon and the Venetianâ— Embassadors from them to â—lorence The Florentines answer Preparations for War in Florence Federigo the Emperor enters into Florence Tuscany invaded by the King of Aragons forâ—es Stephana Porcari Stephano and his confederats put to Death 1453. The vale of Begno revolts 1453. Peace betwixâ— the Duke and Venetians Alfonso enters into the League New troubles by Giacopo Piccinino encourag'd privatly by Alfonso Calisto 3. solicits War against the Turks A prodigious tempest The Genoesi assaulted by Alfonso Genoa delivered to the French Alfenso dies Calisto 3. dies and Pius 2. chosen in his chair The Genoesi revolts from the French 1459. The Kingdom of Naples invaded by Giovanni d' Angio Ferrando discomfited Giovannis defeated Cosimo de Medici and Neri Capponi the two great Citizens in Florence Luca Pitti Girolamo Machiavelli Cosimo dies Giacopo Piccinino murdered Francesco Sforza died Nicolo Soderini persuades Luca to take Arms against Piero. The Senate and chief Citizens attend Piero at his house The Enemies of the Medici depress'd Luca Pitti deserted Agnolo 's letter to Piero de Medici Piero 's answer The Florentines invaded by the venetiant Peace between the Florentines and the Venetians Piero's speech to the florentines Piero de Medici dies Tomaso soderini in great favour with the Florentines declines it discreetly Lorenzo and Guiliano de Medici made Princes of the City A Conspiracy of the Nardâ— Bernardo defeated and taken The Duke of Milan in Florence Tumults in Volterra Voltâ—rra surrendred and sacked Italy in two Factions Troubles in Tuscany Conspiracy against the Duke of Milan The Duke of Milan slain Animosity betwixt the Pazzi and the Medici Conspiracy against Lorenzo and Guilian di Medici Rinato dei Pazzi dissuades from the enterprize but in vain The Conspiracy miscarries The Pope and King of Naples make War upon the Florentines Lorenzo 's speech to the Florentines The Pope and King invade the tâ—rritories of the Florentines Genoa rebels against the State of Milan The gratitude of the Flâ—rentines The Popes Army defeated Antonio Tassino a favorite of the Dutches. Lodovico Sforza Governor of Milan Lorenzo de Medeci arrives at Niples New constitutions The Isle of Rhodes assaulted by the Turks The Embassadors to the Pope The Pope replies The Dukâ— of Calabria defeated A new League Castello besieged by the Army of the Pope The Colonni provoked the Pope and are ruin'd in Rome The Company of S. Giorgio Pietra Santa taken by Lorenzo Aquila rebels against the King of Naples The Pope undertakes its protection Peace concluded The Genoeses overthrown The Venetians defeated Count Girolamo murdered The Countess revenged the Death of her Husband Galeotto Lord of Faenza murdered by his Wife Lorenzo de Medici Lorenzo died
retir'd and sought out other Countreys for their Establishment and Plantation In those days the ancient Empire of Rome was reduc'd under these Princes Zeno Governing in Constantinople Commanded the whole Empire of the East The Ostrogoti Commanded Mesia The Visigoti Pannonia The Suevi and Alani Gascoigne and Spain The Vandali Africa The Franchi and Burgundi France The Eruli and Turingi Italy The Kingdom of the Ostrogoti was devolv'd upon a Nephew of Velamir's call'd Theodorick who retaining an Amity with Zeno Emperour of the East writ him word That his Ostrogoti being in Valour superiour to other Nations they thought it injust and unreasonable to be inferiour in Territory and Command and that it would be impossible for him to confine them within the Limits of Pannonia That being therefore necessitated to comply and suffer them to take up Arms in quest of New Countreys he could do no less than give him timely advertisment that he might provide against the worst and if he pleas'd assign them some other Countrey which by his Grace and Favour they might inhabit with more Latitude and Convenience Whereupon Zeno partly out of fear and partly desirous to drive Odoacres out of Italy directed Theodorick against him and gave him that Countrey for his pains when it was his fortune to catch it Theodorick accepts the Proposition removes from Pannonia where he left the Zepidi his Friends and marching into Italy slew Odoacres and his Sâ—n call'd himself King of Rome by his Example and made Ravenna his Residence upon the same Reasons as had prevail'd before with Valentinian Theodorick was an excellent person both in War and Peace In the first he was always Victor in the last a continual Benefactor as that City and that Nation experimented often He divided his Ostrogoti into several Countreys appointing Governours over them that might Command in time of Wars and Correct in time of Peace He inlarged Ravenna and repair'd Rome and restor'd all its Priviledges except its Military Discipline Without any noise or tumult of War by his own single Wisdom and Authority he kept all the Barbarian Princes who had Cantonized the Empire in their just bounds He built several Towns and Castles between the Adriatick-Sea and the Alps to obstruct any new Incursion by the Barbarians and had not his many Virtues been sulli'd and eclipsed towards his latter end by some Cruelties he committed upon a jealousie of being depos'd as the deaths of Symmachus and Boetius both of them virtuous men do sufficiently declare his Memory would have been this day as honourable as his Person was then for by his Vertue and Bounty not only Rome and Italy but all the rest of the Western Empire was freed from the continual Conflicts which for so many years it indur'd by the frequent irruption of the Barbarians and reduc'd into good Order and Condition And certainly if any times were ever miserable in Italy and those Provinces which were over-run by the Barbarians they were the times betwixt the Reigns of Aâ—cadius and Honorius and his for if it be consider'd what inconveniences and damage do generally result to a Common-wealth or Kingdom upon alteration of Prince or Government especially if effected not by forreign force but civil dissention If it be observed how fatal the least Changes prove to Common-wealth or Kingdom how potent soever it may easily be imagin'd how much Italy and other Provinces of the Roman Empire suffer'd in those days losing not only their Government but their Laws Customs Conversations Religions Language Habits and even their Names The thoughts of any one of which things without so great an accumulation would make the stoutest heart to ake much more the seeing and feeling of them And as this was the destruction so it was the foundation and augmentation of many Cities In the number of those which were ruin'd was Aquileia Luni Chiusi Popolonia Fiesole and many others Among those which were new built were Venice Siena Ferrara l' Aquila and several other both Towns and Castles which for brevity sake I omit Those which from small beginnings became great and considerable were Florence Genoa Pisa Milan Naples and Bolonia to which may be added the ruine and reparation of Rome and several other Cities which were demolish'd and rebuilt Among these devastations and inroads of new people there sprang forth new Languages as is visible by what is us'd both in France Spain and Italy which being mixt with the Language of their Invaders and the ancient Roman is become new and clear another thing to what it was before Besides not only the Provinces lost their Names but particular places Rivers Seas and Men France Italy and Spain being full of new Appellatives quite contrary to what they were of old as the Po Garda and Archipelago for Rivers and Seas and for Men in stead of Cesar and Pompey they began to be call'd Peter Iohn Matthew c. But among all these Variations the changing of their Religions was of no less imporâ—ance for the Custome and Prescription of the ancient Faith being in combat and competition with the Miracles of the New many tumults and dissentions were created which had the Christian Church been unanimous and entire would never have happen'd but the Greek the Roman the Church at Ravenna being in contention and the Heretick with the Catholick as furiously zealous they brought great misery upon the World as Africa can witness which suffer'd more by their Arrianism which was the Doctrine of the Vandals than by all their avarice and cruelty Whilst men lived expos'd to so many persecutions the terrour and sadness of their hearts was legible in their faces for besides the multitude of Calamities they endured otherwise great part of them had not power to betake themselves to the protection of God Almighty who is the surest refuge of all that are in distress for being uncertain whither their devotions were to be directed they died miserably without any Theodorick therefore deserved no small praise who was the first which gave them respite from the multitude of their Evils and restored Italy to such a degree of Grandeur in the thirty eight years which he raigned there that there was scarce any thing to be seen of its former desolation but when he died and the Government devolv'd upon Atalaricus the Son of Amalasciunta his Sister in a short time the malice of their Fortune being not exhausted as yet they relaps'd and fell over head and ears into their old troubles again For Atalaricus dying not long after him the Kingdom fell into the hands of his Mother who was betray'd by Theodate a person she had call'd in to assist her in the Government She being remov'd and he made King to the great dissatisfaction of the Ostrogoths to whom that Usurpation had made him insufferably odious Iustinian the Emperour took courage began to think of driving him out of Italy and deputed Bellisarius his General for that Expedition who before
neighbouring places which had been anciently their Subjects And because the Tuscans refus'd to submit they march'd confusedly against them but they being re-inforced by Frederick gave the Roman Army such a blow that since that time Rome could never recover its old Condition either for Populousness or Wealth Upon these Events Pope Alexander was return'd to Rome presuming he might be safe there by reason of the Animosity the Romans retain'd against the Emperour and the Employment his Enemies gave him in Lombardy But Frederick postponing all other respects march'd with his Army to besiege Rome Alexander thought it not convenient to attend him but withdrew into Puglia to William who upon the death of Roger being next Heir was made King Frederick being much molested and weaken'd by a Contagion in his Army rais'd his Siege and went back into Germany The Lombards which were in League against him to restrain their Excursions and streighten the Towns of Pavia and Tortona caus'd a City to be built which they intended for the Seat of the War and call'd it Alexandria in honour to Pope Alexander and defiance to the Emperour Guido the new Anti-Pope died likewise and Iohn of Fermo was chosen in his room who by the favour of the Imperial party was permitted to keep his Residence in Monte Fiascone whilst Alexander was gone into Tuscany invited by that people that by his Authority they might be the better defended against the Romans Being there Embassadors came to him from Henry King of England to clear their Masters innocence in the death of Thomas Becket Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with which he was publickly and most infamously aspersed To inquire into the truth the Pope sent two Cardinals into England who notwithstanding they found not his Majesty in any manifest guilt yet for the scandal of the Fact and that he had not honour'd the said Arch-Bishop with the respect he deserved they prescribed as a Penance That he should call all the Barons of his Kingdom together swear his Innocence before them send 200 Soldiers to Ierusalem to be paid by him for a twelve-month and himself follow in person with as great a Power as he could raise before three years were expir'd that he should disanul all things pass'd in his Kingdom in prejudice to the Ecclesiastick liberty and consent that any of his Subjects whatever should appeal to Rome when and as often as they thought it convenient all which Conditions were readily accepted and that great Prince submitted to a Sentence there is scarce a private person but would scorn at this day But though his Holiness was so formidable to the Princes abroad he was not so terrible in Rome the people in that City would not be â—oaksed nor persuaded to let him live there though he protested he would meddle no farther than Ecclesiastical matters by which it appears things at a distance are more dreadful than near at hand In the mean time Frederick was return'd into Italy with resolution to make a new War upon the Pope but whilst he was busie about his preparations his Barons and Clergy gave him advertisement that they would all forsake him unless he reconcil'd himself to the Church so that changing his design he was forc'd to go and make his submission at Venice and pacification being made the Pope in the Agreement devested the Emperor of all the Authority he pretended over Rome and named William King of Sicily and Puglia his Confederate Frederick being an active Prince and unable to lie still embarqu'd himself in the Enterprize into Asia to spend his Ambition against the Turk which he could not do so effectually against the Pope But being got as far as the River Cidvo allur'd by the clearness and excellence of the Waters he would needs wash himself in it and that washing gave him his death Those Waters being more beneficial to the Turks than all Excommunications to the Christians for whereas these only cool'd and asswag'd his Ambition they wash'd it away and extinguish'd it quite Frederick being dead nothing remain'd now to be suppres'd but the contumacy of the Romans After much argument and dispute about their Creation of Consuls it was concluded the Romans according to ancient Custom should have liberty to choose them but they should not execute their Office till they had sworn fealty to the Church Upon this accord Iohn the Anti-Pope fled to Monte Albano and died presently after In the mean time William King of Naples died also and having left no Sons but Tanacred a Bastard the Pope design'd to have possess'd himself of his Kingdom but by the opposition of the Barons Tanacred was made King Afterwards Celestin III. coming to the Papacy and being desirous to wrest that Kingdom from Tanacred he contriv'd to make Enrico Fredericks Son King promising him the Kingdom of Naples upon Condition he would restore such Lands as belong'd to the Church and to facilitate the business he took Costanza an ancient Maid daughter to King William out of a Monastery and gave her him for his Wife by which means the Kingdom of Naples pass'd from the Normans who had founded it and fell under the dominion of the Germans Henricus the Emperor having first setled his affairs in Germany came into Italy with his Wife Costanza and one of his Sons call'd Frederick about four years of age and without much difficulty possess'd himself of that Kingdom Tanacred being dead and only one Child remaining of his Issue call'd Roger Not long after Enricus died in Sicily he was succeeded in that Kingdom by Frederick and Otto Duke of Saxony chosen Emperour by the assistance of Pope Innocent III. But no sooner had he got the Crown upon his Head but contrary to the opinion of all men he became Enemy to the Pope seiz'd upon Romania and gave out Orders for the assaulting that Kingdom Upon which being Excommunicated by the Pope and deserted by his Friends Frederick King of Naples was chosen Emperour in his place The said Frederick coming to Rome to be Crown'd the Pope scrupl'd it being jealous of his power and endeavoured to persuade him out of Italy as he had done Otto before which Frederick disdaining retir'd into Germany and making War upon Otto overcame him at last In the mean time Innocent died who besides other magnificent Works built the Hospital di Santo Spirito at Rome Honorius III. succeeded him in whose Papacy were instituted the Orders of S. Dominick and S. Francis in the year MCCXVIII Honorius Crown'd Frederick to whom Iohn descended from Baldwin King of Ierusalem who commanded the remainder of the Christians in Asia and retain'd that Title gave one of his Daughters in marriage and the Title of that Kingdom in Dower with her and from that time whoever is King of Naples has that Title annex'd In Italy at that time they liv'd in this manner The Romans had no more the Creation of Consuls but in lieu of it they invested sometimes one
time Iohn XXII was created Pope in whose Papacy the Emperour ceased not to persecute the Guelfs and the Church but King Robert and the Florentines interposing in their defence great Wars ensued in Lombardy under the Conduct of the Visconti against the Guelfs and against the Florâ—ntines in Tuscany by Castruccio di Lucca And because the Family of the Visconti were the Original of the Dukedom of Milan one of the five Principalities that govern'd all Italy afterwards I think it not amiss to deduce it a little higher After the League amaong the Cities in Lombardy which I have mentioned before for their mutual defence against Frederick Barbarossa Milan being rescued from the ruine that impended to revenge it self of the injuries it had receiv'd enter'd into that Confederacy which put a stop to the Emperours career and preserv'd the Churches interest in Lombardy for a while In the process of those Wars the Family of the Torri grew very powerful increasing daily more and more while the Emperour's Authority was small in those parts But Frederick II. arriving in Italy and the Ghibilin Faction by the assistance of Ezelino prevailing it began to dilate and spread it self in all the Cities and particularly in Milan the Family of the Visconti â—iding with that party drove the Family of the Torri out of that Town But long they were not banish'd for by an accord made betwixt the Emperour and Pope they were restor'd Afterwards when the Pope remov'd with his Court into France and Arrigo of Luxemburg came to Rome to be Crown'd he was receiv'd into Milan by Maffeo Visconti the Head of that House and Guido della Torre the Chief of the other Yet how kindly soever they carry'd it outwardly Masseo had a secret design by the Emperour 's being there to drive out the Torri believing the Enterprize the more practicable because Guido was of the Enemies Faction He took the advantage of the peoples complaints against the behaviour of the Germans incouraging them slily to take Arms and rescue themselves from their barbarous servitude Having dispos'd things as he desired he caused a tumult to be raised by one of his Confidents upon which the whole Town was to be in Arms and pretendedly against the Germans The Tumult was no sooner begun but Maffeo his Sons Servants and Partizans were immediately in Arms and ran to Arrigo assuring him that Tumult was raised by the Torri who not content with their private Condition took that occasion to ruine him as an Enemy to the Guelfs and make themselves Princes of that City But he desired him to be secure for they and their party would not fail to defend him when ever he requir'd it Arrigo believed all to be true that Maffeo had told him joyned his Forces with the Visconti fell upon the Torri who were dispersed up and down the City to suppress the Tumult killed those of them which they met banished the rest and seized their Estates So that Maffeo Visconti made himself Prince After him there succeeded Galeazo and Aza and after them Luchino and Iohn who was afterwards Arch-Bishop of that City Luchino died before him and left two Sons Barnardo and Galeazo Galeazo dying not long after left one Son called Giovan Galeazo Conti di Vertu who after the death of the Arch-Bishop killed his Unkle Barnardo made himself Prince and was the first that took upon him the Title of Duke of Milan He left two Sons only Philip and Giovan Maria Angelo who being slain by the people of Milan the Government remain'd wholly to Philip. He dying without issue Male the Dukedom was translated from the House of the Visconti to the Sforza's but of the manner and occasions of that hereafter To return therefore where I left Lewis the Emperour to give reputation to his party and to be formally Crown'd came into Italy and being at Milan to drain the City of its Money he pretended to set them at Liberty and clap'd the Visconti in Prison Afterwards by the Mediation of Castruccio da Luca he releas'd them march'd to Rome and that he might more easily disturb the tranquillity of Italy he made Piero della Carvaro Anti-Pope by whose reputation and the interest of the Visconti he presum'd he should be able to keep under both the Tuscans and Lombards But Castruccio died in the nick and his death was the Emperours ruine for Pisa and Lucca rebelled out of hand The Pisans took the Anti-pope and sent him Prisoner to the Pope into France so that the Emperour despairing of his Affairs in Italy he left them all as they were and retired into Germany He was scarce gone before Iohn King of Bohemia came into Italy with an Army being invited by the Ghibilins in Brescia and possest himself both of that City and Bergamo The Pope however he dissembled it was not averse to his coming and therefore his Legat at Bologna favoured him privately looking upon him as a good Antidote against the Emperours return These under-hand practices chang'd the Condition of Italy for the Florentines and King Robert perceiving the Legat a favourer of the Ghibilin Faction turn'd Enemies to all people that profess'd themselves their Friends In so much as without respect to either Ghibilins or Guelfs many Princes associated with them among the rest were the Families of the Visconti Scala Philippo di Gonsaga of the House of Mantua the Families of Carara and Este whereupon the Pope Excommunicated them all The King apprehensive of their League return'd home to reinforce himself and coming back with more Force into Italy found his Enterprize very difficult notwithstanding so that growing weary of the business though much to the dissatisfaction of the Legat he return'd into Bohemia leaving Garrisons only in Modena and Reggio recommending Parma to the Care of Marsilio and Piero de Rossi who were eminent men in that City As soon as he was departed Bologna enter'd into the Confederacy and the Colleagues divided the four Towns that were remaining to the Church among themselves Parma to the Scali Reggio to the Gonzagi Modena to the Esti and Luca to the Florentines But many differences follow'd upon that division which for the greatest part were compos'd afterwards by the Venetians And now I speak of the Venetians it may appear indecorous to some people that among all the occurrences and revolutions in Italy I have deferr'd speaking of them notwithstanding their Government and Power places them above any other Republick or Principality in that Countrey That that Exception may be remov'd and the occasion appear it will be necessary to look back for some time to make their Original conspicuous and the reasons for which they reserv'd themselves so long from interposing in the Affairs of Italy Attila King of the Hunni having besieg'd Aquilegia the Inhabitants after a generous defence being reduc'd to distress and despairing of Relief conveighing their Goods as well as they could to certain Rocks in that point of
affairs the Florentines laid the foundation of their liberty Nor is it to be imagin'd what strength and authority it acquir'd in a short time for it came not only to be the chief City in Tuscany but to be reckon'd among the Principal of all Italy and indeed there was no grandeur to which it might not have arriv'd had it not been obstructed by new and frequent dissentions Ten years together the Florenties liv'd under this Government in which time they forc'd the Pistoiesi Aretini and Sanesi to make peace with them and returning with their Army from Siena they took Volterra demolish'd several Castles and brought the Inhabitants to Florence In these Expeditions the Guelfs had the principal Conduct as being much more popular than the Ghibilines who had carried themselves imperiously during Frederick's Reign and made themselves odious or else it was because the Church party had more Friends than the Emperours as being thought more consistent with their liberty The Ghibilines in the mean time being displeased to see their Authority so sensibly decrease could not be satisfy'd but attended all occasions to repossess themselves of the Government When Manfredi the Son of Frederick King of Naples was invested in that Kingdom and had over-power'd the power of the Church conceiving it a fair opportunity they practis'd privately with him to reassume their Government but they could not manage it so cunningly but their practice was discover'd to the Antiani who summoning the Uberti thereupon the Uberti not only refus'd to appear but took Arms and fortify'd themselves in their houses at which the people being incens'd took Arms likewise and joyning with the Guelfs drove them out of Florence and forc'd the whole Ghibiline party to transplant to Siena From thence they desir'd the assistance of Manfredi King of Naples who sending them supplies by the Conduct and Diligence of Frinata of the House of Uberti the Guelfs received such a blow upon the River Arebia that those which escaped supposing their City lost fled directly to Lucca and left Florence to shift for it self Manfredi had given the Command of the auxiliaries which he sent to the Ghibilines to the Conte Giordano a Captain of no small reputation in those times Giordano after this Victory advanced with his Ghibilines to Florence reduc'd the City to the obedience of Manfredi depos'd the Magistrates and alter'd or abrogated all the Laws and Customs that might give them the least figure or commemoration of their liberty Which injury being done with little discretion was receiv'd by the people with so much detestation that whereas before they were scarce Enemies to the Ghibilines they became thereby inveterate and implacable and that mortal animosity was in time their utter destruction Being to return to Naples upon affairs of great importance to that Kindom the Conte Giordano left Comte Guido Novello Lord of Casentino in Florence as Deputy for the King This Guido Novello call'd a council of Ghibilines at Empoli wherein it was unanimously concluded that Florence should be razed being by reason the people were so rigid Guelfs the only City capable to reinforce the declining party of the Church Upon so cruel and barbarous a Sentence against so Noble a City there was not one Friend or Citizen oppos'd besides Ferinata delli Uberti who publickly and couragiously undertook its defence Declaring That he had not run so many dangers not expos'd himself to so many difficulties but to live quietly afterwards in his own Countrey nor would he now reject what he contended for so long nor refuse that which his good fortune had given him he was resolv'd rather to oppose himself against whoever should design otherwise with as much Vigour and zeal as he had done against the Guelfs and if jealousie and apprehension should prompt them to endeavour the destruction of their Countrey they might attempt if they pleas'd but he hop'd with the same Virtue which drove out the Guelfs he should be able to defend the City This Ferinata was a man of great Courage excellent Conduct Head of the Ghibilines and in no small esteem with Manfredi himself These qualifications and the consideration of his Authority put an end to that resolution and they began now to take new measures and contrive wayes of preserving the State The Guelfs who had fled to Lucca being dismiss'd by the Lucchesi upon the Counts commination they withdrew to Bologna from whence being invited by the Guelfs of Parma to go against the Ghibilines they behav'd themselves so well that by their Valour the Adversary was overcome and their possessions given to them So that increasing in Honour and Wealth and understanding that Pope Clement had call'd Carlo d' Angio into Italy to depose Manfredi if possibly They sent Embassadours to his Holiness to tender their assistance which the Pope not only accepted but sent them his own Standard which the Guelfs carry'd ever after in their Wars and is us'd in Florence to this very day After this Manfredi was beaten dispoyl'd of his Kingdom and Slain and the Guelfs of Florence having performed their share in that Action their party grew more brisk and couragious and the Ghibilines more timorous and weak Whereupon those who with Count Guido Novello were at the helm in Florence began to cast about how they might by benefits or otherwise gain and cajole the people whom before they had exasperated by all circumstances of injury But those remedies which if us'd in time before necessity requir'd might possibly have prevail'd being apply'd abruptly and too late did not only not contribute to their safty but hasten'd their ruine To coaks and insinuate with the people and their party they thought it would do much if they restor'd them to a part of that Honour and Authority which they had lost To this purpose they chose XXXVI Citizens from among the People and adding to them two Forreign Gentlemen from Bologna they gave them power to reform the State of the City as they pleas'd As soon as they met the first thing they pitcht upon was to divide the City into several Arts or Trades over each Art they plac'd a Master who was to administer Justice to all under his Ward and to every Art a Banner was assign'd that under that each Company might appear in Arms when ever the safty of the City requir'd it At first these Arts or Companies were twelve seven greater and five less the lesser increasing afterwards to fourteen their whole number advanc'd to XXI as it remains at this day The Reformation proceeding quietly in this manner and contriving many things for the common benefit of the people without interruption Count Guido thinking himself under an equal Obligation to provide for his Soldiers caus'd a Tax to be laid upon the Citizens to raise Money for their pay but he found such difficulty in the business he durst never collect it Whereupon perceiving all lost unless something was suddainly done he combin'd
opposition was called Nera In a short time many conflicts happened betwixt them many men killed and many houses destroyed Not being able to accommodate among themselves though both sides were weary they concluded to come to Florence hoping some expedient would be found out there or else to fortifie their parties by the acquisition of new friends The Neri having had familiarity with the Donati were espoused by Corso the head of that Family The Bianchi to support themselves against the accession of the Donati fell in with Veri the chief of the Cerchi a man not inferiour to Corso in any quality whatever The malignity of this humour being brought hither from Pistoia began to revive the old quarrel betwixt the Cerchi and Donati in such manner that the Priori and other Principal Citizens began to apprehend they should fall together by the ears and the whole City come to be divided Hereupon they applyed themselves to the Pope desiring he would interpose his Authority to asswage those differences which were too great for their private power to compose The Pope sent for Veri and prest him earnestly to a reconciliation with the Donati Veri seemed to be surprised at his importunity pretended he had no prejudice to them at all and because reconciliation presupposed a quarrel there being nothing of the latter he thought there was no necessity of the first So that Veri returning from Rome without any other conclusion the Malevolence increas'd and every little accident as it happened afterwards was sufficient to put all in confusion In the Moneth of May several Holidays being publickly celebrated in Florence certain young Gentlemen of the Donati with their friends on Horseback having stopt near St. Trinity to see certain Women that were Dancing it fell out that some of the Cerchi arrived there likewise with some of their friends and being desirous to see as well as the rest not knowing the Donati were before they spurr'd on their horses and justled in among them The Donati looking upon it as an affront drew their Swords the Cerchi were as ready to answer them and after several cuts and slashes given and received both sides retir'd This accident was the occasion of great mischief the whole City as well People as Nobility divided and took part with the Bianchi and Neri as their inclinations directed them The chief of the Bianchi were the Cerchi to whom the Adimari the Abbati part of the fosinghi the Bardi Rossi Frescobaldi Norli Mannilli all the Mozzi the Scali Gerrardinâ— Cavalcanti Matespini Bestichi Giandionati Vecchietti and Arriguelzi joyn'd themselves with these sided several of the populace and all the Ghibiline faction in Florence so that in respect of their Numbers they seem'd to have the whole Government of the City The Donati on the other side were heads of the Neri and follow'd by all the rest of the before mentioned Nobility who were not ingag'd with the Bianchi and beside them all the Parzi Bisdonini Manieri Bagnâ—sit Tornaquinci Spini Buondelmonti Gianfigliazzi and Brunelteschi Nor did this humour extend it self only in the City but infected the whole Countrey In so much that the Captains of the Arts and such as favour'd the Guelfs and were Lovers of the Commonwealth very much apprehended least this new distraction should prove the ruine of the City and the restauration of the Ghibilins Whereupon they sent to the Pope beseeching him to think of some remedy unless he had a mind that City which had been always a bulwark to the Church should be destroy'd or become subject to the Ghibilins To gratifie their request the Pope dispatch'd Matteo d' Aquasparta a Portugal Cardinal as his Legate to Florence who sinding the party of the Bianchi obstinate and untractable as presuming upon the advantage of their Numbers he left Florence in an anger and interdicted them so that the Town remained in more confusion aâ— his departure than he found it All parties being at that time very high and dispos'd to mischief it happen'd that several of the Cerchi and Donati meeting at a Burial some words pass'd betwixt them and from words they proceeded to blows but no great hurt done for that time Both sides being returned to their houses the Cerchi began to deliberate how they might fall upon the Donati and in Conclusion they went in great numbers to attack them but by the Courage of Corso they were repell'd and several of them Wounded Hereupon the City fell to their Arms the Laws and the Magistrates were too weak to contest with the fury of both parties The wisest and best Citizens were in perpetual fear The Donati and their friends having less force were more anxious and solicitous of their safety to provide for it as well as was possible At a meeting of Corso with the heads of the Neri and the Captain of the Arts it was concluded that the Pope should be desired to send them some person of the Blood Royal to reform their City supposing that way the most probable to suppress this Bianchi The Assembly and their resolution was notify'd to the Priori and aggravated against the Adverse party as a Conspiracy against their Freedom Both factions being in Arms Dante and the rest of the Signori taking Courage with great Wisdome and prudence causing the people to put themselves in Arms by Conjunction of several out of the Countrey they forc'd the heads of both parties to lay down their Arms confin'd Corso Donati and several of the faction of the Neri to their houses and that their proceedings might seem impartial they committed several of the Bianchi who afterwards upon plausible pretences were dismiss'd Corso and his accomplices were discharg'd likewise and supposing his Holiness to be their friend took a journey to Rome to perswade him personally to what by Letters they had begg'd of him before There happen'd to be at the Popes Court at that time Charles de Valois the King of France his brother call'd into Italy by the King of Naples to pass over into Sicily The Pope upon the importunity of the Florentine Exiles though sit to send him to Florence to remain there till the season of the year serv'd better for his transportation Charles arrived and though the Bianchi who had then the Supremacy were jealous of him yet being Patron of the Guelfs and deputed thither by the Pope they durst not oppose his coming but on the Contrary to oblige him they gave him full Authority to dispose of the City as he pleased Charles was no sooner invested with his Authority but he caus'd all his friends and Partizans to Arm which gave the people so great a jealousie that he would Usurp upon their Liberties that they also put themselves in Arms and stood ready every man at his door to resist any such attempt The Cerchi and the chief of the Bianchi having had the Government in their hands and managed it proudly were become generally odious which gave incouragement to Corso and the
Lieutenant in Florence The King granted their request sent the Conte to them forthwith and the adverse party though the Signori also were Enemies to the King had not the Courage to oppose him But the Conte for all that had not much Authority confer'd because the Signori and Gonfalonieri of the Companies were favourers of Laudo and his accomplices During these troubles in Florence the daughter of Alberto coming out of Germany pass'd by the City in her way to her husband Charles Son to King Robert She was very honourably received by such as were friends to the King who complaining to her of the sad Condition of their City and the Tyranny of Laudo and his party she promis'd her assistance and by the help of her interposition and such as were sent thither from the King the Citizens were reconcil'd Laudo depos'd from his Authority and sent home to Agobbio full of treasure and blood Laudo being gone they fell to Reform and the Signoria was confirm'd by the King for three years longer and because before there were VII in the Senate of Laudo's party VI new were chosen of the Kings and they continu'd XIII for sometime but they were reduced afterwards to VII their old number About this time Ugucciene was driven out of Lucca and Pisa and Castruccio Castracani a Citizen of Lucca succeeded him in the Government and being a brave and Couragious young Gentleman and Fortunate in all his Undertakings in a short time he made himself Chief of the Ghibilin faction in Tuscany For this cause laying aside their private discords the Florentines for several years made it their business first to obstruct the growth of Castruccio's Power and afterwards in case he should grow powerful against their will to consider which way they were to defend themselves against him and that the Signori might deliberate with more Counsel and Execute with more Authority they Created XII Citizens which they call'd Buonhuomini without whose advice and concurrence the Signori were not to do any thing of importance In the mean time the Authority of King Robert expir'd the Government devolv'd once more upon the City which set up the old Rectori and Magistrates as formerly and their fear of Castruccio kept them Friends and united Castruccio after many brave things performed against the Lord's of Lunigiana sat down before Prato The Florentines alarm'd at the news resolv'd to relieve it and shutting up their Shops they got together in a confus'd and tumultuous manner about 20000 Foot and 1500 Horse and to lessen the force of Castruccio and add to their own Proclamation was made by the Signori that what ever Rebel of the Guelfs should come in to the relief of Prato should be restor'd afterwards to his Country upon which Proclamation more than 4000 of the Guelfs came in and joyned with them by which accession their Army being become formidable they march'd with all speed towards Prato but Castruccio having no mind to hazard a Battail against to considerable a force drew off and retreated to Lucca Upon his retreat great Controversie arose in the Army betwixt the Nobility and the people The people would have pursued and fought in hopes to have overcome and destroyed him the Nobility would return alledging they had done enough already in exposing Florence for the relief of Prato That there being a necessity for that it was well enough done but now no necessity being upon them little to be gotten and much to be lost fortune was not to be tempted nor the Enemy to be follow'd Not being able to accord among themselves the business was referred to the Signori which consisting of Nobility and Commons they fell into the same difference of opinion which being known to the City they assembled in great multitudes in the Piazza threatning the Nobility highly till at last they condescended But their resolution coming too late and many constrain'd to joyn in it against their persuasions the Enemy had time and drew safely off to Lucca This difference put the people into such a huff against the Nobility the Signori refus'd to perform the Promise they made to the Rebels which came in upon Proclamation which the Rebels perceiving they resolv'd to be before hand if possible and accordingly presented themselves at the Gates of the City to be admitted before the Army came up but their design being suspected miscarryed and they were beaten back by those who were left in the Town To try if they could obtain that by treaty which they could not compass by force they sent eight Embassadors to the Signori to commemorate to them the Faith they had given the dangers they had run thereupon and that it could not be unreasonable they should have their promised reward The Nobility thought themselves obliged having promis'd them particularly as well as the Signori and therefore imploy'd all their interest for the advantage of the Rebels but the Commons being inrag'd that the Enterprize against Castruccio was not prosecuted as it might have been would not consent which turn'd afterwards to the great shame and dishonour of the City The Nobility being many of them disgusted thereat endeavoured that by force which was denyed them upon applications and agreed with the Guelfs that if they would attempt their entrance without they would take up Arms in their assistance within but their Plot being discover'd the Day before it was to be Executed when the banish'd Guelfs came to make their attack they found the City in Arms and all things so well dispos'd to repell them without and suppress those within that none of them durst venture and so the Enterprize was given over without any effort The Rebels being departed it was thought fit those Persons should be punish'd who invited them thither nevertheless though every Body could point at the delinquents yet no Body durst Name them much more accuse them That the truth might impartially be known it was ordered that the Names of the Offendors should be written down and deliver'd privately to the Captain which being done the Persons accused were Amerigo Donati Teghiaio Frescobaldi and Loteringo Gherardini whose Judges being now more favourable than perhaps their crime deserv'd they were only condemn'd to pay a Sum of Money and came off The tumults in Florence upon the alarm by the Rebels demonstrated clearly that to the Company of the People one Captain was not sufficient and therefore it was ordered for the future that every Company should have three or four and every Gonfalonier two or three join'd to them which should be call'd Pennonieri that in case of necessity where the whole Company could not be drawn out part of it might appear under one of the said Officers And as it happens in all Common-wealths after any great accident some or other of the old Laws are abrogated and others reviv'd to supply them so the Signoria being at first but occasional and temporary the Senators and Collegi then in being having the
so that that might be ruined before Nicolo could be called back or any other sufficient remedy provided That if things were curiously examined it would be found that Nicolo was sent into Tuscany upon no other errand but to divert the Count from his enterprize in Lomberdy and remove the War from his own Country by carrying it into another so that if the Count should pursue him without irresistable necessity he would rather accomplish his desâ—gns and do as he would have him but if they continued their Army in Lombardy 〈◊〉 shifted in Tuscany as well as they could they would be sensible of their ill resolution when it was too late and find that they had lost all in Lombardy irrecoverably without any equivalence or reprisal in Tuscany 〈◊〉 manner every Man having spoken and replyed as his judgment directed him it was concluded to be quiet for some days to see what the agrement betwixt Nicolo and the Malatesti would produce whether the Florentines might rely upon Piero Giam Pagolo and whether the Pope proceeded fairly with the League as he had promised he would This â—â—â—â—lution bâ—ing taken not long after they had intelligence that Piero Giam Pagolo was 〈◊〉 towards Tuscany with his Army and that the Pope was better inclined to the 〈◊〉 at that time than before with which advertisements the Count being confirmed he was content to remain in Lombardy himself that Neri should be dispatched thither with a 1000 of his Horse and five hundred others and if things should proceed so as that his presence should be necessary in Tuscany upon the left summons from Neri the Count engaged to repair to him without any delay Accordingly Neri marched away arrived with his forces at Florence in April and the same day Giam Pagolo arrived there also in the mean time Nicolo Piccinino having settled the affairs of Romagna was designing for Tuscany and being inclined to have marched by the way of the Alps of S. Benedetto and the vale of Montone he found that passage so well defended by the conduct of Nicolo da Pisa that he believed his whole Army would not be able to force it and because of the suddenness of this irruption the Florentines were but indifferently provided either with Souldiers or Officers they committed the passes of the other Alps to the guard of certain of their Citizens with some new raised Companies of Foot among which Citizens Bartholomeo Orlandini had the command and more particularly the keeping of the Castle of Marradi and the pass that was by it Nicolo Piccinino supposing the pass of S. Benedetto insuperable by reason of the courage and vigilance of the Commander chose rather to attempt the other way where the cowardice and inexperience of the chief Officer was not like to give him so great opposition Marradi is a Castle built at the foot of those Alps which divide Tuscany and Romagna but on the side of Romagna at the entrance into the Vale di Lamona though it has no Walls yet the River the Mountains and the inhabitants make it strong For the Men are martial and faithful and the River has worn away the bancks and made such Grotes and hollows therein that it is impossible from the valley to approach it if a little Bridge which lies over the River be defended and on the mountain side the Rocks and the Cliffs are so steep it is almost impregnable but the pusillanimity of Bartolomeo debas'd the courage of his Men and rendered the situation of his Castle of no importance for no sooner did he hear the report of the Enemies approach but leaving all in confusion away he ran with his Party and never stoped til he came at Borgo a San. Lorenzo Nicolo having posses'd himself of that pass strangely surprized to consider how poorly it had been defended and as much pleased that now it was his own marched down into Mugello and having taken several Castles he staid at Puliciano to refresh from whence he made his excursions as far as Monte Fiesole and was so bold to pass the River Arno scouring forraging and plâ—undering the Country within three miles of Florence The Florentines however were not at all dismaid but the first thing they did was to secure the Government of which they were not much afraid both for the intrest which Cosimo had with the people and the method they had taken to reduce the chief Officers of the City into the hands of a few of the most potent Citizens who with their vigilance and severity kept under all such as were discontented or studious of new things besides they had news of the resolutions in Lombardy of Neri's approach with the number of his forces and that the Pope had promised to supply them with more which hopes were sufficient to support them till Neri's arrival But Neri finding the City in some disorders resolved to take the field and restrain Nicolo from foraging so freely and therefore drawing together what Infantry he could out of the People he joyned them with his Horse marched into the field and took Remole which the Enemy had possess'd After the taking of that Town he encamped his Army there obstructed the excursions of Nicolo and gave the City great hopes of sending him farther off Nicolo observing though the Florentines had lost many of their Men it procured no commotion and understanding they were all quiet and secure in the Town he concluded it vain to lose time any longer wherefore he changed his designs and resolved to do something which might cause the Florentines to provoke him to a Battle in which he doubted not to overcome and then all things would follow as he expected of course there was at that time in Nicolo's Army Francesco Conte di Poppi who when the Enemy was in Mugello revolted from the Florentines with whom he was in League the Florentines had a jealousie of him before and endeâ—voured to continue him their friend by enlarging his pay and making him there Deputy over all the Towns which were near him but nothing could do so strongly did his affection incline him to the other party that no fear nor act of kindness what ever was sufficient to divide him from Rinaldo and the rest of the Brethren who had had the Government formerly so that he no sooner heard of Nicolo's approach but he went in to him immediately and solicited him with all imaginable importunity to advance towards the City and march into Casentino discovering to him the whole strength of the Country and with what ease and security he might straiten the Enemy Nicolo took his Counsel and marching into Casentino he possess'd himself of Romena and Bibiena and afterwards encamped before Castle San Nicolo That Castle is placed at the foot of those Alps which divide Casentino from the vale of Arno and by reason it stood high and had a strong Garison in it it was no easie matter to take it though Nicolo ply'd it continually
not of a tedious and only possible supply Then he fell with great words to mitigate the proceedings of the Count he accus'd the Venetians he accus'd all the Princes of Italy who some for ambition and some for avarice would not permit them to live free And now since their liberty was lost and they must yield to some Body or other his opinion was they should do it to one that knew them and was able to defend them that they might be sure of peace for their servitude and not be engaged in greater and more pernicious War The People heard him with great intention and when he had done they cryed out with one voice that the Count should be the Man and Gasparre their Embassador to invite him who carrying him the joyful news was kindly entertain'd and the Count enter'd into Milan 26th of February 1450 and was received with great acclamation even by those Persons which not long before had so highly traduced him The news of this conquest arriving at Florence they despatched orders immediatly to their Embassadors who were upon the way that instead of treating an agreement with him as Count which was their instruction before their business should now be to congratulate him as Duke These Embassadors were honorably entertain'd and bountifully presented by the Duke who knew against the Power of the Venetians he could not have in all Italy more faithful nor more potent allies than the Citizens of Florence who though freed from their apprehensions of the House of the Visconti were nevertheless obnoxious to the forces of the King of Aragon and the Venetians for they knew the Kings of Aragon would be their Enemies for the amity and correspondence they had always maintain'd with the French and the Venetians knew their old fears of the Visconti were occasioned by them and remembring with what eagerness the Visconti were persecuted and that if they came into their power they were like to fare no better they were bent wholly upon their ruine For these reasons the new Duke embrac'd an agreement with the Florentines very willingly and the Venetians and the King of Aragon confederated against them the King of Aragon undertaking the Florentines and the Venetians the Duke who being new and scarce setled in his Government they suppos'd would not be able to confront them with all his own forces nor all the friends he could make But because the League betwixt the Florentines and the Venetians was not yet fully expir'd and the King of Aragon upon conclusion of the War at Piombino had made an accord with them it did not seem convenient to break the peace abruptly but rather to attend some accident that might give them pretence to invade them Whereupon they sent Embassadors to Florence each of them apart to let the Florentines know that the Leagues which had passed betwixt them were not made to offend any body but to defend one another Then the Venetians complained that the Florentines had suffer'd Alexander the Dukes Brother to pass with his forces into Lombardy by the way of Lunigiana and besides had been the authors and Counsellors of the agreement betwixt the Duke and the Marquess of Mantoâ—a all which they affirmed was done to the prejudice of their State and contrary to the amity betwixt them insinuating as friends that who ever injures another Person wrongfully gives him a right to revenge himself and who ever breaks peace must prepare for War The answer to these Embassies was committed to Cosimo who in a wise and eloquent oration recapitulated the benefits the republick of Venice had receiv'd from that State declaring what empire and dominion they had gain'd with that treasure and forces and advice of the Florentines demonstrating that as the amity betwixt them was propos'd by the Florentines they would not be the first which would break it For having been always lovers of peace they were well satisfied with their friendship and would always endeavour to preserve it The truth was all people wonder'd at their complaints that so grave and judicious a Senate should concern themselves for things so trivial and vain but seeing they thought them worthy of their consideration they could not but declare that their Country was free and open to any body and that the Duke was a Person of such qualifications that he needed not the advice or favour or any in the choice of his Allies and therefore he was afraid there was something more at the bottom than they had hitherto discovered which if hereafter it should appear the Florentines doubted not but to manifest it easily to the World that as their friendship had been profitable their enmity could be dangerous However things were smoothed over pretty handsomly for that time and the Embassadors seemed to go away well enough content yet the alliance the King of Aragon the Venetians had made and the manner of their deportment gave the Duke and Florentines both more reason to prepare for a War than to rely upon their peace upon which the Florentines confederating with the Duke the Venetians discover'd themselves made a League with Sienna and banish'd all the Florentines and their subjects out of Venice and its dominions and not long after Alfonso did the same without any respect to the League he had made with them the year before and without any just or so much as pretended occasion The Venetians were desirous to get Bologna into their hands and to that end furnishing certain of their exiles with a proportionable force they marched thither in the night and by the common shore got into the Town so privatly their entrance was not perceived till they gave the alarm themselves upon which Santi Bentivogli leaping out of his bed was inform'd the whole City was in the possession of the Enemy Santi was advised by many which were about him to fly and preserve himself that way seeing there was not any left to secure the State However he resolv'd to try his fortune and taking arms and encouraging his servants to follow him he went forth and having joyn'd them to some of his friends he charg'd a party of the Enemy beat them kill'd several aâ—d forc'd all of them out of the Town by which action he was thought to have given ample testimony of his extraction from the house of the Bentivogli These passages made it clear to the Florentines that a War was intended and therefore they betook themselves to their ancient methods of defence They created a Council of Ten. They entertain'd new officers They sent Embassadors to Rome Naples Venice Sienna and Milan to desire aid of their friends to discover such as were suspicious to gain such as were irresolute and to prie into the Counsels of their Enemies From the Pope they could obtain nothing but general words civility and exhortations to peace From the King of Aragon nothing but idle excusâ—s for having dismiss'd the Florentines offering his passport
they thought it probable he might succeed Lorenzo embracing the motion and having prepared for his journey committed the City and Government to Tomaso Soderini at that time Gonfaloniere di Gustitia and left Florence in the beginning of December Being arrived at Pisa in his way he writ to the Senate and gave them an account of his design and the Senate in honor to him and that he might treat with more reputation made him Embassador for the People of Florence and gave him authority to conclude with him according to his own judgment and discretion About this time Signore Roberto da Santo Severino joyning with Lodovico and Ascanio for their brother Sforza was dead they invaded the State of Milan in hopes to have re-invested themselves having possess'd themselves of Tortona and Milan and the whole State being in Arms the Dutchess was advised to compose her civil dissentions to restore the Sforzi and receive them into the Government again Her great Councellor in this was Antonio Tassino a Ferrarese who though meanly extracted being come to Milan was preferred to be Chamberlain both to the Duke and the Dutchess this Antonio for the comliness of his person or some other secret excellence after the Dukes death grew into great favour with the Dutchess and in a manner governed the whole State which was very unpleasing to Cecco a Man of great prudence and long experience in publick affairs insomuch that he used all his interest both with the Dutchess and the rest of the Governors to clip the wings of his authority remove him Antonio having notice of his design to countermine him and have some body near which might be able to defend him he advis'd the Dutchess to restore the Sforzi and the Dutchess following his persuasion invited them back again without communicating with Cecco upon which he is reported to have told her that she had done a thing which would cost him his life and deprive her of the Government And so afterwards it fell out for Cecco was put to death by Lorenzo and Tassino turned out of Milan which the Dutchess took in such dudgeon that she forsook the Town and left the Government of her Son to his unckle Lodovico which act of her's in leaving that whole Dutchy to the Government of Lodovico was the ruine of Italy as shall be shown in its place Lorenzo de Medici was in his journey towards Naples and the truce betwixt the parties in a very fair way when on a sudden beyond all expectation Lodovico Fregoso having intelligence in Serezana surprized the Town and made all prisoners whom he found any ways affected to the Florentines This accident was highly resented by the Governors of Florence for they imagined it done by the order of Ferrando and therefore complained heavily to the Duke of Calabria who was with his Army at Sienna that whilst they were in Treaty they should be assaulted so treacherously but the Duke assured them by Letters and an Embassy on purpose that what had passed was done without either his consent or his Fathers However the affairs of the Florentines were judged in a very ill condition their treasure being exhausted their Prince in the hands of the King an old War on Foot with the Pope and the King a new War commenced with the Genoeesi and no friends to support them for they had no hopes of the Venetian and of the State of Milan they had more reason to be afraid it was so various and unstable the only hope remaining to the Florentines was in Lorenzo's address to the King Lorenzo arrived at Naples by Sea was honorably received both by the King and the whole City and though the War was begun for no other end but to ruine him yet the greatness of his Enemies did but add to his Grandeur for being brought to his audience he delivered himself so handsomly and discoursed so well of the condition of Italy of the humors of all the Princes and People therein and gave so good account of what was to be dreaded by War and what was to be hoped for by peace that the King admired the greatness of his mind the dexterity of his wit the solidity of his judgment more now than he had wondered before how he could alone sustain so great an invasion insomuch that he doubled his respects towards him and began to think it his interest much more to make him his friend than to continue him his Enemy Nevertheless upon sundry pretences and fetches he kept him in dispence from December to March not only to satisfie himself in a farther experience of Lorenzo but to inform himself of the infidelity of Florence for that City was not without those who would have been glad the King would have kept him and handled him as Giacopo Piccinino was handled These People began to complain and spake ill of him all over the Town to oppose themselves publickly in the Councils against any thing that was moved in favour to Lorenzo and gave out generally where ever they came that if the King kept him much longer at Naples they would alter the Government so that the King forbore to dispatch him for some time in expectation of a tumult But finding all quiet and no likelyhood of any such thing on the 6 of March 1479 he dismissed him having first presented him so nobly and treated him so honorably that they had made a perpetual League and obliged themselves mutually for the preservation of one anothers Dominions If therefore Lorenzo was great when he went from Florence he was much greater when he returned and was received with a joy and acclamation in the City sutable to his quality and the recency of his deserts who had ventred his own life so frankly to procure peace to his Country Two days after his arrival the Articles of Peace were published by which both the State of Florence and King had particularly obliged themselves to a common defence that such Towns as were taken from the Florentines during the War if in the King's power should be restored that the Pazzi which were prisoners at Volterra should be discharged and a certain sum of mony payed to the Duke of Calabria for a prefixed time This Peace was no sooner published but the Pope and the Venetians were infinitly offended the Pope thinking himself neglected by the King and the Venetians by the Florentines for both one and the other having been partners in the War they took it unkindly to be left out of the Peace Their displeasure being reported and believed at Florence it was presently apprehended that the effect of this peace would be a greater War Hereupon the Governors of the State began to think of contracting the government and reducing it into a lesser number of Ministers appointing a Council of 70 Citizens to transact such affairs as were of principal importance This new Constitution settled the minds of those who were desirous of innovation and to give
their differences with the Pope Siena being free they delivered from their apprehensions of the King by the Duke of Calabria drawing away with his Army out of Tuscany and the War continuing with the Turks they pressed the King so hard to the restitution of such places as the Duke of Calabria at his departure had committed to the keeping of the Sanesi that he began to fear the Florentines might desert him and by making War upon the Sanesi hinder the assistance which he expected from the Pope and the rest of the Princes of Italy whereupon he caused them all to be delivered and by several new favours reobliged the Florentines to him from whence we may observe that it is interest and necessity not their hands or their words which make Princes keep their promises These Castles being restored and the new League confirmed Lorenzo de Medici gained greater reputation than the War first and after the peace when they were jealous of the King had taken from him For at that time there wanted not those who calumniated him openly as one who to preserve himself had sold his Country and as by the War they had lost their Towns by the peace they should lose their liberty But when the Towns were restored and honorable peace concluded with the King and the City returned to its ancient reputation the People who are generally greedy to talk and judge of things more by the success than the Counsel changed their note presently and cryed up Lorenzo to the skies as one who had gained more by his management in that peace than their ill fortune had got them by the War and that his prudence and judgment had done what all the Armies and power of their Enemies could not This descent of the Turks defer'd the War which the Pope and the Venetians upon provocation of that peace had designed against them but as the beginning of the Turkish invasion was unexpected and produced much good so the end of it was unlooked for and the occasion of much mischief for Mahomet the Grand Signore died suddenly and difference arising betwixt his Sons those who were landed in Puglia being abandoned by their Lord came to an agreement with the King of Naples and delivered up Otranto into his hands This fear therefore being removed which kept the Pope and the Venetians quiet every one began to be apprehensive of new troubles On the one side the Pope and the Venetian were in League and with them Genoesi Sanesi and other lesser Potentates On the other side were the Florentines the King of Naples the Duke of Milan and with them the Bolognesi and several other little States The Venetian had a design upon Ferrara they thought they had reason enough to attempt it and hopes enough to carry it The reason was because the Marquess had declared himself obliged no longer to receive either their Visdomine or their falt for by compact after 70 years that City was to be exempt both from the one and the other to which the Venetians replyed that so long as he retained the Polesine so long he was to receive the Visdomine and the Salt but the Marquess refusing they thought they had just occasion to take Arms and their opportunity was convenient seeing the Pope in such indignation both against the Florentines and King to oblige him the more Count Girolamo being by accident at Venice was honorably treated made a Gentleman of that City and had all the priviledges and immunities of a Citizen conferred upon him which is a particular favour and shows always the great esteem they bear to the Person which receives it In preparation for this War they laid new taxes upon their subjects and for their General they had chosen Roberto da San Severino who upon some difference betwixt him and Lodovick Duke of Milan fled to Tortona and having made some tumults there he got off to Genoa from whence he was invited by the Venetians and made General of their Army The news of these preparations coming to the ears of the League they prepared themselves accordingly The Duke of Milan chose Federigo Lord of Urbin for his General The Florentines Costanzo di Pesaro and to sound the Pope and discover whether these proceedings of the Venetians were by his consent King Ferrando sent the Duke of Calabria with his Army to quarter upon the Tronto and desired leave of his Holiness that they might pass thorow his territories from thence into Lombardy to the relief of the Marquess which being absolutely denied the Florentines and King thinking that a sufficient declaration of his mind resolved to attempt it by force and try if that they could make him their friend or at least give him such impediments as should hinder his supplying of the Venetians who had already taken the field invaded the Marquess overrun most of the Country and clap'd down with their Army before Figarolo a Castle of great importance to the affairs of that Prince The King and the Florentines having in the mean time concluded to fall upon the Pope Alfonso Duke of Calabria marched his Army towards Rome and by the help of the Collennesi who were joyned with him in opposition to the Orsini who sided with the Pope he committed great spoils all over that Country On the other side the Florentines under the command of Nicolo Vitelli assaulted the City of Castello took it turned out Lorenzo who had kept it for the Pope and gave it to Nicolo as Prince the Pope was at this time in very great anxiety Rome was full of factions within and the Enemy in the Country without Nevertheless like a couragious Prince resolved to overcome not to yield to his Enemies he entertained for his General Roberto da Rimino and inviting him to Rome where he had assembled all the forces he could make he represented how great an honor it would be to him if he could rescue the Church from the calamities which were upon it and that not only himself and his successors but God Almighty would reward him Roberto having taken a view of his Army and all the Magazines he persuaded the Pope to raise him what foot he could more which was done with great diligence and expedition The Duke of Calabria was all this while forraging about that Country and making his inroads to the very walls of the City which netled and provoked the Citizens so as many of them came freely and offered their service to remove them which Roberto with many thanks and great expressions of kindness accepted The Duke understanding their preparations thought fit to draw farther off from the City supposing that Roberto would not venture to follow him at any distance from the Town besides he had some expectation of his Brother Federigo who was to come to him with fresh supplies from his Father Roberto finding himself equal in Horse and superior in foot drew his Army out of the Town and directing towards the Enemy he encamped within two
as are more powerful and to have a particular care that no stranger enters into the said Province with as much power as he for it will always happen that some body or other will be invited by the Male-contents either out of ambition or fear This is visible in the Etolians who brought the Romans into Greece who were never admitted into any Province but by the temptation of the Natives The Common method in such Cases is this As soon as a foreign Potentate enters into a Province those who are weaker or disoblig'd joyn themselves with him out of emulation and animosity to those who are above them insomuch that in respect of these inferiour Lords no pains is to be omitted that may gain them and when gain'd they will readily and unanimously fall into one mass with the State that is conquered Only the Conqueror is to take special care they grow not too strong nor be intrusted with too much Authority and then he can easily with his own forces and their assistance keep down the greatness of his Neighbours and make himself absolute Arbiter in that Province And he who acts not this part prudently shall quickly lose what he has got and even whil'st he enjoys it be obnoxious to many troubles and inconveniences The Romans in their new Conquests observ'd this Course they planted their Colonies entertain'd the inferior Lords into their protection without increasing their power they kept under such as were more potent and would not suffer any foreign Prince to have interest among them I will set down only Greece for an Example The Etolians and Achaians were protected the Kingdom of the Macedonians was depress'd and Antiochus driven out yet the merits and fidelity of the Achaians and Etolians could never procure them any increase of Authority nor the persuasions and applications of Philip induce the Romans to be his friends till he was overcome nor the power of Antiochus prevail with them to consent that he should retain any Soveraignty in that Province For the Romans acted in that case as all wise Princes ought to do who are to have an eye not only upon present but future incommodities and to redress them with all possible industry for dangers that are seen afar off are easily prevented but protracting till they are at hand the remedies grow unseasonable and the malady incurable And it falls out in this case as the Physitians say of an Hectick Feaver that at first it is easily cur'd and hard to be known but in process of time no being observ'd or resisted in the beginning it becomes easie to be known but very difficult to be cur'd So is it in matters of State things which are discover'd at a distance which is done only by prudent men produce little mischief but what is easily averted But when thorow ignorance or inadvertency they come to that height that every one discerns them there is no room for any remedy and the disease is incurable The Romans therefore foreseeing their troubles afar off oppos'd themselves in time and never swallow'd any injury to put off a War for they knew that War was not avoided but defer'd thereby and commonly with advantage to the Enemy wherefore they chose rather to make War upon Philip and Antiochus in Greece than suffer them to invade Italy and yet at that time there was no necessity of either they might have avoided them both but they thought it not fit for they could never relish the saying that is so frequent in the Mouths of our new Politicians To enjoy the present benefits of time but prefer'd the exercise of their courage and wisdom for time carries all things along with it and may bring good as well as evil and ill as well as good But let us return to France and examine if what was there done was conformable to what is prescribed here and to this purpose I shall not speak of Charles VIII but of Lewis XII as of a Prince whose Conduct and affairs by reason his possession was longer in Italy were more conspicuous and you shall see how contrary he acted in every thing that was necessary for the keeping of so different a State This Lewis was invited into Italy by the Venetians who had an ambition to have got half Lombardy by his coming I will not condemn the Expedition nor blame the Counsels of that King for being desirous of footing in Italy and having no Allies left in that Country but all doors shut against him upon the ill treatment which his predecessor Charles had used towards them he was constrain'd to take his friends where he could find them and that resolution would have been lucky enough had he not miscarried in his other administration for he had no sooner subdued Lombardy but he recover'd all the reputation and dignity that was lost by King Charles Genoa submitted Florence courted his friendship the Marquess of Mantoua the Duke of Ferrara Bentivoglio Madam de Furli the Lords of Faenza Pesoro Rimini Camerino Piombino the Lucchesi Pisani Sanesi all of them address themselves to him for his alliance and amity Then the Venetians began to consider and reflect upon their indiscretion who to gain two Towns in Lombardy had made the King of France Master of two thirds of all Italy Let any one now think with how little difficulty the said King might have kept up his reputation in that Country if he had observ'd the rules abovesaid and protected his friends who being numerous and yet weak and fearful some of the Pope and some of the Venetians were always under a necessity of standing by him and with their assistance he might easily have secured himself against any Competitor whatever But he was no sooner in Milan but he began to prevaricate and send supplies to Pope Alexander to put him in possession of Romagna not considering that thereby he weakned himself and disoblig'd his friends who had thrown themselves into his arms and agrandized the Church by adding to its spiritual authority which was so formidable before so great a proportion of temporal and having committed one error he was forc'd to proceed so far as to put a stop to the ambition of Pope Alexander and hinder his making himself Master of Tuscany the said Lewis was forced into Italy again Nor was it enough for him to have advanced the interest of the Church and deserted his friends but out of an ardent desire to the Kingdom of Naples he shared it with the King of Spain so that whereas before he was sole Umpire in Italy he now entertained a Partner to whom the ambitious of that Province and his own Male-contents might repair upon occasion and whereas the King of that Kingdom might have been made his Pensioner he turn'd out him to put in another that might be able to turn out himself It is very obvious and no more than Natural for Princes to desire to extend their Dominion and when they attempt nothing but what they are able
relyed upon before But in Kingdoms that are governed according to the Model of France it happens quite contrary because having gained some of the Barons to your side and some of them will always be discontent and desirous of change you may readily enter They can as I said before give you easie admission and contribute to your Victory But to defend and make good what you have got brings a long train of troubles and calamities with it as well upon your friends as your foes Nor will it suffice to exterminate the race of the King forasmuch as other Princes will remain who upon occasion will make themselves heads of any Commotion and they being neither to be satisfied nor extinguished you must of necessity be expell'd upon the first Insurrection Now if it be considered what was the Nature of Darius his Government it will be found to have been very like the Turks and therefore Alexander was obliged to fight them and having conquered them and Darius dying after the Victory the Empire of the Persians remained quietly to Alexander for the reasons abovesaid and his Successors had they continued united might have enjoyed it in peace for in that whole Empire no Tumults succeeded but what were raised by themselves But in Kingdoms that are constituted like France it is otherwise and impossible to possess them in quiet From hence sprung the many defections of Spain France and Greece from the Romans by reason of the many little Principalities in those several Kingdoms of which whil'st there remained any memory the Romans enjoyed their possession in a great deal of incertainty but when their memory was extinct by power and diuturnity of Empire they grew secure in their possessions and quarrelling afterwards among themselves every Officer of the Romans was able to bring a party into the field according to the latitude and extent of his Command in the said Provinces and the reason was because the race of their old Princes being extirpate there was no body left for them to acknowledge but the Romans These things therefore being considered it is not to be wondred that Alexander had the good fortune to keep the Empire of Asia whil'st the rest as Pyrrhus and others found such difficulty to retain what they had got for it came not to pass from the small or great Virtue of the Victor but from the difference and variety of the Subject CHAP. V. How such Cities and Principalities are to be Govern'd who lived under their own Laws before they were subdued WHen States that are newly conquered have been accustomed to their liberty and lived under their own Laws to keep them three ways are to be observed The first is utterly to ruine them the second to live personally among them the third is contenting your self with a Pension from them to permit them to enjoy their old priviledges and Laws erecting a kind of Council of State to consist of a few which may have a care of your interest and keep the people in amity and obedience And that Council being set up by you and knowing that it subsists only by your favour and authority will not omit any thing that may propagate and inlarge them A Town that has been anciently free cannot more easily be kept in subjection than by employing its own Citizens as may be seen by the Example of the Spartans and Romans The Spartans had got possession of Athens and Thebes and setled an Oligarchie according to their fancy and yet they lost them again The Romans to keep Capua Carthage and Numantia ordered them to be destroyed and they kept them by that means Thinking afterwards to preserve Greece as the Spartans had done by allowing them their liberty and indulging their old Laws they found themselves mistaken so that they were forced to subvert many Cities in that Province before they could keep it and certainly that is the safest way which I know for whoever conquers a free Town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruin'd himself because whenever the Citizens are disposed to a revolt they betake themselves of course to that blessed name of Liberty and the Laws of their Ancestors which no length of time nor kind usage whatever will be able to eradicate and let all possible care and provision be made to the contrary unless they be divided some way or other or the Inhabitants dispersed the thought of their old priviledges will never out of their heads but upon all occasions they will endeavour to recover them as Pisa did after it had continued so many years in subjection to the Florentines But it falls out quite contrary where the Cities or Provinces have been us'd to a Prince whose race is extirpated and gone for being on the one side accustomed to obey and on the other at a loss for their old Family they can never agree to set up another and will never know how to live freely without so that they are not easily to be tempted to rebel and the Prince may oblige them with less difficulty and be secure of them when he hath done But in a Commonwealth their hatred is more inverterate their revenge more insatiable nor does the memory of their ancient liberty ever suffer or ever can suffer them to be quiet So that the most secure way is either to ruine them quite or make your residence among them CHAP. VI. Of Principalities acquired by ones own proper Conduct and Arms. LEt no man think it strange if in speaking of new Governments either by Princes or States I introduce great and eminent Examples forasmuch as men in their actions follow commonly the ways that are beaten and when they would do any generous thing they propose to themselves some pattern of that Nature nevertheless being impossible to come up exactly to that or to acquire that virtue in perfection which you desire to imitate a wise man ought always to set before him for his Example the actions of great Men who have excell'd in the atchievement of some great Exploit to the end that though his virtue and power arrives not at that perfection it may at least come as near as is possible and receive some tincture thereby Like Experienced Archers who observing the Mark to be at great distance and knowing the strength of their Bow and how far it will carry they fix their aim somewhat higher than the Mark not with design to shoot at that height but that by mounting their Arrow to a certain proportion they may come the nearer to the Mark they intend I say then that Principalities newly acquited by an upstart Prince are more or less difficult to maintain as he is more or less provident that gains them And because the happiness of rising from a private person to be a Prince presupposes great Virtue or Fortune where both of them concur they do much facilitate the conservation of the Conquest yet he who has committed least to Fortune has continued
time otherwise there was great danger of a General destruction Resolving therefore to desire aid of the Florentines and to continue their amity with the Bentivogli they sent Embassadors to both promising their assistance to the one and begging the assistance of the other against the Common Enemy This Dyet was quickly nois'd all over Italy and such of Duke Valentine's Subjects as were discontented among whom were the Urbinati began to hold up their heads and hope for a revolution While the people were in this suspence certain of the Inhabitants of Urbino laid a plot to suprize the Castle of San. Leo which at that time was kept for the Duke and the manner was thus The Governor of the Castle was busie in repairing it and mending the fortifications to which purpose having commanded great quantities of Timber to be brought in the Conspirators contrived that certain of the biggest pieces should be laid as by accident upon the bridge which they knew could not be cran'd up without a great deal of difficulty whil'st the Guards were employed in hoysting the Timber they took their opportunity seized upon the Bridge and then upon the Castle which was no sooner known to be taken but the whole Country revolted and called in their old Duke yet not so much upon the surprize of that Castle as their expectations from the Dyet at Magione by means of which they did not question to be protected The Dyet understanding the revolt of Urbino concluded no time was to be lost and having drawn their Forces together they advanced if any Town was remaining to the Duke to reduce it immediately They sent a new Embassy to the Florentines to solicite their Concurrence against the common Enemy to remonstrate their success and to convince them that such an opportunity being lost was not to be expected again But the Florentines had an old pique to the Vitelli and Ursini upon several accompts so that they did not only not joyn with them but they sent their Secretary Nicolo Machiavelli to the Duke to offer him reception of assistance which he pleased to Elect. The Duke was at Imola at that time in great consternation for unexpectedly on a sudden when he dream'd nothing of it his Soldiers revolted and left him with a War at his Doors and no force to repel it But taking heart upon the Florentine Complement he resolved with the few Forces he had left to protract and spin out the War and by propositions and practices of agreement gain time till he could provide himself better which he did two ways by sending to the King of France and by giving advance Mony to all Men at Arms and Cavalry that would come in Notwithstanding all this the Ursini proceeded and marched on towards Fossombrone where being faced by a party of the Dukes they charged them and beat them The news of that defeat put the Duke upon new Counsels to try if he could stop that humour by any practice of accord and being excellent at dissembling he omitted nothing that might persuade them that they were the Aggressors and had taken up Arms first against him That what was in his hands he would willingly surrender that the Name of Prince was enough for him and if they pleased the Principality should be theirs and he deluded them so far that they sent Signor Pagolo to him to treat about a Peace and in the mean time granted a Cessation of Arms However the Duke put no stop to his recruits but reinforced himself daily with all possible diligence and that his supplies might not be discovered he dispers'd them as they came all over Romagna Whil'st these things were in transaction a supply of 500 Lances arrived to him from France and though by their help he found himself strong enough to confront his Enemy in the field yet he judged it more secure and profitable to go on with the cheat and not break off the Capitulation that then was on foot And he acted it so well that a Peace was concluded their old Pensions confirmed 4000 Duckats paid down a solemn engagement given not to disturb the Bentivogli He made an alliance with Giovanni and declared that he could not and had no power to constrain any of them to come personally to him unless they pleased to do it themselves They promised on their part to restore the Dutchy of Urbino and whatever else they had taken from him to serve him in all his Enterprizes not to make War without his leave nor hire themselves to any body else These Articles being sign'd Guid ' Ubaldo Duke of Urbin fled again to Venice having dismantled all the Castles and strong holds in his Dutchy before he departed for having a confidence in the people he would not that those places which he could not defend himself should be possessed by the Enemy and made use of to keep his friends in subjection But Duke Valentine having finished the agreement and disposed his Army into quarters all over Romagna about the end of November removed from Imola to Cesena where he continued several days in consultation with certain Commissioners sent from the Vitelli and Ursini who were then with their Troops in the Dutchy of Urbino about what new Enterprize they were next to undertake and because nothing was concluded Oliverotto da Ferno was sent to propose to him if he thought good an expedition into Tuscany if not that they might joyn and set down before Sinigaglia The Duke replyed That the Florentines were his Friends and he could not with honour carry the War into Tuscany but their proposal for Sinigaglia he embraced very willingly Having beleaguer'd the Town it was not long before they had News it was taken but the Castle held out for the Governor refused to surrender to any body but the Duke whereupon they intreated him to come The Duke thought this a fair opportunity and the better because he went not of himself but upon their invitation and to make them the more secure he dismissed his French and sent them back into Lombardy only he retained a hundred Lances under the Command of his Kinsman Monsieur de Candale Departing about the end of December from Cesena he went to Fano where with all the cunning and artifice he could use he persuaded the Vitelli and Ursini to stay with the Army till he came remonstrating to them that such jealousies and suspicions as those must needs weaken their alliance and render it undurable and that for his part he was a man who desired to make use as well of the Counsels as the Arms of his Friends And though Vitellozzo opposed it very much for by the death of his Brother he had been taught how unwise it was to offend a Prince first and then put himself into his hands nevertheless persuaded by Paulo Ursino who underhand was corrupted by presents and promises from the Duke he consented to stay Hereupon the Duke upon his departure the 30th of Decemb. 1502. imparted
violence and the Sword From whence we may judge and distinguish betwixt the inconvenience of the one and the other The people are appeased with gentleness and good words and the Prince not to be prevailed upon but by violence and force and if it be so who is it that will deny That the Disease is more dangerous where the Cure is most difficult Moreover when the people tumultuate there is not so much fear of any present mischief that they are likely to commit as of the consequences of it and that it may end in a tyranny But with ill Princes it is quite contrary the present misery is the most dreadful because they hope when he dyes their liberty may be recovered You see then the difference betwixt them one is more dangerous at present and the other for the future the cruelty of the people extends only to such as in their opinion conspire against the common good The severity of the Prince is more against them who design against his particular interest But this opinion of the people goes daily down the wind for every man has liberty to speak what he pleases against them though even the Government be popular But against a Prince no man can talk without a thousand apprehensions and dangers Nor will it seem to me incongruous the matter having drawn me thus far in my next Chapter to discourse what Confederacies are most safe those which are made with Princes or those which are made with Commonwealths CHAP. LIX What Leagues or Confederacies are most to be trusted Those which are made with Princes or those which are made with free States BEcause Princes with Princes and free States among themselves and many times with Princes do enter into leagues of friendship and confederacy I thought it not amiss to enquire in this place whose faith is the most firm and in whose amity the greatest confidence is to be reposed Having considered it diligently with my self it seems to me that in many cases they are alike and in some they differ And first when necessity of State requires and there is any visible danger of losing the Government neither the one nor the other are so precise but they will make bold with their engagements and behave themselves ingratefully Demetrius Poliorcetes had obliged the Athenians by many good Offices but his Army being aftewards defeated and himself flying to them for refuge as to his Confederates and Friends he was repulsed and not admitted into the City which troubled him more than the loss of his Army Pompey being beaten in Thessalia by Caesar fled likewise into Egypt to Ptolomy whom he had formerly restored to his Kingdom and was murthered by him for his confidence In both these Examples the ingratitude seems to be the same yet the inhumanity was greater on the Princes side than on the Common-wealths but be it as it will when the State is in danger they are neither of them scrupulous And if there be any Prince or Commonwealth so punctual as to preserve their league though with destruction to themselves it may proceed from the same causes It may very well happen that a Prince may confederate with some other great Potentate who though unable to defend him at that time may give him hopes notwithstanding of restoring him some other and persevere in his Confederacy as thinking that by having made himself of that Princes party he has rendered his accommodation with the adversary imposible This was the case of all the Neopolitan Princes who sided with the French in their Expedition unto those parts And as to the free States they suffered of old something in this Nature as Saguntum in Spain which City chose rather to expose its self to direption and all the Calamities of War than forsake its confederacy with the Romans and in the year 1512. Florence did almost the same to continue its amity with the French So that computing every thing and considering what both parties have done upon such imminent and irresistable danger I believe there is more constancy and firm friendship to be found among Commonwealths than among Princes for though perhaps they may have the same sentiments and inclinations as Princes yet their motions and resolutions being slower they are longer before they violate their faith But when their leagues and confederacies are to be broken upon the bare prospect of advantage in that case your Commonwealths are much more religious and severe and examples may be brought where a small gain has tempted a Prince when a great one could not move a Common-wealth Themistocles in an Oration to the Athenians told them That he had something to advise that would be infinitely to their advantage but durst not communicate it in publick because to publish it would hinder the Execution whereupon the people deputed Aristides to receive it and act in it afterwards as he should think convenient Themistocles acquainted him That the whole Grecian Fleet though under their passport and parole were in a place where they might be all taken or destroyed which would make the Athenians absolute Masters in those Seas and Aristides reported to the people That the Council of Themistocles was profitable but would be a great dishonour to their State upon which it was unanimously rejected But had the same occasion been offered to Philip of Macedon or some other Princes they would not have been so tender for it was a practice among them and especially with Philip who got more by breaking his faith than by all his other designs As to the breaches upon the non-observance of Articles they are ordinary things and I have nothing to say of them I speak only of extraordinary occasions and am of opinion from what I have said That the people do transgress less in that Nature than Princes and may therefore with more confidence be trusted CHAP. LX. How the Consulship and other Dignities in Rome were conferred without respect of age IT is manifest in the History of the Roman Commonwealth that after the people were made capable of the Consulship the Citizens were promiscuously prefer'd without respect either of age or extraction but any man was advanced for his Virtue whether he was a young man or an old and this was evident in Valerius Corvinus who was created Consul in the 23 year of his age upon which consideration in one of his Speeches to the Army he told them that the Consulship was Praemium Virtutis non Sanguinis The reward not of Nobility but Virtue Whether this was prudently done or not may admit of dispute But as to the receiving all sorts of persons to that dignity without consideration of their blood there was a necessity of that and the same necessity that was in Rome may happen in any other City that desires to do the same great things which were done in Rome of which we have spoken elsewhere For men are not to be persuaded to suffer but in hopes of reward and that hope cannot be
maintained the contrary with such constancy that the Emperor was amaz'd and discharged her So then he that communicates a thing of this Nature to one runs but these two dangers either of being spontaneously accused and proof brought to make it good or else being accused by accident and of force as when his Confederate is apprehended upon suspition and impeaches him upon the Rack in both which cases there is something to be said for in the first he may pretend malice in the second fear and that the extremity of his torture constrained him to say false So that it is great wisdom to communicate with no body till your designs be ripe but to proceed according to the examples aforesaid but if you must communicate to do it but to one alone and by himself in which though there be some danger yet there is much less than where you communicate with many Another way and not unlike this is when the fury or violence of a Tyrant necessitates you to do that to him which otherwise he would be sure to do to you and sometimes it is so sudden and fierce it leaves you scarce time to think of securing your self This is an exigence and necessity that has most commonly a good end and to prove it I will produce two examples and no more Commodus the Emperour had two Captains of his Guards one of them called Lettus and the other Elettus particularly in his favour and Martia was the most intimate of his Concubines They having taken the liberty to admonish him of his ill Courses and the reflection his ill conversation had both upon his Person and Government he resolved to rid himself of his Monitors and to that end writ down the names of Martia Lettus Elettus and others who he designed should be put to death the next night and put the Note under his Pillow Being gone out into a Bath a Child that he lov'd exceedingly being rummaging about the room happened upon this Paper and going out with it in his hand Martia met him by accident took it from him read it sent it immediately to Lettus and Elettus who being sensible of their danger resolved to prevent him and without more ado killed Commodus in the Evening Antoninus Caracalla the Emperor was with his Army in Mesopotamia and having made Macrinus his General a better Statesman than Soldier it hapned as it does to all Princes that are wicked that he began to apprehend what he knew he deserved that some body conspired against him To be more certain he writ privately to a friend called Maternianus in Rome to consult the Astrologers and give him notice whether any body was contriving against the Empire Maternianus writ him word he had consulted them that there were those who did aspire at the Empire and that Macrinus was the man This Letter coming by accident to the hands of Macrinus before the Emperor saw it he found the necessity that was upon him either to kill or be kill'd and thereupon committed the execution to a confident of his call'd Martialis whose Brother Antoninus had slain not many days before who kill'd him accordingly We see then that this necessity which allows us no time has the same effect in a manner with the course which was taken by Nelimatus of Epirus as I have mentioned before We see likewise that as I said in the beginning of these discourses that Commination and threatning does a Prince more mischief and are the occasion of more Plots than violence it self A Prince therefore is to have a care of that to caress those that are about him and keep them in their Allegiance by his courtesie and kindness if that will not do he is to secure himself otherwise as well as he can but never to bring them into a condition of thinking themselves under a necessity of killing or being kill'd As to the dangers which attend the execution of a Plot they proceed either from a sudden alteration of Orders a sudden defection of courage in him that is to execute some imprudence in the attempt or some imperfection in the act as when all are not killed that were intended And first we must understand that there is nothing gives so much Embarrasment and distraction to the action of men as new and contradictory orders to be executed in an instant and quite contrary to what was determined before And if in any thing this variation be dangerous it is in Martial affairs and in such things as we have now spoken of for in those cases there is nothing so necessary as that every man may know certainly his part that beforehand he may contrive with himself and conclude upon all the circumstances of the Fact whereas if they have fram'd their designs and fix'd upon their way and immediately new Orders are brought repugnant to the former it disturbs all and the whole Plot must be ruined so that it is better to execute it according to the first Order though there be something of inconvenience than to vary your Orders with a thousand times more But this is meant only where the variation is sudden for where you have time enough it is not so dangerous The Conspiracy of the Pazzi against Lorenzo and Giuliano de Medici is very well known Their first Orders were That an entertainment should be made for the Cardinal of St. George to which the Medici should be invited and killed Every mans Office was assigned some were to kill them some were to secure the Palace and others to ride up and down the City and proclaim liberty to the people It happened when the Pazzi Medici and Cardinal were altogether in the Cathedral in Florence at Divine Service news was brought that Iulian would not be at Dinner Hereupon the Conspirators consulting again it was resolved to alter the Plot and do that in the Church which was designed in the Chamber This sudden alteration discomposed the whole order for Giovan batista da Montesecco would not consent to add Sacriledge to his Murther and commit it in the Church upon which they were forced to appoint another in his place and shift all their Agents from one Office to another and their time being too short to fix their resolutions they committed so many errors in the execution that all of them miscarried And among the Conspirators when things come to be executed their heart many times fails them either out of sudden reverence or sudden fear for the presence and Majesty of some Princes is so aweful it either mitigates or frightens the fury of the Executioner Marius being taken and kept Prisoner by the Minturnenses they sent a Servant to kill him but the poor slave was so terrified at the sight of his Person and the Memory of his Name that his courage fail'd and he was not able to go thorow and if the consideration of his quality and the Majesty of his Countenance could do so much in a person that was a Prisoner and in
French at the Seige of Novarra where they were attacht and beaten by the Swizzers CHAP. XI One person that has many Enemies upon his hands though he be inferiour to them yet if he can sustain their first impression carries commonly the Victory THe power of the Tribunes of the people was great and necessary in the City of Rome to correct the ambition of the Nobility who otherwise would have debauch'd the said City much sooner than they did But as it happens in other things so it happened in this in the best and most beneficial thing to the Commonwealth there was an occult and remote evil that lay snug which required new Laws and new methods to suppress For the insolence of the Tribunitial authority grew so great that it became terrible both to the Senate and people and had doubtlesly produced some great mischief to the Commonwealth had not Appius Claudius by his great wisdom found out a way to temper and ballance their fury by the intercession of their Colleagues and the way was by choosing out some person among the Tribunes whom either out of fear or corruption or love to his Country they could dispose to withstand the designs of his Brethren and oppose himself against them whenever their resolutions were tending to the diminution of the Nobility or prejudice of the State Which way of restraining the petulancy of the Tribunes was for a long time of great advantage to the Romans and may give us occasion to consider whether a combination of several great persons against one less powerful than they whilst united is like to be successful against him that is alone or whether the single person has the advantage against the Confederacy I answer That those whose Forces are united are many times stronger but their performances are seldom so great as the single persons though he be nothing so strong for committing an infinite number of other things in which the single person has the advantage he will be able with a little industry to break and divide and enfeeble them To this purpose there is no need of going to antiquity for examples where there is plenty enough the passages of our own times will furnish us sufficiently In the year 1484 all Italy confederated against the Venetian who when they were so over-powr'd and distress'd that they were unable to keep the field found a way to work off Count Lodavic Governor of Milan from their League by which means they not only obtained a Peace and restitution of what they had lost but they got a good part of the Dutchy of Ferrara so that they whose Forces were too weak to appear before the Enemy when they came to treat were the greatest gainers by the War Not many years since the whole Christian world seemed to conspire against France yet before the end of the War the Spaniard fell off from the League made his Peace with the French and forced the rest of the Confederates one after one to do the same And from hence we may easily collect that as often as many Princes or States are confederated together against any single Prince or Commonwealth if the single Prince and Commonwealth be strong enough to withstand their first impression and spin out the War he will certainly prevail but if his force be not sufficient to do that he is in extraordinary danger as it happen'd to the Venetians for had they been able to have sustained their first shock and protracted the War till they had debauched some of the Confederates the French had never done them so much mischief and they had preserv'd themselves from ruine But their Army being too weak to confront them and their time too little to divide them they were undone and this is evident by what happen'd afterward for as soon as the Pope had recovered what he had lost he reconciled himself and became their friend the Spaniard did the same and both of them would have been glad to have continued Lombardy to the Venetians rather than the French should have got it and made himself so considerable in Italy The Venetians at that time might have prevented a great part of their calamities had they given some small part of their Territory to the Enemy and thereby have secured the rest but then they must have given it in time and so as it might not have appeared to have been done by necessity as they might well have done before the War was commenced when that was begun it would have been dishonourable and perhaps ineffectual But before those troubles there were few of the Venetian Citizens that could foresee a danger fewer that could remedy it and none at all that could advise To conclude therefore this Chapter I do pronounce that as the Roman remedy against the ambition of their Tribunes was the multitude of them out of which they always found some or other that they could make for the interest of the Publick so it is a ready remedy for any Prince that is engaged against a confederate Enemy when he can break their League and work any of the Confederates to a separation CHAP. XII A wise General is to put a necessity of fighting upon his own Army but to prevent it to his Enemies WE have formerly discoursed of what use and importance necessity is in humane Exploits and shown how many men compelled by necessity have done glorious things and made their memories immortal Moral Philosophers have told us That the Tongue and the Hands are noble Instruments of themselves yet they had never brought things to that exactness and perfection had not necessity impelled them The Generals therefore of old understanding well the virtue of this necessity and how much more desperate and obstinate their Soldiers were rendered thereby made it their care to bring their Soldiers into a necessity of fighting and to keep it from their Enemies to which end they many times opened a passage for the Enemies Army which they might easily have obstructed and precluded it to their own when they might as easily have passed Whoever therefore desires to make his Garrison stout and couragious and obstinate for the defence of a Town or to render his Army pertinacious in the Field is above all things to reduce them into such a necessity or at least to make them believe it So that a wise General who designs the besieging of a Town judges of the easiness or difficulty of the expugnation from the necessity which lies upon the Citizens to defend themselves If the necessity of their defence be great his enterprize is the more difficult because the courage and obstinacy of the besieged is like to be the greater but where there is no such necessity there is no such danger Hence it is that revolted Towns are much harder to be recovered than they were to be taken at first for at first having committed no fault they were in fear of no punishment and therefore surrendered more easily But in the other case
preserved that Province to the Romans So that in the whole there are examples on both sides where the Soldiers have done bravely and got the Victory by their valour and where the Conduct of the General has done as much as a whole Army from whence it may be concluded that they are mutually useful and that the Soldier is as much advantaged by the excellence of his General as the General by the courage of his Army However this I think will not be unworthy our consideration whether is most formidable a good Army under a bad Commander or a good Commander with a bad Army In the opinion of Caesar neither of them was considerable for when he went into Spain against Afranius and Petreius who had a good Army under their command he went with much confidence because as he said himself Ibat ad exercitum sine duce He went against an Army without a head reflecting thereby upon the insufficiency of their Generals Again when he went into Thessaly against Pompey his expression was Vado an ducem fine Exercitu I go now against a General without an Army It remains now that we consider whether it be most easie for a good Captain to make a good Army or a good Army to make a good Captain But to this in my opinion it is easily answered for many good men in an Army can sooner select one out of their number and instruct him so as that he may be fit to command the rest than the best General in the world can make an Army expert and ready Lucullus when he was sent against Mithridates was utterly unexperienced in matters of War yet being in a good Army where his inferior Officers were good he quickly became a good General The Romans for want of men were forced to arm their Servants and having referred them to be disciplin'd by Sempronius Graccâ—us in a short time he made them excellent Soldiers Pelopidas and Epominandas after they had rescued their Country from the Tyranny of the Spartans in a short time made their Country-men so good Soldiers that they were not only able to contend but to conquer the Spartans So that the case is equal and which soever is good may make the other so too Nevertheless a good Army without a good Commander grows insolent and dangerous as it hapned in the Macedonian Army after Alexander was dead and as it is in civil Wars among all old Soldiers so that I think if there be more confidence to be reposed in the one than in the other it is to be rather in the General than the Army especially if he has time to instruct and discipline his Men for an Army without a head is insolent and mutinous Those Captains therefore are worthy of double honour who have not only the Enemy to overcome but are to instruct and prepare their Forces before they bring them to engage And in doing so they do highly recommend the Conduct of their General which is so rare a thing that if the trouble were laid upon many they would be much less esteemed and respected than they are now CHAP. XIV What strange effects new inventions have sometimes in a Battle and how new Noises have the same WHat strange consequences have succeeded from sudden and unexpected accidents that have been seen or heard in the heat of the Battel appears by several examples in History but especially in the conflict betwixt the Romans and the Volsci where Quintius observing one of the wings of his Army to stagger and give ground cry'd out to them to stand firm for that in the other wing the Victory was theirs with which words he not only reincouraged his own men but put such a terror upon the Enemy that they fled in good earnest And if in a well ordered Army those unexpected vociferations have such wonderful effect in a tumultuous and ill governed Army they have much more where everything is more subject to the agitation of such winds and of this we have a memorable example of our times The City of Perugia not many years since was divided into two parts the Oddi and the Baglioni The Baglioni prevailing the Oddi were banished But the Oddi having got an Army together and brought them privatly to a place not far from Perugia by the favour of their friends they were let one night into the Town and possessed themselves as far as the Piazza And because the Streets were chained up from one side to other to hinder the passage of the Horse the Oddesche had a man who went before them with a great engine of Iron wherewith he brake the chains and he had done his work so effectually that he had broke all the chains but what opened into the Piazza the alarm being taken and every body crying out Arm Arm he who broke down the chains being pressed so close by the throng that was behind him that he had not room for his blow cryed out to those that were next Back Back intending only to have made more room for his arm But they who were next him calling back to those who were behind them by degress the word went through the whole Army and they who were in the Rear not knowing the reason began to run and being followed by those who were next the whole Army retreated by little and little till at last they brake out into an absolute flight by which inconsiderable accident the Oddi were defeated of their design So that it is to be considered that in a Battel order is not only to be taken that the Army be well drawn up and put in a good posture to fight but that no such trifling accident be able to discompose it For if for any thing the popular multitude be unfit for the Wars it is because every noise rumour or alarm distracts them and puts them to the rout Wherefore it ought to be a principal care in a good General to appoint such persons as are to receive all orders and words of command and derive them to the rest that by so doing the Soldiers being accustomed to their Officers may not receive any such orders but from such persons as are commissioned thereunto the want of which custom has many times produc'd very great confusion As to apparitions and such things as are many times seen it is the part of a good General to contrive and exhibit in the very height of the Battel such sights as may incourage his own men and discourage the Enemy for among many accidents which conduce to your victory this may be especially effectual To this purpose is that invention of which Sulpitius made use against the French being drawn up and ready to engage the Enemy he caused all the Servants and refuse of his Army to be armed and mounted upon the Mules and Horses belonging to the Baggage and having furnished them so formally with Colours and Trumpets that they appeared a compleat body of Horse he disposed them behind a hill where
promoted it highly not so much in respect of the publick good as their own private advantage expecting that the management of that war would be placed in their hands But Nicias a person of the greatest reputation in Athens dissuaded it and his great argument to make the People believe he spake his judgment and more for the benefit of the Commonwealth than any interest of his own was that he advised rather contrary to his own advantage because in time of peace there were many of his fellow Citizens before him but in time of war he knew he should be the first by which we may see it has been an ancient infirmity in Commonwealths not to value persons of worth in time of peace which disobliges them doubly to see themselves deprived of their dignities and to see others preferred to them of less sufficiency than they which error has been the occasion of much confusion for those persons who find themselves neglected and know the reason of all is the tranquillity of the times make it their business to embroil them and put their Country upon war though never so much to its prejudice And thinking sometimes with my self what remedies were most proper I could light but on two one was to keep the Citizens from growing too rich that wealth without virtue might not be sufficient to advance any man or able to corrupt other people or themselves the other so to prepare and adapt themselves for war that they may never be surprized but have always employment forthe bravest of their Citizens as Rome had in the time of her prosperity For that City having Armies always abroad there was constant exercise for the virtue of their Citizens nor could a man of worth be degraded nor an improper man be prefer'd in his place because when ever such a thing was done whether by way of error or experiment it was the same the disorders and dangers which followed were so sudden and great that they quickly found their mistake and return'd to their old method again But other Cities and States not so well constituted as that which make war only in cases of necessity cannot defend themselves from those inconveniences but are always in trouble and disorder when ever that excellent Citizen which is neglected is vindicative and hath any reputation or part in the City And though for some time Rome kept her self free from these inconveniences yet after she had conquered Carthage and Antiochus as has been said before and seemed to be past all fear of war for the future she chose several Commanders for her Army not so much for their conduct or virtue as for those qualities which were likely to recommend them to the people Paulus Aemilius stood many times for the Consulship and was repulsed nor could he ever be made Consul till the Macedonian war which was committed unanimously to his conduct because they saw it was like to be dangerous and difficult After the year 1494 our City of Florence being engaged in several wars in which none of our Citizens had perform'd any great matter at last the City hapned upon a person who shewed them after what manner an Army was to be commanded his name was Antonio Giacomini whilst the war was dangerous and there was any trouble or difficulty to manage it Antonio was free from the ambition of his fellow Citizens and had no competitor in his election to be Commissary and General of their Armies but when those were past and new wars that were more easie and honourable were to be undertaken he had so many competitors that when three Commissaries were to be chosen for the reduction of Pisa Antonio could not obtain to be one and though it be not manifest what inconveniences accrewed to the Commonwealth by the waving of Antonio yet it may be easily conjectured for the Pisans being distressed for want of provisions and having nothing left wherewithal to defend themselves had Antonio been there would have been forc'd to have surrendred at discretion but being besieged by such Officers as knew not how to streighten or press them they held out so long that the Florentines were glad to buy them out at last whereas they might as well have had them by force No question but Antonio resented it highly and he had need be a good man and of more than ordinary patience not to think of revenging himself though with the subversion of the whole City if he could and the ruine of every private Citizen which is to be carefully prevented by every State as shall be shewn in the following Chapter CHAP. XVII A man is not to be disobliged and employed afterwards in any matter of importance A Commonwealth is diligently to provide that no Citizen be entrusted in any weighty affair who has received any remarkable injury Claudius Nero who divided the Army which was designed to confront Hanibal and marched away with a strong party into la Mara to joyn with the other Consul and engage Asdrubal before he got up with his supplies to Hanibal having formerly commanded the Roman Army in Spain against the said Asdrubal had come off with dishonour for though he had enclosed Asdrubal and his whole Army and so possest himself of all passes that he must either fight with disadvantage or perish with hunger yet he was over-reach'd with the subtilty of the Carthaginian who drill'd him on with pretended overtures of peace till at length in the night he stole his Army thorow the woods and got of where he was safe This passage being known in Rome was no small diminution to Nero's reputation both with the Senate and the People but being afterwards made Consul and sent with an Army against Hanibal he ventured upon that desperate counsel of dividing the Army which was a thing so doubtful and uncertain in the opinion of the Romans that the City was in strange anxiety and suspence till they had the news of his Victory It is reported that when Claudius Nero was questioned afterwards by his friends what it was that mov'd him to so hazardous an enterprize in which without necessary provocation he had ventured the whole liberty of their Country he answered he had done it because he knew if he succeded he should recover that honour which he had lost in Spain if he miscarried and his design should have a contrary end he should have had the satisfaction to have been revenged of the City and Citizens by whom he had been so ingratefully and so indiscreetly calumniated And if the indignation arising from these kind of provocations could work so strongly upon a Roman Citizen in those times when Rome was in its innocence we may easily imagine what prodigious effects it may have upon persons in a City not so well constituted as that and because against these kind of disorders to which all Commonwealths are subject no certain remedy can be prescrib'd it follows that no Commonwealth can be possibly perpetual forasmuch as a
kept them in perpetual fear unless they were endued with more than ordinary virtue like Manlius Torquatus But he whose command is over his Subjects of whom Cornelius speaks is to have a care they grow not insolent and contemn him for his easiness and there is rather to use severity than gentleness with them yet that is to be done too with such moderation that they may be kept from abhorring him for the hatred of the Subject is never good for a Prince and the best way to prevent it is by not interrupting the Subject in the quiet enjoyment of his Estate for blood unless there be some design of rapacity under it no Prince does desire it but upon some extraordinary necessity and that necessity happens but seldom But when cruelty and rapine meet together in the nature of one person there never wants desire nor pretences for cruelty as I have demonstrated largely in another Treatise upon this occasion Quintius therefore deserved more praise than Appius deserved and the saying of Tacitus is true enough with the aforesaid restriction but not in the case of Appius and because I have spoken of kindness and severity I will give you one example how mildness prevailed more upon the Falisci than violence could do CHAP. XX. One instance of humanity wrought more upon the Falisci than all the force of the Romans CAmillus having besieged the Falisci and attempted many things against them but in vain a School-master who had the tuition of several of the principal young Gentlemen of that City thinking to gratifie Camillus and ingratiate with the people of Rome carrying them out of the walls under pretence of exercise and recreation he conveyed them all into the Camp of Camillus and presenting them to him told him that by their means he might become Master of the Town Camillus was so far from accepting his present that he caused the Paedagogue to be strip'd and his hands tied behind him and then putting a rod into every one of the young Gentlemens hands he caused them scourge him back again into the Town which piece of humanity and justice when the Citizens understood they resolved to defend themselves no longer and so immediately surrendred a great example doubtless and by which we may learn that many times kindness and generosity moves an Enemy more than all the force and artifice of war for 't is frequently seen that those Provinces and Cities which no violence or stratagem have subdued have been melted and wrought upon by one single act of pity chastity or liberality and of this History is full of many other examples besides Pyrrhus could not be got out of Italy by all the power of the Romans and yet Fabritius sent him packing by one act of generosity and that was giving him notice that some of his intimates would poison him and had made overtures to the Romans to that purpose Again Scipio Africanus got not so much honour by the taking of Carthage as he did by one act of chastity when he sent home a young beautiful Lady that was taken prisoner and presented to him untouch'd to her Husband for at the news of that one act all Spain was astonished and began to admire the virtue and innocence of the Romans which virtue is a thing so universally celebrated that there are no great persons endued with it but are highly esteemed by all people as appears by all Ethicks Politicks and History among which the History of Xenophon is abundantly copious in demonstrating what Honours and what Victories accrewed to Cyrus upon the bare account of his affability and mildness and how he was never guilty of the least pride or cruelty or luxury or any other vice that defiles the conversation of man Nevertheless seeing Hanibal did the same things and by a contrary way it will not be amiss in the next Chapter to enquire the reason CHAP. XXI How it came to pass that Hanibal by methods quite contrary to what were practised by Scipio did the same things in Italy that the other did in Spain I Doubt not but it may seem strange to some people that other Captains who have taken a quite contrary way to what is prescribed in my last Chapter should notwithstanding have had the same success for from thence it seems to follow that Victory does not depend either upon humanity or justice when we see the same praise and reputation acquir'd by quite contrary habits and to prove this we need not go far for examples the same Scipio whom we mentioned before being with an Army in Spain carried himself with so much piety and justice and liberality to all people that he got the love of the whole Province on the other side we see Hanibal in Italy acting quite contrary and with violence cruelty rapine and all manner of infidelity persecuting the people and yet with the same laudable effects as Scipio had in Spain And considering with my self what might be the reason they seemed to me to be several The first is because men are studious of novelty and that not only those who are under slavery or subjection but those who are free and in peace for as is said before men are as well satiated with happiness as afflicted with misery This desire therefore of change opens a door to any man that invades a Province with any considerable force if he be a foreigner they all follow after him if a native they attend him assist him and encourage him so that let him take which way he pleases he must needs make great progress in those places Again people are generally excited two ways either by love or by fear so that he that is feared is often times as readily obeyed as he that is beloved and sometimes more It is not material therefore to a Commander which of these two ways he takes for if he be a virtuous person and of any extraordinary faculties he will be admired by the people as Hanibal and Scipio were whose great worth effaced or covered all the faults that they committed But in either of these two ways great inconveniences may arise and such as may ruine a Prince For he who desires to be beloved upon the least excess or immoderation in his Courtship is subject to be despised and he on the other side who affects to be feared upon the least extravagance makes himself odious and to keep the middle way exactly is not possible to our nature wherefore it is necessary to those who exceed in either kind to attone for it with some extraordinary virtue as Hanibal and Scipio did who though persons of great prudence and conduct yet it appeared that both of them suffered by their manner of living as well as they were advanced Their advancement is mentioned before their sufferings as to Scipio was the rebellion of his Army and part of his friends in Spain which proceded from nothing but want of being feared for men are naturally so unquiet that every little
more convenient place I shall speak here only of the dangers to which such Citizens or other persons are subject who advise a prince to make himself head of any important design and do it with that eagerness and impetuosity that the whole enterprise may be imputed to him The first thing I would recommend to their observation is that Counsels are commonly judged by their success if their success be unfortunate the whole scandal of the miscarriage falls upon the author If it prospers and the event be good he is commended but at a distance and his reward is not commensurate with the danger The present Emperor of the Turks Sultan Selimus as it is reported by some that came late out of that Country having made great preparations for an Expedition into Syria and Egypt changed his design upon the persuasion of one of his Bassa's and with a vast Army march'd against the Sophie of Persia. Arriving in an open and â—rge Country but for the most part Desarts and dry and no Rivers to supply them many Diseases were contracted in his Army insomuch as with hunger and sickness it dwindled away as many of the Romans had done in that Country before till at last though he had the better of the War he had lost most of his men upon which the Emperor being highly enraged caused the Bassa who had counselled him thither to be slain We read likewise of several Citizens advising and Enterprize upon the miscarriage of which they were all of them banished At Rome certain Citizens proposed and promoted very earnestly the making one of the Consuls out of the people and having prevailed the first of them which went out with their Army being beaten and over-thrown the authors would doubtless have found the inconvenience of their Counsel had not the people in whose favour it was given appeared in their protection So that this is most certain all Counsellors of this kind whether to Princes or Commonwealths are betwixt those two rocks if they do not advise what in their judgments they think profitable for their Masters and that frankly and without respect they fail in their duties and are defective that way again if they do counsel freely they bring their lives and fortunes in danger because such is the natural blindness of Mankind they cannot judge of the goodness or badness of any thing but by the success and considering with my self what way was most likely to avoid this infamy or danger I can find no better than to take all things moderately to assume and impropriate no enterprize to deliver your opinion frankly but without passion and to defend it so modestly that if it be followed by your Prince or Commonwealth it may appear to be their voluntary act and not done upon your importunity in that case it will not be reasonable to complain of your Counsel when executed by the concurrence of the rest for if there be any danger it is where things are done in contradiction of the rest of the Counsel who upon any miscarriage will be sure to combine against you and procure your destruction and though perhaps in this case there may want something of that glory which accrews to a single person who carries a design against the opposition of the rest especially if it succeeds yet there are two advantages on your side for first you will not run so great a hazard in the miscarriage and then if you advise a thing modestly which by the obstinacy and contradiction of the rest is carried against you the miscarriage of their Counsel will make much more to your reputation And although a good Citizen is not to desire to raise his credit upon the misfortunes of his Country nor indeed to rejoyce in what happens of it self yet when a thing is done it is more satisfaction to have your Counsel applauded than to be in danger of being punished Wherefore I am of opinion in these doubtful and difficult cases there can be no better way for the Counsel either of a Prince or State than to deliver themselves modestly and freely for to be sullen and say nothing would not only betray your Country but expose your self because in time you would become suspected and perhaps it might befal them as it did to one of the Counsel of Perseus King of Macedon who being defeated by Emilius Paulius and escaping with some few of his friends one of them in discourse of his Master's misfortune began to find fault and blame several passages in his Conduct which as he pretended might have been managed much better At which the King being inraged turn'd to him told him And do you like a Traytor as you are tell me of it now when 't is past remedy and killed him with his own hands so that he pay'd dear for being silent when it was his duty to have spoke and for speaking when it was discretion to have been silent nor did his forbearing to give his advice secure him from danger so that I am confirmed in my opinion that the best way is to observe the directions above said CHAP. XXXIV The reason why at the first Charge the French have been and still are accounted more than Men but afterwards less than Women THe arrogance of that French man who challenged the stoutest of the Romans to fight with him upon the Bridge of the Arrien and was afterwards killed by T. Manlius Torquatus puts me in mind of what Livy says in many places of the French that in their first attack they are more fierce and daring than men but afterwards more fearful and pusillanimous than Women And many people enquiring into the cause do attribute it to the peculiarity of their temperature and nature I am of opinion that there is much of that in it yet I cannot think but that Nature which makes them so furious at first may be so invigorated and improved by art as to continue their courage to the last To prove my opinion I do affirm there are three sorts of Armies In the first there is courage and fury joyn'd with order and discipline and indeed their courage and fury proceeds from their discipline And of this sort were the Armies of the Romans for all Histories do agree that there was always good order by reason of their long discipline and experience Nothing was done in their Armies but with great regularity and express order from their General They neither eat nor slept nor bought nor sold nor did any other action either military or civil but by permission of the Consul and therefore these Roman Armies who by their discipline and courage subdued the whole world are the best example we can follow they who do otherwise do ill and though perhaps they may do something extraordinary sometimes yet 't is more by accident than judgment But where well ordered courage meets with good discipline and is accommodated to the circumstances of manner and time nothing dismays them nothing withstands them for
continually upon them they would become grievous to the Subject and give them occasion to complain of you Cosimo What numbers would you have and how would you Arm them Fab. You are too quick and pass from one thing to another I 'll answer you to that in another place when I have told you how the Foot are to be Armed and prepared for a field Battel THE SECOND BOOK CHAP. I. What arms were most used by the Ancients in their Wars Fabr. WHen you have raised your men the next thing is to furnish them with Arms and before you do that I think it not amiss to examine what Arms were most used by the Ancients and choose the best The Romans divided their Infantry into those who were compleatly and those who were slightly armed Those who were lightly armed were called Velites under which name all were comprehended who carried Bows and Slings and Darts the greatest part of them had Casques upon their heads for their defence and a kind of Buckler upon their arm They fought in no order and at distance from those who were arm'd compleatly Their Arms consisted of a Head-piece or Morrion which came down to the Shoulders a Brigandine down to their knees their legs and arms were covered with Greeves and Gauntlets a Buckler covered with Iron about two yards long and one broad an Iron ring about it without to keep off the blows and another within to keep it from the dirt when it was lay'd upon the ground Their offensive Weapons were a Sword at their left thigh about a yard and half long with a Dagger on their right side They carried a Dart in their hand which they called Pilum which upon a a Charge they darted at the Enemy These were the Arms with which the Romans conquered the whole world And though some of their ancient Writers do give them a Spear in form of a Spit I do not see how such a Weapon could be handled by one that carried such a Buckler for it was too heavy to be managed with one hand besides unless it were in the Front where they had room to make use of them it was impossible to use them in their ranks for the nature of Battels is such as I shall show hereafter that they do always contract and keep close as being in much less danger than when they are drawn up looser and at a distance So that in that close order all Arms that are above two yards long are not to be used for having a Spear that is to be managed with both hands if your Buckler were no hinderance it could not hurt your Enemy when he was near If you take it in one hand and manage your Buckler with the other you must take it in the middle and then there will be so much of it behind that they who come after you will hinder you from handling it So that it is true either the Romans had no such Hastae or if they had they made but little use of them For if you read the History of Titus Livius in the description of all his Battels you will scarce ever find he mentions those Hastae but tells you all along that having darâ—ed their Pila they fell to the Sword My opinion therefore is that this Hasta be lay'd aside and that in imitation of the Romans we make use of their Sword and Buckler and other Arms without troubling our selves with that The Grecians for their defence did not arm so heavily as the Romans but for offence they relyed more upon the Spear than the Sword especially the Macedonian Phalanx who carried of those Javelins which they called Sarissae with which they brake the Enemies Battels and kept their own firm and entire And though some Writers say that they also had their Bucklers yet I know not for the reasons abovesaid how they could consist Besides in the Battel betwixt Paulus Emilius and Perseus King of Macedon I do not remember that any mention was made of any-Bucklers but only of their Sarissae and yet the Romans had much ado to overcome them So that my opinion is the Macedonian Phalanx was just such a Body as the Swizzers Battalion whose whole force lyes in their 〈◊〉 The Romans were likewise accustomed to adorn their Soldiers with Plumes of Feathers in their Caps which renders an Army beautiful to their Friends and terrible to their Enemies In the first beginning of the Roman Wars their Horse used a round Shield a Helmet upon their Heads and all the rest of their body naked their offensive Arms were a Sword and Javelin with a long thin spike at the end of it and so being incumbered with Shield and Javelin they could use neither of them well and being unarmed they were more exposed to the Enemy Afterwards they came to arm themselves like their Foot only their Shield was a little shorter and squarer their Launce or Javelin thicker with pikes at each end that if by accident one of them should miscarry the other might be serviceable With these Arms both for Horse and Foot my Country-men the Romans went thorow the whole world and by the greatness of their successes 't is likely they were as well accounted as any Army ever was And Titus Livius in many places of his History makes it credible where comparing the Armies of the Enemies says But the Romans for courage fashion of their Arms and discipline were before them all And for that reason I have chosen to speak particularly rather of the Conqueror's Arms than the Arms of the Conquered It follows now that I say something of the way of Arming at present CHAP. II. Of the Arms which are used at present and of the invention of the Pike Fabritio THe Soldiers of our times do wear for defensive Arms Back and Breast and for offensive a Launce nine yards long which they call a Pike with a Sword by their side rather round than sharp These are generally the Arms which they wear at this day few wear Greaves and Gantlets and none at all Head-pieces Those few who have no Pikes do carry Halbards the staff three yards long and the head like an Axe They have among them Musquetiers who with their Fire Arms do the same Service which was done formerly by the Bows and Slings This manner of arming with Pikes was found out by the Germans and particularly by the Swizzers who being poor and desirous to preserve their liberty were and are still necessitated to contend against the ambition of the Princes of Germany who are rich and able to entertain Horse which the Swizzers are not able to do So that their Force consisting principally in Foot being to defend themselves against the Enemies Horse they were obliged to revive the old way of drawing up and find out Arms that might defend them against them This necessity put them upon continuing or reviving the old Orders without which as every wise-man knows the Foot would be useless for which cause they
repulse but to relieve one another they observe this order they put their Battalions one in the flank of another but somewhat behind it towards the right hand so that if the first be in any distress the second advances to relieve it The third Battalion they place behind the other two but at the distance of the shot of a Harquebuss that if the two Battalions should be worsted the third might advance in their rescue and that which advances and the other which retire may have space to pass by one another without any clashing or collision for gross bodies cannot be received so commodiously as little and therefore small bodies disposed at a distance as they were in the Roman Legions might better receive and relieve one another upon occasion And that this order of the Swisses is not so good as the ancient order of the Romans is demonstrated by many examples of their Legions when they were engaged with the Macedonian Phalanxes for these were still worsted by the other The fashion of their Arms and their way of Reserves being more effectual than the closeness and solidity of a Phalanx CHAP. IV. How the Author would make use of both Greek and Roman Arms for his Battalion and what was the ordinary Army of the Romans BEing therefore according to these Models to range and marshal an Army I think it best to retain something of the Arms and Orders both of the Phalanx and Legion For this reason I have said in a Battalion I would have 2000 Pikes which were the Arms of the Macedonian Phalanx and 3000 Scudi or Shields and Swords which are the Arms of the Romans I have divided a Battalion into ten Battalia's or Companies as the Romans divided their Legions into ten Cohorts I have ordered the Velites or light-arm'd to begin the fight as they did formerly And because as the Arms are mix'd they participate of the one Nation and the other that they may participate likewise in their orders I have appointed that every Company may have five files of Pikes in the front and the rest of Bucklers that the front may be enabled to keep out the Horse and break more easily into the Foot having Pikes in the first charge as well as the Enemy by which they may be fortified to sustain it bravely till the Bucklers come up and perfect the Victory And if you consider the strength and vertue of this Order you will find how all these Arms perform their office exactly For Pikes are very useful against Horse and against Foot too before the Battels be joyned but after they are joyned they are utterly useless For this reason behind every third rank of Pikes the Swissers put a rank of Halbards which was to make room for their Pikes though indeed it was not enough Placing therefore our Pikes before and our Bucklers behind them they are enabled to sustain the Horse and when they come to charge they do open and press hard upon the Foot but when the fight is begun and the Battels are joyned the Bucklers succeed with their Swords as being manageable more easily in the crowd Luigi We desire now to understand how with these Arms and Orders you would manage your Army to give the Enemy Battel Fabritio I shall show you nothing at present but this You must know that in an ordinary Army of the Romans which they called a Consular Army there were no more but two Legions of Citizens consisting in all of 600 Horse and about 11000 Foot They had besides these as many more Horse and Foot sent them in by their Friends and Confederates These Auxiliaries were divided into two parts the right wing and the left for they would never suffer them to exceed the number of the Foot of their Legions though their Horse indeed they permitted to be more With this Army consisting of 22000 Foot and about 2000 Horse a Roman Consul did all his business and attempted any thing Yet when they were to oppose a greater power they joyned two Consuls together and their two Armies You must know likewise that in the three great Actions of an Army their march their encampment and engagement they placed the Legions in the middle because the force in which they reposed their greatest confidence they thought fit should be more united and compact as I shall show you more at large when I come to treat of those things These Auxiliary Foot by vertue of their conversation with the Legionary Foot grew to be as Serviceable as they because they were train'd and disciplin'd with them and upon occasion of Battel drawn up in the same figure and order He therefore who knows how the Romans marshalled one single Legion in the day of Battel knows how they disposed of them all When I have told you therefore how they divided a Legion into three Squadrons and how one Squadron received another I shall have told you how a whole and entire Army is to be ordered when it is to be drawn up for Battel CHAP. V. The way of drawing up a Battalion according to the intention of the Author BEing to prepare for a Battel according to the method of the Romans as they had two Legions so I would take two Battalions and by the ordering of them you may guess how to order a compleat Army For to add more men is only to multiply their ranks I think it unnecessary to repeat what foot there are in a Legion what Companies what Officers what Arms what Velites in ordinary what in extraordinary what Pikes and what other things For it is not long since I told you distinctly and press'd it upon your memories as a thing very necessary for the understanding all other Orders wherefore I shall pass on without farther reflection It seems to me best that one of the ten Battalions or Companies of a Battalion be placed in the left flank and the other ten of the other Battalion on the right Those on the left are to be ordered in this manner Put five Battalia's one on the side of the other in the front so as there may remain a space of four yards betwixt each draw them up so as they may possess in breadth 140 yards of ground and in depth forty behind these five Battalia's I would place three others distant in a right line from the first about forty yards of these three I would have two follow directly the Companies which are upon the two extremities or corners of the five first and the third should be disposed in the midst by which means these three Companies should take up as much ground both in breadth and depth as the other five which have only five yards distance betwixt the one and the other whereas the three last should have thirty three This being done I would cause the two Companies remaining to advance and place themselves behind the three former in a right line and at the distance of forty yards but it should be in such a sort
them and as it were upbraiding them by their cowardize Lucius Sylla seeing part of his Troops routed and pursued by the forces of Mithridates rode up to the head of them with his sword in his hand and cryed out to them If any body ask you where you have left your General tell him you left him fighting in Boetia Attilius the Consul opposed those who fought bravely against those who ran away telling them that if they did not face about they should be killed by their friends as well as their enemies Philip King of Macedon understanding that his Souldiers were afraid of the Scythians placed behind his Army certain of the faithfullest of his horse with commission to kill any man that fled so that his men choosing to die rather fighting than flying overcame their adversaries Several of the Roman Generals have wrested an Ensign out of the hands of their Souldiers and throwing it among the enemy promised a reward to him who should recover it and this they did not so much to hinder the flight of their own men as to give them occasion of doing some greater exploit upon the enemy CHAP. III. Stratagems after the Fight Fabr. I Do not think it impertinent to add to this discourse such things as happen after the Fight especially seeing they are but short and not to be omitted because they are conformable to the matter which we have in hand But since one of these two things must happen either that we gain the Victory or lose it I say that when we gain it we are to pursue it with the greatest diligence we can and rather imitate Caesar in this case than Hanibal who for not following his Victory and pushing it on after he had defeated the Romans at Cannas lost the whole Empire of the Romans which fortune had almost thrust into his hands Caesar on the other side never rested after a Victory but followed the enemy with greater fury than he attacked them at first But when the day is lost a wise General is to consider the best that he can make of it especially if there be any thing of his Army remaining The advantage that may arise is from the inadvertency of the enemy who many times transported with his success grows negligent and remiss and gives opportunity to the enemy to revenge himself as Martius the Roman did upon the Carthaginian Army who having slain the two Scipio's and routed their forces not valuing those which remained were suddenly assaulted and broken for it is frequently seen nothing is perpetrable so easily as what the enemy fancies you can never attempt for commonly men suffer most where they are most secure A General therefore when he cannot carry the Victory is to endeavour with all possible industry that his loss may be as little as may be and to do this it is necessary to order things so that the enemy may not easily pursue or be in a capacity to retard you As to the way of hindering the pursuit of the Conqueror several Generals as soon as they found their condition and that it was not possible to continue the Fight have ordered their inferior Commanders to separate and fly in several parties and meet again at a place which he assigned and the enemy not daring to divide his Army for fear of a design has let all or the greatest part of the conquered escape Others have thrown the best of their goods in the way that the enemy following might be delayed by the prize and suffer them to get off Titus Dimius used no small art to conceal the loss which he had sustained in the fight for having endured the burnt of the Battel from morning till night with the loss of many of his men when night came he caused most of them to be buried privately the next morning the enemy finding so many of their own men dead and so few of the Romans concluded themselves beaten and fled And now I suppose though confusedly I have in some measure satisfied your demands CHAP. IV. Two other ways of ranging an Army to fight Fabr. 'T Is true as to the form and model of drawing up an Army to fight it remains that I let you know that sometimes some Generals have drawn them up in the figure of a wedge pointing in the front supposing it the properest way to pierce and make an impression upon the enemy In opposition to this the way was for the adversary to draw up in the figure of a pair of shears which being opened were to receive the point of the wedge enclose it and charge it on all sides And about this let me recommend to you this General rule that the best remedy to be used against the design of an enemy is to do that bravely of your self to which you perceive he would endeavour to force you for doing it voluntarily you do it orderly and to your own profit and advantage whereas if you do it by constraint you do it to your ruine I will not repeat any thing that I have said before to confirm my discourse But this is most certain if your adversary thinks to open and as it were cleave your Army with his wedge if you keep your Army open in the figure of the shears and receive them in the middle you cut them to pieces and they can do you no hurt Hanibal placed his Elephants in the front of his Army thinking thereby to have pierced the Army of Scipio with more ease but Scipio ranging his men in the form of a pair of shears and receiving him in an open posture gain'd the Victory and Hanibal was lost Asdrubal placed the best and strongest of his men in the front of his Army to make the better charge upon the Enemy Scipio commanding his middle men in the front to retreat insensibly and give place was so cunningly obeyed that the Enemy was drawn in and defeated so that you see those designs are many times the occasion of his Victory against whom they are designed CHAP. V. Of the constraint and advantage a man may have to Fight Fabr. IF my memory does not fail it remains yet that I say something touching the things which a wise General is to consider before he comes to an engagement And the first thing I shall say upon this subject is that a General is never to come to a Field-fight unless he be constrained or has some more than ordinary advantage His advantage may lye in the nature of the Place in the discipline of his Army or the number or excellence of his Men. And his necessity consists in finding his condition such that without fighting he must be certainly destroyed as where money is wanting where victuals are defective and where the Enemy is in expectation of supplies in these cases a General is always to venture though he fights upon disadvantage for 't is better fighting where fortune may favour you than not to try her at all and be certainly ruined and
has taken his part willingly I do not think Battista will refuse Battista Hitherto I have suffered my self to be governed and am resolved to do so for the future let me desire you therefore Seignor Fabritio to pursue your discourse and hold us excused if we interrupt you with these kind of demands Fabr. As I told you before you do me a very great kindness for this interruption and changing of persons rather refreshes than troubles my fancy But to follow our business I say that it is now high time that we dispose our Army into its quarters for you know every thing desires rest and security for to repose without security is not properly to repose I do fancy you would rather have had me lodg'd my Army first and march'd and fought them afterwards but we have done quite contrary and indeed not without necessity for being to show how an Army in a march was to quit that form and put it self into a posture to fight it was necessary first to show how they were to be drawn up for a Battel But to return I say that if you would have your Camp safe you must have it strong and well ordered The discretion of the General puts it in good order but it is art or situation that makes it defensible and strong The Grecians were so curious in this point that they would never encamp but where there was some River or Wood or Bank or other natural rampart to defend them But the Romans stood not so much upon the strength of the situation as their own ways of fortification nor would they ever encamp but where according to their own Discipline they could draw up their Army For this reason the Romans observed one constant form in their encampments for they would rather make the situation of the place comply with their methods than permit their customs to comply with the situation but with the Grecians it was otherwise because following the condition and form of the place it was necessary that they varied the manner of their encampment and the form of their Camp The Romans therefore where the situation was weak supplyed it by art and industry And because in this discourse I have proposed the Romans for a President I shall not leave them in my manner of encampment nevertheless I shall not follow their practice in every thing but picking and selecting such parts as I think most agreeable with our times I have told you often how the Romans in their Consular Armies had two Legious of Romans consisting of about 11000 Foot and 600 Horse they had moreover about 11000 more Foot sent in by their Friends and Allies to their assistance but this was a rule their Auxilaries never exceeded the number of the Legions unless it were in Horse and in them they were not so curious I have told you likewise how in all their battels their Legions were placed in the middle and their Auxiliaries in the flanks and it was the same in their encampments as you may read in such Authors as make any mention of their History I will not therefore be so exact in my relation I shall content my self only to tell you in what order I would lodge my Army at present and you will understand by that what I have borrowed from the Romans You know that in imitation of their Legions I have taken two Battalions consisting of 6000 Foot and 300 Horse of service for the Battalion you know into what Companies into what Arms and into what names I divided them You know how in ordering my Army to march and to fight I have said nothing of more men only what was to be done was to be done by doubling their ranks not by any reinforcement of men But being now to shew you the manner of encamping I think it not convenient to stick to my two Battalions but to unite our whole Army composed according to the model of the Romans of two Battalions and as many Auxiliaries which I do the rather that the form of our Camp may be the more compleat by the reception of a compleat Army which in my other demonstrations I have not thought altogether so necessary Being therefore to lodge a compleat Army of 24000 Foot and two thousand Horses of service to be divided into four Battalions two of Natives and two of Strangers I would take this way CHAP. II. The form of a Camp Fabr. HAving found a place convenient for my Camp I would set up my Standard in the midst of a square of fifty yards deep The four sides of that square should respect the four quarters of the World and look East West North and South In this square I would set up the Generals Pavilion and because I think it discreet and in part the practice of the Ancients I would divide my men which carry arms from them who have none and those who are free from those who are incumbred All or the greatest part of my arm'd men I would lodge towards the East my men that were disarm'd and incumbred I would lodge towards the West making my front towards the East and my rear towards the West and the North and South should be my flanks To distinguish the quarters of those which bore arms I would take this course I would draw a line from the Standard towards the East of 680 yards long Then I would draw two other lines with the first in the middle of the same length but each of them at a distance of fifteen yards from the first at the end of these lines I would have my Eastern Port and the space betwixt the two outward lines should make a Street which should go from that Gate to the General 's quarters and take up a space of thirty yards in bredth and 630 in length for the General 's quarter would take up fifty and this should be called the General 's street Then I would cause another street to be drawn out from North to South and it should pass by the end of the General 's street not far from the General 's quarter towards the East which should contain in length 1250 yards for it should take up all the bredth of the Camp and be called the Cross-street Having design'd the General 's quarters and these two Streets I would mark out quarters for the two Battalions that were my own Subjects and one of them I would dispose on the right hand of the General 's street and the other on the left And then passing over the Cross-street I would assign 32 lodgments on the left hand of the General 's street and as many on the right leaving betwixt the sixteenth and seventeenth lodgment a space of thirty yards wide as a traverse way to pass thorow all the lodgments of the Battalions I would lodge the Captains of the men at Arms at the front of those two orders of lodgments which joyn to the Cross-street and their men at Arms in the fifteen lodgments that are next
means you will put the Enemy upon some enterprize upon presumption that he knows your designs in which you may easily circumvent and defeat him If you resolve as Claudius Nero did to lessen your Army and send relief to your friend so privately that the Enemy should not perceive it you must not take down your Tents nor diminish the number of your Hutts but keep up your Ensigns and preserve your ranks intire with the same fires and guards as before If any supplies come up suddenly to your Army and you would not have your Enemy perceive you are reinforced you must not augment the number of your Tents for nothing is more useful than to keep such accidents secret Metellus being in Spain with his Army one took the confidence to demand of him what he intended to do the next day He replyed That if he thought his shirt knew he would burn it Marcus Croesus being asked by one when he would discamp answered him Are you the only man think you that will not hear the Trumpets If you design to understand the secrets of your Enemy and to know his order and condition you must do as others have done send Embassadors to him with wise and experienced Soldiers in their Train who may take their opportunity to view his Army and consider his strength and weakness so as may give occasion to overcome him Some have pretended to banish some one of their Confidents and by that means had information of his Enemies designs They are discovered likewise sometimes by the taking of prisoners Marius whilst he was at War with the Cimbrians to feel the fidelity of the Gaâ—ls who at that time inhabited Lombardy and were in League with the Romans sent to them two sorts of Letters one open the other seal'd In the Letters that were open he writ that they should not open those which were sealed till such a time as he directed before which time he sent for them again and finding them open he found he was to repose no confidence there CHAP. XI How to rid ones self of an Army that is pressing upon ones heels Fabr. SEveral Generals have been invaded and not marched their Army immediately against the Enemy but made an inroad into his Country and constrained him to return to defend it and this way has many times succeeded because yours are flesh'd with victory and loaden with plunder whilst the Enemy is terrified and instead of a hopeful victory like to go by the loss so that they who have used this kind of diversion have many times prospered But this is practicable only to those whose Country is stronger than the Enemies Country for if it be otherwise that diversion is pernicious If a General be block'd up in his Camp by the Enemy he cannot do better than to propose an accord or at least a truce with him for some days for that makes your Enemy the more negligent in every thing of which negligence you may take your advantage and give him the slip By this way Silla disintangled himself twice and cleared himself of his Enemies by the same Artifice Asdrubal extricated himself in Spain from the forces of Claudius Nero who had block'd him up it would likewise contribute much to the freeing a man from the power of the Enemy to do something besides what has been said already that may keep him in suspence And this is to be done two ways by assaulting him with part of your forces that whilst he is employed upon them the rest may have time to preserve themselves There is another way likewise and that is by contriving some new thing or other that may amuse or astonish the Enemy and render him uncertain which way he is to stear so Hanibal served Fabius Maximus when he had shut him up on the mountains for causing little wisps of brush-wood to be tied to the horns of several Oxen he set them on fire and Fabius not understanding the depth of the stratagem supposing it worse than it was kept upon his guard within his Camp and suffered him to pass CHAP. XII How a man may make a Princes Favourite suspected and divide his Forces A General above all things is to endeavour to divide the Enemies Forces either by rendering his Confidents suspicious or by giving him occasion to separate his Troops and by consequence weaken himself The first is done by preserving the Estates or Goods of those he has about him as in time of War to spare their Houses or Possessions and returning their Children or Relations safe and without ransom You know when Hanibal burned all about Rome he exempted what belonged to Fabius Maximus You know how Coriolanus coming with a strong Army to besiege Rome preserved the Possessions of the Nobility Metellus being at the head of an Army againts Iugurtha moved it to the Embassadors which the Enemy sent to him to deliver up Iugurtha Prisoner and writing Letters to them afterwards to the same purpose he continued his Correspondence till Iugurtha got the alarm suspected his whole Counsel and made them away after several manners When Hanibal was fled to Antiochus the Roman Embassadors practised so cunningly that Antiochus grew jealous and trusted him no farther As to the way of dividing the Enemy there is not any more certain than to cause an incursion to be made upon his Country that he may be constrained to leave the War and go back to defend himself This was the way which Fabius used when he had an Army against him of French and Tuscans Umbrians and Samnites Titus Didius having a small Army in respect of the Enemy expecting another Legion from Rome which the Enemy was desirous to intercept he gave out in his Army that the next day he would give the Enemy Battel and ordered it so that certain Prisoners which he had in his Camp at that time took their opportunity to escape and gave intelligence to the Enemy that the Consul had given orders to fight upon which news that they might not lessen their Forces they did not march against the other Legion and by that means it was preserved some there have been who to divide or weaken the force of their Enemy have suffered him to enter into their Country and possess himself of several Towns that by putting Garrisons into them he may lessen his Army and give them occasion to attack and defeat him Others designing against one Province have pretended to invade another and used such industry in the business that being entred unexpectedly into that Country they have conquered it before the Enemy had time to relieve it for the Enemy being uncertain whether you will return back and invade the Country which you threatned before is constrained to keep his Post and not to leave one place to secure another and it falls out many times that he is unable to defend either the one or the other CHAP. XIII In what manner seditions and mutinies in an Army are to be appeased Fabr.
qualified like ours in Italy and finding that he could neither continue not discharge them securely he ordered things so that they were all cut to pieces and then prosecuted the War with his own Forces alone without any foreign assistance To this purpose the Old Testament affords us a figure not altogether improper When David presented himself to Saul and offered his Service against Goliah the Champion of the Philistius Saul to encourage him accoutred him in his own Arms but David having tryed them on excused himself pretending they were unfit and that with them he should not be able to manage himself wherefore he desired he might go forth against the Enemy with his own Arms only which were his Sling and his Sword The sum of all is the Arms of other people are commonly unfit and either too wide or too strait or too cumbersom CHARLES VII the Father of Lewis XI having by his Fortune and Courage redeem'd his Country out of the hands of the English began to understand the necessity of having Soldiers of his own and erected a Militia at home to consist of Horse as well as Foot after which his Son King Lewis cashiered his own Foot and took the Swissers into his pay which error being followed by his Successors as is visible to this day is the occasion of all the dangers to which that Kingdom of France is still obnoxious for having advanced the reputation of the Swisses he vilified his own people by disbanding the foot entirely and accustoming his Horse so much to engage with other Soldiers that fighting still in Conjunction with the Swissers they began to believe they could do nothing without them Hence it proceeds that the French are not able to do any thing against the Swisses and without them they will venture upon nothing So that the French Army is mix'd consists of Mercenaries and Natives and is much better than either Mercenaries or Auxiliaries alone but much worse than if it were entirely Natural as this Example testifies abundantly for doubtless France would be insuperable if Charles his Establishment was made use of and improv'd But the imprudence of Man begins many things which favouring of persent good conceal the poyson that is latent as I said before of the Hectick Feaver wherefore if he who is rais'd to any Soveraignty foresees not a mischief till it falls upon his head he is not to be reckoned a wise Prince and truly that is a particular blessing of God bestowed upon few people if we reflect upon the first cause of the ruine of the Roman Empire it will be found to begin at their entertaining the Goths into their Service for thereby they weakened and enervated their own Native courage and as it were transfused it into them I conclude therefore that without having proper and peculiar forces of his own no Prince is secure but depends wholly upon fortune as having no Natural and intrinsick strength to sustain him in adversity and it was always the opinion and position of wise Men that nothing is so infirm and unstable as the name of Power not founded upon forces of its own those forces are composed of your Subjects your Citizens or Servants all the rest are either Mercenaries or Auxiliaries and as to the manner of Ordering and Disciplining these Domesticks it will not be hard if the Orders which I have prescribed be perused and the ways considered which Philip the Father of Alexander the Great and many other Princes and Republicks have used in the like cases to which Orders and Establishments I do wholly refer you CHAP. XIV The duty of a Prince in relation to his Militia A Prince then is to have no other design nor thought nor study but War and the Arts and Disciplines of it for indeed that is the only profession worthy of a Prince and is of so much importance that it not only preserves those who are born Princes in their patrimonies but advances men of private condition to that Honorable degree On the otherside it is frequently seen when Princes have addicted themselves more to delicacy and softness than to Arms they have lost all and been driven out of their States for the principal things which deprives or gains a man authority is the neglect or profession of that Art Francesco Sforza by his Experience in War of a private person made himself Duke of Milan and his Children seeking to avoid the fatigues and incommodities thereof of Dukes became private Men for among other evils and inconveniences which attend when you are ignorant in War it makes you contemptible which is a scandal a Prince ought with all diligence to avoid for reasons I shall name hereafter besides betwixt a potent and an impotent a vigilant and a negligent Prince there is no proportion it being unreasonable that a Martial and Generous person should be subject willingly to one that is weak and remiss or that those who are careless and effeminate should be safe amongst those who are Military and Active for the one is too insolent and the other too captious ever to do any thing well together so that a Prince unacquainted with the Discipline of War besides other infelicities to which he is expos'd cannot be beloved by nor confident in his Armies He never therefore ought to relax his thoughts from the Exercises of War not so much as in time of Peace and indeed then he should employ his thoughts more studiously therein than in War it self which may be done two ways by the application of the body and the mind As to his bodily application or matter of action besides that he is obliged to keep his Armies in good Discipline and Exercise he ought to inure himself to sports and by Hunting and Hawking and such like recreation accustom his body to hardship and hunger and thirst and at the same time inform himself of the Coasts and situation of the Country the bigness and elevation of the Mountains the largeness and avenues of the Vallies the extent of the Plains the Nature of the Rivers and Fens which is to be done with great curiosity and this knowledge is useful two ways for hereby he not only learns to know his own Country and to provide better for its defence but it prepares and adapts him by observing their situations to comprehend the situations of other Countries which will perhaps be necessary for him to discover For the Hills the Vales the Plains the Rivers and the Marshes for Example in Tuscany have a certain similitude and resemblance with those in other Provinces so that by the knowledge of one we may easily imagine the rest and that Prince who is defective in this wants the most necessary qualification of a General for by knowing the Country he knows how to beat up his Enemy take up his quarters March his Armies Draw up his Men and besiege a Town with advantage In the Character which Historians give of Philopomenes Prince of Achaia one of his
great Commendations is that in time of peace he thought of nothing but Military affairs and when he was in Company with his Friends in the Country he would many times stop suddenly and expostulate with them if the Enemy were upon that Hill and our Army where we are which would have the advantage of the ground How could we come at them with most security if we would draw off how might we do it best Or if they would retreat how might we follow so that as he was travelling he would propose all the accidents to which an Army was subject he would hear their opinion give them his own and reinforce it with arguments and this he did so frequently that by continual practice and a constant intention of his thoughts upon that business he brought himself to that perfection no accident could happen no inconvenience could occur to an Army but he could presently redress it But as to the exercise of the mind a Prince is to do that by diligence in History and solemn consideration of the actions of the most Excellent Men by observing how they demean'd themselves in the Wars examining the grounds and reasons of their Victories and Losses that he may be able to avoid the one and imitate the other and above all to keep close to the Example of some great Captain of old if any such occurs in his reading and not only to make him his pattern but to have all his actions perpetually in his mind as it was said Alexander did by Achilles Caesar by Alexander Scipio by Cyrus And whoever reads the life of Cyrus written by Xenophon will find how much Scipio advantaged his renown by that imitation and how much in modesty affability humanity and liberality he framed himself to the description which Xenophon had given him A wise Prince therefore is to observe all these rules and never be idle in time of peace but employ himself therein with all his industry that in his adversity he may reap the fruit of it and when fortune frowns be ready to defie her CHAP. XV. Of such things as render Men especially Princes worthy of blame or applause IT remains now that we see in what manner a Prince ought to comport with his Subjects and friends and because many have writ of this subject before it may perhaps seem arrogant in me especially considering that in my discourse I shall deviate from the opinion of other Men. But my intention being to write for the benefit and advantage of him who understands I thought it more convenient to respect the essential verity than the imagination of the thing and many have fram'd imaginary Commonwealths and Governments to themselves which never were seen nor had any real existence for the present manner of living is so different from the way that ought to be taken that he who neglects what is done to follow what ought to be done will sooner learn how to ruine than how to preserve himself for a tender Man and one that desires to be honest in every thing must needs run a great hazard among so many of a contrary Principle Wherefore it is necessary for a Prince that is willing to subsist to harden himself and learn to be good or otherwise according to the exigence of his affairs Laying aside therefore all imaginable notions of a Prince and discoursing of nothing but what is actually true I say that all Men when they are spoken of especially Princes who are in a higher and more eminent station are remarkable for some quality or other that makes them either honorable or contemptible Hence it is that some are counted liberal others miserable according to the propriety of the Tuscan word Misero for Quaro in our language is one that desires to acquire by rapine or any otherway Misero is he that abstains too much from making use of his own some munificent others rapacious some cruel others merciful some faithless others precise One poor spirited and effeminate another fierce and ambitious one courteous another haughty one modest another libidinous one sincere another cunning one rugged and morose another accessible and easie one grave another giddy one a Devote and another an Atheist No man I am sure will deny but that it would be an admirable thing and highly to be commended to have a Prince endued with all the good qualities abovesaid but because it is impossible to have much less to exercise them all by reason of the frailty and crossness of our Nature it is convenient that he be so well instructed as to know how to avoid the scandal of those Vices which may deprive him of his State and be very cautious of the rest though their consequence be not so pernicious but where they are unavoidable he need trouble himself the less Again he is not to concern himself if run under the infamy of those Vices without which his Dominion was not to be preserved for if we consider things impartially we shall find some things in appearance are virtuous and yet if pursued would bring certain destruction and others on the contrary that are seemingly bad which if followed by a Prince procure his peace and security CHAP. XVI Of Liberality and Parsimony TO begin then with the first of the above-mentioned qualities I say it would be advantagious to be accounted liberal nevertheless liberality so used as not to render you formidable does but injure you for if it be used virtuously and as it ought to be it will not be known nor secure you from the imputation of its contrary To keep up therefore the name of liberal amongst men it is necessary that no kind of luxury be omitted so that a Prince of that disposition will consume his revenue in those kind of expences and be obliged at last if he would preserve that reputation to become grievous and a great exactor upon the people and do whatever is practicable for the getting of Money which will cause him to be hated of his Subjects and despised by every body else when he once comes to be poor so that offending many with his liberality and rewarding but few he becomes sensible of the first disaster and runs great hazard of being ruined the first time he is in danger which when afterwards he discovers and desires to remedy he runs into the other extream and grows as odious for his avarice So then if a Prince cannot exercise this virtue of liberality so as to be publickly known without detriment to himself he ought if he be wise not to dread the imputation of being covetous for in time he shall be esteemed liberal when it is discovered that by his parsimony he has increased his revenue to a Condition of defending him against any Invasion and to enterprize upon other people without oppressing of them so that he shall be accounted Noble to all from whom he takes nothing away which are an infinite number and near and parsimonious only to such few as he gives